Thalia skipped across the rooftops, bounding her way towards the thick and pulsating aura she could see across the way. It had such a powerful feel to it, the Kitsune couldn't help but feel excited. Scarcely did she get the chance to fight strong Magical Girls. Whatever was happening, she wanted to be a part of it.

Not least of all, of course, was because she wanted to be there to help Penny with whatever trouble she had gotten herself involved with. That was still the primary goal of the excursion. However, coming in at a close second was her desires. Hunting monsters with her friend had been all well and good to tide her over, and her whistle had helped some too. But without fighting something truly powerful Thalia couldn't help but feel pent up. Everything before this, since the Hospital, felt like a teaser.

As she ran to the edge of another roof, preparing to jump, she stopped mid stride - putting the breaks on abruptly. From the location she was heading, a huge surge of power erupted, followed by an immense increase in the pressure from the Aura she had been following. There was only one explanation for something of such magnitude. Finally, Thalia would get the fight she had been waiting for since the Hospital.

Somebody had just entered their Monstrous Metamorphosis, and by the Dark magic it resonated, it was one of Penny's combatants. There would be no need to hold back against them. What's more? Thalia was only a few blocks away. She jumped onto the opposite building just in time to watch as the giant creature leapt into the air, and beneath him Dark magic exploded outwards into black domes of nothingness. Thalia grinned as she jumped to the next building, and the next, as quickly as her legs would carry her. This was one fight she refused to miss.

Penny was momentarily surprised as he target took to the skies causing her to rush past where he had been only moments ago. Quickly she skidded to a halt and turned to face her chosen target, she was less surprised to see the glowing ball of steel in his hands as he started his decent.

Such was her focus she didn’t hear the crack of a rifle shot in the back ground. Instead she made a small hop backwards taking her out from under where Elroy was to fall and planted herself in a sprinters crouch. Her left hand literally dug in to the concrete below her and the few claw like blades had sprouted on her feet, would make sure she would be firmly rooted to the ground when the monster came crashing down. Her right arm was held tight against her body with the blade connected to it facing forward. The second he hit the ground Penny was planning on repeating her prior actions, only this time she was aiming at his back.

Absently she noted the black spheres popping up randomly across the battle field, thankfully none of them landed in her path. She had an inkling as to what caused them but put off that thought for later. For now she was focused on her fight.

Softly the sound of her spooling up for a shot began building; she would be ready for another round in ten seconds.

---

“I could have sworn, Sue mentioned something about paying” Violent said after a moment, not even giving the waitress a second thought. A moment later she shrugged and turned her attention back to the menu again “Guess I’ll have to be more frugal, but we are making sure you get a milkshake at least Mari” she said pointing at her friend through the mirror with a grin.

“I assume they didn’t take the bait?” Violet asked her sister as she narrowed down her food choices besides a mailkshake.

Alicia Hayden

She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, but the fact that it did enough damage to the monster that it at least earned a response was good enough for her. If she could help Penny end this fight, then so much the better. It was a sentiment that did not last very long as the building collapsed, ripped partially down by Elroy as he did his best to imitate a wrecking ball and hit back. It wasn't too hard to guess that his power was related to metal, or just flat out strength. That was more Penny's problem at the moment.

As he went airborne she tensed, prepared to jump out of the way lest he come down on top of her or target her with that attack. Yet her attention was drawn away by the crack of a rifle, and a sudden burst of pain from her left leg.

"Gah!" A cry escaped as she stumbled and almost hit the ground, her gaze swinging downwards to find the glancing wound from the bullet. Her uniform had tanked the brunt of the damage, but it was clearly more than just a mundane bullet.

Alicia's musing was interrupted as the pain spiked to a new high, like multiple bones had been broken as her most lucid guess. Magic, that was the only answer. Blinking tears from her eyes Alicia scanned the area, trying to find the source of the shot even as black domes began striking nearby. That girl from before, she had to still be around.

No time, there was no time to worry about that. Drawing on her light magic and her inner Spark,, she placed her hands over the wound and concentrated in the manner that Beacon had taught her. "Cleanse," she muttered between grit teeth holding back sobs of pain. Bright, white light flared into existence and a warmth began to spread through her form that untangled and banished the curse that had taken root there as best she could.

Which was, well, just enough time to begin stumbling away from Elroy's impact zone. She just hoped she was far enough away.

@Shifter_Master@BrokenPromise@Majoras End

---

"W-woah!!" Scout yelped as she momentarily lost her balance from Elroy's attack. She quickly got back into her position and fired at the monster boy, hoping to cover for Penny and Alicia without needing to transform. But when Alicia got hurt, she changed her mind very quickly.

"Grrrr..." Scout was starting to get annoyed by the monster, gritting her teeth as she bounded deeper into the space between two buildings. Taking a deep breath, she said her incantation with determination in her eyes,



If some of the combatants weren't distracted, they would see a light from the middle of the buildings as the young sniper was twirling like a mix of a graceful ballerina and a melee brawler. First, her boots were turned into smaller, dark blue boots. Then, her matching shorts and shirt became one dress with a red corset. Her cape was cut back aswell, as a leather gautlet formed on one of her hands. Finally, her hair grew long enough to reach her back as a classic witches' hat formed on her head, and her eyes now a shade of red.

