"What the hell are you doing here?"

"You should know why. Unless she didn't tell you?"

"I know why you're here - I wanna know why you turned up."

"That's the second one. This is going to be an issue for us if you keep it up."

In a backalley, in the North of Penrose, among some scarely populated part of town, two magical girls stood some distance apart. One was only truly notable for the giant metal gauntlets she wielded, clearly boasting of her vast physical strength. The other barely needed explaining - one, single look made it clear exactly what she was. The multiple long, vulpine tails, covered in spots of charred, black fur, and deep, red eyes, were enough information to go on, even without seeing her work. This was the so called "Vixen of Penrose".

Between the too, spanning the rather sizeable distance between the girls, was a trail of blood and viscera - the remains of a third, now very dead, girl. Her weapon lay in pieces off to the side, and the pieces of her body still in tact lay strewn across the floor. It was gruesome scene to be sure, no doubt enough to turn the stomach of many a girl, but neither of the two on the scene batted an eye to the carnage. Rather, they kept their eyes on each other.

"So what?"

"The Boss is getting annoyed at you. First you start killing Beacon members, and then you move on to ours?"

Their stalemate continued, neither leaving each others gaze for even a second. Both knew that, in this situation, breaking contact for the smallest amount of time could prove fatal. The gauntlet girl sighed, lowering her arms, and taking a few steps forwards - crouching down by the wall, still trained on her opponent, to pick up the weapon fragments. And then, she looked away, taking a moment to evaluate to the pieces. They weren't just broken - they were shattered, irreparable, almost.

"You said I could do what I needed to!"

"The conditions have been re-evaluated. You're going to be worth less than the lives you've taken soon - and then we won't be able to help with your little request."

The Vixen growled. It wasn't just a growl of hostility, though, and the gauntlet girl knew it immediately. Anybody would be reasonably pissed at hearing such a statement, but this wasn't just anybody. This was a violent serial killer she was dealing with; her judgement wasn't going to be rational. In a second, The Vixen had closed the gap, her bestial attributes taking precedent over everything as she leapt into the air, and slammed down into the ground where her foe had once been.

But said foe wasn't going to take such an attack lying down. In that second, her gauntlets extended, smashing into the wall with rocket propelled force, sending her flying backwards into the alley, safe from the attack.
"So you want to take a third member, too? I will kill you, Vixen, if I have to." with the statement, she raised her gauntlets, the hydraulics and pistons shifting inside, building up energy for a second blow, "Your proposal was interesting and worked well for us, but you're becoming less valuable every day."

Instead of listening, The Vixen leapt again, her own gauntlets springing to life as the claw-like daggers rotated into a combat ready position. The distance was nothing for her agility and strength - she was on top of her opponent in no time at all, her daggers slamming into the metal gauntlets of the foe. The massive fist was raised, acting as a shield from the attack, while the second swung up from below, hitting The Vixen centre mass with a full power punch. The mechanisms whirred into life, and with a similar, rocket propelled blow, the end of the fist extended outwards, sending the girl flying into the air, and above the buildings that surrounded them.

But it wasn't fast enough. As soon as the fist connected, an explosion rocked the alley, sending both girls flying in their respective directions. The extension barely connected, with the gauntlet girl skidding backwards across the floor, through the blood, while her opponent was launched into the sky by a huge release of magical energy, created of her own volition. She was hurt, sure, but not nearly enough. And as the smoke cleared, she was gone, across the rooftops no doubt, and back to wherever her base was this week. A groan escaped the lips of the girl, as she slumped against the wall, wiping the grime off her newly created burn marks.

"Get someone else to do your work, Vixen..."



In a restaurant, somewhere in the West of Penrose, a girl -- woman -- sat. She wasn't explicitly tall, nor did she post many particularly outstanding traits. Or at least, she might not have appeared particularly out of place in a crowd of people. But in the restaurant, it was hard not to pick her out as something noteworthy. It wasn't just that she was sat alone at a table, without company; the restaurant itself was devoid of life. Besides the occasional sound from the kitchen, one might have assumed the building was abandoned, or perhaps up for sale. But at a table, was the girl.

In her hands, covered with fingerless gloves, were silverware, and in front of her was a plate of food, already half finished. People passed by the windows, but as they did, they paid no interest to the restaurant, instead choosing to completely bypass it, despite the "Open" sign hanging from the front of the door. No, nobody wanted to enter - whether by personal, elective choice, or subconscious decision, divined by some higher expression. And so the girl was left alone to eat, in peace, and silence.

Passing by, you couldn't exactly chalk the restaurant down as cheap, or low quality. For all intents and purposes, the place was something of a fine dining experience, at least from the exterior and menu. The internal decor would support the theory. But despite the locale, still, the girl was alone, sat at the table in her fingerless gloves, her overcoat, and shabby looking hat, completely unaware of the outside world, nor its influences, as she progressed onwards into her meal. Such was the kind of ignorant bliss a silent location gave; she didn't have to bother with what the humans were doing for the moment, nor would she have to worry about any more magical events, or fuck ups.

But it wasn't long before someone disrupted that peace. The door swung open slowly, pushed inwards by some meek force, and from the entrance emerged a certain girl, who promptly cast her gaze around the room, before locking eyes with its sole inhabitant. The girl at the table had looked up, to take in the new lifeform, but quickly went back to her meal. From the door, she approached the table, somewhat slowly, casting a shadow over the girl as she loomed over.

She was blonde, and pretty, her hair adorned with laurel wreaths, and with a pair of angel wings that extended from her back. With the shadow now obscuring the tablecloth, painting it black, the girl at the table finally took a proper look, and acknowledgement, or the newcomer.
"Why dontcha take a seat, Charlotte?" she said, pointing with her knife to a chair one the opposite side of the circular table. With a slight turn to look in its direction, the "Charlotte" character moved, and took her place.

"I-I needed to talk to you, Ma'am--" she started, only to have herself cut off, just as she finished the sentence. The girl held up her hand, halting her for a moment, before scooping something from the plate, chewing, and swallowing it.
"If it's to do with your suspension, that ain't my concern." for a few seconds, she paused, placing the cutlery on top of the plate, and signalling towards the kitchen, "You fucked up. Badly. There's no way you get outta that scot-free."

