[2] Leaving the Abandoned Town

[Friend or Foe]

Kazuya
Ashe
Rose


The group that originally started in the Abandoned Town split up to scout on separate sides of it. The only one taking the scouting seriously was Kazuya Uzamaki, the masculine woman who immediately took charge of the all-female team.

Ashe and Rose were talking the whole time, having taken the chance to get to know one another. As expected, they seemed to hit it off immediately. Kazuya was obviously annoyed by their lack of effort in the mission at hand, who focused more on getting it done then yelling at them.

From the surveillance room in the Friend or Foe Mansion, Kai Demolic grinned. Balrog, the boxer-turned-freelancer was sitting in the chair as it directed the cameras to play upon the television screens at home. "They split up," the black man noted.

"Good," Kai said. "I'm sure it's only temporary. Release the goblins from Treebatch Lair. Make sure those three are run from the town. I don't want them to ruin my saiyan showdown."

Balrog nodded as he began to type on the computer, working to unravel one of many traps that Kai Demolic had set in motion.

[Super Buu]

Again and again, the same pressing issue rose to the top of Rose’s thoughts, and with matching, tireless repetition she batted it back down. She didn’t want to think about the situation she was in. Perhaps that’s why she’d gotten wrapped up in conversation with the other girl. She could have happily spent hours listening to Ashe talk about Earth; about how normal people lived. But no matter how long she put it off, she knew she’d have to face her decision eventually.

One part of her said that she should stick with the others and work as a team to stay alive. There was no way of telling how dangerous these kidnappers were, or what traps they’d set. The worst possible thing they could do was split up and go off alone. And yet …

“I can’t believe they’re really going to just play along with the game,” Rose said, her face tightened into a scowl. “The other group got kidnapped just like us! We shouldn’t be going after them, we should be going after the assholes who run this thing!”

Uzumaki, not even looking at the young girl, growled. “And you think the other team is going to just ignore the 100,000 zeni reward?” He laughed without humour. “People like to think they’re incapable of murder, but put any human being in the right situation, and they’ll become a killer. You’ve just got to press the right buttons.”

“That’s not true!” Rose urged, trying to hide the falter in her tone.

The samurai-like warrior turned to look at the young girl, and his querying gaze was piercing. “So you’ve never killed a person before?”

Rose looked at her feet, painfully aware of the other girl’s presence. That was different, her mind insisted. Bibidi was evil, but these people are being forced to fight. She struggled to come up with an answer, but in the end, she said nothing.

“Hmph.” Uzumaki turned his back to the girl once more. “Well, soon enough the other team is going to be coming after us, and when you’re finally backed into a corner, you’ll see I was right. If you survive, that is,” he added with a snort.

Rose’s heart thumped in her chest. The girl was afraid for lots of different reasons, but most of all, because she wasn’t just feeling afraid. She also felt … excited. Was it because they might end up fighting, or was it because she might end up killing? She wanted to believe that she wouldn’t kill anyone, but how could she trust herself when she’d so easily taken the life of her ‘grandfather’, Bibidi, the one who’d created her father? All it had taken was one order from her mother – and not even her true mother, but an echo – and she’d become a murderer. Just the thought of it made her feel sick.

Just because I’m capable of killing doesn’t mean I have to, thought Rose. And we might still escape without a fight …

But the ominous feeling at the back of her mind said otherwise.

“Um, Rose?”

The hybrid was jolted out of her thoughts by the voice of the other girl. “What is it?” she responded.

“Do you hear something?”

Rose strained her ears, a look of worry on her face. “I don’t hear anything.”

Ashe frowned. “I could’ve sworn – wait! Listen!”

A faint, high-pitched squealing noise rang out for a few seconds, and then stopped. It sounded very far off, but Rose couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from. “I’m pretty sure it’s just the wind,” she said, relaxing. “You’re getting paranoid, that’s all.”

The other girl seemed satisfied. And then, a few seconds later, the noise came again. It was louder this time.

“It doesn’t sound like the wind to me,” said Ashe.

Rose turned her palms up. “Who knows. I doubt it’s anything to worry about.”

Uzumaki, who had walked some way ahead of the pair, turned and shouted back. “What are you two doing? Come on!”

The sound came again. Louder.

“There’s something coming!” Ashe exclaimed. “I think we should get out of here.”

Now Rose realised that the sound was coming from every direction, at different times. And what’s more, she thought she could make out words in the jumble. Almost incoherent, but … that definitely wasn’t the wind.

Uzumaki had obviously come to the same conclusion. “We’ll have to make our stand here!” he barked. “Ready yourselves!”

“Fight?!” Ashe looked disbelieving.

