The Hawkmoths VS LoRI - Act 3

‘Blacksite’ – 4:22 PM

Zeydaan had the burlap sack over their head removed. The wolf winced from the intense lights directed towards them. “What did I do wrong? I demonstrated how extensive my knowledge of transformation is!”

“These people have come to accept a lot rather quickly, Zey.” DM tilted some of the lights down to reduce Zey’s discomfort. “Reality manipulation on that level is still a very touchy subject. Why do you think that we have Kikai play the role of a silly kid in public? Society needs time to accept the notion that someone could completely reshape a town and its populace on a whim.”

“Yeah, there was even a bloody Twilight Zone episode about the notion over sixty years ago.” Merku mercifully placed a pair of sunglasses on Zey. The wolf discovered that the restraints keeping them in the chair had been enchanted to their exact magical frequency. “The others demanded we do that. Really this is a time out to make something clear.”

“That being?” Zey struggled against the bonds. Whoever had done the locking had access to multiple magical disciplines across dimensions. “Who did these? Was it Rapture?” A slight jolt of energy through Zey’s tail forced their body into an involuntarily relaxed state.

“Sup, we haven’t met yet.” A sky blue hedgehog with electrical powers [not the one you’re thinking of… or the other one] made his presence known to Zey. “Peter Vidrine on my hog tags…” The hedgehog made a set of metal dog tags levitate off from his chest. “It’s Static to everyone else. You didn’t seem too startled when encountering the other ‘god-modding’ members, no?” Static undid the bindings in a snap. “All energy follows the same general rules. I’m far from a wizard, but I make fast friends.” Instantly, dozens of wizards appeared in the room. “Just know that if you do something that scares too many viewers, I’ll be forced to intervene.” He placed a finger onto Zey’s forehead and applied a shock that undid the paralysis.

“Thanks for showing up on such short notice, Static.” DM killed the lights. “I know that the West Coast is expecting you to provide total coverage.”

“It’s better to be on call than stuck in the car. I hope that I won’t need to be back.” Static and the wizards vanished in a nanosecond. His words didn’t even hit until long after he was gone.

“A fake Sonic and some guys in cloaks won’t intimidate me.” Zey rose from the chair. “When I win this fight, I will do what you haven’t had the courage to do! I’ll make transformation open to everyone!” Zey dropped to the floor, paralyzed again. Static shook his head.

“Mark, we’re going to need the Hawkmoths in on this.” Merku propped Zey back into the chair. “Don’t forget what Emily did when someone tried that before.”

DM leaned in to whisper into Zey’s ear. “If you say that rhetoric in the fight and become Elsa from Frozen, Emily will absolutely kill you.”

“Do you think things are going any better in Emily’s camp?” Merku pulled up the event feed on his cellphone. The countdown to the next round was fifteen minutes. “I’ll see who I can get in time from Zey’s group in time.” He heard the sound of a door unlocking.

Mr. Moore walked in through a faux wall. “Woah, there’s our number one trending wolf! What are you doing in the media production backrooms?” The TV exec helped Zey up from out of the chair. “Listen, I know these dogs and hogs are giving you a hard time, but fear sells! Our ratings doubled in the second round! Could you do a unicorn next round? Those are BIG with key demos.”

Zeydaan had enough of the intervention from this exec. Zey punched Mr. Moore in the stomach and left through the wall opening. Ego meant that the exec would refuse to acknowledge the situation had ever happened. Zey wanted to do the final touching of base with their friends on their own terms. 

Emily’s Recuperation Station

“Dr. Strange, I’m glad you could make it.” Emily greeted her guest from across dimensions. “Meet my older daughter, Claire.” Claire and Dr. Strange exchanged pleasantries. “Did you prepare that report I asked for?”

“I ran the magical analysis, yes.” Dr. Strange held up something resembling sheet music. “There are multiple magic polarities and egos within the being you call Zeydaan. Some are more fragile than others, yet they’re practically oozing magic. They even resort to smoking magical blocker cigarettes for some forms to remain stable.”

“Mom, if this much magic is at play, you need to let me fight.” Claire felt her Valkyria equipment float out from her hands into Dr. Strange’s.

“Do you even know what these relics are?” Dr. Strange raised an eyebrow. He could smell artificial goddess and Titan blood on the keychains. “Evidentially you know the ‘aim towards enemy’ mechanics.” Claire snatched her keys back. “It’s not that simple to beat a magic user of this caliber.”

“Emily?” Dr. Sarah Voss peaked into the room. She glanced at Dr. Strange and Claire seemingly being close to activating ‘Washington’s contingency’. “Before you do anything, I need some of your spit to check for performance enhancers.” Emily spat into a cup for Sarah. “Thanks. Whatever happens now won’t affect the baseline data.” Sarah left without addressing the others.

