Scene #8394: The Island of Dr. Hardly

Owner	Pose
Rowdyruff Boys	The CITY of... Wait, no. We're still not back there yet. An ISLAND off the coast of... No, that doesn't feel right either. You're on a boat, okay? Some jerk doing supervillain things has a factory off the coast of a country with sketchy labor laws, and he's put one of the mystical sigils necessary to hide his operations elsewhere inside of it. You're bobbing around in the ocean close by. Fortunately, this time around, the sketchy laws extend to sketchy property rights enforcement. Long story short, anybody can bribe anybody to look the other way around here. Which Brick did, because he's sketchy enough to be comfortable doing it. Nobody can say money doesn't buy you... happiness? Something adjacent to that, anyway. The boat's not strictly necessary, it's just a platform for the people who can't fly around the globe in ten seconds to hang out on if they need to. It's a decent-sized sailing ship that's probably mostly for pleasure cruising, and has accommodations for a few people. The island itself is relatively large, with a port capable of servicing small to midsized cargo ships, and a few smaller docks scattered about for ferries and the like. The group won't be bothering with getting that close, so it might require a LITTLE bit of swimming. Anybody who can't cope with that will get a rapid-fire carry from one of the Rowdyruff Boys. The island's tropical and pretty humid, ringed in beaches that would be nice enough if not for the smoke-belching building at the middle of them. And if not for the crude plastic suicide drones that immediately fly out towards those who are approaching and detonate, scattering cheap plastic across the beaches and also probably your faces. They look like they're being 3D printed just about as fast as they're being thrown out.
Futaba Nuki	Futaba totally needs the boat. She can swim and fly, sure, and she can even fight pretty darn well while flying, but it's harder to do that AND look like a cool mysterious ninja standing at the front of the boat all... Mysterious-like. Then again, it's not like she's unrecognizable at this point. Even with the dark ninja-ing outfit she's got on sthat she's worn like four times in/adjacent to Townsville by now, she still has that big flapping red scarf behind her, her tail is still taking up a good two feet of space behind her, and her face is completely uncovered. Still, mysterious. And fast, too, as she leaps off the bow of the ship and glides the rest of the way to the island in order to see what's going on with thatbuilding. Before she can, though, she sees those plastic drones coming out to greet everyone. Thrusting one hand to her side, she brings it in front of her with a slow beckoning motion. "Come, adversaries! We'll take on anything you've got to throw at us!" And then they start exploding. She was expecting them to shoot something rather than just blowing up in her face, and both her hair and her forehead leaf are a little scorched by the time the smoke clears from the initial explosions. "Nasty little things... Hah! Don't get too close to them now!" Futaba shouts in both warning and amusement as she reaches behind herself, then brandishes a whole set of kunai between each of her fingers. She starts flinging them forwards to intercept more of those oncoming drones, running forward the entire time to start building some momentum on the way to the building itself.
Alexis	The boat was an appreciated touch. It allowed one to conserve their energy on the trip, which was pretty important when your method of travel would of also been one of your means of combat. Turns out that was a good thing, because they've barely stepped out onto the beach they're being accousted by cheaply printed and very explosive drones. Reflexively Alexis reaches for a pokeball and flicks it in front of her, though whatever she's calling out is lost in a cascade of explosions around the trainer. Cheap plastic and electronics scatter with the smoke and sand. After the barrage the dust starts to settle. Alexis has an arm up to shield her face. But the real defense is the form that emerges from the smoke standing in front of her, a big roundish body of rock with short stocky legs. Iron filings cling magnetically to it's wedge shaped head to look like a moustache like those old magnetic art toys. A few smolder marks on its body from the exploding drones, but Rock types are less vulnerable to explosions in general. It was going to take a lot of force to get across this island, and that's while Alexis was here. "Alright, Lodestone. We're here to break things." She does the Dramatic Fingerpoint To Action! a lot of Trainers do to start a fight. "So lets break things! Blast those drones with Shock Wave!" The Alolan Golem roars in a rumbling voice. The two pylons of rock and metal that jut up over his head spark and crackle, then fire off a wide spreading arc of electricity through the air! Suppressive cover fire to fend off the enemies so the group can keep moving ahead, especially with how cheaply made these things are being crammed out.
Powerpuff Girls	Thankfully for those availing themselves to the over-oceanic approach, there's some help aboard! In a timeless classic metallic gold fashion-powersuit over black underlayer, Princess Morbucks stances at besides the wheel of the sailing boat on the deck, gleaming in the tropical sun with the points of her ruby-centered power crown proud and gleaming over a long fluff-fall of curly ginger hair. "As a former Attorney General I now have feelings about the labor law violations taking place here." She begins, and Buttercup besides her, in a pair of green swim trunks and a black sports swim top with oilslick-reflective aviators on over her emerald eyes and two golden hoop earrings visible around her short black hair, scoffs. "Labor law violations? Really?" "You're not going today because you'll light the whole forest on fire, I don't have to take this." Morbucks scoffs back. Buttercup, not having a good comeback for that, glances up at the flight of suicide drones pouring like smog from the factory. She decides to get Morbucks back a different way. "Yeah? Well I bet I can stop more damage to the right side of the boat than you can stop to the left." Buttercup challenges, rising up off the deck and taking to the sky with a barefooted hop. Princess, grinning madly, ascends in a jetwash of blue rocket-boot thrust, scanning her eyes over the swarm while her power crown projects a HUD across her vision. Raising an emitter-equipped palm to aim, she smirks at the green. "Ready to lose already, Buttercup?" MEANWHILE, In the air above! Bubbles and Blossom are two lines of bright color in the sky, streaking through the exploding drones and making their way directly for that smokestack belching fumes to dive inside! "If we're doing crime-is-legal here--" "--then the plan is to break everything! How dare you turn a tropical paradise into your fuming abuse factory!"
Remee Halcyon	THE LIBRARY OF TOWNSVILLE Remee's book is now two weeks overdue. --- "Those look really cheap," Remee comments redundantly after the first batch of suicide drones hit. Well at least there aren't any more of - oh, wait, they're being mass produced as we speak. That's considerably more worrying. Remee's innate regeneration can deal with most attacks, but this is looking like they could just simply keep bombing her forever faster than her body can put itself back together. ... Oh, and also everyone else here might die. Can't forget that. <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Can anyone paint the printer? I'm going to try to take it out." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "On it." Remee shifts forms from human to werewolf, a process bereft of any sound effects or animation locks, and sights down her rifle. Human form is generally preferred when out at sea, an environment full of new unfamiliar smells that could easily overwhelm her and on a boat full of rocking motion that human senses are better equipped to deal with... but right now, she needs her sharpened senses more than she needs a lack of nausea. In this case, zeroing in on the source of the printing - the loud whirring of cheap motors, the fragrant smells of burning plastic... ... And then adjusting her aim from there, first based on Ishirou's help, and then her own mental calculations for the bobbing of the boat, the wind, and the force of gravity... and then one last step. Anyone capable of picking up such things can sense magic starting to accumulate in the air around her. "I'll huff, and I'll puff..." she says to herself as her finger rests on the trigger. The words aren't strictly necessary - but they help make sure she's in the right mindset, that for a few brief moments, she's not thinking and acting as Remee Halcyon - she's embodying the big bad wolf, against which all but the most extensive, most meticulous preparations and defenses are so insufficient as to be nonexistent. "And I'll blow your manufactory down." She squeezes the trigger. The bullet flies straight and true - and it phases through practically everything - walls, windows, people, errant powered puffs - to hit and only hit its intended target.
