Goku dashed away from another storm of fists and feet, only to find himself in yet another. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but the Super Saiyan state couldn't last forever, and his opponent did not seem to be weakening. He had to turn the tide of battle. He put as much effort as he could into a two-legged kick, which flung Ryuko away, if only for a moment. A moment was all he needed.
"Gyeeeeaaaaaaaaah!"
His scream triggered another explosion, larger and more violent than before. Ryuko had only just righted herself from the kick when a shockwave bowled her over again.
"Damn," she cursed, shielding her eyes as her thrusters fought against the sudden storm. "What's going on? Is he powering up again?"
It feels like he is. Be careful.
The light cleared, revealing Goku to look much the same as he had before, although glowing much more brightly. Occasionally, arcs of electricity zap about the surface of his high-intensity aura, their crackling sounds still audible above the roaring drone of the channeled ki.
"This form," he began to explain, "is a Super Saiyan that has asce-"
"-Ascended beyond super, yeah, I know. Can I just call it Super Saiyan 2?"
"That's what I was going to suggest," blinked Goku.
"Great. Makes things easy."
"Okay, then. Get ready."
Ryuko nodded, steeling her nerves and returning to her Senjin form. If this was anything like Hermione's second power-up, she was in trouble. The Saiyan charged her again, again releasing a barrage of punches and kicks. Ryuko was unsure of his new abilities, and decided that evading his attacks would be safer than taking them head on, even in a block. Luckily, her speed was sufficient, allowing her to duck under and over his attacks with ease.
"You're- really fast," gasped Goku between strikes.
"The- fastest," Ryuko strained in reply.
Ryuko did not have time to retract her statement before the man teleported above her, bringing both of his fists down on her head. She dropped like a meteor, the spinning and growing ground below not improving her dizziness.
You can't let him hit you, Senketsu warned.
I know! Jeez, you would think-
No, I mean you can't let him hit you.
Oh-ho-ho, I get it.
Senketsu transformed into his Shippu mode, binding Ryuko's legs together with thrusters that halted her dangerous fall.
"Now, Scissor Blade Decapitation Mode!"
Her weapon unfolded to its full length, and the girl began to spin, intentionally, this time. Soon, she turned her sword into a whirling disk of death, which Goku had the misfortune of teleporting into. As soon as the blade raked across his chest, he dashed backwards with a yelp. Ryuko slowed out of her spin, and lowered the tip of the long blade toward him with a cocky grin. It was an obvious taunt.
Her sword is longer than my arms… and if she can keep swinging it that fast, there's no way I could land a hit on her. I'll have to try a ranged attack again.
He placed his hands together again, focusing his now-massive reserves of energy. "Kaaaa… Meeee…"
"He's going for his beam attack again?" wondered Ryuko aloud. "But that hardly did anything to me last time."
He's stronger now. If his basic attacks can damage you as much as they do, then this will almost certainly be more dangerous, Ryuko. No matter what the attack is, you can't let him hit you!
"Haaaa… Meeee…"
"You're right, Senketsu. Let's blow this joint. SENKETSU SHIPPU!"
Ryuko took off at full speed, sharply banking left and right, cutting an erratic pattern through the air. All she had to do was get out of the beam's path. If it didn't hit her, she could counter.
If I don't get hit, I can counter. If I don't get hit, I can counter. If I don't get hit, I can-
Goku immediately appeared in her path, his hands aglow with energy.
"Goddammit," she sighed.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Ryuko's world turned to blue and white, just like it had before. His beams of ki were different than the fireballs that Katniss had thrown or Morrigan's little bats. Those had a substance to them, they hit like solid objects before exploding. The Kamehameha did not. It was more like floating underwater, in that there was something surrounding you, even if it did little to impede your movement. The water had a current, which moved quite rapidly past you, but never really dragged you along. When she had been hit before, the 'water' had merely felt warm. Now, it was boiling. Ryuko could hardly hear her own scream over Senketsu's, since his voice was lodged in her head.
AAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHH- RYUKO, YOU'VE GOT TO- GAAAARH- DO SOMETHING! OR I'M GOING TO FALL APAAAAAAAART!
