The Artificer
Cassandra was the first to strike, unsurprisingly. She laughed wildly, grinning ear to ear, swinging her arms at Maquineer as if punching air while remaining stationary, a pair of blobs of floating water quickly sharpening into spikes and flying towards Alice. Maquineer sidestepped one of the projectiles, blocking the other one with the shield, causing it to dent with an uncomfortable sharp scraping sound. Maquineer’s eyes widened slightly, surprised by the sheer power with which mere water had impacted a solid steel shield. Damnit!! How can water hit so hard?! Maquineer questioned nervously, cautious about approaching the criminal, although already planning her next move. Cassandra hummed a tune maliciously in between soft chuckles of joy, her eyes half closed while continuing to glow intensely, once more doing a throwing motion like a pitcher in baseball, this time over a dozen water spikes flying towards Alice from every direction. Maquinner grit her teeth while her dark green eyes widened and she pressed her hands against the sand, draining the iron from a large portion of the beach to form an iron dome around her just in time. Multiple loud banging noises were heard from outside the dome alongside the rebel’s mocking laughter, the iron dome denting despite being over 30 cm thick. Five took the moment to take a short respite, closing her eyes to think despite the barrage of water spikes hitting the dome creating a loud echoing bang that reverberated over and over. Ok, think quickly Maquineer!! Blueprints!! Such a crude thing like an iron wall won’t hold her for long, and we need to be on the offensive to get the bomb back. UGH!!!! This is so annoying!!! Why can’t I fight dumb people for once?!
The terrorist raised an eyebrow, after a couple of seconds, finally growing bored of just slowly nicking away at the iron dome. She crouched down with narrowed eyes and smirked, calling out to the hero inside, “Ooooh Aliiiceee~ For this next part you’re gonna want to remain VERY still, yeah??” Alice’s eyes flew open again, snapping out of her thoughts and raising her hands, preparing for whatever the terrorist was going to throw at her. It’s probably going to be one massive spike to try and pierce through the dome. Maquineer thought cautiously, swishing one of her legs over the sand, highly alert. Cassandra smirked and snapped her fingers, and almost immediately Maquineer felt her torso be pierced multiple times, rendering her upper body to shreds in an instant. Her eyes widened, gasping in surprise as she looked down only to look down at the holes covering her body from where multiple water spikes had pierced right through her, their trajectory telling her they had come from underground. She grit her teeth, jumping backwards while disintegrating the iron dome into a dense cube resting on the sand, making the broken parts of her body disassemble and then reassemble to fix her up. God!! I’m an idiot!! Of COURSE she can attack me from underground too!! There’s water EVERYWHERE, it’s a beach!! This- It’s her perfect battlefield!! How did she know I was going to be here?! The moment she landed on the ground from her jump, more spikes of water emerged from the ground and impaled her feet, arcing down like bent nails, the water that made them up flowing potently like a waterfall in order to keep her pinned. The rebel chuckled once more, licking her lips sadistically, “Ah, did my surprise attack fail to hit your core?? Mmm, it is a bit difficult to aim for a target you can’t see… But now I see you clear as day, NUMBER FIVE!!!!” Cassandra continued to laugh psychotically, dozens of overgrown raindrops appearing all around Maquineer from all angles, quickly sharpening into spikes and flying towards her. Meanwhile, from the ocean, a massive tendril of water began to emerge like a snake monster, obscuring the moonlight. “IS THAT ALL YOU GOT, CELESTIAL?! THIS IS DISAPPOINTING ME!!!” Cassandra yowled out, like a wolf howling to the moon.
Maquineer’s eyes darted around for a split second as the volley of projectiles began to fly at her, threatening to turn her into a pincushion. Her eyes narrowed and she clasped her hands together, turret-like devices suddenly completely surrounding her in a perimeter in the sand, immediately spewing open flames at the incoming water. She had created a circle of flamethrowers, each of them with the firepower of a napalm bomb. “That’s RUDE!!!” Maquineer answered frustratedly, “I’ve been nothing but polite!!! You should have some manners too, you know?!” Five jumped into the air as the tendrils keeping her pinned were quickly burned by mini flamethrowers that had popped out of her shins, not really caring that her feet got scorched as well - since she just reassembled them soon after. Her legs fused together mid-air, transforming into a single rocket engine to keep her floating in the air and away from the clearly unsafe ground. Cassandra raised an eyebrow in surprise, the night sky lighting up in a bright orange color as the flames evaporated the water projectiles, a small part of her grin disappearing. The firepower on those things must be genuinely impressive to completely evaporate an attack going that fast. Cassandra thought, her brow furrowing in anger. But that doesn’t mean anything!! She closed her fist, spikes of water emerging from underground and cleaving through the flamethrowers, putting them out of commission.
