During Gynesis's little roleplaying session with the season's main antagonist, Mugen had found himself several floors below the crime scene. Making a mad dash through the halls of the unfamiliar building to head back up to his ally. After his powers went on the fritz and sent him down there in the first place.
There would've been the pitter-patter of his feet slapping the ground as he frantically sprinted through the building if his soles were touching the floor.
While the flames that enveloped his skin were strictly metaphorical, that didn't prevent said flames from scorching the skin off of the poor sap's limbs. On the one hand, every other part of him was fine. On the other, he had to have his soles skim over the carpeted flooring to avoid the sheer pain that would've coursed directly from his toes to his brain.
Thanks to the expert control of his bioelectricity, Mugen was able to emit static in such a way that he would repel his lower limbs from the floor. A move that would crown the blond as the king of the floor is lava. Mostly because to him, the floor was lava. A few seconds of running through a straightaway gets him to the beginning of a stairwell. With a panicked bash, he bursts through the doorway that separates him from the stairs, then starts heading up.
Panting heavily, Mugen found himself gritting his teeth in effort as he dashed up the stairway. The simple action of moving at the speeds and the way he was going at already provided quite the mental tax by itself. Adding the looming threat of Vinaya either beating his ally to a pulp or hunting them both down on top of that only made it worse. His only means of tracking her is spotting her right now. And if he could see her, it would most likely mean game over for him. At the moment, this woman was less of a lion and more of a polar bear.
'I wanna use my powers to just teleport over there, but she can most likely track that... she looks unbalanced enough to have that kind of broken-ass ability somehow not gonna lie.' He mentally noted, trying his best to return to where this whole mess began in the first place, the top floor, as quickly as possible.
'Where mah swords bhai... Right, dey with Gyn!' He mentally checked, facepalming at the realization of his most recent blunder. Then again, even with the aid of his ally, what did those overgrown pieces of cutlery even accomplish? Might as well fist the woman at that point, no? 'U rite, they'd just make me look stupid when she effortlessly blocks them anyway. Or even worse, impales me with my own weapon.'
"Muuuugggenn~!!"
Suddenly, a regrettably familiar voice called out his name, sending a cold sweat down his spine as his train of thought came to a crashing halt, alongside his body. It was Vinaya, who sounded like she was rather close, way too close for comfort. Either on the floor the lad found himself on, or the one below.
The furthest distance he guessed the lioness could be was the floor below him, specifically somewhere in the middle of the halls. Going off of how loud the sound of her calling out to him was and the lack of echoes following her words.
Looks like him not making a noise as he climbed those stairs worked out in his favor. Or she's just playing with him...
Nah...
Hopefully.
"Fuck..." He swore softly, noting that she was already on his ass, which means she managed to at least incapacitate his friend, and at worst kill him- Or maybe he got away and she's calling for both of them?
"Wait if she's down here, I have time to wake the goddesses! Hm... Maybe she can't track me? I won't know until I try something I guess. Momma didn't raise no bitch..." He whispered to himself, trying to keep his voice down as he mused aloud.
With a thought, the man tracked his swords for good measure, ensuring that they weren't in Pride's clutches. Luckily, they were both still sitting on the top floor, away from the main antagonist.
"Bingo." In a flash of blue, he disappears into thin air, leaving nothing behind as he reappears back where Vinaya first appeared a few minutes ago, smiling wrylyat the fact that the room was mostly empty. If not severely damaged by the lioness's dynamic entry and the battle that quickly followed.
There was fallen books and video game cases all over the floor, the windows were shattered, letting in a bitingly cold draft. Okay, draft is too little, that shit was a low-tier storm with those winds, lightning and thunder included. Somehow, these conditions didn't fuck over the room more than it was already.
Aside from the howling winds, the room was rather quiet now, with no one there except the two downed deities who'd sworn to protect Planeptune and their Oracle. Histoire was still too busy trying to catch flies with her mouth to do much aside from that, her body subtly shivering in Fear and cold as she sat on her floating book.
Mugen takes a second to look around the place, spotting the goddesses in their forced sleeping positions and the wide open door left behind. A thought crossed his mind in that instant, "what if Vinaya comes back?"