She threw her rifle into the air as it turned into Sorprono's Cipher, catching it as it flew down.

As the light dimmed down, Scout walked out of her hiding spot and dogwhistled at Elroy, gaining his atention.

"Yo Donkey Kong! Mind leaving the ladies be?" She asked, mocking his appearance.

---

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@BrokenPromise

@Shifter_Master@PlatinumSkink[@t2wave]

By the time Amber got to the Pit Stop, Alexander and Lily had already moved on. Which was probably for the best, considering the nature of what she was going to do. But Amber didn't intentionally miss them, that was just how things turned out. Amber had gotten lucky in that nobody stopped her to ask where her parents were. Well, not until she got inside the diner anyway.

“Oh, aren't you adorable!” A waiter said. “Do you know where your mommy is?”

“Yes.” Amber proceeded to walk past the waiter without speaking further. Man the city was a tough place to get around when you looked like a kid. It wasn't until Amber wasn't running through the cold air that she realized how little information she was working with. Where was everyone? Had they all left together? Amber knew she forgot to ask Sue a few things, but she was so eager to meet the Djinn sisters again that everything else slipped her mind. Amber started calling out names as she walked around the diner. “Lily! Sue! Alexander! Sakura! Violet! ...Mariette...” It wasn't like Amber knew what anyone's untransformed state looked like, save for Lily and Alexander. Well, even if they weren't here, there was someone else who was expecting to see Amber at the Pit Stop.

---

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Majoras End

Elroy was angry, not stupid. The two were easy to confuse sometimes. An angry person is more impulsive and tends to not consider the same number of variables as a calm person does. But rage can also make one more focused. Elroy was fully intent on breaking the cyborg below him. Even when Penny moved completely behind him, He still tried to look through his massive shoulder at her. This didn't work, but he clearly knew she was there.

Fortunately for Penny, she was correct in assuming that Elroy couldn't adjust his trajectory in the air. He descended to earth with his metal boulder in tow and slammed into the ground like a meteor falling from the hevens. Elroy's landing zone had become a crater, and the dirt and stone that use to inhabit that area were thrown in every direction. The debris were by no means dangerous to a magical girl, but it did limit visibility in Elroy's vicinity. More dangerous was the shock wave. Even people further away from the quake like Alicia and Scout would find it difficult to keep their footing. Penny, and conceivably Elroy too, could feel the force behind the attack. If Elroy wasn't holding onto a boulder, And Penny wasn't so close to the ground, they probably would have lost their balance too. It was difficult for anyone to act with the earth shaking so violently, especially those who hadn't braced themselves for the impact. Scout shot her rifle at Elroy. But between losing her balance, the dust from the impact, and all the dark zones on the battlefield, it was impossible for her to tell exactly where Elroy was. She did her best to guess, but still ended up missing. After transforming, Scout attempted to taunt Elroy into attacking her. But Scout's attempts to get the giant's attention were unsuccessful. He was much more focused on the magical girl that “killed” Regina.

Penny's gambit seemed to be paying off. Even after that last attack, Penny would be able to resume her charge directly into the giant red ape's back. But unlike most opponents, Elroy's back wasn't an undefended weak point. This was where his seemingly endless supply of chain stemed from. He couldn't see Penny, but Elroy knew she was there. The transformed demon boy would charge into the shop's wreckage while flailing his chains like whips. He had left behind that massive bolder, but all the scrap metal was starting to take shape. Though it was still too early to tell what he was doing.

...

Even though Regina had braced for it, the shock nearly threw Regina to the floor. Had she not been crouching beside the wall, she probably would have been on her face right now. But that wasn't really on Regina's mind at the moment. She needed to assess the situation. It was time to look out the “window” with the scope and see what was up.

As Regina had suspected, Alicia was able to recover from the curse rather quickly. She wished she had gotten to see her recover from it, just to confirm she used light magic. It was still entirely possible she drank a potion or something. Wait, were there such potions? Regina wouldn't be able to learn as much about magic from this battle as she initially thought. Oh well. Regina would have to stick with her original idea.

Or at least she would have if she didn't hear the sound of another rifle firing. What was this? Beacon reinforcements? Regina waved her staff in the air to call five more magic mortars into existence. Soon afterwords Scout stepped out of her hiding spot and attempted to taunt Elroy. Oh, aren't you a mouthy little brat? Perhaps the experiments weren't quite over yet. Regina swung her sniper staff and lobbed one of her mortars at the newly arrived magical girl. Shortly afterwords, Regina stepped into a shadow only to reappear on a lower floor. She felt she was giving away her position by constantly attacking from the same vantage point. If Scout got caught in the blast, she wouldn't be able to see anything going on outside the dome of magic. That, and she would feel dizzy as long as she was standing inside the cursed zone. The vertigo curse affects the inner ear, causing the people inflicted by it to feel like the world is spinning, or like they spun around a few too many times in an office chair.

