Mock Fight: Sans vs Athena Myalo

[Sans]

"say, what did the bottle say to the bartender? i'll beer right back!"

Sans couldn't help but chuckle as the bartender standing right across from the counter blushed red. The skeleton was sitting on a two foot tall black stool, holding a ketchup bottle in one hand. The counter in front of him was littered with half-empty bottles and uneaten cheeseburgers as well as the grubby hands of the patrons who feasted on them. The counter also had a cash register to Sans' left, which the bartender always kept an eye on and swatted away any hands that tried to risk it. The bar was fairly crowded, with a bunch of tables on the left and right walls that were filled to the brim with drunks and people looking for a meal. There was also a slot machine for gambling, and a pool table right in the middle. Each of these hot-spots had about four or five others playing them, which more often than not caused an argument whenever someone lost. If that wasn't enough, the bar reeked of sweat and the bitter aroma of alcohol. To most people, this would be a place for deadbeats or people with nothing else to do. But to Sans, this was like home, especially the ketchup, which gave Grillby's a run for its money.

The skeleton reopened the bottle of ketchup in his right hand, setting the plastic cap onto the counter. He kept a close eye on it just in case the meaty paws of the customers slid it off the table as he raised the bottle to his mouth, glugging down the blood-like gel until it was empty. He placed the empty bottle back onto the counter, lightly tossing a few gold pieces towards the bartender before hopping off of the stool, heading towards the exit.

As he walked, however, he accidentally brushed his left shoulder against a cloaked woman, though she didn't seem to pay him much mind. The white-turtlenecked skeleton stopped in his tracks, observing the woman as she trudged towards the counter of the bar, sitting down in the stool he was just on. She had a hood up above her head, preventing Sans from getting a good look at her, and she had a mysterious aura around her that he couldn't quite understand. The woman had her head down, as if she didn't want anyone bothering her. Sans looked at her, pity in his eyes before strolling back towards the counter.

He lifted himself onto a stool to the right of the woman, noticing she wasn't even bothering to look at anyone, not even the bartender. He remained silent for a while; his bony fingers tapping the hard wood of the counter-top like a xylophone. Eventually, Sans beamed as an idea struck his mind. He snickered to himself as he removed a whoopee cushion from his blue jacket, stealthily moving it behind the woman's back. After being sure that the woman hadn't noticed what he had done, he squeezed.

Sans let out a burst of laughter as the woman nearly jumped out of her seat, swiping his cushion back into his coat. The woman turned her face towards him, allowing Sans to notice that her eyes were concealed behind a blindfold. She also had a necklace around her neck that looked like a bronze gear, and very pale skin. The comedian, however, hardly bothered memorizing what she looked like, as he was still laughing.

After about a minute's time, Sans stopped hooting and hollering, moving his left hand up to his eyes to wipe away some tears. He saw that the blindfolded woman was still looking at him, apparently wanting an explanation. He decided to give her one.

"hehehehe. whopee cushion behind the back jokes. you can't get much better than those, hehehe." The joker said, staring at the woman with an almost unnerving smile, "anyways, uh... i'm sans. sans the skeleton. saw you walking in here. didn't look like you were enjoying yourself. still don't. i think i'll fix that."

Intro Post complete! Whether or not there will be another one will be decided.

[Athena Myaló]

Athena's Intro:

The buzz and murmur of voices rose and fell in gentle waves of sound, accompanied by the various discordant noises of clinking glass and banging pots that were emitted continually from behind the bar. The Soul of Mind wandered into the restaurant, only partially consciously, drawn almost by the ceaseless noise alone. Perhaps it would drown out the echoing voices of the memories in the back of her head.

Athena sat down at the nearest empty stool listlessly. She could sense that the bartender was repeatedly glancing at her expectantly, but she ignored it. In fact, she chose to ignore just about everything going on around her, focusing instead on the world inside of herself. It was dim, and the shadowy blackness at the corners crept up the walls and through the cracks a bit more energetically than usual. She inhaled deeply through her nose, resisting the reflex to choke at the pungent smell of alcohol in the room, and breathed out again, pushing more light in and forcing the insanity to retreat.

