Alicia Hayden

Things were escalating again it seemed as the sound of combat rang out nearby. It was not simply the sound of fighting the horses though, and she could tell there was more to it. Just like the hospital, it seemed that someone had taken advantage of the monster attack to act on a grudge. At least, so she assumed anyways.

That wasn't her concern though, at least for the moment. It seemed as though there were people already going to handle it, so sh should focus on the monsters. Then they could deal with whoever was using this attack, whether it be Justine or someone else.

A good thing too, as the horses suddenly discovered the ability to not only have incredible strength, but also the power to fly. Sh ducked low, dodging beneath a charge that came her way quickly. Her bow rose and she fired a trio of arrows up at the horse as it passed, hopefully embedding itself in the belly of the beast. It would be on down, but there were plenty more where that had come from. Unfortunately.

In a situation like this, she'd just have to step it up then. Elegant magic was sacrificed for brute force as she formed two, three arrows on her bow at a time. Star Seraph thrummed, volley after volley launched into the sky as she moved, trying to keep ahead of whatever attacks were launched her way. It might be a death by a thousand cuts, but it was th best option she had at the moment. Hopefully it made a difference.

@t2wave@BrokenPromise

---

\\\Pictures attached< Third magical entity on site< Apparent archer with nature based magic<
\\\Picture attached$ Third-fourth magical entity$ Also archer$ No confirmation of magic type$

Shion stared at her phone and examined the pictures. Deer horns? Interesting. The other picture was of a beautiful girl aiming a bow upwards. She barely had time to process them before her phone received two more messages simultaneously.

\\\What the fuck$
\\\What the hell<

She quickly shot back a response.

\\\Explain.

Several messages followed in quick succession.

\\\Picture attached$ Two girls on motorcycles ran up a wall on opposite side of building Shion< is hiding at$
\\\Picture attached< Unicorns now flying<
\\\Picture attached$ Third magical entity with the new two$ Seems to have our copy power$ One entity has a bow$ The other seems to have a rifle of some sort$ Single action(?)$
\\\Almost hit with apple% Unknown if coincidence or have been spotted%
\\\Picture attached< Unicorns now armored and spiked<
\\\Picture attached$ New magical entity on site$ Possible metal or time magic type$ Seems hostile to the second entity$
\\\Picture attached< First entity confirmed water type< Second entity apparently "Helga"< Newest entity apparently "Minnie"< Mention of some "Lady Justine"< Seems to be related to causing the strife<
\\\Motorcycle entity with bow attacking newest entity$ Allied with "Helga"(?)$
\\\"Minnie" is full of herself< Claims to be major player< Claims all others to be "misfits" and "extras"< Seems to have two magical weapons< Gun and stick of some kind< Magical clocks spouting many mechanical minions< Apologize for joke<
\\\Bird flew to motorcycle bow user$ Seems to be speaking to her$ Probable familiar$
\\\Picture attached% Entities appear to be on good terms% In pursuit% Will live upload video%
\\\Water-user now battling "Minnie"< Fired a net at her< Bird flew from her hat to nearby rooftop< Likely familiar<

---

Shion's duplicate carefully and slowly followed Shannon and Elroy as the walked away. She tried to hide and stay as far back as possible, recording the two from a distance. When they met up with a girl with red hair she hid out of sight and did her best to get as close as possible, stopping when she was just barely in earshot of the three.

Scout was slowly growing tired from juggling her shots at the flying Bloodmares, and the armored ones. "Come on, theres gotta be something to do!" she told herself, trying to think of an idea. Before she could take a break to reload her ammo, Minnie arrived to make the fight worse, all cause Helga had backstabbed "Lady Justine".

---

---

"The others are having trouble. Alot more trouble." Anaya spoke up. "Wait? Whats happening now?" the spirit sitting besides her asked. "Another dark magical girl. She's summoning her own minions." she replied, before standing up from her spot. "Lady Anay-" "You know what to do." with a brief silence, the spirit nodded, before possesing a doll, with the rest of the spirits around Anaya following suit with their own dolls. Some with suits of armor.

Anaya walked backwards from the edge of the rooftop, before jumping off for a full-grown griffin to catch her, and to fly twords the train station.

---

---

"Aha, I got an an idea!" Scout exclaimed, before quickly pulling a tome of illusion spells from her backpack. As she covered for Helga and Amber, the witch quickly flipped through the pages from her book. "Come on, come on! Bear? No! Lion? No, thats stupid! Uh.."

"Should I be of assistance?"

Scout quickly looked up to see, not another bloodmare, but Anaya's griffin, with weapon wielding dolls fending them off. "Glad to see another new face around here!" the witch told Anaya, with a grin on her face. Although it didn't seem like it, she felt sorrow from the girl's sickly gaze. "We'll need all the help we can get! Name's Scout by the way!"

"I'm Anaya, dear illusionist. Anaya Hathaway." Anaya introduced herself back, before looking over the battlefield. "Right. I'll cover ground and assist the water user and her friend. You and your teammates should stay up high, as the aerial monsters seem easier to kill, if not annoying. But if anything happens, come down from your post." she told scout, before leaping off her griffin, grabbing her twin pistols, and landing on the far left side of Amber and Helga with her "army" following suite. "Knights! Hold off the mechanical monstrosties! The rest stays with me!" she commanded, before firing at the armored bloodmares.

"Right! Wait how did you know..? Never mind." Scout said, before looking through her book once more. "Dragon, perfect!" her grin seemed to widen, as she rested the tome, and a set of glyphs appear in her hand, with a lone one on the ground. Like a clockwork lock, she slowly turned the biggest glyph, as a mist like matter appeared to swirl together and form what was seemingly a white and blue dragon.

"That should distract some of those edgy unicorns."

Alicia's arrows proved very effective in taking out the flying bloodmares, as they fell like ducks upon being hit in their weakness, accompanied by demonic neighs and brays. Soon, the swarm of them scattered, and with their strength in numbers now gone were easy pickings. Thus, the Beacon girl had achieved air superiority in the battle. The armored bloodmares on the streets were still a problem, however. They could not reach Alicia from her vantage point, but it seemed their bony exteriors shielded them from her light arrows. The horde of mechanical dolls were also closing in, with countless blades and rifles, clicking and clacking loudly due to their jerky motions.

