Zoey Boey

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

@Dead Cruiser Spidey and Wasp are the current techies working on locating the source of the portals and shutting them down

Dungeon Clearer! A Fantasy Adventurer RP

gonna reply tomorrow!

World of Light

Level 6: 45/60
Location: Carcass Isle
Word Count: 2,881
Points Gained: 4 Shared with @Potemking
New EXP Balance--- Level 6 : 49/60

"Wow, Mister Delsin. I'm real sorry for your loss. We all just wanna get home, too." Sakura said. She made eye contact a little too long, staring at the Gleem in his eye. He could be a potential ally. But nobody could really be trusted while Galeem had its nasty little claws in them. Sakura knew that much herself, considering the affect it had on her.

"My name is Sakura. I fight!" She pumped a fist. "And right now, I got this cool ship harness. I know we're basically total strangers, but one of the bad guys responsible for keeping all of us from going home is somewhere on this island. So we're looking to kick its butt and then head back to Limsa Lomscuttle." Subtly, she shook her head and smiled in the direction of King Bowser, indicating that the newcomer shouldn't take him so seriously.

She glanced around the group, happy to see everyone who survived the Maw made it out all right. Well, more or less. Some people were a little grumpy. Like Mirage. Hmm...speaking of Mirage. He looked pretty tired, and while no doubt he was a threat with his gun, technology, and quick wits, Sakura figured she could take him in a fight. Especially, well, she was loathe to sucker punch people, but in this case it might be necessary. She figured it was about time Mirage could finally be himself, especially after all the confusion it caused on the Maw.

Standing, Sakura followed Mirage and Link, holding her hands behind her back. "Excuse me, Mister Mirage. I'm real sorry about this, but it's the only way!" She grabbed him by the shoulder, turned him round, and then slugged him in the mouth.

Mirage recoiled from the strike, a hand over his mouth muffling the mixture of pain and confusion that audibly escaped him as he shot a look between Sakura and his own palm as he brought it away from his face, scanning to see if she'd knocked a damn tooth out. He then began feeling across his cheeks, pressing to see if any teeth were loose. All the while questioning the attack in an aggressive but understandable manner. "Friendly fire, much?! What'd I do?!"

"Nothing! Here, take this!" She produced a friend heart from his chest and tossed it at him. When her friend heart just bounced right off his shirt and landed sadly in the sand, it took a moment for the gears to click into place. "Oh...oh, my God! Mirage-san! I'm so sorry!" Turning red as a tomato, the street fighter covered her mouth with her hand.

"Yeah, well--" Mirage felt the tension disappear as he looked at the weird, sad little heart on the ground. Having confirmed his teeth were intact, knowing his mug was in one piece calmed the situation a little. "I'm in one piece," He concluded, although his jaw felt a bit numb. He wouldn't of expected her to throw a punch like that, but maybe that was just him reflecting more on their time in the Maw rather than their time outside of it. "Takes a lot more than that to do-in The Mirage! Ahahahah..." _{Oooww, god.}

Crouching down, Mirage poked the heart out of curiosity before addressing the obvious problem they still had. "Okay, seriously though, uh-- What is this? And can ya give me a better reason than 'nothing'? Feels a little sketchy, not gonna lie."

"You don't know?" Sakura crouched down to picked up the pink heart, still mortified. "It's a Friend Heart. It fixes people who are all Galeemy, and I thought you still were! Someone must have already given one to you. And they don't work unless someone is beat up, and then the Friendly magic just makes it all better! Oh, man, I'm so sorry!" Embarassed, she nonetheless had to surpress a laugh. "I think Blazermate can help you, right?"

"Shikashi- are you okay? I really am sorry! Here, you can hit me back if you want." Sakura stood up straight and stuck out her head, folding her hands behind her back.

"Wha?" Mirage took her eagerness to make things even nervously, not exactly seeing a reason to punch her back. Clearly, as weird and nonsensical as she was being, her intent seemed pure in one way or another. "Think I'll take a permanent raincheck on that one, Sakura. I'll just get patched up and move on." How could you want to punch an innocent-looking face like that, anyways? If anything it'd just make him feel worse in the end.