“Do you think that my counter-play idea would work?” Emily cleared her throat. “Most of my heavy hitters require a lot of energy for proper setup. Shanoa or Milady require stamina recharges that I can’t bring out into the field while someone like Vriska is way too luck-based.”

“I’m relieved that you aren’t asking for Wanda’s power or access to the Phoenix Force.” Dr. Strange sling ringed a portal to the events of Captain Marvel Issue #18 [1969]. He took Emily’s heart locket from her to reset if things go wrong. “Just remember to let Carol absorb some of the energy or else Earth-616 will have issues later on.”

Page 20 of that comic

“How hollow then the triumph of vengeance gained! After the battle, to drink deeply from the cup of victory… and taste only Emptiness!” Mar-Vell shouted in anger. Abruptly, a woman with pink hair appeared through a portal. “Wait!!” He shouted as Emily picked up a blonde woman injured on the floor. “Who are you?” Humming emitted from a nearby alien machine.

“Cut the Shakespeare, Mar-Vell.” Emily smirked at the word bubbles forming in real time. “The Magnetron is about to explode and I have two panels to get Carol Danvers out of harm’s way.” Fortunately, the next panel had Carol and Mar-Vell far enough in the winding tunnels of the cavern that the positioning was primed. Mar-Vell rambled enough exposition that Emily couldn’t get a word in. “Maybe focus on actually escaping!” Emily’s panel allowance had run out.

SHROOM! The alien device exploded, bathing Emily in enough cosmic radiation to kill a normal human. She felt absolutely invigorated. “Don’t tell anyone I was here, Mar-Vell.” Emily placed the blonde woman down in a clearing. “Feel free to have your monologue about how you would feel if I wasn’t here.” The portal opened to Emily’s left. “That’s my ride. K, bye.” She slipped back into the recuperation station.

Claire checked her hand to make sure that Emily’s actions hadn’t resulted in her being erased from existence. “The stages were rolled while you were out, Mom.” When Claire was sure of her survival, she continued. “Fae Wilds to start and Manhattan 1984 is the secondary stage.”

“That gives us each an advantage in one stage.” Emily checked her hair for any loose clumps. “I need to be ready for anything out there. Zey is going to try to finish things in the wilds because they know NYC is one of my home turfs. I just wonder what they’ll try.”

Meanwhile, in Zeydaan’s area, Lilith and Bean had knocked some sense into Zey. “Do ya even want to go that far to win a dumb title?” Lilith knew firsthand how dire things could become when Zey succumbed to Butterfly Syndrome. “Beat glasses bitch up a bit and then we’ll leave.” Bean appeared quite annoyed. “Zey, you know what will happen if you go too out of control.”

“I think I know how to beat Emily.” Zey deflected Lilith’s question entirely. “All I need is a few more minutes to adapt to her fighting style and then we’ll go.” Bean gave a skeptical look. “Besides, if we quit now, we’ve let fear win. That means the next shapeshifter like me will be treated horribly.”

“And you think that beating Emily to a pulp will make them praise you?” Ashley chimed in. “She’s holding back.”

“I will make her show all of the audience her truest nature.” Zey spat into the cup that Sarah had left. “It’s about respect.”

Stage Select Venue – 4:36 PM

“We welcome our combatants back to the stage before the final round begins!” Claire waited for the signal from one of the staff members that the live feed had resumed. “For those of you just tuning in or returning from the concession stands, we have a tie breaker round ahead of us. Both Zeydaan and Emily have demonstrated superior transformation ability, but there can be only one winner. Do either of you have anything to say to the audience?”

Emily grabbed the microphone from Claire. “Yeah, I do.” She hesitated. “I want everyone here and watching to know that if I had to do it, I’d drop ANY threat to New Haven, New York or wherever. If I lose, that commitment isn’t going anywhere.”

Zey forcibly took the mic from Emily. “When I win, I’m going to take you to a place where you will actually learn the etiquette around shapeshifting.” Static made his presence clear within Zey’s field of vision. “That being so that you can better protect your dimension. If Emily wins, she’ll have her choice in how to help me better acclimate to your customs.”

“There you have it.” Claire snatched the microphone back. “Strong words from both of our fighters.” The portal opened in the center of the ring. “Make your way to the Fae Woods.” Emily and Zey both raced through the portal.

