[center][h3]Trial of the Abyss[/h3]
[b]Party:[/b] Spinal, Bella, Rika, Sakura, Kamek
[b]Word Count:[/b] 12014 (+13)

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoNGs_XTEDM&ab_channel=%E5%88%80%E3%83%95-%E5%B0%B8%E5%87%A1%E3%82%A4%E4%BB%80][img]https://i.imgur.com/AzbB4qW.png[/img][/url]
[i]Click for music[/i][/center]

Paralyzed by the intimidation that emanated out from the Abyssal Sun Princess alongside the crimson luster from her blacksteel halo, Bella did not anticipate for a second that her friend Sakura would round on her in incredulity and indignation. Her utterly affronted look distracted the Seaplane Tender, even if just for a moment, from the fearsome array of opponents that awaited her, but it took the gentle hand that clasped Bella’s own to break her free from her fear. Her pale cheeks reddened as she realized how foolish she must look, not to mention defeatist. Sakura was right, of course. In front of her stood a human, cute little cat ears notwithstanding, whose physical might and martial prowess allowed her to go toe to toe with powerful Abyssals the moment she first set foot on the water. She could push experienced fighters like Karin to the limit, take on gigantic sea monsters like Scylla, and beat down loathsome denizens of the deep, all with scarcely more than her bare hands. Bella liked to think she wasn’t exactly helpless either, and with the reinforcement of both Kamek and Rika to boot, the situation suddenly didn’t seem quite so dire. The Water Princess smiled, grateful for the shining heart that once again reached her even through the murky deep of her own mind. Sakura had smiled back, also feeling a little silly for snapping. She’d have to apologize later.

Then out of nowhere, Sakura abruptly grew in size. She shot up to around one hundred and fifty percent of her usual height, which was enough to tower over a very surprised Bella, who watched in bewilderment as a green-tinged fire wove into a makeshift martial arts uniform over her customary sailor fuku. [color=f49ac2]"W-woah! What the-?"[/color] Sakura shouted in surprise. [color=f49ac2]"This is amazing!"[/color] She pumped her arms and sprinted ahead, taller even than Zangief!

 Luckily things clicked fast, both for the target of Kamek’s magic and her admirer, and with their star player powered up the five turned to begin the fight in earnest. Whether one, three, or ten Abyssals, it ultimately made no difference–in a terrifyingly literal sense, this was do or die.

Sakura leaped into action first, with Bella close behind, running onto the water as fast as her comparatively short legs could carry her. As the wildly cackling Spinal sprinted across the high ground toward the cool-headed Pacific Princess, who fluidly rose and made ready her spear to receive him, the street fighter followed along on a strafing run toward New Southern. Her cannons blazed, but the masked Abyssal shrugged off Sakura’s opening salvo before her return fire proved who wielded the superior caliber. Sakura managed to block a few shots but had neither the speed or room to evade the barrage forever. New Southern’s shells both dealt notable chip damage and guard broke her, putting the martial artist in too much blockstun to launch a counterattack. Sakura groaned, holding her bruising forearm. Even at nearly eight feet, the guns were too big for her to push through. She was getting zoned out, big time! Sakura couldn’t just brute force it.

The assault revealed the truth behind Rika’s words, speeding both her and Bella on their way to lend a hand. While their true target could be none other than the Abyssal Sun Princess, her escort would not allow her enemies to so much as lay a hand on her while they lived, so unless a chance presented itself they needed to eliminate the spearfighters first. To that end the turncoats attacked together, with a barrage of gunfire from Rika that Bella punctuated with a destructive railgun blast. The maneuver forced New Southern to block with her crab claws, alleviating the pressure on Sakura, but as her defenses lowered the Abyssal giggled. Around her buzzed aircraft sent by the Sun Princess to back her up, ready to dive-bomb or bodyblock her foes. “So you’re down for some fisticuffs after all, sisters?” Her eyes gleamed as she activated her Abyssal Radar, tracking her attackers’ every move. “Hahahah! This’ll be fun!”

[color=f49ac2]"No it [i]won’t![/i]"[/color] Sakura said, releasing a heavily charged fireball. She hadn’t used the time Rika and Bella bought to push in immediately, but instead increased her chances to make her assault all the more impactful when it did arrive. A blue hadoken traveled a little slower than Sakura’s sprinting pace, the blue fireball floating dangerously through the air. Sakura kept pace with it, using it as cover. She shot a few aircraft out of the air, and smacked them with high kicks if they got too close. But her main goal was to lure New Southern into blocking her big fireball and then grabbing her crab claw, jostling for position and leverage to start breaking it.

At the same time, Spinal engaged the Pacific Princess in combat. He began with a reckless charging attack that his foe interrupted with a quick stab, linking into a hook strike to reel him in. In quick succession she delivered an overhead then sweeping slash, then a double blast from the mini-cannons on her weapon’s butt. Spinal recovered and brought up his writhing octopus shield to block her attacks, managing to fend off her lows and stand in time to not get opened up by a hop thrust. Before she could recover he slid low and pounded her shin with his boot, which allowed him to rise with a slash-slash linker into a spectral skull blast from his shield. He then disappeared into a green portal on the floor for the mixup and shot up directly behind the Pacific Princess, only to be bashed in the jaw by the butt of her lance. “Trivial,” she snarked, her eyes narrowed. Spinal’s opponent had chosen patience over a rushed reversal and been rewarded. She hacked once at his ribcage, kicked him back, then dipped sideways to avoid an Energy Ball from his Dhelmise, revealing that the savvy spearfighter had been keeping tabs on his Pokemon the whole time. Still, Spinal came away shortling–even if he started off on the back foot, this fight was just getting started.

While Kamek himself was unable to cast any new magics, focusing as he was on Sakura’s titanification, his pre-summoned minions did what they could to help. Swooping to and fro above and behind the knife fighting ladies and skeleton, his clones rendered aid, the white directing its wand towards the jaw bashed Spinal, pumping restorative energy into the skeleton and smoothing away the harm done to his ribs, bits of bone reforming in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile the greens prepared to cycle out their next set of buffs and for that chose Rika both because of sentimentality and the to prop up the weakest link in the quartet of fighters. While running after Sakura she found herself accelerating as power flooded her body and visually caused her glowing blue eye to flip to green. Her guns’ barrels, her bayonet and her horn all burst alight with a dark green flame while her skin was covered in a layer of translucent scales and a spiked shell shon over the machinery on her back.

“Oh sweet! Thank’s Kamek!” she shouted back to the mage before making use of the other help he was providing by telling the Toadies to “tackle the bombers! They can’t deal with other air stuff. Probably” 

That was what she hoped anyway, as the 4 propeller powered oddballs made more for baby kidnapping than combat buzzed forwards, the shadowy power rolling off of them thanks to magic tapped from Cia’s spirit maybe giving them the edge they needed to kidnap the ball and disk shaped aircraft instead. With them went her two scout planes, racing in to dogfight while Rika herself move to the side and, unable to shoot into the melee Sakura was engaging in for fear of hitting her, swung her guns around and aimed at the Pacific Princess who had conveniently knocked her foe away, leaving her open to fire from Rika. The ship girl launched a wide volley of six small and one big cannon shot along with a burst of mg fire to boot at the princess, all of her fire trailing green fire like tracers and coursing with venom. She spread her shots out to try and avoid her fire being simply evaded by her foe like the ghost pokemon’s single shot had.

