"Who said we were all human?" Arcana thinks back at the creature, her powers still charged up. Wreathed in a bluish light, mermaid-Wesley gives Derby a nod, signifying she's ready!
Ziss doesn't answer as she is back where she shot the monsters, hugging herself and breathing laboriously, her expression hidden behind her mask.
You defiantly move forward and into the next room. The tunnel opens up into an enormous cavern, lined with stalactites and stalagmites that give it the appearance of the gaping maw of a monstrous beast. Hundreds more of the disgusting sacs line the walls here, with numerous small nautiloids jetting about, manipulating the sacs with their tendrils.
In the center of the cavern floats a hideous monstrosity over 30 feet in length. Its appearance is alien, being neither fully fish, eel, nor octopus, but rather some foul amalgamation of all three. It has the lower body of an eel, a horrific face, and four tentacles in place of arms.
"Hmph. This is the best that this world could muster to attempt to defeat me? A motley gang of children? Prepare to become my newest thralls, whelps!"
The Barbed Beret taps Ziss with her little doll hand.
“Come, Ziss. I understand. I was in Wendy’s room the night you spoke to her, observing, learning… I understand. Please understand yourself that you must address the present danger now. When it is safe, there are people who care deeply for you, and will help with your past.”
Once she moves forward, the doll assesses the situation.
The Barbed Beret swiftly determines that this monster's psychic abilities are likely its greatest threat!
DD gets the reading from her doll.
”We got a psychic! Arcana, Ziss, either of you know how to stop him from brain-draining us ‘children?’”
Ziss notices Barbs reaching for her and after a couple more breathes, she manages to calm herself. "Tanks barb... I'll be alright. Let's move on."
Back on her feet, it takes Ziss a couple seconds to take on the full monstrosity in front of them, Wendy's voice bringing her out of her trance. Looking around, she wonders how this thing can be dealt with...
Arcana swims up into the center of the cavern to give her more room to maneuver. When she hears Derby confirm that they're dealing with a psychic threat, her mind immediately goes to some of the great and terrible psions of Halcyon City and elsewhere in the world. Gothic. Cortex. Psyche. The Judge. L'esprit.
But they weren't here. Wesley is.
The blue nimbus of light flares around all of Arcana's teammates, keeping the psychic assault at bay!
Ziss doesn't see much off-hand that can diminish the monster's psychic abilities, but Arcana seems to take care of that as she raises a magical shield around the team. The monster narrows its eyes as it glares at the jinn, and Ziss realizes that Arcana is in the greatest danger from the aberration! It would be handy to grab some of the severed tentacles from the crab-monsters you fought earlier--they'd be of little use against this monster, but may come in handy later on!
Tumbler looks at this alien, bizarre monster. "...Yeah, you can go to hell," She decides. She looks around at all of the egg sacs - if the empty ones had the metal liner, these ones would most likely have them as well, right?
She's used to fine control and not raw power, but concentrates and pulls at it all...
The doll again offers Tumbler the lobster fork. ”This metal may help you connect to other metal.”
Ziss tries to think fast, but can't find a way to nullify the monster's psychic energy, just to see Arcana doing so... however, if she saw it, good chance the monster would also have!
Ziss whispers through the ear-buddies. "It will probably go for Arcana!"
"Not if something else pisses it off worse!"
Crimson Tide torpedoes straight ahead, crashing into the beast with all the momentum and ferocity she can muster!
Derby is the first into battle, dodging the aberration's lashing tentacles and delivering several distracting punches and kicks to its face! It roars in fury, sending out psychic call to the nautiloids. The mollusks all begin to converge around its body, forming an occluding shield.
Crimson Tide barrels right through the nautiloids, scattering several as she body checks the gargantuan being! The force of her impact knocks it back several feet as she pummels it with her fists, drawing its ire! It thrashes about to shake her off, slamming into the wall of the cavern. Rocks fall in the tunnel behind you, cutting off your escape route!
Tumbler unleashes her powers, using the lobster fork as a focus. The pods on the wall rupture by the dozens, spewing out their malformed occupants into the room. The creatures begin to convulse as they are ripped out of their nutrient pods keeping them alive.
Derby and Crimson Tide continue to avoid the monstrosity's thrashing tentacles, but it inhales a deep breath, then spews forth a cloud of inky black poison that washes over several members of the team!
