Akia would sigh a bit while her voice becomes... Shockingly enough she actually sounds serious and concerned at this point. She would in fact stop Sonomi running off, or try to by aiming to rush in front of the girl and place a hand on her shoulder. "Okay kiddos just... Calm down and let's think about this, why are we here exactly? What's the purpouse of this outing and what role within it do any of us play? I realize I'm everyone's constantly drunken aunt and all but I ain't as stupid as I look at first glance in some ways, so can we please think like sane rational superpowered lunatics before rushing off half-cocked?" The young woman sighs a bit while staring between them both. "Seriously, don't actually act out the kind of lackadaisical bullshit I usually portray myself as when dealing with casual stuff. Let's use our brains."

{The two looked at her, Sonomi turning from behind and stopping mid walk, and Asena just walking up to the two and looking at Akia herself, holding a map. They both were pretty silent for a bit, some passerby even stared at them but didn't want to do anything about it. Finally, Sonomi sighed out, and turned her full body around to look at Akia, making it look like it was going to be something important.} S: "...I dunno, but I saw this lady with long, blue, and messy hair. I thought she looked like my sister so I was going to take a closer look." {Meanwhile, Asena also cleared her throat in hopes the two would pay attention to her. Sonomi certainly did, silently backing away from the crowds of people walking past so that she won't get in anybody's way. Asena smirked, opening the map and pointing to important places. Or rather, what seemed important to her.} A: "Ok, so there's a food court, and also a bathroom. A hotel nearby...but only nearby. Jeez, this place is big. Miss Akia, how does an airport afford to look like a mall?" {Past the crowd of people that walked by, Akia could faintly see the blue haired lady Sonomi was talking about. She stood elegantly and refined, and talked on the phone with someone else. She was standing near a black bench with two big potted plants surrounding it. Though it was hard to see, Akia could swear she saw the lady lowering her phone slightly, glancing behind her with her bangs covering her eyes.}

Akia would sigh a little bit while looking over at that woman, okay that's something to go on then at least. She can kinda work with it, maybe. But she still doesn't know what they're really here for. "Okay so, let's keep close alright. Homura seemed to think something may go wrong here or she wouldn't have asked me to tag along... But heck if i know what. As for that Asena, investors, sponsers, overpirced food and drinks. The usual really." She'd just stare at the map intently for a while before moving on with the other two, taking some time to try and memorize the map and most of all exits listed upon it. Not to mention scanning the room in general for windows doors anything that can be used as cover and so on, all in all she looks more almost like a solider taking stock of a combat zone while trudging forward after the pair... And absently sipping from a flask that is totally not liquor, really. Or so she'll say to anyone who asks. It is though of course, carried on her for when she wants to drink without raising as much attention. "Anyway, sure we can talk to this girl. I don't see any better leads, and this is your show kids. I'm just the hired muscle."

{The two nodded, only looking at each other and both raising an eyebrow as soon as Akia started drinking from the flask. Sonomi was about to question it, but Asena refuted, saying that it was perfectly normal for their grown up friend to be consuming alcohol in the middle of what might be a mission. Either way, it was still public.} S: "And you're saying you two fought each other?" A: "Periodically. I have no experience under my belt, so why not. Plus, she's strong. I just wish there were more people." {As Akia walked toward the girl behind the two, they all seemed to notice that the music playing in the background had actually gotten a bit louder. If the prerecorded Japanese girl speaking cutesy into the airport's radio that played all over the building wasn't enough, the song immediately picked up it's pace, the same prerecorded girl sang loudly with the music.} A: "Oh hey, I didn't know they played Lucky Chloe here!" {Asena said, though since she wasn't paying attention, she turned to face her side, only to find out Sonomi dashed straight towards the lady. Not caring at all that a good song was playing, she skidded to a halt raised her voice.} S: "HI MISS, NICE TO MEET YOU!!!" {The lady immediately hung up her phone and turned to face the source of the sound, not at all being concerned about who was on the phone anymore. It was almost as if she didn't care at all when Sonomi had shown up. Akia and Asena were still a bit far away from the two though, so they couldn't hear clearly what they were talking about, especially over the loud music. The disheveled people walking around weren't phased only walking faster in response to the change in music. Of course, this didn't stop Asena, who started to run towards Sonomi and the lady. Yet again, 5 seconds after Akia told them to stick together, she has to run at them again.}

Akia would just take a chug from the flask, now sounding... Strangely enough more focused and wary than she did before. Asena may already except that though given the fight she had with Akia not so long ago. She's also very much annoyed by the music but without any clear source to lash out against the bounty hunter merely shakes her fist a bit and stows away her endless flask full of whatever for the moment without a second thought. "Right then sure, that's not really sticking with each other exactly but good enough we can keep up. I just hope nothing happens to prove me wrong on that count or anything."

{Though the music was loud, eventually Asena was almost lost in the crowd of the fast walking people, but it wasn't enough to obstruct her completely from finding out who Sonomi was with. Of course, Akia trudging behind didn't have too much trouble going past passerbys but the music almost had seemed to get louder and louder until it had stopped. She saw the black bench with the two potted plants, which are actually fake upon closer inspection. There at the bench sat Asena and Sonomi as they talked to the lady.} ???: "Yeah, you have some distant relatives you've never heard of. Crazy, right? I'd be annoyed too if I had to have some cousin I never knew pull up to me." S: "Woah, that's so cool! I feel like we met before for a reason. You also look exactly like my older sister...with a bedhead of course. I kind of want to replicate your style." A: "You know Sonomi, that's cool, but we came with our babysitter. They're also coming towards us right now. Let's all say hi." {Akia could now have a clear view of the 3, who all looked back at her. Sonomi and Asena waved towards Akia while the lady stared at her with dead eyes. Looking at the two side by side, Sonomi and the lady had a lot in common, the only difference being the length of hair, clothes, and their eyes. Sonomi's were bright, yet the lady's was dull. Now that Akia could see them all, she could also hear the music going back to a normal and reasonable volume. Though the singer giving the vocals now sounded a bit, robotic. The passerby also seemed to move stiffly and the general atmosphere lost a slight bit of color.}

Akia would just sigh at being called a 'babysitter'. That's not what she's here for actually. "I ain't your babysitter kids no, I'm here in case any violence happens. Babysitting isn't part of my standard contract so you two just do whatever you feel like so long as it doesn't endanger your lives." She just eyes the people now, these odd stiff movements... The vocals changing, is someone using an Epithet like 'Robot'? Or maybe it's a totally different power entirely, maybe she just drank the wrong thing out of that fl- okay hah no that's too outlandish to even consider there's obviously something wrong here. A fact she'd gladly point out while manifesting a full wine bottle held like a club. "And uh, anyone else noticing how strangely monotone the world is starting to turn and all. Or the people around us moving like NPCs in a Bethesda title? Aka badly and fucken amazing levels of slowness. It seems a bit off in my pro opinion, to put things mildly." She'd speak out in a wary tone while watching the things around them for any sudden changes.

{They all looked around them, the world was indeed going a bit greyscale. Everyone except the 4 standing in the middle of the airport near the black bench. The passerby moved stiffly, almost as if they were in the midst of being turned to stone. The robotic music became even more present with the techno vaporwave pop vibes that were already contributing to the song. Even though it was concerning, the three didn't really seem all too phased.} S: "Doing whatever as long as my life isn't being endangered?...but I like helping!" A: "Sonomi, didn't one of your friends just speak to you about that?" {The lady in particular seemed the least bit worried. In fact, with how lax she appeared, it was almost as if she was going to go take a nap in boredom. With the same deadeyed glare she gave Akia, she walks over to one of the passerbys as they move in slow motion. It was a lost child with earphones plugged in his ears trying to look for his parents.} Sana: "My name is Sana, lost child. Snap out of it, you're making the babysitter uncomfortable." {As the self-proclaimed Sana goes over and puts her right leg in front of the boy's slow walking path, the boy still seemed to trudge straight into Sana and trip thanks to her. Only problem is, the boy afterwards, seemed to spiral into a glitchy mess before hitting the ground, splattering into a bunch of pixelated smoke. The only thing left being his iPod. The atmosphere became dead silent, and Sana merely looked at everyone else like she did something progressive. Sonomi was also off the bench, quietly sneaking off and going behind a corner of the wall of a kiosk stand at the airport.}

Akia just sighs a little bit while watching the boy vanish into a glitchy mess, is he dead then? That's fine but it seems like time to leave from her viewpoint. "Well then, this trip has been fun and all but I think we ought to head out don't you? As much as I love looking into weird bullshit I don't love things that make people burst into pixel messes. Or maybe they just were data to begin with, either way let's just leave before something goes horribly wrong." The woman would begin just trying to move away, she's not exactly a coward generally but these kid getting into danger could be quite bad for her. And to think, Akemi is just slacking off at a theme park instead of dealing with her own friend's bullshit right now. Ah well, more money for Akia. "Of course I say this, but my gut tells me it won't be so simple..."

Sana: "Yeah, right when we get into the root of the conflict. Sure, let's dip." "That's right, tee-hee!" {The girl on the radio said in a staticy and robotic mess over the intercom of the airport radio. It was all the filled the silent air of the atmosphere before yet another voice echoed throughout the airport. That of Sonomi's.} Sonomi: "What?...No, come back! Don't run away!" {The girl said from behind the corner before the sound of a door creaking open made itself known all across the airport. Despite the large space of the whole building, it seemed that when that door creaked open, all the other doors knew what to do. All of the automated and unautomated doors slammed themselves shut, locking however they saw fit whether it were planks magically appearing to reinforce them or jamming it's own systems for them to stay closed.} "One, two, three, let's go!" {The voice said, now shifting heavily in pitch, with each word it spoke. Though the original speaker could faintly be heard, what wasn't easy on the ears was the music that came right after. Just like the voice, the music became a jumbled mess of static, and extremely loud moments of random themes bursting on the intercom. Asena covered her ears, and ran straight towards the corner, yet Sana still didn't seem phased by the sounds, as if she was deaf. All she did was walk casually towards the corner to follow behind Asena, glancing behind her at Akia disappointedly even though nothing was really her fault.}

Akia just sighs a little bit and tries to run after Sonomi's voice, she's pretty damn fast in doing so too. "Just try and keep up with me so we don't get even more split! And don't you dare blame any of this nonsense on myself either!" Sana will no doubt offer snark and likely not listen, but whatever she isn't being paid to keep Sana alive too. If that one wants to go off alone then okay, she can. Asena however will hopefully pay some attention as the Inscribed runs off ready for a fight because she doesn't have time to bicker with a child while trying to catch up to another idiot child who ran off on her own for some god forsaken reason.

{A menacing door is now standing where the kiosk behind the corner was previously found, shining a bit brightly despite the world around them being in a monochrome atmosphere.} A: "She went through this door, no doubt about it. I'm jumping in. Follow us!" {Because of the loud music, Asena didn't really heed Akia's warning correctly and ends up splitting paths once again in hopes of finding her girlfriend.} S: "Will be right there, girl." {Sana says, standing behind the door and placing her hands across from each other like a dead person would, falling in a coffin position. Akia looking at the door would see the same airport they're in right now, but at a much more ruined state. She could also see the two girls going down in the air, but Sonomi seemingly being nowhere to be found at first glance.}

Akia rushes after the other girl without even thinking twice, she has a job to do dammit and she's never one to go back on her word after agreeing to undertake something. Even if it could be her last, the same goes for any other bit of work. There's little doubt that she'd be in before Sana given her rush places the woman only slightly behind Asena at most. "Well any attempt at planning went to hell already, so might as well just try and keep things from getting any further off the rails... Aw who am I kidding they're gonna, but let's try to stay safe and have some fun with it while we're at this mess!" She'd state that with a grin and another swig of whiskey short after regardless of where this strange door sent them.

