The group appeared out on the balcony at the rear of the museum, and saw Mimosa's concert stage nearby, fireworks exploding over it.
"We're here!" Korsica noted.
"Okay!" Chai nodded. "What are we supposed to do?"
"Chai, you, Connor, Hilda and Lysithea do your thing and get up to the backstage area." Korsica explained.
"Her performance time is moments away." CNMN said.
"You all are gonna have to hustle." Macaron added.
"That path should lead you all right to Mimosa's dressing room." Korsica said.
"Good ol' Chai sneak attack." Chai got the gist.
"I hope it actually works this time." Peppermint hoped.
"Hey, give it another chance." Chai assured.
"Suprise her, and you'll all get the upper hand." Macaron finished.
"But you've gotta move." Peppermint said.
"We'll see you at the show." Chai said. "We'll take her down. Together."
(Cue: Backstage Hustle- Hi-Fi Rush OST)
Chai smashed through one of the windows at the rear of the concert stage, Connor, Hilda, and Lysithea following behind him.
"Here we come, Mimosa!" Chai declared.
"Everyone, just follow that hallway and you'll be at her dressing room." Korsica informed before the screens inside activated.
"We weren't able to stop the intruders in the museum." one of Mimosa's attendant bots said.
"I am NOT putting my performance at risk. I am going on NOW!" Mimosa insisted.
"But Miss, the children's choir!" the attendant advised.
"Ah, put them in the DJ tent, I don't care!" Mimosa said.
"There goes our ambush plan." Macaron said.
"But not mine." Connor said. "This concert's being broadcast all over the island, and Mimosa spun it to confirm I was captured still. Well, I'm gonna crash her opening number and pull the wool out from everybody's eyes watching the stage, and all over the Multiverse."
"We'll be right behind you. Show her what it feels like to be upstaged!" Hilda encouraged.
Connor raced past Mimosa's dressing room and to the backstage area under nead the stage, working his way through all the structures and beams. While he was doing that, up above, Mimosa was on stage, showing herself to the crowd as the stage was extravagant and flashy, with her name in lights in large capital letters.
Mimosa was a fair-skinned woman with dyed, medium-length blonde voluminous hair, black eyebrows, and brown eyes. Mimosa's makeup consists of dark blue eyeshadow and purple lipstick. Her dress is split into different segments: in the center is reminiscent of a white ballerina bodice with pink highlights. On the side appears to be a blue office suit with light red and yellow highlights. Both parts are connected to her black pantyhose and blue, robotic high-heels. She also wears a blue tie with "Vandelay" written on it and V-shaped earrings. Her robotic implant consists of both her hip, with a purple robotic hemline, and robotic shoulders. The hemline contains white and yellow segments, while her shoulders are pointy.
"What a delicious evening! As the face of Vandelay Technologies, I just want to thank you for being a part of Project Armstrong. Everyone! Put your hands in the air!" Mimosa declared as the live crowd cheered. "Thank you SO much! This is so on brand, it's amazing! You're gonna be great out there."
Connor parkoured his way to another area underneath the stage as this all was happening.
"Ugh, look at her… hamming it up." Korsica complained.
"Connor, you gotta get up to the stage!" Peppermint ushered.
"Almost there…!" Connor said as he raced to the very front of the stage before getting on a super jump platform. "Time to shine…" he rubbed his hands together before leaping upwards, getting higher and higher, until…
(song fade)
Connor shot out from underneath the stage like a rocket as pyrotechnics exploded for his arrival. Mimosa's band slowly stopped playing even though she didn't know what was going on. Someone had upstaged his concert, but she didn't know who until that person landed on the ground stylishly and turned around to face the Head of Marketing….
…to reveal himself as Connor! The entire live crowd gasped in utter shock at his appearance as he was also caught on camera, Mimosa in shock as well.
"Shows over, Mimosa!" Connor declared. "Hand over your SPECTRA Passkey!"