The colour in Charlotte's face seemed to have drained some as she was cut off, but as her boss continued, she seemed to relax some.
"That's not why I'm here, Ma'am. I... I know I really messed up, but..." she trailed off, looking sheepishly down and away, as a muscular looking girl came to the table. She was short, boasting close cut, black hair, sharp eyes, and a heavily built body. Upon arriving, she picked up the plates, and as quickly as she arrived, headed back towards the kitchen, "B-but, listen, I might have something - something about the incident."

As the girl sat, taking in the information, Charlotte pulled a handbag out from beside her chair, and out from within pulled a tablet. She tapped the screen a few times, and handed it across the table, letting her boss take it, and look it over.
"They're saying they were there. I-I can use this - improve the story, get back some of the points I lost. I just--"
"Because you're on suspension, you need my approval to meet the source." it was exactly what she was going to say, but for some reason, Charlotte's face seemed to drop a little as the words were spoken. She recognised the tone they were delivered in - cold, monotone, and calculated.
"Yes... th-that's right..."

With the tablet in her hands, the girl scanned the message repeatedly. Over and over, trying to ascertain something or another from such a minute engagement. There were so few words, it would be impossible to glean anything, but it gave her moments - precious moments. Moments of deadbeat, suffocating silence, that would drill into Charlotte's skull with every second.
"Rose, huh?" her eyes flicked up from the screen, meeting Charlotte's gaze. While the latter's glinted blue with a kind of enthusiasm, and passion, the boss girls were colder, closer to slate blue than anything with any kind of shine to them, "You're not meeting anyone, Charlotte. You're fuck up was massive - I'm not risking you interviewing any more witnesses."

At that, Charlotte stood from her chair, seemingly inspired by some fit of passion. Her hand slammed down on the table, no doubt flared up in anger, betrayal, desire. So many emotions swam around in those eyes of hers.
"No! That's not fair, Ma'am, and you know it! One mistake - I made one mistake, and it was because of those shitty reporters and their fucking misinformation! This wasn't my fa--" and then her speech went silent. She felt heavy - everything felt heavy. As she went to speak, her throat caught, her eyes locked with her boss as she tried desperately to say something. She hadn't even moved from her chair, and yet, just by looking at her, Charlotte was struck into silence. She feared her already - that much was evident - but, in a sudden second, that fear had amplified.

"Christine will go in your place - I'll send the reply. Someone will bring you the tablet later." once again, Charlotte tried to speak, but nothing came out, "You can leave now, Charlotte Suthers." futility crossed her eyes, and her mind, and wordlessly she nodded. She picked up her bag, pushed the chair under the table, and made her way through the restaurant, to the door, and out onto the street.

Rose
You were there at the incident? Then I'd love the chance to interview you! Every bit of information helps!
I don't know if you have some kind of specific location in mind, but if not, I have a reservation at a restaurant tomorrow afternoon. It's called The Nerine Vista - you should be able to find it pretty easily. It tends to be quiet, but the food it good.
Thanks so much!
Charlotte

The building was far from in an okay state, but despite the damage, it held tall. A newly created entrance sat at the far wall, where it had caved in from the force, opening the interior of the office to the cold, evening chill. Rubble, broken glass, and varying debris from desks and booths lay strewn across the ground in a line, leading deep into the floor, where a magical girl had been thrown, leaving a clearly identifiable path of destruction before her. And between her, and the wall, was Katelyn, still crackling with the aftermath of her assault, walking along the path towards her quarry.

"You don't need an answer to that, Mint Agent." she said simply, reaching into her dress to pull out a second phone. In the silence of the evening, broken only occasionally by cars driving around below them, they both could hear the vibrations of the device. It was a flip phone, clearly disposable, and the dragon girl quickly unfolded it, before placing it to her ear; "Yes. Of course. Yes. I'll send you a photo of her. Is that all? Bye."

As her conversation concluded, she lowered the device, leaving it at an arms length, pointed towards the angel girl. With a few button presses, the camera on the back flashed, illuminating the darkened floor for a brief second before it disappeared again. With a few more presses, she closed the phone, and placed it back into her dress.
"Now..." as quickly as the device was stowed away, Katelyn had put herself in an offensive stance. If Eliza had received any kind of combat training in her time as an operative, she would be able to tell immediately that this wasn't just somebody preparing to attack - it was the stance of someone trained to fight, ready to spring in reaction at a moments notice. Arcs of lightning crackled around her body, across her hair, and around her wings, prepared to move, but-

In the next second, Katelyn had her back to Eliza, her attention completely separated from her. The sound of talking behind her was more than a threat, it was the most immediate threat, much more than an injured angel. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the newcomer, covered in blood, and having come from nowhere. She hadn't sensed his approach until he was right behind her; someone who could do that easily was trouble.
"The wings of a monster? What are you on about?" her eyes drifted along, from his face to his body, and the shield that stood in front of him, with its oddly shifting chains. Did that make him some kind of a defensive fighter? Maybe a Metal Specialisation? But then how did he sneak up on them?

Thoughts swirled around her head for a time being, as the arcs of lighting built up around her body. They hadn't stopped since her attention was diverted - they had intensified. Crackling across her body were countless lines of electrical energy, charging the air around her as she held a defensive stance. If he was defensive, she would need to take the first move.

As quickly as Katelyn had turned around to address the boy, she seemed to disappear. That same, bright blue energy enveloped her completely, bathing the room in light, and covering the area with a thunderous crash, causing the nearby windows to shatter. The distance between her and Elroy was covered in an instant with her vast speed increase, and with the propulsion, she struck the shield with her feet, landing against the cold metal and chains with a thud. The next second, an equally loud roar of thunder ripped across the room, as Katelyn channelled a blast of electricity and wind out from underneath her, directly into the shield.

