An explosive battle for the title of Queen!

Mekanee tapped the saber she'd been wearing at her hip on the floor. It held such little presence of threat to the Phantom Thieves, they hadn't noticed it until it was unsheathed and making a noise. "That apparatus your friend summoned a moment ago. A 'Persona,' did you call it? I recognize a type of 'magic' when I see it! And, of course, by 'magic,' I mean advanced technology! Well, I can do it too."

"You can summon a Persona?" Now, Makoto was surprised. This Mekanee might be a more challenging opponent than she'd assumed.

Her opponent's cocky smile grew wider. "Yes, of course. " The would-be technomancer waved her hands through the air in a five-second display of handcrafted sigils, which resulted in the appearance of three glowing blue orbs with dinky little wings fluttering in from the corners of the room. Her "Persona" looked far more like plastic drones you'd buy at a store than anything arcane in origin. "These futuristic fae-folk of mine, my Meka-Stingrays, utilize the most sophisticated and powerful forms of magic known to any society: flight and lasers!"

"So... you're saying they're an invention of yours," Makoto concluded, crossing her arms and sighing. "That's interesting, but it sounds like an entirely different thing from a Persona. If you aren't a Shadow, and you haven't got a Persona, I'd feel bad about about using mine to- Hey!"

While the Phantom Thief considered mercy, Mekanee seized an early opportunity to strike, her floating orbs pulsing with faint light as thin rays pulsed out and across Makoto's body. They barely singed the fighter's armor, but they kept firing persistently. The demon laughed obnoxiously. "What's the matter? Instead of mercy, shouldn't you be considering a counterattack?"

"Gh..." Makoto put an arm in front of the shots that were repeatedly landing on her chest, then addressed the team's Navigator. "Oracle, what am I dealing with here? It doesn't really hurt. Is it anything to worry about?"

Futaba's voice crackled in her ear. "Uhh... I'm reading a big goose egg on damage. I think they're hitting your defense in some way. Is she trying to get through your armor?"

"If she is, she's failing." Makoto noted that the lasers had begun chewing tiny pinholes in the sleeve of her jumpsuit, but wasn't concerned. "Even where they got through, they don't hurt when they hit my skin at all. As expected, she's outmatched and overconfident. Can you give me the enemy analysis? I wanna end this quickly."

"Running that analysis now, just a sec. Aha! GGEZ. She has a huge fire weakness, so one nice explosion should take her out. Just get Panther to-"

"An explosion, eh?" Makoto smiled, ignoring both Mekanee's lasers and the conclusion of Orcale's advice. "Sounds like a job for Johanna!" When she called the Persona's name, Makoto summoned her motorcycle Persona beneath her, easily saddling up into riding position. Her allies stood back to give her as much room as possible. "I'll warn you, this is gonna hurt... I have healing magic, too, so I'll fix you up as soon as you've learned your lesson."

All Makoto's warning had accomplished was giving Mekanee more time to shoot tiny holes into the chest of her outfit, as though she was trying to install a cleavage window there. "What is that noisy hunk of junk supposed to teach me?"

"That it's better to have your mouth shut and your teeth clenched when you take a hit!" Makoto could tell her allies were shouting at her not to attack. She figured she must be coming off as more angry than she actually was, but that was all part of trying to put fear into her opponent... They ought to know better than that. She was surprised they couldn't tell. "Freidyne!" As the Phantom Thief shouted, her motorcycle revved and issued forth an enormous blast of nuclear energy, its signature attack type. Makoto had just a moment to consider that she really had overdone it...

... Before she was suddenly clenching her teeth against the unexpected **** of an explosion herself, a blast that knocked her off her motorcycle and flat onto her back on the floor. For a moment, her world was spinning... Her allies were trying to talk to her all around, but she could barely understand them.

Eventually, Oracle's voice came back to clarity in her ear. "Earth to Queen! Come in, Queen!"

"Futaba...?"

"Woah woah woah! Oracle on comms, remember?" Futaba chided her, sounding upset. "You're starting to get me a little freaked out. Listen, like I was saying... You need to use a fire explosion."

"I... did use a fire explosion," Makoto repeated with annoyance, rising to her feet and ignoring the lasers that were still having their slow, ineffectual way with her armor. "That was not a great call, by the way."

"... A-are we really doing this? Oookaaay..." There was a clear pause. "So, Queen, you remember how, uh, all the Shadows we've fought in the history of ever have different weaknesses? So there's like, y'know, fire... ice... lightning... etc.? And I normally point out those weaknesses... But, uh, you guys were, I gotta figure, hitting those weaknesses before I joined the party?"

"Of course."

"So, you know how your Persona, Johanna, makes big nuclear explosions?"

"Yes... fiery explosions," Makoto agreed.

"No no. Nuclear explosions."

"Why are we arguing about this?"

"Th- Wh- Huh? Queen, nuclear is a different element from fire! I'm trying to tell you that she's super weak to Panther's fire, but she's uber strong against your nuclear attacks!"

"That makes no sense. They're both types of explosions, aren't they?"