---

It was quite unfortunate for Suwako that her patrol route that day was on the opposite direction to where the garage was, or else she would've felt the surge of energy coming from Alicia's fight. She was only notified of the current situation when she received a text in her phone saying that all Beacon magical girls were to aid Alicia immediately, as she was engaged in combat with a duo of monster boy and girl. She wondered if Alicia asked for backup herself or was it the higher-ups' decision? In any case, she sure as well couldn't just ignore it. And so, she quickly turned around, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, aided by the occasional trees as she headed to the location as quickly as possible. She didn't really care if the civilians might see her. This was an emergency after all.

When she arrived near the marked location however, she didn't rush to the building right away. Instead, she went to the nearest tree and used her magic to grow its roots to surround the area. This was another application of her magic, spy roots. With her ability to grow plants and talk to them, she could combine the two to create a highly stealthy and unnoticeable network of spies all around the area. No one would ever look suspiciously to a couple of roots growing out of the ground after all.

Once the roots were spread, she began to communicate with said tree. She immediately knew how many combatants there were on the scene. The tree couldn't really see, but it could sense the energy coming from them. And the distinctive dark energy of the monster transformation, making her able to pick up where their location were. So she knew that there were three normal magical girls and two monster girls. Obviously, her target would be the monster ones.

And they were already in the middle of battle, so she was late to the party.

Might as well use this opportunity for a sneak attack.

She decided on the more stationary target since the other one seemed to be a melee fighter, the way she clashed with a magical girl at close range.

With the tip of the root that was there near her, she grew it to be gigantic in an instant. It lashed out right towards the monster girl from behind. She intended to use it to grab her and drag her underground, or at least immobilize her. Stationary types were usually snipers so she shouldn't have enough strength to break up from her plant once it caught her.

@BrokenPromise

Thalia ran her way across the roof, stopping just at the edge as the seismic wave shook the foundations of the building. She only barely kept her balance, crouching down to avoid tipping over entirely, and surveyed the field below. The beast of a Mahou, her current best friend, the Bacon girl, the girl she had never seen before, and another explosion of Dark Magic.

Somebody was controlling the battle from behind the scenes, it seemed. But why weren't the others searching for the perpetrator of the black orbs domes? Unless the point of the beast was to conceal the other's location? They must have been a team, in that case. Possibly even a Twin Soul, but she wasn't exactly prepared to jump to conclusions. Wait, what?

Her thought process ground to a halt as she wondered what exactly she was doing. There was a fight going on, with a Mahou in their Monstrous Form, and Thalia wasn't partaking yet? She smiled, and licked her lips, before pulling from the ether her two daggers. Magical energy passed through them, in preparation for her attack, and the blades began to glow a searing red.

The Kitsune took a couple steps back, and crouched down, before taking off in a sprint to the edge of the roof. She leapt, and far, did a summersault for extra style points, waved and winked at Penny in case she noticed her, and brought herself into a diving position, both daggers aimed at the back of the giant monsters head. Inside herself, she spooled up magical energy, preparing for what would happen next. If she connected, or if she was hit away, the energy would release around her in a reasonably sized local explosion; surely enough to at least hurt the beast a little bit, right?

<in collaboration with @BrokenPromise>

‘Mistress, Amber’s approaching.’ Eli spoke out. She didn’t whisper, which meant her voice actually carried out of the portal next to Mariette’s head and out to the people attending. Mariette simply nodded to this, otherwise listening to Violet’s words. Seems like she was getting a milkshake. She imagined someone shaking a milk-carton to make it, which confused her.

‘… Eeeeeeeexcuse me~!’ Deni grinned and slipped out of her chair to get up and move towards the entrance. Quite clearly, she had something in mind that she wanted to do. Mariette didn’t really mind, she’d trust Deni not to make a complete fool out of herself or get herself in trouble. Amber couldn’t be here to attack, not in a diner while the Djinn Sisters were here and such, right? Regardless, Mariette made ready for a quick exit…

Meanwhile, Amber entered and yelled some names, which quickly gained the attention of Deni. Of course, Deni knew how Amber looked untransformed, but the other way around…

Amber suddenly found that a rather tall, 19-or-so year old girl with long black hair, significantly sized chest and show-offy clothes approached her with a wide grin.

‘There you are! Awww, you’re so much cuter when you’re smaller than me~!’ She called, giggling looking down at her. She was 3000% burning and hoping to get asked the question “who are you”.

Amber looked up at the woman, a bit confused. The pirate girl made a slow response, sounding out every word like she was unsure if she was saying it right. "Do I know you?"

‘Aw, you don't recognize me? Well, suppose I look quite a bit different~’ Deni giggled again, before leaning forward towards Amber. Maybe a little closer than she needed to, while raising two hands up to her own chest. ‘But yes… It's really nice to have breasts~!’ She then pressed them together, to just emphasize their size while in that heart-shirt while gazing expectantly at Amber.

… Deni had totally been looking forward to just seeing whatever expression Amber would have upon realizing that Deni had these authentic things, now.

