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Who: Jasmine, Lily, others [semi-closed, who comes along will depend on plotting factors]
What: Jasmine has popped off to try and force an echo, people come looking for her
When: January 6th
Where: Blood Keys territory

Without anything to throw herself into, Jasmine had withdrawn into herself after Winter's party. It wasn't that she didn't feel guilty about it, because she did... she felt very guilty. She had made all of these new friends, and yet, she was cutting herself off from them. In a way, it seemed like she had given all the progress she'd made a huge middle finger.

But she couldn't help it; that's what she told herself, anyway. Without the party to plan or any other projects, she'd become consumed by the memories she'd regained. They were so troubling, so strange... was she some kind of artificial creature? An experiment? And why did she feel a connection to people she somehow knew were the villains of the story?

And then there was the one she hadn't told anyone about: Who was Dark Precure?

She had to find out more. Jasmine couldn't afford to wait around. So, after spending a week cutting herself off, avoiding even her sister, her classes, she'd made a decision. She'd try and force it. In fact, she hadn't come home the previous night, staying out by herself in order to "steel" herself and to avoid revealing what she had planned before she even started.

That's why she was in Blood Keys territory. Because she'd heard about what they were capable of.

The danger didn't matter. One way or another, she'd have something that have her answers. She was sure of it. So that was why she was walking around, out in the open, in the evening hours. Just waiting. Waiting for anyone to approach her.

Was she afraid? Hell yes she was afraid.

But Jasmine was also desperate.

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Luci was the first to arrive, at least as far as the coordinates on her phone were concerned. Pocketing it a few blocks before coming to that side of town, she kept her hand to her chest, clutching what looked to be a small prism-shaped necklace. Her staff would look far too obvious here, and she wanted to keep it close at hand, in case of a sudden ambush.

Scanning the area, she pressed further into the Dead District, waiting until she reached the inner limits before seemingly fading away into the shadows. Invisible for a short period of time, she broke into a run. This place was deserted at this time, strangely enough, putting her even more on edge. If she was going to find Jasmine, she wanted to do it fast.

Considering Jasmine was out in the open, it wouldn't take Luci very long to find her at all. She doesn't have any idea the invisible girl is following her... nor that several Blood Keys are moving in on her from all directions.

Luci might find herself in the same situation, as for whatever reason, her light bending powers have failed, and a pair are sneaking up on her from behind...

It wasn't immediate to her that she had been discovered and, drawing closer to Jasmine, Luci began to drop her invisibility. That, of course, being the bigger mistake.

"You're Jasmine, ri--" She caught it out of her peripheral vision far too late, one of the gang members lunged from behind. She moved enough to avoid damage to anything vital, turning and wrapping her arm around her sides. The Key's blade manages to hit her forearm, however, she screamed out in pain before crumpling in on herself. The second ran in toward Jasmine.

Unfortunately, the scream began to attract more, like moths to a flame, more descending.

Edited 2014-01-07 04:30 (UTC)

Jasmine turned when she heard Luci's voice... and had no time to properly react when suddenly, there were superpowered thugs coming out of the woodwork. She had no time to question who this strange blonde girl was... she saw her opportunity and she took it.

She ran up to the nearest Blood Key, the one running at her, and just... attempted to tackle them. Anything to make contact. Unfortunately for her, it was like running into a brick wall, and she bounced off its chest with a thud, falling back on her ass and leaving her momentarily stunned.

Meanwhile, the one who had cut Luci cackled sadistically, while a third came at the girl, wielding... well, that was creative. A cement block connected to a long rugged-looking pole.

Blood staining her sleeve, she tried to move her fingers. Pain shooting up her arm, she groaned, clasping the wound with her other arm. She could at least move them, enough for a loose grip; that was all she needed. Elbow still tucked, she doubled over, hair falling over her face and torso, shrieking out again. It hurt, it really hurt, but not nearly as much as she let on--in her right hand, gently cupped near her chest, a faint light glowed.