{As Akia goes through the door, she sees that everyone including herself are falling from the sky. Assna dives straight down to waste no time getting back to land, rolling onto the ground and landing near the umbrella Sonomi dropped on the ground when they first came here.} A: “It might look bad, but I brought a map. We’re totally fine guys.” {She takes out the map and opens it for Akia to see. Despite the environment they’re currently in looking nothing like where they were before, the map actually had similar locations to where they stood right now. Ruined as the place is, they were still in The Reiko Airlines.} S: “I hate this mall. Wait this was supposed to be an airport all along? There are way too many places here.” {On the map, the airport has an entrance, where they are now. On their left there was a whole seperate corridor for the restrooms, a food court, multiple overpriced gift stores, the reception area to reserve flights, and the docking bay where all the planes come and go. The docking bay is the furthest from everyone, so there would most likely be the endpoint.}

Akia just sighs a little bit while looking around the area curiously, she can feel the violence in the air... Or maybe it's just wishful thinking, she's bored despite how dire things may be and if there's anything that keeps the Inscribed's boredom in check it's a good brawl. "Airports are big places yes, now where the hell is that Sonomi kid anyways?" Do they even have any way of knowing whiich way she went down, or is ist just one of those days where it's gonna come down to wandering around like lunatics... "You know her better than I do Asena, any clue where that one may have run off to?"

S: “Maybe she went to the restroom so she could vomit. Or because there are vending machines there. It’s near the food court and I’m a bit hungry so I might as well check.” {Sana says before leaving in the other direction. Despite not wanting to split up too much, Asena doesn’t bother to interject and waves her goodbye. Though as soon as she leaves, her footsteps seem to have an impact on the ground, leaving behind some form of sludge and vines that travel on the ground, only appearing with each step taken.} A: “Ok, we’re covering more ground! She’s sure to come back to us later.” {Right as she says so, a part of the ceiling crumbles down so perfectly that it wouldn’t be possible to get past without expensing effort to clear it. Asena clears her throat and stands by her statement silently as she continues.} Asena: “Sonomi didn’t seem to go far, since she only went first before we did. She’s probably in the gift shops, I dunno which one though. We should go there.” {Asena points towards the direction they were supposed to head, and unknowingly points at a ruined kiddie ride that had seemed to appear out of thin air. Despite the wreck of an airport having no power sources, the kiddie ride seems to emit static from afar, and then blazes towards Asena at a high speed, breaking from the gate and the harnesses that held it down only aiming to ram into the teen.}

Out in the frigid, rainy night another woman wearing a large, red, winter coat that conceals her ears looks up. She looked more prepared for a blizzard than anything else, yet they don't seem to mind. At the very least it was cold enough. The woman sniffs the air before commenting "Wolves..." A phrase with meaning only to her. At least, she seems to take it as a call to action, swiftly entering the airport. The newcomer sneaks around the side of the airport, careful to avoid drawing attention to herself, before entering the mysterious door.

Akia just stares forward at the kiddie ride, any reply she may have uttered being cut off by the presence of something finally trying to injure someone. "Alcohol Slasher!" A tall and amazingly thin wave of some non-descript liquid which smells heavily of booze would rush forward as the Inscribed flicks her right hand towards the rushing device, she isn't really putting any effort into what kind of effect the drug might have. But rather into the massive preassure behind it and the intensely sharp slicing-edge which aims to cut straight down the things center and leave it harmlessly sliding past Asena if she succeeds. And either way, the teen would find themselves being pushed out of the way by the older woman. "Well hopefully that works out for us, not the enemy I was expecting to face but honestly I don't know what I was expecting here. At least it doesn't feel too quiet anymore, though."

Akia {Asena fell on her rear, not really expecting herself to be pushed back like that. The kiddie ride that launched itself at her was cleanly sliced down the middle, splitting into two halves that rammed into the debris that fell behind them instead. However, behind the kiddie ride awaited what looked to be three gumball machines.} Asena: "EEEKK!!" {The girl sprung up and stood upright, reaching into her purse and throws out a handful of dust at the machines. Though this seemed to be unnecessary, the gumball machines actually had started to shoot out multiple metal gears at a high speed.} {Asena's dust exploded when it hit the ground, each particle piercing into one of the machines, and hitting the other two to make them go flying. Their shots weren't completely off course however, instead of targeting the teen, all of the gears went flying towards Akia instead. 8 to be exact.} Red {As the woman enters the door, she finds herself falling the same fall the other three had taken. When she lands, she manages to appear on the other side of the fallen debris, hearing a crash coming from that which she cannot see. At her feet is an umbrella, and a trail of vines and sludge leading to what is assumed to be the food court of the airport. A note, although extremely dusty, was recently added onto the umbrella.} "Should've paid attention, lol!' ~Katsuka

The hunter seems perfectly calm as she drops, as if she'd repeated this thousands of times. They know exactly what to do, bracing for impact and rolling forward to end up kneeling and unharmed. Her hood drops in the chaos of the landing, leaving her pointed, lupine ears exposed. They take a deep breath before sniffing like a dog, aiming to use her heightened sense of smell as a warning for the kind of danger that might be lurking. Regardless of the result, the woman whispers to herself. "Wolves...." before silently pressing forwards, using whatever cover may be nearby to stealthily move towards the food court.

Akia {As Akia protects herself into the gears with two methods of repelling them, Asena throws yet another burst of dust at their remaining foes, this attack piercing into both of the gumball machines this time. None of the gears actually hit Akia, as they all go flying back into the debris back into them. One of them tried to spudder into life as it emitted more static.} Asena: "Ok, got the map again! Over here, it seems like..." {The teen with Akia shows off her map before reading it once more, walking straight into the gumball machine as she does so. In order to flex inadvertedly, she kicked up the dust accudmulating from off the floor instead of the actual ground to finish the thing off, only because it would do more damage than a regular kick. The last gumball machine goes back into the corner of the section it came from, only spitting out a gear that could only roll towards Akia. It stops right at her feet, and disappears into a glitched mess like the boy from earlier.} Asena: "We only have to go through one of the gift shops to reach the docking area, where all the planes come in...unless you want to get more rewards, but I doubt an airport could give you serviceable loot. Then again...maybe an ATM will come to life and start trying to give us papercuts with high speed money being shot at us." Red {As the woman presses on toward the food court, she arrives at a multitude of places having signs of menus flashing and those fancy straight gates they have to seperate lines being down on the ground instead of seperating what obviously seemed like multiple people...this was a lie, nobody was here. Even though there was both a shoe store and a clothes store right next to the whopping 8 different types of food you could buy at the food court, a girl sat on one of the balconys of the ordering stations. Talking to herself in a quiet voice, yet it made vibration in one's ear if they were sensitive as it echoes throughout the food court.} Sana: "...You ever tried to tend to plants? This one isn't fake, you know..." {The girl says out loud, seemingly to nobody. On closer inspection, she looks to be a messy blue haired girl wearing relatively expensive clothes. Her eyes being a very unnatural purple color. She pours hot water onto the the ground roots that seem to start growing and inching towards her, yet she doesn't react one bit. With her heightened sense of probably everything, the lupine female could sense all the sludge and vines accumulating on the ground of the whole food court, as if it was really everywhere. She could also sense that the girl really was just pouring expired fryer oil onto the plants, which is both disgusting, and probably the reason why the plants seemed to be threatened by both the females being present.} Sana: "...The more I think about it, I kind of still hate nature..."

Akia just shakes her head at the idea of trying to get more rewards out of this little job. "Nah, too much risk for likely too little reward by shooting for more here. I'm not expecting money out of a random airport or anything else decent, so let's just keep on moving towards the docks. You got the map, so I'll just stay close behind ya yeah?" She'd begin doing just that, walking behind Asena with wary eyes going over the area while the Inscribed absently prepares to spring forth with her Epithet if needed. It'd be nice if it weren't needed, but luck usually isn't that great so she's counting no chickens before they hatch while following the map holding girl.

Akia Asena: "Fine by me, let's go!" {Asena nods to Akia as she walks forward reading the map instead of looking where she is going, putting her faith in Akia completely. Due to this, Akia might see her stumble, trip, sometimes walk slightly to the left, so much so that it makes her run into a wall. More than once. What matters is they get to their destination.} Asena: "We're at the only place I know that has an exit at the back. This random clothing store. Ooo, cash register." {The teenager casually walks into the unnerving clothing store, not caring at all for what dangers might be lurking ahead as she places her map down on the counter left to her and looks at the cash register. When she tries to open it, of course nothing would be there. There are silent display mannequins all around the store, as well as mirrors. If one would look into a mirror, they could already see the outside world as normal, but touching the mirror would make it immediately break. Whether or not the mirror would break, Akia might still see one of the mannequins holding a knife looking at her if she paid attention to her surroundings.} Red {As the woman moves through the food court, she is able to maneuver past the vines and sludge that grows on the ground. However, the farther she travels away from Sana, the more uneasy the presence of the atmosphere feels. The vines start to shake a bit and the sludge burns at the ground. She hears another teen's voice that isn't Sana's, and it was way louder and this time directed straight towards her.} ???: "Ah, how sad. Abandoning you like that. Can't trust someone like her to save our dear Sonomi, right? Especially considering you only met her 5 seconds ago." Sana: "Pfffft, shut up." {The girl's eyes turned from purple back to blue, and she stopped tending to the flowers, cutting off the vines that were leeching onto her. As she did so, a scream was heard straight in the middle of the food court. There sat a teenager with purple hair. Though Sana was the one who had slashed at her plants, the purple haired teen focused her attention on the girl that tried to leave, staring directly at Red with twitchy eyes instead, plants growing from behind her and threatening to attack.}

Red immediately turns around, her coat fluttering at the sudden movement and revealing the girl's short, fluffy tail. Though Red's piercing yellow eyes are focused on the purple-haired girl, she maintains an intimate awareness of the area around her. The girl mutters to herself as she bends lower to the ground "Position compromised. Initiating hunt." before dashing at the purple-haired girl, covering the ground between them in a second and in one fluid motion drawing a blade from beneath her coat to slash through the purple-haired girl's ribs to strike their lungs. Regardless of the result, Red dashes away just as swiftly, unwilling to give her target's vines the chance to catch her. In all likelihood, the enemy could sense Red through their vines on the ground, which gives the wolf hunter little chance at sneaking around, so instead the experienced operator seeks to end the conflict in an instant.

The young woman bothers to make sure Asena doesn't fall over from all that tripping as they walk, and upon entering the store she'd just sigh heavily while noticing the plastic figure somehow watching her. It's not as though she wasn't paying attention after all. "Watch it, looks like we got more hostile inanimate objects here." With a glare and flick of Akia's wrist the knife holding enemy would be met by another high pressure burst of booze, blasting forth like a blades wave without the Inscribed even sparing a word for her usual attack calling while her strike aims to split the thing in half down it's center. She actually seems properly focused for a change rather than messing around mid battle any longer.

