PLEASE SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGES
-CHAPTER START-
Realm PC-8
A couple of days after the final battle against Red, the girls – Megumi, Hime, Yuuko, Iona, and Maria (and, in hiding, the fairies Ribbon & Glasan) – were at Yuuko's family's restaurant, joined by Seiji and his little sister, and by Megumi's parents; Blue, Mirage, PhanPhan, ad Kuro were busy with something at the moment. The Cures were preparing to accompany Kuro to meet her allies of the DDF tomorrow, and had already told Megumi & Yuuko's families that they were going to visit Hime's hometown as a cover story.
The atmosphere was light and pleasant, some small talk here & there. Suddenly, though, everyone felt an inexplicable chill in the air. The five Cures and two fairies paled as they realized they were sensing the presence of Darkness, and it was very close by. Before they could think of anything discreet to do, that option was taken away from them. The shadows in the restaurant darkened and seethed, and then began to bulge upwards, taking the form of a pack of six Neoshadows. Circular stable rifts in reality then briefly formed to disgorge a squad of Soldiers with a few Armored Knights.
The whole group, shocked and afraid, congregated together as the Heartless slowly approached from all sides. The Cures looked to each other, realizing they had no other options; after making it all the way through their 'main' quest, they would have to reveal themselves against this group of low-level mooks in order to protect their families. At least there were no other patrons here right now… They stepped forward, to the worried confusion of Megumi & Yuuko's families, and then pulled out their PreChange Mirrors. The civilians were surprised as the five girls were enveloped in swirling magic, and a few seconds emerged as…
"H… Happiness Charge… Pretty Cure…" Seiji's little sister whispered, her eyes as wide as can be, an expression shared by the adults.
A few Neoshadows charged first, one of them leaping at the girls with claws bared. Cure Tender moved and struck the Heartless with a kick so powerful that it was sent hurtling to hit the far wall with a splat, breaking apart into raw Darkness as it fell. Cure Princess then rapid-fired a barrage of blue energy bolts that blasted the other two charging Neoshadows back and also struck some of the other Heartless, destroying a couple of Soldiers. An Armored Knight got in close and swung its blade-arm at Princess' neck, but Cure Honey blocked the blade with her baton and then fired a clover-shaped blast of energy from it that blew the Heartless back and destroyed it.
Cure Fortune formed and flung a few star-shaped shuriken of solidified lavender magic, cutting into a few of the Heartless; one Soldier took a shuriken through its helmet's eye-slot, destroying the dark creature. Cure Lovely went on the attack as well, battering the Heartless with fists & feet wreathed in pink magical energy, and then striking down the remaining Armored Knights with a Lovely Beam. The remaining Heartless rallied and began to rush in from all directions at once…
…and then a spinning Keyblade wreathed in magic flew in, orbiting the Cures in a wide circle, buzz-sawing its way through the remaining Heartless. Kuro leapt in and caught her weapon, dispelling it once she confirmed the threat was over. Relaxing, the five Cures de-transformed, and then Megumi was hit by a tackle-hug from a very, very excited little girl:
"Ohmigosh Onée-chan is a PreCure you're Cure Lovely I can't believe it the super-awesome leader of the Happiness Charge Cures was you all along you're a superhero you and your friends squashed those shadowy monsters like nothing that was so super-cool I can't believe it this is so cool onée-chan!-!"
"The whole time…" Megumi's mother spoke up. "You girls were the legendary local Cure team the whole time…"
"I guess we have some 'splainin to do…" Hime rubbed at the back of her head, a nervous smile on her face.
"You folks might wanna pull up a chair" Kuro sighed. "These girls have pulled off some amazing stuff, and going over it all could take a while, as could explaining who exactly I am, where I came from and who I represent…"
-Break-
Realm PC-9
Cure Twinkle's sparkling heel-drop kick finished off the last Unversed, and she & her teammates turned to look at their still-shocked 'audience' – her mother, Minami's parents & older brother, and Haruka's parents & younger sister.
"O… Onée-chan is… a magical girl…" little Momoka murmured, eyes wide, still in shock, a state shared by her parents.
"The girls who helped defend us and our ship from that monster…" Mr. Kaidou said, still in disbelief of what he'd just seen. "It was Minami and her friends… They've been protecting everyone all this time…"
"Figured this would happen sooner or later" Teana said with a sigh as she arrived on the scene. "Alright, folks, let's find somewhere private and take a seat, this is gonna take a while to explain everything…"
-Break-
Realm LN-34
Beacon System, Midchilda, Rocky Badlands; Local Time 7:45PM
Earlier today, the 'footage' of the adventures on the four recently-discovered PreCure worlds arrived for all to see the developments that took place there – the First Keyblade temporarily lending itself to Ryūko so she could save a friend, the Seekers of Darkness interfering in things, Kuro manifesting a Keyblade and casting Unlimited Blade Works without another UBW-caster's help, Teana capturing a Legendary Pokémon… Now, a sizable group of DDF people waited for the away teams' arrival: Nanoha, Subaru, Illya, Sonic, Marie, and the HeartCatch, Suite, & Smile PreCure teams waiting to meet their new comrades.
Finally, as the setting sun reached the point where half of it was below the horizon, four transportation circles appeared, and flashes of light accompanied the arrival of four groups: the DokiDoki Cures (Mana, Rikka, Alice, Makoto, & Regina), Ai-chan, and the Honnouji Seven Devas (Ryūko, Satsuki, Mako, Jakuzure, Gamagoori, Sanageyama, & Inumuta) (Ira stayed home for now); Kuro and the Happiness Charge Cures (Megumi, Hime, Yuuko, Iona, & Maria) & their fairies; Teana, the Princess Cures (Haruka, Minami, Kirara, & Towa), and Puff, Aroma, & Miss Shamour; and the MahouTsukai Cure trio (Mirai, Riko, & Kotoha), Mofurun, and Theta Team. The two sides quickly moved to meet.