The report of gunfire drew the attention of the Pacific Princess, who frowned as she turned to face the powered-up traitor. In her dexterous hands her spear became a blur, spun at high speed like a vertical helicopter blade to intercept the fusillade that Rika sent her way. Her defense was magnificent, but not foolproof, and enough shots managed to break through to leave the spearfighter burned, lacerated, and poisoned. A moment later her display came to an abrupt end when Dhelmise unleashed its Anchor Shot, trapping her polearm in its chain and nearly yanking it from her grasp. Spinal took the opportunity to run in once more, endangering himself -and given his status as gleaming, Rika- if the young Abyssal did not cut off her barrage. The pirate attacked without reserve, going for broke with ruthless hacks and slashes, unaware that his foe wasn’t quite as helpless as he thought. She maneuvered his Pokemon’s chain into the path of his sword again and again to stop it short biding her time until certain preparations were made.

Out of nowhere her other hand closed tight on the chain, and the Pacific Princess gave it a powerful yank. “Now,” she ordered, and as the Dhelmise jerked closer, her ghostly leviathan exploded out from the water behind her. Its massive jaws snapped shut on the well-position Pokemon as it soared over the stone bridge in a majestic arc. Then it’s beluga-white bulk crashed into the water right where Rika waited, with the ensuing wave strong enough to sweep the girl away even if she avoided a direct hit. Her saving grace where the toadies who, having been unable to catch the bombers she’d sent them after, returned to her side just in time to swoop in and lift her, both out of harm’s way and up above the wave.



Meanwhile, New Southern watched Sakura’s huge hadoken speed closer and closer, her Abyssal Radar fixated both on the street fighter and her partner Bella. The Seaplane Tender circled around to the right, shooting with her cannon gauntlets until she could get close enough to slug her. This was a classic pincer maneuver, and one that New Southern wanted no part of. “Later, losers!” With a pompous flip of her hair the Abyssal commanded her mount to dive, and dutifully the monstrous arthropod slipped under. 

[color=f49ac2]”[i]Na-[/i]"[/color] Sakura began, baffled.

Though Sakura held off the bombers without issue, her fireball hit nothing, and Bella came to a stop with her eyes on the water, searching for any trace of her foe. “See zat, cher ami? She’s too slow to dodge, so she goes under if cornered,” the Seaplane Tender observed. 

Sakura grumbled, cracking her knuckles. [color=f49ac2]"Guess I’ll just have to be faster."[/color] 

A moment later New Southern reappeared, surfacing a ways off. Bella sneered as she turned tail, allowing her leviathan to take aim. Her opponent rolled her eyes and lifted a crab claw to block the railgun shot, but Bella adjusted her aim and fired at the ceiling instead. With a thunderous [i]crack[/i] chunks of the cavern roof began to fall. New Southern sighed, and as her red eyes flashed green she went to work with her lance. The weapon became a blur as she went ham, her Abyssal Radar allowing her to perceive every piece of stone that came her way and deflect each one with remarkable precision. Still, she was occupied either way, giving Sakura a chance to approach and Bella a chance to target the real enemy. Her tail locked onto the Sun Princess, gathering its power, and after a brief gulp Bella let loose. In response a fleet of the Abyssal’s small black hovercraft clustered together to intercept the railgun shot, and though they disappeared in a burst of fiery force their mistress went unharmed. By that time, New Southern had speared the last chunk of debris that fell toward her, and as her cannons took aim she sent the rock flying Sakura’s way. 

	Sakura went aggressive. [color=f49ac2]”Here I come!"[/color] She long jumped clean over the projectile almost before it was even fired. This was a special long jump, and she arched her back and lifted her fists over her head as she soared toward the enemy princess, preparing to slam her double-fisted hammer punch down on her head. Unprepared for such a daring maneuver, New Southern did not rise from her reclining seat, but unleashed her cannon batteries to shoot the girl down while she angled her spear for her opponent to impale herself on. Unfortunately for her, Sakura cruised in faster than the Abyssal’s armements could track her, and managed to squeak past her lagging spearpoint with nothing more substantial than a torn skirt.

The street fighter’s Sakura Otoshi struck home, but rather than pound New Southern down it knocked her up and back, clear off her mount, allowing Sakura to land a second and third as both flew higher and higher. [color=f49ac2][i]"Ichi-ni-san!”[/i][/color] Taken totally by surprise, the Abyssal could do little more than try to mitigate the onslaught. When the attack wound down, she blocked in the air, determined to get back to her mount at any cost.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Once more with power Miss Bella!”[/color] Kamek shouted from the back, before his clones directed their power to the seaplane tender princess, empowering her speed, defense and most importantly attack power, flames licking her tail cannon’s mouth.

“And support” called down the now airship girl Rika as she hovered above the water, supported by the team of toadies. She might not be able to help either melee fighter safely, but vs a swarm of planes? She had the volume of fire the one gun wonder woman lacked, and here she need not worry about friendly fire, allowing her to really open up on the plane swarm from above.    

While she kept the Sun Princess’s airships from interfering in either fight, Bella decided to put Kamek’s sorcerous blessing to good use. New Southern being parted from her mount was the heroines’ best chance to take her out, cutting short what would otherwise be an unacceptably drawn-out fight. Full of vigor, she came to a stop in a spray of seawater, spinning as she did to face her back to New Southern. Bella tilted her head to look over her shoulder, the disdainful eyes that peered through her new ringlets bright with intent. “We’ve wasted enough time on the likes of you,” she declared to New Southern as a locus power gathered in the maw of her leviathan tail, giving off enough air pressure to whip her black scarf and blonde curls in the sudden wind. The vibrations made the water around her ripple at high frequency, like a ridiculously overtuned wave pool. Bella held back the burgeoning power just long enough for her savior to launch their opponent clear.

Sakura clenched her fists. Do or die time. She dashed forward, rushing New Southern to close the short distance between them. Being much taller than New Southern without her mount had it’s advantages. Sakura grabbed New Southern roughly by the shoulder. Then she turned away from New Southern, planted both of her overlarge sneakers on her chest, and push-kicked her hard. The two women would get sent flying apart from each other, though Sakura would be landing easily on her feet, and New Southern smack against a nearby wall.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Come on. You can do it”[/color] Kamek muttered to himself with crossed fingers, while above Rika shouted “end her, with time to spare!” while blazing with all her guns while her little scout planes swooped about above, their little cannons chipping away at the bombarded bomber swarm.

Bella needed no further encouragement. Before the stunned -and extremely indignant- New Southern Battleship Princess could fall back toward her precious water, she unleashed her hypercharged railgun in one withering burst. There was no travel time at all; just a blinding flash of light as the magnetically-propelled payload slammed into the Abyssal in a paroxysm of destruction. The entire cave rumbled, a miniature tsunami racing away from the impact point, and enormous chunks of rock fell loose from the crater on the cavern wall. From deep within the stone fissure where the impact had driven her, the upper third of New Southern clung to life for only a moment longer, then with a sigh of absolute annoyance gave up the ghost. Her spirit dribbled out of the crack and drifted toward the water below.

[color=f49ac2]”Oh, man.”[/color] Sakura said, perturbed. Glancing over at her friends, she nodded resolutely to herself, as if to confirm her own commitment to the cause. 

Bella’s brow was furrowed, and not just for the loss of her sister Abyssal. “I…am sorry. We do not have the time to take chances.”