She hunched over on the stool and rested her chin on her hands. Why was it so difficult sometimes? She was the literal, physical embodiment of thought and consciousness, and yet on occasion she could hardly manage her own mind, let alone everyone else's. It seemed, in fact, that the more powerful she became, the harder it was to keep control, especially on the days where she was continually reminded of her worst hours. At times like this, the couldn't even allow herself to think the names of her old teammates, or the past would surge forth and leave her distraught. But at least she had learned. It might take all the focus she could spare, but she could lock herself in a secure mind-space and keep herself sane. If she was very careful, she might even be a-

BVRRRRRRRT

Athena started, nearly falling over entirely as the cumbersome weight of the God-Sword on her back tilted her off-balance. She fortunately managed to grab the counter with one hand and righted herself back on the stool again as breathless, grating laughter filled her ears. She whirled around to face a very peculiar creature who seemed to be enjoying himself far too much.

She sensed immediately that he had no skin, organs, or flesh at all - a sentient undead monster of some sort, then, dressed in a jacket and slippers. He also seemed to have some odd sort of air-filled pouch under the back of his hoodie. She would have wondered what it was, but she was still far too preoccupied trying to slow the pounding of her heart and her shaking hands. She gripped the edge of the stool tightly as she tried to retain some semblance of calm, and regarded the skeleton with what would have been a glare, if her eyes hadn't been ruined by her own hand all those months ago, when -

The God-Soul's mouth twisted to the side in apprehension as she forcibly halted her train of thought yet again. Fortunately for her (or so it seemed at first, anyway), the most recent bane of her existence began to speak, giving her something else to concentrate on. The creature introduced himself as Sans, in a very odd, kind of goofy-sounding voice, and proclaimed his intention to improve her mood. Marvelous.

"I don't..." Athena's voice came out rather tremulously, and she stopped, taking a moment to swallow and force her throat to function properly.

"I doubt there's anything you could do that wouldn't make things much, much worse for both of us," she replied in a frigid tone. She didn't have much faith in the statement's ability to convince Sans to leave her alone, but perhaps he was more reasonable than he seemed.

[Sans]

"I doubt there's anything you could do that wouldn't make things much, much worse for both of us."

Sans felt a cold chill run down his spine as the woman uttered those words. Something about the words chosen were very familiar to him, but he couldn't quite remember whom it most matched. It couldn't have been Papyrus, and certainly not Undyne or Frisk. So who?

Sans brushed the thought out of his mind as he stared at the woman sympathetically. The woman must've noticed, as she sternly repeated "There really isn't anything you can do..."

"hey, cheer up. life ain't something you should be moping about." The comic said, his voice cracking as his words rang throughout his own mind. The skeleton let out a gulp as he placed his hand on the woman's right shoulder. The woman jerked it away, heel-turning to keep Sans out of her sight.

The stout skeleton looked at the lady for a little while, making no noise aside from shifting himself to face the bar counter. It had gotten mustier since the woman had entered, and the mist hanged over the counter like a dark shadow waiting to consume the light around it. Sans felt his rib-cage compress into itself as he glanced at the woman, seeing her in some sort of mental pain. The monster knew what it felt like to be useless in the most critical moments. He had gotten knowledge of particular emotional states through Gaster, and he practiced comedy as a way to pass the time, or he thought that anyway. Could it work for the woman?

only one way to find out.. the skeleton mused as he hopped off of the stool, landing on top of the counter. He whirled around, facing everyone in the bar. He held his hands up, loudly proclaiming "dudes and dudettes! i have an important announcement!"

The bar quickly fell silent as the customers gazed at the dwarf-like skeleton shouting at them. The woman raised her head off of her hands, curiously watching Sans perform.

"what did the skeleton say to the doctor?" The comic hollered, taking a step back...only to slip off of a hamburger. He let out a surprised yelp as he tumbled past the barkeep, hitting the back of his skull against a shelf full of bottles, and crashed into the ground.

The bar went totally silent. The woman held her hands to her mouth, scared to look over the counter to see what had become of the skeleton.

Sans let out a groan of pain, bringing his right hand up to his head. He felt several cracks along his noggin, all leaking out a crimson gel that began to cover his hands. None of the cracks were big except for one, which managed to run down the middle of his head and towards his nose socket. The monster hissed as he applied pressure to the fracture, inadvertently covering his face with the ketchup.

