Weird Science
Tropical Thunder
The crowd was somewhat more silent than earlier matches, as the fights had gone on their collective feelings had gone from amazement to dread. More and more people were realizing how wrong this was getting. Dina herself could barely hold together upon sensing the maelstrom.
She stood there, as both opponents were related to her. Sann was nowhere to be found for the time being. She eyed the girl the valkyrie had rescued. She was a boon, but…
The downright hostility flat out hurt. Her eyes weren’t even focused on Dina.
“Tenebra… please. If I can’t get Penny to back down, maybe you should… It’s getting too chaotic.” She called, her hand trying to reach for the Gravity girl, only to be swatted by a gravitic field.
“No. I refuse.” She growled as she walked towards the ring, her teeth gritted. Gone was the dithering and the blushing, only a heartfelt anger was present on her face.
From her place on the other end of the arena, Penny was noting the somber mood with more than a touch of unease. It was a mood whiplash from the last time she had been out here only a short time ago. She was having a difficult time reconciling the changes with the relatively short time difference. A matter only made worse by the apparent hostility she saw a supposed ally directing towards Dina.
‘The hell did I miss?’ She would wonder as she slowly walked towards the ring herself. Her gait, stiff and robotic.
“Tenebra” Penny would greet with a nod.
“You doing alright?”Tenebra eyed Penny, her gaze somewhat resembling a thousand yard stare. "I feel fine." She said.
"Thank you for waiting, everyone!" Dan appeared before Penny, a microphone in his hand. He sounded less excited than usual as he addressed the crowd, yet still kept a smile on his face.
"The Queen of Steel has returned to face off against the dark horse of the race, Tenebra! After her tag-in partner Sakura secured a victory, we now have the crafty mage herself ready to throw her lot in. Let's give them a welcoming applause!"
Once he roused the audience to share in his gesture, he quickly leaned towards Penny with a whisper: "I know you want to win, but try to keep your cool, ok? Rachel did not like it when I delayed your match to be the last one. Ok, good luck!"
He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, and his face appeared on the wide screen.
"It's time to duel!" He announced.
It was then when Dina eyed Tenebra and then Penny, offering a frown. "Your Majesty… I am certainly surprised you showed up."
Penny would nod to Dan subtly, internally scoffing at the ridiculousness of Rachel throwing a fit at Penny’s match getting pushed back by fifteen minutes. before replying to Dina
“I’m still operational” She’d say with an attempted shrug, though the movement was stilted and unnatural.
“Not really my style to simply give up.” She would keep her eyes on Tenebra, her concern easily discernible.
“Is it a who, a what, or a why?” She would ask the gravity girl.
“Because even if you are doing fine” Which Penny knew was a lie.
“You still look like you’re ready to commit homicide.”Dina's mood would deflate significantly, as Tenebra eyed Penny. "Why, I have to step up… given the results of the last round. Dina wanted me to back down, Sann said. But I won't. " She eyed Penny. "I was foolish to think that I was brought back out of kindness and I would get some bits of my old life back."
"Tenebra, we can…" Dina would begin to talk, before a nudge of gravity shook her.
Penny would shift into an easy stance, since the match had started. “So you want to stay in the matches.” She would tilt her head to the side just a bit. “Personal reason for wanting to continue up the ladder? Or just annoyed at people trying to tell you what to do?” In contrast to her last match Penny was opting to play defense. Which if her jerky movement was any indication meant she wasn’t fully healed. Though only a few people would know the truth of that at the moment.
[color=9e0039]“And is there anything I can do to help?”[/color
Tenebra would eye Penny. "You could not get in the way of things, your… Majesty." Tenebra eyed Dina, who was now eyeing Penny.
Dina looked like she wanted to say something, but at this point… she just gave up. It was bad for Penny to go back on her words, and now there was a teenager acting like such.
"Lots of points need to be made." Tenebra would then add.
Penny would raise an eyebrow at the rather ominous statement. Sending her own glance at Dina as well.
“Well. Let me know if that changes.” She would say before giving another stilted shrug.
“Oh, and feel free to call me Penny.” She’d add shifting her stance.
“I only need the title in formal situations.” And with that she would leap at her opponent. Though it was glaringly obvious that she was moving slower than she had at her last match.