Zeydaan landed in a tree overlooking a magical spring. There was no sign of Emily landing anywhere nearby, yet time was limited to truly get in her head. Zey slid down the tree trunk to take a position by the water. “Time to see how you tick, Emily.” Patches of pink emerged from Zey’s fur as their adventuring outfit took on a distinctly more blue appearance. She spat up octopus ink onto the rocks below her. The unstable concoction transformed the rocks into a mirrored pair of glasses that completed the look. “Do I really need to wear these?” Zey-Emily reluctantly put on the finishing detail. Now… What would I do?” She scratched her chin to let the behaviors set in. That was when the inner monologue jumped into hyperdrive.

“Why would I need to think where I am if I’m already there?” Zey-Emily’s inner monologue replied. “Oh, I get it! You’re trying to figure out the source code from a fork. Let’s start at the fundamentals, shall we? What’s our favorite movie, Emily? First transformation? First transformation desire? Do you even have those scars from the Academy? ER-X had those only because her baseline was based on our later body.”

“Who or what is ER-X?” Zey-Emily thought in response. The other voice was going too quickly for her to keep up. How could Emily stand this? Was she possessed or was this some shapeshifting tampering prevention? Uggh... Now she was firing her own questions rapid fire. “Quiet!” Zey-Emily hoped to calm the inner turmoil.

“Hey! You wanted the full Emily experience and you’re committed enough to accuracy that you get the ‘main character syndrome’ dialogue!” The voice fired back. “For your information, ER-X was a supposedly ‘superior’ clone who tried to kill Emily back in 2019. Ruby, Kenny and the Overwatch crew killed her at Area 51. Here, let me make it easier for both of us.” Zey-Emily spotted a floating chibi version of Emily in the water reflection. “Don’t worry, only you and the readers can see me.” The chibi altered her appearance to resemble a cartoon character that Zey-Emily couldn’t recognize offhand. “Oh, come on! I figured that Pepper Ann would be more recognizable than most of the stuff we reference!” Additional chibi versions in other outfits appeared within Zey-Emily’s vision. “Girls, she wants to be Emily and can’t even appreciate a reference!”

Outside of the identity crisis, the REAL Emily watched Zey-Emily argue with intangible spirits. “It’s all a bit overwhelming, isn’t it?” Emily impersonated Haruhi Suzumiya’s English dub voice in order to grab her doppelganger’s attention. “For future reference, whenever someone wants to be me, I handle the transformation to keep the data overload from frying their brains.” She tilted her head, spying some of the chibi’s in the water reflection. “Aw man, you got the ultra-rare Audrey Hepburn Em and you’re not making the most of her? YOINK!” Zey-Emily watched Emily move the small form into her own inner-monologue space.

“Hey! Fake-Em! You’re not going to let her do that, right? That was our ultra-rare thing and she came in, LIKE THE DEAN, to just take it!” The voices in Zey-Emily’s head unified in outrage. “Mortal Kombat surprise uppercut. She ALWAYS falls for it. How do you think she killed all those clones on EPCOT Orbit?”

"I understand you now.” Zey-Emily turned to face Emily. “Your mind is filled with faces and voices barking at you. Like a child thinking of their friends. No wonder why you act so cold and your blood I sso fierce. Every essence of joy is buried within you; it'd be enough to drive someone mad."Zey-Emily threw a surprise uppercut up towards the original Emily’s chin. The original Emily flew high into the sky. “That actually worked?”

“Emily’s a Marvel Vs. girl, Fake-Em. Show her a fighting game with a block button or dial-a-combo and she’s screwed. The massive height of the effect is from the Capcom super jumps.” The chibi Emily’s counted time in the air on their fingers. “Why hasn’t she landed yet?”

Emily hung from one of the drones. “I should have expected that.” Other drones caught up to her suspended location. “I know what you’re all thinking.” She addressed the drone that had an apparent microphone. “You all expect me to turn into a copy of Zeydaan for things to be equal, right? Then we end on a variant of the finish from “The Fry Cook Games” where we’ve both learned so much.” Emily blew a raspberry. “Yeah, that’s not happening today.” She adjusted the drone to have a second handle much like Fortnite glider. “Kids, you’ll probably need to explain this form to your parents and any other adults.”

Emily concentrated on shifting her attire into a black morph suit that featured blue accent lines from the legs up to the torso. Superficial claws emerged from the boots to create a werewolf aesthetic. Any sense of a traditional werewolf was quickly undermined by the seemingly random metallic look for the left lower leg and enough belts to be a Final Fantasy X collab. A gray crop top and a fur collar around the top of the outfit meant that viewers couldn’t claim a nudity violation. Plasmacore gauntlets on the arms fed into glowing neon claws that could harvest resources from most surfaces. All that remained for Emily to decide on was the style choice for the head. Her glasses floated away from her face to become a primarily black canine head sporting pink and blue detailing. The faux head came to rest over her head. Highwire dropped down to the battlefield below.

