"I hate musicians!" Chisame cried out as she was sent flying back by the force of a large explosion shattering the ground right before her. It would have been the ground she had been standing on at the moment of said explosion if not for Lena, who had pulled her and Webby out of the way right in time.
The girl who had introduced herself as Shirabe kept on playing her violin, never opening her eyes. As she did, she sent even more shockwaves from the instrument, blasting at the two duck girls and the lolified Earthling, each impact growing closer to them despite Lena's frantic attempts to move them away with her shadows.
"Adeat!" Chisame called out, summoning the sceptre to her hand and returning fire at Shirabe. The electric discharges were, much to Chisame's surprise, simply blown out as Shirabe's high pitched music somehow deployed a barrier around her, changing into a vivacious crescendo that seemed to be mocking them. "Any ideas?" she asked the ducks.
"I could transport ourselves away," Lena suggested, sending more shadows against the barrier only to have them bash at it without breaking through. "She's strong! I'm not sure we can take her down."
Webby squinted. "Doesn't look like she can attack and put on a defense at the same time. Let's wait until she has to drop her guard."
"We aren't leaving Negi, not right after I found him," Chisame seethed. "Lena, try sending some shadows behind her. Perhaps, from another angle- OH, COME ON!" she yelled, all three ducking after another compass of harmonic playing produced a slashing effect that flew right over them, actually managing to cut some of the end of her ponytail.
Shirabe smiled. "I see I chanced into the runts of the litter..."
Three street guards arrived, doubling around the closest corner. The first local enforcers to make presence at the site, they only wore light armor and swung swords. "Halt!" the moustached man at the lead shouted. "You are under arrest in the name of the Senate!"
"This is a private concert," Shirabe said, all tranquility, and played the violin in their direction, bombarding them with soundwaves that easily pummeled them into unconsciousness in no time. Just as soon, she turned back at Negi's allies, absently back kicking one of Lena's dark tendrils as it tried to sneak behind her like Chisame had proposed. "Although I must say that you make for a disappointing audience."
"Okay, that does it!" Lena told Chisame and Webby. "I'm going to-!"
But just as her shadows began tightening around them to teleport them out, Shirabe flash stepped towards her, still holding the violin with a hand but now grabbing her by the throat with the other. "LENA!" Webby cried out, even as her friend was slammed down on the dirt with great force and even greater ease. Lena's eyes went blank for a moment, and then she collapsed into unconsciousness as Shirabe let go of her, taking a split moment to fix her hair back. Webby stared at her with eyes that Chisame had never before seen in her, full of anger. "Why, you...!"
"She is too much of a liability for her to be allowed further as part of your team," Shirabe said. She ducked under Chisame's next, close quarters scepter shot, and then gave Webby a leg sweep just as Webby lunged onto her, growling ferociously. Webby tumbled and fell on her face, then Shirabe spun like a dancer, kicking Chisame in the face and sending her to the ground as well.
Shirabe stood over them, readying the violin again. "I have been training in actual combat far longer than any of you. Just close your eyes. I promise this will not-"
And then she tensed, as she felt a large projectile flying towards her from another direction. Taking aim with the violin, she played a screeching dissonance, which made a gigantic boulder tossed at her explode into a thick cloud of dust right before it could hit her.
Shirabe coughed, blinded by the dust. Why was she blinked now when she'd been keeping her eyes closed the whole time will be left as a mental exercise for the reader. "Who are you?!" she demanded. "What manner of crude-"
Then something huge and muscular, much bigger than anyone described in the list of known allies of Springfield, leapt on her from that very same direction. Gigantic hands finished in pointy claws slashed at her, forcing Shirabe to shield herself with the violin itself. "I repeat, who-?!" she gasped, finally opening her beautiful eyes and taking a good look at a large, wide evil grin full of sharp fangs extremely close to her nose, chomping towards it.
