Forewords
Yes, now the Daughters Of Liberty are fighting Shanghai L as a boss.
I've already told you about that, didn't I?
Ah, well. Let's get back to the battle...
Chapter 49: Dolled Up
Time: 0800 Hour, 12th of August, 2125. (18 Hours 30 Minutes until death)
Location: The Thames; Canal City, Bevelle.
The Daughters Of Liberty avoided the spray of danmaku fired by Shanghai L. The Daughters immediately returned fire at the living doll, who easily avoids the combined spray of danmaku thanks to her petite size.
"Remember..." Yukari reminded Reimu and co via the Magic Codec. "Her danmaku has the same lethality as those used in the pre-Spellcards era. She wasn't born in Gensokyo, after all."
Shanghai L pointed her lance directly at the Daughters, and fired a stream of danmaku at them like a machine gun.
The Daughters Of Liberty evades the shots, and returned fire with a danmaku pattern tight enough that nothing can fit through the spaces between each shot.
The living doll raised a magic barrier around her to block off the danmaku sprays.
"Godsdammit!" Marisa cursed. "She's way harder than Hourai back when I first found out about her sentience, ze!"
The living doll raised her lance once more, and charged toward the black-white witch.
Sakuya appears at the last minute to swat at the doll with her own knives, knocking the doll back several feet.
"Gee, thanks..." Marisa said to the silver-haired maid.
The Daughters all turned toward Shanghai L.
"I was just playing along with you!" The doll shouted at them. "I know your weakness!" That said, she fired tightly clustered shots at the part of the river directly below, the impact was enough to send a pillar of water just high enough to reach the Daughters Of Liberty. They managed to evade it without getting soaked.
Shanghai L continued to fire tightly clustered danmaku at the river below, creating water pillars wherever Reimu and co goes.
"Using the surrounding as an advantage!" Sanae exclaimed. "Now that's something you don't see in danmaku battles!"
The next water pillar that Shanghai L blasts up launched an empty soda can that just happens to be there. Reimu got hit in the head by said soda can, and began to tumble down into the river.
"Reimu!" Marisa shouted, and swooped down on her broom after the falling red-white Miko.
Shanghai L took this chance to prepare to fire another tightly clustered danmaku at where Reimu would have fell in...
...Only to be interrupted by Youmu's ghost-half ramming the doll, knocking her lance off her hand and into the river.
Marisa grabs Reimu in a swoop just as the latter is about to touch the surface of the river. "You alright?" The witch asked.
"I'm fine..." Reimu responded, before she covers her mouth with her hand and starts to cough several times. Looking at the same hand, the Miko finds that she has coughed blood.
"You look far from fine..." Marisa told her.
Another water pillar appears in the background, almost hitting Reimu and Marisa.
"Can we talk about this later?" Sanae shouted at them while evading water pillars.
...
Location: Oval Office, White House; Registan.
"Mr President, may I inform you that the Daughters Of Liberty are already halfway through Bevelle?" Prime Minister Arthur Williams, as a hologram, at least, told President Snow Valleys.
"Yes, I know." Snow replied. "They're just teenage girls, so I have no idea why the Registan Secret Service insist on me taking refuge at the PEOC." He added. "Even then, the Daughters doesn't want me. They want Jack Summers."
"That's because he took the communist country, Gensokyo's equivalent of the National Archives. And the lady dictator of that country wants it back desperately." Arthur responds.
"I've heard that." Snow said. "Although Jack Summers suspects that she didn't sent the Daughters under the pretext of saving their own nation."
The Prime Minister of Bevelle turned around. "Then I can guess why the Registan Secret Service wants you in the PEOC. Especially after having lost four countries to five barely armed young girls..."
The President was going to say something, but as though the Prime Minister has anticipated it...
"...And don't give me that crap about Clarke's Third Law..." Arthur stood there, still facing away from Snow. "Now if you excuse me, I have a country to protect..." He then cuts off the transmission. "By the way..." His voice suddenly echoed through the Oval Office. "...New WikiLeaks says that the PEOC is under the East Wing, so you might want to have your men relocate it in the hour..."
...
Location: The Thames; Canal City, Bevelle.
"Time to go down, little dolly!"
Marisa swatted Shanghai L away with her mechanical broom.
The living doll spun backwards uncontrollably.
Following Marisa's attack, Youmu raised the Hakurouken, still in it's sheath, and bashed on the doll hard, causing her to tumble down into the river, and hits the surface.
After making sure that Shanghai L isn't coming back out, the Daughters Of Liberty put away their weapons.
"I guess that's that..." Sanae said.
Marisa raised a hand to halt everyone. She then turns toward Reimu.
"Is there anything you weren't telling us?"
Reimu let out a sight in disappointment, and told the others about the current effects of the Euthanasia Poisoning.
"You die first. Jack Summers launch a war on Gensokyo... Either way, we have to finish our mission as soon as possible..." Sanae said.
"So you're saying you might die before us?" Marisa responded with an exclamation. "Should've said so earlier, ze! That way, we could've skipped the Nazis and everything else after that and went straight for Caps!"
Finishing that sentence, the black-white witch hopped onto her mechanical broom. The looks on the other girls' faces makes it obvious what they are thinking...
"You're not going to..." Sakuya said, without finishing her sentence.
Cue the Nitrous on the mechanical broom kicking in. Everyone else managed to grab on the broom before it accelerates.
"Godsdammit, Marisa!" Reimu cursed while hanging tight on her.
"...Of course I'm going to. We'll be skipping everything until Caps!"
Meanwhile on the river surface...
Shanghai L, soaked to the bone (or rather, the cotton fillings), was clinging on a floating tire. "This is going to suck..." She told herself with a deadpan look on her face.
Afterwords
Shanghai L has been defeated once, and the next boss will be the Gunship of Bevelle. Not revealing it's name for the sake of not spoiling the story. Don't worry, there will be a rematch with her...
Also, those of you who are Genre Savvy should have realized at first glance that Marisa's mechanical broom, first found in "The Daughters Of Liberty" in Toshov, Malkrantia will be used sometime in the future. Cut to this chapter, where it gets used. I'm going to have it be used again between the end of the Bevelle Scenario and the beginning of the Registan Scenario, as well as the end of Mission 2.
Shout-out index:
"...New WikiLeaks says that the PEOC is under the East Wing..." - No comments on this one, other than that I got this gem from White House Down.
That is all. "Until then..."
