Not far along the path, X and the others came across Marino lying on her back unconscious in the center of a round chamber. "Who's that?" X asked carefully, gripping his buster.
"That's Marino," Spider joked, kneeling beside her. "Heh. I remember the last time I saw her laid out like this-"
"I've still got my daggers in hand," Marino suddenly said, eyes still closed. "Think about where you're kneeling before you move those hands."
Spider immediately leapt back. "Still as feisty as ever I see," he offered with a chuckle.
"Whoa..." Massimo murmured in awe as Marino got to her feet.
"So you're Marino the Thief Queen?" Octavia asked curiously. "What brought you here?"
"That's my line," Marino joked back as she brushed a hand through her hair, settling herself. "But I don't have time for that. Psyche's got Cinnamon, and unlike me I get the feeling he has no intention of bringing her back."
"Wait...you were planning to kidnap her and bring her back?" X asked in surprise.
"Came here to steal the Force Metal Generator...till I found out it was part of a Terran," Marino explained. "I don't deal in that sort of 'trafficking'. Course, she looked so excited about the idea of me 'stealing her', I decided to take her out on the town for a bit, give her a little adventure. If nothing else, she might have her Dad's cred card and could pay for a tune up."
X blinked several times as he processed all this. "I'm not sure where that places you on the legality/morality scale..."
"Chaotic Good," Octavia, Massimo, and Marino all spoke up at once. They then turned towards each other. "You game?" they asked simultaneously.
"And suddenly Octavia's thoughts of hooking her up with Axl don't seem so strange," Spider murmured in an amused tone.
"We'll talk about that later," Marino stated flatly. "We need to get through the Eternal Forest to catch up to Psyche and Cinnamon-"
"You'll want to keep going right!" Gaudile spoke up through the comm system. "That's the fastest way through."
Marino started to chuckle. "Let's go then."
With the Professor's instructions, the group was able to make it through the Eternal Forest with ease, fighting their way past only two groups of Mechanaloids. After that, they were out of the Eternal Forest and on the other side. "So where's Cinnamon?" Octavia asked curiously.
"Sensors indicate she's still in the Eternal Forest," Gaudile informed the group. "But she'll be out soon!"
"Then we should find a good spot to ambush," X decided. "Scans show an open spot up ahead. Should be room for all of us to spread out."
"Then let's go!" Spider proclaimed, racing forward.
Once the group was in position, they settled back to wait quietly. They didn't have long to wait. Dr. Psyche soon staggered in, looking much the worse for wear, with Cinnamon perkily walking along behind him completely unscathed. When he caught sight of the group, he leapt back in shock. "What? But you...and they..." He rounded angrily on Cinnamon. "I thought you said all lefts was the best way to get through the Eternal Forest!"
"Oh, it absolutely is!" Cinnamon confirmed happily. "Always take the lefts when you can."
"Then how did they get through before us?" Psyche demanded angrily.
"...oh, you wanted the fastest path," Cinnamon deduced, gently cupping her closed fist in open palm as though she just got it, her eyes lighting up happily. "You wanted two rights, then," she told Psyche as Marino giggled. "You should have said so."
"You...you...RRRRGH!" Lunging forward, Psyche swung one arm to backhand Cinnamon.
Before anyone could react, Cinnamon's hand swept up to catch the swinging arm before jerking back, pulling Psyche off balance. She followed this up with a knee to his groin, an elbow to his chin, and a kick to one ankle to stagger him. As she released his wrist, her hands flashed and the white nurse gloves she wore were replaced by cat paw gloves with razor sharp claws. Lunging in, she slashed Psyche several times across the chest before slamming her right hand in, jerking back with something glowing gripped in her claws as she kicked Psyche away into the center of the room.
"W...Where did Cinnamon learn to fight like that?" Gaudile gasped in shock. "That didn't look like the Tai Chi and Yoga I gave her to study from!"
"She probably got bored and looked up some krav maga," Marino observed with a wide grin.
Psyche staggered to his feet with a whimper. "You...you haven't beaten me yet. The power of...my evolved form...will destroy you all!" Lifting his hands high, he glared around at everyone. "Now face my wrath!" With that, he detached his head from his neck and tossed it into the air. His body fell back lifeless.
