Edited the Tuatha da Danaan v Poseidon fight:
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Tessa stood up as soon as the Danaan righted, and almost tripped herself in the rush as she stared at the screen and listened to Naiki in her head.
"Kaname, there's something I need you to do," Tessa said.
"There's something I can do for this?" Kaname asked. "He's not even on the ship."
"I need you to replace the AI for a little bit," the captain said quickly. "Show her the way and how to hook up, and take three of the guards outside with you. No telling whether or not our prisoners escaped again in that."
"I could go with her..." Eija started to say.
"Poseidon is bleeding, Miss Satomi," Tessa said.
"Hull pressure increasing!" one of the techs declared.
"Go!" Tessa commanded firmly to Kaname and the tech.
Kaname barely hesitated, but followed quickly enough, confused over what exactly she'd be expected to do.
Naiki, I need the pressure kept off my ship.
Yeah, I've gotten very good at that the last couple of minutes.
"Hull pressure slacking off," the previous tech noted.
"Keep us moving!" Tessa said, "Vary speed and direction, maintain equilibrium as best you can. Sonar, I want tracking on the pockets of heavy pressure, get started now!"
Eija looked out through the camera as the sub turned about their enemy and noted the small rivelet's of red leaking out into the water.
"Miss Satomi," Tessa said. "If you'd do me the favor of bleeding our unwanted visitor."
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Poseidon blinked a moment as he felt a noticeable drain on his endurance and felt a spark of mana lashing out towards, dark and filled with the touch of death and the weak-touch of a soft-hearted soul.
ôHecateÆs girl,ö he thought as his form enlongated and shifted in shape. ôAnother of these degenerate young Gods and Demons.
All around him, the wounds heÆd suffered were pushing themselves open even as he concentrated on pushing water in to close them and growing large enough to make them of minimal concern to him.
Slowly his form shifted into something massive and vaguely whale like, but with massive fins that still ended in distinct digits and parted feet that pushed him monstrously through the water.
Angrily, he opened his mouth and took in a massive surge of water before releasing it again into directed wave that should have torn the mortal craft into tiny pieces.
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ôIncoming pressure wave!ö the sonar operator called out.
The wave struck into them and the deck titled sideways again sending Tessa sprawling to the side and slamming into one of the walls hard.
Eija meanwhile stood up with the shifting deck, leaned against the change in center of gravity and then leaned back again as the ship managed to right itself before shifting back into a kneeling meditative position, hands staying poised in front of her. ________________________________________
Elsewhere in the hallways, Kaname was running as quickly as she dared when the walls once again became floors and ceilings and both she and her escort were pulled off of their feet as the sub tried to right itself up.
TheyÆd been about to take a set of stairs down to a lower deck when the boat heaved and one of the three soldiers with her tripped and started to fall off the banister heading for a long, bouncing fall in the shifting sub.
Kaname reached out reflexively to grab the manÆs harness with both arms and locked her legs against the banister. She wouldnÆt have held had the other two soldiers not taken the opportunity sheÆd provided and grabbed their comrade to pull him back.
ôThanks Miss Chidori,ö the soldier said as the sub started to right itself again.
ôNo problem, protecting people that can kick my ass is what IÆm here for,ö Kaname said irritably.
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ôTessa, do you neàö Eija started to say, looking toward the way the Captain was holding her right arm.
ôKeep on him!ö Tessa declared standing up herself and holding her arm as she walked up into the front of the command room.
ôCaptain, you should sit down,ö a tech noted. ôIf thereÆs another strike and you fall again.ö
ôThen I stand back up,ö Tessa said firmly. ôHe wants to face the Danaan in her ocean, heÆll find her Captain on her feet.ö
ôWhy the hell are we in one piece?ö the sonar tech said.
ôNaikiÆs out there,ö the Captain explained.
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Naiki raced to the sub and kept above it, forcing a path through the thickening pressure for the sub as she watched Poseidon shift around in pursuit and reaching out with his over sized hand to apparently attempt to grab and crushing it physically rather than just with water pressure.
