Chapter 20: Lady Luck is Smiling
Meanwhile, in the stands...
In the back of this rowdy crowd of aliens, Kairi makes her way out with Priscilla close behind her. The fairly dressed pink maiden nudged her along safely down the stairs, telling her that if she sticks close the aliens won't be a threat.
Though that paid little service to the fact that the aliens' stench was as foul as a thousand tons of rotted trash. Kairi pinched her nose and squeezed her lips shut as she made her way down.
"Ughh, this is terrible...Have these assholes ever heard of a shower?" Once she was halfway down the steps she looked straight ahead past the pane of glass and saw the reason for all this commotion.
"Isn't that...?" Kairi perked up and picked up her feet in a haste to the window. There she pressed her hands up on it and saw Neptune and Mew staring each other down. Mew looked noticeably strained as he held onto his sword.
"Oh, they're fighting now..." Kairi wasn't at all surprised, but it did seem like it took them a while to get to this point. She had only been gone for twenty minutes, and was forced to see a lot of things that she shuddered to think about.
"Brrr..." As Kairi trembled Priscilla approached from behind.
"I hope you enjoyed the brief tour of the VIP station." She said in a soft, pleasant voice.
Kairi slacked her jaw as she tilted her head back towards her, her laugh as dry as dust, "Y-Yeah, it was a blast..."
Then Kairi felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise up. Priscilla swung her hand up to Kairi's neck and locked two of the claws around them. They edged so close to the skin that Kairi had to hold herself back from breathing deep lest the tips puncture her skin.
"But now the time for games is over." Priscilla's voice deepened and grew quiet, her pupils shrunken to the width of a piece of a paper.
Kairi slowly turned her head forward and lowered her hands to her hips. Her whole body was shaking and jolted when Priscilla barked "Don't make any sudden moves!"
Priscilla grazed the tip of one of her claws on Kairi's skin and murmured, "Such soft, delicate skin...Is this fragile doll really the one?"
"T-The one...?" Kairi slowly whispered.
"Do not even speak," Priscilla said with her fangs clenched down and a hiss of fire escaping between the gums, "The legend of my name may not be ingrained into your fairy tales like my wife's is, but even the ignorant masses know to cower at the sound of my title..."
Priscilla's nostrils flared with a puff of ashen smoke as she growled out in a deep, nasally voice, "For I, am the Scourge Draconis."
"S-Scourge Draconis?"
"My story is, to say the least, a long one...But no matter," Priscilla's eyes flared open as she put her gaze firmly on the back of Kairi's head, "All you need to know is that whatever I digest, I can infuse into my claws. And right now they are laced with a powerful paralyzing neurotoxin that could knock out a Tremorlord in a nanosecond."
"Why are you doing this?" Kairi couldn't stop herself from asking.
"Why?" Priscilla closed her eyes yet Kairi got the feeling she never stopped looking at her, "Because I owe Gravitus more than you could possibly know. And regardless of whether Belle wins or loses I plan on delivering you to him personally."
Priscilla opened her eyes with exceptional force and vowed to her captive, "So if you make any sudden moves, or even try to breathe the wrong way...My claws will penetrate your skin and the toxin shall do the rest."
Priscilla then nudged her head forward and said, "So enjoy the show. That boy's defeat shall be the last you ever see of him..."
She spoke with an amount of faith bordering on worship towards her wife that for a moment Kairi found herself worrying that Mew could win. She turned to look down on the battlefield and as much as she wanted to, she couldn't place her hands on the window.
"...But there's no way he'd lose, right?" She was Priscilla's hostage, and deep down she knew it was because she didn't listen to Mew. And now, here she stands, worrying that he might not make it through this fight...
Back below...
Mew wiggled his bulky sword around in a small circle and found his arms were fighting him every step of the way. He grit his teeth, dispelled his weapon, then let his heavier hands fall to his hips.
"This is quite the handicap," He playfully said in his head, "Guess I'll just have to find a way to turn it to my advantage."
Neptune winked and nudged her head forward. The pool balls that surrounded her glowed with a hazy lavender and then flung themselves one at a time at Mew.
Mew hopped to the right but dropped to the ground faster than a boulder. Two of the pool balls clocked him in the gut and the rest lined up and rammed him in the forehead as he cobbled over somewhat. He was knocked onto his back and the added weight hurt him extra hard.