Ishirou	Ishirou was here! Ishirou was...very different. Blue shoulder-length hair that seems to glow slightly. Blue eyes and lips, and really pale skin. His 'ears' point up, and look like a pair of sharp antennae rather than ears. There is a scar on his right eye, but it has been filled in with gold. His clothes are the ones that Miku and Biki had picked out for their entry in the contest, with one strange addition. A hole is needed for a new tail-like appendage to poke through. A similar blue to his hair, with the same glowing effect. It acts like a third appendage than a normal tail. He waves to people, acting friendly and...well repetitive if not reserved. "Sorry, I wasn't here last time.." he says but that's really all he can really say on that. When they finally get to where they are going, he looks over to POD. POD flies above Ishirou, and seems to break up into pieces. Each piece landing on various parts of his body, before releasing a black substance that connects to each other piece. RESCUE is now in place, letting him better fight. Despite his changes, it seems he is still going to rely on RESCUE for his combat. Out of his subspace pocket comes a floating sub-like robot, which splits apart. Ishirou leaps to each part, connecting it to his arms, legs, head, and all that. Eventually, each part connects with a frame that is the basis of all his other forms. He jumps into the water right after. On the shore, the sub reforms, and out comes the flight unit. A similar transformation happens, but once complete he doesn't immediately take flight. Instead, he fires a barrage of energy shots at the drones approaching him. "POD, take over defense, I'm going to try and trace the source." -Acknowledged.- With that, several OPTIONs appear and start flying to the various people here. They provide fire support and connect to Ishirou's TACNET, allowing people to see what he does on the battlefield. He runs a scan, trying to trace the drones back to their source, and once he gets that info, he immediately relays the targeting data to Remee. This is followed by data for the PPG, giving them just the right data on the optimal range to shoot the drones. With a target lock for himself, he fires a barrage of low-yield missiles, aiming to hit each drone and cause their own self-destruct to trigger.
Timespace Riders	Sougo smiles as sea breeze gently toussles his brown hair. His nose and right cheek sport tiny adhesive bandages, marks left from his armor's feedback following the fight with the Megaxord. Leaned against the side of the boat, he stares out over the water. His grey cotton overcoat sports an unused hood which rests on his shoulders. The coat's pink liner matches the loose button-up beneath, striped in navy and pink. "My Demon King, we have arrived." Woz wears what he usually does--that apocalyptic overcoat, paired with black tight-fitted jeans and black leather ankle boots, and of course, his unusual grey scarf. He regards his king with a slight smile, before peering out with determined intent over the island, pursing his lips. "Yeah," says Sougo, smiling briefly wider as his brown eyes twinkle. "I know! The ride here was fun, that's all." Pushing off of the boat's railing, he turns to face Woz with his hands in the pockets of his burgundy slacks. "I'm ready!" Woz nods, and flings his scarf outwards. It expands impossibly, swirling around the both of them like a hurricane, before closing in and drawing into a single point like water rushing down a drain. The boat is absent their presence, and the port is suddenly host to the both of them, without so much as the retainer's boots, nor the Demon King's Timbs, dropping an inch. No sooner does Woz's scarf retract than do the drones come swarming. Each of them procures a transformation belt, Sougo dive-rolling and Woz leaping atop a piling. RIDER TIME! Sparking Joy! Flowing Laughter! Bubbles! Projecting! Future Time! Brilliant! Blizzard! Futurering Blossom! BLOSSOM! Zi-O's armor, in blue, black and silver, follows a wristwatch motif, with the 'band' of the watch on his cuirass, formed of blue rushing water framed by black bolts, and the 'hands' of the watch's face, his helmet, turned into golden bolts of lightning. Blue katakana characters (the Understanding parses them as reading 'RIDER') fly through the air to snap into place onto the visor of his helmet, explosively flying through cheaply made drones. Meanwhile, Woz's armor, red, black and silver, follows a smartwatch motif. The 'hands' of the watch's face on his helmet are replaced by two exagerrated tines of a red snowflake. The 'wristband' on his cuirass sports an engraved depiction of a red blizzard, while his pauldrons sport neatly tied red bows. Zi-O charges past Remee as she lines up her shot, screening for her by soaking up the drones' attacks--literally, with rushing currents of water overwhelming, sapping and redirecting the force of incoming blows away from him.
Rowdyruff Boys	WHERE IS THE PRINTER? Answer: There isn't one (1) printer. There are not even two (2) printers. There are many, many printers. Some of the printers are making other printers. This is a 3D Printer factory. Unfortunately this factory interior is full of despondent-looking EXPLOITED WORKERS. You cannot actually bomb it without getting them out of the way first. They're not especially in a hurry, either. You get the impression they're used to this. Unfortunately they're also pretty tired and tune out what's going on. You'll have to physically move them to get them out of the way so you can bomb the factory. Or you can just be more precise; it's up to you. Individuals will get out of the way when their areas are threatened, but they seem bad at recognizing when an adjacent area being targeted will threaten them. Thankfully destroying wads of CHEAP SUICIDE DRONES on their way towards the group isn't really a problem for them. Futaba starts knocking them out of the air with faint buzzes as their rotors snap. They don't even strictly stop functioning, they just stop being useful as flying bombs. The actual problem that is encountered momentarily is that the drones are TOO CHEAP AND SHITTY, being destroyed effectively on contact but exploding anyway, leaving behind a hail of high-velocity plastic shrapnel that fills the air and scatters across the ground. Shortly afterwards, one of the larger interior printers prints... a man? Well, a plastic representation of this one: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/powerpuff/images/4/49/6B643EE0-67A0-4CF2-B20C-1ABB0F7C3B33.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20211126141805 PLASTIC PROFESSOR HARDLY meanders outside of the factory walls, surveying what's going on with bewilderment. He claps his hands together and some of the workers inside adjust the printers. More PLASTIC PROFESSOR HARDLIES begin to get printed. The newest swarm is overwhelmed by Zi-O's blast of water immediately after this process begins, earning the group a pause from everything except the new FRAGMENTARY FLOOR LEGOS. This means, of course, that Zi-O immediately attracts attention from the newly-completed PLASTIC HARDLIES, who line up, point at him, and fire a volley of energy beams in his direction. They immediately repeat the process, aiming at Futaba second. There's no gun laws out here, but it seems like they were made for operation in California, where a blaster is much less serious than a .38.
