h1Ch 36– It Hurts/h1
p class="MsoNormal"Coco opens fire, Penny covers herself with two petals, the third swings down on top of her. Fox circles behind Penny and Yatsuhashi prepares to jump in. Velvet still stands watching looking for an angle to enter into the fray./p
p class="MsoNormal""You want to ambush emthat/em," Juane asks, disturbed. "Well, I wanted too, but now that's crazy," Nora scratches her head. "Indeed," resigns Ren./p
p class="MsoNormal"The petals blast out towards Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox, Penny charges at Velvet, who dodges Penny's flurry of swipes nimbly./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, at least I know you're sane now, Nora," comments Juane. He ponders for a moment./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stops her assault on Velvet and hammers Fox into the floor, catching him by surprise with her petals. Without looking, she throws one of her held swords at Coco, halting her actions./p
p class="MsoNormal""We can do this." Phyrra stares at Juane, glancing at the fight and Juane, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you to say that." Juane shrugs, "Heh, I'm surprising myself lately."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yatsuhashi closes in, fighting one handed with his blade. Penny steps back as he pushes forward with his blows, trading blows with sword on sword. Penny holds up under his strength. The petals float about as Penny fights./p
p class="MsoNormal"Juane smiles nervously. "Okay, okay yeah. This is what we'll do."/p
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p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Fox and throws him at Velvet. Coco whirs up for another barrage of gunfire but Penny charges her before it's ready. One slash, Coco dodges. Second slash, the gun is hammered, Coco loses balance. Third slash, Coco's eyes widen in shock. Penny glances back, seeing Velvet holding the strike back with her own threads, similar to Penny's wires. Velvet attempts to pull Penny back, who doesn't budge. Fox appears and grabs Coco and runs. Penny looks up in time to see Yatsuhashi ambushing her and stop him with her petals./p
p class="MsoNormal"The impact still broke more ground below Penny. Glancing over at Velvet, Penny sees behind Velvet another combatant. Nora is positioning herself. Penny yanks Velvet closer, and gives her a shift heavy kick in the stomach. Coco yells almost savagely as Velvet collapses and Penny turns to see Coco charging at her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny drops her swords and crosses her arms as Coco pulls back for a punch. Impact, Penny catches the fist. Penny was pushed back, her feet splintering the pavement. Coco's fist cracks bones, she grits her teeth, and gears her opposite leg for a heavy kick. Penny doesn't move to block, she braces herself for the hit. Neutralized, Penny pulls Coco's arm up higher, just as Phyrra's spear came by, stabbing Coco in the arm. Penny's hand prevents the spear from going deeper./p
p class="MsoNormal"Coco cries out in pain. Penny lets go and pushes Coco off of her just as Nora comes flying at Penny, hammer blasting Penny into the cafe, bashing through tables, chairs, a window and a wall./p
p class="MsoNormal"Battered, Penny rises, more shaken than unharmed. Penny checks the damage on her legs, hips and arms. Penny left a trail of blood stains across her body as she checked herself quickly, and Penny realizes when she looks at her hand that Coco's blood is on it. Coco's blood. Blood. A human's life fluids. She hurt someone. Penny also realizes that Coco's hand probably broke. Velvet is also probably injured as well. Team JNPR is there as well./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny's hurting people. She's supposed to protect people from bad guys. Why are they fighting now? For the test? Yes the test. It's supposed to be a game to show off the kingdom's protector's skills./p
p class="MsoNormal"It's a war game. A war game meant to show off everyone's monsters. /p
p class="MsoNormal"I am a monster./p
p class="MsoNormal"I can stop them. I'm going to stop them. I can stop them from getting hurt by stopping them./p
p class="MsoNormal"Slightly panicked, Penny walks out the front. Ren and Fox are fighting, Coco carries Velvet aside and Yatsuhashi stands before Juane and Phyrra, who's retrieved her gun. Penny raises her Petals again. Drawing everyone's attention, Penny looks for Nora. Nora cackles and fires down upon Penny, explosions bashing Penny around. Penny finds what she's looking for, and raises Coco's handbag mini-gun, and rains fire at Nora. Nora's barrage ends as she dodges./p