Akia Asena: "Wait, we do?" {The girl shouts out the question from behind the register, trying to shut it and focusing all her attention on Akia instead. After all, seeing her blast away another inanimate object considered hostile out of the blue must be for a reason. The mannequin holding the knife prop stood completely still when Akia glared at it, but dropped it when it gets hit by her booze, sending it out of the store all together.} ???: "Oof. I just wanted to try a new power." {A young girl's voice said in a condescending tone, lacking empathy or emotion other than disappointment. Seeing the one mannequin get harmed by Akia in turn makes Akia herself feel a lot of watchful eyes being placed on her. The quiet clothing store now become ridden with many footsteps, some getting louder seeing as they were closer to the destination they were aiming for.} {The glass seperating the girls from the display mannequins at the front of the store broke as three of them started walking stiffly and briskly towards the two in a robotic manner. Likewise, there were 2 creeping up behind them as well as what seemed to be many others coming their way. Asena, who was still behind the register, hears the cash register starting to short circuit, and throws it at one of the mannequins behind Akia, making it burst with a star. It distracts the two from going towards Akia, yet also makes the footsteps louder as the mannequins know more about their precise location.} Red {The purple haired girl giggles at the prospect of Red immediately charging at her, and doesn't move from her spot. Instead, vines grow from the sleeve of her dress and she only extends her arm in order to block what Red's attack. However, her lungs still got hit, revealing a swarm of more vines and sludge similar to what accumulated from the ground.} ???: "Quick to judge, I see! Maybe there's some merit to keeping you around after all..." {Instead of responding badly to Red cutting open her husk of a body, she flinched back, covering her face as it seemed to be forcefully put to the side by nothing. She glances back at the two, trying to veil a bruise that appeared out of nowhere and smirked, her voice now having a tone of excitement.} ???: "Ah, a lucky day! I must stop multi-tasking. She finally did it!" {Using her free arm, she made the vines that appeared from her sleeve go into the ground, making it pulsate a dark shade of green. It gave energy to the vines and sludge on the ground before making a venus flytrap-like monster the size of one of the stores nearby appear. It's body parts seemed to never stop moving, and one of it's eyes were more open and stuck out. A rusty rod was stuck straight on his head as if something stabbed into it. The girl laughs to herself before a load of vines shaped to make a spike pierces through her, and she uses this opportunity of getting stabbed to look straight at the wolf girl that dashed away from her.} ???: "Gregorith so desperately wanted to play. Hope you all have fun." {The spike that stabbed the purple haired girl pulls her back into the ground, effectively making her disappear from the two. The newly summoned Gregorith screeches loudly, snapping it's colossal clam-like jaws before swinging at Red, the girl who hurt her owner. It pays no attention to Sana, which makes it open to the debris of the ceiling fall straight on it's head.}

"No... Blood? I smell wolves..." Red's eyes open wide in surprise to find their foe bleeding no more than vines and slime. Its likely that body was simply another result of their arts. It was something Red hadn't seen before, but it didn't seem impossible to her. She'd need to rely on scent more in the future. For now, the problem is Greg. Red wastes no time in leaping over Greg's tendrils. Her eyes scan over the creature, but it didn't seem likely to have a heart or other vital area. However, it did have that spike... Red keeps her distance, allowing the debris to start falling, before an idea strikes her. With seemingly-unnatural speed the wolf-girl dashes towards Gregory, aiming to use the falling debris both as cover for her actions, and as stepping stones for Red to leap up and kick the rod in the creature's head, aiming to drive it in deeper.

Akia would just sigh upon seeing that there's now yet more enemies showing themselves, she'd narrow her eyes while starting to try and move out of the area. Mainly by sending a wave of boiling hot wine rushing forth from all around her that hopes to slam into the things coming from the front and back, it's so hot that it pretty much just becomes blazing steam rather than liquid but with any luck it'll serve to melt down the enemies some as she attempts to walk forth from the store with a heavy jug of moonshine in hand as a melee weapon. "Come on, I don't want to stick around here for too long."

Akia Asena: “Ok, coming!” {She yells, grabbing the map off the counter and maneuvering past the mannequins before letting the steaming booze boil the plastic off most of their enemies. Melting piles of plastic display mannequins all dying in the center of the store effectively creating a 5 second bonfire. From out the store, the strong fumes of burnt plastic could still be huffed, and the amount that came for them makes it so that it’s presence extended from out the store as well.} Asena: “Are you going to look for another store? With our luck, it really seems like enemies are unavoidable...” ???: “She’s right, y’know!” {The disembodied, girly voice said giddily as soon as Asena left the store. A single step from the girl effectively causes the store to crumble apart, all of the anchorage breaking apart and falling onto itself. The mannequins were now guaranteed not to be a bother anymore, yet the faint whiff of burning plastic still hovered around the air. Without any words being said, the girl starts reading the map and walking towards the gift shop northwest of where they were, stumbling and tripping as she did so.} Red {The effects of the ceiling debris as well as Red’s own efforts to deal damage to Gregorith proved to be effective, as the distraction set up by Sana makes the woman trying to plunge the spike further down into the plant monster leaves him only to respond with a loud screech and a swift flurry of his tendrils spinning and flailing around trying to relieve himself of the pain that’s going to his head.} {Sana, who looked at the plant more closely during a session of ducking and weaving around the plant’s tendrils, widened her eyes in realization, instinctively going for a snap of her fingers to try and damage the thing severely with the pressure of the vibration. However, this meant that the actual effects would go to Red, who might feel an intense ringing in what might be her sensitive wolf ears. Sana did not seem to care at all about the collateral damage, feeling satisfied when she sees Gregorith’s eye pop out of it’s face and roll towards the boot of Sana.} Sana: “Thanks for the help bi-...friend!” {She pocketed the eye with one arm while using the other to take out her perfume, spraying out a perfect beam that hits Gregorith, making it explode back into a cloud of pink perfume spray. Red, who was still on top of Gregorith, would only periodically feel the negative effects of the perfume before feeling herself to be rejuvenated. However she found herself back on the ground. Now, it was Sana who was on top of the plant monster, trying to rip the spike straight out of him instead of skewer him further. Gregorith’s vision was still impaired by the spray, making him roar out of frustration. Even though it sounded more like a lawn mower than a dragon, it still triggered the vines and sludge on the ground to start shaking, glowing red. It grew exponentially, resulting in them forming a myriad of plants that effectively attempt to keep Red confined as if she was trying to be forced into a cage.}

Akia just sighs a bit while walking along. More enemies huh, that's fine. She can keep her Epithet up for a while if need be. "If there's gonna be more of the bastards that's fine with me. My stamina is pretty good so I'm still doing fine over here, will be for a little while at this pace. Though j still wanna focus on getting Sonomi and getting out." She twirls the liquor bottle in her hands and ponders who exactly that voice is, probably the one behind this. Would the user's death end this event? That's how an Epithet would work but she doesn't know if it holds true for this power... For now nothing to but keep moving.

Akia {A few more minutes of stumbling forward and the two would arrive at another place. A gift shop. One that was very colorful, and was still slightly more colorful then the rest of the drab atmosphere. Every color seemed muddy and washed away, yet still stood out as if this place didn't get too infected.} Asena: "And here is the second place the map told me to go, the gift shop. Hooray. Surely there's some kind of complicated way to end up behind it instead, right?" {Again, the girl proceeds like normal. Carelessly going inside the gift shop and examining all it's very vibrant features, such as a mini cafe off to the side. As well as a daycare that was integrated to have some place for the kids if they aren't going off on the airplanes. Asena herself again goes by the cash register of the cafe and carelessly fiddles with the cash register.} Asena: "Ooo, another cash register. And there's a Starbucks gift card in here? Sweet!" {Akia, who is actually paying attention to the atmosphere, realizes that there are potentially many ways to get through the gift shop and make it out back. As well as some other cold beverages in the fridge behind Asena that may or may not be alcohol for disgruntled employees. Alcohol which does in fact taste like it's been in there for ages despite it being only the generic store brand.} {The gift shop seems abnormally lit up despite most of the atmosphere not having any power at all, just being slightly dark with only the red sun to act as their reliable light source. At the same time, all the shelves an items are stacked in a way that makes it look like there was always someone here tending to it, despite the airport being desolate other than voices in their heads. The daycare is lit up as well, and with good enough ears, one could swore they heard the laughter of children. In the corner of Akia's eye, she'd see something short looking at her, but due to it's glitchy figure she couldn't quite tell whether it was a child or an enemy.}

Red {The lupine successfully avoids being captured from the plants on the ground, slashing through the vineyard that would fail at it's attempt to confine the wolf girl. Though it doesn't actually stay formed as a cage when it realizes it's prey simply moved out of it's line of sight. Instead, it glows even more red, extending from it's roots and shooting itself towards Red instead. Though the wave seemed overwhelming, most of the plants would pass over her, leaving her only 3 very long botanical strikes that she'd have to avoid herself.} Sana: "Stop moving dumbass, I thought your mommy said to play nice or some shit!" {The girl yells from on top of the creature, on the verge of pulling out the spike but jsut a tad bit off thanks to Red digging it in deeper like she did earlier. Agitated, the girl stomps on Gregorith with the base of her heel, the vibration of the impact doing much more than the actual strike. This would cause the plant monster to keel back, almost tumbling over were it not attached to the ground. It shakes and roars violently, making Sana herself fall over.} Sana: "Ugh, this is so stupid..." {She says a little flustered, almost hiding in the large fountain that she had fell in if it didn't make her clothes more wet. Shockingly enough, the water was clean even though most of the atmosphere had been ridden with herbs and such. Due to Sana's efforts, the spike had now been ripped out of it's head, and it even struggled so much that it cut it's own head open, revealing the festering rotten garden growing inside that one might consider to be a vital point. This exposure makes Gregorith unhappy.} {The plants that swerved by Red earlier start growing into each other, much of it forming into a ball that grows in size until it was similar to that of a small asteroid. Gregorith swings his tendrils at the ball, making it get snap off it's roots and burst into a fit of spikes that directed itself toward the entire area. Sana now hid behind the fountain to protect itself, yet all the plants that ended up falling into the fountain would disintegrate as if it was being coated with an overwhelming pesticide instead of the rejuvanating water that Gregorith's head spike sat in, glowing a luminescent white as if to signal Red to come over to it. Of course, Sana being the selfish girl she is, moves it closer to her, but Red can still see the light herself.}

As soon as Akia spots the glitching figure she points her finger at it and sends forth a wild spray much like a hose going off, it isn't anywhere near enough to be lethal even to a kid. But if the target is something that can be affected by drunkness in the least bit then they'd end up rather confused and dazed by the impact as she calls out to them in a wary voice. "Yo Asena, got more over here. Ain't sure if it's an enemy or some random person so I'm not shooting ta kill yet. As for you... Whoever or whatever you are, that was just a little bit of insurance is all. I'll undo it soon enough if ya aren't hostile toward us, so wanna talk or should I escalate?" Her voice is cold and steely while speaking to the glitching being, it never does to underestimate a possible foe after all. Her bottle sits raised up into a fighting pose, ready to strike any moment if a rush begins.

Red crouchess low to the ground to allow the remaining vines to head over her before weaving through the three vines that come her way, the woman's low posture and sudden movements resembling that of an animal. Red crosses the distance to the fountain in a flash, receiving little more than scratches from the thorny burst before she manages to get into cover. Red looks around, taking note of the plants' negative reaction to the water. A weakness it seemed, getting it into the plant monster's wound would likely resolve the issue. However, Red didn't actually carry much for this, so she consults Sana. "Bottle.. Do you have a bottle?" when it comes to actually talking, Red is rather inexperienced, operating as a lone wolf for much of her life, with only the simpler sentences of a child to rely on.