As he did so, Naiki noticed the small trails of blood coming off the massive construct the God had made of himself. It's smell filled the entire ocean in the area, pouring out of his body.
"Heh, Eija's here," Naiki said. "And I think I've got another thing I can do with that."
As she swam parallel to the Danaan, like a remora alongside a shark, Naiki let another thought empowered by pishogue flow out into the deep around her. A thought that directed the scent of that bled outward to deliver a message.
Poseidon reached out to grip closed one of his wounds when they first showed up, flowing around the danaan and Naiki, ignoring them as they keyed in on the source of the sweet scent of the bleeding god.
Naiki smiled as hundreds and thousands of sharks swarmed past her to attack Poseidon like over sized piranha.
And the kicker of the lot of them came as a vast dark shape rose out of the untracked depths and swum up beside the Danaan purposefully, seeming to roll one black eye to take it in curiously before pressing onward in the attack.
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"Ma'am, is that?" one of the techs asked, gaping at the monitor along with everybody else.
"Megalodon charchadon," Tessa said, mouth agape. "Do we have a targeting solution?"
"No, not with the way we're moving," the tech said.
ôRig something,ö Tessa said. ôTry a snap shot.ö
Eija stood up from her kneeing position and wiped at the sweat on her forehead. ________________________________________
Kaname was rushed through the ship and to a strange room that only held a sensory deprivation tube like the one she had been held prisoner in sometime ago.
"Okay, I'm going to need you to get in that and...resonate," the tech said. "I'll start the procedures out here."
The entire sub shook and, in some places, groaned.
"I don't think we have much time," the tech said.
Kaname nodded and, with a trace of reluctance stepped into the tank.
Kaname's eyes closed and suddenly, she was floating the water and calm in every way. She could see Gauron and Sousuke gearing up for their fight in the launch bay and watch the play of ocean battle outside the Danaan, with the sub moving erratically and trying still to get a targeting lock on Poseidon.
Her body was in pain all over. It was cracked and even leaking in places. Nothing that couldn't be handled, but it was getting worse. Something kept trying to grab her and squeeze her and she didn't like that.
And she felt something powerful just within reach of her hand, but first she had to go to her friends.
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Sousuke stood up and held his weapon and let go of the hand rail as the sub righted itself again. He looked out into the hold and saw the trail of blood that Gauron had left. It wasnÆt enough given how many bullets Sousuke had poured into him. HeÆd been wearing some sort of body armor.
ôSousuke,ö KanameÆs voice behind him said and he whirled to find her looking somewhat translucent and a bit distracted.
ôChidori,ö Sousuke said in a hushed whisper, ôwhat are you doing here?ö
ôIÆm in the ship,ö Kaname said. ôUsing this is hard, not sure how IÆm doing it. Got to get to it. Poseidon is in the ocean. Gauron is in the Danaan.ö
ôPoseidon?ö Sousuke repeated. ôIs that whatÆs here?ö
ôGauron is more dangerous,ö Kaname said. ôI didnÆt know that before, but I canàfeel him in the ship now. HeÆs diseased, he wants to die in glory and violence, hit a home run so hard that everyone stops playing the game because it can never be topped. This ship and everyone in it is the perfect ball to hit out of the park with him.ö
The ship shook then though KanameÆs image held steady in place with just a shiver of what looked like pain.
ôI have to go help Eija,ö she said. ôStop him, Sousuke. And donÆt answer his taunts. He wants fans. He wants an audience. He wants this to be about him.ö
She stopped and took a breath, or at least her image did.
ôMake it about us.ö
And then her image faded away.
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Something snaked out of the gloom and latched onto the side of the massive shark, halting it just long enough for another tentacle to reach up and grab it again.
Grimacing, Naiki was about to go down and tear into the squid or whatever stopping her shark cold, when a burst of air heralded the sudden entrance of a guided torpedo into the water.
Damn it Tessa snapped not good enough!
Noting that the missile was going to go far off course, Naiki bent herself toward altering it's path a little, down along the route of the tentacles holding the struggling shark still.
The explosion pushed shark and Naiki up into the water, and stunned it, but at least it was free.
