It's the Final Countdown!

What had she read that one time? That if at all possible, use your legs to attack? This guy had taken that philosophy to the extreme. Pariston looked like a thin wimp, but she had already mentally swiped that description off the figurative work desk faster than Cheetu could count to three.

His attacks consisted of kicking so quickly that a blade of air was created and launched in a general direction. The blond's suit definitely played down his musculature, because it took some beef to do that. The faker.

His ability also caused a problem for her: he had a chance of being able to adapt to floating in the air and would still have a free range of motion to attack. So, she can't float him, and she was having a hard time getting close enough to touch him since he had been fighting at a distance from the get-go.

In the split second it took her to flip over another blade of wind, Riakke glanced at the three unconscious grunts she had taken down before Pariston had descended upon her. And since she had fought them before…

With a commanding "Forward!" the three bodies started to slide limply across the ground, increasing in speed until they were hurtling towards her enemy above the ground. She was close behind.

Then her open hand was reaching close to touching Pariston in the distraction the flying bodies provided. But then he started to shift away, even with his head turned away, and Riakke suddenly remembered about En. Of course a fight like this wouldn't be so easy to finish after a few minutes.

But a blur flashed on the other side of her opponent, and he was pushing against her hand a split second later. Thank you, Cheetu! With a vicious grin that she showed openly to a frozen Pariston who looked like he had come face to face with a woman in the wrong bathroom and was knowingly about to receive righteous justice, she commanded almost sweetly, "Down."

He crumpled to the ground with the snap of a bone and a painful grunt. A quick chop to the back of his neck guaranteed he would be out for the rest of the battle. The experience was rather nice, since the guy gave off insincere signals like a beacon, and he was very much aware of it. It made her hair feel like it was being slicked in the wrong direction since she first saw him on the stage at the Hunter's Association.

With a glance at her surroundings, Riakke took note of the fights still happening. Cheetu seemed to be sparring lightly with Ging while flitting around to interrupt other's battles randomly, and the Hunter seemed to be amused by the others' yelling after the Chimera Ant for breaking some code of battle honor. Then there was the other half of her and Cheetu's backup that they hadn't been aware of taking care of the grunts and Junior. None of the jerks she had to interact with before heading to this continent were there. She didn't let herself think about what that meant.

She had seen Knuckle with a chameleon Chimera Ant before they disappeared from her senses in a way that was unlike Cheetu's method of pure speed, so they were in the area somewhere. There were a couple of other guys she knew from her interactions with Morel there doing the shouting at her charge for ruining their fights with the upper and middle grunts, but she couldn't remember their names. She had met them at some bar Morel had dragged her off to after a mission, and started to list names almost like he was reading them off a paper while pointing to their spots in the bar. This was all after a few rounds too, so she didn't blame herself for forgetting

Then there was the guy himself off to the side watching the fight between Junior and… a clown?

Her fight finished, she floated an unconscious Pariston and towed him behind her, picking up her suitcase she had abandoned before the fight began on her way over to her friend.

As she approached, Riakke felt a chill run up and down her spine. She looked around, and found the source coming very precisely from the turned away clown. The sensation died away as she came to a stop next to Morel. Huh, that would explain why Cheetu hadn't gotten involved in this fight.

"So," the younger Hunter started before trailing off. There was a boulder flying towards Junior like it was under her power, but she knew it didn't work on inanimate objects. Then how did this-

She let out an audible sound of realization when she saw something connecting the two with Gyo. The same with the next boulder, and the next, and the next…

"So," she tried again, "do I want to know what happened to the other Hunters that had been on this mission?" She saw Morel shift from the corner of her eye as they both watched the battle unfold.

"Probably not." He stated with a grim frown. Others were walking over to their spot to watch the last battle taking place, Cheetu standing quite the distance away with a chuckling Ging. How were those two friends already? They met only a few days ago!

She shook her head at their antics, and watched how this clown fought Junior. Hadn't she seen that guy at the elections too? She was pretty sure he had been watching the voters deposit their nominations at some point, but she couldn't remember precisely when.

There wasn't any conversation between the observers. The exception being Cheetu who was somehow antagonizing everyone close to him without saying a word, and just grinning under everyone else's thinly veiled insults and threats. Knuckle and his Chimera Ant seemed to be Cheetu's main target, and Knuckle gave as good as he got.

The last battle started moving farther and farther away from the group until she could barely see the fighters as pinpricks in the distance.

Then something blew up.

The shockwave was intense, flinging those with a poor grip on the ground away. Clothes flipped back and forth in the strong wind.

A figure started his way back towards them. The clown was in a rougher state than before with his ripped up clothes, but he didn't seem to care judging by the almost skip to his step and the rather psychotic smile on his face.

When they checked later for the report, Beyond Netero remained as nothing but a smear on a savannah plain. Which one of the Punitive Branch guys happily set fire to, for some reason. She didn't know the procedure; she wasn't in that division after all.

They started to make their way back with prisoners in tow soon after that. Pariston was a literal example. He had been injected with a cocktail Morel's group had brought with them, and was being tugged along behind Riakke with a similarity that was alike to a child and a balloon.

"I've been meaning to ask." One of the guys she couldn't remember the name of said from near the back of the group. "How are you keeping him in the air? I'm not seeing anything with Gyo." Riakke shared a look with Morel who was pointing with his eyes amusedly at Cheetu. His ears were perked intently in her direction.

With a roll of her eyes and a grin on her face, she answered. "It's a secret!" Before jumping into the air and falling beside the ground. Her previous opponent still being pulled after her. "Bring your friend, Cheetu! I want to drop this guy off already! First one to make it to the Hunter's Association chooses the Theme Park!" She called back.

Her Chimera Ant charge seemed to be getting used to her antics, since it didn't take as long as it did the first time she had done it to him. Ging had a surprised look on his face as he was carried like a sack of potatoes over Cheetu's furry shoulder. She could hear Morel belting out a laugh for a few seconds before they were too far away, and she laughed.

"Dibs on Ten Flags!" Cheetu shouted out before he put on the speed.

"Oh no you don't! We've gone there the last eight times! Mouse World!" She rebutted, matching her speed to his.

"Don't I get a say in this?" Ging shouted with what could have been a grin, but was hard to say since the wind was flapping his skin about in comical ways.

"Only if you win!" She and Cheetu call back at the same time with matching competitive grins.

((A/N: Okay... Let me just say that I had about three hundred words before this last writing session. And then I got this huge chunk! Without scene changes too!

Suffice to say I have no clue what is up with my muse...
Woo! The story is almost over! Only the epilogue is left~! Let me know what you think in a review down below!))