#nanos

Taking advantage of his moment's astonishment, she quickly gave her orders, "Skully, I need you on guard. Aoi, make sure no souls actually escape the building. Risk, you're up!"

Risk had a sonic attack that could harm foes across a wide area. Ideally, she'd rather not have him use it in close quarters like this, but with Aoi on wrangling-duty, that didn't leave them with many options.

However, the Boogieman was not so hesitant with the Soulos and their explosive power. Gritting his teeth, he moved back behind them, "What are you waiting for? An invitation?! C-clear the way even if you have to blast them to bits!"

One of the three fusion monsters ambled forward, calling a Soulo Shell into its hand. The living bomb laughed in-sync with its creator and was hurled at Silya and her team. Cutting down the first Shell was easy—all it usually took was one hit, so long as they were destroyed before they could detonate—but three more soon followed. She sliced through the second and third, then sensed a massive presence overhead and scooped up the fourth. She threw it upward and tossed herself out of the way just in time when the Shell erupted and the large jackal it struck in her place fell right where she'd been standing. It howled in anger, now missing a granite leg and no less deterred.

In the distant background, Silya could hear an alarm blaring from somewhere. Now that she'd caught her culprits, she hoped someone would find them before the stone guardians tore them apart first. She risked another glance down to the level below to check on Jack, who was holding his ground against Fusion Grim better than she would've thought. The two scythes clashed hard enough to send sparks flying and he was so consumed with the fight that he hadn't seemed to notice the rockfall.

The Soulos reorganized themselves. One continued to lob its explosive creations at the team to keep Silya busy while the other two spread out to either attack her from the side or deal with the additional threats. One of the latter didn't last long. As the Soulo farthest to her right closed in on the damaged jackal, expecting an easy victory, the jackal suddenly threw itself forward. It pinned the fusion monster to the ground with the whole of its weight and immediately targeted the throat.

Getting another creeping feeling from behind, Silya shouted, "Risk!"

A red blur dove close to her head as the Him nano centered himself between their enemies. He released a bellowing laugh that seemed to shake almost the entire platform they were standing on. The powerful sonic waves pushed their opponents back, but wasn't enough to do serious damage. It mostly bought Silya a split second to charge ahead, cutting around the monsters in front of her to directly target Boogie.

Caught covering his ears, the Underworlder released a surprised squeak. This particular blade was useful against the undead and similar forces, but dull by design. In the nick of time, Boogie manage to catch the end of it with a swift clasp of his claws that appeared to bewilder the both of them. Astonishment turned to a dark, prideful smirk as he then tried to lurch the weapon out of her grasp.

His arms bulged to an unnatural degree as he again shapeshifted, pouring more strength into his grip. Silya gritted her teeth as she fought to keep her sword. She risked losing her balance entirely when Aoi snuck up on the Boogieman from behind and cast a small fireball. It ignited his clothes, startling him enough that he let go with one hand. The young woman drove her foot into his knee with a fierce kick to break away. She nodded to Aoi to let him know she could handle the fight from there and that he should return to the task she'd given him.

From the looks of it, he'd already wrangled most of the souls into circles of flames that hovered above their heads. It was an eerie sight—and a part of her worried that she was only risking tempting him, like telling a child to prepare a table of sweets—but he'd done a good job. Skully and Risk effortlessly weaved themselves around the stone guardians, who soon turned their attention to the much easier, closer targets that were the two remaining Soulos.

One of the monsters managed to successfully plant a Shell inside the mouth of the jackal that attacked it. The living bomb went off before the guardian could think to break it, its jaw going slack while more flecks of rock rained down to the levels below. Jack's annoyed cry rose to meet them, "Watch it up there!"

The Boogieman put himself out, not paying attention to Silya looming over him until the last minute. Once he'd dealt with the fire, he looked up from the ground to find her blade aimed for her throat and gulped. His gaze flickered back and forth between her and the stone guardians, as if debating which threat what the worst. "Hey, come on! Let's try to be rational," he chuckled nervously, "We'll all be Fido's chew toys if we don't scramble! C-can't we just postpone the swordplay for now?"

Silya narrowed her eyes at him. She was getting really sick of every demon-like entity on the planet treating her life like a game. Seeing him flounder between a bullying, false bravado and pure cowardice only irritated her more. "I've already died more than once. My team can bring me back," she answered darkly, "Can you say the same?"

Squish!

The loud, gooey splatter jolted her out of her growing anger. Silya's mind went to the worst possible outcome and she spun around, "Jack?!"

Jack was alright: Although he had a few acidic burns, it wasn't his head she needed to worry about. There was large pool of fusion matter where Grim's doppelganger once stood, his body having rapidly disintegrated following his defeat. The expression of vengeful satisfaction on the immortal's face rattled her a bit.

Boogie took advantage of the distraction. Pushing himself off of the ground, he shoved her aside as he returned to his usual form and attempted to run between the Soulos and stone guardians. He'd barely planted a foot on the stairs leading to the levels above when a quartet of unfamiliar voices blocked his path. Support had arrived.