Darkness surrounded her in the suit, and then somehow seeped into it. Tumbler gasps and panics, and wrenches with her power blindly all around her. Poison! Got to keep it out!
It doesn't matter to her where the metal comes from - everything in that room is yanked towards Tumbler to create a shell to try to block out the poison!
Desperate, Ziss activates her hoverboard, causing it to bring her to the top of the large cave, not really hovering around in the ocean floor, just floating.
Up there, she can't do much to help her teammates into killing the monstrosity, but perhaps she can do other things... Ziss channels energy into her gloves, but instead of concentrating it in a single beam of energy, she shoots small beams everywhere, something certainly not harmful to the huge monster and her teammates, but possible enough to drive off the many nautiloids!
While shooting the nautiloids, Ziss feels something pulling her back towards the poisonous cloud, and to her horror she sees it is Tumbler. "Nonononono... Tumbler! You are pulling me back... TUMBLER!" She screams over the ear-buddies as her metal gloves gets pinned to her hoverboard, which is in turn swiftly being pulled by Tumbler.
Ziss can't move her arms, and her small legs are no match against Tumbler's magnetic power. "Tumbler, please, don't do dis..." She cries as the dark cloud completely surrounds her, entering her mouth and lungs...
Here I am again, face-to-face with a big nasty. And this one's really big and really nasty, Wesley thinks as she pours her powers into protecting her teammates from a Psychic assault. Considering the scale of the nightmarish threat, she wonders about pushing herself to do more to help. Her telekinesis, or her mental constructs... no, they're doing fine right now! Just keep their minds safe, they'll do the rest!
The cavern collapsing behind them should have alarmed her, but they had to deal with the aberrant monstrosity first. No sense in worrying about getting out while they couldn't leave yet.
Her powerful mermaid's tail keeps her moving, staying an elusive target while her team draws its attention. That is, until suddenly the jewelry that always adorns her every time she pops out of her lamp (she's become resigned to its presence and now doesn't always bother taking it off) is suddenly drawn toward Dervish, and her along with it!
Dervish manages to recover quickly and begins teleporting all around the thing and slicing at it, which seems to work. For a time…
The Darling Derby’s glasses fly off, but thanks to the Pearl Necklace, she can see and breathe normally! One Falsie (the doll repair kit) is sucked out of her bikini top.
Though mildly flustered, DD continues to smash the psychic beast—
—bloodying her knuckles as she does, in hopes to attract a shark!
As she signals Crimson Tide for the set-up, she sees her little doll tumbling toward Tumbler’s scrap metal whirlpool.
Nooooooooooooooo……!!
The Darling Derby somehow manages not to lose her s@*%.
”Be gentle with meeeeeeee—ACK!”
The little Barbie is slammed by one chunk of metal, then another! She sticks to Tumbler’s side with two limbs bending in ways they shouldn’t.
Crimson Tide continues to dive into the eldritch beast again and again. But though her attacks are no less fearsome and destructive, they're certainly less effective...
As Ziss and Arcana are pulled into Tumbler's protective shell, Dervish teleports all around the monster, slicing with his psychic blades. It works--for a time, until one of its flailing tentacles smacks him and sends him reeling!
Derby continues her assault as well, dodging and spinning in the water as she pummels her monstrous opponent. She creates an opportunity for Crimson Tide to move in.
Crimson Tide smashes and crashes throughout the chamber, knocking several of the floating humanoid bodies into one another and splattering quite a few of them. Her ferocious assault is definitely enough to impress the monster--impress it so much that it decides to close its jaws around her, its teeth tearing into her flesh!
The monster opens its maw while, sucking Crimson Tide down into its gullet! Inside, the unfortunate Bull is assaulted by demonic enzymes, rasping talons, sucking tendrils, and vile gases, and she feels her body twisting and changing! The monster then spews Crimson Tide back out!
The Derby continues her assault, hoping to finish the enemy off—
—but seeing her broken doll and Megan getting literally chewed up and spit out is the double-whammy that spikes her punch!
Seeing the creature setting its sights on her, she calls over the earbuds, “Take him NOW!”
She swims right into the attack! Grabbing two fistfuls of tendrils and headbuttung and kickbutting! Pain shoots through her as she defies the psychic attack and tears into the enemy until she’s lost consciousness!
