Anton's Palace, Metaverse

Afternoon

The four Persona users started their final trip to the Palace from the final Safe Room and they made their way up to Don Chairman Anton's Office, determined to take the Treasure. With everything riding on this, backing out isn't an option for them. Anticipation is high for them. All they had to do is succeed in their mission and Anton Veruca, the leader of the Hooligans will be done for; brought down by his own pettiness that far outweighed his common sense while taking his own loathsome gang down with him.

Sly felt tense but this was a natural feeling considering what was at stake. Not just the fact that he and the others would only have one shot at stealing the Treasure. The fact that it was very possible that not only would this not be easy, that it would have a high risk of death for himself and the others but the fact the potential cost of failure is high for all of this. They cannot afford to fail their mission.

The visit he just made to Little John and Jean; there was a chance that it could end up being the last time they will ever see him alive. The last living moments with him before disappearing off the face of Mobius.

Avatar thought of the lives of Fiona, Little John, Vanilla, Jean and even his parents while they raced over towards the Treasure Room. Thinking of his parents helped make doing this job much easier for himself. He knew what he had to do. He knew what the last resort option will be unlike the others and he'll call for it if all else fails in order to bring down Anton himself for the sake of everybody else.

'Mother... Father... I can do it...' Avatar led his party up to the Treasure Room in Don Chairman Anton's Office, eventually reaching it.

They see the results of their efforts when the previously formless cloud has been replaced with a solid tangible object in the form of an Anton statue riding a snowboard and wielding a guitar one-handed while using the other hand to hold onto the board. The statue is around the size of a dirt bike with how big it looks next to them.

"Holy shit..." Sly said, sizing up their prize. "How the hell are we gonna carry that thing out?! We'd need a pickup truck and a winch to haul that sucker out!"

"We'll will have to carry it out by hand." Avatar said as he went up to the Anton statue with Seeker and Rogue, tipping it forwards for three of them to get a lift on it. "Urgh! Give Rogue a hand with the left bottom corner!"

Sly nodded as he went to do so, grunting and groaning as he tries to help lift the statue. "I can think of an episode of that sitcom I'd like to quote about now…"

"Save your breath Sly and just help us carry this thing." Rogue grunted the four manages to lift the statue together and proceeds to haul it out of the Treasure Room. The statue weighing about 98kg just like a dirt bike as the Doctor estimated to Avatar. Their enhanced Metaverse abilities making carrying the object less of a hassle than it would be in the real world.

"Man, who knew this was gonna be this easy?" Said Sly as he helped carry the statue. "I kinda figured there'd be some kinda resistance or something."

"There will be resistance. His Shadow made that especially clear and security would be heavy as well..." Avatar said wearily as they were halfway through carrying the statue through the office entrance. "It's a matter of when and where."

"Correct." Suddenly, the statue left the four's hands as though it's been pulled back on a string and right into the palm of a smirking purple suited Shadow Anton seated behind the desk with said statue shrinking down to a statuette size. "And I've been waiting on you Thieves."

"Anton! You've harmed so many people in your greed and we're putting a stop to your ways!" Seeker whips around to him with a growl, bearing his teeth. "Know that we'll beat your leather hide bloody if it means prying that Treasure out of your cold dead hands!"

"Hmph!" Shadow Anton rolls his eyes, then squinted at Seeker. "Such brave talk for a nobody. Though, haven't I—"

"Nobody? That's who you were when you first came to this city with your family." Avatar cuts in with a narrowed gaze, pointing finger at the false don behind the desk. "You were just another face on the streets and no one could take you seriously in the beginning. A common street no-named punk with a big ego—"

"You act like you know everything about me!" Shadow Anton's smirk faltered a bit. "You think you know it all with me, is that what you think!?"

"I've seen your memories in this Palace…" Sly spoke suddenly, his face steely. "I know why you did the things you did… It doesn't make them any more right but I know why you felt you needed to do them."

He stepped forward a little bit, albeit cautiously before standing his ground in a confident stance. "You lived a pretty shitty life before moving here to Cyber City… And I think I understand you a little more than I did before…"

He narrowed his eyes. "…And because of that; I'm going to steal your Palace's Treasure. No matter the cost."

"Screw you!" Shadow Anton retorted with a furious glare. "I don't need nor ever wanted any of your damn sympathy you stupid green rat! I never liked you from the day we met and that hasn't changed since!"

