"F‑F‑F‑F‑Fly, m‑my b‑b‑beauties!" the greasemonkey cries triumphantly.
A swarm of flying yellow insectoid robots appears from alleyways and side roads, each with the same vacant stare as the other robots, all converging on the junction where Team Lilac are facing off against the tarsier's mech.
"Incoming!" Carol yells. "Lilac, Milla, you get the insects: I'm going after monkey‑boy!"
"I can take him!" Lilac argues.
"You're better in the air!" Carol counters.
"But‑"
"Just do it!"
Reluctantly, Lilac switches her focus from the mech to the flying robots. With Milla already engaged in combat, Lilac charges up a Dragon Boost and unleashes it directly into the horde, taking out four of the insectoid drones before descending with a Cyclone that eliminates two more. Upon landing, Lilac regroups, charges, and unleashes another Dragon Boost before descending with another Cyclone. There must be a better way than this! But there isn't: Lilac's only option is to continue her Boost‑Cyclone pattern.
Milla has no such issues. Using the skills she developed in the Western Empire, she mixes up her attacks, summoning and throwing Phantom Blocks with one hand while unleashing arcs of jade destruction with sweeps of her piandao. The combination proves highly effective: for every robot that Lilac smashes, Milla takes out two or three.
With her friends taking care of the drones, Carol is free to attack the tarsier's mech. However, the tarsier, insane as he is, is neither foolish nor careless: knowing that her friends are merely a distraction, the tarsier focusses all his attention on Carol. Jets of napalm and volleys of bullets follow the young wildcat's every move, most coming close to striking the wily feline. However, the tarsier is hamstrung by Corazon's orders, and is unable to unleash the full power of the mech.
Realising the tarsier is vulnerable, Carol hatches a plan. Dodging the flames and bullets, she slowly works her way towards the mech, trying to get within reach of the arms so she can destroy the weaponry. However, the tarsier quickly works out Carol's intentions, and changes his fire pattern to compensate.
Carol notices the change almost too late: at the last second, she avoids being roasted alive, getting away with having her fur lightly singed. Retreating slightly, she's forced to work out a new plan. Come on, think like a Tea… Of course! It's so simple, yet so perfect!
With a smirk, Carol sets off at top speed, literally running rings around the mech. At first, the tarsier copes well, tracking Carol and forcing her to keep the pace up by firing directly behind her, intending to tire her out. However, such is Carol's speed and stamina, the tarsier is forced to spin the torso so fast it becomes disorientating.
As the tarsier starts to get dizzy, Carol presses her advantage. Maintaining speed, she slowly gets closer to the mech, forcing the tarsier to spin the torso increasingly quickly. Soon, the mech begins to smoke as the mechanisms spinning the torso begin to overheat. It's working! Carol continues to get closer to the mech, eventually forcing it to spin beyond its mechanical tolerances.
The torso grinds suddenly and loudly as the mechanism spinning it fails. But the torso's momentum is so great it doesn't stop: it tears the mechanism to shreds and breaks free from the legs.
Sensing victory is near, Carol finally closes right up to the mech, her Wild Claw making quick work of the machine guns. Unfortunately, she gets a bit carried away and hits one of the flamethrowers carelessly, rupturing a fuel tank, which ignites explosively a moment later.
Carol is thrown clear of the mech by the explosion, landing hard and rolling several feet, fortuitously extinguishing the handful of small fires in her clothing. That was dumb. Picking herself up, she sees the tarsier escape from the stricken mech in an escape pod.
"You aren't getting away that easily!" Unclipping the disc from her belt, Carol throws it towards the escape pod with all her strength. When she thinks the time is right, she hits the button on her teleporter… only to rematerialize several feet short of the escape pod and twenty feet in the air. And that was dumber. "HELP!"
Both Lilac and Milla react to Carol's sudden scream for help, Lilac charging a Dragon Boost, Milla taking off with a powerful Flutter Jump. Being closer to Carol, Milla reaches the falling wildcat first: she grabs Carol's arm and puts all her effort into landing safely. Their combined weight is almost too much for Milla to cope, but while their landing is rough, both are mercifully uninjured.
