[center][h3]Arahabaki - Dog Moms[/h3] [color=red]Giovanna[/color] / [color=Aquamarine]Midna’s[/color] [@DracoLunaris] vs [color=#0087BD]Erendira Quinn[/color] / [color=red]Commando[/color] / [color=red]Annette Durand[/color] / [color=lime]Parnell[/color] [b]Word Count:[/b] 5,823 (+6)[/center] Midna had dodged and weaved in pace with Giovanna, or rather her wolfos had, until they’d reached the conveyor belt. At that point, said wolfos got shown up by the agent’s own spectral wolf as she used it to burst ahead, while her own only made slow progress. Fortunately, the princess had other options, and so promptly decided to approach the problem from outside of the design parameters, by hurling herself off of the side of the conveyor, and then being caught by a swooping flygon that had replaced her wolfos, and upon its back taking to the skies. The pair swept forwards, rising up above the laser drones and blasting a few of them from on high to ease their allies running of the laser gauntlet, before swooping down to land down next to her. As she dismissed the flygon, Midna began to make a half jokey suggestion about Giovanna using the lovely little garden as a place to take a short rest, only to be interrupted when something came flying down from on high towards them. Midna took a half step back, concerned that whatever it was might be a bomb, before glancing at Giovanna and then copying her nonplussed response, assuming that she knew what the pod’s deal was. She had to admit, she was still a bit surprised when it turned out to be a personnel deliverer, but her mask/helmet combo covered the accompanying look. [color=Aquamarine]”Alive if we can?”[/color] she murmured in query to Giovanna as the bike wielding leader told them to stop or else, before summoning, catching, and starting to charge Hanabi’s old Prometheus polearm with electricity as her own equivalent of a taunt. The secret agent shrugged casually. “Sounds like a lotta extra hassle.” Dealing with brainwashed allies and friends was one thing, but these goons were choosing to fight -and possibly kill- her of their own volition. Turning sideways, almost backwards, she raised her hands with fingers splayed like claws and gave her foes a sidelong glance. Rei swirled behind her, teeth bared. “I’m not that picky.” [color=Aquamarine]”If we can”[/color] she reiterated. She wasn’t going to risk much, but there was an opportunity to disarm, or simply cripple and then run, she’d take it. Seeing the two ready to fight, Quinn turned up her nose. “Hmph. Very well. I don’t mind doing this the hard way.” Couching her lance in the crook of her left arm, she extended her right with a dramatic flourish. Behind her, the Commando flicked the safety off his machine pistols, while Parnell pumped his meaty-looking shotgun and Annette powered up her [url=https://i.imgur.com/awyPdp6.png]scatter laser[/url]. “Brynhildr!” Erendira cried, springing into the air. Beneath her, a wellspring of cosmic pink and blue energy manifested a sleek, supernatural motorcycle. When Erendira landed in the seat its engine roared and it shot forward in a burst of speed, an opalescent shield conjured before it. As Parnell and the others sprinted behind it, the enemy team’s tank raced across the battlefield with lance extended to scatter their opponent’s formation and leave them wide open. [color=Aquamarine]”Two can play at that game”[/color] Midna countered, summoning and mounting her wolfos steed with a burst of more subtle twilight glow. Then with electrically thrumming bo staff tucked under one shoulder, she counter charged, facing the biker to an impromptu joust that was entirely out of place. Said glorious bout was sadly interfered with when Annette thrust a seemingly empty hand towards Midna, or, rather, her steed, causing the wolfos to stumble for a moment as its mind was assailed by hallucinations. With the princess’s urging and tugs on its fur, it had enough confidence to charge on relatively blindly, but its mind was now ripe for further interference. It certainly wasn’t in a state to react to the Commando bashed one of his guns into one of several launchers he had strapped to his back, specifically one that was inexplicably made of [url=https://i.imgur.com/STnqrZ0.png]cardboard[/url] where as the rest where much [url=https://i.imgur.com/OV8JnS0.png]sleeker and modern[/url]. The built it yourself launcher proceeded to spit out a volley of 12 missiles that flew over the head of his charging comrade, and towards both of the seekers. While some dived down towards Midna, who had to manually tug her steed to and fro to barely avoid them (but not the edges of their splash radii which clipped her steed) the rest flew onwards and then down towards Giovanna. Part of Gio had wanted to jump astride her own lupine companion and charge at Erendira alongside Midna for a clash of epic proportions, but she wasn’t impulsive enough to heed that urge. Besides, she boasted neither a long lance nor an energy shield, so