"31 Pretty Cures!" Erika Kurumi (Cure Marine) near-squeed. "This is the awesomest thing ever!"
"I know, right?!" Hime 'Shirayuki' (Cure Princess) replied in an identical tone as the two blue-haired girls pressed palms together. "This is amazing!"
Other meetings went similarly well; Reika, Alice, and Minami were already bonding, Tsubomi and Haruka chatted about their roles as flower-themed Cures, Miyuki and Mana got along perfectly right from the start, Ako and Aguri bonded over being the youngest Cures while Yui and Maria did so over being the oldest, Regina & Ellen & Towa came together over being reformed ex-villains shown the light by the heroines… Meanwhile, Illya was fussing over Kuro, Marie was checking on the Theta kids, Subaru still wouldn't release Teana from a hug yet (though the redhead was not at all unhappy about this), and Nanoha & Sonic simply smiled as they oversaw it all.
"Seems everything's turned out okay" the blue hedgehog remarked. "Despite a few attempts by the bad guys to interfere…"
Nanoha nodded. "I'm worried about this 'Seed of Darkness' trick Xehanort has access to now, however."
"Yeah, that is somethin' to be concerned about. At least we've got a whole bunch of people with purifying magic now…"
The meeting continued peacefully for another 20 minutes or so, friendships and camaraderie already being formed as the various Cure teams and DDF people all got to know each other. There was a joyous and confident atmosphere, the presence of so many mighty heroines making them feel like no force of evil could stand in their way.
Suddenly, a chill in the air was accompanied by the 'feel' of Darkness nearby. Instantly, everyone went on alert, looking all over the place and forming into squad-like groups out of habit. After a moment of still silence, there was a bright red flash that, after a few seconds, faded to reveal at least a dozen Akanbe, a few Zerg-Protoss Hybrids, and a sizable amount of low-level Unversed. A rainbow of lights lit up the dusk battlefield as all 31 Pretty Cures transformed, as well as the Honnouji Seven, Illya & Kuro, Theta's members, Marie, and the three Midchildans.
Sonic made the first move, blitzing in and starting to bulldoze through any Unversed in his sights, cutting down on the cannon fodder's numbers. As the small army of heroines moved to meet the approaching enemies, attacks already being flung at the monsters, Cures Melody and Flora led the charge, the other Cures falling in and following their lead.
A Hybrid Destroyer tried to charge up a psi-blast, but a 'low'-power Divine Buster from Nanoha took its head off. Cure Sunny and Ruby-form Cure Miracle bombarded an Akanbe with crushing fiery blows, weakening it for a Gold Forte Burst to destroy it. A slicing Schneiden wave from Illya chopped off a Hybrid Reaver's arm, and a sonic blast from Nonon's shoulder-mounted cannons shattered its skull. An Akanbe leapt and tried to body-slam Cure Diamond, only to bounce off Cure Fortune's star-shaped shield and then be ensnared & destroyed by Cure Muse's Allegro Halo attack. Teana sliced a deep gash across an Akanbe's front, and Erio stuck Strada's tip in and discharged his Lightning magic, frying the monster from the inside. Cure Lovely used her Passion Dynamite attack to dispatch nearly two-dozen Unversed at once. Subaru brought her supercharged fist down on a Hybrid Reaver's head, burying its face into the dirt, and a swing of Satsuki's Scissor Blade sliced through its exposed neck.
The battle was mostly one-sided, nobody on the good-guy side taking any serious damage as they gradually dealt with the attacking enemies over the next several minutes. The last to fall was an Akanbe frozen solid by Cures Beauty & Diamond and then shattered by a punch from Gamagoori. As silence fell over the battlefield, it was then broken by the sound of clapping.
"As expected of so many PreCures…" a tenor voice said. "That was hardly a warmup for you all, wasn't it?"
Everyone turned to look atop a nearby rock formation, and upon seeing who stood there, grinning down at them all, some of the heroes frowned and tensed, readying for serious battle, while others – especially many of the Cures, and one team of them in particular – felt fright grip them.
"Seven teams of Cures…" Joker looked out over the sizable group with a fanged grin, his mask's eye-holes glowing faintly red. "How interesting…"
"What are you doing here?" Teana growled, brandishing her Mirage Longswords.
"Checking out the newcomers," the harlequin replied, "and testing out my newest weapon."
"No matter what kind of fancy new weapon you've made," Kuro said, "it won't be enough."
"Oh, my dear, you're a bit mistaken. I didn't make it, I found it! I took a jaunt to his home-world," he pointed at Sonic, to the hedgehog's mild surprise, "and found a well-hidden and very powerful artifact. Of course, someone else had found it first, but I feel the good doctor wouldn't have been able to make as good use of it as I could, so I 'liberated' it from his laboratory. And so, now…"
He reached into his coat and pulled out a fist-sized red & purple gem, which began to glow with dark red light. He held it up high, and raw power flowed out from it, the heroes startled by how it accepted and amplified Joker's dark power. Crackles of red lightning raced through clouds overhead, and baleful red light bathed the rocky ground. Even Nanoha found herself tightening her grip on her Device as she felt the chaotic dark power the gem was giving off.
"I shall use it to conquer worlds and subject those who stand against me to a fate worse than death! Pierrot and Amon shall be avenged, with interest! Chaos and terror will reign, as I bend reality to my will! Behold the power! Of the PHANTOM RUBY!-!"
-CHAPTER END-
Sorry for the short chapter, but that last bit just can't not be an end-of-episode scene. The next, final chapter should be longer, since I have planned lots of villainous activity, as well as two new attack debuts for the heroes.