With that thought came action. He rushed over to the door and changed its status from open to closed, then locked. Would it do much? Debatably, no, since the woman could most likely just bust it down sexual style in one hit. But hey, the mental assurance of that physical barrier was a great morale boost, however much of a placebo it was.
After all, something as simple as a door between you and the cause can be a great way to aid in conquering your fears.
Now that there's at least a physical barrier between himself and instant death, the blonde moved on to his plan. Waking the Goddesses.
In a flash, the man made his way over to Neptune, shaking her where she lay down to try to return the young woman to the waking world.
"Zzzzzzzzz..." After a few gentle shakes, nothing happens besides snoring on Neptune's part
Another few shakes, this time, less gentle.
"Zzzzzzzz..." Still nothing
"Wake up, Purple Heart!" Mugen whisper-shouted. And he lack of results was making his desperation to wake her grow drastically by the second.
He tries again, this time setting the goddess's frame upright and frantically flailing her unconscious form by the shoulders in hopes of at least getting a reaction out of her as well as saying something that should at least get her attention. Which he does.
"There's an open pudding stand with your favorite flavor on a 100% off discount!" He declared. An obvious lie, but one that should work under even the most dire of circumstances. At least Mugen thought so based off of what he's heard of the deity.
"Zzzzzz... Pudding..." It's working! She's opening her eye- "Zzzzzz..."
Okay, never mind, that shit did nothing.
"Damn it!" Mugen swore through grit teeth as he put the young miss in his arms on her bed for comfort. At this point, he'd officially throw in the towel in terms of waking her. That plan was a bust.
A new one was needed, and Mugen had it on deck.
"Fuck it." He sighed shaking his head. The blond then turned to Planeptune's Oracle, the only person in the room who was still awake at the moment, and skimmed over to her.
In less than a second, he was standing- er, floating in front of her, looking the small woman over to gauge her current state.
She was definitely awake at the very least. Shaking in her boots, eyes glazed and frantically looking off into the distance. But awake nonetheless.
Histoire was scared out of her mind where she sat, maybe even literally, considering her whispering incoherent nonsense to herself. The man needed her cognizant right now, which was going to be quite the feat at this rate. With few options available, the swordsman decided to use information he realistically shouldn't have access to in the hope of completing such a tall task before Vinaya's return trip.
"Hey, Histoire, Neptune's being a responsible Goddess!" He shouted at almost the top of his lungs, point blank. A maneuver one might consider stupid since he has a legit demon of a woman looking for him at the moment. One eh knew not the capabilities of.
Would that move come back to bite him in the ass? Who knows?
"She what?!" The news hit the Oracle like a truck, snapping her out of her trance the second the words registered. With an almost panic, the woman seated on a book looked all around for evidence of such actions taking place, unfortunately finding no such thing.
Instead, she got Neptune knocked out on her bed with a hole in her room. Hold on, was there always a 7-foot tall hole there? Unlikely, if you asked either blond.
It takes a second, but Histoire takes in the fact that she isn't going catatonic anymore. Just to make sure, she took a deep breath before turning to Mugen with a mixture of many emotions swirling within her.
"Oh, thanks." She stated dryly, with anger, fear, resignation, and panic all culminated in the Oracle's mind at once. With her only showing the second and third of the four on her face. "Ugh, my head..."
"No problem," Mugen smiled back, trying his best to maintain the brave front he'd been preserving since the fight he'd survived began a few minutes ago. "I'm so glad that worked; I was running out of ideas."
"Well, luckily, that one worked. I'll ignore how you managed to obtain the necessary info to pull off such a stunt for now. After all we have more pressing matters to attend to at the moment," Histoire sighed sadly, sounding more like she was talking to herself than anything else as she began floating her way over to the still-sleeping Neptune.
"Vinaya... I've heard that name before, but why can't I remember from when or where?" The living encyclopedia mused on her way over, her mind still reeling.
"Maybe it's been too long since you have?" Mugen suggested, following the bookwoman. He observed her closely as she went over to a mini fridge and pulled out a cup of pudding.
"That could be it..." Histoire hummed casually, putting the cup under Neptune's nose before opening it as she too attempted a brave front. And failing horribly since her hand was shaking like a leaf in the wind.