He pressed his elbows down and got up on his feet, but it took a second longer than he was expecting. Even the simple act of taunting Neptune by swiping the back of his hand under his chin took excruciating effort.
The balls returned to her side and she waggled a finger up by her face to say, "Seems you could stand to lose a few pounds."
"Really?" Mew bit back with a sardonic grin. He then swung his right hand up as hard as he could and threw a fireball straight for Neptune's face.
She met the attack with one of her pool balls swinging at it like an uppercut. Mew volleyed a few more fireballs her way and she beat them back by throwing her pool balls at them like a hurricane of fists. Mew then hung his hands to his hips and Neptune clanked the pool balls together and parted them back around her body.
"Guess those aren't made of glass huh?" Mew deducted.
"Those gem pool sticks aren't just for show, you know~" Neptune teased with a small, dazzling smile and a finger poised before her lips.
"Well I ain't worried about busting a few balls!" Mew boasted with a big grin.
Neptune's brows perked up and she let out a subdued, tantalizing "Oooh" as she rested her hands even atop the pool stick and remarked, "Well don't you worry little boy, I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeves."
"Little...boy?" Mew jogged his mind trying to process why she said that, "Uhh, immortality aside, aren't we both the exact same-"
Neptune suddenly flicked her right arm across her chest and a playing card slid out of the sleeve to rest comfortably in her grip. Mew widened his eyes and told himself "Focus!" as the gambler was prepared to unveil her newest trick.
She hovered the card near her face to taunt Mew with its supposed importance while hurtling her pool balls his way. Mew stuck to sliding around to evade until he can get more accustomed to his increased weight. But even then it was like his feet were anchors scraping up against solid concrete.
The pool balls clanked harmlessly off the ground then rebounded straight back to their owner to try again. Neptune pivoted her broom stick towards Mew's direction then narrowed her eyes upon him.
With a flick of the wrist her card zoomed in-between in pool balls and wound up almost scraping against Mew's left shoulder. He didn't even feel it, much to his surprise.
"Ok, can safely cross out 'Razor Cards' as a threat..." But by the time he processed that and looked back up, Neptune was gone.
"Huh?" Mew's eyes perked up as he sensed her presence behind him and glanced over his shoulder.
"Too late~" Neptune teased as she swung both her feet into Mew's back, supported by her pool stick acting as a pole.
Her pool balls followed suit by striking Mew a few times across the back of his body, then bundling up for one mighty strike to knock him flat on his face.
Mew put his hands down at the last second and struggled to flip up into a handstand, which he used to turn back around and flip onto his feet. He bounced around in place and watched Neptune float back up on her broomstick.
"So she used the card to teleport..." Mew smiled. It was a fun little trick.
Neptune smiled back then waved her hand out to send her pool balls back at Mew. He planted his feet in the ground and swung his hands out, catching one of them in each hand. Their force threw his arms back, but he fought against their push to thrust them out and punch at the other balls hurtled his way.
Neptune drew another card in the interim and laced it with a kiss. She then tossed it out and snapped her fingers, forcing the pool balls back to her side. Mew felt he was wise to Neptune's trick and leaped to the left whilst turning around. Just as he suspected, the card stopped behind where he stood and enlarged to roughly Neptune's size. The card was a "Jack of Spades" depicting Neptune holding her pool stick like a jousting spear.
"...Wait a second."
The card glowed and Neptune herself went charging out towards Mew enveloped in a sharp cone of lavender energy. Mew grit his teeth and cupped his hands around his stomach to grab onto the tip of Neptune's stick the moment she got in close.
The energy dispersed and her pool balls took the reins on attacking Mew in her place. Mew bit his teeth down and figured "Screw it!" on letting his skin get bruised if it meant he finally had his opponent at his mercy. But the thing about fighting a magician is that they are masters of deception. And perhaps the greatest deception Neptune had pulled on Mew is making him forget that her pool stick also doubled as a wand.
She smiled and waved one hand up as the other gripped the pool stick wand and infused it with magic. Mew widened his eyes then swerved his body out of the way before he was blasted by twinkling energy.
He then planted his feet on the ground and swung his fist out, punching a huge bullet of fire towards his foe. He swung his head up with a smile to see the result, only to find that fireball flying back at him. He didn't have to avoid it since, y'know, Elemental Overlord and all that, but as the embers flickered out of sight he stood there looking dazed and confused.