"You okay there, pal?" The barkeep said, reaching down to grab Sans hand.

"yeah... but.." Sans muttered as he got lifted back up onto the counter, finishing with a punchline: "comedy ain't all that cracked up to be!"

Sans imagined rimshots occurring in the background as the bar exploded with laughter. The laughs were so loud and so raw that the skeleton didn't even hear the woman scream and fall onto the floor after staring at his gory face.

Sans chuckled to himself as he bowed, closing his eyes as he basked in the glory of the crowd. He reopened one eye a moment later, looking at the stool where he last remembered the woman being. All he saw was the barrel of a gun.

The bar let out a small gasp, eyes as wide as dinner plates as all attention was brought to the scythe-rifle placed directly in front of Sans smiling visage. The comic brought his hands up in surrender, opening both of his eyes to stare at the weapon shoved into his nose socket.

"I warned you," the gunner whispered, her intentions clear. Suddenly, a vision of a bullet colliding with a wall of bone placed itself into the skeleton's pysche. It could only mean one thing. Sans quickly darted his left eye towards the cash register on the left side of the counter. Sans impulsively thrust his left hand to his right as the register turned blue, tossing it towards the woman.

The woman let out a sharp cry as the cash register careened into her head; coins flying out into the air as the woman bent down towards her right. Sans quickly pushed the rifle out of the way as he ran along the counter, screams filling the air as the customers realized their plight. They began trampling over themselves as they ran towards the exit, leaving the telepathic monster and the riflewoman to their duel.

Word Amount: 797
Powers Used: Basic Telekinesis (Sans)
Moves Used: Crescent Gold- Gun (Athena)

Sans Round 1 Post complete!

[Athena Myaló]

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. The skeleton was insistent on helping Athena, although her warning at least seemed to deter him for a few moments. While he sat quietly behind her turned back, she took a few deep breaths and folded her hands on her lap, still vigilantly analyzing every one of his minute movements with her extra-sensory perception. Despite her stillness, she was tense, every muscle rigid and blood pumping fiercely through her veins. She would not be caught off-guard again. Luckily, he made no movement for a long while, but she knew she could not rest here in peace. Perhaps, she should just leave; she could find somewhere with fewer pestersome undead pranksters and meditate, alone.

Before she had made up her mind to go, however, Sans clambered up onto the bar counter and commanded her attention again. She turned towards the spectacle just slightly, mostly out of long-irrelevant instinct, but also to indicate that she was indeed listening. Observing him speak, she realized there was something deeply unnerving about the skeleton creature, though she couldn't quite place it - something relating to a memory she desperately avoided reliving. But never mind that. She heard him begin with a rhetorical question of some sort - "What did the skeleton say to the doctor?" She tilted her head in interest, bringing her head up off her hands. She could tell he knew the answer just by the way he spoke, but decided not to delve into his mind for it, despite her curiosity. He seemed to be about to tell everyone already. The answer would no doubt be quite enlightening, especially if it involved an explanation regarding why an animated undead creature would be visiting a professional mainly concerned with preventing death in the first place. The circumstances outlined in the initial query were interesting, and Athena found herself eagerly anticipating further elaboration.

The fact that her mind was on that, rather than what he was doing, made the slip and subsequent fall all the more shocking. Her hands flew to her mouth as the sharp crack of bone reverberated through the room. The God-Soul instantly turned her senses away from the scene near the counter. If she couldn't see it, if she couldn't tell it was there, if she could just ignore it -

"comedy ain't all that cracked up to be!"

What?

The completely unexpected line jarred Athena's attention suddenly. In that moment, her attention was scattered as she tried to comprehend what she had heard, and her focus turned instinctively towards the source: Sans.

Despite her desperate efforts to collect her concentration again, the image imprinted itself onto her mental vision. Viscous fluid was smeared across the monster's skull, completely at odds with the grin that remained plastered on his face. That was all it took.

Athena screamed in horror as memories came flooding back, all prompted by the single image. Abstract's shadowed skull symbol, emblazoned on the torn flag that whipped in the wind above the barren battlefield, where the chaotic Bloodmonger lurked, a terrifying hidden threat. Hordes of undead, with deformed faces and rotten clothing, close in pursuit as Athena fled down strange metal corridors, always running in the faint hope of keeping her life. The tricky, thin-lipped smile of the Baroness, at first appearing almost friendly - but then twisting into a sadistic grin as Athena fell, alone and bewildered, down a dark, endless hole. Kattly, unconscious, blood splattered across nearly every inch of her limp form as her own clone laughed hysterically: Athena was powerless to do anything to prevent her best friend's imminent death.

