Author's Note: Yeah, sorry. Was supposed to be a two-part "mid-season finale." Well… Turned it into a four part mini-arc. A lot going on, couldn't make it as short. But enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Big Hero 6 or Big Hero 6: The Series.
Big Hero 6: The Penitent Sparrow
Chapter 21: Deadline to Disintegration (Part Three)
Baymax launched his rocket fist at the invisible buddy guard, quickly demolishing it and revealing the scrapped, white unmanned drone. Atop the red-armored hulking machine, Hiro tapped on his helmet and anxiously awaiting as his helmet rang with a dial tone. "C'mon, Aunt Cass… please pick up…" Suddenly, the phone line opened up and Hiro was quickly startled, "Hiro! Are you okay?! There's been a lot of attacks throughout the city by some drones, please tell me you are ok!" Hiro smiled and was relieved to hear his aunt's voice, "Yes, don't worry, Aunt Cass. I'm with the others, at… school! We're all safe, Professor Granville is keeping us at a secured shelter within the campus. I'll be safe. Please, just stay inside with Mochi. Whatever you do, don't go out into the city! I hear it's getting pretty ugly out there!"
"Are you sure you're at school?! It's really loud there?!" Aunt Cass asked, both worried and suspicious as she could hear Hiro and Baymax actively fight the drones, ironically right outside of the Lucky Cat Café. Hiro got caught off guard, "Oh, what?! Uh, yeah! That's just the monitor here, they're playing… some live video recordings of what's going on out there… Oh, they're moving us further into the shelter! Ok, got to go, Aunt Cass! Don't worry I will be safe. Please, stay inside! I love you, bye!" Abruptly hanging up the phone call, Hiro looked towards the Lucky Cat Café as he noticed that the lights were turning off. Realizing that Aunt Cass was hunkering down, he sighed with relief.
Throughout the city of San Fransokyo, the Big Hero 6 team and Abigail found themselves decisively engaged with the numerous buddy guards and tri-rotor drones at Momokase's disposal. Each of the members had gotten to their respective locations for the plan but fighting off the unmanned drones was proving to be difficult while they got in position to coordinate their plan. "I don't know about you guys, but I am getting really tired of getting shot at by things I can't see," Gogo rang out on the comms as she skated quickly through Golden Gyoen Park, moving quickly to her target destination. Abigail responded on the net, "Yeah, I'm experiencing a lot of resistance at Futatsu Peaks. But I'm in position, standing by to coordinate our EMP blasts and start this late-night party."
Hiro and Baymax quickly passed by the Lucky Cat Café, attempting to draw the drones away from their home and keep Aunt Cass safe. "Team! Check in with your status," Hiro requested as he and Baymax arrived at their optimal location within Ueno Vista Park. Wasabi checked in, audibly grunting as he was actively fighting and evading the drones at the Koganei Panhandle, "I am… Uh… just about… at my target location! Standing by!" Fred checked in, "Freddy is ready to turn off the lights!" Lastly, Honey Lemon arrived on the net, "I think I'm going to make a lot of students unhappy… but I'm ready to activate my EMP device on campus, Hiro!"
"Ok! Baymax, ODIN… standby to scan for Momokase's position as soon as her scan jammer goes down! The disintegration device won't be far from her. Things are about to get really dark! Activate your micro-EMP devices in 3…2…1… go!" Hiro counted down as he and the rest of the team throughout their locations simultaneously initiated their devices. In an instant, the brilliant lights of the surrounding districts simultaneously blacked out. There were the sounds of panicked cries and several vehicles lightly crashing, the device let out an EMP blast that slowly deactivated systems with enough time for most drivers to react and move their vehicles in a safer direction. But it had undeniably caused a panic, in addition to the once active drones that were now falling from the sky. Many of them suddenly appearing as their flexible display technology was now disabled.
