Since you guys loved this, I will continue it, little by little.
Enjoy.
Previously on Skullgirls: Avante-Garde...
Banished and sealed away, I, Omni of the goddess, was loathed by my two sisters and my mother after I said I wish for the world to be changed for the good of mankind. When they sealed me into the Hourglass Coin, they also dwarfed my powers so that I may never be able to escape. Now, they gave me conditions to be able to walk the world once more: If someone of pure heart was to discover my Coin, they will be able to free me and I shall forever serve them and guide them into a quest to find the Skull Heart.
–+–
"Mr. Tennyson!"
Ben hears his name and awakes from his sleep as his seat is at the very back, causing all his classmates to look at him as their teacher, Mrs. Victoria, called for him.
"Can you please stop sleeping in class? Or would you like me to kick you out?" The stern teacher scolded the boy.
"Sorry, ma'am... I... couldn't quite sleep last night after–" Ben tried to respond as he rubs his eyes and forces himself to wake up.
But Mrs. Victoria interrupts him with a sigh and says, "Yes, we know of Carol's disappearance."
–+–
"Come on! We have to find Carol!" Filia says to her second best friend as she continues to pull him away.
"Slow down, Filia! You don't even know where to start!" Ben warned his friend.
"But we have to hurry! What happened to Carol... It has to be my fault, right?!" Filia responded in panic as they kept running.
–+–
As Filia could only stare at her half empty milkshake cup, whose contents seem to be getting colder as the ice began melting more, Ben saw she's in distress so he stops sipping on his strawberry and chocolate smoothie, puts down his cup and talks to his sophomore kohai and says while holding her right hand reassuringly, "Come on, Filia. I promise. If you get tired today or tomorrow or ever in finding Carol, I'll continue on your stead."
Filia looks at Ben holding her hand as a small blush forms on her cheeks before she shakes her head, her blush subsiding, and responds, "I appreciate your concern, Ben but..." As she pauses, she pulss away her hand, before continuing. "I can't just stop. I lost my memories and all I saw first was you, and you told me all you know... but it doesn't explain why Samson is now a part of me and Carol disappeared."
–+–
Ben had arrived in Carol's home.
Ben just sighs and shakes his head to get rid of all his crazy thoughts and just goes to knock on the door... until a scalpel with a note attached to it is suddenly thrown near his foot, sinking it's blade into the tiles he's standing on.
Ben crouches and takes the note from scalpel.
Once he read it, his eyes immediately widened in shock before narrowing in tranquil fury as he tosses it away and leaves the house, running off to the location he has set in his mind, with Omni disappearing and returning to him.
As the note Ben threw away gently floats and fall on the ground, the words on it say, "I know where your friend is. Meet me in Innsmouth."
Ring!
Ring!
"Hello?"
"Hello, this is Ben's stepmother. Is he there right now?"
"Oh I'm afraid not, ma'am. He called us earlier and said he'll come here to check if there's news about Carol, but sadly, he never came. Someone knocked on our door earlier but there was no one at the door when we opened. Me and my husband thought it was him."
"...I see."
"If he ever comes, we promise to call you, Mrs. Tennyson."
"Oh, I'm not actually a Tennyson. But thank you. I will pray your daughter also comes home."
"Thank you..."
Click.
Ben walks down the sidewalks of New Meridian, with some of it's population being humans while most are Dagonians, a subspecies of ferals that are hybrids of humans and various aquatic animals. Upon walking around more and asking around where he can find Little Innsmouth, he finally found the district.
Little Innsmouth is a small but bustling residential and business district by the coast, accented by bold, clashing colors and chimney pots resembling coral. The buildings are connected by an extensive network of wooden decks, walkways and stairs, with strings of jellyfish lanterns hanging overhead. A tram runs between the areas above and below sea level throughout the day, when the tide is low.
Most of this district's population is pure Dagonians, with very few humans seen around.
