---

---

"Anaya! Are you okay?" With Anaya Falling off her griffin, Scout was lucky to summon a dragon illusion before the spirit mage was trampled. If one looked closely, they'd see that the glyph in the witch's hand was turned into five iridecent strings, one for each finger, connected to the illusion. The puppet seemed life-like, with it attacking and being "hit" by the bloodmares to ploy the beasts.

Anaya carefully got back up on her feet, and dusted herself off. "Yeah, im alright. Just a few scratches and bruses though.." She replied to Scout, turning to her wounded griffin. "Here!" Scout threw her opal necklace to Anaya. "Its a healing necklace, you can use it to fix them!" She explained to the mage.

Anaya walked over to the mythical creature, unhooking the necklace and wrapped it around her griffin's neck. "There you go, boy.." she whispered to the beast, it's wounds slowly shrinking to nothing, like time had reversed. She gave Scout a thumbs up, to show that the beast was alright.

"Sweet- Huh?" Before Scout could climb down the building she was perched on, however, she noticed Lily and Alex giving chase to Minnie. "Hey, she's getting away!!" The witch yelled, before giving chase herself.

"Oh no.." Anaya mumbled to herself, before turning to her army. "Everyone fall back! The target is making her escape!!" She commanded, before climbing back onto her griffin, and catching up to Scout.

But it was already too late.

Fright stopped Scout in her tracks, as she wittnessed Lily get kidnapped by Sonia. "No..." She managed to say, with Anaya landing next to her. "Impure brat." The spirit mage scowled at Minnie, before turning to the witch. "You're strong, I can tell.."



"..Why dont we work together, and defeat this corrupted time wielder ourselves?" Anaya proposed, her hand outstretched.

Scout's expression darkened, her hands curling into fists, before turning to the mage, and shaking her hand. "Let's do it." She answered, her red eyes turning a pure orange. Her tree like tentacles growing out of her back, Scout used one to grab the car that Minnie used aganst Helga, spun it around a few times, before releasing it at the gothic magical girl. Paying mind to the others and their attacks.

---

---

Minnie was taken by surprise by the sheer amount of barriers erected around her; it was a risky expenditure of mana, but the chronomancer was trapped, unable to escape from his charge...Until Alicia bombarded the barriers with her barrage of light arrows. Due to them homing on Minnie, each one of them hit the large construct, until the barriers were destroyed.
"Hah! The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool!"
Minnie waited until the last minute, and then leaped over the charging clones, letting them run right off the edge of the roof. As for Alex himself, who rushed under her, she was about to let loose with her revolver, only to glance at the car thrown her way. She grunted, and instead shot at the car; it was slowed enough that it lost it's momentum, and dropped right on top of the magical boy. Though his barrier mostly protected him before breaking, the weight of the metal was enough to stop him in his tracks. She landed with grace, and gave a mocking curtsy.
"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast." She then leaped back, making sure Alex would be unable to trap her again, her revolvers twirling like wheels around her fingers.

Sue would very quickly realize that she was not the tactician that she thought she was. All of her fury turned into embarrassment in an instant. “Oh, gosh!” She hopped off of Alicia's shoulder and took to the sky, circling around the battle. The familiar was unsure if she could help in a situation like this.

Alicia's face twitched in annoyance as her arrows flew in, only to impact some sort of barrier around Minnie. The familiar hadn't mentioned that so it was probably because of Alex rather than their opponent. "Son of a..."

This was why Beacon was better overall. The members knew what their companions could do and were trained to fight with each other. Now she had to worry about the close range fighters interfering with her attacks or just putting themselves in a position where she might hit them instead of her intended target. It was a bit frustrating, to be honest. What she wouldn't give to have some of her friends here right now to deal with this mess.

"Fine," she huffed as she drew back the string on Star Seraph. She would just have to cut back on the arrow spam. Lining up the shot she fired a few arrows around Minnie, going for suppression rather than actually trying to hit her. Maybe that would do the trick and help them beat her.

"No!" Alexander made a small square shapped barrier on the ground underneath the truck, which he then made grow upwards. As heavy as the truck was, his magic was stronger than that, so it was able to push it off of him. Then he patched himself up with his magic, before reaplying his forcefields "You...are not getting away!" Were it not for the large amount of magic that Sol was constently channeling to Alexander, he would be starting to run out. Yet since he did have an influx of mana from his patron, he had plenty of power to work with. Working quickly, he conjored a new barrier, this time a large dome traping himself and his foe in it. However since it was so large, a few other magical girls were also trapped inside. He put seven layers over his barrier to fortify it, and began enchanting himself again. He then made a large spiked tower shield out of barriers attached to his left arm, and also made a blade coming out of his wand. With his weapons and outfit, he looked like a noble knight "I'LL MOUNT YOUR HEAD ON A PIKE IN MY FRONT YARD!" However he didn't sound like one.

"Tsk." Scout mimicked Anaya's scowl seeing her first idea go to waste. "Come on!" She said to the mage, her tentacles growing long enough to boost the witch, and to give chase to Minnie as well. Aiming her rifle at the cronomancer, Scout took her time to focus her shots, so she can preserve mana.

On her griffin, Anaya circled the barrier to catch Minnie by suprise. "Wait...hold it.." she told the beast.

"Now!!"

With her command, the griffin swooped down in front of the gothic magical girl, emitting a battle cry. Anaya leaped off the beast with her twin pistols, and fired at Minnie's weak point.

Minnie's eyes opened at the massive barrier that spread over the entire neighbourhood, it's hexagonal patterns overlaying over each other as the layers were placed on top.
Alex felt how his mana font strained to supply him with the necessary power to sustain the rapid spells, and felt his chest hurt as the gigantic barrier was overlaid multiple times; it was as if a mighty bonfire had been lit over a single log, soon to consume it to mere cinders.
But, if the intention was to threaten Minnie, then it seemed to work; she looked less than pleased, especially when the other girls began shooting at her. Minnie shot the griffin on reflex, causing it to reel back and bellow from the pain before it crashed onto a building. The chronomancer let a rapid flurry of shots from her spinning revolver, and reversed Anaya's shots aimed at her clock eye. She leapt away, trying to avoid Scout's shots, but ended up moving into Alicia's firing line. Thanks to her injured leg, she was unable to avoid fire in multiple directions, and was caught in the crossfire. She then dropped down to the street after having seemingly been shot by the two.

She ended up landing right in the midst of her mechanical soldier dolls, who had won over the possessed knight dolls, their spirits having left them due to Anaya's lack of focus. She stood up, her dress ragged, and her expression angry, the hands of her clock eye turning rapidly around.
"Enough with this farce! I shall compose a Zeit Waltz of Death for you!"
She rose up, and sprinkled the bullets caught in her dress off of her; she had extended a thin slowing field around her that made projectiles lose their effectiveness.
She used the remaining numbers of dolls to form a protective phalanx of dolls with their bayonets extended, and began conducting once more. Now, clock portals opened in a cirlce around her, minions came out in waves, soon flooding the streets. In addition to weapon-wielding ones, there were also dolls who carried musical instruments, such as violins and trumpets. They began playing in unison:



The music the dolls produced seemed to have an effect; as the symphony rang out, the movement of the dolls accelerated, until she was completely enclosed by layers upon layers of them, forming a pile the size of a building.
The music turned louder and louder, nearing a climax.
"Just try and break through! In a miniscule minute, your time is up!"

Alexander was in pain, as he had never used up this much mana this fast. However he was too enraged to care. Using healing magic on himself, he was able to fix the little damage that over exerting himself caused. Although healing himself just made it hurt more, he took the pain in stride. After taking a few seconds to catch his metaphorical breath, he felt his body starting to relax just a little, as it was no longer 'overheating' so to speak. Alexander took one look at the wall of dolls and yelled "you think mere toys can save you from my wrath!?" He quickly made a new barrier, one with a strange new shape; that of a drill. It's base was larger then he was tall, so he was able to hide behind it easily. He then dispelled the sword barrier on his wand, and held out his weapon to the center of his new barrier to sync the two together. With a thought, the drill barrier began to spin, faster and faster until it's surface became a blur. Alexander began to pant under the effort he was excerting, but he grit his teath and ingonored it. Once his drill was spinning fast enough, he charged straight at the horde of dolls. This time, he didn't let out a battle cry, as even in his bererker state, he knew he couldn't waste the breath.

Anaya payed no mind to being shot. Even if it did stung, it would take more simple bullets to knock her out. The necklace around her griffin's neck 'reversed' the beast's injuries, it shaking it's self off and walking back to the mage, but leaving chunks of debri behind. With Minnie creating her own barrier with the mechanical dolls she conducted, Anaya climbed back on her griffin, and the beast started to slash away at the dolls.

Using the debris left behind, Scout made a makeshift sledgehammer, and joined the other two in ridding the barrier.

Once again Alicia found her new strategy to be a bit more effective than the last, as Minnie moved right into her mine of fire and took the hit seemingly without intending to. She fell back down to the ground, wherein new minions with instruments appeared in addition to the ones already present. It was really too bad that they didn't have their own disposable army at the moment, wasn't it.

She was not, however, expecting the accelerating tempo as those minions formed a giant pile and began to spin around Minnie. She had the feeling that if it made it to the end they would be in for a less than pleasant time, so the pruident thing to do would be to stop her before that happened.

"Guess I'm moving then," she said to no one in particular as she skirted the combat zone, to get in a position where she could shoot without having to worry about someone getting in her way again. Not that it would stop another barrier being suddenly in her path, but she would just have to live with it. Something told her that its user wouldn't suddenly become conscious of allied combatants any time soon.