Rose could definitely make out voices now. They seemed to be echoing from every building, every dark alleyway, every swinging door. Screechy and high-pitched, they could have been comical if not for the sinister, nightmarish edge to their voices. What the hell were they?!

“Yes, fight,” growled Uzumaki. “You can try to outrun them in this maze, but they probably know the city better than us. If we stay here, we can hold them off. Don’t fall for their tricks, there aren’t as many of them as they’d like you to think!”

Rose felt like arguing, but they were out of time. Apparently, the universe had gotten tired of waiting for her to choose what she wanted to do, and it had made the decision for her. Destiny by default.

And since I guess I’ll be fighting anyway … thought Rose, eyes darting to the shadows of the buildings. … Why not enjoy it?

[Super Buu]

To Rose’s annoyance, the screams and cackles continued to grow louder and more frantic. Uzumaki was saying something, but attempting to speak over the cacophony was an exercise in futility. All the better, thought the young woman. I’m tired of that creep trying to order us around. She grit her teeth and clamped her hands over her ears. The noise had become deafening, and waiting for those things – whatever they were – to attack was driving her insane. If Rose was going to die, she wanted to go down in a blaze of glory – not sitting in the middle of the road with two strangers, waiting patiently to be killed.

“Enough!” bellowed the girl, standing up. “Attaaaaaack!”

Not looking behind her, she fixed her sights on the swinging door of a nearby building, and sprinted towards it. At this point, she could stand to get a little hurt, as long as somebody shut up that damn noise.

The building’s door slammed against the inside wall as Rose barrelled through it, eyes searching frantically for her enemies. But the noise had stopped. “Where are you?!” she demanded. “Come out!”

A weak groan from behind the girl caused her to spin around – and immediately she saw her foe. And laughed. “Ahahahaha, so that’s what was making the door swing.”

Lying on its stomach between the wall and the door was a diminutive creature not half of Rose’s height. At first, she could see nothing beneath its raggedy brown hood. But when it reared its head, she was met by a pair of wicked yellow eyes, framed on either side by ears that were as long and pointed as its nose. Pushing itself up on wrinkled, dirty hands, it shot a look at Rose that reminded her of small dogs with bad tempers. As though reading the girl’s mind, it bared its yellow teeth and let loose a high-pitched growl.

“You wanna play, huh?” The girl grinned. She still couldn’t gather her energy very quickly, but luckily the manner of her entrance had bought enough time to create a surprise attack. “Come on then doggy …” Her right hand began to glow a rosy red hue. “Catch!”

Just as the young woman threw her hand forward, something dropped onto her head and two grubby hands slid over her eyes. Yelping in surprise, Rose pointed her right hand upwards at the attacker, and from her digits erupted a blast of energy. The creature leapt to safety just in time, and instead of defeating her enemy, Rose got a faceful of plaster from the ceiling. She spat angrily and brushed the dust from her face before turning to the little demon.

“You just screwed up the dramatic unveiling of my second-coolest power! And my one-liner!”

“Heeheeheehee!” replied the creature, hopping up and down as though it was very pleased with itself.

Rose pivoted suddenly, moving for the door. If the others hadn’t followed her yet, it meant they’d been attacked too. She didn’t make it far. Another creature slid out from underneath a table, snatching at her leg and tripping her over. The girl had time to say “God damn, how many--” before the other two goblins leapt at her, pinning her to the floor. One of them bared its pointed teeth in a grin, and from a fold in its rags, withdrew a small, sharp dagger.

Rose saw this, and panicked. At the same time, her wide eyes fell on the ceiling, and saw the hole she’d created from her earlier attack. The logical part of her brain told her that it wouldn’t work, that there wasn’t enough time. But since she didn’t have any ideas, the girl threw her palms up at the ceiling anyway.

The surge of energy was like nothing she’d ever felt before; it seemed to explode from her fingertips. She heard a squeal as the creatures let go of her, and without thinking she rolled to the side, just as the massive slab of debris landed where she’d lain but a second before.

Now Rose jumped to her feet, not wasting a single second. The sight of the blade had finally gotten the seriousness of the situation through her sometimes-dense skull. She could really die here. But I won’t, said a voice in her mind, and it was her voice, but different. This wasn’t the voice of a person who made jokes about steroids, who complained about small portions and who enjoyed a friendly scrap. This was the voice of a person willing to kill.

The girl’s fist rocketed forward, beyond its normal range, and slammed one of the goblins into the wall, causing still more plaster to fall from the ceiling. Another of them leapt at Rose from the side, but she’d known it would do so, and her leg was waiting to kick it out of the air. The final creature dove towards her legs, brandishing its dagger, and the girl spun to meet it. Her foot collided with the goblin’s face, continued through its teeth and left it lying in the splinters of what was once a desk. It didn’t move after that.