Elroy may have been strong, but if he couldn't hold his ground, no doubt the force would fling him backwards, out of the hole the three had entered through, and into the night air, to be greeted by a sudden drop. With the new propulsion, Katelyn had leapt from the shield back across the floor of the office. Unless Elroy did something to prevent himself from flying out the wall, Katelyn would continue her attack on Eliza.

Binky's lair was something most magical girls would admire. It was a foreclosed office complex in the busy part of the city. It was a former business start up for a videogame company called “raptor guts.” Their backers decided to put their money elsewhere and the company was unable to keep making payments. The busy location kept squatters and thieves from moving in, and Veronica secretly owning it kept people from buying it up. Binky's duplicates were careful workers, and never did anything that might alert the outside world. They were forbidden from leaving, but that didn't mean they couldn't unwind. When it was time to have fun, they had Binky's indestructible laptop to play with, as well as various games set up in the basement, like a Foosball table, dart board, and even a game system.

If only Binky herself got to enjoy any of that.

While Binky's clones were enjoying some down time, Binky was still hard at work. She didn't mind the work, but there were some downsides to her current living conditions. Her body itched all over. The clothes she was wearing were almost a week old. She had turned her underwear inside out to try to make them last a few extra days. She was on her last roll of toilet paper, and she ran out of hand soap about a week ago. Shampoo was something she had been without for a month now, and she had no sheers to cut her hair with. The only thing Binky had to eat was the fast food she could make with her magic. Her duplicates were just magical constructs, so they only really needed to feed off of her mana, and didn't realty sweat or do any of that gross real people stuff. She could have tried to contact Veronica earlier, but Binky did not like to do so when she hadn't made any headway with her research. That was what made this breakthrough so advantageous to Binky.

Binky was not able to keep working much longer though. She was struggling to stay away, but her only recourse was to fall forward onto her desk. ”I need to shower so bad!” she groaned to herself. And that was the last thing she said before drifting off to sleep.

…

“Excuse me?”



When Binky opened her eyes again, Veronica was standing over her. ”Hey Veronica.” Laying half asleep in front of the coin broker was typically something that would make Binky anxious, but putting up with her current living conditions made Binky surrender to the idea of death.

“You now have laundry detergent, hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper, paper towels, and some extra wash cloths and mop heads.” She waved her hand in front of her face.“I also picked up some antiperspirant and some disinfectant. You should use both of those.”

”Toilet paper?” A tear rolled down Binky's cheek. ”And what about the trash?”

“It's all gone now. In the future, I would appreciate it if you called me before it starts flowing out of the garbage cans. I only willingly serve as your house maid because of how secret this operation is.” She turned her back to Binky. “So the coins worked?”

”Far better than expected!” Binky pushed herself upright. ”The red coins allow a magical girl to partially or completely reshuffle her magic! It rebuilds the magical girl. Everything from her weapon to her body is malleable.” She held up one of the coins for Veronica to see. ”With it, even I could become a powerful magical girl.” Binky blushed. ”...Or even a boy again.”

“What about magical corruption?”

Binky rubbed the back of her head. ”It seems like corruption can be shuffled by the coin, but not removed or added. Dark magical girls remain dark magical girls, and monster girls remain monster girls. The red coin does not remove the effects of a patron's magic, or the black coin.”

Veronica looked over her shoulder at Binky. “You said something about mutations you 'had never seen before.' What was that about?”

”It's exactly what it sounds like!” Binky pushed herself away from the table. ”Some of the test subjects have developed powers unlike anything we've seen before!”

“I'll need a demonstration later then.” Veronica turned around to face Binky. “Any side effects?”

”Well, I've only just recently been able to make the coins.” Binky folded her fingers together. ”There do not seem to be any adverse effects if you use just one coin, not in the short term. But if you use too many...” Binky trailed off. ”I can't say for sure if it is unsafe to use more than one, or if reshuffling your magic too often has side effects. I'll need more time to research it, but it's not something I'd suggest doing. Only one subject volunteered to try it, but she's not the same.”

“Oh?” Veronica leaned closer to Binky. “Can I see her?”

”You did want a demonstration.” Binky swallowed. ”Just follow me.”

It was a relatively short walk down to the holding cells. The office space might have had “cubicles,” but few of them were set up to hold test subjects. So large, stone cells with runes etched into them were erected for this purpose. All of the test subjects were willing magical girls who gave their consent to be part of this project. Few girls could pass up the opportunity to become stronger. None of them would remember being here, and most were released just a few days after they signed up for it. But other subjects were held a bit longer. Like the ones displaying these strange abilities. Binky approached one of the stone boxes and slid the peephole open.

”Ga!” Binky shut the peephole and spun around. ”She got out!”

“Don't panic Binky, It's unsightly.” Veronica walked over to the stairs. “I can hear a commotion downstairs, she's still in the building.” She started to utter her incantation as she walked towards the sound.

Binky wordlessly followed the coin broker down stairs, all the way to the basement. This wasn't a place where Binky liked to go, since her clones were usually in here. They didn't really like her for some reason. She was able to recall the time they locked her in a storage closet. It was only because Veronica happened to visit that day that she got out. But what Binky saw when she arrived in the basement shocked her.

There standing in the middle of the room was the subject Binky wanted to show Veronica. A girl in a neon colored school outfit, armed to the teeth. She had three sheathes on her back, all varying in length. The girl flicked a dagger over her shoulder and it impaled the last clone, causing it to vanish into dust. With that done, she turned towards Veronica and Binky. Everything about her body language said she was calm and ready. But not her face. Her face was that of a bewildered dog. The sort of face you'd expect to receive after they chew their favorite toy to pieces, or even your pillow. That look that says “I'm not sure how things turned out this way, but I'd understand if you're a little upset.” If the woman had a tail, Binky wondered if it would be wagging, or tucked between her legs.

”W-w-what are you doing!?” Binky was terrified, both of the girl and what Veronica would think of him. Letting a test subject like this walk free was quite a blunder.

”I'm killing them.” The school girl lifted a finger to her lip. ”Or removing them I guess? They're just duplicates, so it's not like they have souls or anything. ”

”B-but why!?” Binky was on the verge of crying. ”What did I do!?”

