"Well well well, it appears the game is over before it has even begun." Sakura smiled, opening both her fans at the same time.
Barry put his escrima sticks together to form a staff as Jerry broke his bow in two. "I'm not playing games, Sakura."
The little assassin just chuckled before running right at Barry, fans ready. The blue OC swung his staff, hoping to connect a hit, but Sakura just hopped up out of the way and ran up the staff as it landed. Barry lifted it up, but she just used the momentum caused by him lifting it, and flipped over Barry's head.
Sakura figured that since Jerry was a pacifist, he wouldn't be very experience with fighting. So she opted to take him out first, and then focus on Barry, the obviously bigger threat. Jerry got the two halves of his bow ready to face off against Sakura. He swung both of the halves, an amateur move by Sakura's standards. She blocked the weapons with her fans, swung hers down so she brought Jerry's arms down with her, and kneed him in the face. Jerry staggered back and fell over onto the ground.
She turned to see Barry, swinging the staff downward. Sakura managed to catch it and toss Barry over her shoulder, slamming him down on Jerry. "Your weapons are impressive, but your tactics predictable. That will be your downfall." Sakura told them as Barry picked himself up while Jerry slowly lifted his head.
Barry tried to do a swift combo on the Japanese racer. He used one end of the staff to try and hit Sakura in the head, forcing her to block it. Then, he tried a sweeping maneuver in hopes that he would trip her. But Sakura, being smarter than that, simply side stepped to avoid the swing and followed with a knee to Barry's face. From behind Barry, Sakura saw Jerry trying to stick the two bow halves back together to try and fire at her.
She heard the clicking of the two blade halves being put together and saw a flurry of lightning arrows flying at her. Sakura opened her fans up and quickly started spinning them to deflect the arrows. All the arrows fell to the floor, not causing any harm to the little mercenary. Not wanting Jerry's distance weapon to interfere with her real target, she tossed one of her prayer slips. The card hit its target, sticking into Jerry's good hand.
Now that Jerry was clutching his hand in pain, Sakura could focus all her attention on Bubblina's brother. Barry raised his staff yet again and tried to take a swing at Sakura while she had her back turned. She quickly notices as he lunged at her and grabbed his weapon with both hands. "Denied!" She barked at the blue OC, allowing herself to fall back, transferring both of them into a roll. Her backwards roll sent Barry over top of her and onto the ground, nearly falling into the acidic liquid.
She seemed like she couldn't be stopped. Sakura had dodged every hit; they couldn't lay a finger on her. Barry decided to change up his tactics and slammed the butt of his staff to the floor. Since his escrima sticks had electrified ends, so did the staff they made up. The resulting slam sent a spark traveling along the ground. Sakura quickly saw this coming and quickly leaped at the blue OC.
Before she could land however, Sakura found Barry trying to thrust his staff, wanting the combination of being in the air and his assault enough to catch her off guard. The Japanese avatar swiftly blocked the weapon, but the force pushed her out of the sky and to the floor, skidding back slightly. Her fans were put to more blocking use as Barry did a fast combo followed by giving his staff a spin.
However, Sakura managed to make a sneaky grab at the end of the spin and snatched the blue boy's weapon. She smirked at him before shoving the staff up, hitting Barry in the face with it. While he staggered a little bit, she shoved the staff backwards, slamming one of the electrified butt ends into Jerry, who was still down from earlier.
With both boys recovering, she ripped the staff from Barry's hands and brought it down on her knee, breaking it in two. Sakura tossed the two sticks into the acid, rendering Barry weaponless for now. As he tried to regroup, Barry looked up to see Sakura give him a swift kick to the face, sending him reeling back. "You two are a joke." She said to them, smirking in victory. "It's no wonder Gumdrop has given up hope on life."
Barry was the first to pick himself up, ready for round two. He had to try and break though to his sister somehow. "Bubbles, this isn't the sister I know! Snap out of it!" He screamed up at her, hoping it would make Bubblina realize this wasn't the answer.
"Sorry, guys; I love you, but this really is for the best." Bubblina sulked to her brother. "Sakura, could you please drop me into the acid now?" She asked the mercenary if she could get her death over with already.
The assailant nodded and walked back over toward the control panel that held the hook Bubblina was chained to from lowering down into the pit below. "Barry, if she gets dropped in, I'm jumping in with her." Jerry said to Barry, not wanting to have to live without his girlfriend. The blue brother was shocked that Jerry would go that far just to be with his sister. He decided that now was the time to put his foot down and give that big plot important speech that made everything better.