p class="MsoNormal"Juane shouts at Phyrra and she turns away from Yatsuhashi and runs to Nora's aid. Penny tries to striker her with Petals, but Phyrra deflects the blows and gets close to Penny. Armed with one sword, Penny begins warding off Phyrra's attacks. Blow for blow, Penny blocks with her one sword and Penny pulls another two Petals from her pack. Phyrra barely dodges Penny's strike and Nora arrives back in the fray, blasting tables at Penny./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny takes the hit, but plants two Petals out in the pavement and pulls herself out onto the street. Everyone's attention is on her now, Penny stands in the middle of the two teams. Coco and Velvet are standing, Coco's hand is bandaged now and Velvet doesn't appear to be heavily injured. Fox and Ren take position aside eachother, staring down Penny. Juane and Yatsuhashi stand apart, but triangulating between each other and Penny. Phyrra and Nora stand side by side, Nora shifts her hammer to gun mode./p
p class="MsoNormal"Two teams vs Penny. Penny realizes her seven Petals aren't going to be enough, and pulls out the last six. Juane audibly complains, meekly laughing. Velvet agrees for the most part and Coco is pissed. Penny shifts four Petals to gun mode./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny isn't excited anymore. She's actually rather disturbed, but there's no time for that now. She has to finish these fights first then she can ask Mr. Ironwood questions./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny opens fire./p
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p class="MsoNormal"The first shot went at Yatsuhashi, blasting him off his feet. The second blasts the floor under Velvet and Coco and the third Ren and Fox, making them sprint away. Nora was the last target, but Nora fires as well, trading a shot for a shot. Penny detonates the shot in midair with a Petal./p
p class="MsoNormal"Hell breaks loose, Penny unleashes what could only be described as a barrage of attacks in every directs as her Petals whip around wildly. Tracking eight people was too much for her visually, and her aura perception couldn't compensate, so she aims at the general direct of everyone. Fox and Ren prove too elusive to prevent from approaching her, so she allows them to get close. Ren opens fire with his small caliber weapons, doing nothing to Penny. Fox gets closer and throws his arms out, attempting to tackle Penny. Penny takes the hit, but braces herself and flips Fox headfirst into the pavement. He flips across the floor and slides away, unconscious./p
p class="MsoNormal"One down, seven to go, Penny turns to see Coco running for her mini-gun. Penny plants some Petals and launches herself at Coco, landing feet first on Coco's torso. Penny takes a Petal in hand and bashes Coco's ribs with the blunt side of the sword. Penny realizes there's padding when Coco doesn't respond in complete pain. Velvet begins trying to take control of their airborn Petals, tugging them towards herself. Then Juane leaps at Penny and begins an assault. Penny deflects and dodges most of his hits, and kicks his shield in. Then Yatsuhashi does his meteor strike again. Penny exerts herself and drags Velvet through the air into Yatsuhashi, sending them both crashing into the floor./p
p class="MsoNormal"With her undamaged hand, Coco punches the inside of Penny's leg, causing her knees to buckle. Phyrra steps in then to drive Penny into the floor and Penny scares her off with a descent of Petals separating Penny from everyone. Coco was caught in the blades, alone with Penny. Nora began firing on the poorly erect barrier, destroying it and making an opening for Phyrra./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Coco's turtle neck sweater and swings her violently at Phyrra. The fabric tears from the shear force and Phyrra barely touched Penny's arm before being shoved aside. Coco tries to get up, dizzy, and reveals padding similar to Penny's chest piece, a padded armor designed to appear realistic under clothing. Penny shifts her attention to Phyrra, directing two Petals her way./p
p class="MsoNormal"Phyrra gestures and Penny feels her aura shift. No, her aura gave way under Phyrra's aura. And Penny felt it in her arm, it tugged. Then her entire body tugged away. And pain. Penny went blind in pain./p