His head clunked to the ground. "...my wrath? Where is my wrath?" he demanded in confusion.
"So this is what 'battle body transformation circuitry' looks like," Octavia observed as she stared at the chunk of shaped, glowing Force Metal in Cinnamon's grip. "Where did you get the kitty paws?"
"They were a gift from my friend Cumin before she got too busy helping the Resistance to hang out with me anymore when I snuck out," Cinnamon explained. "They were part of a set she, Jasmine, and Saffron got me. I...didn't realize they were so powerful..."
Psyche let out a distressed sigh. "Yeah...she's her mother's daughter, alright..."
"Cinnamon!" Gaudile cried out worriedly as he rushed into the room. "Are you alright? I was so worried about you!"
"Daddy!" Cinnamon called out happily, kneeling down to embrace Gaudile. "I'm just fine! And look, I made new friends!"
Gaudile frowned, glancing around at the group. "While I'm grateful they sought to save you, I'm not sure-"
"Marino, do you think you can steal Daddy, too?" Cinnamon interrupted. "Maybe that'll convince him I'm ready for the outside world! Ever since I was born with this thing in my chest, I've had to sneak behind Daddy's back for everything!"
"Wait!" X interrupted. "Gaudile didn't create the Force Metal Generator?"
Gaudile rubbed the back of his head. "Well...technically the patents only say Sugar and I created it together, which is...accurate?"
And yet more evidence supporting Epsilon's claims, Octavia thought to herself.
"If you think it'll help kid, sure," Marino offered. "Sides, I'd rather keep an eye on you if you can fight that well. Say Tavi, any chance we'll find your son soon?"
"I hope so," Cinnamon murmured, her cheeks turning red. "I...I kinda need to ask him for my panties back. Psyche's attack destroyed my others..."
Octavia's eyes popped out of her head. "That was you?"
Cinnamon promptly covered her face in embarrassment.
Oh. That... That was Cinnamon.
Yep.
All my shipping goes to Cinnamon and Axl
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Yikes, remind me not to get into a cat fight with Cinnamon anytime soon. Or ever. Meouch.
Psyche really has no body to unleash his wrath on after all those shenanigans.
Talk about pulling one right out from under us.
When I saw the title of the chapter, my first thought was of Hoss DelGado. I'm not sure what that says about me.
7929085
7929092
Wow. That's the first time I've ever seen a double post with another, separate post in between them!
7929099
My bad. Got caught in a comment editing frenzy and lost track of where I was clicking
I just looked up Cinnamon, and dang, she's got a nice variety of weapons.
7929104
Eh, it happens.
Now I'm curious who will get Axel, Cinnamon or Marino
7929117 Why not both?
7929123 Something tells me he can't handle them both at least not at the same time
7929129
Axl is a shapeshifter...
Axl is one lucky son of a pony.
I love Psyche surviving the Forest and then running into the ambush, only for Cinnamon to kick his butt. Especially since she's got her multi hit cat paws... those things shred anything weak to melee attacks after one turn.
7929142 Ya but have you ever tried that kind of relationship? Now if he was able to clone himself I'd give him better odds, but even Loki couldn't handle more then one woman as his mate at a time and he was a god on top of being a shapeshifter, though as the author you could metaphorically say screw me and make it happen
7929176
won't be the first time Look at what's happened to Zuko way back.....
GAHAHAHA I got YOINKED!
7929190 If that is talking about the avatar story the author made I honestly haven't read that one so I'll have to take your word for it
Sweet tap dancing Christ...Cinnamon you unsung freak!
Go Axl!
I had a well thought out post all ready to write, and then I hit the end of the chapter. How did I mistake the earlier foreshadowing for a throwaway joke?
7929123
*Mexican music plays*
...sorry, can't post the video, I'm typing this on a tablet.
7929234 which one? on the music I mean
7929252
Know your meme.
Edit: You have no idea how hard it was getting the url for that video. I miss having a working desktop PC...
