Snow Serpent Showdown

Luckily enough for Kawari, the fight seemed to wrap up pretty quickly after that. The guy who had transformed into a giant flaming beast- seriously, what was that? Did that even exist?- simply did a rinse and repeat, and took down the now much easier serpent. As Kawari turned his attention to Rapture and the man she was talking to before, he saw that tensions were rising once again. Some weird beat had started to play. Even Kawari had to admit that it was kind of catchy. He began rapping, but it was in a language that Kawari didn't know, so he wasn't able to appreciate the lyrics.

When he was done, leaving Kawari with a confused look, the electric kid started saying something to him, but he couldn't comprehend it. It was like no one knew Japanese here. Which was fair. He cast the kid a confused look before they ran to attack the same man that Rapture was attacking. "Nē, chottomatte! (Hey, wait!)" Kawari protested, but the attacks were already flying through the air.

That's when time stopped.

---

Cain clicked her fingers, and time dilated infinitely. "Chaos... CONTROL!" She stepped onto the scene in a regal outfit as usual, and walked towards Fasilli. The only one in the group who wouldn't be experiencing stopped time. Then again, could it be called an experience if you couldn't even perceive it? "Get it? Between you, the Steves, and Shadow the Edgehog here, there's enough chaos to light me up like a Christmas tree!" She looked up at the Stephanie. "I mean that is one of yours, right?" She then got back to the subject at hand, looking Rapture up and down. "She's looking good though! I wonder if she likes coffee." She resumed her business and walked over to Fasilli, minding Taz's body suspended in midair as she walked by. She was sure he'd be fine.

"Well, the common denominator here- excuse my French- is you, Fasi. I think you've had plenty of fun, but it's time to move on." She raised her right hand and began twirling her finger in a circle. The tip crackled with neon green energy and all the damage to the city began to be reversed, mending itself. With her left, she took Fasilli's hand. She wasn't trying to drag him along, but she had the feeling that he was done here. And with that, they departed. But the beat Fasilli had played earlier was stuck in her head, and she sang some of the lyrics, the words trailing off as they left view.

"Good thing I keep Tums in the Slave I, cause your style makes me spacesick
And your bars are like your old pal Cable, fuckin' basic
I'll smack a merc in the mouth, if he doesn't quit runnin' that lip off..."

---

And then time resumed.

As Kawari began to step forward to try and understand what was going on, he noticed something had changed. He looked around him immediately, and... everything was... fine? There was no more damage to the buildings or the streets, and there was no man in front of Rapture anymore. Did he just disappear? Kawari was very confused. "Nanda?"

That was better left not translated. With everything out of the way, he meditated, sealing the limiters inside him again as he breathed. After that, barring anything else, he began to head out to find a place to stay. Limping for the first two steps, but then controlling himself and showcasing his iron will as he resumed walking normally.

When it was said earlier that Simon was suffering information overload with all that was going on at once no one could have predicted that it would get even worse! First the clown that Rapture was facing down started rapping, of all things. Though to be fair the rap wasn't all that bad, even if it was extremely surreal in this situation. It seemed that Rapture was much less of a fan however, as she transformed and prepared to shut him up with the power of the Red Dragon. Simon didn't really know what was going on but he knew that Rapture could handle herself, so instead of moving to help her he would instead fly at the ice-creating female figure, ready to do battle.

And then Simon blinked, and everything was gone.

Simon cried out in surprise as all of a sudden all the enemies had disappeared and vanished without a trace. They also took the property damage that the serpent had done with them, how polite. Simon flew up to Rapture and landed beside her "Hey uh... did you do that?" There was no reasonable explanation for what happened other than magic, and when it came to mystic stuff Rapture was far more knowledgeable than he was, so perhaps she had an explanation.

What just... where did... that clown go? Where were those last few Steves? CAP's cannon started to whine down as his target had just somehow for no possibly logical reason, vanished. All that was left was the... man who also somehow for no logical reason was capable of turning into a giant flaming mongoose, and Rapture. Nope. This was where he called it a day. He had quite enough nonsense for one sitting and had no intention of wasting his time any further, especially with his energy reserves where they were at the moment. It wasn't that he didn't think he couldn't take on either Mongoose Facade or Rapture, it was more he simply didn't have the patience to deal with both of them, and every other vigilante who had crawled out of the wood work. So, he kicked on his thrusters and just took off in a random direction...
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Hans and the MRO were likewise confused with what just happened. Where did that masked psycho and his merry men go? The Frost Spirit was likewise missing in action. "What... the actual hell just happened?" A MRO demanded, but nobody had an answer. Hans would chalk this up to more supernatural shenanigans and made a mental note to perhaps suggest PSI turn it's attention to Jump at their earliest convenience. Because the amount of supernatural activity going on in this city was just... beyond absurd and also out of the scope for a single operative. Actually, he was going to go do that now and so excused himself to go back to where he was staying in the city to do just that...