Akia {The glitchy figure that Akia sprays wildly at only tilts slightly in response to the trajectory of the spray. Pixels started to crowd less of the figure to reveal a kid as their eyes following the liquid instead of making any attempt to flinch or avoid it. Instead of even having and chance to hit the kid however, it merely stops a few inches above the child, revealing an invisible wall that the kid themselves probably doesn't know at all about.} ???: "Mommy and daddy said to stay there in case I get lost. Where are they? I just want to go home!" {The child then starts crying as the liquid that was supposed to spray onto him just starts dripping off the invisible surface. Asena, pocketing the gift card in her hoodie, walks towards the source of the conversation, and stops beside Akia, simply looking at the kid. She sighs as her expression soon turns to that of regret, as she leans closer and interacts with the older woman by tugging her sleeve.} Asena: "Wow, it sure looks like a child to me...oh, hey it's that one kid Sana had tripped up." {Upon closer inspection, it was indeed that kid that got lost while listening to music. Now he was standing in front of the two, still a fair distance away from them. Of course, he was still crying. Something that Asena doesn't like bothering to hear. However, as soon as she decided to try and leave by taking one step forward, his wailing became even more glitchy as if he was behind a horrible connection. Currently a bad mix of the sounds of radio static, binary coding, and an elementary schooler bawling their eyes out filled what was previously a quiet void of pretty aesthetic environment.} ???: "I19 j8282319 w831090 h0213!!" Asena: "And for once I feel like that's a red flag waving in the air telling us we should leave. But further into the store, not out. I don't want them to follow us, laggy children getting abducted by the quadratic formula sounds very creepy..." {Without a moment's hesitation, Asena now starts advancing towards the gift shop instead of where the daycare was, trying to avoid it at all costs, even going so far as to keep the same distance they had away from the child. As for the child, their form starts glitching again as monochrome pixels surround them to contrast the vibrant atmosphere. In the midst of crying, a loud squall emits from them, but it was struggling to be heard past the child. At the same time, from the glitching form, the child periodically switches from staying infantile to the silhouette of a hulking abomination, yet it's exact shape and configuration was still hard to tell.} {Whether it could take it's true appearance or not, the extremely glitchy figure still rushed towards Asena attemping to go into the gift shop, but Asena retaliates by opening her purse and letting it emit dust. She makes this dust burst, effectively propelling herself farther into the gift shop and away from the glitching figure, who can only try to withstand it but ends up sliding a bit back to the corner of the daycare. It made a blinding light that persists itself towards the entrance of the daycare, while also alerting the presence of other things in the daycare, who start to yell just like the first child. The figure was still trying to construct it's build, so Akia had time to run to Asena, but upon entering the colorful gift shop aptly named the "Gift Plane", she immediately finds herself at a multitude of split paths with a great variety of gifts and gift boxes surrounding them, one of which Asena already went down.}

Red {Sana glared at Red for a second with a deadpan gaze, her dark blue eyes seeming to bore into her soul. The girl sizes her socially awkward coworker up, and immediately notices all her lupine features without even taking a second to blink. With her eyes widened, she blushes a bit and turns her head away, resisting a growing urge to try and pat her on the head or scratch her behind the ears. Not today. She has to keep up her integrity even when nobody is looking.} Sana: "Can't you see I'm a bit busy? Hold on a second!" {Instead of answering immediately, Sana instead plays with the disembodied eye of Gregorith, fiddling around with how it could possible work. When her ears hear Gregorith make another peep, she pops her head around the corner of the fountain and snaps her fingers once more. Since she used the same arm that was holding the eye, the eye itself opens and looks all around where it could see, at Red, at Sana's hand, at it's previous wielder.} {The snap that she makes soon gets surrounded by an energized band of purple rings that sircle around the vibrations of the blast. Instead of neutralizing the sound Sana made, it starts to revolve around it further, energy pulsating and making her snap travel in the air faster. Once it makes impact with Gregorith, the plant monster staggers back, almost getting pulled out of it's own roots. Bits of plants from it's open wound spill out, and the monster was now dazed.} Sana: "...oh right. You're still here." {She goes back to pondering about the eye and what it can do, and looks at the ground absentmindedly. Taking the lupine's question in mind, she immediately notices a broken wine glass appear on the floor, and reaches for it. The girl picks it up, and shows it to the eye first before the girl, in which the eye encompasses the broken glass with smaller purple rings that repair it in an instant. As an added bonus, it even shapes itself in a way that was perfect for gathering a liquid, with a handle and a large surface area making it more akin to coffee holders rather than a typical wine glass.} Sana: "Well I have one now. And considering you suck at talking to me, I'll just assume you want it." {Sana would shove the container Red's way, but then takes another glance at the girl and notices her covered in scratches. With a sigh and an eye roll, she pulls the sleeve up from her already wet sweater and grabs a handful of water, flicking her wrist and rudely splashing the fountain water in the girl's face. If she had cuts on her body too, Sana wasn't going to bother with it.} Sana: "Ugh, yeah, Gregory over there is annoying and all, but fix yourself first. And I'm taking this too." {She persists eye contact with the lupine girl as she spoke to her in a, still in a very condescending, but slightly worried tone as if she was also concerned about her. Nevertheless, the item she snatches out of the fountain was none other than Gregorith's head spike, now purified and shaped to be a spork that was large enough to be considered alongside that of a spearhead. It was decorated with a single pink bow and a blue rose in the middle of the bow wrapped around the start of where the spork started to curve into itself. Sana being the selfish girl she is, reaps all the benefits for herself, playing around with them a little bit from behind the fountain.}

"Thank you." The Lupus accepts the wine glass without hesitation, blinking a little as Sana splashes water in her face. However, the woman doesn't seem to mind in any way. "There's no need... The mission is more important..." With those words Red doesn't take any mind to care for her injuries, instead quickly scooping up as much of the water as she can before leaving while the monster is dazed. The older woman takes advantage of Greg's stunned state to close the distance between them, inevitably spilling some of the water as she makes her approach. The Lupus doesn't seem to mind her injuries, climbing the plant-monster in a flash in order to pour the water in its festering wound before jumping off in anticipation of its inevitable movement

Akia just quietly nods and follows along till... Whatever went down just happened, as Asena runs off she would try a trick that frankly she's never used before at all. She launches some very weak booze at Asena, it isn't strong enough to get her drunk at all. But with some luck it would create a trail of liquid going through the place as the girl rushes off. Assuming that worked then the Incribed would merely need to follow along with the liquid being trailed. If her plan fails however, she simply rushes down whatever looks like the dead center of the place following her gut. "Geez, this place is getting really annoying. Wonder if cafe girl's night is any better than mine so far... Probably, at least she has a cute date." Unknown to Akia, somewhere in the city a black-haired girl sneezes slightly while firing a gun at some supernatural beast and groaning to herself.

Akia {Asena doesn't even notice the liquid hitting her as her clothes get stained with weak booze, leaving both a noticeable trail and a slight stench in order to help Akia get to her quicker. When met with the split paths, she notices that out of the 4 that were now present, the trail seems to follow the second one.} ???: "0238932847" ???: "943278-1" ??? "2130984" ???: "829210" ???: "8321930" ???: "0123893" {The sounds emitted from behind Akia play as if they were on a radio trying to work from underwater. If she were to turn around, she could see only one of the glitchy figures rushing towards her, making it obvious all the other ones went down a different path. Whatever kind of attack it'd try to use to get Akia to move out of the way was not clear, but behind all of the noises the figure was making, Akia could slightly hear the sound of a woodchipper emanating from it as it moved closer towards her.} {The Gift Plane almost warped in response to the creatures coming inside, as the tables holding the presents and gift boxes started to open all around Akia as if they were trying to distract her, all except the one right beside her. The sound of a train running down tracks, the sound of a rocket blasting towards space, cars moving up and down a hill, all filled the gift shop all in a synchronized manner. Classical piano music started to play above from the intercom of the store, being in harmony with a situation less than ideal. However, as soon as there was a note played incorrectly, the gift box nearest to Akia finally opened itself up and revealed a spring bouncing straight at Akia's head, propelling a steel square similar to that of a guillotine's blade right towards the girl.} Red {As Red ran towards Gregorith, she feels any injuries that she had sustained to slowly disappear after Sana splashed the water on her, the visual difference mostly being on her face first and foremost. It was almost as if the fountain water had served to make the girl look younger than she was before. As she ran, the water contained in the glass almost had spilled from the Lupine's speed.} {When the fountain water was poured into the abscess gardens rotting inside the head of the plant monster, it roars once more in pain, the roots inside slowly growing and being purified. Gregorith's form starts to grow in reverse, it's screaming getting quieter and quieter as it's body starts to dissipate, leaving back into the ground like it was going into hibernation. The roaring eventually stops, leaving Red on the ground with only a single green flower facing her direction.} Sana: "Ahem." {The girl clears her throat, verbally saying the word to get Red's attention. She stands up and dusts her skirt off before pointing at the fountain, the water now spouting out in multiple directions. Sana uses the purple eye to eccentuate how fashionable she is, taking her arms out of the sleeves of the jacket and using the thin blood vessels to tie it around the base of the jacket right where the hood stops, letting her wear something of a coat.} {Not caring at all for the beauty of nature, she immediately walks past Red and up to the flower, crouching down and picking it off from the ground, throwing it into the fountain immediately afterwards. The flower then grows exponentially, it's stem stretching to meet the ceiling of the mall, breaking through it. Sana sighs, glancing at Red and gesturing her to follow as she picks up her newly found weapon and starts to climb up the stem of the flower, towards the rooftop of the mall.}

Akia ???:281929waih192929 {Akia’s blast of alcohol hits the figure that tries to rush at her, effectively stopping it in it’s tracks as it has to block the attack. However instead of blocking it with it’s face, the figure immediately switches back to a child, who takes the impact instead. Of course, since it is only a child grayed out by it’s surroundings, it would have absolutely no way to defend itself. Though the child gets cut by the blast, it lays on the ground, not really disappearing, more so glitching in and out of it’s form once more. It’s words were more clear when it spoke out to nothing.} ???:12mo33321mmy, 11t 34rhts... 1wia55, 2ero h309me...” {As the woman advances forward, the cut left by the blade sprung out of the previous gift box seems to be bleeding green instead of the usual color that blood is supposed to be, which is red. Every move she makes, she feels a tiny jolt of pain, as if the green blood made a deteriorating tick at her internal health with each droplet that came out. When Akia follows the trail some more, she is ultimately left with a preopened gift box. Inside, there is Asena’s wet hoodie with a moist and sticky tag attached to it, acting as a readable note. The girl’s handwriting was especially small on this parchment piece to compromise space.} “Apologies to whomever reads this note (it better be Akia), leaving a trail is probably the worst case scenario here. Where you are right now is a corner of the shop, so you’re probably almost at the exit. This is still a dead end though, so I wouldn’t know. Unless you enjoy repetitively killing children; avoid the monsters, they’re just annoying. Sneak 24/7, 100% pls and thnx. ~Asena.” {Looking up, Akia would find herself at yet another split path, unlike what the note had said, this time one that only splits from left to right. At the same time, many gift boxes and toys still circle around the girl, being active as if to distract her from the objective. The music played as calmly as ever, yet she could still faintly hear all six of the figures crying out.}

Red Sana: “Wow, way to flex on me and my Girl Scout training.” {Sana, who was still only halfway up the giant stem of the plant, scoffed at the lupine as she showed off her superior climbing prowess. Red’s agility would allow her to reach the top of the mall quicker, where she would be met with a crimson sky and smoky gray clouds. The top of the mall had dirty glass, seeming almost opaque were it not for the red sun shining on them, revealing a tint of red that lights up the desolate area, revealing the whole layout of the mall from an upwards angle.} Sana: “Ok, since you’re so fast, don’t step on this glass more than twice, you might break it. These cheapskate asses couldn’t afford a normal rooftop, I swear...” {The girl says as she clicks her heel onto the fragile ceiling, almost cracking under pressure due to being so brittle. The rooftop was structured unusually, with only sections of what could be considered normal grounds for an elevated concrete level placed here and there as a sign of a solid ground, six flags waiting at each piece of ground. With a sigh and a flip of her hair, she almost tries to walk past Red as the eye on her cloak opens itself, yet she looks back at the lupine with even more concern. She holds the spork with both of her hands and glares at the wolf girl.} Sana: “Ugh, you remind me too much of my dog at home. Hold still, you might have wounds.” {Sana faces sideways, now holding the spork sideways, the sharp end where the prongs are now facing Red. With a little bit of good measure, she twirls the pole arm a little in the air before lunging at Red, aiming to stab into her chest with the spork. However, instead of dealing damage, the spork would almost feel as if it hit something else, phasing through her body yet still coming in contact with it. She leaves it in for a few seconds before pulling out, leaving Red with a rejuvenating feeling similar to the water that came from the fountain, only quicker in healing the lupine. At the same time, her taste buds would feel a lingering aftertaste of a multitude of sweets, a sugar rush almost similar to adrenaline. With her healing done, she let the eye do it’s magic, but she said something to the wolf girl just before she let her eye warp her to the first patch of solid ground.} Sana: “Healing stabs. Sounds stupid, but I always wanted to do that, heh.”