The girl's brow flicked up ”Wha?” She lowered her shoulders and looked between Veronica and Binky. ”There seems to be a misunderstanding. I only destroyed these duplicates because they don't respect you. ”

”I don't understand why you- wait really?”

The school girl nodded. ”You've given me plenty of time to rest, you listen to me when I complain, when I'm scared you reassure me, you feed me, you smell funny, but you always make sure I can shower in piece.” She closed her eyes. ”I couldn't listen to them talk about you like that, so I removed them.”

Binky could only Blush in response, but Veronica had a much harder face. “What is your name?”

”Betty Barton. But my magical girl name is Betty Biohazard!” She giggled and placed a hand over her mouth. ”I kind of look radioactive don't I? And with all of these katanas, why not go with a nuclear motif for my name?”

Veronica folded her arms.“You are aware a bio-hazard and radioactive contamination aren't the same thing, right?”

Betty averted her eyes. ”You're not wrong.” She looked back at Veronica. ”But I guess I'm technically a bio-hazard, given that I'm a living, breathing thing. That and 'Betty radioactive contamination' doesn't have the same ring.”

Veronica approached her. “How did you escape your prison?”

”That was sort of luck.” Betty showed no sign of fear as Veronica approached. ”I was yelling at Binkie's clones, and one of them opened the peephole to yell back, but slammed it shut hard enough that it popped open again. ”

Veronica stopped in her tracks. “You were able to escape through such a small opening?”

”Oh yea, it wasn't really that hard once I could see the other side.”

“I see.” The coin broker folded her arms behind her back. “And what did you plan on doing after slaying all of Binky's duplicates?”

”Uh, wow, that's sort of embarrassing, but okay.” She sighed, but made sure to keep eye contact with Veronica the whole time. ”Binky said they missed being able to play videogames, so I was going to grab her and play something after we ate some pizza.”

“Really now?” Veronica raised an eyebrow. “Interesting, because your contract with us states that your mind will be wiped of this experiment once we're done with you. You won't remember any of this in a few days.”

”I-” She bit her lip. ”I forgot about that.” She placed her hands over her chest. ”I guess I was so powerless when this all started I didn't care at first. I'd have been okay throwing some of my memories away. But I didn't expect you to be such a wonderful person, Binky.”

”Wha!?” Betty seemed to teleport up to Binky before grabbing her shoulders.

“I don't want to forget you!” her voice was cracking. “I have my new identity because of you! I have my name because of you! I'm strong because of you! Why do I need to forget you Binky!?” Binky could barely handle the shaking, but all it took was Veronica' touch to make the girl stop. Betty wiped her eyes on her sleeve.

“I am willing to write up a new contract for you.” Veronica smiled. “You wouldn't be a test subject anymore. You'd be part of our organization. There would be some other conditions, but you'd get to keep your memories. You might want to take a look too, Binky.” Veronica presented Betty with a rolled up parchment. “Give it a look over, those are my terms. You can ask me about anything but I won't alter a single letter.”

Betty and Binky looked over the contract together. ”Veronica, are you serious?” Binky hopped backwards. ”I know some patrons are pretty nosy, but this-”

“I'll do it!” Betty looked at Veronica with determined eyes. “If I get to keep my memories, I'll do it!”

”I mean...” Binky folded her hands behind her head. ”I guess it beats a lot of other alternatives, even if the implications are kind of creepy.”

“I expected my top researcher to join, but I'm glad our test subject has agreed to becoming my bodyguard. ” Veronica continued to grin.

Binky sighed. ”This is going to put a target on us though.”

Veronica's grin only widened. “We were always going to be discovered, Binky. When it finally happens, I'd like to have our organization established. In chess, it is unwise to just let your opponent expand to your side of the board.” She extended a hand towards Betty. “You've proven that your project is more than you can handle. You can barely comprehend what your subjects are capable of, and you need assistance that I can no longer provide you. Recruiting more people to our side will help with all of that. You should be humbled by my generosity.” She folded her arms behind her back. “Tonight, Crimson Cradle has become a real organization. I will begin recruiting tomorrow. I already know who I'm going to ask to join.”

---

It was difficult to find the surveillance system on the hotel's network. There was a network, and nearly every computer in the hotel was hooked up to it, from the hotel's own business computers to that of guests. It would take some time to explore all of these networks and sub networks. A possibility that Penny would be forced to consider is that all of the surveillance was analog. That is to say it was an older system that recorded to tapes. That, or the surveillance system was digital, but otherwise didn't interact with the internet. But she had all night to search, provided Mika didn't do anything weird.

”Squire! Thou art before thy mark, whom hath bewitched thy home! I doth recognize the terrible one's magic. Rend thee bed biter of sleeping men to tasty trips!”

Mika giggled. ”I've got her in my sights. Don't worry Boteg!” At the mention of the beast girl, Mika's eyes brightened. ”Oh yea, she was a feisty one. Nearly killed me. Had more tails than were necessary right? ” Mika put her arms behind her back. ”She didn't seem too interested in talking about stuff though. Chased me into a few buildings. She gave up when I came across another group of magical girls.” Mika started to walk towards Penny's left. ”Someone from the independent contacted me about her too. I think her name was Olympia? Apparently she's been trying to track her down. She said I was one of the few people who survived. It's funny though.” When Mika was confident she was “mostly” in Penny's blind spot, she whipped around and pounced on her. All of Mika's limbs turned into snakes, which attempted to coil around the cyborg's various limbs and bite into her wrists and ankles. ”'Cus Someone's hunting you too!” When Mika opened her mouth, the inside was white like that of a cottonmouth snake. In the next moment, she would attempt to bite down on Penny's neck. None of Mika's venom was designed to kill, and she'd be hard pressed to bring down the mighty cyborg. But Mika had five heads, and all of them were trying to bite into her prey.

---

”Sky scare! Thy squire has initiated a fight with the terrible one's champion!”