Still trying to piece her words together, he thought for a moment on what she said. He was pretty sure he didn't remember anyone throwing hearts at him in the past, unless those little paper ones in fan mail counted, that is. "Not sure when the whole 'friend-heart' thing could've happened, though I guess it's good to not be, uh, 'Galeemy'?" Whatever that was. Though if it needed to be healed, obviously it was something bad. "Some kinda disease or somethin'? Name is weird enough."

Sakura laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her head. "Right, right...Well, just let me know if you ever wanna cash one in. I've been told I have a very punchable face." She said, thinking about Karin. As he asked his questions, she realised she was going to be the one to give him the exposition dump on what the heck was going on around here. "Um. Yeah. Okay. Lemme try and break this down for you?" Pausing, she took a moment to gather her thoughts.

Sakura cleared her throat, took a deep breathe, and... "All the worlds have been smushed together, Mister Mirage. Galeem, a giant glowing ball thing, hit everyone with a giant laser. I mean maybe the place you're from is really weird, but you should be able to notice just how bizarre all of this is, right? As long as a person is under Galeem's spell, they don't realise anything is wrong. We're on a quest to stop Galeem right now by destroying its thirteen minions. To give you an example, where I'm from it's 1995. And you're from the future. And like, space, or something. Some people, like Mister King Bowser, are from worlds that I thought were just pretend, but actually it turns out they're real." She gesticulated wildly as she spoke.

"...Does that make sense?" A hopeful wince smile, tapping her fingertips together.

This was all information that could incite some panic. And, if Mirage's expression was anything to go by, it did. He tried to con himself into believing he could just get a shuttle back towards home, but now with everything laid out he was truly presented with a rather hard to believe set of facts. It was still a stretch to anyone's imagination, but as he thought over the group as a whole, and the absolute abomination of the Maw, it was definitely not something recognizable in any regard. It absolutely was just like something out of some fictional experience, rather than real life. "Jeez, 1995?" He questioned to address the least-absurd of the things she'd said. "It's 2734... Or was, back home. That's wild."

"Isn't it?" Sakura said. "That's almost seven Oros."

"So, to get to this Galeemy guy, you've got to take down a bunch of defenses in this mish-mashed place first? That's a heck of a job, but I guess you guys did say you were off to stop 'bad guys'." Their meeting and talks from that moment of peace made a lot more sense now, at least. "And only after that, we can stop the big guy and get things back to normal? Think I've got this right?"

Sakura just nodded along as Mirage organized his mind by putting everything in his own words. "Heck of a job, heck of a job. You've got it right. Galeem has a guardian somewhere in this creepy place. We're on our way to destroy it.To summarize: that's why I just slobberknocked you outta the blue. I hope that explains it? Sorry again, by the way."

"There's still going to be plenty of danger, monsters, and fighting. But none of us Seekers are turning back until we get the job done. We're heroes, you know? Gonna save the world...s."

Mirage stood, stretching his stubbier than normal limbs. "Suuure does sound like hero's job." He responded coyly, before deciding to stop beating around the bush. "Not exactly a hero, but I have more reason to come along now than I did before!" Hands on his hips, he looked away momentarily. "It was kinda selfish to start, but I can't just back out after all that from before, either way."

Hand going from hip to his chin, he scratched at his beard for a moment in thought. "Can't be the only one who ended up here, yeah? I doubt this Galeem guy just picked me out of the world in particular." His other hand raised from his hip, simply to catch the hand from his chin slamming down onto it as a clenched fist. "Yeah? I knew a lot of strong folks. If we found 'em, I bet they'd group with us without even hesitating! ... Well..." He thought of a few of the more... Vile individuals from his line of work. "Most of 'em, anyway."

"I've already met three people from my world. I'm on the lookout for my family, but I'm beginning to wonder if they're even here. They might just be sitting on a proverbial shelf somewhere. I mean there has to be trillions of people where you live, right? There's not enough room for everyone on this one little world." This thought faded as fast as it occured, knowing simply too little to theorize. She looked at Mirage's jaw again, clenching her fist. "Ah, man. I really should have punched you in the back of the head instead. I almost knocked your teeth out." Sakura said, stewing on that statement for a moment.

"...I- I mean obviously I shouldn't have punched you at all! D-duh!"