Hiro was relieved to see that the Faraday shielding upgrades that Gogo and he had worked on were successful. Seeing that they were still airborne and functional, Hiro looked to his armored healthcare companion, "Baymax! Scan for Momokase's biosignature and remaining graphene heat signatures!" Immediately, Baymax looked around as his visor flashed with blue grid lines, "/Certainly. Scanning for Momokase and graphene signatures/" In the meantime, Hiro went onto the communications net, "Everyone's systems running ok?" To his relief, Hiro heard the cacophony of responses from his team who had all been unaffected by their EMP devices. As Baymax's enhanced scanner was linked to ODIN, Abigail quickly warned them all, "Just a heads up, but we're picking up a whole lot of movement from the rest of the drones in the city. Looks like she kept them back as a quick reaction force against us, expect this party to get crowded real soon."
As Abigail flew overhead at the highest point of Futatsu Peaks, she scanned around and took note that a majority of the enemy targets consisting of buddy guards and tri-rotor drones were heading towards herself and Hiro. She realized that they were going to bog down herself and Hiro since they were the most maneuverable, isolating them from getting to Momokase along with the other team. "Hiro, heads up. Most of those drones are going after us two," Abigail warned as Hiro looked around, he sighed with frustration and realized what Abigail did. "Baymax, look out!" Hiro alerted his heroic robot companion, as they immediately experienced a barrage of laser fire that forced Baymax to discontinue his enhanced scan and conduct evasive maneuvers.
Momokase's scanner was down now, but they were now facing the fleet of drones that she amassed and were not able to find a moment to scan without the possibility of being shot down. He could hear off in the distance, the rest of his team was all preoccupied with fighting off the buddy guards and drones that were arriving from every corner of the city. "Baymax, climb! Gain some altitude so we can scan from Momokase!" Hiro yelled as they accelerated to evade the lasers, Baymax immediately shifted himself to rapidly ascend out of the effective range of the drone fire. Once again, his visor flashed, "/ I have located Momokase, she is moving rapidly on foot at the SFIT campus./"
"Honey Lemon, Momokase is heading to you! Guys, converge on the SFIT campus! Momokase is there!" Hiro exclaimed, worried for his friend. Suddenly, he saw the buddy guards beneath him appear out of their flexible display camouflage and were now surrounding the Lucky Cat Café. "No! Aunt Cass!" Hiro's eyes shifted between the Lucky Cat Café and the SFIT campus in the distance. "Hiro, protect Aunt Cass. I'm heading to support Honey Lemon, now. Link up with us when you are able to," Gogo rang out in the internal comms, she was racing through Golden Gyoen Park towards their college campus. Hiro gritted his teeth, he looked around to see the rest of his team actively engaging the drones that were now threatening innocent bystanders.
He realized that this was Momokase's strategy to divide them and face them individually. But they couldn't ignore the citizens who were being threatened. And Hiro could not ignore that Aunt Cass was still in danger by the drone threat at this moment. He tapped on Baymax's back, who did not need any further instructions as he launched both rocket fists towards the surrounding drones at the Lucky Cat Café. Immediately, they nose-dived down to continue protecting their home.
"We'll be there as soon as we can, Honey Lemon, Gogo…Please be careful…" Hiro told them, frustrated at the situation and hoped that they would be safe as they faced Momokase.
…
Back at the SFIT campus, Honey Lemon stood in the middle of the rooftop from the Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab. Her eyes focused as she watched the villain clad in her black-and-blue sneaking suit walking towards her in plain sight, Momokase smiled, "Well, looks like you'll be my first opponent. This should be fun." Honey Lemon's face adopted a rare expression of anger and seriousness, knowing that this woman had not only threatened the city but also Aunt Cass to get to Hiro. But she remembered their true objective was not Momokase, "The disintegration device. Where is it, Momokase?" The villain simply smiled, briefly a distorted light had shown on her neck as it seemed to course through her blood vessels and her eyes became cat-like, "Defeat me, and maybe I'll let you know where I hid it."
Honey Lemon's eyes narrowed, feeling along the specially-made pouches that Hiro had designed for her. Within them, Hiro and she had designed several devices that she could use in addition to her chem-purse. In particular, she felt a pouch that contained several transdermal patches she borrowed from Karmi's design, modifying them with a chemical truth serum. Honey Lemon looked at Momokase with determined eyes, "Either way, I'll make you tell me." Momokase quickly drew her graphene katana and threw a graphene knife towards Honey Lemon, simultaneously running towards her.
