Aira didn't even have time to scream. One moment, she was staring in bewilderment at Rei; the next, she was airborne, a human projectile launched by the very person who had told her to stay behind him. Her world became a spinning blur of teal water and green sky. His plan was insane. It was suicidal. It was also, she realized with a strange clarity as she hurtled towards the climbing alien, their only shot.
She tucked and rolled in mid-air, a feat of agility she didn't know she possessed. The yokai's grace, it seemed, was still a part of her, even without the magical hair. She slammed into the crab-alien's torso, her momentum carrying them both over the edge of the roof. They tumbled through the air, a chaotic tangle of limbs and pincers, before hitting the "water" with a soundless splash.
The impact knocked the wind out of her, but the liquid of this dimension was strangely buoyant. She surfaced, sputtering, to see the crab-alien flailing a few feet away, disoriented by the unexpected attack.
"It worked!" Okarun yelled from nearby, treading the strange water. "That was the craziest thing I've ever seen!"
Rei didn't waste a second. As soon as Aira was clear, he was in motion. He leaped from the rooftop, his descent controlled and precise. He landed on the surface of the water, his feet finding purchase for a split second before he started to sink. In that moment, he brought the butts of his heavy, inert pistols down on the crab-alien's head with two sickening crunches.
CRACK. CRACK.
The alien shrieked, a high-pitched chittering sound, and swatted at him with a pincer. Rei pushed off its head, using the momentum to propel himself backward, sinking into the water and resurfacing a safe distance away.
"Momo, now!" he yelled, his voice sharp and commanding.
From the classroom window, Momo didn't hesitate. With the crab-alien's attention now fully on the chaos in the water, she was free to focus on the two floating Serpos. She thrust her hands forward, her psychic energy coalescing not into a blunt force, but into a fine, shimmering net. The net shot out and enveloped the Serpo that was maintaining the Awesome Zone.
"Dimensional field integrity failing," the captured alien stated, its voice glitching as Momo's power constricted around it. The heavy, oppressive atmosphere began to flicker. The teal water wavered, revealing glimpses of the school courtyard below.
The second Serpo turned to her. "Targeting primary threat." It raised its hands, and a powerful psychic blast, a shimmering wave of force, shot toward the classroom.
But before it could reach her, a new player entered the field. A massive, serpentine head, as large as a small car, erupted from the water between the Serpo and the school. It was covered in slick, green scales, with a long, undulating neck and eyes that glowed with a faint, otherworldly light. It let out a roar that was a bizarre mix of a whale's song and a lion's growl.
"Nessie!" Okarun screamed, his voice a mixture of pure terror and ecstatic, nerdy delight.
The creature, a cryptid pulled into this dimensional space, seemed just as confused as everyone else. It saw the incoming psychic blast and reacted on instinct, swatting the energy wave with its massive tail. The blast was deflected, harmlessly dissipating into the watery sky.
The battlefield had just become exponentially more chaotic.
The Awesome Zone finally collapsed. The watery world dissolved, and they all fell, landing with a series of painful thuds on the hard-paved ground of the school courtyard. The Serpos, the crab-alien, and a very confused-looking Nessie landed with them.
Instantly, Rei felt the connection to the Hollow snap back into place. A surge of power, cool and familiar, flooded his veins. Aira cried out as her hair, now free, burst from her back in an uncontrolled, vibrant torrent. Okarun was immediately enveloped in the ghostly blue flame of Turbo Granny's power.
"Power restored!" he yelled, zipping into the air.
The crab-alien, still dazed from Rei's pistol-whipping, was the first to recover. It staggered to its feet and charged, not at Rei, but at the biggest threat it could see: Nessie.
"A new specimen!" the free Serpo declared, its clinical curiosity overriding any sense of self-preservation. "Uncatalogued biological entity. Must be acquired." It began to float toward the brewing brawl between the crab-alien and the cryptid.
This was their chance. "Momo, the other one!" Rei yelled.
Momo, leaning out the window, was already on it. Her psychic net tightened, crushing the Serpo within it until the alien dissolved into a shower of static and light. One down.
Rei turned his attention to the remaining Serpo. He raised his pistols, the barrels now glowing with gathering crimson energy. "This ends now."
But as he prepared to fire, Aira stepped beside him. Her hair was writhing around her, a living, protective shield. The sadness in her aura was still there, but now it was fused with the primal, territorial instinct of a mother protecting her young—a legacy of the Acrobatic Silky.
"Let me," she said, her voice low and steady. "I owe them one."
Her hair shot forward, not as a clumsy, grasping attack, but as a series of perfectly aimed, hardened spears. The Serpo, its attention on the prize of Nessie, didn't react in time. The spears of hair pierced its body, pinning it to the ground.
Rei lowered his pistols, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. He had seen her as someone to be protected, a victim of fate. But in this moment, she was a warrior, her power wielded with a terrifying and beautiful precision.
The battle wasn't over. The crab-alien was locked in a furious struggle with Nessie, and Okarun was zipping around them, trying to find an opening. But the tide had turned. They were no longer powerless victims in the aliens' trap. They were a team. A chaotic, dysfunctional, and ridiculously overpowered team. And for the first time, standing beside Aira, Rei didn't feel quite so alone in the fight.