Amber's eyes started to widen like saucers. "You..." She then pointed at Deni's chest. "You're..." after a few seconds of staring directly at Deni's rack, completely godsmacked, Amber smirked. "...clearly using illusion magic." Amber continued to grin and puffed out her chest. "Yea, magical girls, even monsters, don't have such a radical appearance change when they aren't in costume." Amber's eyes closed half way and she pointed at Deni's breasts. "Here, let me unmask that fake chest of yours!" She dove onto Deni, latching onto her breasts with a mighty bear hug. "H-heh! These feel pretty convincing, but I'll expose you!"

Deni smirked widely at Amber's eyes widening, watching her with a pleased grin, when the notion of illusion magic was mentioned. She then giggled a little, amused as Amber told her explanation, raising a hand to her mouth. Oh, so reasonable.

She hadn't expected being dived, though. ‘Oh. Oh, my.’ Deni stumbled a little as her chest was hugged, a blush reaching over her cheeks as the things acted like they should, and since Deni had specifically wished for "all the bodily functions that follows", she felt it as well. But... Amber clutching on them was so precious, and just smiled so happily under her blush watching her.

‘Tihi, take all the time you need~! But, heh, remember that we're in a public restaurant~!’ Deni reminded, looking down on her happily.

"Not my problem." Amber looked up at Deni. Her evil grin had some strange shark-like features. were humans capable of smiling that wide? "You're the adult, I'm just a spoiled little brat. isn't that right, MOMMY!?"

Deni grinned right back, not disturbed by Amber's reasoning. ‘Don't tempt me, I might just~!’ She playfully lifted a hand, flexing fingers approaching Amber's cheek, threatening to playfully pinch it as one might teach a lesson to a younger-looking "brat"~!

In leaning away from Deni's hand, Amber caught a glance of the people Deni had been sitting with. "Oh cool, they must be the twins!" She looked at Deni out of the corner of her eye, fretting her brow as she did so. "We'll finish this later." She released Deni's chest and walked towards the table, grumbling "they can't possibly be real!" over and over again until she was seated behind the mirror, unable to look into its reflection.

Deni was amused by Amber leaning away, but then blinked in a bit of realization when Amber's attention switched. She smirked a bit, simply nodding to the statement of finishing it later. Being released, Deni could finally stand up straight again, taking a slightly deeper breath as she did. After that... she could but stand there shaking in amusement, placing a hand over her mouth to restrain her giggle, which was still audibly escaping her. That had been so much fun. Deni was still a child in her mind. This power that she had wished herself was awesome. Meanwhile.

"Hey guys! You're Violet and Sakura right? That was a pretty fast delivery huh?" Amber didn't wait for a response before going on. She seemed happy though, almost excited to get to the nature of her appearance. "Alright, so to make a long story short, I'm going to give you a rare opportunity to grant a wish for me. Now I know you said you couldn't bring the dead back to life, but what about giving someone a body if they are technically still alive? Like say, they are reduced to just this?" Amber reached into her shirt and pulled out Helga's soul stone. With the pendant still looped around her neck, she held the soul stone out for the twins to see. "I guess what I'm saying is... I wish Helga's body was whole again."

@Shifter_Master@t2wave

Despite her good tactical sense, Penny’s lack of knowledge of Elroy’s monster form stymied her charge as she was forced to block or dodge the flailing chains. She wasn’t able to avoid all of them as she had charged directly in to them before she noticed them as a hazard, but their wild sings didn’t have much direction behind them, so she escaped with little more than scratches and scuffs to show for it. Even that would be gone shortly as she regenerated the damage away.

She stopped for only a moment as she formulated another plan, before she took off charging again, this time at the slowly changing ball of scrap. As Penny neared she deactivated the blade on her arm so it wouldn’t interfere with her next action. She didn’t slow as she reached the ball; instead she launched it at Elroy byway of twin punches and just a tiny amount of magnetic repulsion, turning it in to a makeshift cannon ball. Its speed wasn’t anything surprising, the force it could impart if it hit was still impressive.

Penny slowed down only long enough to reset her footing and took off after Elroy yet again, her arm blade once again extended. As she ran her mouth dropped open just slightly, she was primed for another gauss shot any moment now.

As she neared she caught a glimpse of something in the air, her lips quirked at the sight of Thalia entering the fray. It was heartening to have her friend back.

@BrokenPromise@Vocab

---

Violet was quietly humming to herself as she worked out all the delightful ways she would get to spoil her new friend, as it sounded like Mariette honestly had no idea about any of the better things in life, when she heard her name being called out by a familiar voice. She was about to move to see what was going on when she noted Deni had already done such. So she just sat back and watched.

“When we go looking for something we always know where to look” Violent answered cryptically color=slateblue]“and they are quite real”[/color] she added with a grin.

Said grin dropped away as Amber moved straight in to why she was here, and was replaced with a surprisingly somber look. ‘Think quickly Sis, any reason why I shouldn’t?’ she thought quietly. Violet couldn’t resist helping people when a wish was put forward, thus she tended to rely on Sakura to be a voice of reason if needed.

That said Violet was tempted to grant the wish on the spot, if they weren’t in a public restaurant she would have likely already transformed and been half way to granting it. So unless Sakura had a very good reason, Violet was likely going to be granting said wish.