Honey Lemon quickly keyed into her chem-purse and fired several chem-balls towards Momokase. The first chem-ball hit the flying graphene knife, bursting into a pink powder that covered the blade. Momokase's aim was extremely accurate, Honey Lemon knew that she wouldn't be able to effectively dodge the knife but confidently swatted at the pink-colored blade with her hand. The graphene blade immediately disintegrated into a pink-fine powder, to Momokase's surprise as she didn't know that the heroine was capable of this.
"Chemical embrittlement. Got to love chemistry, right?" Honey Lemon smirked, shooting more chem-balls at Momokase that entrapped her within a blue gelatinous ball despite her cutting away at the chemical projectiles. Slicing her way out of the casing, Momokase realized that Honey Lemon was no longer on the roof. She quickly realized that the chemistry genius had utilized an acidic agent to corrode a hole into the lower level beneath them. Without hesitation, Momokase jumped through the opening that led into the building's hallway. As she was about to land, she saw Honey Lemon turn a corner to disappear, but looked down to see a small device on the floor. It was a modified version of the device Hiro designed for the freezing agent, but Hiro personalized it for Honey Lemon to use as a remote- or sensor- detonation chem-ball.
When she landed, the device alarmed and exploded to create a freezing reaction that made the floor slippery. Momokase slipped as she landed on the frozen floor, using her graphene katana to stake into the ground and regain her balance. She heard Honey Lemon across the hallway, "You might want to watch your step!" Momokase scoffed, unamused, "You always were the slippery one! Any other new tricks?" Momokase dashed forward, running along the walls to avoid the floor and any other devices on the on it. As she pushed off against the wall to turn the corner that she saw Honey Lemon maneuver to, the villain used her cat-like eyes to immediately see that Honey Lemon had placed more of the chemical devices along the hallway.
Momokase backed off and smiled, thinking to herself, Such obvious traps… I don't have to go through a set path… Using her graphene katana, she made a clean circular incision into the wall to circumvent the booby-trapped hallways. As she breached through into a dark lab room, she saw a purple chem-ball hurdling towards her. Slicing it immediately, it burst and encapsulated her. Annoyed, she sliced through it to see that a concrete pillar was now spearing towards her and pushed her back into the wall behind her.
Angrily, she pushed off the wall and instantly sliced the next volley of concrete pillars that were directed at her by Honey Lemon's chemical devices that she staged in the room. Although she was frustrated, Momokase had to admit that she was enjoying the thrill of facing an opponent who was tactically brilliant in thinking on the fly during a fight.
Taking a cue from her opponent, Momokase calmed herself down and used her katana to slice a hole beneath her. She realized that this was Honey Lemon's turf, their school building that the student had an intimate knowledge of. Certainly, the chemistry genius had already devised a means to fight her by using the building's design against Momokase. Honey Lemon had to engage her, she knew where the disintegration device was and would have to follow her. Momokase knew that she couldn't play into her game, so she sprinted and continued to cut surgically-precise openings until she arrived on the campus courtyard. She awaited her opponent, attempting to lure her out in the open where Momokase would be able to react more aggressively, "You are brilliant and resourceful on the fly, Miss Honey Lemon. Quite impressive, but I won't play into your game."
Hearing the distinct sound of a razor disc cutting through the wind, Momokase turned around to quickly slice through a yellow disc that hurdled directly towards her. She looked to see the yellow-and-black armored heroine, who skated quickly to a stop and popped her bubble gum. "Then, how about you play my game?" Gogo said, taking another disc from her back and replacing it on her left arm.
Momokase quickly tossed three graphene blade knives towards the speed queen, by which Gogo quickly dashed to dodge each of the blades and threw another one of her discs. "It would be my pleasure, you ladies have always been entertaining," Momokase exclaimed as she sliced through the incoming disc. She was surprised when Gogo maneuvered back to pick up Momokase's graphene knives, quickly launching them back towards Momokase with accuracy. Momokase quickly slashed to hit the knives away from her. Gogo smirked, "Thought I was only good at throwing discs?"