It took a lot more to focus with the pain, as if constructing multiple spells in her mind wasn't enough. Throwing out her left arm, the first flew, a bubble of white light flying at Jasmine and shielding her, then boomeranging back to herself. The second, flew forward, the thug with the cement club caught in place.

Her third spell didn't make it out, the blond beginning to cast only to be quickly knocked down by the thug standing over her, bringing his elbow down hard on her back. Thankful at least for the shield, the blow still hurt, and she fell to her knees with a groan. Body screaming out in pain, mind telling her otherwise, she couldn't help but look up at the one that originally attacked her with disgust. She would let herself have that much, at least, even if it came back to bite her.

Edited 2014-01-07 05:09 (UTC)

Footsteps fell nearby, as the commotion easily drew attention... as if the handy bit of technology in the GPS of Jasmine's phone wasn't enough on it's own. At some point, Lily's desperation had overrode her common sense, and she wound up ahead of everyone else...

And as she came upon the scene, she froze up, horrified at what was going on - and just how close they were to being far too late.

"JASMINE!"

Edited 2014-01-07 05:28 (UTC)

The thug Jasmine ran into, and the one with the club ended up being rebuffed by Luci's shield. Jasmine, however, didn't notice, and was only brought to her senses by her sister's voice.

"No..." she breathed, looking up with a start. But as soon as she looked in the direction Lily's voice had come in... she saw that she wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Several Blood Keys were now advancing on Lily.

It was like a switch flipped in Jasmine, and her lips curled into a snarl.

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

Jasmine roared, and charged the Blood Key nearest her sister, and once she was close enough, her arm curled back and her hand bunched into a fist... which she then swung forward, meeting the face of the Blood Key as he turned.

Jasmine's fist met the thug's face.

What followed was crack, a thud, and then a massive burst of force as the gang member went flying, thrown violently by the force of Jasmine's punch, leaving the girl shocked as she gaped at what had happened.

Shocked, and stunned for the moment.

Edited 2014-01-07 05:56 (UTC)

Winter's next on the scene; she's definitely limping a little, but she's making good progress, hesitating only when she hears the series of screams before hurrying forward as quickly as her ankle will support her. It's rough, and she's wincing by the time she sees anyone, but when she makes it there... the scene is something she wasn't expecting. And doesn't want to see.

Looking out over the assembled people - Jasmine in post-decking pose, Lily apparently scared stiff with Blood Keys advancing on her, and... was Luci bleeding from her arm? This... wasn't going well. And she wasn't going to let it go any further.

"That's enough... get away from them...! Raquel!" Obligingly, the plushie flies over and, with a poof of smoke, turns into a phone. Winter glows with a blue light, and without any further fanfare, there's a sharp pop and Cure Diamond is standing there. No fancy speeches, no weird poses. Just Diamond, starting to run almost immediately toward... ugh, who to support first? Lily looked least able to defend herself at this particular moment, best start there.

Her ankle seemed to complain quite a bit less while she was in this form, so it was a quick few steps before she was close enough to lash out at one of the Keys with a sharp kick to the side, sending him... not nearly as far as she'd have liked, but enough to give her a clear path to Lily, at least. "Are you all right?"

True to her word, Cherry had rushed out right after talking to Lily, ill-advised though it may be. It hadn't taken her that long to get to the location Lily had given. When she reached everyone else, though, she froze for a moment. Her earlier courage left her quickly once she saw what was going on.

Thankfully she managed to snap out of it and she ran straight for Lily and... someone she assumed was Winter transformed. Whatever, she could go with that. There were more important things going on.

"Lily!" She stopped once she reached the older girl. "Ah... You're... okay, right?"

Annie arrives on the already-chaotic scene, still in her civilian form - some habits, like waiting until an appropriately dramatic moment to transform - die hard.

"PRECURE, SMILE CHARGE!"

