The Jaws of Defeat [SPLIT DE]

Maple shot down behind Yogu just as Mumbo leveled his shoulder bash into the wretched goodie of a human. If it connected, Maple would catch his backwards sprawl with a flying somersault, slamming a foot into the Yogu’s family jewels to drive him high into the sky. If Yogu somehow dodged Mumbo’s attack, Maple would kick at him anyway.

After his kick, Maple joined Mumbo’s side, lifting one knee and leaning back as a purple umbrella unfurled behind him in a puff of smoke, joining Mumbo’s flex in Double Trouble Pose so crisp it sent chills down his spine. “The Stargoons are about to make it rain on your parade!”




“Fight? Ready for a fight, you say? They don’t just give any slouch the Violet Star, you know,” Maple said, smirking and fanning gloved fingers through his perfect hair. “I’m the strongest magician in the neighborhood. I was making goodies disappear back when your hairy ancestors were making pretty paintings inside caves. This isn’t gonna be a fight – it’s gonna be a clinic, a hospital with your name in neon on top of the building.”

Tossing the umbrella up into the air, Maple skittered back on slinking heels, wheeling hands that suddenly glowed with crackling sparks.

“See ya later, sport!”

Fanning fingers outward, Maple unleashed the full force of his new power, sending a jarring array of hues out at Yogu, a million violent colors that sped out towards Yogu. Each ray was the color of death, and each knew its way as the fan of rampaging magic tore through nearby buildings, blistering steel and ripping through facades, lancing deep into pavement, sending an unholy wind shrieking across Satan City as the lights lunged for young Yogu’s lifeforce…

Sprinkle Cake Ray [SIG] shot at Yogu for 164,920 PL. Death intended. Firing a blinding flush of fluttery magic beams, Maple attacks his foe for 133% of his PL.
KP:0/3

Fist met fist, power met power. As the warrior’s struck each other, the Earth itself seemed to tremble. The air was trapped between its need to move away from the sheer force of a conflict and its hatred of the vacuum that moving away would create. There was no clear victor in this struggle of strikes. If they seemed closely matched it was because they were, very closely;
Virus was as powerful as Nashi through his genetically engineered might.
Nashi was as powerful as Virus because of all of his tail curling and milk drinking.

”Wha— You did exactly what I did!” That being that they punched each other. Specifically, they punched each other’s punches, but that wasn’t exactly the original intention.

”If anything, yours was more predictable bec—” Virus’ plated knee smashed into Nashi’s gut like a bowling ball being dropped on a whoopee cushion. Except, instead of a manufactured farting noise, Nashi made a pained wheezing noise.

The catboy stumbled backwards a few steps, his hand covering the point of contact. He moved his hand and looked at it: no blood. Phew. And as nice as that was, he felt as if something was bleeding inside of him… but, then again, he had a very limited experience when it came to pain, so maybe he was just overthinking it.

The physical pain was pretty bad, sure, but that darned psychic headache had by no means diminished. If it was nails screeching on cardboard earlier, now it was some mean stranger telling him to clean his room while nails screeched on cardboard in the background, except twice as loud anyway. It told him to stop resisting, it told him to revel in the chaos, but Nashi refused. His eyes closed and the rest of reality became dark as the Senbyo retreated into his mind to fight off the corruption. His arms, once ready to defend his frame from attacks, were made to nestle his head from the pain.

The corruption demanded chaos… but, as Nashi found, there was something inside of him inherently opposed to that sort of thing; something deep, something powerful, something ordered. Maybe a bit cold, but it had a certain warmth to it too.

Nashi’s arms went back by his sides,
He began to smile in hope,
He entered the Leopard stance, the way his mother taught him to, the nyoibo in his hands,
He opened his eyes,
And the scraping pain stopped.

Well, the voice telling him to go to his room didn’t, but beggars that want to be choosers tended to become corpses instead.

For the first time since the screeching started, there was a distinct hope. Yogurt and I, we can do this! 2 vs 3? That’s, like, one and a half baddies for each of us, and that’s basically just one baddie each since people cut half tend to die. Perhaps Nashi needed to work on applying his rudimentary mathematics.