Mirage let out a small laugh, grinning to show his pearly-whites were still in one piece. "You might be right on both of those," He admitted, holding out his fist. "But we'll keep an eye out as a team now, yeah? And we'll keep the fist-usage for the bad guys, and fistbumps like these!" He said in an attempt to bring a little positivity.

Sakura smiled, clenched her hand and combined her knuckles with his. Only it was like she was fist-bumping nothing at all.

His fist flickered on contact, her own phasing through as what was now revealed to be a decoy let out an audible taunt at her. "Baaam-Booozled! It statically cried, simply standing there with that same grin.

"Eh?" Sakura blinked, bamboozled indeed.

Something suddenly swatted her ear, the action causing Mirage to decloak on her left with one finger extended, snickering as the clear culprit.

"Ah- itai!" She held her ear and turned to face Mirage. "Na- Mirage-san!" She laughed.

"Now we're even!' He said, grin absolutely putting the decoy's to shame.

Amazed, Sakura went over to the decay and began waving her hands through it. His expression dipped as her waving through the decoy was something not many people tried, and since they triggered every time they were touched by another individual...

"Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam--"

The decoy and it's repeating audio faded away at Mirage's intent, the man finding it equal parts hilarious and strange.

"Guh-huh." Sakure giggled boyishly at the reaction she got out of the device. "That's awesome." As it faded, she waved her hands through the open air for a few more moments.

As it faded, it gave the duo a chance to look beyond the decoy and notice that the others were getting a little bit of a lead. "Ah, jeez! We better get goin' before they end up leaving us behind."

"Uh, yeah, let's go! Should be more fun with you on the team, Mister Mirage."

---

Everyone followed each others lead as the eclectic group travelled down the weird canyons and alleys of Carcass Isle. There was something strangely alluring about the whole place. Sakura couldn't help but feel that, for the first time, she was truly on an adventure. Just her and her friends going to a strange, mystical place, rooting out evil. It kind of made her excited.

Maybe that was just because unlike many of the others, her shoes weren't getting wet. Sakura skimmed slowly across the waters surface, her harness keeping her socks nice and dry. Being detatched and free like that really lifted her spirits, though she tried not to look too pleased in front of the others lest they become jealous. Once again Sakura was on edge, but her arms and guns were ready to fire. If any bad guys showed up, she was ready to fight. And this time, she wouldn't get turned into a little kid! The very thought just made her skin crawl. Really, seriously made her shudder. Sakura shook these thoughts away, focusing on the task at hand.

"Ugh." Gloved fingers crackled the knuckles of her other hand. "I hope the bad guys show themselves soon so we can pound their faces in."

Very shortly, Sakura's wish was answered. They came into a large, spooky clearing full of fishermen murlocs, giants, and a big old dead thing they were eating. Heart rate ticking up, Sakura cocked the cannons mounted on her arms and rolled her neck. "Yosh! Let's do this!" The street fighter was seriously ready to hit something again. Something that wasn't Mirage.

"I'm going to the front line!" Sakura announced. Considering her agility in the murk, it would make sense for her to be one of the ones to engage the enemy in the main field. That way the flanks could be won more easily. The Koopa Troop and Rika became a living artillery battery, raining fire down on the murlocs relentlessly. Sakura strafed to the side and kept her distance a little, not wanting to get caught up in all that.

While Sakura couldn't use hadokens while running (or skimming) she could use her cannon arms. Zig zagging forward, she focused down a single, already wounded murloc, blasting it backwards. As it lay in the murky water, she finished it off with a shell. It disintegrated into ash. Sakura felt guilty, having gotten caught up in the fusilade and joined in without thinking. Hopefully her desensitization to the idea of killing monsters didn't mean she was losing herself. Really, the only thing she felt bad about was that she didn't feel bad for these things. Aftering seeing so many of her friends kill monsters or even evil people to survive, the street fighter was a little more practical. With a ponderous hum, Sakura carried on, looking to harry and harass those murlocs emerging from the deeper eastern side of the pool.

One of the blue, agile murlocs with a fish spine weapon erupted out of the water near Sakura, looking to bring its weapon down on her head. "Shouoken!" Sakura reacted immediately with an anti-air. A sound like three pistol shots joined the cacophony of the battle field as her fist connected with the things body, chest, and jaw, as she and it both flew into the air. Sakura landed easily on the waters surface as the burbling thing splashed into the water.