Neptune floated back up in the air on her broom/poolstick/wand and laid a pointer finger up against her cheek, her pool balls dangling around almost like they were laughing.
"A valiant effort, but your gamble didn't pay off."
Mew thought about it for a moment and said during a long sigh, "Lemme guess, that has to do with your Drive?"
"Heehee," Neptune giggled with the tone of a child, "My Deflection Drive, to be precise."
Mew grumbled internally at how, once again, his opponent had to be loose-lipped about their powers, even if he HAD already pieced it together. Though Neptune did offer some condolence to the boy in exchange for spilling the beans.
"Don't feel too bad about it. I would have set up that kind of barrier even if that wasn't my Drive."
Mew raised his head and his eyes were in an unamused slump, "Shoot, and here I was banking on my projectiles to make up for all this extra weight."
As the gambler teased him with a wink Mew just nudged his head left and thought, "Well I guess when push comes to shove...!"
He dug his feet into the ground and suddenly leaped straight towards Neptune with his hands clenched together above his head and his teeth bit down in excitement, "Make do with what you got!"
Neptune whisked her right hand before her face and one of her pool balls centered itself near her chest, expanding to creating a barrier around her entire body and broomstick. When Mew's fists came down she went to the ground, where her barrier rebounded her back into the air even with Mew's line of sight.
The barrier dispersed and Mew clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He landed on the ground, the intense fighting force of gravity keeping him from daring to stay in the air. His efforts seemed fruitless until he noticed that Neptune had to sacrifice that pool ball in order to protect herself.
Neptune brushed the back of her hair up and said, "Again, a valiant effort, but I wasn't going to take any chances. After all, you did beat my dear sister."
"Can't take a hit, can ya?" Mew said in the face of her seemingly endless means of protecting herself.
"I think that puts us on even footing," Neptune remarked, "For while your power may be mystical in nature, your body is just as vulnerable to magic as anyone else."
It wasn't some blind bluff. The proof lied in the burden of Mew's extra weight. But if there was one thing Mew felt confident he held over Neptune, and that was his speed.
"That may be true, but I'll still beat you in the blink of an eye!" He proclaimed while squeezing a fist up near his face.
Neptune leaned in a little, paddled her feet in the air, and met his boast with a dainty smile, "Ladies don't appreciate a man who finishes quickly. Why don't you draw this out a little?"
Neptune swung her right hand out and the tip of her broomstick broke off and flew into her hand, which she then whisked around towards Mew while telling him to "Make the good times last?"
With a graceful flick of the wrist her magic formed the outline of four circles around Mew. Mew tried to take a step forward but all four circles lit up and shot pillars of green energy skyward. He edged back to the center and kept his eye on Neptune as her wand reattached to the broom and she flicked the back of her fingers towards him.
"Watch carefully now~" Was her only hint.
Mew's eyes darted around to the four circles, which upon closer inspection resembled a four-leaf clover. The "leaf" to his left, right, and front blinked briefly with light.
"Is there any order to this or...?" The circles exploded with energy like before but this time the points he saw blink converged towards the center. His instincts kicked in and he leaped back, landing safely upon the dormant circle. He looked down, let out a sigh of relief, then watched the lightshow as the converging lights formed a titanic pillar that spread out upon hitting the ceiling.
"Ok. Only one of these isn't a threat..." When the energy faded Mew quickly leaped back into the center, "Good to know."
He blinked and the next thing he knew Neptune's pool balls were flying at his face. He threw his hands up to block them but in doing so swung his eyes away from the left and front "leafs". He saw the right and back ones light up and hastily tried to deduce which other one was safe.
"Left front left front left front!" His eyes darted between them until he locked onto the left one and leaped towards it. And as luck would have it, he was correct, and the energy swung on by him unharmed.
Neptune clapped her hands as Mew returned to the center. A bit of praise to dull the savagery of her pool balls striking him during her game. Mew kept using his arms to fend them off. Only now was he realizing that the added weight meant the extra work he put into moving himself made his muscles weaker to any of Neptune's attacks.
Got to grin and bear it. Mew said while gritting his teeth and concentrating most of his attention onto the four circles. He leaped to the right, then the left again, and towards the back. He prided himself as being a bit of a trickster, but now that he's the one being tricked on it he did find it to be a little funny.
