towerofanimus | Is This Home?

Terezi's clone frowned at the deflection and suddenly vanished in a flashstep, seeking to use the slick floor to her advantage by attempting to slide her full weight into the other troll to knock her over. Her reflexes are inhuman in terms of speed, but there's a strange delay in the way the clone moves, seeking to disable rather than murder. The culling fork heads for her legs.

Vriska's clone catches the sword between two of her trident's prongs, causing the mirror image to grin even wider before it attempts to wrench the weapon out of the other troll's hands with a graceful spin. The culling fork is yanked backward and flung, seeking to send Vriska sky-born if she didn't release her weapon.

Feferi allows herself to be flung by Kanaya's chainsaw, disappearing into the black abyss that dominates the room, without relinquishing her weapon. Not long after, she reappears, sliding across the floor in an attempt to sweep the mutant's legs right out from under her. If she's not careful, she'll end up with a prong straight through her leg.

Terezi slid backward, just barely keeping her balance and dodging the fork. She hates flashstepping, it is such a cheap move. She swings her sword in a short, quick arc, aiming right for the clone's neck and clearly not being as polite about this as the faux-Feferi is. It's intended as a killing blow.

Vriska was pulled along, but wings kept her from going anywhere that she didn't want to go. Once she was in the air and flipping, she jerked back to dislodge her sword and flutter away some distance. It was maybe a second or two before she sped forward again, slicing horizontally, wasting no time in trying to attack again.

Kanaya almost loses her footing in the blood still on the floor when she shoves Feferi -- actually a veiled blessing, as it takes her mostly out of the path of Feferi's sweep. So she ends up with her leg sliced open rather than pierced the whole way through when she falls to the ground. Figures she'd be the first one to bleed.

But falling doesn't stop her, and she flings a hand out to try and grab any of Feferi's trailing limbs or articles of clothing, the other dragging the chainsaw along so she can hopefully remove anything she catches from the clone's person.

Terezi's blow connects and successfully severs the head -- unfortunately, her's was indeed a clone, and the body only stumbles briefly before it shifts to a clump of thorned vines, coalesced from a nightmarish aura of energy, that attempt to wrestle the other tealblood to the ground.

The Feferi jousting with Vriska would attempt to duck her blow to get her back on the ground before spinning around with the fork to try and damage her wings before she could get back into the air. The giggling begins to echo from her clone again, though the troll's mouth doesn't move.

Unlike the other two clones, when Kanaya's blow connects, there is a splash of teal that covers the ground and her saw when the weapon nicks her shoulder and she slips and slides out of reach. The successful blow causes this clone to disappear back into the blackness, rushing toward the trail of cerulean that led away from the battle.

""

Terezi was not expecting that, and when one of the vines wraps around her ankle and pulls, she slips to the ground, hitting her tailbone painfully against the concrete. She tries to hack away at the vines as they wind their way around her legs.

When she smells a sudden splash of teal and hears Feferi retreating, she lets out a frustrated noise. She's too preoccupied with her own clone to follow. "Someone get her!"

Vriska wasn't quite agile enough, and didn't have enough control of her wings to get them out of the danger of attack. The fork tore through, and she had to chose whether to skitter backwards to avoid further damage or contiue forward, let it rip clean through and use her position as a tactical advantage. Having already had her wings cut once, she knew they would heal in time.

She went for her second choice, wincing as she felt the weapon slide through. Once she was behind her, she whirled around and stabbed forward with her sword, aimed to cut through body. If she could get rid of the clone she could go after the other and put an end to this.

Kanaya didn't even have to think twice about giving chase to the Feferi that fled. It didn't occur to her to see if Terezi and Vriska were okay -- if Terezi was shouting for someone to follow Feferi, then they would be fine.

She growled almost ferally as her adversary made a break for it, scrambling to her feet and hefting her weapon in both hands. She revved it as she took off, dashing after the tealblood with the roar of the saw. The occasional slip or slide through the blue trail on the ground didn't stop her, and the shooting pain in her leg was practically null at that point, overridden by determination and -- more importantly -- fury. The blood on the chain that flashed by with each rotation just egged her on more. She would not let Feferi get away with this twice.