"Understood..." Red nods to Sana, though the Lupus is remarkably light-footed, she'd still want to be careful. The woman briefly looks back to Sana, only to find them readying a rather large weapon to use. Ever cautious, Red takes it as her hint to ignore Sana's remark and instead evade, landing on the fragile roof with a bit more force than she normally would before dashing for the next solid piece of ground, feet barely touching the roof before she's off again.

Akia {As Akia maneuvers her way around the gift shop, hiding out of sight from the monsters, she finds herself standing in front of a rather large table that was tall as Akia's exact height, reaching the very top of her head. The lofty legs of the table seemed to stretch for about a mile before you could reach the end. On top of the table, if she could very well reach it, would be several platters of plastic gourmet dishes that were wrapped around in clay.} ???: "190837..././/..///." {Beside Akia would be a sound more similar to the beeping of a telegraph instead of the more familiar sounds of radio static. One of the glitchy figures became noticeably bigger, each "footstep" it took being enough to shake the table, the sounds of plastic silverware vibrating on the table now becoming even more apparent. Each of the small lanky chairs that failed to reach the height of the table instead falling to the ground.} {The glitchy figure had an upside down paper mask with a crudely drawn face colored onto it. Despite this face not being real, it still changed expressions, and made an even worse drawn smile that took up the whole bottom half of the mask. The figure throws the wounded figure Akia blasted earlier onto the ground next to the right side of the table.} ???: "../.../5.5..///./.../.5.5" {The figure moved it's mask closer to the other glitchy figure's shape as it's mask started to move it's mouth more. Every time the mask moved away from the figure, it's mouth changed from a big smile to a dark square made of squiggly lines. The white paper changed from red in a matter of seconds as the figure down on the floor starts glitching less, becoming smaller until it reveals parts of the faceless child laying on the ground.} {To the far right of the table, a light shined through a window, making the figure with the mask cover it's "face" as it starts to walk backwards, knocking down a set of toys, mainly a train set that starts to power down when it hits the ground, having no rails to go around. As this happens, the ground around the table that was knocked down turns grey, and the masked monster tries to flip the table towards the window.}

Red {As Red advances on the rooftop, each piece of ground she touches makes the six flags wash it with random colors. The color that seems to pop up the most onto the flags are blue and purple, but at some times, the flags are colors like red, or yellow, sometimes even green and pink. The glass that Red lands on starts to crack, but right before it could break she moves towards the next piece of solid ground.} {At the same time, Sana who tried to stab at Red could only stab the ground. Her eyes were wide eyed, but there were no signs of light that shined in her pupils as she stared in disbelief at the ground that ended up breaking, making debris fly onto the glass, making it shatter. Sana stands on her solid piece of ground, laughing crazily as her voice booms. Though she didn't yell, nor was she even close to her, Red felt her voice as if Sana was breathing down her neck.} Sana: "Ah, ok. It's not like my dear old pupper didn't run away whenever I wanted to play. Tee-hee, ha ha ha...hahahah! Make haste, poochie. Mommy's going to make sure you don't go too far from her sight!" {The eye wrung around her jacket moved frantically as her form was surrounded by purple rings. With each solid ground that Red stepped on, Sana would give chase, her form warping around each time the dull flags became colorful. Whenever she appeared, in front, beside, or behind Red, it looked as if she is trying to impale the lupine on her spork.} {Whenever her pole arm missed, the air seemed to dissipate around the tip, as if it forced the molecules to move away for the moment. Whenever it hit the ground, the debris would start to fly again, hitting the glass and risking the chance of it cracking even more. At the same time, her uncharacteristically joyous voice was echoing in her canine ears, each syllable she makes trying to make her brain insist on just taking the hit.} Sana: "Don't worry...don't worry...I'm doing this out of love! Hahah, tee-hee hahahah! Don't run away, I love my pets!" {Sana's smile perpetuated as her eyes grew more and more pale. Each swing she makes with her polearm tries to inch towards the lupine. If she ever gets stabbed, Red would still get healed. But the effects of the healing would be much more similar to that of a very strong medicinal powder, each little flake that would invade her taste buds having a bitterness equal to that of battery acid.}

"Caster..." As Sana asked, next time the girl appears next to Red, the Lupus doesn't run away. Rather, they swiftly maneuver around the girl's reckless thrust and slash at the eye. It seemed to be the source of her teleportation, so if the Lupus could just get rid of that they'd be safe. Therefore, Red aims to slash at the root of the eye near the eyeball in hopes of severing it from her opponent's arm and kicking the eye away.

Akia {When Akia spouts the liquid booze away from where she is, the thing immediately notices, the paper mask it uses as its face contorting in response to what it feels. The monster's red face starts to be scribbled on with a black crayon instead of regular pencil, as the mouth is crudely drawn agape, and its shocked eyes take up all of the top half of the mask. With every "step" the monster thing takes, the sound of glasses being spilt and silverware rustling can be heard dinging in Akia's ears.} ???: ".̴.̵/̵.̴/̶.̴.̸.̸2̵1̴8̷3̶7̴6̴" ???: ".a.s.d.d93128/." {The monochrome table that was thrown at the window seems to stop midair before it was forcefully put back by some unknown entity. The music plays in the speakers in a harmonius fashion now that all of the toys become colorful and active again, as if they were all alive. Underneath the tall table was a single gift box that seemed to be unaffected by the luminous window that stood nearby the area.} {From where she was, Akia could vaguely see more of the form the monster was at. A congregation of many different monochrome toys stitched together in a disorderly fashion, limbs being in uneven sizes with holes that are only filled in slowly by the glitches still taking place. With all the things happening in this very path, Akia could hear footsteps that are far away, inching closer and closer to where she was. Up north she saw a plastic door with it's colors dulling out, and an open lock that was infuriatingly bulky in which it wouldn't tall off and still make the door shut unless tampered with.} Red {As Red stayed put, she would be awarded with a smile that only lasts for a millisecond before the eye seems to drop on the ground, leaving Red slashing at the girl herself. Though it might have not been intended, the girl would seem to be cut in half no matter how weak the slash was meant to be.}} Sana: "Ugh, you're such an idiot." {Said the teenager's sarcastic voice, clearly not being from the lifeless corpse. As soon as Sana was finished with her sentence, the body disappears, no blood splatters could be traced. It was like Red slashed at a ghost. Behind her, she hears the sound of glass cracking, and a vision of her getting skewered on a pike. However, it was quickly broken when Sana grabbed Red by one arm and opened her hand.} Sana: "Since you don't want to be stabbed, I guess I can just be sane and let you use these." {Sana gives the lupine a roll of bandages before advancing on, trying not to step on the glass too many times and stepping on the next patch of solid ground nearby. This in turn enables the dull flags to change colors. In her offhand she carries the same neatly decorated spork that she previously tried to stab the wolf girl with, glancing back at her with vague concerns of leaving her behind before scoffing at nothing. Up ahead, it seemed far but it was fairly obvious in the environment that the most gray flags stood around what seemed to be a helipad, followed by a very large distance heading downwards where the end of the mall is.}

Red, somewhat confused by the whole situation, simply accepts the bandages, hiding them away in her coat until later. "Focus on the mission." Red disregards her minor injuries as she heads forward onto the helipad. The woman would look around across it, on-edge after that last experience as she observes the immediate area.

Akia {The lock would be cut cleanly by the woman, however despite it’s plastic appearance, it actually makes 2 very annoying squeaks when it hits the ground, revealing it to be a squeaky toy. This noise, along with the small drop of green blood that came from her having to wait a bit long before going through the room, notifies the creature with the paper mask to try and follow whatever went into the door. Unbeknownst to this monster, another lock was placed on the door when Akia enters the room.} -.9ka728haha153” {Akia can hear the monsters on the other side attempting to use brute force to get past the lock. The room she let herself into was noticeably dark, contrary to the blinding vibrant lights and colors from the gift plane. Waiting across from her was an unusually large chest, covering half the center of the wall it was placed behind. A sizable, glowing arrow that only serves to cause retina damage flashes periodically, pointing right at the chest. Beside the chest, two doors that were covered exactly by two soldiers that resembled the nutcracker. If Akia could tune out the banging of the door behind her and the monster’s rambling, she can hear the faint sound of a phone game playing from inside the chest.} Red {Red scavenges the area, finding nothing but land and more land around the helipad as well as the big drop that comes from leaving the rooftop of the mall. Sana, who was looking downwards, turned her back at Red for a second, trying to squint at a small figure holding up two orange glow-sticks. Sana tried to use her powers to make an echoing sound that travels far across where she was. However, the figure merely stopped waving the glow-sticks periodically by returning with another whistle of it’s own. However it was a lot less loud than the first one made by Sana.} ???: “Yoooo, Sana! Is that you, dawg?! Omg, it’s her, look!” {The girlish voice points its orange glow-sticks at Sana, who was looking at the figure downwards, from the center of the helipad. This in turn, causes the distant sound of a helicopter to start buzzing it’s blades around, aiming to land right onto the helipad. Though unlike most landings, this one is not seeming the most graceful. In fact, it’s landing head first, letting the blades feel the impact of the ground before it’s own body.} Sana: “Goddamnit. Wolf girl, get the fuck out of here.” {Sana runs at the edge of the rooftop before jumping forwards, letting her loose jacket fly through the air almost like it was a parachute. She puts her hands around the eye as it opens up, making rings appear around the girl to teleport her safely onto the ground. But not without a cool landing. Sadly, the only thing Red got was a warning, as she has to make the trip back down before she gets the impact of the helicopter crashing onto the rooftop the lupine was still on.}