Ryuko could already feel a strange sort of lightness around her midsection, on her face, and under her chest, which she assumed was her skin dissolving.
WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!
SOMETHING! THINK!
As correct as her Kamui often was, Ryuko realized that the answer to her problem was the opposite of what he had suggested. Thinking about this logically was going to get her killed. She had to act without reason- like an animal. She quickly re-categorized her mindset. There was no ki, no Saiyan. There was just something in front of her that really hurt, and she had to give it a piece of her mind. She converted her pain into pure, weaponized rage, and brought her thrusters to full power. Since the beam offered no real resistance other than raw pain- which she was now repurposing- she very quickly emerged from the other side, and locked her hand over the Saiyan's throat. He quickly gave up on maintaining the beam, which faded away into the sky.
"HARRRRRAARGH!" she bellowed, clenching her fingers tighter.
"You- you- you- you went through the wave?" Goku squeaked. "And you're…"
Goku had a hard time finding words to describe Ryuko's current condition. Partially because the sight of the girl's decimated skin being replaced by thin red strands was too bizarre to describe, and partially because she was holding his windpipe closed.
"Don't you get it?!" Ryuko snarled. "I don't just wear Life Fibers, I AM LIFE FIBERS!"
She wrenched her body around, flinging Goku into the desert below. Ryuko wasn't sure why he created a huge explosion when he landed, but she wasn't going to complain about extra damage being dealt. She let her own thrusters kick off, and fell to the ground in a much more graceful manner.
"Now, to finish this guy off," she coughed. "I'm tired of his stupid smile."
She loosened her grip on the handle of her Scissor Blade as she walked towards the smoking crater, pausing as she reached the edge. The blast had worn the ground into a fine dish, maybe thirty meters across. Ryuko tossed herself over the edge, and slid down the side, still weak enough that she tripped over Senketsu's heels and rolled down to the crater's base. In the dead center was the source of the smoke, which must have been Goku's body. She moved closer, but as she did, a familiar sound brought her to a dead stop. It was a swirling, rising pulse, accompanied by the faint crackles of rogue bioelectricity. As the smoke began to part, the first thing Ryuko saw was that very stupid smile.
"Wow. I've got to hand it to ya, you are pretty darn strong! I'm glad Headband Guy told me about you!"
Ryuko surrounded her face in her hand, letting out a mournful sigh. "Are you going to give up, or what?"
"Oh, not just yet. I'm not going to feel better about beating Superman until I beat someone as strong as me fair and square. So I'm definitely not done."
"But what are you going to do, hit me some more? I'll keep you away with my Scissor Blade. Shoot another kame-whatever? I'll just push back through! Your super-duper Saiyan or whatever didn't get you anywhere."
Goku laughed lightly. "You're right. You were actually stronger than me as a Super Saiyan. And as a Super Saiyan 2, I'm a little stronger than you, but you've got better reach with your sword, and you're determined enough to break through my Kamehameha wave. You're absolutely right. But I can't give up, not now! I'll just have to go! EVEN! FURTHER! BEYOND! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!"
"N-no way," gasped the girl, taking a step backwards as the Saiyan's aura began to agitate, fluctuating more and more. The scream the flow of ki produced began to raise in pitch and intensity, as the dust at his feet was no longer merely being kicked up, it was being kicked out, as if thrown by a tornado. Small pebbles began to join the mix, followed by average-sized stones, then chunks of sunbaked earth, then boulders, all actively being lifted out of the ground. Another shockwave rippled out, knocking Ryuko back to the crater's edge.
"He… has… a third form? H-how… Senketsu, he's bluffing, right? This… this is all a big lightshow, yeah?
Ryuko… it is not. I can sense his power is growing even further. We may have bitten off more than we can chew.
"…AAAAAAAH! HYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA….!"
"Maybe… with enough screaming, you can do anything," she groaned, putting her fingers into her ears. Unfortunately, this allowed a pebble to smack her in the eye.
"Any luck with the safe, yet, Luffy?" Jack had found a discarded splinter of wood in the hallway of the bank, and had made significant progress in his woodcarving of the Snow Queen.