Vriska's clone fell apart uselessly, rebounding in a similar fashion as Terezi's had, attempting to pin her to the floor with thorned vines. As Terezi struggled, both vines attempted to tighten, seeking to bore into their skin.

The voices that spoke to Feferi passed their whispers to both trolls, accented with nightmarish visions of their own fears and doubts in an attempt to overwhelm them.

Kill the boy. Kill the mutant, before they kill you.

Feferi continued to slip and dodge her way away from Kanaya with all the speed she could manage (which was a considerable amount). If Kanaya happened to be paying attention, she would notice the telltale swear of pain from a figure in the corner of the room.

The tealblood had lied. Karkat was alive.

Terezi cries out as the thorns dig into her flesh. Unfortunately, her first instinct is to struggle, which only makes the vines rip into her further. Despite all the horrible visions she's seen, the voices are worse, and she lets out a cry of pain and frustration as she continues to hack at the vines.

Vriska snarls, trying to cut the vines away from her feet with her sword. Her grip loosens a little when the visions and voices start, but she tries to grit her teeth and bear it and start fighting the vines again with a new vigor. The sooner she gets them off and the sooner Feferi is dealt with, the sooner she can get the hell out of this place.

The noise doesn't escape Kanaya's notice, but she chalks it up to being one of Feferi's tricks until she realizes exactly whose voice it is. Maybe it's a learned habit from dealing with him so long, but after a few moments, her mind registers the familiar sound, enough to bring her verbal skills back up to a high enough level that she can actually talk through her rage.

"Karkat," she calls, making sure he can hear her over the sound of her chainsaw. "Please hold on, I'll be there as fast as I can!" She just needs to take care of Feferi first. Karkat needs tending to, but Kanaya can't do that safely with the grimdark troll still on the loose.

She cringes as the pain in her leg begins to seep into her awareness. Well, that certainly isn't good. Kanaya casts a hurried glance around the dark room, saw at the ready, in an attempt to pinpoint Feferi's location -- and, more importantly, to make sure she's not anywhere near where Karkat's voice had come from.

The vines didn't put up much of a fight once they were cut, though they twitched and writhed angrily, attempting to regrow themselves before Vriska and Terezi would have a chance to get away. It was a process, but one that wouldn't take long to complete if they didn't catch up with their third party member.

Kanaya wouldn't have to wait long. In the direction where Karkat's voice had come from, out came his body, tossed like a ragdoll by the very same vines that currently held down Vriska and Terezi. The difference being that it appeared that Karkat had been bound by them for much longer, the scores cutting deep and ugly rivets in his skin, dousing all of the ugly aberrations in cerulean blood. He flinched, but it appeared that he was so devoid of energy that he could barely even struggle against them.

Feferi dropped down over him, pointing the culling fork straight in Kanaya's face with the same manic grin.

""

Terezi manages to escape from the vines, just barely, but they've left deep lacerations in her skin, tearing easily though the fabric of her jeans. She struggles to her feet and finds that while the thorns have done a number on her flesh, she can still walk. Each step is agony, though, and she's not going to be much help to Kanaya.

So she turns to Vriska. She is so, so tempted to just leave the cerulean troll there, but Terezi knows she needs back up to stop Feferi. And anyway, helping Vriska will piss her off, and that is always a plus. So she drops to her knees beside the other troll, wincing as her legs scream at her, and begins to hack away at the vines.

"Back off!"

Rage surges in Vriska's veins at the help, and she swats at Terezi's face with her free hand, while the other cuts away the final vines holding her down. The moment she's free, she tries to take to the air, momentarily forgetting that her wing no longer works to help her fly. It did at least help her leap out of range. Her legs throb, fabric torn away to reveal trails of cerulean trickling down. But that can wait until later.

