I'm back, somewhat. expect more =) (the ending is bad, but it's 4 am and I've run out of shits to give)
"So how we doing?" Moll asked Orihime lightly as they ran along the Koryuu currents, the urgency in their step at contrast with the frozen walls, something Moll wished she could go back and retroactively change about her first visit to the Soul Society "We've been training for this, and anyway, Hitsugaya-taichou and Ikkaku, Yumichika, Matsumoto, Renji and Joel are on the scene, I bet we'll just get stuck doing cleanup"
The air went cold around them and both Moll and Orihime stopped, the chills penetrating right to their core and freezing them in place
"The ineptitude of Soul Society is astounding" Ulquiorra commented, stepping slowly out of an open Garganta that had appeared in one of the frozen walls "Even they should realize that you are at your most vulnerable while in transit"
Moll went white, and while she wanted to reach her sword she just couldn't, practically being suffocated in the thickness of Ulquiorra's reiatsu, was it even possible for the reiatsu in the air to be so densely packed? How hadn't the particles fused yet?
"I see they didn't leave you entirely unprotected" Ulquiorra continued, not even glancing at Moll as he referred to her, his eyes entirely focused on Orihime as he slowly made his way towards her "But one pathetic original will not be enough to stop me"
With Ulquiorra's words some spark returned to Moll.
"Looking down on me?" she thought angrily as she drew her zanpakuto and interspersed herself between Orihime and the steadily advancing Ulquiorra
Ulquiorra almost smirked. Almost.
"Your refusal to acknowledge a hopeless situation amuses me, It is fortunate for you that a …colleague of mine has requested that you survive this encounter"
Faster than Orihime could follow, Ulquiorra literally flicked Moll out of the way, and into his Garganta, which sealed shut behind her.
"Now, I believe we may have our conversation, uninterrupted"
"Zan…" Orihime began
"Do not speak!" Ulquiorra commanded "Come with me, and you will say yes, because any other word will result in death… but not yours"
Ulquiorra gestured and images appeared floating behind him, images of Ichigo, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Yumichika, Joel and Layne, all bruised, battered and beaten
"I'll kill your friends, every single one of them, No questions, do not say a word, you have no rights in this situation, Just the hangman's noose over each of your friends necks. This is not a negotiation, this is an order."
"Who the hell are you?" Luppi muttered, seemingly unfazed by Joel ripping off one of his tentacles and tossing it to the side
Joel ignored him, and turned to Matsumoto "He your mate?" he asked jokingly, attempting to take some of the tension off Matsumoto, who was all too aware how close her end had been
"I didn't invite him" she replied weakly "I thought you did"
"Don't ignore me" Luppi snarled, still waving around Ikkaku and Yumichika idly "I will fucking rip you all to shreds"
"I don't take threats well" Joel replied, cracking his neck and rocky knuckles "Duty demands that I kill you, but I'm probably going to have fun beating your ass just the same"
Luppi raised an eyebrow, intrigued by Joel's confidence
"I've never broken someone so cocky before" he said through a smirk "I get to kill five Shinigami today? The other Espada will all be so jealous of me"
Joel punched his rocky fists together, forgoing another quip at Luppi and shunpoed' forwards, narrowly dodging a spiky tentacle as he reappeared behind Luppi, aiming a powerful right hook straight for his face
Luppi ducked under it with ease and countered with a high kick that Joel blocked with his left arm, grunting as he absorbed the impact, reflexively surprised that Luppi's little frame could make a hit with such power, even though it was a moot point as reiatsu was the measure of strength, not muscles.
Luppi's hit had pushed Joel back a little bit, allowing him to grab Luppi's other foot in the middle of a followthrough and crush in his palm, in what would've broken a normal person's foot, but only served to piss Luppi off, who brought around two more spiked tentacles to retaliate
Joel, expecting this, hit the deck so fast he amazed himself, and nearly got caught by a tentacle followthrough that grazed his forehead, damn near taking it off, but leaving Luppi open, exactly what Joel had been waiting for
Joel shot up towards Luppi fists first
"Elevation: Everest!"