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love it .. also shipping axl with a herd
Hahahaha, I like this shipping option. Plus, with that force metal generator, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pull Cinnamon into the Maverick Hunter fold.
Well hot damn...
7929089
Psyche really got ahead of himself, didn't he?
7929278
I think that image needs to be changed now. They just need to flop Discord and Chrysalis around. After what Chrysalis was doing to her own people she is pure chaotic evil.
Overall I think we found a winner in the girlfriend category.
A spoonful of cinnamon will fuck you up. People don't take the cinnamon challenge for a reason.
So she was the reason Axl has panties
7929099 I just thought of the term 'You got it, Hoss!', but yeah, Billy and Mandy for the win
7929628 Well, i'm not sure about that.
7929277 ah you mean this one:
Axl really will go that path. Huh, kinda like Ratchet only the son instead of the father being paired. So we got three potential wives I'm guessing for Axl.
Rafflesian-Doubt she would give up. Especially for a private concert with a fan.
Cinnamon-She is innocent, deadly and would surprise Axl.
Marino-Thief queen and she would be Axl's equal in many ways.
----
Also now I see Psyche as a weaker Nefarious. Kinda crazy but he will play nice while reconnecting with family.
Mmm, Cinnamon's got spice~
Shipped.
7931072
Okay, I agree with you on everything you said except for two things.
1) THIS particular version of Cinnamon is not THAT innocent. I mean, she snuck out, met Axl and gave him the panties she was apparantly WEARING AT THE TIME without taking off her pants (which is, even by anime standards, impressive).
2) Rafflesian? Yeah I am not going to put up any money betting that she is going to be part of it. Seriously. Like Octavia said. She is a pop idol named after a PARASITIC flower. PARASITIC is the keyword here. NOT exactly inducing the warm and fuzzies.
7934348
Honestly, I don't know who to ship now.
7971304 All of them
D&D
Like I said, double-edged sword... actually, no, it's a single-edged sword, and it was aimed at Dr. Psyche the entire time. At first, you have a situation where he's like-
{Dr. Psyche: I am so mentally broken, I think a plot device loli is my plot device dead sister.}
From this, you're lead to believe that this will have an effect on how he behaves towards this character. But in the very next scene, he goes-
{Dr. Psyche: Grrrr, I am most uproarious about being confounded by this bout of chicanery. I shall backhand thee with utmost haste!}
You set up a character in one chapter, and then you completely uproot that foundation into more "Herpdy-derp, the bumbling villain got finessed by the hero!" nonsense. I keep getting my hopes up to be intrigued by something, and then it dies in the arms of a Mortal Kombat wannabe in a single paragraph.
You know, it was kinda funny at first, but Axl having women throw themselves at him when he's not even there is getting really annoying. At this rate, humanity really will die out, because all the world's women (no dudes of course, because dudes don't exist in this universe) will be begging him to fuck their pussies raw.
I get that the idea is that he's going to have an inexplicable harem by the end of this, but when that happens, it should have a bit more time and development put into it. Have some girls hate his guts at first; have some other girls be amicable with him; have girls be smitten with them, but let them temper their feelings over time; let him get a word in edgewise that isn't just meaningless blushing that at least hints at some sort of desire to have a meaningful relationship (not necessarily romantic) with someone that isn't just him getting teased every five seconds.
My overall thoughts on this chapter: The day is saved, I guess. Psyche got beaten, and he sort of just faded from the narrative after being deactivated; no dying, no being wiped out, no being taken in for interrogation, just-
- and that's it.
I don't really care much about Cinnamon herself, despite that being one of my favorite spices in real life, her presence and effect on the plot mean nothing to me. Her being a bored, horny girl who learned about fighting with her desire to explore the world means nothing to me, because I've already seen that archetype several times throughout your stories. Her being the chick who gave Axl her panties means nothing to me either, because Axl isn't even here to react to that or half the other women who want to jump his bones.
7929089
You are a horrible person and I love you.
Well that answers how she got them off without taking off her pants.
How you portray Cinnamon here, combined with what I remember of her from the game, makes this song come to mind.
so cinimon's crazy uncle is bested, and now the team has a new ally in their battle against evil.