The second that cup was unsealed, the goddess of planeptune had awakened. Her eyes snapped open with an unmatchable fervor as she wasted no time grabbing said cup from her oracle's hands and turned around to start eating. As if expecting such events, Histoire simply allowed the pudding to be removed from her grasp with a neutral expression. Mugen observed with a piqued interest, tilting his head at the rather peculiar exchange between the two.
Another second passed before the deity realized the events that had just taken place. With a nervous chuckle and slight blush, Neptune looks over her shoulder at the two, clearly embarrassed at what she'd done. Almost as if something had been controlling her for that first second.
"Heh... Hey, guys." She tried playing it off, earning a raised eyebrow and folded arms from Histoire. And a wave from Mugen.
"Welcome back to the waking world, Neptune," The Oracle stated as neutrally as she sat, staring her goddess dead in the eye as said goddess averted her gaze.
"What happened that got you two- Oh... dang..." The recently woken woman was in the middle of asking what had happened before the answer flashed into her memories.
Sparking her mood's damn-near instant sulling and shoulders drooping as she swung her body to face the two again.
To be taken out in an instant like that was quite the blow to the Goddess's pride. And that's stacked with the fact that she got put down right after declaring that she'd win the encounter, too.
"Where's Gearsy?" Neptune asked, looking at the two other waking beings for her currently missing sister. "And Gynesis?"
"Yeah, not gonna lie, you and Nepgear got folded, leaving Gyn and me to pick up the slack while you both got your beauty sleep in." Mugen piped up, his earlier amusement gone and replaced with a pang of vitriol from recapping the last few chapters' events. Not for Planeptune's protector, but for Gamindustri's attacker.
"They fought a VPU head-on," Histoire interjected, sounding simultaneously a little proud and a bit scared as her words came out, "Specifically, the Lioness Sin of Pride, Vinaya. A primarodeal VPU of vast power."
It seems Histoire's getting her memories back, much to Mugen's delight. Bit by bit. It's as they say: slow motion is better than no motion. Even then, the Leanboxian had to interject and continue his little recap.
"Unfortunately- and obviously, Vinaya was just too much slack for us to handle. A fact we knew before even throwing our first attacks at her. " The male shook his head, looking back on his most recent actions as nothing more than his folly and ego stepping in. The realization is starting to sink in. That what he'd done was simply biting off more than he could chew.
Many thoughts began to run through the lightning user's mind, most of which concerned what most likely had happened while his ally was left alone with that monster. He wasn't there to witness the sealing process after all.
What she could've done to him thanks to his lack of power and her abundance of raw stats. All of which he seemed to have been doing unconsciously, guessing by the cold sweat forming on the man's face as he spoke.
Sensing the growing unease within the fighter's heart, Neptune reached a hand out to pat the blond's shoulder, snapping him out of his musings as she spoke.
"Well, even then you fought well!" The deity praised, "I might not have been awake to see it, but considering you're still stand- er... floating here, that's gotta mean something, right?" While it was a tad late, the ruler of Planeptune did notice the fellow fighter's lack of footing before her. Something she found rather amusing but remained quiet about for the time being.
Mugen floated there with Neptune's hand on his shoulder, the cold sweat slowly dissipating as he thought about what she'd said. Her little pep talk didn't exactly cheer the guy up, but it did help him clear his mind.
"Yeah, you're right," Mugen nodded, trying to refocus on the situation at hand.
"MUGEN!" Right then and there, a certain lioness's voice boomed out from right outside of the room, followed up with ecstatic giggling. "I have a surprise~!"
Instantly, everyone there froze. No one dared make so much as a peep or move a muscle in that room for a good second. It wasn't the mid-2000s and yet those four were trying to do the mannequin challenge after hearing that lioness's voice.
Something Vinaya was not buying as she called out to the poor blond again, this time knocking on the door. Hard. As for the human in the room, he was unsure of what to do. Fighting clearly didn't work, and looking back at Neptune's earlier slumping, flight's option was grayed out as well. A state shared by the blonds of the group.
"MUU~GEEN~!" The VPU yelled out, banging one of the doors so much the poor thing was turning concave with every hit it took as her voice grew more and more distorted by the word. And yet somehow that ordinary wooden door didn't break either, a miracle if you asked the residents of that room. "I have a pre~sent~ for~ you~!"