“I will kill you,” Rose threatened, but the remaining two creatures were undeterred. They looked at each other, and some understanding seemed to pass between them, for a second later they looked back at their prey with a grin. In unison, their tiny hands were cupped at their sides, and they began to chant.

What a surprise. The girl rolled her eyes, but not before she began to gather her own energy. When the two beams came at her from either side, she had two of her own to defend with. For a few moments, pink energy fought green in stalemate, the columns of ki making no headway against each other. Rose felt like she was in the middle of a car compactor, holding the walls back with nothing but her own strength. If she let up for even one second, she’d be crushed.

But as she dug deep within herself, urging her body for more power, it wasn’t fear that gripped her. What she felt, as the energy surged up through her body and flooded her arms with light … it was euphoria.

Against such strength, the goblins could do nothing. They were driven backwards into the walls, causing the whole building to shake violently. Rose hastily dropped her arms, not wanting to be buried right after her first victory, and then sank to the floor. She’d never channelled so much ki before, and her arms felt like lead.

From the corner of her eye, Rose spotted one of the two goblins trying in vain to move. “Just … stay down,” she panted.

“Ke … ke ke ke …” the goblin replied.

The girl took a step towards her downed enemy, a grumble halfway out of her lips, and then froze. Underneath the creature’s tattered rags, strapped to its chest, was …

“Oh, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” Rose spat as she turned and ran for the doorway.

As she leapt through the open frame, the bomb went off behind her, bringing down the building at last and throwing the young girl across the dusty road. She hit the ground at an angle and rolled a few times before stopping, face down.

Okay, she thought. NOW it’s as bad as that time in South City.

[Ashe]

Stricken down in disbelief, the girl with the jagged pink hair wrapped her arms around herself as her ears took in the cackling symphony of madness. The screams and hideous laughter of the hidden shadows was terrifying, deafening her ears while shattering her soul. Worse beyond that, she was feeling a deep sensation of needles pricking her all over, as if she were becoming overly sensitive to the very air itself. She had no idea what this sensation was, but it heightened the sense of danger to near catastrophic levels within her mind.

The atmosphere was tense, leaving the three women to stand in a triangle, their eyes nervously twitching in every direction in hopes of seeing the first of the many shadows convert to corporeal form. The seconds stretched into minutes as the train of insanity continued to roar around them, until finally the impulsive one of the group cracked. “Enough!” she screamed into the air in frustration. Jabbing her finger forward in dramatic fashion, she gave the order that only she planned to follow. “Attaaaaaack!”

A moment’s burst of adrenaline later, the girl dug her boots deep into the shattered pavement and charged one of the abandoned shops, disappearing violently into its black depths. The shadows surround the building seemed to grow in power before they swallowed the entire building, shrouding it in pure darkness as Ashe could only imagine the malevolence infesting the hunt for Rose.

“Baka!” Uzamaki cursed under her breath before glancing at the shivering girl still at her side. “Don’t get me killed, or I will find you after this event is over and make you regret it!” she threatened.

It didn’t matter.

Ashe broke, throwing her bag around her shoulder and sprinting towards the alley in hopes of alluding her hunters somehow, the futility of an attempt at hiding just not quite drilling its way through her mind’s icy terror yet. The sounds of chaos erupted from behind and around her, a uproarious squeel of glee cutting her to the bone as her mind pondered the fate of the others in her group. She couldn’t help them. Her only course of action was self preservation.

Or perhaps she could draw the creatures away from the group, as a sort of sacrificial lamb. That’s what part of her mind reasoned, anyway.

Hearing the soft footsteps pattering beyond her, she kept her focus on the dumpster that was just before her. “Focus, Ashe, focus!” she chanted to herself. Timing her jump in her mind, she drew closer to her target, preparing her burning legs for the maneuvers she had learned in her early years of gymnastics and basic martial arts training.

Goblins, on the other hand, could care less about training and focusing and given the chaotic nature of their existence, would like to sow the seeds of such chaos at any and all available opportunities.

It was this nature that lead to Ashe’s foot stepping atop a manhole covering in its journey to the dumpster. Or, more to the point, it was this nature that lead one of the fiends to choose that exact moment to throw the covering up in hopes of leaping out and wrecking her plans.

The girl reacted instinctively, taking a half a blink’s spans to widen her eyes and register the shifting of her foundations below her before she adjusted her leap as if diving from a waterbed, arcing through the air with the grace of a seasoned dancer while aiming for the top of the garbage unit.