she didn’t feel confident giving the enemy tank a run for her money. Still, that motorcycle was badass, and as Gio dashed after Midna she kept her eyes on the opposition. If she intended to back her partner up, though, the Commando’s Seeker-seeking missiles further solidified Midna’s lead by forcing Gio to slide to a stop and block, which meant that when the two frontrunners came together, she couldn’t do much about what happened next. Erendira’s lance had the range and accuracy advantage in a situation tailor-made for thrust attacks, and any hope that Midna and her off-kilter mount might have of landing a counterhit came to an end against Brynhildr’s shield. The lance pierced the chest of the wolfos, turning its forward momentum into extra damage as Erendira lifted it off the ground. It flipped over and landed on its back, dragged across the artificial rock garden’s rough surface for a couple dozen feet before Erendira raised her lance to send the poor beast flying. “Sheesh.” Giovanna zig-zagged to avoid the makeshift projectile as she darted in, getting closer. Seeing her, Erendira swerved in order to drift straight into the secret agent with Brynhildr’s chassis. Gio narrowly jumped in time to avoid the maneuver, side-flipping right over Erendira’s head and striking a three-point landing on the motorcycle’s other side a second later. Her opponent came to a momentary stop out of melee range, but Gio had a way to hit her. She slammed the ground with a Seismic Hammer to cause a shockwave explosion beneath Brynhildr, but the move failed to unseat its rider. Engines revved, Erendira sped toward her. When Gio jumped, planning to bring down a dive kick and knock her foe from her seat Erendira eased off the gas and thrust her lance upward. It stabbed into Gio’s stomach, and Erendira performed a spin to whirl the agent around before launching her off the lance. She hit the ground and tumbled back onto her feet, one hand on her stomach. “Urk.” She ended up practically back to back with Midna, who was a bit roughed up from the unhorsing, as well as, thanks to portal shenanigans, the princess’ equally chest stabbed Wolfos. [color=Aquamarine]”Not the best start, so time flip the hourglass and start over”[/color] she declared, as she summoned her skywave striker, which immediately turned its gun to the floor and started a three shot volley of healing blasts. They needed to stick together to get optimum use of this however, which meant the enemy runners had plenty of time to close in. In response she brought out Roadblock, who raised a shield just in time to block a volley of pistol bullets, shotgun shrapnel, and a spread shot of laser blasts from them. From behind that cover, the princess returned fire using less than accurate pistol fire followed up by a twilight volleybomb that prompted the trio of close range assault specialists to scatter and take individual more covered protected approaches. All three took at least a little damage from the arcane explosion, so Parnell got a head start on healing. Mutagen Shotgun at the ready, he held his fire to wait for an opportunity to deal some of his own and charge his Heal Burst. This barrier did nothing to cover them from the bike riding Erendira however, who was in a perfect position to rear charge Midna’s defensive position. Knowing this, Giovanna turned to face her, a more serious than usual expression on her face. As crazy as work got for the Special Operations Unit, this was something she hadn’t trained for. Rather than charge straight at her, though, Erendira performed a wheelie and jumped her bike into the air with its rear tire engulfed in flame. “Better move.” Unable to protect Midna, she could only save herself by dashing away, and Erendira descended atop her motorcycle like a miniature meteor. After the fiery impact she bounced twice, chasing Gio down as the Commando peppered her with bullets. That’s where Erendira got a little overzealous, though. On the second bounce Gio got a bead on the timing, then leaped up toward the threat rather than dodging away. She met her foe in the air, vaulted around Brynhildr’s chassis with one hand, and did an airthrow. Her legs locked around Erendira’s neck and she twisted around, hurling the surprised woman off her ride and into the ground. The moment she landed she cannoned forward with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/y6RVR0h.png]Trovão[/url] flying kick, only for Erendira to right herself and resummon her motorcycle in front of her like a shield. As such Gio’s kick only knocked her back a little, and as the agent rose, Erendira mounted up. Unable to focus on one enemy like this, Giovanna clicked her tongue and dashed over to take cover behind a rock monument. [color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses this is not going smoothly”[/color] Midna complained through clenched teeth, having resisted some but not nearly all of the fire damage thanks to a charm on her rosary. Her wolfos really wasn’t doing well either, as she’d only managed to get limited healing off before their skywave got blown away by the flaming impact. At least Roadblock was still up, though it was about to not be. [color=Aquamarine]”Ok, time to switch this up”[/color] Midna said to herself, intending to switch out the wounded minion for something more durable that would actually have her back. Yet instead of hopping down into the portal she opened, her wolfos turned its now much to wide eyes upon her instead. The princess barely got a moment to go [color=Aquamarine]”Huh?”