Another one of the murlocs swung at her and she blocked the lethal weapon with her bare arm. There was a dull thud, and Sakura looked no worse for wear. Sakura took the advantage and destroyed the murloc with a combination of strikes and spinning leg kicks. "Shunpukyaku!"

The one she had uppercutted earlier waded eerily after her, but she kept it at bay with a blue energy blast to the mouth.

"Woah!" Sakura said, suddenly realising she had entered the aggro radius of the two big shark giants. Not in combat range, but not exactly safe on the other side of the arena either. "Watch out for the big guys!" Sakura retreated, walking backwards and unloading her cannons on the Shark Giants and more murlocs.

As she did, she passed by a harmless looking mushroom. A moment later, a viscious crabsnake snatched at her lower body. "Uah-a!" Sakura winced, and though it tried to pull her under, she grabbed it by the talons and pulled up, matching it in strength for now. But it still had her in its grasp, and the forward moving fighter couldn't free herself without help. "It's got me!" She declared, looking for one of her teammates to give her an out. Right now she needed to escape before one of these Shark Giants got too close!

World of Light

@Lugubrious

fax lol

maybe we could discuss stuff like that in DM's and just have it be written into Karin's introduction post as Blue Team returns to Limsa Lomscuttle town.

World of Light

@Lugubrious

Hooray! I'll move her over. Exciting!

Umm...I don't know! Yes to both? I would like to get started early. I would also be okay with waiting. I mean I did solo RP with you for both Sakura and Jesse, and it was a lot of fun, but also a little more necessary story wise? just to integrate them into the main plot? meanwhile Karin is already established. If she was doing anything exciting by herself, it would probably be battling more evil like how she helped with hunting down Sephiroth. But that's a whole other sidequest you'd have to come up with that would just be a Karin solo adventure. But not like, something super important involving a whole new area and a powerful artifact and a whole frickin heroes journey like with Linkle.

I guess my main issue is I would feel guilty adding a whole new post for you to do every week just for little old me XD

World of Light

That's good to hear! It definitely came to me more naturally than Sakura or Jesse's which i kind of stagger-stepped through.

Yessir, they sure do, Gray Damage. And the same with V-Shift Breaks, actually. I'll put that in, just slipped my mind.

World of Light

*trumpet fanfare*
behold!
the newest and no doubt greatest hero of our tale

Karin Kanzuki

Name: Karin Kanzuki
Game Origin: Street Fighter Alpha 3
Appearance:
Personality: The most accurate word to describe Karin Kanzuki is proud. Proud of her skills, her power, of herself. But there are a few other words that might also do the trick. Arrogant, haughty, and elitist, Karin Kanzuki is the richest rich girl you could possibly fathom. Karin believes that she can be the best at anything she puts her mind too. Snobby and condescending to almost everyone around her, she believes that she is better than 'commoners'. Most attempts to attack her she sees as laughable, which is probably why she laughs so much. Karin enjoys winning more than anything, and it used to be she would win at any cost.

She has her own code of honor, and understands that winning the right way is more important than victory in and of itself. She has a dry, sardonic sense of humor. And despite having quite the big head herself, it is difficult for her to find more joy than destroying the fragile egos of people with lesser spirits and hearts. Nowhere can there be found more cloying, desperate egos then amongst evil. A decent amount of the reason she battles evil is just witness the third act villain break down.

Karin, while she is used to an enormous amount of luxury, is a very hard worker. All her life she has strived for perfection in all things. This has resulted in very high expectations on herself, and she is constantly pushing herself to be better than before. Everything she does has to be just right. Contrary to one might belief, she has a critical, demanding inner voice.

Karin struggles with showing compassion. Beneath it all, she has a very kind heart, but for the large majority of her life she was taught that kindness was weakness. While she has moved on past this way of thinking, the Strength Above All mentality has deep roots in her heart and soul that are hard to shake.

Background:

Perfect Victor

All you need is victory. Be the winner in everything. The worst we'll ever be is the best. Victorious: Therefore Supreme. She is Karin Kanzuki! And these mottos were the pillars of her childhood.