“Obviously we won’t be able to do that here” She replied verbally as she looked between Amber and the pendant “But yeah, that should be within our power”

@PlatinumSkink@BrokenPromise@t2wave

That's the one Lily fried with her lightning. She said mentally to her sister. sakura could tell thanks to her Third Eye. The soul jar had the same magical signature. Pondering over it for a bit she shrugged slightly. "I don't see why not, so long as she doesn't intend to harm us or our friends here."

A waiter came by and she stopped him briefly, ordering some milkshakes to go. Seemed their business here was done so they might as well hed out. Plus Mariette had some business to attend to and she didn't want to keep her any longer than needed. She turned to Amber and Helga. "I think that's a fair request. What do you think Helga?"

Since Violet had already pretty much decided, Sakura just wanted to sweeten the deal a bit more in their favor since there was a lot going on here in Penrose. And the last thing she wanted was her or her new friends getting backstabbed thanks to a wish getting granted.

Alicia Hayden

It seemed things were escalating yet again as more magical girls arrived to take part in the fight, but Alicia was distracted as Elroy came down for his massive blow. Already shaky on her foot from getting shot, the shockwave rolled over her without mercy. Her feet gave out and stars burst behind her eyes as her head smacked the ground. "Gah!"

She was stunned for a few seconds, her head ringing from the impact as the fight continued to rage around her. Alicia knew that she couldn't just sit back though, and that this was only making her a sitting duck for that girl from before. It was just a matter of getting her body to listen to her and do what she wanted.

Stumbling to her feet, her vision wavered before resolving, and she ignored the throbbing in hr temple from where it had collided (which was now bleeding from a gash though she did not realize it). Hefting her bow, Alicia assessed the situation to figure out where she would be most of use. The other girls who had arrived seemed to be focused on Elroy, so she would have to deal with the girl. She had a general idea of where the shot came from at least, though she didn't know the specific location.

Well, if that was the case then she would just have to hit everywhere. Raising her bow Alicia targeted he building across the street and focused energy into the created arrow. Light traced itself in a sigil in front of the bow similar to the trick that she had used back at the hospital. When she fired, it caught the arrow and multiplied it before redirecting it to hit every window in the building that she could see at the same time. She gave it a couple moments before repeating the process, hoping to get some sign of where her target was so she could better zero in her barrage.

@Hammerman@BrokenPromise@Majoras End@Shifter_Master@Vocab

---

"Ugh, what am I even saying?" Scout facepalmed at her recent action, emitting an annoyed grunt. "I mean, I'm talking to a GORILLA HELLSPAWN FOR F-""Mistress, watch out!" before she could finish her sentence, Theresa, who was flying above the battlefield gave her a heads up for Regina's attack. She quickly leaped out of the way just before she could be trapped the cursed zone. "Whew! Thanks Theresa!" she told the owl familiar, taking a breath of relief. Looked like lady luck was on her side this fight.

Scout looked at the zone and thought, How would the monkey attack while he's fighting? Unless...there could be a puppeter behind the strings.. She noted the theory for after the fight as she watched Elroy from afar, tracking his attacks, movements, and reactions. Suddenly her eyes wandered to the monster boy's back, where the chains were appearing from, and especially a weak point. Scout slowly grinned at her discovery, a cheshire esque, killer grin that would have made others around her step back in fright and confusion. With other magical girls joining the fight, she knew that fighting close range is the necessary strategy.

And thus, she made a running start at Elroy as she readied her weapon. Three tree like tentacle grew out of her back as they latched onto the monster one by one. Mimicking water skiing, she quickly waved at Penny passing by, and focused her rifle at the boy's back. Her eyes turning a slight tint of orange, a sign that her ability is active, she started firing at the chains on his back to break them off, and for his back to be vulnerable. Scout still made sure to dodge said chains and hazards as much as possible though.

Regina had only just stepped out of a shadow in one of the first story bedrooms. Despite her sudden appearance, a root somehow anticipated where she was. It tore through the floorboards and subsequently through the shaded wall she had stepped out of. Had it not been for the root's extremely loud, obstacle-filled path towards Regina, it might have snagged her. But Regina was able to turn around in time to deal with the root. But for all Regina's power, she was still a novice monster girl. Having something like that try to enter your personal space was bound to make almost anyone a little nervous. The succubus shrieked and fired a round directly into the “tentacle.” The bullet may have been small, but it operated on the same principles as Amber's cannon balls. The tiny bullet carried enough energy to turn the root into a mess of splinters. But the real root of Regina's problems came in the form of twelve light arrows aimed at every window on the face of the building. Regina knew she couldn't out run an arrow, so she ducked into a corner and waited for the inevitable. She held her hands over her head as the arrow salvo rocked the building. The monster girl managed to avoid the direct explosion, but the shock wave and debris were enough to throw her forcibly into the wall. This wasn't an attack she was going to just shrug off. Nothing had been broken, but the bruises along the side of her body wouldn't stop hurting during the fight. Before the second barrage hit, Regina quickly sprinted to her feet and dove into the wall. This time she came back out on the top floor on the opposite side of the building. She could feel the second barrage through the vibrating floor. This excessive use of brutality. Anything that caused her to hide in a corner like that was...

