There’s a moment before Raph’s energy hands make impact where the giant face seems to stutter for a moment. All of the open glowing monster eyes focus DIRECTLY on Raph. Also a few more open up and then also stare at Raph just for emphasis. It’s a whole cataract circus up in here, and Raph has their full attention.
And then the arms start doing work, and all hell breaks loose.
First - the first goop hand gets torn into by Raph’s giant hands. This time, the ooze sizzles and sparks, and when it hits the “floor” of the chamber, it does not immediately reassemble itself. Oh sure, it tries, but there’s a delay now. This is a far more integral piece of Belos’s body vs. the angler fish decoy garbage man (say that three times fast).
Second - Hunter lets out a yell of sheer terror just for having that hand get this close to begin with, and apparently seem intent on snagging him, and also the shell exploding, and ALSO the sheer level of sass happening in the Raph dimension. He winds up FLINGING several ice glyphs at the goop trying to reform on the floor and yelling to Raph or Donnie to please stomp on them or something.
Third - ]
“You know NOTHING about my brother!”
[ So, direct hit in the malignant prune that serves as Belos’s heart. The goop hand that Raph did NOT eviscerate reaches for Donnie instead, moving to scoop him and his soft shell up. There will be SQUEEZING if this is not stopped. ]
I'll make it two weeks! [At least Donnie was quite aware how much Raph was gonna hate it. At least the offer probably also serves to say they're still in one piece.]
[But trust was important. Trust is key to this entire operations. Between all of them and maybe part of the plan was to make sure Raph didn't fall into big brother habit.]
[He trusts Raph to keep Hunter safe. He knows Belos won't have him again. He trusts Hunter to not let Belos win if they're on the line and he hopes the two are alike enough to keep the other from being dumb about it.]
[He's accepted he may get hurt. But Leo has been reaching out to them, over and over again. He knows Leo is still there. Leo still wants to keep them safe.]
[So he's stacking the deck. If his twin has to worry about him over his own despair, it's the risk he's willing to take because Leo may not save himself, but he'll do everything for them.]
[Trust was key and with his plan underway, the focus that had been for deconstruction focuses on the Ninpo itself, trying to embrace that connection, to let it strengthen in his brothers.]
[But he's at least trying to not be completely suicidal about his cliff dive.]
[He sees the hand, he sees the glyphs, he has a Leo-]
Raph's raised three younger brothers, he's a good judge! [He's scooped up Leo, using that ninja speed to dash under hand, purple energy forming around him and he leaps up as he fabricated his web shooting bike, putting Leo between him and the handles, flames roaring behind him as zips over to the glyphs, driving sideways to hit the glyphs with the end of his staff.]
[ Sorry, Hunter, front-lining this experience in the Raph dimension. Terror abounds.
Final boss form Belos is so much more satisfying to tear into than the tiny decoy version was to hit. Physically and apparently emotionally. ]
Yeah, I mean, just sayin'. [ He will stomp one glyph, to be helpful. But it seems like Donnie's got a handle on that. ] Lame duck or dud egg?
[ Raph thinks that he is maybe tired of being nice. He thinks he really just needs an outlet upon which to go apeshit. So he's gonna try to climb up what's left this arm like a feral raccoon. Or a different size animal, depending on what the scale is here.
All things from the past few days considered, he's not above wondering if ripping out an end boss kaiju throat would also be satisfying right now. ]
[ Feral baby raccoon is about the vibe here; the arm is about ten feet in diameter, give or take, though given its oozy consistency, that diameter varies the more Raph climbs. It's not the most solid perch, but Raph will find that he can punch handholds into the side of the flesh if he's willing to endure the burning acid sensation that results from making contact with the goop.
Meanwhile, the ice from the glyphs that Donnie set off shoots all along the green slime, spreading in fractalline patterns. Belos lets out a howl of anger as he staggers. The great face in the wall lowers a bit as he struggles to move with so much of him freezing up. ]
"Cease this nonsense conversation about eggs."
[ Ooze takes over the floor from the bottom up and begins to rapidly fill the chamber. It remains below where Raph and Donnie are, but it won't stay there. Hunter yelps in alarm from the back of Raph's shell; a wayward glyph paper falls from his pocket, settling on the surface of the ooze for a moment before it dissolves into nothingness. A couple of faint animal faces seem to swim among the liquid filling the chamber. Are they turtles? ]
It's a metaphor! Was your brother, the duck, bad at his job, or were you, the egg, always going to be a brother murderer no matter what. I know you struggle with things like consequences and accountability and what that means in theory!
