Hypnotic Oldies [Closed]

Geez, Juliette must be really excited about finding this notorious criminal. Maria raised a brow at her mission partner. A little to enthusiastic if you ask me. Once again she shrugged at Juliette's odd personality, which unfortunately for her, would end up being a shitty choice. Maria had always been someone to suspect things or what you might call, a people person but in her condition, worrying about the other girl's upbeat behavior was not on her bucket list.

Stumbling along, she couldn't help but ask. "So what's this lady's power again?" As soon as Maria asked the question, she stopped dead in her tracks.

Hypnosis.

"Juliette," She stuttered, half choking on the words. "You didn't happen to run into Evaline Ki, did you?" Internally, she was praying to what ever God was out there. Please, oh please. Don't make me fight Juliette. The more she thought about it, the more everything added up. The mysterious gun that the girl happened to find, the odd behavior. The fact that the person they were looking for had hypnosis made Maria want to throw up. Well, she already wanted to throw up anyway.

It wasn't that she was scared of Juliette and her pistol, but that Maria was in no state to fight. With every quick movement, her bleeding head started to throb and her cracked ribs couldn't take much more of this. Will I even be able to requip anything like this? Almost everything that Maria had in her requip dimension was used to injure or kill her opponents, and she couldn't hurt Juliette, could she?

Turning around, she looked into the girl's eyes, noticing a small hint of fogginess. "Hey, don't do this." She huffed, half out of pain, the other half fear of what might happen. I'm already a dead girl. But I can't die like this, I won't! She would try her hardest, but deep down Maria knew if she kept going any longer, Maria's lungs would most likely fail from being impaled by a rib or she'd just bleed to death. On top of that, she had to fight Juliette?

All her life, Maria had always been tough, maybe even a bit insane, never backing down when faced with death. But in this instant, the resilient girl felt nothing other than fear.

This was it. Maria was positive that she was going to die. The injured girl was able to dodge (more like stumble) out of the way of the first shot, but wasn't so lucky against the second. Stumbling backwards, she couldn't hold it in anymore and gave a short scream of pain. Clenching her shoulder, she started to panic. Being a close distance to Juliette, the bullet went in deep, just barely missing her collar bone, and stopped when it hit muscle.

Although Maria had been in plenty of fights, she'd never actually been shot before and the pain was excruciating.

Falling down to her knees, Maria coughed and wiped the blood off her mouth. She couldn't hurt Juliette, she'd be expelled! Juliette was well know and if anything were to happen to her, there would be angry mobs of students with pitchforks outside her dorm. Not only that, but could she fight her? Maria's strength was slowly ebbing away and the girl had no idea how long she could go on. How does one stop hypnosis anyway? Oh right, she'd have to reach Evaline. Maybe if I just stall her...

With a flash of light, a shotgun appeared in her shaky hands. Juliette's power may have been regeneration, but Maria could at least slow the girl down. And to her discomfort, is was the only thing she could really do. "Not yet! You'll have to do better than that to kill me!" Maria smiled, hoping her confident tone showed on the outside. She could do this, she would do this. Yeah, everything hurt like hell, but a sudden small burst of adrenaline lifted her dying spirits. You signed up for this mission, suck it up. Don't show weakness. Not now, not ever! She reassured herself, although deep down she knew this was most likely the end.

Aiming the gun as best as she could, the broken and bruised girl fired.

It worked! Well, to some extent. At least she slowed Juliette, but her victory didn't last long. Within an instant, the girl's leg slammed into Maria's gut. Letting out a chocking noise, the panic she had before returned. I won't die, I won't die, I won't. Her breathing quickened as she watched Juliette pull out the knife. As if time was slowed down, she had only a split second to requip.

With a flash of light, she requiped a metal baseball bat. It wasn't ideal, but she didn't have much time and it was honestly a good weapon for close combat. Taking a step back from Juliette's reach, Maria held the bat as if she was playing baseball. I'm sorry! Swinging as hard as she could, Maria smashed the bat into the Juliette's side, just bellow the rib cage.

With everything happening so fast and the pain she was already in, Maria didn't notice Juliette stab the knife into her shoulder until it twisted. Giving a fry scream, she struggled but finally threw Juliette off. Stumbling backwards, she looked at the knife in her shoulder. Oh my God. Gripping the handle, she quickly pulled the knife out, and threw it across the floor. Her shoulder gushed blood.

I need to do something, and fast. Not really thinking, she requiped a semi-automatic machine gun. Holding it loosely at her side, she turned the safety off. Maria fired every round possible at the girl, not caring where she hit Juliette. When she pressed the trigger and the machine gun was empty, it disappeared and a rifle appeared in her hands. Maria was loosing the strength to partake in up close battle so guns would have to do for now. Once again, she fired. Some bullets hit the head, some the legs, some the stomach. Juliette could heal anywhere, so it didn't really matter. Why am I even trying? The weapon disappeared and Maria's ears rung.

She needed to finish this. Watching Juliette go around a corner, Maria decided this was her chance. The gun disappeared, and she thought fast. I can do this. Maria couldn't go on very much longer and this was getting tiresome. Breathing more heavily, than usual to make herself sound tired, she gave a sigh. With a flash of light, a spear gun rested in her hands. "I-I can't go on." She said in a defeated tone.

This would work, she was sure of it.

"You better." She gave a sarcastic laugh. Walking slowly, she prepared herself. 3...2...1... Darting around the corner, she made a wide turn, making sure she wasn't in Juliette's range. Without thinking twice, she shot the harpoon at Juliette's stomach. It was perfect! Make Juliette think that Maria was tired and defeated then... BAM! If she could gather her thoughts, she'd be pretty proud of her foolproof plan.

No! She wanted to scream, but nothing came out. Of course her plan had failed, what was she thinking? Instead of stabbing Juliette with the harpoon and pulling the girl towards her to give a final blow, Juliette was ready.

Before Maria had time to think, a metal pole came crashing down and slammed into her shoulder. Unlike the time before, she screamed pure pain. Trying to feel her arm without causing more pain, she could feel the split bone. It was an almost perfect break and if it wasn't her that was injured, she would've congratulated Juliette.

Blood trickled down her broken arm as well as her face. She could barely breathe with the broken ribs and her head hurt like fuck. I've got one more shot. Maria thought to herself. She was most likely already dead, being she wouldn't get to a hospital in time, but if she was gonna go down, it'd be with a fight. Squinting through the blood in her eyes, Maria saw Juliette fall to her knees. Maybe she was getting tired to? It was most likely a far off guess, but it was the only thing Maria could think of.

Clothes ripped and dirty with blood everywhere, Maria couldn't believe she'd fought this long. Staggering to the left, blood splattered on the ground around her, and she requiped a metal baseball bat again. Lifting it as high as her worn down arms would let her, she brought it down on Juliette's head. The swing was extremely clumsy, and it was obvious that she wasn't able to bring it down hard enough to kill a regular person, though hoped it was hard enough to smack some sense into the hypnotized girl. Besides, she could heal herself, right?

After hitting the girl, her arms fell to her side and the bat disappeared. She couldn't do it anymore. Maria had pushed herself to her limit and every drop of strength was gone. Falling to her knees and then the ground, she laid there in front of Juliette. For the first time in a long time, tears found their way down her face. At first, she was confident that she wouldn't die, but now, she wasn't so sure. I'm going to die. I'm... really going to die. That was all there was to it, she had been defeated. All that work of fighting Juliette, it was for nothing! Her senses were reeling and she closed her eyes, feeling the urge to shut them. Maria felt as if her body had no substance, nor did she feel anymore pain.

There was only... darkness.