"Anton! Your actions are hurting your own family!" Rogue clutches his staff weapon. "You have become so focused in trying to become a somebody that you're willing to step on and destroy the lives of others to get there while caring for nothing else but your own social status!"

"You've had your fill of the luxury life and now it's time for us to put you out of business!" Seeker told Anton's Shadow. "You're going back to square one!"

"Square one?" Shadow Anton's eye twitches and his sharp fangs showing. "You're telling me that you are all here to cast me back down to being bottom-feeder trash on the streets!?"

"Yeah. We are." Sly responded, giving a defiant smirk. "What're ya gonna do about it, lizard-breath?"

Shadow Anton gnashes his teeth, the lizard's expression darkening and the smirk replaced by an angry sneer. The words square one repeating over and over again in his head, then other haunting words enters the pool and seeing their twisted faces.

"...Go back into your cave where your kind belongs and stay there!" One of the hedgehog bullies says to him. Ridiculed for being poor.

"...To think we thought you were actually scary!" One of the Hedgehog Town kids says to him. Dismissed and forgotten by the whole town in favour of a blue hedgehog hero.

"...You're resorting to this because you have gave up trying to do things the right way and would rather do it the easy way." Farrell says to him. A person who always has the respect of the people of Geno City while they wrote him off as nobody who couldn't cut the mustard.

"...That pack of cave-dwelling trash see themselves as our equals? Hah! Windsor, that is the funniest joke I ever heard coming from the mouth of a brat. He'll never be truly one of us no matter how much money he has in his account but I suppose there is great entertainment value in seeing a dirty peasant like him passing themselves off as a high society nobleman while we humour him." An upperclassman snidely says to his friend at a party with a scornful chuckle. Thinking the eavesdropping Anton was out of earshot when he told his what he truly thought of his family as on the first highlife party Anton went to and indirectly reminding him of his lot in life.

"...You're going back to square one!"

"I've finally had it up to here with all of you people looking down on me because I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth!" Shadow Anton shot up from his seat and angrily kicks aside his desk into a wall, destroying it while the whole office shifted outwards into a wider space akin to a warehouse. "No matter what I do and how far I have moved on from my old life, it's always the same story; I'm a cave-dweller... I'm always a cave-dweller trash to you all even when I have the whole of Geno City under my domain!"

"His readings are spiking up!" O.V.I warns the party. "Watch out!"

"I have killed your father in cold blood with a bullet to the skin to get to where I am now..." Shadow Anton points at Sly with a face of unbridled rage. "And I have no intentions of going back to square one!"

Four large hoof legs suddenly bursts through his whole torso to the surprise of the four intruders before the rest of Shadow Anton's form violently bursts open with an accompanying sound of exploding flesh. Revealing a new larger and more monstrous form of Don Chairman Anton.

What was once a bipedal lizard dressed in an expensive suit has been replaced by what Avatar could be described as a large centaur-like form the size of a small house. Rather being half-man and half-horse like what Sagittarius is known to be, it's a large ebony lizard with a dragon-like head, a dragon-like tail and a horse-like lower torso dressed in spike-studded punk clothes. Most notably wearing a black sleeveless hoodie with a yellow skull and thunderbolts under it acting as the crossbones.

In his hands, he held a long chain whip in the right hand and a big spiked club in the left hand. The spiked club being about the size of a small tree log. The new form of Shadow Anton stared down at the shocked party of four with his golden orb for eyes and spoke to them in a deeper, demonic-sounding voice. "Look who's the one looking down now, huh!?"

"Holy shit…" Sly said, getting into a fighting stance. "Alright, looks like we're doing this the hard way!"

He drew his baton, twirling it a moment before holding it by the horizontal side handle in the tonfa fighting style. "Cowabunga motherfucker!"

The large Shadow Anton responded with a burst of flames aka Flamethrower from his mouth directed at the group, the four being reactive enough to dodge out of the way and started going on the offensive while O.V.I went to work in trying to identify a weakness. Rogue letting off some gunfire at Sagittarius Anton with his ranged weapon.

Sagittarius Anton took the gunshots with the four-legged reptile galloping around the large office space after the party and whipping his chain about, leaving an impression on each surface contact. Rogue would end up getting swatted by his chain before he could use John and sent crashing into a wooden cabinet with the other three moving about to avoid the Palace Ruler's flame breath as he chases them.