Ishirou	The drones explode in shrapnel that is so fragile that it catches him off guard, as well as POD who was working the defenses. The two are forced back, shouting from surprise and pain. Fortunately, they were just fast enough to avoid a direct attack. What he also discovers is a factory of machines making machines with people looking like they're being run ragged. Everyone inside is pinged on the TACNET, so that people know where /not/ to fire. He also marks the Professor's plastic clones, frowning that there are so many of them. Though what he's doing now /DOES/ give him an idea. Ishirou dives in, avoiding shots and drones. "Cover me!" he asks, the others, before he bursts through the roof of the factory, and looks for one of the 3D printers printing out professors. Then he moves aiming to connect to it via hacking minigame. The point was simple, attempting to get it to 3D print himself instead. Then use that new him to hack more 3D printers to keep his production up. Also, sending signals to both Riders and Futaba, aiming to enhance their accuracy and damage through data and telemetry updates.
Powerpuff Girls	Flying through the cloud at-speed, Blossom and Bubbles are shredded by flechettes and push through undaunted. Hard-stopping in the cieling clearance of the factory of printers printing printers printing printers printing printers, the pair of Puffs survey down in horror as they shake off the smoke in dirty clouds of soot and red-lines of blade-bruises where the shrapnel didn't break skin but transferred force all the same. Blossom's eyes narrow intensely, able to confirm, to hear and smell and see what's going on without the veils of 'alternate' vision, the smell diffused, the sound far-off. Bubbles is properly horrified, gasping with both fair hands over her gaping mouth and latticed under her nose. Wide-eyed, her expression wavers between horror and tears, and when she blinks hard once, it is replaced with anger. "Hardly! You'll pay for this!!" Shouts the sapphire, and she blasts through a factory wall to SKRR! dive into the mosh of energy-blasting Plastic Dicks with a sphere of blue energy about her that pops on landing in a forceful detonation. Blossom, meanwhile, focuses on the palpable and ongoing threat over her own feelings: the exploited and tuned-out workers. With one-at-a-time bursts of super speed, Blossom begins the process of zapping people all the way out to the boat on the coast! Each person takes two scene transition SKRR!-s, so even at the speed of light she has to work carefully!
Remee Halcyon	"... Agh..." Remee's nose wrinkles. The smell. It's getting worse with the ramp-up in production as well as the ramp-up in destruction. This is... a target-rich situation where precision isn't necessarily going to be the solution. Remee's a single-shot specialist, even if she fully takes out one printer with every shot she's going to be racing against the printers that are making more printers. Her other strong suit, stealth, isn't going to be too much of an edge admidst the chaos either. She can't be precise, she can't be stealthy, she can't Big Bad Wolf down the whole building without hurting the workers... what does that leave her with? She can't just throw money at this problem. ... Oh, wait. Remee reaches into her shoulder-slung gear bag, and pulls out a wad of bills, which she throws at the closest gaggle of workers. "NOW HIRING!" she yells. "Signup bonuses! Paid vacation! Dental plan! And you can GO WORK FROM HOME! As in, go home now!"
Alexis	Okay, this fight was already getting weird. Hardly really doesn't want people bothering his island factory. The nutjob was sticking to a theme, but in the most annoying way possible. Normal hazard tactics aren't going to work at the moment. The best option is to just keep pushing ahead and mitigate what they can. Alexis considers that situation. "We need a path through, Lodestone. Use Steamroller." With a grunt the Rockmon throws himself forward, retracting his head and limbs and other protrusions as he does. Which leaves him pretty much a giant boulder that goes rolling through the Fragmentary Lego. Chunks of sharp plastic gets wedge between the chonky rock plates that make up his body painfully, but he takes the harm done to give Alexis a clear path to rollerblade through. "Time to bring out something nastier. Go, Howlitzer!" Another pokeball is tossed, this one releasing what looks like a big black Dobermann with devil horns and tail. "They're made of plastic, melt them!" An eerie howl rings across the island as the Houndoom unleashes streams of scorching hot fire from it's maw towards the blaster wielding replicas!
Futaba Nuki	"Wait. If it's legal, then it can't be a crime, right? Is that how crime works?" Futaba can't quite wrap her head around what Blossom's saying, but she's pretty sure it makes enough sense to follow along with, anyway. Blossom's a hero, after all, so it's only natural to follow her lead! Ishirou's new appearance has Futaba doing another brief double-take, but only as long as it takes to actually get a clear enough look before focusing on throwing stuff and running again. "Did you change your hair? And.. Everything else? Looks cool!" Those PLASTIC PROFESSORS start firing weird blasts at her, though, and the flying bombs just become regular bombs instead, forcing Futaba to stop gawking and get her head back on track. Just having to deal with a few knockoff energy blasts or predictable explosions would be one thing, but the volume of blasts coming her and Zi-O's way means she has to change course away from the building momentarily. "Whoa, hey, watch it! Mister Tokiwa, let's wipe 'em out!" Futaba suggests as she notices those signals from Ishirou directing her where to aim. With no reason not to, the ninja transforms her legs briefly to launch herself high into the sky like a frog would, then brandishes another handful of random junk from her pouch. She hurls down said handful of stuff, looking at first like she's just hurling metal beads and little cylinders at the plastic men right up until she yanks the leaves attached to them. The projectiles grow in size rapidly, turning into full-sized wrecking balls and concrete pipes hurtling through the air right at the Hardlies she's being pointed at.
Timespace Riders	"They're not even running... the conditions here must be horrible! Woz! Get the workers clear!" "At once, my Demon King!" The riders split up. Zi-O armors through the shrapnel of exploding drones, marching towards the factory. His straightforward punches and kicks are delivered with electrical aftershocks, but in meeting the plastic Hardlies, he is battered and pushed back. Sparks fly from his armor as lasers pierce the flowing currents of water, not diffracted enough to be totally stripped of their power. "This factory stamps dreams flat and paints over smiles!" shouts Zi-O at the plastic simulacra, staggered but holding his ground as he mashes the stop on his belt, the bulky white Timespace Driver. RIDE HEISABER! A straight sword with a toothed pink blade appears in his right hand. Its flat and grip resemble the metal band of a wristwatch, and it sports a clock at its wristguard. Turning the hands of the clock rapidly, Zi-O charges up a special attack: HEY! BUBBLES! Letting loose a mounting battle cry, slowly changing his grip to that of an exaggerated tall guard with the tip inches from the ground, Zi-O musters his strength. Bubbles swarm around the blade as he makes a hip-to-shoulder cut, advancing towards the factory as Woz races past in a freezing blur. Pressurized blades of water cut through the rows of plastic Hardlies with each swing of his sword, each strike guided by Ishirou's telemmetry. Woz's superspeed leaves behind a trail of supercooled air, freezing and pelting would-be autonomous defenders with fist-sized chunks of hail, as he races between printers to snatch up workers. With the data from Ishirou, there's probably less risk of his projectiles or anyone else's hitting them--but an order from his King is an order he can't refuse. His path to the workers is made clearer, thanks to Alexis, neatly racing in behind Lodestone. "Your talent is wasted in this dismal place," says the retainer. "Rejoice, and harken to Remee Halcyon, for today is the day of your liberation!"