Fortunately, Alicia was not alone in her struggle; Anaya used her spirit powers to rouse a force of her own against Minnie's minions, and thus began a battle between dolls. While Minnie had the superior numbers, Anaya's dolls had spirits directly controlling them, and thus were better fighters. The armies clashed, and the streets grew loud with the noises of hacking and beating, gunfire, and cracking limbs.
So far it was an even match, but the mechanical dolls kept pushing the line incessantly, as if driven by an empowered source.
Anaya's dolls, wouldn't hold them forever.

Anaya took the fight to the armored bloodmares, her griffin screaming as it charged and slashed with its claw, sending a couple of them tumbling. She also managed to shoot a couple in their weak spots, causing them to fall. The bloodmares were ruthless in their rage, and impaled their horns on the griffin's side, causing it flap out its wings and screech from the pain. Then a couple more rolled into the griffin, and the noble beast swayed wildly, causing Anaya to fall from it's back. The bloodmares were about to trample her, but she was saved by Scout's intervention, a mighty illusion taking the form of a white dragon with shining blue eyes. It roared and shot an iridescent stream of fire into the air, dazzling to behold. The bloodmares, being simple creatures, were fooled, and charged right at the illusion of the dragon, sparing Anaya.

Helga nodded to Amber, and bit the corner of her lip. "Be careful, Amby!" She then took her claws to bear, and like a martial artist began giving the beatdown to dolls that jumped at Amber. Minnie continued swinging her conductor's baton, and only glanced at Amber when she approached. When she did, she scoffed, and transformed her baton to a revolver.
"A pirate costume? This is theater, not a film set!"
Minnie expected the aimed cannon to be fired, and shot a bullet at the net. Upon impact, the net immediately began flying backwards, and closed, as if it was rewinded. The closed net hit the stream of water Amber shot immediately afterwards, and caused the projectile to spread again by the water pushing it's middle out; Amber ended up being trapped by the net instead of Minnie.
"Not only do you flub your lines, you also can't perform to save your life! Rotten tomatoes for you!"
She pointed towards Amber as she lifted a knee, and three mechanical dolls leapt at her, only to be shredded apart midair by Helga's intervention. "You won't lay a hand on her!" The fanged magical girl growled.

Minnie put the back of her hand before her mouth, and gave a mocking laugh. "Oh, Juliet, mourn for your Romeo, and in death be united!"
A mechanical doll suddenly jumped and spread it's limbs at her side, only to be destroyed by a lightning arrow. She turned her head, reeling from the lightning's slight explosion effect. Her eye twitched in anger.
"Don't interrupt my dialogue, deadhead!"
Lily strung another arrow on her bow, and continued shooting, a barrage of lightning empowered by Alex to explode. She gave a strained smile to Sue. "It would help a lot!"
Minnie leapt from out of the way, abandoning the dolls around her and leaving them to be destroyed by Lily's arrows. Helga hesitated, having to think between helping Amber and going after Minnie; she chose the latter.'

Minnie twirled elegantly like a figure skater, and shot at Helga who jumped towards her. Helga managed to dodge, but had to change her course, and landed elsewhere. Minnie landed on the street, an intersection across the one where the doll armies fought, and giggled.
"Who cares about these extras? Only us magical girls have any value to this world! We are the players who dictate the story, and who give it conclusion. Everything else is irrelevant!" Minnie aimed at Helga who pursued her, but instead of aiming at her, she instead aimed at a faraway car. The car instantly sped up to insane speeds, and crashed right into Helga before she could react. It was only then that Amber managed to untangle herself from her net.
"No! stop it Minnie! We magical girls shouldn't fight like this!" Lily screamed, ran fast, jumping to another building to continue her attacks. Alex noticed that her voice strained in a familiar manner.
"Ahh, if it isn't Lily Lightning! Lady Justine has shown interest in you."
"Huh? Why?" Lily transformed her bow into a staff, and shot a lightning bolt. Minnie shot at the lightning, and it reversed, causing Lily to shriek as it looked like it was about to hit her, only to disappear right before her face.
"Because you're pure." Minnie took the revolver to point at her own head, and with a creepy smile, pulled the trigger. A loud shot rang out, and seemed to echo. The very next instant, Alex felt great pain coming from his stomach and slight pain from his back, as he found himself on his back, with Minnie stomping on him with her high heels; he noticed that the barriers he had set on himself and Lily were somehow gone. Her lip twitched, and her breathing was heavy. Her revolver was aimed at his head.
Lily also changed; she was kneeling, looking angry with her teeth bared. "Don't you dare hurt him!" Minnie only giggled in response.
"Yes, I can see why she has chosen you, Lily. Your heart shows it!"

Alexander was no stranger to pain, nor to people pointing a gun at his head. Although both at the same time was something new. Based on what this psycho bitch was saying, they were going to kill him just to get to Lily. 'Fuck that!' the first thing he did was limit his movements as much as possible, since he didn't want to make his attacker suspicious. Next he layered three barriers inside his helmet (the most he could fit). Then, he tried to create a new type of barrier; one that as long and thin, coming from his wand. The pain made it hard to focus on something new, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself through the pain. 'I can't believe I didn't think of this before.. "There no way in hell I'm letting you turn me into Lily's tragic backstory!" With a defiant cry, he swung his new weapon at the leg that had stomped on his with those damned high heels.

Alicia Hayden

The Beacon girl wore a look of grim satisfaction as she spun and fired, striking flying monsters out of the air with ease. They weren't geared to handle that kind of fighting, or at very least ranged attacks combined with her ability to spam out magic like there was no tomorrow against a horde of enemies. Soon enough their numbers began to get very thin.

That just left the problem of the horses on the ground, and she was having some more difficulty with those. It wasn't really any fault of her own, they just had tougher armor that was keeping her magic from being as effective as it could be.

