Ami had agreed--albeit somewhat reluctantly--to attend the ball with Daisuke, but as before she asked him to meet her somewhere random. Today, it was the Boardwalk; a little kitschy stand that sells decorated seashells. Dressed in a beautiful sky-blue gown dressed with a faint icicle motif about her waist, neck, and shoulders, Ami looks entirely out of place walking the boardwalk. She has a small clutch in her hands, and her hair all done up nice, as she wanders along idly towards the stand in question.
Daisuke Hansuke goes to these events because his father makes him. He doesn't mind. But his father usually ALSO sends him off with some friend's daughter as a companion and these are usually stuck up people he has no intrest in and he just ends up standing to the side and enjoy a nice evening of talking.
When his Dad gave him a number- he went: "Sorry Dad, I think I'm gonna take someone else I know." he said and then he texted Ami. Ami was someone far more intresting who actually cared about things besides the totally expensive car thier parents bought them or something. There may had been other reasons for inviting her along but he isn't admitting them to himself.
He's still getting dressed because the dry cleaners screwed up and he was rushing to get into a light purple tuxedo. Ami gets a text to this effect that he is out the door VERY soon- and that there was a small snag at the dry cleaners with his suit.
An odd feeling reaches out across the area. It's a sorrowful feeling, weak at first and then growing in intensity until it becomes unbearable.
Ami Mizuno would recognize the feeling. She's felt it before, from fighting a Witch.
A barrier appears, invisible to the normal eyes, but those who are magically inclined can probably feel it. It grows in size, spreading over the boardwalk. You could be almost certain that it wasn't there before, but it is there now.
Small tattoos, the Witch's Kiss, begin to form on the necks of those nearby... none of them seem to be hurt yet, or in any particular hurry to harm themselves. Instead it merely seems like they are just... a little less lively, a little less happy, a little more depressed. It will take time for the Witch to work on them, but there's no telling how much time they have. The Witch will have to be dealt with soon.
The entrance to the labyrinth is nearby, on the boardwalk. Non-magicals can't see it, but to the magically inclined it's not hidden at all.
Ami slows as she hears her phone beeping at her. She reaches into her clutch and pulls it out, then frowns just a little. She squints at the time, then glances up at the sky just in time to notice the barrier slowly forming. "A witch," she murmurs thoughtfully to herself.
Never good. Ami let out a soft sigh of unhappiness, then sent a quick text message to Usagi, since her phone was already in hand.
Ami-chan: Usagi-chan. There is a witch at the boardwalks. I should be able to take care of it, but if you haven't reached the dance yet I would not mind backup.
Putting her phone back in her clutch, Ami instead pulled out a small, simple-looking wand topped with the symbol of Mercury, then ducks behind one of the stands. "And since Daisuke's late, maybe he won't even notice ..." Ami murmurs, then extends her arm upwards. The wand begins to glimmer and sparkle in the dying light of the day, until she declares, "Mercury Power, Make Up!" The sparkle turns all the brighter, and the wand moves on its own. Ami spins the wand around herself ina dance, leaving a trail of water and light that engulfs her dress and whole body. Her beautiful gown becomes a much shorter seifuku, decorated with a massive bow at the chest and lower back. On her forehead, the same symbol appears, glowing briefly, before transofmring into a golden tiara with a blue gem. Ami dances back a step and squints towards where she sensed the witch's power.
Reaching up, she activated a small visor in her tiara; augmented reality attached to the Mercury Computer. "Now, let's see if we can't find where that energy is coming from," she says as she scans the area around her.
Daisuke Hansuke is all set and dressed and looks dapper he thinks in the mirror. Yes. Very purple. It's his favorite color. For some reason. He takes off down into Verone's parking area. He sends another text. Ami (PROBABLY) doesn't get this one because she's probably too busy at the moment relating that he's on the way.
He'll arrive at the speed of plot convience.
The Labyrinth's entrance shows up very clearly on Mercury's scanners. It looks like an invisible wall, rippling gently. She can see partially into the Labyrinth, seeing hints of water, a lot of water, like an ocean. There are wooden ships inside, too. Little familiars, shaped like insects and worms, dangle in the air. Each one is glowing softly from some internal light, swinging back and forth as if hung from invisible strings. The strings also show up, flickering in and out of Ami's scanning range.
The Witch, so far, is unseen, but there is a very eiree glow coming from one of the wooden ships.