“You’re using a Fortnite furbait skin against me?” Zey-Emily almost sounded offended at Highwire’s appearance. The two combatants struck at each other in identical approaches. “You might know everything I’m going to do, but that’s not going to help you because I know everything you’re going to do!” They both tried and subsequently countered super kicks from the other. “Strange, isn’t it?” Highwire broke off the botched attack, jumped onto Zey-Emily’s shoulders, locked her legs around the neck and leaned backwards hard enough to bring them both down to the ground. Zey-Emily was left speechless from how sudden the hurricanrana had been administered.

“What are you doing on the ground?” The inner voices complained. “Of course she was going to go for a surprise move after the kick was blocked! Get up!” Zey-Emily kicked Highwire off her. “Force her into a sharpshooter and she’ll be vulnerable!”

“Uggh!” Zey-Emily screamed in frustration. “Will you shut up?” Highwire took this opportunity to put some distance between her and Zey-Emily. “Reference this, reference that! It’s like Family Guy constantly going off in my head.” She pointed towards Highwire. “No wonder you do such bastardized impersonations! You’re just an overgrown kid playing Dress Up or celebrating Halloween off-season!”

“I never claimed to be mature.” Highwire adjusted the microphone in the helmet to boost her spoken word through the hidden speakers. “What do you insist the mature thing is? Watching something from the socially-approved pool of content, splurging the moment advertisers tell me to and then being hyped about whatever is making them the most money in the moment?” CBS deliberately muted most of the response for the audience. “And yet… I find myself obligated to ensure that those very ‘mature’ people are able to get up tomorrow to keep their little loop going. We can’t all jump between dimensions chasing muses without consequence beyond a form reset.” Zey-Emily dissolved. “Who’s the immature one now?” Highwire gloated.

Zey-Emily’s disembodied voice wanted the last word. "Should how much we suffered matter? We are adversaries, but we are not enemies. Your words are cutting, silver tongue like a blade to try and discourage me. A Fae would admire your words, but I am not fighting on your terms anymore."

“Uh… We’re back from those audio glitches.” Ripley piped in on commentary. “Whatever Highwire said must have shaken Zey to their very core. I am joined by Zach from the Hawkmoths and Razor here on commentary. Sombra is currently troubleshooting the sound system while DM is handling security for the new arrivals.” More guests from other dimensions had arrived during the break. “Zach, what do you think Zey is doing now?”

“Zeydaan is going to aim for a surprise offensive that might overwhelm Emily.” Zach wasn’t exactly sure how much he should give away from the locker room discussions. “She’s going to need to remain on her toes.” Rustling branches around the space Zey vanished left a hint that only Zach could pick up on.

“Yo, why you staring at the tree?” Razor peeked at Zach’s drone feed. “Ripley, is Sombra cloaked on the field?” Ripley shook her head. The drone’s feed quickly became the primary. “Look out, Highwire! Zey might be a Predator!”

Highwire dashed and slid through the water around the spring. A spay of water betrayed Zey’s standing position. “Found ya!” The water on the translucent figure dropped to the ground. “I’ve had enough of this prop hunt act.” She chopped the closest tree in one swipe of the plasma gloves. Only the most astute viewer would have noticed her picking up material from the fallen trees.

Zeydaan knew that their window of action was limited. Getting into Emily’s head left more questions than answers, but there were a few ‘forbidden transformations’ in her psyche that gave insight into how to end the fight quickly. Abilities such as rapidly aging an opponent’s organs or accelerating medical conditions were forbidden for a reason. However, the knowledge on how to completely change through states of matter without losing the sense of self would prove rather interesting. Emily was too busy working on a workbench of some sort to notice the gust of wind approaching her. If Zey could suffocate her, the battle would be done.

“Why is Emily playing Minecraft if she can’t see Zey?” Razor imitated John Cena’s hand wave.

“Everyone will see soon enough.” Ripley knew her mother’s forms enough to recall the protocol for wind elementals and intangible invisible entities. “I have a feeling that she is going to use one of her strongest forms.”

Highwire finished forging a basic wooden sword using the Minecraft recipe. Once it was in her hands, the wooden implement transformed into a sheathed katana. She sensed that Zey was coming for her. Tokusatsu rules kicked into effect because unspoken rules kept an enemy from ever interrupting a henshin. “Swift as the wind, light as a cherry blossom!” Highwire sliced up her own outfit into shreds that flashed various shades of pink. A nagajuban underneath meant that the feed wouldn’t need to be edited once the cameras caught up. The pink kimono, red hakama and purple obi materialized on their own from the matter suspended around the transforming girl. Highwire’s helmet split apart to form bluish black hair and a massive red bow. Sakura Shinguji placed the sheath into her obi as time resumed regular flow.