Alighting upon a new perch, she poised on one leg as she quickly drew up a bead on her target, her other leg pulled up to cross over the one she was standing on. "Hit her Star Seraph," she commented to her bow as she fired, sending arrows zipping in quick succession at the physical barrier. Smal explosions rang out where they impacted as she helped to grind down the obstacle they had to deal with. They were on the clock, so she had better work fast.

Several doll minions leapt out of the formation at the attacking Mahou, but were easily sent flying by Alex' spinning drill, Scout's smashing and Anaya's griffin swatting them off, resulting in a rain of porcelain. "Futile! All the world's a stage for only me, the shining star"
Minnie screamed desperately as her mountain was blasted by Alicia's explosions of light, eroding it rapidly. "Three! Two! One!" She counted. Her eyes opened wide when Alex broke through and she saw the drill heading straight for her, and then closed them.

"ZeitgHAAAAHHHH!"

---

Minnie opened her eyes, and saw the unfurling chaos around her, frozen to a still, Alex' expression in unmoving fury. She had succeeded in perforfming her spell of stopping time, but she could not smile, or enjoy the achievement. She slowly moved her hands to her waist, and felt the drill as it pierced her. She gasped out blood from her lips, and chuckled weakly.
"A stage all of my own...And yet, I'm too late to my own scene. Such a magnificent tragedy."
She shook violently from the pain, yet she still managed to stay conscious.
She reached out towards Alex, and cupped his cheeks. Then, she kissed him.

"Thy lips are warm." She felt the strength in her body waning.
"Time is cruel, indeed. Then I'll be brief. O happy drill! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.

---

Alex struck Minnie with the drill, and sent her flying all the way across the street, until she hit a lamp post, causing it to bend. She laid still as she dropped to the ground, and soon, her magic disappeared; the dolls faded into dust, as if time had caught up with them, and her elaborate gothic lolita dress had turned into a less elegant wardrobe However, despite her end, she carried a faint smile.

It was over.

They finally killed Minnie.

Her eyes turning back to their normal color, Scout's tentacles retracted back into her body, as she fell to her knees transforming back to her normal self. "W-we did it.." She chuckled hoarsely, but why does she still feel bad? Is it cause she let Lilly get captured? Or is it for the gothic magical girl's blood on her hands?

"I'm sorry.." Scout apologized to Alex. "I must be a bad luck charm when it comes to my friends."

Anaya squeezed the witch's shoulder, in an attempt to reasure her. "Atleast the time user died happily. Still, i'd liked to get some answers from her." She said, before turning back to the other two. "Light and Reinforcement users, do you have any idea where the Lighting user went?" She asked Alicia and Alexander.

With the only target of revenge dead, Alexander's rage born fortitude crumbled, and he fell to his knees "Fuck!" His entire body felt sore, with his legs specifically feeling like jelly "they said something about a sacrifice for this 'Lady Justine' woman. Dammit, they said she was the last one too! I don't have time to waste! Hell, I might even be out of time for all I know." He forced himself to his feet "I finally find out that my magic isn't some wimpy back row stuff, but can let me get right up in people face and wreck their shit...and I can't even be happy about it." Alexander broke down the large barrier surrounding them all and recycled the magic that made it. The he turned to the other two girls and asked "I don't suppose either of you know a way to the Overcity? I've got some ass to kick there."

"Ah, I can find an entrance to the overcity, but we might need some help to actually get there." Anaya told Alex, reverting to her normal form herself. "If we can find someone who can take us, we can hurry and rescue your friend."

"That...is great news." Alexander said "although I can't think of anyone willing and able to help us with that. So unless either of you do, then we're just going to have to ask every magic user we can find. Which may take awhile."

"Right. Let's split up then."

Owah, owah, owah! It had been such an intense battle!

Eli was hidden, on a nearby rooftop, eyes wide as she had been watching all that happened, and all those involved. Multiple times she had considered forming her arms into a rifle, shooting to support those fighting the servants of Justine. Yet… yet she hadn’t. Partly because she knew she wasn’t anywhere NEAR the level of the combatants taking part in this battle. She was only half a magical girl. Her bullets would have minimal effect. Her power… was mainly the power to stay alive. Reinforcement, darkness. It was spells of defense and stealth. She wasn’t a combat mage.

Instead, she had stayed hidden, watching, lamenting. She had seen Sonia steal Lily. She had seen the ensuing rage. She had learned a new way of using Reinforcement magic, although she doubted she could use it like Alex had. Finally, they killed Minnie. One less minion of Justine to worry about. And now… they were talking about going to save Lily. Eli sighed. Mariette had that ability, but would she-

Eli flinched as she felt magic she recognized above her.



‘…’ Mariette stood, in mid-air, staring down at the scene. The portal had simply appeared in mid-air, and Mariette had let herself stand on top of it, her own method of flying. Her dress was… in a bad state. Multiple parts of it was ripped due to the debris that had fallen onto her, parts of her arms were somewhat bruised, and the remnants of dirt and dust were over her dark clothes. She looked less than fine.

‘Mistress…!’ Eli called silently in alarm, looking up at Mariette, shocked to see her in this state before remembering there may still be point to hiding and kept her head low, watching wide-eyed.

Mariette didn’t act. She simply stood, clutching her bunny, watching the remnants of the battle in front of her with the eye not under an eyepatch, and saw that there was a situation by Amber’s ship that hadn’t been resolved yet. She didn’t approach anyone, but stayed there, showing her existence to those present.

[@BasicallyEveryone]@Hammerman@Flamelord@Ariamis@Card Captor@Majoras End@FamishedPants@Shifter_Master@TsundereStorm@BrokenPromise

---

Suwako watched as their battle continued from a safe distance. She noticed that Alicia was one of the fighters. That meant whoever that gothic-looking girl was, she must be an enemy of the Beacon. Knowing Alicia was in there, she was terribly tempted to join in on the fight right away. She decided against it however, realizing that she could strike at an opportune moment when the enemy was open. If she was lucky, the girl wouldn't have noticed her presence, thus she wouldn't account on a surprise attack by another magical girl she knew nothing about.

The moment the magical guy erected that huge barrier of his, she quickly backed away, not wanting to be caught inside of it. Of course, this meant she was left outside without any means of joining the battle. What was he thinking, she scolded him in her mind. There was no need to make a barrier that big if you just wanted to keep her from getting away. Though, from the way he shouted, he clearly wasn't thinking that well to begin with.

The battle continued, and with careful observation, Suwako noticed how the girl was able to manipulate time in addition to her dolls. She now understood why it took this many people to bring her down. That kind of ability was simply too strong and versatile to be fought alone.

The girl created her own barrier using her dolls and puppets. But it stood no chance against the combined might of her opponents. And it was all over the moment the magical boy's barrier drill connected with her stomach. She had to admit, it was quite the gruesome end.

When the boy's barrier vanished, Suwako immediately approached the victorious group. Just so she wouldn't alarm them, she dismissed Agape and her bow and landed without any weaponry near Alicia.

"You alright?" she asked her friend. "Who was that? She was too strong to be just an ordinary magical girl."

"Oh, and I suppose I should apologize for arriving late."

@Flamelord

Alicia Hayden

Alicia lowered her bow as the end came and Minnie was dispatched. The minions en masse, leaving a desolate train station behind. The fight was over, but that did not man the end to their troubles unfortunately. She hardly needed to draw attention to the loss of Lily in the fight, and she still had her previous encounter that she needed to deal with at the same time.

She did not turn back to normal, not just yet. Knowing that they were dealing with teleporters made her leery to let her guard down at the moment. Who knew when they might choose to make their presence known again.

“I know someone,” she said when asked if she knew how to get to the Overcity. “But it isn't a formalized arrangement yet.” She was honestly surprised that Alex didn't know. Maybe he just didn't remember, since she thought Penny had told her that she had heard about this business from the duo that had been involved in the fight. But maybe she was just misremembering.

They began to split up, but she found herself approached by Suwako before she could leave. “I don't know, but she was presumably related to our mysterious opponent Justine,” Alicia explained with a frown. Her physical condition wasn't important right now, even if she was a bit tired out from the magic she had been throwing around.

Shaking her head, she started walking away from the others and towards an empty part of the rail yard. “Sorry, but I don't really have time to chat right now. I need to speak to the Beckoners. It's important.”

@Hammerman@Majoras End@Ariamis@Card Captor

@PlatinumSkink

The fight ended without Sue able to do much more than just circle the entire fiasco. In the end, none of her actions really mattered. Even when she tried to help Alicia weaken Minnie, all she really managed to do was get Alexander in hot water by destroying his shields. Sue couldn't even say the battle ended the way she wanted. Amber had tasked her with ensuring Minnie left the conflict alive. Not only did she contribute to Alexander getting hurt, but Minnie died anyway. Was it because she let her emotions get to her? Maybe she didn't try hard enough? Or was it simply because in the grand scene of things she was too small to really affect anything? Regardless, she had failed. She only hoped Minnie's death was relatively painless, or that the smile on her face was a result of dieing without regrets.

Sue did not have much time to lament her failure, fortunately. Mariette showed up on a rooftop beside Eli. It was strange for the portal witch to show herself, stranger still to not be surrounded by both of her lackeys. But, she looked so disheveled. The familiar few up to meet the two. Sue landed on the ground in front of Marianne and Eli, remaining in her bird form.

“What happened? Are you alright?” Sue inquired. The bird was shaking out of nerves. “I-Is Deni alright?!”

---

@FamishedPants@Shifter_Master@TsundereStorm

Amber didn't have much time to think, and she couldn't tell who was friend or foe on board her ship. With her wing busted, she wasn't exactly at full fighting power herself. The pirate was vulnerable out on the open deck. It wasn't an environment she liked to fight in.

But that was easy to fix.