She glances at Terezi for a moment before turning and running after Kanaya. She knows Terezi will follow, she doesn't need to say anything. Not that she thinks she needs help, but maybe somewhere in the back of her mind she thought it'd be good to have back up.

Actually seeing Karkat on the edge of death is enough to put down any rational thought remaining in Kanaya's mind. She ducks beneath the level of the trident and lunges for Feferi, letting her anger lead her forwards, regardless of the very real danger of being turned into a Kanaya-kebab with that fork. The chainsaw is swung out and up towards the tealblood with no mercy, the attack punctuated by a wordless and guttural growl.

Karkat watched with horrified eyes as Feferi swung the fork with all her might to parry Kanaya's chainsaw, attempting to knock it straight out of her hands. Regardless of whether or not she managed it, everyone in the room would be rewarded with a yowl of pain as the veins sought to drag their pray away from Kanaya and the other two girls, back into the maw of darkness that he had been swallowed up in prior.

Feferi darted forward in an attempt to follow through with her disarm, trying to claim the chainsaw as a weapon for herself.

Terezi scowls at Vriska, but follows, doing her best to keep up on her trashed legs. Karkat's cry rips into her, made all the worse by the fact that she knows she won't be fast enough to help him.

"If you can't keep up, Pyrope, then quit trying!"

Vriska's trying to ignore the sounds of pain and focus on sound of battle. Her legs are killing her but adrenaline drives her to move on towards Kanaya and Feferi. As soon as they're in view, she throws herself forward to attack the teal blood.

Such a cumbersome weapon is hard enough for a troll of Kanaya's stature to wield gracefully, to say the least of when someone is trying their hardest to knock it away from you. So she's forced to let go of it, but as soon as her hands are empty, she's making a vicious grab for the culling fork instead -- Feferi can only hold so many things at once, especially with someone else jumping at her.

With both Kanaya and Vriska flying at her, Feferi hardly has time to scoop up the chainsaw once she's disarmed the former. Now its a battle to hold onto her own weapon as well as keep her balance, jovial grin suddenly turning to a vicious snarl.

Despite her strength, she can't fight off a god tier and a raging mutant. That doesn't stop her from trying, though. She swings her arms with as much might as she can manage to try and stab one of the other aggressors in the thigh.

Terezi knows she isn't going to be much use in this fight: She's far too slow. Luckily, Karkat's scent is in the opposite direction, and it doesn't take long for her to limp her way over to him.

She drops to her knees beside the mass of vines holding him captive and does her best to ignore the thick scent of cerulean in the air. He's lost a lot of blood, clearly, and she has no idea how hurt he is. "Hold still," she orders, though she's not sure how still he can realistically be. She begins to hack away at the vines anyway.

There's a sharp cry of pain from her as Vriska tries to dodge out of the way, but isn't quite quick enough to avoid the cut along her thigh. She's slides backwards, stabbing her sword into the ground to stop herself. It's hard to stand, so she kneels for a second, gasping for breath and trying to blink away the white spots of pain blinding her vision. She tries not to stay down for long, and jumps back into the fray to help again.

Kanaya doesn't escape the flailing unscathed either, ending up with gashes along her arms and a sizable one over her stomach for her troubles. She's so angry at this point, though, that she just hisses when she stumbles back from the assault.

When she launches forwards again, it's with her fingers hooked to most effectively brandish the sharp nails her species is gifted with, and she's going for any part of Feferi that she can get to, including her face.

For good measure, she kicks a foot out too, to try and grapple the tealblood to the floor.

It turns out that Karkat can be very still thanks to all the blood he's lost. There's a small groan of pain that comes from him when she tugs at the vines to cut them, blood steadily trickling out as the thorns fall away from his skin. The cerulean laid mostly limp on the ground, the only sign that he was still breathing being the steady rise and fall of his chest.

Feferi shrieked in rage as Kanaya's nails cut into her, both Vriska's and her weight unbalancing her. She kicks and fails some more, trying to push both females off with the trident. The vines that had been cut from Karkat begin to regreat, prepared to swing around to try and pull them off if given the time.

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