Her father was a strict man who in many ways resented her for not being a son. He needed an heir, and believed a girl couldn't be up to the task. From a very young age, Karin was trained and molded to be the perfect canditate to run the powerful Kanzuki Zaibatsu- one of the most powerful business conglomerate in the world.

Karin rose to the challenge. She bested her father in all of the same trials he was put through as a child, not to mention solving them in innovative ways he had never considered. High wires over waterfalls, sheer mountain cliffs, searching for targets underwater, surviving in the woods for two weeks. Defeat a lion in mortal combat. (Note: all of these things were done in the Karin Estate wildlife sanctuary in the middle of Japan) Instead of defeating the lion, she dominated it mentally with a hard stare, and then befriended it. Karin has had an affinity for large mammals ever since.

But her father never believed in her. Instilling in her a deep distaste for all other 'commoners', the only 'friends' Karin ever had were her servants. Servants, maids, and her personal army of ninjas, all of whom revered her as a goddess. But she never had an equal. She never had someone she could view as a peer, or even look up too. Not even her own father. Whom she destroyed, backstabbing him by sneakily purchasing the majority shares of his own company. He challenged her to a duel, and she swiftly defeated him. Under the 15 year old's direction, the Kanzuki Zaibatsu became THE most powerful legal conglomerate in the world.

During this time, Karin turned her attention to street fighting. While becoming a martial arts master was always a part of her training, she had only ever fought in the official, sterile fighting competitions of the world. But she learned that the real challengers, the real passion for fighting and perfection, were found in the unorthodox places. That was when she learned of a young girl named Sakura Kasugano, who everyone was claiming was the youngest, yet most promising, female fighter in all of Japan.

This, obviously, would not do, for Karin was clearly the filler of this spot. Long story short, she challenged Sakura to a fight and...lost. For the first time in her life, Karin Kanzuki lost. Defeated by some commoner 'prodigy', who trained by watching VHS tapes and jumping through dirty old rubber tires with her dullard best friend.

Nonetheless, despite the indignation, something changed in Karin that day. A fire was lit in her heart and she trained harder than she ever had before. She challenged Sakura again, and this time, defeated her. though she pondered if perhaps Sakura truly was the better fighter of the two. But she could not deny that in that moment, Karin truly 'wanted' to win. Was there a difference between needing to win, and wanting to win? And which one was more powerful? She wasn't certain. But all she knew was that a worthy rival was needed in order to truly push oneself to perfection. Karin elected Sakura to be her rival. Their friendship has grown over time, and slowly the cut-throat knife's edge of Karin's harsh personality has softened. Somewhat. A little. Tell anyone of this, and she will destroy you.

Specialty: Duelist
Level: 1
Experience: 0/10
Powers:

• V-Meter: Karin's two barred V-Meter gives her access to two powerful defensive options. She builds V-Meter by blocking, dodging, getting hit by, and countering attacks. Both defensive options deal Gray Damage, a special type of damage that fades over time and is only made permanent if Karin lands a true attack.
  
  V-Reversal: Spend a bar to push through the enemies attack with unflappable strength, knocking them and all enemies around back and away from Karin. Very easy to execute, and difficult to avoid. Though skillful enemies could counter it if she overuses it.
  
  V-Shift: A perfectly timed dodge on an opponent Karin has read. She becomes immune for a momentary window of time if executed correctly. Time seems to slow for Karin and she can counter and punish her enemy for their insolence. Upon a successful V-Shift, she regains half a bar.

Strengths:

• Footsies: Karin always knows where to stand. Simple adjustments of her stance and foot position allow her to outmaneuver and outplay even the most skilled melee combatants. A centimeter can be the difference between victory and defeat, and Karin always knows where that centimeter is.
• Kanzuki-Ryu: Karin's fighting style allows her to endure large amounts of damage, perform incredible athletic feats, and send people five times her size flying into the air with a simple well placed palm thrust. She can also dash with incredible bursts of speed, moving in and out of combat range at her leisure. Much like any Street Fighter, she can use her arms to block attacks, blades, bullets, and bursts of energy and plasma. As long as she isn't walking forward. While she has no long ranged attacks, she is an expert at surpassing the defenses of those who would rather keep her out. She is no slow moving grappler- zoners fear HER.
• Forceful Personality: The heart of a lion beats within Karin's chest. (Not literally, though she could have that arranged). Karin is difficult to dominate or intimidate. Indeed, she is capable of doing these things herself. Once per fight, simple minded beasts can be pacified with a glare, and enemies of weak willpower tremble before her. As if they know their foolish arrogance will only waste Karin's time- as if they know their blood is not worthy of getting stuck under her perfectly manicured fingernails.

