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[color=bd71e8]"Okay surfer girl, you’re on!"[/color]

[color=888888]— Tim Tendril Termitidae[/color]

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Rika and Tim could exchange words for as long as they wanted. What really mattered was their actions.

As the sunlight dimmed around Rika, she prepared to cast a melody. It wasn’t something Tim was giving her much time to do, but the draconic esper was proving to be far speedier than her scaled body might suggest. It was clear that the alien was expecting a frontal assault, and had his weird mancatcher brandished and pointed at his target. Though Rika was not interested in a frontal assault, she wanted to get behind him. 

Teleportation spells are powerful. Not just for moving to places that one could never reach normally, but also to evade attacks. However, they were also slow, and unbeknownst to Rika, required additional time to activate. Her melody had manifested. Magical metal bent behind Tim’s back, but they wouldn’t receive Rika before Tim’s attack.

Or at least he would have, if she didn’t miraculously teleport out of danger again, just like she had last time. Though Rika could feel that whatever had saved her before had been spent, and it would not save her a third time. This was unfortunate, as Tim had little difficulty catching himself. He grabbed a hold of a slimy tendril and sprung back towards Rika’s position. But this time, her melody was ready and she was saved just in the nick of time. 

But Rika did not have time to count her lucky stars or pray to whatever god was looking over her. Instead, she attempted to commandeer the ship. Something that immediately caused Tim great concern. 

[color=bd71e8]"Get away from there!"[/color]

The ship was very responsive, as in everything Rika did caused the ship to behave erratically. It went from fighting Book Kidd’s hands to crushing them under its hull in a single breath. Then the thing did a 360 spin, which cast Tim into the membrane. He continued to bounce around as Rika accidentally did a barrel roll, fought to try to land the thing, but ended up putting it into the ocean. 

The slime net burst open and sea water rushed in. Tim was swearing in his strange language, but all Rika understood was that he was pissed. He attempted to activate that weird musk again, but the water he had been soaked with was trapping the particles. Though his body began to change shape, as his limbs became tendrils and what once could have been a man looked like an octopus. Giant eyes colored like the lens of Tim’s helmet looked back at Rika and, without a word, pushed off into the water. Then Tim sunk below the depths and vanished into a purple haze.

The ship in front of Rika started to fall apart. All the perfect cubes began to drift apart in the water and sunk into the depths. Hopefully they weren’t too far out to sea…

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[color=ff6347]"So we’re doin’ it now, finally?"[/color]

[color=888888]— Mika Fang, Cerberus[/color]

[hider=Mika]
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5656223]Mika Fang[/url]
Max MP: 30 Current MP: 24 - 2 = 22
Casting: [self] 0 + [transform] 2 = 2

Gear: Taser (3 shots) Mastermind (40 credits - 10 for 3 smoke bombs) Smoke Bombs (2)

Leveraging: N/A
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[color=ff6347]"Like we’d do anything else?"[/color] Mika groaned to Ashley. Less because of her orders and more because of the situation, but it did feel like something Mika would have done as a new esper.

As perilous as the situation was, Nina still had the spirit to joke around. Her erratic scrambling had gotten the attention of many pursuers, and she was able to slow them up with a well timed arctic bomb, and also create shields of snow for her allies. One of the frigid tendrils managed to poke at Nina’s back, only to catch nothing but snowflakes. Mika swiped her claws at the encroaching tentacles as they came.  

Finally the time came. The neon energy at the end of Ashley’s wand was almost ready to fire. She squinted her eyes as the glowing energy hurt to look at, even through her tinted visor. As she fired, the world shifted. 

Everyone was thrown everywhere. 

Nina had little difficulty with it. A normal human, or even an esper, would have been concussed many times over. But her padded outfit and bare noggin was no worse for wear. Later Mika would comment that it was probably because there was nothing in her head to begin with, but that came later. Mika herself was not able to get away unscathed, or rather, her magic had to kick in to save her from a nasty landing. The girl briefly turned into a spirit to soar through a wall, only to return and land in physical form. Marrie was totally unaffected, as the girl was half ghost and anything under her feet was of no concern to her. Ashley’s suit had some new features, and a hardlight construct protected her head from smashing into a wall. While she was ultimately uninjured by the ship’s sudden, erratic movements, her shot was thrown off course. Fortunately, the blast was big enough that it at least hit her target. 