The victors turned their attention elsewhere. With one enemy down and the other occupied, the path to the Abyssal Sun Princess was clear, so long as one could weave past the leftover bombers and hovercraft. The Pacific Princess recognized it too, so without a second to mourn her fallen comrade, she leaped into action. With a duelist’s grace she ducked backward out of the way of Spinal’s slice, then shouldered and fired the cannon on the butt of her polearm. It rattled her opponent long enough for her to insert her speartip between his ribs, then wrench him up and off his feet to drive him into the ground between her and the Sun Princess. Then she brought her heel down on his skull in a cold-blooded stomp, crunching through bone, and took off at a sprint toward her commander. “Stop them,” she bid her albino assistant, and from the water the abominable thing rose to obstruct her path. As she rounded the corner onto the main seastack, however, a green circle appeared before her. Spinal popped up from it, his jaw dangling off his face, and launched himself downward in a dive kick. His boot struck Pacific’s stomach as her spear sank into his eye socket, but the pirate’s momentum took both over the edge, even as it drove the point deeper into his skull. They splashed down into the water to the tune of Spiral’s cackling, and not a further sound was heard.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Blast,”[/color] Kamek cursed as his minions swooped in too late to aid the skeletal fighter. The medic, who had never left that battlefield after healing Spinal the first time, hovered above the water for a few moments, magical mind whirring as it kept trying to spot the brutalized bone man, but the green’s attention returned swiftly to the trio of ladies. Not that they had anyone left to aid (of any worth anyway, their powers would be wasted on the other non attacking minions) and Kamek was unable to change their function without dropping Sakura’s enlargement, which she could still make use of. Then he had an idea, which he swiftly shouted over to Rika.

“Wha.. oh. Ok?” was her reply, the girl a touch shaken by the loss of Spinal, even if he had just kind of randomly appeared and not done anything but fight, before swiftly setting his plan into motion. The girl lighty punched and headbutted one of the green clones, smearing it in her explosive Brachydios slime while the other two cast haste and defensive buffs on it, turning it into an improvised explosive missile that prepared to surge forwards ahead of the team to either clear the way of bombers or kamakaze right into the Abyssal Sun Princess.

Sakura didn’t want to waste her own enlargement, any of Kamek’s energy, or the madman Spinal’s sacrifice, so once on solid ground she sprinted across the battlefield to reach Abyssal Sun. Sneakers pounding against the stone, she rushed behind the clone, not quite sure what it was going to do. Either way she wanted to close the distance between her and Abyssal Sun, so began firing her cannons at bombers and fighters nearby as she ran to help clear a path. At the same time Bella took the low road across the water, flanked by her own escort of sea planes. Pacific’s monster waylaid her as planned, delaying her arrival, but it kept the heat off Sakura as she grew closer to her target.

The explosive clone’s approach forced the enemy commander to defend herself, drawing up a veil of hovercraft to tank the explosion for her. Their crumpled, burnt shells clattered to the stone around her, leaving her exposed. All around raged the chaos of an airborne battle in miniature, (and one major as Rika flew in via toadie propeller, bayonet stabbing, hull blade slashing and gunfire blasting) but for a brief moment a path was open.

Heart pounding, the giant Sakura flinched and kept her head low as her allies engaged in a terrific dogfight all around her. Careful approaches didn’t feel like an option. Predicting that Abyssal Sun Princess would be the toughest yet, Sakura figured she would open up strong.

[color=f49ac2][i]"Daaagh!”[/i][/color] She roared, fired up. Her body flashed bright yellow and she flew through the air in a similar pose as she did before. An EX Sakura Otoishi, where Sakura flung herself at her enemy like a rocket. Unlike before, where a hit would launch them both higher, this slam dunk of a hit would knock a fellow street fighter on their ass, and would give Sakura the advantage even when blocked. 

At Sakura’s approach the Sun Princess kept her composure, her answer no more involved a movement than a dismissive wave of her hand, as if brushing open a silken curtain. The gesture cast no spell, however, and no more hovercraft orbited her for protection, so nothing arose to challenge the girl as she hurtled closer–nothing until a giant, muscular arm cannoned out from its hiding place behind the Abyssal’s elegant sleeve and smashed Sakura right in the stomach. With every ounce of air driven from her lungs she sailed backwards, limp as a ragdoll, her cat tail whipping behind her like a flag of surrender.

That, unfortunately, was just the beginning. Just when Sakura came to a stop at the edge of the area, the crab-legged blacksteel monstrosity scuttled up from below. It made a beeline for the Sun Princess and with its mouth deposited something in her hand while Sakura struggled to breath. As the onlookers watched, the Sun Princess enveloped the spirit of New Southern in a lustrous magic, then released it. Ashes swept in like flurries of snow and coalesced around the spirit, rapidly forming a familiar shape. Partway through, there came a noise from the water below, and up through a hole in the stone platform shot the Pacific Princess. She performed a graceful flip and landed as New Southern’s resurrection completed, allowing both to cross their spears in a portentous X in front of their commander. Then they advanced, ready for a final round. 

	Sakura didn’t look so big anymore as she curled into a ball, hands on her belly. No doubt a large bruise would be forming on the space between her rib cage and her navel. Sputtering, she got one hand beneath her and coughed a great amount of clear liquid out of her mouth and onto the stone below.

	 Wiping her lips with the back of her glove, New Southern’s revival amazed Sakura. 
[color=f49ac2][i]"M-masaka…”[/i][/color] She managed, voice still strained. That must be how the Abyssal fleet continually replenished it’s forces. Sakura was reminded of one of the reasons she Friend Hearted Bella in the first place. [color=f49ac2]”A second chance.”[/color] She said aloud. Pushing herself to her feet, her cat tail straightened out and then curled. 

	Sakura began running to meet the Princesses in another fight, though she had flown quite the distance from the previous body shot. Gathering another big fireball in between her palms, she unleashed it at the pair with her familiar cry and advanced behind it, letting it shield her advance. This time, she was ready to jump clear over any projectiles thrown her way, instead of blocking or side stepping. 

	The Princesses split to either side, going around the fireball with lances at the ready. Pacific appeared from the left and just a second later New Southern from the right, with the latter a mite slower thanks to a combination of less practiced physique and miraculous restoration. A war on two fronts faced Sakura, and each threatened her with greater reach than she herself could boast. Splashes from behind and below her informed her of Bella’s continued fight with Pacific’s monstrous companion, ignorant thanks to natural obstruction of her savior’s plight. The Abyssal’s hook spear and cross spear thrust Sakura’s way.

No dice on the fireball connecting, but at least it let her get close. Sakura raised her forearms and defensive energy spark from them as she blocked and deflected the spear stabs. Gritting her teeth, her feet slid backwards on particularly hard blocks. Being experienced in fighting herself, she picked on New Southern’s relative melee weakness. Trying to find a gap in their offensive, she ducked a stab from New Southern and before the Princess could retract her spear, slammed into it with a roundhouse kick from the right. A whiff punish, ideally. One that would hopefully knock the weapon into and obstruct her fellow spearwoman. Then Sakura kept the momentum of her spin and dived in with a roll, before rising with a knee right to New Southern’s jaw. She finished the combo with a firecracker [color=f49ac2][i]"Shouoken!”[/i][/color] that traveled up New Southern’s torso and took them both skyward. 