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Fasilli and whatever else was here is no longer here for anyone not paying attention. Nothing else to see folks, time to wrap it up and go home. Even if Fasilli had anything to say about being dragged off, there was only one person to hear him.

Final Fantasy Fanfare. Okay I lied, there was one last Fasilli thing.

Facade was just about to go to Rapture’s aid when a chill ran through his humongous spine. He blinked, shivered, and blinked again. Where had everyone gone? The masked man, his icy companion, and the carcass of the snow serpent had all disappeared along with all damage that had been caused. Now left were a collective of bewildered heroes. Using one of his mongoose giant mongoose mitts, Liev removed the mask and returned to ‘normal’ form once again, literally scratching his head. The temperature remained cold and snow still scattered upon the ground, but that had become the new normal. The song Time Warp from the cult-classic film Rocky Horror Picture Show came to mind.

♪ With a bit of a mind flip,
You’re into the time slip,
And nothing
Can ever be the same ♪

Had Facade’s reality really been subject to a slip in time? For someone who had spent so much time over his many years and had seen so many things during that time, the thought did not come off as too far-fetched. But the question stood, how exactly had time been tampered with, if at all? There could have very likely been an instance of teleportation, but despite the serpent’s death, the ice queen and the masked man seemed only to be getting started. To teleport away didn’t make very much sense.

“Hey, Rapture! I just pulverized a snow serpent, didn’t I?” Facade called to his spiky companion, who seemed just as perplexed as he.

••••

Rapture’s blood sword stabbed a whole bunch of air as she nearly toppled over, no target to be had. Where had that slimy bastard gone? The petite powerhouse caught and steadied herself, still in battle stance. He must have had teleporting powers and simply moved out of the way. Enough people could do it, so the possibility stood strongly. However, he didn’t seem to be anywhere she could see, yet she kept her guard up. This must be some sort of preemptive sneak attack, and yet… Rapture experienced the same misgivings that Facade had, only she didn’t share his time travel theory. Not that it didn’t have merit, but instead the idea that someone was simply fucking with her prevailed. Turning to the golden-eyed actor, she answered. “Yeah, you were. I was just fighting some dickweed creep, right?”

••••

Facade nodded solemnly. She was, indeed, fighting some dickweed creep. A good descriptor for all he could tell. But instead of allowing himself to stand bewildered, the shapeshifter simply shrugged his shoulders. “Well, it appears to be over now, Rapture-sama. I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” What may appear as a blasé attitude was more akin to indifference. Weird shit happened, and Facade could attest to that personally time and time again. He had lived many lives, experienced many realities. The man was insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. “I have to get back to Little Nightmare. Good show, everyone.” With that, he began making his way back to his home.

••••

Rapture did not share the same relaxed response. She turned to the boy with the bright blue hair and pointed an accusatory finger at him. “You! Sparky!” she barked. “We were just fighting a fuckton of losers, weren’t we?” Wait... was that Final Fantasy fanfare she just heard?

Taz raced through the air, eyes focused on the masked foe as he got ready to release a mighty kick...and then he suddenly found himself spinning through empty air like a sideways Frisbee. Yelping in shock, the boy landed and hopped forward a bit on his outstretched leg before recovering. Spinning back around, he raised fists crackling with electricity, holding them  in a defensive manner, only to blink and slowly lower them upon noticing that Fasilli was gone, glancing around for him.

Upon noticing that not only was the mysterious masked figure gone, but so was all the damage, the young shockslinger's eyes widened, and he gave a slightly awed gasp. 'All the destruction, it's gone, completely and utterly!! That's incredible! What kind of person could have enough might to do that...? Maybe one of these other heroes did it,somehow?'

And it seemed like the green hero was wondering the same thing. As he asked the spiky woman if she'd done it, Taz relaxed, happy now that thing's were back to normal (relatively, that is), and let the elder heroes talk things out. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed just as confused as he was about how the remnants of the battle were erased, and Rapture had questions of her own.

As the masked man answered her first question then said goodbye, Taz would give a small wave goodbye. As Rapture addressed him with a bark to her voice, however, the young hero jumped slightly, looking up at her in surprise. He seemed slightly taken aback by the cursing and her brusque manner, but nonetheless nodded in answer. Yeah, he could definitely have sworn that they had all been fighting baddies just a few minutes ago.