Rowdyruff Boys	YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU LEARN ABOUT THAT... Disrupting the production of PLASTIC HARDLIES is mildly effective in gumming things up. What it doesn't turn out to be effective at is creating things that Ishirou can control. The seat of their intelligence has absolutely nothing to do with electronics, and although they do follow his "blueprints", they only obey him for long enough to get a few more hackings in before they begin to execute minigames on him in response. What Ishirou (and the group) learns about this is that they do not have a brain. Similar to Betra, they are made of plastics and symbolic representations, but the 'something' that is animating them is unclear (because it is Chemical X). The only template that exists in these is, 'Proxy for Professor Hardly', and nearly no one present has the requisite knowledge of Chemical X to alter that template. There are two PLASTIC ISHIROUS, and they are just PLASTIC HARDLIES with an Ishirou theme. One of the PLASTIC HARDLIES that Bubbles dives into gets up, melty-bubbly, like some sort of incredibly cheap crayon T-1000. He smiles a canned, melty, car salesman smile and points at a banner hanging from the ceiling that is near-unreadable and rambles at length about jurisdictions and extradition treaties. What an asshole. Then he just sort of sloshes forward and tries to 'cover' Bubbles with his entire melty mass. Blossom is more-or-less ignored because any Powerpuff Girl that is busily rescuing people is not busily melting Hardlies or destroying equipment. Thankfully, somebody helps make her job a lot easier! Remee hurls money around and, as it happens, exploited workers here for money respond pretty well to just being given money. There is a scramble to 'sign up' with Remee. A few Plastic Hardlies respond by simply moving in to collect the thrown money themselves. A bunch of Plastic Hardlies get buried in debris by Futaba, which Alexis's Pokemon acts as a bowling ball towards and sends scattering into fragments and pieces. Both are responded to by the latest 3D Prints: Four Boston Dynamics Dogs made of subpar materials barreling into them. PRESSURIZED water is a real great way to cut a lot of things. Things a lot more durable than, say, plastic. This plastic is reinforced with Chemical X, but it's not nearly enough to make up for the difference between pressurized water and plastic. Hardlies get cleaved apart as Zi-O passes through. Woz is more-or-less uninterrupted, but that might just be because the Hardlies are too busy taking money from them over there with Remee. A nearby 3D Printer finishes making what looks like the knockoff love child of Kamen Rider Build and Kamen Rider Black RX, a green-and-red monstrosity with a horrifying half-collar and the budget version of its lightsaber in bright, 70s plastic yellow. It charges and swings at him wildly, its joints awkwardly articulated.
Ishirou	Hacking shots come in at Ishirou, who is surprised because he was sure he programmed them right. However, scans soon indicate that the template was still Professor, despite his attempts to reprogram it. This has something to do with the Chemical X part. Frowning, he's caught in a minigame, trying to fight off several attempts to hack back. "Time them out, POD," he says, and while it'll hurt him a little, it won't be as bad as if they win the minigame themselves. He dashes back and forth, staying one step ahead...and then the game forcefully ejects them both. This causes surges in the RESCUE, but that could have been /way/ worse if they succeeded. Ishirou sends another pulse out, aiming to update data on various OPTIONs, and telemetry data directly to both Alexis' pokemon and Remee again. Then he turns his attention on the mistakes he made...reaching over towards one of the 3D printers, and flexing a hand at it. Electromagnetic force aims to come down on it from all sides before he swings the object at the two 'fake Ishirous' and then starts swinging it directly at other 3D Printers. "Alright, I tried my way, time to try the other way. Also, your lack of faith in computers is disgusting, old man."
Remee Halcyon	Remee hands out actual employment contracts to whoever wants one. What she'll do with that many people on her payroll is something she'll figure out later. Or possibly she won't remember at all. Who knows. That gets people out, at least. But... now the plastic replicas are stealing the money. What would they even use it for? This problem does, however, lead to its own solution: If the Plastic Hardlies are going after the money, then she'll just make sure there's lots of money available for them to grab. She'll put it in convenient locations for them, even, like inside snares, bear traps, and cartoonishly large glue strips. How nice of her. (The cartoonishly large glue strips have small air holes carefully cut into them, for some reason.)
Alexis	Having rolled to a stop Golem is basically a big rock wall at this point. Which gets, well, dogpiled on by a bunch of robotic dogs. Because tanking that sort of thing is what Rock types do. Being curled up helps with the defense, but his health is still ticking dangerously low from the constant onslaughts. But if other people are getting the time to do the things they need to do to advance towards shutting this fiasco of a greed machine down, they're job is being done. But it's reached a point that the living boulder finally disappears in a flash of red energy as Alexis recalls him. "Okay, good." Switches are made. "Let's keep this on even footing, go Howlback!" And now we have a second canine appearing on the field, this one standing on her back legs with a long mane of white fur and blood red eyes. Midnight Lycanroc looks more like a werewolf than a normal one, but that goes kind of well along side the hellish Houndoom. Now the dogs are really out, and with some support from allies hopefully they can do something about these shitty guard dog wannabes. "SIC EM!" Houndoom is the one to go first, barreling foward towards one robot dog with his maw wide, fangs gleaming with darkness to aid powerful jaws in putting a Crunch down on the mecha mutt. Midnight Lycanroc has a bit more loping gait, barking what sounds more like a manic cackle as she lunges and wheels around, swinging her forelimbs like massive clubs as she joins in the Close Combat.