Cassandra took a step forward, more and more water rising from under the sand and from the rather calm beach, the roaring waterfall-esque sound coming from the orb holding the nuclear bomb becoming even more deafeningly loud. Cassandra swished her head to the side, so that her hair wouldn’t cover her face, “Rude?! Don’t be ridiculous, Five!! Those bombs of yours are so much worse than any words could ever be!!!” she snickered jokingly at the hero. Maquineer’s eyes narrowed as she watched the rebel intensely, flicking her hand, suddenly holding a fully fledged anti-tank rifle in her arms, the weapon being almost as tall as she herself was, and yet holding it up with no effort at all. Cyborg things. Cassandra thought in amusement as she watched the hero lift her arm slowly and aim the weapon right at her enemy’s chest coldly. Alice’s dark green eyes had dulled slightly, one of them closing while her stressed expression vanished in favor of a cold and calculating poker face. The rebel grinned like a Cheshire cat in the face of what most would consider certain death, spreading her arms out daringly. She even teased her enemy brashly, “Come on!! Do it!!! KILL ME!!! Just try it~!!” she laughed maniacally, the many globs of water floating around her twisting and turning erratically, completely unlike the graceful flowing movements most would associate with a hydromancer.
Alice pursed her lips in discomfort, breaking her poker face. Not at the thought of blasting through Cassandra’s head and killing her, but simply because having such a talkative enemy sparked her social anxiety. Ugh… I’ll just kill two birds with one stone then. She reasoned and took aim while still being mindful of the murderous water bubbles floating in the air. She took one last short breath and wasted no time, the scope right on Cassandra’s head. She pressed on the trigger. And then… nothing happened. Alice blinked a few times, looking down at her weapon with a furrowed brow. What? Did it jam? No, my creations are perfectly made to the millimetric degree, they CAN’T jam! Cassandra grinned and clasped her hands together with a loud clap, multiple globs of water flying towards the Celestial, forcing her to quickly dodge in the air to the left, only for the globs of water to deform as soon as they were parallel to her and grow long spikes perpendicularly that thrusted towards her with blinding speed, piercing through the hero’s arm even after dodging, barely missing her chest. Maquineer grunted in distaste, wrinkling her nose in annoyance as with a flick of her wrist she disassembled and reassembled her arm, watching closely as the water did a sharp unnatural turn and began to follow behind her with surprising speed and power. The rebel chuckled as more and more globs of water began to form and subsequently chased after the hero with murderous intent, emerging from all directions, transforming the very air into a minefield, forcing Maquineer to stay constantly on the move to dodge and fly around as fast as she could to avoid the heat seeking missiles. Not once did Cassandra allow her gaze to waver, her eyes intently tracking Maquineer, using water to moisturize her eyes constantly so she wouldn’t have to blink, “Oh?~ Did your little firearm fail to work?? Mmm, so sad~” she teased the Celestial with a malicious laugh. Alice sighed in annoyed defeat, swishing her arm and reassembling the anti-tank rifle just in case it was a malfunction, once more closing one of her eyes even while on the run from the murderous water bubbles, taking aim and firing only for nothing to happen once more.
What’s happening to me?! She thought in distress as she had to take a quick sharp turn left right as another glob of water shot upwards towards her like a bullet. She looked down at the rifle in her arms intently, her eyes switching between different vision modes while glowing a vibrant dark green to try and discern what could possibly be happening even as her hair fluttered wildly in the air from how fast she was having to fly and zip around to avoid the piercing water projectiles. She picked up the bullet in the chamber, disassembling it and peering down at the components that made it up, finally realizing what was wrong in dismay, turning slightly pale as a reflex. The gunpowder is wet!! But how-?! There’s only one way, she must be capable of controlling water vapor too!! Microscoping amounts of it so it would fit between the gaps of my bullet shells… But, that doesn’t make sense? Maquineer stared once more down at her weapon, ripping the magazine off the rifle and staring down at the bullets, and at the fact that the gunpowder inside of every last one of them was wet as well.