Tenebra for her part just vanished, the air wobbling and rippling, before reappearing a fair distance overhead the ring. Her gaze still pierced Penny as she aimed at her with one hand.
Space would warp and twist around Penny, save perhaps a 2 cm region around the Cyborg. It connected two unseemingly disconnected portions of space, sending Penny and the unaffected space bubble around her to the bottom of the pool.
Despite her target vanishing Penny didn’t falter. She simply turned her leap into a dive and rolled before coming up in a run. Her left eye had gone dull and once again glowing tattoos were alight across her legs lending speed to her stride as she seemed to lift above the platform ever so slightly.
The warping of space wasn’t something that Penny was blind to, even with her mimicry systems throwing up dozens of system alerts every time she tried reaching for it. Gravity was one of the elements that resonated within her soul, and with it she could still map out the areas that Tenebra was targeting. Just before the area she was in was to be shunted, the bottom two of her hidden limbs would lash out at the ground below her, suddenly kicking Penny forward and out of the warped space.
Though she would leave just the tip of one of her limbs within the targeted zone. If it got sliced off it might end this match with a disqualification. Something that Penny wasn’t above utilizing.
Not willing to stay still long enough to check if that would end things, Penny would keep running, quickly building up speed as she went. Shortly before the edge of the platform she would give a mighty leap. Rocketing up towards Tenebra, Penny would fold in half aiming her posterior towards the Warper, and rather than losing speed at any point, it seemed that Penny was gaining speed the entire way.
Tenebra would just emit a choked grunt, before tweaking the spell to allow Penny go unscathed. She did not move otherwise, but Penny would find out the space between the two was being stretched, roughly at the same speed Penny was travelling towards Tenebra. Of course Penny would notice this, but given she had propelled herself towards Tenebra she was already caught in the warped space before she could realize it. Just like a sticky fly-trap.
Tenebra would then snap her fingers as the warped space sprung back to normal, the sudden rebound compressing the air around Penny past the point of self-ignition, creating a huge shockwave comprised of fire-rings. However the most important thing was that all momentum Penny was committing in the attack would suddenly bounce back at her by the sudden recompression of space-time. As a further insult, Tenebra briefly robbed Penny of weight by boosting Penny's usual gravitic reduction just to make Penny be sent back even further with the rebound.
The compounded rebound would knock Penny away, but she wouldn’t fly down very far before she continued her upwards trajectory at an accelerated speed, though it wasn’t aimed at Tenebra anymore. This was in part Tenebra's fault as well, because Penny didn’t reduce gravity’s effect on herself. She inverted it. Thus amping that effect just made her new down pull with even more strength.
Penny would waste no time in removing herself from the ceiling and resuming her running. Though at this point it was a bit more aimless, and more for building up speed again and making targeting her difficult.
After a moment of this Penny’s hand would disconnect and grab tightly to the ceiling as she raced along above Tenebra. Then she would launch herself downward, gravity once again inverting as she redirected her falling momentum into a pendulum swing once again aiming to strike Tenebra.
“Isn’t the ceiling a ringout?” Tenebra would then go on nonchalantly, as she warped space to dodge Penny’s strike. The same fly-trap effect would be in place on the field. As much as Penny tried to sped up, the feint was lost on Tenebra. Knowing she was the point of the attacks, all she needed was to adjust the warping of the space around her to compensate for that. She also adjusted her gravity to just nullify Penny’s weight this time. Blood trickled from the nose as she did so. After all, Penny’s blatant gravitic upgrade was enough for her to zero in with her Absolute Direction.
“Ringout is in the water” Penny would reply once she retracted her way back up to the ceiling.
“Otherwise ice platforms would also be a ringout.” She would once again flip her gravity and start skating around on the ceiling once more.
“You slapping me in the face with a spatial rebound is closer to breaking the rules than me touching the ceiling.” She would explain before going for another pendulum swing approach, though she didn’t expect it to have any more luck than the time before. The rebound, while it did hurt, was more akin to her falling off a building and hitting the ground than it was her being directly attacked. At least that was the case with the pendulum strategy, the falling up of her original attack hurt a lot more with the rebound.
