Time the Third did not have. These mutants were becoming a nagging issue, and the samurai had special motivation to get in the way of The Third’s grand plans. She would not succeed, but he would not give her the chance when his ascension was so close at hand.

“The Blessed will have to take care of herself for once,” he said hastily, grabbing the Unmaker by the shoulder. “Our time is close at hand.”

The Beckoner began to glow green, looking out at the samurai. He pulled away his mask, offering a glimpse under his hood at a face warped with reddened, craggy features. “This is just the prologue to the End, little girl. Feel privileged; you’ve lived long enough to soon see my true face.”

And with that, The Elder and the Third blinked away, leaving only The Fourth standing in the midst of her Holy Soldiers, half-healed from the wound inflicted upon her by her niece. “Evil thing!” The old woman kicked at the depowered Agnes.

With her strength diminishing, the charms empowering Agatha’s soldiers begin to weaken.

Within the Chaos, Eisen’s attention drew towards the Supremes and badass mutants trying to stand up to them. His heart grew heavy as he loosened his grip to breathe, watching with anticipation as the power giants clashed. He almost lost his gusto when two of the mutants seemed to lose their energy in an instant. So this was the power of the Supremes. Eisen watched in horror.

He had to help, but couldn’t risk overextending himself in case things got worse. He knew, knowing his limitations, the best thing he could accomplish should things get any worse, was he could always run away and seek more help.

For now, he readjusted his position in the tree to get a better view of the depowered mutants face to face with angry Godmother.

His primary goal was to freeze any goon who approached to help dispatch the depowered mutants, but they seemed to stay away considering Agatha herself seemed intent to finish the job.

Thus, Eisen waited. Watching as best he could, focusing his mutation to the ground beneath her feet. He waited, knowing that if he could pause her clothing at a decisive moment, it could mean life or death. Protect the weakened mutants from a lethal blow, or even provide just the few moments needed to land a critical blow on the Angry Godmother himself.

This was a defining moment for him, he who called himself, “Pause”.

TW: Insect Body Horror

The insect queen had her. She knew she did. With Agatha skewered on one of the spiny appendages, there was nothing that the mystic could do. The primordial queen could most easily rip her to shreds and repay her all the pain and suffering that she had dared to deliver unto Agnes when she was but a child. But, as sweet and ecstasy riddled as those thoughts were, as fine and silken as it would feel to exact this judgement and tear the woman limb from limb, this precious gift was soon taken from her by the actions of another.

Agnes The Insect Queen, snarled as her mandibles chittered and clacked, opening to tear that first exquisite strip of flesh off the older woman's bones, there came a most remarkable pain. Agnes screeched when a hand touched her and suddenly everything changed. Agnes couldn't put her finger on what it was, at first. All she knew was that she was hurt and that her body was changing. The harden carapace of the queen sloughed off, falling in chunks onto the ground while each extra appendage crumbled and shrived into nothing. The insects that she was so connected with chittered and buzzed, most floating off on their own now while others stung whatever was nearby in confusion, including herself. When was the last time she was stung? Had she ever? But that wasn't the worst.

Fallen to the ground, Agnes heaved and retched. In her chest where her bugs lay nestled when weren't summoned, there was the most disgusting feeling. She gagged and spat, a disgusting array of honey, mucus, and larvae of all kinds expunged from her body in one great purge. Never had she felt so disgusted, so slimy, so grimy than how she felt right now. And it was a sensation only made all the worse by a simple phrase: "Evil thing!"

Agnes winced, crying out after feeling the foot kick into her ribs. She wanted to fly, or sting, or send out the royal guard but none of those things were in reach any longer. Instead she found herself alone and by herself for the first time in decades. Weakly she tries to reach out but instead of pleading for mercy, she snarls angrily in an attempt to grab at the woman's kicking foot. She didn't know what was happening to her powers, if she had any anymore, but she was near feral now as she grabbed and claws at the woman's clothes. Agnes wasn't done with Agatha. She never would be. Not until her heart stopped...if she could help it.