Chaos being what it is, the malformities that pursued her reacted instinctively as well, the lid to the garbage dump flying upwards as a short vomitous ragman’s head emerged, a sharpened pick of a dagger waving wildly in one of its claws as its widespread teeth gnashed in the air. Ashe landed directly onto the head of the creature before pushing off again, kicking immediately off the wall and twisting into the air, reversing her course of direction to the ladder attached to the wall across from the dumpster, originally out of reach by a few meters.

Her hands caught the ladder and tightly wrapped around it, giving her a moment to glance down at the writhing mass below her. Her eyes widened a moment as she took in the numbers that had flooded the path she had just taken, taking in the forms of the creatures she was fleeing. She wouldn’t fall to this. She was finally coming out of her shock, and the run had done well to allow her mind to cope with the situation that was befalling them. She could only think one thing about the rag covered goblins laughing hysterically at their prey…

They put the “Hell” in “Santa’s Little Helpers”.

[Ashe]

“Move Ashe… NOW!” she screamed wordlessly into her mind, breaking the frost that had taken her muscles. It began with one hand over the other, releasing a bar to pull on another, until she finished her journey by pulling herself over the side of the large concrete roof. She lay there for a moment, taking in her deep breaths, until the very building shook for a moment.

What was that?

The girl rolled back to her knees and looked over the edge, hoping to derive an answer from the creatures below, but what she saw brought forth an entirely different danger. They were so desperate to reach her that the mass of hellspawned hobbits were climbing on top of one another, using their sheer numbers to allow the strong to rise to the top of the weak. There was no thought involved beyond mindless grasping at the frail human girl out of reach, but it was building an effective platform of cruel flesh regardless.

Pushing herself to her feet, her teenage mind worked to come up with either a new escape route or a way to fight back. Her feet raced across the concrete rooftop until they set into the path of a solid metal door leading into the building. She brightened, but only for a moment, as her prayers were crushed by the unmoving locked door. After pulling till her sockets were strained, she fell back to the ground, pushing herself weakly back to her feet.

“RAAHAAHAAHAA!”

“KEK KEK KEK!

“HEEHEEHEEHEE!

The choir of the crazed was finally pulling itself to the top of the building. Ashe spun, fumbling around with the handle again until she finally screamed in frustration, kicking the door. Sadly, the door did not open but she heard another open nearby.

Inside was an assortment of tools, hoses, even an axe. Without another thought, she snatched the axe from its bonds and turned to face the corrupted childrens’ story that was gnashing its collection of bladed canines with large tongues. She had the time to stare at them as one of them finally climbed to the top of the pile, standing victorious with its arms in the air as it shouted its battlecry in defiance of Ashe’s weapon.

That one was launched off of the pile into a freefall to the ground as another, far less patient, goblin rose to the challenge.

It wasted no time in leaping from the almost toppling pile of living nightmares to shriek its own cry while en route to the girl. Two more quickly filled in the steps behind it and she tightened her grip on the axe shaft. She wasn’t going to go down, and if she had to fight these things, then that’s how it would be. They had mistaken her for fragile and helpless, and that is what made them targets.

By now, a large group had reached the top, leaving her to the fate of slicing endlessly through the neverending night born. And yet… She waited. She calmly held the hatchet as if she were in a trance, about to unleash some new and hidden ability, the likes of which had never been experienced in the galaxy.

Out the corner of her eyes, she noticed a camera moving from the creatures to herself, and she glared. This was all some game show, for them to die to whatever cruel conjurations Kai Demolic could think up, just to give him something to get himself off on as he watched over the cutting room feed reels. The moment the camera locked onto her, she knew that it was time. The creatures had gotten close enough that there was no turning back.

For them.

Her middle finger came up defiantly to the camera, and she screamed loudly, “Piss off!”

Then she spun, her axe digging deeply into the wooden structure she had braced herself against. This wooden structure happened to be entirely supported by four legs, one of which now had a sharp axe embedded into it. Pushing her foot against its concrete brace, she wrenched the axe free in time to slam it mercilessly into the second leg.

The creatures were mere steps away when she kicked one of the legs, destroying the foundation of the water tower directly above her. With a groan, it fell forward, a torrential cascade of cleansing rain rushing forward into the hellish onslaught as the bucket crashed into the concrete roofing. She stepped back as it cut through the group with the clarity of a katana, throwing the cackling mob into itself and washing them back over the edge from whence they came.

It seemed as if it had worked.

Her shoes splashed through the remaining water as she rushed towards the edge to look down at the goblins below, her axe still in hand for defense. To her surprise, a few of them were still holding tightly to the edge and ladder from having been thrown over. Even more oddly, they were all shaking and jerking violently as if caught in one large epidemic seizure. They were dying.

It seemed as if it had worked.