"Such a beautiful city, isn't it, Ben?" Omni tells her host, as she is, once again, reduced herself into a head while invisible except to Ben. "All the sea theme decorations and these beautiful and handsome Dagonians... Life is such a wonderful thing."
Ben, however, rolls his eyes at how poetic his Stand is being as he walks with hands in his pocket. "Don't be so melodramatic, Omni. Innsmouth is just an ghetto style eastern neighborhood. There's some petty thugs in alleys, some drug dealers near trash cans and corrupt human cops who just so happen to be also racist towards Dagonians. It's far from the worst place in the world, but it's still bad." Ben explains Innsmouth, passing by two squid Dagonian boys who were playing tag.
"Eat your own words, Ben. You're the one being melodramatic. The reason I'm free from my seal in the first place is because you're pure of heart. The coin cannot make a mistake." Omni points out. "The way you describe this poor city... You want to help them, don't you?"
Ben remains silent after such a question from the goddess. Continuing his strut without even acknowledging Omni's words, he simply sighs and changes the subject. "We're here to find the person who knows where Carol is. We can't get off track." He says to his Stand.
Omni nods her head but follows it up with a brilliant point, saying, "But do we even know where our informant is? All he said was that he knew where Carol is and we can find him here, yet did not specify where in Innsmouth he'd be."
"I know one place he could be." Ben replies.
Dak'kull Dubu.
A small little restaurant in the middle of town built atop the sea water while it has a few apartments as second and third floors.
When Ben enters, and by extension, Omni, he/they are greeted by an oriental style room with tables and chairs, a counter and a kitchen. There are two Dagonian waitresses, one of which is a minnow Dagonian, and the main chef, who he himself is a catfish Dagonian. The customers are a mixture of Dagonians and a few humans, all ordering oriental food like noodles, dumplings, etc.
Ben looks around to see that it's a slow day for this place, as barely anyone of the customers seem to be disturbed and enjoying themselves. As he takes a seat near the door, he notices on the table just parallel to his is a person in a brown cloak, drinking a bottle of vodka but his bowl of spicy noodles is untouched and still steaming. This person also seems to have very feminine hands and has a scar on his mouth, as those are the only parts of the cloaked person's body that are exposed.
The delinquent raises a brow at the mysterious person but before he could process his skepticism, one of the waitresses approach him. She's a muscular, well toned, clown fish Dagonian waitress, holding a tray with a glass of water. She places the glass on Ben's table before tucking the tray between her side and her left arm as she takes out a pad of paper and a pen. "What would you like to order, sir?" The waitress asks her customer.
Ben snaps out of his stupor and scan the room. After seeing what everyone is eating, he copies one of their meals and just asks for the waitress, "Some noodles with dumplings. With some extra chili."
The waitress nods and writes down Ben's order before asking, "Anything else, sir?"
"That'll be all." Ben confirms, prompting the waitress to nod and heads to the counter where the chef and owner of the restaurant are. As Ben waits for his meal, he takes out his wallet and checks if he has money. Fortunately, he does, but enough only for his meal and a bus ride back to his hometown. "50/50, I guess." He tells himself.
"It's not too bad. If we get to see Carol again, that'll be worth it." Omni points out, staying positive so her host doesn't become a downer.
"I know. It's just... it's been a month... Most of the cops back home have given up. Filia's tired, and so is Carol's parents." Ben also pointed out facts instead of being optimistic.
A short silence filled both Stand and host as Ben watches the ice within his glass of water topple over each other.
"...What about you? Are you tired?" Omni asks an armor piercing question.
Ben doesn't answer immediately. Instead, he watches the ice in his glass still. As two of the three ice cubes break...
...one is still intact and floats on top of the broken ones.
Ben smiles, as if fate is giving him some sort of symbol. A sign... Or maybe he's just overthinking this. He was never a big believer of fate. "I'll die before I let my friends be lost forever." He finally replied to the goddess.
Their little happy moment was interrupted when they both hear nearby laughing.
"Hey now, you're quite the dish." A fat man in a red polo shirt says to the other waitress; the minnow Dagonian one. "I'd like to eat you up!"