Considering the extreme lengths of the dud egg, Caleb really might not have had much to work with, Raph!
[Donnie is still flying around on the bike, doing his best to stay out of the way as spidershell hands grab the handles to steer him around, his hands returning to Leo. Pulling out the tanto blade and cutting away more of the cocoon. (Sorry if any happen to travel Raph and/or Hunter ward, rough flying and all.)]
Come on, Leo, don't make it that easy for him to manipulate you, you're better than that. [As he cuts the bits away, he's trying to reach out, purple to blue, see if he can get a spark this deep.]
What fun toy do you want, Raph?! [Because he can tell when a brother just wants to go apeshit and he is all to happy to enable whatever that mode wants to be. Just while keeping Leo away from Soup.]
[ If no one else has got Raph's analogy, he knows Donnie's got him. He gets the feeling that some of the yelling may be solely for his "we are not dead over here, Raph" benefit, but he won't take offense with that.
Things to think while Raph is fully going ahead and tanking hand damage for what will always be the greater good: anything that may ultimately lead to safer brothers. Also his poor impulse control.
It's a big question. If he wants a tool on Apeshitquest, what might help? Normally he'd vote for making the bad man go boom, but given this whole situation that would probably rain a bunch of acidic goop on everyone. Not optimal. What remains? What's been effective? ]
Might need some lifts in a sec if you can spare 'em! [ If not, he'll make do. Leo's the priority. ] Hunter, dealer's choice. Got a few more glyph thingies you wanna hand out? I'm gonna cover more ground.
[ And considering how much good work those glyphs are doing for them right now, having more to throw down is probably the best bet.
If Belos wants to make his brother issues everyone's problem, then fine. He can have the devoted attention of big brother Raph and his three mystic clones. Lacking the sharp thinking and convenience of a skilled strategist with portals, bullheaded spreading across surface area will have to do. ]
[The whole nest area shakes with the impacts and fight, and purple reaches out for blue.
He jostles and jerks in Donnie's arms as they fly around the area avoiding goop, but there does come a weak pulse in response. Faint but there. It pulses in time with a bottle in all their pockets.]
Glyphs - right, um - I have light, fire, and vines? Which ones do you want?
[ He'll shove a couple of each in Raph's face to be honest; he's already clinging high on the turtle's back, terrified of the room filling with acid goop. What few stray bits of cocoon that have gotten through the shield eat away at his shirt a bit, but do not hurt him at all.
Meanwhile, the acid continues to rise ... except, where those purple and blue colors intersect, it can't seem to get closer? Hell, anywhere the ninpo reaches, the goop can't get in to touch them really. Brotherly magic is much stronger than all of Belos's seething rage.
Those shapes swimming in the goop are definitely turtles. They glow dimly, and several of them try to swarm Leo and Donnie. Another one of them tries to swim up Belos's arm to Raph. There's something plaintive about them - not aggressive.
Belos himself scoffs down at all of them. ]
"My brother abandoned me. Stabbed me in the back. And every single copy of him did the same, eventually."
[ As Raph ascends, some of the goop forms into a more humanoid figure ahead of him. Hunteroid? That is absolutely a shadowy Hunter forming to try to attack him and prevent him from climbing higher. ]
[The yelling is definitely in part of Raph's benefit. A little bit to talk shit at Belos.]
When a brother messes up, you work through it, not murder! With how fast you jump to murdering brothers and children, it really becomes a non-starter for any of them to even attempt to work through things with you! Get some accountability, you're the problem!
[Clones are disposable, don't need lifts for them, they'll come and go as Raph needs.] Hunter, help maneuvering!
[A hand holds onto Leo, the other grabbing his staff, reaching deep into the ninpo. Bigger fabrication, but not too overly complex, it just needs the power. He breathes in, breathes out, pushes through the dizzying feeling. He's fine, he's connected, he's fine.]
[The pieces form after him as he flies away from the soup and any stray arms, combining together before the pieces shoot out to form at Raph's back, large rocket thrusters attaching, complete with a space for Hunter to squirrel himself away as well as controls to help Raph move with more precision and agility.]
[The bike falters for a moment, drops several feet before he gets the control back, solidifies it. He pulls back energy, cancelling the fabrications in other parts of Leo's mind, the spiderhsell, hand moving from the staff to the handle to steer. Thrusters, bike, and supply satchels left.]
