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You're forced to look away, shielding your eyes from the brightness of the expanding ki. By the time the explosion fades into nothing more than smoke, the Nimbus has successfully caught you once more, sparing you from hitting the ground at terminal velocity thanks to its squishy body. Your eyes look around the hazy sky where Popo once was, and even spare a glance down to the skies and ground below, but you don't see any sign of your friend. In a vain hope, you expand your ki senses, but you can feel nothing of his energy either. It seems as though Mr. Popo is no more.
"No, damn it! Why him?!" You cry out, feeling tears welling up at the corners of your eyes. A familiar acidic anger wells up in your chest, the same kind as when you fought Garlic, but you push it down for now - you can't afford to go wild out here, far away from the target of your ire and far too close to a city full of innocents as you are. Clenching your fists so tightly that your nails dig deep enough into your flesh as to produce blood, you make the decision to return to the others as quickly as possible.
Even with the Nimbus going as quickly as it possibly can, it takes another minute to return to the Lookout. A minute filled with growing worry and dread, as you had no choice but to abandon the fight for two full minutes that your enemy could use to turn the tides. Would you come back to find any of your other friends dead? Would Piccolo's Malevolent half have beaten down everyone else with his absurd natural power, with his good half unable to stop him due to their link?
Once you're close enough to the Tower's bottom, you snap yourself out of your spiralling thoughts and leap from the Flying Nimbus, hopping from air-step to air-step to make the climb in just a few seconds. With a tight series of flips, you land onto the surface of the Lookout once more, and draw your gaze across it to gather information on how things have changed.
Both Piccolos are nursing a deep cut across their chest, purple blood spilling forth from it - though only the evil half's shirt is torn where the cut happened. Barbar's artificial arm seems to have been shattered to pieces, while Harum appears to have been thrown into the west wing of the lookout's accommodations - he's still extricating himself from the rubble, it looks like. Kami has two holes in his shoulder, which he's clutching while glaring out the enemy, and Azalea is...initially nowhere to be seen, strangely enough.
"Only one of you came back, hmm? What a shame. I thought I felt one of your life forces get snuffed out." King Piccolo says with a vicious grin, before holding up his hand. Within his fist is Azalea, struggling to try to free herself to no avail, even going so far as to ineffectually bite at the villain's hand. "I would think twice about attacking me if you don't want to lose another friend!" He gloats, causing your anger to boil up even further. You want nothing more than to give in to your rage right now...