Disgusting

Regina was getting aggravated. There were too many people now, and she was starting to lose control of the situation. And that was one thing that Regina wasn't going to stand for. But Regina knew she had lost her advantage. More beacon girls would arrive soon, and Alicia would soon pinpoint her exact location. If Regina wanted vengeance, she would need to do it with her next attack. But who really deserved to fall victim to Regina's judgment? The magical girl who rudely sent her away, or the monster girl that fired a Vulcan blast at her, unprovoked? Suddenly what Regina had to do became so much simpler.

Regina opened one of the hallway doors and aimed out the windo, stabilizing her weapon against the door frame. The pain from the bruises on her right side hampered her a bit, but she was still able to focus through the pain. Her dark mortars were still hovering in place over the hole in the roof. So she sent them off, homing in towards Elroy. Regina's ability to see minds made it possible to spot Penny, Scout, Thalia, and Suwako. They were in relatively close proximity to Elroy, and she would be able to easily blanket the area in darkness with her homing mortars. Of course Suwako would get a very special dark mortar all to herself. She was a bit further away from Elroy, and he wouldn't get hit by the curse. If Suwako found herself caught in the blast, she would be treated to something more sinister than just darkness. There was a mana devouring curse in the mortar aimed at her, and Suwako would feel her mana being ripped directly out of her body, weakening her spells.

But even with all the darkness surrounding Elroy, none of that had any effect on Regina's ability to hit a target. She took aim at Penny and fired. It was a magic bullet with a frailty curse, designed to weaken the body and make it more susceptible to harm.

---

A rolling metal bolder, a descending monster girl, and an array of tentacles and bullets, all aimed at Elroy's monstrous shape. An impressive pincer attack, especially considering the three magical girls had limited time working together. Most monsters in Elroy's position couldn't hope to get out of such a mess, least of all without taking substantial damage.

But Elroy was angry, not stupid.

The monster boy was not merely charging through scrap steal for the fun of it, he was collecting it and swinging it around himself. Much like electrons swarming around the body of an atom. Scout's roots were instantly sheered in half by a sheet of steel, and what few bullets struck Elroy's chains simply bounced off. Elroy's chains were made out of aegis, and few attacks could break them so easily. Thaila likely had time to protect herself from the scrap hurricane that enveloped Elroy, but the explosion she caused when she struck the barrier wasn't close enough to do any lasting damage. Though both Scout and Thalia's attacks did manage to slow Elroy down a bit. The massive boulder rolled through the wall of flying scrap like it wasn't even there. Elroy was able to block it with his hands, but he was still pushed backwards by the boulder when it hit him. The concrete gave out under his feet as he struggled to stay upright. Though with his mastery over metal, it was only a matter of time before it was dissolved into his spinning steel barrier.

That was when all the random dark zones around the area expired, and new ones started to show up. Three detonated over the garage area, swallowing Elroy and his attackers in darkness.

Elroy now had all of the scrap that made up the garage at his disposal, and he quickly put the finishing touches on his creation. The spinning maelstrom of steel slowed down as the pieces bent around each other. In no time at all, he was encased in a hollow “ball” of metal. Elroy even had enough scrap left over to make himself some makeshift spear, which he floated over his shoulders. Technically he couldn't see his opponents, but his mastery over metal let him sense the only target he cared about. Elroy charged towards Penny, causing the sphere he was in to roll forwards. In the event that anything was able to break through his steel barrier, he would have a spear or four ready for them, depending on the severity of the break.

As Penny and Elroy charged towards each other, Regina's bullet ripped through the air like a bolt from the heavens.

@Flamelord@Shifter_Master@Majoras End@Vocab@Hammerman



Much like with the hospital roof, a little zero gravity float was enough to prevent Elroy's slam from harming her. Technically, she could just put an image of Regina surviving in his brain to make this fight end sooner, but letting things drag out on Beacon's turf was sure to destroy the shop, weaken the surrounding structures, and put a dent in Beacon's wallet. Anything that tipped things a bit more in favor of the little guys was good in Tonya's book.

Now there was actually no way Suwako could know Regina's position, nor could Regina's attack drain that much mana. But with Tonya in attendance, they would at least think they could. Regina's bullets ripped through an illusion, and soon afterwards, Suwako would fall to a punishing curse that no magical girl could reasonably cast. She had also managed to angle Alicia's arrow far enough away from Regina that it wouldn't do too much damage, compared to what it would have done.

Penny wasn't in a good spot, so Tonya didn't worry too much about her.

Crash and boom, thunder and destruction.

Oh my. They're not being very subtle about this at all, are they? commented Jillian as she floated in the air beside Julia. It was only her other self's gravity-based grip upon her form that kept her from floating away, as light as a feather. Julia -unperturbed by having to support both of them- simply hummed as she felt the destructive battle unfold between the various magical individuals. Some of them had a recognizable -and annoying- feeling to them; neither of them were in line of sight of the battle itself, but rather were relying upon their secondary senses provided by their magic. Tracking the noise down had been easy, with the aid of functioning ears and their various extra senses.

The entire event was a rude interruption to what had otherwise been a pleasant day spent alone and in companionable silence. At least it was also a chance to learn more, she hesitantly reasoned with herself.

