[IC] Target Earth! [A Monster Marathon]

[WindsOfFate]

Help the Humans Escape

Yuri had arrived at the bakery before the others had, and he left his Monarch to handle the confections that attacked the city. When he arrived at the bakery, he noticed the windows covered in thick layers of frosting. His initial thought was that no one could possibly be inside, but when he heard the captive scream out as if they knew he was there, his mission became one of extraction rather than destruction. Elegantly he moved to find the perfect infiltration spot. He had to be stealthy as to not draw attention that he was there. The muffin men seemed preoccupied with the Monarchs that swooped down and crushed them before swooping away.

He noticed something out of the corner of his eye and turned his head. A rather odd-looking female with what looked to be a weirdly designed dress had stepped out of the bakery to make her presence known. Yuri watched as she performed spectacular feats of sugary mastery by upgrading her army of Muffin Men to now carry exploding imploding Soufflé. He watched in surprise as the Soufflé consumed the shadows that belonged to his rival Lorenzo. The woman seemed to ooze some sort of chocolate sauce from her mouth and it was disturbing to watch. If that weren't disturbing enough, her laugh could disrupt the spiritual peace of anyone who could hear it, and Yuri was no exception. He watched as a few of his Monarchs came crashing to the ground, covered in the sticky web. They burst into flame.

Without hesitation, Yuri flipped elegantly off of the roof of the bakery where he'd been observing everything and proceeded to slash the door of the bakery open with the power of his fan. The sickle energy struck the door, but instead of the door exploding inward, it shot outward towards Yuri who deflected it with a quick twist of his wrist. The door slid to the side as the captive humans stood in awe at first, not knowing if Yuri was a friend or foe.

"Quickly, this way," Yuri said ushering them to get out while they could. The Duchess of Confections would soon return but without any captives. The humans ran away from the bakery, putting as much distance as they could between them and their old prison.

[IceHeart]

Supreme Sapphire

---

The suit was something she had hoped to never wear again. Being forced to come back to fighting weirdos was not Suzanna's idea of a good time. It had been interesting at first sure, all those years ago, but now as an adult woman who was trying rather hard to find a good boyfriend, galavanting through the city smashing baddies was nice for a teenager with time on their hands but now it was just an aggravating extra chore. She had a cushy job at an office, nice co-workers, even a few cute guys to flirt with, but all that was being pushed to the side because some alien had decided to trash the city.

It wasn't just that she didn't want to fight again, the suit itself was also...well, uncomfortable to wear. It had been designed for her when she was younger and certain...areas had gotten a bit plump over the years. Thankfully the suit had some stretch to it but getting her ass into those pants had not been a fun exercise, everything was just too, blasted, TIGHT!

"They had better pay for the alterations when this is over, damn it!"

Suzanna clenched her teeth from behind her helmet as she ran down the street toward the SeaShell Bakery. Up ahead were three muffin men with one holding onto a poor child about ten years old being stuffed with sugary sweets. Suzanna skidded to a halt and pointed at the stuffer man holding the child.

"Release that child at once you malshaped pastry or face my wrath!"

The muffin man looked at the blue suit clad hero like she had lost her mind.

"What are you talking about? This child came up and begged us to feed him!"

The other two muffin men nodded their heads in agreement as the child greedily started to talk between bits of baked goodness.

"My mother *snarf*, never lets me *chomp*, eat like this *gulp*. These guys offered me all the sweets I could eat! *Chomp Chomp* No way was I gonna say no to free desert. *Burp*"

As the kid chewed and talked at the same time Suzanna felt a vein on her forehead pop and she started to tremble all over in anger.

"So what you're saying kid, is I was called away from my nice job, and the first thing I find is some child liking what he happening to him from evil aliens...you STUPID KID! Your mother is just trying to make sure you eat healthfully and the first thing you do when strangers, ALIENS even, came to town is go with them for some CANDY!"

As Suzanna's voice got louder and louder, the kid and the muffin men's faces started to go pale as what appeared to be energy started to pulse off of her suit in waves.

"I'm gonna save you kid and you're gonna like it or so help me I'll make sure your mother knows that you can get kidnapped if a random man gives you a SNACK! SAPPHIRE PUNCH!!!"

