“You couldn’t have shown up a bit earlier?” Natsuko said, swinging her legs around to sit on the edge of Peng’s wing.

“Oh boo! I had my own problems, thank you very much,” Daisy said.

“I’m glad you’re back, Daisy. No more getting separated.”

Daisy flashed her a thumbs up. They were around thirty seconds from the battlefield, and both knew they would meet resistance well before that. Realistically, the fight resumed as soon as Natsuko’s Black Fire came off cooldown.

“Where’s Pech?” Daisy asked, eyes trained on Boulanger down below.

“Waiting to show up when it’s maximally dramatic,” Natsuko said with an unusually small amount of annoyance.

Daisy chuckled and raised the musket by her side in the air.. “Plan is to get ‘em up in the air and then shoot ‘em down like a shot-put, right?”

“Bullseye,” Natsuko replied.

Below, a splotch of darkness appeared in the terrain like a cigarette burn in film. Boulanger was airborne.

“I’ll rescue Sofi and Kane, you circle until you see an opportunity to shoot,” Natsuko said, lifting herself off the wing into a freefall plunge. The wind rose to meet her, buffeting what was left of her torn kimono. It was the most free she’d felt in years. A grin wormed its way onto her face as the dark ball of fire raced up to meet her.

“Alright, Boulanger, let’s do this, you prick.”

Natsuko burst into a falling white comet, shooting straight towards Boulanger. In the split second when they would have collided, she rolled to the side and let the fiery black missile continue its upwards trajectory. Her target was down on the ground.

Seconds from impact, she tossed Prismatic Haven across the battlefield to deflect an enormous wind burst from Windwalker. She watched for Koyon to throw up a similar shield around himself and Ailing and once he did she pulled up in time to drive a roundhouse kick through Ailing, knocking her off Sofiane. On the ground, Koyon lashed at her with his whip. Instead of parrying it, she took the damage and grabbed it around the tassels, pulling him in.

“Mine,” she said, grabbing the FDJ rod tucked through a belt in his robes. She tossed it in the air in the direction of Ailing and yelled, “Sofi!”

A ball of purple lightning shot for the rod, grabbed it out of thin air, and struck Ailing before she could turn her light beams back on.

Sensing the changing tide, Koyon teleported to the other side of the Prismatic Haven by Windwalker’s side. While their enemies repositioned, Kane and Sofiane ran to grab weapons. Natsuko’s bottle happened to be nearby and Kane tossed it to her. Natsuko swung it a few times with her right hand, switching Taiyouken to her left in a dual wield. It felt nice to have the hefty bottle back.

“Gotta get them in the air,” Natsuko said to Sofiane and Kane as they formed up on her.

“Easier said than done. We don’t even have any ranged weapons,” Sofiane said.

“Daisy’s got one plus, Pechorin will show up… uh… eventually,” Natsuko replied.

“Guess that means we’re on the ‘getting them in the air’ team,” Kane added.

Aside from Ailing being up again in a moment, their other problem was pulling a very wide u-turn through the sky and would be back to blow them up momentarily. If the Xian were smart, they could combine and plan out a strategy, as Koyon seemed to be trying to do. What they needed next, Natsuko figured, was to get them divided again.

“Wait for my signal,” Natsuko said, keeping half an eye on Daisy descending.

She strode towards the rainbow wall between her and the two Xian which had, at most, a few seconds left on it.

“Aw, that’s cute! Now little Koyon wants your help!” Natsuko said, looking at Windwalker. “Didn’t you already get your teammates killed though?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Windwalker yelled, glaring back at her with bloodshot eyes. He slipped an arrow into his bow and raised it, prepped for when the wall dropped.

“I’ll bet you pushed them in front of you, didn’t you? Let them take the hit for you?” Natsuko taunted, leaning toward the wall with her hands clasped behind her back and a smirk on her face.

Windwalker’s eyes flicked to Koyon. It was quick, but it was enough for Koyon himself to notice.

“I said shut up!”

Natsuko threw out her hands in mock offense. “Hey! I’m not blaming you! That’s what being on the top means. Everyone up there would do the same. Especially Boulanger.”

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Windwalker glanced at Koyon again. This time with more wariness.

“And to be fair, I’d throw Koyon in front of me too. He’s a little shit,” Natsuko said.

“I did not sacrifice my teammates!” Windwalker said.

“No, but at the very least you ran when things went badly,” she said.

“Give it a rest, Windwalker. She’s trying to rile you up,” Koyon said.

“She’s trying to get me to kill her before Boulanger gets to her is what she’s doing,” Windwalker said. “And you know what? Fuck Boulanger. I think I’m gonna take her up on her request.”

Natsuko hoped it was enough riling since her wall was about to go down. She looked back to make sure Sofiane and Kane were paying attention. Both were prepared to weather the cyclone from Windwalker’s arrow. The moment the wall dissolved, Windwalker loosed his arrow and Natsuko swapped with him, placing him in the path of his own cyclone. She grabbed Koyon’s robes and forced him to attack her.

