Zoey Boey

World of Light

Karin Level 6: 50/60
Location: Astral Plane
Word Count: 1,423
Points Gained: 3
New EXP Balance---

Karin Level 6: 53/60

---

The scouting party was over. The Seekers had found what they were looking for. Shockingly (not), it was on the other side of a portal into the Astral Plane. The last time Karin entered such a place, it didn’t go well. The Kanzuki was determined to redeem herself and put on a better showing.

Navigating the Astral Plane was just as easy as it was last time, being: mostly easy. While the fall into the infinite abyss was not a welcoming sight, as long as Karin had access to her arms, a missed jump could always be recovered by just firing her grappling hook above her and latching onto the solid bottoms of the floating islands. The safety blanket made Karin navigate with confidence, and her previous experience aided her in this endeavor. Their goal? Find Iron, this VIP, and figure out what she knows. She’ll probably ‘owe them one’ after all this is over, anyway.

Soon they stumbled into, as it was aptly put, a ‘turf war.’ ”Not chimeras indeed. Mindless killing machines of flesh and steel alike, it seems. Dispensing of them shall always be a public service.”

As the battle commenced, one of the cannon wielders was left unattended too. As it fired its strange projectile, Karin grappled hooked onto a nearby floating isle to get a better angle on it. At this point, she attracted its attention, and it began to fire upon her. The stone exploded behind her as she cartwheeled away. It fired upon her in the air, but she used her grapple hook to yank herself to the ground. Dodging each subsequent blast, she got closer and closer. Finally, when she was too close to dodge, she grit her teeth. ”Say-yah!” Pushing forward, her palm met the blast head on and blasted straight through it. The voidranger had backed up to the edge at this point, and Karin kicked the gun out of its hand, spun, and snap kicked it into the abyss.

Karin turned her attention to the rest of the battle. Showered with projectiles, the centaur, the mighty mechanical-like Trampler, was going to wreak some havoc on the field. Karin narrowed her eyes, thinking of her battle against the monstrous enemy she battled in the Astral Plane. And the mechanical monster and its insipid bully of a pilot she felled not long ago. Karin would challenge the centaur warrior, with the aid of her allies.

She fired a hook past its head, causing it to turn and look. Karin latched onto a island and zipped forward, crashing across its face with a slam. She landed on the side of the floating island and looked back at the Trampler.

Deciding it was her current biggest threat, a massive bow shimmered into its hands. The arrow was tipped with a rotating diamond construct that swirled with similar shapes.”Tch!”

Karin leapt out of the way as the Trampler's arrow pierced the island and went out the other side. Certainly she didn’t want to get hit by that. Sailing through the air she landed with a role and sped towards the Trampler, her profile low. It moved with impressive speed and met her much faster than she expected. With her dash she could change direction on a dime, however, and shifted out of the way as it slammed its spike-like hooves into the ground.

Karin zipped back and slammed her palm up into its joint. The Trampler was a little over twice her size, but big or small the knee was always a prime target. Thankfully, she felt her hand push into its strange metal skin, instead of bouncing straight off like it did against the scorpion.

Already being struck by her teammates, she also spotted some literal cracks in the armor that she made sure to exploit.

But it was quick to retaliate. Karin had to make sure not to get pinned under its hooves. But since it couldn’t stab her, it settled on much easier, wider swings.

Caught mid-dodge, Karin braced for impact and was knocked away. ”Ah!” She landed quickly and rolled back to her feet, getting back into the fight. Or, at least, she planned too. A whole rift in reality appeared in the air in front of her, blocking her path as the Trampler prepared its ability. Karin was flattened against the ground by a glowing block of energy. It dissipated quickly, leaving Karin in a starfish position on the floor. Her eyebrow twitched as she deadpanned at the sky above. Another rift opened, and she rolled out of the way this time. Another, and another, it kept trying to predict where she was going to go. And when it thought it had her eager to get closer, it surged forward with a stomping of its hooves. But Karin jumped clean over the rift, the polyhedron smashing into the ground well below her, and as it reared back she slammed into it, almost causing it to lose balance. She dropped and rolled, kicking out at its hind legs. It stepped forward and then kicked back at her, its legs like a piston.

Karin absorbed the blow with a spark of defensive ki, but she slid backwards with a trail of dust, and the pain in her arm was a dull, booming ache.

”Hmph.” The Trampler had its arms crossed, its emotions unreadable other than a vague aura of superiority and evil as it rotated to face her. Karin hoped to wipe that smug aura away by nailing it between the eyes with her grapple hook. It went to snatch the hook off immediately. Karin disconnected her hook in the next instant, dashing forward and focusing more palm strikes on its already damaged knee. It bucked and kicked wildly when it had the chance, and Karin rolled away to prevent being squashed. She had to stay close, but not too close. Too far, it’ll use the bow. Too close, it’ll step on her. As always, Karin dances in and around her enemies' most ineffective range.

Before it can get a bead on her, she is back in. Strike, strike, strike, Karin yells, her palms turning red from the impact on steel. ”Pardon~” She smiles, getting out of range just as quickly.

Trampler charged after her, and the smile faded as she barely avoided getting rammed into. It stopped, turned, and aimed to, well, trample her once again. This time it kept running, skidded to a stop, and summoned its bow at her. Karin needed to close the gap quickly.

She dashed, latched her grappling hook to the floor in front of her, and then pulled herself along. The arrow tip grew in intensity. She wasn’t going to make it. Karin had to retreat- she looked around for cover.

A familiar feeling passed over her- a heart pounding surge of adrenaline. Blazermate had swept in from her duties attending to the entire field and had seen fit to grant Karin a dosage of invulnerability.

”Thank you, Miss Blazermate!” Karin shouted and ran forward. ”Leave the rest to me!” The arrow was fired, and its tremendous force came to nothing when Karin met it with two palms. It slowed her for a moment, but she fired a hook at its forehead again, and then pulled herself forward, leaving the uber.

It swept at her but Karin pivoted turned, and then retracted the hook when she was behind the Tramplers upper body. Now she was on its back, her hook pulling its head backward.

”R-R-RESSEN HA!” Leaving behind a trail of after images, Karin spent a super meter to turn into a vertically spinning blade. She erupted forward and cleaved into its head from behind. Its damaged legs buckled. On the final strike she stopped her spin momentum dead and turned it around into a devastating palm strike downward, slamming the Trampler face first into the ground. Karin let gravity carry her downward, where she impaled the back of its head with her feet.

Karin’s boots sunk lower as the thing dissolved into ash, her eyes closed and her smile delicate and refined, like she had just drunk some fine tea. ”Mmhm~. Splendid.”

Opening her eyes, she regarded the spirit of the Trampler thoughtfully. Its arrow ability, in particular, would be quite useful for Karins problem of limited range. She picked the spirit up and held it in her hands. Karin would hold onto it until a better time for speaking to it arrived. They had a mission to uphold, after all. Time was of the essence.

World of Light

Meting of the Minds

Sakura’s @Zoey Boey vs Gisu Nerumen and Morris Martinez
Word Count: 6,722
EXP + 7

Despite her lengthy boast, Sakura managed to kick things off with such speed that Gisu didn’t get the chance to hop on her board in time. The young psionic yelped when struck in the knees and got knocked over by Sakura’s Hadoken, clearing the way for her to try and punk Morris as well. By now though she’d lost her initiative, and though seemingly relaxed in his recumbent position, Morris was both literally and metaphorically on the ball. He lifted his hands into a ‘snapshot’ position, his thumbs and forefingers each making an L on opposing corners of a rectangle, and his Elastikinesis altered the elasticity of the air directly in front of him to create a vertical trampoline. Sakura’s momentum carried her right into it, and her attack amounted to nothing as she bounced back. Morris dispelled his trampoline and pulled a spiked metal sphere the size of a billiard ball, which he tossed like a coin. As it fell, he caught it in a smaller trampoline, stretching it downward. Then he grabbed the bulge and pulled it backward, and once he released it the ball hurtled Sakura’s way like the payload of a slingshot to make sure she had something to worry about as she landed.

Sakura dove out of the way, worrying about it sufficiently enough. She watched where it went and then asked her question about their ages.

Gisu got to her feet with a frustrated grunt, annoyed that she’d been downed so easily. “Ugh. Appearances don’t mean anything in Psych-OSF ‘cause of the anti-aging drugs, you know. We could be in our thirties for all you know, so don’t underestimate us.”

“Fourteen and fifteen,” Morris remarked offhandedly, a mischievous smile on his face.

Sakura looked relieved. ”Oh, great. That’s about how old I was when I started getting my butt kicked. Okay, the fight’s on!” Sakura said, excited.

Glaring at him, Gisu dropped her Hoverboard, though it stopped before it hit the ground. When she jumped onto it, a current of psychic energy levitated her into the air. Its lateral blades gleamed in the sinister afternoon light. “You look tough. But we’re soldiers for a reason. You’re about to find out the hard way.”

“And they don’t pay soldiers to talk,” Morris chimed in. “They pay us to follow orders, and our orders are to bring you in.” With just a slight lean, he sent his chair rolling to the side on its big hoverball, putting some distance between himself and Sakura as he circled around. Then he used the tech built into his chair to create a bubble shield around Gisu, and as she surfed forward the battle began.

The anger from earlier had mostly melted away as Sakura faced the challenge before her. Stakes and context melted away in her mind and a smile found her face. ”Yeah, yeah, let’s go!” As Gisu came forward, protected by a bubble shield, Sakura thought she would test it.
”Hadoken!” She fired out another quick moving fireball, and then another one when Gisu responded, looking to lead her shot this time.