“Raahhh… hahhh…” She froze, and turned to look to the side at one of the goblins that had been swept into the corner instead of off the roof. It was not dying. In fact, it was doing the exact opposite. Its flesh was bubbled into disgusting pus-filled pores as its clothing was shredding around its growing form. Its claws were extending angrily from its lengthening fingers as its jaw only grew wider and its teeth grew sharper.

One look over the edge showed that the entire mob was experiencing the same metamorphosis as the one nearby, into what seemed to unfortunately be an even deadlier group of ravenous beings. She looked back up once more as the main demonling stumbled forward, unsure of itself on its completely shifted bone structure and reformed legs. Its arms hung down like wirey blades, with large clawed hands clapping gleefully at the situation. Another few steps forward showed that it was learning to adapt to its new form at an unhealthy rate.

Santa’s Little Helpers had adamantly become Satan’s Little Hellspawn.

Another claw swung over the edge and grabbed her leg, eliciting a scream from her as she brought the axe down and severed the imposing appendage from its master. Shaking it loose, she turned and ran back to the toolshed, completely at a loss for ideas. Distraction? She threw the axe at the one that was growing steadily closer, missing it entirely and leaving her wide open. Her arm reach into the door again and grabbed anything she could to try again, this time hurling a paint bucket at the creature.

It shattered on impact with the large claw of the creature as it tried to catch it, bathing it from its gaping maw down its backside with a white stripe from the pain. It stopped for a moment, growling angrily before its jaw twisted once more into a grin, taking the mark of distinction with pride. As the others finally made their way over the rooftop, it jabbed a finger at her, a General in its own way.

She swallowed, and immediately felt the building lurch again, throwing all of them from their feet in several directions. Ashe was thrown back across the watery concrete to where she had made her first stand as the goblins and hobgoblins were sprawled over each other, the large striped one throwing its claw angrily in her direction. Somehow, her hand clasped onto a clothing line that had been hanging across from one roof to another, and with perfect timing, as another explosion rocketed the structure hard enough that it began to lean to the side before imploding in on itself, caving to its destroyed foundation.

With a clumsiness defying those in red spandex, she was thrown from the building top with the rope in hand, swinging wildly towards the ground away from the collapsing building as the rope snapping, throwing her to the ground in a painful roll that let her gasping for air in the aftermath. Even worse, she could still hear the maddening laughter of both forms of creatures in the darkened debris and rubble, mocking them to the bitter end.

She tried to climb to her feet once more, unable to think of a way to escape.

[Kazuya]

As much as she hated the idea, the game simply went on, whether she wanted it to, or not. It wasn’t her idea that she was forced into this situation, and then to be denied a very reasonable offer to keep one of the bigger Saiyans as protection just pissed her off to no end. Now, here she was, fighting for her life with two teenagers who didn’t know their asses from a hole in the ground. She tried to stay back as much as possible not only to gauge their skill, but to heighten her own chances of survival. Things just weren’t working to her advantage, and she had no choice but to step in and put a stop to this once and for all.

Tearing herself from her safe harbor of shadows, Kazuya slowly unsheathed her katana, the hiss clang as it cleared the top of its cover echoed singularly over the din ahead of her. Eyes darting from one girl to the other, she strategized the best way to enter this debacle, and take down these nefarious creatures that plagued the children, and herself. Nope, can’t forget that she was somehow dragged into this shit, too.

“Enough!” Uzumaki’s authoritarian tone froze the dark, gnomish creatures in place, and it was like watching the sea cease its trembling waves in a thunderstorm. As the concealed woman advanced further towards them, their acrid scent reached her nostrils, she smiled.

Fear. It was an unmistakable scent that all creatures excreted when faced with something they don’t understand. As much as the mind tried to make logical sense of what they were experiencing, sometimes it didn’t quite click, sometimes it didn’t matter how obvious something was, it was still going to scare the bejesus out of you. Kazuya fed off that fear like a hungry kitten at her mother’s teat, letting its taste roll around her tongue like a rare candy. Part of her liked the sensation, but knew also that this was mostly the work of Hadoken.

Her sword balanced in her hand with a practiced ease as she locked eyes one by one with the feral creatures, locking onto each and organizing the order of her attack. “Let this be a lesson, kids.” Suddenly, the street erupted with warfare, fur, blood and limbs raining down around the trio as Kazuya tore through the beasts, decimating a few groups before flicking the residue from her sword and resuming.

She moved with the ease only centuries of practice could provide, the keen edge of her sword slicing through tissue without pause, twisting and twirling on the axis of her wrist as she delved deeper. Eyes closing rapturously, she felt the warm splatter of blood candy-coating her face as even more fell to her blade. Sighing contentedly, she lost herself to the sensation.

Kazuya found her happy place there in the middle of the dark, dreary street, a light wind caressing her face as the blood began to congeal.