Amber bent down like a sprinter with her cannon pointed out behind her, tipped down slightly. When she fired, the water hit the bow of the ship and reflected the water back at the Pirate's body. She was able to create a moving puddle that acted like a frictionless surface under her feet. The cannon itself acted as a jet, and Amber flew past the combatants at an alarming rate. She disappeared into the bowls of the ship, leaving behind a trail of water. The room immediately below deck was the firing gallery. Of course all of the actual guns were down in storage, but Amber found this to me a much more defensible position. She was still firing off her cannon, but the goal was to flood her environment instead of move.

And so, the four went separate ways to find a magical girl able to enter the overcity. Anaya flew away on her griffin, giving Scout back her necklace beforehand, and the witch rode from the battle site on her motorcycle.

Theresa appeared from one of the buildings, flying besides Scout. "Where have you been?" she asked her familiar. "I had to fly around the barrier to avoid being harmed, but I'm gonna stick with you more often after that.." The owl answered, sighing.

"Maybe later, we need to find someone who can take Alex and the others to the "Overcity", where ever that is. Could you fly ahead and search?"

With a nod, Theresa flew away from scout, and around the block. Spotting Mariette and Eli, the familiar flew back to the witch. "I think I found a canidate, follow me!" she told Scout, before flying back and perching next to Sue.

Pardon me, miss? I don't mean it interupt anything, but are you able to go to a place called The Overcity? Your ability might be needed."

Accepting the hug without any objection she returned it as well. Going to respond to celebrating, Regina cut the option short with a rather decent suggestion. "We could always do both. I could make us something back at the hotel." Transforming to her civilian appearance she turned toward the street. "We can take the bus to that side of town."

---

Taking a trip to the hotel Shannon couldn't help but feel that she'd missed something important. Time would tell though. She also had to make contact with the Beacon again and get any info they might have on the threat. Keeping any magical talk off the table until they arrived the three just appeared to be a trio of kids headed home.

Getting a hotel room without a parent could be tricky at times. Thankfully the earth mover had enough connection to usually get someone to take care of the transaction. Having picked a room on the fifth (top) floor they had access to the roof as needed which was usually a good escape route. While she hadn't really planned for anyone staying over she did get a room with space for visitors. There was a single bed, a couple armchairs, love seat, coffee table, and a dresser with a TV. Not that much room for anything else without making the place cluttered. It should work for their needs at least. And if seened they could probably work something out to get a extra mattress. "Here we are. Make yourself at home." Shannon hopped up and sat down at the foot of the bed.

Mariette’s eyes briefly wandered to look at Sue as she landed in front of her. The bird had simple, reasonable questions. She frowned a bit, looking back at the battlefield.

‘Sue…’ Eli blinked at Sue as the diving petrel landed and spoke to them. Th-that was the one that… Deni had told a bit about her, between the meeting at the Pit Stop and what had later happened. They had arranged to… The liquid harpy bit together, her expression pained and sad, thinking of how to say it.

‘Justine made an attempt on my life.’ Mariette calmly explained her appearance, having none of the hesitation Eli had. Eli blinked a little in surprise, as this was news to her too, before Mariette continued. ‘Deni’s dead.’

Spoken without a shred of emotion in her voice. Eli grimaced in pain.

‘Sh-she defended mistress from an attack by Caroline von Visceral.’ Eli explained, her voice shaking. ‘I-it wasn’t MEANT to be a self-sacrifice… but we couldn’t save her…’ Eli closed her eyes as she spoke with a weak voice, black liquids threatening to spill from her already liquid eyes as she explained.

Then came ANOTHER bird to talk to her. Mariette frowned in annoyance. Is this what happens when you show yourself in public? Birds come up to talk to you? How annoying. This was the first time she really had shown herself publically like this, and she found distaste in how they could just up and ask her questions without her permission.

Regardless, she had her answers.

“Are you able to go to a place called The Overcity?”
‘I am.’
“Your ability might be needed”
‘I know.’

Her answers were short, confident, and to the point. She started walking forward, in mid-air, the portal under her feet moving to accommodate her moving forward. Mariette then spoke, opening tiny portals near herself and near Alexander (and anyone still near him), to transfer her words.

‘I came here to speak to Lily Hanson.’ So she said, still holding her stuffed bunny. ‘… But I see that’s no longer possible.’ She said, stopping eventually, looking down specifically at Alex where she still stood in mid-air, still in a dress damaged from the debris that had earlier fallen on her and bruises on the arms she had used to defend herself with.

She expected to be requested to be taken to Justine’s base right now.

Her most likely answer: You’re in no state to lay siege to Justine’s fortress. If I take you there as you are, you will die. … At least, that’s what she was preparing to say. She then expected argumentation. Perhaps she’d change her mind. But, she was open to being surprised.

Left behind on the rooftop was Eli, trying to hold herself together after having had to recall what happened to Deni, shaking and holding herself with a pained expression on the liquid harpy.

@BrokenPromise@Majoras End@Card Captor

Alexander scoffed "yeah, but I plan on fixing that." His body was starting to recover from being pushed so far, with a little help from his healing magic. As much as he complained about it before, he starting to like his magic. "I need to get to the Overcity and wreck the shit of this Justine broad. I realize that this is probably a suicide mission, but for some ungodly reason, I don't care. I don't understand why...but I just have to save Lily, or die trying. And that is a concept that is pretty fucking alien to me, so for all I know I melted by brain, when I pushed myself so far in that last fight." He shook his head "anyway; I know you don't want anything to do with this. After all; Lily tried to convince you and failed, and I'm shit at dealing with people. But if you know anyone who is both willing and able to open a portal to the Overcity...well, it'd mean a lot to me if you pointed me in their direction."

---

Honestly, things had escalated much faster than Prime had anticipated. It was not within the intel that this newcomer would show up and interfere with the mission that he was charged with. It was annoying to say the least, and honestly, even though he knew that his charge could handle herself well enough when a fight broke out, it would be his ass on the line if something happened when it was his job to provide support.

Actually, what was probably more annoying than that was that the loud newcomer had alerted a certain pirate to their. . . . well. . . . to Sil's presence. He was still shrouded in the shadows. That wouldn't last for too long however when he noticed that someone was blasting water behind them while they fled beneath the ship. He would have to move fast. 3 squads would be the way to go.

In a flash, Prime communicated his directives to. . . . himself. . . Anyway, his clones split into three groups with 4 going below deck and one remaining above to assist the originator. On the deck, Prime watched the combat unfold before his eyes, waiting for the proper moment to make his entrance. It didn't take long luckily. His moment came when their newfound opponent made a grab for his ally. From the duel pistols in his hands, a hail of bullets erupted, blasting forth and either driving his enemy back or cutting through them with a deadly force. At the same moment he did so, the power of magic flowed through his body amplifying the level of gravity in that exact area by several fold. This would make it much harder to just dodge and would likely force them to either tank or directly strike at the bullets.

The instant after he fired, Prime stepped from the shadows, a grin plastered on his face as he looked at his ally Sil.

"Kept you waiting, huh?"

---

Below deck, the secondary and tertiary teams split with 3 heading toward the pirate that was trying to flood her own ship, much to their annoyance, while the last headed toward what he presumed to be the engine housing of the flying ship. It would take a bit for him to get there, so we'll get back to him another time and focus on the secondary team.

Two clones remained among the shadows and trained their weapon while the "leader" of the squad stepped forward.

"Hey. I'm gonna have to ask you to give that a rest for a minute. I just wanna talk. It's important."

His tone was serious, but there was a smile on his face, indicating that his intent was not to be hostile. The leader didn't have his weapons drawn, but in the shadows, the lesser clones were standing by. They were ready to storm forward and fight at a moments notice. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

@t2wave

Regina wasn't exactly sure what to expect from Shannon. Her idea of a safe place to stay was Ilia's interdenominational home. What she liked about such locations was that they were secluded, nobody really knew about them, and they were defensible. Having to share the space with a Puchuu and a monster boy was a small price to pay for that security. Even at this hour, Regina could see at least ten minds within thirty feet of the room. The roof access was nice, though she wondered how easily it could be used as an entry. The thought of a ghost or vampire girl landing on top of the hotel wasn't that far fetched. They were in the heart of the city where any magical girl could likely pick up on their auras. Because it was a hotel, the lights in the hallway were likely going to be on at all times. This would make it impossible for her to freely move around the building from the shadows. The set up was definitely cozy and Shannon was one of the best room mates Regina could hope for. But safe was not a word Regina would use to describe the place.

The timid girl approached the windows and drew them all the way closed. She stepped away from the blinds and considered her next coarse of action.“Alright Elroy, I think it's safe to unwind now.”

“Cool beans!” In a puff of black smoke, both monster kids reverted back to their true forms. Elroy prepared to dive backwards onto the bed.

“We are honored guests Elroy. If you're going to roughhouse, make sure your shield doesn't crash through the bed.” Regina didn't look at Elroy. The only part of her that moved was her tail, which swept across the floor.

“Oh.” He took off his shield. “Good point.” He cast the shield off to the side, and it clattered to the ground. Elroy then finished his backwards dive into the bed, just barely missing Shannon. But shortly after he did so, his head popped up to look at her. “Don't we have awesome costumes?”

“We typically keep our true forms concealed, but I'd rather be like this, if you don't mind. It's more comfortable.” Regina didn't mention that she could read minds in this form as well. It wouldn't have been hard to pluck Shannon's brain for surface thoughts, and she could learn a lot more if she could work up the nerve to touch her. But there was no reason to do that. She would respect Shannon's privacy for now. But it was a boon to be able to read the thoughts of those nearby. Regina had been exceedingly careful ever since the hospital event. No one would surprise her this time. “So to start, the hospital. We were just going to ignore the entire fight, but I was able to pick up on the presence of two beacon killers. We don't really take part in the whole beacon killing thing.” Regina broke eye contact with the girl. “Monsters can't be too picky with their friends. That's not to say we haven't been known to defend ourselves but...” She looked back at Shannon and squinted her eyes. “You look familiar. I know I've seen you before.”

