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.:⋮Penny & Sam: Rematch!⋮:.
Shortly before the match was to be called the battle field for this match would rise out of the water. In the center was a large flat platform, around it were eight smaller platforms. Each was just big enough for two people, but only if they didn’t care about personal space. And even further out was a raised fence of scaffolding with a thin strip of terrain on top.
An intimidating area to be sure, but that was before the quirks of this stage came into play. The center stage was only barely above the water, one wrong step and there was no room to recover before you hit the deep blue below.
The eight smaller platforms had more forgiveness in that regard, as each was a good few feet above the water line. But they themselves were only loosely tethered to the pool floor, and had a dome shaped underside, making them unstable ground that would rock with the lightest of movement on them or from the wave of the pool.
The Fence had the longest drop, nearly ten feet in total, but that was it’s only forgiving feature. The walkway on it was only about three inches across so an expert balance was mandatory. Then there was the fact that once the match started the entirety of the fence would start moving, making landing on the thing even more difficult.
It was looking to be a battle of speed, reflexes, and balance.
“It’s KEIJOO LIIVEE!” Dan enthusiastically announced. “With your hosts Dan the Dolphin and Pac-to-the-A-to-the-fist!”
”My name actually comes from Vectorman 2. You see, when you beat a level without shooting it gives you a ‘pacifist bonus.’ But since you can still damage enemies with your boost jump, my brother thought it was called-”
“And now, please welcome our contestants! Coming up first is the Queen of Steel, the Builder of Pain...PENNYYY!”
Penny chose to make her entrance flashy when her name was called. From a standing start back at the doors to the locker room, she would leap high into the air. At the top of her arc thin streams of electricity would begin to ribbon off her giving her an unmissable trail as she came rocketing down to the platform.
The hard crash of her landing would cause a larger splash of water to surge up from the area around the platform as well, but rather than simply sloshing back to the pool below the droplets of water would stay hanging in the air as the long ribbons of lightning arced across them surrounding Penny in a formidable show. At least until she sliced the air in front of her with her hand banishing the lightning and blasting the water around her away.
While her entrance might have looked impressive, any lightning spec, or gravity spec could tell it was little more than cantrips being used. All flash, no sizzle
The Queen stood ready and waiting for her opponent.
“Facing Penny today is an old rival with a thirst for revenge! The Unseen Menace, Super Sleek-Styling Shadow-Dancer, SAMANTHAAA!”
For the sake of all spectating, that was hopefully enough of a spectacle to make up for the next competitor, whose entrance lacked that same vigor. With a hop that could only impress a normal human and a slow, methodical walk up to the center of the stage, there were no theatrics to join her. A few might notice how her steps did not seem to disturb the water beneath even where they should, but anyone not particularly attentive would miss that.
That might not have stopped those of a more perverse nature from admiring how her swimsuit accentuated features most often hidden behind her conservative apparel. But, even in that case, they weren't even given the satisfaction of the cheeks flushed with embarrassment at being on display in such clothing that usually accompanied Sam into this dimension.
Samantha gave one glance around the arena they were to fight on, then faced Penny, speaking before the match could be started. "Quite a show you are putting on. I don't suppose, after that sort of entrance, you'd be willing to toss yourself over the edge, now, would you?"
“Not this time,” Penny would state with a shake of her head. “I have a bit too much riding on this now to have a repeat of my last match.” As much as she was grinning, it was easy to tell that it was still mainly for show as the joy didn’t reach her eyes. They were far too focused and a bit too flat for Penny to actually be enjoying herself. Even if no one else noticed the oddities of Sam’s gait, Penny had.
“I’m not going to insult you by asking the same.” Penny knew Sam better than that, even for how little the two had interacted. “But would you mind me asking what it was that drove you to join this tourney?”
Penny's question would draw Samantha's gaze towards Rachel, who watched the match from the stands, if only for a moment. But the Ascendancy's gaze appeared more focused on Penny rather than the competitor glaring at her; she received the most fleeting glance back from beyond the rims of the stern girl’s glasses before she turned her attention to to speak with her companion. Samantha kept the ire this drew hidden.
