KINGDOM BATTLE//AU

9//I hate math

   Cassie took out the Ziggies easily, looking up to find Luke getting beat up with many tries to damage the ape. She looked upon the foe, spotting that after every hit upon it's skin and a revenge against Luke, he would stuff a banana down his gullet, his strength seeming to replenish. 

   With that in mind, Cassie aimed a shot at the banana tree behind Jackson Kong, the shot hitting the trunk with enough force to knock it down. The ape was shocked, sad even, or perhaps panicked. This would allow Luke to barrate him with bworb lasers, and run back to safety. The injured Jackson Kong would roar, and like a raging bull rush at the heroes on all fours. Cassie pulled Luke away as Jackson Kong would smash the ground nearby, a shockwave sending them backwards.

   Luke would wipe moss off his cheek as Jackson Kong would retreat to another corner of the field, the latter with another healing banana tree. He got up, strength starting to rejoin him as the sun dipped lower in the waters below. 

   "I got a plan." He stated.

   Cassie would lead the two behind a cover. "Is it just blowing up the bananas and then blowing up on the math teacher?" She would tease.

   "...Pretty much." Luke shrugged.

   "Okay, I got it." Cassie stated. "Now, I have to get close enough to blow up the tree. You aim in and then fire once he's distracted by his healing spot falling down."

   With a plan in mind, the two split up again. But here they had another adversary on the field, as a couple of Hoppers have joined the fight. Luckily none of them were Stopper! Luke focused on giving the Hopper a beating, while still keeping a distance. Close combat chilled him, but right now, he was cooking up a storm like a chef in a kitchen. The evenings power was surreal within him, but even back home he felt it. He wished he could have another weapon that wasn't as slow as the bworb, giving him more power. Perhaps that was too ambitious...

   Cassie would fall into position, a aim upon the tree from behind a half cover block. Since most of the new enemies were being wrecked by Luke, she was free to fire. Of course Jackson Kong was distraught at losing a healing source again, but this time he wouldn't leave the attackers off easy. Without warning, the huge ape would rush to Cassie, pulling her out of cover and toss her halfway across the battlefield with a roar.

   The roar echoed louder-quieter-louder, as Cassie bounced across the field, her skin burning. What a terrible performance! That hit must have been fueled by all the times she gave sass to him in class. Was she really that bad to make a teacher want to punt a student across a field. Probably.

   Luke took his focus off of the other enemies, and saw Jackson Kong up against Cassie. Ignoring the Hopper's he was soloing, he shot fires at Jackson Kong, over and over again in revenge for Cassie. The ape's attention was turned to the angry teenager, a roar escaping his throat. However, it gave enough time for Cassie to get out and rejoin Luke's side.

   "Thanks for the distraction, but I wanna finish this monkey off together!" She would say, blaster glowing with it's power.

   "It was all for saving my butt at the sunset bridges!" He would say, bworb fired up and ready. 

   Once the monkey math teacher would rush at them with a angry but weak attempt at smashing them to a pulp, the two fired together. The shot had enough force to knock the ape to his back.

   Jackson Kong slid close to the edge, falling just beneath a small tower of even smaller blocks. The weakened ape forced himself up, and with a roar, climbed to the top of the unsteady block tree, waving with forced balance. Cassie and Luke would run up to the smaller tower, standing at it's feet, staring up at Jackson Kong up at the top.

   Cassie's attention turned to a small block that held up almost all the others. If her limited knowledge of weight, mass, and geometry served her right, the whole small tower would fall if that block was removed. 

   So her only logical decision was to remove the block. Beep-0 had rejoined the group, falling beside Luke to watch her actions in terror.

   "Wait-what? Cassie! Stop it!" Beep-0 would call out in warning. 

   In the act of so called petty 'revenge', Cassie removed the small stick-like block. As she predicted, the small tower upon a larger tower would topple, Jackson Kong with it. He would roar as he fell backwards into the night. Cassie however, took a bunch of photos. A memory to remember the day she finally got revenge on her math teacher! 

   Cassie would scroll through the photos on her phone as Luke stood by Beep-0, staring into the abyss.

   "'The tip of the whip that tames the beast is the face of Aphrodite herself'" Beep-0 would quote. 

   "...Is Mr. Jackson going to be okay?" Luke would ask, looking at Beep-0 with a worried gaze. "I don't want to be responsible for hurting anybody trapped here, especially a death."

   "My readings tell me that he's okay. He's very strong in that form, he took it well." Beep-0 would say before standing up straight to bring Cassie into the matter. "At all costs we have to get Spawny back so that nobody gets too hurt. It's already bad enough with most of the population under the control of that rabbit bug!"

   "I suggest we retreat to HQ again. Mr. Moran should have something built for us to use in our time of need, as he has been studying the Vale weaponry and how it works. We also have to rest up. Soon we head North, and our chase will continue."

   It's time to leave the Ancient Gardens behind for now. The journey is FAR from over.