”I'm getting reinforcements! I'll be right there!” This was starting to turn into an even less fortunate circumstance. Su never knew how much of what Boteg said should be taken seriously, but the fact that Mika was in a fight presented some real dangers. Her cover could get blown, and Mika was likely well out of her element picking a fight like that. Su noticed Helga introducing her to “Charlie's angels” just as she was finishing up with Boteg. So she looked visibly annoyed. With a cough, Su attempted to explain it away. ”Y-yes. It is as she says, I was attacked. I can't believe with everything going on that people still try to jump unsuspecting young girls like myself in the dark! Isn't Penrose dangerous enough without all that?” Su placed a hand on her hip. ”At least we have superheroes running around. I'm assuming that's why you guys dress up like that.” Su stepped around to the other side of Helga. ”I'm not sure what you guys plan on doing for the rest of the night, but I manage a hotel not far from here. If you guys wanted, I could treat you all to something out of the vending machine. I'm sure the night crew wouldn't mind seeing you either.” If Su's plan worked, she could lure them over to the hotel. Then Mika would have some extra reinforcements.

---

Elroy was not especially swift, not when it came to his reflexes. He couldn't keep up with near instantaneous movement. But Katelyn had done half of Elroy's job by moving in so close. The Chains on the shield coiled around her body, and the two flew out the window together. This was where Katelyn fared a bit better.

Elroy never kept his arm in his shield strap. There was a lot more versatility in having your shield held in front of you via magic. In situations like this, it was useful to allow the electrified shield float away from his exposed arm. Even though Katelyn had a chain wrapped around her leg, she could still float around with her wings. Elroy, as he mentioned earlier, did not have any wings to fly with. Elroy was not doomed to fall to his death however. He had two gauntlets, each with a length of chain holding them together. He could simply force them to wrap around each other and use one gauntlet as a grappling hook. He would slam painfully into the side of the building, but he'd live, and the fight would go on.

But not everyone could read Elroy's mind, and they felt it was time to take action.

”He need us!” The converted beacon girls said in unison before taking off.

Regina yelled at them as they ran from her side. "Hey! He has it all under controll! Stop, sto-"



A girl in a white dress and raven wings decended from the heavens. As fast as Elroy was falling, she was able to dive even faster. "Don't worry Elroy, I'll never leave you!" She was able to swoop through the air and catch him. "Please say my name Elroy, just once!" She continued to carry him bridal style.

Elroy folded his arms."Fine, I'll call you Divina, but just this once. Then it's back to horny bird." Divina appeared to be looping around to join the fight again.

At the same time, a well endowed girl with a large hair tie floated into the air. "Hey Salamander!" The girl called to katelyn. "Pick on someone who can fly your own altitude, ahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" The girl closed her hand into a fist, and gravity seemed to condense around Katelyn. It almost felt like the air around her was solidifying and trying to crush her from every angle. And that wasn't the last of it. The windows on the side of the building were shattering, and the shards were flying straight for Katelyn. "My name's Abigail by the way. I hope you could hear that with all the blood running to your head, ghahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Tonya immediately flew into the hole in the side of the building. "Well!" said the festive looking girl. "Are we even really Beacon if we don't try to exterminate all the monsters?" She pointed her palm at Eliza. "And apple a day keeps the monsters at bay!" She said before a barrage of apples flew out of her hammer space and towards the angelic woman.

The last of the beacon girls stepped out. A nightly woman with silver hair made her presence known. Unlike the other three, she did not seem to have the ability to fly, nor did she seem as eager to throw herself at her opponents. "It would be dishonorable to gang up on a single monster." She raised a hand to her chin. "Yet monsters by their very nature are despicable, cowardly creatures." With a nod, she turned to look towards the sky. "The code of chivalry was designed to protect honor. Creatures like this who have relinquished their humanity have also relinquished their right to fair combat." Her eyes wandered over Katelyn for a bit, and stopped on her spear. This caused the knight to place a hand over her chest and look away. "No." She told herself with a sigh. "She died a long time ago." The knight drew her sword. "Shona moffett, Reborn as a knight of Beacon, champion of the pure, lives on!" She looked over her shoulder at Regina. "I will remain to protect you, my queen."

Regina grit her teeth. "Fine."



Another girl named Tonya?

It was fortunate that this Tonya, wolf-cop Tonya, was known as Mac. But she did always dislike it when other people shared her name. "Tonya" was part of her identity, and since she shared her name with someone else in her immidiate vicinity, it felt like they were stealing part of her identity. But that was more the fault of their parents and the fact that it was hard to give everyone on earth a unique name. Still, what were the odds?

It didn't matter, really. She was former Beacon and also not part of fate's larger plans. "Mac" decided that she would continue to reffer to herself as her monicere untill this Beacon twerp was dealt with. And if her spool said anything, it was that she would be dealt with soon.

For the time being, she would do everything in her power to keep Eliza safe. This would net her more good will with Veronica, and she'd get to feel like a hero in the proccess. Mac wasn't a romantic or anything like that, but you had to be crazy to deny Eliza's inherant cuteness. Even now she just wanted to pinch the little witch's cheak.

@Crusader Lord

---

"Cheesy? Haha, well, perhaps. I never said I was a master word smith." Chloe returned with a giggle. "But It is the truth. There is no reason to use fancy wording when making a point." She sighed, tilting her head to the side slightly. "Unfortunately, I can not speak directly of my Lord's plans. To do so would be quite negligent when I have yet to confirm whether you are friend or foe." She smirked. "Although I certainly would prefer us being friends as that would make loving you much easier." Another giggle. "But, I can assure you. That my Lord wishes nothing but the best. He seeks to cleanse this world of corruption. Of course, such a thing could have a high cost-"

However, before she could extrapolate further on such a question. A huge crackle of lightning pierced the air, causing Chloe a minor amount of startle, even going so far to let out a rather adorable sounding 'eep!' noise, but she quickly recovered. Boy, that was not something she had been expecting...but what exactly was it. She immediately turned, angling her wings to check the source of the magical lightning. It was only for an instant...but what power! Her eyes scanned for whatever traces might be left before they were completely gone.

There! A trail!