Chisame swallowed hard, also getting a look at this newcomer from her own angle. "N-No! It can't be...!" she shuddered, recognizing the titanic frame covered on green scales, and only wearing old, worn jeans. "But, that means...!"
"You... You know that thing?" Webby asked, trying to pat Lena's cheeks to revive her.
"We... We met him in Kyoto..." Chisame paled, gaining a few shades of pale that concerned the ever carefree Vanderquack. She was staring in a fixed way at the reptilian behemoth, now pummeling on Shirabe with his fists, sporting no concern for her gender or age. "I, I never expected to see him again...!"
"UNHAND ME!" Shirabe yelled indignantly, playing the violin again, and a huge boom sent her attacker flying back, zooming across the street and crash landing on a tree. She straightened herself, seething and sporting slash marks all over her face. "How dare you, you beast...!"
"RUN AWAY!" Chisame warned her, surprising Webby. "DON'T ASK, JUST RUN!"
Shirabe closed her eyes once more, and turned her head towards them. "Seriously, Hasegawa?" she asked icily. "Is this brute ally of yours cause for me to fear you? Look at him; he isn't even moving anymore."
"I haven't... died yet..." Killer Croc gurgled groggily from the tree he'd been smashed into.
"HE'S NOT WITH US, IDIOT!" Chisame panicked. "I'M NOT TRYING TO TRICK YOU! JUST ESCAPE FOR YOUR LIFE!"
Shirabe chuckled, starting to play again, a soft, teasing melody as she walked back towards them. "No, I'm sorry. It won't work. I'm afraid the curtains must fall for you now. For you will see, I- Who is that now, singing off key?!" she complained. "That doesn't match the tune!"
Webby paid attention, and indeed, now she could hear a happy, low voice singing from somewhere close, but not following Shirabe's musical cue. It was a jaunty, triumphal fanfare that was growing by the moment, until she could make the words out.
"Here I come to save the day..."
Webby felt Chisame's hand gripping hers tightly. It had grown cold as ice suddenly, and her eyes were nailed up the street. Webby followed her gaze, and saw nothing but a man in a long purple overcoat, tapping on the ground with a cane as he sang mockingly, his wide brimmed hat obscuring his face.
"Thank goodness Mighty Mouse is on his way. So let the trumpet players play. For Mighty Mouse is here today!"
Shirabe frowned at this intruder. "Who are you supposed to be, some sort of vagrant? This is not-"
And then, like living lightning bolting out from behind the man, a living projectile of sorts flew towards her. Shirabe blinked, thinking she recognized Lord Fate's face in this new incoming attacker, but this consideration took her all of a middle second as then she was knocked out in a single brutal blow, her Artifact dropping off her limp hands.
The man skipped closer, clicking his heels together with merriment in his voice. Webby's feathers stood on point, as now she felt the same odd dread Chisame was experiencing. This man was... actually not that bad a singer, but...
"Here he comes, that Mighty Mouse, just like a bolt from the blue," the stranger sang as the albino boy with him snorted, shaking Shirabe a bit before just dropping her with disinterest. "With a heart that's true. Fighting evil, fighting crime. And always there in the nick of time!"
Then he flashed that smile, that humongous smile full of yellowed teeth like oh-so-many crooked piano keys, and Webby knew it. The creature from Mundus Vetus from all those stories you traded around pajama parties in Ariadne. No wonder Chisame was terrified. Even Mr. Mc Duck had, once, manifested severe discomfort when someone had told him on the topic.
There are some men whose infamy could be spread from one world to another. And this one was actually shorter and smaller than Webby had imagined him, and he didn't have horns or stunk of sulphure like Montmorency had said, but the grin, the demented, murderous grin that Tsukuyomi at her worst couldn't start to match, even surpassed Webby's guesses from all these years, by a wide margin.
"Ah..." was all she could say.
The thing winked at her. "Here he comes to save the day! And he will prove that crime will never pay! So let the trumpet players play. For Mighty Mouse is here today!"
He began to laugh.
Chisame grabbed Webby and Lena and began to run.