If she can do that, then why hasn’t she used water vapor to just kill me instantly?? The only explanation must be that her control over vapor is far more tenuous than her command over liquid water, making using it as a weapon impossible. Maquineer disassembled the rifle, realizing that such tactics would be useless against this enemy, gritting her eyes in a slight panic. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed slightly, her grin disappearing as she watched Maquineer fly through the air after disassembling the rifle and leaving a small block of raw materials on the floor of the beach. The rebel harrumphed, turning her eyes to look at the block of materials for merely a split second before going right back to tracking the hero. She continued to mock Maquineer, one of her projectiles scratching the hero’s face as it zoomed past her, “Figured it out already?? I’m impressed!! But what are you going to do now that 90% of your precious blueprints are useless??”
Maquineer stopped dead in her tracks in the middle of the air, making the water zip past her before quickly deforming into elongating spikes that were aiming for her core and head. This is so annoying!! Why can’t she just drop dead?! Alice thought desperately as the water flew towards her with the intention to kill. She crossed her arms, closing her eyes for a moment as her body suddenly released a powerful blast of heat that evaporated the water, creating a cloud of vapor all around her like a mist, obscuring Cassandra’s vision. The rebel sighed unimpressed, more water rising up from the ocean and coalescing to form an interconnected web-like mesh around the mist while she dispersed said mist outwards to reveal where the Celestial was hiding. Meanwhile, Maquineer was running hundreds of blueprints through her head as quickly as she could, biting down on her thumb so hard she began to chew some of the tech on it as she tried to think about what she could do. My flamethrowers could work because they use gasoline to function, a liquid flammable instead of a dry one. But I have to get close to use them, and by then Cassandra can easily kill me. Setting up turrets to burn her won’t work, she can squash them even more easily than me. Ahhh… Alice was unable to come up with anything remotely close to an actual functioning plan, her mind blanking out on her as she began to sweat profusely reflexively, considering if she should just bail and get the hell out of there. However, she was less afraid for her own health, and more so terrified of getting chewed out for losing something as important as a nuclear bomb. Her eyes widened in terror when she noticed the mist being cleared, and the two women could look each other in the eye once more. Alice meeped and quickly spread out her arms, just doing the first thing that came to mind. Cassandra grinned gleefully and closed her fist the instant she could catch a glimpse of her enemy, the web of water surrounding the hero turning sharp like a saw blade and imploding unto Alice, seeking to slice her into little cubes.
One of Maquineers’ arms was now holding a flamethrower, which she held up and held on the trigger, burning a hole into the water mesh and quickly flying through it before the rest of the water could deform into something else. Apart from her, the air was now peppered with about a hundred little floating constructs buzzing through the air, all of them glinting menacingly. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed as she quickly recognised them as remote controlled drones, each of them sporting a submachine gun attached to their underside, quickly scattering into the air and immediately opening fire on her. Sheer force of numbers. Alice knew that if Cassandra’s control on water vapor was as weak as she hypothesized, there was no way she’d be able to wet all the bullets being fired at her. And she was right. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed in distaste as she crossed her arms, water beginning to gather around her from underground and from recalling some of her water projectiles, forming a small dome of fluid around her that caught the smaller caliber bullets crossing through it and slowed them down to the point that they merely bounced off her skin with no more pain than if you had pricked her with a toothpick. “Smart, Alice! But that’s not going to be enough to beat ME!!!” Cassandra called out with none of her usual uppityness, sounding more angry and frustrated than before. She snapped her fingers, more water blobs rising up from the ocean and sharpening, chasing after the drones instead of going for the hero directly - proving to be far faster than them and stabbing through the machines in consecutive order, only for Alice to snap her own fingers and reform them before they even finished falling to the ground. The night sky was lighting up with the constant firing of submachine guns and the peppering explosions of drones getting destroyed.