Futaba Nuki	"Are you bribing...?! Oh. Right. Crime's legal here." Futaba starts to protest, then realizes the logic of this place and nods firmly at Remee's cash-fueled gambit. A small part of her even wants to snatch up some of that cash for the hell of it, not because she needs it, but just because it's scattered stuff going all over the place. After fighting off that urge and landing from that high-flying stuff hurling of her own, Futaba finds herself targeted by robotic dogs. They still look kind of weird to her, though, and she gawks at the machines for several moments to figure out whati t is they're supposed to approximate. "Are those... Dogs?" As she asks the obvious, she turns most of herself into a boulder to withstand that initial crash of steel against flesh-turned-rock, grimacing briefly at the impact. "Just how many things can this weird factory churn out?!" Growing more irritated by the second, Futaba shifts into a more liquid state as she flows down and around the robotic doggos. Two larger tendrils wrap around them them before forming into a pair of giant crab-like claws, clamping down on the machines as Futaba starts spinning her arms around to build up momentum. "Let's just start wrecking the printers! Now where are they...?" To her credit, Futaba's never actually seen a 3D printer before. She can just guess that those things making these knockoffs are responsible, but which is the part she needs to break? Without knowing for certain, she just resorts to crushing the dogs as much as she can before yeeting them at where she saw the fake dogs and the false Riders coming from.
Timespace Riders	"Don't worry, Futaba!" calls Zi-O, holding up an index triumphantly into the air, in his signature pose. "I have a good feeling about this!" As her wrecking balls crash into Hardlies all around, Zi-O places both hands back on his sword, just in time to prepare a plow guard for the Build-RX knockoff charging him. Sparks fly as the Great Value Revolcane collides with the Heisaber, brought up in the nick of time. Zi-O leverages his strength to angle the Heisaber past the plastic rider's guard, hand just above the clock to thrust and force a disengage. Two quick one-handed slashes follow, each one creating a pink, arcing aftershock that cuts a second time. Again, his armored fingers turn the hands on the clock. HEY!BUBBLES! Zi-O holds the sword out, tip pointed downwards, baiting out a charge from the plastic rider only to take a willing trade, turning his blow aside with a flowing current of water and thrusting the sword into the factory floor with an explosive bolt of electricity. The intentional floor-strike creates a crackling shockwave, throwing the rider into Futaba's crab claw and doing plenty of collateral to nearby printers! "Right," he calls to her, giving a thumbs up and leaping across the factory floor to assist her in further smashing. "He has no faith in anything but money," replies Woz as the retainer speeds past Ishirou. "Thus will it be his undoing." Arriving with another worker in tow for Remee, he sets them down and glances at the plastic Hardlies--and the traps she's set for him. With a 'hmph' of approval and an upwards nod at her, he rushes down one of the plastic scam artists in a freezing instant, stopping on a dime to launch a crisp, devastating side kick. A gale-force blizzard blows from his boot, intended to launch the scientist into Remee's trap. JIKAN DESPEAR! A green-tipped spear then materializes in Woz's hands, with a touch-screen app menu displayed just beneath the tip. He presses a red icon with a snowflake. ICE-SICKLE! The spear transforms into a sickle, one end of the blade curved and sharp, the other a spiky snowflake. Woz uses his speed to zip between the Hardlies lured by Remee's money, trapping limbs with sweeping arcs of the polearm and hurling them into her traps.
Powerpuff Girls	Blossom continues her work, zipping off exploited workers back to the boat from the periphery of Remee's eager crowd. Pacified with handfuls of money and better contracts (definitionally, as they are not employed by Dick Hardly!). Spiriting them in fast little zips, Blossom grabs one at the edge and-- All the way back on the BOAT: Blossom arrives with her latest 'hostage' to the deck of the ship where Buttercup and Princess are arguing about a nick on the side of the right side of the ship. Princess looks extra smug, sneering at the spot, and Buttercup is frustrated and defensive. "It was there before! This is a boat! Boats get scratched!" She begins. "A likely story." The ginger-headed judgey jetbooter declares in turn. They're both at an impasse until they see who the red puff brought back: A Plastic Dick! Instinctively, Princess quickfires a beam from her palm emitter at the trashy plastic man. . . And the left-side railing behind him. Morbucks looks on smugly, then with dawning horror. Buttercup grins with Grinch-green wildness. "Oooh!" She tisks. "Know that one wasn't there before." Blossom, shocked, breaks her distraction with a quick mutter of 'I don't have time for this!' and jets off again in a trail of cardinal. MEANWHILE Bubbles is visible as she makes connections and as a smear otherwise, crackling with her own visibly preturbed electrokinetic aura. A step-punch here, a roundhouse kick, a blast of laser vision -- and then she hits the Crayon Hardly and like Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, instead of supersonic air displacement jet-punches, Bubbles gets waxed by Dick. Struggling with a joke that has the tone of 80's sensibilities and a substance she can't hit and is already all over her so she can't shield it, the sapphire Puff partially retreats towards Zi-O's sword that continues to shout her name. "Hey! Zi-O!" Bubbles calls, with a waxen Dick all over her, and with the same cadence as the Heisaber. "Get this creep off me!"
Rowdyruff Boys	The copy Ishirous are being operated by some guy on the other side of the ocean, so they're not actually THAT hard to outmaneuver. Especially when, after outmaneuvering them, you fry a 3D Printer and hit them with it. They crumple to pieces after the impact, and 3/4ths of a Professor Hardly looks up at Ishirou from the floor. "Why, that's the beauty of it! I don't HAVE to have faith in anything! Chemical X just works!" His voice is, predictably, canned car salesman-esque in a profoundly disgusting way. 3/4ths of a Professor Hardly grabs 3/4ths of a 3D Printed blaster and points it at Ishirou, "Watch, see how this goes!" He fires the blaster, which -- badly -- produces a beam of energy. Close enough. MEANWHILE, nearby... Remee manages to trap a bunch of partial Hardlies that were crawling around on the ground. The people working this factory aren't actually as stupid as townies from Townsville though, and don't get caught in the trap. They do get successfully prompted to just leave in large enough numbers that this part of the factory is beginning to empty. One of the newer, meltier Plastic Hardlies picks up one of the cartoonishly large glue traps, gives it a thoughtful look, and then whips it out among the line of departing 'employees' like... well, a whip. Between Alexis and Futaba the BOSTON DYNAMICS DOG (ver bad) are destroyed. It's ok, they aren't real dogs, and some police somewhere would definitely have put some guns on them and called it a day. As if on cue, one of the 3D Printers starts up as Futaba wonders exactly where the 3D Printers are-- though she's already busily wrecking them with the remains of the dogs. This one prints... concrete. Concrete. When throwing enemies at them doesn't work, maybe it can just extrude concrete on them until they stop. That works, right? Concrete solidifies that fast? Well, this concrete solidifies pretty fast. Might be a bit of a last-ditch delay on this one, though. Red lights suddenly flash on in the factory as Great Value Revolcane is clashed with! The plastic Rider is surprisingly durable however and, unlike a lot of other things, doesn't go down. It shoots sparks on contacts, which is an unfortunate side-effect (for you, not for it) of it deriving powers from its templates. It twitches bottles on its shitty Driver, which doesn't actually have a crank but does make the correct noises either way, shouting something about a BEST MATCH, but the next line is too garbled to actually make sense of. The attack that follows is completely incoherent, but it splits in half down the middle to kick at both Woz and Sougo simultaneously so you're pretty sure it has something to do with Double. "Hey now. I'm not a creep, I'm just in tune with the way the world works! Yada yada, omlettes, eggs..." Melty Plastic Hardly replies to Bubbles.