New Southern’s deflected cross spear clanged against Pacific’s own polearm, which prompted a quick shove -as well as annoyed scowl- from the more professional Princess to get her colleague’s weapon back under control. She then went low in an attempt to sweep the legs, but Sakura left them behind of her own accord, and rolled just out of Pacific’s reach–a smart move considering her Shouoken’s lack of invincibility. The uppercut went off without a hitch, carrying Abyssal and shipgirl into the air, but it was there in the middle of the technique’s recovery that Sakura ran into a problem. Before she could safely land, Pacific punished her commitment with a hook slam that brought the street fighter back down onto the ground. [color=f49ac2][i]"Oof!”[/i][/color] As New Southern hit the ground she rolled in the direction of her mount, which aimed its cannons at Sakura while Pacific held her down with her catch pole.

Sakura gasped, realizing she was only moments away from getting sucker punched by a cannon shot. She turned her upper body and pulled herself free of the hook with her arm, though the sharp end would most likely draw some blood as it slid along her skin. Then she erupted from the ground with another EX bar that she had built up. [color=f49ac2][i]"Midare Zakura!”[/i][/color] She spun rapidly, an EX uppercut that was ‘invincible’. Surging forward she aimed to catch New Southern off guard with the first uppercut, and then nail her with the second. 

The moment Sakura burst upward without regard for her own bloodshed or the spear that pinned her, Pacific took a half-step away. She managed to avoid the reversal, only to realize that it wasn’t her that her opponent seemed to be targeting, but New Southern instead. “Look out!” she called to alert her ally to the danger, and New Southern turned in time to guard herself against the first hit of Midare Zakura…only to go for a punish and get smacked by the second. “Gah, idiot!” As the unlucky spearfighter got thrown into her own mount, Pacific grit her teeth and moved in. Sakura could prepare herself as well as she liked; with her back turned, she could only do so much. Pacific planted the butt of her spear and pole-vaulted herself into the air for a massive downward crescent slash, then fired the cannons for a burst of momentum that made possible a second horizontal slice. She just managed to twist herself around and land on her feet for the followup, but the only pressure that came was a feinted kick, meant to catch another of the girl’s feisty uppercuts.

While the brawl raged on, the Sun Princess kept herself busy. She resurrected her own hovercraft, raising each a lot faster than she did New Southern, and replenished the ranks that Rika, Bella, and Kamek worked so hard to thin. As the clock ticked down, the heroes’ limits when it came to minions meant that the battle of attrition would soon swing back in the Abyssals’ favor. In particular, the enemy commander sent her hovercraft after Kamek in a bid to cut off Sakura’s empowerment.

Sakura cried out sharply as the spear was slashed down her back, severing the cloth and breaking the skin as a yellow spark cracked into the air. Sakura turned, arms raised, and the horizontal slash caught her across the chest, getting a similar reaction. [color=f49ac2][i]"Aah!”[/i][/color]

As the kick came in, Sakura focused up, emitting a flash of a dark miasma. She prepared to power right through the kick, but no kick came. Instead her Focus Attack, baited out, left her airborne as her knee collided with Pacific’s block. Her eyes went wide as saucers.

The Abyssal neither gloated nor showboated, but made a single practical choice, the height of simplicity. She couched her lance and thrust its bone-white tip into Sakura’s midsection. With cold eyes she stabbed again and again in quick succession, each shallow but painful, keeping the girl in hitsun for a crucial moment. Size and defense bonuses mitigated the damage, but it mounted quickly, until an upward shaft bash finished off the flurry. But as Sakura reeled backward, her momentum carried her right into New Southern’s follow-up. Her cross spear pierced her back and stayed there, holding her long enough for the crab to sweep its giant claw into her legs and drop the street fighter to the ground. Barely had she fallen than six cannon barrels aimed her way on one side, while Pacific prepared to chop down with her catch pole on the other. Sakura found herself in dire straits. In that pivotal moment the stunned girl lay flat on her back, eyelids fluttering, a low moan her only sign of defiance.

	At that very moment however, two things happened. The first was that Sakura suddenly shrunk back down to her usual size as Kamek was forced to defend himself from the incoming hovercraft, which made her a softer target but at least made her a smaller one. Then Rika came literally dropping out of the sky crying, “Sakuraaaa!” The ship girl having been tossed by her Toadie carriers and now coming in in an uncontrolled bodyslam of an attempted save, gauntlets and hull blades up in a guard to try and ensure her tackle didn't get a sudden sharp end.

Above, Kamek’s white mage swooped in and waved a pulse of healing magic over the girl, while far behind there came a roaring as a shadow Bowser leapt forwards and crashed onto one of the hovertanks. Kamek himself rose up into the air trying to get clear of the clever clog’s crew of craft sent to cancel his sorcerous size spell.

Sakura put a now normal-sized hand to her bare midsection. Her fingers came away red with her blood, but whatever stab damage her ki couldn’t keep away, Kamek’s burst of healing magic had somewhat tended to. Though no doubt Sakura was still a softened target. Grunting, Sakura pushed herself to her knees. [color=f49ac2][i]"Rika-chan…”[/i][/color]

The commotion provoked an alarmed cry from below. “Sakura?!” There came a disquieting [i]crack[/i] followed by the heavy, hollow moan of Pacific’s deep-sea monstrosity. Then, just a couple seconds later, Bella launched herself up from the water like a salmon and over the platform. As she soared she spotted her dear friend, as well as her injury, and the observation galvanized her into drastic measures. With a wordless cry of anguish the Seaplane Tender executed a flip, bringing her leviathan tail down on the spot where Pacific and New Southern -recovered from Rika’s body splash- prepared to do their worst. They barely scattered in time, not just to avoid the powerful impact, but also the unaimed railgun shot Bella pounded the ground with upon landing. Stinging fragments of stone against their enemies’ skin gave the heroes enough time to regroup.

“Are you okay?” Bella demanded, her eyes teary beneath angry brows. “I am so sorry, mon cherie, I didn’t know zat things got bad up here…!”

 [color=f49ac2]”I’m okay, I’m okay.”[/color] Sakura quickly assured Bella, setting a hand on her shoulder.  [color=f49ac2]”Thank you, Rika-chan. You saved my sorry behind.”[/color] She wished Bella would stop crying everytime she got hurt. She offered her friends a little smile before turning her attention back to the situation at hand. Her top had been majorly slashed twice in two separate places, her skirt was torn, and though the skin of her lower torso was bare, the stabs delivered to her midsection and back stained the areas there and ripped the hem. Scuffs and scrapes from various impacts also marked her clothing. But that was the only part of her that was coming apart at the seams.

As they assembled their ranks, Spinal teleported up from below to make the fight five on three. Though seemingly sunk to Davy Jones’ locker, the skeletal pirate clearly had another round left in him. Sakura cheered at his re-arrival. On the other side, Pacific scowled as she hefted her catch pole, and the resurrected New Southern looked distressed despite her best attempts to make herself comfortable on top of her mount. The crab creature’s barrels were in position, and ready to fire. Behind them loomed the Sun Princess, her drones at the ready. Only two minutes remained in which to defeat her and take her spirit back to Master Hand.

[color=f49ac2]”We’ve got this. We can Friend Heart the spearwomen. If they join our team, or even stay out of the fight, we’ll be able to get the Sun Princess. If they don’t, well…”[/color] Sakura hesitated. [color=f49ac2]”I’ve loved fighting for you guys.”[/color] Not even a sunny optimist like Sakura could believe that they could beat them twice in two minutes.

“I…” Bella swallowed her words. “Loved it too!”

Now back to her normal cat girl stature, Sakura was ready to take on the Princesses as she normally would. Fighting people smaller than her was something she had no experience with. While she wasn’t as strong and as big as she was a moment ago, she was more agile and had more technique. 