There is one more thing that Mercury's scanner's might warn her about. Mercury, suddenly, is not alone.
A dark haired girl, a Puella Magi, appears behind her in a white-and-blue costume. This person, Ami hasn't seen bofore. She speaks up, a harsh tone in her voice. "I was wondering when one of you was going to show up."
She looks at the Witch's barrier, and then at Mercury. "Are you going in? You want to stop it, right?"
There's something very wrong about this girl, the way she carries herself and the way she seems to glare at Ami, but as far as Mercury's scanners can tell her, she's just a normal Puella Magi.
Erin at first looks very calm, if a little bit impatient. She keeps glancing between Ami and the barrier. Her hands are behind her back, hidden from Ami, but her arm seems to move every so often, as if her hands are fidgeting. Actually, she doesn't look very calm at all, but she's keeping a very straight face.
Some of the familiars inside the Labyrinth start to move, as if the invisible string were yanking them outside. Each one stops at the barrier, as if suddenly facing severe resistance, but one by one they pop through. They're still invisible to the normals walking around, but Mercury, Erin and anyone else magical can see them clear as day.
Sailor Mercury hadn't expected company, but in Tokyo it's rarely a surprise. She turns at the sound of the Puella's voice and offers a faint smile before glancing back at the barrier. "I plan to," she replies, "but it's best to try and understand what you're getting into before you jump in."
The Mercury Computer doesn't register anything unexpected, so she doesn't take too much longer deciding. "I'm Sailor Mercury," she introduces herself to Erin, before heading towards the barrier. "You can have the Grief Seed when this is over; let's just work together to solve it, ne?"
As she grows near the entrance, Mercury slows once more, and then dives into the Labyrinth.
The kind that looks before leaping... Erin's eyes widen slightly for an instant, and then go back to normal. When Sailor Mercury introduces herself, the Puella responds, "Erin Takayama."
Erin nervously watches as Mercury approaches the barrier. At the offering of a Grief Seed, Erin looks... sad, almost? It only lasts for a moment, so it's hard to tell. "You're very generous."
Mercury goes into the Labyrinth, and Erin follows, staring at her back. She's watching Ami closely, nervously. Why is she so nervous? Could it be that she's shy?
The Familiars coming out of the barrier part before Mercury, as if inviting her in. They even seem to incline their heads, as if bowing. They want her to go on. The Witch wants it, apparently.
When Mercury goes through the barrier, what she sees inside is very similar to what she saw outside. The entrance of the barrier lands her and Erin on the deck of a large wooden ship, looking like something from the 1400s or so. Each ship is abandoned, aside from the two magical girls. there are large holds and splits in the planks lining the deck and the hull. The masts have been reduced to torn shreds of fabric blowing in the cold wind. The ocean beneath is choppy, and the large waves cause the ships to slowly sway.
The familiars, hanging by a barely-visible string that reaches up infinitely into the sky, begin to circle around Mercury and Erin.
Erin frowns, and says, "I'm very sorry, Mercury-san, but I've been sent here to kill you."
She raises one hand into the air, pulling on an invisible string. This close, it actually looks more like fishing line. She floats into the air, carried by the fishing line, as something LARGE smashes against the hull of the ship they entered on, causing the whole ship to shudder violently.
The ship turns sideways, far enough that Mercury might have to worry about being thrown off.
This ... is not what Sailor Mercury expected. Not in the slightest. She lets out a yelp of surprise when the ship is smashed into; it's just too fast for her to react to Erin's warning before she's thrown into the gunwale. She grabs on, and steadies herself, then decides she needs to buy time.
"Mercury Aqua Mist!" she intones loudly, and the waters reach out to the Princess of Mercury, gladly lending their presence to her call. A thick, chill fog blankets the entirety of the labyrinth. Mercury uses the opportunity to leap up into the masts, seeking higher ground and distance from her foes.
Allowing her voice to be distorted by altitude and the fog so it's harder to pinpoint her, Mercury calls out, "Why?" Just one word; enough to keep the Puella Magi talking; not enough to risk her hiding place.
As she sees the mist rise, Erin frowns. She brought a water-element magical girl to a water-element Witch Labyrinth? Not as planned. This is going to be harder than she thought.
That's not what she says, though. "You think you have an advantage here?! As long as this Witch obeys me, water is my element, too!"