Avatar summons Berith, an armoured calvaryman to use a skill to deal medium damage on Sagittarius Anton. Then summons forth Kikimora to use her Force attacks on the rampaging beast as did Rogue when he got back up and summoned John to deal Force attacks of his own.

Sly went and summons Raffles after evading a swing from his spiked club, sending his Magna attacks at Sagittarius Anton while also attempting to dodge many of the shadowy reptilian centaur's attacks. Being mindful of both the attacks and the surroundings, occasionally using the latter to his advantage. Seeker got in some Bless attacks but in spite of their efforts to wear him down by their assault, the damage dealt to Sagittarius Anton wasn't as great as they had hoped.

The reptile centaur would call upon FuriFuri Attack, a move where he uses his tail to hit the ground which caused three out of the four party members to be stunned by the vibration and then swats the stunned three with it in one strike. Whenever the three were all knocked back, he struck them with his flame breath. The fire dealing a moderate amount of damage on Avatar, Rogue and Sly; even getting inflicted with a Burn ailment. An effect they encountered before on the previous exploration of the Palace and just as painful.

Seeker who was the only one that didn't get caught in the attack goes to fend off Sagittarius Anton while the affected three tried to rid themselves of the burns inflictions. All three likening the burning sensation to be in a sauna set to lava hot.

"AGH!" Avatar gritted his teeth, shooting at the large reptile with his pistol while trying to keep his shots steady. "Sly. The Nofeever Sheets, now! OW!"

Sly got out three Nofeever Sheets that was got through the Horowitz, tossing one to Avatar and another to Rogue. All three promptly taking the item to extinguish the burning on themselves.

"Ugh!" Avatar growled in annoyance, summoning Pixie to cast Dia on himself and the other two cured Persona users. "We're taking more damage from him than he's taking damage from ours. O.V.I, you identified a weakness yet?"

"I'm afraid I haven't identified one on him yet." O.V.I reported. "You'll have to keep fighting him for a bit til I can locate such a weakness as he's much stronger than anything else we've gone up against in this Palace."

"Well, then we just gotta keep hittin' him until something sticks!" Sly said, straightening himself up. "I'm not dying here when so much is at stake!"

"Me neither!" Avatar said in agreement, the three went back to battling Sagittarius Anton alongside Seeker. The wolf using Doctor to apply Rakunda on the reptile centaur to lower his defences while casting Makakaja on Sly afterwards to increase his magic damage output.

However, Sagittarius Anton casted a variation of Tarukaja on himself to buff his damage output. The chain whip aka Hooligan No.1 dealing decent damage on Seeker when he got hit by it during a wild swing from the Palace Ruler and consumed an item to heal his own injuries. He tries to cast a spell against when he dodged a Flamethrower attack from Sagittarius Anton, forcing him back.

The lizard charges at Avatar and the wolf dodges to the side, only to then get smacked by the AB club in his left hand. If he got hit by it in the real world, that would have likely killed him. In the Metaverse however, it felt like getting hit by a wooden bat and the wolf was knocked back a few feet away from the beast.

Sly casted a few magic spells with Makakaja active before casting Sukunda on his foe to lower his agility/speed, making him easier to hit while moving. Rogue rushes in to deliver a few physical attacks on the scaly centaur.

"Hahaha! I can do this all day!" Sagittarius Anton taunted the group whenever he tail-whipped Rogue away from him. "I'll eat you four for lunch when this is over and I'll be sure to pay your loved ones a visit to lend my "moral support" to the girls in your lives even if you know what I mean~"

"Is that what you did to that friend of Manic's you sick bastard?!" Rogue growled at the four-legged beast. Receiving Dia from Avatar's Pixie.

"Oh please, I was showing that misgendered tramp in how much more pleasure she can receive by being a girl than she would as a boy..." The Palace Ruler chortled at the memory. "And I was even kind enough to give her a first class ride on the Schlong Dragon before she reached "high" for the skies to go join Farrell haha!"

"You son of a bitch!" Sly shouted angrily, summoning Raffles again. "Persona!"

He once again utilised his Magna attack as well as fired a few shots from his submachine gun. Firing it one-handed with a stone-cold glare on his face as he stared down Sagittarius Anton.