[/color] before her own minion lunged towards her suddenly, jaw opening wide before it sunk its teeth into one of her arms. Fortunately it managed to grab a magical instead of a fleshy one, but she was still too surprised and confused to react for a moment. Then the shield dropped as Roadblock timed out, and she was in trouble. She struggled and punched her beast on the snout to no avail, before remembering that the arm that was being bitten wasn’t real. She canceled the spell, freeing herself even as she grabbed a nearby bolder with her shadow hand, and used it to haul herself up and out of reach. The confusion as to what was going on was resolved by Annette, who, after Parnell forced the princess to drop down behind the rock to avoid being riddled with shotgun pellets, did a gesture akin to pulling on a lash towards wolfos, before pointing and sending the mind controlled beast running around the flank of the server towards the princess. [color=Aquamarine]”Goddess curse psychics, down thing!”[/color] Midna shouted, jabbing her own minion with her bo staff, delivering a painful electric shock. As its mind was not its own however, the wolfos had zero survival instincts, and indeed it was to Annette’s benefit when it did get hurt, and so it came on still. Only a blast of sand to foul its vision prevented it from immobilizing her with another bite hold. Instead it just rammed into her, knocking her out of cover. Both of them where promptly racked by pellets as the two shotgunners closed in for inorder to deliver more decisive close ranged kill shots. Cursing with pain, the princess opened another portal to summon her flygon, enlarged, which promptly grabbed her and soared through the air to deposit her at a different point of the battlefield, one conveniently near the rock Giovanna had just taken cover behind. [color=Aquamarine]”She stole my wolfos!”[/color] she shouted to the other woman as an explanation as to why the beast was currently racing ahead of the two shotgun armed foes she’d just bailed on [color=Aquamarine]”Also we need a plan!”[/color] Giovanna’s gaze flickered toward the enemy team. Rather than speed her enemies’ way immediately, Erendira had picked up the Commando on her bike, then momentarily grouped up with the other two while Parnell switched out his shotgun for his rocket launcher. When he fired a single Generyst Rocket at his feet, it exploded in a burst of biotic energy, healing the whole team in an instant. Then they moved in, Erendira leading the charge with the Commando in tow, both protected by a barrier. “...No kidding.” Her mind was racing, trying to figure out an angle. She felt confident that she could outbox any one of these goons, but the biker would take some doing, and she couldn’t multitask. How would she get any of them on their own? Then she snapped her fingers. “If I can land a high kick on one of ‘em, I can take ‘em out. Guaranteed. Takes a whole second to do it though. Maybe you can grab one?” And just like that, the two were out of time. A thin blue Phase Round shot straight Gio’s cover, missing her head by a hair. Her eyebrows shot up. “Huh.” Then Erendira zoomed in, circling around the pair’s cover. Sitting behind her, the Commando threw a frag grenade toward the Seekers, then opened fire at six rounds a second. “Tch.” Gio dashed out from her cover to avoid the grenade, right in front of Parnell. The futuristic paladin pulled the trigger, and while he stood a little outside his shotgun’s effective range, that blast still hurt. “Ugh.” She dashed toward him, then paused to block, rinse and repeat, but before she could reach him in this fashion Annette joined in. Then Gio was stuck blocking, the chip damage gnawing her health away. [color=Aquamarine]”Knock them down![/color] Midna commanded as she rolled to her feet, having leapt out of the way of the grenade. In response to her call, her 3 initiate strikers appeared, and then immediately retook the cover two of them had just abandoned, before charging up and then hurling psychic spears at the pair suppressing Gio. The mental attacks struck with surprising force, staggering the pair for a moment and cutting off their alternating shotgun blasts. As they fired, the princess joined in on the spear tossing by hurling her boa staff at the incoming barrier protected duo, and though the impact was negated by their defenses, it prompted a trio of lighting bolts to strike down from the sky in