There has to be a way out of this game... And the answer was staring him down right in the face. As he leaped left again he didn't see the energy as pillars of annihilation but rather as geysers. He grinned all to himself and then jumped back to the center. He had to go to the front once for safety but upon leaping back he waited for the front circle to activate again.
The moment he saw the glint he drew his sword and laid it flat atop the circle. He then made one short hop onto the blade and the energy launched both of them straight up high. Mew hopped right off the blade and combined his newfound weight with gravity to go plummeting straight towards Neptune.
She threw up another one of her barriers and Mew's punch barreled down at her with the force of a cannonball launched at mach speed. She went bouncing off the ground, up into the ceiling, then slowly hovered back to the floor. All Mew managed was a small crack in the barrier as it parted.
I'm not done yet! He proclaimed as threw his blistered knuckles to his hip and swung his free hand behind him. His sword flew down from being pinned to the ceiling and he leaped up to meet it. He grabbed it in one hand and dove at Neptune with the tip of his blade at the lead.
Neptune conjured up another barrier the second before impact and was dragged to the edge of the arena. Mew held the tip of his blade against her barrier and dropped to the ground. When her defenses were down she leaned back against the wall while on her broomstick and raised one of her feet to the tip of Mew's blade.
She gave it a light tap and said, "Hmmm, mayhaps I should've increased the weight of this sword."
She leaned her head back and bit her lower lip, remarking in a tender, vulnerable voice, "But its already so...thick. Such a hassle for a frail little woman like me~"
Mew squeezed his eyes shut and thought, "W-Why are half the Planetary Aurians super horny?"
Though in Neptune's case, it may have just been an instance of psychological warfare, as she quickly took advantage of Mew's annoyance to throw a card straight up out of her sleeve. She winked as she warped away and stuck her feet to the wall upon re-emerging.
Mew backed away with a couple hops to get a better view of what his foe was plotting. She held her broomstick like a pool stick again and lined up her remaining balls on the tip. They got supercharged and looked like miniature bombs, though Mew had the sense that they weren't going to explode on impact.
Neptune pointed all the balls and Mew and let them loose with a gentle thrust. Mew hopped back and grit his teeth as the balls collided with the ground and started bouncing around all over the place. Even with how expansive the arena was the balls rebounded back to him in a couple of seconds.
Mew dispelled his sword and spun around, throwing his weight into his fists to punch the balls away and disrupt their pattern or, if possible, slow them down. Speeding balls and the streaking lights in their wake would be the least of his concerns.
Neptune pulled out three white and black dice between her fingers and with a gentle infusion of magic rolled them at the ground. They grew to be her size and landed on a set of fours.
The dots atop them glowed and Neptune raised her hand as she floated around on her broomstick. The ceiling lit up and bolts of magical energy dropped around Mew's location. There was twelve of them in total, and they were strong enough to leave damaging ripples on the ground.
Mew evaded them all but the pool balls had their way with him for a few moments. He took a hard hit to the knee and swore he heard it crack. He felt ready to bend down but knew it'd make it harder to keep an eye on the dice.
Neptune rolled them again and they landed on a three, five, and two. Ten lasers rained down this go-around. They seemed to be weaker, but not any less dangerous.
"Higher rolls mean stronger lasers...God help me if it lands on a 18!" Mew was starting to get annoyed by all the balls bouncing around and held his hand out to snag one of them up.
His arm almost tore off the socket but he held on for dear life and spun around. He gripped the ball's fighting spirit tight between his fingers and wound up a pitch by filling it with electricity.
"Here ya...GO!" Mew threw the ball with all his might and it went straight for its owner as quick as lightning.
Neptune, however, smiled and watched as her ball deflected off her aura and hovered out of the way. Mew smirked, snapped his fingers out, and the electricity discharged off the ball into a seizure-inducing blast.
Neptune got knocked off her broomstick and into the wall. She bounced off it and managed to call her broom to catch her. Mew dashed in for a follow-up attack but she quickly called her pool balls back and used one to shield herself.
"Hmmm, I guess that was a little silly of me..." Neptune giggled as her barrier peeled off and she leaned comfortably on her broomstick.
Mew scoffed then backed off, his opportunity to end this lost. Neptune then snapped her wand off the tip of the stick and waved it around above her head.