Kari, transformed already herself, steps out onto the edge of a nearby fire escape, as close to the light as she can get. Better safe.

"Play something," she whispers, and then, "Come on. Let's start this!"

Oh good, the cavalry arrived. Her spirits lifting at the sight of the magical girl crew--or maybe that was because the pain in her fingers was starting to fade to a bit of numbness, so it was less, directly, that she had to focus on. Quickly standing, she managed to, with the assistance of her other hand, cup her hand around her necklace again, unleashing a small prismatic ball at the thug in front of her.

Jumping back quickly toward the rest of the group, the orb exploded, doing at least some damage to him, although how much was hard to say; it was enough to knock him back, at least. Gripping her arm, she gave them a grimaced smile. "Talk about perfect timing."

While the cavalry assembled, a song began to drift through the air.

Russel came already in his green and white Precure costume, so there was no flashy transformation to announce his presence, but his subdued entrance as he stepped out of the shadows of the alleyway was a perfect fit for the slow build of the heroic theme that accompanied him.

"Listen up, evildoers!" he announced, directing a dramatic pose toward the gathered Blood Keys. "All Star Precure is on the scene, and if you don't want your day to get a whole lot worse, I suggest you make the smart decision and get out of here before we get serious!"

Kari looked stunned for a second before smirking and sweeping her gloved hand out.

"You've been plaguing our streets on the bidding of the corrupt, and that aligns you with our enemy. So we'll keep on striking back and striking loud with our pichi pichi voices!"

Under her breath, she muttered, "What does that even mean?"

Kari brought her soul-microphone up and began to sing in the manner that people do at a karaoke bar, trying to covertly stay a half second behind to pretend they know the words. Her voice rang out in the street, pressing painfully down on the Blood Keys' ears.

She wasn't bad, no. This was just what she could do.

In all the chaos, Lily is - for a good several moments - unable to respond to either Winter or Cherry as they call out to her. Gang members fall around her, but even her sister somehow sends one flying a considerable, she's almost dead still.

What a time for echoes. She stood, really not quite sure what was going on during any of the sensations... besides the memory. That was quite clear. A beat after the memory clears up, there was a flash of light in front of her, and a small, purple medallion dropped out of the air. She caught it with reflexes that would have surprised her if she had more time to dwell on it... but she didn't.

Not then.

"Cerise, Winter, I..."

In the next moment, she saw a gang member from off to the side suddenly rushing up at Jasmine from behind. Not thinking of simply letting one of the far more powerful magical girls handle this, some sort of instinct overtook Lily's movements. She took several quick steps forward, enough that the Blood Key turned his attention to her, and ran straight for her, a knife in hand.

Bigger than you. Stronger than you. Also, stupider than you. Sloppier than you. Use his momentum and weight.

The next second she had dodged to the side, caught the thug by the wrist, kicked out one of his legs, and flipped him cleanly over herself and onto the hard ground.

And a second later, Lily did a double-take, and looked down at the attacker.

"H- how did I..."

Still clutching that medallion tightly in her hand, she shook her head, and turned to yell for her sister again. "Jasmine! Come on, we have to get out of here!"

Because even as a couple fell, there didn't seem to be a real lack of these guys, and there'd assuredly be more within moments.

Jasmine is just at the center of all this, overloaded by sensory input. All of these people... she'd sent that man flying, and now...

Winter. Annie. Transforming.

That girl. Cerise. Jasmine had finally seen her, and now...

A cloudy day. Withered flowers. Soldiers that looked almost like dolls stuffed with sand and made of threadbare cloth.

A girl who looked like Cerise. Another girl. They transformed into Precure. She fought them. A woman. One of the Desert Apostles. She fought them. She was Precure. She defeated them I defeated them I

She was Dark Precure.

And then, at the end, clear as day... a young woman who looked just like...

Jasmine felt her sister grab her arm, and her head snapped in Lily's direction. Jasmine's lip trembled, and her eyes widened with fear.