Without warning, she seemed to vanish from her position a few meters away and her fist had already blown a hole through the muffin man offering the kid sweets. His structural integrity destroyed, he crumbled to the ground and collapsed on the child, covering him in muffin remnants. She quickly turned on the next muffin man who tried to hit her with a rock candy club but she slid under it and swiped its feet from under it.

Making short work of the downed muffin man, the next threw a souffle at her but she quickly dodged out of the way and charged him as well with a tackle to the ground. On top of the muffin man she threw fist after fist at its body, taking chunk after chunk until there was just the shell of a muffin remaining. She stood up from the remains and turned to the kid who had just managed to crawl out from the muffin corpse he had been trapped under.

"I swear, if you ever pull something like this again kid I'll make sure your mother grounds you for a year! Ya hear me! A freaken YEAR!"

The kid nodded in absolute terror as he stared up at her masked face, after she was certain the kid got the message she quickly continued on her way toward SeaShell Bakery, determined to pound some dough and deep-fry anything that survived her pounding. No stupid pastry was going to stand inbetween her and a normal life!

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Luna

---

"Nah man, don't be. It was pretty cool." Luna said as Gou caught up and bowed his head to the agent in introduction. He used a particular word to describe the man though, one that made Luna quirk her eyebrow. Cultivator, cultivator, where had she heard that before? In the time it took Gou to impale one muffin and Lorenzo to gun down another the word filtered down through her memory before, like a I Tetris block, it slotted in next to the other terminology and techniques Gou and Yuri had used and obliterated the stack.

"Yo, cultivator!" She said, more to herself than anyone before turning to Gou. "That's you! You're the squares?"

As though for emphasis the soufflés that had been quietly growing burst, sending Lorenzo tumbling and popping open a hole in his line of shadows. From behind she could hear obscured laughter. "That's got to be the boss." She said as Lorenzo laid out their mission plan. Beat the boss before he lost concentration on these shadow things and they were buried in baking. Any questions she had could be saved for afterwards. "Leave it to us." She said, twirling her oar as she sprinted forward toward the hole. A pair of freed up Muffin men appeared to block her way, tossing a couple of those explosive soufflés at her. Luna dove toward something on the ground, scooping up a discarded candy cane staff. Spinning once to gain momentum she whirled the thing at them. It slammed into the soufflés, beginning their inflation process. He way was still blocked, but Luna slammed the end of her oar onto the ground and jumped. She semi-pole vaulted over the baking bombs.

From her vantage point she could see the new alien, and also that the alien wasn't alone. "HEY YURI! Wavebreaker Style: Right Whale!" She called out from above as she started descending toward them. She was coming down slightly behind them, and as she landed she slapped the pavement with the flat side of the paddle. As she did there was a splashing sound, and the water circling her oar seemed to burst out in all directions like an explosion. With the amount of water she poured on it the explosion wasn't all that powerful, more of a forceful shove than even a punch, but the water sprayed everywhere and moistened everything in its path.

Standing up she took up a fighting pose as she faced the alien. She was defiantly much more pleasing on the eyes than the last alien, even if she did have a nasty drooling problem. "I'd listen to my friend, shortcake, unless you want to end up like the gingerbread man. Your stuff's actually not half bad, you'd make a killer confectionary if you'd just chill out."

[IceHeart]

Coral City - SeaShell Bakery

---

"Such destructive creatures aren't they. Tell you what, patch me through to your creators and I won't completely decimate you, and might even try your disgusting confections."

The Duchess was about to retort, especially against the disgusting part, when another person appeared nearby and proceeded to douse the entire area with water. The water splashed over a few muffin men and the duchess which really put a downer on things and made her dress all soggy. One of her eyes twitched in annoyance at the annoying splashing.

"I'd listen to my friend, shortcake, unless you want to end up like the gingerbread man. Your stuff's actually not half bad, you'd make a killer confectionary if you'd just chill out."

"Humph, at least you have the faintest inkling about the greatest of my creations, unlike bug boy, even if you do know how to ruin a good cake. Ugh, I'll never be able to wring all this water out! That being said I don't need to."

At her proclamation her internal temperature suddenly rose violently as she essentially 'baked' herself. Steam rose from her dress as the water was removed through heat and her frosting like hair boiled like mad. Once she felt dry enough her temperature settled back down and she looked back at the partially destroyed Bakery, noticing that all the captives had been evacuated by a rather large insectoid creature.