“Yea.” Elroy sat up. “Scarf girl was at the hospital.” He winked with a grin.

“Oh?” Regina folded her arms. “There were a lot of people there. Djinn, ghosts, vampires, Beacon, a few normal girls. But why were you there?” Maybe she would be looking into Shannon's mind after all.

---

@PlatinumSkink

Birds can't show a wide range of emotions, Sue by extension. The familiar's only reaction to Deni's death was her stumbling backwards a few steps. Such a small physical reaction to someone's life being wiped away. But inside Sue's body was a maelstrom of emotion. Sue hadn't known Deni long. It would be fare to say she didn't know her at all. But Sue had few friends, and had just been robbed of a potential connection. As strong as Mariette tried to act, Sue knew that she was probably hurting on the inside too. Sue liked to think that she had a relationship with Deni like she had with Amber. It wasn't always nice, but neither of them were ever alone. Watching Eli was just painful. Deni was definitely a nice person. While hearing about people dying was never easy for Sue, this was different. She could still feel Deni's warmth from when the girl leaned over her to extinguish her lighter. She remembered Deni's smile when Sue asked her to hang out some time. That wasn't even twenty-four hours ago. If this was what Justine was capable of, then maybe it was best that Minnie died after all. Though that probably wasn't a very nice way to think. But it did make her wonder what Helga was responsible for. She almost blew up a hospital. Amber warned against using her wish to get closer to people too. Sue could barely keep up with her own thoughts. She needed to get out of her head for a moment. The familiar needed to focus on what was going on around her in the moment and transformed into her human shape.

“Mariette.” Sue turned to face the portal witch. Sue dried her eyes with the palm of her hand. “Surely you plan on fighting back. Maybe with just us gathered here we can't do it, but look.” She pointed up in the air. “Amber has a flying transport. We can siege the castle with that. ” Come to think of it, it was strange that Amber just took off like that. Sue hoped everything was okay.

Alicia was quick to move somewhere where she had more privacy for this conversation. Not that what she had to say was confidential, but with how things were at the moment it would be better to keep others from having a good look at the internal workings of Beacon. They had to hold their appearance of strength after all.

It was when she had come to a stop in a small circle made by rubble and debris from the fight that she decided she was ready. She clasped her hands and bowed her head, letting her internal light stretch out as a summons for those she wished to speak with. "Beckoners, I request an audience. I have found more information about the current threat, and desire your knowledge and approval for action."

Now all there was to do was wait.

Alicia's assigned Beckoner arrived, with a worried look on their face.
"Chosen one, have you succeeded in your mission?"
The angelic being looked around.
"It seems that devil has caused destruction to the community as well...Now then, what have you discovered?"

Alicia nodded as her Beckoner arrived, wasting no time as she prepared to report all that she had learned so recently. "Yes. Not just the community but one of her minions also abducted one of the magical girls who was aiding us. I can only guess as to what her intentions are."

That was the most recent occurrence after all, but she carried on lest her Beckoner think that that was all she had learned. "I also met a girl named Mariette on the way here. She said that she had been working with Justine up until this morning, in a mutual relationship. She also said she was the one who kidnapped Janet, and other girls."

Reaching into her pocket, she produced the list that she had been given by Mariette in their recent encounter and showed it off so the Beckoner could look at it. "This is all the girls she's kidnapped for Justine, with relevant details. Apparently they had a falling out and there was some attempted murder, so now Mariette wants to team up with us to proactively defend herself and defeat Justine. She knows how to get to the Overcity, but she wants a guarantee that she won't be killed and that her patron being a Horror won't be a problem for us. That's why I needed to talk with you."

The Beckoner gasped, their eyes furious. "You met with the kidnapper and didn't apprehend them? How could you let the witch walk away unpunished? It is your duty as the light of Beacon!" Fortunately, the Beckoner was appeased by the list Alicia showed.
"How terrible...Justine must be brought to justice." The Beckoner scowled.
"A coward, trying to escape judgement...Very well then, she may be ignored for the time being, but on the condition that she gives uncodnitional aid in stopping Justine. And once that case is over, she must turn herself in. I trust that you are capable of keeping an eye on her so she won't break her promise." They sighed. "I will let the other Beckoners know. Thank you, chosen one."
And so, the Beckoner disappeared in a ray of light.

"I chose to prioritize," Alicia replied in an increasingly defensive manner as the Beckoner accused her of abandoning her duty. Of course she had not forgotten, and knew that th8is could not be allowed to stand. But she had figured that Justine was the priority, and with Mariette coming to them they needed to take advantage of all the possible resources they could get to handle this crisis.

Fortunately the evidence she provided was enough to appease what anger ther was, and she relaxed before nodding in agreement. "Alright. The pleasure is mine Beckoner, I shall do my utmost to carry out what you have instructed." She wasn't sure if she could get Mariette to agree to turning heerself in, but there was nothing that said she had to mention that part right away....

Well, she had learned what she wanted. Now she just had to go get that burner phone. The meeting over, Alicia prepared to leave.

But then, the Beckoner came back, with a terrified look on their face. "Chosen one! Something terrible has happened! You must come to headquarters! Hurry!" It was incredibly rare for the Patron to be so disturbed; it was serious.

She barely made it a couple steps before the Beckoner reappeared, ewearing a look of horror on its face. and if it was horrified then that was enough to really make her scared. If it felt that bad then what had happened? She did not argue, but merely nodded as she was instructed to return to their headquarters in the city. "Understood," she replied. It was a good thing that she had not transformed back.

Departing the meeting area at a sprint, she only came to a stop when she drew near Suwako. "There's a crisis and the Beckoners need us to return to headquarters," she called to her fellow Beacon member before resuming her flight. Nothing would stop her, as she regretfully left the scene of the battle behind.

"A crisis?" Suwako responded. "H-hey, what kind of crisis?"

Before she got her answer however, Alicia already left. It must be quite the crisis if she rushed back like that. Without any delay, Suwako followed.

"Agape, come forth! Carry me to the Beacon Headquarters! Full speed!"

The fastest she could go was when she was riding her familiar. She never liked going full speed with it however as she always felt like she could fall down at any moment, thanks to the winds battering her face and body. But this time, she ordered it to go as fast as it could. Agape obeyed, and as a result, she couldn't ride it the same way as she usually did. She had to lay down and grab at its furs.

In spite of having a head start Alicia soon found herself outpaced by Suwako riding her familiar, the magical girl blowing past her en route to headquarters and whatever crisis had emerged

Right. Maybe getting a ride was the smarter idea. But it was too late now so she tried to keep up as best she could, bracing herself for whatever was to come.

When Alicia arrived at the HQ, she saw that there was smoke and fire everywhere. Magical girls with water and earth magic worked on putting out the flames, while those with healing magic tended to the wounded. "Ah, Alicia, you're here!" One of the healer girls screamed.
"I can't believe it...Janet..."

Arrving at the headquarters, Alicia was brought to a sudden halt by what she had found waiting for the both of them. Fire, destruction, pain, and the clear sign that something had attempted to strike directly at the heart of the organization in the city. At least it was not too bad, though she did not have an idea of what happened here just yet beyond the attack.

Hurrying over to the girl who had noted her presence, Alicia was all business now that she was confronted with the crisis in full. "What about Janet? What happened here?" She had a bad feeling about this....

Suwako was already there and she was also asking around on what had happened. It was as if there was a major attack to their headquarters. The girls had been saying something about Janet but she couldn't get anything more out of them as they were all busy with their own tasks.

The healer tried to remain calm as she began explaining.
"Janet arrived here! We were so happy to see her after she disappeared like that. But she was the one who caused this; she brought a bomb here! Fortunately the casualties were limited to the training hall, but the whole place is contaminated. It's going to take a long time to clear the radioactivity according to our air specialists, so the Beckoners have decided to call off all missions. A lot of Beacon girls don't agree though. They're fighting over there."
She pointed to a gathering of girls who loudly talked with some Beckoners. "Maybe you could get them to help."

Alicia's blood near froze as the girl explained what had happened. This, all this was Janet? Emotions rose inside of her, swirling and clashing as she was faced with the stark reality of what had happened here. It was possible that she had been coerced into it, but otherwise it seemed likely that Janet had been lost, fallen and converted to Justine's side somehow. And she had been the perfect agent to strike at Beacon.

it didn't take a genius to see why. As Mariette had noted, they were the best organized force to actually resist whatever her plan was, and there was almost certainly a grudge as well even if she didn't know the details. Undoubtedly this had been aimed at making sure they could not interfere with her plan.

That was what made the decision by the Beckoners all the more astounding. "Thanks, I'll do that," she agreed with a nod before making her way over to join the argument in progress. They couldn't just let this stop them, and hopefully they could get their guides to see that.

"I hear we're ceasing all operations. Is that true?" she asked when she had drawn close enough, facing the Beckoner with the other girls, her arms folded across her chest as she frowned.

The Beckoner, who resembled a teddy bear with a wings and halo, nodded.
"Beacon's safety has been compromised by this atrocity. Until this chaos has been quelled and our order has been organized anew cane you resume your sacred duty."
"That is ridiculous! The culprit is still at large!" The girl who led the protests was Sylvia Starshine, the most prominent member of Beacon. While the order was mainly run by Beckoners, she could be considered their magical girl leader.
"Justine was behind this attack! If we don't stop her, what will prevent her from doing this again with another traitor? We need to amass a force and strike at her!"
The Beckoners shook their heads, and the bear Beckoner sighed. "No, you must stay and protect your own." Sylvia clenched her fists in suppressed anger. "Fine. But can we at least send one or two girls to investigate? I have a bad feeling that she's done this to stall us on purpose." She turned to the other girls. "I want two volunteers to investigate Justine, and if it's necessary, apprehend her." The other girls averted their eyes, and shivered out of pure terror.
Sylvia facepalmed. "Anyone?"