Momokase smiled in amusement, quickly dashing towards Gogo rapidly, but heard the distinct "plopping" noise of Honey Lemon's chem-purse when she realized the chem-balls created more frozen surfaces that forced her to leap into the air. More concrete pillars from Honey Lemon now speared in the air towards her, she angrily sliced away at them. Gogo quickly maneuvered to link up with her teammate, the speed devil smiling at Momokase, "How about a little rematch from our previous fight at Akuma Island?" Momokase smiled, aiming her blade towards the two ladies, "It will end the same way for you ladies, I assure you."
Pulling out her phone, Gogo pressed on her "Skymax" icon, "Not if my team can help it." She nodded towards Honey Lemon, who quickly keyed into her chem-purse to release a two chem-balls and nodded back at her. Gogo dashed at an angle to flank around one of the buildings, so Momokase decided to sprint towards Honey Lemon in the open. Tossing one of the chem-balls in front of the advancing villain, the ground suddenly rose up with a wall of concrete. The wall exploded into several fine pieces and Momokase sliced another chem-ball in between the slices of concrete, exploding into a fine pink dust. Her eyes widened, realizing what had happened. As the blade became encrusted by the fine pink powder, she saw Gogo racing towards her on all fours, gaining speed much in the same way she would "veloci-shot."
Gogo swiftly leapt towards her and kicked out both of her disc- pointed legs at Momokase. Instinctively attempting to hit Gogo with her graphene blade, it immediately burst into a pink powder and gave way to Gogo's advance. Momokase was kicked back by Gogo, pink mist flowing around them as Momokase was launched away. Momokase rolled as she recovered from being projected by Gogo's strike.
"My blade!" Momokase yelled angrily, raising her hand up. Her veins illuminated, the blue graphene claws progressively extending from her fingertips. She side-stepped towards a destroyed buddy guard, slicing it open and taking out another graphene katana from within it. She smiled again, "But don't worry, you two. There is no shortage of blades. But I am sure you can't say the same about your chemicals or your discs." Gogo smirked, "You sure about that?" She raised her arm up, immediately catching more of her distinct discs.
Momokase looked up to see a robot floating above them. Skymax had arrived to provide Gogo with a resupply of her maglev discs. Gogo immediately threw one of the discs towards Momokase, but as the disc soared towards her, the disc was hit by one of Honey Lemon's chem-balls and formed a denser disc. Although Momokase was able to cut through it, it impacted her hard enough to push her back slightly. She saw another chem-ball flung towards her, using her graphene claws to slice it but was caught within a frozen glacier. Honey Lemon took advantage of the situation and shot several more freezing chem-balls.
"Gogo! Cover me! We need to get her to talk! The disintegration device has to be nearby!" Honey Lemon exclaimed as she pulled out her modified truth-serum transdermal patch that could also paralyze Momokase. Before Honey Lemon could place the patch onto Momokase, Gogo saw that the villain's veins seemed to illuminate further, and time slowed down as she saw Honey Lemon approach the mutated beast. "Honey Lemon, look out!" Realizing she was in imminent danger, Gogo dashed to save Honey Lemon when Momokase suddenly emerged from the ice glacier in her feral form. She quickly swiped at them, cutting Gogo's maglev discs at her feet and projected her towards the building.
"Gogo!" Honey Lemon screamed as she was pushed away by Gogo, witnessing Gogo be sent hurdling into the wall and being knocked unconscious.
But she did not have time to check on her friend as the feral Momokase was now sprinting ferociously towards her. In a state of desperation under the circumstances, Honey Lemon quickly keyed into her chem-purse, which beeped rapidly. Before Momokase could swipe at Honey Lemon, the chem-purse's beeping became more consecutive until the device burst into a brilliant array of colors. Narrowly dodging Momokase's claws, the two became suspended in a rather large chemical encasement. A last-ditch effort by Honey Lemon to protect herself and capture Momokase.