Rather than try to avoid them, however, Gisu took the fireballs head on, and even with their power combined they only cracked the shield. When each struck her shield, a ripple of energy spread across its surface, then coalesced into a feedback pulse that returned to Morris’s techno-chair. Meanwhile Gisu charged directly into her opponent, performing a kickflip that sent her board into a wild horizontal spin beneath her, its bladed edges turning into a buzzsaw of rapid hits. The barrage ended with a double stomp into the board itself to bounce off the psychic current like a springboard and send Gisu flying away.

Sakura guarded against the strikes, gritting her teeth, before catching the board Gisu was on and holding it in place. The stomp broke the stalemate and Sakura stumbled backwards, barely managing to stay on her feet.

As Gisu landed and began to circle around to come at Sakura again, the barrier given to her by Morris vanished despite having plenty of durability left, and Morris began to move as well. Strafing in a circle, he slung spikeballs at Sakura while Gisu performed a series of quick dash attacks to try and slice Sakura as she sped past. On the third one, however, she would perform a flip over Sakura right before impact and then dash into her from behind.

Sakura ducked under one spikeball and avoided another, wide eyes tracking the projectiles. Her leg was sliced out from under her, and she had to absorb the next spikeball with her arm. Deflecting Gisu’s follow up slice with her hands, she rolled to the side and glanced towards Gisu only to just barely see her flip behind her. ”Oof!” Her head jerked back and she was sent flying forward. She converted her roll into a spinning front flip to face her enemies once more, her boots skidding on the pavement. Gathering blue ki in her hands, she charged up another fireball and launched it in the general direction of the pair, and followed behind it with a run.

Gisu’s board slice and the way she bounced off Morris’s trampoline reminded her of her battle against Gemma. She’d seen the moves before- could she exploit them?

Sakura swept around her advancing fireball and tried to put it between her and Gisu. Once again she gunned for Morris, the backliner and support that was making her life so difficult. With a mighty leap she jumped above him again, but at the apex of her jump she tucked in and did a flip, stopping her momentum mid air and changing her trajectory into a downward kick that would just miss him. Then she shot up into Morris from below. ”Shouoken!” With a fist-first rising uppercut.

While Gisu swerved around the fireball, Sakura made her move on Morris. Despite his casual attitude earlier, the boy had a serious, almost curious look on his face. Why would his opponent try this again after his no-sell last time? His fingers hovered over the second blue button on his chair's armrest, and as Sakura fell he made the snap decision to press it. Another bubble shield went up, this time around himself, and Morris soaked his opponent's tricky uppercut with a web of cracks on his shield. He'd protected himself, but this wasn't a win; she'd gotten him to spend his emergency shield with very little expenditure on her part. With that barrier on cooldown Morris needed to play this safe. He backpedaled quickly, and Gisu flew in to buy him a moment by drifting into Sakura with a bladed sideswipe. Even if it didn't connect, it ought to get her attention, and if she messed her hands up by trying to grab the board's bladed sides again, all the better.

Sakura watched Morris bounce away, satisfied with that. She remembered that Gisu existed just in term to turn around and catch the blade on her forearm. It was like she was made of steel, but the dings and scrapes that a sword would leave in plate armor were left on her flesh instead. But it was entirely a matter of focus.

”Sore!” Sakura brought her blocking arm down and raised her other one up, leaning back to give her leg plenty of room to chop up into Gisu from below, her leg going completely vertical with her signature Chin Buster Kick.

"What the!?" Just what was this woman made of? A horizontal blow capable of chopping lumber barely seemed to register, and with the commitment Gisu put into that strike, she'd halted her momentum and couldn't just slide by. Sakura's leg shot upward with such speed and flexibility that Gisu couldn't fully lean away in time. Her cheek got clipped and she bent over backward atop her board, twisting to put her hands beneath her and convert her fall into a handspring. Her backflip completed a couple yards away, coming to rest on a cushion of psychic energy. It welled up as Gisu crouched down, and after a brief delay she shot back toward Sakura with a lower profile. It was time to really start doing tricks. After pressing down the nose to perform a hard nollie, she launched into a sideways backflip that sent her flying at her opponent like a drill–the Tamedog.

”Uh oh!” Whatever confidence Sakura had in her ability to stop powerful strikes, it clearly had a limit. Wide-eyed at the scary looking attack, Sakura bent her knees and looked to jump clean over Gisu’s drill move. She brought her legs up, Gisu cutting loudly through the air beneath her.

Meanwhile, Morris had an idea. Sakura's fortitude came in part from her stance, so her technique began where her feet met the ground. The same couldn't be said for himself or Gisu, who floated on Levitation hoverballs. With his sling shots ineffective so far, Morris emptied out the bag of spiked balls into a single trampoline and launched them all at Sakura at once. In addition to pelting her painfully, they'd hopefully act as caltrops once they littered the ground, limiting her footwork with the threat of piercing penetration.

When she landed, one of them smacked her in the back of the head. ”Ouch!” She stumbled forward, rubbing her head. She turned around and crouched low, using her arms to protect herself from the spiked balls, hissing through her teeth. She’d really love to be dodging all these slices and stabs these two were doing.
Sakura looked around, frowning at the caltrops. ”Oh, man.” She complained, already knowing one of them would stab into her feet at some point. Ibuki did this crap to her all the time.

Sakura shot a fireball at Gisu and then tried to move to the side to get out of the middle of the caltrops.

Highly mobile, Gisu wove around the fireball easily. Though she’d managed to stick the landing for her Tamedog trick attack it had still taken an extra moment to correct. Now that she’d recovered, though, she was back in action. Both psionics could see that their agility and unpredictable fighting styles had Sakura on defense. It was time to up the ante. Morris tapped further into his Elastikinesis, creating an extra-strength vertical trampoline in front of him that he dragged backward. This would run through his mental energy faster, but he felt confident that this investment would pay dividends. When he released the trampoline, it sprang back with enough tensile strength to function as an air cannon, hurling a powerful wind front toward Sakura to knock her off balance -maybe even off her feet- before she escaped the caltrops. His assault became a one-two punch as Gisu cruised in and leaped toward Sakura with a Tail Grab to wallop her with the underside of her board.

Sakura gasped in surprise as she felt herself get knocked off her feet by a gust of wind, her arms flailing for something to grab onto. She gasped in something a little worse than surprise when Gisu thoroughly smacked into her body with her board. Sakura spat and flew backwards, landing on some caltrops that stuck into her. She converted her tumble into a back roll and then backed up, getting out of the field of spikeballs at the cost of a pretty nasty hit. Not to mention the fact that the caltrops were still there, except the one that was stuck in her arm, which she pulled out in frustration, causing some blood to run down it. She discarded that one down the street. How was she going to get the party started? They had psychic powers that- Sakura slapped her forehead. She had psychic powers. And not just Levitation. Sakura tapped into the SAS, and noted the bevy of psychic abilities at her disposal. Sclerokinesis, Psychokinesis, Teleportation, and Pyrokinesis. Luka’s Teleport might come in handy in navigating between these two opponents.

All she had to do was make sure she didn’t teleport into anything or anyone. She aimed a fireball at Morris, and then launched into an EX-Sakura Drop, her body flashing orange as she leapt forward with her fists locked together over her head. ”Here I come!” She was zooming in like a heat-seeking missile towards the leading Gisu, but her eyes were on Morris. In a move she thought was cheap as hell, she teleported from Gisu mid-move and was suddenly bringing the hammer down on Morris instead. She felt like she was picking on Morris, but he was really giving her a lot of trouble.

If it hit, they would both bounce up. ”Ichi, ni…” Sakura smacked him again, sending him even higher. ”...san!” She brought the hammer down to send him crashing into a wall. Sakura landed quickly and charged up a point-blank fireball.

Thoroughly jumpscared by Sakura’s sudden teleport on top of him, Morris couldn’t take any action before his foe’s fists slammed down on top of him. Squashed against the hoverball beneath his chair, he bounced right out of his chair and could do little but get pummeled through the air. “Oof-ow-gah!” Before he knew it, Morris found himself plastered against the stylized facade of a Tex-mex eatery, dazedly staring down the metaphorical barrel of a blazing hadoken.

Unlike Sakura, Gisu did not announce her attack, even as misdirection. Instead, after locking on, she performed a backflip to sling her hoverboard out from under her at high speed. It slammed straight into the street fighter from behind to cut her combo short with a painful double-stab to the back. The force of the blow crush countered her, sending her spinning into Morris, and both slumped off the wall. “Crap, sorry!” Gisu winced. Running in, she snatched up her hoverboard from where it had fallen and began to whirl it around like a sign spinner to try and strike Sakura repeatedly. With any luck her eye-catching whirlwind of offense and defense would keep her foe occupied long enough for Morris to slink away.

”Kuahhh!” Sakura’s fireball fizzled out anticlimactically, the wind driven from her and slamming her into her foe, coincidentally giving her one more hit in her combo. Sakura fell onto her back, eyes squeezed shut. Sucking in air, she regained her composure and got to her feet just in time to get wacked across the chest by Gisu. Stumbling backwards she jerked from side to side before managing to block one. She spent some V-Meter and did a V-Reversal. One of her eyes flashed white and fast, she spun, dodging the next strike and sweeping Gisu off her feet, sending her away. ”Right there!” Gisu would have had to stop attacking and block it, and even then she would still get shoved back. The strike wouldn’t hurt at all, but it did get Gisu off Sakura.

The two of them were really working her body. Sakura wiped some spit from her lips. Well, it was the easiest part of her to hit. Normally Sakura would get nothing but a breather off a V-Reversal, but now she teleported up to Gisu and was suddenly in kicking range. Assuming she was back on the board, Sakura did some side kicks and a spinning heel kick aimed at Gisu’s legs while she was on the board to knock her off or force her to defend. Once she had established the pattern and forced Gisu to raise her board to block, she used Levitated to hop right on, set one foot on the edge of the board and used her other leg to drive her knee right into Gisu’s torso.

