"9S?"

"Here."

- At the exact same time as the other 9S.

Mmmmmm don't like that.

But if she and Loki are both out her side is still up one. "Concentrate on the fight," she calls, her sword arcing in for an attack at her doppelganger.

She does the same - 

Though the flow of battle from there isn't mimickry, at least. Or. Well. Not an exact mimicry - Loki is insanely good at hitting things with bladed weapons and is doing a really good job of matching 9S's style. Well enough it'll be hard for any observers to tell them apart, at least quickly in a chaotic melee.  

...And 9S isn't entirely sure Loki's actually fully out, she's getting flickers of weird distortions in her visual sensors around the edges - 

And of course a lot of other things can happen between their allies, with everyone's attention drawn to her trick of turning into 9S...

Lots of things like Ash actually landing a touch on 2B for, instance.

-She wasn't there, 2B knew where she was-

- And Loki grabs Chewie, shoving a muzzle on their face as they try to pull her in with their tentacles - 

And Rocket opens fire on both 2B and Gamora from where 2B thought Ash had been standing - 

Gamora hits the ground and steps up her attempts to unravel Loki's construct-illusions.

And ?Loki? ?9S's doppelganger? stops pretending quite so hard to be her, and her blows start coming faster and harder, trying to get more into 9S's personal space - 

More into dagger range, really. 

No thank you, she would really prefer not to be in dagger range. Would really prefer to be out of melee range entirely, if that's an option. Which it probably isn't, but all she needs is enough enough space to blast 2B with the updated sensor package algorithms she's been working on-

She can get that! 

At the cost of her doppelganger lunging through her guard when she's at her most vulnerable. 

A calculated sacrifice. On the upside-

2B is now engaging Rocket and Ash with substantially improved accuracy, less distracted by the illusions and more precisely targeting their weak point.

Gamora gets off a counter spell - the Loki holding Chewie pops like a soap bubble - 

And then, for no externally apparent reason, she passes out. 

And the doppelganger fades into Loki, who steps into place with Ash to engage 2B.

2B could almost certainly take her in melee if she was alone. 

She isn't alone. 

Unfortunately not.

This seems like a loss.

2B does take them a while to whittle down -

But Loki's durable enough to tank even 2B's heaviest blows - she almost makes a point of showing that off, and it lets her pretty easily intercept blows aimed at her team - 

And with three enemies, 2B's durability is pretty likely to run out before hers.

Mm. No point taking serious damage in a spar.

She backs off once that's clear, twisting her hand - which wakes Gamora up. 

"Good fight," she says, stretching. "I actually felt that."

"It did not much appear so."

She laughs. "I can ignore pain when I need to. But I'm going to have a nice sore bruise tomorrow."

"Oof. Nice to know it wasn't all for nothing, I guess."

"You guys are good."