However, all about, Naiki looked and saw the sharks she had called in entered dozens of their own battles all over the place against dolphins, cuttlefish, squid, whales and numerous other things besides.
"You bring them up in rebellion, daughter," Poseidon roared though he had to catch his breath immediately afterward. "They will pay the price."
"Blowhard," Naiki snapped back angrily as a swarm of cuttlefish pulled around her and the megalodon.
One gripped at her leg and tried to pull her off down into the depths away from the shark. Or, worse, where the shark might decide she was a tidbit. Angrily she dipped into the form a demon remembered, though not to the extremity that Poseidon had into his.
Scales traveled up her body and she ripped her foot up, cutting through the water and into the cuttlefish and then slicing through the water fast enough to forge a small fan of vacuum blades that didnÆt last much longer than it took for the cuttlefish to be cleared from around the shark as it slammed into Poseidon again.
One of PoseidonÆs massive fins whipped forward into the megalodon and pushed it off as the shark pulled some of the skin away. It further ripped away into the deep as the mana-flesh exploded and Naiki had to fight to get herself back into position to shape the water currents to guide it back around again for another attack.
She slipped back into her true form, conserving her strength and attention on just the torrents she was shaping.
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Why do you fight with this Demon and these mortals against, neophyte? A deep rumbling voice spoke in EijaÆs mind.
That is not a question that can be answered if you have to ask it, Eija responded.
You think you know more than me? Poseidon roared in her mind.
How are you in my mind? Eija demanded. You arenÆt dead and IÆm not linked with you.
You are attacking my life force directly and you wonder that I can speak to you? Poseidon responded with angry laughter. You donÆt deserve to be a part of my species. Why did you abandon your human blood if you care so much for these things.
Abandon myà Eija blinked.
You and my daughter both threw aside the blood of your human parent for the true power of the Immortals, Posiedon explained. If you cared so much for humanity and your family, why cut yourself off from it.
The hell she did! KanameÆs voice sniped in. Eija didnÆt abandon humanity. She protected me!
Another of these mortals intruding on the mind of the Gods, PoseidonÆs voice roared. When this toy of yours is destroyed, itÆll be a pleasure cleanse this taint from the Yggdrasil network.
Kaname donÆt get in to this, Eija said.
HeÆs distracting you, Eija, Kaname said quickly. The idiotÆs realized that he tried to rob a gun store packed with the cops and now heÆs trying to bluff his way out.
I do not bluff little mortal, you and your friends need a bit of the lessons I gave Odysseus.
It was strange, but Eija seemed to feel KanameÆs mental presence pushing past hers and rushing at PoseidonÆs.
Odysseus was a guy with a boat, a sword and a lot of smarts and he still escaped your wrath for ten years. YouÆre trying to take out Tessa now, and sheÆs got a lot more than that.
And what might that be?
Us.
The Whispers and Songs, the collective unconscious of both Gods and Humans, seemed to pull into the mindscape around them as a particular sequence of codes and symbols filtered in as the three figures turned visible instead of just being a collection of thoughts.
Poseidon stood across from the black and white spirit forms of Kaname and Eija, a blue-green shape of spirit and power that seemed almost twice the size of either girl though not both. And his image rushed forward at the two girls as various codes coalesced in front of them. The code of the spell forcing his wounds to bleed rushing out from Eija and tearing into him piece by piece.
He was distracted between the fight with the sharks and Naiki as well as trying to nail down the ship that his daughter was protecting, but he felt like he could handle two young spirits, one of them a mortal. It didnÆt require more than half a thought on his part to simply hurl them out of the way.
Which is why he was surprised when his rush was interrupted with a jarring smash from a collection of white and golden codes and symbols in the mortalÆs hands. The weapon formed was strange, and seemed to like a paper fan folded several times over. It didnÆt so much hurt as just stunned him with the sheer ridiculousness of it, especially as she smacked him back again with the mental harisen.
Poseidon growled irritably, stepping back, trying to formulate a response when she smacked him again upside the head.
