Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was strangely... cold without her tail flag. Horatio was not immune to her sudden lack of accessories, but she was never one to feel small. She took no--okay, maybe she took a little offense at how none of her fellow winners wanted to play her game. Instead, most of them seemed ready to play a game of 20 questions with their oppoent. What, had none of them ever known follow the leader?! It was a way better game than 20 questions! Oh, when all of this was over, they were going to have such a talk about playing games... harrumph!

The Himalayan was not a very good sport and turned away from the various Mauvians who tried to speak to the thing... though her ear curved every so often to check in on their progress. Whether they played the same game or not, every single one of those felines were automatic friends in her eyes - and if that weird creature so much as swiped at them, she would be on it like gravy on rice. Assuming she got more to work with than her own meager offerings.

A strange donation source appeared just when Horatio was wondering if she was going to have to go dig in the trash. Along with as sultry voice came a wave of icky Chaos - but also a shiny crystal, a pointed stick, and some glass! Along with the gifts came some important consideration. On the one paw, her Chaotic companion was playing the same game as her and had brought together some useful items. The pointed stick looked like it could be fun even if they weren't currently fighting a crazy feline thing, and the broken glass was shiny, if dangerous. On the other paw... it was a loser offering to help her. Losers and winners, working together, when there should be mass hysteria?

Eh, she'd probably regret crossing the streams, but it had worked for Ghost Busters and maybe it'd work here. Musing over the bits and pieces gathered thus far, she kneaded the grass in thought. "Maybe. With the stick and the goggles, we've got the solid makings of a slingshot, at least?"

Had Dahlia been able to read Horatio's mind, in particular the reference to her being a 'loser', any chance at them working together would likely have devolved into an argument over how completely and entirely superior Dahlia was to Horatio and/or any other Mauvian in the park that night. With many points of evidence including beauty, grace, competence, and talent.

But luckily Dahlia was no mind reader and instead simply looked over the pile, before nodding in agreement.

"That plan sounds lethal enough to me. And should it not work sticks are easy enough to replace and start over." It wasn't often the corrupt Guardian concerned herself much with the more technical talents and items her species was known for creating, but for once she wished she was a bit more experienced. The failure of being able to activate her most recent attempt at an item was still well on her mind. Hopefully harpooning the creature with the stick and googles slingshot would do the trick though and she wouldn't have to worry about it.

Thetis received a reassuring pat to his muddy-back, followed by a long pet from his shoulders down to his tail.

"...well... we tried the communicating thing... not sure how successful that was..." The other Mauvians seemed to be dealing with that situation now, which made her lips frown a bit.

"...I suspect if we flee, things will only get worse..." She lifted her hat just enough to scratch at the top of her head when she finally got a good look at the thing that had caught her attention earlier.

Once more she used her hand to steady her shoulder companion as she stooped down to take a look, holding the odd shard of crystal to a level where Thetis could see as well.

"Do... you feel that, Thetis?" she asked vaguely as she seemed to inspect the shard.

As the creature continued to lurch and make calculated attacks and strikes Dahlia threw her thoughts and caution to the wind. Should she just forehead laser it? What if they ALL forehead lasered it? Would that be enough to take the stupid monster down or would it just leave them all completely vunerable to being destroyed?

"Might as well give this thing a try!" She called out to Horatio before attempting to pull back on their makeshift slingshot, sending their branch flying at the beast.

Horatio had spaced out. There was no nicer (or less puntastic) way of saying it. Her naturally high energy was running dangerously low, and the crack to her head had become a constant, pulsing pain to contend against. She was vaguely aware that the threat was becoming, well, even more of a threat than it had previously been, but her teal eyes just looked sort of vacantly at it. So far, no one seemed particularly hurt...

The blood was what snapped her back to some sort of her normal state. Her Chaos... companion (she could never quite call the other, Corrupted Mauvian a 'friend') had launched their makeshift slingshot and drawn first blood! If they didn't keep on their paws, then it might be one of them that got hurt next. They others might not have wanted to play the same game as her... but that didn't mean Horatio wanted them to get hurt!

So, she quickly mewled to Dahlia, "Good shot! Keep hold of the goggles... I'll try and buy you some time to find another stick!" Never one to stop playing a game that they appeared to be winning, the small Himalayan dashed forward. Even with a massive headache and no clear idea of whether or not a plan would work, she had bravery and determination on her side.

"Hey, ugly monster thing! Look over here, look at me, hey, look! Not at any of the other kitties, nope, just at me with my... okay, so my flag's missing right now, but look anyway!" The speech was just a distraction to buy time for the blooad-coated forehead star to finish charging and when it did, Horatio didn't think twice about letting the energy beam fly straight for the monster.

C - Try something else: kitty forehead beam.

gaia_star C) Try something else...

The Mauvian opened her mouth as if to test if she still could open her mouth. With a few trial runs, she eventually was able to spout out a theory to her companion.

"...I think it might be an energy source..." She clicked her tongue as she turned the shard over between her fingers, still at a level that Thetis could see. "...I don't think I have encountered any other stones like this in Destiny City though..."

Though she truly was keenly interested in what she held between her fingers, she couldn't help but flicker her eyes to the rest of the Mauvians dealing with the odd feline beast.

"...okay, I am going to try something really quickly..." She couldn't sit and dilly-dally too long. With her hand, she reached under the Rex's belly and lifted him enough to remove him from her shoulder before setting him back on the ground again. Taking the newly freed hand, she flipped her hat off her own head, catching it after it had done two rotations in the air.

On the top of her head was a simple white mask, which had been hidden where her hat had been sitting just prior.

"Okay, Thetis... if you could hold this for me!" With a decent amount of care, she set her hat down next to the muddy-buddy before she snatched up her mask. She didn't really try to explain her actions, but soon enough she had flipped the mask to the back side and placed the newly discovered shard into an opening at the center. Maybe if she was lucky it wouldn't all explode in her face.

With a huge sigh, she placed the mask upon her face.

The second the mask was planted on her face, something happened.

A glow flickered in the center of the shard and quickly began to spread outwardly, stretching across the mask and spreading across ********* body—from the tips of her ears to the tips of her toes.

The monster had quickly grown disoriented with the cats running around; thanks to the efforts of Snowball and Liryn, it stumbled and hit the ground with a moan of despair and frustration.

It was only when the beast was trying to push itself up again that it saw the glow out of the corner of its eyes. Only now did it seem to remember it had another cat to deal with, and as it turned to face ********* full on it had to raise one arm up to shield its eyes from the light.

Just as the glow had been quick to come, it was quick to fade.

The monster hissed loudly, and the long haired bristled on the back of his neck.

He was afraid—and had good reason to be.

Now that Mauvian Sailor *********> had joined the fight.