"It would be too easy for me to fix everything I guess," Alicia muttered to herself as she did her best to balance atop her perch. She was confident in her skill but did not want to accidentally fall or get knocked over into the armored horses that could trample her. It would be an ignoble way to go.

Quickly she assessed the situation before shifting her aim. Flying enemies were no longer the main problem, and the mechanical enemies would go away if the one who made them was dispatched (hopefully). If that was the case then there was only on thing to do. Carefully she targeted her shot, careful of proximity and distance. A split second later she fired, sending an arcing bolt of light at long range towards the brawling group. She didn't expect it would kill the girl who had summoned the soldiers, but perhaps it would provide enough of a distraction that they could pull out some kind of advantage.

Afterwards she turned to the mechanical soldiers, thinning their ranks with body shots like she had the flying horses. She wasn't going to let them do whatever they wanted unopposed either.

@Ariamis@Card Captor@Majoras End

Smiling Shannon leaned against her staff. Judging by the two's responses they were having a hard time both with not having a patron and with finding allies. It did make her wonder what their motives were to cause their situation. Regardless though she wasn't going to throw the book at them.

Rubbing her chin a bit she bobbed her head a bit. "I'm sure we can work something out. Don't know if my patron can pay you all that much but I think I can manage a place to stay and some level of protection." Thinking back she tried to single out the moment Elroy mentioned about them getting attacked. "So long as you're not part of the evil attacking Penrose I don't see any reason we can't work together. From what your brother told me your attacker may be a mutual enemy."

Crossing her arms she glanced up at the sky. She hadn't had the chance to meet up with even Lily at this point. The commotion going on seemed to constantly be derailing things. [color=tan]"Apparently someone else tried to unite the magical boys and girls here against that threat, but wasn't able to. Sadly she was killed and groups like the Beacon refused to work with monsters and dark magical boys and girls. I suppose I would like to unite everyone but I'm not so idealistic to think I can get everyone to work together."[color] Looking back down to Regina and Elroy she smiled. "But a girl can dream. So with any luck we can take care of your attacker and you can be free of that hm?" She offered a hand to Regina.

@PlatinumSkink@Hammerman@Flamelord@Ariamis@Card Captor@Majoras End

Sensing danger, Sue flew off of Lilly's shoulder. The problem with this type of environment was that you had a lot of magical girls that wanted to work together, but no real way to direct them. Sue, Helga, and Amber could all be relayed information to each other via Boteg. However, everyone else was stuck fighting the battle on their own. United in cause, but not in mind. Sue was sure that the battle could be won, they just needed to work together. And it was the familiar's job to make sure everyone got the correct information. Flying around bloodicorns and metallic minions was not ideal, and she didn't have enough time to relay more than maybe a sentence or two to each magical girl she encountered. But it had to help, right?

Soon Sue noticed Suwako. Amber didn't have time to approach the magical girl before, and the familiar wouldn't have much time to talk either. The familiar landed on Suwako's shoulder just long enough to catch her breath and say "Lilly's in trouble! You've gotta help that magical girl." She pointed at Lilly with her wing. Then without waiting for a response, she took to the air again.

The net tore apart when faced with the magical pirate's strength. The net was never really designed to hold down a physically capable magical girl like Amber. She almost got skewed though. She almost used that to turn the tides back to her favor. Well, she considered it anyway. Death might be a better outcome than falling prey to such consequences. But by this point, the pirate girl was by herself on top of the train. For the moment, Amber wasn't being attacked by a monster or other magical girls. She looked around herself to confirm as much.

Then grinned.

Amber lost track of Helga after she got hit by the car. The pirate would have to go looking for her, but it was time for a quick sneak attack. The pirate aimed her cannon into the air and fired at full force. The water that reached for the heavens soon came down in a controlled rain. Amber tried to guide the rain only over bloodicorn and clockwork soldier formations. If Lilly was going to focus her lightning through her water, she couldn't risk getting too close to any ally magical girls. Amber was able to protect herself by guiding the water away from her body. She would make doubly sure to guide any water away from herself. Even when she walked, the puddles would move away from her boots. With Amber's part of the attack set up, she hopped off the train to see where Helga wound up.



So much work, and she wasn't even going to get a thank you at the end of it.

The little bird was trying to do quite a bit of work, and honestly, it wasn't the most effective way to go about doing things. But thanks to Tonya, there were a few illusionary Sue's flying around talking to people, and from Sue's perspective, she would perceive some of these people as being closer together so that they could get her message all at once. It wasn't easy, but it was within her abilities.

Minnie's attacks were getting stronger, and it was difficult for Tonya to multitask easing her attacks and helping Sue along. Pretty soon, she would have to assist Amber with something more personal...

---

[@t2wave]@DarkwolfX37

Again with the handshakes. Regina stared at Shannon's outstretched hand, then at her, and then at her hand again. She didn't understand why so many people insisted on shaking on things. Handshakes were for sleazy car salesman, loan sharks, and the mafia. At least this time it seemed like the hand she was going to shake was attached to someone who genuinely wanted to help them. Regina gradually reached for Shannon's hand, gave it a weak shake, and then quickly retracted it. She was very proud of the fact that she was able to keep eye contact with the magical girl this time, and didn't even need Elroy's assistance. Regina was about to sigh out of relief, but she disguised it as a cough. “Thank you.” She made an awkward smile. But it vanished as soon as Elroy pulled everyone into a huge group hug.

“Alrighty, we're a trio now!” He looked between Regina and Shannon. “I feel like we should do something special. Maybe go out to eat somewhere. We just need to make enough money to do that.” He winked at Regina.

“A-actually, I'd like to see our new accommodations.” Regina's arms were pinned at her sides. She probably could have struggled free, but she didn't want to make a scene. Not that three kids hugging on a busy sidewalk during school hours wasn't a scene already. “You also seem to know a lot about what's going on. Maybe if we could find a place a bit more private, we could exchange stories.”