As impressive as spinning her board was, Gisu couldn't call melee combat her forte. Thanks to her unfamiliarity with the V-reversal, it meant the end of her offensive pressure. With some distance put between herself and Sakura she quickly scrambled back onto her hoverboard, only to find her adversary right on top of her. "Come on!" Gritting her teeth, she backpedaled from the kicks while performing a tail press for defense. If she lost her footing, she was done for. She wanted nothing more than to disengage, but Sakura was one step ahead. To Gisu's surprise she actually commandeered the board, which made the psionic feel about as indignant as it made her feel stupid. Gisu tried to block the blow, but a good amount of force still went through, and with a grunt she fell off the board and onto the ground.

Of course, the next second the hoverboard slipped out from beneath Sakura like a banana peel, flinging her comedically onto the ground as the board slid away. ”Haha bwah!”

Gisu ran after it, knowing she wouldn't last in close quarters combat. Meanwhile, Morris made it back to his chair. Despite his propensity for riding in it everywhere, he evidently wasn't crippled or anything and could move on his own just fine. His bubble shields were off cooldown, so he was ready to defend, but this time he planned to attack as well. "Lucas, I need this." Using SAS, he borrowed his squadmate's PSI. Immediately he used PK Thunder, sending a crackling thunderhead to home in on Sakura's position. When Gisu reached her board, she'd tap into Yamaguchi's Electrokinesis to electrify her blades. It was up to Sakura to decide who she wanted to stop.

Sakura got back to her feet. Homing projectiles and lightning blades- these two were making her work for it. Pyrokinesis looked like it might come in handy here. Her hands lit up red, and then blue as she gathered the energy for a charged Hadoken. ”Hadoken!” Throwing her palms out, wrists pressed together, psychic fire and fire ki combined into a heavy hitting fireball to meet PK Thunder head on.

Sakura covered her face with her elbow, watching the resulting explosion with one half-open eye. ”Wow, awesome!” She cheered.

She began to run towards Gisu, looking to meet the dangerous skater head on. Sakura leaned into her run, going full ninja and leaning down low, her closed fists extending behind her. This was to bait Gisu into lowering her board. Then she would transition into a hopping spin kick. ”Shunpukyaku!” Her leg would aim to slam into Gisu like a clothesline, crushing any low attacks. If it was blocked, Sakura would be able to get back on the ground fast enough to defend herself.

Her foot slammed into the bubble shield constructed around Gisu by Morris. The repeated impact of her spin kick cracked the barrier and returned kinetic energy back to Morris, who was already preparing his next move. He'd put himself behind Sakura to hit her with another trampoline airblast, pushing her back toward Gisu, who performed a front flip to try and bring her hoverboard's lightning-infused tail down on Sakura's head.

Sakura kept a mental bead on where Morris was this time, and when she heard the trampoline pull back she was ready for his airblast. She let herself get pushed forward and then planted her front foot, placing both her hands on the dirt. Bracing for impact, she performed a Focus Attack, charging it up. Looking to absorb the impact of the board, she returned fire with a slow but armor-breaking knee aimed to pierce through the cracked barrier and to drive the wind out of Gisu. ”Hoaah!” She yelled. The electricity wasn’t good for her stun bar, and she shook her face to maintain concentration.

After that she grabbed Gisu’s shoulders and jumped up, for a moment she maintained a handstand on top of Gisu. Then she brought her legs down, rolled along the ground with Gisu, and flung her at high speed towards Morris.

"Drat," Morris grumbled. Sakura had already proven herself strong, but smashing through a barrier like that put her above a majority of Others, and now Gisu's assault had been foiled again. He used his Elastikinesis to create a trampoline that bounced his teammate high into the air, where she could right herself and catch a much-needed breather as she drifted down using her Levitation. For a moment though, that left him alone. Morris took a deep breath and focused the PSI power gleaned from Locus to shoot a flurry of PK Fires as he bounced around, each projectile a little fork of lightning that exploded into a burst of flame on impact. He aimed at both Sakura and the ground around her, since they would dissipate if they didn't hit something within a second's flight.

Sakura watched Gisu float, and then made some pretty intense eye contact with Morris, her eyes alight with a passion for fighting. Sakura got a feel for the PK fire when she raised her arm and the thing zapped into her block, causing her to slide back. After that she dashed forward and sprinted onto a nearby wall, running along it for a moment before diverolling, the PK Fires exploding all around her. Her diveroll converted into a bounding leap, and in mid air she pushed a blue and red psychic hadoken mid-air, about half the size of her normal ones because she wasn’t grounded. Either way it was still burning hot and something to deal with while she landed behind it and looked to close the rest of the gap.

With his SAS PSI running low, Morris made the best use of it that he could. When he held our his hands, a PSI Magnet formed, and the swirling vortex sphere devoured the hadoken to convert it into a little health. However, the visual pollution meant he wasn't quite aware of just how fast Sakura made her approach.

When she got close enough, she converted her run into a galloping stride, still plenty fast but with her fists up. Juking another burst of flame, she aimed to slug her back fist towards his magic chair.

Her relentless pursuit paid off, catching Morris mid-bounce after she swerved around his PSI. His chair rocked back dangerously on its hoverball, dented a bit from the impact, and he fought to steady it. A personal bubble shield popped up to give him the moment he needed, meaning both his barriers were on cooldown again.

Sakura was by no means unscathed, but a giggle escaped her lips as she put the pressure on Morris. After smacking into it with a few kicks to make sure he wouldn’t retaliate, she hopped forward and grabbed onto Morris' chair. ”Oops!” If he predicted it, he could swat her hands away, but the moment would pass before he could react if not. Sakura twisted and turned aimed to slam Morris and his chair into the ground. ”Toriyah!” She shouted.

He would've landed hard if not for his powerful instincts of self-preservation. A trampoline formed beneath him just before he hit the ground, but it's stretch still led to an impact with the asphalt below, and when it bounced back it flung both Morris and his chair apart. He landed and rolled across the ground, looking up just in time to see his chair smash against the street. No way it's generators would be working after that. Before Sakura could follow up, Gisu dive-bombed her from above like a hawk to nail her with its lightning-infused nose right before her borrowed Electrokinesis ran out. She rebounded from the strike and coasted down near Morris, a little jarred by the impact. Though able to fight on, both had seen better days.

Sakura was pinned to the floor by the impact, taken again by surprise. It was hard to keep track of both opponents at once. ”Urgh.” The electricity didn’t play well with her, and she put a hand on her head as she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She was looking a little rough.

”Not bad, you two.” She said. ”What do you think of me, huh? I’m pretty tough, right? Pretty cool?” Sakura asked as got back onto her feet.

"Pretty annoying," Morris managed to huff without looking too pitiful. He got to his feet and reached up as if to adjust his collar. "You've been pushing us around for long enough. It's time we showed you what happens when brains meet brawn."

He tugged a red strip on his outfit, and his hood popped up to conceal his face with a shadowy veil. Orange lines criss-crossed it in a tessellated triangle pattern, and the next second a number of the triangle flares up to create concentric circles. By now Sakura knew this act: Brain Drive, a state of heightened physical and mental acuity that boosted psionic abilities. Gisu activated hers as well, her signature pattern a ring of speed lines radiating out from the empty center.

Sakura looked between both of her empowered foes, taking a step back. As they did, though, she remembered that she could do the same thing! Closing her eyes for a moment, she inhaled through her nose and exhaled out of her mouth. An orange spiral wrapped upwards before flaring into a pattern of sparkling blossom shapes. ”This is incredible!”” She exclaimed, opening her eyes and then widening her stance, ready to receive her enemy’s attacks. Sakura had activated her own Brain Drive.

Gisu boosted forward atop her hoverboard, faster than ever on a psychic current like a miniature tsunami, and as Morris backed toward his chair he manifested trampolines throughout the area. Gisu bounced off them, changing directions at high speed to attack Sakura with a blistering series of drive-by slices.

Sakura tracked Gisu with her eyes and the first slice scraped past her block. But the second struck her from behind before she could turn around. ”Ugh!” She had to resist falling into a spinning vortex and collapsing on the floor as she jerked back and forth from each subsequent slice. She relied on prediction, hopping over one slice, pausing in the air, and then doing an aerial EX-Shunpukyaku, her leg lashing out in a full circle around her lightning fast. ”Hoooah!” Sakura yelled. If Gisu got hit by one kick, she would be sucked in by the wind, battered around and then expelled back where she came from.

It wasn’t just Gisu’s Levitation that were on point, though. Thanks to Brain Drive, her mind and body were actually functioning faster, so when Sakura whipped up a whirlwind kick in the middle of the battlefield, the psionic’s reflexes saved her. She banked right in time to narrowly avoid running into the EX-Shunpukyaku. Nevertheless, the cyclone might have pulled her in if not for Morris. He conjured a psychic trampoline beside his teammate so she could grab hold, staying just out of reach while she accessed PSI through SAS. Powered by her passion for what she loved the most, Gisu built up and let loose a conic blast of psychic hexagons, brilliantly flashing magenta, cyan, and yellow. “PK LOVE!” As the strongest smash attack Lucas -and therefore his squad- had at his disposal, it was a show of power that could deal major damage, but Sakura’s whiffed kick didn’t have so much recovery that landing PK Love was guaranteed.

Sakura landed, having to pull her arms back in from the left-over momentum of her spin kick. Aware that it didn’t connect, she looked up at where Gisu was and was left agape at the incoming psychic blast. She only had a moment to raise her hands. She channeled Gemma’s Sclerokinesis and crossed her arms in front of herself, her body turning into steel in the fraction of a section she had before impact. All she could do was hope her two methods of defense would be enough to prevent her from getting knocked out. Cracking one eye open, she saw the PK Love wash over her in spectacular fashion, a kaleidoscope of colors and concentrated will. It was over faster than she expected, but the moment stretched on in her mind.

