Fib...is still catching up with her and not yet close enough to do anything, other than maybe throw his sword, which he is not stupid enough to try (for now, at least).

Sniper, meanwhile, is still watching closely, getting ready to fire if the creature escapes from its own skin again to try and nail it midway through the process, hoping that interrupting it might prove fatal.

The creature twitches, it spills out of itself, trying to stagger back to its feet. Strawberry throws herself at it as it does, breaching the carapace on its leg with a punch.

In virtually same instant, a fireball explodes underneath the creature as another incendiary round lands, scorching its freshly regenerated underside and blasting it up into Strawberry's punch.

Fib is now close enough to think he won't miss if he throws his sword, and hucks it with his merely-mortal strength, still managing to gash open the creature's soft and fleshy bulb and his sword embedded in its body.

Strawberry seizes both sword and opportunity as she flips over it, grabs the embedded blade and slashes it out of its body as she attacks with her own sword. It paints the marble with a fresh coat of innards.

With haggard breaths, Strawberry withdraws the purple fire within herself. She manages to relax as she sees that it isn't moving again.

Fib jogs up behind her, seeming calmer and also distinctly dimmer (and no longer stoking the flames of rage in anyone else), though also definitely still on fire. "Well! That was kind of crazy!"

"Rubber men!" Sniper kind of loud-whispers from where they've begun to hunker down against the marble of the ground. Indeed, a handful of the gross sacs dangling from the nearest black tree have fallen to the ground, and brutish, faceless humanoids seemingly made of shiny black rubber are now rising from them, silently shaking off the moisture of their birth.

"Anything I should know about them?" The magical girl says as she readies her blades. She offers the gold one to Fib.

He considers insisting she take it since she's at least as good with it as he is, but given how she's reacted before he just takes it back and tries to wipe off the weird black-purple guts. "They're, uh...sensitive to sound. Not in a weakness kind of way, in a 'it makes them mad' kind of way. They're fucking fast, too, and heavy as fuck. Getting hit by one at full speed has killed me in one shot before. I don't know exactly how that stacks up with your, uh...combat-mode? But it's pretty nasty regardless. But, now that the fight's over, if we keep quiet and stay still, they should just come over, check us out, maybe watch us for a while, and then go back to their home tree and be reabsorbed."

Indeed, Sniper has fully balled up on the marble ground and locked their armor, becoming a motionless golden bumpy nodule resting on the marble.

Well, she can try quiet. She still holds her sword in front of her.

Igniting the Azoth within herself wasn't something that she had considered as a realistic combat option. It was essentially a multiplier for any enhancements that she had made within herself with Azoth, of which she currently had none. The boost has been minor at best, most of her power coming from her Magical Girl transformation and rage.

 She had been holding on to the Azoth she got from the prison in Crucible for a month now. Strawberry had kept telling herself that she should just use it, but the enhancements she could get were minor and 'but what if I need it later?' had been the brain poison that had stopped her from using it. Now she had less of it.

The next time she had some time to herself she was going to just bite the bullet and invest it into her body. At some point she was going to have to choose a weapon and upgrade it, but that could wait.

She waits patiently for the rubber men to approach.

Fib nods, and mirrors Sniper's stance, hunkering down against the ground, covering his head, slowing his breathing, and in general being as still as he can manage. His flames also go mostly blue, with a bit of cyan.

The rubber men walk over, seemingly unhurried. Despite being pretty large, larger than the average human by a significant margin, their steps are completely silent. They almost strut up to Strawberry, inspecting her eyelessly. One gets down on all fours and nudges Fib, while two others break off and continue walking, approaching Sniper's position.

Y'know, I always thought that many creature designs could be improved by removing the eyes. An lo and behold! I'm right. 

She's not worried. Her companions are immortal. And she herself is very strong.

The two rubber men inspect her stalk in a circle around her for a while, but unless she starts making lots of noise, they'll leave her be, turning their attention to Fib instead. Soon enough the other two that were inspecting Sniper also come over to poke around Fib. One of them lays across him, prompting him to flatten out further against the marble. There are briefly tongues of purple and red in his fire, but he quickly returns to still blueness. A second rubber man lays atop him, and he wheezes as the breath he didn't realize he was hold is forced out of him, the noise prompting the rubber man that just laid down to press into him a bit more, though fortunately at this point structure of his armor prevents him from being compressed any further.