His friend, a man with a white polo shirt with and a very stylish mustache, joins the conversation and tells the minnow waitress, "How about you swim over and fetch me and my pal some free drinks and us three hit the town?"
"I-I'm sorry... I need to work." The waitress could only reply, but then the fat man wraps his arm around her waist, preventing her from going away.
"Don't rush there, fish lips. You're pretty cute." He flirts with the waitress, whose eyes are shuffling around in nervousness and fear of these goons.
Ben sighs as he watches this terrible conversation and obvious attempt to nab a defenseless girl. This sight is already reminding him about his days when...
...When he first met...
... Filia and Carol.
Months ago...
Ben walks down the same boring halls of this same boring school. Carrying his bag over his shoulder, he passes by multiple students, who all look at him either terrified of his reputation for being the scariest and toughest delinquent in the whole campus, or disgusted at him for being a waste of space and a stubborn boy who doesn't take his studies seriously. Either way, they all try to stay away from him as much as possible, even if they let him have most of the hallway to walk across for himself.
Ben honestly doesn't care what they think about him. Just as much as he doesn't care for school either, proving these "nerds" and "model students" right. To him, what's the point of school if the world can't get it's crap together over this war against each other and the Skullgirl? It honestly surprises him the world isn't destroyed yet.
So he just let's his problems be his problems and could care less about these people judging him.
After crossing the hallway, Ben finds his locker and opens it, placing his bag inside before he opens it to take out his drawing pad and a pencil. One of his favorite hobbies is to draw, mostly about superheroes. Quite contradictory to the kind of person he shows to everyone in his school, but he always loved to draw since he was a child, when he was still being raised by her adoptive sister, Rojo.
Even when his father and his new stepmother found him and took him in, he still loves drawing. It's the thing he wants to do last before the end of this crazy world...
"Hey! Let me go!"
Ben's little edgy thoughts were snapped away from him when he heard arguing nearby. He peeks behind from his locker's door to see two girl students being bullied by three male students who seem to be older than them.
One is Filia, who still had normal, long flowing black hair before she met Samson. And the other is a girl with short black hair with brownish ends and red eyes. She's wearing the same uniform as Filia as does the rest of the girls on this campus.
This... was Carol.
"Hey, now. Come on. You got my drink spilled all over my uniform!" One of the bullies said to Filia, who, judging by how much more intimidating he is compared to his posse, must be the leader of the trio. While he is definitely exaggerating, he does have a soda stain on his uniform about the size of a small saucer, not his entire attire.
"She said she was sorry! And besides, she didn't even mean to!" Carol tried to defend Filia as she goes in front of her friend with arms outstretched to defend her.
Ben, still watching the exchange, shakes his head in disbelief before going back to look at his locker to find his eraser. Still, he can't help but listen to what's happening anyway.
"You think that'll excuse her? She spilled my drink, which I bought with my money, and got my uniformed stained. Laundry ain't cheap, ya know." The bully leader replied to Carol. "Of course, you gotta pay, one way or another."
Carol still stays brave as she continues to protect her friend, but then the leader's two other friends approach them before the leader himself pushes both girls against their lockers.
He smirks as his posse chuckles, before saying, "'Course, like I said, you're paying in anyway I choose. You either hand me your cash now, or... we take you girls out at the back of the gym for... something fun."
The way the bully leader says his last words actually caught Ben's attention as he stopped looking through his bag to look back at the bullies and the girls.
Carol grits her teeth in anger while Filia gulps and holds her bag close her chest. "Just pay him, Filia, so he and his other pig friends can leave us alone." Carol tells her friend, who nods and opens her bag before finding her wallet.
Unfortunately, once she opened it, she is greeted with a small amount of cash. "Uh oh." Filia utters.
"Huh?" Carol asks her friend as she turns back to her.
"I only have enough for fare back home and to buy something for mom's birthday!" came Filia's response.
"Oh, shoot! I think I only have enough for lunch today..." Carol also adds. Their words were caught by the ears of the bullies, who all start laughing at them.