"Dang it," Purple Heart cursed, looking around the room for her trusty sword, a usual part of the room that ended up missing in it's most crucially needed of moments it seems. "She must've taken it while everyone was distracted, damn, I should've transformed earlier, if I try that now she just might burst down the door quicker to stop me..."
Planeptune's goddess had found herself in much the same boat as Mugen. Running now wouldn't make any sense, and fighting her in this state was simply out of the question seeing as the male Duo would've faired better by her guess.
While Planeptune's patron goddess found herself looking over her list of available options, or at least trying to find said list, Mugen found himself being drawn to the door. His legs, as if thinking separately from the rest of his body, sauntered the young man forward, silently closing the distance between him and the door.
"Mugen!" Histoire shouted at the male, words that fell on deaf ears if his lack of reaction was anything to go by.
And to make matters worse, Mugen's eyes were glazed over, as if mesmerized or hypnotized. A hand of his idly reached for the doorknob and unlocked it, partially undoing the one barrier between the VPU and himself. At the same time, the knocking and calling ceased. Possibly the only piece of good news right now.
All while Neptune had found herself too in her own head to do anything and her sister still nowhere to be seen as of late. In fact, Neptune couldn't hear anything going on outside of her head at that moment, nor see anything in front of her. With heavy breaths and a panicked stare, her eyes frantically scanned all around the room as if looking for something, and finding nothing. It was almost like the goddess was in a completely different world at that moment. Leaving the floating book woman to be the only one able to do anything mentally.
Too bad she wasn't able to do anything physically to stop Mugen from opening the door.
*SLAM!*
With a loud banging noise, the door was almost ripped off the hinges as it embedded into the concrete wall with a slam. One of the first two sounds to hit the room. With the second sound being the instruments of the jersey remix of a certain popular song by the name of 'Oui'.
The first thing to meet the poor human's eyes was Vinaya, as expected. What wasn't expected was her looking over her shoulder at the man while squatting with her legs spread.
"There's no 'oui' without 'you and I'~" Vinaya sang a piece of the lyrics as she held the "thicc Ommniman" pose, somehow sliding her way forward while holding that pose at the man.
Mugen, getting shocked out of his trance by the sight of the lioness, immediately jumped back to the other side of the room, trying to gain as much distance from the living virus as possible. Regrettably, there wasn't really that much space to begin with, resulting in the lad hitting the wall next to Histoire.
"Ahh~, ahh~, ahh~,
Yeah~, ahh~, ahh~, Yeah~
Ahh~, ahh~, Yeah, ahh~" Vinaya continued singing, her words accompanied with sound effects like a gun being cocked and occasionally fired, a whip cracking, and punches being thrown subtlely in the background.
And woefully, that didn't save him from her as she continued to slide and sing, choosing to swap between popular dances on her way over as she smugly grinned the entire way over. Cycling between hitting the sexyback, getting sturdy, the fortnite orange justice, and even taking her shirt off to do that one dance from that specific Ed Edd n Eddy episode. All while slowly but surely closing in on the sole human there.
Mugen, while no longer terrified, found himself staring in awe. Not at the VPU's impressive chest and posterior, dance moves, nor lack of garments specifically. But the display in its entirety. It was like watching a train wreck you happened to be a part of. He desperately wanted to rip his eyes away and leave, but at the same time, there was a paralyzing amount of confusion setting in. "What was this woman gonna do next?!" was written all over Mugen's face as he continued glaring at the spectacle playing out before him.
"If we~
Tried that, we could be~
Somewhere in the climate~
Is warm, long as you around me~" The VPU furthered the song and dance, much to Mugen's discomfort. By now, she was more than halfway across the room, gaining distance by the second. Making it only a matter of time before she was within arm's reach.
'D muda (mother) cunt I seein here bhai?!' He shouted internally, his creole dialect taking center stage as the internal panic and confusion set in. 'Dis gyal mad bhai! Whadi ASS?!' He screamed internally instead of running away. Then again, if he did run, where would he be able to go without this "mad gyal" finding him with as much effort as it would take someone to breathe?