"Well, don't complain to me about it! I didn't make the rules, that's just how it's always worked! Since ever! Point is, she can reflect your nuclear attacks, and she messed up your armor so you don't have the usual resistance you'd have to your own element-"

"Now I know you're playing a joke on me. Those Meka-Stingrays... which, by the way, I must assume she must have no idea what a stingray is... They barely do anything."

"I don't get why I'm having to explain to the tactical backbone of the Phantom Thieves that not all attacks hurt you directly! Status-lowering effects? Status ailments? Ringin' any bells? Are we doin' the whole tutorial here? Also, you okay with the costume changes she's giving you?"

"Wuh...?!" Now that her attention was called to it, she was aware that the lasers she'd been ignoring had been given so much time to work, they'd given her outfit a bizarre cheetah-spot pattern of exposed flesh.

Savoring her reaction, the tuned-out opponent let out a haughty laugh. "Oh ho ho! As you can see, my Persona's defense is invincible and its offense unstoppable! If you give up now, you can be Cheetah instead of Leatherhead. Better thank me for my generosity!"

Makoto felt ready to spit fire in response, to blow up like a volcano... Finally, her usual cool-headed mind seemed to activate. "Wait a minute. This is how she's controlling the fight. She's riling me up to attack her with taunts, then using my own strength against me. I need to take a moment... calm down... think of a rational approach..." She massaged her temples, finding it harder than she expected to tune out Mekanee's laughter. "Ghh... That is... Ann, do you have a recommendation?"

Ann looked surprised to be addressed. She'd been watching with concern as Makoto's fair skin got more and more exposed. "Me? Wait, are we not using our codenames here, Queen?" She saw another laser hit near the peak of Makoto's right breast and shook herself out of it. "Nevermind! Uh, you want me to just blast her like Oracle said?"

Makoto shook her head. "I need to be the one to take her down. What do you recommend?"

The blonde gave her an awkward smile. "I kinda think... maybe she's getting to you, a little? Feels like the right move would be to keep moving and leave her behind. I think you're gonna regret it if we have to move forward with you in your birthday suit."

"I'm not leaving this idiot unpunished. Haru, do you have any thoughts?"

Haru looked **** to offer any recommendations after seeing Ann get shot down twice, but she eventually timidly spoke up. "Um, I'm sure you already thought of this, so my apologies if I'm being too crass... Couldn't you simply... beat her up? With, um, your martial arts?"

"Haru, I know she's annoying, but she's hardly a combatant. We Phantom Thieves can't just start wailing on people with our fists. But..." Makoto smiled, pounding one gloved hand into the other. "That does give me an idea. Those Meka-whatevers buzzing around ought to be fair game! Once I take those out, she'll surrender."

Haru glanced at Ann, who glanced at her in return. Neither of them seemed convinced. Haru turned back to Makoto. "I don't think... But, well, if you're confident..."

"I'm so confident, I feel like an idiot. I should have simply started this way." Smiling now that she was back in control of the fight, Makoto adopted a martial arts stance. "Even before my persona, I'm confident in my body. I'll solve this in the simplest way!"

At this, Mekanee flinched back. "H-hold on now, you Neanderthal! I challenged you to a magic battle, a sophisticated battle of wits! You can't simply punch me like we're street fighting, you muscle-bound moron! W-wait please I'm not ready!!" The demon dropped her saber and shielded her face, clenching her teeth as she shrank back into a corner.

Of course, the strike she was fearing didn't come. Instead, Queen had begun throwing punches at the zippy, annoying orbs floating around the room, repeatedly hitting air and trying to reposition herself for another precise strike against an unhittable target. As all three of the other women watched, Makoto continued to lunge around the room, pounding walls and swiping empty air with her metal gloves as the unharmed orbs did further and further damage to her outfit.

... After a few minutes of this, Makoto was a sweaty mess wrapped in the tattered remains of her former biker getup. The lasers had been small and they'd worked slow, but hadn't been impeded in any way. By now, Makoto's outfit was less cheetah-spotted and more swiss cheese, giving peeks at her glistening, toned body and nearly threatening to expose some indecency. She hardly had any emotional bandwidth to be humiliated by that, however, when she'd clearly gone all-out and failed to land even one solid blow on a single one of Mekanee's pesky minions. Finally, she had to take a breather, shielding herself with her now nearly-bare arms as she slumped onto the floor. "I can't believe this... it's no use. Can I really not land a hit on this moron?"

Nobody was quite sure how to answer that. All of her allies believed that, certainly, Makoto could land a hit on her opponent, who'd begun another round of cocky laughter, if Makoto was actually attacking the goofy-looking woman and not her mechanical minions. However, no one could argue that if Makoto did actually get her fists on Mekanee after all this song and dance, she'd beat the woman into a pulp. Making matters worse, for whatever reason, Queen seemed determined not to simply run from this fight, even though there was clearly nothing to be gained by winning it. None of them had ever seen Queen like this, but since their temporary leader seemed out of it, they all tried to think of a plan she'd accept.