"Someone's looking cross... Let me help you with that!" Sagittarius Anton then casts Dragon's Rage on Sly, inflicting him with an aliment in the form of Rage. "Vent your years of anger at me now bro, I know you want to!"

Sly was overcome with an immense amount of rage from the status infliction, then emitted a loud battle cry of hotblooded rage as he charged at Sagittarius Anton and bashed away at him while occasionally casting Persona attacks and firing shots from his submachine gun at him. Despite the flurry of attacks though, many of them seemed to accidentally miss or veer off.

The author of his rage took some of the damage sent his way by Sly, yet still stands tall above his opponents and wasn't showing any real signs of fatigue himself. Seemingly tanking through the four's assault on him for most of the fight so far.

"Sly!" Avatar calls out to the hedgehog. "Snap out o—URGH!"

Sly would hit him in the chest with his baton, knocking the wolf down to the floor before the green hedgehog too gets knocked down by a tail whip from Sagittarius Anton. Snapping him out of his infliction but feeling a bruise from it in exchange.

"O.V.I. He's still healthy from all the attacks we're dealing to him..." Rogue says to O.V.I in his pocket, fighting the big Shadow alongside Seeker while the other two are down for a few moments. "What's the deal with him?"

"Aha, I think I have finally figured it out. Everyone listen up." O.V.I spoke to the whole team through their comms. "Anton's Shadow has a shield on that enables him to take a lot more damage than he would without it."

"So that's why he's tanking through a lot our damage..." Avatar concluded, getting back up alongside Sly as they dusted themselves off. "Is it a spell he has up?"

"No. He didn't cast a spell of that type." O.V.I noted. "Something's giving him that protection. Likely in the form of an item."

"Oh great, we just have to identify an item on his ugly hide giving him the invisible forcefield treatment while he's trying to murder us!" Seeker said sardonically. "For real though, how are we to know which is which on him?"

"It's on his back playing horse jockey." Sly told the party through his commlink and wondering what he meant by that, Avatar looked up to Sagittarius Anton's back. He saw the Treasure in the form of that statuette from earlier up on the large Shadow's back exactly as Sly describes it. The wolf wasn't sure on how they hadn't noticed it til now but puts it down to Sagittarius Anton's constant movements and them trying to survive against him throughout the fight as why.

"Damn. You're right." Avatar admitted, then informs the rest of the party through the line. "New objective: Get that statuette off his back. Once we do that, he'll start resisting less damage from us. Problem is that he'll be too focused on us to let us get near enough to it."

"Leave it to me." Seeker volunteered himself. "The rest of you three keep his attention occupied."

"Got it." Sly, Avatar and Rogue replied in near-unison. Directing their focus onto preoccupying Sagittarius Anton while Seeker gets into position.

"I heard from one of my employees about this ex-copper in her thirties he clapped the cheeks of the other day and told me she's a fine fucktube. Well, one would be inaccurate as she got serviced by several of my employees and she took it all like a real champ..." Sagittarius Anton smugly says to Sly, taunting him. "A crying shame I wasn't there for that funtime because according to both of my brothers, she's real fine looking for a druggie and feels good to penetrate. I certainly would have given her a place at my house if I was able to and she could give me a "good service" whenever I need it. By the way my good dude, I hear she squeals real good like a pig hehe!"

"Just shut up already!" Sly responded to Saggitarius Anton, trying to block out his attempts at mind games. "You talk way too much, y'know that."

He smirked, then added; "I guess I can see why the folks at Hedgehog Town thought you were annoying~"

"Says the hoodlum who lies, cheats, steals and hung out with unsavoury characters while trying to act like Robin Hood all the same!" Sagittarius Anton retorted, blasting his Flamethrower at the trio paired with the wild swings of his Hooligan No.1 and AB weapons. "At least I know what I am unlike yourself!"

"Can it Anton, we've got no time to hear your self-stroking lectures!" Avatar fires some shots at the centaur lizard after dodging his flame breath. Rogue and Sly attacking Sagittarius Anton with projectile attacks.

"Your friend would sell you out to me if it meant saving his own worthless skin..." The Palace Ruler swung his chain at the group. "For his talk of me being a bad egg in Genocide City that ruins the lives of others, he likes to be silent when the topic of the lives he's ruined himself comes up in discussions!"