[A pulse. A return.]
[A thrumming at his side. He looks down. Wait...would it...?]
[He grabs the potion, tugging off the cap with his teeth and going to try pouring it into Leo's mouth.]
[He hasn't noticed he's fallen low enough for the turtles to get close to the bike. He's a little distracted.]
[ He's straight up just gonna send most of them with the mystic clones anyway. They're not gonna get much distance, but he at least tries to get them a ways further up this arm before they start slapping glyphs down. Surface area. Very important.
Raph feels a way. About so much of this situation, and the past few days, and all the stuff he's heard about Belos to start with. He's angry in a way that goes deeper than impulse, turns to clarity. It's like Anger 2. Which is a new one for him. ]
I'll let you in on this one for free, Phil! I don't even gotta know the whole story! [ What, like he's gonna actually use 'Phillip'? No way. ] They all loved you! You turned on them!
[ He pulls together a big mystic gauntlet. These rocket donations are exactly the ideal setups right now. If Hunter can help on maneuvering, also good. There's still a throat up there somewhere, un-ripped. If he's gotta punch his way through this Hunter-shaped goop puppet first... he's gonna hate that, but it's very rock and a hard place. ]
[Amidst the punching and yelling, goop gooping and evil menacing, something does happen. Donnie empties the potion bottle into Leo's mouth and that ninpo still blips out before a massive pulse goes out from Leo, a blue wave of electrical energy washing over the entire area once.
It bounces the bike up a little higher from the goop flooding in and Leo's eyes open with a faint blue glow first before fading to normal again, his stripes glowing brightly.
He coughs into his hand, sitting up himself and looking around wildly-]
What-
[And then takes quick stock of the situation. Giant evil monster Belos. Raph and Hunter fighting melee, Donnie keeping him out of the way for now, acidic goop rising in the room like a sinking ship.
A white hot incandescent fury fills him, ripping off a last piece of the cocoon shell in his hand and flaring it into a blue-hilted katana in his grip.]
Raph! Hunter! Head's up!
[He moves his hand holding his sword measuring an angle before he swings it hard through the air. That same ozone smell erupts as a sequence of blue portals open all around Belos and countless swords shoot through from all angles at the asshole, but carefully avoiding Raph and Hunter. It's a veritable episode 39 of Utena in here.
It's his brain. He gets to go big all he wants in ways he can't in the real world yet.]
[ Hunter winces on Raph's back - that hurts more than anything else, to be honest - and now there's so much going on it's all he can do to hang in there, protected by Donnie's tech and Raph's everything. Later he can maybe unpack that but -
The giant Belos monster is VERY distracted. First by - Phil, really? That deserves a swat at Raph all on its own. The enormous claws rake across his protective red ninpo, scratching along the surface of it. But even as he claws at Raph, Raph is gearing up for ULTIPUNCH! He's able to catapult forward with Donnie's rockets, as Hunter leans hard into it, pushing them on even faster with a quick combo of ice and fire glyphs. (It's just an explosion, but then again isn't that what rockets are anyway?)
The big red turtle cleaves through the Hunter clone and Belos's neck in a horrible spray of green-black ichor. That monstrous horned face dips to one side, mostly disconnected, but not quite. He gurgles as even more horrible sounds come out of him. And the Hunter clone, well. Spattered all over the place too.
But the ooze begins to reform. Despite the gap in his neck, Belos begins to reattach his head. And then -
And then ALL OF THE SWORDS. So many swords! They whiz past Hunter and Raph safely, instead embedding themselves into Belos like the world's worst tomato pincushion. Some appear to miss ... at first, until they strike one of the many glyphs now scattered around the chamber. Fire burns along the acid pool, setting it ablaze. Ice creeps up Belos's legs and prevents him from moving. Vines block his neck from reforming properly, and the light punches UPWARDS, cracking the ceiling of the chamber as it begins to let the rest of Leo's heart in. No more prison deep away from everything and everyone.
Belos lets out one more horrible gurgle of despair and begins to collapse. ]
[Oh, the amount of relief and joy on his face, a mix of smiling and tears, a pulse of ninpo in return. He keeps an arm around his middle, to keep him stable, but ready to let him go if Leo is willing and able to move.]
[But the relief thrums through him, seeing him aware and here, that he woke up.]