They all wait like this for a moment. In the background, Sniper quietly unlocks their armor and carefully begins to stand up.

She keeps still, and quiet. Watching the rubber men with curiosity, then takes a moment to look at her surroundings. Purple clouds, marble as far as she can see, an ominous inverted pyramid in the distance ahead of her, the odd leafless tree. This must be the Prison. She looks down at her feet. She remembers that standing still was a bad idea, but so far nothing seems to have happened. Whatever happens is slow, right? She thinks. She watches as two of the rubber men fixate on Fib. Then blinks as one lays atop him.

Uh?

She turns to Sniper, holding up her sword questioningly.

Sniper slowly and carefully raises up their arms and makes an X with them, before beginning to gently tip-toe towards her and Fib.

The one rubber man that was pressing harder into Fib gives up on trying to press through his orichalcum armor, which fortunately does not creak or groan as the pressure lightens. Fib remains blue, albeit another notch dimmer than he was before, and doesn't take a breath, but slowly turns a gold-gauntleted fist on its side and gives a thumbs-up.

Alright, I guess we can wait.

She just stands there and does nothing for the moment.

It takes a frustratingly long time for the rubber men to be satisfied that there's nothing worth their attention happening, during a which one stacks itself on top of the two already laying across Fib, prompting him to give another quiet thumbs-up.

Finally, maybe fifteen minutes later, the laying ones get up and join the ones stalking around the three of them, then a moment later they and stroll back to the black tree they dropped from and sort of, collapse into its roots. melting back into the substance of the tree, prompting the entire thing to bend and twist briefly, as if resettling itself after reabsorbing their mass.

Fib takes a big breath, then another, as his colors return to a more even mix. "Alright, crisis averted," he says. "Sorry about that. Still not entirely used to the new addition to my contact effects from the all-girls-school world."

"Let's get away from them." She whispers.

Sweet baby Jesus I thought they'd never leave.

She starts walking in the opposite direction of the strange black tree.

Fib grimaces a bit at that, before getting up and following along behind her, Sniper joining them a moment later.

It doesn't take much walking to notice that there's another black tree, growing up from between a pair of marble boxes, ahead them.

"They're kind of the only thing that grows here," Fib comments, quietly.

Ugh. "Fine," Her voice a barely audible whisper. "then what do we do? We just wait quietly until its time to leave?"

"Pretty much. Me and Sniper usually just play games or check social media on our phones."

Check social media?! "The fuck do you mean check social media?" She hisses.

Fib retrieves a fancy silver hand-mirror from under his armor. "This little beauty means I'm connected to my Bevin's internet, which in turn connects to the internet in all the sosei-shita settlements." He stows it back under his armor before adding, "I can give you the current password if you want. The sosei-shita in my Bevin change it every twelve hours, or every 25 passes in the Rim."

I've been gipped! Internet?! His Bevin comes with Internet?! "I don't have a phone. And even if I did, like, it would be from my world, right? Wouldn't there be differences in the... however networking happens? That would make them incompatible?"

"The mirrors handle all of that, actually! It's been remarkably convenient. I can loan you mine for now and I can entertain myself or share with Sniper, and then when we stop in the Rim we can buy you one."

"Huh." She takes the phone from him, then taps on the internet browser, then opens a fresh tab. She stares at it.

She hasn't held a phone or anything connected to a network in a month. And... she has to admit, it was freeing. She googles the current date. Thursday November 11th, 2027. Three years ahead of her.

She hands the phone back to Fib. "I'm good."

He shrugs. "Suit yourself. If you want anything, just tap my shoulder or something."

Then he goes and removes the seat from one of the bikes, set it down on the ground, and sits down with his phone. Sniper opts to sit on their bike itself rather than removing the seat.

Unless they decide to break the silence, or something very unusual happens, it's going to be a quiet hour before it's time to head over to the Rim. Fib's color is distinctly green.