All Over The Island, Saturday Morning

[lockestheway]

The blasted heath was really enjoying itself now. Having turned everything in the campgrounds to ashes, it now spread to cover the park in full, twisting its creatures into grotesque shapes. Even sand on the beach had greyed, and tiny crabs were both growing bigger and more fearsome

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[weldedtomyspine]

Now Jaime knew Momoko could take care of herself. Usually. But weird things were going on, and Radio was being about as helpful as it usually was, so, well, he was a bit worried.

Enough to suit up and do a patrol, at least.

He was hovering low because the Scarab seemed to have problems differentiating people the way it usually did. They all tended to blend together as just plain wrong.

[heromaniac]

There was a grey and red blur racing across the Heath after an Alot. Or what had once been an Alot. Soon it wouldn't even be an ex-Alot, though, the way Momoko was gaining on it. Mmmmm. Meat after a good run? Totally awesome.

[weldedtomyspine]

It was the red that drew Jaime's eye. It was, after all, a distinctive shade of the color with which he was very familiar.

He swooped in for a close look despite the fact that the grey was all wrong.

Right?

[heromaniac]

Oh no, it was totally right!

Ah! The arrival of something from the sky totally distracted Momoko from her chase, and she skidded to a stop, spinning to face the new thing, growling lightly.

[weldedtomyspine]

No. The grey was wrong. Very wrong. But that red...

Jaime dived lower, coming in to skim a few feet above the ground.

[heromaniac]

Which of course meant Momoko could leap and try to tackle him. He didn't small like MEAT, but maybe he would be fun anyway?

[weldedtomyspine]

Well, Jaime may have been on his guard, but he totally hadn't been expecting that.

She slammed into him before he had time to register that she was incoming and swerve to avoid her. The armor absorbed the impact easily, but the sudden additional weight dragged him down toward the ground.

[heromaniac]

Momoko gave a slash at the armor, then pulled back, rolling to the side to prepare for another lunge. First attack had PREY wobbly. Like birds; she was going to have to change her attack.

[weldedtomyspine]

More from shock than from any sort of injury, Jaime let his flight path get redirected into the ground. He bounced and rolled a few dozen yards before sitting up and looking around in confusion.

What in the world...?

[heromaniac]

Ah! Momoko took advantage of that moment of confusion and leapt again, aiming for the head. Take out the eyes and escape would be harder, the chase more fun.

[weldedtomyspine]

Again, Jaime was distracted enough that he failed to dodge, taking the full brunt of her tackle to the head. He went over backward, head bouncing against the ground.

Lucky he had the Scarab.

"What do you mean 'genetic signature matches Akatsutsumi Momoko to 50%'? That makes no sense!"

Did it?

[heromaniac]

Apparently? Also, that number is probably going down as the minutes tick by.

Momoko gleed that she'd connected, but was confused that PREY was still alive. A shell? She chose to follow up with claws at close quarters, hoping to break PREY open. "Not fair to hiiIIiiIiiide, PREY," she rasped, striking.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime scrambled back, his arms coming up to block, and a massive shield forming on each one to absorb those strikes.

Definitely not Momoko.

Right?

It couldn't be!

[heromaniac]

Well, she was a bit bloody and covered in dirt and leaves, her hair disheveled... oh, yeah, and she was a monster.

Momoko growled at the shields that stopped her, and spun, attempting to use her tail to get him off his feet and maybe give her a chance to get under those shields.

[weldedtomyspine]

Well, it worked. Because no matter how much Jaime told himself that it couldn't be Momoko, his instincts practically screamed MOMOKO, and the Scarab at least partially agreed.

And Momoko didn't have a tail, so when one swept around and yanked his ankles out from under him, he fell backwards, arms flailing.

[heromaniac]

And flailing arms meant the shields were NOT protecting his middle, right? So she could complete her spin and leap on him again, claws extended to rip into that shell and hopefully get to the actual prey?