[But oh, there's This Man and his Boldfaced Lies.]
[He watches with immense satisfaction as Raph tears through him, as the swords reign down, as fire and ice spread over him (and really, rockets are just controlled explosions), but he has his twin back, and now there is his own rage to contend with.]
[He flies closer, the purple energy crackling around him because how dare he do this to his twin, how dare he try to hurt Raph, how dare he claim that there was ever a moment he was going to try and love Hunter whose been through enough.]
Take it from someone who knows how you think, Phil. Love is about acceptance. The good and the bad.
[The energy forms into several laser cannons form the bottom of the bike, streaks of red, blue, orange, golden gray, and yellow mixed in with the primary purple.]
You've never accepted Caleb, never looked past him. All you wanted was a target to justify stabbing your brother in the back.
You haven't known what love was like for centuries, if you ever had at all.
[ There he is, and the relief can't be overstated. In general. Very handy in the moment considering Belos's neck reattachment agenda, but mostly in the sense that it's Leo.
Raph sends a pulse of ninpo out in response. And that's the whole point of it, honestly, just to respond. An overflow, an outpouring, warmth and relief so unrestrained that it crackles orange at the edges.
He doesn't worry about dodging the swords. Leo won't hit them. Belos and this chamber are looking on the downswing. Big plus. He doesn't worry about getting another word in. Doesn't feel the need to. Donnie hits the better points, anyway. As long as Hunter wants them, they're his.
(And the other little brothers Belos turned on, the ones who didn't make it, Raph will love too. He always has room.)
He turns his attention over his shoulder for a second. ]
Whaddaya think, bud? Take another swing or help open up that skylight?
[ He considers both appealing and probably doable.
Hunter's got a lifetime of personal catharsis to account for here, is all. If they're coming up on the endgame, he should get a say. ]
[ What DOES Hunter want? This is Leo's fight, but ... it's his uncle. he has the biggest stake after Leo, doesn't he? He should have a choice.
He hunkers down for a moment as the swords and magic and tech all fly around him. Grants himself JUST a second to savor Donnie's words there. Hunter Hamato. What a wonderful name. He's going to write it over and over again in a notebook in cursive with a little smiley face drawn into the O at the end.
Hunter Hamato stares up at his uncle's monstrous form and makes a choice. ]
Raph pulls his fist back again, pours more power into it. Its mystic projection flickers and distorts, settling back into the form of (stop him if you've heard it) a Much Much Bigger Fist. Because he is a good big brother and he heard "destroy him" and he has no objections to that directive today.
Out here looking to help decimate Belos on main with the power of punching. ]
[ That is one HELL of a fist. Combined with one HELL of a laser salvo. The lasers hit first, burning the length of Belos's goopy body. Then comes the first to splatter it into chunks. Belos manages one more scream of rage and agony before the literal one-two punch atomizes him into a fine mist of hateful green.
The acidic goop at the bottom of the chamber drains out. The light returns, above, and the shape of the place slowly begins to return to normal - whatever it is. There are still gooplets here and there scurrying about and making screaming noises, but the brothers Hamato can handle those, right? ]
[Leo still sits with Donnie on the speeder, watching the multi-colored explosion, and then Raph's SUPER ULTRA MEGA HYPER PUNCH.
He smiles a little-] Lookin' good, Raph!
[And then twist his katana the other direction, sending half the swords back the get whatever gooplets are left, and the other half to clear out the rest of the enclosure. Outside is a pleasant blue light with sharp, translucent steps up to various platforms of all the rooms they went through before. The air around is celestial, an open night sky of New York City.]
[Donnie scans the area as the goop splashes out, sending out smaller blasts for anything that looks like its going to escape the swords.]
[The bike flickers.]
[Oh, there it is.]
Hunter, Raph, banishing the fabrication! [A warning, holding it for a few seconds to make sure Hunter has a grip on Raph before banishing the jetpack, bike heading down to the main platform.]
[Donnie isn't graceful in his landing after banishing the bike, mostly making sure Leo doesn't hit the ground first and just]
[Gonna take a minute to breathe, holding onto his twin until Raph and Hunter catches up with their own affection. Trying to ignore the headache that was forming at the base of his skull.]