The echoing laughter that reverberated through her mind mingled with the raucous liveliness that surrounded her physical form, which she noticed had somehow crumpled onto the floor. Some part of her dictated her next action; another part was powerless to stop her; and somehow, her conscious mind barely seemed aware of it at all. She reached behind her back, under her cloak, heard the quiet click as Crescent Gold extended to its gun mode, and stood up to aim.

"I warned you," she said in a broken, toneless whisper as Sans' face morphed itself into a horrified expression and the laughter finally ceased. Time to end all of this.

Then a blunt hit from her left side sent her stumbling to the right, and her quarry evaded the shot that ricocheted harmlessly off the edge of the counter. Fury seared through her pain, sending her mental processes into overdrive. She knew she had to ignore any hesitation now; her focus needed to be on the battle, and keeping her emotions from overwhelming her entirely.

Athena extended a hand for balance and leaped up carefully onto the counter, closely tracking the skeleton's movement. She aimed and shot again three times in quick succession at his retreating form.

Word Count: 800
Powers Used: None (unless you count Enhanced Senses, but that's constant)
Moves Used: Crescent Gold - Gun (Athena)

Athena Round 1 Post complete!

[Sans]

Sans had barely managed to get to the end of the counter before another premonition invaded his mind. Without further hesitation, he leaped to his right, narrowly avoiding the projectiles as they collided into the wooden wall. He landed on the ground, snapping his head to look back towards the crazy woman. It only took Athena to adjust her rifle in his direction before he ran towards the pool table. She fired off another three shots in his direction, though they all missed and clanged against the metal table.

Sans planted his back against the table, his arms nearly sliding off as the crimson goo impeded his grip. His eyes were the size of pinpricks, contrasted by his motionless smile. He let out a bunch of deep breaths, trying to recover his stamina from the adrenaline rush that had overcame him. He had never ran so fast in his life, not even against the demonic being that had possessed Frisk. And the woman STILL almost got him. He felt a wave of fear pass through his skeletal body like wind. Just one shot was all it could take.

The comedian swiftly brought his head over the counter of the pool table, scanning the area. Some chairs had been knocked down, plenty of broken bottles, and some multi-colored billiard balls next to a cue stick. So many options...

A brown blur above him brought him out of his thought process, forcing him to divert his attention to the immediate threat. The woman leaped a few feet away from the skeleton, a giant sword in her hands. Even without eyes, Sans could feel her staring through his very being. He was nothing more than a target, waiting to be eradicated. Sans sometimes compared himself to Mettaton, the MTT comedy robot for at least one reason: both were huge crowd pleasers.

This audience, however, wasn't worth the negativity.

"can't we talk about this?" Sans begged, hopping onto the pool table. The cloaked girl gave no response as her blade sliced through the air, hitting nothing. The telekinetic monster quickly pointed his left hand towards the cue stick, lifting it into the air as it turned blue. He kept a fair distance away as he rammed it towards Athena like a spear.

The pointy end of the stick jammed into her ribcage, causing her to cry out in pain. The pain turned into annoyance, however, when all that was really happening was Sans magically whacking her with a stick. She effortlessly grabbed the pole out of the air, breaking it between her knee.

The monster let out a groan, silently cursing himself for relenting. He turned his head towards a nearby table that hadn't fallen. It had several bottles, one full, and a chair next to it. His tactical mindset kicking in, he tossed the full alcohol bottle using his powers, keeping away from her at the end of the pool table. The bottle smashed into the ground in front of Athena, causing her to slip as her feet touched the water. The blind woman barely had time to stand up before she was assaulted by more bottles, most connecting with her pants and dealing nothing more than bruises.

"i don't want to fight you! you're a good person! i know it!" shouted the skeleton, still desperately trying to end the fight before one of them got too hurt.

The woman grimaced, replying "You aren't." before hopping upwards, swinging her sword to cut a blue chair down before it hit her. She touched down on top of the pool table, growling like an animal as she looked down upon the skeleton. The comedian let out a large gulp before backing away slowly, holding his hands in the air in a surrendering motion.