“Uzumaki!”

Her eyes snapped open, but not in time to avoid the claw that darted out and struck her across her chest, the long, sharp talons tearing through the thin material of her gi and nicking a few of the wraps beneath. Crying out in pain as the claws bit into her flesh, Kazuya scrambled backwards, but tripped and fell into the flowing black sea of dark bodies slicked in gore.

This was not good, not good at all.

[Super Buu]

Rose groaned, the cumulative batterings of the day really beginning to take their toll. Get up, get up, she urged her body. This is no time to lie down!

Painfully, she got to her feet, the world around her still a cacophony of noise and chaos. The cosplayer was fighting just a few metres away in the road … where was Ashe?

A cough from behind her sounded, causing Rose to jump and spin around. She breathed a sigh of relief to see the other girl on the ground, a little roughed up but obviously alive. “Ashe!” she called, running over.

“Rose!” The longer-haired girl looked up and took the extended hand of her companion, getting to her feet. Suddenly she stiffened and jabbed a finger. “Behind you!”

Rose spun, and was met face-to-face with a group of the creatures. She immediately took a step back. “The hell? The ones I was fighting didn’t have giant claws!” It wasn’t just that. They were bigger, with sharper teeth, and their skin had darkened into a greeny-black which, combined with their manky, boil-covered appearance, left the girl feeling more than a little horrified.

“Oh, that’s … my bad,” murmured Ashe, looking sheepish. “I tried to take them out with the water from that tower. I didn’t know water made them transform!” The pair took a step back as the creatures took a step forward. “What about you, did you make that building collapse?”

“Nah, one of the goblins was a suicide bomber,” stated Rose matter-of-factly.

A hissing, rattling scream rang out. The goblins were apparently tired of listening to the girls’ banter, as they were now brandishing their very long claws. Rose was distractedly wondering whether she had enough energy left to form another attack, when a voice rang out.

“Enough!”

All in the vicinity froze, turning to look at the originator of the sound: Uzumaki. The samurai was walking towards them, katana unsheathed. Rose looked at it, and in irrational panic her first instinct was to run. Then she remembered that the black-haired man was on their team. Somehow, that didn’t comfort her. There was a dark, foreboding feeling emanating from the warrior, as though just below the surface was a bestial animal, waiting to burst forth and kill.

“Let this be a lesson, kids,” said Uzumaki.

Not a second later, Rose’s paranoia was justified as the samurai lunged forward, cutting a swathe through the goblins between them. All the two girls could do was duck as limbs went flying and bodies were diced in a dizzying spectacle of violence. Rose was in awe at his skill and power. This guy was no pretender – he was a warrior of the same calibur as her own parents. He was the real fucking deal.

And all at once, he had stopped, and was standing in the street, eyes closed as though taking in the sweet serenity of it all. Is this guy fucking crazy? Rose wondered. Dumb question. Of course he is.

In his temporary moment of calm, one of the goblins saw fit to sneak up on the warrior. Ashe called out – “Uzumaki!” – just a second too late. The claw raked across the chest of the samurai, pushing him backwards into the waiting sea of goblins, who were eager to get revenge for their fallen comrades and didn’t mind trampling on their corpses to do so. They enveloped the man in a gigantic pile of gnashing teeth and spidery limbs, this apparently being their idea of organised tactics.

Is Uzumaki a common name? Rose had time to wonder, before her senses forced her to forget the question and focus on the fight. Channelling ki up into her aching limbs, the girl threw her arms forward, letting them extend beyond their natural length. Her fists connected with two of the goblins who’d jumped on Uzumaki, throwing them off and freeing the warrior’s sword arm. In a flash, the katana had cut through the air, and just a moment later the man was free. Around him lay the corpses of his aggravators, looks of pained, stupid surprise still plastered on their faces.

Ashe was looking at the other girl with an expression of bewilderment. “You can do that, too?”

“Huh?” Rose looked at her still-elongated arms, and it suddenly clicked. “Oh! Yeah.” Her appendages snapped back to normal length, and she raised a concerned eyebrow. “You don’t think it’s weird, do you?”

“YOU TWO!” interrupted the shout of Uzumaki. “FOR THE LAST TIME, SAVE IT UNTIL YOU’RE HOME!”

“Say it don’t … spray it,” Rose muttered weakly, not wanting to show subservience to the older warrior, but with his bloody massacre of the goblins still fresh in her memory.

Another scream rang out, and the young girl’s eyes traced it to its origin: one of the goblins, standing behind the others, his sharp nails pointing at the humans. It looked as though he’d painted a white stripe across his back, though for what inane purpose Rose did not know. Apparently the other creatures were more impressed than her, as they’d taken it as some sign of leadership and were following the striped one’s orders. A large group of them now encircled the trio, who were as they started, back-to-back in the street.