Of course, it was no picnic for anyone to try to explain their presence to the Underworld authorities. However, between Jack's snappy wit, Silya's verification as a veteran fusion fighter, and the clear evidence of fusion matter smeared across the walls, they were able to prove their innocence well-enough. All focus turned to capturing the Boogieman and repairing the damages caused during the fight, with Silya using Dexter's reputation to hide behind for the time-being. All that was left was to wait as the authorities made a few calls before they could be released.

Glad that the worst of things was finally over, standing back outside of the judicial building, Silya pulled her arms back in a long stretch. The Boogieman had no power or influence to pull the stunt that he did. The people he'd paid off to help him and the fusions to cover up the stolen souls of fusion fighters would be caught eventually. With this, hopefully no one else would end up an unsuspecting victim of a broken soul contract.

"Finally, I can actually enjoy my retirement," she sighed to her nanos after putting away her weapons, "I just can't wait to go home and scrub all of this makeup off."

A loud snort erupted behind her. Silya glanced around to find Jack with his back to her, stifling a laugh.

"...The makeup comes off. Right, Jack?"

The immortal darted away faster than Silya could react. Right when she attempted to give chase, a green flash of fiery light behind her made her made her jump. A bony hand emerged from it and gripped her sternly by the shoulder. 

"I s'pose we know who t' blame for teachin' ya how t' trick death, don't we?"

...

"This is the second time he's pranked you like this. At this point, it's your own fault for thinking he wouldn't play the long game."

Back in what should've been the comforts of their new home, Silya sat neck-deep in a bathtub filled with bubbles and floating splatters of dark face paint. She'd already been soaking for a while and barely half of it was off her face: The other, clear cheek was practically rubbed raw from how fiercely she and her nanos had been trying to scrub it off.

Her Dee Dee and Juniper Lee nanos took turns sudsing her face and wiping it down. At first, they found the whole mess funny: Now, after going at it for over an hour, they began to attack the makeup with the same fierceness they might have used against fusion monsters on the battlefield. Silya could hear barely hidden snickers of laughter from the cracked doorway as other members of her team occasionally checked in. Meanwhile, Skully, Aoi, and Risk kept themselves an appropriate distance away as they recapped the recent events.

Grim had given her an earful about tricking him and going off on her own. She'd argued back that he hadn't given her much of a chance to state her case before sinking his scythe into her. Maybe she should've waited for the 'proper procedures' and for someone with more experience in the Underworld's affairs to solve this whole mess; however, if she had, she likely would've been swiped away with the rest of the souls his fusion had tried to creep off with.

Either way, there was so much that could've gone wrong. From what Dexter explained to her after she'd made her report, officials would be combing over every record of those who left the Fusion Fighters to make sure that everyone was accounted for—alive. Silya had personally been making calls to some other retirees she knew of to make sure that they were alright. 

"It doesn't feel like it's been that long since we took out Fusion Demongo last time," Risk mused aloud, "and yet he's already back to scheming. You at least have to admire his work ethic..."

Aoi crossed his arms, holding his head high, "While he may be an inferior copy, he is still a copy of the great Demongo. It's little wonder Fuse favors him."

"It's likely tanks t' his demonic side dat he's able t' spawn back int' de world faster den more other fusions," Skully offered, "His personal memories might be more intact, like ours."

Silya lowered herself deeper into the pile of bubbles as she silently thought things over. After the way their side had stolen back the souls that Fusion Demongo took and returned Earth's missing heroes to the world, she also wouldn't have figured that he'd jump to a similar plan so soon. Then again, the Fusion Fighters had to sabotage constant efforts to build up Fusion Demongo's might in the past. The ability to steal the strength of others and force them to join an eternal army was overpowered to say the least. She could see why Fuse wouldn't want to give up on that power, even though Earth's forces had already bested it once.

Fuse didn't typically rope members of other species into his schemes, especially the Earthlings he was currently targeting—not unless he and his fusions were simply manipulating others into doing what they wanted. This plan with the Boogieman though was a bit different than usual. Moreover, the quiet cunning with which it was enacted was scary. When Silya had encountered Fusion Demongo, he'd come off as just as boastful and arrogant as the original. That played a large role in how they were able to beat him.

If he did build up an army again, if he did get stronger and tempered that pride...

"Maybe the next fight won't be so easy."

Hearing this, her nanos paused. Realization slowly dawning, Aoi began to beam with excitement.

The war was everywhere. No one could escape it completely, but Silya had at least thought that her days fighting on the frontlines were over. She thought she was fine going back to being a normal civilian, because it wasn't as if there had ever been anything special about her in the first place. She wasn't a genius like Dexter, or a spy like members of the KND, or a superhero like the Powerpuff Girls. She was just someone who got caught up in a freak accident and felt like she had to finish the battle she'd joined back in that ruined future.

Clearly, her fight wasn't over. She'd tried to walk away and, while she may have been far from the only target, Fusion Grim and Demongo had aimed at her personally. The role of 'civilian' was not going to protect her or her team, and she was not about to take a hit like this lying down. She'd have to pick up her shattergun and take on the role of fusion fighter once more.

....Besides, it wouldn't hurt to keep her soul tied to the Resurrect 'Ems. Just in case.

END OF TRANSMISSION