Weaknesses: Hordes of Plebians: Karin is incredibly difficult to beat one on one. However with her reliance on deliberate, powerful strikes, she doesn't have much in the way of crowd control. While she can maneuver out of situations, if she is overwhelmed her skill won't matter. (Fortunately her intimidating matter will prevent weaker minded commoners from having the confidence to gang up on her- for at least ONE of them will be totally destroyed. But if they can push past that, she might be in trouble.)

Monsters: While Karin's powerful strikes and durable body will no doubt prove useful against monsters, her skillset is not made to fight unfamiliar creatures from strange worlds. How do you do 'footsies' against a tentacle monster?

Teamwork: Karin also has trouble working with and utilizing the strengths of her teammates. As well as supporting and helping them. She is used to doing everything by herself. Her powerset also does not lend itself well to helping others.

Discount Shoto Ripoffs, Apparently: Hey! Who put this one here? This is libel.

Spirits:

• None yet.

Guest List: Ishikazi: Karin's loyal, faithful, engaging butler who is a talent in his own right.

Birdie: Karin's new bodyguard. A hulking brute of a man who loves food, is nasty with a chain, and is cleverer than people give him credit for.

Inventory: Training Ribbon: The ribbon in Karin's hair weighs twenty five pounds.

edit:
Money: A lot of money. Too much money.

Beach Estate: Her own private beach estate! On Earth, this was her summer home.

let me know if there's anything I should change or add. i edited her inventory after a DM discussion with GM lugubrious but it's all still up in the air @Lugubrious

World of Light

Level 5: 24/50
Word Count: 571
Location: Tostarena Town
Points Gained: 1
NEW EXP balance--- Level 5: 25/50

Jesse compressed her lip, impressed, nodding at Midna. "All right, good to know." That sounded handy.

(Think of all the lawn flamingoes we could carry around with us if I had a power like that.)

As for Tora's training proposition, Jesse elected not to participate. Obviously her bullets would bounce off Tora's shield if she just stood there and shot them at it. And she did not feel like ripping up pieces of the Railway Gun and throwing it at Tora. Probably a bad call.

---

"This place is pretty great." Jesse concluded after their warm welcome. Looked like it was Dia de Los Muertos all year round. The oncoming mountain with the boss apparently near the top, was an intimidating sight. Hopefully the bad guy's hide out was obvious. If it wasn't, the main issue was going to be finding the damn thing.

(Think you could help us out with that, Polaris?) A glowing blue ring appeared over her vision, illuminating the distant mountain peak. (You're the best.)

"Five hundred miles high?" Jesse said to Big Band. "We'll have to pack our space suits."

Raz, the big-eyed kid, asked a question about snow shoes, and Midna answered. "Of course they have snow shoes. If only people lived directly in snowy areas sold snow shoes, how would people who needed snow shoes by them?" She tapped her temple and widened her eyes, like she was revealing eldritch truths to Midna and Raz. As people started to disperse, Jesse stuffed her hands in her pockets and huffed. Another new town. Rolling in on a heavily armored gun train and hopping out like a band of goons. Navigating social spaces in these extraordinary circumstances was very strange. This was a mass mind affecting AWE of unprecedented scale. All of these eyes on them and their group- made her a little uncomfortable. Jesse was used to either being in charge, or being a nobody. Now, she wasn't quite either one. Plus, the feeling of being watched in public brought back unpleasant feelings.

As she loosely trailed behind Raz, not wanting anyone to leave that weird kid by himself, he did something very odd. A head came out of his head, and he began to talk to it.

