Almost half of Brittany's body is in the process of being torn apart by the reality distortion when Sam's body barrels into hers. For just a second, his entire body contorts as well, but then his momentum takes the two of them out of harm's way and they collapse into an untouched section of their afterlife world, still alive and breathing, but unable to move.
"Where the hell is Brody when you need him?" Kitty shouts at anybody who will listen.
Tina's voice seems to drift along with the winds. "Still peeling himself off the pavement."
"What about that new guy?"
"He's hiding up a tree."
Kitty grimaces as one of the reality distortions blinks, depositing another Reaper—this one a little taller, though the black cloak conceals his form. Over one shoulder is slung a huge scythe, gleaming red and black in the light.
"Took you long enough, Satan," gripes the curly-haired boy standing in front of the first Reaper, sheath still in hand.
Kitty notes the long, silky brown hair spilling out of first Reaper's hood as she props herself up with her elbows. The female Reaper immediately holds a hand out towards the guy and commands, "Knock it off, St. James."
St. James only has time to exclaim, "It was four Souls against us, Rachel—" before he's engulfed in a flash of white light. Within seconds, Rachel holds just a sword and a sheath, and neither weapon seem like it's going to transform into a sentient person.
"That's three of you," growls the second Reaper (Satan, really?), swinging the gigantic scythe into an attack position.
"Keep your mind on the job," the first Reaper barks, casting her brunette hair and sharp brown eyes into darkness as she pops her hood back up and readies her sword and club-like sheath.
Kitty can hear the smile in Satan's words. "Right. It's time for you guys to move on."
A blur of movement. Kitty's gut instincts kick in, propelling her into a vertical jump. Not fast enough though; her shins hit scythe's handle and slide towards the blade. At the last moment, Kitty takes the momentum from the blow to her legs and turns it into roll that brings her legs safely out of the path of the scythe, though it leaves her disoriented as she tumbles through air. Still, she brings out both pistols and fires sideways, using the recoil to at least push her away from the dark, cloaked form to her right.
Muscled arms wrap around her as a stocky body scoops her up and brings her out of harm's way. She knows instantly that it's Brody—only an idiot like him would deliberately put himself in line of fire for her.
Well, not even necessarily her. Brody tends to charge head-on into every battle, which is probably why he holds the record of not-dying the most.
He has yet to die for real though.
"Idiot," she huffs as Brody skids along the concrete. She rolls out of his grasp and lands flat on her feet. "Don't stick out your neck for me."
"Got it, Boss," Brody winks before charging straight towards the first Reaper, Rachel, whose attention is currently occupied by the whirling tornado of blades and daggers that is Tina. Brody dives right into the thick of this by pulling a katana out of a large quiver on his back and throwing it like a spear, right at the Reaper. The projectile is so fast that the Reaper barely has time to dodge, distracting her long enough for Tina to gain the upper hand. Brody continues using his swords as projectiles, keeping the Reaper on her toes while Tina chips away at her defense with lightning-fast close-range attacks; Kitty covers Tina with her two pistols.
Meanwhile, Brody isn't just tossing katanas at random. While Tina cages the Reaper within a small area, Brody slowly forms a circle of ten swords, ten feet in radius, around the Reaper. Some of the swords are pulled directly out of his quiver and stuck in the ground; others were previously thrown as spears and lie in a strategic position. As soon as he's done arranging, he yells, "Ready!"
"Ready!" Kitty shouts back, pulling her sights off the Reaper. Tina tosses a smoke bomb onto the ground and vanishes into the darkness.
With the Reaper now in the center of Brody's circle of blades, Brody launches his attack into motion by grabbing one sword and driving it straight towards the Reaper. She blocks it easily with her club, sending the blade down into the ground next to her foot. Brody doesn't care, though; he runs straight across the circle to another katana and has it pointed at the Reaper's wide open back. This time, she's a bit slower in deflecting the back-attack, but Brody already has the third sword and he's only getting faster. The fourth sword slashes the knee; the fifth blade is buried in the ground between her legs. The sixth katana comes straight for her neck, which she could have dodged had not the previous four swords buried in the ground around her feet tripped her up.