"hey, we can settle this calmly! i didn't mean for this to happen! i didn't know you'd... react this way."

"You should've listened! I didn't want this to happen either, but YOU had to ruin it, didn't you? Don't you see?! You being here is causing this!"

Sans quickly threw his hand to his right, the billiard balls launching themselves like missiles towards the gunner's back. They all connected, though it didn't go quite as planned. The surprise attack caused the human to lurch forward, tumbling into the monster. They both fell painfully into the counter, with Sans on top of Athena.

Sans brought his right hand up to his skull, keeping his new crack covered to prevent more bleeding. It got closer and closer. He could end the madness here. 10 feet. 5 feet.

Bullet through bone marrow. Roar of misery. Rib cage decimated. A moment to realize. Falling.

Sans reached his left arm out towards the glowing exit, his stomach bleeding into the earth, begging for life.

Word Limit: 797
Moves used:
Crescent Gold: Gun Mode (Athena)
God Sword (Athena)
Powers used: Basic Telekinesis (Sans)

Round 2 of Sans complete!

[Athena Myaló]

Athena's mind was a pendulum. It would swing one way, and she would doubt, and slow, and breathe, quivering with adrenaline and stress, but at least coherent. As soon as she would begin to regain her sense of self, though, another wave of hatred and panic would reach her, and she'd once again leap at her opponent, almost consciously treating him as an embodiment of all her worst fears. Her blood rushed through her with the force of a waterfall, and feral growls and cries escaped her lips as she fought, much to the shame of her repressed self-restraint.

When the God-Soul hit the counter after a barrage of telekinetically-controlled billiard balls, another such upsurge coursed through her, violent enough that she shrieked several octaves higher than she regularly spoke. The trauma to her torso went nearly unnoticed, drowned out by the sound and the fury that overwhelmed her. As Sans leaped off the counter, Athena reached behind her back again and drew out Crescent Gold. She aimed and pulled the trigger more quickly than she had known she could. The skeleton was an inhumanly fast runner, but not fast enough. The searing bullet entered straight through his ribs, leaving a ragged hole in his hoodie as he fell, virtually helpless, only a few feet from the door.

Athena leaped to her feet and pulled hard on the switch to transform her rifle. The mechanics clicked and each hinge rotated, unfolding the blades and extending the handle until the Soul of Mind was holding her brown and golden scythe tightly in one hand. She paused for a split second, poised atop the counter, face in shadow under her hood. Had she been the skeleton instead of her quarry, an observer could have easily mistaken the young woman for the Grim Reaper himself: scythe in hand, cloak flowing out behind her, with an eerily stoic expression painted on her face. However, there were no observers. Sans' death would be in solitude.

Somewhere in Athena's mind, she knew she needed to try to stop. She was perhaps not the most selfless being in the Omniverse, but she would do what she must to keep herself from killing an innocent. Now was her only chance before she lost herself again. She didn't have the control to cease entirely, but there was one possibility that remained. As she moved to jump down from the bar, a sudden impulse from the higher part of her mind forced her to hesitate - already halfway in the air. She struggled to regain her balance, but there was no hope of landing feet-first. The Soul of Mind fell. It wasn't far, but her head struck the stone tile of the restaurant floor, and her ties to the corporeal world were severed.

~~~~~~

At first, she was certain it was a table. Her vision was blurry and swimming, and before her sat a dark blob on three legs - or was it four? - with a bench before it. Everything else around her was a dim, washed-out grey, and whenever she tried to look away, the bench and table drew her eyes back to it again. Eyes. She wondered absently what had happened to her blindfold, but most of her attention was still focused on the table. It was an odd table, if that was what it was. A slanted board extended from one side, and the top was far from flat. She squinted as she tried to get her vision to clear. Bits of white and black covered one side of it. A glimmer of recognition. She stood up and stepped a few feet closer, still staring at the peculiar item, much less sure of its purpose now. After a couple moments' hesitation, she sat down lightly on the bench, facing the black and white keys. Yes, that's right. Keys, she thought to herself. You know what this is. You can play it, right, M- She stopped. Her name. She paused. Athena. Right. Definitely. Never mind that. Play.

She played. She stretched out her fingers and began pressing the keys, sometimes several at a time, sometimes one by one. She couldn't completely understand what she was doing, but she kept doing it. The music rose from deep within the instrument, permeating her consciousness until the space around her was clear as crystal.