[ Hunter will just hold onto Raph tightly and have his staff ready for flight if necessary. But mostly, he's hurrying to Leo's side to add into the hug. ]
[Room is all cleared, space opened, and Donnie broke the fall so Leo only kind of gently hits the floor with Don taking most of the fall damage. He stays curled up in his twin's arm - while the potion Don gave him woke him up, it didn't quite refill his empty ninpo tank to start healing everything. So the acid burn scars are still all over him, the slices into his arms and legs and neck are still there. But he's there too.
And then so is everyone else. He feels almost smothered by the affection after so long alone like that.
But that chirp has tears in his eyes. He chirps back. Found.
Leo finally lifts his head enough to look at them all, lingering on Raph. His first time really seeing his big brother himself since Raph arrived in Snek and even he can't quite hide the way his gaze lingers on that bad eye.]
[ HAIR RUFFLE!! Hunter's already tearing up just from that, but now there are group hugs too. He just about throws himself on the pile too, mindful of their injuries. And - oh.
He pulls out the potion he received. ]
We weren't going to leave you like this. I'm - I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: THE PIT
There’s a moment before Raph’s energy hands make impact where the giant face seems to stutter for a moment. All of the open glowing monster eyes focus DIRECTLY on Raph. Also a few more open up and then also stare at Raph just for emphasis. It’s a whole cataract circus up in here, and Raph has their full attention.
And then the arms start doing work, and all hell breaks loose.
First - the first goop hand gets torn into by Raph’s giant hands. This time, the ooze sizzles and sparks, and when it hits the “floor” of the chamber, it does not immediately reassemble itself. Oh sure, it tries, but there’s a delay now. This is a far more integral piece of Belos’s body vs. the angler fish decoy garbage man (say that three times fast).
Second - Hunter lets out a yell of sheer terror just for having that hand get this close to begin with, and apparently seem intent on snagging him, and also the shell exploding, and ALSO the sheer level of sass happening in the Raph dimension. He winds up FLINGING several ice glyphs at the goop trying to reform on the floor and yelling to Raph or Donnie to please stomp on them or something.
Third - ]
“You know NOTHING about my brother!”
[ So, direct hit in the malignant prune that serves as Belos’s heart. The goop hand that Raph did NOT eviscerate reaches for Donnie instead, moving to scoop him and his soft shell up. There will be SQUEEZING if this is not stopped. ]
Re: THE PIT
[But trust was important. Trust is key to this entire operations. Between all of them and maybe part of the plan was to make sure Raph didn't fall into big brother habit.]
[He trusts Raph to keep Hunter safe. He knows Belos won't have him again. He trusts Hunter to not let Belos win if they're on the line and he hopes the two are alike enough to keep the other from being dumb about it.]
[He's accepted he may get hurt. But Leo has been reaching out to them, over and over again. He knows Leo is still there. Leo still wants to keep them safe.]
[So he's stacking the deck. If his twin has to worry about him over his own despair, it's the risk he's willing to take because Leo may not save himself, but he'll do everything for them.]
[Trust was key and with his plan underway, the focus that had been for deconstruction focuses on the Ninpo itself, trying to embrace that connection, to let it strengthen in his brothers.]
[But he's at least trying to not be completely suicidal about his cliff dive.]
[He sees the hand, he sees the glyphs, he has a Leo-]
Raph's raised three younger brothers, he's a good judge! [He's scooped up Leo, using that ninja speed to dash under hand, purple energy forming around him and he leaps up as he fabricated his web shooting bike, putting Leo between him and the handles, flames roaring behind him as zips over to the glyphs, driving sideways to hit the glyphs with the end of his staff.]
Re: THE PIT
Final boss form Belos is so much more satisfying to tear into than the tiny decoy version was to hit. Physically and apparently emotionally. ]
Yeah, I mean, just sayin'. [ He will stomp one glyph, to be helpful. But it seems like Donnie's got a handle on that. ] Lame duck or dud egg?
[ Raph thinks that he is maybe tired of being nice. He thinks he really just needs an outlet upon which to go apeshit. So he's gonna try to climb up what's left this arm like a feral raccoon. Or a different size animal, depending on what the scale is here.
All things from the past few days considered, he's not above wondering if ripping out an end boss kaiju throat would also be satisfying right now. ]
Re: THE PIT
Meanwhile, the ice from the glyphs that Donnie set off shoots all along the green slime, spreading in fractalline patterns. Belos lets out a howl of anger as he staggers. The great face in the wall lowers a bit as he struggles to move with so much of him freezing up. ]
"Cease this nonsense conversation about eggs."