Alice continued to bite on her thumb, not really paying attention to the battlefield beyond repairing a drone whenever it got destroyed, closing her eyes as she desperately went through the tens of thousands of military blueprints she had engraved into her mind by memory. She opened her eyes, groaning, still coming up blank. Agh!! I’ll just use the “Immortalis technique” strategy and weather her down with constant peppering of drones. I don’t care if it takes me a whole week, I can outlast her!! But then her hopes were dashed as she watched in horror as a massive ocean snake tendril swept through the air and absorbed the remains of a drone right as Alice was about to reform it, swallowing it into its murky depths and out of her sight - much like the nuclear bomb. Cassandra laughed, water running up and down her body to keep her cooled and stop her from sweating, her eyes fixated on the hero with a wide grin, “Awwww, surprised?? I wonder what’s going to run out first, my energy or your resources?! I’m told there’s VERY little metal per meter cubed of sand~ Just saying!!” Maquineer’s eyes flared in fear, her eyes darting around and at the various floating water projectiles threatening to render her to shreds. She grit her teeth and managed to just barely dodge the water constructs, although they managed to scrape her arms. She twisted around mid air, watching as Cassandra continued to dart her eyes between the various objects she was trying to destroy, the bullets continuing to bounce off her skin and leaving rather painful looking red marks all over her body - although she seemed to not care.
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I can’t win if things keep going like this. She’s so much stronger than I had thought! Alice realized, grinning nervously and even cracking a little chuckle, which made the rebel narrow her eyes in suspicion as the ocean tendril swallowed yet another drone. Damnit!! I have to get out of here!! Just- Cut my losses and- and apologize to Empress! Oh god, how long has it been since I last thought like that?! The hero shook her head in anger, wiping away such thoughts. No. She COULDN’T allow the Rebellion to get their hands on a nuclear bomb under any circumstances. She couldn’t. This sucks!! I think at this point I’d rather die than- …oh!! Maquineer suddenly cracked a wide yet nervous grin, pressing her hands together with an expression filled with so much pure desperation that it was indistinguishable from that of a cornered beast. Cassandra’s own grin vanished, her aquamarine eyes diminishing in glow slightly to keep better track of the hero, realizing something was up. All the drones disappeared in an instant, as well as pretty much every last bit of iron in the sand in both the beach and under the ocean nearby: up to where Maquineer’s sonar could reach. Cassandra stopped in her tracks, doing a rapid 360 degree turn on her heels while her eyes darted all around, trying to spot whatever Alice had just created, before quickly turning to the ocean the second she spotted something new in it. Her eyes widened when she noticed a battleship resting gently on the ocean waves, facing parallel to the beach.
Alice laughed maniacally, spreading her arms out as the battleship raised its weapons, the rebel turning pale as she quickly realized that this battleship was lacking the characteristic heavy bombardment guns ships tend to have, instead having its hull jam packed with crude missile launchers. A lot of them. Alice smirked, her eyes twinkling in joy at her brand new invention, “How do you like it, Cassandra?? I think I’d like to call it a ‘Katyusha Ship!!’ Cool name, eh?? Nevermind, I know it sucks.” Well, it’s not like I’ll get to formalize it, and the design is so crude and inefficient it makes me want to puke. But it’s the best I could muster. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and slowly lowered her hands even in the face of the incoming barrage of water, activating the weapons systems. Cassandra panickedly interlaced her fingers together, a massive spike of ocean water piercing the battleship in half, albeit too late, the missiles whistling through the air and towards the beach. “Yes, OF COURSE!!!” Maquineer yowled, similarly to Cassandra’s previous bouts of insanity, “What could POSSIBLY be more heroic than sacrificing myself to stop such a dangerous criminal?! Cassandra, you’re one of those, right?! You HAVE to be one of the top brass of the Rebellion, are you not??”
The following events all happened in the span of ten seconds. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed in pure concentration, remaining completely silent as she clasped her hands together and every single water construct stopped in its tracks immediately, turning sharp and flying directly towards the missiles in hopes of intercepting them. It was a spectacle to behold, the streaks of light blue from the hydromancer’s projectiles and the whistling bright red of the Artificer’s rockets flying through the air towards each other. Alice opened her eyes and stared up at the moon, her arms spread wide while she floated in the air, accepting death. The rebel’s attack will never reach the missiles far enough in the air to prevent the explosions from killing us both. The margin of error in my calculations is pretty high, but even in the worst case scenario the explosions should be enough to eviscerate the entire beach. She thought, bored, having done a rough estimate in her head, turning to watch the clash of aerial constructs with great curiosity. Her pondering ceased, though, once she noticed something curious that caught her attention, making her tilt her head slightly and purse her lips. Cassandra screamed loudly, like a war cry, falling to her knees. She was exerting herself so hard that blood streamed down from her nose and ears, her eyes fully bloodshot. But it wasn’t her enemy that had caught Maquineer’s attention. Hmm? The water is… glowing a little pink? What the hell…? Her eyes narrowed as she zoomed in on them with her binocular vision, confirming her suspicion. The rebels’ water constructs were not only glowing pink, but they were a solid 40% faster than they should have been going at. Alice’s eyes widened and she twisted around, her eyes darting throughout the beach until they spotted another woman standing on the sand a decent way away, her body glowing pink with her arms outstretched and pointing towards the cascade of missiles in the air. There were TWO of them?! AGAIN?? Maquineer thought in so much distress that she could feel her circuits overheating, grabbing her hair comically. Oh my god this is so embarrassing!! I was tricked by the same damn strategy twice in a row now!!