"Oh, real rich coming from the guy who knocks around his sister like a football player's wife!" Sly retorted. Firing a few shots from his submachine gun before unleashing another Earth attack at Sagittarius Anton.

"Once upon a time, there was once a vixen auctioneer who lived happily in a suite over at the wealthy side of Cyber City. She had a good paying job and her clients liked her..." Sagittarius Anton said tauntingly, tanking through Sly's attacks and bringing up a piece from his less than sterling past. "One day, she was tasked to auction off a rare and expensive item by one of her best paying clients who no longer needed it. Both her and the client could have earned really good profits on the sale but a bad green burglar decided he wanted to steal it to make a profit of his own, so he broke into her house late at night while she was out and seizes it before running off with it..."

Rogue struck him with his staff before the large Shadow made him back off by swinging the AB club at him, the Palace Ruler continuing on his story time session; "Her client so displeased over the incident that he sued her for a sum equivalent to her living expenses and effectively rendering her bankrupt, losing her fine suite when she couldn't afford the rent anymore; ending up homeless and living on the streets of Soucie Street. All thanks to that morally righteous burglar who thought that because she's someone well off in Cyber City, she can afford the loss of an expensive piece and that she deserves to take an L anyways."

"…" Sly was silent at that. Having not been aware of the vixen's fate but now knew the full consequences of his actions as a thief and it stung even more knowing what had happened to the vixen was directly his fault with her probably hating him for it if he were to confess to her now.

Sagittarius Anton gave Sly a smug grin; "To think you have the absolute gull to judge me for being a crook when you've caused a fair amount of honest people in Cyber City to go broke in your thievery to help your side of the city as a "man of the people". Heh, I guess the man of the people part only extends to those born and raise in Genocide City while folks like her can go die in a crackhouse for all you care."

"…I admit I did a lot of wrong in the past. Plenty to disappoint him if he was still around." Sly spoke finally. "And yeah, it hurt as many people as it saved and I'll hold myself to that... But I will be damned if I don't do right by those I cherish most, all of whom you have caused irreparable harm to."

He glared right at Sagittarius Anton with quiet fury. "You killed my father… You stole Caitlin' future from her by bullying her and raping her into suicide… You duped Jean into taking drugs, then sat idly by while your cronies gang-raped her and left her scarred for life… You assaulted Little John and nearly broke his spirit… You forced Tatiana into a loveless relationship with you and browbeat her spirits into becoming your woman as a jab at me… You forced Monica into a life of fear and paranoia by pretending to protect her from the pimps while going behind her back to sell her off for a few mobiums… You hindered Patty's future by forcing her to join your gang…"

"And they're just a few examples of the victims you've created..." He pointed his baton at him. "You hurt a lot of people Anton and now, you're about to face karma for all of it!"

"Karma? Pah! Karma's a fairy tale made up by people who can't stand the reality of seeing their bullies be successful people. In this reali—Hang on, there were four of you here. Where did the fourth guy w—" Sagittarius Anton suddenly felt something be taken off his back and when he saw Seeker whom appear next to his group moments later with an item in his hand, it soon dawns on him. "My trophy!"

"It's ours now warty!" Seeker taunted, tossing the Treasure over to Avatar whom pocketed it away in his coat and quickly summons Doctor to cast a buff spell on Rogue. "Should have done more doing and do less talking if you didn't want to lose it in the first place!"

"Tank on this love!" Rogue brought out John to cast Zan on Sagittarius Anton, the spell doing more damage to him now than it did before when he had the statuette on him. The large Shadow audibly cried out in pain for the first time since the battle started to the four's joy and they weren't going to waste their opportunity with the other three Persona users proceeding to wail their attacks on him. Avatar would even cast Rakunda on him again to make their renewed assault towards him hurt even more.

Sly threw his most powerful attacks at Sagittarius Anton, even using the last of the rounds in his submachine gun on him. With the damage dealt to the Palace Ruler, they knew they were making progress in the battle.

Sagittarius Anton was taking more damage without his item to shield him and showing signs of injury, beginning to show exhaustion from the beatings he's taking from them. However, he'd regain his footing again and blasted his flame breath at the four to get them to back off as he pulls out a phone from his hoodie; "Secretary Patty! Come to the office with all of the Chairman H-Morale Team!"