When it was over she felt Gemma’s steel power leave her, having used its entire charge of nullifying the attack. Sakura’s arms were still crossed in front of her, and she glanced down at her body, confirming the lack of damage. ”...heh. Cool!” She punched her arms downward at her sides and her palms and feet ignited with blue flame and a shower of cherry blossom petals that faded away in an instant. Defending that attack had given her enough V-Meter to activate Sakura Senpu. Her damage potential was higher than ever combined with Brain Drive.

Gisu’s jaw dropped in shock as the recoil from PK Love sent her wobbling on her board, not just at the manner in which Sakura no-selled her prospective knockout blow, but also what it implied about her squadmate Gemma. Pyrokinesis was a common enough power that Gisu couldn’t immediately just to definitive conclusions about Hanabi, but Sclerokinesis? Only one man possessed that power, and if Sakura could access it through SAS, that meant only one thing: that Gemma’s absence this afternoon wasn’t a coincidence. Deeply unsettled, Gisu couldn’t stop her mind racing. Gemma was one of the most principled men she knew. If he’d turned his back on Psych-OSF to partner up with its enemies, could that mean…

“Gisu!” Morris yelled in alarm.

Crap, right! Gisu focused on Sakura, who’d just powered up even further before her very eyes. In a panic, she put her hands together to cast a PSI ability point blank. “PK-!”

Smacked solidly in the face, Gisu’s head jerked backwards, Sakura’s clenched fist pulling away. Point blank might have been too close. Sakura rolled forward and leapt into a flying knee to knock Gisu away. She dropped back onto the ground in an acrobatic crouch, but instead of continuing to strike Gisu she paused a moment and watched Morris out of the corner of her eye, waiting for his interference.

He did not disappoint. While strafing, he used his Elastikinesis to rapid fire a bunch of small trampolines directly in front of them, grabbing each and stretching them back as far as he could before releasing. Their smaller size but greater stretch made for a more concentrated and hard-hitting blast of air, almost like a long-range barrage of punches. He formed and fired them as fast as he could move his arms, which was pretty fast. Gisu used the chance provided by his onslaught to recover atop her board, albeit not as fast as before.

”Straight through.” Sakura pivoted and brought her arms back and forth like a loaded weapon, firing a blazing EX-Fireball towards Morris as he strafed. It looked to blow through his smaller projectiles and crash right into him if he stayed the course. Sakura teleported into the air above him, and then spun downwards in his direction with a controlled spinning kick that altered her momentum as she pleased. Sakura Senpu left a clean, blade-like trail of energy off her spin kick.

The moment he observed the EX-hadoken cutting through his air bullets, Morris sped up. Though unstoppable and surprisingly fast, that fireball couldn’t change direction to follow him, at least. When Sakura teleported, he momentarily panicked. He’d seen that she could do this and he tried to keep it in the back of his mind so that he could trampoline her when she did, but right now his mental stack was piled high. Brain Drive meant he could act fast enough, but his first instinct was to hammer his chair’s emergency personal shield button. Thanks to all the damage, it didn’t respond. He couldn’t hover out of the way either since Sakura Senpu actually could change directions, so the barrage of kicks hit home. For the final strike, however, a Guardian Vision of Commander Camilla Vodello appeared to intercept it for him, leaving him bruised but not beaten as he span off f toward the sidelines on his chair. “Craaap,” he seethed, angry with himself.

Sakura on the other hand, was a picture of serendipity. Senpu was also a state of spiritual enhancement, not just physical. ”Wow. That lady had a long neck.” She noted, with great wisdom and serenity.

Morris spotted Gisu on the move, made a huge trampoline in front of him, and snapped it with all his strength to send a wall of air Sakura’s way. It caught her and buffeted her back–directly into a trampoline Morris made behind her, which made her stumble forward, off-balance. At that moment Gisu drifted into her, sideswiping her legs out from under her with the tail of her board. That afforded the two a crucial moment, and through SAS their minds cried out as one. “Let’s go!”

With Brain Drive about to expire, Morris went for broke. With Elastikinesis he manifested dozens trampolines around the area, surrounding and pointing inward toward Sakura. Gisu pushed her Levitation to the limit, picking up speed before slamming into one of the trampolines. She began to bounce around, faster and faster, becoming little more than a giant blur of metal and borrowed Electrokinesis, almost impossible to track. Morris revved up his chair’s hoverball, using a trampoline as a barrier to stop him moving forward as the psychic orb built up speed. Finally, he dispelled it and shot straight toward Sakura atop his chair, a living battering ram. At the same time, Gisu made her final approach, shooting at the street fighter like a bullet. At the last second though, she performed the same flip maneuver she’d used to nail Sakura earlier, vault over her and then inverting her momentum to drive her board’s nose into Sakura’s heart.

Sakura was impressed by the raging electric inferno that she was in the center of. She watched as she got up off the ground, the light catching in her eyes. With Senpu and Brain Drive active, both nearing their conclusion, the rest of the world melted away. And for a moment it was like she saw the pattern of the rain. The speed and power of the attack was immense, and she was right in the crosshair. But for a split second as the wave crashed down, Sakura spotted a weakness. She took one step to the side, to line up properly with Morris. And in half-a-blink, Gisu was there, next to him. They were synced up.

The moment would be over blindingly fast from the outside, but within it Sakura found the time to make eye-contact with Gisu and smile sympathetically, encouragingly. Doubt. Sakura saw it. It was visible on a fighter from a mile away.

”MIDARE ZAKURA.”

With a tremendous upward spiral, Sakura punched the air between them, her punch bursting with ki energy. It was clean and smooth, a battering ram. It would stop them both dead in their tracks. She lifted them up, dropped, spun, and then erupted upward again. Spinning, she lifted all of them together with an upward thrusting punch, leaving a line of energy beneath her. There was an explosion that sounded almost like a ringing bell. Sakura landed, untwisted her upper body and dashed forward.

The two were knocked close together. When they rose to do battle again, she would catch them both across the face with her leading elbow, Sakura sweeping her upper body in a horizontal arc. Linking her hands together she clocked them again on the back swing. Then with the last of her empowered spin kicks she lifted them both into the air with three slicing, streaking kicks. With a straight kick that hit neither of them directly but was accompanied by a pushing force of pure ki, the pair would be sent tumbling into a wall.

Sakura held her leg high in the air after the kick, the limb vibrating with leftover power. The pleasant ringing came to a stop, blue embers drifted to the ground and vanished, and the dust the kick had lifted settled. Sakura lowered her leg smoothly and with great care, before standing firmly on the ground. Brain Drive ended, her hood falling to reveal her face to the sky again.

For her opponents, Brain Drive wasn’t the only thing that was over. Morris had slumped down off the wall, completely senseless, and only by some miracle was Gisu able to remain on her knees. On that final impact, though, Sakura had heard a shattering sound, just like the one that accompanied an Other that had been broken to the point its bulb appeared. That begged the question: could Gisu be finished off with a Brain Crush as well? Sakura didn’t know how, though, and before she could answer Gisu ran out of time and wiped out for the last time.

Sakura cleared her throat and then spat onto the ground. ”Good fight!” She raised her fist, grinning.

”But if you wanna beat me as a team, you both gotta be on the same page. Let’s do it again sometime.” She rubbed under her nose, satisfied with a battle well fought. But the thrill, that wonderful elation she was always chasing, faded with her victory. Back in the real world, Sakura remembered why exactly they were fighting.

She considered Friend Hearting them, but it was best to see what the others did first. After all they weren’t driven mad by Galeem, they were attacking them because of real genuine loyalty to a cause they believed in. There was a pretty big chance they would just arrest her again, and there’s no way she can beat them twice in a row.

”Phew! Teeheehee!” With an exhale and a giggle, Sakura skipped to join the others if they needed help in their battle, or just to reunite with them. How invigorating! Sakura was plenty beat-up but her grin was wider than it usually was.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 14/100
Location: Suoh
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 15/100

Sakura grimaced and gagged, pulling her fist from the disgusting growth on the back of a Bile Pool. Relief and salvation as it mercifully turned to dust, including the goo between her fingers. ”Thank goodness for that. Imagine how much money this city saves on clean-up. Not to mention my sanity.” Sakura said, shaking her wrist to get the dust off her. It was a fierce bout, but a Seeker could really get into the rhythm of monster slaying. Soon they were chewing through them all like delicious potato chips. One after the other after the other. Sakura didn’t make it through entirely unscathed. A few stray hits ruined her streak every now and again. But a constant low level of aching was something she was accustomed too, even welcomed, and it wouldn’t reduce her performance. Not yet. It always took a little more than that to draw her blood.

While she was riding high on saving people and working with her friends, it was time for a humbling crash down to reality. Heart-rate and breathing elevated, she came to a stop as she and a group of the Seekers were face-to-face with another squad. And much to Sakura’s frustration, they were very keen on a fight. ”You’re not even going to let her talk?!” She exclaimed, offended on Hanabi’s behalf.

The other squad had just defeated a Major Other- in a way they had just worked together on the same team to defend the city. And now they turned on them just like that? Without even giving them a chance to speak? Did they really have so little trust in their own squadmate? They only did what they were told without a second thought. Then Sakura guessed her fists would have to do the talking.

Sakura snapped into her fighting position, bouncing on her feet, glaring at the opposition. It seemed like Gisu and Morris were looking to take on their old teammate. Sakura didn’t want Hanabi to be put in that position. Not just for her sake, but for the sake of the greater battle. They were already slightly outnumbered, if Hanabi struggled to fight her teammates the entire skirmish could fall apart.