"No," sighed the boy, letting his arms contract back to their normal size. "I just keep punching at it, and all I'm doing is denting it. It won't open."
"Well, just keep at it. This, along with the others we've got… we'll have nearly all of them. Isn't that right, Usagi?"
"I'm not Usagi! I'm Sailor Moon!"
"Yeah… about that. I don't mean to... intrude on your little masquerade, but all you've done is put on some odd stockings. I don't think you're fooling anyone, savvy?"
The Sailor Scout simply looked out the window at the swollen moon that hung above them, evidently as scatterbrained as ever. She was humming some sort of tune, though it was soft enough that the other two could only hear when she got to the higher notes. Suddenly, she choked back a B flat, as her breathing became erratic. She pushed her face against the window, but it was evidently not enough. Usagi took off running down the hallway, leaving Jack and Luffy to hear the sounds of the door being thrown open and shut violently.
Luffy blinked. "Should we-"
"Follow her? Of course."
The two rushed outside, and found Sailor Moon standing in the middle of the street, staring upwards.
"Usa- I mean, Sailor Moon, what's wrong?" asked Luffy.
"A great power has awakened," she whispered. "Can you feel it?"
Jack looked around, patted down his shirt, licked his finger, and held it into the air.
"Um, no. I can't say that I do."
Luffy folded his arms across his chest. "Does it have anything to do with the lights we saw in the sky earlier?"
"Yes," said the girl, her tone disturbingly prophetic. "And this is not the end."
At her words, the once-quiet breeze began to pick up speed. The clouds that hung still in the sky slowly began to drift northward. The hanging signs up and down the street began to sway, and a post next to the bank's door tipped onto the ground. A faint rumble began to rise in the distance, materializing as a trembling at their feet.
Jack Sparrow poked at the ground to make sure his legs were not playing tricks on him. Just as he had initially thought, an earthquake did seem to be occurring. "What exactly do you mean by, 'not the end', Sailor Moon?"
"This is not the end," she repeated, "because the end… has only just begun."
"That makes zero sense," huffed Luffy.
Alucard had never really considered whether or not a crucifix could be comfortable. As it turned out, it had less to do with the actual construction of the thing, or what it felt like to be up against it, and more to do with the company you were keeping. In his case, being tucked into the nook of the oversized, steely-eyed Jesus' arm was quite comfortable indeed, due to the presence of the witch who reclined next to him, her head nestled in a bronze armpit.
"And what did you do next?" she said softly, snuggling a little closer.
"I told him, 'Scum like you don't deserve to be called vampires.' And I shot him many, many times."
"Oh, that's wonderful."
"Not as wonderful as you punching God into the sun! That's the kind of example that kids could really look up to!"
"You flatter me," she cooed.
"I mean it," he replied with as much sincerity as his sinister voice could muster.
"I'm glad I decided to not kill you."
"Same here. But what are we going to tell the powers that be?"
"Well, I'm going to tell my boss that I shot you to pieces and replaced this chap-" she patted Jesus' oversized metal chest, "-with you."
"Ooh, that's a nice one. I think I'll have to say that I let you shoot me to pieces, and while you were gloating, I regenerated and consumed your body whole."
"Naughty, naughty!" giggled the witch ecstatically.
Alucard was about to make a comment about how things could be much naughtier if the two of them agreed they had reached that point in their relationship, but he was interrupted by a tremor that unsettled the debris they had been lounging on. The vampire hopped to his feet, and Bayonetta followed.
"Can you feel that?"
"The earthquake? Well, of course."
Alucard shook his head. "No… there's something else. A huge amount of energy."
Bayonetta closed her eyes and pursed her lips for a moment.
"You're right. But what is it?"
"It's ki, natural life energy. Somebody's putting out a ton of it, enough that ki from nearby is being drawn in. That amount of power… it's simply absurd. No human could do that."
"But if nobody could do it, how is it happening?"
"I said, no human."
"Ah. So, what should we do about this, hmm?"
"Hunker down and expect explosions."