Hanging in the air, Erin places her foot on a fly-shaped familiar, using it as a platform. From her perch, she commands, "Scuttle all the ships! Give her no place to run! Wherever she's hiding, we'll find her."
Erin hears Mercury speak, but can't figure out where that sound is coming from. "You want to know why? Why does that matter to you? All you need to know is that I'm your enemy!"
As she commands, the familiars begin crashing into the ships like wrecking balls, causing into the hulls and creating huge holes. One by one, the ships begin to sink, chunks of them turning into driftwood. However, it isn't completely as planned. Some of the ships can't be found by the familiars, hidden by the fog as they are. Mercury's ship doesn't sink... yet.
A huge glow can be seen in the water. Mercury, if she's able to see through her own fog, can see something huge, like an angler fish much larger than any of these ships, emerges from the waves. It lets out a loud animalistic scream. Do angler fish even make noise? This one does.
It wouldn't take much to figure out that this giant fish is the Witch.
Sailor Mercury grimaces, once, and again, and again as the familiars crash into the ships. The jarring noises and suddenly sinking ships make her nervous, but she stays to her perch, scanning with the Mercury Goggles while she tries to figure out what to do. Luck, it seems, is on her side, as her ship is unharmed, but that won't last long, and Mercury knows it.
She spots the witch in the water and gives it several moments of consideration, scanning its thermal signature with her goggles. With this much cold, life and energy stand out starkly against the backdrop of her mist, giving her at least a visual advantage over her foe.
"Because I would rather save you than fight you," Mercury replies, still buying time. She's going to have to move soon. Leaping into the air, she hops towards another ship that's thus far remained unharmed--this one closer to the witch. "Because you have no reason to want me dead."
"You're not going to save me by not dying, Mercury-san," calls out Erin into the fog. "You don't know what she might do if I fail. I know it sucks, but it's you or me."
Erin squints as she tries to look through the fog... but how can she lead an army if she can't even see the army?!
Well, it doesn't matter. She can still win this. She reaches up into the air, planting her feet firmly on her insect perch. "We need rain! We need lightning! Hurry it up!"
And here it comes, on command. Lightning glows in the sky. Thunder crashes. The boat that Mercury was standing on just moments before is struck and set ablaze. The burning hulk of a ship makes an orange glow in the fog.
"You! The big one! Don't be lazy!" shouts Erin. She can't quite see the Witch, but she can feel it out there.
The Witch responds, turning towards a nearby ship, by chance being the one that Mercury is now standing on. The Angler Witch swims towards it, gaining speed, faster and faster, ramming into the hull, crashing through, throwing up splinters where planks used to be. Slowly, the hull is taking in water.
The Witch is dazed, for a moment, but only for a moment. It seems to be swimming away... but not to retreat. It needs room to build up speed again.
Mercury reaches up to shield her eyes against the bright fire, then adjusts the mercury goggles back out of the infrared spectrum. "This isn't good," she murmurs unhappily, scanning for the exit from the labyrinth. Problem is, she's in deep, and she knows it. Witch Labyrinths are easy to enter, and hard to leave, except one of two ways.
And those ways don't usually involved ealing with a rogue Puella Magi trying to kill you and controlling the witch to do it. Mercury starts to think she has the right idea--right up until the witch itself slams into the boat she's on. She lets out a yelp of surprise and starts to fall from her perch, then splashes into the water.
Am I going to die here?
Mercury puts out her arms and allows her body to bob naturally back towards the surface, then gasps for breath when she crests. The intense waves and copious familiars make it hard to find air, but she manages. Somehow.
Drawing her hand down into the water, she unleashes a jet of water, and uses it to propel her back into the air, then turns a pirouette when high above again. "Mercury Aqua Freezing!" she declares, sending her magic throughout the entire realm. It's not enough to freeze salt water, but the sudden dip from a faint chill to arctic temperatures is enough to turn the rain into hail, and the fog into something icily uncomfortable to breathe.
But atop a jet of water, Mercury is easily found; and she can't hold herself there for long.
The exit, by now, is far away. With all of the wind and waves, ocean currents have pulled the ships every which way, and Mercury along with them. It hangs in the air over distant water. It would take some special effort just to reach it.
Mercury might be able to get there if she super-jumps from boat to boat, but she also has another problem to deal with. Erin is floating between Mercury and the exit, as if she's guarding it.