	[color=f49ac2]”New Southern is weaker with her spear. She’s my first target. Cover me?”[/color] Sakura asked. With that, she dashed forward and broke out into a sprint, staring down the deadly cannons of the battleship girl. Thinking back on New Southern’s firing patterns so far, she waited a beat, and then jumped preemptively over the shot she guessed was coming. 

“Hey, I heard that!” Looking pissed, New Southern activated her Abyssal Radar, and when Sakura got started she fired not just one but all six cannons. The first few missed, and as she adjusted her aim, Bella came in from the right. A barrage of shots from the Seaplane Tender’s gauntlet emplacements convinced New Southern to move. Her crab scuttled sideways, both to get away from her foes and to block Bella with Sakura. As New Southern prepared to fire again, a handful of the Sun Princess’s hovercraft flew in over her to physically ram the street fighter. Halfway through the assault, Bella ran in to help with her hands outstretched. She snatched up a few of the drones, then hunkered down to block New Southern’s volley while crushing the hovercraft in her grip.

At the same time, Pacific opened her own fight by tossing a handful of torpedoes at the other Seekers. With no water they served as little more than contact bombs, blanketing a wide area in explosions like a cluster grenade. Spinal raised his writhing shield and absorbed the blasts with Power Devour, which granted three green skulls that floated behind him, then charged forward for his rematch. As he sprinted in he spent his skulls to launch spectral artillery against Pacific, keeping her on the defensive long enough for him to arrive. He immediately went for a low shield bash, which Pacific deftly crouched to block, then two scimitar stabs followed by a shield charge. With a leer he stepped forward for a throw, but a walk back from Pacific caused it to whiff, and she then stepped forward for a throw of her own–a shaft launcher into whirling crescent kick to knock him away.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Strength and speed for you!”[/color] Kamek called out a moment before the blow came, directing his two remaining supporters to buff the boney warrior to help him take or avoid the blow. The other bit of aid he got was Rika, circling around as the undead warrior duled the woman. No masterful mistress of melee, the hammer armed destroyer’s strategy was charging in to try and either spear her with her bayonet, or, failing that, just ram her again. Whatever it took to hurt her and be near her to heart her.

While the fighters battled in close quarters, Kamek turned to face the Abyssal Sun Princess and saying to her [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Now then, lets even up these odds a bit shall we, because two can play the summoner’s game”[/color] before putting his increased mana regeneration to its full use.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Dry Bones, rise and rise and rise!
Young masters, take to the skys!
Dark blasts to drown out their cries
Then all will be Quiet as their hope dies!”[/color] 

He chanted as he rolled out a counter wave of minions to battle the princess’s own. A horde of dry bones tore themselves front he earth and started shambling towards the rival summoner, the skeletal koopas refusing to stay down as they moved to pressure the princess’s position.

After and above them came a trio of shadowy Bowser Juniors who flew at the planes, hucking homing fireballs and using their boxing gloves to try and smack the enemy aircraft out of the air. Along with them was a red clone of Kamek, freshly summoned, who swooshed back and forth trying to drop Cia’s dark energy mines on various hovercraft.

Finally next to a now recovering Kamek came Quiet, one of his strikers, to add some much needed firepower. The sniper knelt down in the water beside the hoovering mage and used her high powered sniper rifle to directly pressure the Sun Princess, hammering shot after shot at her and forcing her to guard herself rather than focus on disrupting the two teams trying to liberate her minions. Still, as a high-power Striker she could get off only so many shots before disappearing again, although that did prevent any counter-offensive against her that might lead to injury for Kamek.

Many of the Sun’s hovercraft were being dealt with by Sakura’s teammates, and the street fighter was intent on reaching New Southern before she could fire any more well aimed shots. Sakura dove just over the first hovercraft, placed her hands on the top of it, and springboarded off of it, slamming it into the stone floor. Front flipping, she landed feet first on another hovercraft, and stomped it beneath her before leaping off of it and getting within melee distance of New Southern with an athletic roll. Coming to a stop, she popped up into the air and went to land on the cannon emplacement itself. [color=f49ac2]”Sorry, but it’s true!”[/color] She said. 

New Southern’s Abyssal Radar shone across her eyes, layered atop Galeem’s sunset red, and she made an executive decision. She rose to a crouch atop her mount as Sakura landed, and while the street fighter struggled to keep her balance atop a monstrous crustacean in motion, she perfectly aimed a two handed wallop at her foe to knock her back to a more manageable distance. Bella appeared on her other side at just that moment, but New Southern’s sensors clued her into the threat, and rather than be grabbed by the Seaplane Tender’s metal mitts she twisted around to vault over, using Bella’s head as a handstand. The leviathan tail lunged, but New Southern managed to deliver a kick to its crest hard enough to knock it off course. Bella managed to dodge in time to turn a face-skewer into a glancing blow, opening up the way for Sakura to strike back in the process.

Sakura rubbed her jaw as she skid backwards, and flinched on Bella’s behalf as the Seaplane Tender was nearly skewered through the mouth. Too close. New Southern felt a sudden weighted impact on her back as Sakura leapt onto her. Then she put the New Southern in an ironclad headlock, setting one hand on New Southern’s head and wrapping her other arm around her neck. It was impossible to breathe, and Sakura yanked back suddenly, causing an eye-watering crunch.  [color=f49ac2]”You’ll thank me later!”[/color] Sakura promised.  [color=f49ac2]”Sorry about killing you, won’t happen again! Just go to sleep, okay?”[/color] The Abyssal struggled, using her radar to land one vicious elbow blow after another, but her attacker wouldn’t be dislodged. Each crunchy squeeze hurt more than the last, until finally her cross spear slid from limp fingers and clattered to the ground, the noise Sakura’s only reply. The street fighter made brief eye contact with her friend Bella, hoping she could keep the big crab claws from interfering. 

Bella’s eyes, filled with a mixture of pity and disdain, lingered on New Southern for a moment as her masked face hit the ground, her body slumped in a most undignified fashion. She thought that Sakura broke the enemy Abyssal’s neck on the first go, and a good few more left her fate nebulous at best. Still, whether dead or alive, she needed to go down. This endless seabound war, fed by the cruel and inhumane cycle of death and resurrection at the hands of this callous Sun Princess, needed to end. She wiped her blood from her cheek, gave Sakura her nod of assertion that she could keep the crab monster busy, then bent to the task. 

Meanwhile, Pacific had turned on Rika with a vengeance. Long before the lower-level Abyssal could get close enough for a bayonet stab or a tackle, the expert’s catch pole flashed forward. Rather than risk a two-on-one engagement, even from inferior opponents, Pacific pivoted around in an attempt to redirect her attacker’s momentum and send her stumbling toward the edge of the arena. While Pacific then charged at the Dry Bones as they marched on her boss. With powerful sweeps she sent entire rows flying at a time, hampering Kamek’s offensive until Spinal accosted her once more. The pirate attacked with a mixture of normals and launched skulls that got expertly blocked until he let loose an instant overhead in the form of a divekick barely off the ground. On hit he confirmed into Instinct activation, floating in the air for a moment as ghostly green flame enveloped his body. An extra three skulls appeared as he pulled off a brief but solid combo, after which he spent his skulls to fill the air with screaming skull projectiles. Even on block they just bounced off to fly around and home in once again, applying too much pressure to fight back. Next time Rika approached, she would be unhindered.