"Wait, Bubbles, listen to me! You are not weak! You are not pathetic! You are stronger than you think! Remember all of those things I said when I beat up King Candy in the last story!? How you were the kindest, prettiest, and best racer I knew!? I meant all of that!" He pleaded up to Bubblina, not wanting her to die. What happened next surprised his sister; Barry dropped to his knees and started crying.
Bubblina dropped her emotionless expression and watched in shock. In all her life in Sugar Rush, she had never seen someone like Barry break down in tears before. "Please don't let it end like this! Show Sakura that the little sister of the funniest racer in Sugar Rush is just as strong as he is! Show her that you're strong enough to not be slowed down by your insomnia or those bullies! Please show her, Bubblina! Be strong!" Barry cried out to his sister.
Bubblina stared at her brother in surprise. Maybe if Barry was to the point of being in tears, something VERY rare to see in him, he was telling the truth. Maybe there was more to life than just weakness. Bubblina realized that he was right and that her life was in great danger.
Getting an idea, she started to swing around while still being hung by her chain. Sakura, having had enough, dropped Bubblina toward the acidic liquid. However, Bubblina had managed to build up enough momentum to where she could swing herself, feet first, into Sakura. The assassin looked up to see a pair of feet come flying into her face. Being completely caught off guard, she was sent a few feet back on the ground.
With Sakura down from taking one of her first hits, Bubblina grunted and pulled her restraints apart, freeing herself at last. "Is this strong enough for you, Barry?" She asked her brother, smiling at him.
Her brother nodded and smiled back. "Yeah, that's strong enough, sis." Barry told her. She then turned towards Jerry, who was still recovering from his earlier damage done by Sakura. Bubblina gave her boyfriend a smile and thumbs up which he returned happily.
Behind them, Sakura got to her feet and showed a look of anger on her face. "Nice move." She simply told Bubblina, dusting herself off. "Too bad you won't get to do anything like that again!" She screamed out, charging at Barry, her fans ready. Before he could spawn anything, she gave him a few quick slashes, followed up by a flip kick, knocking him to the ground.
"Hey Sakura, for your information, I have something that you will NEVER have!" Bubblina yelled at the young killer. Sakura turned to hear what her former prisoner had to say. "I will always have people who care about me. You can go ahead and get revenge on every person who ever wronged you, but know this. Each victim you kill will only drive you further and further away from true happiness." Bubblina explained to the mercenary.
Sakura stared at her for a moment, her face unchanged by the speech Bubblina had just given. Then she just spat at the ground before glaring at the girl. "…How idiotic." She muttered simply. "Oh, and by the way, I lied about people making fun of me...I WAS FEARED!" She roared at Bubblina before her next move. The chibi assassin ran at her and leaped in the air, delivering a swift roundhouse kick to the pink sibling's face, knocking her down.
Bubblina slowly sat up and held the side of her face that had been hit by the attack. She felt pain in the side of her head as tears welled up in her eyes. "Awww, did little, baby, Insomniac, Bubbles get hurt?" Sakura taunted towards her. She knew she wouldn't fight back, not after being hit the way she had been. She turned her attention back to Barry, who knew he needed to activate his wristband if any of them wanted to leave here alive.
He just about had his hand ready to activate something when a foot came down on top of the hand. "Not this time, Bubblestein." Sakura said to him, using her other foot to slide the band off of the OC's wrist and gave it a light kick behind her. The band rolled behind her and in front of Bubblina, who was still holding her face in pain. She saw the band and turned to see her brother being pinned down by Sakura.
Suddenly, she got a huge burst of courage at the sight of Barry being threatened. Fire erupted in her eyes from out of nowhere. She slowly crawled over to the wrist band and slid it on. This time, she would be the one to save her brother. "You were good, Bubblestein. But I am faster, stronger, smarter, and so this ends the only way it can." Sakura talked down to Barry, drawing her fans, ready for the kill.
Bubblina started to scroll through the bands options and found one that said "Magma Bazooka". She thought that sounded powerful enough and chose it. Once she did, an arm cannon formed on her right arm; it felt a little heavy for her, but she would get used to it. She started to charge up the buster, not knowing what would happen when it reached full power.
"Rot in '06!" Sakura cried out, swinging her arm back to stab Barry. Bubblina released whatever was charging up, knowing it was now or never. The arm cannon fired out a large fire ball with such force that it pushed the young sibling back against the wall. Sakura stopped when she heard the projectile being fired and turned to see what it was.
Before Sakura could react, the fireball struck her right in the face. She dropped both of her weapons and screamed in pain as her face burned. She began to stumble around, holding her face, until she slipped and fell right into the acidic pool that surrounded them. The three heroes watched as she screamed her head off as the liquid burned away at her skin. Eventually, she had so much eaten away that she sank underneath the acid.
It was finally over.