The bully leader then replies, "Well, well, well. Looks like it's our lucky day. Don't worry, girls. We'll be gentle."
Filia whimpers in fear as the boys approach them closer, with Carol getting between them all to try desperately to defend her friend. "Get away from us!" Carol bravely yelled and actually found the strength to push all three of them, making them skid back a few inches away from them.
"Oh, you're still trying to act tough, huh?!" The leader actually yells and raises his fist, ready to hit Carol...
...But before he could even move his fist towards her, someone held back his arm and prompts all three bullies to look at who was responsible.
However, all they were met was a fist that knocks one bully's face into his leader before both bully's end up flying into the third bully and they get all knocked back down on the ground.
When they get off of each other to see who punched them as a red mark on their cheeks glows from the sucker punch, they see Ben, who is in the process of putting his fist in his pocket after the attack he did to the disgusting bullies.
"You a-holes... You're noisy!" Ben yells. The trio of mooks immediately reel back in fear as they stand up and back away slowly once they recognized who they're dealing with.
"W-We're sorry, man!" The once intimidating leader of the trio who is now cowering in fear replies to Ben.
"Then get the hell out of my face before I shove your cup of stupid sode right up your nose!" Ben angrily yells at them before clocking his fist and threatening to punch them again.
The trio of bullies then scream, terrified, as they all run away and stumble in panic along the way. Once they turn to the corner and disappear, Ben only utters, "Tch." He then proceeds to go back to his locker as Filia and Carol look at him in awe and thanks.
Looking at each other and nodding, the two girls approach Ben as he takes his drawing pad and pencil again before Carol says, "Hey. Ben, right? Thanks for saving us there."
Ben looks turns his head to his side before looking through the corner of his eyes to look at the girls before replying to Carol, "Whatever."
Even when he looks back at his bag, Filia continues the conversation with, "Would you like to come to lunch with us? We always see you're lonely in the cafeteria and we also want to repay you."
Ben stops just as he had found his erased. As if whatever force that controls their universe wanted him to go with them, the very sketch on the front page of his pad is, coincidentally, a superhero together with his friends.
Something he's never had before.
"... I'm paying for my own meal." Ben suddenly replied and insisted immediately before taking his pad, pencil and eraser with him.
"No problem!" Carol replied as Filia giggles.
As they head to the cafeteria, Carol noticed one of Ben's drawings, which looks like a female superhero with claws and a cheesy yellow and blue outfit. "Who's that?" She asks their new friend.
"Hmm?" Ben replied before looking at what Carol was looking at and noticed it's the superheroine he drew just yesterday. "Oh. I call her Painwheel."
Present day...
"Hey!"
The two goons and the Dagonian waitress look at Ben, who has approached their table as he politely pushes the waitress gently before stepping in front of her to defend her.
"The lady says she's working." Ben says to the pigs as he crosses his arms and looks at them quite angrily. "Why don't you leave her alone?!"
"Get lost, kid! No one likes a hero!" The mustached man yells back at the delinquent.
The fat man snickers and actually stands up from his seat before shoving Ben back. "Ya heard Riccardo. Git!" The fat man commanded Ben as he tries to be intimidating by raising his chin up on Ben.
Riccardo, the man in white and a mustache, smirks, joining his pal by standing up and holding something on his waist.
However, Ben being Ben, he was not intimidated by the slightest as he stands his ground and gestures to the waitress to back away from this trouble. The minnow Dagonian nods as she slowly backs away while Ben confronts the two schmucks.
"Ready when you are, Ben." Omni, still invisible, whispers to her host, who stops crossing his arms and clenches both fists.
"It's people like you that give this part of New Meridian a bad name. Now get out so we don't make any trouble. Us three don't exactly own the place and if we make a mess, we're all in trouble." Ben partially mocked and fully warned the two.
The two merely laugh and don't feel threatened by a teenage boy trying to be a hero. With this in their minds, Riccardo says to his partner, "Ey, Lawrence. Looks like this kid can't get a clue!"