No, the reason for the repeat was more to try and cause Tenebra to burn out of her mana before Penny did. She had no way of telling how much Mana the warper had, but she was no slouch when it came to stamina. Her staying on the ceiling with the occasional swing down couldn’t have been as expensive as the expanding and contracting of space that was being used to counter it. That and the nosebleed hadn’t gone unnoticed.
“Crude bitch.” Tenebra would mutter. This time, though, there was no space warping, and Penny’s attack seemed to almost connect, except this time Tenebra vanished from Penny’s sight. She was now just walking above the water outside the ring.
“You can move through space, and it’s clearly defined within bounds. If the ceiling isn’t the outer boundary, then what is?” Tenebra would then focus. “Brute force approach, just like a computer program. So like you. My best techniques are lost on you.” She would then say, as water began to float around her, gravitic fields pulling it from the pool. “So let’s start easy. Phase Transitions, for instance.”
It was then when the gravitic pull would increase, compressing the water, until the all familiar crackling of ice covered Tenebra in a shell… but something was off. This ice did not give a cold vibe, at all. If anything its temperature was rising.
Then, something else happened. A rune began to glow on Tenebra’s chest, as the familiar sensation of a Reinforcement enveloped her enhancing her magic. “Sann, huh.” Tenebra muttered. “How twisted, but I shall make use of it.”
‘Everyone is always running away from me’ Penny would sigh internally as she passed through where Tenebra had been just a moment prior. At the end of her swing she would push off the ceiling, her disconnected hand releasing its grip and retracting as she did, and go racing towards the center of the arena only to land near weightlessly in the center.
She wasn’t sure what Tenebra was going to be doing next, but Penny had her own theories about where out of bounds would end up being if she got knocked through the ceiling. Something that she hadn’t thought she would need to worry about, but it was looking more and more likely that all of her matches were going to be thinly disguised bloodsport. Which was a bit annoying if she was being honest.
“Everyone has to criticize the simple route don’t they?” She would say aloud as she took a balanced stance once more as she waited to dodge whatever it was that Tenebra would be throwing at her next. Which did seem to be the water of the pool itself.
“No appreciation for the straightforward things, not everything has to be a grand complicated display.” Her tone was one of minor aggravation and reproach, though the sharpness in her eyes never wavered from the compressed shell of water that surrounded her opponent.
At this point it was more than obvious to the Queen that she wasn’t going to achieve anything by being the aggressor. So she stayed waiting, though she wasn’t standing completely still, she was drifting side to side a bit as she let her hover legs come into full effect. There wasn’t any point in hiding them after all, the same was assumed when holographic barriers snapped to life around Penny’s limbs. She was tired of getting attacked with lethal intent while she tried to keep things friendly after all.
"Going on the defensive? That will not do!" Tenebra said, jumping this time in a bit of an offensive with her rear. "Comet Rear!"
Penny would at first seem to plant herself in preparation to just tank the incoming attack, but shortly before impact she would side step out of the way just to quickly hip check Tenebra as she flew past.
Tenebra would widen her eyes ever so sligthly as Penny seemingly dodged and countered….
And an explosion ensued, as Penny's interference perturbed the fragile equilibrium of the ice armor, who turned into steam in a fraction of second.
Of course Tenebra herself received some damage, even as Penny took the brunt of the steam explosion, but despite the bruising and some cuts she was cackling, as she skidded to an halt, the ice rearranging itself to cover the gap.
"Ice VII was not on your computation model, love?"
No words would be exchanged as Penny came racing out of the steam cloud she had been enveloped in. Her own injuries were light due to her bringing her armor online just before the attack. She let the injuries remain visible however, choosing not to engage her Regeneration as she approached. This magic was a step too far Penny felt, but once again she wasn’t going to stand around waiting for Dan’s judgement.
Her approach seemed simple, a straight rush followed by a leaping hammer strike with her bust. Mid leap her spidery limbs would lash out however, caging Tenebra in as they also pulled Penny in even faster.
Tenebra would grit her teeth, as Penny seemed to be unfazed. She needed to be more throughout to score a win. So, when Penny charged forward, seemingly going for a chest blow to pull her in, Tenebra made a split decision.