"And show you how cool we look in uniform!" Elroy hugged them tighter.

@t2wave@BrokenPromise

\\\Picture attached$ New entity flying on... griffin(?)$ Spoke to motorcyclist sniper$
\\\Picture attached< Many new entities fighting "Minnie"'s minions< Magical entities seem to be clearing out the unicorns effectively<
\\\Picture attached% Females shook hands% Seem to be talking about new alliance between the three% Hard to hear details% Now hugging as in picture% Red-head appears bothered by this% Heard something about "accommodations"% Will continue to follow and upload%
\\\Holy shit$
\\\What<
\\\What even$
\\\Blue-eyes white dragon successfully summoned(?)<
\\\Picture attached$ Dragon actually white with blue eyes unlike card$
\\\"Minnie" confirmed to have time magic< Seems to use bullets to activate<
\\\Confirmed$ Reversed movement$ "Minnie" now saying "magical girls only ones to have value"$ Lipreading .87 accuracy confirmed$
\\\Car sped up by bullet< Confirmed time magic< Not teleportation method< No longer possible to be metal magic<
\\\Picture attached$ "Minnie" shot self in head and rooftop entities changed state instantly$ Absolute confirmation of magic type$ "Minnie" now threatening boy entity$

---

After sending an update to her original self, the Shion stalking Elroy and Shannon got ready to follow them to their next destination.

---

Since becoming a magical girl, Silhouette had personally gone through changes that altered her way of life drastically. For starters, well, she was now a "she" rather than a "he", which was perhaps the hardest thing to adjust to. Moving around under her guise as a young woman was rather annoying, too, since she could no longer rely on her prior accomplishments to gain work (something that changed over time, but nevertheless caused issues early on). But we'll just move on from this subject by stating that Sil's least favorite part about being changed to a girl was being dismembered, it made certain aspects of life just feel incomplete.

On the flip side, she had almost zero problems in regards to her powers. More tools to assist her were welcome, and as far as tools go, well, manipulating time was perfectly suited to someone who dealt in swift, silent killing. It provided her opportunities that she wouldn't have as a normal human being. And so, Sil had trained and trained until her use of Time was almost unrivaled. She created her own way to manipulate Time too.

But the most important (but not most inconvenient as far as Sil was concerned) aspect of becoming a Magical Girl was that there was also the "loyalty" that she needed to abide by now since she was in debt to people that did not seem very wise to anger. Back before all of these magical shenanigans, back when the world was a much simpler place, she did not need to worry herself with angering people and staying with one particular "contractor". But of course, there were no parties quite like the Ebon Mint in the non-magical world. There did not seem to be a single place that the Mint did not have at least some control of. She would not risk angering such a party unless she could deal with them, so paying off the "debt" she owed them seemed the wisest choice for now. Silhouette had no real desire to stick to any particular side of morality. Good? Bad? No, she was an existence that lived for herself. Living was the most important thing, followed by power and wealth. If playing the part of a good mutt kept her alive, then she'd do it in a heartbeat.

Of course, if the Ebon Mint ever was in the position to be removed from her life for good, then she'd take it.

Just like she was aware they'd remove her the moment she lost her usefulness. Thankfully, she was really good at what she did, and it was unlikely that there was an abundance of people quite like her. From her understanding, Magical Girls were originally intended to do "good", or at least remove Monsters, which typically was seen as "Good". There was more to it, obviously, but the important part was that Magical Girls with talents that seemed more suited to removing other Magical Girls were a bit less common.

She wasn't too confident that she'd fly too close to the sun, but she couldn't imagine them attempting to remove her from the picture unless she did something to warrant it. Her position, at least as of this current moment, was safe as it could really be in her scenario. Especially because she'd be doing them a solid right now.

*Flip*

Silhouette found herself aboard a flying ship, having used her magic to lock various items in place to create steps with which to reach the damned thing. Thankfully, the ship was merely hovering in the sky and not in flight, otherwise, this step would have proven to be quite difficult. She had to make doubly sure not to be spotted as she boarded since the only way she could get back down safely was through these same steps. Very fortunately, there was a mess below her that kept the attention off of her, and getting up to the ship undiscovered had been the first of three tasks she would accomplish effortlessly.

Part two of her plan and the primary objective given to her was to remove this ship from play, which she intended to do through the destruction of its engines. It likely would not require very much effort to do so, but first she needed to reach them. Silhouette had to find quite a few items to use as steps just to reach the ship from the highest vantage point she could find that also didn't seem like others would take notice, so she wound up on the opposite side of the ship. So, she had to cross from one side to the other. But since there wasn't anybody apparently on the thing at the moment, that probably wouldn't matter much, right?

Since there did not seem to be a single soul aside from herself aboard the ship right now, it really wasn't too relevant, but the apparent owner of this vessel was a small "pirate girl". She was apparently somebody of interest to either Vermillion Veronica or the Ebon Mint in general, as Silhouette was informed that she should not be killed if encountered.

Weird as it may seem, an assassin like Silhouette often was given limitations like these. Some clients, perhaps out of a horribly lazy and misguided sense of morality, often designated a singular target in the midst of family to remove. There was more than one occasion where Sil needed to sneak into a house and off perhaps the mother or father (or both) while leaving the child alive (and of course without being seen, too). If she had even cared about the subject, she might have asked why even bother? Some might claim it is more cruel to do this, as at no point in time had Sil managed to leave evidence that they could follow up on. They would live knowing that somebody killed a loved one and there was nothing they could do about it, or ever would. And that feeling would more often than not stick with them for the rest of their lives, perhaps festering into something wicked that another person might have to deal with.

Man, the world was cruel. But I digress.

To summarize, Sil was asked to get rid of this ship without killing its owner. This ship wasn't too hard to reach since it was resting in place in the sky, and it currently did not appear as though it was going to prove a difficult task to disable it, considering there was nobody currently aboard.

Well, whatever, as long as this counts towards my debt, I couldn't care less if there's no excitement.

And so, she began towards her current target with a blank, perhaps even bored expression on her face.