Akia {Akia pilfers through the chest, scoping out the sounds of the phone game playing inside, the banging on the door slowly gets louder and louder, as if the monsters outside are mere seconds closer to storming inside. Looking from a dim-lighted perspective, she finds a wide array of broken flashlights consisting of many different colors placed under a fuzzy blanket.} ???: "Good morning!" {With no warning or signs of hesitation, a teenage woman pops out the chest, causing the dark room Akia placed herself in to light up, every pastel color maybe causing eye damage just like the arrow that dissipated out of thin air. The girl from the chest scatters the flashlights from the ground, rubbing her eyes and yawning before looking at Akia. Her eyes were a dull brown, and she wore black clothes that were in a soft punk-esque theme. Her moderately long, black hair reached to her shoulders before curling upwards.} ???: "Oh dope, you've found me. Come on, I feel like you're bored." {When the girl steps out of the chest, she goes towards the left nutcracker, touching the doorknob like nothing was acting to obstruct the door. Her hand phases through the toy soldier and she casually leaves. For a split second, Akia could see a reflection of Asena who looked extremely similar to the older girl that left, walking out the same door. However, just because this woman left freely, doesn't mean that the nutcrackers weren't useless objects. Their eyes started to open, rolling like slots in a gambling machine before they readied their plastic swords and charged at Akia.} Red {Red runs down the side of the building with no problems, and as she lands next to Sana effortlessly, she walks in on some conversation between the two. The yellow girl starts by flaunting her blue hostess outfit, hat and everything. Despite her dialogue sounding like it was prerecorded and sped up, Sana heard it perfectly well, and scoffed in response, only glancing back at her to remind herself she does indeed have her pet with her.} Sana: "Wow, you look stupid. Is this supposed to be your new gig now? You're not 35." ???: "Hmph, that's rude! We all know these costumes are played for laughs. Plus, I'm trying something new. Chisaki-chan entrusted me with new powers, y'know." {This time when the hostess girl responds to Sana's backlash, it played like normal, so Red can hear it properly. She fiddled around with her two glowsticks, waving them like toys, until she looked back at Sana, who instead of making eye contact with the girl, she instead glared at her lupus friend, as if to telepathically tell her a fight will happen once more.} ???: "You're probably looking for your..."cousin", right? Well...there's a reason for this outfit. Find out for yourself, if you're smart enough. I AM supposed to be surverying over the airlines. Might as well do my job." {The girl with the yellow-ish blonde ponytail pointed one of her glowsticks at the two, now making it flash green. A sound was played, almost similar to a digital school bell that reminded kids of their own schedule. Behind her, two airplanes flying only at a single mach speed darts towards her new acquaintances, each one aiming only to go forward and ram into their target at full speed.}

Akia would just sigh while looking over at the plastic beings. "Fucking, hi there I guess. So glad to see you, whoever you are!" She doesn't have much to say to this wack job, even less when noticing the nutcrackers begin to rush at her for some reason. That would get a lightning-fast response from the Inscribed, she would quickly dart forward herself. Aiming to send a powerful slam of the heavy liquor bottle in her hand straight into the skull of one of her enemies. Of course said things are made of plastic, but there's a decent bit of force behind her strike. More than you'd expect of a woman her size by far, likely enough to if not damage its plastic send it flying elsewhere. "And why the heck do I gotta fight these things anyway? It is more fun than wandering around clueless, but I'd rather get some damn answers."

Akia ???: "Hey there to you too miss, what's the big holdup?" {Her newfound friend peeks their head in the open doorway, however, Akia could now clearly see Asena as a boy speaking in the previous girl's more mature-ish voice. Off-putting as it was, it didn't phase the nutcrackers who acted as if nothing was there. What was catching their attention was one of them getting their skull bashed with a heavy bottle. Or rather, what was left of their skull afterwards, the bottle's impact leaving the nutcracker with a cracked face and an eyeball popping out of the framework. The other nutcracker attempts to sneak up on Akia, but fails to do so when it explodes, a multitude of tiny shadows withdrawing from it's body through holes made from the burst.} Asena?: "Hmmm...well, I'll just meet you there." {The boy abandons the room again, leaving Akia with a single, wounded nutcracker that attempts to charge at Akia once again, but fails to do so when it falls on it's head, the crank spinning on the back of the toy soldier becoming enfeebled, slowing down every second. Its plastic sword falls to the ground next to Akia as the doorway is open. Without anything obstructing it, and with no other pathways to traverse, she could see the rest of the Gift Plane, as well as what seems to be another counter where a cash register sits. Asena, now a young girl, sits on the counter, looking at a door that says "staff only".} Asena?: "Hmmmm...I forgot why we were here. Wait, I think we met like, a long time ago...you want a rematch or something? I don't remember if we ever finished." {The girl takes a picture of herself, three in fact, all of her smiling at the camera. She views them come out of her camera before scattering them across the ground. All the pictures in question have Asena, but different versions, one being her as a teenage boy and the others being of two other grown up adults that look extremely similar to the girl. The person on the counter, turns around, kicking the cash register off of the table, which triggers the room to ambience of the atmosphere to be extremely silent. The gift plane becomes white all around, similar to a seclusion room, and Asena sitting on nothing looks at Akia expecting something from her.}

Red {Red maneuvers around the attack of the airplane, now finding herself stationed onto the aircraft as it flies through the air. All windows present on the airplane have no light shining in any of them, deducing them as pilotless. The hostess girl doesn't react much to the three knives coming her way, she smiles brightly and exclaims in a barren wasteland to no one in particular.} ???: "Oooo, multitasking, I love doing this!" {Sana doesn't take many precautions, twirling to the side to expend more energy than she has to just to avoid the plane. However, since she is not on it, she finds herself free to attack the girl from close range, which she capitalizes on by trying to skewer the girl with her spork. The polearm gets intercepted by the glowsticks the hostess girl holds in both of her hands, glowsticks that start to spark with an orange electric current.} ???: "That thing made of metal is supposed to be an insulator? Where'd you get that kitchen table appliance, the dollar store?" Sana: "No, I got it from the Dollar TREE. You got that outfit from Make A Wish." ???: "Ha ha, very funny S-" Sana: "Don't start." {The girls start swinging their weapons at each other, however every movement made from the glowsticks are ones that the planes make as well, and at a faster pace. Red, who was still on the planes, now have to stay on them at a mach 2 speed, making motions that should not be normal for the specific type of aircraft yet occurs anyway. The girl intersects her glowsticks, stopping the rollercoaster ride and making sure the planes crash into each other at full speed. Meanwhile, the dimly lit airport that was left behind by the two starts to flash white, brightening the murky atmosphere of the outside world by a great margin.}

Akia would stare over at Asena curiously, a rematch...? What the hell is going on right now, she's dealt with some fucking weird Epithets before but this blows them all out of the water dammit. How's she gonna figure out the best course of action when she barely even gets what's happening at all!? "I don't want a fucking rematch no, mostly I want to figure out what the deal with this madhouse is so I can crack the skull open of whoever's doing this stupid crap!" She's had about enough of insane things that don't make sense even by her standards, and just absently twirls the heavy bottle in hand while staring over at this copy of Asena or whatever it is. And her voice sounds clearly annoyed and enraged while glaring a bit. "Maybe you can help me figure out how all this bullshit works though, that'd be just lovely so if you can please by all frigging means!"

Red calmly watches the fight, seemingly unbothered by the plane's extreme speed. She simply remains crouched on the vehicle until the moment the planes are about to collide, at which point she leaps off, still watching Sana and the strange person's... Interaction. Red didn't really understand what was happening, so she kind of just watches, asking no one in particular "... Why am I here?"

Akia ???: "...maybe. I wouldn't really know, I'm a bit busy trying to figure it out. Guess the rematch is really off the table then. Wonder what we can do to pass the time..." {After a few seconds, the whole room shatters like a mirror. The white surfaces turned out to be reflective, thus the glass pieces fall to the ground. The Asena standing in the room seems to begin to crack as well, but it only stops halfway, revealing another face that does not look any different than the one she has on now, other than the male features eccentuating it.} ???: "Oh would you look at that, Katsuka did it. Hooray." {The ambience now takes on a feeling similar to being near a flash grenade as it goes off. A ringing in the ears and a white light flashes in Akia's eyes as she feels herself on a flat surface of ground, more importantly being outside the airport once and for all. Next to her is Asena laying on the floor with her back turned, curled up in a ball as to try and hold something close to her.} Red {As she departs from the two planes crashing from each other, she feels an extremely luminescient light flash behind her, and hears the sounds of multiple flower pots breaking and scattering soils and plant stems on the floor near her. Across from her, she sees Katsuka step back to be with the gardener that she met earlier in the food court of the airport.} Sana: "Get off me, go wake up your girlfriend or something!..." {Sana yells out, dropping Sonomi on her legs so she can go ahead and meet Asena who is still laying on the ground. Likewise, she backs off, going away from Red and standing behind the girl Akia met at the airport. The four girls gaze at each other in the barren wastelands of the outside world.} Everyone Sana: "God, this reunion sucks ass. I hate this time bullshit." Asena?: "Oh, wassup Sonomi. I dunno about that, let's ask for their opinions first." Chisaki: "Yeah SONOMI, I agree. I really hate you right now." Katsuka: "Wait, we can lay off the stage names? Wow, finally." Sonomi: "Asena why did you steal from the store?..." Asena: "Man, no one was there anyway..." {Sana doesn't respond, instead clearing her throat and turning around and facing Sonomi who was trying to speak to a very drowsy Asena holding some kind of wolf plushie. Sonomi reluctantly went up to the four girls after she reprimands Asena for finding out what she did.} Sonomi: "Yes, Miss Sana?" Sana: "These two girls wanted to speak to you. They called out your name." Chisaki: "Wrong, we're calling for you." Sonomi: "Me?" Katsuka: "No, girl. HER!" {Katsuka points over at Sana, who scoffs and looks away, flipping her hair. Once again, she tries to avoid the topic in general by turning around again and calling for everyone else. Asena tries not to get yelled at by picking up her stolen wolf plushie and standing near Sana.} Sana: "They're evil, we need to kill them so that the girls can go home and sleep, it's like way past their bedtime." Katsuka: "Gee, it's not like it's OUR fault you couldn't keep our past selves alive." Asena?: "Oh hey, I remember that. Yeah, no, that kind of was your fault. There's no way we could avoid that. Wait, are you two not supposed to be alive?" Chisaki: "Uh...that faceless demon god we made a pact with said we can live as long as we kill you two. I don't really know, I just want revenge, so..." {To break the family argument that's been going on, Chisaki immediately attempts to skewer Akia with a myriad of thorns that shoot out from the ground. Asena drops her plushie on the ground and tries to go for Katsuka who makes an airplane aim towards Red. Sana and the older girl that takes the form of Asena bicker amongst themselves before doing anything to respond to the fight. Sonomi in response just tries to kneel to the ground and turn her body around to face away from the battlefield, transforming back to her casual attire and crying.}

Akia just sighs heavily while realizing that yes, this entire argument has... Happened, she guesses. At the end of the day, truth be told? She doesn't know or care, it's all just a way to make a buck from her viewpoint and Akemi damn well better pay up. But whatever it doesn't matter, this girl is trying to fight her so Akia will oblige the damn brat. A golden flask would appear in her hands that the woman downs without a second thought, Asena's seen it once before of course along with the utterly inhuman speed the Inscribed now displays while moving away from the thorns. Even if they did strike true, her resilence would now be far higher than it ought to as well, allowing the woman to keep fighting with only minor damage. Or trying to anyway, not only that but she'd slam her hand into the ground and cause a flicker of light as something rushes below it, flowing towards Chisaki under the pavement and aiming to slam back upward toward her with incredible force. Not only that, but the strange putrid black liquor which she had tried to use against Asena not so long ago works properly now. If it struck true then in addition to any physical damage the high-pressure burst might cause, her enemy would be engulfed in horrifying nightmares, a waking illusion of whatever their worst fear is. In all honesty, booze wouldn't normally do that but some legend and rumor say some type might, so she's managed to make it work. "Kill us huh...? Fine with me, you can try! But I'm not gonna hold back any against you brat!"