front of it, bypassing the shield in the process. Though she had briefly distracted the humans with mental and magical might, her wolfos was still part of their squad, and it came rushing in towards them on its own, still utterly uncaring about what little of its life remained. The most she was willing and able to do about that before it reached Gio was blast it with a sand attack to further foil its accuracy. Given just enough of a reprieve to make a move, Giovanna picked her target and darted in. Going for the Annette meant that Parnell would be free to heal her, but that was better than getting double-teamed by two soldiers on offense. Plus, rattling the psychic might help Midna’s own wolf, who Gio definitely felt sorry for. The agent transferred her momentum to a speedy triple side kick as she leaned on Rei for support. Her pawprint shoe slammed into Annette’s belly, chest, and chin in quick succession, which flowed right into an [url=https://i.imgur.com/QHZKDSe.png]upward crescent[/url] to pop the psychic off her feet. Parnell was coming, but Gio worked quickly, darting forward with her special dash [url=https://i.imgur.com/iLX2s0Q.png]Chave[/url] to flip forward into an enhanced [url=https://i.imgur.com/eK5JTHY.png]Sol Poente[/url]. The ground bounce that caused allowed her to land and keep Annette juggled with a high knee, but a shotgun blast from her right suggested that she end the combo quickly. Gio knocked her foe away with a roundhouse, then turned to dash away from Parnell’s gunfire. She didn’t manage to avoid everything, but by zig-zagging the agent managed to close in on the healer in hopes of taking him out before Annette could stop her. Meanwhile, the other two kept up the pressure on Midna. Still pretty comfortable even after the lightning strikes, the Commando kept on blasting, only pausing to fire off a defense-piercing Phase Round every three seconds. Erendira joined in with her own ranged attacks, first firing an aura spear from her gunlance, then sweeping her weapon to unleash a horizontal shockwave. All but the piercing round slammed into an extended shadowhand Midna was using to ward herself, while that shot itself punched through, causing the princess to stumble and almost fall as she grappled with her Wolfos. Then Erendira gunned Brynhildr to run Midna down, pincering the Twilight Princess between wolfos and motorcycle, yet at just that moment, Gio got her hands on Annette, pummeling the psychic enough to break her concentration. The wolfo’s to wide eyes returned to normal, and instead of continuing to try and bite her, its ears flopped down to its side and it emitted an apologetic whine as it tried to back away. Midna didn’t have time to accept the apologies, instead shoving the beast down into a portal while she herself was launched upwards into the air via Skywave ascend, resulting in the pair going under and over the bike charge. Unable to run her target down, and noticing Parnell possibly in trouble, Erendira broke it off and veered toward her teammates to assist while the Commando kept shooting at the princess as she and her striker reached the top of their arch. Skywave dissipated under the hail, but rather than being left to fall, Midna was caught upon the back of her flygon who arrived via portal to replace the battered Wolfos. It immediately caught fire itself of course, but that caused it to emit bursts of homing needles that rained down on the two bike riders. The Commando returned fire, but without a shield to protect him from the back, he took a number of needles from the Flygon. It swooped down, almost matching the bike in speed for a moment, before slamming into the ground just behind it and quaking the earth around it with its impact. Thinking that Brynhildr was the target, the Commando planted his legs on the bike and leaped off, shooting down at the Flygon as he vaulted overhead. The impact unsteadied Erendira atop her motorcycle, causing her to swerve. Ahead of them Annette picked herself up from her plumbing, and, having dropped her gun that was too short range to interrupt Gio’s charge of Parnell, reached out a hand towards her foe instead. Psychic energy leapt across the gap, sinking into Gio’s mind and battling her will for control of her fight or flight response, attempting to induce a brief but potent panic in her. “Agh!” Giovanna stumbled, gripping her cranium. As close as she was to her target, she couldn’t suppress the urge to take cover, but with no hiding spots nearby she did the only thing she could: hunker down to block. Immediately Parnell laid into her defenses. His shotgun clicked empty, but right away he empowered himself with Righteous Fury, boosting his reload speed by 67% and his fire rate by a staggering 80%. The fusillade of shotgun shells started chewing through Gio’s guard with chip damage. Stuck in constant blockstun, she couldn’t stop Parnell using Heal Burst to patch up Annette either, were she even in the right mind to do so. Right now, there