"It's a petty, immature reason, really," she finally answered in a self-deprecating tone, her gaze once more settling on Penny. "One that deserves scorn and contempt from even those who joined on a whim. Nevertheless!" Samantha's body snapped into a lower stance, and hostile intent became very clear as she stopped casting a shadow on the ground. "I'll endure what I must to see it achieved."
Dan rung the bell. “And begin!”
Penny would give an interested hum at Sam's answer. “To each their own I suppose.” She would reply with a nod as her left eye would suddenly and noticeably dim. “But I do hope you won’t hold it against me too badly when I win." She would go on to say, her smile shifting more towards a smirk. “Because I am going to win.” And the moment Sam settled into her stance Penny would go on the offensive with a powerful hop into an attempt to booty smack Sam away.
Samantha's low stance assisted in her effort to avoid the first strike of the match, which was her intention, to begin with. Her movements were swift and precise, her figure suddenly darting to the side with surprising speed that seemed quick even for her. And on top of this, Sam didn't stay still and suddenly teleported off the center stage and onto a smaller one. It wobbled in response but Samantha was able to keep her balance. It appeared she wished to lure Penny away from the center platform, for whatever reason.
"You don't mess around," Sam noted. "I'm afraid I don't have what it takes to meet a charge like that head-on. Too much momentum and I can't exactly use my hands." She threw her arms out to the side.
Generally, Time magic doesn't have a visual flair unless willed. One needs to keep an eye out for its influence. In this case, Penny would most probably notice that Sam's arms had pointed towards two of the smaller platforms, one on each side of her. A keen eye might notice these two began to bob on the water faster than the others, perhaps indicating something was influencing them. Did she intend to use them to flee? It was impossible to say until likely, Penny made her next move.
“And Sam dodges the very first blow from Penny!” Dan commented, seemingly ignorant of Sam’s subtle magic.
“And she follows up by retreating to another platform! What is her strategy? Let’s see!”
"You make a lot of fuss wherever you go, you know? Is that intentional? Or do troublesome situations fall in your lap by chance?"
“Bit of both really,” Penny would reply as she turned to face Sam and not even a moment after she would be racing towards the assassin. “I have a hard time being idle, and Penrose is just one of those places where things always seem to happen.” Penny’s speed was also above what one would expect from her and in a near instant she was once again airborne and heading towards Sam.
Rather than aim for another butt attack this time it seemed that Penny was planning on using her ample chest to bash Sam. In addition to that, four soft clicks could be heard from Penny, at the same time that her legs would suddenly be awash in softly glowing rainbow circuit lines that resembled stylized wings.
“Penny charges forth with a ramming maneuver!” Dan shouted. “Using her full figure to it’s most lethal potential! But wow, look at those lights!”
"Penrose exacerbates it, I'm sur-!" Penny's immediate response was presumably faster than Sam would've liked, as she couldn't finish speaking and did not attempt to jump away or avoid it. Yet, curious as it was, she instead chose to meet Penny's assault head-on, puffing her chest out as she traced the shape of her hip and thigh with a finger and stomped her foot down in one swift motion, the platform conspicuously unflinching atop the ripples in the water below it.
“And Sam meets her head on! Pure insanity!” He took hold of Paca’s sleeve, seemingly out of fear. “Oh no!”
The collision would surely result in pain, as Penny may as well have been a child attempting to shoulder charge a tank. Samantha took Penny's charge without so much as a nudge -- this was no display of strength, as even if she could physically stop Penny, she wouldn't do so without so much as grit teeth or a grunt. But Samantha wasn't that strong, so then that could only mean something else was in play.
The answer was quite obvious that she placed herself in Stasis, and therefore was quite literally incapable of being moved. Strength, in this case, could only work against Penny. She would slam into the unmovable Sam and recoil off, Sam hurriedly removing the Stasis on herself in order to follow up with a quick whip of her bottom to Penny's chin.
”Oh! Samantha is a technical fighter!” Pac-a-fist placed her hand beside her head. ”She’s frozen her body and turned Penny’s might against her! How will Penny respond?”
Encountering something that would not yield was always a novel situation for Penny. And each time the reason behind that was always magic. There was a split second in which Penny had room to react, and so devoted already to her offense there was little she could do. But she was at least partially able to pull her attack so she didn’t suffer the total recoil she could have. That was still a mighty strike that she suffered from, just not everything.