Remee Halcyon	Okay! People are leaving, traps are being set and going off... ... And one of the Plastic Hardlies is attacking the line of people leaving. "Okay - hey! These are my employees, now!" Remee goes to interpose herself between the Hardly and his targets. This gets glue on her. That isn't a particularly pleasant thing, for someone with fur. "And I'm not about to let you..." She reaches out towards him - and as she does, she grows. There's no longer the slim anthropomorphic werewolf from a modern YA novel - but instead the big muscly monstrous werewolf from a classic horror novel/a different sort of modern YA novel. "... lay so much as a finger on them!" If she can, she goes to just simply grab the Hardly in question, lift him overhead, and break him into two pieces with her hands.
Ishirou	"POD, Deploy shield!" he says this as an energy shield appears on his right arm, just in time to block the energy blasts. Able to burn away the weak shield, and singe his arm, but not enough to put serious damage on Ishirou himself, he stares down at the two plastic professors. `Why, that's the beauty of it! I don't HAVE to have faith in anything!` "...You disgust me," he says, reaching down with both hands, aiming to telekinetic grab both of the Professors. "Don't have to have faith, it just works, looking for an easy solution without having to do any real work yourself. I bet you go onto youtube and do ratbro content too. I bet you talk about how great the Romans were, but actually have no idea how any of their history works." With this, he aims two shoulder-mounted rockets down, aiming to unleash them at the (hopefully) pinned Plastic men. "I have faith in what I built with my friends. I have faith in the people here with me today. That's why your crap won't ever work because it's hollow and fake, and lifeless." "It's this emptiness I want to see removed from humanity."
Alexis	The 3D printer starting to spew out literal concrete gets a momentary pause from both Alexis and her pokemon. "You know, if these things weren't such shitty quality motivated only by greed and corruption, a function like that would of been really useful," she notes. It's a waste of such potential, really. She takes a few steps back, just to be on the safe side. Her Pokemon aren't all that phased by the turn of events though. In fact Howlback just wades right into the concrete, trudging as far as she can until it starts to harden around her legs. It doesn't do much harm thanks to her durability as a Rock type, just apparently trapping her in place. Which is entirely what was planned. Alexis' Houndoom takes a running leap over the concrete to follow. Where is he going to land? Why on Howlback's back, of course. The canine totem pole works as the bipedal version of Lycanroc is just tall enough to give him a platform above the hardening concrete. While she reachs up with her large forepaws, grabs the hellhound off her back, and then YEETS him over the concrete and towards the 3D printer spewing it out! Howlitzer lives up to his horrible pun name, spewing blasts of darkness at the printer in an effort to shut the thing down before it drowns them all in the cement flood.
Timespace Riders	"Got it! Hang tight, Bubbles--Woz! I need you!" Woz places his sickle-holding-hand over his chest, his free hand held out, and he strikes a curt half-bow to Remee before super-speeding back to Zi-O's side. They are both, each of them, struck dead-on by the counterfeit Rider kick, Woz sent flying while Zi-O staggers backwards and drops to one knee. He extends an empty hand, and pink energy motes coalesce into a futuristic-looking pocket watch. The face of one rider this copy is imitating appears on the face of the watch, and Zi-O rises to his feet with determination. "Do you know... the difference between a copy and an homage? I'll show you! Woz, let's go!" The retainer opens and closes the gate on the side of his belt, and the viewscreen flashes with an image of his helmet... BEYOND THE TIME! ...as Zi-O mashes the stop on his belt and spins it. LCD font scrolls across its screen, displaying a message as the belt calls out, simultaneously: FINISH TIME! Bubbles rush and congregate around Zi-O's body, as freezing winds swirl around Woz. They leap into the air in unison, each of them making a dramatic divekick. A waterspout kicks up around bubbles, ice-cold water crashing into the melted Hardly while freezing winds keep him from gumming anyone up again. The force of the waterspout propels both riders through the waxen knock-off and the layer of ice encasing him, past him and into the knockoff Build-RX hybrid. A split second after their passing, electric bursts crackle in delayed explosions following their path. PUFF DOUBLE TIME FINISH!
Futaba Nuki	'He has no faith in anything but money' "Is that why these things are all so cheap-looking? But cutting corners like this is why we've been wiping the floor with 'em so much!" Futaba's finding herself more and more irritated by the army of Plastic Hardlies and 3D printed minions, inhaling sharply as she pulls those crab-arms back and turns them back into her own to roll her shoulders a little more comfortably. Breaking the dogs on the printers still feels pretty good, but it still feels off. "If he'd just put some real time into making something right... Tch. We'd have a way cooler battle than this!" She dips low to the ground as she starts running towards not the concrete-spewer, but the waxy Hardly trying to engulf Bubbles. "I've got your back, Zi-O! Miss Bubbles, you'll be out in a sec!" As she gets closer, her head sprouts a set of oversized antlers. As Zi-O and Woz come down from one side to slam themselves into the wax Hardly, Futaba rushes in from the other direction to ram the Build-RX, guiding it towards the Wax Hardly from the other direction. She just doesn't stop running after that drop off, still headed towards concrete-spewing machine as she sees the Houndoom lighting it up while relying on Ishirou's guidance to keep her moving straight. "Never did this before, but... Ah, what the heck. This should break it down real good!" Angling those antlers downwards and sprouting an extra thick horn for good measure, Futaba dives forward and slams all those pointy bits forward to shove most of her head right into the printer. Using just her neck for all that is a terrible idea, of course, and she slams a pair of spiked arms upwards to dig her head spikes/antlers in that much deeper. She lets out an excited yell as a chain of POD-like boxes bloom out of her arm spikes, all focused on blasting the printer from point blank with a massive display of seizure-warning-needed lasers.
Powerpuff Girls	Struggling to deal with the Crayon Hardly that slimes her, Bubbles continues to struggle and fight her way towards Sougo even as he's kicked by a choreographically awkward half of Great Match W-RX! Stumbled by the grease and creep factor of the copy of her old nemesis-for-a-night and scraping wax off her in smearing chunks to disgustedly throw to the ground. But there's always more ooze out of this guy, and the T-1000 from the 80's places Bubbles into a state of having-to-focus-on-herself peril. Blossom arrives to find the employees escaping in a line, and a Crayon Hardly flinging... Glue traps? Wow! Extremely messed up! Blossom twirls artfully in the chaos of the factory to produce a controlled ruby tornado of wind that, once her arc completes, she quickly blows chilling ice breath into the smog-sucking tornado, her forceful freeze propelling it through the air to gather up the glue traps and freeze them to harmless captured debris! And Bubbles gets the same treatment sent back her way, the homage to Blossom's ice powers freeing her through flash-freezing the Crayon Hardly all over her, allowing a single triumphant flex to break free from her! "Thanks!" Bubbles begins, closing both fists as her eyes crackle with an opaque flare of suddenly hot thermal energy. "Now I'm really mad!" She declares, striking a Rider-homaging right-fist up, left hand about right bicep po-- oh actually that's just her making a rude gesture very dramatically. But it's a Rider pose because it comes with a violently thick double-beam of heat-vision, right towards Great Match W-RX!
