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Chapter 13:  Star Bright, Star Fight. (1)
Jacque swung a pincer at Ariel, forcing her to dodge instead of attack like she had been trying to do.
“It’s going to take more than that, krsh! (This will be the sound he makes at the end of many of his sentences) A lot more!” Jacque stated, irritated that she thought he would fall for such an obvious tactic.
“Eat this, feathe`-head!”, called out Lawrence. “Strike one:  Restriction Shot!”  His armor covering was rusty red-brown, with a crab insignia on his helmets forehead.
The insignia on Jacque’s upper back immediately branched out like veins, connecting to his mouth, Jacque, having landed in the river, seemed to vibrate.  Swiveling around, his eyes locked on Ariel, high in the sky, and he opened his mouth.
‘What’s he up to?…The vibrating around his body, it seems to be concentrating almost entirely around the mouth, instead of his whole body, now for some reason.’ Thought Katie, eyes narrowing.  Her armor was similar in color to Ariel’s feathers, though more Gold-Red than golden-brown
KSSSSHHHH!
A blast of water erupted from Jacque’s mouth, a basketball-sized sphere, seeming to be filled with water, launching from it, shooting towards Ariel at high speed.
‘Wait a minute…Is that thing getting…smaller?’, thought Katie.
And indeed the sphere itself was getting smaller and smaller, slowly, as it zoomed towards Ariel.  Ariel swerved out of the way just before the thing hit her, but her eyes widened in surprise as it hit the ground, now the size of a baseball, and burst it, creating a damp hole in the ground, roughly the size of a giant pumpkin
“Still think you stand a chance `gainst us, krsh?”, taunted Jacque, his eyes mocking them.
“Depends on if you can survive THIS, bubble-boy! (The reference here is the fact the certain kinds of crabs, as evidenced in Finding Nemo, seem to eat microorganisms, ‘the bubbles’ that come of out sewage pipes)  Strike One:  Star Barrage!”  exclaimed Katie.  The insignia on Ariel’s chest branched out like veins, covering her wings like vines as she flew above Jacque.  Then, hundreds of small sparkling stars, like the kind that you would see in the night sky, not the kind seen in fairy tales, fell from her wings.
“Stars??  THAT’s her Strike Type?”  exclaimed Lance.
Smiling, Ken stated “You don’t that they’re gonna do that much damage, do you?”
“How can they?”  asked Lance.  “They’re stars; they don’t look like they’ll do any harm.”
Ken chuckled.
Confusion appearing, Lance asked “What?”
“You’ll see, kid, you’ll see.”
Then, Ken seemed to start counting off something with his fingers
“Three…”
Turning around Lance saw that the stars were approaching the ground, almost like a narrow wave.
“Two…”
Turning towards Roy in the hopes that he might know what was going on, Lance saw that he was almost giddy with excitement.  Almost like he was anxious for the hundreds of stars to land.
“One…”
Lances eyes settled upon one star as it came within inches of the ground.
“Zero.”
The star touched the ground.
BOOOMMM!!
The stars exploded the second they touched the earth, riddling the ground with explosions equivalent to 3 grenades. (Think of it as the finding Finding Nemo scene where the torpedo very lightly dinks the mine.)  Seeing the effects of the stars as they drew closer to him, Jacque threw his arms over his head as the stars soon landed on and around him.  A great cloud of smoke filled the entire field, blocking view.  Areil swooped out of the smoke from the top, leaving a trail of smoke in her path.
“Woah.”, exclaimed Lance his eyes wide as saucers.  “That…was…-“
“Sweeter n` watchin` a cat think it’s a pig and roll around in it’s own sh-!” Interrupted Roy.
“Just what are you insinuating?!  No right-minded feline would ever degrade itself to such imbecilic antics!”  Interrupted/exclaimed Niko.
“Aw, hush up, Whiskers!”
“Uncivilized hill-billy!”
“O.C.D-cat!”  (Obvious reference to the cat species that Niko is, an Ocicat)
“Will you two QUIT IT?!”, shouted Alice at both of them, flames surrounding her and her head, comically, twice its original size.
“Y-y-yes, mam!” both of them stammered, scared for their lives.
Everyone’s attention was diverted, however, back to the battle at hand as Larry shouted  “Strike One:  Restriction Shot!”, and the sphere shot out of the smoke.  Taken by surprise, Ariel twisted sharply to the right trying to evade it, but got hit straight in her right wing, the sphere the size of a slightly small basketball.  Ariel began falling and struggled to regain her flight.  Then, just as she was about to hit the ground, she up-righted herself and shot right across the ground, inches away from it, and soared into the air.
‘That’s weird…before, when that thing crushed the ground, it was like a club smashing through a wooden floor.  Not that I’m complaining, but why did it seem to cause only a bit of damage when Ariel got hit…?  Wait a minute, last time, that thing was about the size of a baseball when it hit the ground.  This time, though, it had barely decreased it size…!  So THAT’S how it works!’, thought Katie.