Tumbler gets a hold of herself after she has finished her shell of metal, realizing too late that she's drawn up half the team into it. She releases them all, before focusing her anger and the bitterness of the last time a monster tried to poison her as she condensed all of the metal she had drawn to her into a conical wedge.
"F@+* YOU!" She screams as the heavy ballista bolt lunges out to strike the monster, impaling it through its torso to the cavern wall!
Dervish took the slam, but teleported away before it could smash him against the wall! He then resumes his tactic of teleporting and slashing, trying to knock it off balance!
Once released, Ziss falls nearby Tumbler, coughing. She lifts her kitsune mask, and doubles in half as she expels inky water through her mouth and nostrils. While it is impossible to see her tears underwater, it seems the Nomad is in extreme pain.
Ziss looks at Tumbler and she can see the anger in Ziss's eyes, but soon the looks around seeing Wendy motionless on the ground "WENDY! WENDY!". Looking at the monster... Megan isn't coming out of the of the monster... is she gone? "MEGAN... please... don't leave me alone..."
She waits, afraid and insecure, the seconds looking like minutes or hours. "KUSOOOO!" She yells as she powers her helix gloves, now pointing them at the bottom. How I did not thought about this before? I'm so stupid!
The Nomad flies up and then towards the monster, noticing how it was following her move. She doesn't slow down and when it opens its monstrous mouth, Ziss dives into it, powering her gloves to its maximum capacity. She then disappears inside of it.
Feeling the slimy wrongness around her, Ziss experiences unimaginable pain and is assaulted with guilty for letting her dearest friends die (in her mind), and hopeless for the rest of the team. Ziss combines her hands together, knowing that in such confined place it was very probably that she'd blast herself as well. She doesn't care though. Not one bit.
Arcana wriggles her mermaid's tail desperately to stay clear of the lance of metal shot toward the creature, and not feeling the least bit sorry for losing two-thirds of her jewelry in the process.
She orients herself and surveys the battle. Derby is down, CT is swallowed, and Ziss just jumped down its gullet after her. She gasps noiselessly, as she had to sacrifice her vocal chords for her gills. It's only a small part of her overall effort, but Wesley sends an extra pulse of power to wrap around Ziss to protect her from the horrors within the beast!
Arcana keeps the aberration's psychic powers at bay, but her natural jinn energy reserves are nearly empty -- if her team can't stop it soon, she'll have to take drastic action!
The Crimson Tide emerges from Dagon's maw mostly unscathed, with a few bumps and tears quickly healing over, but her eyes are open wide and her fists clenched with concentration as she shifts her mutable body to counteract the change.
The warmth is gone, but she still smiles and quips as she rockets forward once more! "'S time for you to go belly up, before this fight starts to Dag-on"
After that though, her mouth is full.
The monster clobbers Derby, knocking her out! But with its attention focused on the Legacy, the rest of you seize the advantage. Ziss flies down the beast's gullet, protected by some of Arcana's magic, zapping as she goes and releasing Crimson Tide from the monster's maw!
Crimson Tide tears into the beast with her teeth as Dervish slices rents in its body. Then Tumbler delivers the killing blow, impaling it with the enormous ballista bolt! Stuck to the cavern wall, the huge monster struggles weakly before slumping over and lying still. The strain of effort threatens to overwhelm her...
The cavern falls silent as you realize you have won...
Despite Arcana's protection, Ziss is blasted by her own gloves and she slowing sinks to the bottom of the cave, almost passing out from the blow, heated steam surrounding her.
On her knees, Ziss doubles over again and vomits more of the poisonous ink that she was exposed to. As she stops gagging, she notices a strange eye in her hand. "AHHH!" She manages to scream, scared, as the flings it away before crawling towards Wendy's body.
Ziss lifts Wendy's body hugging her. "Wendy... wendy, please be ok, please... don't leave me..." Ziss is once more crying, but, this time, her tears are inky black.
Tumbler smells nothing but copper at the moment after hurling the metal missile with its full force. The whole thing has probably sunk about five feet into the stone wall while piercing the monster. She licks her upper lip, tasting the blood that has come from burst capillaries from straining her powers. She's woozy, but manages to tilt her head back enough in the suit to breathe properly and avoid passing out.
"...Okay, If we keep fighting these stupid monsters all the time, I'm going to need to up my training. I just about nearly passed out..." She pauses, noting how Derby was considerably wrecked. "...Well I guess I'm not the worst off here."