The armored samurai narrows her eyes and keeps her blade poised and pointed forwards the Third Supreme, otherwise known to her over the centuries as the Man of Shadows. It was him that had possessed and killed her husband so long ago so she had sworn a vendetta against him. It was a promise that has carried through the last 700 years and not one she was going to relinquish anytime soon. All she needed was the bastard to stop being a coward. But, deep down, that was what he was, wasn't he?

Moving forward slowly, Niko ignores the surrounding pandemonium, her eyes locked onto her target. She can hear a few works from the Unmaker and the Blessed, the cries from the insect woman and vigilante she'd seen and worked with before. But most are merely background sounds, noises to be ignored as she focused entirely on her target and his twisted words.

The insect falls, as does the vigilante. The Blessed is harmed and the Unmaker is self-satisfied. But the Man of Shadows...he was mocking her. Showing her his true visage for only a moment before turning to grab the Unmaker and wishing her goodbye. Niko's mouth falls open as she roars and begins to charge. She wouldn't let him escape again. She couldn't let him escape again. But, alas, even as she draws a shuriken to hurl towards him, it merely sails through the empty air where his non-existent heart had been moments ago.

Niko roars in defiance, angered beyond all belief. Once again the bastard slips by her notice...but his comrades were nearby. Her head sharply turns as he focused on the Blessed, the woman pummeling a downed girl trying desperately to survive. For a brief moment the samurai turns to the fallen, starved looking vigilante and kneels by her.

"You. You must get up. There is still..." She stops when another of the attuned mystics, seeming now weaker than before, tries to charge at Niko. Quickly she stands, dodging around and blocking his slopping swipes with an ancient looking axe. Catching the handle with her blade, she curls it over in circles but suddenly swiping it away and driving her sword through his chest. Kicking him off, she looks back down to the vigilante. "Move! I need your help to stop the Blessed before the Third escapes!"

Zek danced across dimensional boundaries, never staying in one spot for more than a second or two at a time. His portal flared open time and time again as he leaped into Dullworld, cleared the stasis grass, hit four more mystics with golden orbs, and then finished his leap into another portal to Zekworld.

"Thirty four, thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven...." he counted off as he deposited his new toys in their respective toyboxes. These people were covered in so many positively attractive armaments - money signs were practically flashing from Zek's eyes.

He blipped back into Dullworld and picked up another couple of decidedly uniformed people before that could blast the samurai..."Oi! I remember you!" he said to the woman finishing her duel with an ax-man. He nonchalantly smashed a golden ball into an energy construct and destroyed it before subsequently balling the construct's owner. "From the docks that one time!" he added. "A regular pow-wow, stopping the illegal shipments of stuff! How ya been? You look good!" he said, admiring her outfit and creative use of blood.

Then he saw another woman that he also recognized. "Oh hey, Windy! You were there too! How's it hanging?" he said cheerfully. It was a regular reunion party today! Lady Magenta, Linda, Windy, Crimson Katana and so many other he hadn't seen in ages! He stuck his hand through a small white portal and ejected several scarlet orbs into their appropriate cubicles, clearing out his pocket dimensions. He shut down the portal and with a swish of his black trench coat, started flinging more balls at the remaining mystics.

The thundering of a man's laughter from back over by mansion just completed the rave-like vibe. The shower of icicles that started falling was a new one, though.

Ez struggled to her feet; she didn't get to this point to roll over due to something like intense physical pain.

Familiar faces approached her, helping her up. It took all kinds. "Yeah, I'm getting back..." Ez tried to find her reserves in her belly. Even if she was out of gems, she should feel that. "I don't feel my mutation..."

The sounds of a kick and a groan woke her from her concern. She would figure out what happened to her powers later. She staggered over, raising her gun at the old woman kicking Agnes. "Get off of her!"

The threat made Malachi fall back in front of the Supreme. Realizing her energy was limited thanks to her wicked niece, she let the charms on the rest of her army fall away. She raised her holy symbol and prayed over Malachi. Ez fired two rounds into him, but he didn't react.