Red watches for a few moment, glassy-eyed. She doesn't really get what the people are yelling about, but it didn't really matter anyways. The woman remains motionless for a few seconds as a plane rushes towards her, only to make a sudden leap, taking a few steps off the nose of the plane and letting the wind such a massive object leaves behind push her outwards as she jumps. Red moves as a blur, crossing the ground between her and Katsuka in an instant before maneuvering behind their opponent, "Too loud." the woman whispers before bringing her knife upwards in a flash, aiming for Katsuka's throat.

Asena?: "Wait, they're after us too. Shouldn't we help?" Sana: "Not on the first turn! I need a quick breather. You can help if you want." Asena?: "...nah. You're right." Player Phase {Akia would be pelted by thorns, yet thanks to her flask, she was not dealt the ideal amount of damage that it would normally have caused to the woman. Instead, she feels another unknown substance enter her body, similar to the blade that made her bleed a green liquid in the Gift Plane. However, this would instead be a magenta color instead of the usual red. Yet her power grew tenfold, she can feel something attempting to sap it away and steal it instead.} {Roots would start to grow from beneath Chisaki's sleeves, elongating and turning into dark colored wood that would serve to block the actual impact of the overflow...until Sonomi bashes it away with her meteor hammer. A quick swing at the darkwood destroys it, making splinters of wood remnants and seeds scatter in the girl's perimeter. This would seemingly leave the gardener defenseless against Akia's torrent, but she merely chuckles as she stares at the teen that still has tears in her eyes.} Chisaki: "Ah, I would have loved to slow things down a little bit, but it seems that you want your deaths to be imminent. Tee-hee!" {Chisaki turns around, raising her hand in the air as a lofty plant sprout the size of a tower grows from out of the ground, elevating the girl's position to make her outrun the burst of water, putting her at a place where she could see the clouds were the sky not red and just as barren as the land below.} {Chisaki glances to the side of her and sighs as she sees yet another plane swoop in from the sky, attempting to reach ground level. Katsuka who was controlling the planes would direct her glowstick downwards, summoning a plane from below to try and crash into Asena, the presence of the lupus not being in the hostesses' mind only glaring at the other teenage girl.} Asena: "How about you look behind you?"

Enemy Phase Katsuki: "Speak for yourself, idiot!" {Asena would avoid the plane aimed towards her by jumping into a portal, sending a weak shooting star Katsuka's way before disappearing out of sight. This would ultimately hit Katsuka's wrist, making her let go of one of hr glowsticks and flinging it away from the girl. She looked behind her and notices Red attempting to assassinate her in the middle of the field. Her reflexes kicked in, barely blocking the blade going at her throat with the glowstick she had left. The power difference was marginal, though it was in Red's favor until the sky above the two girls darkened, and ruptured.} Katsuka: "Shut it!" {Katsuka yells at the wolf girl, disregarding her unapproval of the volume of her voice and pushing her knife away as the thunder clapped. Her glowstick broke once she tries to send Red's knife downwards, resulting in a burst of lightning that aims to push Red away. Katsuka uses this opportunity to weave away as a broken airplane crashes into the field, attacking everyone present.} {The other seeds that were unintentionally planted by Sonomi turn into farms of rotted cockroach-like creatures sprouting from the ground, the coloring similar to an onion. Sonomi, who was midly scared of bugs and their 6 legs, screams and swings her meteor hammer around in a 360 degree motion, in hopes that they get scared and go away. Yet these plants were unphased, and would parade around the nearest people they could find, namely Akia and Sonomi.} {They walked in circles around the girls until they start to glow, explode into damaging clouds that resemble what would come from a stinkbomb, which affects leaves Sonomi in the midst of every cloud. For Akia, they explode and send their insides all over Akia's area. Their internal organs and blood attempt to crawl into any open wounds on the girl, aiming to debilitate the girl and poison her to sap her strength even more.}

Akia grins wildly as Red appears, that'll fucking work. Hopefully. If not though then maybe she can at least do some decent damage somewhere with a bit of luck. "I'd rather not die actually ya damn brat! But how bout you play with knife girl over there instead of bothering my ass!" In fact, she'll focus on the other one for a moment. With blinding speed bottles that have flaming rags set in them would appear in both her hands, one of them would burst out and slam into some of the organs forming a blast of flames that serves to hopefully melt them and the plants before they finish rushing towards her. The other... Others, in fact. Begin flying at Katsuka. A wild barrage of four Molotov cocktails flies towards the enemy without even the slightest delay, Akia's enhanced speed and strength allowing her to rush them all out at the girl with incredible efficiency. "Now do me a favor girl, and burn!"

Sana: "Oh boy, one of them's left out in the open. I'll take a mid-battle stroll, you get myself." Asena?: "Thought you didn't like calling yourself that but 'kay." Player Phase {Sana wanders through the arid plains, finding herself at the spot Asena dropped the wolf plushie at. With nobody looking at her, she begrudgingly picks it up and loots it for herself, shoving it into her coat pockets. Meanwhile the other Asena's shadow forms into a silhouette of a generic male figure, one that would travel into the smog created by the bugs that swarmed Sonomi, sweep her off her feet, and pick her up to rush her safely in the other Asena's arms.} Asena?: "Wonder what your babysitters are doing. Miss, do they suck at their job?" Sonomi: "It's not- *cough*. It's not her fault..." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Akia's first molotov would serve to make sure the organs from the bugs would be burnt away, leaving the girl with an extremely generous feeling of a slow timer counting in her head. Katsuka stood in the barren field, swiping her orange glowstick left in order to create a broken plane that seemed to not have any time to finish constructing itself, the metal caging of it's shape only serving to take the bunt of most of the molotovs. Three to be exact. Akia could clearly see one of them vanish midair with as it quickly shined with some type of light that scattered it with dust before it left. Katsuka points her glowstick forwards, making sure the plane heads it's way towards her adversary.} Asena: "Thanks Miss Akia!" {Asena exclaimed from above the two, flying thanks to her stardust and throwing the remaining bottle downwards at Katsuka, which the latter does not expect at all. She tries to block it, but fails to do so, leaving her clothes getting charred and her self-esteemed ruined. Katsuka screams when she feels her blonde hair getting singed, and the dark cloud erupting above her shoots out another thunderbolt that hits Asena dead on. The girl only yelps in pain, and tumbles to the ground.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Red manages to make her way up the towering sprout, slashing through Chisaki's body very easily. Yet at the same time, she chuckles and rolls her eyes at the lupus, putting her hand over the blade to stop it midway. The gardener's strength comes not from her own grip, but of the vines that grow under her sleeve. Red sees a hint of blood leave Chisaki's tunic as well as another festering garden that grows within, like in the foodcourt.} "I thought we went over this already...oh well."

Enemy Phase "Go fetch, dog." {Chisaki would say scornfully to the wolf girl before throwing the knife away, letting it fall slowly to the ground. The thin, wood stem, stretches itself from below, tiny wire-like darkwood constructs act like whips, all aiming to wrap around Red and constrict her from moving. From down below where the knife lands, Sana stood, inspecting it before looking up at where it came from.} Sana: "Ha ha, very funny God. You can have this back now." {Sana would attempt to throw it slightly upwards at the stem, but her eye starts to change colors, closing itself and turning black with a red iris. In no time at all, she found herself atop the stem, throwing the knife at Chisaki. It grazes past her face, but gets her out of focus, making the parts of wood going for Red slow down. The two girls glare at each other when they realize where they found themselves before pouting, turning their heads to the side.} Chisaki: "Wow, way to go Sonomi. I was going to throw her off this plant so it's roots could get nutrients...She'd sink into the ground eventually, right?" Sana: "1: Don't call me that. 2. She's my pet dumbass, back off. 3. Your crap at gardening and your parents never loved you. And 4: Don't call me that!" {The eye hung around her, still black and red, flashed dark purple before both Sana and Red gained a feeling similar to a strong rush of caffeine flowing through their bodies. Though Red in particular felt a lingering sense of drowsiness past the adrenaline she's experiencing. Chisaki sighed as she picked up a wooden sword that made itself from one of the wires surrounding her.} Chisaki: "How threatening. Fine, I'll get fertilizer somewhere else." {Sana rolls her eyes as she puts her giant spork behind her, and Chisaki laughs to herself as she glances off to the side, the direction of where Katsuka is fighting. When she put her attention back towards the two, the ground quakes slightly before thorns come from the infertile plains, aiming to impale the two like before with Akia.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Katsuka: "No, that outfit costed money, dipshit!" {The dark cloud that ruptured above Katsuka started to grey out instead of being an opaque black. She responds by rising her glowstick, the baton acting as a conduit for lightning to strike once more. The girl does not flinch as the rod is struck, and Katsuka points the electrified wand at Akia, not caring about threatening to finish Asena who was off to the side.} Katsuka: "Fuck your favor, and do what we say!" {As the black clouds started to dissipate, they instead disappear completely, making the dim atmosphere bright red before Katsuka stabs the air once. A strong gust of wind that spirals out of the glowstick rushes towards Akia, emitting a powerful force that is accompanied with the high voltage of the lightning that struck before. The ground beneath the two is pushed backwards from the impact as debris flies off to the side just to get away from the horizontal tornado's pathway.}

Akia just sighs as the annoying child doesn't fucking die, this could get worse if she doesn't end it fairly soon... The electro water would find itself blocked by a thick barrier of pure grain alcohol though. As would the bolt of lightning, sadly there's nothing Akia can do to avoid being pushed back which forces her to engage from long range while trying to close in upon the girl. Which she'd engage gladly by first firing off a wild barrage of that thick sticky black nightmare inducing magical liquor she's cooked up, aiming to act as both a powerful cutter against the child and as usual inflict their very worst fears upon them if it struck true. Not only that, but as the enemy hopefully focuses on dodging this strike and the insanely fast rush of Akia she would casually slam her hands into the ground, causing a creeping gyser to rush upwards several seconds later and soak the girl in pure grain alcohol which would leave her very light-headed in theory if it mananged to hit. "What you say? As if you brat, I've never been one for taking orders from people who aren't paying my bills! And I've got issues with authority too!"

"Slow." Red quietly comments as she maneuvers to Chisaki's right, slashing effortlessly through the vines that pop up. Though Red's starting to feel tired, she remembers the infestation-like symptoms from the fountain earlier. They didn't have the water, but Red remembers Sana's... Spork. Having similar effects. So, what she does is charge Chisaki once more, heedless of the spear aimed at her. She'd go ahead and stab her opponent, but Red's main goal is to grab and stop them from moving "Now..."