"Mkay." Jesse said flatly, filing a mental note in her head. Raz seemed none the wiser to how attention getting his little bacon conversation was. Instinctively, Jesse covered for him, scanning the nearby shops, carts, and crowds. Some comedically traumatized part of her brain had her looking out for the 'men in black' that observed her for almost half her life.

Instead, she saw a girl, probably early teens, who was remarkable for a couple reasons. One, she looked like she was being sneaky. She probably would have gone unnoticed if Jesse hadn't followed Raz in. And two, she looked...really, really normal? Like someone Jesse might see walking down the street back on Earth. Probably with a parent or guardian, or atleast a gaggle of other teenagers. Instead she seemed to be by herself. And maybe concerned? Understandably so.

She gave a little wave to Ellie (though Jesse didn't know her name yet) and smiled apologetically, trying to get her attention without being threatening. "Hey there. Uh. Sorry about the...theatrics. We're new in town. Subtley isn't really our thing, apparently." She shrugged.

"If it helps, we're just passing through. Kind of on a mission." The Director said. Jesse Faden was a human woman in her late twenties, wearing casual if practical clothing, and red hair tied into a loose bun.

World of Light

Level 6: 27/60
Location: The Maw: The Stage -> Carcass Isle
Word Count: 1347
Points Gained: 3 +15
New EXP Balance--- Level 6 : 45/60

Kasugano Sakura looked down at her child body, wishing it would change back to normal. Still, with the Lady nothing more than ash, she was just happy they had finally freed this place of its terrible leader. Even if seeing that cruel Larry as a helpful striker gave Sakura the creeps, at least it was better than nothing. Adrenaline faded, the roar in her ears dulled. But she felt...good. Hopefully Ryu-san wouldn't be disappointed in her for finding joy in the death of another person. Even if the act of killing would never get easier for her, the consequences of the Lady's death were surely nothing but positive. Though even Ryu-san would agree to take the life of a truly evil person if there were no other options, considering his track record with M. Bison. He'd blown the evil dictator the hell up a couple times.

Once inside evil Lady HQ, they could see the entire Maw on the various screens. "What a rotten place." Sakura surmised.

There, they encounted a very strange man doing something very strange with magic. As he said he wasn't doing anything while clearly doing something, Sakura couldn't help but smile. He was like a character from a european fairy tale. He made her want to say 'What an odd fellow, indeed!' or something like that.

"Keeping the lights on? You don't have to worry anymore, Mister. The lady has been defea- WOAAAH!" Sakura tumbled forward as the entire Maw jolted. Sakura grunted, "Nngh!", As her back slammed into the railing. "Owie!"

Her friends quickly concluded that they were about to crash. "Oh, no!" Sakura held onto the railing tight. But as the Maw hit the sea bed, she bounced hard off the railing, soared breathlessly through the air, and smacked into the wall. "Uaaah!" Shouting in pain, she felt herself fall and get taken by the tide.

---

Sakura's rocked head had no time or energy for dreams. The girl, now back to her young adult self, was soaked to the core. If nothing else, while cradled in Bella's arms, her sleeping expression looked peaceful. Her cat tail and ears had returned, though both were limp.

"Nnh...ooh...itaiii..." She groaned, stirring to life, her eyes shifting under her lids. Her ears twitched. Coughing up some extra salt-water, she turned her head to the side away from Bella. Fortunately, as a street fighter, waking up after getting her ass kicked wasn't exactly an unknown phenomenon. Sakura brought a hand up to her pounding head and cracked one eye open. Unusually, she found she was pretty comfortable. As she observed the area around her, she found she was basically being hugged by Bella. It was always a bit embarassing to be unconscious in front of others, as it was impossible to maintain one's dignity in such a state. Just a senseless ragdoll that has to be dragged and carried everywhere. The very definition of a burden.

"Oh...hey, Bella-san." She said quietly, straightening herself out. Shivering a little, she let out a shaky breath. They were all gathered under a little shelter, on the least fun looking beach Sakura had ever seen.

Blinking slowly, the gears in her mind began to restart. She saw everyone gathered around the shelter, using each other for warmth. Reading the mood, she instinctively surmised that all of her friends were account for. Moving her head away from Bella, she looked up at her. "Hey, you're- you're back to normal. That's great, that's really great." Sakura rubbed her eyes.

