>Is Marisa occupied?
>If not, yell, "Marisa! Blow that thing up!"
>Should she be, quickly assess it for the best place to hit it and do what looks like significant damage, then follow through on it.
> "Do what now? You're crazy!"
> Her tone is that of approval, however, as she twists around mid-chase after the shadow and throws a heavy punch at the closest part of the reactor. The impact makes a thick, crunching sound as the metal plate that she struck buckles inwards.
> You can see bits of the magical weave around the reactor unravel from the damage done.
> Utsuho takes notice.
> "Defense protocols initiated. Opening rift. Progress: fifteen percent."
> Pulling both hands, trailing solar plasma, out of the star-cloak, she briefly opens a direct connection to the star, sending a blast of unfathomable energy at Marisa.
> Marisa raises both her arms in front of her, trying to block the attack, scattering it in all directions, her shirtsleeves and vest getting disintegrated by the heat.
> The most damage that can be done, you figure, is by destroying the reactor nodes that feed into Utsuho's armour.
> You centre and focus, shutting out all outside distractions. You barely notice Utsuho winding up another starblast. You perceive only slightly the shining mandala forming in front of Marisa. The clash of titanic energies as the two launch their attacks at each other is like gentle waves lapping at the beach of your consciousness.
> All there is is you, and the reactor matrix.
> You know what you need to do. With a series of precise strikes to your own body, you activate the flow of Qi from all your chakras simultaneously:
> your forehead
> your throat
> your chest
> your heart
> your navel
> the base of your spine
> the top of your head
> The Qi overflows your body, flowing out into the space around you, then returning to its core, expanding, returning, expanding, returning, over and over again, until you are nothing but a ball of pure Qi, beating like a living heart.
> Before the sensation consumes you, you strike your right arm, channeling every drop of Qi into one immeasurably precise strike, ponderous on the scale usually reserved for the shifting of continents.
> On the edge of your consciousness, you feel something
shift,
strain, and
crack. With a sound like a bell-chime, the reactor matrix shatters into a million fragments, each gently sailing through the air before evaporating with a little sigh...
> You open your eyes to an incessant clicking sound. You see Marisa kneeling over you, clicking her fingers in your face.
> "Hey, come on, no time to snooze around!"