Layne's mask fell to pieces and scattered to the wind as he knelt down, barely able to breathe from his exertions
"That's it" he thought to himself, so utterly exhausted even thinking the words seemed like a bad idea "I'm out, no more mask, no rain, no reiatsu bursts, I've never been so totally and utterly spent"
Layne glanced over at his handiwork, at the destruction he had used up his entire reserve of energy for, and couldn't see, or sense Mollow anywhere
"Maybe, I actually vaporized her, I can't sense her anywhere, it's like she just ceased to exist"
Those last few seconds of furiously firing cero's with his claw had seemed like an eternity, like two years had passed while he rained down pure destruction on the world, and then the world had come back into focus, and there was nothing but the urge to sleep left
A piece of rubble shifted and suddenly Layne was hyperaware of the world around him, as Mollow crawled out, bloody, bruised, but looking more pissed than either dead or vaporized
They locked eyes and instantly recognized the situation
Layne was fucked, completely and unequivocally
Mollow grinned as she picked herself up and retrieved her demon zanpakuto, no longer the proud sword Sora and brandished it at Layne
"I am going to fuck your shit up, and shit in your mouth"
All Layne could do was think "Goddammit"
Ichigo hit the ground as Grimmjow floated down next to him, wearing what could only be described as a shit eating grin
Ichigo backflipped and regained his balance, sliding along the ground and moving to pull his mask back over his face, but grimaced in pain as he tried to force it and was unable too
Grimmjow grinned maliciously and kicked Ichigo in the gut, sending him flying
"Looks like once that mask breaks, you can't take it out again" Grimmjow gloated "No… you taking that pose again means that isn't true… I dunno what it is, maybe you've taken too many hits, lost too much spirit energy or if the mask has charges… whatever it is"
Grimmjow paused, thrusting his sword through Ichigo's wrist, pinning him to the ground
Ichigo grunted in pain
"That mask isn't going to be able to come out again… how's that?"
Grimmjow pulled his arm back, a blue ball of reiatsu beginning to coalesce and glow brightly in the palm
Ichigo recognized what it was instantly and started struggling to free his impaled wrist
"Don't worry" Grimmjow assured him "A Cero from this distance will blow that Mask-Wearing head of yours clean off!"
Suddenly Grimmjow's hand was deep frozen
He stared at it, not realizing what it meant
"What the…"
"Tsugi no Mae, Hakuren" Rukia muttered, standing fifty meters away, Sode no Shirayuki released and pointed directly at Grimmjow
A wave of ice torrented forwards, freezing Grimmjow, and the space between him and Rukia, and behind him for a few meters
"That should do it" Rukia muttered, walking over to Ichigo, who was grateful for the rescue
"That, that is some crazy power" he said weakly, between quick shallow breaths
"You looked like you were using a pretty reckless move there as well" she replied, kneeling down "Don't speak though, save your strength, I'll get you to Urahara's"
Grimmjow's hand shot out of the ice at that second and grabbed Rukia by the head
"Think you can kill me, by just freezing the top layer of my skin bitch?" he sneered, as he charged a cero in his hand
"Dream on"
Joel's uppercut hit with titanic force, throwing Luppi backwards and releasing Matsumoto, Ikkaku and Yumichika
"This is what happens when you mess with the Gotei 13, more than that, touch my friends again and I will literally rip every single one of your tentacles off and have a cookout" Joel shouted as Luppi recovered, glaring death from the eye not being covered in rivulets of blood
Joel looked over at Yammi and Wonderweiss currently engaged in combat with Urahara, who Joel hadn't even noticed following him, so totally focused on the fight before him
"Don't forget about me" Luppi screamed "My precious face, you made it bleed!"
"There is literally so, so much more where that came from" Joel replied "But it looks like you aren't my problem anymore"
Luppi howled in anger at the dismissal and attempted to bring his remaining tentacles back to throw at Joel all at once, but couldn't
He looked back to see himself tethered to the ground by his remaining tentacles, all encased in crystal clear ice
"You were far too lenient with a fallen opponent" Hitsugaya lectured, rising up from the ground looking tired, but otherwise completely fine "Haven't you ever heard of Zanshin?, not letting up on an opponent who appears to be finished until you are completely sure?"