"I think its time I...put the odds back in my favor." With a heavenly ding from her wand she was shoved away from the wall by the appearance of a large golden slot machine.
She already had it set to spin and placed her wand back onto the stick. She then kicked back and sang a little jingle at Mew, "Wheel of fortune turn turn turn, what is the fate that you shall earn?"
"Nothing good, that's for sure!" Mew cracked his knuckles and went to shut her slot machine down permanently. But with a flick of her wrist the three dice she laid went up in his path.
Mew drew his sword and attacked one of the dice. It flew over Neptune's head and she ducked under it, letting it fall like a leaf to her left. She waggled her finger up as it landed on a six, and the two other dice gyrated to change from a pair of 1s to a pair of 6s.
"If you want to play the game, then you must abide by the rules~"
"Ah..." Mew heard booming thunder and looked up, his face turning pale as the whole ceiling lit up, "Crap!"
All eighteen magic bolts came down so thick and condensed that it may as well been one big bolt. Mew drew his sword up as a makeshift umbrella. But having to balance that weight on top of his own just brought him to his knees and left him vulnerable to the shockwaves of the remainder of the bolts.
The magical energies remained as ripples on his skin as they subsided. Mew lifted his head right up and watched as Neptune's slots locked onto three cherries in a row. He wasn't the least bit surprised that it'd line up right away.
"Now what's it going to do...?" He worried as he slowly stood back up.
Suddenly, a pair of cherries poofed in front of her mouth. She smiled, snatched them up in her lips, and started chewing. Mew stood there hastily blinking his eyelids, wondering when the other shoe would drop on this.
Nothing like a refreshing treat in the middle of battle. Neptune creased out a smile and what little damage Mew got on her body was wiped clean, to his annoyance.
She then poked the stem of the cherries out on the tip of her tongue. They were tied up in this nice little knot that she dangled in the air before spitting it out. Mew closed his eyes, tapped one foot on the ground, and waited for the slots to start up again.
"O-Okay then..." Confused, he swung his right arm out and rushed at Neptune once more. Her dice couldn't save her this time, forcing her to drop one of her barriers.
"Gotcha!" Mew planted his hand on the barrier instead of punching it then vaulted right over, slam dunking her into the ground. He then drew his sword and slashed the slot machine down the middle on his way to the ground.
The moment he landed he leaped back a few times and watched as the slots lined up the fabled Lucky 7. Neptune's barrier slid off and she waggled her finger out again to say, "Did you not learn your lesson the first time?"
Mew cracked a grin and raised a brow coyly, "What can I say? I'm a slow learner!"
Cause the fact of the matter was that dealing with the slot machine's strongest attack was worth it if it meant getting it out of the way. Neptune shrugged and then snapped her fingers up. The top of the slot machine opened up and out came dozens of giant dice consumed with magical energy. They dropped down like meteorites, twinkling like gemstones.
As pretty as they were their impacts would surely be nasty. Mew took to the skies even under the strain of gravity and the dice created decent sized explosions on the ground. In their great numbers they were as big a threat as the strongest magic bolts from before.
But they also offered a benefit that Neptune possibly couldn't have foreseen. Mew lined himself up with one of the dice and flew in, delivering a swift, booming kick to its side. The dice flew straight at Neptune and she protected herself with one of her few remaining barriers.
Mew then whipped his right hand out and shot a vine from his wrist while exclaiming, "GET OVER HERE!"
The vine wrapped around her barrier and she was pulled right in to Mew. As the barrier dispersed Mew grabbed her by the collar of her suit and dropped to the ground. By this point the dice meteors had ran their course.
"Got you this time." Mew claimed as he wound back his right fist to deliver the final blow.
"Hmhmhm!" Neptune's chuckling held him back for a moment and she briefly flashed a grin his way.
A little bondage goes a long way, She slowly raised her empty hands up and remarked, "A strap of leather or two around the wrists, maybe a couple more on the ankles for good measure? Surely that sounds like a fun time, no?"
The playful wording couldn't distract Mew from the obvious in that her broomstick was suddenly nowhere to be found. That was because, from the corner of his eye, he watched as the wand quickly etched a six-pointed star with Mew in the very center.