A grin crossed Rose’s lips. “Duck down, guys, I’ll handle this.”

Uzumaki turned a raised eyebrow in the girl’s direction. “Is this another bright idea that’s going to bring us one step closer to death?”

“Trust me,” hissed the teenager. “This is a secret technique I’ve been working on.” Hurriedly she began to gather the last reservoirs of her ki, and at the same time, she twisted her body anti-clockwise. And kept on twisting. Rose never liked this part – it didn’t hurt her, thanks to her body’s natural flexibility, but looking like a screwed-up rubber band wasn’t exactly the coolest thing. But that’s what the next part was for.

As the goblins raced forward, she roared. “BUUZUMAKI WHIRLPOOL!” And with that, she unleashed the built-up energy in her body, her elongated arms whipping around with deadly speed like a helicopter’s rotors. The creatures were thrown backwards in sync, landing against the walls of adjacent buildings and in trashcans, screeching and grumbling. Rose stood in the middle of the now-clear road, her arms returning to normal length, and smirked. “Yeeeaaaah,” she said.

And then she collapsed.

[Kazuya]

Kazuya watched with baited breath as the foolish teen exploded in a fury of light and whatever else it was that gave her an ethereal aura. Suddenly, the entire slew of surviving creatures went from ravenous, bloodthirsty beasts to carcasses canvassing the asphalt. Her gaze darted from the bodies to the young woman, who collapsed into a pale heap just yards away from the bloody ravages of the creatures.

“Rose!” Ashe cried from across the street, rushing over to the fallen body of her fledgling friend.

Kaz didn’t let it distract her, she knew without guessing that they were dead, but the girl, she was unsure of. She’d never seen such a display before, and was curious how that was achieved. Was it merely a trick of light, or did she have some kind of weapon she didn’t know about? To wield that much power…

Licking her lips with hungry inquisitiveness, Kazuya edged closer to the girl, her body tense as she crouched down on her haunches to check for a pulse. “Still alive,” Kaz announced to the other girl, who cradled the pink haired teenager’s head in her lap. “What the hell was that she did, I wonder?”

Locking eyes for a moment, Kazuya and Ashe said with their glances what words would not say, something not quite understood, but not quite ready to talk about. There was no time to ponder about what had happened, who knew what else had followed these creatures that was just merely laying in wait for them to let down their guard long enough for them to act.

“Take her away from here, there’s a sewer not fifty yards away from here, its lid is ajar, just kick it out of the way and go inside. I’ll be right behind you,” Kaz instructed. There was no room for arguing in her tone, but Ashe nonetheless questioned it.

“They’re all dead, aren’t they? Why are we still running?”

It was a single pulsebeat that affirmed her fears. Kazuya felt it like a pounding of a drum against the ground, very faint, but there. Her eyes widened just a little more, the whites just a little too much. “Just get her out of here, I’ll hold these guys off long enough for you to-“ She didn’t have time to complete that sentence before the most guttural, hellish roar filled the night air. “Go! Now!”

Uzumaki didn’t look back as she unsheathed her sword and dove into the pile of bodies as one by one, they sprung up like mighty phoenix from their deceased brethren, claws and blood and sharp, feral sneers filled with rows of jagged teeth.

Swinging her blade in a wide arc, she sliced the tops of at least five heads clean from their little black necks, the skulls rolling off like bloody olives. It didn’t take long before their numbers replenished themselves enough for her to realize there was too many for her to handle alone. She was injured, and collectively down a man, and the one person still in decent shape was a damn pussy.

Cursing beneath her breath, Kazuya gave a few more swipes before bounding off in the opposite direction, towards the sanctuary of the sewer, where her two team mates hopefully awaited her, safe from the ravages of these creatures.

Holding the blade at a more comfortable angle to her side, Kaz ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Spotting the sewer cap ahead, she noticed it was completely off the manhole, and sighing in a mixture of relief and annoyance, jumped into the hole.

Dropping her sword onto the brick beneath her, she reached up and slid the cover back over the hole just as the slew of creatures rushed overhead. They may have been resilient motherfuckers, but they sure were stupid.

“Score one for the A-team,” she sighed breathlessly before sliding down the wall and onto the ground.

[Ashe]

Ashe was amazed. The other girl had seemed human this entire time, but to use her abilities in this way was unnatural even in a world where people could explode bolts of magical energy from their fingertips. She kneeled down, not wanting to have her head to the ground but also preferring to keep it attached to her neck. Rose was coiled up tightly, like a viper ready to strike, and seemed unable to tighten any further.