"Feel no pain, my champion. Defend me with your life!"

Ez backed off a step, hoping she gave someone time to get the... former bug girl away, if Agnes couldn't get on her feet after what she went through.

But the strategy did finally click for Ez. She called out into her comms. "If we break that weird cross around her neck, that might break the charms."

Watching the horror of what was happening with the two women who got close to the mystics, Madison worried the tide was about to turn against them.

And then two leaders left. That was amazing! One Supreme was far less dangerous than three, right? Except surely if they were teleporting away, there was a reason.

Madison called on the communicators, "Heads up, two Supremes vanished. Look out for the old man and the mask guy."

Another set of shots rang out as some of the mutants challenged the Supreme and her crazy sword man. Agnes was on the ground, so Madison focused her intent. Please don't digest her.

From her garden, a large pod grew under her, clamping around the young woman. She called the plant back to her by pulling on its vine until the plant spit Agnes and a bunch of insects out.

"Eek! Ack!" Madison had to drop the garden and pull from her deck again hastily. "Draw!"

Traptrix Sera was just what she needed. She was weak because Madison was running out of energy; this was likely her last spell if she didn't want things to go very, very wrong.

Still, Sera was able to catch and ward away the more aggressive insects. "Poor thing, did they attack you with bugs?? You look awful. But in the, 'you've been attacked' way; you seem lovely and I'm sorry, I'm taking too much, this is just kind of crazy."

Lenna
Malachi was bleeding on his face from the thorns she had raked him with, and injured from Auras multiple lethal attacks. That did not seem to stop him from breaking from their combat and returning to his master’s side. Full of holes and bleeding, but acting as if he did not feel it.

“Not feeling pain is not always a strength.” Lenna noted, as she helped Aura to a standing position. “One can be critically injured and not aware of it. This can be very dangerous, yes? How are you doing, by the way.” She was not saying this without reason, aura, too, could fall victim to —

From across the entire school grounds, a voice bleated—

> “HUBRIS.”

Yes. Exactly that.

A voice came on her comms that said break the cross on the old woman’s neck. Lenna repeated that to Aura. “Break the cross. Break her focus. Also, break that man. Hold on—“

She turned, as a group of ten mystics clumped together approached them from behind. Lenna sheared her focus to an area that encompassed them all, and sent a wave of psychic force at them as powerful as a rushing tackle from a 300 lb linebacker. She staggered for a moment, as it bowled them over and left them hurting. Brushed a drop of blood from her nose, and tried to will the sudden pulsing headache gone.

Then, Lenna turned back to Aura. “Ready. I will choke him. You cut off his arm so that he bleeds out. He does not know to guard his weaknesses.”

As she rushed towards Malachi’s new position, she saw a woman with a sword. “Friend with a sword! Come help us! We are cutting off that mystic’s arm! I need it. For stuff.”

Yah.

As she got close, Lenna thrust her arm out and willed a bubble of telekinetic force into being around Malachi’s neck. It would be invisible to everyone, but orange to her. Inspired by her favorite film franchise of all time, Lenna began to apply crushing telekinetic force on the man’s neck and windpipe. As a side effect, it would momentarily hold him in place. Although if anyone else wanted to assist in holding someone in place near this Agatha mystic, they would not be out of place.

She struggled to help the vigilante to her feet and glared at the blessed woman. She knew that woman was the key to finding the Man of Shadows but first it appeared she would have to get past her bodyguard. A feat that she was more than willing to undertake, given how weakened he now looked. Sword up and at the ready, she was about ready to charge when she heard the woman mention that the cross around the old woman's neck was her focus, a source of power. The samurai grinned under her demonic mask she looked between her and the weakening bodyguard.

Another man spoke up. One she vaguely recognized and found herself irritated by it. He was lucky to be on their side, otherwise she would have had no issue with cutting them stem to stern.

Then the other, Lenna, spoke up. Oh, she could certainly provide an arm if that was needed. Gently she shoulder of Ez, hoping she could stand on her own two feet. Once she had, Niko whispered to her. "Keep the gun on the woman," she said. "I believe the rest of us will handle the other."