Cassandra’s water constructs collided with the missiles mid-air, causing a cascade of dozens of deafening explosions lighting up the night sky in quick succession, each collision more powerful than the last. The explosions were so potent even from a relatively good distance away all three of the women in the beach were sent flying backwards by the shockwaves. And it wasn’t just them; all of the watchtowers along with the great majority of the palm trees dotting the beach were ripped from their bases, flying through the air before crashing into the nearby hotels. The sand at the farther end of the beach was thrown backwards like a tidal wave, substantially decreasing the volume of the beach and in turn flooding the streets of the city with sand. Windows shattered all across the coastline, the crackling sound reaching even a decent way into the city. All in all, the beach had been reduced to some sort of post-apocalyptic scene, car alarms ringing through the city in the aftermath.
Alice was thrown backwards in the air and right into the ground, slamming into the floor so hard it snapped her mechanical spine instantly, literally bouncing off the sand. Cassandra was flung backwards like a ragdoll, smashing into one of the wooden watchtowers with a loud crunching sound as the thing itself toppled over all around her with a scream of pain. Love Love was blasted backwards against the palm tree she had just stepped out from, bashing her head against the wood and blacking out on the spot, leaving a head-shaped dent in the bark. The shock from the blast lasted only a few seconds though, as Alice reassembled herself and stood up while wobbling from side to side, groaning as she shook her head, being rather heavily concussed and disoriented. Meanwhile, Cassandra was already on her feet, a small water pillar pulling away the piece of debris that had fallen on top of her while she held a bloodied broken arm with water swirling around it like a makeshift cask. The rebels’ expression was one of pure hatred and contempt while blood freely ran down her face from the various cuts throughout it and her nose, the rest of her body covered in lesser scratches.
“Your final gambit failed, Celestial. It’s over,” Cassandra stated bluntly, spitting out blood before turning to the hero with bared reddish teeth like a wild animal. Alice swished back a foot, her eyes wide as she prepared to jump back into the sky, her breathing erratic and a lot more panicked than the rebel’s. Oh, I am SO screwed. I used all of my remaining resources for that attack!! The hero thought. Cassandra snapped her fingers with her good hand, water slashing through Alice in an instant from underground and making her fall down with a meep, her lower half cut cleanly off before she could take to the skies. The rebel stepped over to Maquineer, gritting her teeth as she raised her hand and prepared a final barrage of water to finally end the battle. Alice closed her eyes in desperation, her mind racing in what she assumed to be her final moments. Her following thoughts all happened in the short few seconds between Cassandra’s walking and preparing to fire her last attack. Am I going to die now?? Such a bummer… I wonder if I’ll have one of those final moment situations where I see my most important memories. I’d love to study my own death if I could!! The scientific findings would be glorious!! I wonder, perhaps if this battle had taken place five years from now, advancements in warfare would have provided me with a blueprint capable of beating her? I’m not sure, considering that recent experiments in warfare have all been duds, especially ever since we reached Third Great War tech. Especially the- oh.