He turned and the moment he blinked Neptune had a card in her hand, which she flicked safely behind her body. She waved that same hand to go "Ta-ta" and then warped out of Mew's grip with surprising ease. Mew was about ready to pursue when the energies from the seal collapsed upon his location, sealing him up in a large hexagonal crystal.
"Shoot...!" He immediately threw a punch at the barrier but it bounced right off it.
Neptune taunted him from the outside just by floating on her broom then threw her right hand out, proclaiming so he could hear her, "Its been fun love, but it seems your luck has run dry! And your passion...is but a droplet to my tide!"
Exactly one-hundred giant darts, each sharp enough to spear into an asteroid, surrounded Mew's prison from afar, lifted by the glow of the magic seal. Neptune raised her hand up high and exclaimed, "Yet this be your curtain call! Maiden's Bullseye!"
A few moments ago...
Kairi widened her eyes as Mew appeared to be in an inescapable predicament. The crowd was roaring louder than ever, drowning out everything she could hear save for Priscilla breathing down her neck. The half-dragon scoffed and murmured, "And here I thought he'd put up more of a fight..."
Kairi wondered if something was holding Mew back. This didn't seem like the kind of problem he'd have trouble solving. She saw him beat back Jupiter's strength, triumph over Saturn's resolve, and even best Gabriel's dedication. A single barrier shouldn't be enough to defeat him.
She looked to the crowd and wondered if seeing and hearing all these people stand against him was the cause. The longer she looked at them the more she saw these miscreants as her fellow Aurians, and her imagination caused them to turn and start laughing and taunting at her.
A bitter cold crept up in her heart as she closed her eyes and dispelled the bad thoughts. Priscilla caught wind of her movements and tickled the sides of her neck with her claws while reminding her, "Don't try anything funny. There's nothing you can do to help him now."
She was just as much a prison to Priscilla as he was a prisoner to Neptune. Was this really the end of the road for him? For her? After all that work she put into training? After all that time he bothered to put towards helping her out?
She didn't know why this bothered her so much. But one thing was for sure. She couldn't let this be the end of it, not when she was literally two steps away from Gravitus...
Priscilla had her in a bind, but from what Kairi could feel she wasn't one-hundred percent in control as she thought she was. There was little time for her to move, and even littler to act. Kairi opened her right hand and concentrated on summoning her staff.
Priscilla looked down for just a second and that was the opening Kairi needed to take her staff and jab the bottom of it into the half-dragon's gut. The air in Priscilla's lungs checked out through her mouth and upon turning around Kairi smacked Priscilla in the face and knocked her onto her back.
All this without the claws even itching her neck. Kairi panted heavily and pushed her staff into Priscilla's face to hold her down.
"Y-You're wrong. I'm not as worthless as you think I am!" She proclaimed over her fallen foe.
Priscilla merely closed her eyes and responded in her more casual tone of voice, "Indeed you are not. You managed to get the jump on me when I least expected it."
Priscilla tried to rise but Kairi held her down by the chin with all her strength. Yet the half-dragon snatched the bottom of her staff in one hand and pushed it back, looking none the weary for trying. When Priscilla stood up she brushed off some dust on her suit and remarked, "If I attempted to reclaim the advantage now our patrons would get caught up in the mix."
She then brushed her claws out a couple times and said, "So go...If you truly think you can still make a difference."
Kairi widened her eyes then turned around and went for the window. With all the time she had to spare she looked deep inside of herself and screamed at the top of her lungs, "DON'T GIVE UP! MEW!"
Back at ground level Mew's eyes perked up and he looked towards the stands. All the aliens were having a rip-roaring good time but he swore he heard a noise different from the rest. It wasn't much but that little bit of encouragement got him smiling.
He swung his arms out, squeezed his fists against the weight of his body, and exclaimed to Neptune as the darts looked poised to fire, "If your passion's a tide then it implies you've got a limit! But me? I'm always breaking through them!"
The darts came flying all at once and Mew punched his way around the entire barrier. He spun around and the sheer adrenaline blinded him to what was going on. He could feel the tip of every dart against his knuckles the moment it punctured the barrier. Somehow, he held off every single dart in the span of a couple seconds.
It was tiring. Exhausting. Yet rewarding at the same time. As he caught his breath the barrier around him cracked and left Neptune wide-eyed. He then grinned and, with one straight-forward movement, broke out of the barrier and threw a punch into Neptune's gut.