She looks over at Dervish. "Can you pop Derby back to the Sea Kingdom so she can get some medical attention? I think I'll take the long way back...oh, my head is killing me..."
The flippers on the broken doll flash ruby-red. Only one leg kicks, and the doll can’t actually see or think. It swims into a disc that was suck out of the left side of DD’s bikini top.
Sinking to the ocean floor are a barrette and broken glasses.
"Dis was my last birfday on Earf. Here, look at de date and do de maf... I'm sixteen! I'm older dan Wendy..." She defends herself, even if she looks a bit defeated.
She is confused at how to answer Megan's last question. I do not want to catch Wendy's eye, right? RIGHT? No, I certainly don't... we are sisters... but she is so kind and... No, we are sisters. She takes a deep breath, trying to think of the other members of the team, looking at Megan, the girl Megan. You can't see me beyond a little kid, right? She scratches her eyebrows, taking advantage of the big difference in height to cover her eyes and discreetly peek at Megan's amazonian body. No way you'll consider me a girl... IF you even like girls. Changing her thoughts to Tumbler, Ziss doesn't even need more than a couple seconds to dismiss the thought. No, not Tumbler... I don't know why or what, but something is off about her.
"I'm... not sure yet... I know dis will sound very weird, but I don't know what I actually want. I know I don't want people to look at me and fink of me as a little girl... I don't know if I'm ready to, or want to, be wif someone, but in any case, unless I look more like... you, or Tumbler, I don't really have a chance." She says, uncertain.
Megan shrugs. "Okay, you're sixteen. But you've got a younger energy... 'S hard to place. Maybe the accent? You've definitely got some baby-face going on. I guess you could wear more makeup when you're off the beach?"
"I don't fink I can change my accent... I know how de words should sound, but even if I try it, my tongue doesn't obey me, almost as if it can't make de right sound. Is it too annoying or silly?" She asks, insecure. "I don't really know how to use makeup... Never used it before. But I can certainly do it... Can you teach me?"
If Megan gets a closer look on her, she'll notice this is true. Ziss appears to have been blessed with a perfectly smooth skin.
"I can't teach you anything fancy, but yeah I learned the basics when I went back to shore life. N' I'm not the one saying you need to change anything. 'S just what comes to mind when you ask what makes you seem young."
She nods, understanding. "Well, de good side of dis is dat I'm already at de rock bottom of baby-face, so anyfing will be an improvement."
At the bikini shop, Ziss explains what she is looking for to the saleswoman, and she quickly fetches up a couple pieces, among them a string bikini just like Wendy's. Ziss blushes instantly, but since there were only girls in the shop she manages not to panic. She glances at Megan, and then takes them all to try, not wanting Megan to think she was acting like a little girl.
As she tries each one of them, Ziss asks Megan for her opinion, even if embarrassed...
"'F you don't want dudes ogling you, this might not be it. I really think the one piece with cutouts is the way to go. 'Sides, it shows off that cute belly"
he thought of men ogling is unsettling, but if they can't do it, girls would also not be able to. She sighs, uncertain, but then decides to go with Megan's advice about the one piece cutouts, since it is a smaller step for her.
The model she picks is a coral one piece that shows her belly and her right side. It doesn't have a cleavage to show a part of the boobs she doesn't have, and it is then tie only on her left shoulder. Ziss appears really happy with her purchase. "Tanks Megan... very much."
Megan reaches down to give Ziss a sidehug. "Anytime Lil Ziss. Anytime"
Dervish nods and scoops Derby up in his arms before vanishing in a flash.
The doll looks confused. Her voice is distorted.
“WeNdY . . . wHeRe Is WeNdY . . ? I nEeD hEr . . .”
As Diego picks Wendy from her arms, Ziss looks completely lost, wiping her tears and missing the black stain in her hands. She does notice Barbs, so she picks her up, holding her against her chest.
“FeAr NoT, ZiSs . . . oH, iNk On HaNdS . . . wIlL aSk . . . CaRmEn . . . mAy I uSe YoUr PhOnE . . ?”
The doll faces Tumbler.
”PlEaSe HoLd ClOsE . . . vIdEo CaLl . . . WeNdY mUsT sEe . . .”