"I would," Suwako answered, raising her hand. "I believe we should seek for any information that we could gain about Justine I wouldn't say I have high hopes that we could apprehend her by just two people, but we could do some scouting for sure."

Suwako didn't tell them the other reason why she wanted to investigate Justine. She wished to ascertain what happened to Janet. Was she merely an unwilling co-operator? Or was she willingly become a traitor to the Beacon? It would only create more arguments if she said that Janet was innocent or guilty.

Alicia's frowned joined that of Sylvia, her sentiments much in line with that of the girl who might as well be their nominal leader. The Beckoners were the ones who had emphasized how important this was, how could they just step back and do nothing after they had been attacked?

"We know where she is, and we know how to reach her in the Overcity," she pointed out quickly. "If we just stay back and lick our wounds, what does that say to everyone else here in Penrose? They'll think that we're weak, and the ones who've bought into the propaganda about us will just become more aggressive."

Turning towards the others, she nodded sharply. "I'm going with Suwako.for this. We have the means to get there, and we won't let Justine get away with this. If anyone else wants to tag along and make it more likely that we'll succeed, well, I'm not going to stop you." She had the feeling they could use all the help they could get.

Sylvia sighed out of relief. "At least some girls here have guts. I would love to join you, but I gotta stay here and organize the rescue effort. However, take this." She gave Alicia a pendant. "Hold on to that; once I can I'll amass a second wave and follow after you guys using that as a beac...navigation aid." She bit her lip, then smiled as she waved them off. "I'll be counting on you two! Come back safe, you hear!"

Colab w/ @t2wave



Justine was sipping on a cup of blood-red tea as she sat in the throne room, her legs crossed in a refined fashion.

"Big sister...It hurts..."

Justine turned her head, and looked to the right side of her throne;
Caroline was in the shadow, holding her knees to her chest as she rocked in place.

"I want to...play with my dolls, big sister..." She whispered, and scratched a mark on the stone floor; the floor around her was filled with them.
Justine sighed.
"I understand how you feel, my dear sister...But you will have to be patient for just a bit longer. Soon, I have enacted my vengeance, and we can be happy together, like we used to be. Wouldn't that be nice, Caroline?"
Caroline floated up to look at Justine, her face mere inches from hers.
"...That would be wonderful..."
Then, the door was opened, and Janet walked in. Justine slapped Caroline away, with her smiling as she hit a wall.
"Ah, Janet! My precious apprentice~"
She stood up, and slowly walked towards her.
"Did you succeed? Please, spare me no details~"

Disgarding a disguise that had been provided to her, Janet returned to her gothic appearance. Tossing aside the disguise artifact she smiled widely. "I only wish you could have been there to see it My Lady." Approaching Justine she bowed slightly before her head snapped back up. Red eyes glowing intensely she had fed well from the attack. "There was much pain and suffering. My favorite were the ones that tried to stop me at the end." Clasping her hands together she seemed more like she was fantasizing about a boy rather than death and destruction.

"I gave them a front row seat to thair own demise. You could see the fear in their eyes." Walking around Justine she gestured as she told of the destruction and disarray the Beacon HQ had been left in. She probably could have gone on forever dancing about like and singing of the chaos.

Justine smiled, and two sharp teeth could be glimpsed from between her beautiful lips.
"Marvellous...Simply perfect~ I knew I could rely on you. And now, with the Beacon out of the picture, and Mariette dealt with, nobody can stop me! Haahaahaa!"
She laughed elegantly.

Shivering with excitement Janet could hardly contain herself. While she had only recently been turned to Justine's side, the level of control that Justine had over the magical girl was palpable. "Yes, we are nearly there." She had opened her mouth again to speak when an inturruption arrived.

Sonia suddenly teleported in, and held Lily the exact same way as they left from Penrose.
"My Lady, I have brought the last sacrifice, as per your request. I humbly offer it to you."
Lily still struggled, and aimed her staff at Justine.
"Hey, what's going on? If you don't answer me, I'll shock you!"
In response, Justine simply giggled.
"Go ahead. Maybe it will make your pure heart bloom even more with the power of resolve."
Lily was taken aback by her words, and that is when Caroline swooped in; she hovered upside down in front of her, and spooked her.
"Ahhh, no!"

"Hee hee...A short-haired doll...I like long-haired dolls more..."

"She is not for you, Caroline. She has a greater purpose." Justine approached her, and before Lily could say anything more, a single finger touched her forehead.

"Boop~"

"Huh? What did you do that for...Wait, I think I'm-"

Lily was consumed by light, and was back to her untransformed state. She loooked at herself in a panic as Sonia released her.
"Wait, how? How did you make me turn to normal? Well, I'll just have to turn ba-"
"That is impossible," Sonia spoke, her hands clasped before her like a proper maid as she took her place next to Justine.
"Lady Justine has blessed you with her power of Purity, and your mind has been cleansed of the method."

Lily looked at her hands, and then tightened them into fists as she took a stance.
"Purity? That sounds like brainwashing! That's how you made Stephanie do such horrible things! I thought she was bad for killing Victoria, but I was wrong..."
Tears trickled down her eyes upon remembering her.
"You used her, caused so much pain...You're nothing but a despicable monster!"
Sonia drew a knife from her thigh holster.
"My Lady, she has spoken against you. May I punish her for her insolence?"
Justine swept her hand dismissively.
"Oh, no no. That would be unnecessary. After all, she is simply venting her frustrations, and I would like to not make a mess of my throne room. Isn't that right, Janet?"
She asked with a smile, while Caroline giggled loudly.
"Or perhaps...You would like to punish her yourself, hmhm?"

Lily gasped, unable to believe her eyes.
"...Janet? Is it really you? You look...different."

Twirling around as if to show off. "Look... Feel... Am." Drawing near to Lily she placed a hand gently against the depowered girl's chin before grabbing it harshly. "My Lady has opened my eyes to the truth. And we've just made steps to ensure her will will come about." She let go and playfully patted Lily's cheek before moving back again. "You will play a part as well my dear. You may not understand but this is all for the best."

Lily winced from Janet's rough touch, and bit her lip.
"This isn't like you, Janet! Snap out of it!"
Her desperate plea was only met by further giggling from Caroline and a smug look from Justine.
"It seems you misunderstood my power. I do not take over minds. I simply opened her eyes to the truth. She was forced to be the Beacon's lapdog, to be used until she was deemed worthless, and then discarded. But now, she has a far greater goal in serving me."
Justine went to Janet, and softly caressed her cheek.
"It is such a shame that you are so pure of heart, as I would have liked to make you my maid as well~"
Sonia blinked, and then cast a look of suppressed anger at Lily before returning back to her neutral expression.
"Well, I suppose we are done here. Sonia, could you escort her to the dungeon? I reserved a guest room exclusively for her." She returned back to sit on her throne.

The maid nodded, and suggested for Lily to follow her. The green-haired girl clenched her fists so hard they drew blood.
"You won't get away with this! Whatever sick thing you're planning, I'll stop you!"

"Boring..." Caroline mumbled, and went back to sit in the throne's shadow. Justine scoffed, and sipped on her cup of tea.

"Sick? How ignorant of you. It is the world that is sick; sick with obsessions and desires that run rampant. As long as depraved humans feel such, they won't stop to hurt others. That is why I will create a pure paradise, where such sins have been cleansed."

Justine smiled like never before; her fangs were once again visible.

"I shall destroy...Love itself."

Lily put her hand to her mouth, suppressing a gasp.

"You're crazy...That's nuts! But I know you're serious about this, so I'll take it seriously too!"
Lily made a stance of defiance.
"I have friends, and they will come and rescue me! Alex...Amber...Helga...M...M-Mariette too! They will rescue me, I just know it!"

"What a ludicrous assumption. But I suppose hope is a component in a pure heart. Now, take her away, Sonia. I want to enjoy my afternoon tea, with Janet~"
She gave one last glance in Lily's direction when she was led out of the chamber, before she turned to Janet; she gestured to the black-dressed girl with a hooked finger and a seductive look in her eyes.

Having heard her name she looks back to Justine. Seeing that she was being called she wasted no time going to her Lady. Rather than sitting in another chair she sat across her mistress' lap. "Are you pleased My Lady?" Head resting on Justine's shoulder.

Justine giggled. "Hmhm~" She curled a strand of Janet's hair around her finger. "I am. Everything is going according to plan. It has been far too long...after centuries, I can finally meet with Father."

Alicia Hayden

Alicia's firm demeanor lightened a bit as Syvlia agreed with her and handed her a pendant that they could use for the second wave of reinforcements if they needed it. Which they probably would, but she was nonetheless glad that the opinion of the Beckoners did not hold for all the girls. They would need it if they were to succeed in this fight.

“Thank you. We won't let you down,” she agreed as she took the pendant and slid it into one of her pockets for safekeeping. It wouldn't do to lose something that important.

With that done she turned away, looking to Suwako to see if the other girl would join her before heading away from the building. “I'd like to stick around and help but there's stuff I need to do,” she explained. “Penny wants to talk later, and I need to see about procuring a new ally of ours a phone so we can communicate.” A temporary alliance, but still a valuable one. Without Mariette they would have precious few options for getting at Justine.

@Hammerman@Ariamis

---

Sil was delighted to see her opponent was experienced enough to keep their guard up. Not hesitating in the least, Sil's opponent launched a counterattack. It was in the form of a hook that could likely cause some damage, but also an attempted grab. Had Silhouette been engaged with Amber, this would be ideal as she could simply place her VIP in Stasis. Sil was not so lucky, and instead would rather not physically touch the magical girl before her who owned electrical powers of some kind.