was only one thing she could do. Gio unleashed her Burst. The omnidirectional blue wave radiated out from her, hitting Parnell and Annette right after. It didn’t hurt them whatsoever, but it completely broke their composure and knocked them down. That freed Giovanna not just from blockstun, but from the psychic’s panic. Even Erendira, already wobbling from the Flygon’s quake, had to slide to a halt. The tank wasn’t about to stop, though, and as she dismounted her bike she used her momentum to hurl Brynhildr right at Giovanna. “Whoa.” The agent threw herself sideways to avoid getting splattered, only to see Erendira resummon her daimon the next moment. “Man,” she groaned. Annette and Parnell (who still had his buff) were already back up, and now she had no burst. This way going poorly. Choosing the lesser of three evils, she dashed away from the gunners with Chave and toward Erendira, dodging her lance shots as she moved in. Hopefully Midna would see the chance for a pincer maneuver. She did indeed, her flygon lunging forward, its claws glowing with purple draconic energy. The real prize, however, was a struggling captive commando who, having vaulted over said flygon, had failed to take into account its rider, who had lunged up and grabbed him out of the air with her shadow hand. The two shotgunners where not happy to be left in the dust however, with Parnell firing a Generyst Rocket at the pincered Erendira in anticipation of the damage she was going to take, while Annette sent out the tendrils of another psychic attack at Gio, this one the same kind that had filled Midna’s wolfos’ mind with hallucinations. Putting her faith in her teammates to deal with Giovanna, Erendira whipped around atop her bike with a swing of her lance to strike the flygon with an energy slash. That wasn’t enough to stop it though, and the pokemon pounced to return the favor twofold with its claws. Their struggle left her burned and torn, holding off the flygon’s claws with her lance held laterally for protection. Then Parnell’s rocket healed her, and she found the strength to push back. Brynhildr’s tires screeched as the lancer performed a flaming donut to slam the flygon with her motorcycle’s rear end, setting the ground alight as she did. Once again, Gio found her assault cut short by the gunner’s interference. Her mind was not as weak as that of the wolfos, however, and the strength of her frustration helped her pushed back against the psychic attack. “Enough of this…” she growled, her jaw clenched against the pain as her vision swam. “Crap!” If she couldn’t fight Erendira like this, might as well go for the root of the problem. She brought her fist down in a EX Seismic Hammer, and the ground beneath Annette’s feet erupted. That knocked her down yet again, and Gio performed a high jump utilizing jets of air from her shoes, followed by a sigil-assisted airdash that kept her one step ahead of Parnell’s shotgun blasts. That left just one problem: Annette taking aim with her own firearm as Gio cruised in from above. She just needed to be faster. “Fear on the wind.” Giovanna let loose Tempestade a little early, instantly altering her trajectory as she shot down with a supremely fast divekick. Rather than her target she hit the ground in front of her, but the shotgun blast went over her head, and Gio was in melee range at last. She immediately went with a low kick into [url=https://i.imgur.com/Xr377UR.png]low dust[/url], and Annette hit the dirt yet again. Gio blocked a distant slug from Parnell, then hit Annette meaty as she tried to rise, sweeping her once more. Desperate not to take another humiliating, painful pratfall, Annette finally tried to defend her legs. In that full second of hesitation, Giovanna’s breathtaking [url=https://i.imgur.com/1teJQ43.png]charged high kick[/url] struck the psychic overhead and launched her like a baseball. Howling, Annette sailed into the sky, a swirling air current in her wake. “This is gonna hurt.” Gio smirked, crouched down, and soared after her. With Gio having pivoted back to fight the shotgun toting pair, and apparently doing quite well, Midna was left holding the commando in her shadow hand with no one to land a high kick on him. Fortunately a different opportunity presented itself when her Flygon instinctively flapped back and away from the fire Erendira’s donut had produced, as the princess proceed to throw the commando down at his ally, and, in the process, the ring of fire she had just created. Forced to catch her teammate lest he fall into her own hazard, the moment left Erendira vulnerable to Midna’s flygon slamming down into the ground again outside of said hazard to cause a second earthquake. As the ground shook and forced both foes to do nothing but hold on to the bike, Midna reached her shadowhand over to a nearby stream of coolant, dipped it in, and then surged the hand forwards, sending a wave of it splashing over pair, soaking and chilling them, while also extinguishing the flames. The