---

The shadows cloaked a small group of figures seated in a rough circle. The lead figure glanced up at the massive ship in the sky, thinking of the mission to come. Before he could get too engrossed in his thoughts however, a muffled voice sounded in his mind. It came out as though through an old radio.

*Kchhk*"Overwatch to Operative Prime. Standby for orders. Break. Provide mission support in disabling the target.
Break. Over."*Kchhk*

Prime sighed.

Roger. Prime SP time now. Out.

How annoying. He knew that Novum was a military god, but did he have to communicate in such an annoying way ever time? Would it really be so hard to just speak directly to him without the fake radio shenanigans? Honestly, even if he insisted on communicated through "comms" chatter, did he have to pretend like he was on a device from decades ago. Ugh.

Well, regardless. After Prime finished receiving his mission directive, he took to his feet. The other figures did the same. Once they were revealed from the shadows, it was clear that they were all the same. In appearance, posture and mannerism. Like trained soldiers, they gathered in one position just beneath the great pirate ship in the sky. It was time to move.

Without a word, the power of magic flowed through the lead operative and a concentrated area around the squad was exempted from the forces of gravity. In unison, they all bent their knees and jumped. at a rapid pace, they ascended to the side of the ship. Once they reached the edge, they grabbed on and gravity reasserted itself on the immediate area. Silent as could be, they climbed aboard and regrouped.

They communicated in succinct hand signals and split. They each knew what their mission was. Reconnaissance of the area, and supporting fire in the case of enemy contact. There were 5 members of the squad save for the. . . . err. . . "Prime" Prime. . . .

Anyway, the lead operative took his position for the mission. Tailing after the girl who was ascending to the ship herself. She of course had come up in a very different way than he had. Not that there was anything wrong with how she did it, to him it just seemed a tad bit inefficient. Regardless, his mission was to tail her and provide mission support. Honestly, he didn't even know if higher had told her that he was going to be providing help, so he felt it best to remain in the shadows for the moment and just make himself useful when needed. As long as she completed what was needed to be done, then his mission would be considered to be accomplished as well.

While he watched her make her way to the mission start point, Prime couldn't help but let his mind wander a bit. What had really brought him to this situation. It really makes one think after all. He had nothing against the owner of this ship, nor did he owe anything to the people that were trying to antagonize the owner. The only reason he was here, was that it was his orders. Orders that he couldn't afford to disobey. At times, it was annoying, but when the mission came, it was always the same. His mind would blank out, and the effects that his actions would have on the people involved were wiped from his brain. It didn't matter what happened. It wasn't his place to consider the consequences of his own actions. He was just a tool to be used. That was what he had sold his life for, after all.

Before he could delve too deep into the unnecessary annoyances that were his own psyche however, a small chirp from an even smaller blue bird drew him from his stupor. He gave the tiny figure a smile and a nod. It was letting him know that the asset had finally reached the main body of the ship. Prime took a deep breath and wiped anything extra from his brain. It was time to get to work.

Mission Start.

{DELETED}

Within the nest of blanket set off to one side of Penny’s lair the once again young child laid curled up in a loose ball. The rest of her lair was in disarray, with what amounted to her things tossed haphazardly around. Her phone could be seen lying in a hundred pieces not far from the makeshift bed. The only sound was the soft sniffling coming from the cyborg.

She had been, yelling, raging and just venting all of her pent up emotions that she had been ignoring and shoving to the side since she had changed, and now she was just laid there emotionally spent. She had been at it since Thalia had left. The fox girl had woken up not long after Veronica had departed, and after recalling her transformation had bolted. Penny had called after her, even and tempted to chase after but fear had granted Thalia speed enough that she escaped Penny.

Numb Penny had made it back to her temporary home; she had slumped down in on her bed just starting at the walls as she tried to come to grips with what had just happened. Slowly everything else that she had been ignoring started to pour through. It had taken hours to burn through everything, and now after she had expelled everything she just felt raw.

Thalia’s leaving as she had hurt Penny, who had only just started coming to grips with her new sense of self. Her decision last night to join up with the Ebon mint now seemed utterly pointless but it was too late to change that decision. She once again had no friends to call upon, as she wasn’t sure just how forgiving Alicia was going to be. The one good thing was that she had been able to reign in her venting enough that she didn’t end up leveling her house.

As she was wallowing in her own misery, she was startled by the sound of rolling thunder, a few moments later it came by again. Eventually Penny’s curiosity caused her to sit up. There lying where he shattered phone had been sat an odd looking, and rather futuristic, eyepiece. It sat there emitting the sound of rolling thunder.

Cautiously Penny picked it up, immediately noticing that it was made of the same material that she was, and a moment it later it changed to match her color scheme. Glancing on the view screen, she saw that there was an incoming call.



With a sigh Penny put on the eyepiece, as she somewhat assumed it was a replacement for her phone. The moment that she did, she felt something click, inside of her and then the sound of thunder was echoing inside of her head rather than chirping out of her new accessory. It took her another moment to realize that she had interfaced with the eyepiece, and that she could interact with it with a simple thought. Resolving to fiddle around with it later she accepted the call.

“Thine’s Plan To Seige The Hidden Castle Is In Danger Of Losing It’s Transport" Came the sudden booming voice of Laat, it still echoed out from her new communication hardware despite also hearing it in hear mind.

Penny was stunned for a moment before she realized what was being said “Who? What? Where?” she quickly asked as she surged to her feet.

“The Information You Request Shall Arrive Momentarily, Start Thy Trek Eastward.” was the equally quick reply a moment before the call ended. Immediately Penny started off in the stated direction. Her exhaustion was quickly forgotten in the scramble.

As she was racing east there was a chirp once again from her eye piece and a map layout pulled up showing her where she was heading. Gritting her teeth Penny poured everything in to making it to her destination.

---

Even at full speed it took Penny nearly twenty minutes to reach her destination, but since she was taking the high road, as it were, she was only peripherally aware of the growing melee down on the streets. Still she nearly lost her footing when she first saw the pirate ship, as she hadn’t truly believed Lily when she mentioned it.

