Enter The Arena As Your Avatar -- The Spinoff!

Mawuh starts dancing over its (apparent) victory.

"Ma! Wah! Ma! Wah! Wawawawawa!"

oh god it's flossing. how does it even do that without legs. this is awful.

And then it suddenly jumps back up, prepared to shank once more, but it pauses when it sees Mawu flossing.

Somehow, it seems disgusted on a personal level.

This level of horrifying revulsion, repugnance and abhorrence is, in fact, so powerful, that it just outright snaps out of its confusion.

Edited by DevilPsyco on May 7th 2021 at 11:47:59 AM

Mawuh's flossing slows to a stop when Kakuna reveals that it still lives.

"Mwamwa?" - "why are you still alive"

It seems panicked! Nothing can take that many boolit!

Uh, uh, Mawuh fires a Dark Pulse!

Gen I Kakuna does not answer.

... Actually, could it even answer if it wanted to? It's a cocoon, and it hasn't made any sounds so far.

Gen I Kakuna lets itself drop to dodge the Dark Pulse, then...

Oh god, oh no, it's rolling towards Mawu again!

Kakuna's charge gives Mawuh a free Overwatch attack, at only -1 to hit!

Mawuh used Dark Pulse! Again!

Real creative, idiot. You moron. You stupid fucking dinosaur.

And yet this Dark Pulse hits and knocks Gen I Kakuna back a fair bit.

It still gets back up though. Either this thing is much more resilient than it appears to be, or it's just too petty and spiteful to die.

... don't ask me how that works, I'm not a Gen I Kakuna expert.

It looks pretty resilient tho.

Mawuh tries to approach its fallen prey, but... its legs.

"FUCK"

"MWAHWAHUAWHUHAM" - "Roll over here so I can feast on your entrails!"

Gen I Kakuna approaches all right... but by hopping.

At this point it's as if it's actively trying to screw with Mawu.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA"

Fuck you Kakuna! Fuck your dumb face!

Mawuh fires a bullet in hopes of knocking Kakuna over into its back.

Bang.

It gets hit and falls over, raising its pincers defiantly as it... just kinda shakes them a little. It can't do much else with them apparently.

The Bad Girl jumps, slides over, and bats away all attempts to stop her, dashing out of the brain...

and right into the Sleepwalker, who sucker-punches her in the gut and sends her reeling back. The immune cells that surrounded her and Alucard are all... gone. Let's not get into how they were disposed of.

The Bad Girl looks around in a panic as the heroes all filter in and surround her. "... Heh." She suddenly slams a hand into the ground and a hole opens up as she disappears into an underground tunnel.

Before the group can pursue her, the Sleepwalker impedes them. "it has complete control of rin's body. you cannot destroy it without also killing rin. you must make it stop by means other than violence."

"... do you have the message with you?"

Hub Centralis, A Couple Weeks Ago

Ruby was out patrolling a street when she heard footsteps behind her. She spun Crescent Rose into its scythe form as she turned around and... saw Weiss standing before her.

Weiss didn't move. She shuddered with every breath, and her sword, Myrtenaster, was nowhere to be found.

"... Weiss?" Ruby asked hesitantly.

"..."

She suddenly pulled Ruby into a great, big, tearful hug. "I'm sorry, Ruby!" she blurted.

Ruby immediately reciprocated with The Glomp. "Weiss! How did you get out of that?"

"..."

Beat

"W-Weiss?"

"I'm... sorry, Ruby," she repeated. "Really. I... we could've avoided this whole mess, but..."

"No, we couldn't have. It wasn't your fault. We couldn't see Ridley coming."

Weiss sniffled a little. "I... I'm going back to Narktus."

"... What?" Ruby's face instantly fell, though she did not cease her embrace. "Why?"

"He wasn't the one who turned me against you - who put that thing in my head! He... he saved me from that hell!"

"Back up. What thing in your head?"

"I don't know, I..." Weiss retched. "I... don't want to think about it... ever again."

"... Okay. So you say it wasn't his idea?"

"Yes. He told me everything when he destroyed that... thing. It was a member of the High Council who provided those... things to Gravitas, and it was the High Council's collective ruling that agreed to allow their use, but Narktus himself ordered against it."

"... And you can't leave Narktus's side now because you owe him for saving you?"

Weiss buried her face into Ruby's chest as she continued to sob. "I'm sorry, Ruby!"

Ruby wasn't ready to have to be the supportive one. Keeping the team's spirits up was Yang's thing, but... "... It's alright. We'll figure it out. Be safe, okay, Weiss?"

"She left after that," says Ruby, her expression seeming... dead inside at this point.

Miku looks at Boyfriend. "Long storii. I will tell yuu leiter."

Oca breaks out laughing again when Sleepwalker Rin gut-punches Bad Girl Rin.

"PFFHAAAAAA"

Mawuh just kind of shakes a little too.

"AAAAAAAARGH!"

And thus ends this battle of titans, two creatures too powerful for their own good, brought together only to cripple each other.

Boyfriend gives a thumbs-up.

"Beep!"

He proceeds to disassociate from the situation. Hm, what's for dinner...

Edited by Rbade on May 7th 2021 at 3:25:12 AM

Both creatures unable to move at all... perhaps they would lie here for all eternity, never to shoot nor shank anyone ever again. Truly, this is the worst possible ending.

However!

There is hope!

For a random Voltorb◊ suddenly rolls onto the scene, glowing a little before-

BOOM!

Gen I Kakuna is sent blasting off again!

Mawuh is blown to ugly little pieces, but its intact head is sent blasting off!