She was blown right off her broomstick and slammed into the back wall. Her broomstick dropped to the ground and Mew wobbled upright, swinging one fist at Neptune while weakly yelling at her, "S-Stay down!"
A moment later a glint of light appeared around his body and shattered off, and he comparatively felt light as a feather.
"Whew..." He sighed. He looked up to the audience and after some silence they got in a rather nasty uproar. He couldn't blame them. If they didn't hate the Elemental Overlord enough already him robbing them of all their money didn't help.
But he just put his hands behind his head, whistling innocently to himself and then chuckled, "Just goes to show why you don't go gamblin' blind."
The rancorous noise immediately silenced as Neptune raised her hand to the ground and got on her feet. After brushing her suit clean she called her pool stick back to her hand, where it shrunk down to the size of a toothpick and fit gently into her chest pocket.
She raised her head and announced, "The match is over! The victor, it seems, is our guest."
She gestured her hand from her chest towards Mew. He just stood there and with a big grin was ready to accept the inevitable applause. But the aliens just silently turned their heads and dragged their asses out of the stands, a couple of them throwing their hands up as if to say "To hell with this"
Mew dropped his hands and head and sighed. "Someday, I'll be famous..." He lamented.
Neptune trotted up to him while adjusting her cuffs, which seemed to have gotten scuffed up in the battle.
"On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd wager that was a 9." Neptune stood in front of Mew and he tilted his head aside.
"...Fooooor?"
"Oh, I'll leave that to your imagination," Neptune turned aside and gave him a wink, "Though I imagine it won't be that hard."
Mew blinked a few times then rolled his shoulders as Neptune turned to the entrance to the arena and remarked, "Well well, how am I going to manage all these winnings?"
Mew watched as a house sized pile of treasure was wheelbarrow'd in by Priscilla, containing gold and gemstones from all across the known universe. Mew thanked GOD that there were no dollar bills among them. Priscilla dumped it all onto the ground in front of Neptune and Mew put his hands to his ears to block the noise out.
"Holy SHIT how much treasure is that?!" He shouldn't have been too surprised cause of how many aliens seemed to bet on the match, but...Even still.
Priscilla laid the wheelbarrow down and clapped her hands clean. She then nodded at her loving wife and remarked, "This is the first of ten loads Belle. Should I bring out the rest or...?"
"No no, this is fine for now," Neptune had a rather shaky grin as she wagged her hand down to curb her wife's enthusiasm, "It'll take me a week just to sort through this pile..."
"Man, whoever won the bet is set for life." Mew chuckled, exasperated by the staggering amount of gold there was.
Priscilla jumped on top of the pile and laid herself out comfortably like it was her throne. She tilted her head and a smug huff of smoke from her nostrils was enough to tell Mew all he needed to know.
"YOU betted on me?!" Mew said with his finger gestured at the half-dragon. Neptune then took his finger and gently lowered it to her face.
"Actually, I did." She said as if that made Mew's estimate any less surprising.
"H-Huh?" Mew didn't know much about gambling but he did know one thing, "Isn't that...illegal?"
Neptune closed her eyes and chuckled. Mew then got all up in arms about her behavior and exclaimed in her face, "Hey hey hey wait a second! Don't tell me you threw our match!"
"Hahaha silly child," Neptune tilted her head over her shoulder and brushed the back of her hand against her hair to move it aside, "I fought with every fiber of my being."
She then closed her eyes and remarked, "Think of it like this. If I win, then it helps keep my business prosperous. Aliens will flock in droves for the chance to meet the lady who bested the legendary Elemental Overlord. But if I lose? Then I still get away with all those eager beavers' earnings."
Mew put a hand on his chin and muttered, "So either way you win."
"Now you get how I play." Neptune said with a soft, delighted chuckle as she turned to her "Well-earned" winnings.
Mew crossed his arms under his chest and grumbled somewhat bitterly, "I...don't know how I feel about that."
"Then should I return this money to those warmongering aliens?" Neptune's tone turned a tad melancholic.
"Huh?" Mew murmured.
"What sounds like a better use for all this money? Pleasure? Or conquest?" Neptune closed her eyes and in her manner of speaking told Mew in a blunt tone of voice, "Because if I give all this gold and jewels back, they'll only use it for the latter."