You dare toà
And she didnÆt let him finish but just whacked him again and was in the process of swinging again when she was interrupted and Eija stepped forward, taking the harisen into hand herself. Immediately she recognized it as the virus that had attacked her not too long ago and which Kaname had altered, and apparently had kept in mind and altered again.
Thank you, Kaname, Eija said as the bleeding spell wrapped around the harisen and squeezed it tight, stretching it out into a long, thin bladed jian. I can handle this from here.
DonÆt let him distract you, remember, Buzzing of Hornets is your family technique, Kaname encouraged as her projection faded away to focus her attention on her main task.
She let herself back away and fall into a whirl of Whispered codes and numbers that attached to her and fled out, bringing to her knowledge and awareness which partially poured into Eija as well. Both girlsÆ spirits started to fill and Eija felt, for a moment, that she probably could make her projection as large as PoseidonÆsàbut decided against it.
Let him waste energy on impressing her. She was going to need every advantage.
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"Don't every worry. Everything will be happy!"
Kaname's face popped up on screen briefly before it faded away.
"All right, here we go," Tessa said calmly, she turned to the intercom. "All hands, prepare for some extreme maneuvering."
Now she just had to hope the Kaname understood what it was Tessa wanted as she described it.
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Naiki's swarm of sharks enjoyed only a short-lived success as Poseidon roared and pushed them back with a wave of water pressure lashed out from his mouth again that dispersed the swarm, killing some and stunning others. Only the megalodon, Naiki grabbed onto its massive fin managed to push against the wave and get in to tear out a chunk of the God's massive form.
It shook as the mana-crafted flesh exploded again slicing into NaikiÆs skin where shrapnel passed by, but this time the water dampened it and the megalodon turned about for another attack on Poseidon. Naiki glaring brilliantly from atop the creature and looking toward the other sharks she had called to the area.
Some were recovering and circling out at a distance, watching the megalodon taking on this thing that dwarfed even it.
The blood was still trailing out of his wounds in an ever increasing amount and as she directed her shark with a torrential nudge here or there in the currents of the water, Naiki smiled broadly and opted to give her sister and even more direct hand.
The leviathan Poseidon pushed in again to head for the sub and taking a breath to unleash another blast of water out at it. And then he stopped, as one of his energies burst out in an explosion of blood and tissue that brought the creature whirling about to stare at Naiki gripping the dorsal fin of the megalodon and staring at him with a wild sharp-toothed look.
ôViolent, tumultuous, overwhelming flow!ö she shouted into the water, knowing Poseidon would understand clearly.
The great monster that was a transformed creature shrieked outward bowling toward Naiki and her shark and pushing them end over end out into the depths even as the small sharks again flooded over the tide of red blood that had been blown out of the leviathanÆs side.
And a torpedo rushed past the megalodon only barely being struck aside by a burst of water pressure.
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Eija ducked under PoseidonÆs trident, swiping up her virus-Jian as she came in under his reach. The tendrils of her spell ripped outward, tearing strips of her enemy apart each time she swung her sword, even apart from slashing it directly at her enemy.
But he was not helpless or unskilled despite his incredulous inability to comprehend KanameÆs attack on him earlier.
Eija felt a blast of focused power lift her off what she had thought of as her feet and bring her slam down painfully dozens of feet away. The wiry tendrils growing out of the blade of her spell ripped away from Poseidon one by one until they were whipping about her waiting to latch back onto her enemy.
But, she felt herself fading back away out of the soulscape, almost too tired to hold it.
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Tessa watched as Eija dropped to one knee, panting heavily and goddess marks still glowing as she continued to try to bleed the massive form of the God.
"Miss Satomi?" Tessa said, "Are you okay?"
"There's a lot of blood," Eija noted, swallowing. ôBut heÆs not going down easy. I donÆt think I could do this alone.ö
"Good thing youÆre not alone then,ö Tessa said. ôHow are we doing?ö
ôItÆs been 30 seconds since the last time we neared theorized cataclysmic hull pressure, Captain,ö a tech said.
ôGood, youÆre making progress then, Miss Satomi,ö Tessa said. ôKeep it up.ö
Eija nodded and forced herself back into the mindscape.