"I see you seem intent on rescuing those who would undoubtedly be much happier in my hands. How could you try and deny them of the ultimate pleasure of life? Sweet delectables to stimulate the tongue to the greatest heights imaginable! Well you'll have another chance soon, as my greatest masterpiece to date is ready for its first reveal. Behold the Cake of Delights!"

Spreading her arms out in triumph she watched with glee as the largest cake imaginable suddenly exploded out of the roof of the SeaShell Bakery, pretty much flattening what was left of the place. The cake was gigantic, reaching over three stories tall and tiered much like a fancy wedding cake. The cake was armed to the nines with candy weaponry, candy cane ballista, bubbling hot chocolate sauce cannons, lollipop javelins, and frosting men manning the various stations. The frosting men, unlike the muffin men from before, where not separate entities but rather just extensions of the cake, which like the muffin men were connected to Duchess Confectionary.

As the cake started to roll out in the street the Duchess turned back to the party poopers at her doorstep.

"Oh such a wonderful thing is it not? You can continue to resist and miss out on partaking of my wonderful confections, or you can willing choose to become one with the cake and live in perpetual candy land! I can assure you the taste is to die for! Unfortunately I can sense that you will resist to the end, such a pity."

The Duchess drove a hand into her own chest and dug out from it a long, very long nerd candy rope. Once it was all out it was over two meters long. She gave it a quick flick of the wrist and the rope became a whip in her hands, when it cracked on the ground, dozens of large nerds scattered in all directions like little missiles, though any that reach the Duchess were quickly absorbed back into her flesh and clothing. The rest of the nerds from the crack of the whip were like little stones from a sling, or like the shrapnel from a grenade.

"OhOHOHO! Welcome to my banquet everyone! Don't worry, I'll let you live if you'll let me! After all, I want people to enjoy my deserts as much as I do!"

With a maniacal grin, she commanded the Cake of delights to go forward into the street and suddenly a sort of candy paste spread over her entire body, which hardened into some kind of hard candy plate armor of different varieties, giving the armor a smudged rainbow like appearance. She stepped forward toward Yuri and Luna with the cake rolling in behind her. While she should have been more annoyed with Luna for dousing her in water, she was more furious at Yuri for calling her creations 'DISGUSTING'.

She flicked the nerd rope whip with blinding speed at the monarch user, hoping to catch him in her clutches, but if not the exploding nerds would still be getting work done. Meanwhile the moving cake made sure to go around the Duchess so as not to get in her way while the frosting men manned their stations and started to rain down destructive candy on Luna and anyone else nearby. Candy cane ballista bolts, streams of hot chocolate cannons searing enough to leave 3rd degree burns and lollipop shurikens rained down from the ridiculously large cake and its frosting men. Essentially it was like a mountain of heart-stopping sugar had descended on the city.

Thankfully at this point, despite the upgrades, the numbers of the muffin men were dwindling at a very great rate. Any remains of the muffin men were quickly absorbed by the cake as it moved over the battlefield like an unstoppable colossus.

[WindsOfFate]

Returning to the Past

Yuri heard his name and turned to see Luna make a beautiful appearance with a wave of water that demolished numerous nearby Muffin Men. With a smile on his face, Yuri's attention turned back to the Duchess of Confections as she began to weave her magic. A gigantic cake burst from the bakery and he couldn't help but give a sigh of relief that he'd evacuated the area moments earlier. When the Duchess attacked, Yuri tried to dodge but was struck numerous times by the candy bullets in his shoulder and his side.

He was thrust back into what remained of the bakery and landed roughly on his side.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Luna

---

Luna's eyes widened as she saw the steam wafting off the alien, molten frosting bubbling up as her attack was undone. She was baking herself. She was baking herself. The situation only escalated when a Warring Cake exploded out of Luna favorite local business an began its dire slide down the street. The candy swung extended a whip-like vine of candy from her hand and cracked it on the ground, sending out a burst of NERDS that knocked Yuri away. Luna was just barely able to twirl her oar in front of her, blocking the majority of the candies. Without any water, however, the shrapnel from the breaking NERDS peppered into her. She stopped to find herself bleeding from numerous small wounds all over her body.