"Okay boss~" Shadow Patty giggled on the other end before hanging up. Avatar assumes that Anton in the real world hasn't realised what's happened with Patty, Monica and Tatiana yet considering the chaos going on at the Hooligan's hideout.

"Chairman H-Morale Team?" Rogue questioned. The other three were just as confused.

The rabbit got his answer to his question soon including the H part stood for when the doors that Shadow Anton was behind yesterday opened up to reveal an all-female group clad in short hip-length skirts, go-go boots, fish-net leggings and crop-top vests with windows on them as they rushed to their boss's side.

Upon looking at the new group, the boys recognise a good bunch of them including Tatiana Tiger and seeing as this is Anton's cognition; their feminine curvatures and features are exaggerated including their cup size compared to their real world counterparts.

"Mmm. I see like some naughty boys has been like sneaking around your tower and that's like not the kind we'd like to climb either~" Shadow Tatiana laughs, coming off as a complete bimbo in the tone of her voice and mannerisms. "Hope they like haven't been like hurting you Mister A because that's like so uncool of them and stuff."

"Oh yeah, totally~" Shadow Monica giggles with bouncing hops. "They're like, totally bad boys~"

"As if they'd be able to hold a candle to Mistah A~" Said the Cognitive version of Fiona. Stretching her arms up.

"Oh my Gosh, they're like, a total drag." Shadow Patty drawls, grinding up against Sagittarius Anton. "Not like you Mister A~"

"What's like your executive order?" Shadow Tatiana asks her boss, leaning forwards with one hand on the right leg and the other behind her back while swaying the tail side to side. Posing sexily for Sagittarius Anton to the Persona users' disgust, Sly most of all.

"All of you except sweetheart here deal with those idiots." Sagittarius Anton orders to his harem while placing a hand on the Cognitive Fiona's shoulder. "Kill them all."

"Aww but why does she like get to be at your side and not me? It's not fair!" Shadow Tatiana whines, pointing to Shadow Fiona while doing an indignant hop and making her larger than real life bust bounce under the top. "I thought I was your favourite..."

"I need her for a special reason babe and you're all my favourites here..." Sagittarius Anton assures the tigress. "If you girls manages get rid of those thieves for me, I'll give you all a big "Christmas Bonus" early each later if you know what I mean~"

"Oh goodie!" The clone of Tatiana hopped excitably in stark contrast to the real Tatiana before whipping her head to the four intruders. "Let's like put a doggy collar on all of you!"

The cognitive clones barring Fiona went at the four and starts assaulting them. Coming in fast.

"I know that isn't actually Tatiana..." Sly said, guarding against as many of the attacks as he could. "But damn is that still upsetting as hell!"

"Same here!" Rogue says while dodging Shadow Patty's barrage of attacks.

"Suck it up losers!" Cognitive Monica mocked as she attacked him. Avatar, Rogue and Seeker contended with Cognitive Patty and Tatiana whom were attacking in rapid successions. The pair fighting the trio as a tag-team against them while the latter three attempted to fight back at them.

"Alright sexy..." Sagittarius Anton says to Cognitive Fiona as the four were busy fending off their attackers, swatting the red vixen's rear. "Time for you to heal this handsome stud."

"Sure thing you hot stud~" Shadow Fiona cooed, climbing up to Sagittarius Anton's face and beginning to make out with him to heal her boss.

"Damn it, that vixen's healing his wounds!" Seeker told the others after managing to throw off Cognitive Patty's balance, making her stumble into Cognitive Tatiana. The orange vixen Shadow landing facedown and rear up with the bottom of her skirt in view as per Anton's cognition of her.

"Everyone stop that—OOF!" Avatar was cut off when Cognitive Tatiana came in with a boot to his chest. Rogue went to go help him out but Cognitive Patty hopped onto his shoulders after recovering from her fall, head sandwich in-between her thighs.

"Let's see how a bunny copes with pleasure pressure~" Cognitive Patty gave an annoying air-headed laugh while she starts giving his head a hard squeeze. The gray rabbit trying to get her off him and unable to grab his mask either.

"AGGGH! Someone get her off me!" Rogue cried as he frantically tries to get the orange vixen off his shoulders before Avatar came to his rescue by knocking her off him with his dropped bow-staff club and letting the rabbit get a breather. "Thanks mate..."

