Yumemi slowly lowered her hand as the flash from the blast faded. A smoldering hole was all that remained of the antenna. Mimi-chan had succeeded at her mission. Even now fairies were starting to fly up towards the ship, and getting in fights with the robots that surrounded it.

Yamame coughed lightly. "So that barrier thing ya'll were chatting 'bout seems to be gone. What's the plan now?"

Marisa wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "What else? We bust in, beat up everyone responsible..." The magician's eyes glowed golden, "and then the witch of the forest makes them disappear forever."

"Is a frontal assault really our best strategy?" Yuri asked. "I mean shouldn't we let the fairies wear them down?"

Momiji shook her head slowly. "They might be able to repair some systems given time. This may be our only chance."

"And they're the ones keeping us from finding Chiyuri," Yumemi said. "We need to end this fast." If they didn't find Chiyuri quickly who knew what might happen?

Yuri sighed. "Alright. I suppose flying into bullets is the traditional method." The young magic user began putting up some fighting wards.

Yumemi found herself shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited for her allies to get their defenses ready. Her generators were already running at full, and the defenses she'd programmed in were in effect all the time, so there was nothing should could do to prepare herself. All she could do was worry about Chiyuri. Was she captive in that ship? Or just lost like Yuri had been? Who was doing this, and why? She was a nobody in her world.

Marisa was the first to hop into the air, quickly followed by Momiji. Yuri finished her preparations, and Yumemi gave the other woman a hug. "Be careful," she said.

"You too," Yuri replied. "Your generators are still weak without the ship."

Yamame slowly rose into the sky. "Well. I guess we better get goin'..."

"Right." Marisa and Momiji flew up towards the melee, both woman heading towards where the battle was the fiercest.

Yumemi considered their path, then moved around it. She wasn't here to battle. She was going to get inside that ship and figure out what made it tick. Then probably blast whatever that was into pieces. So she skirted the massive dogfight Marisa and Momiji were part of.

It was still hardly a peaceful journey. The fairies and robots both seemed to travel in packs, and every time one of them noticed her she was forced to stand and fight. Her pseudomagic bullets tore through both with ease, sending the fairies into their respawn state, and the robots to the ground in piles of scrap.

Still she was making good time. Marisa's flashy laser storm was ripping through the robots even with their anti-magic shields, and that was drawing the majority of the defenders to her. Yumemi was almost to the top of the ship without facing any serious resistance.

Hissing electricity and a flash of yellow was the only warning Yumemi had before a sword of lightning slashed at her. She blocked with a shield from her generators and rolled away firing at the assailant. Then she froze. "Chiyuri?"

The blonde woman looked very similar to her lover. The lightning swords were strange, as was the woman's outfit, but it still was Chiyuri.

The other woman used her hesitation to attack again. Yumemi barely had time to dodge the woman's slashes. She tried to retaliate with some bullets of her own, but Chiyuri slapped them away with inhumanly fast movements before charging forward again.

Suddenly Momiji was in front of her slapping aside the blades. "It's the imposter," the wolf woman snarled. "Go ahead. I'll deal with it." Momiji gave a dark smile.

Yumemi hesitated another second, then nodded. "I'm sorry." She continued on, towards the ship that housed her true enemy.

A few bullets cleared out the weak robots still in her way, and then she was there, floating at the hole. A quick glance showed they'd lucked out. Mimi-chan's explosion hadn't collapsed the exits. In fact the structure was fairly intact.

Yumemi dropped into the opened corridor, then immediately ducked into one of the shattered rooms as a stream of lasers fired from further down. Peeking out she saw several of the larger drones before their combined fire forced her to put her head down again.

"Looks like we've got a problem," Marisa muttered as she dashed down next to her.

"Fighting in other people's tunnels is always a bad time," said Yamame as the spider youkai joined the group. "Ya got any bombs or something to fix that?"

Yumemi shook her head. "We were lucky that the explosion actually opened a passage into the ship. Anything big enough to take out a group of those robots might collapse the roof. Then we'd be stuck trying to burrow into the ship."

Yamame frowned. "Might be able to do that if it was stone instead of metal. But yeah that's a problem."

"Hm..." Marisa pulled off her hat and reached into it. "Actually... how big is your tsuchigumo form Yamame? Can you fit down these halls?"

"Sure. Couldn't get around underground if some place like this was too small," Yamame said. She swelled with pride, "I could probably break all those danged robots too." She sighed. "But their lasers would cook me right quick. No way I could survive that."

"I might have something then," Marisa said. She pulled out a potion. "I made this based on some of Patchy's notes. Was supposed to be a super serum, like that nonsense magic Byakuren uses, but it utterly destroys your immune system for a week. Certain death for anyone who can get sick but since you're a tsuchigumo..."