Mew closed his eyes and tried to think about things from Neptune's perspective. And that was when he realized, "So the reason you let all these bad aliens in..."
"Oh don't get the wrong idea. I am no saint," Neptune picked up a bumpy piece of gold and sniffed it until the scent made her moan, "We looooove money..."
After she passed the gold off for Priscilla to indulge in her own weird sniffing fetish, Neptune rested her hand towards Mew's direction and told him, "But...might as well use that greed for some good, no?"
Mew softened his gaze towards the gambler and with half a smile shrugged his shoulders and remarked, "I guess I was a little quick to judge."
"A feeling that's going all around today." Priscilla remarked as she raised a silver goblet filled with jeweled necklaces.
Mew had a slight laugh at that. The sound of footsteps then turned him left and he saw Kairi dragging her feet back into the room. She looked exhausted and was sweating a bit.
"I...had to wade through...so many angry aliens!" She stopped a few feet away from Mew and looked up to see him grinning from cheek-to-cheek. She glared at him until he said something in return.
"Oh there you are! Where have you been?"
Kairi widened her eyes then gawked out "I was...!" followed by jabbing at the stands and babbling out, "And you...!"
But she didn't make a complete sentence before throwing her fists down and with a beet red face exclaimed, "Uuugh! You're such an asshole idiot sometimes!"
A combination of insults was at least a little new, he'd give her that. She then puffed her cheeks and put her arms behind her back. She threw a narrow glare at Priscilla and Neptune indulging themselves in gold then grumbled "You won, so can we go now?" to Mew.
Yeah. Something tells me we're just ruining the mood for the ol' love birds. Mew's hand was then snatched up in Neptune's grasp and she planted a stamp firmly on the back of his hand.
Indeed. Your VIP time has expired, She lifted the stamp, a pair of dice that looked oddly suggestive, and she then slid behind Mew and gently pushed him at the rear, "So just take the train back down and perhaps we'll meet again when you're old enough to gamble."
Neptune leaned past Mew and winked Kairi's way, "Or maybe a little sooner...If the little bud ever feels like blossoming into a flower."
Kairi leaned back, clenched her hands up near her chest, then turned away and remarked, "N-Not on your life!"
She then started to storm off and Mew had no choice but to follow. He waved goodbye to his hosts and slipped out of sight down the hall.
When they were gone Priscilla leaned back into the treasure pile and chuckled at her wife, "Subtle as always, aren't you dear?"
Neptune turned and said with a small smile, "I wouldn't have stolen the dragon's heart if I was anything but..."
"Hmmm..." Priscilla daintily opened her eyes and puffed smoke through her nostrils, "Funny, that's not how I remember the story going."
"Oh?" Neptune perked her brows up and held her arms out like starting a hug, "Then perhaps you'd like to jog my memory?"
A scaly lizard tail lashed out from Priscilla's behind and wrapped around Neptune's waist, slowly pulling her in closer. In the meantime the half-dragon started to unbutton her suit and purr.
"Come closer. Do you dare brave the dragon's den?"
Neptune looked as calm as ever as she started to undo her tie, her passionate gaze locked onto Priscilla's jeweled irises. Wrapped in her ever-loving grip, Neptune was prepared to dive face first into the half-dragon's bare bosom...
"Oh I almost forgot!" Mew suddenly yelled from afar, his voice shattering the tender mood like a pane of glass, "Your sister said she'd be coming to visit today!"
He stood there, ignorant to what he had done, and then slid out of sight like he was never there at all. Priscilla's face slumped and her tail uncoiled off of Neptune.
"The mood's ruined..." She grumbled with a feral hiss.
Neptune licked her lips with the tip of her tongue and wiggled her fingers up at her face towards her wife, "Speak for yourself dear."
She then dove right in and buried the two's passionate embrace under a landslide of gold and jewels. What would unfold was their little secret, but Mew and Kairi would be left hearing the beginning of their pleasurable affairs.
"Ooooooooooooo!"
The noise caused Kairi to swing her head back before entering the train and wonder, "I-Is that a ghost?"
Mew shook his head and remarked, "If you really need to know just ask your m-"
He paused, blinked, shook his head, and then gently pushed Kairi into the bullet train while telling her, "O-On second thought...never mind."
"What? What is it? What what WHAT?!" She'd beg for the answers but they would never come...
Next Time: The Missing Link