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The Goddess of Blood rose up again from where sheÆd disappeared before and looked to see Poseidon starting to try to pull away from this to focus all his attention on Naiki and the Danaan.
Poseidon, she called out calmly.
Her sword raised in her hand over her head, holding out the other with two fingers forward.
We are not finished yet. And, as you said, this soulscape is here because I am attacking, you donÆt get to leave if I donÆt want you to.
So be it, neophyte,
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Gauron around, grimacing as he shrugged off the armor he had been wearing, something stripped from one of the soldiers he'd killed. It had stopped most of the bullets, but even the ones it had stopped and just about shattered his ribs. He'd been just about completely helpless when Sousuke had been about to obliterate his head, but he was at least partially mobile now.
Somewhere in the room, Sousuke was up and moving too, and with much less in the way of injury, Gauron was certain.
"Well, Kashim," he called out. "Your little lavender princess really pulled one over on me, if wasn't for that last minute emergency, I think you would have actually killed me."
The sub groaned around them.
"Uh oh, something tells me that's part of what we moved to avoid," Gauron noted with a laugh.
He crept over to his AS, the Venom, keeping his eyes open.
"So, I'm guessing you're waiting for me to keep talking so you can track down my position and outflank me," Gauron said chuckling. "But what do you do if I expect you to do that?"
Gauron eyed the Venom and smiled psychotically.
Sousuke meanwhile, was listening to the voices and trying to pin down Gauron's position in the vast, echoes of the launch bay. He had a good idea that the man would aim to get to the Venom, though and started to move in that direction.
He found blood on the hand rail of the Venom, leading up into the cockpit and followed the trail up quickly and found an empty cockpit.
At which point one of the M-9s shifted forward, the machine guns in the head firing across the launch bay.
Sousuke dived away from the Venom as it was peppered lightly and the machine gun fire followed him until he took cover behind another AS.
ôHey Kashim!ö Gauron shouted. ôAre you going to try to fight this without an AS?ö
Sousuke grimaced as the M-9 charged forward, knife drawing out, Gauron reaching out to tear aside the M-9 behind which Sousuke had taken cover. In the collision, Sousuke dived out and rolled away from the impact, moving in the blindspots of the M-9 that he knew so well, few of them that there were.
ôHey, Kashim!ö Gauron snapped. ôWhere are you?ö
The soldier came up behind the toppled M-9 and scampered up the side, having to hold tightly as the ship was rocked again by an attack from outside. But then he was up top of the wreck and in leaping distance of GauronÆs M-9Æs back.
A light clanking sound alerted the psychopath to the location of his opponent and he chuckled lightly at the roof of his cockpit and then laughed uproariously.
ôOh is the shifting deck not good enough for you Kashim?ö Gauron demanded with a loud chortle as he let his M-9 fall back in an attempt to crush Sousuke underneath it.
Grimacing, Sousuke pulled himself around to the front of the M-9Æs body and found a maintenance crevice in the M-9, firing his submachine gun into it in the hopes of gumming up some of the works.
The ship rocked again, turning the ASÆs controlled fall into a tumbling, smashing topple that scattered over the entire launch bay with Sousuke dropping off the machine and catching a sideways pillar to hold onto as the ship settled again and he took up his feet, making a dashing run at the downed M-9 as Gauron struggled to right himself as his mech leaned against the wall near where the damaged Venom was secured.
HeÆd covered half the distance when the head and its anti-personnel guns turned toward him and whirred into life, forcing him to dive aside for cover and continue his approach from behind the row of M-9s.
GauronÆs M-9 tried to stand but the shoulder of one arm wouldnÆt move completely, whether damaged in the fall or by SousukeÆs P90, or a combination of the two, it was hard to say. In any case, Sousuke heard the pop of a cockpit opening up.
ôI think itÆs time to trade up from this piece-of-shit M-9, Kashim,ö Gauron said with a smile. ôLetÆs go back to my old favorite.ö
Sousuke turned about a corner and saw Gauron ponderously leaping to the cockpit of his Venom to get inside.