Zeydaan’s wind presence blew past the fringes of Sakura’s outfit. Sakura felt the ambient air go cold. “Vanquishing blade…” Hands on the katana hilt, she drew her blade. “Cherry Blossom Smite!” Waves of pink aura illustrated the technique that propelled Zey across the wilds into the divide between regions. A cartoonish anthro wolf-shaped hole gave the drones a clean view of the 1984 New York City skyline. “That is the master art of the Shinguji family!” Sakura dramatically returned the katana to its sheath.

“I have a question.” Zach asked his co-commentators. “Why was Emily able to use an attack like that when she failed to make full use of Ruby and Tracer last round?”

“Simple.” Ripley refrained from divulging the nuances of mom’s power mimicry. “She transformed Sakura herself while the other two transformations happened through bizarre circumstances.”

“I’m gonna pretend I understand that.” Razor designated himself the hype man for the next stage. “It’s Summer of 1984, the Olympics are in LA, and McDonalds is…” He flipped the newspaper enough to see what the headline was. Thinking quickly, he spots an advertisement. “still selling the McRib! Sakura, grab me three from the location on 40th.”

Local Commercial Break

A teenage boy in an urban setting is running away from a flying demonic version of Zeydaan. Arcane spells fire wildly to blow up vehicles behind the pursue boy.

Teen: Run! It’s Zeydaan!

Zeydaan splits into two entities. One is a tank-like wolf creature while the other is one of the shadowy jets summoned during the prior round.

Zey: And Zey is twice as deadly!

Cuts to in-hand toy footage of someone ‘swooping’ the Zeydaan figure.

Announcer [Voice-Over]: Meet Zeydaan, makin’ their foes ran! Their energy magic is downright tragic. Blastin’ and outlastin’ until they’re the only one standin’! An army of one that’s second to none!

The in-hand footage shows the toy firing small plastic missiles at various other toyline figures. Most significantly, the toys knock over figures of Ruby and Tracer. Man, they DO film these commercials quickly.

Announcer [Voice-Over]: Fighting with lightning laser blades! Leave Emily Rees to the Grades!

The chased teenage boy is in the center of the road. Zeydaan and the jet approach from both sides.

Teen: LoRI! Help!

Two unrelated characters, who were bad guys in a prior ad, swoop in to help the teenager. Zeydaan and the shadow jet simply begin attacking the backup. One of the unrelated characters is thrown at a gas station; the other shot with pure magic.

Zey: No one can save you… From triple-changing Zeydaan!

Announcer [Voice-Over]: League of Random Insanity Generation 2. Zeydaan is all you see here. Other figures sold separately.

Now Back to Our Show – 5:05 PM

Zeydaan regained their bearings as they floated within the East River right off of Manhattan. The sheer scale of this biome compared to the others granted a degree of autonomy. “I walked right into that counter.” A sense of paranoia filled Zey. If they tried anything else from Emily’s pool, would there be another devastating response waiting? Rather than dwell on what Emily would do, it made more sense to use Emily’s own skills to tap into what she wouldn’t ever do. Octopus energy efficiency in a resource rich environment made tapping into some otherwise impossible forms more approachable. Helicopters and drones flying overhead gave Zey an easy way to track Emily’s location. “I have the element of surprise.”

Sakura felt vulnerable in such conspicuous transport. Zeydaan could be hiding anywhere in the city by now. People went missing all the time in NYC’s seedy era. If she wasn’t lucky, she’d join that list. “I can’t go for a Ghostbusters reference since Zey already knows that a proton pack can affect me. I also don’t want to risk anything involving radioactive spiders.” Throwing a degree of caution to the wind, Sakura decided to signal for the helicopter to drop her off at the Columbia campus. There was so much the same about the campus that she figured that she might ‘borrow’ something to make locating Zey easier. It was at that moment she discovered that the entire island was otherwise devoid of all other life.

“You have an entirely abandoned Manhattan during the 80’s to yourself, Sakura.” Sakura spied Tom’s Restaurant left completely open to her whims. “Most of the tourists make it impossible for me to do this.” She entered a booth near the cash register. “This is it. That should be the show!” She flipped to the other side of the booth. “What?” She did another flip. “Just talking.” She coyly looked at the drone following her. “It’s a show about nothing!”