Despite being encased, Momokase's mutation allowed her the strength to release herself as she leapt further away from the two heroines into the courtyard. Appearing to be in pain, she slowly began to revert back to her previous mutative forms with more human characteristics again. "Hmm… I actually had to fully mutate to beat you two. I admit, I am impressed. But against me, even you are out-classed," she laughed, looking at the defeated female members of the Big Hero 6 team.
Suddenly, her surroundings were engulfed in flames as she quickly leapt backwards outside the range of the scorching heat. "Hey! No one is classier than us! You're going to pay for this, Momokase!" Fred appeared from the sky as he leapt down in between Momokase and his teammates.
"And on to the next one," Momokase smiled maniacally towards the Kaiju-suit wearing hero. Fred momentarily paused, pointing towards her, "Wait, wait! Quick question! Very important question, really…" Momokase scoffed, "I won't let you know where the device is, unless you can somehow manage to defeat me."
Fred paused again, "Oh… Right… Well, second most important question then… How are you able to transform into a 'graphene-clawed beast-thingy?' I've been wanting to be a fire-breathing lizard for a long time, so be a dear and 'science' me a little on that, will you?" Momokase thought about Liv Amara and Sycorax's specialized services, she wasn't going to disclose her newest partners' identities, "Wouldn't you like to know?" Fred simply nodded, dumbfoundedly, "Um... Yeah… that's why I asked? Duh!"
Momokase's veins illuminated a bright yellow shine, her graphene-claws extended further out, "Well then, how about I provide you with an up-close demonstration instead?" Fred placed his hand to his face wondrously, "Well, I don't see how that would explain anything… But oh, you mean you want to fight! Well then, over-the-top battle it is! Prepare to be… 'No-mokase!' Like 'no more- kase…' Yeah, need to find a way to sell that one better, huh?"
Momokase simply shook her head, "You have a thing for 'stupid last words,' don't you?" She sprinted towards Freddy, who super-jumped and breathed fire towards her. She quickly side-stepped and dashed away from the flames. Every attempt she made to get to him, he continued to jump and keep his distance as he continued to blast flame towards her. She had to admit, he had a decent strategy of keeping her at bay and attacking her.
Seeing that the open space was to his advantage, she slowly led the skirmish towards the inside of the campus where the buildings became more enclosed. Even as Fred would jump atop the buildings, Momokase would quickly leap and scale them to get close to him. She continued to maneuver through the campus, moving their fight to an environment that allowed her to move around and progressively analyze his patterns. It was only a matter of time that he will slip up, and she would capitalize on his mistakes. Fred needed to hold her off until the rest of the team could arrive to deal with her and search for the disintegration device, time was counting down to their deadline.
…
At the base of the Futatsu Peaks residential area, San Fransokyo PD officers worked fervently to safeguard and evacuate civilians on foot. With their police cruisers being disabled by the EMP blast, they personally dashed around to direct civilians away from the chaos. Suddenly, a tri-rotor drone hovered above a mother who was covering her toddler. The police officer went between them, unholstering his service weapon and shot at the drone.
It quickly dodged the incoming rounds, charging its lasers as it readied to fire at them. The drone was quickly struck by several rounds in its rotor, spinning out of control and plummeting to the ground. The officer and the family watched as another officer clad in black SWAT armor rushed towards them, a service rifle at low ready, having evidently been the one to destroy the drone. The armored officer approached them, "Officer Sanders! Get this family and the others down at the base of this hill, I've directed our SWAT to provide an evacuation route for these residents."
The officer looked with wide eyes, recognizing the armored officer, "Chief Cruz! Didn't think I'd see you personally out here, sir?!" They took cover behind one of the vehicles, pulling the mother and child down to cover. The gruff police chief looked towards his subordinate and scoffed, "I come back to this fine city to see that it's overrun by killer drones and just-as-equally-dangerous vigilantes. It's all hands-on-deck, son. I've got nowhere better to be."
As they looked up to assess the situation, a buddy guard floated above them. Chief Cruz quickly shouldered his rifle but held his fire, seeing a white-armored figure swiftly flying into the drone. Using her nano-dex system and her exoskeletal armor to enhance her strength, Abigail easily pierced her arm through the drone and violently flung it towards the ground. Using her shoulder-mounted laser systems, she shot down several other drones consecutively. Casually dusting her hands and hovering above them, she looked towards the police officers.