The seventh sword goes straight through her back and out her front. Brody is a blur of movement for the last three remaining katanas in his attack circle, placing them effectively in key vulnerable spots in her torso before the universe pulses. Just like that, the enemy Reaper disappears and ten clean katanas crash to the ground.
The third reality distortion wiggles slightly before sinking out of sight, returning the world to its normal three-dimensional setting. It's almost as if their reality has realized that there are two foreign presences that don't belong, and it works with them to toss them out.
"Two princesses down!" crows Brody. "Just one princ—"
Satan materializes right next to him then, almost catching him in the curve of the scythe. Against all odds, though, a bubble in the fabric of reality shoves the Reaper slightly off balance, allowing Brody to roll to safety.
"Bullet hell!" Blaine screams, hefting an assault rifle into his arms and letting loose. A steady stream of gunshots reverberates around the cafeteria common area as Jake opens fire with his sub-machine gun. The rest of the team quickly catches on, inundating the Reaper in a flood of metal pellets that should be impossible to avoid.
A blast of wind explodes outwards as a bright blue bubble expands around the Reaper. Every single bit of metal seems to freeze in place right before it hits the bubble, hovering in place, humming with conserved kinetic energy—
A powerful telepathic shout blasts its way through Kitty's mind, and probably into the mind of every Not Yet Dead Battlefront member in the area: Take cover!
Seconds before every single of their bullets rocket straight back at them.
Years of cheerleading practice from a past life kick in, and probably a lot of adrenaline too (and when has the physics of this world ever made sense), because Kitty's not sure how she manages to vertically jump at least four feet, then bounce off the brick wall of the cafeteria to add another foot of height. The jump takes her just out of reach of the hail of bullets while also giving her the perfect view of all her friends getting mowed down by their own fire.
The second she lands, she's up and running. That weird bubble shield probably took a lot of energy, and it's all she can do but hope he has a refractory period.
Once again, Tina gets to the Reaper first. This time, though, it's almost as if the Reaper's expecting her, whirling around and knocking Tina's shadowy form out of midair with the dull edge of his scythe. Tina hits the ground in a roll before using a handspring to land on her feet. Light reflects off a kunai as she first uses it to deflect a bullet, then tosses it at her attacker. The knife manages to slice through black cloth, but the coat ripples and flows over the Reaper's form, hiding any possible wound.
Jake's there suddenly, trying a back attack, but the Reaper's scythe sweeps right up and locks the halberd in mid-swing. For just a second, Jake tries to yank the scythe out of its user's hands—on his second tug, though, the Reaper uses Jake's tension between the halberd and scythe to launch himself into a flying kick. Unexpectedly small feet plant themselves in Jake's chest and shove him to the ground. The halberd is knocked from Jake's hands, releasing the tension; with one swift movement, the Reaper pulls up to free his scythe, swings the weapon around his body, and brings it straight back down onto Jake's torso.
The universe seems to bend just slightly, guiding Kitty's desperately-tossed flying frying pan right into the blade of the scythe and knocking it off target. The wicked blade sinks at least six inches into the concrete, just centimeters away from Jake's head as the guy barely rolls out of the way; the Reaper only has seconds to react before Tina's form appears out of nowhere, legs pistoning right into their opponent's side to send him flying…
Only the Reaper somehow maintains a grip on the handle of his scythe, and the force that should have sent Satan flying is suddenly converted into circular velocity around the scythe's pole. Tina only has time to turn slightly and cross her arms protectively over her torso before the Reaper slams into her, sending her flying into a tree trunk. She's still gasping for breath at the tree's base, crouching on unsteady limbs, when Satan yanks his scythe out of the ground and swings.
Tina cries out as the blade cuts into her torso and begins to make its way through.
Before the scythe can finish slicing her in half, though, Ryder jumps out of the tree and shoots Satan between the eyes.
The power of the shot forces the hood back and off the Reaper's head, allowing waves of raven hair to spill out. A pretty, dark-skinned face; dark eyes, almost black, framed by long lashes; a flashing white smile as she leers at them all.
Then Satan and her death scythe pop out of existence.
Ryder lands on the patch of recently vacated grass shortly thereafter.
Quickly followed by all 100 pounds of Sugar Motta—a completely human figure, save for the cat ears poking out of her brunette hair and the tail peeking from underneath her short skirt—who lands on top of him, mewling pitifully.