Elsewhere, Zeydaan floated towards the industrial runoff part of Manhattan that always existed somewhere on the east side in 80’s and 90’s movies. Glowing green chemical slicks were only missing signs that directly stated it was radioactive waste. “At least the stage resets me after the battle.” They dived down to find the source of the waste. Yes, barrels simply marked ‘Three Mile Island waste [deregulated]’ sat at the bottom. Throwing caution to the wind, Zey embraced the barrels. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Radioactivity processed through Emily’s cell efficiency and Zey’s magic triggered a compounding mutation. Spikes began to jut out from Zey’s spine and along their tail. Radiation burns gave way to completely black sections of skin. Portions of the rock started fusing to wherever they touched on Zey’s body.

Zey felt an intense growth spurt beyond comprehension. The barrels of waste were now merely the size of Dixie cups in comparison. Their claws were now blackened and surrounded by scales. Zey climbed onto Roosevelt Island to take in their adjusted height. One of the bridges now appeared short enough [The Queensboro] that Zey could use it to brace themselves. More spikes and scales erupted from the largely compromised skin. Massive reptilian feet and a matching tail supported Zey’s rapidly increasing tonnage. Primal urges drove them to let out a powerful roar.

Sakura was about to reenact the ‘puffy shirt’ bit when she heard a roar in the distance. Beeping from a Geiger counter behind the cash register filled her with dread. “That wasn’t Mr. Stay Puft’s roar.” She borrowed the Geiger counter and made her way outside. It made sense that Zey would resort to a kaiju in a moment of frustration. NYC hadn’t exactly been welcoming and now there was nothing keeping Zey from simply going on a rampage to draw Sakura out. There was only one clear ‘high ground’ option in the direction of the roar: the Empire State Building. “How am I going to get there quickly?” She had her pick of cars parked on the streets. Whoever had created the biome just so happened to place a Lamborghini Countach near her current location. “Yeah, that’ll do.” Sakura floored the accelerator. She was in the Empire State Build lobby within four minutes.

Zeydaan began the slow trek from the island into Manhattan proper. River water offset some of the burning sensation coursing throughout their swelling form. Each step added more debris to the scaly legs and tail. Disfigurement became so bad that Zey’s apparent ears melted off in full view of the drones. Canine teeth gave way to layers of crazed, jagged teeth like a crocodile. Those viewers considered Zey a monster already. Why not embrace it? Em wouldn’t shut up about giving these people what they wanted! Zeydaan submerged in the psyche for the unstoppable Id of Godzilla to take over. Godzilla made landfall moments later. Not giving a fuck about optics or social contracts, he demolished blocks with no regard on his way towards the building where the only other noise was coming from. At this point, he didn’t care if Emily died. He wanted to win.

Top of the Empire State Building – 5:25 PM

Sakura didn’t need the counter to track Godzilla’s approach towards the building. She had left the Countach idling outside to bait the kaiju towards her. Her pink outfit was easy to see against the art deco skyscraper. Bright glowing from Godzilla’s spines alerted Sakura to the imminent danger. Impulsively, Sakura jumped from the viewing platform towards the monster. The atomic breath was so intense that the heat generated lift that kept her in the air. Nothing she had could take on Godzilla in a fair 1-on-1 fight, yet there was no way she’d let even a fictional New York down.

Blink. Sakura had lost all feeling in her left arm. There was now a prosthetic in its place. Instinct had caused her ears to relocate to the top of her head for better hearing. That pink and red outfit was too easy to spot. Special investigations demanded muted colors. She felt guilty that she hadn’t caught such a massive anomaly in The Void where the collateral damage was more manageable. The Combat Revue types had their place while a Void Hunter had an entirely different place in a crisis. Hoshimi Miyabi snapped back to her unorthodox trajectory towards an unknown enemy. She dashed forward twice to maintain her momentum.

Godzilla went for a tail attack. The attack was too slow to hit the nimble fox girl darting around him. Turnabout’s fair play when it came to targeting an opponent’s oxygen supply. Miyabi inflicted enough damage for the amount of ice to build up to a critical level. Instability from Zeydaan’s mutation and Emily’s own spirit-charged ice caused a condition we’ll nickname ‘frostburn’. More importantly, the oxygen around the frostburnt areas became too cold for Godzilla to inhale. Effectively, the oxygen had been destroyed. Miyabi watched Godzilla struggle for air from a rooftop beyond the affected area. Godzilla collapsed onto the row of hotels near the skyscraper.

“Is that the end of the match?” Ripley sat stunned in the commentary booth. “I never expected to see such a decisive adaptation of the Oxygen Destroyer implemented in the battles today.”

“No, it isn’t over.” Zach interrupted. “Zey was looking forward to finishing as Godzilla. Emily is going to face a more temperamental personality for the rest of the round.” Moments later, Godzilla’s body fizzled out into intense enough steam that it negated the extreme cold. Drones caught a glimpse of a female dragon standing in the epicenter. “Viewers at home, allow me to introduce you to a different part of Zeydaan: Isabella.”