Lawrence, the fat man in red, replies, "Clearly he doesn't know who he's messing with!"
Without warning, Riccardo and Lawrence suddenly pull out machetes from their holsters in their belts and attempt to cut down Ben.
...
...But they did nothing. The blades are definitely in contact with Ben's neck, yet it looks like they stopped to a halt on his skin like it was an iron wall.
"What the hell?!" Lawrence spoke his thoughts out loud as his partner has the same, wide eyed shocked look on his face.
Their unspoken questions are answered when Omni finally reveals herself, appearing behind Ben and reveals that she had caught the blades before they even cut Ben while she was invisible.
Everyone, even the minnow waitress Ben saved, were shocked to see her appear out of nowhere.
"So... You wanna leave, or do I have to tell my friend here to kick you to the Moon?" Ben gave the two an ultimatum as Omni cracks her knuckles for emphasis.
Not knowing what they're dealing with, the two try to leave only to be met with something round getting hurled at Lawrence's face and knocking him out and a different fist punching Lawrence out cold.
As the two fall down on the ground, unconscious, the roune object that hit the fat man's face returns to it's...owner...
The object... was actually a severed head of a feline Feral... and is now being held by the body, which is, unsurprisingly, headless.
With dark skin, a sleeveless top that barely covers the bottom portion of her breasts, a black tail along with bleach blonde hair and cat ears, as well as multiple pouches around her belt, this Feral can somehow live with her head detached...
...and the head itself is still active as it smiles at Ben while her body puts it back in place.
"Are these guys bothering you, Minette?" The Feral lady asks the waitress, whose name is apparently Minette.
"Oh, those two were, but he saved me from them, Nadia." Minette replied to Nadia, the cat girl, as she points at Ben in front of her.
"Technically, we did." Omni points out, still visible after revealing herself.
"Well, well, well. Aren't you two a couple of surprisingly unique guests." Nadia comments on both host and Stand.
Ben snickers at her words before pointing out, "Says the cat girl who can somehow detach her head without dying."
"I've been here long before you did, pretty boy. But thanks for sticking up for my friend like that. Appreciate your help." Nadia replies.
"Eh. Not a problem. I'm not a fan of bullies." Ben answers back. "I'm Ben." He introduced himself, reaching out his hand for a handshake.
"Nadia." The lady replied, shaking Ben's hand with a smile.
"You three!"
Ben, Omni and Nadia turn to see the chef and owner of this restaurant, the catfish Dagonian, approach them with a big grin etched on his face. "Thank you for protecting my little Minette and my restaurant! Your next meals are on me!" The chef genuinely says to the trio with arms outstretched in joy and appreciation.
"Yes!" Nadia cheered as she pumps her fist.
Ben chuckles at the enthusiasm the cat girl is showing. After being around Carol and Filia for so long, he's learned to appreciate the happiness of others. "Just for me and Nadia. Omni here doesn't need to eat."
"Hey! Just cause I don't need to eat doesn't mean I don't want to!" Omni tells her host.
"You've never asked for food before!" Ben argued with his tethered companion.
Nadia, however, stops the pointless argument and puts her arms around the shoulders of both Ben and Omni as she grins before saying, "Now, now, calm down, you two. We just got free dinner! You guys take your pick!"
"I already ordered mine." Ben replies as Nadia is unaware she has pulled Ben close enough to her breasts, which Ben starts looking at.
Hmmm... Not as big as the hat lady's pair...
Ben mentally told himself.
However, unknown to the trio, the two mooks awake once more and started running away...
...but then they trip over a leg that seemed to have been purposely outstretched and meant to do so.
Everyone turns to see that it was the alcoholic, cloaked figure Ben saw earlier. He has drank two bottles of vodka already yet has not touched his noodles, still. In fact, it has stopped steaming and is most likely no longer hot enough to be satisfying to eat. He is currently holding and drinking a third bottle in his feminine hand.