Looking around The mechanical girl didn’t note any obvious threats to the floating ship. Thus, figuring that either she was early, or more likely that the threat was already on board the ship, with a running leap Penny launched herself from the roof she was sprinting across to the floating ship. She landed with a hard crash before she stood and started to scan the deck, it wasn't hard to notice the other person on the ship with her.

'Now, friend or foe?' Penny mused as she turned to face Silhouette.

@FamishedPants@TsundereStorm@BrokenPromise

Minnie giggled as she pushed the barrel of the gun against Alex' helmet. Her smirk turned wider at his defiant words.
"Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince. And flights of angels sing thee to thy-AH!" She screamed at the arc of light Alicia shot from far away as it hit her shoulder, and winced in shock. As a result, she didn't notice how Alex swung at her leg until it was too late. The thin barrier broke as it impacted against her leg, but the thin, blade-like weapon sliced effectively, leaving a grievous wound on Minnie; a regular person would have been dismembered.
"Aaaahhh! Curses! How...A barrier! So that is why you took so many attacks without flinching!" Minnie shrieked as she jumped back, and landed with a single foot like a ballerina; her crooked leg dripped with blood.
"Bastards! I should have extended my spell for a couple of seconds more, and finished you right there..."

Lily tried to stand up, but clutched at her leg in pain; it seemed that she was somehow injured. She used her staff as a crutch, and stood up.
"That's it..." She wobbled a bit in place. "You can stop time! That's how you attacked us so fast!"
"Brevity is the soul of wit, it seems, but that changes nothing!"
Minnie spoke through grit teeth, and aimed at Lily with her revolver, expecting Alex to get up and charge at her. She was now sweating from her brow.
"Hold it! We have not reached the third act yet!"

Lily widened her stance, wincing a bit, and changed her weapon to a drawn bow.
"Time spells must be taxing. That's why you're sweating. Aren't I right?"
Lily looked furious, her bow drawn to it's limit.
"You tried to hurt Alex, so I won't forgive you!"
Minnie scowled. But then, she giggled. "To be, or not to be: that is the question."
Lily's eyebrows furrowed.
"Stop spouting that Shakespeare crap!"
But Minnie only laughed.
"When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!"



And then, it happened again; the two heard a strange sound behind them, as if space was displaced. Before Alex managed to turn, Lily already made a panicked scream. It was Sonia, who had grabbed her.
"Excellent work stalling, Minnie. Now we have obtained the last sacrifice for Lady Justine." She looked aside at Alex, and blocked the inevitable attack with an ornate knight's shield that appeared before her open palm; it was emblazoned with a bat-winged heart, and dropped down with a loud clang.
"It seems her sweetheart is still alive. Dispose of him and the other witnesses."

"NOOO! ALEX!" Lily screamed as loud as she could. But then, her eyes caught something.
She managed to struggle against Sonia's hold enough to shoot a lightning bolt that flew right past Minnie.
"That's enough. Our Lady has waited for due time."
And just as suddenly as she appeared, she disappeared, enveloping Lily in the pocket of nothingness with her, leaving naught but the shield behind.
Minnie giggled, and twirled her revolver, while still standing on one leg. She made a dramatic lift of her hand to her forehead, mimicking grief, yet she had a malevolent grin on her face.
"Alas, poor Lily! I knew her well, Alex. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Ohohohoo!"

---

The arrow that Lily shot was never aimed at Minnie. Instead it traveled far, and hit the thick waterfall of rain that Amber had directed to fall on enemy forces, specifically the one that was aimed at the bloodicorns. Despite their armor, they were shocked effectively thanks to being soaked from the rain, making them vulnerable to Lily's magic. Most of them fell over, dead from heart attacks, while the rest scattered to avoid the water; they have lost their strength in numbers, and were easy pickings as well.

Amber found Helga stuck between a heap of scrap metal that was once a car, and a building's side.
She seemed to be alive, but despite her great strength failed to push the metal away.
"S-Sorry, Amber...I'm tough, but that hurt..." She spoke through pained breaths. "That car hit me like a bullet train thanks to Minnie speeding it up." With Amber's help, she managed to free herself. She looked disheveled, and her arms were lowered like a gorilla's. "She's dangerous with her time magic. We gotta stop her!"

@FamishedPants@TsundereStorm@Shifter_Master

Amber tuned out the fight when she caught a glimpse of Helga. The pirate was still grinning ear to ear, despite the fact that her friend might have been in serious trouble. She was strong enough to help Helga push the car off of herself, and then proceeded to spray the magical girl down with a healing vapor from her cannon. Healing magic wasn't Amber's strong suit, but anything that would keep Helga vertical was surely welcome.

“It wasn't long ago, you two were on the same side.” Amber was still healing Helga. “If I can get to her to listen to me, I'm sure I can convince her to switch sides. We need all the magical girls we can get, and the more we can take away from Justine, the better.” Amber paused, reacting to the sound of something large and heavy landing on the deck of her ship. Sky bastion teetered left and right from the impact of Penny's landing. Not that Amber even knew who Penny was, aside from a brief description Lilly gave her. “Shiver me timbers! Getting my ship was their plan all along!” She reached into her vest and pulled out her flair gun. The pirate had previously demonstrated her ability to call the ship to a rooftop. But at the moment, she had to call it much closer to the ground. Fortunately there were no large buildings nearby, and she would be able to get it close enough. The ship was descending quite rapidly, and everyone aboard likely felt it drop.

“Amber?” Sue did a quick fly by.