Knowing the hurricane was coming, Kane used his Direct Current ability to charge straight into it. The ability gave him just enough forward momentum to slow the pressure of Windwalker’s cyclone and keep himself from being blown away. Strangely, the HP damage should have killed him at his low health, but he was all of a sudden feeling warm and tingly where little golden bubbles were popping against his skin. Though the cyclone put him back down to around half-HP, it was enough to keep him alive.

Up ahead, he watched Koyon attacking Natsuko. He knew what he had to do, but his abilities were all on cooldown from the buffeting winds.

“Distract Windwalker!” Kane yelled to Sofiane who had just popped out of Ball Lightning.

“With what!?” Sofiane yelled back.

Sofiane was forced to answer his own question as Windwalker wound up another arrow aimed at him. Sofiane threw his FDJ rod straight at Windwalker who raised his hand to bat it out of the way. Memories of fighting other Heroes flooded back into Sofiane’s head and he grinned, sprinting straight at Windwalker before the Xian could nock another arrow. He snatched a piece of shattered metal from the debris of the tent camp along the way and used it to slice the bowstring of Windwalker’s longbow.

“What the hell did you do!?” Windwalker said in disbelief.

“I broke your weapon,” Sofiane said as he snatched up the rod Windwalker batted down.

Windwalker dodged the ensuing swing, but his attention was now fully on Sofiane, giving Kane time for his abilities to come off cooldown. The second they did, he teleported to Windwalker with Direct Current, stunning the Xian long enough for Kane to pick him up and throw him.

Seeing her cue, Daisy pulled Peng into a dive. Just like she practiced, she fought against the air pressure, bringing the muzzle of her musket up inch by inch until Windwalker’s body was impaled on the shiny brass front sight and fired. Kane and Sofiane were instantly splattered with a mist of gore.

“One down!” Kane yelled in triumph.

“Oh my outfit…” Sofiane said, holding out his sleeves drenched in Windwalker.

Koyon abandoned his assault on Natsuko and floated into the air. With a wave of his whip, he summoned another spectral charge. Natsuko looked behind her to see Boulanger nearly on them.

“You two deal with Koyon! Daisy and I are gonna distract Boulanger!” Natsuko said.

Without waiting for an affirmative, she took off with Black Fire, aiming for the tar-black rocket headed towards her teammates. Daisy took Peng into a climb in anticipation of racing the two monochromatic missiles.

This time, Natsuko didn’t roll out of the way. She rammed Boulanger head on creating a black and white explosion that rocked the foundation of Vermögenburgh. Both she and Boulanger were thrown out of the explosion through a cloud of white and black clouds swirling in an infinite series of yin-yangs. Daisy grabbed her out of the air by the scruff of her neck and threw her onto Peng’s back.

“Are you sure he’ll come after us? What if he kills Kane and Sofi?” Daisy said.

Natsuko looked back at the receding cloud. “He’ll come after us, trust me.”

The two girls shared a glance containing the communal pain of having Boulanger on both of their teams for years.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Daisy said.

She was immediately vindicated when part of the dark cloud broke off and shot for them. Peng continued to climb as Daisy put as much distance between them as possible.

“How do we get him out of that damn cloud? There’s no chance in hell I can get a shot with him in it,” Daisy said.

Natsuko crawled up Peng’s back, crag by crag, until she was directly behind—or rather below—Daisy and put her hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll have to come out of the missile form to taunt you. Let him hit Peng. That’s our opportunity,” Natsuko said.

“What!? That’s insane!”

Daisy felt Natsuko squeeze her shoulder and she knew instantly it meant, “roll with the insanity.”

Peng continued climbing in order to maintain the illusion of their attempted escape, but Boulanger plowed through the stone bird, reducing the bird to a falling shower of rocks. Daisy tumbled through the air so fast the nauseating spinning was somehow worse than the pain of a giant rock blowing up in her face. Beads of her blood rose around her, lifted from the shrapnel wounds by the force of gravity.

She suddenly straightened out. The reason became clear when she felt a hand grab her by her blonde curls.

“Aw, were you worried I forgot about you?” Boulanger said, now fully visible as he shed Black Fire to fall with her.

“You’ll never believe it, but… no!” Daisy replied with a pained grin.

He sneered. “You did always like to play coy, Daisy. You and Ailing both. Looking at you again, you almost make me glad we got Natsuko over you and your annoying fucking laugh. Gosh dang Bullseye, am I right?”

He made one of her signature finger guns and rammed it into her throat, causing Daisy to choke and sputter.

“Yippie ki-yay, cowgirl. I’m gonna milk you for your fucking blood. I just haven’t decided if I’m gonna spill it over the ground by letting you fall, or save you for later.”

“Daisy!”

Grabbing her throat, Daisy looked up to see Natsuko a few yards over and down from her. Falling beside her was the musket. Boulanger looked too and growled.

“Swap!”

Daisy blinked and found herself where Natsuko had been, right beside the musket. Enraged, Boulanger moved like he was about to activate Black Fire, but Natsuko grabbed his arms, locking him in place.

“Yippie ki-yay to you too, asshole,” Daisy said as she fired the musket.