Flicking her sword and squatting a bit low, Niko eyed the weakened Malachi and scoffed under her breath. He was an amateur, not a true warrior. A devout zealot and nothing more. She waited until the movements happened from the others before Niko suddenly launched herself forward. Pumped up by the blood her sword had spilled, Niko ran harder, faster than most and roared at the holy warrior before her. At his pitiful lashing of whatever weapon he had left, Niko turn, spun, and swiped her sword with all the ferocity she could muster...

...and watched as Malachi's foolish cost him something dearly...his own arm.

He watched with steady determination, seeing how his comrades would react to the situations at hand. The lady Agatha and her Holy Soldier, his thoughts raced to figure out who would be the one he were to Pause. One of the mutants seemed to be saved by a giant plant, while the other who fired shots at the Angry Godmother, still lay within her range.

Just then the comms system buzzed in his ear. He totally forgot he was plugged in. "If we break that weird cross around her neck, that might break the charms."

Eisen was still unsure whose voice was what, but the instructions were clear to him. Give the peeps an opening.

He watched as a sword-wielding mutant sliced an arm off the Supreme's soldier, assisted by another. Thus, his attention returned to the Supreme, who didn't seem happy about her warrier being shot at and having its arm chopped off.

"Shoot for the cross." Eisen spoke into the comm systems, as he focused his every being, energy consistent, breaths in rhythm, eyes lazer-pointed at Agatha. He spatially locked the ground beneath her feet, and slowly extended his mutation to her clothing, from her feet to her legs, up her waist, around her arms and even to the pendant around her neck. Shimmering like a statue's jewel in the sun-soaked battlefield.

Agatha would find that the fittingness of her vestments were now her downfall, and all she could move was everything beyond her neck and wrists. With his level of concentration, unless she had the guts to rip through her own clothing to break free of his spatial lock, or her warrior were to yank her from her position risking the same, all she would be able to do is spew words of discontent.

"I got Angry Godmother! Now! Go for the neck!"

> The woman got the arm! So that just happened. But as Lenna was torn between picking it up with her telekinesis to throw at the woman, or on striking him with a follow up so that he would go down, someone unknown to her shouted about having the angry godmother.
>
> Well. That decided it, then. Battle on multiple fronts. While one hand was extended towards Malachi, the other stretched out towards Agatha. Mentally, she pulled at the cross. It tugged away from the woman’s clothing, out in the open, exposed, pulled by nothing at all.
>
> “Whoever is open, go for it. I have the cross!” She shouted.
>
> Aura could handle Malachi, she hoped. Because her back was exposed.

The young woman was growling and clawing, trying her damnedest to hurt Agatha anyway that she could. She could reach her insects, she couldn't fly, she could sting, but she could claw and she could bite. She tried all of that, practically wild as she latched onto the old woman's leg and dug in her nails until she saw beads of red blossoming onto the woman's white robes. Agatha cried out but managed to kick Agnes away just as a living plant managed to seize her and pull her off and away through the grassy floor. The whole time she tried desperately to find the stretch to reach out towards the woman but it was to no avail. She just didn't have the strength right now.

Before long the pixie-haired young woman was deposited onto the grass next to another. She looked up at the other young woman and curled into herself. She was talking her and Agnes her some of it, but right now her emotions felt like they were bouncing off rubber walls. Why couldn't she feel her insects? Why did they abandon her like that? They had been apart of her for so long but they were just gone now. Something that first old man said...freed arrogance.

Agnes shivered. Was she powerless now? She gulped as she tried to sit up but felt her head spinning as she turned to looking at the woman that saved her again. She shook her head as tears dotted her eyes as she stared at the scene before her. "They didn't attack me..." She said as she reached down and scooped up some of the flies and roaches that had been dragged away with her. She skittered at random, most trying to escape from her presence...so she set them down and let them go. "...they were my friends..." She began to sob and emphasized again. "...were."