Sakura would make herself known, then, to Gisu and Morris, bold and brash and ready to brawl. With a leap she interposed herself between Gisu and Hanabi.

”You blockheads wouldn’t know a traitor if you saw one every time you looked in a mirror! You don’t wanna talk it out? Fine! But you’ll find I’m much more fluent in ass-kicking than I am in English!” She punched her palm and slapped the sides of her head, peppy, snappy motions. She glanced over her shoulder at Hanabi for a brief second, making eye contact, silently asking for permission to fight in her place.

With that settled, she took flight, getting right into the action in her usual aggressive style. ”Let’s do it!” She gunned for the closer of the two, Gisu, first. She leapt forward and landed short, kicking out at Gisu’s knees and converting into a quick ”Hadoken!” to blast her off balance. Then she would attempt to jump clean over Gisu’s head and performing a flying Sakura Drop to close the distance against Morris and slam him out of his floating state and onto the ground.

Regardless of outcome, Sakura would lose a bit of her gumption on closer inspection. ”H-how old are you two, anyway?” She asked, a bead of sweat going down the side of her face.

World of Light

Karin Level 6: 42/60
Location: Quarantine Valley
Word Count:
Points Gained: 1 +7
New EXP Balance---

Karin Level 6: 50/60

---

Karin was very pleased that the matter worked itself out. ”If only everything here made as much sense as the Hermits. Thank you very much for your help.” Karin said with a respectful bow. With that she joined the others in the streets.

They split up to search for clues, and Karin heard some very interesting findings from the others. What she ended up doing was mostly hopping from rooftop to rooftop with her grappling hook. She encountered a few stray Others along the way.

”Ugly little pests. The only thing you’re good for is practice.” Karin said, as a Paw sized her up on a dark rooftop and then surged forward. A few Rummies nearby joined in. There was a scattering of metal pieces and woodchips, the slicing of clawed steel through empty air.

”...And stress relief, I suppose.”Karin said, examining her fingernails. Though she was annoyed. While, one could argue she had been useful by making sure these rooftop Others didn’t ambush her teammates, Karin wasn’t the type to be ‘production’ as it were. Still, even though she had eyes on the mysterious shelter, there wasn’t much she could do against ‘Red levels’. It was like entering a place with disease inside. While the Kanzuki family had many techniques against clearing toxins from the body, they weren’t exactly easily accessible on the field of battle or without certain ingredients. And doubtful they’d be helpful against whatever supernatural phenomenon lay inside that building. A shelter, Sandalphon called it.

Instead she just scouted the shelter, circling around the outside using her hook. No windows.

But she did find a particularly heavy door. Well. It wouldn’t hurt if she took a little look, right? Karin opened the door- well, she tried too. Her hand didn’t even budge it.

”Challenge me, door?” Karin asked, raising an eyebrow. Wiping her hands she braced herself, and focused. The door began to slide open. Karin stopped, smiled, and then peaked inside.

”Hello? Anyone home? I don’t mean to intrude…” She peaked her eye into the gap. It was…dark. Very dark. But something shifted in the shadows. An arrow flung and struck against the door, narrowly missing Karin’s eye, who backed up with a start.

”Oh, my.” Karin said. There was the sound of pounding feet, and something about it told her it was inhuman. From the narrow gap of moonlight she saw an inhuman face under a hood running at her. Karin frowned and really threw her back into it this time- she slammed the door shut and withdrew as several bodies tossed themselves at the door from the other side, resounding clangs against the metal.

”R-right. Unwelcome to visitors, then.” Karin said, retreating to another rooftop. It was a terrible plague, really. Karin pushed the haunting thoughts out of her mind, so that she could continue to be a productive member of the Seekers.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 12/100
Location: Suoh
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 13/100

Sakura took a deep breath, trying to focus on the battle ahead. Despite Peach being confirmed as safe, the pressure to save her was greater than ever before. There was no way she could let her down. It was good, at least, to be out of that hospital.

But the moment of peace didn’t last long, not only was there an Other attack, but they were suddenly made public enemy number one. ”Oh, come on! We didn’t do anything wrong!”

But Luka was right- people needed help from Others right now! There was more of them than Sakura had ever seen. Others that gave her trouble when she teamed up with Karin were now in great multitudes. Everyone had a part to play. Sakura wasn’t particularly confident in her ability to take on so many monsters, especially the Yawns. She decided to focus on protecting the bystanders.

A woman was being attacked by a Rummy, and Sakura managed to get to this civilian first with a flying kick to send the monster away. She was on the ground. “M-my leg!”

Sakura grabbed her shoulder and lifted her up, patting her on the back and performing Tag-Out. ”Go! I’ll cover you!” With a minor boost to her speed and vitality (which was actually quite a lot to her given her average person status) the woman fled from the battle and Sakura surged ahead, slamming into the Rummy and sending it flying into a nearby Bile Pool. The Rummy sprung forth, but Sakura was faster, crashing her fists into it and breaking its artificial wooden body to pieces. As for the Pool, she avoided its spit and punted it like a football to the next street over.

”Goal!” Sakura shouted with a smile. She couldn’t help but be impressed by herself sometimes.

Sakura pushed up with the others, running and dodging and spin kicking her way through the chaos to push through. She ended up a short distance behind Roxas. His defiant statement earned a ”Yeah!” from Sakura and she followed up his charge with one of her own.

World of Light

Karin Level 6: 45/60
Location: Quarantine Valley
Word Count:
Points Gained: 1 -3
New EXP Balance---

Karin Level 6: 42/60

---

The Hermits descended upon the Seekers, and the Seekers rose to meet them. Karin was smiling, confident about their victory and in a good mood about an old-fashioned brawl. Karin dashed and intercepted a Masked Swordsman, Bernavas. He raised his massive blade and swung as she approached. She stopped short, the blade slicing through the air in front of her nose and ruffling her hair coils.

”Shall we?” Karin said, extending a palm. Bernavas’s eyes were cool and collected, and he only responded by letting the hooked point of his sword rest against the floor. An aggressive fighting stance, meant for summoning as much power into a swing as quick as possible. Once again, Karin surmised she was battling an aggressive opponent. Fortunately, Karin was adaptable. She had already gone against a similar foe earlier today.

And swing he did, his blade trailing with blue crackling electricity. Karin frowned as she retreated from the strikes. Electricity and her didn’t play well- it messed with her ki. She would just have to be extra careful not to be struck.

He had massive range, with elegant twirls resulting in powerful swings. Karin let one scrape painfully across her forearms before she decided there would be no more of that. Bernavas hid it well, but he was surprised when she leapt ten feet in the air over his next strike and landed behind him. He brought his sword around but she stopped it dead in its tracks with a palm thrust to the ribcage that combo’d into a barrage of attacks that ended with her sliding forward, both of her feet crashing painfully into his shin.

”Hmm!” She rose, amused, having the swordsman on the backfoot. As she moved to approach be rolled along the ground, and somehow gathered the momentum to swing with one hand. She ducked underneath it and pushed forward. He dodged several punches and parried her kick, and jabbed the sharp pommel of his blade into her bare belly. Karin winced and swatted it away and tilted her chin back as he thrust it towards her head.

Now he had her at range again, but as he pushed forward, she closed in. There was a sweet spot that he wanted to maintain, and with each careful step Karin was making sure he couldn’t.

As he lifted his sword into the air, there was a tremendous gathering of blue energy. He brought the blade down and seemed to aim to blow her to smithereens with beams from above. Karin had tricks up her sleeve too. Using her EX-Meter she blitzed forward, a forward leaning blur, crossing the distance between them in a moment and in two steps. ”Orochi!”

She turned and converted all that momentum into a back-attack, slamming herself bodily, stopping them both in their tracks. Winded, he was vulnerable to a series of kicks and strikes that refused to let him hit the ground. She flashed with power once more to extend the combo, and made sure to strike his wrist to remove that troublesome greatsword from his grip.

He rolled back to his feet, but in hand-to-hand while he could no doubt handily defeat the above average fighter, he was thoroughly outmatched by the Kanzuki. Catching his arm she flattened him against the ground, keeping his arm restrained.

”Well fought!” She said. ”Though, in my opinion, your blade is much too large to be practical against a fighter such as myself.” She advised quite haughtily.

Karin saw Geralt Friend Heart his opponent, and Karin tilted her head to the side. Producing a Friend Heart, she dropped it into him like a bag of tea into a cup, healing his injuries and revealing the truth of the world to him.

Even the steely Bernavas reacted with a widening of his eyes as he stood to his feet, rejecting Karin’s extended hand.

”Well, that’s quite alright. Now what?” Karin asked, turning to see how the others were faring and what the Hermits were thinking.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

---

The family call was lots of screaming, yelling, and a few ‘I told you so’s’ on her father’s part. Though Beatriz had to remind him not to take credit for her hard earned victory, world-class encouragement be damned. Well, that’s all a part of being a parent, she supposed.

Beatriz was still in her fighter’s outfit, and she was raiding the buffet line. She was so eager to eat she nearly forgot to take out her tooth guard. Singing and rapping to herself, she bounced down the line, bobbing her head around. No one had interviewed her, but she hadn’t sought one out; the thought of interviewing hadn’t really crossed her mind. If she had been paying attention this was probably proof that she didn’t really care about fame. But she wasn’t really paying attention to much at all- she was still riding her victory high. So when she turned she bumped into someone who was much more likely to both receive and participate in an interview.

”Shit, s-sorry-” Bea said moving her plate to prevent most of her food from falling off.

Fortunately the five second rule meant that Bea was quick enough to put her chicken wing back on her plate after brushing it off. Phew!

“… Awww you nasty as fuck,” None other than Jaden Raldo spoke. He teleport in a puff of smoke and appeared to the side as he continued, “Know the five-second rule is bullshit, right? There’s dookie on the flo’.”