[ Ooze takes over the floor from the bottom up and begins to rapidly fill the chamber. It remains below where Raph and Donnie are, but it won't stay there. Hunter yelps in alarm from the back of Raph's shell; a wayward glyph paper falls from his pocket, settling on the surface of the ooze for a moment before it dissolves into nothingness. A couple of faint animal faces seem to swim among the liquid filling the chamber. Are they turtles? ]
"I will drown ALL of you out if I need to."
Re: THE PIT
Considering the extreme lengths of the dud egg, Caleb really might not have had much to work with, Raph!
[Donnie is still flying around on the bike, doing his best to stay out of the way as spidershell hands grab the handles to steer him around, his hands returning to Leo. Pulling out the tanto blade and cutting away more of the cocoon. (Sorry if any happen to travel Raph and/or Hunter ward, rough flying and all.)]
Come on, Leo, don't make it that easy for him to manipulate you, you're better than that. [As he cuts the bits away, he's trying to reach out, purple to blue, see if he can get a spark this deep.]
What fun toy do you want, Raph?! [Because he can tell when a brother just wants to go apeshit and he is all to happy to enable whatever that mode wants to be. Just while keeping Leo away from Soup.]
Re: THE PIT
Things to think while Raph is fully going ahead and tanking hand damage for what will always be the greater good: anything that may ultimately lead to safer brothers. Also his poor impulse control.
It's a big question. If he wants a tool on Apeshitquest, what might help? Normally he'd vote for making the bad man go boom, but given this whole situation that would probably rain a bunch of acidic goop on everyone. Not optimal. What remains? What's been effective? ]
Might need some lifts in a sec if you can spare 'em! [ If not, he'll make do. Leo's the priority. ] Hunter, dealer's choice. Got a few more glyph thingies you wanna hand out? I'm gonna cover more ground.
[ And considering how much good work those glyphs are doing for them right now, having more to throw down is probably the best bet.
If Belos wants to make his brother issues everyone's problem, then fine. He can have the devoted attention of big brother Raph and his three mystic clones. Lacking the sharp thinking and convenience of a skilled strategist with portals, bullheaded spreading across surface area will have to do. ]
Re: THE PIT
He jostles and jerks in Donnie's arms as they fly around the area avoiding goop, but there does come a weak pulse in response. Faint but there. It pulses in time with a bottle in all their pockets.]
Re: THE PIT
[ He'll shove a couple of each in Raph's face to be honest; he's already clinging high on the turtle's back, terrified of the room filling with acid goop. What few stray bits of cocoon that have gotten through the shield eat away at his shirt a bit, but do not hurt him at all.
Meanwhile, the acid continues to rise ... except, where those purple and blue colors intersect, it can't seem to get closer? Hell, anywhere the ninpo reaches, the goop can't get in to touch them really. Brotherly magic is much stronger than all of Belos's seething rage.
Those shapes swimming in the goop are definitely turtles. They glow dimly, and several of them try to swarm Leo and Donnie. Another one of them tries to swim up Belos's arm to Raph. There's something plaintive about them - not aggressive.
Belos himself scoffs down at all of them. ]
"My brother abandoned me. Stabbed me in the back. And every single copy of him did the same, eventually."
[ As Raph ascends, some of the goop forms into a more humanoid figure ahead of him. Hunteroid? That is absolutely a shadowy Hunter forming to try to attack him and prevent him from climbing higher. ]
Re: THE PIT
When a brother messes up, you work through it, not murder! With how fast you jump to murdering brothers and children, it really becomes a non-starter for any of them to even attempt to work through things with you! Get some accountability, you're the problem!
[Clones are disposable, don't need lifts for them, they'll come and go as Raph needs.] Hunter, help maneuvering!
[A hand holds onto Leo, the other grabbing his staff, reaching deep into the ninpo. Bigger fabrication, but not too overly complex, it just needs the power. He breathes in, breathes out, pushes through the dizzying feeling. He's fine, he's connected, he's fine.]
[The pieces form after him as he flies away from the soup and any stray arms, combining together before the pieces shoot out to form at Raph's back, large rocket thrusters attaching, complete with a space for Hunter to squirrel himself away as well as controls to help Raph move with more precision and agility.]
[The bike falters for a moment, drops several feet before he gets the control back, solidifies it. He pulls back energy, cancelling the fabrications in other parts of Leo's mind, the spiderhsell, hand moving from the staff to the handle to steer. Thrusters, bike, and supply satchels left.]