Gravity wobbled as Penny's cage was finished, before transporting them both to the bottom of the pool. Of course, Penny enveloping Tenebra would be the first to be soaked in, there simply was no way she could be wet by the water first if Penny's limbs wrapped her. But to further her stance, she dismissed her armor in a controlled explosion just as Penny's assets hit her fully, to stall the water for precious microseconds before gravity, in a much reduced area this time, wobbled once more to pull her out back to the platform.
Tenebra's nosebleed and wounds were patent, but she still stood up.
The shifting of gravity was a blaring warning of what was about to come, but at that point Penny was too committed to her physical course of action to change anything. Thus she knew that she was shortly to be at the bottom of the pool, and had even less time to prepare for it.
Hidden underneath the gravitational fluctuations on Tenebra’s warping, Penny would augment and alter her own gravity. From those changes a thin veil would encase her, separating her from everything outside of it. And that veil would do one thing, but it would do it very well, it pushed everything away. A shell of gravity, inverted so that nothing would touch her.
She would spend only a second longer at the bottom of the pool. Normally she would have given a sigh before jumping out of the pool, but the urge escaped her. Her thoughts had changed, she could tell, and even knew the reason most likely at fault. But those examinations could come later.
A simple hop, her strength no longer being hidden or constricted, brought her surging out of the water. Her barrier was obvious to see as she left the pool, the liquid cascading off the invisible protection. She wouldn’t land upon the platform, instead stayed suspended over the water. her legs aglow with light as she hovered there.
She would go to say something before stopping and glancing away, off towards the other island. Her expression turned dark shortly afterwards.
“How important is this match to you?” Penny would ask.
“As something important just came up, but you seem to have a chip on your shoulder.”"I wanted to have a good second chance at life. But it was a lie. Everything is a lie. You turned a simple affair in an overcomplicated tournament and toyed with everyone's affections and goals. Complicated enough to revive me. Don't go asking and talking now in order to appear as a just ruler"
Tenebra would say nothing, as she jumped off the platform into the pool, the same shell forming around her as she descended into the depths. Given that Dan had not called a win it meant that as long as one could stay dry on the bottom, the match was still ongoing. An ominous silence then followed.
I need more power…DO YOU DESIRE MORE POWER? A voice echoed in Tenebra's head. To understand what was happening, one had to rewind back all the time just before the start of the tournament. When Odin offered Sakura assistance to revive a comrade it had a price. Dina and Sakura never looked too hard at how Sanngridr had performed her revive.
She had reconnected something, to which Umukamui, the current patron of Tenebra had not realized. She was a loan, and thus the bridge with the Puchuu had been severed.
Then, who was Tenebra's actual master right now? None other than a cosmic horror.
Odin smiled.
Outside, above the water, Penny could hear a scream from beyond the water as gravity created fluctuations. Something had happened to Tenebra.
“Right” Penny would say softly as Tenebra jumped into the water. Her attention once again turned towards the lodge on the other island. The scream from below the water concerned her, as did Odin’s smile, but honestly she had other things to worry about at the moment.
All of a sudden the lights from Penny’s legs would cut out and she’d drop into the water with a splash. Hardly a moment later her spider limbs would strike out of the water onto the far ledge and hoist her from the pool. She’d wipe the water from her face as she strode away, uncaring about her now drenched state after all she had more important things to focus on right now.
Though it did explain why Dan had been so quiet.
"And the winner is Tenebra…" The booming voice of the norse god said as she clapped. "Well...played" She said, a smug grin on her face. "But will it be enough to save the current situation, I wonder…"
Meanwhile Dina scrambled as soon as the combat had finished, taking a dive into the pool. "Tenebra!!" She yelled before vigorously swimming towards her, the gravitic changes rattling her bones. She clamped hard on the bundle of Gravitic energy, as dry snaps announced her bones were broken by the runaway energy.
But the child. The child needed her.
Fight it off! Damn that one eyed god! Is there anyone capable of purification around?Penny had been fully ready to simply leave the arena. Her focus already turned towards the lost Mirror and all the potential ramifications that were held within that turn of events. The events under the waves weren’t something that Penny was able to fully perceive, and with everything else that had happened the mechanical girl had simply assumed that it was yet another trick that the augmented gravity girl had tucked away.
That changed with Dina’s panicked actions. Dina was one of three people that Penny had placed at the highest levels of priority. So she was always paying at least some attention to the Regent. To see her diving towards Tenebra with such fervor was notable, and worrying considering the violent turbulence that had enveloped the water.
