"Guns Akimbo!" Marina shouted into the air as she fired her plasma tounge repeaters at Weather Report, while her Air Elementals attacked the Abyssal's Fire Elementals. In response, however, the enemy countered with a burst of dark energy, which intercepted the plasma bolts in mid-air. The two then began to exchange assault spells at each other, with Marina using expert Sorcery and her opponent using a mix of Sorcery and Necromancy.<br/><br/>"Guns Akimbo, really?" spoke Weather Report in a sarcastic voice before she flung a storm of hail at Marina, who countered with a protective spell. "You'll never get to the big leagues with that 'energetic but naive' attitude." Her Fire Elementals, who were built for battle while Marina's Air Elementals were built for surveillance, were gaining the supremacy now, forcing the Twilight Caste to dispel them, and, instanteously call forth two minor<span style="font-style: italic">Plasma</span>Elementals by her side.<br/><br/>"Plasma? Now that's more like it! Although, you could just have ionized the Air Elementals, you know - oh, wait,<span style="font-style: italic">Compassion's</span>your Virtue, forgot! And, how foolish," Weather Report said with contempt, before summoning two Hungry Ghosts to reinforce her Fire Elementals. Then, deciding that she can do better, the Abyssal began to raise the dead Cerberus members as zombies, counting on her summons to buy her the necessary time.<br/><br/>"Like heck you're going to do that!" Marina shouted, using Epic Neural Shock to try and interrupt Weather Report. "And what's a name like Weather Report anyway? You sound like a Journalist!" The Epic Neural Shock worked...but only after half the Cerberus members on the floor rose up as undead, forcing Marina to go 'Guns Akimbo' again. In the meantime, the Abyssal answered Marina's words:<br/><br/>"I was a journalist. Terra Firma supporter, actually. Terra Firma is the common man -" she spoke before directing one of her summons to intercept a flurry of razor-sharp butterflies that Marina sent in fury. The battle continued with another exchange of plasma bolts and sorcerous-plus-necromantic magics, combined with Engineer and Journalist powers (if one was curious, the latter involved screaming hack writing at Marina to annoy her).<br/><br/>"I fucking HATE Terra Firma!" shouted Marina, who was successfully annoyed at Weather Report's swill. She used Reinforce's Glorious Solar Sabre to cut apart a Hungry Ghost, then help a Plasma Elemental fight off a Fire Elemental. After that, she switched to her plasma pistols again and began shooting up the place, her favorite style of all. However, it seemed as though the battle had no end. They were evenly matched.<br/><br/>Except that Marina remembered that she had a Positive Intimacy towards her Elemental summons. To the uninitiated, that meant she liked them very much. So, she deliberately put herself in the way of a Necromantic blast directed towards a Plasma Elemental...and this activated her Perfect Defense. Now, she can shrug off Weather Report's attacks! The Solar smiled, causing the Abyssal to rage:<br/><br/>"You feel Compassion towards Elementals?! Mere Elementals?! That's worse than falling in love with an<span style="font-style: italic">Alien</span>!" shouted Weather Report like the shrill harpy that she was. Being Exalted, however, her shrill harpy-ness was enough to break glass. "Also, that's<span style="font-style: italic">cheating</span>! You can't just summon people you feel compassion for so that you can put yourself between them and me to activate your perfect defenses; that's not right!"<br/><br/>"Don't you insult my babies, you hack! And how did a Journalist become a Daybreak Caste, anyway? Shouldn't you be Moonshadow?" Marina spoke in outrage, before firing again at a trio of undead who didn't get what 'perfect defenses' meant.<br/><br/>"I had an interest in the Occult. I recorded 'paranormal' phenomena all the time in between supporting Terra Firma," replied Weather Report, who was now walking backward as her opponent's Plasma Elementals advanced towards her, swatting aside her undead as mere gnats.<br/><br/>"Well, that explains things," said Marina as she began cutting aside more undead with her Omni-Tool's Sabre, before switching back to her guns and shooting up Weather Report, whose protective magics began failing...