~~~~~~

When Athena awoke, the last thing she remembered was tripping and falling off the counter. Her head pounded and she noticed blood - actual blood, not bright, viscous ketchup - dripping off her forehead. She raised herself up on her elbows, still gripping Crescent Gold in her right hand. Her fingers felt odd. They seemed to still be full of energy, while the rest of her was weak and wracked with shivers; yet, she was just fine.

Athena's Round 2 Post Complete!

Word Count: 800
Moves Used: None (Crescent Gold - Scythe was prepped, but never used to inflict damage)
Powers Used: None

[Sans]

Sans could only get one good thing out of this, and that was that he now knew what it was like to hold in your insides. It was unpleasant. Every moment he wanted to scream, but loosening his hand would cause what remained of his ribs to collapse.

The skeleton rolled onto his back, his chest a bloody mess. He could only watch as the lady stood on top of the encounter, emotionless. Sans closed his eyes, his energy spent on probing his mind and his injury as he waited for death.

CRACK!!!

The monster snapped open his eyes, seeing the evidently lifeless body. He took in a few deep breathes, slowly moving his hand towards a nearby wall. He clawed himself up to his feet, his legs wobbling. His pupils were the size of pin pricks, and there was a copious amount of sweat on his forehead that combined with the horrific ketchup stains formed around his skull. He wiped some crimson gel away from his eye socket, allowing him a better look at the fallen scythe-wielder.

With her being unconscious or dead, Sans could easily get any detail he wanted without interruption. She had light brown hair underneath her cloak, a metal arm band, and pale skin. He couldn't see a hint of emotion anywhere.

This got him thinking. During the fight the woman sounded so.... broken. No, not broken. Angry. Like his very presence ignited her. He didn't know what he could've done to turn her feral. He hadn't hurt anyone in his life....except for..them.

no...

"I doubt there's anything you could do that wouldn't make things much, much worse for both of us."

no!

"You being here is causing this!"

NO!

Sans froze in place, memories hitting him harder than the bullet did. A demonic being slaughtering hundreds of fellow kin. All without emotion and a blade caked with dust. Everyone they met they killed. Including him. He had tried to stop them, but he failed. His world was destroyed because of it. Everything was destroyed.

"undyne...t-toriel...p-papy.."

Tears streamed down his face, his goofy pretense demolished. Loud wails erupted from within as he brought his hands to his face, not paying attention to anything.

---------------

The woman was understandably confused upon witnessing a kneeling skeleton, bawling at the top of his lungs while mumbling unintelligibly. Her everything felt like it had waded through molasses for the past hour, so it took her more than a few minutes to stand up. Sans never looked up, his bony fingers covering his sockets from sight just as well as his tears.

"I...I'm sorry. I..." Athena started, her voice cracking a bit. She got no response from the skeleton, though it did make him stop making noises. The woman sighed, sensing the door a few feet away. She silently walked towards the exit, intending on leaving the monster to his own problems.

Just as she was going to walk out, however, a three foot tall barricade slid out from in front of her, blocking her exit. She swiftly turned around, sensing Sans' left hand raised upwards.

"all i wanted was to help you... to make you feel better. i thought it was because i pitied you, but i know why now. i've seen so much death and destruction... my friends... my family... dead. and i could never stop them. if i ever did anything, it would just get reset and no one but me and them would remember it. i tried to keep going... to at least keep my brother happy... but every night, i would have nightmares. nightmares of seeing my brother dead, and words of a demon would...would.."

Sans' voice broke, still looking away from the woman. "in the end, when they were done, i tried to stop them one last time. i failed, and now i'm here. i thought that at the very least, they were gone. gone forever. never to play with us again."

The woman took a step back, nearly running into the barricade.

The skeleton stood up, his back to the blind woman. "i was wrong. they are back. you accuse me of causing that to happen. but this. all of this."

Sans whirled around, a newfound strength coursing through his bones. His sockets were completely black, and his next few words were disembodied and quiet.

"I t ' s . a l l . y o u r . f a u l t ."