“Change of plans. I know their real target!” Amber looked at Helga. “Stay safe, there are plenty of people around who can deal with Minnie, I've got to make sure the ship's safe though.” Sue was able to drop a rope ladder for Amber, who promptly jumped onto it. “Thanks Sue, keep the information moving around here. We need to stop this, but we also need Minnie alive.” A second shot from her flare gun sent her ship back up into the air, above the remaining monstrous forces. “A lone pirate only needs to have faith in themselves.” Amber said to herself as she climbed up the rope ladder. “But as a pirate captain, I need to have faith in my entire crew. That's Sue, Helga, Lilly, Alexander... The Djinn sisters are on my scurvy list for calling Mariette their friend, but they'll come around...” The pirate girl continued to talk to herself in an attempt to fight the pain that was hitting her entire body. She was fighting to climb a rope ladder while the ship was also rising into the sky again. Once it reached a safe altitude, it abruptly stopped. The sudden change in the ship's momentum caused the pirate to soar into the air and land on the ship. “Alright you-” Amber looked at the magical girls on her ship. “...What is going on here?”



Welp, this was her cue. The light bulbs and their allies were on their own. Amber could get creamed if she met the wrong assassin. Tonya floated up to the ship, where she would remain invisible.

---

@Flamelord

It was bad enough that Amber left to take care of the ship, but now Sue wasn't able to locate Lilly. The familiar was starting to wonder how effective she was at trying to bring everyone together. Though with everything going on, Sue was starting to feel something well up inside of her. Instead of being scared by her situation, she was being angered by it. Amber had quite a few close calls, and now she was going to go fight some individuals on her ship? This was starting to become irritating. The fighting needed to stop.

And that meant bringing down Minnie.

“Hey!” This time Sue seeked out Alicia and landed on her shoulder. She pointed at Minnie with her wing. “That hussy over there that's leading everyone? She can stop time. But you can tell it's really taxing on her.” Sue had to adjust her footing to keep up with Alecia's movements, something the familiar was able to do. “So don't get discouraged if she dodges all of your attacks, everything you do wears her down. Once she's good and tired...” The familiar squinted it's eyes. “I'll finish her off.”

---

The rather dramatic entrance of a magical girl had caught Silhouette's attention just as she, rather uncharacteristically (or perhaps nowadays it was in character?), had felt that things weren't as exciting as they could be. Was it a punishment or a gift? One could not truly say, not even Sil herself, but only one thing was for certain: There would be bloodshed.

It was unlikely that this new addition to the scene had the same objective as Sil did. Rather, the opposite was more likely to be the case. And so, because their goals conflicted with one another, this new girl must be eliminated if she would not leave. She did not fit the description of the VIP, which meant that the Ebon Mint did not care about this individual's wellbeing (or simply weren't able to predict their appearance). That didn't seem likely, so she opted to believe the former.

Silhouette readied her blade while ignoring the girl's question, but unless she was incredibly dense, that should have answered her questions better than any spoken words could.

She imagined it.

The path she would take.

A simple application of stopped time and the opportunity it could provide Sil. With no time to comprehend what was happening, and certainly being incapable of evading the attack, Sil would plunge her blade straight through the girl's skull, eliminating her without any sort of conflict, without any taking any sort of damage, and without any sort of excitement. This had been par for the course when confronting other magical girls, ever since she'd become one good enough at her specialization to cease the flow of time. It was very similar to how she operated back before then, too. Because allowing a foe the chance to properly respond was putting yourself at a risk. It was failing the job as a swift, effective, and silent killer. It was not being perfection, which was often expected of her.

It was the path Sil would take... if Sil was still herself. But power comes with a price. Especially power granted from a suspicious black coin from a shadowy faction that you were in debt to.

But now... now Sil was occasionally prone to slipping. An assassin like herself knew the path she should take, but that path was never the most entertaining nor the most memorable. Her corruption manifested in the form of some wicked desire to actually take part in a battle. Something she shouldn't ever do unless she was in a position where she had no other option. So, instead of the quickest and cleanest method of removal of the object before her being executed, she held back. For now, at least.

If her foe wasn't worthy, then she'd grow bored and dispose of it without hesitation.

"You are not my objective. Leave now, and you may keep your life." she informed Penny, devoid of any sort of visible emotion.

Though her words may contradict how she felt, this was merely an attempt at provocation that doubled as a judge of character hidden under the guise of a chance for her foe to leave. She wouldn't even attempt to stop them, were they to choose to retreat. In that case, she would be disappointed, but the person who would accept that was not a worthy foe. They were a coward, and it would be doubtful that they would ever prove exciting for Sil. Of course, that wouldn't happen. A magical girl who boarded this vessel with, presumably, the knowledge that there was an enemy up here, would not simply run away. Moreso, when you factor in that Silhouette had no real reputation that someone who wasn't a potential client would investigate, nor had betrayed her own powers just yet, the magical girl simply had no reason to be intimidated.

Right now, she was a crimson-eyed magical girl in a stylish coat that was trespassing on the ship with a dagger. It was not especially intimidating to someone who looked as though they could hold their own in a fight, particularly because they looked beyond human. And so, this ultimatum she was given might have sounded like overconfidence, and that was more likely to incite an aggressive response than it was to actually cause the girl to leave. It also implied that she had no intention of surrendering herself without actually saying that. Man, what a proactive couple of sentences.

Sadly, the girl had not the chance to answer Silhouette's incitement, as shortly after, the ship had begun to descend. That could only really mean a couple of things: One, the ship was going down and somebody had completed Sil's objective for her, or two, the ship was moving due to its owner's will. The rate of descent and lack of any sound signaling the ship's destruction told Sil that this was the latter possibility.

How unfortunate.

Sil, aside from keeping her balance and waiting for the ship to cease its descent and then ascent, did not move a muscle. She couldn't exactly figure why that was. Did she want to fight, or did she merely not want to give the girl in front of her an opening? Either way, neither girl had really acted during ascent and descent of the ship, and so a new magical girl had joined the fray.

“Alright you-” the pirate magical girl, apparently named "Shining Scale", looked at them. “...What is going on here?”

Sil understood that she did indeed allow the pause in order to make things rather interesting. She wanted to make this boring mission fun, even at the added risk of doing so. Besides, she had this feeling that she wasn't exactly outnumbered (though she would never act in this way if she wasn't confident of her chances alone). And so, with two foes before her, she took the offensive, knowing that the pirate who owned the ship was not going to simply allow her to complete her objective.