p class="MsoNormal"Coco opens fire, Penny covers herself with two petals, the third swings down on top of her. Fox circles behind Penny and Yatsuhashi prepares to jump in. Velvet still stands watching looking for an angle to enter into the fray./p
p class="MsoNormal""You want to ambush emthat/em," Juane asks, disturbed. "Well, I wanted too, but now that's crazy," Nora scratches her head. "Indeed," resigns Ren./p
p class="MsoNormal"The petals blast out towards Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox, Penny charges at Velvet, who dodges Penny's flurry of swipes nimbly./p
p class="MsoNormal""Well, at least I know you're sane now, Nora," comments Juane. He ponders for a moment./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny stops her assault on Velvet and hammers Fox into the floor, catching him by surprise with her petals. Without looking, she throws one of her held swords at Coco, halting her actions./p
p class="MsoNormal""We can do this." Phyrra stares at Juane, glancing at the fight and Juane, "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting you to say that." Juane shrugs, "Heh, I'm surprising myself lately."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Yatsuhashi closes in, fighting one handed with his blade. Penny steps back as he pushes forward with his blows, trading blows with sword on sword. Penny holds up under his strength. The petals float about as Penny fights./p
p class="MsoNormal"Juane smiles nervously. "Okay, okay yeah. This is what we'll do."/p
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p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Fox and throws him at Velvet. Coco whirs up for another barrage of gunfire but Penny charges her before it's ready. One slash, Coco dodges. Second slash, the gun is hammered, Coco loses balance. Third slash, Coco's eyes widen in shock. Penny glances back, seeing Velvet holding the strike back with her own threads, similar to Penny's wires. Velvet attempts to pull Penny back, who doesn't budge. Fox appears and grabs Coco and runs. Penny looks up in time to see Yatsuhashi ambushing her and stop him with her petals./p
p class="MsoNormal"The impact still broke more ground below Penny. Glancing over at Velvet, Penny sees behind Velvet another combatant. Nora is positioning herself. Penny yanks Velvet closer, and gives her a shift heavy kick in the stomach. Coco yells almost savagely as Velvet collapses and Penny turns to see Coco charging at her./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny drops her swords and crosses her arms as Coco pulls back for a punch. Impact, Penny catches the fist. Penny was pushed back, her feet splintering the pavement. Coco's fist cracks bones, she grits her teeth, and gears her opposite leg for a heavy kick. Penny doesn't move to block, she braces herself for the hit. Neutralized, Penny pulls Coco's arm up higher, just as Phyrra's spear came by, stabbing Coco in the arm. Penny's hand prevents the spear from going deeper./p
p class="MsoNormal"Coco cries out in pain. Penny lets go and pushes Coco off of her just as Nora comes flying at Penny, hammer blasting Penny into the cafe, bashing through tables, chairs, a window and a wall./p
p class="MsoNormal"Battered, Penny rises, more shaken than unharmed. Penny checks the damage on her legs, hips and arms. Penny left a trail of blood stains across her body as she checked herself quickly, and Penny realizes when she looks at her hand that Coco's blood is on it. Coco's blood. Blood. A human's life fluids. She hurt someone. Penny also realizes that Coco's hand probably broke. Velvet is also probably injured as well. Team JNPR is there as well./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny's hurting people. She's supposed to protect people from bad guys. Why are they fighting now? For the test? Yes the test. It's supposed to be a game to show off the kingdom's protector's skills./p
p class="MsoNormal"It's a war game. A war game meant to show off everyone's monsters. /p
p class="MsoNormal"I am a monster./p
p class="MsoNormal"I can stop them. I'm going to stop them. I can stop them from getting hurt by stopping them./p
p class="MsoNormal"Slightly panicked, Penny walks out the front. Ren and Fox are fighting, Coco carries Velvet aside and Yatsuhashi stands before Juane and Phyrra, who's retrieved her gun. Penny raises her Petals again. Drawing everyone's attention, Penny looks for Nora. Nora cackles and fires down upon Penny, explosions bashing Penny around. Penny finds what she's looking for, and raises Coco's handbag mini-gun, and rains fire at Nora. Nora's barrage ends as she dodges./p