Aura's chainsaw came down as the magic around Malachi started to fade and Aura smiled as it tore a gaping wound across his chest as it carried through to the ground, she was surprised by the lack of force behind his magic upon the hit. She felt magic cut through her aura and she winced as pain flared in her chest from one of her ribs, It had barely gotten through though she realized from the feel of it. the Blow took her from her feet however and the chainsaw lost shape and flowed back into her aura.

Thorny plants had struck Malachi's face which had distracted him. "You’re not bad on the dance floor yourself" She called back to Zek. She liked Zek more now since he had helped save her and fought for this place. She may have judged his chaos wrongly she thought.

"Not sure but she is beautiful and as importantly on our side" She said in truth she did seem familiar, but aura could not place her. She was the glad Lenna was here.

She took Lenna’s hand with her right arm, her left still held tight at her side by her aura. "My shoulders shattered, pretty sure he cracked a rib and some minor wounds like burns. My auras keeping me from bleeding out" She said leaving out much this magic had been draining her aura. Unfortunately, her aura did little for the pain. The aura on her back was too thin to block the magic now

Then one of Malachi's arms fell to the ground and the Samurai girl made her impact felt. She smiled; she would not have minded a dance with her one bit.

When aura reached Malachi she would Form a drill and she aimed it in an uppercut for Malachi's good side just under his ribs, she positioned herself so Malachi would need to get past her before striking Lenna. "So my lovely Samurai friend, your help at this hour is most welcomed" she said honestly. She could have beat Malachi but the rest? She doubted it.

It was like using dynamite on fish in a barrel, a particularly fun activity that Zek enjoyed once a month or so. In this case, the barrel was all the various plants and other terrain hazards that were trapping people in place, other than the people Zek assumed was on his side. Not that he really knew what the sides were, but he figured he'd stick to the winning side.

Zek hammered the mystics Lenna bowled over with his own powers and repeated the task of depositing them in their boxes in Zekworld. "....Fifty three, fifty six, fifty seven...." he said in a sing-song tone as he never stopped moving. Mystics tried to attack him? Ball to the face. Mystics tried to block him? Ball to the face. Mystics tried to run? Ball to the back of the face.

He kept this up, his inventory of people growing by the minute even as the number of people in the woods rapidly diminished. Finally, he popped out of Zekworld within spitting distance of the duel and he pulled out a folding chair from behind him and plopped down into it. He shut down the portal and opened a small one in front of him, from which he extracted a bag of popcorn from one of the popcorn machines he'd installed in Zekworld and then proceeded to watch the last duel and the psychic choking. He loved Lady Mauve duels - they're were almost filled with action, violence, and then time even bloody limbs!

"Okay, I think I got everyone else!" he said. "Are you all done fighting yet? Did I miss anything exciting?" he yelled before smashing a fistful of popcorn into his oversized mouth.

The vigilante tried lining up a shot around Malachi, but there was too much to account for. He was a big guy, and he was actively engaged in a very messy battle with her temporary team. Even as the rest of her defenses fell, the old woman was smart enough to stay just close enough to her meat shield for protection.

Lenna seemed to have a plan, so Ez was ready to do what she could to help. "If you get that cross, get it in the air!" She just needed a clean shot. And Lenna probably needed a distraction.

Reaching into her pouch, Ez grabbed something small enough to fit in her fist, but weighty enough to have some heft. "Deal with this, you hag!" Ez lobbed the object over Malachi's head.

The Supreme raised her hands to form a hasty protection ward. With a soft bonk, a harmless tumbled ruby bounced off her ward. More importantly, her hands were off the cross for a brief moment.

In that window, Pause locked the Supreme in place long enough for Lenna to grab and toss the cross free from the shambling shield that was Malachi.

Ez lined up her shot, not wanting to waste time only to find out Agatha had some recall spell to call the holy symbol back to her. She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

The bullet cracked the metal holy symbol, shattering it. As the pieces fell to the ground, Malachi bellowed, suddenly overcome by the intense pain from gashing wounds his body had been ignoring for the prolonged battle.