Seeker raced over to Sagittarius Anton to dropkick Cognitive Fiona away from him mid-healing before the latter smacks him down with his Hooligan No.1 weapon. Some of the wounds from earlier having healed a good bit by the crimson vixen's mouth to mouth.

"That sugar's enough to get me really pumped again!" Sagittarius Anton went back to attacking the other three Persona users with assistance from his ladies. "Let's pound these morons to paste!"

"Yes boss!" All four girls said in unison as they proceed to present themselves as a royal pain in the ass for the intruders while they also have a reenergised Palace Ruler to contend with. The four girls moving about like ninjas for them.

"Dammit!" Sly growled as he tried to move to dodge the attacks from the cloned girls while also contending with Sagittarius Anton at the same time. "How the hell are we gonna beat him now? This sucks total ass!"

"We'll just have to keep fighting and pushing through til we get back the advantage!" Avatar replied, fighting off Cognitive Fiona and finding her a worse fighter than the real article but still a problem nonetheless. "Focus on the big guy—OOF!"

Cognitive Fiona dropkicks him in the stomach and knocking him backwards. "Bigger than you'll ever be dweep!"

"True dat!" Added Sagittarius Anton as he whips him with his Hooligan No.1 chain after the red vixen hooks both her legs under Avatar's shoulders and catapulting him over into the path of her boss's weapon, earning a pained cry from the wolf. Seeker came in to land a few hits on Sagittarius Anton and giving the red wolf time to escape from his spot with Cognitive Fiona pursuing him.

"Ugh, I can't believe I had like dated you in the past and all that!" Cognitive Tatiana says to Sly, roundhouse-kicking the green hedgehog when he tries to go for her boss. "I like lived in squalor when I was with you and you were like so fixated on trying to one-up Mister A because he's like what you could've been or stuff in your jealously. You were like trying to be a good guy and that but you like alienated so many people including me because you were like trying to fight the natural order of things with him after your daddy died."

"I know you're not actually Tatiana..." Sly responded, wiping some blood away from his lip. "So I'm gonna let that comment about my father go... However, knowing you're not the real Tatiana allows me to fight back with a little more reassurance."

He sent another powerful spell at her, aiming to stagger her footing. Shadow Tatiana got thrown off-balance and onto her back just as Sagittarius Anton shoulder-charges into the green hedgehog, sending him flying right into Seeker whom was fending off Shadow Monica. Knocking down the badger along with himself.

"Hahahaha!" Sagittarius Anton cackles in glee with how the battle's been turning out for him. "It's five of us against the four of you and it looks like I'm the winning party here scrubs!"

Hooligan's Hideout, Geno City. Mobius

Afternoon

With the fire finally put out and saving most of his products while losing some in the burning including the counterfeit bills, a stressed-out Anton Veruca storms up to his office once the chaos settled down. Leaving him in a more aggravated mood than before. When he got to his office, he sees the body of Craig be carried off by Vance while Francis and Grant helped up Hud to his feet but no Tatiana in sight.

"Where is she!?" Anton roared at Hud, storming up to him and lifting him by the collar. "You were supposed to be watching her!"

"I-I was but both her and Grady attacked me!" Hud stammers fearfully to his brother. "S-She helped him steal your files and ran off with him!"

"WHAT!?" Anton screeched in panic, roughly shoving Hud aside to run over to his safe and find all of files gone. "NO! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!"

"Boss! Johnson said your brother Mad is being rushed to a hospital and said that Patty and Monica had ran off after wounding him in an alleyway!" Francis informed Anton after getting a phone call from Johnson. "What do we do now?"

"Find those tramps, the people who sent the card, Grady and those stolen files!" Anton barked at him. "If my rivals gets ahold of those files or the police gets them, I'm sunk!"

"...I suggest cutting our losses with him while we still can before it all crashes. He's lost over one million mobium's worth of products in that fire alone after ignoring my suggestions on fireproofing those storage rooms and assigning more security to them too and he's becoming a major liability as far as I see. What are your orders?" Outside the office unbeknownst to the group, Anton's bespectacled suited advisor was on the phone to someone while overhearing the gang leader being in a state of panic. "Ah, understood. I am more to happy to come see you right now."

He'd hang up and walks off, leaving his anxious payer behind with the knowledge that the writing is on the wall for Anton and the Hooligans. More than happy to abandon them to their fates...

To Be Continued...