“And she hits Stasis! She’s shaking like a tuning fork!”
Her grin however didn’t speak of her annoyance, it spoke of her satisfaction. For as Sam lashed out her counterattack Penny would simply stand to face it much as Sam did before. But a moment before Sam’s butt landed Penny would lock into place. Immovable as Sam had been for her attack.
It was stasis once again. But this time it was from Penny, not Sam. But the results were much the same either way. Once more Penny would mimic Sam and drop her self imposed stasis during her opponents recoil and retaliate with a booty strike of her own, aimed towards Sam’s mid section. Yet she was sped a step more than earlier.
“And Penny counters with a Stasis too! Incredible!” Dan, his beak wide open in amazement.
”With the exact same move? Penny must have really liked that move I guess.””
“You have trouble taking and fighting at the same time?” Penny would ask during this exchange as well, smirk plainly visible. “Seems like your skills could use some work if that is the case. Don’t want to get left behind in the first round do you?”
The counter had about the same effect in total, as Samantha only just managed to avoid shattering her ass on Penny's chin, which was something she was thankful for. How embarrassing would it have been to lose in that way?
"My sincerest apologies. I was so caught off by your sudden speed that I fumbled." And speaking of fumbling, to anyone watching the match from Penny's back, it might've seemed like she did some fumbling as well, as her attack veered off course as a result of a second, pitch-black, hidden bottom briefly appearing from Sam's chest to parry the cushion collision. It disappeared into Sam's chest again once its job was supposedly done and Sam took this split second opening to once again flee, this time to one of the small platforms she had influenced before.
Even if Penny had been completely oblivious to the platform until now, the sheer speed in which Samantha was able to turn around the moment she got to it betrayed that it had been touched by Sam's Time magic in some way. Her words carried a feeling to them as she spoke. It seemed like she was emphasizing them in some way. "Can't help but think if you were this quick you could've just stopped Oros before she puckered up, let alone stole a kiss earlier. Guess you couldn't be bothered for her sake, but this tournament is different?" she speculated, a shadowy blob fell from Sam's person and slithered its way onto another platform where it rested for the time being.
“And Sam deflects, using sneaky magic!” His cheeks then puffed as he held back his laughter from Samantha’s remark. “Ouch!”
Penny’s smirk would lose some of its life at Sam’s taunt and her eyes would gain just a bit more glow, but she wouldn’t follow up the words with a third charge. Instead she would set her stance wide as if she was getting ready to brace and needed to preserve her balance as much as possible.
She would wait exactly a second after she settled into her stance. Then with frightening speed her left arm would snap forward and with a dull electrical thump it would be launched towards the platform that Sam was standing on; the arm itself was little more than a blur as it slammed into the unstable platform just below the lip. The black chain that trailed behind it was much easier to notice.
Dan hollered with a cheer. “Penny deploys a rocket punch! Awesomesauce!”
The force of the impact would cause the platform to lurch violently, but assuming that Sam didn’t just abandon this particular platform, Penny would just as suddenly recall her displaced limb and with her inhuman strength she ripped the platform away from it’s tethering and brought it along as well. Her wide stance kept her own platform from rocking too much, both on the launch and on the retrieval of her limb.
While this was happening, those who were keeping an eye on the mechanical queen herself, and not just her actions, would see her performing another action at the same time as her terrain renovation. Smoothly and quickly her head would snap to face the second of the two platforms that Sam had prepared earlier and she would discharge a glob of semi translucent slime that would splatter across the top of it. At a distance it looked like water, but it flowed too slowly for that to actually be the case. By the time she was recalling her limb she was already looking back at Sam so it was easy to miss it due to all the other action.
“And Penny grabs the platform itself! Is she going to topple it over with Sam still on it?” Dan asked from nobody in particular.
Penny's actions sparked more than one response, as both Samantha and the blob she had parted with earlier moved as well. It rested on the platform behind Samantha, which meant she had Penny to one side and the blob to the other as far as the small platforms went. From that blob emerged another Samantha that kept its right hand hidden behind it, though aside from keeping its eye on Penny, its stance suggested it intended to respond to something, yet it would do nothing else just yet.