Luppi craned his neck as far as he could, in shock "You. You were still alive"
"Hyorinmaru is the strongest ice type zanpakuto, it doesn't matter how many times it's shattered, as long as I have water, then it'll reform"
"Dammit!" Luppi shouted, struggling as hard as he could to get free
"Enough" Hitsugaya said forcefully "This battle is over, I have had far, far, far too much time to prepare… If your eight… seven arms are your weapon, Then my weapon is all the water in the atmosphere"
As Hitsugaya spoke he rose Hyorinmaru and icebergs on the same level of that which sunk the titanic all converged slowly in on Luppi
"Sennen Hyourou" Hitsugaya muttered, shifting his sword and causing the icebergs of doom to collapse inwards onto Luppi
"I guess eight arms just weren't enough"
"You know Layne" Mollow gloated as she lazily strode over to him "This is a real shame I have to end your miserable existence, You're kinda hot, wish my stupid counterpart had been a bit more willing to take you for a tumble, I may… regret not being able to experience that before I kill you"
Mollow knelt down, her shit eating grin evident on her face as she continued "Ahh who the fuck am I kidding, the only thing I regret about you is not being able to gut you like a fish before this moment"
Try as he might, drawing on every single last possible unit of measurement of willpower and energy that he had left in his body Layne just couldn't move
Mollow raised her zanpakuto and prepared to strike down, and end it all, but a spinning silver blade knocked her away
Mollow lost focus on Layne and turned to face the new threat
Sora slowly span back into Moll's hand
"You seriously have no idea how pissed off I am at the moment" Moll growled, walking towards them "The fucking last, last thing I need right now is some fucking clone of mine on a mad homicidal rampage about to kill the fucking idiotic best friend of mine lying on the floor there, so go the fuck home before I unleash my rage"
"Holy shit" thought Layne "They really are the same"
"I've been waiting for this" grinned Mollow "Killing both of you in the one day, this really is the best day ever"
"Nope, I'm out" Moll exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air "I've had literally enough of Soul Society for today, I don't care if this hurts like a bitch, I've literally had it today and as much as I'd really like to know how to came around, a psychotic clone bitch is literally the least of my problems at this point in time"
Moll grinned as she planted Sora into the ground in front of her and pointed two fingers at Mollow
"Hado No.63 Raikoho!"
Out of Moll's fingers an absolute torrent of lightning, thunder and other death spewed forwards, engulfing Mollow in a huge explosion that blasted Moll back into a wall, the recoil ripping chunks of skin from her arms
"Holy shit" Layne thought again, sensing a trend "That isn't supposed to do that, is it?"
Moll picked herself up, smiling weakly at Layne "I lied, I cared a little bit about how much it hurt"
"You idiot" Layne replied "Look how badly you've hurt yourself, I can nearly see your bones"
"And yet" Mollow chimed in, stepping out of the smoke column like she didn't just get hit with the kido equivalent of flying naked through an electrical storm "I still feel pretty good, despite getting hit with both of your last ditch drastic attacks… this really is a fantastic day"
"I'm very sorry to have to spoil it for you then" Visera apologized "But we're done here"
"Fuck that" Mollow growled "I haven't killed them yet"
"That is of no concern to me" Visera replied, calmly "The mission is over, wasting our time any further is an inefficient use of it"
"Tch" Mollow spat, then turned to glare at Moll and Layne, lying in the rubble of the battle "You are ridiculously lucky… I promise the next time I see the both of you, I will rip your heads off"
Mollow and Visera walked into Visera's waiting Garganta, and left, leaving Moll and Layne where they fell
"What the fuck was that?" Moll growled "They could've both killed us at any second, but we got played, what fucking for?" She rotated to try look at Layne "AND WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE ME LAYNE!?"
Soft snores were her only answer
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
Ulquiorra's hand appeared from nowhere and grabbed Grimmjow's hand, releasing Rukia's head and negating the cero forming in it
"Not this time Grimmjow, we have what we came for"
They both vanished wordlessly, leaving Ichigo and Rukia confused at their fortune, and wondering why they were still alive
Beams of light surrounded the forms of Yammy and Wonderwiess, currently duking it out with Urahara and Joel, and encased them in the unbreakable Negacion
"Mission accomplished..?" wondered Yammy
A third beam shone over the ice pile that covered Luppi and pulled his unconscious form out of there
The Arrancar's sudden withdrawal left everyone confused, this attack didn't feel like last time, there was definitely a game being played here, even if it wasn't apparent currently
So, so bad, but i'm finally past it and i can get back into the flow. If you made it this far, cheers