Skit: Heroes when ANY of their allies are under mind control [Vol. 2 Finale]


It seemed that two fiends were encroaching on her territory. They had stuck their noses in places where they didn't belong. She, Pandora, the witch of Vainglory, would put an end to it.

Silently stalking the two knights, she decided to play a little trick on one of them. Once one of them was under her control, the other would have to fight quite the uphill battle. It should be rather entertaining.

With a mere sentence, reality had been reshaped to her will.

Once she witnessed the purple-haired man stop in his tracks, she knew her plan was a success. There was no way they could win now.

[Subaru]: "Hey, Julius."

Julius only grumbled and glared at his frienemy. He was acting unusual, and as much as his fellow knight didn't want to admit it, he was concerned.

[Subaru]: "The hell, dude. What's wrong with you?"

"No better time than the present." The witch thought to herself as she slowly emerged from her hiding place.

[Pandora]: "He cannot hear you. He is completely under my control. Nothing but a mindless drone."

With one look at Julius' glazed eyes, Subaru could tell he was in for some trouble.

[Subaru]: "So, you did this?"

Perfect. Now she could reveal her master plan. It was Standard Villainy 101 after all. All good villains do it.

[Pandora]: "Why yes, I did. So you see, I'll never have to commit another crime again–"

-KABOOM-

Some sort of explosion rendered her unable to see. Pandora shielded her eyes from the blinding light. Was that lightning? There were no clouds in the sky today. Not that it could kill her.

Wait a minute… where did those two go?

-POW-

-SMACK-

[?]: "Blegh. Blawrgh. Uck!"

She looked behind herself, following the sounds of a scuffle.

To find the black-haired boy beating the ever-loving dragon out of his friend(?)!

-KAPOW-

[Pandora]: "AYE! What are you doing?!" This wasn't in the manual!

The witch put her hands to her head. Had he gone insane? Did she hit the wrong guy?

The mean-eyed boy doesn't stop punching him. He stares her dead in the eye. He knows what he's doing.

She was a little bit shaken to say the least.

[Pandora]: "T-That's your friend! Stop!"

Subaru does not stop.

Subaru slaps the elegance out of Julius. Then he delivers a left hook to his temple. Julius' spirits are also joining in on the fun, each of them getting their turns in. A combination of all types of magic rain down on Julius' immobile body.

[Pandora]: "He hasn't even done anything to you yet."

Subaru kicks Julius for good measure. This was just to snap him out of the mind control. Definitely not revenge for his beatdown from that duel or anything.

[Pandora]: "You don't even know how this power works. You don't know."

Subaru is listening, he really is. She does kinda have a point, but that doesn't mean he was going to stop. He punches Julius in the ribs, still listening to her rant. Kua, the water spirit, douses the fallen knight with water in attempts to wake him from the witches claws.

[Pandora]: "You're just jumping to conclusions. If anything hit me! I'm the one who– hit me!"

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. Wasn't a dashing hero supposed to battle her to death, while they both exchanged witty one-liners during the heat of combat. Did the manual lie to her?

Ake, the earth spirit conjures stairs from the soil underfoot, allowing Subaru to jump up and deliver a people's elbow straight to his friend's(?) sternum. Good thing his dad taught him all these finishing moves.

Anyone could tell that Julius was stronger than Subaru, so the best course of action was to just render him incapable of fighting as soon as possible. That was his thought process, at least.

[Pandora]: "I'm the one controlling him! Unbelievable. Look, look."

She undid her mind control.

[Julius]: "Ack! Bleh! It's me Subaru! I'm up."

[Subaru]: "Oh, you're back?"

[Julius]: "Yes."

Subaru punches him in his perfect face for extra good measure. You could never be too careful.

[Pandora]: "See, you fool. I hold the keys. What you're doing doesn't make any sense."

[Subaru]: "I did it."

She couldn't keep up the facade any longer.

[Pandora]: "Huh?! No! No you didn't; I did that! Your punching did nothing! I undid it from over here!" Her voice was rising in pitch. Her cheeks were flushed red from all the shouting she was doing.

Subaru wiped off his brow. Nothing like fighting off villainy to work up a sweat.

[Subaru]: "Oh, my punches did nothing?"

[Pandora]: "No. You're an idiot."

[Subaru]: "Oh, okay. So then, you would have undid this.. mind control thing to prove me wrong if I wasn't punching him? You would have done it regardless?"

Pandora staggered on her feet. What was going on anymore? Her gaze scanned over the ground, searching for an answer that wasn't there. The world was spinning.

[Subaru]: "Mmm, yeah it was the punching. The punching worked. I did it."

[Julius]: "You're stupid." The finest of knights had already been healed by his spirits. It was like he wasn't hurt to begin with. How stupid of her.

[Subaru]: "Yeah. You're stupid."

[Pandora]: "You're right. You got me."

A dry chuckle escaped her lips.

[Subaru]: "Yep. Gotchu. Checkmate. C'mon Julius, get up."

[Pandora]: "That was quite the play. You got me.. wow."

[Subaru]: "C'mon. We're jumping her. We can do it."

It was on that day when Pandora decided… that she was not a good villain.


A/N: And there's volume two! Hope you exhaled from your nose even a little from these ten chapters. Which volume did you like better? It might be a minute before volume three comes out, which will probably be the final one. Gotta get my creative juices flowing. Plus, I'm working on something staring the Felt camp that you may like.

Ciao!