Dan chimed in. “Samantha creates a magical clone! Is she going to try to go for a victory by numbers?”
As for the actual Samantha, she instantly responded to the rocket grab with a complete unwillingness to join Penny's get-together, only she did not retreat to the platform behind her, but instead back to the large one, strangely despite her earlier hesitation. The effect of Sam's magic also seemed to leave the platform Penny had 'spat' on, likely indicating she was abandoning whatever claim on it she had. That was not true for the one Sam just left, although something about it seemed to change before she left it.
"Fine," Samantha said, now standing at the edge of the big platform as though waiting for her opponent. "If I play keep away too much longer, you might be able to win just by standing there," she sighed. "You sure you can't just hop off for me? If you intend on returning that mirror to Mariette, I can almost assure you that's what'll happen to it after I beat Rachel.”
“Now why would I do that?” Penny would ask as she flexed her hand into a fist and threw the platform down into the water behind her. The large hole in its side is now causing it to sink into the water. It’s slow sinking speed seemingly lost on Penny. “My intention for the Mirror isn’t to give it back to Mariette. And fuc-BLEEP- you for the insinuation.”
”Phew, that was close!” Dan had pressed a button just as Penny expressed her expletive. “Am I glad for making this magical censor!”
A slight shifting of her stance and Penny was once again flying through the air in a near direct line towards Sam. Her speed once again a small step faster than it was before. It was obvious now, to those that had seen Penny fight at least, that the queen was operating under an enhancement. She had started at her normal top speed, but kept getting faster, and she herself wasn’t expending any mana for these speed increases. Yet since they were all small increases it was impossible to tell just how much higher she could actually go.
“I want to secure the Mirror, and protect the Beach.” She would state as she swung her chest down in an effort to send Sam head first into the water below. “Not return it to its Horror.”
“Penny’s getting faster and faster, can Sam keep up!” Dan added in. “Oh, she goes for a hammer blow!”
"Two can play at that game," Samantha muttered under her breath, secretly shilling her youtube.
As it happened, Samantha was also enhanced, though she had not been making obvious use of it until this point. Of course, this didn't mean she was able to discard her tricks and evasion and just slug it out with Penny, although it did mean she wasn't quite gapped as she had been making herself out to be. And what would she do with this enhancement? For the most part, she'd already done what she set out to do. Samantha made an attempt to dodge towards the side nearest to her clone as though she intended to counterattack, but it didn’t pan out quite as one might think.
The second Samantha that had been watching and waiting for it's time to act finally decided to act. As Penny launched herself like a rocket towards Sam to batter her with her breast, the Schatten also exploded with a movement. But it didn't just rush to its Master's aid. Had it merely attempted to rush after Penny, it would surely have failed before the robotic girl could reach Sam. But that's not what happened. While dashing in Sam's direction, the Schatten's wrist exploded with movement as it flung a shadowy object in their direction, before returning to blob form as its job had been accomplished.
The 'object' flew through the air at superior speed to even Penny. It was pitch-black and, to many, appeared as though a blur in the split instant they had to witness it. But those who could see it noticed it was shaped similar to a knife, a knife intended on piercing its target! And so, as Samantha and Penny were to clash, this 'knife' would attempt to interrupt by lodging into the side of it’s apparent target -- Samantha!
Dan screamed: “Sam’s clones are on the move and -she throws a knife at Sam herself! She’s cray-cray in the brai-brain!”
There is a certain amount of intention that once reached an action can’t be stopped. And to Penny, whose martial skills were so closely linked to the natural movement of her body and who’s eyes now see so much more than they used to, it was easy to notice a feint. The instant that the clockwork combatant knew that Sam was committed to her course of action, Penny changed hers.
For she was not helpless in the air.
Sam would be able to tell that something was up, but would not have the time to set herself against it. As the flow of time around Penny would suddenly balloon outward at the same time as it sped up. Directly after that a long blackened spider limb would lash out with blinding speed, striking the large platform far to the side that Sam hadn’t dodged too.