The Witch seems to react as Mercury hits the water, hearing the splash over the sound of the storm. The giant anglerfish begins to swim towards her, guided by the sound. When she begins to use her magic, the fish accelerates.
Falling hail smashes into the familiars, defeating a number of them and causing them to vanish into black smoke. Some of the hail slams into the Witch, but it doesn't stop its approach.
Several near-invisible strands of fishing line come out from every direction, the sky, the sea, some of the ships, or seemingly nowhere. Each strand attempts to wrap around Mercury, trying to constrain her and pull her back down into the ocean, down towards the Witch's gaping maw.
"I've found you," calls out Erin. "Don't drag this out. You'll only suffer longer."
The black-haired Puella Magi wraps her arms around herself. She can see her breath. She's cold, ice-cold, and she has nothing but her henshin to protect her from the elements. She can barely stand it.
If this keeps up, she might freeze to death, but running isn't an option for her.
Mercury isn't as fast and physically confident as Jupiter. She isn't as powerful and unwavering as Mars. Nor is Mercury as clever and self-confident as Venus, and not even as lucky and faihtful as Moon. Mercury wins her battles by planning, forethought, and understanding.
And today, she has none of those on her side.
What she'd thought was a witch in need of dealing with has turned into a Peulla Magi seeking to kill her. What she'd thought was a battle in her favored terrain has turned into a sky full of things she can't do anything about.
What she'd thought would be a simple exercise of Mercury's power to help someone in need has turned into a disaster.
As the wires close around her, Mercury draws upon a last reserve; a desperate grasp at the last straw of hope. "MERCURY BLIZZARD BLAST!" she screams, just as the fishing lines drag her beneath the waves.
The water turns to ice, spreading outwards very suddenly towards the witch and Erin both. Soon, the entire area will be nothing more than a giant iceberg in the depths of a frozen winter. But Mercury? Mercury is trapped in her own magic, and the channeled powers of the witch.
Erin watches as her target is dragged down into the deep. The Witch closes in, ready to finish it off.
Erin hates this part. She can't watch. She closes her eyes and looks away.
"Sorry, Mercury-san. This is just how it is. Every enemy of the White Flower will face the same fate."
The Witch draws ever closer. It opens its mouth, rows and rows of saber-like teeth reaching out to her, to invite her into death. It never sees the flash-freeze coming. It's frozen like that, as its entire world becomes ice.
The ice spreads all throughout the endless ocean. The ocean being magical, it has little resistance to magical ice, and the glacier spreads much further than Mercury might expect.
The Witch dies, the Labyrinth falls apart, and all of the familiars vanish. Mercury's glacier is dumped out into the middle of the sea.
Erin, who standing on a bait-fly, falls from the sky and onto the pier beneath her. She gets up, brushing off her legs. She skinned her knees. "Did that finish her off? I wasn't watching..."
Oh no. She doesn't even know what happened! How could Erin make such a critical error! She reaches into her pocket and pulls out several Grief Seeds. "Oh my god... I have to make sure. I have to make sure or she'll kill me!"
Which witch should she bring out? A dragon witch? The doctor? Another water-themed one would be a bad idea...
For the moment, there's nothing attacking Ami. She's safely encased in her block of ice, but Erin is looking for another another Witch to send out...
So Daisuke Hansuke was pretty much juuuust a little late when something stabbed him in the heart and started to tingle like crazy. He'd begun to associate this feeling with 'something isn't right with the world' about a week ago- but a talk with some members of Virtue revealed that it was more 'something is going down. transform and go!'. He drove his car to the side of the road and there was a flash inside of the car.
Then it was empty. Also, the keys were still inside becaue Daisuke still isn't used to this but he can still teleport into the car later. Right?
Regardless--- Asclepius now arrives overhead and just eyewidens at what's before him. Something like reality spit some people out and there's Sailor Mercury and some strange girl and his heart's just racing--- he can hear the Puella speak.
No words. No words- he doesn't know what to say right now as that snake head staff comes down and to bear.
Asclepius said he would never hit or fight. He's still sticking to that. That emits from the staff is more akin to a sudden force being applied to someone in an attempt to knock them back--- non leathal. No pain. Just a sudden jolt of being sent backwards-- he's hoping to catch this opponent off guard-----
To buy him enough time to pull his next move---which is to teleport over to the---iceblock? into the water?--- containing Mercury- grab her and teleport out as /far/ as his power will take him---which puts him WAY down the shoreline on a rocky outcropping-- hopefully with Mercury in tow.