But with his right leg outstretched to trip Lawrence and Riccardo earlier, Ben can now clearly see "he" has smooth and thick legs, wearing bandages on her lower leg as well as white nurse shoes.
It took seconds for Ben to process...
... It's a woman.
This alcoholic woman then coughs before standing up, bottle still in hand, before suddenly leaving a note on where Ben's table was before he stood up just as the other waitress from earlier places his order on the same table.
Ben and Omni immediately recall that's their table. After leaving her note, the cloaked woman starts downing her drink before leaving the restaurant. "Wait!" Ben yells at the woman as he runs to go get her but she has already gone out the door. He picks up the note she left and read it while Nadia and Minette approach him.
"Friend of yours?" Nadia asks Ben while the chef from a short while ago starts tying up the mooks for the cops to get.
After reading the note, Ben grits his teeth before running out the door as he replies to the Feral, "She'd wish she was!"
With Ben giving chase, Nadia was slightly baffled as she also goes out the door, only to see Ben running into the city while the cloaked figure was somehow able to go to the rooftops and started jumping from one after another like she was some sort of ninja. "Hey! You forgot your order! ...Can I have it?" Nadia tried to yell but either Ben is ignoring her or he's already far away to not be able to hear her clearly.
"Nadia, maybe you should help him. He looked really angry." Minette says after following her friend outside.
"Fine. But only because you said so and he's cute." Nadia replies with a hint of humorous sarcasm before stepping on a nearby wooden rail post to gain some momentum before pushing herself off of it to jump over to the direction Ben went to.
Running through alleys while avoiding some people along the way, Ben is still giving chase as he tries to keep his eye on the cloaked ninja woman, who jumps jumped to another rooftop before deciding to take a left and jump to yet another different rooftop.
"She switched directions! Looks like her left." Omni, once again an invisible head to act as Ben's eyes while he focused on running and evading any obstacle, like people or trash cans, down this alley.
"Got it. Boost me up!" Ben commanded his host, who nods her head before finally going visible in full body form and grabs Ben by his back and tosses him to the rooftops.
Landing safely, with bonus points for doing a "superhero landing", Ben gets back to the chase as he runs after the ninja lady again. But he can clearly see she's already ahead, a couple of feet away from his position. He needs to close the gap, just in time as Omni reappears behind Ben. "Omni. XLR8!" He commanded his Stand.
With a nod of confirmation, Omni then places a hand on his left shoulder with her right hand, and, in a flash, both Stand and host suddenly gain a burst of speed that let's them cut the distance between them and the lady they're chasing.
The mysterious woman can hear an incoming wave of wind coming for her, so she turns around to see only to be met with Ben and Omni, speeding towards her. She had little time to react that she barely dodge Ben trying to grab her mid run. However, she had to duck to dodge his hand, which unfortunately grabbed her cloak instead and forced her to ditch it by taking out a scalpel and cutting it off of her, ripping it and accidentally revealing herself once and for all.
Wearing what can only be described as a sexy nurse outfit, as she has most of her 36E size cleavage exposed and wearing only dark grey underwear below the belt, along with the previously mentioned bandages and nurse shoes, as well as white rubber gloves and a nurse cap, the ninja lady grunts as she backflips away from Ben before putting on a surgical mask to cover her scarred lips and flips her dark blue hair back in place with a ponytail.
As she enters her personal fighting stance, which is her slightly leaning forward while holding onto her bonesaw's handle on her back, she looks at Ben with only one red eye, ready to defend herself.
"Alright, Ben. She's an unknown opponent. I say I act as your shield while we gauge how much she van do to us and–" Omni tried to strategize with her host but then she stops once she turns to look at Ben...
... who's wide eyed as he stares at the ninja nurse's bouncing breasts, which is made possible because of her fighting stance. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Omni complained.
"Wow... they're bigger... and the way they bounce..." Ben started muttering to himself before Omni pinches his ear to snap him out of his perverted stupor. "Ow ow ow ow ow!"
Omni lets go of Ben before scolding him, saying, "Will you please focus?! I would like to remind you that this woman also knows where your best friend is?!"