In normal circumstances that would have simply pushed Penny perpendicular to her opponent and back towards the seven remaining smaller platforms. But somehow the Queen would not fly straight, she rotated around some unseen axis so that she instead landed behind Sam, with nary a ripple or shockwave of her impact even as she stuck true. All the while moving at as of yet unseen speeds from her. The flow of time around her normalized just as Penny started to lay into Sam with a barrage of butt strikes.
Dan was quick to respond. “Penny extends one of her Doc Ock limbs and pivots! She’s a mechanical marvel!”
“I told you I was going to win” Penny would reiterate calmly as she maintained her offense. Her smirk once again sharp. “That didn’t mean you had to make it easy for me, Silhouette.” The long spider limb, still extending from her lower right back, would then curl backwards, behind Penny and Sam, and place itself in the path of the flying dagger. Fully ready to be hit by the notably hostile spell action.
"Committed" was the perfect word to use to describe Sam's course of action. She had no fire spec to sharply adjust her trajectory, nor a grappling hook nor wings. She could not merely turn while in the air and she was already stuck in that particular action. Sam would not reach the blade before it struck Penny's spider arm with the speed she was going at, and she was not confident Dan would rule in her favor when it did. She understood the risk long before she tried this. So what else could she do but continue to watch events unfold? What else? Give up?
"I'm still in this...!" Sam could almost feel the onslaught of robutt approaching as she swore this.
But Samantha had been committed to this from the very beginning! No hesitation, no delay, no mistakes. She was further away from the dagger than the spider arm? That was only true if she had to move in a straight line! To Samantha, the distance and obstacles between her and her destination were wholly irrelevant, especially when that distance was so small. A moment she was confined between spider arms, another she was taking the shadowy blade just before Penny could. This was the sort of movement teleportation allowed her even when she was airborne! Penny wasn't the only one waiting for her opponent to be committed to something!
Similar to her entrance onto the stage, there was no visual flair when this happened. The last thing many would see was the impending doom Samantha was almost subject to. But Lily, if she were in the stands, would see the assassin take the blade mid-air at the last possible second, grit her teeth as she landed, and then set about to work.
Lily gasped audibly in the audience as she sensed the familiar magic that she had felt before at the incident in the graveyard, as time came to halt in the arena. However, she also knew the price for such powerful magic, having paid it herself. The only thing Samantha could hear in the frozen moment was her scream:
”Sam!"
Samantha wasn't going to take any chances. Her opponent did not allow as much. She knew the time and place this had to happen. That's why it had to be at the center platform and at the edge, to prevent any last-minute reactions from her as it was as close to the water as it could be. No rocket boosts or grapple hooks would have the time to help her recover, and a single spider limb wouldn't have enough leverage to swing her out of it.
This was her trump card and she wasn't confident enough in any backup plan to even think about conserving mana in this instance. Her eyes seemed to light up an eerie red as she scanned the girl for any signs of her stasis. If for whatever reason Penny had used it on herself, Samantha would spend just a bit more of her mana enchanting her following butt barrage to penetrate it, as she then reigned a series of her strongest blows down on the girl who was also mid-attack, down and towards the water!
Samantha had a little over five seconds to complete her rush, which allowed her to store up quite a bit of blows before time would return. Individually, Penny might be able to shrug them off but these would all take effect at the exact same moment. A build-up of power that should have been more than enough to fling the robotic girl into the liquid that lay below them.
There was no stasis to protect Penny from the oncoming assault. Nor was there any gravitational flux or metallic meddling. There was a Lightning effect suffusing Penny’s internal systems, but it wasn’t anything to do with defense. So all five seconds of sustained booty slammed into Penny. Impressive as she was, even amped as she was, It wasn’t an attack she could simply shrug off. So the moment time resumed she was sent rocketing downward.
Yet there was no splash.
Just as suddenly as Penny had been sent flying towards the water she came to a complete and utter stand still, scant few millimetres from the water. Stasis. But even so it seemed like it was more than a stalling tactic. Because time was stopped, but the momentum would be preserved.
Before Sam could move to simply power through it a red sheen would flicker across Penny’s skeleton and the assassin would register the Monarch’s magic resettling into a different form, rapidly consuming mana.
“Time’s up!”
