[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FSp3maO.png[/img][/center]

The Tom and Jerry skit continued to play out between Betty and Finn.

Releasing Betty and allowing his time magic to slow his fall did prevent him from being cleaved in half. He even had time to force a smile and boldly throw a taunt at his reasonably angry pursuer. But while Finn had been concerned with Betty’s initial attack and falling to his death, he hadn’t put much forethought into what Betty’s next move would be. With a roar of hatred, she descended. 

Slow was a versatile note, but didn’t give Finn nearly the same level of air control that Betty had. She could fly, accelerate and decelerate with just a thought. It would not take long for Finn to fall to the ground, but Betty could still catch up. He was powerless to do more than block the incoming swing with his rapier, and was flung into the wall of the police station as a result. The slow melody did help him resist the damage, but Betty’s assault wasn’t over. 

She approached Finn with her ax slung over her shoulder. With a howl, her body was covered in black debris. Finn had been falling too fast before, but now the giant flies buzzed overhead and would be touching down any second. 

[color=ade81b]”Nowhere to run, coward!“[/color]

A wall to his back, flies at his sides, Betty’s at his front, and noise all around. Betty howled as she brandished her weapon for a decisive blow.

Binky’s melody contained a pierce note that allowed for multiple cuts, but after each cut the saw degraded before finally wedging itself in one of the bloody tentacles. Ashley had just enough time to put up a barrier before more attacks came in. A shield melody would protect her, but not for long. The protection a shield note provided was dependent not only on the power of the attacks, but also the number of them. A single shot from Pac’s gun was all it took to rupture her spell.  She could dispatch some of the flies with her wand, block a few more with her shield, but it wouldn’t stop everything. A fly landed on her back and dumped acid onto her shoulders. It felt like she had caught fire, but at least the frog guts were being burned away. 

Ashley’s call to action did get Pac to turn her attention to the other espers. But between the flies, tentacles, and blood, it was impossible for Pac to see Marrie, let alone shoot her. Marrie had no difficulty passing a flight melody onto Leroux before flying up to Pac. But Marrie’s flight path brought her into Pac’s line of sight. She managed to fire a single round, which burned a hole in Marrie’s torso. But this didn’t stop her from trying to wrap  up Pac in a chain. Her efforts were likely helped by the fact that Pac-A-Fist was pretty banged up at this point. She had just fallen a pretty far distance, and while everything was working her mobility wasn’t quite what it was. As soon as Marrie got the chain looped under her shoulders, she was off again. 

[color=orange]”Are the lot of you mad?”[/color]

There were no places with an overhang aside from the apartment complex that Marrie had just flown away from. 

Pac wasn’t going to wait that long.

With a growl, she twisted her body and fell out of the chains, only to summon a giant pixel starship just as she was falling. Marrie would need to take evasive maneuvers if she wanted to avoid the ships gunfire or being attacked by the still-growing amalgamation of bloody tentacles. 

With Justin’s cronies out of the way, would the other espers be able to defeat him?

Samuel voiced his opinion about the statue. It caused the vampire’s fingers to curl into fists. [color=662d91]”You’ve spoken enough.“[/color]

The wall of blood opened up a hole just big enough for Justin to see Samuel run away. He may have had his back to Justin, but it didn’t matter. Once he opened his eyes, Samuel’s legs locked up. He wasn’t running anywhere, not straight or at an angle. Behind him, the wall of spikes started to crease in the center and fold like a hinge. It was no longer a wall of spikes, but an iron maiden made of blood. 

The mana sapping melody went off under Justin’s feet just as planned. Monsters were an oddity when it came to depleting their mana reserves. Their internal mana sustained them while their magic was often pulled out of the surrounding environment. Hitting them with a mana burning melody was more likely to make them hungry or tired. Mavericks often employed such spells to weaken a monster without killing it, but it wasn’t uncommon for GEMINI espers to burn up a monster's mana to weaken them. But it wouldn’t stop Justin.

Enter Jacqueline’s melody.

While the blood magic went to work on her knee, a stream of metal tore through the air and struck Justin’s back. Each sliver of steel ripped away a small bit of Justin’s outfit, then his flesh, and even his bones. The vampire gurgled as his own blood mixed with the rain. 

Justin broke eye contact with Samuel, and he was able to resume running just as the blood maiden attempted to close in on his body. The only thing it managed to do was clamp down on his scarf, pinning him nearby. The wall was not done though. While it had narrowly missed its target, it was still folding, drawing Samuel inward as it turned inside out in a second attempt to smash Samuel between its spiked walls. 

Once the last bit of shrapnel fell it became possible to assess what happened to Jsutin. Part of his torso had been blown off along with his left arm. Even his neck and lower jaw were missing. Though not everything had been blown away. All of his blood vessels and organs had been left intact. His heart was still beating, and his lungs expanded and collapsed like they should. Only there was no flesh around them. 

Justin whipped around and looked at Jacqueline, causing her body to freeze up much like Samuel’s had. While she was still in flight, she was unable to actually fly anywhere. The blood rain started to gather behind her and pushed the agent closer and closer to Justin. The vampire raised his arm, which was presently nothing but several large blood vessels. But with each passing second, a claw of blood grew at the end of it. In a matter of seconds, it was large enough to crush Jacqueline’s torso. 

And then everyone’s skin started to itch.

[quote]
[i]Then the lord  said to Moses and Aaron, "Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land."
— Exodus 9:8–9
[/i]
[/quote]

Then the boils started popping up. 

Festering pockets of bile built up under everyone’s skin. Uncomfortable on their own, and sure to affect the speed in which one could cast melodies. That said nothing of the agony they would bring if punctured.