That, of course, required Rika to be in a position to approche in the first place, and things did not look good on that front at first as the upgraded mook ran headlong into an artful parry which sent her stumbling towards the cliff that had taken Spinal earlier. Now the skeleton had come back, but that didn’t make the drop any less alarming to the shipgirl, who was crying “wowowowowow” as she teetered on the edge, arms flailing. Whether that would have helped or not ended up not muttering as her escort of Toadies swooped in and pulled her back.

“Phew. Too close,” she gasped before calling, “Thanks Kamek!” to the minions’ master. The mage himself gave her a thumbs up as he grinned as he watched Pacific lay into the dry bones, only for Spinal to break off her attention from them, giving those koopa skeletons not utterly scattered time to reform and resume their distracting march. 

The skeletal warrior’s assault on Pacific was intense, giving Rika another, better, opportunity to get her own shot in “but smarter this time.” Conscious that Sakura seemed to have subdued rather than freed the other princess, Rika was going to do something similar. “Kamek, send your guys with me, we’re gonna grab her!” she instructed before charging in. No bayonets, hull blades or guns this time, no instead she had her spell armored body and a set of six flying minions with her and together they tried to more or less tackle the princess. Green kamek clones tried to go in first, slamming into her retaliatory blows, and then following them came Rika, who tried to catch the haft of Pacific’s spear in the jaws of her arm cannons and rip it out of her grip. Finally, while Rika fought the princess for possession of her spear, the Toadies swept around and tried to grab one of the princess’s limbs each, finally getting to perform their intended purpose by carrying a kidnapping victim into the air out of reach of friend and foe alike. 

Irritated by Rika’s stubborn attempt to disarm her, Pacific landed kick after kick as she strove to wrest control of her catch pole, but her dogged opponent wouldn’t give up the ghost. Still, that suited the greater Abyssal well enough; it was only a matter of time before Rika succumbed, and unlike her opponents, Pacific had all the time in the world. Spinal’s presence complicated things, however, and though the spearfighter could maneuver the less nimble Rika to bodyblock for her, it wasn’t a perfect strategy. Scimitar slices began to accumulate across her limbs, and even a few on her torso and head, but none hurt so much as the indignity of such a stupid plan working. Try as she might, Pacific couldn’t focus long enough to deal with either opponent.

Sakura rubbed her tender midsection after the elbows struck true there. Red and purple bled through her normally light skin. These three really had screwed up her guts. It was increasingly difficult to breathe, and impossible to move painlessly. A few more solid hits there and she’d be down for the count, no doubt about it. She looked at the unconscious New Southern. Undignified indeed- it was an unfortunate truth that when you got laid out, you looked stupid. It was probably the only part about street fighting that Sakura didn’t like. Anyway, Sakura had to secure her victory. She hooked the toes of her sneaker under New Southern’s spear and tossed it up into her hands. With a heavy thud, she implanted the tip into the stone. Producing a pink Friend Heart from her chest, she grabbed New Southern by the shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Then she placed it into New Southern’s heart and grabbed her by the collar with one hand. Finally, Sakura went to pluck the mask off her face so Sakura could really look her in the eye. So that when New Southern woke up, Sakura could demand of her, without a doubt. 
[color=f49ac2]”Stay down.”[/color] She didn’t have time for a speech. She just needed to make sure New Southern wouldn’t be resurrected at full health as an enemy. 

Despite Sakura’s good intentions, the time she took to make sure she had a thorough handle on New Southern ended up coming back to bite her. With both of her bodyguards in trouble, the Abyssal Sun Princess decided to take decisive action. Into both situations she sent her seaplanes, not the hovercraft, but the bombers. The bulbous craft dove like kestrels, swooping down to get as close to their as they could regardless of nearby allies. New Southern awoke to a momentary view of Sakura, alarmed but too dazed to act, before the bombardment began. Although shielded somewhat by her opponent, the pain was such that it shocked her into wakefulness, and with a cry she curled up in an attempt to shield herself from the damage as the force rolled her away. At the same time, the bombers took care of the Toadies that dared lay hands on Pacific, though they also managed to hurt Pacific herself almost as badly. Recognizing the danger, she relinquished her catch pole and attempted to flee. The air filled with gunfire as the Sun Princess commanded her hovercraft to shoot into the chaos, heedless of friendly fire when her grunts were easily replaceable.

Sakura’s fears turned out to be well founded, as the Abyssal Sun would destroy her own allies without a second thought. All because she could bring them back to life. She heard the incoming bomber more than she saw it. As it detonated, the street fighter crouched and braced herself. Her body flashed an inky red miasma this time, and the explosive force dissipated into her, absorbed. The rest was scattered past her. The only downside was the significant amount of ‘gray health’ she temporarily had. A large portion of her durability ki was used up in that attack, and it needed time to come back. And it cost a big chunk of her internal resources. But at least she didn’t get blown to kingdom come.

The street fighter growled, shaking her head rapidly. [color=f49ac2]”Great, she almost blew us both up.”[/color] Sakura said to New Southern. [color=f49ac2]”Just stay out of this.”[/color] She said. [color=f49ac2]”Okay? Do you hear me?”[/color] She implored. Somehow, she needed confirmation that New Southern wasn’t just going to shoot her friends in the back the second Sakura turned to face other threats. 

Without her facemask, it was abundantly clear just how done New Southern was with this fight. Whether afforded her full faculties or left numb from the trauma of repetitious death and resurrection, her features held every ounce of her staggering indifference to either her former enemy or former commander. She didn’t so much as look at them, or even her weapon. “Whatever,” she drawled, her tone flippant and dismissive, as she laid her head back down and allowed her lilac-purple eyes to slide shut. Her concession seemed to spark a change in her mount as well, who ceased its standoff with Bella despite its sustained injuries and scuttled over to shield New Southern with its body. 

[color=f49ac2]You’re doing the right thing!”[/color] Sakura assured the tired abyssal. They were victims of this war, too. Sakura looked to Bella and gave an encouraging peace sign. [color=f49ac2]”That’s one! Ready? Because we’re about to finish this for good.”[/color] She looked to the Abyssal Sun Princess, who Sakura figured was the root cause of the entire war throughout the Edge of the Blue. While they had to kill her in order to progress, Sakura knew she would have had to go either way. 

Rika meanwhile suddenly found herself holding a spear in the jaws of her guns, inconveniently blocking them, while bombers contiued to swoop around and  hovercraft moved into position to simply mow her and the fleeing princess down. Had she been alone, she might have been royaly screwed, fortunately, she still had some support, mainly because despite the bombers filling the sky, the lack of any fighter craft ment that the troop actually had air speriority.

Dinky as they where, Rika’s two little scout planes were practically fre to hunt down the bombers, swooping to and fro in their swarm like dolphins darting in and out of a shoal of fish, hammering one after the other. Meanwhile, while Kamek’s air force had had losses, those that had fallen were only those in its support elements. Shadow Juniors remained, moving in to cover Rika and unleashing a triple barrage of fireball cannon shots on the bombers coming in blasting some out of the sky while those that did strike found their bombs striking the expendable shadow clones rather than the Rika. One even grabbed Pacific's spear from the ship girl’s cannon jaws and tried to use it to defend her.

The turncoat Abyssal herself, raising her gauntlets into a guard and shifting the hull blades beneath them to make a shield to guard against the hovercrafts’ fire, while her turrets moved behind her and tried to cover her rear by helping the jr clones in their fight against the bombers. 

