“The Fracture of Team Starlight” (80.8) (Kalei)

It was a subconscious strike, sure, but I still put a lot of power into it. And Zoey tanked it like it was nothing. 

"I'll let you build up some steam and try again," Zoey said. "Because I have high hopes for you, and I want to see you live up to them!"

I blinked, and suddenly I was like six feet away from Zoey. Did she have a power like Aira's, too?

"I don't wanna show you my full move set, but I know some of you wanna know what you're up against, and I'm a fair opponent, so I'll tell you most of it," Zoey said. With me out of the way, Oka could charge, and she swung hard, a fist wrapped in burning vines like chains striking Zoey. Our enemy actually stumbled back for a second, but recovered quickly. She pushed her hands forward, and Oka started floating, punching and kicking her arms madly trying to get down. "One second, I'm talking, babes." She stretched, cracking her neck. "As you can tell, I'm very strong, got that devil strength going, you know? Having Blade as a part of me means a lot of attacks can be easily tanked. I can do the portal gate thing that devils do. Additionally, I can push ya around, with just my mind..." She pressed her fingertips to her temples.

Oka made another vine that she tried to use like a grappling hook to bring her back down to the ground. I rushed to grab it.

"Here's a devil special I picked up," Zoey said, pointing toward me and swirling her finger around. I was already moving, reading another strike. "Stop, let me do this!" Again, in a blink I moved backwards.

"OK, stop," Zoey said. "Seriously, don't move."

I wasn't going to listen until I noticed something familiar around me. A glowing band of sparking energy looped around me, in a dark shade of purple. Another in teal just below it, both lightly humming like an air conditioner. My gut told me to freeze, so I listened to her and told myself I wasn't just following Zoey's commands.

"Them there's some gateways," Zoey said, putting on a cowgirl type accent for no apparent reason. "You take one more step missy, and I drop you between two worlds. You might get totally messed up by that, either by some dimensional glitch thing where you can't process two realities at once, or it just chops you up. With your devil gunk inside you, you might come out of either OK enough, but it won't be pleasant, especially not when the powder starts to kick in. So stay right there until it's your turn. Don't worry, I won't let anyone get close and bump into you or something."

I couldn't be effectively stuck like this, maybe she was bluffing? It was like having two loops around me, couldn't I just jump out of this?

"I mean it, don't even think about it," Zoey said. "I add three more gates and we see how you like it."

In front of the stage, something screamed. I couldn't tell if it was Zates or Ana for a second, until one towered up over the other. Anastasia had turned into some kind of horrible monster, and monster-ified Zates was in her sights. I couldn't see very well from my position, but it looked like Zeta was cowering in place as Anastasia approached, with Marms and Lillia still just holding their arms out, waiting, desperately trying to figure out what the hell to do here.

"Don't you trust your friends to handle it?" Zoey asked. "I mean, I know you don't, but still. Just stay there for a minute. You're really good at standing and staring vacantly, so now you get to keep doing that!"

Unable to get her vine-grappling hook thing to work, Oka tried hitting Zoey again, another burning plant exploding right by Zoey's face. If it had an effect, Zoey didn't show it.

"Put me down so I can end this!" Oka snarled. "You're going to pay. I'll make you pay. I'll make you suffer."

"If you're going to get that pissed at me and that's all you have to show for it, I think I gotta call this one," Zoey said. Oka tried another vine strike, but Zoey grabbed the burning vine this time. The smug grin she'd been wearing since she took the stage turned into a scowl as she pulled down hard, slamming Oka into the ground, hard enough to make a crater in the stage.

When the dust cleared, Oka was left in a crater, unmoving.

"O-Oka...?" I said.

Zoey leaned over and patted Oka's face.

"Knocked out cold, and so easily too," Zoey said. "Oh! I should've said some pun about the fire thing she had going on, and now she's out cold, but...eh. I'll loop back to it, I'm sure." She rose, brushing herself off.

"OK, time out for you!" Zoey said. "Hey, everyone, check this out! Here's what happens when you get eliminated."

Zoey opened another devil gateway next to Oka, a sparking ring forming into a dark abyss. One of the gates around me started to flicker.

"Stop!" I yelled, but it didn't matter, Zoey casually kicked Oka into the gateway, waving.

"If you find your way back here, you get a rematch," Zoey said. "These devil gates are great, huh? Your devils are pretty strong, strong enough to make em, but they can't go as far as me, I've seen the data sheets at the labs. If you're wondering, I keep track of em all up here." She tapped her head again. "So don't think she's gone for good, or any of the rest of you I chuck outta here after I beat you." She sighed wistfully. "And here I was promising myself I wouldn't do too much boring exposition about devil powers. That's what I get working with idiots like you all."

Another horrible roar. Anastasia rose up and dropped clawed hands down right at Zeta, who yelped in fear.

"Oh! Here we go!" Zoey said. "Finally something good. Let's just sit back and watch this action, yeah?" She gave me finger guns as she said that, and I never wanted to kick someone's ass more than hers.