"Sorry to cut this short, Rifle, but I must go investigate whatever that was." She smirked. "Buuut, if you want to play later I'll be around. So maybe show me how good that Rifle of yours is later." With that, Chloe dropped, diving below the buildings and heading away from Rifle, following the trail of the residual magic. Of course, if Rifle decided to follow her perhaps that could also be agreeable.

Well this was unexpected. Before Eliza could ask Katelyn about the photos she took of her, another monster girl- er, boy, appeared behind the dragon girl and asked them for their wings. "Heeeey, who are you callin' Chicken Little? You don't see me screaming about the sky falling now are you?" she asked, giving Elroy an unamused expression. "Well, knock yourself out. Can't do much without it hurting anyways- Oh shit!!" before the witch could finish her sentence Katelyn had attacked the incubus with high speed, with the two of them ending up flying out the window. "Well fuck." Eliza stared over at where they disappeared, then painfully forced herself to stand up. And as things couldn't get any worse, reinforcement arrived for the monster boy, one of the girls fired apples at Eliza. She managed to dodge most of them, but one ended up hitting her on the head. "Okay, ow!!" The witch rubbed the side of her head, and looked over to the festive-looking magical girl. "Out of all the things you could attack me with, you use apples? Really?" She said with the same unamused expression as before.

”Silence!” Tonya drew her umbrella. ”I'm not leaving here until you part with that which makes you a monster!” She opened her umbrella and charged forward. ”Surrender your wings!” A flurry of acorns and leafs flew out of the umbrella. The leafs mostly just fluttered around, but the smaller, weightier acorns flew forth like small stones. ”Gaaaaaaaa!”

Eliza quickly rolled out of the way of the girl's attack, and summoned a glyph of light to use as a shield. "I would if I could hun, but corruption isn't exactly easy to get rid off. Not this way, at least." she shrugged. "I mean, if you do get my wings, I'd still be a monster, right?"

”T-that's beside the point!” The acorns bounced harmlessly off of Eliza's shield. ”You'd be less of a monster without them, and we need them!” Tonya wasn't backing down. She proceeded to ram her umbrella into Eliza's shield, over and over again. Eliza was able to hold up her guard however.

"But what for?!" Eliza asked Tonya. "You're supposed to be a part of beacon, right? So why are you helping a monster boy!?"

”W-wha?!!” For just a moment, Tonya seemed to hesitate. She backed off of her assault immediately. ”Did you just call him, a monster?” Tonya bit her lower lip. ”You think I'm going to lump someone like Elroy in with YOU!?” Her body seemed to be changing. Her flesh was starting to darken and crinkle, like the bark on an autumn tree. ”There is nothing more disgraceful than a monster who only sees other monsters around her!” Her voice was starting to strain as her transformation finished up. It seemed that Eliza would have a brief window of opportunity before Tonya's assault continued.

Again, fuck! Eliza thought as she dragged herself away from Tonya. That's it, i'm getting out of here! the witch stood back up and flew away as quickly as she could, using the glyph shield to fire a beam of light at the other girl.

The pillar of light slammed into Tonya, who was still undergoing her transformation. The bark armor softened the blow, but was still strong enough to throw her backwards, tumbling end over end. It would buy Eliza a few extra seconds, which she'd need going into the brawl outside.

She wouldn't see it, but "Mac" Let out a sigh and followed after Eliza. No need to intervene yet, but that would change.

---

At least a part of Katelyn had expected the chains to restrain her as she made her assault, although she had, to some degree, prayed the speed of the attack would prevent any such moves. At the very least, it confirmed a few of the speculations she had regarding the monster boy, namely around his specialization; he was most likely a metal user. It didn't explain how he was capable of sneaking up on the two of them, but she could figure that out in time. With the chain wrapped around her leg, holding her to the shield, the momentum carried her too out the hole in the wall and into the evening chill. But she could fly - the same couldn't be said for her opponent.

The air from their surroundings circulated her body, as her tiny wings began to flutter as best they could to keep her from an untimely drop. It was poor mans flight, but flight nonetheless, and for that she was grateful. As she began to ascend once again, preparing to re-enter the building, she looked down, to watch as the monster boy fell to his death. Except he didn't die. He didn't even save himself. Rather, she watched as another girl, with large, black wings, swooped down from on high to catch him. And then another one arrived, making her way into the building to fight Eliza, followed by a third one, who seemed prepared to confront the dragon girl herself.

Katelyn wasn't entirely sure what was happening at this point. Four magical entities, tracking and hunting down presumably one of either her or Eliza? She could square it up in her head, as she rose to meet the same height as the new foe. Her laughter was grating, though not nearly as much so as the sudden, heavy increase in gravity that seemed to overtake her body following the confrontation. With the air pressing down on her isolated bubble of extreme gravity, she could breathe, or hear, and barely think. Her brain would have been a pancake if it wasn't for someone else's interference, but she was unaware of her invisible ally. Regardless, she had an idea. With her vision blurred from the pressure, she could hardly see the glass flying towards her, but she didn't need to. She could see the outline of her attacker, and that was what mattered most.

A surge of electrical energy charged its way through Katelyn's body. The pressure was too strong to actively utilize her Wings, but a strength benefit would be enough. The air that circulated her to allow her knock-off flight twisted into a directed blast around her body, and with her weight, she flipped herself end over end, swinging her leg, and by extension the shield, with her. As her leg came over, she swung it down into the air, an action reminiscent of an axe kick, and in the movement redirected the wind to the shield, using it as a fan to launch a massive gust of wind, directed entirely towards the newcomer. Similarly, the glass would find itself caught up in the blast, being dragged along towards the girl.

Abigail definitely had to shift gears a bit with the glass shards being thrown in her direction. She opened her hand and pointed her palm at the incoming shards. This released Katelyn from her hold, but caught all the incoming debris in a gravity well. It seemed that Katelyn had bought herself a brief respite from Abigail's power. ”That all you got, lizard lips?” Abigail sent the shards back at Katelyn.