"YOU! You're supposed to be behind bars to be given away as a present to the World government! Youve ruined-!" Mimosa started before getting an idea. "Actually… You're all in store for a very special engagement! One of my good friends is here."
The crowd got back behind Mimosa, Connor confused.
"What the?" Connor asked.
"I am the queen of spin. And this is MY show!" Mimosa said before turning to the robots behind her. "ASSISTANTS!" she called as her band got ready to play before she pointed to the camera. ?And you out there, here in the Future Universe and beyond… Get ready for a show!" she said before she posed. "Now hit it!" she called.
(Cue: Fast As You Can by Fiona Apple {Cover by Elsinore feat. Kayla Brown})
At her cue, her robotic implanted hip and hemline stretched and connected, turning into a set of blue speakers, which served as wings. She then flew up into the air as Chai, Hilda and Lysithea soon joined him on stage, Mimosa taunting the lot of them with a 'come-on' motion with her finger. Connor cracked his neck and tugged his gloves as everyone got their weapons ready, set to give Mimosa a live in-person 5-star performance beatdown.
Vs. Mimosa
FIGHT!
Mimosa floated high in the air, and like a true show woman, attacked with all sorts of flashy attacks, like laser blasts from her wings, and using her own voice as a weapon to hit the quartet with musical notes.
Connor shot back at Mimosa after she did the latter attack, but she was being shielded by her own implants.
"That's one tough skirt!" Connor said.
"Everyone, her dress is protecting her! You won't be able to directly damage her." Korsica notified.
"You'll have to stun her to even have a chance!" Peppermint said.
"She can't block every attack. Just keep hitting her until her dress has had enough!" Hilda nodded.
Hilda went at Mimosa swinging, bashing Freikugel against her dress's shields. With a few good heavy hits, her dress was overloaded, and she was stunned as she fell to the ground.
"Now, guys!" Macaron said.
"Do as much damage as you all can before her dress comes back online!" Korsica added.
Chai, Connor, and Lysithea then joined Hilda in damaging Mimosa as much as they could, but her dress shields quickly recharged, and she was back in the air on the offensive.
"Dammit, her recharge times too fast!" Connor said.
"Call me in and keep at her! Don't give her time to recharge!" Korsica called.
After bringing Mimosa's shields down again, the group wailed at her some more, and this time, called Korsica to keep Mimosa stunned so her dress couldn't charge back up.
"I will show you no mercy!" Lysithea said before hovering in the air as a dark glyph appeared underneath Mimosa and a light glyph above her as bolts poured out from both of them, Mimosa was trapped in a sphere of light and darkness as Lysithea had smaller versions of the glyphs on her hands. "And that's what you get!" she said before she closed her hands together, engulfing Mimosa in a burst of light and dark magic.
However, Mimosa didn't sweat the attack despite taking a huge chunk of damage and landed on her feet and twirled stylishly to recover.
"Oh, this IS entertaining…" Mimosa said as a spotlight shone on her. "Let's raise the stakes! And turn down the lights."
Snapping her fingers as she said that, the lighting on the stage darkened utterly, making it impossible for the group to see around them, save for Mimosa under her spotlight. And if that wasn't enough, she called in a few of her attendant bots as they appeared underneath spotlights before all of them turned off a spotlight only shone on the group.
"Trying to psych us out by making us fight in the dark? Smart." Connor said.
"It won't be enough, though. Keep your eyes focused Connor." Lysithea said.
"Don't have to tell me." Connor said.
Mimosa and her attendant bots shuffled around on the dark stage in an attempt to confuse the quartet by trying to make them figure out where Mimosa was among her attendants. However, it wasn't a difficult task, as when the attendants appeared, they mostly got their guesses right and attacked Mimosa, wearing her implant shields down and doing as much damage as they could, junking some of her attendants in the process. It didn't take too long before Mimosa was once again knocked back.
"All eyes on us, Mimosa!" Chai declared.
The Head of Marketing was concerned but quickly recovered. "This crowd here, and all who watch around the multiverse, are in the palm of my hand. And they want to see a REAL show."