“How did that thing do that?!”, exclaimed Lance, stumped by the sphere’s impact on the ground and it impact on Ariels wing..
“It’s simple if ya think about it, really.”
Turning around, Lance looked confused at Roy, who had his hand to his chin, nodding.
“How so?”  asked Lance, “The way they hit those two times were completely different!  It doesn’t make any sense!”
Sighing, Roy said “Alright. Lemme explain.”
(A black board appears in the background, followed by a stick figure)
“It’s like this.  A soda can is be crushed given the right amount of force, right?”
(A soda can, empty, appears next to the stick figure.  Thee stick figure, faceless, turns his head towards the can.  The stick figure grins and crushes the can with a giant fist.)
“Well, you can only crush a soda can so far before it becomes almost impossible to crush an further.  Following me` now?”
(The stick figure attempts to crush it further, but fails.   The stick figure steams and, teeth clenched, jumps repeatedly on it, in vain)
“At that stage, the can becomes tough as a rock.  While at the former stage, it hardly even hurts when you throw it at someone, at the stage where you can’t crush it anymore, it becomes pretty hard and can actually cause pain.”
(The stick figure picks up a regular empty can of soda and flings it at another stick figure.  The other stick figure barely notices and merely yells at the other stick figure not to throw things.  The stick figure then throws a crushed can at another stick figure.  The stick figure gets hit in the head and stumbles, a drop of blood falling from the back of his head.  The other stick figure yells at the original stick figure, shouting about the injury.)
“Well, the same thang appears to be applyin` here.  The state where it’s the size of a basketball appears to have the same affect as a punch to the face, while the smaller sphere seems to be like a bullet ripping through a person.
(The stick figure grins maniacally.  It takes out a chainsaw, starts it up, and hurls itself at the crushed can, chainsaw in hand.  The scene disappears as the chalkboard is erased)
“Yeah, but even with that,” Toshiro exclaimed, “the difference in damage isn’t all that intense.  But what we just witnessed is far greater than simply the difference between a punch and a bullet.”
“Ahh, yes, but ya’ll are forgetting, Toshiro.” stated Roy, “The data said that it was compression UNDERWATER.  And that makes it far more complex.”
“Ariel, keep within mid-range of him!  And don’t let those things get close!” Katie shouted up to Ariel
Ariel nodded.
“Not bad, but let’s see how you deal with this apple, poppet!  Strike One:  Restriction Shot!”
Prepared this time, Ariel swerved out of the way of the sphere, just as the smoke around Jacque and Larry cleared.
“Hold still so I can get a good shot at you, krsh!”
“As if, Snipy!  Ariel, get ready for Technique 5!”
Nodding, Ariel swooped high across the terrain, heading directly towards Jacque.
Confusion again appearing on his face, Lance turned to the others and said, “Okay, someone mind explaining to me what the heck she’s talking about?”
Toshiro gaped at him.
“You don’t know what a technique is??”
“Shaking his head, Lance replied “Nope…should I?”
Waving his arms around in  a fit of mock rage, Toshiro exclaimed, “How could you not know what a technique is?!  You’ve used it at least once every battle!!!”
“…Huh?”
Sighing, Alice decided to intervene, before Toshiro lost his temper with Lance (Even Toshiro has his limits of tolerance concerning Lance.)
“Kid-“
“I’m not a ki-!”
Wham!
Before he could finish his interruption, Alice had whacked him hard upside the head, making Lance collapse and twitch on the ground.
“What did I say about interrupting?”  She demanded with a comical rage in her voice, eyes glowering at him.
Scrambling up and cowering, Lance stammered, “S-s-sorry, Mam.”
“Now then, as I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted: Kid, a technique is, simply put, the WAY one uses a strike.”
Seeing his blank look, Alice muttered “Geez, what a douche.” She then continued, “It’s basically using a strike in a particular fashion; in a way different from how you used it originally.”
Again, Lance gave a blank stare.
Three twitch marks now on her head, Alice said “Fine, I’ll dumb it down as low as it can possibly go!  When you attack an enemy just tooth and claw, you do it in many ways, right?”
Lance, actually getting that part, nodded.
“Well, a technique is doing that, only with a Spirit Strike in place of the claws and teeth.  Got it?”
Realization dawning, Lance made a happy face, eyes closed, and nodded rapidly up and down.
“Good, now watch the fight!”
Ariel had gotten fairly close to Jacque by the time the conversation had ended.
“Bring it, duckie! Krsh!”
Just as Ariel was 30 feet from Jacque, Katie shouted “Now!”
Halting in mid air, Ariel spread her wings as Katie exclaimed “Strike one:  Star Barrage!”
Just as the veins reached the tip of her wings, Ariel flapped them.  DIRECTLY at Jacque.  Immediately, all the stars fell, or in this case, launched, from her wings.  And everyone one of them was sailing directly at Jacque.