If he started that up and cut loose with the lambda driver, he could tear open the da Danaan from the inside out like a bird hatching from an egg. And that would kill everyone on board.
The mithril soldier was too far away to stop Gauron from closing the hatch, but maybe.
SousukeÆs eyes turned toward the Arbalest.
If he couldnÆt stop Gauron from starting the Venom up, heÆd keep it busy and suppress that lambda field with his own.
ôWhere did you go, Kashim?ö Gauron demanded as he set his Venom to standing up, growling as the machine proved slow to respond from the accumulated damage it had suffered.
Further ahead in the launch bay, the Arbalest slowly stood up.
ôHeh, thatÆs good, Kashim,ö Gauron said. ôThatÆs the way things should go.ö
The Arbalest turned to face him and its lights blinked on.
ôStill with the silent treatment I see,ö Gauron said.
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Naiki, most of the energy boost of the peach gone, but some still remaining, whooped under water as the great black shark took another massive bite out of the God.
"Go, Ed! Go!" she shouted eagerly.
Poseidon pushed the shark aside with a thrust of water. One less such thing that wasn't aimed at the Danaan, but still required Naiki to push her own torrent through it to stop it.
It was following one of those pressure waves that caused her to see a flutter of movement beyond the thousands of still circling sharks.
Naiki, follow the Danaan's lead.
What?
Naiki watched the Danaan blow some of its ballasts and whip around sideways in a painful looking ripple that couldn't have been doing much for the DAnaan's structure.
But it brought the Danaan to a brief but complete stop, pointed directly at Poseidon's back.
The Demoness smirked and pushed the patterns of water to suggest the giant shark to pull away from the fight for a moment.
"Still running daughter?" Poseidon demanded as he pursued.
Two torpedoes slammed into the massive center of Poseidon's body, rocking into distraction and setting off another explosion from the volatile nature of his fake, enlarged body.
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The Venom and Arbalest felt the ground twist out from under them, scattering them apart for the brief moment it took to stand the machine up again and return to fighting.
"Are you mute, Kashim?" Gauron demanded loudly. "Why aren't you trying to upset my focus here? Tell you what, why donÆt I set a time limit on this conversation. Two minutes, one minutesàletÆs see what the self-destruct says."
Sousuke's mind ran through all the possible scenarios that involved his enemy and all the past events that he had been involved in.
Foremost in his mind, he imagined Kaname and Eija in one of those sensory deprivation tanks handled by one of the scientists Gauron employed.
The idea of them being tortured to the point that Sarah had been in when they'd rescued her put a spur of anger and swiftness to his actions.
"Start the lambda driver. Grab the cable."
The words typed themselves out over his computer monitor.
"So how did you goodie two shoes figure out a consistent lambda field?" Gauron wondered. "And how did you form one when the driver was down."
This followed by a quick laugh.
"I don't suppose it matters," he declared as he reached to trigger the self-destruct sequence. "We're both going to be gone soon."
Gauron frowned as the forward section of the launch pad suddenly sealed itself off from the bulk of the bay. As if the machine was rigging for an aquatic launch...
The doors above opened wide and Sousuke, glowing with the power of the lambda driver, bent down and gripped firmly on to one of the cables as the water rushed in over everything. The creaking of the metal, stressed by the flood and the high speed maneuvers of the Danaan, echoed dangerously, threatening for large sections to snap cold under the circumstances.
In the rush of waters, Sousuke directed himself toward Gauron as the psychopath was holding tight to the deck, apparently tearing gouges in the metal to hold. The ArbalestÆs feet slammed into the head of the Venom, dislodging it as both machines were pulled out of the da Danaan into the crushing water outside.
The cable in the ArbalestÆs hand snapped to an end and almost pulled out, but held just barely, keeping the Arbalest from wiping further out into the deep. Almost immediately, the da Danaan began to reel Sousuke back inside and close the doors.
ôV ^_^ Vö typed out on his computer screen.
ôThank you, Chidori,ö Sousuke breathed as the water started to bleed off around him in the sealed off launch bay.