"Then let's find out who they REALLY wanna see, shall we?" Connor challenged as Chai leveled his guitar.
"My thoughts exactly." Mimosa said as her attendants gathered at her side to act as her backup dancers.
From there, Chai and Mimosa engaged in a rhythm battle to win the crowd over. Mimosa laid down the moves, each routine at a different pace, but Chai was able to match her and then some, and pushed Mimosa back. The crowd was cheering for Chais' side, and Mimosa had lost her edge.
"So, what was that earlier about this being your show?" Hilda asked as Mimosa angrily shoved her attendants aside as they tried to check on her.
"No one takes my limelight and lives to tell about it!" Mimosa said before taking to the air once more.
The fight resumed as normal, as Connor tried to shoot Mimosa out of the air, but it was at that time that Mimosa finally took the battle seriously.
"The crowd's here for me!" Mimosa declared, pulling everyone into her special attack.
EQUALIZER WAVE
She trapped the quartet in a four-sided energy barrier and sent rhythmic waves at them according to set timing. The only way to break free of this attack was to destroy two notes, each protected by a projected energy field on the left, and Z-Shielding on the right. Hilda easily dealt with the Z-Shielded node, while Chai called Peppermint in to shoot the barrier node, destroying it afterward and stunning Mimosa again.
"You little runts!" she called as she went down. From there, it was an all-out attack before the department head recovered. The group battled fiercely against Mimosa as she incorporated other attacks, like her singing attack, and a six-sided laser blast attack. While all this was going on, the Camera caught Connor perfectly as he dodged each one of Mimosa's attacks as she struck back against her, working together with Hilda and Lysithea in tandem to wear her down.
Lysithea blasted Mimosa with Swarm Zeta, followed by Hilda smashing Mimosa with Apocalyptic Flame, and then Connor rushed in, rapidly shooting her with his revolvers before giving her a mean dropkick to her chest area that shattered her shield.
The battle then reached its climax as Mimosa flew high into the air and engaged Connor in a final face-off. Mimosa charged up 7 laser blasts before firing them, Connor deflecting them all.
But Mimosa wasn't done yet, and this time charged up a total of 8 blasts before letting them loose, but Connor deflected those as well. Mimosa was stunned, and that gave Connor the opening he needed.
"Lights out!" Connor called, drawing his magnum, and gave Mimosa one good shot that hit her dead on, grounding her permanently.
Mimosa was knocked down to the very edge of the stage, out of power and having the quartet stand over her.
"No…we never lose," Mimosa said, not believing she was brought to her knees.
"Some things, you just can't spin," Chai remarked, before assembling his guitar. Mimosa tried to recover, but it was too late, as Chai swung his guitar and gave the Head of Marketing the coup de grace, launching her sky high before she exploded like a firework in the shape of her wings.
(end song)
There was a twinkle in the sky as Mimosa's pass key fell which Peppermint caught. Everyone gathered around the stage and saw the crowd cheering for Chai and company.
"I could get used to this," Chai admitted. While the crowd was cheering for them, Connor briefly saw ghostly images of Tsubasa and Maria on the stage, performing as the Queens of Music. Connor smiled and bowed to the crowd, even taking his hat off to do so.
"You did good, guys." Peppermint complimented.
"Think it might be time to get out of here," Macaron advised.
"Everything ready?" Korsica asked CNMN.
"Electricity is re-routed," CNMN said, holding a switch before pressing a button on it as all the lights went out. Everyone then made their escape in the darkened stage, despite the crowds' disapproval.
Kale soon arrived in holographic form, flanked by a squad of SBRs.
"Turn on the lights, find them," Kale orders as the lights came back on and the SBRs started searching. But Kale soon found a note on the floor from Peppermint. "See you soon, brother…" it read.
"Shut the cameras down." Kale ordered.
"Uh, which sections, sir?" a SBR asked.
"ALL OF THEM!" Kale yelled in anger. It was now down to him and Roquefort, and one thing was for certain by Kales's tone and expression… he was now taking his opposition VERY seriously.