A narrow solar beam carves through a sawblade, splitting it in half

Sunny
* AHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

Sunny revels in the destruction she wreaks through her new Love Power.

Sunny
* Get fucked, SAWBLADES!
* Get fucked, SPIKES!
* See how ya like the flavour of my DEVASTATING BEAMS!!!

—Jiro—
...
Your beams are pretty low level actually
→Arrow trap over there.
Don't get cocky...

Sunny
* Not anyMORE there isn't!!! AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
* Fuck me blind we are carving a SWATH here!
* Wherever the fuck we are, I guarantee, it's gonna be a smoking heap of rubble and scrap by the time--!

Sunny notices, way up above, watching them. Silently. The bastard. The light is at his his back, obscuring his features, leaving only a great grim shadow with a very wide wingspan. Sunny immediately sweats.

Sunny
* Oh christ what is that

—Jiro—
...
Ohhhhh no no no no no
I knew he'd show up I didn't say it but I knew
I'd say we need to run but there's no way we're getting away now
My fault
We should have stayed put. I shouldn't have let you leave.
I'm so sorry
→Don't attack him. You can't kill him, it'll only make him mad.

Sunny
* Ahaaa yeah that's definitely a reassuring thing to hear when I see the nightmare gargoyle

The bastard, slow and measured, climbs down from his perch.

Well,

well,

WELL.


Look at you.



Just a little ball of sunshine, are we?

You think
you're on top
of the fucking world.

You must be new here.



I'll let you in on the secret.

It doesn't last.
NOTHING does. Nothing EVER does.


Every light gets snuffed out,
every candle burns down to the wick,
and nothing is left but the
FUCKING DARKNESS.




That fire in your palms will FAIL you.
the ground under your FEET will FALL,
that MISERABLE little SHIT there will LEAVE YOU,

AND THEN WHAT DO YOU HAVE!?




Nothing.

But pain.

And suffering.

And



Sunny
* Do you have a point you're getting to or do you just fuck around like this forever?


A... point...?


Sunny talks back even as the Bastard casts a shadow over her. Jiro is utterly baffled by her actions-- he looks almost offended by how little he understands her thought process here.

Sunny
* I'll be perfectly frank with you mate, you were real fuckin' scary right up until you opened your mouth.
* Which fuckin' Year 8 after school poetry club did you plagiarise that shit from?

Sunny
* "Ooooh everything ends" yeah dipshit I figured that one out when I was 13, the fuck are you still moping over it?
* Got any other sterling insights you wanna share, big boy?
* Gonna tell me my pet rabbit didn't really go to live on that farm out west?



The Bastard crawls up real close, face to face. Sunny keeps a brave and cocky grin, but sweat is beading on her brow again.



I see.
You think you're SMART.

Sunny
* Ahaa, mate. I don't think so, I know so.
* Case in point:

Sunny shows the bastard a little light in her hand, real close to his face.

Sunny
* Flashbang~

FLASH! There is a brilliant, blinding light, from Sunny's hand.















The Bastard blinks and looks dizzy.







Jiro and Sunny have escaped to hide around a corner. They've squirreled themselves away behind a pile of rubble. The Bastard looks around, but his quarry are nowhere to be seen.