That being the case, the assassin evaded the hook, but the fight was interrupted by a certain soldier before much else could be done. This didn't come as a surprise to Sil, who had honestly been expecting it. Darien's intervention provided some opportunity to attack, but she did not take it. Instead, Sil hopped back and placed a fair bit of distance between her and Penny.

"So you were here." she said, not moving her gaze from the girl. "I would prefer to engage this person alone. Can I ask of you to handle the pirate in a non-lethal manner?"

"Tch." Prime clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. He didn't like to take risks for no reason in the middle of a mission. That said, he was really not in the mood to get into an argument with his "partner" as it were. As such, he nodded his head and took a step back.

With a jerk of his head in signal, Prime took off after the few clones that had already gone below deck. He left one clone above to at least observe the situation. It would call back to him, or provide fire support if he saw anything getting out of hand. He didn't want to get in the way of Sil's fight, but if he saw her about to lose, he would definitely not let that happen.

The main body reached below deck just a few moments later.

The sudden staccato of gunfire did little more than surprise Penny, but the fact that it had been aimed at her did cause her to miss her chance to grab a hold of her cloaked target. The pistol rounds themselves did little more than scuff her reinforced chassis as they pinged off of it. Even then the scuffing was quickly dealt with by her regeneration.

A moment later she noticed the gravitational distortion that had been placed on top of her and bit back a growl. It wasn’t enough for it to be a significant hindrance to her, but it was going to be annoying to deal with nonetheless. She bit back a growl as she picked up one of the bullets that had so recently bounced off of her and took a moment to examine it. With a snort, she popped the deformed piece of metal in her mouth and made a show of her biting the round in half, in a pointed display of how she felt about the attack, before swallowing it.

Afterwards she slipped back into her stance and took a moment to give the newcomer a once over before she before rushed the both of them, launching a flurry of strikes. The numbers weren’t in her favor at the moment, but she was sure she would be able to deal with it anyway.

Silhouette noticed that it did not seem as though her opponent wished to wait for them to finish their chat. They were being quite rude, weren't they? Of course, their conversation was short and concise, and Sil hadn't made the mistake of taking her eyes off of her opponent. No, that would be a rookie mistake. And when it came to killing, she was most certainly an expert.

The Assassin instead met her opponent about halfway. From there, her defense consisted of a mix of deflecting blows with her knife or evading them. Sil owned a fairly strong defense as well, but it simply was not in her nature to allow herself to be hit if she could help it, and she hadn't completely lost her mind to her bloodlust just yet. Also, blunt blows really didn't feel nice through her armor. It was doubtful she would claim this victory if she were to attempt to trade blows back and forth.

As of now, she wanted to see exactly how this girl worked and if there was anything she could exploit. However, being entirely defensive this fight would not help her gauge her foe’s true potential. So, Sil returned with her own flurry of especially quick stabs with her knife, mostly targeting the girl's sides and legs.

Even though Penny was rather confident with her durability she also adopted The tactic of blocking and dodging the attacks coming her way. Overconfidence had already taken its toll on her recently and she wasn’t one to forget such lessons easily. Still, the occasional nick or scrape would land due to her slowed movements due to the increased gravity, but those were easily dealt with just as the scuffing she had dealt with earlier had been.

The main thing of note was the feeling of utter contempt and hatred that would flare up within Penny every time she came in contact with the dagger. It felt unnatural and wrong on a fundamental level, and the girl wanted nothing more than to shatter it into a thousand pieces and she only had an inkling as to why.

Her attempts at landing her own blows were also stymied, as the speed they both had was too equal at the moment for either of them to land anything other than glancing blows. So Penny started trying to lead Silhouette into the growing flood of water on deck. After all, there are few things that can outpace lightning, and even less when they are standing in water.

Silhouette had also found it difficult to land anything decisive and it was frustrating her. But, it also piqued her interest when she noticed the little cuts she was managing to get weren’t causing her foe to slow in the least. Normally, repeated damage over time would add up. Even a tenacious foe could be bested by the accrued damage of chipped legs and sides given enough time. Silhouette’s foe now, however, did not fit the description of "normal".

To defeat this girl, it was possible she would need to land a critical strike on a vital point. Since that was likely, it probably meant that this woman could not be different than herself in this way. And if so, she imagined decapitation was certainly the most surefire way to ensure death. That being said, the woman likely would not lie still and allow herself to be executed. At least, she wouldn't right now. There were ways to make this simpler, and following the foe into water was not one. Awareness was the key to victory and one should never let their guard down. That was something she learned way back when she was actually in the military. She was not blind, Penny's plan did not go unnoticed. Sil thought of a way to deal with this.

Amidst the clash of metal, the trading of blows, Penny perhaps felt that Silhouette's speed was increasing drastically. This was, of course, merely how she perceived things. In actuality, Sil was not getting fast, it was Penny who was getting slower. Application of Silhouette's time magic to slow her had finally been used, so if she hadn't figured out what Sil was now, this might have made it more obvious. And with this incredibly high speed, Silhouette placed herself between the water and Penny, now launching thrust attacks at the girl's neck and attempting to force the girl away from it.

Penny felt it when her opponent’s magic placed on her instantly, allowing her to react seamlessly by shifting immediately to near complete defense. Attacking with only counters where she could launch them. Altogether the fight was starting to slip away from the cyborg despite her efforts, and her eyes were starting to become ringed with red due to the frustration of it.

Before her mood could deteriorate any further, Sil blitzed past Penny cutting off the route to the water while at the same time starting to aim almost solely at the mechanical girl's neck. From these acts, it was easy to tell that both Penny’s regeneration and attempted plan had been spotted. The regeneration being ousted was only a slight annoyance, it wasn’t really that much of a secret, the plan to move into the water would have been much more frustration if it weren’t for how her opponent tried to counter that plan.

Rather than backing off Penny planted her feet and began a total defense, waiting for the perfect moment. More and more shallow nicks and scrapes began to cover her arms as she defended against the blows raining down on her, but her patience paid off, and she was able to read an attack far enough ahead to put her plan into action.

At first, it seemed like a poorly timed cross counter, thrown a second late, but a moment before her fist pasted her opponent's blade her hand snapped open as she forcefully and willingly impaled it on the dagger. Not even a moment later she locked her grip on the blade wrapping her fingers around the cross guard to make sure she would lose it easily. The next instant had her opening her mouth as a roar thundered out as she released her first round of the fight.

Rather than the usual sharpened steel spike and large bolt of lightning, a storm of flechette was launched amidst a crackling web of electricity. A shotgun blast of Penny’s elements that would prove to be more than lethal at such a close range, the conical shape of the attack made dodging to either side difficult and jumping backward would only lead into the water that was only moments away from getting electrified.

Sil realized she had made a huge mistake rather early on. Her ability to process things was heightened due to the influence of her own Time Manipulation on herself. In conjunction with the power of her special eyes, she was able to gather a general idea of what her opponent intended a lot quicker than someone else might have, being able to witness a gathering of magic near her foe's mouth. Of course, with her weapon currently stuck in the foe's hand, she was still in the same position, merely with an extra moment or two of time to react.

And she most certainly would react to Penny, who had made an even bigger mistake in assuming Sil couldn't proceed forward in this situation. Silhouette had a trick up her sleeve as well.

It was difficult to see at the moment considering it was impaled in a hand, but the runes on Silhouette's blade began to glow, a side effect of the mana being poured into it right now. As soon as it did, Penny's hand provided quite literally zero resistance where the blade met it, and with a motion similar to rocking back and then forth, Sil had swiftly cut the hand up to the finger, and then pressed the attacks forwards, running her blade along the arm. It looked like a hot knife through butter as it cut, and this action took an extremely small amount of time to complete with the combination of magic buffing Sil and the simple fluidity she was capable of performing it. However, in doing this, Sil was not going to get out without a scratch. But that was also fine, she too was able to recover from blows that weren't outright fatal, which is why she chose to go forwards.

Penny found Sil's opposite shoulder rammed into her face just as she was to fire. It would not stop the attack or perhaps even hurt that much, but that wasn't the intention. Instead, the projectile wasn't allowed to spread before it hit Sil, meaning it tore into her shoulder alone. Her shoulder was all but obliterated at the current moment, but this trade would lean in Silhouette's favor, as her blade had ran the length of Penny's arm and separated it just above the elbow, with the severed part falling to the deck's floor and with the two girl's trading places in relativity to the water as Sil passed Penny. This had not gone exactly as Sil had wanted, as the electrical properties of the projectile had actually given Sil quite the shock, preventing her from touching the girl's arm that had been severed.

She hid her frustration that she couldn't remove her opponent's arm indefinitely due to the shock, but there was a saying about plans never surviving an encounter with the enemy. If she thought about it, considering how little time she had to think of it, this plan went rather well. She decided to be thankful for what she got, and with the arm she could still currently use, Sil readied her blade for the girl should she attempt to attack once again, ignoring the painful, bloodied mess that used to be her shoulder.

The singularly unique pain of having a blade carve its way through your arm was blinding to Penny, up until her arm had been lopped off and the sharp pain quickly receded as her body began to repair her damaged limb. She was glad she had been cautious about the knife before, seeing as it suddenly ignored her plating, but that didn’t stop more red from seeping into her eyes because of the wound she was suffering from.

A digital growl echoed out from Penny as she adopted a more offensive stance from earlier and it an apparent repeat from earlier the cyborg began to rush towards Sil. The difference happened when Penny passed next to her own severed arm, as she picked up the discarded limb as she passed it by. Placing the stumps together there was a series of metallic pops as the limb was reconnected, there was still a deep cut along the length of her arm but that was visibly growing shorter by the second. The next change happened shortly after as mid step the gravitational debuff wore away, giving Penny a fair amount of her speed back mid-dash.