“Ok, I’ll give you points for creativity. That was some major deus ex machine you pulled off there. Let me give you a bit of my own.” Isabella summoned remnants from Godzilla’s body onto her. The black scales took on Isabella’s yellow coloring on contact. "I joined this fight to defend my team's honor and show my capabilities. But all you lot don't seem to know the meaning of a fair fight." She bluntly attached former finger joints over her shoulders for additional armor. “Now I'm playing by my terms. Whatever happens now is your fault.” Isabella reformatted an energy source from the debris into the shape of a green cannon construct that slotted over her right arm. “This has however many beams I want and enough missiles to knock you down from your perch. Let’s go.” Isabella fired off a barrage of super missiles.

Miyabi sliced through all but one of the missiles. The one that got through knocked her off the roof into the alley behind the building. Wave beam blasts narrowly missed her. “I can’t rule out her having access to an Annihilator Beam.” Miyabi reluctantly accepted that she wasn’t suited for battle against a pissed off Samus. The only viable counter would be another blonde who had access to cosmic energy. Blonde overtook Miyabi’s black hair as the ears retreated to their normal positions. Undoing the kimono revealed a black one-piece swimsuit sporting a yellow lightning bolt and a red sash tied around her waist. Putting on the black domino mask was a formality. She staked the sword into the ground for later use. “Let’s see how she likes Ms. Marvel.”

“Come on out.” Isabella, now wearing Samus’s Varia suit apart from the helmet, charged her way into the alley. When she couldn’t spot her foe visually, Isabella opted for forming Samus's helmet to reap the benefit of the visors. Cycling to the Echo Visor showed traces of sound leading up into the air. Unamused, Isabella lifted the cannon up to find the target in the sky. A blonde woman wearing an impractical costume was smugly floating over her. “Whatever.” Isabella charged a full beam shot and fired towards the strange woman. Without even touching her, the energy was negated. “What sorcery is this?”

“Energy absorption. Better keep up.” Ms. Marvel struck down with a forceful punch that would have hurt a lot more if Isabella wasn’t in Chozo armor. “Also, I’ve been a Samus main in Melee for over twenty years.” She grabbed Isabella by the chest armor. “I picked up a few tricks along the way.” She performed a variant of Lucina’s back throw to send Isabella into a brick wall. “Photon Punch!” Ms. Marvel delivered a cosmic power punch straight to Isabella’s torso.

“I know the actual Samus. It’ll take more than a glowing punch to stop me.” Isabella kicked the super heroine away from her. Smash rules meant that the major attacks were only counting as damage percentages, but Isabella couldn’t risk being stuck in a grab combo. “Does Super Arrow know that you’re stealing Captain Falcon’s shtick, Mrs. Arrow?” She fired off more missiles and beams to drive Ms. Marvel away. Desperate to change venues, Isabella activated the power armor’s morph ball mode. There had to be an opening somewhere that she could roll into. Success! There was a half-closed shutter for one of the seedy camera stores near the skyscraper.

Back in the Arena

“They are really going at it, aren’t they?” Ashley sounded concerned. “Isabella won’t stop and Emily has too much pride to lose on her home turf.” DM and many of the other LoRI members approached the Hawkmoths’ location in the stands. “At what point do we intervene? This can’t be how committed Emily becomes in exhibition battles normally.”

“We’re thinking the same thing.” DM took a seat. “The longer they fight, then the more attention this event generates across dimensions. That’s fine for your +1’s like Bowser because he was invited. It’s less acceptable knowing that we’re attracting beings that require immediate response.” He wiped reptilian blood from Excalibur. “We’ll force a stage change to keep Emily from truly fighting to the death. If there isn’t a clear winner shortly after, do whatever you need to neutralize Isabella and Emily. A draw will only piss off about three percent of viewers.”

“We have a contingency.” Alvis ran the numbers himself. “In the meantime,we’ll assist in your problem at the gates. Primords, as you call them, are an issue along our fringes, too.”

Sombra disengaged her cloak. “Commencing the stage hack.” She discovered that tricking the stage into rendering too much permanent debris initiated a memory dump. Repeating that procedure caused a crash intense enough that it should trigger travel into the next area. “System collapse in 3… 2… 1…”

STAGE: ??????? – [Blinking 12:00]

“Huh?” Mrs. Marvel couldn’t believe her eyes. Everything around her had dissolved into a snow storm. “Don’t tell me that she got her hands on the Reality Stone.” She braced for a potential incoming attack. Bizarrely, Isabella’s own reveal showed that she had no control over the venue change. The two began to fight again in a snow-covered wasteland. Christmas music playing in the distance gave the fight an even more unsettling tone. Isabella’s power beam shots and Ms. Marvel’s cosmic beam attacks kept canceling each other out. “It figures that the projectile priority is also glitched.”