Whatever hope was left in the air vanished as Nashi caught sight of Maple. In the arch-baddy’s hands was a charging attack so colourful that it made a rainbow look like Mumbo’s most grey forearm. And where, exactly, was the demon looking?
Oh.
Oh no.

Hope turned to desperation, but it never truly vanished in the Senbyo’s heart of hearts. Not yet, not truly.

As Virus struck for Nashi’s neck, the feline deflected the force to the side with the Power Pole (as well as the force of whatever wings lashed his way). Hopefully his deflection would have put the bio-android at his side, allowing him to spin the staff around and hopefully bonk the caricature of life on the back of its caricature of a head. This was merely a distracting move, not intended to harm: the intent was to distract and allow Nashi the opportunity to fly away in a perhaps vain attempt to intercept the attack.

”I can get there, I can get there, I can—”
A shriek ripped across the sky and funnelled itself directly towards the young human.
I can’t get there…

Finally, he’d get the name right.
But did it matter?

5/7KP
Om-Yogu

rest in rip

The explosion of magic from Maple was intense. Blaring lights, hot beams and shrieking sounds combined in a way that gave even Mumbo a chill. Deep down, in a pit underneath all the muscle and brainless bravado, the original Mumbo thanked every Kai that ever lived that he was on Maple's side right now.

At the end of it all, the young Yogu was left for dead, fallen prone face-first, his corpse still smoldering from the intense power that had come his way. For a moment, Mumbo stared, eyes bulging behind his stylish shades. Had they really just killed a kid?

No. They just killed their first hero.

"HAHA! YES!"

Mumbo jumped for joy, his motions shaking the rubble near him. They'd really done it! All those mooks they'd done in before were chump change, but this guy? He might have been small-time but he was a real hero! A tried and true, flesh and blood, Kai-loving, grandma-escorting Hero! The monstrous beast ran towards Maple, his hand held up for a wicked high-five. If Maple reciprocated, their hands slapping together would echo through the streets for a mile.

"I don't wanna, yaknow, celebrate too early or nuthin, but we just killed dat guy!-- well I mean you killed 'im-- b-but I was dere! I got ta see you do dat whole speech and the posing was poifect and-- gah! Sahrry boss, I'm just excited. Let's keep the momentum goin' eh?"

Without skipping a beat, Mumbo turned on his heel and jumped into the air. He spun himself like a top, before stopping on an invisible dime a few feet above his boss. Flourishing majestically, the huge Majin opened his mouth wide, and aimed for Nashi. Ki formed in his massive maw; white-hot and ready to burn. It wasn't as deadly as Maple's attack, nor as impressive, but it'd help Virus get some licks in.

Energy surging, Mumbo's mouth opened past its limit, and let loose a mighty wave of Ki. It burned through the air, threatening to swallow Nashi whole!

---

KP: 2/3
Used [N1] Cannoli Cannon!
33% Power for a damage potential of: 7,920!

It was a bit surprising that Mumbo's attack landed. He hadn't put too much force into it, though it wasn't like the Majin could control his offensive attacks that well yet. Defending came to him like a duck to water, but popping off those huge waves of energy was still foreign to him. He'd figure out some other time, and besides, attacking was Maple's shtick.

Once the dust settled, it was revealed that Nashi was alive and well. A bit burnt, but he could still hand out some beatings. He had that kind of look in his only a hero could get. The solemn, furious rage that came when you lost a loved one.

Mumbo couldn't help but smile.

As Nashi approached the Violet Stargoon, Mumbo dropped from the sky, blocking the incoming attacks from the magic staff as best he could. The strikes stung like little needles on his armored skin, but even without the Stargoon gear he doubted the Senbyo would be landing lasting damage. For despite all his rage and determination, he was still far too weak to win.

During Nashi's barrage, the Majin attempted to grab the staff. Should he get a tight grip, he'd spin the thing above his head and toss it across the street, hopefully with the Zoan still holding on for dear life.

"Dis is where da fun begins, Kiddo!"

With a quick chuckle, Mumbo opened his mouth wide, firing another wave of burning Ki at wherever it was that Nashi had found himself after Mumbo's counter-attack.

---

KP: 1/3
Used [N1] Cannoli Cannon!
33% Power for a damage potential of: 7,920!