Godspeed, you hideous little saurian. Godspeed.

When both of these magnificent entities have been sent flying away, the Voltorb glows, turning back into its true self◊, giggling mischievously before flying away.

Pietro holds up the paper for the Sleepwalker to see.

   "Problem is, I have no freaking idea how to make it go back the hopeful-sounding message that doesn't order her to kill everyone."   

Nicole actually spits out the mead she was drinking when Ruby explains how her encounter with Weiss played out. She then stares at Ruby as if she'd suddenly grown another head.

"Wait a minute... how do you know Narktus ain't just manipulating Weiss into working for him?" she asks. "Maybe he realized someone like you or me would've gotten through to her, so he beat us to the punch and pretended to be some dashing savior to keep her from turning on Gravitas. I wouldn't put that kinda gaslighting past him, what with how that little unicorn thinks he's the friggin' messiah.

She slams her bottle down on the bar.

"Hell, even if I'm wrong, it's Narktus' fault you and Weiss' world was destroyed. He's the one who sent Ridley and kidnapped her after his little rampage. She doesn't owe him shit!"

Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 7th 2021 at 4:57:08 AM

Blue might feel the pressure from Locke's aura due to being so close to him, but it's no longer strong enough to suffocate those around him. Locke eventually looks at Blue, after which he removes his hand from his face.

"I... nothing. I was just reminded of... personal matters and feelings from my past. I will likely be alright now."

He's now aware of the situation.

"Let us follow the rest. Even if we cannot keep up with them, they may still end up needing our help.", he says, after which he starts running.

—

Seras is about to leap into the hole after Bad Girl Rin when the Sleepwalker stops her.

"What? How are we supposed to do that?"

"I don't suppose more music will help with this?", Walter asks, crossing his arms as he calls back his wires.

Locke would arrive not too long after, seeing as the group is momentarily standing still.

Ruby shrinks into a corner, making herself smaller and smaller with every word Nicole says...

"It's nat his folt actuallii," Miku corrects.

"Strictly spiiking, Ridlii choz tu handle sahmething deinjeras that ended ahp turning him intuu an abomineishon. Narktus simplii had to diil with the consequences." (Strictly speaking, Ridley chose to handle something dangerous that ended up turning him into an abomination. Narktus simply had to deal with the consequences.)

Putting up a Declarative Finger, Miku does one of the things she does best - try to find the best possible moral reasoning for everyone. "Perhaps Narktus tuuk Waiss in hopes of kiiping hur alaive. It wuud explein whai hii didn't just kill hur." (Perhaps Narktus took Weiss in hopes of keeping her alive. It would explain why he didn't just kill her.)

Nicole wheels around to face Miku, her expression a mixture of surprise and disbelief. As if this virtual popstar using magic to completely obliterate the Tankmen wasn't crazy enough, now she apparently knew about Gravitas?

"Okay, just how the hell do you know anything about - ah, never mind. If Narktus really cared about Weiss, he would've tried saving Ruby too. And he sure as hell wouldn't have let her get brainwashed in the first place."

She scoffs, rolling her eyes.

"So where was this conscience of his when he tried having Glali and the people she loves butchered like animals? When he threw Terlette and Jolyne and everyone else Snake rescued into his little gulag to do god knows what to them? Or when he manipulated the unicorn into idolizing him and corrupted that samurai dude?"

". . ."

He do be staring off into space.

Miku shakes her head. "Yuu're thinking pyurely in black and whaite. Narktus bii-ing a bad person douz not meik it impossible for him tu duu good things. He shuld never bii forgiven for the bad things he has don, but not everiithing he douz has bad intenshons."

Jolyne herself peeks her head out of the door to the Cistern in the back. "Someone say my name?"

Ruby suddenly vanishes, slipping through the opened door.

Jolyne's eyes follow the trail left behind to Nicole and Miku, and she quickly fixes a glare on them. "Did you hurt the kid?"

Edited by KiriK on May 7th 2021 at 7:06:25 AM

"The dude's planning to commit mass genocide on a universal level and sent Hit to assassinate Glali, among a shitload of other horrible things. Sorry if I'm having a hard time believing he has any sort of good in him," Nicole replies, shaking her head. "Can't believe Miku friggin' Hatsune is lecturing me about Narktus..."

Her gaze flickers to Jolyne, and she gestures for her to calm down.

"Easy, easy, I'd never hurt the poor kid. She just had a less-than-happy reunion with someone she knows."

Then she looks to the door Ruby slipped out through, a concerned expression on her face.

Edited by IchigoMontoya on May 8th 2021 at 12:31:52 PM

"I know the sitch already." Jolyne retracts a severed ear back to her head on a line of string. "I'm pretty sure you guys scared her off because you didn't act like you cared about her. You just talked about Narktus and revenge and morality and all that instead of trying to be there for Ruby, in the moment."

Miku looks down at the floor solemnly. "..."

She nudges Boyfriend, the one person who hasn't spoken about the current topic and so hasn't offended Ruby in any way. "Can yuu go sing her a song?"

BF snaps out of his daydreaming once directly addressed.

"Beep?! Ba doop!" - "Huh?! Er, sure! Yeah!"

"Skdee skdoo da di doo?" - "... Am I allowed into the back of that super-secret lookin' place tho"

Nicole looks down at the floor as well, Jolyne's words hitting her like a punch to the stomach from Troa.

"You're right... she needed a hug and all I did was go off about the last thing she wanted to hear about."

She blows out a heavy sigh before downing the remainder of her mead.