Isabella finally had her opponent where she wanted her. It was true that Ms. Marvel’s energy absorption rendered many of her energy-based attacks ineffective. What Ms. Marvel didn’t know was that the Varia Suit’s self-destruct protocol diverted all energy into a variant of the Hyper Beam that paralleled a Final Smash. Betting everyone on an energy overload, Isabella rolled the metaphorical dice on the all-or-nothing attack. The beam was so blinding that many of the drones’ cameras fried. Ms. Marvel was blown into Santa’s Workshop. “Every sponge has its limits.” Uggh. That was Isabella’s one-liner? Blame the localizers.

Ms. Marvel’s whole body pulsated from the sheer amount of energy she had absorbed. She fired off an atom bomb’s worth of cosmic energy towards the sky. Nope, that still wasn’t enough. Involuntary transformation had been induced. Who would burn energy fast enough to not be incinerated? Shanoa was her best bet. Ms. Marvel reverted to Emily in order for the transformation to waste as much energy as possible. Long raven hair grew down to below Emily’s waist as the energy proved so much that it melted her dress into almost colorless plastic ooze. Seeing her sword staked in the ground gave her an idea for a pivot. Emily spontaneously teleported to grab the sword from the ground.

“I’m not going to let that nerd disgrace all that I stand for.” Isabella exposed the core crystal. Faster than lightning, she became Mythra and, taking inspiration from Lightning earlier, she transformed the NORTH POLE sign into her matching Aegis Sword. “I saved one of my fastest forms for a small space such as this. It doesn’t matter who or what you throw at me now.” Mythra readied the sword. “This is your last chance at a non-humiliating defeat.”

Emily laughed maniacally. “Isabella…” Emily’s outfit continued distorting into a white and black polymer bodysuit. The words ‘EVE PROTOCOL’ and ‘COLLAPSE’ were apparent on her left leg and writing on her arms. “I knew from the very beginning that this is how our battle would end.” A boob window showed off an increased bust that brought her into parity with Mythra. Wires connected unknown devices that had formed on Emily’s body. “I should congratulate you for pushing me to this point. Practically no one in our field has even played Stellar Blade! Hahahahaha!”

“Shut up!” Mythra tried to slash at Emily’s torso. Emily caught the blade using her hand. “What the Hell?”

“It is rude to interrupt a transformation, Mythra.” Emily triggered bullet time so absolute that even Mythra’s high speed couldn’t negate the effect. Mythra slammed into the North Pole’s Christmas tree. “You don’t know how to parry?” Her expression was cold and unfeeling. “Sucks to be you.” Polymer ribbons from the back of Emily’s outfit gave off the vague impression of kitsune tails. “You don’t know any of my pain… my anger… my agony…” Stellar energy made her weapon’s blade glow a pale blue. “I’m Raven and you’ve truly motivated me.” Bang bang bang. Pulled her Devil Trigger.

“Raven? You sure you aren’t still in that Hot Topic where I beat ya earlier?” Mythra’s attempt to get into Raven’s head was futile. Mythra had seen that facial expression on very few opponents throughout all of her adventuring. The time for talking was over. Blades clashed in a show of sparks and energy. How was Raven able to predict her moves so consistently? “Let me guess. Those electronics on you let you see into the future, right?” Her counter strategy to Shulk should have worked except it didn’t. Mythra found herself knocked down to the ground. “That wasn’t how it was supposed to go.” She couldn’t read Raven’s movements or future actions in the slightest.

“You can thank superior training, little spark.” Raven cooed. “I had a great partner who taught me all the moves that Mythra might use against me.” The cameras in the arena focused on Emily’s friend Dina. Dina transformed into Mythra once the feed had caught her good side. “What part of I’m an Anthropology Professor did you forget?” Pyra and Zey’s other guests were shocked by the revelation. “I did my own research to prepare for the fight.” Raven ground her heel into the fighting Mythra’s back. “Referee, start the count.” She readied her blade to stake Mythra into the ground.

“STOP!” Claire screamed as she ran onto the battlefield. She rapidly shifted into Riela on the off-chance that either combatant might attack her. “What part of ‘don’t kill each other’ did you forget, Raven?” Riela forced a break between the two. Mythra returned to a fighting position. “We need you to wrap this up cleanly.”

“Cleanly? Oh, please.” Raven paced around the referee. “Only one of us is leaving here and it’s going to be me.”

“She needs to be put down, ref.” Mythra began to pace in a similar manner so that her gaze didn’t break from Raven. “Get out of my way!”