Through her Kabuki mask visor, she immediately made sharp eye contact with the police chief who gave her an obvious death stare. She noted that the tan-skinned man was still shouldering his rifle at the ready as he glared at her, quickly thinking to herself, Don't even try it, old man. She simply shrugged, engaging her thrusters to dash away and continue protecting as many of the residents she could in her vicinity.
Chief Cruz scoffed as he watched Abigail continue to fight in the chaos above them towards the Futatsu Peaks towers. "Hmph… 'Superheroes'… Flying killer drones are one thing. But these so-called 'superheroes' used EMP weapons that effectively crippled our police force and caused more public panic… Remind me again who are the heroes here?" Chief Cruz spat at the floor in disgust.
He quickly turned around to the worried mother, "Ma'am, follow me and Officer Sanders. We'll protect you and your daughter and get you both to a safe area." Looking at the scared little girl and kneeling down to smile at her, the police chief was grateful that he was already able to get his fourteen-year-old daughter, Megan, into a safe area. He had never thought that bringing her back to San Fransokyo would be so dangerous. He needed to get the city back into a safe state, starting with this crisis.
As he ran alongside his subordinate and the civilians, he continued to take shots at incoming drones and destroying them with skilled, accurate fire. He may now be a desk-jockey as the city's newest police chief, but he had spent several years in the military before being in the police force and having even served on several departmental SWAT teams. He staunchly believed that well-trained police officers, such as himself, should be the only ones upholding the law. He looked towards the Kabuki-masked vigilante overhead and the rest of the blacked-out portions of the city where the Big Hero 6 team was fighting… he was adamant that these "superheroes" were part of the city's problem and not the solution to its crimes. Their time will come, soon enough, the police chief thought to himself.
…
Baymax scanned the Lucky Cat Café, viewing through the structure to see Aunt Cass hugging Mochi. "How's Aunt Cass and Mochi doing, Baymax?!" Hiro asked anxiously, he was utilizing his magnetic gauntlets to seize control of several drones and swiftly project them towards the floor to destroy them. Baymax continuously cycled through the drones, shooting his rocket fists and repeatedly retrieving them as he reacquired his next targets.
Baymax informed Hiro, "/Aunt Cass and Mochi do not have any signs of bodily harm, but are in emotional distress./" Hiro was at least relieved that they were unharmed, but there were far too many drones in the area that were obviously targeting his home thanks to Momokase's orders.
Hiro was frustrated at playing into her hands, but he could not leave Aunt Cass while she was actively in danger. He had to keep faith that his team was able to handle Momokase for now. But there was an untold number of drones congregating towards them, obviously programmed to keep him and his members busy as Momokase faced his team members separately. And facing her as a whole team, she was already a handful.
He launched one of his magnetic discs, activating it to attract several drones onto it to form a large clump of machinery. "Baymax!" Hiro pointed towards them, with the armored machine launching its rocket fist to destroy several drones in one go. "There's too many of them. We don't have all night to do this!" Hiro exclaimed, getting exhausted at their prolonged engagement and constantly worrying for his aunt's safety.
Suddenly, he saw a purple, slimy tendril extend to grab several drones and slammed them into each other. "Felony Carl told me you could use some help over here, kid! Hope you don't mind me swinging by your place unannounced?" Globby swung through with his arms extending across the top of the neighborhood's rooftops.
Hiro smiled happily, "Globby! Oh, am I glad to see you! Not at all, we could use your help. Momokase is behind all of this!" Turning into a slimy, massive Tyrannosaurus Rex, Globby quickly bit down on a drone and destroyed it instantly. Talking in that form, he scowled, "That crazy lady is behind all of this? I am not surprised…" He frowned as he thought about his former supervillain colleague.
"Yeah, Honey Lemon and Gogo are fighting her at SFIT right now. She plans to activate a disintegration device somewhere there. But I haven't been able to go support them…" Hiro frowned, caught in a dire situation but worrying for both Aunt Cass and his friends. Globby quickly transformed himself into a wide wall, capturing and protecting the Lucky Cat Café.