Beatriz jumped, her face flushing red. ”Huh, what?” She moved her plate away from Jaden so he couldn’t see it anymore. She looked at him and worse, recognized him. Eyes wide, she froze and then laughed uncomfortably. ”M-me?”

Jaden looked to the left, then to the right, before focusing on Beatriz, “Yeah, who els-” He paused when he finally realized something. “... You’re a fuckin’ kid! Oh lord, they let everyone in this tournament, don’t they?”

Beatriz quickly turned and slid her chicken wing into a nearby trash can. ”U-um, I- y-yeah, it's an open bracket.” She replied, still too shocked about the food situation and Jaden’s general force of personality to reply to him in anything other than the most literal way.

“... And you expect to win? Bruh, some of the Nomads here,” He spread his arms out, turning his torso from the left and to the right. “They been training they whole lives just for this tournament.

One could almost hear the gears shifting back into motion in Bea’s head. ”So? Me, too.” She said, the first signs of defensiveness in her voice.

“All fourteen years?”

”All seventeen!” Beatriz protested, and then realized how childish that sounded. ”Fuck man, whatever! You’re not that much older than me.” She said. She wanted to cross her arms or gesture in some way, but she was still just holding this plate of food.

“What do you think will happen if you somehow… lord lemme stop. Somehow, by some miracle, get the Power Stone? Err’body gonna be on yo ass!”

”What? I- I dunno. It’s just a stupid rock, who gives a shit?” Bea asked defensively, turning away slightly. She took a bite of one of her remaining chicken wings in protest.

“Not just any stupid rock, but one of THE most saught after artifact in the whole world.”

”Then I’ll put it in a fuckin’ museum- or better yet go chuck it in the landfill. What do you think about that?” Beatriz said as she chewed, raising her eyebrows

Jaden shrugged.

“Hey, if you’re gonna do all that, might as well give it to ol’ dude!”

”Huh?” Bea squinted. ”Old dude? Meu pai?”

Jaden facepalmed.

”I’m talking about me, ya’ di-”

“Jaden.”

He heard a voice behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see Captain Cole, with his number two Violet next to him. Her robotic hands dangling down.

“Don’t you have better things to do than harass kids? God, I can see why I threw you off my ship.” Captain Cole facepalmed.

“I didn’t want to be apart of yo’ little ass pirates anyway,” Jaden responded to Cole.

“You see a child, I see potential…” Captain Cole walked past Jaden and walked over to Beatriz and he extended a hand to her.

“Hello, I am Captain Cole, leader of the Cole pirates, and I’ll have you know you don’t want to be associating with riff-raff like him.” He spot a sharp gaze to Jaden.

“Riff-raff? Ninja please,” Jaden threw his hands down as he added on, “Don’t you got a million dollar bounty on yo’ head? Surprised they ain’t tried to cut ya’ down the second ya’ walked through the door!”

Beatriz was feeling smaller by the second, as she was dwarfed by two more larger-than-life personalities. It didn’t help that she was also physically the shortest. Captain Cole- the Captain Cole, of (nearly) moon-theft fame, walked up to her and offered to shake her hand. Her mouth open, she reached out and shook his hand. Her eyes flitted over to Violet, looked away, flitted back, and then made extra sure not to look back a third time.

“You can look, sweetie,” Violet laughed, “It’s only natural, you’re in awe of this much woman.”

”... Or crazy.” Jaden added.

”Uhhh…h-hi…I’m Beatriz.” She responded to Captain Cole, star struck. Again. Jaden might not have noticed but Beatriz definitely recognized him from his career as a musician as well. She wiped the crumbs off her lips.

“Beatriz… it’s great to meet you,” Captain Cole softly spoke as he firmly shook her hand. “Yes, the Power Stone is just a rock, but one that many eyes are on… primarily because currently it’s the only Power Stone in play.”

Beatriz shook her head, electing to focus on Captain Cole and not the scary pretty lady behind him. ”Y-yeah, great to meet you, too.” There was no way, of course, that it was great to meet her. It was nice, at best.
”Look, man, uh, sir, I don’t know nothin’ about no power stone. I’m just here for the tournament.” Beatriz explained, rubbing the back of her head, giggling sheepishly.

“You’re a fighter I see… and just a fighter,” Captain Cole said, “There’s a lot of your types in the tournament.”

”Shit, I’d hope so. It’s a fighting tournament, after all. I thought there’d be more just fighters. If I’m being honest.” She said.

”I didn’t even know there was more than one. Can a rock really make you more powerful? Just a plain old rock?” She asked. He was here, talking to her about it. She felt compelled to try and participate in the conversation, somehow. Though she realized she might just be making herself look stupid by asking basic questions. ”Seems like cheating.” She said, still with a nervous smile.

“It’s less of a rock and more of a gem… nobody knows how it works, it just output extreme amounts of ki, mad scientists fight over them so they can power their doomsday weapons,” Captain Cole shrugged, “And there were nine of them… but hundreds of years ago; two Nomads gathered four of the Power Stones each and they couldn’t decide who the last Power Stone went to….”

He placed a hand on his chin as he continued, “So, on a place known as Dinosaur Island, the two battled for the final stone… unfortunately, nobody told those idiots to be careful: they accidentally destroyed each other’s Power Stones and here we are: fighting over one.”

Beatriz took in the tale. ”D-dinosaur Island…y-yeah that seems like a pretty bad call on their part.” She laughed.

”They say Dinosaur Island is an island… of Dinosaurs. And treasures. Riches far as the eye can see, yo!“ Jaden injected. ”Dinosaur island is just a myth, no one has ever found it!

”So after all that, it just ends up as a prize in an annual fighting tournament? After all that doomsday shit?” She scratched the back of her head.

Captain Cole shrugged.

“The Power Stone changes hands a lot, it’s always been that way…”

”This dickhead tried to use it to steal the moon with it one time! Jaden laughed. ”He got stopped by MAVERICK, and I think the Justice Riders, too!”

Captain Cole groaned,

“But, how about this, Beat - mind if I call you that? - I seen your fight with Brenda…” Captain Cole started, “... I see a place for you on my ship.”

”Don’t do it, bro! Jaden started off with a smile, ”They gon’ put a price on yo’ head!”

”Oh-” Bea was startled by the offer, glancing over at Jaden before looking back at Cole. ”Oh, no, no fucking way, dude!” She exclaimed, in a tone that was only half-humorous.

”My mom would kill me!” She shook her head rapidly. ”B-but thank you?” She added, still quite flattered by the offer and what it said about how he perceived her combat skills. Bea let out a little laugh.

“HAHAHAHA!” Violet vociferously laughed as she clutched her stomach and wiped a tear away. “You’re still worried about mommy?”

Violet raised both of her claws, “You have to carve your own path, sweetie. You won’t be hanging off her teat forever!”

Bea was startled by the laugh, but the follow-up comments caused her eyes to narrow. ”Did I ask? No. Was I even talkin’ to you? No.” She held her plate in one hand.

”Definitely not joining.” She said to Cole, like Violet’s existence just confirmed it for her.

Violet stepped forward to say something else but Captain Cole raised his hand to silence her. Only to point towards the stage, which the Announcer was already on.

”.... ARRRE YOU READY FIIIIIIGHTERS? THE NEXT ROUND BEGINS NOW!”

“… we have more important matters to attend to,” Captain Cole said as he adjusted his suit. “Such as acquiring the Power Stone.”

Captain Cole took a step away, but gave Bea a look as he said, “… My offer still stands.”

Then they walked away. Which left Jaden shrugging with that cocky grin on his face,
”Duty calls! But it’s great ta’ see that ya’ got pluck!” Jaden started,, ”Maybe one day, when ya’ grow up, you’ll be close to the mighty Jaden, Raldo! Ha!””

Then he teleported in a cloud of smoke.

Bea blinked and let out a breath. ”Man, what the fuck. Just trying to eat.”

World of Light

Karin Level 6: 45/60
Location: Quarantine Valley - Sector V
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance---

Karin Level 6: 46/60

---

Karin finally met back up with the others when they reached Sector V, having missed Goldlewis’s little adventure into another dimension by a corner turn or two. Fortunately all parties involved made it out right as rain, especially Wind Chimes whose run in with Goldlewis was probably the luckiest moment of her life, right after probably her unluckiest.

Karin was always good with the commoners. As a child she learned to walk among them, and to…control them. Of course she’s well beyond that phase of her life now that she calls one of them her closest friend. Hopefully. While they knew where they needed to be, they had time to kill and time to explore. Find out more about the anti-redshift drugs, the Hermits, the Reunion. And learn a little more about Sector V. It was quaint. A nice little neighborhood. Still, it was obvious they were being failed by their government.

Splitting off from the others, Karin turned on the charm once more and approached what looked like a shop in a central area. No guards or anything, not from what she could see. Either the entire Sector was safe, or this place in particular was well-respected.

”Well, hello there, sir.” Karin said. ”I see you’ve got some wares for sell. Whenever I enter a new place I always find it best to sample the local products, yes? Really get immersed! Mind if I have a look?” She said, perusing.

She ended up purchasing a Verdant Tea. ”And by local product, clearly I must mean the local tea. I believe you can judge a lot about a place by the quality of it’s tea!” She exclaimed, holding the green bottle and observing it with both hands. Karin was still doing decent on liquid currency, of course. Though she had much less than she preferred without her staff around. She uncorked it and took a sip.

”Oh, my. How smooth. Earthy, even. This must be how cows think grass tastes. I mean that as a compliment. It’s quite delicious!” Satisfied with her purchase even without the additional benefits the tea would provide, she pocketed it for now.

”Though, you know, I’ve only been here a short while and even I can’t help but notice who ‘runs’ this place, as it were. The…Hermits, is it? A bit of an odd name. Having there be Hermits, plural, is a bit of an oxymoron, don’t you think? I suppose it doesn’t matter, as long as they treat the people well.” She mused.