And yet...

Julia bit her lip as she considered possibilities. They had an overwhelming level of physical power available, and the combatants were distracted. On top of that, some of what she felt was familiar and annoying. Her anger had not been quelled by the chance to feel out the competition, not yet. If an opportunity presented itself to destroy some of that competition -to assert her dominance, a part of her whispered- then she wouldn't complain.

And, well... She was was hungry.

The plan didn't need to be spoken between them, aloud or mentally; it was simply understood. Julia took off like a shot, and dragged Jillian along with her. Her magical presence was a stifling thing that felt like a weight upon the back and mind, oppressive and vast. It was impossible to conceal it once she got too close, so she didn't bother trying.

At the moment, letting them feel her presence was fine. Maybe it was foolish to break the stealthy approach they had maintained for some time, but her mind was a thing of frustrating duality; Caution and sense warred with the dual needs of dominance and hunger. Jillian, for her part, did not deny her this, and simply coasted on the breeze of her power and presence.

As always.

---

'Flight or fight indicates a permanent choice, but flight often means putting off the fight to another day. Choose your battles wisely.' Was an old saying a young Scout was taught while she was in training, but was interpreted as when she encountered a bear of sorts. But now she knew it really meant..

To nope out of there when possible.

Scout's smile faded into a frightened expression as her tentacles were sliced off of the monster, and she herself was thrown to the side of the battlefield. Oddly, she landed sitting down, eyes wide in shock, before falling on her back. "Das it....im done...I give up.." she said, waving an arm around in defeat. Theresa landed on top of the girl's stomach and stared into her soul turned to face her unamused face. "So soon? I'm sure you can take some more hits before calli-""Now listen ya stoopid birb..." Scout interupted her familiar, like how a drunk would stop their friend's explanation, but it's just her australian accent kicking in."Ya see that big demon chimpansee?...now THAT is boss level monstah roight there.." She told the owl, waving the same arm at Elroy. "Im not gonna lose a reencarnation to a sTOOPID MONKEY..k?"

Theresa jumped off of Scout's stomach to let her roll off her back, then moved back onto the girl. "Well, might be that your still recent. You don't have that much experience in fighting as the other girls do." she told the magical girl as Julia and Jillan arrived to fight aswell. "How about we just wait out the storm till the aftermath, sound good?" she asked Scout. The child thought it out, then agreed to the suggestion. Theresa flew up to one of the buildings rooftops, one high enough to get the whole view, then Scout grabbed the cat backpack from her motorcycle and used a tentacle to grapple the same rooftop and meet up with the owl. Both of them then sat at the ledge and watched the madness like a movie.

As Theresa shifted into her human form, Scout grabbed two meals in brown bags and her laptop from the backpack and set up 'camp'. "So, the battle wasn't sucessful for you, Eliza?" Both girls turned to the right to find that Maura joined the two. "Sadly yes, but it might be for the best." "hah, accidental rhyme." Theresa told the leser force as the magical girl shared some of her food with them. "I don't expect you two to always fight every battle. Even other's battles. But this isn't Penny's...or..the robot girl's battle their fighting." Maura explained as the other two said 'What?' at the same time. "That 'monster' is not only a twin soul, but a magical boy like them." She pointed at the battlefield, ending her explination. Suddenly, Scout realized finally that Elroy wasn't fighting the other magical girls just cause, he was fighting them out of anger. But what could have cause his anger?

"Mistress, are you alright?" Theresa brought the girl out of her thought, an expression of guilt on her face. "Hm? Oh..I'm okay." she reasured her familiar as the trio continued to watch the battle, sometimes shooting a random bird.

The glittering jewel embedded in the pendant shone a faint light, and Helga's excited voice rang out: "Wait, you can bring me back? Yes, please do so! Restore me back to my cute self!" She paused when she heard Sakura's terms, and then continued. "That's fine; I've decided to turn over a new leaf, and start anew with my new Lady; she maybe a sky pirate, but she has a heart of gold! Aaaahhh~" She sighed like a lovesick maiden, and Amber felt the pendant turn warm against her skin. "So, reunite me with my lover!"

---

Back in Alex' apartment, Lily was sitting on the couch, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth with a sullen look to her. She didn't understand what Sakura tried to say, and left her with only a weak wave of her hand. She mulled over the exchange in the diner, and their words echoed inside her. "Hey Alex." She spoke with a quiet voice, very unlike her usually energetic self. She didn't even know if he was there to listen, but she didn't feel like checking.
"Do you think I'm pushy? I mean, I guess I must be...But back then...those eyes..." She wiped her nose with her sleeve.
"Mariette had such sad eyes...I thought she was alone. But I was wrong. I was the outsider there. Well, that's not surprising..." She fell to her side on the couch, her arm reaching down to the floor.
"Still, I feel worried for her. What is she trying to do by kidnapping Amber, or other magical girls?"