"All these flavors, and you choose to be salty." She said as the alien went to work on Yuri. Luna tried to help, but before she could react the cake let loose on her and forced a more defensive stance. She slammed her oar hard into an incoming ballista bolt, flicking it away where impaled itself in a nearby building, before having to spin her oar again to block a flurry of shuriken's. Another bolt came her way and, seeing no other choice, she jumped over it. It slammed into the ground where she's stood, but she could see another aimed at her in the air.

There was something that the frosting men where very deliberately not firing her way though. She could see it, streams of boiling hot chocolate no doubt aimed at some other hero. If she could just reach over there and get it.

The ballista aimed at her fired, and she twisted in the air. She felt the wind of the thing flying past, saw the disappointed look on the faces of the frosting soldiers who manned it, and in the monument drew up her legs and lashed out with them. She kicked off the side of the candy cane bolt and flew, throwing herself right into the stream of hot chocolate. Her oar extended she swung it into the stream, moving it like a rafter navigating the most treacherous of rapids. The hot chocolate followed the movement of her oar as her chi raced up the stream, gathering it under her power as she fell. Most of it anyway. When she landed there were more that a few ugly red burns on her arms and chest, stained slightly brown from where the drink had gotten though and impacted her. What she also had, however, was a stream of boiling liquid longer than she was tall attached to the paddle of her oar. It roiled in constant motion, long enough to completely encircle around her several times like the tail of an eel.

"Thanks for the ammo boys!" She called to the frosting soldier, who opened fire on her again. This time, though, when she swung at the incoming candy it resulted in half-sliced/ half-melted chunks of candy lying all around her. Grinning, she drew back. "Wavebreaker Style:...uh....hmmm...."

She had nothing.

There was no technique for fighting with hot chocolate. Somehow the idea that she would one day be in a situation where she had only hot cholate to defend herself with had never entered her mind. There was no fish for this!

This moment of hesitation though her off enough that she didn't noticed the next barrage of shuriken's until three were buried in her shoulders. She dodged to the side, clumsily deflecting another ballista bolt as it came at her. She was thinking, paging through national geographic in her mind. What could she do? What could she do with this? Hot chocolate hot...chocholate...winter? Christmas! Santa Claus. Elves? No. No. The North Pole. The artic. Warmth in the artic. Brown, warm, artic...that was it!

She drew back again, the liquid snaking all the way behind her as it began to flow faster and faster. Suddenly the hot chocolate spilt it twain, dividing into two long cutting rivers that began to curved behind her. Soon it looked for all the world the Luna was wielding a massive duel bladed scythe.

"Wavebreaker Style:" She said, jumping at the cake. She aimed at the base, looking to drive a biting blade into that spongy goodness and any defender unlucky enough to be nearby. "Walrus!" She yelled as she swung for it.

[Searat]

Cavalry Arrives

His shadow creatures spearheading the assault had been quite effective, giving his allies opportunities to breach the bakery. And by the look of the centipede dragon thing carrying the civilians out and into relative safety, the situation was under control. Even the muffin foot soldiers were getting more controlled. "G...good." Enzo says as he stumbles slightly and uses a mail box to keep on his feet. "Agent Lorenzo, your vitals have dropped significantly. Did you not heed our warnings? Even the device has its limits." "Yeah...sorry, Minerva. Must have been too focused to listen..." Enzo tried to laugh it off but the AI didn't laugh with him. "This is no laughing matter, agent. You'll kill yourself if you push too hard." "If I didn't? A lot of innocent people would be in big trouble." Lorenzo finally regains his balance and stands as tall and proud as he could. "Ain't very heroic if you're more concerned about yourself than others, yeah? Plus things are getting under control." The masked agent says pointing to the peaceful bakery, tempting fate.

Then the entire damned bakery burst open to reveal a walking fortress made of cake manned by their own frosting creatures. Yuri was first to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of candy based projectiles, then Luna got injured by the xeno's candy whip but kept her assault. But whatever damage dealt against the fortress, the muffin men came to repair the damage with their own biomass. Despite the diminishing number of muffin men, their numbers were still formidable and their soufflé bombs still dangerous. To top the situation further, the absorbed muffin men only added to the size of the already colossal cake-fortress. Things seemed impossible, that is until he heard Minerva speak. "Danger parameters have shifted. Deploying reinforcements in 3...2...1...deployed." Lorenzo smiled at her words as the fabric of reality began to warp and shift in a clear and open space on the street. "Minerva?" "Yes, agent Lorenzo?" "You're the best." "I know." In a blink of an eye, the once empty space revealed a familiar five meter tall mechanical behemoth.