Sonomi: "W-what do we do now?" Asena?: "...wait, you're asking me? Uh...maybe there'll be something else that comes up. Heal or something." Player Phase {Akia's douses of nightmare liquor and booze would strike true, cutting at the girl as her last ditch efforts to attack do nothing to stop her. The geyser would almost wash her away, yet there was something keeping her body from falling on the ground. Roots would grow from beneath her, latching onto her legs. A shadow covers her eyes as she stands still, lightheaded.} Katsuka: "...fine...fine then. Don't die...Since you won't die...You won't get satisfaction...from killing me either!" {Her previously idle form would instead be one that extends her arms out, looking up at the sky as the roots that latched onto her grow more and more, each piercing through her body multiple times until she suddenly is pulled into the ground by them. A laughing in the distance was heard from above Akia, the source coming from the lofty stem Chisaki had grown earlier.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Red would find that making hastened maneuvers would be a lot easier, slashing past the vines without impedement, there's more than enough time to try and grab the gardener as she stabs at her. While the sword connects, she suddenly starts to feel sluggish as her visions brightens to the point where most things become white. Though a ringing in her ears start, she feels a sense of rejuvenation as she feels something touch her sword hand.} Sana: "See, we don't hate each other!" {The lupus would feel Sana's hand hold hers, forcing her to perform an action she might not have wanted to do at all. Her hand was delicate and warm but her grip was tight, the girl makes Red's sword slash from inside the punctured gardener's body, effectively cutting at the roots that grow inside Chisaki. Her body staggers to the side, an acidic-like substance draining out of her body as the plants start to rile up, yet when she holds her waist blood starts to come out.} {Once Sana lets go of her hold on Red, the lupus would feel her senses coming back, as she does not feel sluggish anymore. Chisaki's festering garden tries to attack at Red as soon as her hand leaves her waist, uncovering it and letting vines with thorns grab on to the wolf girl. But Sana twirls with her spork, spinning and pushing them back while readying her strike, stabbing into Chisaki once again. Her spork had a glisten of lime green, indicating something that would harm Chisaki from the inside rather than out. Yet when she gets impaled, the gardener laughs, walking closer to Sana even as she has something sticking out of her.} Chisaki: "Heh heh. Give me some space, why don't you?" {The ground would rupture beneath them again. The leaf which acted as the platform they stood on would snap off, effectively pulling the ground from beneath their feet. As Sana and Red fell to where everyone else waited, they could watch up close as the mere stem would grow to form a towering tree who's form would make the building of the airport seem merely like a small cottage.}

Enemy Phase Sana: "I hate these second phases man." {Sana would be caught by Asena once again as Sonomi tries to wake up the other Asena that is on the ground. The tree that towered over everyone blocked the red sunlight that emulated from the desolate skies. Sana snapped her fingers, making the eye stare at Red and forcing her to appear next to the two. She was also the first to start complaining as everyone who had to look up at the tree would almost break their necks trying to make their gaze reach the precipice.} Sana: "...here I thought we'd have a fun afternoon killing teenage girls...these people are friends right?" Chisaki: "Oh, don't worry dear! You all deserve something for making me use my friend as fertilizer." Sana: "How the fuck did you hear me?" {Chisaki's voice boomed from the top of the tree. She sat on a branch, looking at the 6 people on the ground like they were mere ants. The gardener would yawn as the graceful darkwood tree would start to grow some red leaves, almost resembling sakura petals if they were splattered with blood.} Chisaki: "Tee-hee! Don't worry, you don't have to climb to the top yourselves! Unless you really want to kill little old me THAT badly." Asena?: "Don't worry, she does!" {Chisaki would pick some petals off the tree, putting some in an open palm before blowing it, sending it to the wind. These petals would soon fly through the air, staying at a high altitude before it starts to spin, creating a light tornado that goes towards the group. Anything it hits would be met with the petals that formed the tornado bursting into flames.}

Red looks back up, confused? They seemed to think they were invincible up there or something, but that didn't make any sense. "Red already climbed. Does Red win?" Somewhat curious, the lupo goes ahead and makes a jump back to the spire anyways, darting around to the opposite side of the tower from the tornado, before climbing up the tree once more.

Akia would be about to try and light up the entire tree, but she sees Red trying to climb and stops that bit of planning. Instead a large cloud of red wine that's been heated enough to become crimson steam which serves as cloud coverage for her to evade in appears. The tornado would be evaded with some luck, though she's spending the last bits of her enhanced power to do so... At this point, the young woman would instead conjure a bottle of rum and simply begin drinking some of it down if she had a moment. It won't help her nearly as much as the last drink, but it will keep her fighting better than usual. "I don't gotta climb up there to kill yer ass, I can shoot my Epithet from down here just fine dumbass!" She'd shout up in annoyed voice loud enough to be heard, and back up the statement with a burst of high-pressure alcohol like a blade flying high that will hopefully cut into the enemy. Or at least distract her from Red's climbing.

{Sana scoffs, her eyes trailing Red before the lupus decides to give chase inside the tree where Sana can no longer see her. She turns around, facing the older Asena, and noticing how the younger one is not present. The girl puts her hand around the eye wrapped around her, hoping to conjure energy so that she can make sure her "positive" presence is always with her.} Sana: "Oh, I am not about to leave that bitch alone running in some stupid tree. Cover me or get yourself, do whatever, I don't care." Asena?: "Right, right, I'll just get that girl over there to protect you instead." {Asena? snaps their fingers, making a shadow appear above her, and then diving into the girl's figure. As this happened, Sonomi was put in place of where she previously was, making the girl confused. She stammered until she turned around.} Player Phase {Akia's blade of alcohol shot at Chisaki who sat on the branch. With no real way to pinpoint where the girl was, Chisaki merely only had to move her head to the side as the blade shot straight up. It hit a branch above the gardener, which started to fall from the impact of the blade. However, as the branch fell, it's presence felt even more large when it looms closer, as if it seemed to be even more enlarged than first thought out to be.} Chisaki: "Sure you don't, miss. I totally believe you." {Sonomi used her meteor hammer to make the branch bunt it's force away from Sana and herself. Uttering the word knockback under her breath makes the stereo glow light blue, emitting a strong force that merely serves to repel the branch away. The meteor hammer, though small compared to the falling branch, had enough force to change the trajectory of the branch, making it fall vertically instead of horizontally. Of course, this kind of backfired, but it was not obvious to see to who, since it obviously benifited them that the tree fell in a way to stab into the tree and stop midway instead of falling down.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Red now climbs inside the tree. This time, the whole atmosphere that was previously barren and full of sky with a few leaves and lone branches to act as platforms, was a whole nature atmosphere. Still barren though, but there's even less room for sunlight now. As Red proceeded to keep climbing upwards once again, a certain voice filled her head.} Sana: "To answer your question. No. You have to do it again because the girl wants to be annoying...oh, and look to your left." {Coming from left of the wolf girl, a large spike similar to a tree branch made the atmosphere shake before piercing into where Red currently was. Though the pike was lofty like the tree she was currently climbing, it fell in a clunky manner as if it was not planned to be inside the tree.} Sana: "I know of two ways to end this. Kill the girl up top, or kill the girl in the center, because yes, that one's somehow still alive and powering this plant." {Like last time, there was really only one way to go, which was up. Yet Red could feel two presences emenating from the tree she was inside. One similar to a nuclear electrical current from the depths that was strongest at a random midway point, and the obvious one up top that comes from the long climb, one similar to a corrupted nature belonging to the gardener.}

Enemy Phase: Chisaki: "Maybe you should give up and hand whatever that Epithet is over to me instead. I'd love to have more sources of food for my plants..." {The girl trails on, not bothering to make herself look like she's entertaining anyone with her words and instead snaps her fingers loud enough for at least Sana to hear. The branches start to encroach further, as if they were falling, but instead they just extended downwards in an arc-like fashion. The branches held bodies with blurry faces similar to the children that Akia saw in the Gift Plane. They were bloodied, not moving, yet their glitching facial features opened the mouths that made bugs similar to the ones from before start to crawl out from every wound that came from the dead bodies.} {Most bugs that jump out of the air came for Akia since she was mostly alone, signifying the distraction working. These bugs came in colors of red, yellow, and green. The red ones explode, the yellow ones just bite, and the green poison. However, some of these colored strays come towards Sonomi, who has to knock them back towards the tree instead, where Red is. The ones that land onto the tree bite into it's wooden structure, crawling first onto the branch that penetrated the tree. When they start to scavenge for the first source of food they can find, their eyes lock onto Red, and the minature flood of bugs start to crawl for the Lupus in hopes they can bite into her.} Sana: "That's not my fault, blame the girl."

Akia would smirk up at her enemy, there are two facts the woman's failed to mention to her enemy... "You're missing a key bit of info though, stupid kid... I can control the temperature of the things I create, despite mostly relying on fire and boiling up to now I can make you..." The high-pressure burst that had been sent up doesn't vanish, instead changing course and rushing into the tree's center... In fact, the volume of it seems to be growing quite a lot higher at the same time and covering vast amounts of the garden as well. Some even now directly upon her foe's ankles from the sheer amount, there's not much of anywhere to dodge at this point. "FREEZE DIPSHIT!" The woman's voice echoes out through the space around them as the seemingly fairly weak drink does well... Just that, turning into a thick layer of frost that would coat the tree and leave her victim frozen in place for at least a bit unless she can find some way to dodge the miniature flood. As for the bugs, a good chunk of them would be swept away and hopefully drown in a hastily made burst of vodka that serves as her shield for a moment. But a few are missed, its enough to greatly lower the threat but with her focus upon attacking not all can be slain right now.

"Hey wolf girl, hold on one second, please!" {For a very quick moment, Red's connection to Sana gets severed right after she was given the info. This was because Sana thought that even in the middle of "fighting" some teenage girl on a giant tree, she could take this as the perfect opportunity to come in contact with someone far away. Someone that is male that she is obligated to hate, because this was indeed the correct thing to do.}

{As Sana sits back, communicating with others through indirect measures, Asena comes back to their location, retrieving themself and carrying them to make sure that they do not sustain further damage. However, the teenager still finds it in herself to yawn from her sleep, getting out of her older self's grasp and standing up.} Asena: "Mmrh, what did I miss?..." Sana: "Me insulting some stupid asshat clown..." Player Phase: {Sonomi seeing no immediate threats to Sana, decides to pick off the bugs that Akia would have missed just with a few simple swings of her meteor hammer, crushing them under it's weight and force without even needing to use some special function of the weapon.} {As for the gardener who is presented with the cold wave of alcohol, she tilts her head before standing up on the tree branch that held the girl's weight. The branch itself started to wrap itself around in wood, supporting her from falling. More leaves from up top the tree akin to the sakura petals from before fell into Chisaki's hand.} Chisaki: "You know what, there really seems to be no point in dodging that. Tou·ché hag." {She threw the petals upwards, making sure that the small branch above her contorts into a wooden wire that latches onto her arm like a bracelet. The girl takes the full force of Akia's attack, freezing in place with the branch still suspending the girl where she stood.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Red would find no problems other climbing the lofty tree other than the small insects making an attempt to reach the girl's height. However, this would be quickly circumvented by an electric current sifting around the ground level, chained lightning hitting the multitude of bugs that walked on the tree's floor.} Katsuka: "..." {However, this lightning would not hesitate to cause more collateral damage, making every insect beneath her explode. Their organs causing floods of red, yellow, and green blood to start to burst, threatening to inflict damage should anyone fall into it.} Enemy Phase: {This is what the silent corpse of Katsuka in a hemic yellow dress chooses to attempt to a girl she cannot even afford to see. From on her platform, Red feels a strong second wind push down onto where she was with the force of a wind turbine at near minimum capacity, it's strength alone snapping half of the branch that acted as her platform.} Sana: "I'm back, and she's back. She's extremely weak, just survive this and finish the idiot." {With the girl's "helpful" advice in mind, the lupo could read the fading energy barely emanating from the girl as opposed to before. Waking up from her safe point, Chisaki let a weakened Katsuka that can't even stand on her own walk around just in an attempt to kill whatever would be inside the tree. Her eyes were dead, pitch grey, an extremely quiet pulse coming from her bloodstained body.} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {Akia's attack clearly had worked, and the bugs she had missed were no problem. From up top, both the tree and the girl standing on the branch were easily frozen due to it. The petals slowly fell down, and exploded near the girl but not directly onto her just to quicken the process of her thawing out. Unbeknownst to her, Katsuka was wandering freely about inside the tree, yet she did not seem to care too much even when she managed to escape the ice, something that the tree can not say it performed.} {However, she still couldn't see past the explosions, only opting for another ditch effort at attacking blindly by snapping the branch she held onto earlier, ripping away at the weak point and having it fall once again towards everyone on the ground.}