tremor dislodged the Commando, both from Erendira’s tenuous grip and the bike. He hit the ground, then got bruised black and blue as he bounced up and down. Brynhildr couldn’t stay upright, so its rider used her leg as a kickstand to try and stop a fall, which was painful. When the spray of coolant came, some of it splashed against Erendira’s weakened energy shield, icing it over like a windshield on a winter’s morning. As the chilled Commando got away with a tactical dive, Erendira wiped away her shield, leaving her open but able to see Midna as the screech of her tires drove her forward, lance first. High above, Gio went to work with uncommon gusto. Despite Annette’s best attempt to fight back, no amount of training could prepare her for this, and as she sailed through the air she took a rapid-fire barrage of kicks. Generyst Rockets from Parnell down below, more desperate than practical, whizzed by the two by a large margin as they flew. This damage was nothing to scoff at, but it wasn’t necessarily Gio’s end goal. After using up all her jumps between hits to keep her foe juggled, she finished with a stylish Burning Kick that blasted the psychic away in a burst of flame. Her trajectory took her over the edge of the rock garden module and over the long drop to Arahabaki’s jagged, piping-hot floor, turning a probable survival into certain doom. A second after Annette disappeared over the edge, Giovanna landed next to it, sliding up against the server rack wall. “Whew,” she sighed, turning around to find that she’d descended quite far from the action. “One down.” Back in the action Erendira rammed head first into the summoned shield wall of Roadblock while Midna had her flygon steed leap to the side after the soaked in coolant Commando. In response to her doing so he fired a round that punched through both steed and rider, harming both, and earning him a shower of needles in the process. The damage that was caused was nothing compared to that he felt when the princess ripped a longsword out of nowhere in a crescent moon slash that flicked a bolt of lightning down atop of him. Electricity arched over and through his coolant soaked suit from the first bolt, which was quickly followed up by a vortex of three pillars of lighting which spun around, trapping his body between them. As she maintained the storm assaulting the Commando, Midna’s flygon dropped into a portal beneath her, being replaced by her Darknut which arose to block the charging Erendira. The biker was more than able to drive around this obstruction, only for the still summoned Roadblock to slam his shield behind her, drawing her attention. It was enough obstruction for the princess to burn through her power, leaving the unconscious body of the Commando to hit the floor. Before Parnell could get a chance to revive him, the princess bodily leapt onto him, fingers glowing purple as she clawed and slashed at him, but not to end his life. Instead the rocket packs attached to his suit were severed, and then both them and his guns tapped by her un-clawed hands, stealing them away into the twilight realm. A moment too late, Parnell’s rocket arrived. The princess leapt off of her foe, leaving him to stir awake, only to find himself completely disarmed and, unlike Annette would have been in such a situation, now a mostly worthless asset to his team. At that point, the race between Parnell and Giovanna to get back into the action reached its conclusion. While the medic could propel himself into a superjump with his jet pack, Gio had both superhuman speed and Rei on her side. When it became clear he couldn’t beat her to the punch and help the Commando, his priority shifted to avoiding Gio. He altered his flight path and fired at Gio from above, forcing her to veer away. If he could supercharge himself again, after all, he could pin her down and chew her up at a moments notice. Of course, bullets moved faster than Giovanna, and taking even part a shot while trying to evade hurt like hell. Still, she managed to evade the worst of it, and Parnell’s jet pack wouldn’t last forever. He made for the computer garden’s biggest cable tree and tried to land on its upper boughs, thinking himself beyond Gio’s reach. He was not. The agent cannoned into the tree’s ‘trunk’ with a burn kick, partially melting the insulation. Then she struck the weak point with Thunder Knuckle, again and again. Parnell shot down at her through the trees while holding the wires tight, thinking his foe was trying to knock him down, but Gio stayed mobile and kept knuckling. After a couple seconds, she smashed through the last of the insulation and struck the wires inside with her electric glove. “Hnnnnghghghghghgh!” Parnell gurgled, electrocuted by his contact with the wires. He used his heal burst to undo some of the damage, but he still slipped from his perch a moment later, numbed by the shock. He landed on a lower ‘branch’ groin-first, making him see stars, and when he swung off the branch