"So… we were in jail," offered Ruby quietly.

"We know," said Holly. "Ryuko told us."

"And we fought a giant green dude."

"Who kept saying, 'Hulk smash'," groaned Katniss.

"Jeez, you guys are a bunch of killjoys."

"It's not that your story isn't totally badass, which it was," replied Ryuko. "It's just that everybody's worried about what's going to happen when we get to the Night Terrors. If Poppy's strong enough to just zap us away… what's she going to do when she finds out that we didn't get the coins?"

Silence hung in response to Ryuko's question, with the only reply being the steady footfalls of Gurren Lagann, whose metal hands were cupped together to carry them.

Finally, Holly put together an answer. "I don't know. All we can do is hit them hard enough that they regret trying to use us."

"I hope that's the kind of logic that will get through to them," sighed Twilight. "Because if we have to deal with this every time a new round comes up, there's no way to keep Poppy in check. And then we may really be doomed."

"We can't give up until we've given it our best shot," said Mikasa.

The team reluctantly nodded, agreeing to the course of action and leaving the rest to fate, since it was all they could do. The sun, which had yet to be obscured by a single cloud for the three days they had spent wandering, shone down from directly above them, keeping the metal surface of Gurren Lagann's hands an evenly scalding temperature. Through the haze that clung to the earth for miles ahead, the low shapes of Northville loomed.

"They've got a sniper, right?" Katniss asked.

"No half-balanced team wouldn't," mused Alucard.

"We only seen a few of them in action," replied Holly. "Poppy's near-omnipotent, Morrigan flies and hits hard, Sonic is fast on foot and Haruto and the Valvrave are pretty quick too. But as for the others like Cloud and Snake and Bayonetta, we can only guess. Considering his military gear, I would assume that Snake is their sniper."

"You don't think he's got us in his sights right now, do you?" giggled Ruby nervously.

Katniss moved her head to a slightly different position against Gurren Lagann's hand. "He wouldn't be much of a sniper if he didn't."

----------------------------------------

Snake backed his eye away from the scope on the PSG-1. It had been unreal- at this range, there would be a mirage masking his location, and he was lying under a tarp. So there was little explanation as to how the girl had looked straight at him, frowned, and moved her head out of his sights, other than a level of sharpness of the eye he had not ascribed to her at first glance.

"Are they all there?' asked Poppy, suddenly seated behind him, small enough in stature to avoid being seen past the roof- but then again, so was Snake's little sniper nest, and the girl had seen it.

"So far as I can tell, boss. Every non-mechanized combatant, and they've got their heavy support too."

"Get everyone ready. I will go and speak with them."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Of course," she said, and disappeared.

Poppy reappeared atop Gurren Lagann's broken-circle head crest, perfectly balanced despite the small platform it offered her. It did not take long for one of the warriors resting in the robot's palms to notice her. Ruby scrambled for her weapon, and fired up from her seat, startling everyone. Poppy glared back down, holding the bullet by a thumb and index finger.

"Hello to you, too."

"D'Arvit," Holly cursed. "How long have you been-"

"Long enough to get shot at."

"Ah."

"Your hostile response would seem to indicate that you have not cooperated with my request to acquire the coins. Tell me, Team Mockingjay, is that correct?"

Ryuko pulled a coin out of a small pouch affixed to Senketsu's waistband. "Nope."

"You collected one coin?"

The team was unsure of how to respond. They had been hoping to be on the offense, to come crashing into the town before Poppy could react. But instead, she had come to them, and she was the one variable they did not know how to solve for. They were quiet while they calculated, which Poppy decided to interrupt.

"This is not a surprise. I had little faith that you would do as told. Bring me the coins, give up, and lose. Bring me the coins, fight me, and lose. Gather the coins, avoid me, and be hunted down by myself and anyone else interested- you lose. There was not much incentive for you to obey. So the question remains, why are you here?"

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"So we can prove to you that we're not pawns to order around," said Holly, balling her fists in defiance.

Poppy's frown crawled upwards into a flat line, then just a tiny bit further. "Really?"

Team Mockingjay suddenly found themselves in the center of Northville once again, jumping a half-mile with no traces of their movement. The instantaneous change in scenery was quite unsettling, but nearly everything involving Poppy was. The elf-like creature leapt from above Gurren Lagann's head and floated to the ground slowly, maintaining her vague smile as she dropped below the other warriors.

"That is a very interesting thing for you to do. Defiance is not a character trait one expects from insects."

"We're not insects," snapped Katniss.

"Perhaps you are not. I may have sent you away to collect coins, but the fact that you were able to reunite and return here shows that you may have other uses. Join me, and together we can destroy the Master of Games."

"No," replied Twilight sternly. "To actively rebel against him might put the lives of everypony here in danger. We can't let that happen."

"A crude and illogical assertion," mused Poppy. "Allowing that scum to further his plans endangers more than direct action. Unless you know something that I don't."

Twilight quickly buried her secrets. "No, we… we don't."