As she once again started launching a flurry of blows at her opponent she would turn on her blades a moment before impact before snapping them back off a moment after they were blocked or dodged adding a layer of unpredictability to her assault.

---

Before Penny could reach her opponent, a hail of bullets flashed between them, either forcing her to back off or hitting her. Presumably greatly wounding her at the very least. The clone left on deck stood forward and called out to Sil.

“Mission complete. Evacuate as soon as possible.”

With little to no wait, he jumped from the deck of the ship, escaping what would likely be a very brutal scene to come.

Silhouette had merely nodded in response. There was nothing more that needed to be said. She was, however, disappointed that things ended so quickly, and it was very difficult to hide the smile trying to creep up on her features. She did not lose to bloodlust, but odds are she might have if things continued any longer.

Perhaps it was a good thing Darien had finished the job as quick as he did.

Hopefully, Vermillion Veronica did not mind the mission being accomplished by a third party. Well, it’s not as though Sil had any reason to tell her. And even so, the objective was reached, so what was there to complain about?

Sil hadn’t given Penny any opportunities to attack without a counter, and with the little amount of time she had left to evacuate, it was unlikely she would even bother if she wanted to remain in one piece. Unless she was lacking in the intelligence department, one could gather that this ship was not long for this world based on what Darien had said.

Feeling both satisfied but also frustrated, Sil decided it was time to go. Releasing her magic on the other girl and focusing it entirely on herself, the assassin reluctantly bailed from the scene as well, swiftly dashing to the other side of the ship in no time and reusing her steps to return to a safe position on the ground.

---

By the time Amber had been approached by the soldier, the water was already over her ankles. There was no way she could see the two backups at the top of the stairs, and the lone soldier had entered the ship just as Amber had arrived.

“Eh? A third one?” Amber stopped pouring water into the gallery, but she pointed her cannon at Darien's clone. The water around her was behaving unnaturally, as it seemed to be surging towards her. “What are you doing on my ship? If you came for the black suit party, you forgot a tie!”

Prime honestly had not expected “witty” banter from the opposition, so he was stunned for a moment. He was usually relatively quick witted, but it took him a moment to regain his bearings. After a brief time, he stepped forward with a smile on his face.

“I’m just here to help someone out. If at all possible I would prefer it if you just let it happen and stopped trying to flood the ship around you. It really makes this whole thing a bit of a pain.”

“That doesn't answer my question, and unless 'that person' is me, you'd better walk back up those steps.” Amber was walking sideways like a crab. While the ground was still sufficiently wet, some of it had formed into a bubble as tall as Amber's waist. The broken sail on her back bounced with every step. “And quit smiling like that, it's creepy!”

“. . . . .” The clone was speechless to say the least. He was the same as the Alpha Prime, and had quite a bit of the same ego. No one had ever called him creepy before. He was handsome damnit! Before he could speak however, a very similar voice came from the top of the stairs.

“I thought I told you to talk her down, not piss her off. Ugh. This is why you never send a subordinate.” The Primary stepped down the stairs, flanked by the other 2 clones. When he reached the bottom, he had the same smile plastered on his face as his clone had.

“I apologize for my subordinate, Miss. You can refer to me as Prime. I’m just here to do my job and truly hope that you won’t interfere. You don’t want those idiots on deck destroying your ship in their fight do you?”

Amber was standing about ninety degrees to the stair case that all of the clones plus Darien were standing nearby the time he came down the stairs. The pirate girl was initially surprised by the soldier's appearance, which showed through her expressive eyes. “There's more of you!?” Her hand was shaking a bit.“Wait, you all look the same.” The pirate only stood there in shock a few seconds longer before speaking up again. “If you can clone... Then 'that person' could be a clone trying to blow up my ship!” Amber didn't wait for an explanation, She immediately fired a grape shot in the direction of the soldiers. The projectiles weren't made of metal though, they were rubber. It was doubtful that they could kill a magical girl, but they could break bones if they hit in the right spots. They were also likely to bounce off of Sky Bastion's sturdy wooden hull if they missed, which meant that every shot was still a threat. The pirate then pointed her cannon off to her side and fired, causing her to slide down the gallery at incredible speeds. She didn't know where or if there was another clone on deck somewhere, but it was likely the pirate knew where her ship's weak points were.

“Haaaaaaaaaaah.” Prime let out a deep sigh the second he saw that look go through Amber’s eyes. Why couldn’t she have just backed down and made this easy? With a shake of his head, he reacted the instant she fired. The clones all scattered out of the way and drew their weapons. At this time, Prime himself felt the flow of magic running through his body. In an instant, the gravitational field altered. It pushed Amber with several times the pull of normal gravity in the direct opposite direction she tried to scoot off to. The clones opened fire. Two shot directly in front of where she was intending to travel and two stood by, waiting for an opportunity.

“I don’t want to fight. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Every second the force of gravity around Amber was increasing, crushing her underneath the intense forces.

Amber hadn't gotten very far due to the fact that gravity wasn't really cooperating with her. Her cannon was never not firing however, which caused the bubble around her waist to grow large enough to cover the pirate. Though Amber was visibly struggling to stand under the intense gravity. “Hurk!” She was standing like a sumo wrestler, struggling to hold onto her cannon as gravity threatened to rip it out of her hand. “Alright!” Amber fell to one knee, still holding onto her cannon. “I'll, stop, Just turn off the gravity!”

...But Amber had no desire to stop fighting. The rubber balls she fired seconds ago were wet from rolling along the wet floor. With a thought, she was able to send the projectiles towards the soldiers exposed backs.

“GAH!” The first of the balls crashed into a clone, sending his existence once more into nothingness. Prime felt the flash of danger and split a small segment of his attention onto a new section of his power. A wafer this barrier of gravity formed around him and one of the other clones. That was all he could manage for now. The control needed was extremely fine and it was taxing on his mind, but he managed to pull it off. The second those balls reached that layer of gravity, the effects showed. Paper thin segments of the attack balls touched upon the layer of gravity and were ripped downward with explosive force. Bit by bit, those weapons were torn to shreds the moment they touched upon his barrier.

It took but a moment for them to be destroyed, but it was a hollow victory. Every clone but one let out a death cry and disappeared from this world. Prime locked his eyes onto Amber. They were no longer smiling.

“You killed my men.” He took a step forward, crashing onto the floor heavily.

“I can’t just let that slide by.” In an instant, the forces around Amber amplified. Crushing in from every direction. Pressuring her body to its limits. He wouldn’t kill her, but he rapidly increased the pressure bit by bit until she would fall unconscious.

The gravity was intense, even Amber's environmental sealing which protected her from these kinds of effects was having difficulty holding up against such an attack. But Amber's water barrier continued to grow, despite the gravity pushing at Amber from every direction. Water could only be pushed so tight against the pirate's body. She refused to give up, squinting her eyes closed as she struggled to stay awake. The pirate stopped firing for just a moment and pointed her weapon away from Darien and fired. With gravity pushing equally at Amber on all sides, she was able to move towards Darien with relative ease. But the water barrier was starting to pick up speed. Very quickly the surface had turned into white foamy rapids as it churned liked a miniature maelstrom, threatening to consume anything in it’s path.

There were many things that Prime could have done. He had plenty of options, but too many of them were lethal. This. . . girl. . . was a VIP, and he was not authorized to use deadly force. Because of that, he had to be more creative in his actions. In fact, he couldn’t recklessly release the gravity on her either, or her internal organs would likely suffer damage.

He knew that he couldn’t kill her, but his eyes were still cold. Clones or not, they were his men. And she had destroyed them. He could at the very least make her suffer a but. Continuing with pressure to some extent, he waited for the moment at the maelstrom was close before rapidly changing the direction of its gravitational pull. It flew up and over his head, unable to reach beyond the ball of immense pressure that surrounded it.

The moment that it passed above, he slammed it once more into the ground, using the shock of the crash to send more trauma and vibrations through the water at Amber.

Elsewhere, the Tertiary team, if you could call a single clone a team, had reached his destination.

Amber couldn't hold up under foces like this for much longer, but she was determined to find an opening and strike. When Prime lifted her off of the ground, that was when she saw her opportunity. The waves on the surface of her bubble surged behind her. Then on impact, Amber let the bubble explode, riding the massive waves half conscious towards the magical boy.

“Tch.” She was persistent. Agh. It would be so much easier if he was allowed to just kill her. But that wasn’t the mission. It was at that moment however, that a radio keyed into his ear.

“Tertiary to Prime. Mission complete. The package has been delivered. ETA 45 seconds till completion. Proceeding to rendezvous point Alpha.”

Looking at the waves that were crashing toward him, Prime sighed. He didn’t try to meet them head on and instead reduced his own personal gravity to near 0. He pushed off, grabbed his clone and escaped for the far side of the ship.

“Let’s finish this next time.” With a flourish, Prime pulled out his pitch black pistol and poured magic into the chamber before discharging a massive shot into the side of the ship. He blasted a hole large enough for the two of them to leap from and took his leave. On the way down, he controlled his gravity to allow himself and his clone to land a fair distance away. Last, he chimed onto his own radio to warn the clone on deck of the impending completion of the mission.

Helga was disappointed in herself. Her first day with her new powers and nothing went quite the way she had expected. While she was glad she was able to defend Amber for as long as she did, Helga was ultimately unable to contribute much to her lady. She knew Amber would likely forgive her, but Helga still felt like she needed to do something for the pirate captain.

“Maybe Amber will let me treat her to some pizza later? I wonder what toppings she likes? Or why not something more fitting of candle light?”