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The Tuatha de Danaan was already speeding away from its launch site when Poseidon turned around to face it, leaving him open for the megalodon to zip back around and slam into him and tear out an explosive hunk of Poseidon's body.
The embattled God thrust outward with a blast of water pressure at the sub before retuning to looking at the massive shark, still small compared to him.
An emergency blow of air forced the Danaan back away from its intended path and the blast of destructive water pressure passed with yards of the Danaan.
"Targeting position and fire," Tessa ordered firmly.
Once again, the Danaan came to a sudden side-veering motion that lined it up directly with Centauri and two torpedoes were released.
These struck Poseidon in his shoulder and head, blowing the the skull of the construct open wide.
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Naiki watched the body of her so-called father start to shrink away and she nudged the megalodon out toward the other battles the sharks were engaged in all around.
Naiki meanwhile pushed off the giant shark and zipped in toward Poseidon, twisting as she did so to pull vacuum blades under the water, though they lasted much less time than usual given the water always pushing into it.
Still Nabiki managed again to slice into the now only somewhat larger and follow it up again until the giant was torn away and only Poseidon's battered body was left as the spell was pulled away from him.
"What are you doing this for?" Poseidon demanded. "I'm only looking to free you to the way things are!"
"In your dreams!" Naiki snapped.
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Eija reared up her sword as her opponent fell back to his knees. The tendrils ripped out from her ready stance and tore into him again before she took her step forward and stabbed straight for his projectionÆs heart.
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"Get ready to fire another torpedo," Tessa said.
"But, Ma'am," one of the techs said. "We can't..."
Tessa turned to look at them.
ôWe arenÆt going to need targeting on this one!ö
Then she turned back toward the monitors and shouted animatedly at the dissipating image of Poseidon.
"Get out of....!"
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"....our ocean!" Naiki agreed simultaneously.
Another torpedo left the Danaan and Naiki pulled back focusing a pair of torrents along either side of Poseidon, giving the torpedo a narrow tunnel of low pressure water to fly down and basically operate as the Danaan's targeting system in this case.
Poseidon opened his mouth again in preparation of saying something, only to have the torpedo slam into him and carry him far back, without detonating for a long moment before finally exploding.
Naiki took a deep breath and thought about relaxing there, but remembered the sea life battles currently going on. Given that she'd merely invited and nudged the sharks, mostly physically, it was probably not the best idea to hang around.
Coming in, she sent to Tessa. I need Eija to send me back to Tokyo, Kyoko was hurt and she needs a doctor!
All right, Tessa noted. The diver entrances are in the same...
A late explosion ripped through the scene and pushed upward toward the surface like an underwater eruption or rocket, drawing Tessa and Naiki's eyes in something like confusion.
"Where'd that come from?" Naiki wondered as she rushed to come into one of the many diver entries for the Da Danaan.
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Kaname breathed a sigh of relief and opened her eyes finding herself back in the sensory deprivation tube and sitting up as it opened.
Eija are you okay? she asked, feeling a heavy sense of fatigue from the other girl.
He struck back, Eija returned. It seems to have translated into some internal injuries, but I shall be fine.
Thank Godàor, well you know.
It is a most unfortunate name for a species to have, Eija agreed with an audible mental pant. ThatÆs oddà
What is? Kaname asked looking down at her hands.
I thought I felt something, she paused and Kaname felt a hefty sigh. Naiki needs me to go to Tokyo, Kyoko is hurt and she thinks I might help.
IÆll be right there, Kaname returned tightly.
Is something wrong?
No, nothing, Kaname said quickly.
As she looked up, her eyes flooded red like EijaÆs were when she let her death sight out fully, though they faded away to her normal look.
However, the memory of the smeer of red along her left hand did not go away even though she couldnÆt see it now. She didnÆt want Eija or Sousuke to know about it just yet, sheÆd need to know how to tell them.
She didnÆt even really want to admit to herself that it was there, though sheÆd seen it.
One little blemish of red on her hands to EijaÆs death sight.
And something else that bothered her: sheÆd be actively participating in fighting both Poseidon and Gauron. So shouldnÆt there have been two?