His face, while elongated, looked seriously at the boy, "A disintegration what-now?! Well, you guys are all part of my list... So, I can't let her do that. They're going to need you there to take care of that device, kid. Don't worry about your home and your aunt, I'll protect her personally. I promise. You go help the tall girl and the speedster, leave all of this to me."
Hiro smiled at the slimy humanoid, "Thank you, Globby… Please be careful, too. You're a real hero, you know that?" Globby quickly wiped some slime from his green eyes, "Go on now, kid. You're going to make me cry!" Hiro laughed, he pulled out his phone to press on his Skymax icon. Shortly after, he tapped on Baymax's shoulder, "Let's go, big guy. Take us to school!" Baymax accelerated his thrusters as they ascended into the sky, "/Certainly./"
…
Fred sent a stream of fire, spreading it quickly as Momokase got close to swiping at him. A portion of her hair was singed, making the woman growl. "Oh, looks like I singed a bit of your mane… At least you aren't bald! I don't think that look would suit you, personally…" Freddy remarked, as he jumped away atop one of the campus buildings.
Patting her head to feel her hair sizzle, Momokase growled as she increased the level of her mutation, "I'll make you bald!" Moving at a faster pace, she began to move in a manner that Fred could no longer keep up with as she climbed the building. Before he could fully super-jump away, Momokase quickly swiped at his feet and one of his hands, slicing off the bottom of his soles and one of his hands.
Yelling as he fell off the building, Fred landed on a bush and sharply exhaled on impact as he lost his breath momentarily. "She got me, she got me! My hand!" He screamed, looking at his hand through his mask. Then he released his arms from within the suit, placing it in front of his face to wiggle his fingers. "Oh, that's right. It's just a suit! False alarm, guys. Hand is still here," he chuckled nervously, then fainted shortly thereafter.
Looking down at the armored hero, Momokase felt her singed hair with annoyance. "You were more trouble than I expected," she scoffed, leaping down from the rooftop to finish him off. As soon as she descended enough to swipe at him, she was swiftly met with resistance as her graphene claws were stopped by both a graphene katana and a plasma blade.
She looked up to see Wasabi grasping one of her graphene katanas, pushing her off and then swiping at her with his other arm that had his signature plasma blade. She laughed, "Well, took you long enough. Did you take your time driving here?" Wasabi readied himself, pulling himself into a solid swordsman's stance, "I'll have you know that I drove over 5 miles per hour than the posted speed limit to get to you." Momokase laughed as she shook her head, "I guess I should feel honored, then? Your swordsmanship skills have improved, I hope you don't disappoint me." She picked up a graphene katana from one of the destroyed buddy guards on the floor, pointing it towards him.
"Lady, you are going down! En garde!" Wasabi exclaimed, he raised the graphene blade towards her and remained light on his feet. Momokase quickly dashed forward, quickly meeting blade to blade as brilliant blue flashes of light sparked from their clashing. With each strike, they both swiped at each other with their second weapons, Wasabi's plasma blade and Momokase's graphene- claws respectively. Using fencing style footwork, Wasabi was able to quickly engage and disengage Momokase. He utilized various feints and quick swipes, much to Momokase's pleasant surprise as she reacted to his movements.
"More fencing video lessons?" Momokase picked at him, continuing to move quickly around him to test his footwork. She quickly dashed forward to aggressively stab at him, but he parried the blade and quickly sliced at her head. But she ducked quickly enough to have only her hair sliced neatly.
"Nope, real fencing lessons this time. At a school. Coupon deals, for the win!" Wasabi laughed. Angry that not only her hair was burnt but now sliced off, she angrily swiped back and sliced a clean chunk off of Wasabi's dreads. He screamed, "Not again! What is up with you and slicing my hair, woman? You know how long it took for me to grow it back, last time?"
Momokase leapt further back, feeling her own hair and growling, "Let's just say we're even!" She quickly sprinted towards him, rapidly shifting her weight to move around him and attack him at different angles. She continued with a flurry of attacks, adding the pressure against the swordsman so that he could no longer control the pace of the fight with his fencing-type technique.