He doesn't seem to care about grief seeds right now. He doesn't even know what they are. He also takes a deep breath. He's pretty sure everything that just happened was on some kind of weird magical auto-pilot he doesn't understand. Expcially the whole staff thing.
Mercury is an iceberg. Literally an iceburg. It's melting fast as the ice meets the saltwater, and it won't raise the sea level more than half an inch in the local area, when it's finished melting. But the news will probably have something to say about the sudden appearance of an iceberg in the city.
When Asclepius reaches her, he finds the ice cracked and weakening. One of Mercury's hands is sticking out--an easy something to grab onto. She's chilly.
But she's easily teleported out of her own trap.
When they emerge from his teleport, Mercury's whole body has gone pale, and her lips match her hair. She's not even shivering; just still and cold in his arms.
Erin looks up again. Who is that guy in purple?! He just showed up, and when he leaves, Erin no longer feels the presence of Mercury.
She frowns. This isn't good. This isn't good! If she lived... what will she tell the White Flower? That she might or might not be alive?!
Wait, wait, no this is fine. This can work. There wasn't any order to kill Mercury specifically. Erin was just leaving out bait and waiting for a magical girl to take it. She can say that she caught one and the Witch and Magical Girl killed each other. Yeah... that makes sense. It's not like the Witches will tell on her.
Erin doesn't stick around the harbor after that. She's cold, she's scared, and she needs to find a place to hide and warm up...
Asclepius has gotten Mercury away from---whatever that was--- but she isn't moving. Or breathing--and...! He holds his staff up and in front of himself as he lets it hover off his hands and it begins to glow all sorts of purple up and around- and into the snake's gemmed eyes- and then he begins to channel pulses of purple energy into Mercury- letting his healing magic do it's work- trying to dry up the water in her lungs- or warm her- or whatevr needs to happen to get her back and awake.
He just stands there in deep concentration while it goes down, eyes closed. Healing is a pretty focused task- and that's what he's doing right now!
As healing warmth flows into her, Mercury gasps her first breath of air. Consciousness is not fast coming, but surely it's not too far behind. Warmth--so much warmth--will be needed first. Her teeth chatter, and the Senshi curls in on herself, in the fetal position.
Moments later, the warmth finally begins to rouse her mind, and Mercury's eyes snap open suddenly. The Mercury computer reboots almost instantly as Sailor Mercury comes back online. "C-c-c-old," she says, huddling up against herself even tighter. "W-w-w-witch. G-g-g-grief seed." Coherence will come soon enough, too, if he just waits a little longer.
Asclepius takes off his outer coat and lays it down over Mercury. It's magical and also magically warm. He's in some sort of weird old garb without it- an old shirt and pants that seem to be out of a medeival period drama, and a purple chestplate. He frowns and leans down.
"Grief seed?" he asks softly to Mercury. "Relax. Take your time. You're safe now Sailor Mercury, I promise." he murmurs. He places a hand to Mercury's forehead. "You need to warm up a little. I'm going to take you someplace warm in a moment, but I need to make sure you're not going to go into shock."
The warmth of the jacket helps, too, and Mercury sinks into it. She takes another breath, then lets it out with less chattering than before. "I'll be okay ... soon," she promises. "Hypothermic Coma. Had to ... save myself from the witch." No, not the witch; the witch was a *victim*, strangely, enough. Mercury had to save herself from the Puella Magi controlling the witch.
"Temple," she murmurs. "Sailor Mars. Or Venus." And all of the Senshi. "Call Venus. Take me to her."
Asclepius blinks "Temple...? do you mean...." he looks off to the distance. He can see the Shrine from here- at least the tops of the Tori- in the distance- it's still a bit away, but not super far. There? "I'll do that. Let's get you there." he leans down and picks up Sailor Mercury- and--- with a teleport- is able to make it the rest of the way, ending up in the middle of the court yard. He places Mercury down as he picks out that Phone he was given....
The more time since he pulled her out, the quicker Mercury seems to be recovering. She watches as he delivers the message, then reaches up shakily to replay the scene at ten times speed on her visor, hunting for a still frame of the Puella's face. She finds it, and stares at it, studying the girl quietly while she allows her body to recover.