Rowdyruff Boys	The Plastic Hardly attempting to poach is lifted up and crushed by Remee's super-jacked form. He's still smiling his canned, car salesman smile even in 'death'. The Plastic Hardly speaking up to Ishirou laughs. It's a confident laugh. The laugh of somebody for whom this has all worked out way too often. Then, he says, "I have no idea what any of that means! And history is for nerds." As if speaking to somebody he thinks is very slow, he elaborates, "You see... with M O N E Y... I can just PAY people to be nerds FOR me! Sometimes I don't even have to do that much! Also I'm pretty sure the Romans just copied the Greeks or something. Doesn't matter! They're all dead. Now the Egyptians! Those guys had the right idea." The 3/4ths of a Plastic Hardly is destroyed. Alexis's Houndoom demolishes the CONCRETE EXTRUDING 3D Printer which, now that you look at it, seems to have been building a shitty prefab building before this. It was about 1/4th of the way done. Doesn't seem predisposed to getting up and doing anything, though. By now, most of the employees has been cleared out. There's a few that are still collecting stray money, but they're decently out of the way at this point. //Do you know... the difference between a copy and an homage?// "Securing the merchandising rights?" Plastic Hardly's voice comes out of the fake Kamen Rider. The Melty Plastic Hardly is promptly obliterated by the PUFF DOUBLE TIME FINISH, sending plastic goo scattering all over the place. The Fake Kamen Rider W RX is sent flying across the floor, skittering and bouncing and tossing sparks. Rather than DYING like he ought to, he experiences a BELT-OUT, revealing-- PLASTIC HARDLY, but he's wearing a shitty plastic replica of Shotaro's hat and Kohtaro's jacket. He rises to a knee, but isn't able to muster any sort of sincere emotional response to being belted out, because he is Dick Hardly.
Rowdyruff Boys	//If he'd just put some real time into making something right... Tch. We'd have a way cooler battle than this!// "Lady, LAAAAADY," The face of a dismembered Plastic Hardly says from the floor by Futaba, "You don't get the MASS MARKET! You don't make ONE thing that can beat anybody! You make a LOT of things that are GOOD ENOUGH. When the military is looking for a new weapon they're looking for economical! Something they can pass out to every idiot who can hold a rifle!" "You don't need the POWERPUFF GIRLS. You've gotta feed those and send them to school! Three hours of that power though and you can take down a third world nation like that!" You have to imagine him snapping because this Plastic Hardly does not have fingers. Futaba used Headbutt! It was super effective! Which is to say that Futaba charges through a lot of the remaining machinery, leaving the factory a mess of strewn debris, dismembered Plastic Hardlies, and malfunctioning 3D Printers. A Plastic Hardly rises from the debris, head half-gone, but still functioning apparently. He pops his hand off to reveal the same arm cannon he had before, firing a volley across the crowd. "Look how much trouble you're having with my 'faithless' and 'cheap' products! That's all the world needs. A fighting chance against FREAKS like you!" The belted-out Great Match W-RX rises to a stand and moves to sprint towards Bubbles, who promptly melts it like the plastic garbage that it is. RIP. Silence falls across the field... Then, there is a great noise as the ceiling splits open and a monitor descends. Dick Hardly stands there against a backdrop of static, smiling his vile, greasy smile. "Besides..." He holds up a jar of miniature unicorns, rainbows, hearts, ice cream, kittens, stars, and a few other symbolic representations of 'nice'. They are suspended in a reddish-pink liquid. "I already got what I needed ages ago!" "This is the only ingredient I COULDN'T get or make myself, so all I had to do was wait until you girls were in a big fight, turn over the fake rock next to the door, and sneak down into my old roomate's lab! And it was EASY!" Hardly exclaims, grinning broadly. He sets aside the container of EVERYTHING NICE. "Well then, it's been NICE, but I have to go buy a new factory. You go on and enjoy yourselves," says Hardly, and then the screen cuts and falls off the ceiling.
Ishirou	"Pay people to be nerds for you..? What are you saying, aren't you a professor? That by /default/ makes you one!" he says before he's CRUNCHED. Then it's shown he was stealing from someone else, someone better than he was. Was this guy really the one responsible for all of the fake puffs? For giving life to girls and throwing them away..? Only trying to get them again when he wanted something... 'A fighting chance against FREAKS like you!' This causes Ishirou to pause for a moment, trauma erupting in his mind for just a split second. The cannon blast hit him and struck him out of the sky. It's everything POD can do to recover just in time to try and cushion the blow. Groaning, Ishirou shakes his head, trying to dispel the awful words coming out of two mouths. Ishirou's eyes look wide, trying to calculate as many targets as he could. That and he starts overloading the OPTIONs, as each person he's here with today gets a massive upload of data. Both in telemetry and in a boost in power thanks to the OPTIONs hovering over each shoulder. Then Ishirou dives up into the air, and he holds a hand at one of the 3D printers, causing it to print out a very large explosive drone. The moment he knows the civilians are out of range, he sends another beam to it, aiming to hack it and set it to immediately self-destruct. Aiming to try and get as much of the factory and the clones as he could.
Remee Halcyon	Oh my god... they were roommates! Or - wait, no, that's not the most shocking part of this. Actually, is there a shocking part of this? Getting his hands on 'Everything Nice' is bad, but it's not like he has access to Chemical X too. Panic isn't warranted. ... No, wait, he has that too. Okay, panic is warranted. "Well then, it's been NICE, but I have to go buy a new factory. You go on and enjoy yourselves" "Not if... I buy every factory first!" yells Remee at the retracting screen. She whips out her phone and starts poking aggressively at it. "... Arrrgh, Hardly must have hacked it, it's like I can't tap the right buttons on this thing! It's like all my inputs are off center!" "... Oh, wait. Right." Remee shifts back into a normal size form with normal size fingers, and then gets on with the economic warfare.