[A pulse. A return.]
[A thrumming at his side. He looks down. Wait...would it...?]
[He grabs the potion, tugging off the cap with his teeth and going to try pouring it into Leo's mouth.]
[He hasn't noticed he's fallen low enough for the turtles to get close to the bike. He's a little distracted.]
Re: THE PIT
[ He's straight up just gonna send most of them with the mystic clones anyway. They're not gonna get much distance, but he at least tries to get them a ways further up this arm before they start slapping glyphs down. Surface area. Very important.
Raph feels a way. About so much of this situation, and the past few days, and all the stuff he's heard about Belos to start with. He's angry in a way that goes deeper than impulse, turns to clarity. It's like Anger 2. Which is a new one for him. ]
I'll let you in on this one for free, Phil! I don't even gotta know the whole story! [ What, like he's gonna actually use 'Phillip'? No way. ] They all loved you! You turned on them!
[ He pulls together a big mystic gauntlet. These rocket donations are exactly the ideal setups right now. If Hunter can help on maneuvering, also good. There's still a throat up there somewhere, un-ripped. If he's gotta punch his way through this Hunter-shaped goop puppet first... he's gonna hate that, but it's very rock and a hard place. ]
Re: THE PIT
It bounces the bike up a little higher from the goop flooding in and Leo's eyes open with a faint blue glow first before fading to normal again, his stripes glowing brightly.
He coughs into his hand, sitting up himself and looking around wildly-]
What-
[And then takes quick stock of the situation. Giant evil monster Belos. Raph and Hunter fighting melee, Donnie keeping him out of the way for now, acidic goop rising in the room like a sinking ship.
A white hot incandescent fury fills him, ripping off a last piece of the cocoon shell in his hand and flaring it into a blue-hilted katana in his grip.]
Raph! Hunter! Head's up!
[He moves his hand holding his sword measuring an angle before he swings it hard through the air. That same ozone smell erupts as a sequence of blue portals open all around Belos and countless swords shoot through from all angles at the asshole, but carefully avoiding Raph and Hunter. It's a veritable episode 39 of Utena in here.
It's his brain. He gets to go big all he wants in ways he can't in the real world yet.]
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[ Hunter winces on Raph's back - that hurts more than anything else, to be honest - and now there's so much going on it's all he can do to hang in there, protected by Donnie's tech and Raph's everything. Later he can maybe unpack that but -
The giant Belos monster is VERY distracted. First by - Phil, really? That deserves a swat at Raph all on its own. The enormous claws rake across his protective red ninpo, scratching along the surface of it. But even as he claws at Raph, Raph is gearing up for ULTIPUNCH! He's able to catapult forward with Donnie's rockets, as Hunter leans hard into it, pushing them on even faster with a quick combo of ice and fire glyphs. (It's just an explosion, but then again isn't that what rockets are anyway?)
The big red turtle cleaves through the Hunter clone and Belos's neck in a horrible spray of green-black ichor. That monstrous horned face dips to one side, mostly disconnected, but not quite. He gurgles as even more horrible sounds come out of him. And the Hunter clone, well. Spattered all over the place too.
But the ooze begins to reform. Despite the gap in his neck, Belos begins to reattach his head. And then -
And then ALL OF THE SWORDS. So many swords! They whiz past Hunter and Raph safely, instead embedding themselves into Belos like the world's worst tomato pincushion. Some appear to miss ... at first, until they strike one of the many glyphs now scattered around the chamber. Fire burns along the acid pool, setting it ablaze. Ice creeps up Belos's legs and prevents him from moving. Vines block his neck from reforming properly, and the light punches UPWARDS, cracking the ceiling of the chamber as it begins to let the rest of Leo's heart in. No more prison deep away from everything and everyone.
Belos lets out one more horrible gurgle of despair and begins to collapse. ]
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[Oh, the amount of relief and joy on his face, a mix of smiling and tears, a pulse of ninpo in return. He keeps an arm around his middle, to keep him stable, but ready to let him go if Leo is willing and able to move.]
[But the relief thrums through him, seeing him aware and here, that he woke up.]
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[He watches with immense satisfaction as Raph tears through him, as the swords reign down, as fire and ice spread over him (and really, rockets are just controlled explosions), but he has his twin back, and now there is his own rage to contend with.]