Her attack came fast and it came without warning. Empowered by her own magic, the speed in which she advanced towards Penny almost gave the appearance as though she had teleported. Had the girl's attention wondered elsewhere, or she simply was physically incapable of defending against it, the blade was dragged horizontally, intending to separate the girl's head from her neck. Was this a simple fight between two humans, someone wielding a dagger would not be making such a move. Of course, this wasn't any such fight. This was now a fight between magical girls capable of feats that far surpassed that of a human, and so removing one's head with a blade this length was quite easy.

Sil would know.

Alicia Hayden

Her shot landed home against the girl threatening Lily, much to Alicia's pleasure. It seemed her pinpoint accuracy was still serving her well, even if she did have the element of surprise on her side in that particular moment. It helped them turn the tables on her, letting Alicia turn her attention to the monsters that continued to threaten. At the very least she could help make some breathing room, if nothing else.

She could have sworn she saw Penny out of the corner of her eye, but did not see any indication of their ally joining the fight. Perhaps it had just been her imagination. She needed to stay focused on her own concerns, rather than the hope that she had come back from those recent events that had seen her run off with Thalia.

A goods thing too, as the situation rapidly changed. One of their numbers was taken by a sudden arrival, Alicia just barely getting to see that it was Lily before she vanished. That did more than annoy her, now she was angry. Both at the ones responsible and at herself. She had had the opportunity to learn more about what was going on, it had been right there in her grasp, and now it was gone. All because she had failed to act. Again.

If there was one upside it was that the numbers of their enemies were drastically reduced, lightning combining with water to strike down the rampaging hordes on the ground. Now they had that breathing room she had wanted, even if it was too late to matter. It was just about that time that she found she had company, a bird hanging around as she took out what flying enemies remained, and Alicia took care to not shoot her too in the process before it came to land on her shoulder. But she could easily hear the suggestion the familiar brought, her gaze narrowing as she focused in on Minnie. Well, she wanted to let out that aggression. Maybe it was time to do so.

"You know us Beckoners. We don't give up easily," she replied with a nod as she aimed her bow. She dug deep, drawing on her natural reserves and tapped even deeper than that, to the blood that laid beneath. She barely paused, barely gave time for incantation as she launched a burst of magic at Minnie, cutting loose with her barrage abilities. She would have multiple arrows coming at her at once with barely any pause between them, hammering streaks of light that flashed across the sky from her vantage point to the magical girl. And did it seem like the arrows were curving a bit, as if tracking their target? Perhaps. But now that there weren't any more interruptions from minions, she was going to apply as much pressure as she could to get the job done, no matter the cost to her in the process.

@BrokenPromise@Ariamis@Card Captor

Alexander was frozen for a few seconds as his mind processed what had just happened. Once it had however, he was filled with a rage he had never felt before. It was so hot and powerful that it overwhelmed his rational thoughts "AHHHHHHHHHHHH" Acting quickly, Alexander trapped both him and the Time Stoping girl in a very long rectangular barrier, and added ten more layers to it. He then made five clones, and but a five layered force field on all of them (including himself). Then they ran at her, with a speed he had never had before. Had Alexander been thinking clearly; he would have realized that he was reinforcing himself. Instead, he created a spiked barrier wall in front of him to gore the girl on at was big enough to just barely fit inside the larger barrier they were all in "DIE BITCH!". He continued his charge, pushing the spiked wall ahead of him as he did.

---

"Lilly's in trouble! You've gotta help that magical girl." so said the familiar that just landed on her shoulders.

Suwako was caught off guard by this sudden request. She didn't expect to be asked help so bluntly right away. Seeing how she had sent her familiar instead of asking herself, perhaps she really was in trouble.

The familiar left before receiving her answer. Guess it really was an urgent situation.

Well, let's see what's going on.

"Agape, fly towards the direction that familiar told us," she ordered to her own familiar. He gave her a little questioning glance but decided to obey her order anyways. That's what she liked about Agape. He didn't question her orders in the middle of battle.

What she found however was more than just a couple of crazed horses ganging up on an exposed magical girl like she had imagined. It was an outright battle between magical girls. No, to be more exact, it was a bunch of magical girls (and one boy) ganging up on one other girl.

So that girl was the problem? But surely, with this enough people, it shouldn't be a problem to take her down.

She saw the boy charging angrily at the girl, who she would dub "the gothic lolita girl" thanks to her outfit from now on. He was assaulting her with barriers, by trapping her inside them, creating a spiked barrier, and then using it to gore her.

Suwako decided to wait before making her move. This would be a good chance to see what the girl was really capable of. She must be quite strong if she could give all these people so much trouble.

Penny slid in to her own combat stance as she watched the mysterious magical girl across form her ready a dagger, her eyes taking an electric blue tone as she let her gifted instincts rise to the forefront of her mind. Her last fight had been a sloppy desire riddled affair; she wouldn’t allow this one to take the same route.

Still, the sudden movement of the ship stalled Penny’s opening attack but never once did she allow her attention to waiver from her crimson eyed opponent. Instead she used the unexpected lull to inspect Silhouette in more detail. Over all Penny wanted to say she had the advantage, but the lack of information she had regarding her kept the cyborg wary. The only thing she could say with any certainty was that the dagger that they wielded was more than an ordinary weapon if the runes etched on to it were anything to go by.

The electric whine of building electricity was the only sound that was heard from either of the mahou as the ship descended. Penny was effectively a statue as she sat there unmoving, not even breathing. The soft pulse of neon lights the only ‘movement’ coming from her as she left the first move to her opponent.

Even as Amber came aboard her own ship Penny kept her focus on Sil, ignoring the question posed by the pirate, waiting for the inevitable attack. Her vigilance was rewarded as she noticed Silhouette’s subtle movements just before they blurred in for their attack.

Fully focused on the fight at hand, Penny swayed back dodging the knife by scant inches, before she move back in. Reaching out with the intention of latch on to her opponents arm, she also sent a hook at Sil’s face.

@FamishedPants@TsundereStorm@BrokenPromise