By this point, Divina was circling around with Elroy again, only this time she had both of her arms folded around his chest. ”I will be your wings Elroy, please, be our shield.” She was flying slightly above Katelyn and Abigail this time, but was moving pretty fast.

"I guess I can do that." He stretched out his arms. "But I'd rather be a noose!" With a shake of his arms, the chains of his gauntlets came alive.

With the continued momentum from the swing, and her now free movement, Katelyn continued the arc, bringing her body upright once again, and forcefully dragging the shield down with her leg. It was starting to resist her now that Elroy was coming closer to it. She knew it was only a matter of time before the thing ended up completely revolting and returning to its master, but for now, she had an opportunity. The girls gravity magic had receded, leaving Katelyn with a greater range of mobility. And that was all she needed. Coupled with her lightning infused strength, she brought the shield up to a horizontal position under her, gathering the wind beneath its form as she planted both feet atop it. In the same moment, she initiated her plan. Arcs of electricity seemed to bleed from her muscles, surging and rippling its way around her body, before it built into a shining, blue-white comet of light.

With the small distance between her and Abigail, almost no time passed at all. Even with the glass shards flying towards her, few would reach their mark; the energy surrounding her deflected most and destroyed most, though a few sliced across her skin. The thundercrack would barely reach the Beacon girls ears before she saw Katelyn appear in front of her, riding Elroy's shield like a hover board. With the momentum she swung her body around, aiming to smash the shield into the side of her head before she had even a chance to react. But while Katelyn was capable of near-instantaneous movement, the same could not be said for her spells. A magical girl who was adept at reading the magic of others would be able to tell exactly where Katelyn was going to wind up.

There was one such girl in attendance.

”Abigail!” Divina's voice was shrieking. It wasn't much of a hint, but it was enough to provoke a response. Abigail instinctively reduced her altitude and lifted her arm up to her face. But Katelyn still hit Abigail's arm with a considerable amount of force. The magical girl was knocked out of the sky, roaring in pain as she fell. Shona had moved from her position and was able to catch the smaller girl before she smashed into the roof.

”Are you alright, Ma'am?” Shona lowered Abigail to the ground.

”I'll be fine, Grrrrr.” She took hold of a jewel on her belt and squeezed it, which caused her to be enveloped in a healing light.

Warning Abigail wasn't the only thing Divina intended to do however. She knew exactly where Katelyn was going to end up, and would take full advantage of this knowledge. Divina barrel rolled to her right, and one of her wings took the shape of a massive bony axe. She was able to time it so that her wing would come down on Katelyn moments after she finished attacking Abigail. ”Bastard!”

"I think you mean bitch." Elroy swung his chains at Katelyn's ankles. He was able to do little else with Divina holding him. But his shield was showing considerably more resistance now that Elroy was close.

With the momentum of the attack, Katelyn swung back around, to find herself face to face with that same winged girl as had rescued Elroy. A million ideas hit her at once, but she knew what came next; there was no time to raise the shield, or cast an acceleration spell of some kind. This would be a hit she'd have to face straight on - but she would do it on her terms. Horizontal in the air, rotating around, the wing would have struck her stomach, but her reaction time and dexterity gave her an opening. Wind surged from the board to her arm as she raised it to take the blow, the snap of a bone breaking filling the ears of those nearby. It was a heavy hit, but a necessary one; no doubt if she had let the strike go unburdened, she may have lost the arm itself. That wasn't even factoring in Mac's illusions, which made Divina think Katelyn was just a bit lower than she actually was. With the force of the strike, and a small burst of wind, Katelyn shot away some distance, before slowing herself with the wind. At distance the shield seemed less active, but she had greater concerns. The broken arm was healing steadily, but wouldn't be finished for a while.

"Five versus one? You must really want these wings." she joked, lightly, as she stood up straight atop the hoverboard, arm hung limp beside her, "So you have metal, gravity, and whatever that bone power is. Winged one has Third Eye, and you two..." her eyes shifted from Shona. "...I know nothing about." As she finished her sentence, she raised her unbroken arm into the air, letting the surroundings be filled with a low hum. Electricity crackled between her fingers, and down her body into the shield, building for a good few seconds before a brilliant blew line shot across the sky, into her hand. Now clutched in her grasp was her Magari Yari, still surging with violent, electrical energy.

"I'll take those odds."

Eliza sighed in relief when her attack managed to distract Tonya long enough to flee. She wasn't exactly in the best shape to fight, but the only thing that mattered was to complete her mission. So the witch was going to land and revert back into her disguised form...but the fight outside made her hesitant to do so. What if the other beacon girls saw her? Would they try to kill her too? Conjuring up a corporeal clone with her illusion magic, Eliza decided to try and help out one of the opponents, but who? "I'm gonna regret this." She sighed, aiming her rifle at Divina. "Hmmm..." Eliza hummed in thought as she charged her shot with light magic, then fired at the winged girl.

Divina was pretty good at knowing her surroundings, but with so much going on it was even difficult for her to keep an eye out for Eliza's movements. She did notice in time to get her body out of the way, but the bullet ripped through her wing, causing Elroy and Divina to fall together.

"Woo! Bullseye!" Eliza grinned as her shot made it's mark.

Shona would not be able to catch them, but Elroy was able to land on his feet cradling Divina in his arms.

"Aw man..." The witch facepalmed after seeing the monster boy catch Divina in his arms.

”This is why I love you Elroy!” Divina's voice shuttered as she hugged him.

"And I love you, Beacon Buddies!" Elroy dropped Divina on the ground unceremoniously and folded his arms.

Regina was still observing the battle from afar. "I find this dragon..." Her eye twitched. "...And how she parades in front of my friends..." She balled her hand into a fist. "...Who insist on disobeying my orders..." Scales popped out along her neck and jawline. "...Absolutely..." Regina fret her brow. "...Disgusting." Regina was surrounded by two dozen black mortars. They were so large and so numerous, that they didn't all fit inside her cloaking spell. They would be difficult to notice in the darkness, if not for their eerie blue hue. "I'm not putting up with this any longer!"