"Right, right..." Ben replied, rubbing his ear from the pain Omni gave it through pinching it and yelling into it.
"Look..."
Both of them got their attentions caught when the nurse started speaking. "I already gave you her location. I'd like to avoid any unnecessary fights." She added as she remains in her fighting stance just in case.
Ben grits his teeth, however, before taking out the piece of paper where the nurse's note is and shows it to the aforementioned woman. "So you were just going to leave this note?! You know where Carol is! Tell me where and why you know!" Ben demanded, this time, no longer swayed by the voluptuous nurse in front of him.
"But I already gave you–" the ninja nurse tried to speak but Ben yells again.
"Don't give me that crap! You asked me to come here in Innsmouth so I can meet you and you can personally tell me where she is! Not leave and just leave another note! And I don't even know where this place you gave me is!" Ben angrily ranted and continued. "You're going to tell me... and you're going to take me there!"
The nurse growls in annoyance. Leading this boy to where he wishes to go is a waste of time. She has better things to do. So instead of complying, the ninja nurse suddenly throws a syringe filled with black liquid just in between Ben's two feet. Before Ben could process what happened, the syringe explodes to a cloud of smoke, blocking Ben and Omni's line of sight and area of vision as Ben coughs while unable to see anything.
Taking advantage of this, the ninja nurse tried to climb a nearby house by wall running upward, but she was interrupted when Nadia comes out of nowhere from the roof of the building and does a wide, sweeping downward kick by somehow extending her legs to the point that it somehow tore itself apart while the muscles of her leg can actually be seen and acting as attachments to the torn legs. The nurse was unprepared for the attack, so the kick connects to her face, knocking her back down to where Ben just as Nadia lands on all fours, with her stretched leg somehow pulled itself back together, in front of the wall of smoke where Ben and Omni is.
"Terraspin!" Ben finally yells and Omni outstretches her arms to her sides before spinning in place, creating a small tornado that blows away all the smoke away from them. "Nadia?" Ben says, baffled that the stranger from earlier is suddenly here to help.
"Sup!" Nadia replies as she stands upright while Ben walks up beside her. "Figured I owe ya for saving my friend. Might as well return the favor."
"Appreciate it." Ben responds while their opponent has recovered by standing back up with a flip. "So, you can detach your head yet still be alive and conscious and you can stretch your limbs so much, your inner muscles show... Are you some kind of zombie?"
"Eh, more or less." Nadia casually responds.
"This is a waste of time! I'll end this quickly." The nurse interrupts their conversation before entering her fighting stance once more.
Ladies and gentlemen, it's...
~SHOWTIME~
Ben runs in first, cocking back his fist for a punch and, once he got close, attempts to jab at the ninja nurse. Unfortunately, she ducked just in time, dodging the attack and took her turn by hitting her opponent with her knee-jerk hammer, which somehow worked as Ben almost stumbles over, but not before the lady uppercuts him with a palm strike to his chin, sending him flying away from her.
It was Nadia's turn as she dives in before sliding below a flying Ben to dodge him. Nadia got close and strikes their enemy twice; once with a kick, and then once with her tail. The combined attacks hit the nurse successfully, but Nadia did not expect her enemy to suddenly grab her by her tail.
The nurse then, quite shockingly and unexpectedly, seals Nadia in a body bag, tosses her into the air while still inside the bag, before jumping up, grabbing the bag and slams them into the ground by piledriving the bag into the floor. Just as the body bag breaks and Nadia is free, albeit stunned from the initial slam, the nurse takes this chance by sliding under the mid air Nadia before swinging her bonesaw in a wide upward arc.
The attack connects and Nadia is prevented from landing on the ground as the slash sends her higher into the air. The nurse then jumps up and her bonesaw again, this time, in a wide downward arc, which actually sends Nadia crashing into, before bouncing off of, the ground. Taking advantage of the bounce, ninja nurse lands back on the floor before slashing at Nadia with her bonesaw a couple of times horizontally before she suddenly takes out her IV Nagitana, an actual IV stand with a sharpened end, repurposed to be a spear.