Without warning, the monster raised his clenched fist, summoning five femur bones a few feet above him, all aimed directly at the woman. Just as quickly, two large goat skulls appeared on both sides of her. The woman sensed his left socket start glowing yellow, as if targeting her.

Words: 780-800
Moves Used: Them Bones- Spears, Shield (Sans)
Gaster Blaster (Sans)
Powers Used: N/A

Final round for Sans complete.

[Athena Myaló]

Athena almost felt like laughing at the abruptness of the latest turn of events. Almost. Perhaps if she had been rested, and unharmed, and hadn't just recently been through the same emotional pain as Sans was evidently experiencing, she might have been able.

Instead, her stomach clenched and she began to take another step backwards, only to realize that there was nowhere to step. She had tried to understand what he was talking about - his brother, and a demon, and resetting? Resetting what? Everything? All she could truly, fully comprehend were the most important facts: he was in pain, and he blamed her. As the bleached white bones materialized out of thin air before her, it struck her just how deep that pain had penetrated. Athena's main task now had to be preserving her life. His too, if possible. Any desire she had harbored to cause him, or anyone else, pain had evaporated along with her consciousness, and hadn't returned with it. Her understanding of that phenomenon was likewise spotty, but she wasn't complaining. In fact, she thought as she tensed to move, in certain ways, I'm better than I have been for weeks. If only I could end this...

The floating bones came first. They shot towards her like arrows, all at once. She sprang forwards and to the right, barely avoiding running headfirst into the giant goat skull that had appeared there. One of the femur bones struck her left shoulder and another her hip, but they didn't pierce her skin, and the rest clattered to the ground behind her. She leaped onto a round table littered with bottles and napkins and landed solidly with one hand on the smooth wood, although her legs still trembled somewhat under her own weight and that of her sword. She sensed the goat skulls pivot to face her, as did Sans, continuing to grin from ear to ear. She still couldn't bear focusing on that grin. Although Athena felt no urge to attack the skeleton this time, she was certain that after today, she never wanted to perceive his face again.

The Soul of Mind couldn't see Sans' single pupil fade from yellow to light blue, but she did notice a reserve of explosive energy collecting in the back of each of the giant goat skulls. She scrambled and ducked under the table just as two beams of pale light discharged from the mouths of the two skulls with a sudden blast of buzzing, earsplitting sound. The shot from the nearest skull hit the edge of the table she was crouched under, sending it flying. The second found its mark. Athena cried out as her left arm went limp, its nerves sending distress signals throughout her brain. She crouched low and swerved around the legs of more restaurant furnishings, dodging another scorched table that hurtled over her head. She crawled backwards frantically on hand and knees, wishing for a second to stand up or just collect herself, but she knew she had to keep moving. She noticed that the first table to be hit had landed nearby, with three of its wooden legs sticking up towards the sky, and the fourth lying on the ground next to it. Then she heard yet another echoing blast from the skulls and had to change direction rapidly as a beam crackled right in front of her face. Oh yes, she thought wryly, the tables have indeed turned.

Athena smirked, which was about as close to a true smile as she had come since appearing in the Omniverse.

She finally reached the end of the dining area and stopped. Still crouching, she pulled out Crescent Rose and extended it into its gun form. A moment after a fourth set of blasts rattled the empty bottles scattered around her, she extended her arm out from behind cover, just enough to manage a clear shot. The God-Soul noticed Sans' eyes narrow, but then widen in surprise as she aimed - not at him, but at the closest skull. A solid hit and the skull fractured, then shattered. She began to aim at the other, but had to jump to the side as it opened its mouth again to shoot. Now she was out in the open, zigzagging nimbly towards her attacker. If she could just get him to cease fire for a few seconds, there might be something she could do to help. Unfortunately for them both, Sans seemed determined, even desperate, to finish her.

Another volley of bones came at her from the right without warning. She turned her back to them, and most bounced harmlessly off the thick metal bulk of the God-Sword. However, this pushed her towards the remaining skull, which opened its mouth once again, a powerful blast building inside it.

Words: 799
Moves Used: Them Bones - Spears (Sans)
Gaster Blaster (Sans)
Crescent Rose, Gun Mode (Athena)
Powers Used: (Enhanced Senses [Athena])

Athena's final round complete!