"Grizzly-01 has arrived on scene. Greetings, the cavalry has arrived." The mech says to the heroes present with its signature droning mechanical voice before raising an arm and carbonizing a portion of the cake-fortress with one of his arm mounted twin linked direct energy blasters.

[mantou]

Gou

---

The disciple runs after Luna, but still manages to arrive a bit late. Nonetheless, as soon as he makes it, he is just in time to witness his former companion materialize! Gou goes to simply slap the robot on the back, and greets him with a grin, "Welcome back, brother of metal." He himself doesn't realize how much he missed the mech, but before he can think further, the scene ahead catches his attention.

A giant... dessert, the size of a small temple. Dessert mechanisms, manned by dessert men. And were those giant insects off to the side?! It was no wonder why the Yuheng Sect. sent him-- only the best disciples could handle such a chaotic mess. Had it been anyone else, perhaps they would have fainted, because the entire place stunk a sweet rot! Absolutely disgusting.

Meanwhile, Gou spots Luna launching herself at the towering dessert, accompanied by a strange brown liquid, and yelling someone's name he assumes he hadn't met yet. Surely it wasn't a fish.

"Elder sister Luna! Be careful up there! YOU ARE BLEEDING!" Just then, he notices Yuri laying on the ground just beyond her. What! How could he have gotten himself into that situation? Gou sprints for the man clad in white, and kneels down to support him up. Perhaps he could heal Luna once she's back down-- though they'd really need to do something about those smelly machines.

"Elder brother Yuri," he extends a hand, mustering up his energy. "Are you alright?" A soft aqua green hue flows out of his hands and envelopes Yuri in a mist. Granted, it would only be enough for the superficial cuts, but at the very least the bleeding would stop. As the healing comes to an end, Gou finds himself exhausted, hands on his knees to support himself as he takes deep breaths to try and regain his chi.

[Nyxira]

---

Things weren't looking good.

With the exception of the newly arrived mech, every hero on the scene was either injured or exhausted to varying degrees. And this with no clear end to the battle in sight. On the contrary, the monster only seemed to have gotten stronger.

Up on the edge of a nearby rooftop, the masked man who'd just finished his brief assessment of the situation took a few steps back from the edge before rushing forward and leaping off of it.

Before he'd even landed, he drew a pair of brightly glowing pistols from thin air and began to rain down equally bright fire upon the sweet stronghold. The rounds were about the same size and impact as those of normal pistols, yet were more akin to high powered laser bursts in both form and function -which was to say that they appeared as light, and seared with heat. The air was already filled with the acrid scent of burnt sugar caused by the attacks of the machine upon the confectionary castle, but his own were certainly adding to it.

When he did land, it was with a sickening crunch. Had anyone been close enough by, they might have thought his legs to certainly be broken. Yet after firing off a few more shots from the ground, he belied the sound by standing up and starting across the platform in a mad dash with guns still blazing. As surely as though nothing were amiss at all.

It didn't matter whether or not he killed any of the frosting men. Didn't even matter whether he hit them at all. All that mattered to him was clearing a path on his way to his real goal. The cake and its artillery were a concern, certainly. Those on the ground who were still fighting it had their work cut out for them just trying to stop the chaos it was causing, but they seemed to have it pretty well in hand. He was confident that they didn't need his help with that. His efforts were better spent helping those who actually did.

And if he also happened to serve as a distraction to some of the cannoneers on his way through, then all the better.

Making his way down the tiers was a much simpler endeavour than if he'd tried to take the winding staircase of the apartment complex he'd jumped in from. Just a relatively straight shot made even easier by the damage and warping afforded the giant dessert by the woman and the walking tank, such that in some places he merely had to run or slide rather than hopping down to the next level.

Thus, the masked gunslinger soon landed in a crouch upon the ground behind the monster in charge and immediately began firing at her in an attempt to draw her attention away from the presently incapacitated heroes who'd been left to her severely lacking mercy.