Jacque went saucer eyed.
‘Cr**, krsh!  Last time was only a small fraction of them hitting me, krsh! But now, even with my exoskeleton, if all of those hit me at once...!’
Grinning, Katie exclaimed, “How you like THEM apples, Bubbles?”
Just as the first stars started to hit, Larry exclaimed something that was drowned out by the sounds of the first explosions.
The rest of the stars bombarded Jacque, exploding everywhere on him, filling the area where he was with smoke.
“Got ‘em.”, stated Katie, grinning.
“Ya think so, do you?”
Katie’s smile immediately faded, shock written on her face.
“W-wha…?”
Slowly the smoke cleared, revealing part of Jacque’s body, completely unharmed, Lawrence standing behind him, grinning.
“Gotta admit; had me and Jacque startled there for a tick.  That’s somewhat impressive…for a gal.”
The smoke around Jacque cleared even more, revealing him crouched down, shimmering for some reason,
“But ya gonna `ave to do betta` than that if you think you stand a chance against Jacque and me, love.”
The smoke around Jacque completely cleared.
“A…a force field?”, exclaimed Katie, eyes widened.
“Not JUST a force field, krsh!” stated Jacque, eyes portraying his smirk.  “I’m sure that you’ve realized by now what my strike type is about, krsh!”
“Of course we figured it out!” exclaimed Katie.  “Your strike type revolves around compression; water compression, specifically.  Your ‘shot’s’, as you call them, are filled with water that gets compressed the further it travels.  It also becomes more deadly the further it travels.  And lemme guess; that force field works in a similar fashion, right?  The water in it is being compressed to the point where it can’t be compressed anymore, making it as dense and hard as it can possibly get.”
“Right you are, love.  Jacque’s in an impenetrable barrier; not even your bloody stars can get at `im.”
“We’ll see about that!”
Scowling, Larry shouted, “Bring it, duckie!  Spirit Strike 4:  Narrow Gunner-8!”
The force field fell just as Jacque began to vibrate again.  Only this time, the vibrating seemed to be shifting from minor to incredibly high vibrating, with a shift happening every five seconds.  After observing this for a moment, Katie’s eyes widened.
“Ariel!  Get as far away as possible!”, Katie shouted, not a moment too soon.  Jacque opened his mouth fired two shots at once, although these were notably bigger than the one that they had seen before.  Ariel swerved to the left, narrowly avoiding the first one, and turned sideways, allowing the other to sail past her.  Hearing more shots being fired, Ariel turned around to take a glimpse, only for her eyes to widen.  4 shots were headed straight for her, each them heading at her from different angles, as Jacque had swiftly moved to try and hit in such a way.
“Hah!  Just like hitting one bird with many stones, Jacque!  She’s dead!”
Seeing the shots close in, Katie shouted, “Spirit Strike 3:  Star-lit Guard!”
The insignia on Ariel immediately glowed and branched out towards her wings, and, upon reaching them, caused 5 stars to come out.  The stars, instead of falling, began to orbit her, much like the planets orbited the sun.  All of the happened within 2 seconds, just before the shots reached her.
One by one the stars intercepted the shots, exploding on impact, while at the same time protecting Ariel.  Ariel immediately swooped out of the ensuing smoke, and began to soar straight over Jacque.
“Oh, no, not this time!” exclaimed Lawrence.  “Let loose the other two, Jacque!”
Jacque was already shooting the first one, the second one following soon afterwards.  Ariel was now incredibly close to Jacque, merely 10 meters away and closing in fast.  The first shot intercepted the remaining star, just as Ariel swerved to the side and zoomed forward.  Shocked, Jacque could only look down as Ariel popped up in front of him.  Katie immediately shouted, rather quickly, to avoid giving him time to react, “Strike one:  Star Barrage!” Ariel flapped her wings and covered the front of Jacque, sending every last star straight into him.  An enormous explosion filled the area, smoke following soon afterwards, as everyone heard a large ‘thump’, signaling that Jacque was now out of the river.  Ariel performed a flying roll, flying back to Katie, upside-down, knowing that the battle was won.
Grinning, Katie shouted, tauntingly, to Lawrence, who wasn’t visible through the smoke,  “So, what was that you said about ‘playing with dolls’ and ‘true fighters’?” then stated, “Without the river, Bubbles is just a fish out of water.”
Moments passed without a reply.  Satisfied, Katie turned around and was about to go back to the team.
“Strike one:  Restriction shot!”
Turning around in surprise, Katie saw another basketball sized shot out of the smoke, only this one appeared to be misty, instead of filled with water.  The shot, now the size of a beach volleyball ball, struck Ariel in the back at an alarming speed, not giving Katie time to react.
“Ya` didn’t honestly think that just shoving us out a` the water would do us in, didja`?", stated Lawrence, a wide grin adjourning his face, the smoke having cleared.  A poised and somewhat roughed up Jacque stood behind him, mouth already closing.
(To be continued)