While the shot did not hit where most of the espers were located, it did manage to hit the creature’s center of mass. The explosion was only half as wide as the slime was, but it sent green slivers of technolight deep inside the slimy mass. The slime was turning black, rotting and vaporizing out and away from where the shot had initially hit. Any sound the blast might have made was muted out by the entire ship groaning. It sounded like grinding metal, or the wail of a dying creature. The tentacles went limp, if they hadn’t dropped to the floor already. The creature had been eradicated.

Of the dozen espers trapped in the slime, Brittany was the first to stand up. The scantily clad witch was probably the most ready for the beach vacation without Dan’s enchantment, since the only thing anyone ever saw her wear was the bikini and witch hat that she donned in her shop. There was still some slime stuck to her, but she was able to stand up.

[b][color=ffffff]"Ugh!"[/color][/b] She didn’t even need to cough to clear her airways. [b][color=ffffff]"What even happened here!?"[/color][/b] 

Though the explanation would have to wait. While Brittany and a few espers no one was familiar with were starting to wake up, the others were not. Though out of those that remained, Stacy was probably in the least amount of danger. Being an immortal zombie would do that for you. 

But when it rained in Pax, it poured, and that might have been why water was starting to leak into the ship. The perfectly positioned blocks were starting to slide and drift apart, likely a combination of the the ship’s central system being destroyed and whatever caused it to flop all over the place. 

Now they had to devise a plan. The ship seemed to be sinking, and they were left with ten or so delirious victims, some not even conscious. That was all without addressing what was behind the final door, which may not even open now that the slime was dead. The espers would need to act fast.

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[color=a4f4f9]"Stop confusing people, Nina! It’s not 13 until ‘I’ say it’s 13!"[/color]

[color=888888]— Dan Daggernose[/color][/center]

Poison was a slow killer, but not when it was this potent. 

The jellyfish woman known only by her alias had made short work of the slime barrier. It bubbled and burst in a matter of seconds. The duo were coated in decaying slime, which Dan didn’t bother to wipe off. Now wasn’t the time to be concerned with such things. Instead he dove forward, and fell through the ceiling between the espers that had just vanquished the giant slime cylinder in the laboratory. He was even more coated in gunk now. 

[color=a4f4f9]"Get them out of that gunk now!"[/color] Dan reached inside the remains of the decaying slime and pulled out Stacy, who started to blink herself awake. 

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While Jack’s first attempt to rely on reflexes to dodge giant cubes hadn’t worked, the friction against the ship had slowed this one down enough that it was possible to evade. It was close though, with the former ceiling debris landing just a few feet in front of her shoes. It was dragged back for its next attack, allowing Jack to prepare for hers as well.

It was not looking good for Nukkelina and her puppet. With the the slime ratcheting in the puppet girl, it was only a matter of time before she was under a rather heavy object. But she had one last trick up her sleeve, and a chuuni monologue to go with it. It would cause some to cringe and others to envy, but the girl without a heart would feel none of that emotion. 

Pekka spun as fast as he could, and surged with magical power. What was left of the slime queen was not so easily eviscerated. It stuck to the puppet and spun as it did, continuing to pull Nukkelina in closer. But the arcane barbs it waived through the slime did plenty of damage to its form. Chunks of green and yellow material were thrown in all directions. But as the slime was hollowed out, the massive cube it held over head would tumble soon. 

And that would happen very soon, as Jack had kicked off the wall and aimed to peirce what remained with their instrument. But their aim was thrown off. Not because anything happened to them, but the ship itself began to move erratically. She slammed into Pekka, which was likely preferable to running Nukkelina through. The indestructible doll cared little for what might try to pierce it. Fortunate too that it instantly stopped spinning as it was thrown off balance and carried free from the slime’s remains. Nukkelina tumbled after them, given that the strings had been wrapped so tightly.

After being stabbed and sliced with all manner of weapons, what remained of the slime queen had no recourse but to allow the cube to fall on top of itself. With a metallic thump, the massive cube fell, and what remained of the slime queen was scattered to the corners of the room. Between Nukkelina’s floaty grace and Jack being airborn, they managed to avoid any serious injury.

Though it was clear that the ship was breaking down. Something had happened. The floor was separating and it was starting to take water. The way ahead had been cleared, if they cared to risk it.