Speaking of the hovercraft, they got their own taste of the very same medicine their flying allies were trying to dish out, as the red clone of Kamek swooped down over the ones trying to fire into Rika’s fight and dropped dark energy mines among their midst, the pulsing bombs detonating in large explosions that blew away several craft in a single detonation if they failed to spread themselves out. As it happened, however, the enemy hovercraft fought more intelligently than Kamek might have hoped, as their spread and flight patterns made it difficult to take out more than one at a time. The numbers advantage wouldn’t be so easily tipped back in the heroes’ favor.

Further back Kamek was directing his minions actions while keeping himself clear of the most intense parts of the fight (acting as something of a mirror to the Sun Princess in that way) and being so far back gave him the overview he needed to spot an opportunity when Rika managed to steal Pacific's spear from her, and decided to enact the exact same plan he’d used on the shipgirl when they’d first met.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Make that one rest”[/color] He commanded, summoning The End and directing him to bring down the princess who had lost her projectile blocking abilities. While the mage got to work creating more clones to replaces his losses, the ancient sniper crouched down, quickly and quietly picked out an appropriate dose for someone of Pacific's size, slotted it in place, and then raised, aimed, and fired the sleeping dart at the retreating princess all in one set of swift precise motions. 

Pacific’s ruse went off without a hitch. Who wouldn’t pursue an opponent who turned tail after being disarmed, after all? Yet even deprived of her catch pole, the Abyssal was far from helpless. She twisted around with torpedoes at the ready and hurled them like explosive throwing knives, blasting away Rika and Kamek’s minions alike. As the fiery splendor of destruction blossomed around her, Pacific rushed down the Junior doppelganger that wound up with her spear. A well-aimed turn kick impaled her high heel into the shadow’s eye, and as it faded an upward hook sent her spear flying. Her eyes followed it upward as it spun through the air, ignoring the trio of hovercraft that beelined toward Kamek to fill him with lead, unaware of the timely contingency plan already in motion.

The End’s tranquilizer dart pierced her neck just before her weapon’s shaft landed in her outstretched hand, only for the metal to slip from her grasp. “...Agh! What is…?!” Pacific gasped as she staggered. She yanked out the dart and stared at it, realizing that her vision was swimming. “...No!” With a violent lurch she realized that she’d been drugged, and was seconds away from hitting the deck. Her knees gave out and she fell into a kneeling position, her head lolling downward. She was going to fail. She was going to [i]lose[/i]. To these traitors and circus clowns. Pacific grit her teeth, and with the last of her strength took hold of her catch pole. Its butt she pressed against the bottom of her jaw, and she gave the command to fire.

When the thunderous report and acrid gunsmoke faded, Pacific lay slumped on the floor, but her spirit did not rest among the remains of her head for long. Just as she planned, her spirit flew toward the Sun Princess for immediate revival–a pragmatic if macabre way to defy her fate, if allowed to proceed.

[color=f49ac2]”No way!”[/color] Sakura shouted in dismay as, despite Kamek and Rika’s best efforts, the Pacific Princess took her own life. If she was revived at full health, could they even win? As terrible as it was, Pacific had made her choice. Sakura sprinted forward towards the Sun princess, firing her cannons at the boss’s face and upper body. Bella followed suit from her closer position, her gauntlet cannons ablaze.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Curses!”[/color] Kamek swore, not having expected something so brutal, while The End simply shook his head sadly before dissipating. Then the mage cursed again as the hovercraft came in, forcing the mage to pivot, summon a shadow Bowser clone to use its spiked back as living cover while he sent a newly formed red clone of himself to help the other one in bombing the blasted contraptions assailing him. 

Rika coughed as she unsteadily picked herself up after being blown away by the torpedo barrage. Kamek’s magic armor and her own gauntlet and hull blade guard had lessened the blow, but she’d still been decked her for long enough to stop her from doing anything about Pacific’s suicide. 

She wasn't the first Abyssal to fall at their hands however, and so Rika gave in to her rage to overcome her dismay, and channeled it towards the one who was to blame for all of this.

“Die! Die die die die you Whoreson!” she shouted as she followed Sakura’s lead and in her wake, unloading her rage and firepower at the sun princess while marching towards her with the two remaining jr clones did their best to use their remaining vitality to protect her from their foe’s remaining forces.

Three sources of high-caliber gunfire pounded the hastily-erected defenses of the Sun Princess. Although she possessed wealth of bombers and hovercraft, endlessly reanimated to serve at her every whim, even the finest seaplanes the Abyssal Fleet could offer couldn’t win this fight on their own–and they were being destroyed faster than their master could recreate them. Plus, Spinal was only too happy to absorb projectiles with Power Devour, feeding his supply of skulls he could launch back at the Sun Princess to hunt her down. All the bombardment was starting to take its toll, leaving the enemy’s fine clothes burnt bloody, and full of holes. She threw up one of the muscular arms on her rigging to protect her while she tried to resurrect Pacific, but Bella reached her in time.

With a shout she leaped to deliver a flying punch, but when her former boss lashed out with a massive backhand slap, Bella grabbed hold to tank the blow. Her leviathan tail lunged for the spirit of Pacific in its maelstrom of ashes and snagged it out of her enemy’s grasp. “Yes!” she exulted, even as the Sun Princess smashed her big arm into the floor with Bella beneath it. “...Ugh!” She couldn’t keep her tail from gasping along with her, and from its maw Pacific’s spirit flew once more, back toward its would-be reviver. “We can’t keep it away!” she hacked, the air knocked from her lungs. A realization, however, made her eyes wide. “Unless we fuse with it, or something!” Either way, Sakura would be on top of the Sun Princess any second now.

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Do it! Peach can always pull her spirit back out,”[/color] Kamek shouted as he took to the air, to join his pair of red clones, who worked together to shoot down the bombers with shadow infused spellfire, while the swarm of drybones piled onto the hovecraft as they tried to form, tearing them down with skeletal claws. 	

“I’ll try and get her, you all get the sun!” Rika called in response, having to halt her fire anyway lest she hit Sakura, and moving to run at full pelt after the spirit while sending her scout planes to try and body block its progress back towards the sun princess and once she got close enough having the two remaining shadow Jr’s team jump her up and after it. With their help she managed to catch it in time, although if she took anything less than decisive action right that instant, it would slip through her fingers and into her foe’s. If there was one thing that grunts did well, it was follow plans, and so with 0 hesitation the girl pulled in the spirit and pressed it into her chest even as she fell back towards the ground.

[center][hider=For Rika]Notable Spirit Consumed:
[b][url=https://i.imgur.com/dA43tVS.png]Pacific Princess[/url][/b]
The host is still taller yet more slender, with shorter hair that’s become white throughout except for a few inches of dark blue toward the tips. Her red eyes now have lavender splashes around the pupils. Her black jacket has become more of a blue-bladed cape and has gained a white interior, which is a design duplicated as coattails that descend from her shirt, which is now more of a formal tank top. Her sandals are now heeled shoes, as well. The host has become somewhat  more solemn and strict. This spirit confers the Power [b]Moby Dick[/b], allowing the host to spend a great deal of life force to summon a White Whale. The White Whale is very strong, especially its jaws, and can follow basic orders, including firing its cannons. The White Whale, once summoned, is a physical being and will only disappear if killed or a new one is summoned. It also must move around manually. This spirit also confers the Weakness [b]No Surrender[/b], making Rika unwilling to accept defeat[/hider][/center]

As Rika made her play, Sakura finally arrived at the Sun Princess for the second time and engaged her in melee combat. She crouched low and slammed a foot into her knee, before spinning upwards and bringing it back around with a jumping spin kick into her side. [color=f49ac2][i]”Shenpu!”[/i][/color] The strikes connected, and as Sakura recovered from her spin kick Spinal jumped in to pick up where she left off. He came down with a jumping slash and then low shield bash that managed to restand the Sun Princess still in hitstun, after which a skull blast from his shield kept her occupied just long enough for Sakura to go again, giving her a chance to extend her combo.