Suddenly, Dan’s voice could be heard from the loudspeakers, and Dan’s concerned face appeared on the screen high above them.
“Well, this fight was...I don’t know how to describe it! Everything must have been moving so fast even I couldn’t really follow! But it was an epic match nonetheless, and-”
Samantha had begun to glow around her chest, but Dan's voice acted like a switch and as suddenly as this change came, it disappeared, along with the adrenaline pumping through the girl. "..." Samantha didn't say anything in response to the declaration, and instead sat down on the platform, her skin getting paler by the second, followed by her transformation back into her more diminutive human form.
And then, with a final, long exhale, she promptly fell onto her back and lost consciousness as her blood began to pool beneath her.
Seeing Samantha’s collapse, Maura quickly shot up from her seat in the audience. ”Damn it- Hang on Sam!!” With that, she sprinted over and onto the platform, only stopping once she reached the unconscious girl. Now Maura only used other forms of magic for emergencies, but whether this counted as one, she simply didn’t care. The witch carefully held Sam up and began (Nay, tried) to mend her wounds with reinforcement magic. Whatever they may be…
The moment Sam lost her footing, Dan squeaked in a panic. “Oh no, Sam is bleeding!”
He teleported to the arena wearing a paramedic’s jacket, only to discover that Maura had arrived to take care of the injured patient. “There’s first-aid equipment over there!” The dolphin pointed to a corner of the arena, where an ambulance with an open back door was situated.
Maura swiftly took Sam there, leaving a blood-red stain on the platform. Dan then summoned a microphone, and spoke to it.
“...She is okay, folks! No need to panic. Well, looks like she has been knocked out, which means the winner is-”
He turned to Penny, only to squeak loudly, surprised by what he saw; Penny had appeared and in a harsh smokey burst of light and dropped to her knees.
“Penny! Are you okay?”
Penny couldn’t think straight as her vision blurred, and her limbs shook. She saw wisps of smoke leaving from her body, and felt a sensation much like a severe heatstroke run across her body. It was then that she realized what had happened; during the fight, she had utilized her magical enhancement explosively, overclocking her systems to the point of overheating her processing units. However, while her Regeneration allowed her to maintain such high power and speed, it inevitably led to her mana running empty. And the moment it did, her hard drive and other vital parts of hardware had begun to melt.
As a result, her operating system incurred kernel errors, and flooded her software with junk data. That was when she also lost consciousness, having hit a safety mode to prevent further destabilization.
“Oh no, this is bad!” He summoned a magically floating stretcher which scooped Penny up, and brought her to the ambulance as well. Dan was now left alone in the arena, surrounded by blood and the stench of burnt electronics.
“...This has been Round one of Keijo Live,” Dan awkwardly mumbled into the microphone.
“Stay tuned for the round up...With Pac-a-Fist. Um, goodbye.” He then puffed out.
"Wow, it nearly splashed!" said the winged Valkyrie who was now seated next to Dina, eyeing the outcome of the match… clearly referring to something else than water, which earned a small glare from the Regent.
"Go and aid her…" Dina said in between her teeth as she gripped the rails of the public stands. "Tenebra...go with her." She had said, eyeing the other girl, who was wide eyed in shock.
"Tenebra! Go." Dina snapped as she jumped from the rail into the arena, making a sprint for the center. "What a mess." She muttered as she summoned her catmaid crew, now in a tasteful change of bathing suit uniform, to scrub clean the offending stains.
The beating of wings and the static of a short range teleport were heard right next to Maura,as both Sanngridr and Tenebra landed besides the ambulance crew, one with her own healing in tow, the other producing a healer artifact out of mid-air.
“Seems like you were chosen to fight yet another day, warrior.” said Sann, as both applied themselves to help Maura.
Meanwhile, Dina had been standing in the middle of the dueling platform."Sometimes we have unforeseen… setbacks, ladies and gentlemen." said Dina with a microphone in hand. "We will offer some entertainment in the recess while we work hard to solve this situation."
With that being said, Dina passed the microphone to a certain mermaid singer, as she made her way out towards where Penny was.
Neito waved to the crowd with a bit lip.
"Um, I will be singing Berry Go by Freezer…"