Ziss takes the doll to Tumbler, still angry at her for pulling her into the terrible poisonous ink. "Barbs needs a phone. I've left mine on de surface. Do you have yours?"
"Wendy's out to lunch, take a message," Tumbler snaps at the doll, finding it to be...well, not as cool as Derby seemed to think it was. She is mostly really, really annoyed with Derby. She is not nearly as powerful as some of the rest of the team yet she continued to slam head first into danger. It was beyond reckless. She didn't know why she cared.
That finished, she turns to head back up and out, hoping that the team could make it back before 'night' here.
The doll replies, “I aM bRoKeN fRoM yOuR pOwEr . . . mUsT sEnD mEsSaGe WhIlE I sTiLl FuNcTiOn . . . uRgEnT . . . pLeAsE . . .”
"Weren't you tought to apologize when you harm oders?" Ziss asks Tumbler, before turning to Barbs. "Tell me de message Barbs, I'll tell Wendy if... when she wakes up."
The doll face tilts as it attempts to turn. “MeSsAgE cAnNoT bE pAsSeD . . . fRoM yOuR mOuTh . . . KeN mUsT sEe My FaCe . . . I pRoGrAmMeD KeN . . . uRgEnT . . . pLeAsE . . .”
"Piping manika! She is unconscious, you can talk when she wakes up," Tumbler swears as she grabs the doll in her hand before tucking it underneath her arm. "And you are jumping to wrong conclusions, Ziss. She knocked herself out because she was reckless and unconcerned for her own safety."
"One more thing - we are hundreds of feet under the surface of the ocean. Who would bring a phone with them here when it'll become crushed and useless and have no signal?" She stresses to both the doll and Ziss. Then realizes how she's getting all worked up because of a doll's request. "You're not even a person, you're a toy. So shut up until we deliver you to your maker," She snaps, clearly having lost what patience she had.
Ziss doubles in half again as she overcome with pain, vomiting more of the inky poison. She wipes her mouth before taking the doll back. "Very helpful is de one dat at least doesn't get in de way!"
Ziss then turns her back to Tumbler waving to Arcana. "Arcana, please, can you send a message? Or do you have a phone in your lamp? Barbs needs to send a message. It is urgent!"
Wendy sleeps peacefully… she dreams of bubbles and bandaids. The bandaids kiss her body, and Wendy says, ”Stop. I’m seeing someone.”
Hours pass, but in her mind, it is the lie from the remembered dream that jolts her awake.
Why would I lie to bandaids?
Her eyes adjust to pinkish-purplish light. The irregular dome ceiling is only a foot or two from her face. She can’t help but notice she’s not wearing her hat… or her glasses… or—!
I’m wearing nothing but FISH?!
She is wearing the necklace. She wishes she could ale her lower half a mermaid tail like Girl-Wes. She accepts that she cannot.
She accepts that the fish are saving her life, which is good, as the other option involves a lot of screaming and squirming.
She begrudgingly accepts there might not be a proper selfie.
But they all made it, right? Of course they did…
She accepts that they have powers.
* * *
When the shell opens, Wendy imagines herself as the Birth of Venus painting. If I were built like Daphne…
Narwhal-horned women present Wendy with her hat, bikini and Ear Buddies.
Wendy puts on her bikini and hat. She makes sure to thank the healers and the Sea King before leaving.
Arcana trembles with relief when the monster is defeated. She swims around briefly in victory, for both destroying the menace and for not having pushed herself too far.
She quickly remembers Wendy, and zooms over to see how she is. She silently waves to Diego as he takes her up and teleports her out of there, hoping that she wasn't too badly hurt but feeling helpless to help.
Then the argument starts up over the doll. She swims over, unable to contribute to the debate. The anger boils over and Wesley has nothing she can do to cool the situation.
Well, that's not true, obviously.
She throws a telekinetic barrier between the two, defending Tumbler from Ziss. She scowls at both of them, drawing a slashing motion through the water.
The doll is distressed by the in-fighting. ”PlEaSe StOp . . . PlEaSe Be GeNtLe . . . WiTh Me . . .”
Tumbler has had enough of Ziss trying to impose her extraplanar sense of the world on her. Especially after nearly puncturing her suit trying to get the doll back. She doesn't even think, just throws Ziss back through the water with a pulse of her power pushing on the magnetic metal that she possesses, right before the barrier slams down between them.