She attacks Nadis with it with a couple of swings and swipes and attempts to actually stab Nadia with the sharp end but, fortunately, Omni appears and punches the nurse away from Nadia just as the Feral lady is caught by Ben in his arms.
The nurse rubs her cheeks where Omni's punch landed before taking out eight scalpels, four on each hand, before throwing them at Omni, who crossed her arms in front of her to block the attack. Unfortunately, this was a distraction, as while the scalpels hit but bounce off Omni's arms, the nurse speedily bypasses the distracted goddess before attempting to slash Ben and Nadia with her bonesaw.
Quickly reacting to the ninja, Ben throws Nadia into the air before trying to block the nurse's attack with his arms. Unfortunately, the bonesaw managed to cut tears on Ben's sleeves and actually injure his arms with slash wounds.
As Ben droops his arms forward because of his injury, the nursr, now behind him after her attack, attempts to attack Ben again with a scalpel, but then Nadia comes back from being thrown by Ben and actually kicks the ninja nurse in her face, knocking her back and stunning her. Taking advantage, Nadia crouches and does a low kick to the nurse's shin before removing her own head and extends her arms, using her gead as a weapon to hit the nurse. When Nadia's head's pointy cat ears connects, Nadia then holds her detached head with one hand this time before spinning her head like a drill to attack the nurse, with her pointy cat ears acting as the drill's tip.
With her opponent still dazed, Nadia grabs her head with both hands again and throws it upwards like an improvised uppercut combined with a headbutt. When the attack sends the nurse flying, Nadia pops her head back onto her neck before jumping in the air and grabbing her opponent and somersaulting forward twice before throwing her back onto the ground with a slam.
With the nurse bouncing off the ground, Nadia tries to take advantage by trying to furiously swing her claws forward and at the nurse. Unfortunately for her, however, the nurse actually recovered in mid air before hitting Nadia with the bell of her stethoscope, interrupting her cat scratch attack. With Nadia stunned, the nurse takes out eight scalpels once more before throwing them at Nadia. This time, they worked as the scalpels actually hit both shoulders, both hands, both kneecaps and both feet of Nadia, actually nailing the cat girl into a wall and preventing her from moving.
"Oh come on!" Nadia complained as she struggles to move from her predicament. The nurse was about to leave her there until Omni jumps in and attempts to punch the nurse into ground. The nurse dodged at the last second, causing Omni to punch the ground instead, but she was caught off guard when a coin was thrown at her face, which somehow hurt like a stone hit her noggin.
The coin recoils and bounces back in Ben's hand before flipping it with a flick and catching it again. He then points at the nurse before commanding Omni, "Heatblast!"
With her new order, Omni charges up a fireball by cupping both her hands on her side. Seeing this, the nurse prepares to disappear once and for all. Just as Omni has finished charging and actually hurls the fireball towards their enemy, the nurse suddenly throws a marble at the ground, which explodes into a smokescreen. The fireball goes through the smoke and explodes in the ground.
*THAT'S A WRAP!*
-Hollow Victory-
The ninja nurse is gone...
...and left yet another note.
"Got away again..." Ben points out as he let's the smoke from the explosion dissipate. When he walks up to where the nurse was, he finds the note and reads it. All it says is, "The name's Valentine."
"What do we do now?" Omni asks her host.
"Maybe start by freeing me?"
Ben and Omni look at the ground to see Nadia's head bouncing over to Ben's feet to get his attention. "I kinda need my body to move easier."
"Right." Ben responds before picking up Nadia's head.
The cat girl's head then playfully nibbles on Ben's hand while uttering, "Nom!" quite adorably. Ben rolls his eyes before tossing the head to Omni, who catches it while Ben goes to remove the scalpels to free Nadia's body from the wall. As he takes off the first scalpel from Nadia's right shoulder, he coule only think of the person who gave him Carol's location...
Valentine...
To be continued...