So she changed directions again. And with more urgency then she had just a moment ago Penny dove back into the water to assist Dina. Just to get a face full of static from the oddities in the water coming from Tenebra. Not that it stopped her from pressing forward. It just meant that she had to orient herself using Dina rather than the warper herself.
Dina had barely time to focus with all the pain, when something brushed her fractured tail. She winced with pain, as she grabbed ahold of whatever lunatic had decided to follow suit her. No matter who, help was well received. Hoisting Penny’s hands towards the target, a denaturalized white coin in tow.
Is that...?The explosion was heard throughout the rings, as the three people were scattered unceremoniously, Tenebra falling the first in the remains of the ring, unconscious but stable. Penny followed soon after, falling a bit ahead, her body sprawled around the spectator benches.
But Dina…
Dina wasn’t resurfacing at all.
‘Why do I keep getting caught up in explosions today?’ Penny would wonder as her spider limbs pushed her back upright. In no time at all she was once again back into the water looking for Dina. Snoopy had been sent zooming off to check on Tenebra in the meantime but Dina still held priority.
Hopefully whatever the static interference from early on was, it had gone away, but even if it hadn’t Penny still had a trick or two to locate Dina.
Dina was just in the bottom of the pool, bleeding profusely as bubbles escaped from her nose. She was unconscious and unable to leave the pool on her own. While she was still alive… it could change in a manner of seconds-to-minutes.
The Regent being at the bottom of the pool was something of an advantage for Penny. It was easier for her to reach Dina that way then if she was floating somewhere midway down. Still she wasted no time in getting to Dina.
Then as gently as she could Penny would scoop up the cat girl before launching herself out of the water. A mix of her hover systems and her spider legs cushioning the landing. Soon as they were out of the water she would lay Dina down before retrieving her Christmas gift. Thanking her luck and her mysterious benefactor she would start pouring mana into the artifact as she wielded it to try and assist Dina.
Dina just shifted somewhat, before convulsing and coughing, thrashing back to life. Until it stopped, as a second artifact was added into the healing mix.
A limping, haggard Tenebra held her own Healing Artifact, while clutching the straps of her own swimsuit and bruises with her other hand. She had cut her lip, but managed to utter something.
"You...use...them like this." She added, as her more experienced hand managed to help Penny stabilize the Regent.
Penny only cast a single momentary look at Tenebra before she began shamelessly mimicking Tenebra’s technique with the Healing artifact. When it was clear that Dina was no longer in any danger Penny would let herself relax.
Sitting down cross legged she would turn her healing efforts towards Tenebra. Though it was easy to tell that Penny wasn’t putting as much effort into healing the other girl as she had been towards healing Dina.
“Thanks” She would say as one of her spider legs reached out and ripped out a section of railing from the nearby stands. Penny would quietly start consuming the metal railing as she also turned her attention towards herself. Consecutive explosions had compounded the damage she had taken, but if there was one truth about her that reigned above all it was that she was built to last. Still, since there were no immediate concerns she started up her Regeneration and let it run it’s normal course. She’d be back at 100% in no time.
“You doing alright?” She would ask Tenebra after a moment.
“Aborted corruption via purification doesn’t sound like it would have been particularly pleasant. That’s discounting the eruption at the end.”Tenebra chose not to talk to Penny, before staggering to scoop up the unconscious Dina with a gentle gravitic field as she began to walk away.
“...I feel fine.” She said, her words echoing the ones she had said at the beginning of the match.
Upon turning around Tenebra would see that her path was currently being barred by two of Penny’s spider limbs, though the metallic girl was still sitting down.
“Didn’t buy your lie the first time, not going to buy it now.” She would say as she turned to look at Tenebra.
“Want to give me an honest answer?”"Do you even deserve an honest answer?" Tenebra would add, before teleporting out with Dina in tow.
Penny would simply shake her head at Tenebra’s departure. Penny knew she was missing a lot of context, but the push back she was getting just seemed misplaced to her. But for now it wasn’t worth tracking the girl down. Dina was stable and safe. So it was time to tackle the next task.
Standing up Penny would once again start towards the feast hall. As she did the water on her would start to bead up and fall off leaving her dry in a matter of moments.
