Dark on the Waters [Dark Data]

[Blink]

When Blink appeared out of the last portal, she had thought that maybe something went wrong and she ended up in a new place again. She had scrambled forward, feeling weak after using so much of her already-limited power, and looked around to figure out her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that Proto Cloud, the combined fusion of the swordsman Cloud and the robot-boy Proto Man, was not with her anymore. The second thing was that the Nebula Verse around her seemed unstable, almost like it was glitching actively in front of her eyes. She was on a beach, at least that was what she assumed. It looked very similiar to the first beach she ended up on when she originally got into the crazy battles, but she could literally see the ruins of the factory she was just at from where she was standing. They were supposed to miles away from each other.

The next thing that Blink realized was that she felt a lot lighter. Previously it felt like gravity was much harsher while in the Nebula Verse, and so her teleportation energy was weighing her down and making it feel like she needed much more effort to even walk. But now, even after coming out of a series of portals and using as much of her power as she could, she still felt alright. Not a hundred percent, but whatever was restricting her mutations seemed to have disappeared.

That meant they were successful. It had to. With the Darkloid dead, the verse was coming apart. Which led to an important question: What now?

The sound of water splashing hit her pointed ears and she spun around to face the noise. Coming out of the ocean, which sparked purple lines of electricity, was a familiar sight. Three of the darkling pirates were scrambling towards her, as if they had just risen from the sea itself. What used to be a corrupt version of actual privateers now looked more like dead husks of darkness, moving entirely on their way with no thought behind it. They were so far gone into the darkchips they had used that there was no way actual people were in there anymore.

Blink zipped forward to meet them. She teleported right in front of the one in the middle and caught it off guard. When she slashed it with her dagger, she could feel its weakened state collapse immediately. These things were practically zombies. As that center one hit the sand with a single jade cut through its chest, the other two conversed on Blink. She threw a spinning roundhouse against one and connected with its head, using the momentum to jump into a fancy side-flip and land at a new, awkward angle for the other one. She slashed at that pirate husk through his neck and then turned to bring her other hand, now holding a similiar energetic green blade, down to stab the kicked creature in its chest.

These darklings were shadows of what they used to be. They were this world's last attempt at revenge against her and the other liberators.

She stood up as she thought about her fellow survivors. She was sure that Proto Man and Cloud, in their powerful state, were still alive. She hadn't seen Cole since he went to find an escape plan. "Alright, time to get out of here," she decided. She took one last look at the ocean, which continued to flicker in and out of whatever reality she was standing in, and then moved to travel inland again, after her friends.