Lilac lands a moment later and re‑joins her friends. "We're not done yet," she informs, referring to the twenty insect drones still buzzing around.
"I need a moment," Carol informs, doing her best to fight her rising nausea.
"We'll finish them off," Milla promises. "You rest."
Lilac and Milla return to the task of smashing robots, leaving Carol to collapse onto all‑fours and vomit for the second time that day. I hate this I hate this I hate this so much. Why didn't this happen on the Dreadnought? Carol wipes her mouth clean, gets back to her feet, ejects the two spent crystals from her teleporter device, and watches as Lilac and Milla smash the last few drones.
With the battle over and the team victorious, they regroup.
"Carol, what on Avalice were you thinking‽" Lilac demands. "You could have been badly hurt!"
"I was thinking I grab that monkey and make him take us to Corazon!" Carol snaps. "That's the plan, is it not? To stop my psychotic sister before she destroys everything we saved two years ago?"
"Yes, but we can only do that if we survive our battles!" Lilac counters.
"This, coming from Little Miss Run‑Into‑The‑Enemy‑Base‑Alone!" Carol angrily reminds. "How well did that work out again?"
"I had to rescue Torque!" Lilac protests angrily.
"And we had to save you both!" Carol snaps back.
"Enough!" Milla yells, trying and failing to interrupt.
"And another thing!" Lilac continues. "We're Team Lilac! That means I'm in charge!"
"We're fighting my sister!" Carol retorts. "That puts me in charge!"
"I'm the oldest and the best trained!" Lilac counters.
"And I'm a fucking Tea!" Carol barks back.
"ENOUGH!" Milla yells desperately. "What on Avalice happened to you two‽" she demands. "You used to be such great friends, and now you look like you want to kill each other!"
Lilac and Carol blink in surprise as the same thought hits them simultaneously. Taken aback, they both take a long, deep, calming breath.
"Remember before Hanna and Rob got together?" Carol asks Lilac.
"How they nearly killed each other in RSHQ? Yeah," Lilac acknowledges.
"Let's not be like them," Carol decides.
"Agreed," Lilac nods. "Not that I'd ever marry you anyway," she adds in jest.
"You'd be missing out," Carol returns in kind. "I'm a prize catch!"
"Friends again?" Lilac asks, holding out a hand.
Carol raises a single eyebrow.
"OK, bring it in," Lilac relents, smiling and spreading her arms wide, ready to hug.
Carol and Milla embrace Lilac, and all three enjoy a relaxing group hug, the tension of the argument bleeding away.
"So, what do we know?" Lilac asks as the hug breaks.
"She claimed to be head of something called 'Itim Tsaa'," Carol informs. "I don't know what that is, but it's definitely not in any language spoken around the Origin Kingdoms."
"We also know she's going to the Arctic Wastes," Milla adds.
"And she has an airship," Carol concludes.
"To transport the robots and the mech?" Lilac guesses.
"Exactly," Carol confirms.
"So, we find the ship, we find Corazon," Lilac concludes.
"Why?" Carol asks. "We know where she's going, and we know she expects us to follow her there. So, why waste time? Let's get Zao to loan us a ship, and we high‑tail it up north and intercept if we can."
"Um… That might be a bit tricky," Lilac murmurs.
Carol folds her arms in disappointment. "What did you do?"
"I uh… I might have yelled at Zao," Lilac admits quietly.
"I'm not even going to ask," Carol decides. "I assume we also lost our paycheque."
"Yeah," Lilac confirms.
"We'll talk about this when my sister is defeated," Carol decides. "Right now, we need a ship, and we need one five minutes ago. And I know how we can get one," she continues, looking at Milla.
"M‑Me?" Milla stammers. "How am I going to get us a ship?"
"Remember how you got us one two years ago?" Carol asks. "We need that again."
"I dunno," Milla murmurs. "I'm not sure I can be that cute anymore."
"Nonsense," Carol smiles encouragingly. "You're easily the cutest person I know. If anything, you're even cuter now than you were back then."
Milla blushes at the compliment. "I'll try."
"Now that's sorted, let's get moving," Carol decides, setting off in the direction of the Town Hall, her friends following right behind her.