Alexander rose an eyebrow "Pushy? You?" He paused "actually...I'm not sure" scratching his head, he continued "I mean, you already do things that should bother me. Like when you stole my bed. The last time someone stole my bed it was an older kid at the orphanage that was making a power play. I responded by attacking him. Then there's your peppy attitude; people like that used to drive me nuts. Honestly. I should find you irritating and unbearable...but I don't. Hell, I actually like having you around, and I have no god damn idea why." Alexander sighed "so yeah. I'm not sure if you're pushy...but I also don't care. Is that weird?"

Alexander grunted under his breath "and now we have a serial kidnapper on our hands. Great, just what we need; more problems"

Penny was rapid closing in on Elroy when the darkness descended upon the battle field. It was the first thing to truly penetrate the haze of destructive urges that she had given in too. It caused her to stop, and for a moment she nearly abandoned the fight as a chill gripped her spine, a clear portent of danger, but Elroy finally stopped scampering away and chose to finally confront the mahout cyborg.
Penny, like Elroy, could feel the metal around her so the darkness wasn’t a great hindrance, but only because of who she had targeted. She could tell he had constructed some sort of shell and knew that he was barreling down on her. She also knew just how fragile steel could be.

As she had when Elroy came crashing to the ground earlier Penny chose to stay her ground, only this time she was going to make sure she was in the path of his attack.

Feet firmly planted with the clawed blades of her feet stabbed in to the ground once again for added stability Penny crossed her arms in front of her, blades extended from both arms, and waited. She didn’t need to wait long as a few moments later the rolling ball of steel was nearly on top of her. In that moment Penny lashed out with both arms carving the steel casing Elroy had fashioned for himself with ease.

With the outer layer breached Penny noted the Spears that Elroy had hovering over his shoulders, she was exposed and had no way of defending against them other than to trust in her own durability. The first spear landed a glancing blow to her temple, the metal sparking against her own inorganic skin. It would also be the lightest wound she suffered.

Before the next spear could land a hit Penny was hit square in the back by Regina’s cursed round. The stinging sensation was a bizarre feeling as Penny had never been hit by a curse before, that didn’t mean Penny didn’t realize what had happened however. All of Penny’s magic is directed inward, as well as a majority of her body is built by the elements she specializes in, so despite not knowing what exactly happened, or why, Penny was perfectly aware that her body’s natural durability just got disrupted.

That Realization didn’t stop the next spear from embedding in to her upper left arm, nor the third one from gouging her just above her hip. The fourth thankfully missed Penny as she twisted due to impact from the other spears.

Pain flooded Penny’s mind and if she could see her vision would be swimming due to the pain. She had let out a small cry of pain at both of the impacts and the scent of blood was in the air as her wounds bled freely. Opening her mouth wide she vented the pain in the best way she could think of, but firing another Gauss round directly in to Elroy’s face, a pained scream sounded alongside the discharge.

Letting everyone nearby that could hear it know that someone had been hurt badly in the darkness.

@BrokenPromise@Vocab@Majoras End@Flamelord

---

Violet just nodded at Sakura’s stipulation, she agreed with her sister after all, but that was for later “Where would you like to get this taken care of Amber? As you are the one requesting the wish” she asked regarding the childish looking girl across from her. Violet didn’t really care, but she just didn’t have in it her to be very malicious when it came to granting wishes, unless she and Sakura had been threatened.

Absently she wondered about the sky pirate bit, but didn’t bother to ask. It wasn’t as important as the wish after all.

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise

Alicia Hayden

Normally Alicia would have just used conventional magic arrows, but with the damage already present in the area and to that building it particular there didn't seem to be any harm in adding a bit of an explosive effect to it to drive out the magical girl she was aiming at. She had plenty of mana to burn, and was perfectly willing to keep this up until she had driven the other girl from cover or had reduced the building to rubble.

But while she was doing that other things happened. More of those domes appeared, engulfing the brawling trio nearby. One of their improptu allies decided to leave, which was unfortunate but she figured it was alright. More Beacon girls would show up soon, she was fairly confident of that. And against those kinds of odds even a monster like this couldn't stand up forever.

The screech of pain rattled her, not knowing exactly who it was that had been injured. Twisting towards the light she held up a palm, channeling her magic into a shining burst that would rip into the dome, hopefully banishing it. She was getting very tired of this indirect fighting stuff.

A heavy sensation felt, almost like a physical weight of presence that came from a different angle than what there had been previously. Alicia reacted without thinking, not recognizing it as being from a Beacon girl and at this point not taking any chances. She spun and fired, tossing out a trio of arrows that zipped like pinpricks of blinding light across the gap towards Julia and Jillian once they were in sight. She was not going to let this become a problem too if she could help it.

@Shifter_Master@Majoras End@ShyDot@BrokenPromise@Vocab@Hammerman

Amber chuckled nervously, Helga's soul stone still in her outstretched hand, “Eh, did you have a relationship like this with your last lady?” The pirate girl continued to grin through her own embarrassment. “A-anyway, good to hear we can rebuild her! And I think the remains of her body are on the roof of Penrose hospital, so we can go there. But no rush, I need to pay my tab from last time.” Amber looped Helga around her neck and walked away from the table. The way the Djinn sisters were talking, it was almost like they were friends with Mariette. Surely they wouldn't choose to befriend such a dangerous magical girl though, right?

@PlatinumSkink@Shifter_Master@t2wave