upside-down Gio finally got the satisfaction of laying him out with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/MXpyZ2B.png]big punch[/url]. Roadblock had gotten the better of Erendira for a brief moment, but the striker timed out soon after. That meant all she needed to do was get around Midna’s massive undead obstruction in order to put her lance right where it belonged: between Midna’s ribs. Engine roaring, she circled around with her lance couched to fire shot after shot, then finally gunned it and charged forward, ready to chase Midna down and spear her wherever the Twilight Princess fled. Instead of fleeing however, the princess held her ground and called upon the final set of strikers in her repertoire, her chilfos. Four spindly icey undead rose between her and Erendira, ice armored forms shrugging off the energy blasts as they raised a spear wall in the way of the charging mechanized cavalry woman. Yet guarded by her shield, Erendira dared face the stone with her superior scissors. Icy polearms snapped upon impact with her defenses, and then frozen bodies smashed aside by her mechanical steed as she broke through Midna’s protection, and burst right into the space beyond. A space who’s ground had turned black as shadow, surrounded by a ring of orange. Right before she could be skewered, the princess snapped her shadow hand’s fingers, causing the trap she had laid to spring to life, her dark energy zone stunning her foe, and empowering her minion to deal a final blow. With magically aided speed, the darknut crossed the gap between itself and Erendira with a lunge, driving its massive blade forwards to stab it through the front of her bike, skewering the machine. Then, with its broad headed blade firmly lodged in the bike, it pulled both it and her back towards it, and slammed it's shield down on top of the rider in a knockout blow. The difference between unconsciousness and head trauma was a fine one, however, and when Giovanna jogged up to scrutinize the concluded battle, it looked like Erendira wasn’t moving. “Wow,” she deadpanned. “I didn’t even really see what you did there.” Annette was history, the Commando was senseless, and even though Parnell was definitely still conscious, he was too injured (not to mention concussed) to continue. Giovanna crossed her arms, exhaling as her adrenaline drained away. “Guess we’re done here. That was kinda tough. Could’ve been worse though. Hopefully there aren’t any more where they came from.” Given just how monolithic a company Shinra was, however, she wasn’t going to put any money on that. [color=Aquamarine]”Let me just grab some things”[/color] Midna replied while tapping Erendira’s lance with a finger, before jogging to collect her previously tossed bo-staff and grabbing any other still intact weapons while she was at it. Avoiding killing didn’t mean she was above robbing people while they were down. [hider=for (stolen by) Midna] [url=https://i.imgur.com/sul0B7l.png]Commando auto-pistol[/url] (x2): an auto pistol able to fire off 3 rounds a second, as well as firing a piercing [url=https://i.imgur.com/nhDmeVa.png]phase round[/url] every 6 seconds. Unlimited ammo and no reloads necessary. [url=https://i.imgur.com/QAHRNUz.jpg]Mutagen Shotgun[/url] (12 rounds available): a 7 round capacity shotgun with 120 RpM [url=https://imgur.com/a/J3uBaeE]Erendira‘s Gun-lance[/url]: a long lance that, aling with being able to be used for stabbing, can also shoot small purple aura bolts, or swept to the side to launch a [url=https://i.imgur.com/8E0Fydy.jpg]wide angle projectile[/url]. It must be charged by supernatural energy to use projectiles [url=https://i.imgur.com/STnqrZ0.png]Disposable Missile Launcher[/url]: a cardboard assembly that can be used to fire a swarm of 12 homing missiles every 45 seconds. [/hider] [color=Aquamarine]”Ok now we’re good”[/color] she concluded, as she regrouped with Gio and set about healing them a bit using Skywave (she could have used the last of Parnel’s rockets, but she’d left the launcher somewhere he’d be able to reach once they were long gone), before asking [color=Aquamarine]”But what happened to the psychic one?”[/color] having to embroiled in her own bit if the fight to see Annette’s end. “Took a hike,” Giovanna replied off-handedly. She did not elaborate further. A gun or two might have been useful, but her ally had gathered everything up like lightning. She didn't care to make a fuss about it, though. Her gaze lingered on Erendira for a moment, frowning. That woman was tough and probably wouldn't be down for long. She also couldn't help but admit that summoning a motorcycle was pretty badass. Still, might as well let sleeping dogs lie. “Let's get going,” she said, summoning Rei to ride on. Elsewhere in Arahabaki, other fights raged on. The sooner the two reunited with the others, the better, something Midna readily agreed with, remounting her wolfos alongside the agent and then, a moment later the two were racing forwards once more.