Story: Magical Christmas Cake

Seriously?! After all that setup, their plan was gonna go this wrong because of something like that?! It's called improvising! This is why they needed to work on their minion's ability to, you know, think outside the box, but nooooo, the higher ups wanted and demanded loyalty over intellect. All he had to do was go "I don't know who the hell you are" and start blasting her as well, how hard was that?!

Now he'd kicked it up the chain to her, and Dionne was put in a spot where it would be even harder to improvise! Thanks a lot, guys! More work for her, just what she wanted. Her options were as follows: Play it cool, take a hostage, fight back or bug out. A choice she'd have to make quickly because that Star woman was making a bead on her. 

Oh hey, better idea! Dionne tugged at her dress suit and pulled it off, tossing it aside. One quick little transformation spell later and - Hey presto! Now she was taking the form of Sparkling Lover Star herself! And she even fit the uniform -

Boing, boing.

She... Fit the uniform... better. Twitch, twitch! How unfair! Time to vent some frustration.

"Hold on, imposter!" she pointed dramatically at the hero bearing down on her. "We won't be deceived so easily! You're just an old woman posing as a magical girl! Come on everyone, don't be fooled! Boo this imposter into the -"

A fine plan. It really and truly was. Rile up some energy, then use it to defend herself - But then she ate a book to the face. Normally that wouldn't hurt. Not even a little. Except that Sparkling Lover Star had charged it up with that damn purification energy, which meant it hurt like a bitch!

"You still seek to perpetuate this show?" Star sighed wearily. It was funny, that was the kind of thing one of those girls would say with a righteous holier than thou attitude. This woman though, she just sounded tired while saying it. The same sort of tired Dionne felt towards her underlings sometimes. Most of the time. All the damned time! "This show is over, and it's time for the curtain call! Ready, girls!"

"Ready!" the other two Sparkling Lovers cried out behind their forcefield. Tsk! So they weren't buying that, huh? "Everyone, that one among you is the phoney Sparkling Lover Star! Please step away from her, for your own safety!"

So much for that plan! New idea! This was the time for the exciting climax! If she could get a good show going, then the excitement of the audience would do the rest! Let the people part ways, if she had to use brute force to put this woman down, then so be it!

"Eat this!" she yelled, putting out the flat of her hand, drawing on the energies of those around her - only for it to fizzle out. "Huh? Wait... What gives?!"

She tried again, but no dice. Come on, come on! Why isn't it working?! A moment ago they were all super hyped, they couldn't be drained dry yet! There were loads of them around, why wasn't she getting any energy?

"First rule of improv?" Star said, reaching her and slamming her fist right into Dionne's gut, driving all the air out of her. "Always agree, never disagree. It confuses the audience."

As Dionne found herself sucking wind, she listened to the people around her. The weak willed, stupid humans that she'd intended to use as a battery. They were muttering among themselves. 

"Eh...? Who are we cheering for here?"

"I thought that lousy cosplayer was the bad guy, but she's actually good?"

"And the manager was saying she's a good guy, but they're treating her like the bad guy?"

"This hasn't been written very well, has it? They're kinda acting at cross purposes."

"Must be some behind the scenes drama playing out here. That punch looked stiff!"

"And did you see the way she threw that book? Could've had her eye out."

So that was it? Their immersion was broken! They had no idea which side they were rooting for! Was this her real goal since she appeared? Pretend to be the 'villain' to uncover the true mastermind, then reveal her true colours and confuse the crowd so they were less excited by the show? That was... clever! It was actually clever! Real signs of intelligent life out there, doing practical, smart, strategic moves to turn a bad situation around!

Ahhh~ Dionne was actually a little turned on by that. She'd been surrounded so long by scatterbrained idiots for so long that someone outsmarting her was actually kind of...Ni~ice!

Luckily, or unluckily depending on your viewpoint, the knee to the jaw rather put paid to that line of thinking. She was getting her butt creamed here! She couldn't stick around like this! The only reason this woman hadn't hit her with a deadly purification beam at this point was entirely because of the crowd! But it wouldn't take long for her to bring Dionne to the ground, and from there she'd be - 

A little pellet shot out along the ground, landing right beneath her. Then it began to shoot out a whole bunch of smoke. A chance had arrived! She ducked down while everyone else coughed and sputtered. For good measure, she clobbered Star in the gut. If only she had a knife or something, she could have - No, never mind! Time to bug out! Crawling along the ground was not exactly the most dignified way to escape, but it's what she had to do!

"My, my. Seeing you on your hands and knees," a familiar voice said, filling Dionne with dread. Oh no. Not her! Not Sidonie! She looked up, and sure enough she saw a buxom, muscular woman with silvery hair tapping her foot impatiently, before reaching down to haul Dionne into a portal back to their realm. "Come along now. Let's discuss this little loss of yours in more detail. Over dinner and maybe even in the shower?"

"Eeeeeeeeh!" Dionne screamed, deeply regretting that she'd had to be saved by this woman, this pest, this ludicrously horny domme! She'd make her work off this rescue for the next year if she wasn't careful! "Damn you Sidonie, noooooo! Damn you Sparkling Lovers! Aaargh!"

<hr>

Where was she? She'd been right here, hadn't she? That woman... Sparkling Lover Star! They'd finally found her! Come on, come on, let this stupid smoke clear already! Sparkling Lover Sun felt tempted to blast it away, but with this poor visibility there's no telling what she might hit!

Except... all that she found was Miss Yumiko, who was bent double and clutching at her stomach. "Ooof... oooh, that smarts..." she grunted to herself. "Huh?"

"Pardon me, citizen!" Sun saluted her smartly. "Um... did you happen to see my colleague just now? She seems to have vanished into the ether."

"Oh, you mean the beautiful, charming, intelligent Sparkling Lover Star?" Miss Yumiko said. "I think she went thataway."

"Many thanks, citizen!" Sun saluted, then turned around and rushed off in that direction. Only to find nobody at all. Damn! "Hrm... Why is she keeping her distance...? Was she really that offended when I- " Told her to go home. Told her to stop cosplaying. Told her to leave it to the professionals who know what they're doing. Uhhhhh! She may have screwed up a bit here! Nuts!

On the bright side there was something reassuring about knowing full well that a more mature and sensible ally was out there. If only she wasn't all... spilling out of her uniform like that. It made a girl feel a little inadequate, you know?