Working with Spinal, Sakura moved back in, jabbing at Abyssal Sun before hitting her with another tatsu. [color=f49ac2][i]”Shenpu!”[/i][/color] She said again, spinning around with another kick. This time she dropped low immediately, not even setting both feet on the ground before kicking low and shooting upwards again, spinning twice with her leg out. [color=f49ac2][i]”Shenpukyaku!”[/i][/color]

The extra damage from both fighters staggered the Sun Princess, leaving not just bruises, cuts, and clothing damage but also two kinds of spectral skulls floating around her that constantly siphoned her eternal resources, courtesy of Spinal. Like the other masked mastermind before her, the Lady of the Maw, she was beginning to lose her composure. A strained, furious cry exploded from her as she raised both adjunct arms for a brutal overhead smash, but Bella’s tail lunged up to chomp down into her left arm’s wrist. Its teeth pierced the arm’s sinuous flesh, and once it had a hold, the horrific appendage yanked it -and the Sun Princess- sideways. The two Abyssal monstrosities struggled against one another in a vicious tug of war that hurt one a lot more than the other. The Sun Princess found herself in dire straits, beset on all sides and needing to pull out all the stops. As the fighters approached to finish her off, she waved her hand at them to inexpertly release an arc of electricity, a spray of fire, and a shower of ice–an unprecedented but ultimately ineffective last resort.

Sakura held her ground, leaning forward with her shoulder and forearm. Grimacing, her defensive blue ki withstood all three elements, all three of which Sakura had experience withstanding. The force impacted against her defense with mighty, deep thuds, and her sneakers dug into the stone as she was pushed backwards. But at the end of it all, she shoved away the last of the ice and pushed in, followed by a newly arrived and transformed Rika. 

With Rika at her back, Sakura felt confident. She weaved in, crossed one arm over her chest, and then slammed her elbow into the Abyssal Sun’s Princess face, like she meant to cram it all the way down her throat. The mask cracked beneath the blow, and her enemy saw stars. Then she Sailor Hopped right over her, kicking the back of her head and sending her stumbling towards Rika, who reeled back an arm and then drove a gauntleted fist into her gut with relish. Third in the conga line came Spinal, who shot the Sun Princess with a skull that replenished enough Shadow for a Shadow Soul Sword, in which he wildly wheeled his cutlass about five times. At that moment the final Abyssal crossed some unseen threshold only Spinal could receive, prompting him to release a maniacal cackle. It was time for a show.

A yellow wave rippled outward from his skeletal body, and the air filled with sound. He unleashed a terrific barrage of attacks in quick succession, a mixture of slashes, bashes, kicks, and ghostly outbursts that each created a haunting musical note on hit. With them came the cheers and cries of an unseen crew to punctuate each especially ruthless blow, sounding out an eerie but vigorous rhythm. Loving every second of it, Spinal waved his cutlass overhead as a pair of skeletal arms erupted from the ground in an X, a literal crossbones, before he ran forward to boot the dizzied Sun Princess in the stomach. As she flew he skeleported beneath her, then let loose a rising shield bash for the finale, with a skull blast that launched her high into the air.

At the apex of her launch, she was met by Sakura, her face cut with grim determination. Expending all of her gathered resources, her body thrummed with power. [color=f49ac2][i][b]”ATTAAACK!”[/b][/i][/color] She shouted, floating beside the Sun Princess. Raising her fists over her head, the air split as she brought them down on the Sun’s head. In a split second she went from high into the air to cratered in the ground. Sakura remained suspended in the air, before spinning forward and streaked down after her, wind following in her wake. With a penultimate stomp, she crushed the Sun Princesses’ midsection with immense force, pressing her even further into the stone. She hopped off. [color=f49ac2]”It’s over.”[/color]

“Let’s make sure of zat,” Bella declared, as she and Rika stepped up onto the edge of the crater. Directing all her guns at her former master who had uncaringly thrown her and hundreds like her to their deaths over and over and over, Rika unleashed her fury in a hail of cannonfire, metaphorically and literally holding down the triggers till her ammo was spent. Her barrage only came to an end wehn Bella’s railgun finished charging, at which point the renegade princess put an end to all this with a thundercrack as her main cannon smashed into the princess’s broken body at point blank range, showering them all with dust and ash as, at last, the tyrant of the sun was toppled. Sakura coughed, waving her hand in front of her and coughing. [color=f49ac2][i]”Bleugh.”[/i][/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Well done ladies… and skeleton”[/color] Kamek drifted in to congratulate them as the dust settled, the old koopa having stayed well clear of the carnage rather than risk getting caught in some kind of cross fire or hitting someone with a spell by accident. 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”And with more than a minute to spare too”[/color] he added, checking the timer. And then checking it again. [color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh. Odd. It’s still ticking down?”[/color] 

“Is she not dead?” Bella aske, alarmed, before sending her leviathan tail into the settling dust cloud. When she pulled it back, however, the maw deposited not just one but three spirits into her waiting hands. “Ah non, she is quite dead. Zat is a relief…but why are zere three?!” In addition to spirit of the Abyssal Sun Princess, she held the spirit of a blue-haired, cat-eared [url=https://i.imgur.com/WipWqam.png]white mage[/url], and that of a diminutive but stylish [url=https://i.imgur.com/S1czsXU.png]black mage[/url]. “Was she fused? Hiding beneath those clothes…?”

Sakura scratched her head, not sure what to make of this. [color=f49ac2]”I have no idea.”[/color]

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”I suppose it must be a hidden fusion. I wonder which of her powers came from those. And how she learned how to fuse in the first place, and why she kept it hidden. It is not as if we saw any of her subordinates using that power which seems like a missed opportunity”[/color] Kamek said while scratching his chin thoughtfully, before shaking his head and saying [color=DeepSkyBlue]”but that does not solve the conundrum of the countdown’s continuation”[/color]

Rika said, before suggesting “Maybe it's just because the big weird hand doesn’t know she’s dead?” 

[color=DeepSkyBlue]”Oh? Oh dear yes that could well be it. That or perhaps it is because some of the others are still fighting? Either way, here,”[/color] the mage reached out and took the Abyssal spirit. [color=DeepSkyBlue]” I’ll fly ahead and bring proof to the hand if we need it, you hurry along after me and go back up the others if you can.”[/color] 

With that the mage took flight once more, sailing back the way they had come on broomstick back, leaving the others to catch up and or handle their one surviving (hopefully former) foe.

[color=f49ac2]”Yeah, let’s go.”[/color] Sakura felt the elation of victory, but it was subdued by the violence they had to do, and the long history of evil represented by the little spirit the Sun Abyssal left behind.  She spared a glance to Bella, Rika, and even New Southern, who seemed thoroughly nonplussed. [color=f49ac2]”We- we don’t have any time. We’ll sort through all this later.”[/color] Sakura said with a helpless shrug. The familiar sound of sneakers smacking against stone filled the chamber as the street fighter carried onward.