”Do they? Treat you all quite well?” She asked.

World of Light

Beacon Pre-checkout

Midna’s @DracoLunaris, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey, Pit’s @Yankee, Roxas’ @Double
Word Counter: 3563
EXP Gained: +4

Quite a lot happened in short succession, leaving the team with new, free, friends, and an explanation as to why they were here, and why Peach was not.

”I think we have a few things we need to resolve here first” Midna said once the newly arrived Crenshaw had said his piece, before listing them off ”Like the monstrous doll maker outside, the person in the next room who’s had their limbs cut off, her” she pointed at the still knocked out Painwheel ”Oh, and also I am bleeding from way to many places and I need someone to fix this thing” she finally added as she summoned her Vibrava (which had a massive gash in its back) from the twilight realm, before belated adding ”Please” to her request.

”Heal!” came the voice of Roxas without even missing a beat. His MP had just finished charging and therefore he was able to cast Curaga again in order to treat the wounds that Midna and her Pokemon had sustained, ”And by the way,” he added afterward, ” I’m still confused over here. Am I the only one?”

"Nope, I am too!" Pit said, looking around at the general destruction of the lab and the people going about collecting brains. While he seemed perturbed at the sight, and Midna’s mention of a limbless victim, he was ready for answers. For now Gemma, Luka, Yuito, and Hanabi stood off to the side for a debriefing of their own, so the Seekers had free reign to sort through the aftermath for themselves.

The princess breathed a little sigh of relief and stood straighter after being healed, no longer having to support herself with her spear, and then offered Roxas ”my thanks”. On the ground, her Vibrava fluttered back into wakefulness and then gave the hero a few chirps of its own thanks before it hopped up to ride on its mistress's shoulder.

”I know enough to say we should 100% burn this place to the ground once we’ve evacuated its victims, though not all the specifics” she then replied to his question, before stashing her spear and going to collect the weapons she’d dropped during the fight.

Sakura had her arms crossed, thinking about the Dexio and Sina situation. Still generally avoiding eye contact with Gemma. ”I’m glad you’re feeling better, Midna-san.” Sakura said.

”Maybe we could give her a Friend Heart?” She said, walking over to Painwheel. ”And the person with all their limbs cut off is…dead? Or alive?” She asked reluctantly.

”Alive. I think there’s some beeping machines doing it. Tubes and things go from them and into their body. Or taking something. Or monitoring. I really don’t know, it’s out of my area of expertise” she explained, before considering the fallen form of Painwheel ”As for her, the coward kept shocking her with lightning to make her obey, so she’s presumably no fan of his. I can’t guarantee she won’t go berserk straight away”

She was silent for a moment before adding ”and by that I mean we should be careful and ready for it to go wrong, not that we shouldn’t do it” before she started to recharge her sun on a stick (having re-collected it while they were talking, along with her remaining clever) preparing to use it as a stun rod again if she had too.

Sakura wasn’t looking forward to seeing what happened to that person in the other room. ”Right, right. Well, it’s like they say: First thing’s first. The Friend Heart fixed Dexio-san and Sina-san. It can probably fix her, too. That brainy guy was being pretty cruel.” She said, to which Midna nodded in agreement.

”Glad you’re up for it, Midna-san. Is everyone up for it?” Sakura looked around at the others.

"Yeah, let's do it. Even if it doesn't fix fix her, it's only right to give her a chance." As he spoke, Pit produced the mentioned friend heart. Now that he'd successfully done this to Sina, he was actually eager to do it again. Of course he didn't know how much of her condition, mental or physical, was due to experimentation done here or what the girl would turn out like afterward. Still, better to be crazy and free than crazy and brainwashed. Probably.

When he bestowed the heart upon Painwheel, it took effect immediately, patching up all her wounds and rousing her from her peaceful oblivion. Unlike Dexio and Sina, however, she didn’t change one bit visually. She remained every bit as bony and scrawny, with blackened veins pumping Gae Bolga through sallow skin, and that ratty mask sewn into her face. This, unfortunately, must be her ‘iconic state’. The eyes that peered out from it were red even without Galeem’s influence, and for a couple seconds they blinked in confusion. When she noticed the people around her, she jerked away with a growl like a feral animal, backing off until she was far enough to safely make a break for the elevator. She evidently had no interest in sticking around.

Pit scratched the back of his head, discarding the idea of going after her. "No 'thank you?' "

”Oh- okay! Bye!” Sakura called out. She gave Pit a reassuring pat on the shoulder. ”Well, we did a good thing, I think. She doesn’t seem to be the social type anyway.”

He smiled back up at her. "Heh, I think so too. Okay, so that's one thing down. Oh wait, two things. So now..." One of his hands was held up, his thumb and pointer finger tucked in showing three more items on the agenda. "...doll maker, patient, and, uh."

The next part he said somewhat sheepishly, glancing between the people remaining in the room. "Maybe a recap of what exactly's going on?"

Splinter factions, Supernatural Life, P-Types, personality reprogramming, conspiracies… He’d come with Luka initially to try and help save Peach, and this was all quite a lot for the angel's brain, especially since he was still trying to make sense of Midgar's other goings on.

”Could we narrow that question down to just what is going on here? I think we’ll get a bigger picture once we head to the rebels’ base camp” Midna suggested as she popped the sun on a stick away now that Painwheel had run off (she hoped the others were right, and they hadn’t just unleashed a monster on the world above), pulled out a musket and started reforming her second set of magic arms, preparing to confront a certain doctor if he hadn’t already run for the hills as well.

”For the record, I agree with Midna.” Roxas chimed in, ”This creepy place needs to be bulldozed or something. How could anyone allow the kinds of stuff going on here?” he added with a small shudder. Some of this was bringing back memories of DiZ’s lab in the Twilight Town Mansion. And those were not things he was all that eager to recall.

”Guys?” He said with a whisper low enough for only the Seekers to hear, ”If they’re snatching up Pokemon and fusing them with people to create recruits, then… Well, am I the only one wondering where Bede is right now?”

”Psychic ones were entirely illegal, so your not the only one worrying about that, trust me” Minda whispered back ”After we link up with these rebels, and see what their deal is, and Peach’s situation, I suggest we track down one of the city’s pokemon control squads and get the location of where they are taking the ones they catch. He might be there. That or wherever they imprison people”

”Sounds good, count me in.” Roxas whispered back with a quick thumbs up. Of course, they needed to sort out the business at this Hospital first. And hear what those rebels had to say, too. ”By the way, what do we know about those rebel guys, anyway?” Roxas then asked, having no idea who those people were and was hoping maybe one of the Scarlet Guardians in the room had an answer.

”They have Peach, to try and help her, not hold her hostage or anything and they don’t like what the main branch of PSYCH-OSF’s doing with turning people into Others, doing whatever they did to those two we just freed, and whatever else is going on here. Seems like a good page to be on, and I haven’t heard anything that would sour me to working with them yet, and given that I spied on them for a bit when they took peach, I’m fairly confident in my read on them” Midna explained, while she started to move towards the door leading back into the giant doctor’s doll making room to see if she could spot him or not.

While she did that, and after making sure there were no sudden surprise enemies that needed taking care of, Pit went over to join the Psych-OSF members in order to get caught up to speed on what they knew and were willing to tell him.

After going back though the smaller, more run-down prototype STEM chamber, Midna reached the operating room, its double doors slightly ajar. A tentative peek confirmed that the Doctor wasn’t present, either on the ceiling or otherwise. It would have been counterproductive to flee from the fight beneath the Brainframe only to stop a couple hundred feet away, after all. Instead the chamber lay in ominous silence, a half-finished Patient sprawled out on the table. This one appeared to be a female torso, shrouded in bandages and a drab green button-up, with what looked like a gramophone protruding from the collar. One arm was missing, while the other had a white plastic prosthetic from the elbow down tipped with two coat hanger hooks. One leg looked like plastic armor, while the other featured a metal peg leg tipped with a plunger.

”Uhhh…” Sakura blinked, staring at the patient. She had no idea what she was looking at. This was either truly terrible, or actually not that bad. ”That might just be what she’s supposed to look like? She’s got a…record player for a head.” Sakura said flatly, gesturing at the patient.

After double checking that there weren't any ambushes waiting to be sprung by the absentee villains, and confirming that they really had just run for the hills, Midna stepped into the room proper.

”It’s certainly … different” she semi-agreed with Sakura, though her main concern was with the actual living breathing person who was still in the hospital, rather than whatever fresh monstrosity had been in the process of being made, and so swiftly crossed the room and re-entered the life support filled room she had been in earlier. She was greeted by the sound of monitor beeps, and still heavy breathing.

”Wha-? Oh, wait, that’s not who we’re saving?” Sakura hurried to catch up to Midna.

The dark room lit up with the pink glow of a heart the princess formed with a tap of her chest, before she approached and pulled open the curtains once more. ”Hey, I’m back, and I’ve got a way to fix you and get you out of here. This might be a bit disorientating, but you’re going to be alright” she insisted, before applying the heart and then preparing to pull the various cables and tubes out if that was necessary. Instead, the heart pinged off the Patient and dispersed, the spiritual cost to make it refunded.

”Wha- what?” was all that Midna could muster for a moment, before she found ample breath to shout ”What? How?! Look how hurt they are, why did that not work?!” while throwing her hands up in the air in a mix of confusion, frustration and straight up horror.

Sakura was having a hard time looking at the poor person, peeking through her fingers and hoping it would all be over soon and they’d be happy and healthy. Instead, all she got was a very frustrated Midna.

”Huh? I don’t- I don’t know.” Sakura said, disappointed. Her shoulders sagged. Putting a hand up against her forehead, she tried to think of a solution.