That woman... that young woman, who Dark Precure had recognized... Was her own sister.

Jasmine's body froze. She couldn't move. Her entire thought process just shut down, and she fell forward against Lily's body, trembling.

The fact that she and the others were in mortal danger was the furthest thing from her mind right now. The horrible revelation of her echo had consumed her utterly.

She was one of these Desert Apostles, the name Dark Precure had been her own... and her own sister was her enemy.

Having a team forming around her was definitely reassuring. Winter took a moment to survey the surroundings: Luci was injured, which she'd deal with later; the remainder of the All Stars Precure were... just starting to arrive... Cerise was okay for now; Lily had just randomly kicked ass and then wondered where it had come from; and Jasmine was freaking out.

So, uh, not really a good situation. The priority was to escort the civilians - Lily, Jasmine, and now Cerise - out of the combat zone, so that had to come first. "Lily! Is she okay...?"

She's tempted to pick Jasmine up, sling her over a shoulder, and run away. But she has a lingering feeling that it wouldn't be a good idea, and for now, she's going to defer to her sister for guidance.

"We've got to get out of here! Are you... all right? C-can you move?"

Cerise stared, wide-eyed, as Lily easily dispatched a Blood Key. That was... unexpected.

"Lily..."

It really was an amazing sight, but it wasn't the main issue right now. Scared to be left behind by herself, she ran after Lily... then halted as she saw Jasmine and that familiar empty feeling came back. Oh crap, of all the times to get an echo...

Except... That memory... It was much scarier from the others. And the one that had caused it was...

She took a hesitant step backwards, her eyes wide and fearful as she looked at Jasmine.

"Dark... Precure?" It was said more to herself than anything, but it was very much audible. Once the echo had passed, though... Right. Cherry remembered what was happening again. The here and now, not the other her's past.

She continued running towards Lily, fearfully getting as close as possible to her.

"Lily, let's go, quickly!"

"Do what you have to do, I'll hold them off!"

Sunny had fought the Blood Keys before at this point. She had a good idea of what the were capable of. This meant that she isn't afraid to let lose against them.

The first Blood Key is sent skyward by an uppercut to the jaw, but their numbers are increasing, and some of the ones who went down will be getting back up soon. Nobody could keep this up forever.

Kari magnified her voice singing along to whatever that thing was that Russell was playing. Blood Keys cringed and started to slow down, as if they were fighting some kind of waves assaulting their brains. Not as strongly -- they were obviously enhanced -- but to some degree.

She resolved to work on actually learning all these songs.

Securing a path for escape seemed to be the best course of action at this point, one that Sunny and Kari were addressing immediately. With Jasmine's sudden episode, they were suddenly at even more of a disadvantage, the blond hoping that she at least had the capacity to run.

Throwing out another shield with her off hand, it hooked around, hitting the front-liners. "That should help!" She shouted over the chaos, casting a glance toward Lily, Jasmine and Cherry. "You guys go, we'll catch up!" While Luci wasn't in the best condition to fight, she knew to stay until those three were out of harm's way.

Whoa, was that girl singing as an offensive skill?

That. Was. Amazing.

But Russel did not have time to get distracted by other people's cool powers. The Blood Keys weren't backing down, which meant he had a job to do. Trusting those closer to Jasmine to take their cue and abscond with her, he moved closer to Kari, putting himself between her and their opponents, taking up a fighting stance.

As long as she kept singing, she made the fight a whole lot harder for the Blood Keys. So he was going to make sure none of them managed to interrupt.

Lily's mind raced.

This was real. Somehow, it only then started to click with her just how real and how dangerous this whole thing was. The memories, the powers. Even as this was all catching up to her, as she saw Keys advancing, her mind was almost... dissecting them, it felt like.

She was taking into account their stances, their weapons. Trying to gauge their speed and general ability to hurt them. Most importantly, she was judging how to STOP them.