"...Back to normal?!" Sakura shot up into a full sitting position, glancing down at her form once again. She was back! While Araisho was still lending her some of her strengths and weaknesses and her outfit, there was no doubt Sakura was back to her old, athletic self.

"Ya-ttaaaaa!" With a triumphant shout, she kip-upped to her feet. "We made it, we really made it!" As if pure elation and relief washed away all her pain, she ran out onto the carcass ridden beach like it was sandy and sunny. She dropped onto her hands and knocked out twenty perfect form push-ups in twenty seconds. Then sprang off the ground, back to her feet, and jumped fifteen feet into the air, flipping backwards before landing back on the beach light as a feather. The only thing that slowed her down was her harness. Testing it out, she went to fire it into the sea. There was a small cannon shot, and it splashed into the rocky waves. Next, she gathered her hands and fired off a mighty blue fireball into the ocean, the force carving through the water before dispersing. "Yosh."

Her excited energy was subdued by the sheer horror of the wasteland around her. Smiling nervously, she rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, man. Woah." Chilled in the rain, she saw the submerged Maw, gargantuan, in the distance. "I don't think all those people escaped."

Arms drifting to her sides, she let her eyes drift over the decay and rot. Thinking about all the people that didn't make it out. Carl, Glenn, Duerage...so many. Too many. The crash probably destroyed the sushi chef, too. Even the clothes she was wearing now was a result of the death of a stranger. But now these losses only strengthened her resolve. Gazing up at the grey, thick clouds above, she was surprised to find herself emboldened. She wasn't going to give up. Not now, not ever. After being so thoroughly humiliated and helpless for such a long time in the Maw, the street fighter had a chip on her shoulder. Now that she could help others again, she would. It was as simple as that.

Sakura returned to the group, a resolute, contented look on her face. "Sorry I kinda ran off there. We're using each other for heat, right?" Sakura sat back down next to Bella.

Rubbing her hands together, Sakura took deep, slow breathes. Heat built in her core. Blowing into her palms, she extended them outward and summoned the warmth of the Hado. Despite it's appearance as a blue, flame-like energy, it wasn't actually hot enough to burn. Instead, the temperature of her fireballs matched Sakura's own body temperature. The warmth wasn't much, and didn't have a great deal of range, but it was pleasant compared to the chill. Sakura crouch-walked from Seeker to Seeker, offering what little warmth she could. Especially to the ones who were just waking up, and Hat Kid.

Once most of everyone was gathered, Sakura spoke. "I still have a bit of a headache. But I'm ready to go when you guys are. I don't think anything can be tougher than the Maw, so I'm ready to get out there and kick some ass. Plus, this beach smells awful. I can't imagine the inland smells any better but...I mean, we'll never know until we try."

She pulled at the collar of her off-shoulder shirt, and twitched one of her ears. "I suppose I'll keeping borrowing Araisho-san's power for now. I might ask you to take it away from me later, Peach-san, just so I can be fully myself again. But there's a pretty big chance I might need to use the water-walk ability at some point, right?" She shrugged, speaking mostly to herself at the end.

Still happy at her hard-earned strength being returned to her, Sakura crouched on one leg only, letting her other leg hang horizontally in the air. Like a piece of perfectly balanced one legged furniture, she stuck her tongue out slightly and concentrated. While she could normally hold this pose for an entire day, the harness still attached to her body dragged her back down into a sitting position after a few minutes. Still, it was far, far, FAR better than before. Blue fire between her hands she hopped around underneath the shelter, continuing to share her paltry warmth.

"But, man! As bad and sad as this beach is, compared to that stupid boat? It's a vacation."

Sakura stood up straight as she heard an unfamiliar voice. Turning around, she spotted a handsome American man approaching, carrying firewood. And he didn't look like someone who lived on an island like this. too friendly, and his fashion was all avant garde punk stuff.

"Hello!" She waved cheerily over to him, hand still emitting some blue energy. "Yeah, we got room. We're, uh, survivors of a ship crash. We're all a bit cold and wet, so I think we would be very grateful for the firewood. I'm Sakura, by the way!"

Sensation & Wonder: An Absolute Comics Roleplay [DC & Marvel One Universe Style Game]

yall worry too much XD