Meap Me in St. Louis

Chapter 11: Tides Turning

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Come on, dude, I just rambled on for three whole pages, and now you're making me start this chapter for whoever knows how long? Can't I have some time to get up and stretch?

(You'll get the chance in a minute.)

Ugh, whatevs.

Immediately following Rachel's command, Skylar mutters to herself, "Oh, this is gonna be fun." The odds of this ending well for them are low at best, and all of them know it.

Nevertheless, they begin marching forwards as well. At first, the two sides move at about the same speed, close to walking speed. Neither side slows down once they've started. The Meapians are determined to reach Shanna no matter what, and the TGF army has to keep them from getting any closer.

Some of the resisting forces up their pace to a slow, steady jog, while the Meapians maintain their pace. "Uh, guys, I don't think they plan on stopping," Brea says nervously.

"Then we won't either," Heath growls. There's no stopping for either side anymore. It's do or die.

Most of the frontliners break into a full-on sprint, which prompts the Meapians to do the same thing. Sam switches the hovercraft from cruising speed to just below its top speed. As the two armies near each other, the aggressive fires within them are fueled even further.

Mitch's army is larger, full of cartoon characters that have a higher tolerance for pain, and has way more components to it, but their combat styles likely won't hold up very well against the highly trained and highly skilled humans of this world, given that their main weapons include water balloons, cotton candy, lollipops, and bubble blowers. Meanwhile, Shanna's friends and the TGF army have stronger wills to take more drastic measures and go as far as needed to defend themselves, but are outnumbered by a factor of ten. It's unclear which side has the greater advantage, though one thing is for certain:

Neither of them are giving up until the very last breath.

Once the two sides meet, it's complete chaos. The Meapians don't pack a whole lot of muscle, and their weapons only serve as a minor inconvenience. They're also small and light enough that Elle and Rachel, who both have soccer experience, are able to kick them far, far away. Some of the walkers and purple creatures trample lesser experienced fighters, and the Meapians in baskets pummel their opponents with water balloons. They explode into cartoon water, which transforms into real water upon contact with the humans, actually getting them wet. The remainder of Mitch's robots also join the fray, though most of them don't last very long before getting blasted away either by mask beams or fire from Heath and Jack. The mask beams also create small explosions in the ground with enough force to blow away groups of up to six Meapians at once.

Like before, Sam quickly gets a high casualty streak going. Thanks to the hovercraft being able to use multiple weapons at once, it can use its machine guns to tackle the robots, energy orbs to take out the walkers and to carve holes in the army, and lasers to pop the balloons carrying the baskets some Meapians are riding in. He also uses a blaster he snuck out of the Sides' lab to shoot a few jetpack-wearing Meapians out of the sky. Most of the Meapians just get stunned, but some do get knocked unconscious.

Avery finds herself face-to-face with four Meapians stacked on top of each other, each carrying a lollipop stick. She tries to get in many kicks and punches, and is blocked every single time. The bottom-middle Meapian uses its free arm to trip Avery when she attempts a high kick, allowing them to pin her down. Punching them adds some marks and bruises to their faces, yet they show no sign of any pain.