p class="MsoNormal"Juane shouts at Phyrra and she turns away from Yatsuhashi and runs to Nora's aid. Penny tries to striker her with Petals, but Phyrra deflects the blows and gets close to Penny. Armed with one sword, Penny begins warding off Phyrra's attacks. Blow for blow, Penny blocks with her one sword and Penny pulls another two Petals from her pack. Phyrra barely dodges Penny's strike and Nora arrives back in the fray, blasting tables at Penny./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny takes the hit, but plants two Petals out in the pavement and pulls herself out onto the street. Everyone's attention is on her now, Penny stands in the middle of the two teams. Coco and Velvet are standing, Coco's hand is bandaged now and Velvet doesn't appear to be heavily injured. Fox and Ren take position aside eachother, staring down Penny. Juane and Yatsuhashi stand apart, but triangulating between each other and Penny. Phyrra and Nora stand side by side, Nora shifts her hammer to gun mode./p
p class="MsoNormal"Two teams vs Penny. Penny realizes her seven Petals aren't going to be enough, and pulls out the last six. Juane audibly complains, meekly laughing. Velvet agrees for the most part and Coco is pissed. Penny shifts four Petals to gun mode./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny isn't excited anymore. She's actually rather disturbed, but there's no time for that now. She has to finish these fights first then she can ask Mr. Ironwood questions./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny opens fire./p
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p class="MsoNormal"The first shot went at Yatsuhashi, blasting him off his feet. The second blasts the floor under Velvet and Coco and the third Ren and Fox, making them sprint away. Nora was the last target, but Nora fires as well, trading a shot for a shot. Penny detonates the shot in midair with a Petal./p
p class="MsoNormal"Hell breaks loose, Penny unleashes what could only be described as a barrage of attacks in every directs as her Petals whip around wildly. Tracking eight people was too much for her visually, and her aura perception couldn't compensate, so she aims at the general direct of everyone. Fox and Ren prove too elusive to prevent from approaching her, so she allows them to get close. Ren opens fire with his small caliber weapons, doing nothing to Penny. Fox gets closer and throws his arms out, attempting to tackle Penny. Penny takes the hit, but braces herself and flips Fox headfirst into the pavement. He flips across the floor and slides away, unconscious./p
p class="MsoNormal"One down, seven to go, Penny turns to see Coco running for her mini-gun. Penny plants some Petals and launches herself at Coco, landing feet first on Coco's torso. Penny takes a Petal in hand and bashes Coco's ribs with the blunt side of the sword. Penny realizes there's padding when Coco doesn't respond in complete pain. Velvet begins trying to take control of their airborn Petals, tugging them towards herself. Then Juane leaps at Penny and begins an assault. Penny deflects and dodges most of his hits, and kicks his shield in. Then Yatsuhashi does his meteor strike again. Penny exerts herself and drags Velvet through the air into Yatsuhashi, sending them both crashing into the floor./p
p class="MsoNormal"With her undamaged hand, Coco punches the inside of Penny's leg, causing her knees to buckle. Phyrra steps in then to drive Penny into the floor and Penny scares her off with a descent of Petals separating Penny from everyone. Coco was caught in the blades, alone with Penny. Nora began firing on the poorly erect barrier, destroying it and making an opening for Phyrra./p
p class="MsoNormal"Penny grabs hold of Coco's turtle neck sweater and swings her violently at Phyrra. The fabric tears from the shear force and Phyrra barely touched Penny's arm before being shoved aside. Coco tries to get up, dizzy, and reveals padding similar to Penny's chest piece, a padded armor designed to appear realistic under clothing. Penny shifts her attention to Phyrra, directing two Petals her way./p
p class="MsoNormal"Phyrra gestures and Penny feels her aura shift. No, her aura gave way under Phyrra's aura. And Penny felt it in her arm, it tugged. Then her entire body tugged away. And pain. Penny went blind in pain./p