[He flies closer, the purple energy crackling around him because how dare he do this to his twin, how dare he try to hurt Raph, how dare he claim that there was ever a moment he was going to try and love Hunter whose been through enough.]
Take it from someone who knows how you think, Phil. Love is about acceptance. The good and the bad.
[The energy forms into several laser cannons form the bottom of the bike, streaks of red, blue, orange, golden gray, and yellow mixed in with the primary purple.]
You've never accepted Caleb, never looked past him. All you wanted was a target to justify stabbing your brother in the back.
You haven't known what love was like for centuries, if you ever had at all.
We'll show Hunter Hamato what its really like.
[And then he fires.]
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Raph sends a pulse of ninpo out in response. And that's the whole point of it, honestly, just to respond. An overflow, an outpouring, warmth and relief so unrestrained that it crackles orange at the edges.
He doesn't worry about dodging the swords. Leo won't hit them. Belos and this chamber are looking on the downswing. Big plus. He doesn't worry about getting another word in. Doesn't feel the need to. Donnie hits the better points, anyway. As long as Hunter wants them, they're his.
(And the other little brothers Belos turned on, the ones who didn't make it, Raph will love too. He always has room.)
He turns his attention over his shoulder for a second. ]
Whaddaya think, bud? Take another swing or help open up that skylight?
[ He considers both appealing and probably doable.
Hunter's got a lifetime of personal catharsis to account for here, is all. If they're coming up on the endgame, he should get a say. ]
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He hunkers down for a moment as the swords and magic and tech all fly around him. Grants himself JUST a second to savor Donnie's words there. Hunter Hamato. What a wonderful name. He's going to write it over and over again in a notebook in cursive with a little smiley face drawn into the O at the end.
Hunter Hamato stares up at his uncle's monstrous form and makes a choice. ]
Take another swing. Just - destroy him.
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[ His closure, his call.
Raph pulls his fist back again, pours more power into it. Its mystic projection flickers and distorts, settling back into the form of (stop him if you've heard it) a Much Much Bigger Fist. Because he is a good big brother and he heard "destroy him" and he has no objections to that directive today.
Out here looking to help decimate Belos on main with the power of punching. ]
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The acidic goop at the bottom of the chamber drains out. The light returns, above, and the shape of the place slowly begins to return to normal - whatever it is. There are still gooplets here and there scurrying about and making screaming noises, but the brothers Hamato can handle those, right? ]
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He smiles a little-] Lookin' good, Raph!
[And then twist his katana the other direction, sending half the swords back the get whatever gooplets are left, and the other half to clear out the rest of the enclosure. Outside is a pleasant blue light with sharp, translucent steps up to various platforms of all the rooms they went through before. The air around is celestial, an open night sky of New York City.]
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[The bike flickers.]
[Oh, there it is.]
Hunter, Raph, banishing the fabrication! [A warning, holding it for a few seconds to make sure Hunter has a grip on Raph before banishing the jetpack, bike heading down to the main platform.]
[Donnie isn't graceful in his landing after banishing the bike, mostly making sure Leo doesn't hit the ground first and just]
[Gonna take a minute to breathe, holding onto his twin until Raph and Hunter catches up with their own affection. Trying to ignore the headache that was forming at the base of his skull.]
[Found you. Chirp.]
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[ Hunter will just hold onto Raph tightly and have his staff ready for flight if necessary. But mostly, he's hurrying to Leo's side to add into the hug. ]
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[ Boss fight: done. Mystic form: dismissed.
Hug time: now. However they get there. Small potatoes, they are Going To Get There.
(Hunter gets a bonus hair ruffle en route because Raph is very proud of him.) ]
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And then so is everyone else. He feels almost smothered by the affection after so long alone like that.
But that chirp has tears in his eyes. He chirps back. Found.
Leo finally lifts his head enough to look at them all, lingering on Raph. His first time really seeing his big brother himself since Raph arrived in Snek and even he can't quite hide the way his gaze lingers on that bad eye.]
You guys did it.
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[He's careful where his hands are, trying to avoid burns while holding him.] Potions. The potions are his Ninpo, it's why they're so strong.
[Because anything that helps is important.]
Wanted to be here sooner. I'm sorry.
But you're back now. [A pulse of relief, happiness.]
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He pulls out the potion he received. ]
We weren't going to leave you like this. I'm - I'm sorry I didn't realize sooner.
[ He offers the potion? ]
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