Nowhere, that's the answer. Realistically, there was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. A fact Mugen knew all too well. 'Wait! Purple Heart!' Mugen thought up, hoping that maybe the patron goddess could-
Neptune was trembling in place. Not just standing there like Mugen was, but visisibly shaking like a leaf. This was not the titular main character, this was a Vietnam veteran who just heard a door slam behind her. Hell, the CPU wasn't even facing her antithesis at the moment, if anything, she was looking everywhere but Vinaya herself.
Well, that plan was a bust. From the looks of things, Purple Heart wasn't helping shit right now. She looked like she needed help herself, mentally that is. And her oracle was in no better shape all things considered. If anything, Histoire looked like she just saw a ghost. 'Come nah! Think! How we go get outa dis one?!' The swordsman tried planning as he listened to an angelic voice tickle his ear drums.
"See, my baby know~
Where my baby go, I go~
It's no better feeling, you know~
When I'm next to him for sure~" Vinaya kept going, uninterrupted thanks to no-one currently in the room being able to interrupt her. And now, she was within melee rage, Mugen had officially ran out of time to plan now. Whatever this woman had planned, it was surely about to be set in motion as she stopped singing and the song's instruments sudden;;y stopped playing. 'Welp, guess I dead yes.' Mugen resigned himself to accepting death's cold embrace as he closed his eyes in wait for whatever came next.
Raising her leg, the redhead stopped singing as she went in for a devastating axe kick. Or at least that's what the blond thought she was going for before the kick both missed and stopped short. Instead of caving the man's head in, the woman's leg landed right above his shoulder, slamming the wall with considerable force.
Mugen opened his eyes to the sound, eyes widening at the realization that he just got hit with a kabedon- or wall pin by this evil entity's heel, trapping the already immobilized man further against the wall. 'Ayo what the FUCK?!' Mugen screamed internally, his body unsure of what the hell to do next. Making him choose the 'freeze up' option yet again as he stared into the redhead's calm blood red eyes.
"Being that cute and going against me is a crime ya know? Punishable by death~!" The lioness half threatened half teased, staring at the lancer with a... suspiciously soft gaze. Making what she wanted of the male very obvious by now. "And I'll be your judge, jury, and executioner~"
A fact that didn't stop the blond from looking at the camera with a "is the antagonist flirting with me right now?" kind of stare. Even though the very obvious answer is yes.
It's a big fucking yes you dense fu- Ahem!
"And I've got the perfect tool for your execution right here~"
Mugen sent his attention back at Vinaya, who was now holding the very crystal that she used to trap his best friend threateningly, giving him a second to react to the thing as her smug demeanor refused to change in the slightest. A second he wasted just standing there looking at the damned thing instead of so much as asking what the fuck she was holding or what it did. Hell, so much as gulping would've sufficed. But no, this guy ended up choosing to do fuck all as his reaction. Mentally blanking out at seeing the rock and giving his opponent ample time to stab the damned thing directly into his chest.
*STAB!*
The pain of the impalement was.., nonexistent actually. There was no pain, just a poke to ther chest. Most likely because immediately after the London-ing via crack rock the victim ended up passing out in the culprit's arms, slumping into her embrace defenselessly.
"And then there was one," Pride giggled to herself, gently setting Mugen to lay on the floor as she spoke aloud, counting down every one of her opposition currently active.
Neptune was out of it, Planeptune's oracle was in much the same boat, Gynesis was in a meth rock, and his best friend was now knocked the fuck out. That left Nepgear, Neptune's little sister, unaccounted for. Seeing as she was currently nowhere to be seen.
"Clever girl, Gearsy~ Calling in for backup while pretending to still be knocked out, I've gotta commend you for that!" Vinaya declared to the room, stepping slowly over a specific corner of the room.
"Too bad for you, you're a fight scene and two fly swats too late~" Vinaya added as she spun around on her heel, changing directions to the doorway from which she entered.
Neptune, who was sneaking glances in the corner of her eye silently narrowed her gasze upon hearing her little sister's nickname be called, but remained standing where she was, gritting her teeth as she watched the lioness leave.
"We'll meet again, main character, like we always do~!" The VPU added, switching her attention to Neptune yet again as she strutted out of the room, disappearing as her body crossed the gateway between the hallway and the living room of Planeptune's patron goddess, leaving the exorcist's sword behind as it landed on the floor with a loud clang.
*CLANG!*