Alexis	Once the printer is destroyed and not spewing out concrete Howlback has little issue in breaking her legs free. Howlitzer kicks off the wall of that partially fabricated structure to land back on the ground nearby. Alexis rolls her eyes. "What the hell is with this guy?" She glances off to the side at all the broken and melted remains of various cheap plastic constructs that have been used on them. "The only issue we've had is sheer numbers. That's not enough to win on its ow--" She turns back to the monitor, upon which Hardly reveals his true intention. ".. Oh. That is not good." One remaning Plastic Hardly rises from the rubble with an armed arm cannon to pepper the group with. Midnight Lycanroc leaps in front of Alexis and her other pokemon, holding her forearms up in a X in front of her. The shots PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW off her tough hide, feet digging claws into the ground and tail lashing to keep herself braced, as she's using Endure to withstand the attack and give Alexis time to make their final play. "Let's finish this off hot and fast." She clenches both her fists, then thrusts one out as a dramatic emphasis. "Burn it all down, Howlitzer.... INFERNO CANNON!" The demonic dobermann rears back his head and howls. Houndoom's howl is infamous for being a freakishly eerie sound, reverbing with an ominous effect as it rings out. The temperature around the pokemon shoots up as embers and ash whisp from it's maw. Until he lowers his head and unleashes a massive fiery blast like a superheated railcannon shot!
Futaba Nuki	"Mass market? Economical? Sounds like loser speak to me." Futaba stomps on that face firmly and grinds it down for emphasis as she reforms her head and arms back into their usual shape, turning slowly to look over at the Plastic Hardly still standing. "If you're always aiming for just good enough, then you'll never make something people'll really remember. That's not what heroes are made of!" The Plastic Hardly fires that volley across the group, and Futaba doesn't even move this time. It'd probably be a good idea, too, but there's a Point she needs to make (and also she needs to catch her breath). Instead of even attempting to move out of the ay, she transforms one arm at the last second, turning it into a her-sized statue just to absorb the blast. "Stealing stuff, cutting corners... With that kind of money, you could've gone way farther and done way better than this!" Snapping lightly behind her teeth, Futaba throws herself at the remaining Hardly, enlarging one of her hands to grasp the plastic clone and start smashing it into the ground. After doing that a few times, she flings it into the air, right at those oncoming attacks.
Timespace Riders	"NO!" says Zi-O, his free hand swung angrily out to the side, as his clock-face helmet whips upwards to stare at the descending monitor. "What the world needs..." His free hand slowly clenches into a fist, drawn close to his chest. "...is people who don't settle for 'good enough!'" The monitor falls, and Zi-O lets out a battle cry, leaping into the air to ram his shoulder into it and shatter it against the scything rings of pressurized water that protectively envelop him just before impact. He lands with a roll, his hand darting out to grab the Ride Heisaber, pulling it from the factory floor. "'Good enough' stole the joy from your workers," he shouts to the remaining plastic Hardlies, cutting them down with angrily efficient bladework, on his way to the next nearest printer. "'Good enough' tells governments it's okay to disguise conquering as protecting!" He leaps into the path of the laser shot from the debris-buried Hardly, a sphere of electricity blunting the force of the blow and preventing it from striking his retainer. "It lets people like you skirt by, time and time again, without growing or changing or opening your hearts!" With another shout, he kicks the burnt-out hulk of a printer and sends it flying towards the partially-buried copy, his chest heaving with exertion. Between breaths, he says, in a low, tired, sad tone-- "Even someone as miserable as FATHER thinks you're pathetic." Woz is a freezing-cold red blur through the factory floor, his polearm cutting frost-clung arcs through what machinery remains, until Ishirou's drone is made. "My Demon King," he says, stopping on a dime to stand before Zi-O. His free hand makes a theatric flick of the wrist. "I believe the point has been made. Let us away," he continues, gesturing with the polearm towards the exit, "...and watch this monument to sloth collapse from afar." The two Riders, shortly after, watch the factory go down, each removing their transformation devices to stand on the shore. One of Sougo's cuts has reopened, but it's hard for him to focus on that. He's too busy staring off into the distance, thinking of the workers and what better futures might now be in store for them, wearing a slight smile.
Powerpuff Girls	MEANWHILE, On a well occupied boat, Princess Morbucks and Buttercup are in council, crouching beside Morbucks' phone. The yellow-and-black cased advanced smartphone (with a pink flower phone charm and a red string) is set up on an a deployed metal pop-out and is displaying a boat part guide, as Princess Morbucks has put forward that the railing, which is a simple machine-rolled bar, is worth less than parts and labor required to repair the body damage, in addition to a new segment of hull. Buttercup knows her business and remains firm. "You owe me twenty of your more-bucks, ginger snap, pay up." Both of them turn to look when the extreme detonation barrage of violent finishers play out ashore. "Didn't they leave us behind because they said we'd blow up the island?" The yellow asks, a billfold deploying from her wrist gauntlet into her hand for her to thumb off a twenty to offer without looking to the green. "Burn down, but... yeah." Buttercup grumblingly confirms, accepting the bill without looking. "I bet it's Blossom." BUT IT IS NOT BLOSSOM Because the day is raged by Bubbles. The whole display, of the stolen jar of EVERYTHING NICE, of 'Good Enough', of 'Freaks' does not balk her, hopping up and backwards into the air as everyone reports their truth, and rebukes Hardly as the screen lifts away. It doesn't make Bubbles feel better, but the episode will later show in the most dramatic moment everyone from the other worlds declaring how much of a Dick that Richard Hardly is. In the end all she can do is seethe and grit her teeth and go from a soft 'rr' to a loud 'Rrr' and then a roaring, extended, pitch-increasing emotional unburdening. The blue cooks off, because someone the Professor loved betrayed the most sacred of trusts and spoke of 'Good Enough'. "You found the key for brothers and uncles and sisters and aunts and you took it for yourself. And you were none of those things!!" It all comes out in a bolt of electricity that she aims at Futaba's airjuggled remains, atomizing every scrap of that trash Hardly created. Blossom, flying at a safe distance, frowns. "She seems upset." She understates in the way of sisters.
Rowdyruff Boys	There is, in the end, only one conclusion that can be reached: There is one Plastic Hardly, and one factory. Both are swept away in a torrent of concerted effort, including financial... though Remee isn't certain where Hardly is hypothetically buying from, THIS place suddenly went up for sale. Either way she can probably make it harder for him to set back up, for a while. Plastic Hardly has time enough to add just one thing before the attacks descend on him: "Father's just a thing we made to get in your way--" And then, finally, silence truly descends as the "good enough" Plastic Hardly is annihilated. This would, in other circumstances, be a moment of great catharsis and emotional resolution. But it is not. It is the destruction of a hollow puppet of a hollow man, a step along the way but not quite within arm's reach yet either. Waves crash against the beach. A line of emotionally-drained exploited laborers shuffle towards the docks to wait for the ferry. And so the day is saved... even if it doesn't really feel like it yet.