"I can tell the diseases to get lost." Yamame nodded. "Clever. I like it!"

"Will it be enough to keep her from getting fried by lasers?" Yumemi asked.

Marisa smirked. "For the next half hour a Master Spark will stun her. Anything less and I'll eat my hat." The magician tossed the potion over to Yamame. "Anyway here's your rampage formula. Have fun."

Yamame looked at the potion cautiously for a moment. Yumemi understood the woman's concern. But after a steadying breath the spider youkai chugged it down.

The effects were instantaneous. Yamame started to glow brightly. "Whoa. My head's all light. But I feel great!" Yamame grinned at them. "Y'all want to take a step back."

Yumemi and Marisa both moved away from the tsuchigumo as Yamame's form began to warp and shift. The transformation itself wasn't too bad, but as the giant earth spider assumed her true form Yumemi did her best to keep her knees from shaking. Spiders were just not supposed to be that big! Marisa seemed similarly disturbed.

Yamame didn't seem to notice or care about her allies' worries. The spider monster bellowed a challenge, then smashed through the damaged door into the hallway. Immediately five laser blasts hit her, but the blasts seemed to reflect off her body.

In response Yamame charged forward. Yumemi poked her head out just in time to see the spider youkai smash the lead robot into the one behind with a painful metallic crunching sound.

"Wow," was all that Yumemi could manage as Yamame ripped through the robot army before her.

Marisa poked her head out and winced. "Now I know why Patchy encodes her spellbooks. Gonna have to ask her for some tips there. Youkai do not need this kinda powerup."

The two followed Yamame's path of destruction from a safe distance. The spider youkai crushed robots, ripped apart doors, and smashed debris along her way with furious abandon. Nothing seemed to stop her. After several minutes of crunching she stood before the lift doors.

Yamame paused for a moment looking at the massive reinforced doors. Then she gently extended a leg and pushed the button.

Yumemi just stared as the tsuchigumo shifted back to human form. "What? You're just going to take the elevator?!"

"Course I am." Yamame looked back at her in confusion. "I ain't some sorta brute."

Marisa sighed and walked over. "I think Yumemi's pointing out the elevator's probably shut down. What with us breaking in and all."

There was a tone, and the doors opened. Yamame smiled as Marisa and Yumemi just stared at the offending lift. "Well, maybe the off button got broke or something. Let's get in."

Yumemi couldn't help feeling totally ridiculous as she stepped into the elevator. Marisa seemed to share her confusion. Looking over the buttons she saw one with a star next to it and pushed that. The elevator quietly shut, then descended normally before a tone played again.

The flurry of laser fire that entered as the doors opened were almost a welcome return to sanity. Yumemi and Marisa hid next to the doors, Marisa firing off some return fire. Yamame just stumbled back from the barrage, then hopped forwards transforming as she went. Yumemi waited until the crunching stopped, then walked into the now cleared hallways. "Thanks," she said. Yamame waved a leg in reply then charged down the halls again.

Several crushed robots and half a hallway later they came to an intersection. One was sealed by a massive blast door. Marisa kindly blasted the robots ahead so they could investigate closer.

Yumemi looked over the reinforced doors. "This is either the way to the armory or the bridge. Given the layout probably the bridge."

Yamame took that as her cue to punch through the door and rip it out, allowing entrance to the corridor. "That's one way of handling it," Marisa said. The magician frowned. "We should probably clean up the rest of those robots though. We don't want someone popping up behind us."

"I'll leave that to you." Yumemi started walking down the corridor. "I'm going to find out if they know where Chiyuri is."

"Are you-?" Marisa called out behind her. Yumemi kept walking. She needed to find Chiyuri.

Marisa's sigh somehow managed to carry over the klaxon. "Alright, stall if you need to. I'll just make sure Yamame's got this covered."

Yumemi paused to give the other woman a nod, then continued on.

The short corridor ended in another security door of course. This time Yumemi had to handle it herself. She tried using her psuedomagic devices to hack the controls, but for some reason they couldn't find purchase on the system.

So instead she just punched into the wall and hotwired it. The circuitry was pretty easy to figure out at least.

The door opened in a shower of sparks. Yumemi walked in, then gasped as she saw Chiyuri trapped in mystical chains. "Chiyuri!"

A blast of energy caught her from the side sending her stumbling. Her shields glowed an angry red as they bled off the deadly charge of the attack. She managed to catch herself on the railing and forced herself back upright.

Yumemi's head swirled as her doppelganger stepped out of the shadows. The other Yumemi casually spun a staff then pointed it at Chiyuri. "Hello Yumemi. I'll skip the introductions, given you almost certainly know who I am." The mystical device started to glow, and the woman smiled grimly. "I think it's time for us to discuss the terms of your surrender."