"Then you ascribe to faulty reasoning. Everyone here fights for their life. To claim that your battle is any more just- that your actions are more righteous, is baseless. In fact, every victory you claim may be pushing your fellow warriors closer and closer toward whatever fate the Master of Games has designed for the defeated. To passively carry on in light of this is not only asinine, it is paradoxical. How will you rectify that?"

Holly sprung out of the Gunmen's hands, landing in the dust in front of Poppy to look her doppelganger in her unfathomable eyes. Simon pushed the controls forward and commanded the robot to set the others down as well, since it was probably unwise to leave her alone with the abomination that continued to taunt them. The elf wasn't exactly sure how to respond. After all, Poppy had made a few decent points. Still, she needed to answer, and began to twist her brain around to find something passable.

"Rectify a paradox…. Hmmm," she muttered. "No. You're right. We can't do that."

"And so you admit your flawed logic. Again, I offer you the chance to join me."

"And again, we reject it," smiled Holly, having pieced something together. "We don't need to rectify that paradox."

"Absurd," scoffed Poppy.

"No, it's not. A paradox is a contradiction, a logical mess, like you said. But look at us- we're not logical people," she waved a hand back towards her team. "Really, we're not all that smart, if you think about it."

"Hey!" cried Twilight, but Alucard nudged her, dissuading further complaints.

"Gun-toting maniacs, freaks of nature, people who fought the system without a chance. No, nobody here is going to be able to figure that out. But, again, like you said- defiance is an unusual character trait for insects. Maybe we don't have much in the way of brains, but we've got plenty of defiance. And if you were surprised by that, I bet the Master of Games is too. No, not just surprised, afraid. I've seen it. I've seen it in his eyes when I wouldn't pull the trigger on Katniss. I've seen it every time we've won, because we don't win as allies, we win as friends. He brought us here to be enemies, and it turns out a lot of us really get along- and that defiance is what scares him the most. And it burns in the hearts and souls of every man, woman, child, robot- every whatever here. I don't know if the Master of Games is winning here or not, but he knows he's walking a thin line. We're fighters, that's what we do best. So we don't need to solve that paradox… when we can just fight it."

Poppy felt something inside of her despicable mortal body. It had a little organ that pushed her circulatory fluids around, and it was speeding its beats up. There was some sort of rushing sensation moving up through her diaphragm and into her chest, despite the fact that she was not moving at all. In her eons of cold isolation, in the spaces between universes and at the bottom of the sea, she had never felt this before. Mortals had a word for it, but which was the most appropriate? Excitement? Amazement? Anticipation? Perhaps it was all of them, but Poppy found herself no longer caring about the word attached to it. She was instead reveling in its physical delight. Infinite in intellect, her brain had never found something to be excited about. It was truly telling of her worrisome state that the first bit of information that could make her feel this way was something so absurd, so idiotic. She was a pathetic shadow of her former self now, trapped in a feeble mortal body, and being roused by a speech.

"Fight…. A paradox," she whispered. "What a… fascinating notion…"

"Holly, what was that?" asked an astounded Katniss.

Holly turned back, shrugged, and mouthed, "No idea."

Poppy slowly tried to bring herself back to reality, but was finding herself lost in the giddy thoughts this delightful fallacy was creating. "Ha," she giggled. "Ha-ha-ha!"

"I think you broke her," whispered Ruby.

"I'm not broken!" cried a babbling Poppy. "I'm just intrigued! Show, me, Holly Short! Show, me, Team Mockingjay! Show me that you can fight this paradox!"

Between her riotous spasms, she lifted her left hand and snapped her fingers, causing her team to appear behind her. They snapped to attention, but quickly became concerned for their leader's most uncharacteristic emotional state. Morrigan crouched to bring her head over the elf-thing's shoulder.

"Ahm, Poppy? Are ye feelin'…odd?"

"Oh, yes, Morrigan," cackled Poppy. "Wonderfully odd! No, amazingly odd! I love the way I feel right now! Ha-ha-ha!"

"As long as you're all right, boss," said a concerned-looking Sonic.

"I'll only be all right… if you can prove it to me, Holly," she grinned maniacally.

"We can," replied the elf, placing a hand on her holstered Neutrino. "I'm sure of it."

"Good, good. Night Terrors, att-"

Morrigan cleared her throat loudly to interrupt. Normally, one would expect Poppy to be filled with ire at such an inconvenience, but it seemed as though nothing could kill her mood. She turned back to the succubus with a smile.

"What is it?"

Morrigan pointed a thumb over her shoulder, tilting her head sideways. "Ye know… the thing."

"Oh, right!" gasped Poppy, turning back to Team Mockingjay. "I almost forgot. "

She snapped her fingers, and suddenly Alucard disappeared from Twilight's side.

Twilight nearly toppled over from surprise. "Wha-?"

"I just needed to send him to his appointment before we begin. That's not going to change that wonderful defiance you have burning in your hearts, right?"

"N-no," grunted Holly. "We've still got it, right?"

"Alucard is one of our strongest fighters," noted Adam.

"Who needs him?" interjected Ryuko, "When we've got me?"

"She has a great point there," agreed Kamina.

"Yeah, we've still got it," sighed Holly with a smile.

"Fantastic!" Poppy cried. "Night Terrors, attack!"