"Your skills and reflexes have improved…" she conceded, as she continued to barrage him with her blades. "But you can't do this," she smiled as she increased her mutation once more to improve her speed and reflexes. As she became increasingly more feral, she became more aggressive and eventually gained the upper hand. Swiftly slicing away at his forearms to disable his plasma blades and striking his graphene blade with ferocity, she effectively disarmed him.
"Well, it's been fun but my skills with the blade still remain superior…" she said as she moved towards Wasabi. Her eyes dilated momentarily, realizing there was another threat nearby. She looked to her side and saw incoming lasers rapidly streaming towards her, she narrowly dodged them.
She immediately reacted as a white blur quickly met her graphene blades, clashing with another graphene katana with blue sparks bursting between them. Abigail continued her burst of her thrusters to push into Momokase, she snidely commented, "Mind if I cut in?" Using her nano-dex enhanced suit, she quickly propelled Momokase away from Wasabi. Soon after, she helped him up, "Wasabi, go back and protect the team. I have Momokase." He simply nodded, running back towards his injured teammates, "You got it, thanks. Be careful!"
Momokase was pleasantly surprised, looking at the white-armored heroine, "Hmm? The Kabuki mask? You're certainly not him. You're an uninvited guest, but no matter. I can tell you will present a good enough challenge for me." Abigail smirked, taking a traditional Japanese sword fighting stance with two hands gripping at the handle. She responded, "More than enough of a challenge, I promise." Running quickly along the wall and projecting herself towards Abigail, Momokase launched a flurry of graphene knives towards her.
Abigail casually hovered right above the ground and veered slowly, using her shoulder-mounted laser systems to shoot each of the incoming knives away from her. It wasn't much different from her using the APOLLO's laser systems to rapidly target incoming missiles. Traveling at a rapid pace, Momokase quickly closed the distance and slashed at Abigail. As soon as she was in close proximity, Abigail quickly burst her thrusters to dash around Momokase and strike concisely with her graphene katana. With her graphene claw, Momokase quickly responded and retaliated. The two moved as a blur, keeping pace with each other's blows. As soon as they had a slightly prolonged contact with their blades, Abigail launched her away.
"You could just as easily keep your distance in the sky and keep firing away at me. Seems you have some honor to you, Miss Kabuki," Momokase smiled, noting that her opponent did not resort to an indirect approach like Fred. She admitted that Wasabi had improved his swordsmanship, but she noted that her new opponent was undoubtedly more practiced and honed.
"What's more… even without that suit of yours, I suspect your reflexes are as good as mine. On a normal given day, that is," she continued as she walked carefully in a circle around Abigail. She continued to burst forward with incredible speed, exchanging a flurry of fast swipes between them. Leaping backwards, Momokase observed the heroine's stance and her movements, "Hmm… Suisha-Ryu Kenjutsu? You're not like the others. No online lessons, no amateur skills to develop on… Your movements are much too refined. No, you've been doing this for a while…"
Indeed, Abigail had been practiced in the arts of Japanese traditional swordsmanship, thanks to the tutelage of her mother and her mother's teachers. Having been an avid martial artist and traveler, her mother was well-practiced and passed down her knowledge and skills to Abigail. She would participate in several competitions, but Abigail had never thought that the skills she practiced mostly for spiritual enrichment would actually become practical. But Abigail was taking this fight seriously, she did not answer Momokase but simply remained focused on the fight. She was even less apt to be her usual snarky self that she usually was, even during the heat of battle. But defeating her opponent and getting the location of the disintegration device was her main priority. And this woman was cunning, Abigail wasn't going to let her get into her head like she did with Hiro.
"I must admit… As I am now, I won't be able to best you, 'Miss Kabuki.' Know that I hold you in the highest regard and this shall be my gift to you… I will give you my utmost attention and fight you with complete sincerity to defeat you," Momokase smoothly sheathed her blade behind her. Slowly, she bowed towards Abigail, who returned the gesture in kind. "Likewise," Abby simply responded as she readied herself.