”If Blazermate-san was here…” Sakura said, letting the thought trail off. She stared at the person and her empathy demanded she draw closer, so she obliged.

”You don’t- you don’t think they’re already not Galeem-y do you?” She asked, pointing at their face that was covered in bandages. ”We can’t see their eyes.” She said. The staticky breathing gave her a faint hope it might be just a Halloween prop, but she dismissed that particular wish as naive.

Now that Sakura mentioned it, they couldn’t, Midna realized, but also ”Isn’t it bright enough that it might shine through?” she asked rhetorically, before raising a shadow hand and covering the light, plunging the room into darkness, and confirming there was none.

”That’s…” she wasn’t sure what to make of that, and so felt compelled to make absolutely sure, forming a single dragon claw and slipping it under a bandage, cutting and pulling to try and expose one of the eye sockets to the light, dreading what she would find. The eye she exposed bore no superficial abnormalities, but on closer inspection it didn’t seem quite right, either. It looked glassy, unfocused and dull, without any reflected light, and it didn’t react whatsoever to Midna’s presence or touch. Though the eye blinked, just as the body breathed, she found it impossible to say whether this body possessed any sort of intellect or awareness at all. Like someone in a coma.

”That’s. Weird” she decided after staring into the eye for a few moments, entirely unsure as to what to make of this.

Sakura fully lowered her hands from her face again and stood on her tippy toes. She was clearly unhappy about this entire situation. ”Maybe they’re getting prepped for surgery?” Gingerly she reached over and tried to draw the bandages back over the eye, grimacing the entire time.

”I really don’t know what to do. We need an ambulance or something, Midna-san. Doctors.” She said, fretting, tapping her fingers together. ”We can’t just leave them here if we’re going to bulldoze the place. But it is still a hospital. We can’t exactly move them! They’re all hooked up!” Sakura said.

”And why aren’t they Galeem-y? No way it’s a Seeker, right?” Sakura asked.
Sakura made sure her connection to the SAS was turned back on. Can we call some doctors or healers or something? Someone here is really messed up, looks like they are on life support. She said to her superiors, like Gemma, if they were still nearby.

After a few seconds the soldier replied to her via Brain Talk. ”I suppose we could call for an ambulance. But given what we went through getting down here, bringing paramedics or other civilians here might endanger more lives than we’d save. Plus, the fact that Dexio and Sina came after us means that New Himuka knows we’re here. Once those two don’t report in, who knows what might happen.” His allusion to the Patients and the danger they presented brought to mind the fact that this unfortunate soul appeared to be another Patient in all aspects except pulse.

Ah.Right. Thank you anyway, sir. Sakura said.

Sakura held her elbow behind her back, and was silent for a few moments. ”The breathing sounds weird. The eyes aren’t Galeem-y. Maybe it’s…too late for this person? Were all those things out there people, once, too, Midna-san?” Sakura asked.

As Sakura had been braintalking Midna had been trying to work out exactly what she was looking at. There was something just, off, about the eye. In doing so, she had ended up looking over the machines again, checking there before started, well, carving off more bandages, and in doing so had come across one that seemed to display an outline of the patient, as well might be their insides (Midna had no idea what an x-ray machine was, but that was what she was looking at), upon which she saw an empty cranium, with no brain inside.

”Maybe but. Just. Look at this” Midna replied at last after staring at the image for several seconds trying to process it, wanting a second opinion.

”Mm?” Sakura peered over Midna’s shoulder. ”Oh! It’s an X-ray.” She tapped the strange paper. ”It looks like they don’t have a brain.” Sakura said with a frown.

”...Anymore.” Sakura said with a horrified little wince, thinking about the many, many brains she saw in the other room. ”Ugh.” She shuddered.

”It’s definitely too late. They aren’t a Seeker, it’s just almost like they don’t even count as a person anymore.” Sakura said.

”Oh good, you know what this is” Minda replied, referring to the machine, before commenting ”I guess this more or less proves that a person is the brain then, but why hasn’t it turned to ash? I mean wouldn’t removing the brain kill…” she paused, then started speaking her thought process out loud several things together at once

”That psychic person you were talking to and I took down was just a brain in a machine… they’ve been removing peoples brains… the bodies are still here, just like how the bodies of the machines which had those black boxes didn’t dissolve … Maybe they used the bodies for … something. Maybe it was the dolls … Hang on … Wait … so are the brains Crenshaw is taking alive?!” she’d just sort of glossed over that when he’d said that they’d been stealing brains, but now she really, really wanted to know what was going on. Because she could not fathom ” What in the world would anyone want or need to reduce people to just their brains for?”

Sakura’s skull felt itchy from all the brain talk. The brunette scratched at her head uneasily. ”Well. He said they were donated but I'm not sure if I believe him. The only way you could do that in this world is if you found a whole lot of comatose people on the organ donor list. For this hospital? Seems unlikely.” Sakura shook her head, looking a little green around the gills.

”Ugh, God.” She put a hand up to her forehead that was slick with sweat.

”And the people who did this are still out there” Minda growled, mentally kicking herself being a big part of that, declaring ”I should have killed him when I had the chance” before punching a random machine in frustration.

Then she caught herself, breathed in, breathed out, and decided ”We can at least make sure they can never use this place again” before drawing here obsidian fire ax in preparation to burn it all down.

”We’ll get him next time, Midna-san.” Sakura said succinctly. She raised her eyebrows at the fire axe. ”Alright. Let’s do it.” She broadcasted over all psychic lines.

We’re tearing this place down now! With that she turned and smashed a random machine herself, crushing into the metal, sending buttons flying and glass shards scattering, instantly rendering the machine useless.

”I hope they didn’t buy insurance.”

As the life support machine sparked and died, the patient convulsed slightly, gasping out his last breath. Although the heart monitor no longer functioned, the two didn’t need it to realize that the patient was flatlining. Overhead, the lights flickered, affected by this place’s barely-functional electrical grid.

”O tto.”

As the lights outside flickered back on, a soft creak issued through the room from behind Midna and Sakura. When they looked, they found a inhuman silhouette, backlit, standing stock-still in the open doorway, with two mismatched legs, a missing left arm, and an unnatural brass head. A moment later, the overhead light flickered again, and when the pair glanced at the hospital bed, the dead patient was sitting up.

Shrinking her head into her shoulders, Sakura sheepishly turned to look at Midna, eyes wide.

”Midna-san, I just had a thought. Do you think these things will escape if the building falls down?” Sakura asked, voice quiet.

”I don’t know but let’s solve this first” Minda replied much more quickly, before slapping the rising patient with her ax, igniting it in flames for seven seconds, and then pulling out and smashing it over the head with a bottle of dwarven rotgut she had been holding onto since their climb of the split mountain. The lethally high alcohol content drink splashed over the doll and bedding it was laying on, offering perfect fuel for an actual fire to ignite, instead of just the on a timer fire her ax created.

Sakura winced, not getting a chance to complete her thought out loud. ”Because if we burn it down- okay. It’s probably fine. Let’s go.” They had to go out the way they came in. Sakura tried to use her telekinesis to move the patient in the doorway out of the way, reaching out her hand and concentrating. If she managed to scrape it along the floor she would slip out, gesturing for Midna to follow her, which she did.

”M’kay, m’kay, good good good. Here we go.” Sakura said uneasily. ”We’re leaving! We’re leaving now!” She yelled, her voice echoing through the halls so every non-psychic nearby could hear her. Then it was just a matter of meeting up with the others and getting the heck out.

World of Light

Sakura Level 10: 11/100
Location: Hospital
Word Count: short
Points Gained: 1
New EXP Balance--- Sakura Level 10: 12/100

Sakura shook her wrist as she punched into ice, her face falling a bit. It wasn’t good for her ki, the frost. She grunted as her forearms painfully absorbed the freezing impacts. She wasn’t fighting to kill, and Dexio certainly was.

Gemma had to remind her to use her SAS, and as Sakura was shoved away she rubbed her arms. ”R-right!” Pyrokinesis seemed like a pretty good idea to counter the frost. But the fight continued and Sakura had more than enough time to recover from the chill as Gemma and Dexio slugged it out while she remained on the side lines. She walked, hopping over seismic waves and dipping out of the way of stray blows. It would be dangerous to just charge headlong into the fight.

Dexio used teleport to get away, and Luka commanded everyone to ‘sever their connection’. This confused Sakura. She didn’t know what Luka-san meant by that, or why. If it was that important though, she would listen to his orders. ”Um, okay! ” Sakura squinted and turned off her connection to the SAS, leaving her with her telekinesis powers only.

It was going to be annoying, chasing Dexio around the place while he teleported. While the idea of using Luka’s power as well crossed her mind, she couldn’t without reconnecting to the SAS, and that was bad for some reason.

Instead, when Dexio teleported away and activated Brain Drive, Sakura steeled her resolve and chased him down. She spent an EX-Bar, enhancing her Sakura drop to turn herself into a homing missile of a fighter, zipping across the place and dropping down hard on Dexio’s head with her fists. She bounced and flipped over him, trying to kick out his shins and then slam into him with a spinning ”Shunpukyaku!” kick.

Knowing that he could teleport at any time, she tried to keep her options non-committal so she could defend herself or keep up the chase. But she was trying to be as offensive as possible. The reality was, she was probably going to get hit, but she hoped Gemma or Luka would be there to pick up the slack. And vice-versa, should one of them get knocked away. If Dexio was left to his own devices, he would bring the entire room down, so her own health took second priority to stopping Dexio from acting.

When Sakura got the chance, she would withdraw a Friend Heart and use a Focus to tank a swing from Dexio, her body emanating with black, inky energy. ”Yaaah!” She yelled from her Diaphragm as she pushed it forward.