She didn't understand HOW she was figuring all of this out now, how she knew just what to do if any of them came within striking distance, but...

It didn't matter, then.

Her hand gripped Jasmine's arm. "Sis. We're leaving."

Come hell or high water, then, she was taking Jasmine with her. So, she started to move, trusting that everyone else around them would keep them safe.

Jasmine didn't even protest... or well, even say anything as Lily took her hand. She just let herself be carried along, her eyes wide with shock and fear and... whatever else was racing through her mind right now.

Winter wasn't stupid enough to try and ask more questions, or get in the way. That wasn't her role, wasn't her job. No, her job was to protect Lily and Jasmine as they ran. Sure, she's looking very worried as Jasmine follows with the terribly dead look in her eyes, but... better to protect the now than get killed asking about the past. Throwing the right pin into the slot on her Lovely Commune, she glares at the closest of the Keys rushing toward the girls, gesturing out with an arm and pointing a finger. "Sparkle! Twinkle Diamond!"

And she's rewarded with the jet of ice she remembered from the last time; maybe this was going to work out after all. The thug started to ice over, dropping to the ground; maybe she'd gotten lucky and frozen something he needed? In any case, she didn't have time to stop and celebrate. Almost immediately, she hops after the retreating civilians for a little bit, looking to cover their escape. She'll be back in a second, but the girls seem to be doing fine on their own...

"Nice going, Beauty--"

Wait. Beauty? Where did that come from? Her name is Cure Diamond...

Which is when she full force of the Echo hits. Reika, Aoki Reika. Cure Beauty. One of her teammates, of whom Diamond is a perfect image at this moment. She almost feels bad for forgetting her until just now.

Unfortunately, this isn't a time for being distracted. While she's reeling from the sudden memory, Sunny takes a superhuman-strength steel pipe to the chest. She cries out involuntarily from the blow as she hurls across the street, crashing into the wall of a nearby building almost hard enough to break through it.

Kari faltered for a split second. No. Sunny would be fine. She needed to sing. She needed to finish. Gripping her microphone tighter, she caught up to the words and slowed down the people advancing on her. One of them raised a gun to the balcony. She responded by nailing a high note that caused him to shake enough to hit the garbage can two floors down.

The song was over. But this time -- how? Oh. Right -- she smirked and pointed down at the Blood Keys gathered.

"Cutie ☆ Hot Pitch!"

They cringed and yelled out or bit back a pain in their heads. The one gangster dropped his gun and covered his ears.

Kari -- Caren? -- posed and flipped her hair.

"Encore, anyone?"

Somewhere high above but nearby, there's a Key crouching on a rooftop, his shades hiding a narrowed gaze as he watches the fighting go down. He almost missed it, but the sound of a scuffle accompanied by a larger than life scream attracted his attention. And there they were. Figures that Network members would be the only reason why anyone would be causing such a ruckus in the Dead District at this time of night. By the time he gets there, the cavalry's arrived and there's really not much of a need for anyone else to get involved. Too many cooks in the kitchen.

He's not technically on patrol today, but he wears the full get-up anyway in case one of his fellow Keys track him down... But if that ends up happening, there's a chance he could get roped into helping one side or another. Nooo thanks. He's on double alert; on a cold night like this, thermal vision can pick up heat like no one's business, but he switches to night vision every now and then to make sure he isn't missing anything that doesn't happen to have any internal heating.

He watches, his grey hoodie making a smear against the sky. The light catches on his shades, but it would take a very keen-eyed observer to notice that shine. As long as everyone's fighting, he's pretty sure that no one will even spare a glance upward... After all, unless they're a very skilled fighter, they'll have a lot more trouble on their hands than a mysterious dark figure on a rooftop surveying the course of events.

[[ ooc: this is frankly only here for posterity and my own reference, but if anyone wants to happen to look up and spot him (and maybe even give chase) please have at! ]]

Edited 2014-01-07 05:05 (UTC)

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[ thanks again! ]