“UZUMAKI WHIRLPOOL!”

Somehow, she had managed to flow oxygen through her gelatinous body with absolutely no complications. There wasn’t even a strangled sound to her voice. It was as if she were standing at the top of a mountain and bellowing into the distance, as clear as the rains. Uzumaki?

Her arms spiraled out wildly, flaying the onslaught of goblins as if she were a living cat ‘o nine tails, beating and pummeling the creatures until they were either thrown back in every direction to smash into the walls or knocked senseless on the ground itself. As her unnatural body structure finally tightened back into what Ashe perceived as normality, although she was beginning to question time itself at this moment, and then she fell to the ground, panting heavily before slowing her breathing to nearly nonexistent.

“Rose!” Ashe cried out, throwing herself forward and rolling the other girl over. Uzumaki kneeled down and checked on her as well. Surprisingly.

Finally, after scanning her like a machine storing data, she looked at Ashe. “Still alive,” she confirmed. For now. “What the hell was that she did, I wonder?” she inquired to no one in particular. The other pink haired girl suddenly coughed, bringing both of their attentions to her. “Help me hold her up to release some pressure on her lungs,” Uzumaki instructed her.

Rose seemed to roll her head around limply for a moment as they sat her straight before coughing again and attempting to peer around the two. “Did I… rock their world?” she asked, giving a laugh that changed to another spasm halfway.

The darker haired girl looked up before she received her answer and leaped to her feet, running off from the pair. Ashe’s eyes went wild as she tried to figure out what was going on, until she saw the growing force in the distance of new goblins and nightmares climbing over the bodies of the fallen. Their cackling had begun again in echoes, leaving the girl to shake uncontrollably. “Yeah, Rose…” she whispered, looking back for the raven haired samurai.

At that moment, the warrior appeared back at their side, hoisting Rose brutally over her shoulder and stumbling awkwardly towards another sewer entrance. “Wait a second, you have to be kidding,” Ashe began, looking back at the creatures making their way towards her. “No… No! They were coming out of the sewer earlier as well, I mean- I… For all we know, that could be their hive or nest or home or something!” she sputtered.

Uzumaki ignored her, lowering the other girl slowly down the drainpipe and locking her arm around the ladder. “You can either help her down this ladder or you can let her fall. The choice is yours. I’m not going to wait around in a situation that is obviously not getting any better up here.” Ashe stood over the sewer in hesitation before the battle hardened mistress’s arm thrust out to grab Ashe by the front of her jacket. “Move it!” she growled, nearly throwing the girl down the hole next to Rose.

Immediately the lid covered the hole and the world was bathed in darkness.

They were now lost in Hell. “Ashe?” a pained voice echoed next to her in the darkness. She tried to calm her breathing enough to help the weakened girl slowly descend into the abyss. “Where are we?” she heard.

Ashe felt her feet touch the ground, allowing her to brace herself enough to hold the girl up against her shoulder and help her to her feet. “I need you to try to at least hold up enough of your weight to let me carry you down this tunnel,” she instructed her.

“Are you saying I’m fat?”

Ashe laughed a bit despite the situation. If anything, the other girl had a good sense of humor about it. “You said Uzumaki when you did that attack… Are you… related to that woman up there?” she asked, hoping that if she kept the girl talking so that she would know she was conscious.

“Not really. Not that I know of anyway.”

“Pretty weird coincidence, I guess. What about that other woman named Rose? Her?”

“Just some bitch running around with my name.”

Ashe smiled grimly, stumbling around a corner and gazing down with her newly adjusted eyes before continuing in the direction. “I guess you’re right. I just don’t know what to think now. I mean, just yesterday I was pissed off that a concert had been canceled and ended up drinking with some friends instead.”

“That sounds… fun,” Rose responded weakly. Ashe wasn’t sure why she hesitated, but made no real note of it.

“Ugh… Uzumaki… She should be here soon, I think,” she reassured the girl, looking back the direction they had come. So far, she heard nothing of the hellish laughter from before. And she was sure that it would echo something demonic.

“Yeah, except he’s obviously a guy,” the other girl corrected her.

Ashe’s brow furrowed a bit at her. “Bull. She reeks too much of PMS to be a guy. And do you really think a guy would have such a high pitched voice unless they were some thirteen year old with a cracking voice?”

The other girl just weakly laughed. “I… guess… I don’t think that explains why she’s running around dressed like a dude, even with that cosplay outfit she’s wearing.”

“You’ve obviously never been around a group of butch lesbians at a rock concert then. Least she doesn’t have a mullet,” she muttered.

“A mullet?”

[Friend or Foe]

Nobody is eliminated, but nobody gets a reward. Detailed update in the next round. Congratulations!