Alice’s eyes suddenly flew wide open as her eyes flared in a potent dark green light so intense it illuminated the sand in front of her, her teeth bared with a renewed will to live. She closed her fists and slammed them against the sand, her legs disappearing from where they were laying in the sand and instead thrusters appeared on her shoulders and ignited, sending her flying backwards through the sand so fast that Cassandra’s projectiles missed, embedding into the sand. The rebel turned to look at the hero in annoyance, groaning as she put up her hands and prepared for yet another cat and mouse chase, “Just give it up, Celestial. It’s OVER!!” Alice turned in the sand, the thrusters disappearing in order to have enough materials for what she wanted to do, momentum still making her fly backwards through the air, suddenly holding what looked like an extremely oversized and bulky sniper in her hands, closing one of her eyes and taking aim. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed and she snapped her fingers, ordering water vapor to rush into the bullet of the weapon. Has Alice learned nothing?? The sheer cockiness of these wannabe saviour idiots maddens me to no end!! Cassandra thought in hatred, only for her expression to quickly decay into one of confusion followed by fear as the vapor failed to find any crevice to seep into. What the hell?! She wondered, quickly setting up a wall of water in front of her to slow down whatever the hell Maquineer was preparing. It's not just the bullet, there’s no gunpowder anywhere inside the gun either!! And then Alice pressed on the trigger, a grin so wide and joyous spread on her face that anyone could picture a child making such an expression while batting a pi?ata on their birthday. A solid sphere of pure steel flew out of the barrel of the gun without so much as the distinct bang of a gunshot, the “bullet” crossing the distance faster than even a regular shot, passing through the rebel’s wall like it wasn’t even there and smashing right into Cassandra’s cheek, ripping right through it like it was wet paper, missing the rest of her head by a mere centimeter. The rebel stopped in her tracks, a hand gently going up to her wound and touching where the hero had successfully ripped her cheek into making her mouth twice as wide.
Alice gasped happily even as her body hit the sand and stopped in its tracks with a dry thud, her eyes twinkling like a child with a new toy, a joyous and giddy laugh escaping from her while she shook her weapon in the air like it was a trophy, the water projectiles flying right past her, missing thanks to their commander being in a catatonic state. “IT WORKED!!! OH CASSANDRA YOU’RE THE BEST!!! Of course!!! Railguns are useless because each time you shoot them, the barrel of the gun deteriorates big time!!!” Maquineer giddily rolled around in the sand a little, looking at the weapon in her hand and inspecting the shattered barrel. She then waved her hand and re-assembled the rifle in an instant, fixing it right up. “But my power makes that a non-issue!! How come I never thought of that?!” The hero took a deep breath then, finally calming down a little despite her grin never fully disappearing. She looked up at Cassandra, her eyes intense with the desire to test out her new toy a little more as she began to prepare to fire her second and final shot. Meanwhile, the rebel finally snapped out of her shocked pain-induced stupor.
Cassandra grit her teeth, closing her fist as more water projectiles manifested all around Maquineer, sharpening and aiming right at her. Adrenaline pumped through both of them, preparing for the final strike as the world turned to slow motion. I can kill her faster than she can shoot again. Surely, right? Cassandra thought, not bothering to put up a wall, seeing as it did nothing against the railgun. Oh, it would be a dream come true~ But- Fuck!! I can’t take that risk. Not now. You see, hero, I’m better than you in every single way~ Even my diligence is superior to yours!! See now, as I sacrifice my desire to kill you for the sake of my mission. Something you clearly have failed to do. Alice’s attention was suddenly interrupted, a pillar of water suddenly emerging from underground right where the rebel was standing, the muddied water engulfing her as well as the raging orb where the nuke resided. Maquineer blinked a few times in confusion before quickly switching to infrared vision to keep track of Cassandra’s body underneath the water, trying to keep a steady aim, only for her to watch in complete bafflement as the rebel’s heat signature seemingly vanished underground, being sucked away as if the sand under her feet had become some sort of black hole shortly before the rest of the water also disappeared under the sand. Five frantically shot her weapon, only for the bullet to miss and instead snap a palm tree cleanly in half. She then panickedly disassembled her weapon to re-assemble her legs, using them to get up and rush towards the spot her enemy had vanished in, her face one of utter confusion and dismay, her brain unable to compute what had just happened. And then she smelled it. S-Sewer water?! She realized with a gasp, her eyes widening as she pressed her sonar against the sand. And sure enough, she detected a manhole cover right underneath that spot, with the city sewer system underneath. “W-Wait!! NO!!!!” she yowled out in the general direction Cassandra had vanished towards, “THAT’S CHEATING!! Come back!! That’s not fair!!!!” Maquineer sighed in defeat a few seconds later, hanging her head as she held the sides of it in shame, her face as bright red as her technology would allow it to be. Oh god. Oh god no. I screwed up!! I screwed up HUGE!!!! Maquineer realized, letting out a frustrated yowl and kicking nearby sand, her eyes watering in frustration. Meanwhile, Love Love groaned in pain and slowly woke up, looking around and then down at her bleeding hands with a sigh. I’m getting the hell out of here. I wanna go home… She thought, crawling away before Alice could snap out of it and go kill her.