The fighting may have been over, but Helga was still alert. Like a gorilla climbing a tree, she used her long arms to pull herself up the tallest building. She wanted to get a better look at the ship in the sky. It had flown higher into the air, and it was impossible to tell what the situation was like aboard. But maybe if Helga was just a bit closer, she could see something.

Once she arrived at the top, Helga noticed small shapes leaping off of the ship. None of them looked like Amber, and she doubted they were retreating. Helga squatted as low as her body would allow her and sprung into the air, flying towards the ship like a cannon ball. The monster girl swung one of her arms in front of her and fired a sonic pulse. The side of the ship exploded moments before Helga landed. Fortunately her hearing was extremely keen, and she was able to pick up the sound of Amber's heartbeat rather quickly.

“Amber! Amber!” Helga charged towards her lady like a silver back gorilla.

“Eh?” The pirate girl started to stand up. “Helga?!” Amber shook her head. “I'm not even going to ask, Sky Bastion isn't going to be in the air much longer, we gotta-” In a single motion, Helga swept Amber onto her shoulder and charged up onto the deck. She heard another sound and didn't know if it was a hostile or not.

“Tincan!” Helga's body tensed up at the sight of Penny, but then she remembered that the situation had changed drastically since the last time they met. It would probably be for the best if she didn't fully recognize her for the moment. “So um, I don't know what's going on, but we should probably jump for it.”

“No!” Amber pointed back inside the ship. “There's still time, we can find the bomb and disarm it!”

Helga let out a sigh. She very badly wanted to believe Amber, but she knew the girl wasn't thinking straight. “Alright Amber, I'm going to jump on one, two...”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

---

Not long after the remaining people aboard Sky Bastion dove off, a large explosion erupted from the bowls of the mighty ship. Sky Bastion was not easy to destroy, and the explosion did little visible damage. However, the turbines were billowing black smoke, and the back end of the ship seemed to be sinking. It wasn't long before the rest of the ship started to sink too, almost like the ship was sinking in the air. But it wasn't just sinking, it was starting to fall. Slowly at first, but it picked up speed quickly. Everyone on the ground had time to get out of the way from the falling ship before it smashed into the ground. The ship was concealed under a cloud of dust. While it couldn't be seen, the defining sound of metal being crushed under Sky Bastion's weight could be heard by all. Wood splinters and debris were kicked into the air, and flew out of the smoke cloud like shrapnel. When the smoke finally cleared, Sky bastion was still largely intact. But the turbines were completely ruined, and there was a crack going all the way through the massive ship. Amber approached the ship weakly, falling to her knees before she could really get very close to it.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” She screamed into the heavens. After her little bout of despair, she pulled her hat over her face.

“Um.” Helga approached Shining Scale “D-did you notice I cleaned up the place?”

Amber let out a long, eternal sigh. “Yea” She nodded, still keeping her face covered. “You did a good job.”

---

Relatively simple, all thing considered.

Well, the loss of the ship wouldn't hold them back too badly. Fate had a way of course correcting small inconveniences like this. Things would have been far worse if Amber had died before the ship could get everyone to where they had to go. Was her help really needed in that regard? who knew. Silhouette was likely carefull enough to avoid killing the pirate tyke, but Prime? Different story.

Regardless, it was probably prudent that she rest up and make sure that she took the ship into the overcity. She wouldn't get many chances to do so in the future.

---

The Bates and Shannon talked a bit about their past adventures. The most notable thing that Shannon learned from the bates was their belief that Justine's forces were weak to words of encouragement. Specifically the word love. Shannon managed to avoid revealing that she worked with Beacon on occasion. That didn't seem like a great thing to bring up with two monster kids, both of which seemed a bit unstable. That was when a loud crack and crash were heard, one right after the other.

“Curious...” Regina transformed back into a human. “Thank you for your time Shannon. We'll meet you here later , but for now Elroy and I have other business to attend to.”

“We do? I mean yes!” Elroy picked up his shield. “When I get back, I want to see a two-thousand word essay on how excellent our costumes are, scarf girl. Not may people get to see how wonderful they are unless they fight us.” He chuckled.

And then they left Shannon in her room. She was alone.

Scout and Anaya regrouped to Alex, with Theresa following behind the witch. "Any luck?" Scout asked Anaya, parking her motorcycle aside. "I've found the nearest entrance by an apartment building. Now we need someone to help us rescue the lightning user..." the spirit mage replied, scratching her head in thought.

"Bingo." Theresa spoke up, pointing to Mariette as she shifted into her human form. "Oh. Well what do you know." Anaya climbed off of her griffin and aproached the portal mage. Right away she knew recognized Mariette as 'Puppeteer' for a horror.

Clearing her throat, Anaya spoke up to the other mage. "You don't need to assist us in battle, we just need someone to take us to the overcity. I've already found the shortest route to an entrance, so please? From one horror to another?" Anaya asked, a strangely perky smile on her face.

@Card Captor@PlatinumSkink

Mariette barely kept herself from the slightest of a wicked smirk at Alex’s reply. He was more controlled than she’d have expected, except he was still a force of fury. Excellent.

Before she spoke, she paid attention to what Sue turned to her to say, without even turning her way. Indeed, she was planning on fighting back. And indeed, Amber’s airship was part of that equation…

‘…’ Mariette frowned in that direction, her awareness picking up on something. A tiny portal opened high in the sky, from the eye under an eyepatch to above the ship, looking at it…

‘The ship is under attack,’ Mariette replied to Sue. Though, it was too far away for anyone present to change the course of events that would take place next. Eli blinked up from where she was trying to maintain composure, seeing strains of magic from the distance on the flying ship. Several.

It didn’t occur to Mariette to help defend it.

Next, Anaya and Scout gathered. In the past, at the very least Scout had been scouted as a potential for being kidnapped, but was spared on account of being active in Penrose, too close to the home base, as well as being the servant of a Lesser Force. They were unpredictable in how they reacted to kidnappings, so Scout had been passed by as too much of a potential fuss. Anaya, however… was relatively new to Mariette.

Eli froze in realization behind Mariette, her sixth sense of darkness sensing the presence of the blessing of a horror. She hadn’t noticed it during the battle due to distance, but now she could notice the uncomfortable feeling on a closer range. And… with that, got a rough idea of what her bane was. Something about… a specific form of light, of some kind? … Eli felt an immediate sense of sympathy, due to having a very similar bane…

‘Mistress,’ Eli said with a cautionary tone. Mariette nodded, understanding the matter. This meant this girl, too, could get a sense of what their bane was. Banes, in Mariette’s case. One was a small lit natural flame, applying to both of them. The other was something, which was cracked like damaged glass, applying only to Mariette. … In any case. Anaya spoke about routes to the Overcity, and that she had found the shortest route… Mariette scoffed.

The portal girl standing on her own portal in mid-air considered for a moment, then spoke.

‘… There is no need to convince me. Justine attempted to take my life,’ Mariette told and gestured to her appearance, damaged dress and all. ‘My incentive to send a force of vengeance her way is more than sufficient. And… you have no need to find a “shortest route”,’ Mariette said. She then turned and stared directly at Anaya, thoroughly stale in expression. ‘I am the shortest route,’ she plainly declared.

‘That said,’ she continued, turning to those present. ‘I have been in contact with Alicia of Beacon. She was here before, wasn’t she? I offered her that I could ferry the forces of Beacon to Justine. I also said I’d mention this to Lily Hanson, for she showed a desire to go there. I’m willing to send you on your way, but perhaps you’d like to join forces, first? With them, and any allies you might have procured. You’ll need them.’

She then also looked up towards the airship. ‘And, in case Amber’s among your allies, I should mention that her ship’s under attack’—and that’s when something exploded within the ship and it started smoking and falling—‘oh.’

Mariette had a dull expression on her face as she looked up. Should she have told them earlier? Should she have acted? … The answer was inconclusive in her mind. … Hm.

She’d be standing there unmoving for a bit. Eli behind her, silent and staring.

@BrokenPromise@Majoras End@Card Captor _{And because her Third Eye could potentially notice a tiny portal watching the battle on the ship} @FamishedPants

Once again the sudden inclusion of gun fire stalled Penny as she reflexively swatted at the projectiles just as once again the bullets proved to be rather ineffective at doing any notable damage. Before she could recover her bearings and press the attack once more her opponent retracted their magic and dove off of the floating ship.

Realizing that they ship was likely rigged to explode in some fashion Penny was just getting ready to head below deck to try and see if the young pirate girl she had seen earlier needed help when they were brought up on deck by another magical girl that she didn’t recognize, though they seemed to know of Penny judging by the surprised exclamation they gave. Pushing the questions off to the side for the moment Penny joined them as they jumped from the ship.

---

Penny was only a few feet behind Amber and Helga as they approached the downed Sky bastion. Her eyes were about half full of red as she faced the bitter realization that she hadn’t been fast enough to stop the ship from being put out of commission. She couldn’t speak for the hull of the ship but she could tell that it would take weeks of work to get the turbines fixed and that was only if they didn’t need special materials to work in the first place.

All of the weariness she had been ignoring since Laat warned her of this attack started to ebb back to her, the last twenty four hours had been one mess after another for the cyborg and she was exhausted. She wanted to go back to her lair and sleep, but that wouldn’t accomplish anything and she knew it. So instead she went and dropped down next to Amber as she examined the wreck with an appreciation only her warped mentality could find in the destruction.

She was silent for a few moments as she put a lid on the growing want to topple the nearest building. In that silence she interfaced with her eye piece and set a text off to Alicia.


Finally Penny spoke up “Sorry” she sounded as tired as she felt, but didn’t say anything else, she had no idea what else she could say.

@BrokenPromise@Flamelord