Regina and Elroy simultaneously activated their auras, covering the area in flickering red mist. More noticeable than the faint red lights was the haunting tune playing in everyone's head. For Eliza and Katelyn, this was perhaps a bit unsettling. Otherwise it had no real effect other than for the Bates to demonstrate their massive power. But The Bates and their buddies reacted positively by being smothered in the twins auras. They were being empowered. Even Abigail, who had almost been taken out of the fight, was able to rise to her feet. Their auras blanketed the entire area, and possibly even adjacent areas.

That was when Regina's black fireballs flew through the air. They all detonated in the sky, surrounding Katelyn in dark zones. None of them detonated on top of her, but that hardly mattered. The zones blocked all light. With twenty four of those expanding in the sky, almost all light had been removed from the area. Regina picked up her rifle and pointed it at Katelyn. "I've got you in my sights!" With the entire area shroud in shadow, Regina was free to shadow step to nearly any location she wanted. She fired at Katelyn from her current position, then fired from the hole in the side of the building, Regina was even brave enough to fire while falling from a shadow in mid air. It was impossible to tell where her bullets would come from next, and she was relentless in her attack.

The black orbs had unsettled her, but she hadn't quite anticipated their effect. Even with the oppressive, and expansive, aura, that seemed to suffocate the surroundings, Katelyn didn't let her senses dull. The tune was a distraction, and that was it. She just had to block it out. But as the mortar shots detonated above her head, creating a sea of pure darkness, she felt her train of though slip. Or rather, she became distracted. That was all it took for one, then two bullets to strike her, the shots firing straight through one side and out the other in her shoulder and leg respectively. The moment they hit, she could feel their cursed effects; each bullet eroded her remaining mana. As the adrenaline dulled the pain, she cursed herself for dropping her guard. It was clear what this was intended to be, and she wanted little part of it.

There was little time between each shot, but from the angles the first two were fired at, the attacker was constantly switching positions. Katelyn didn't have much experience with the darkness specialization, but she could make a guess at the kind of technique was being used. She wouldn't have a choice but to go on the defensive and wait for an opening. The moment the explosive echo of the rifle hit her ears, a propulsion of wind spun her in its direction. Her senses weren't as finely tuned as some other girls, but the mix of adrenaline from the pain and surges of electricity were enough to adjust her vision. Not to mention someone was aiding her senses with illusion magic, as normally no one would be able to dodge a projectile like a bullet. The bullet wouldn't even have a chance to get close before a flash of lightning obliterated the projectile. She would keep up like that, similar to a sentry gun, destroying bullets, and with small bursts of wind, she would herself moving - attempting both to make herself a harder to hit target, while also hoping to catch opening in her opponent by altering their distance.

Eliza tried to tune out the haunting melody, letting her weapon shift into it's new melee form, a war scythe. Was gonna wait on using this upgrade, but this is ridiculous. she thought, using her magic to use the scythe's blade as a flashlight subsitute. "Here we go. Now to go help-"

"I'll eat your sweat meats!" Before Eliza could do anything else, Elroy had discovered her in the dark. Eliza yelped in surprise as Elroy tackled Eliza to the ground. He placed his foot between her shoulder blades. "Alright chicken little! Say goodbye to those wings!" And then with a sharp tug, Elroy yanked out two fist full of feathers. "Hah!" He looked between both of his hands. "Victory!"

Of course, Elroy thought he had pulled off her wings wholesale, but this was Mac's doing as well. Elroy wouldn't realize he was holding feathers untill a bit later.

Katelyn's magical reserves were put under quite the strain. She had a broken arm and a few bullet holes her regeneration was tending to, she was trying to stay afloat with wind magic, blowing apart Regina's projectiles with lightning magic, using teleportation at great frequency all while Regina's curses ebbed away at her mana. It was a harrowing situation for any magical girl, but Katelyn was too proud to try and flee. She opted to weather the storm, as she was the howling winds and cracking thunder that dwell in the clouds. It was simply a game of what was going to last longer, Katelyn's tricks or Regina's trap. Regina's dark zones only persisted for about ten seconds, but that was a long time for a battered, hurting magical girl. Even if she was a monster.

The beacon buddies were trying to find their way in the dark. Until Divina spoke up. “Oh no!” she cried. “There's a third girl approaching! I can sense it, it's a dark magical girl!”

It was impossible for anyone to see Shona, but she looked towards Divina. “Do you think they are all allied? It's not impossible for this to be a trap.”

“A counter trap for our trap?!” Abigail snapped her fingers. “Why does everybody pick on Beacon?”

"Ladies, relax!" Elroy shadow stepped among them. "I got chicken little's wings. We can leave with our head held high." He held up the feathers in his clenched fists. Not that anyone but Regina could actually see.

Tonya had approached the group in the dark. Hearing Elroy's voice calmed her down. ”Well I'm glad you got that one's wings. She said some nasty things about you.”

"I should probably take my shield back now." With a wave of his hand, Elroy banished his shield. This happened just as the dark zones faded out of existence. After which, Katelyn would find herself falling. Though it was because of a force far stronger than earth's gravity. Rather than attempting to crush Katelyn, Abigail was using her magic to sling her opponent to the streets below.

“Okay guys.” Abigail turned to the rest of her friends. “I'm almost out of juice.” She wasn't, but you know, illusion magic.

Regina shadow stepped her way over to the group. It was dark enough out that such a thing was possible. "Elroy, girls." She folded her arms. "We are going to have a very long discussion about tonight." She raised her staff into the air. "Now get us out of here!" When she slammed her staff into the ground, the entire group was encompassed by a large, black dome. There was nothing different about it from the outside, but once it faded, the bates and converted beacon girls were nowhere to be seen.

Eliza sighed in relief as she noticed that the twins and their minions had disappeared. Standing up, she assessed the damage that was dealt to her wings. Other than the missing feathers Elroy stole, they appeared okay. "Expected worse, but I'll take it..." she said. Yet she was still badly injured, and now she was tired, so the witch decided to meet up with her patron, and hunt Shion down once she recovered.

With the darkness above them dissipated, and the combatants fleeing, Katelyn stood herself up from the street. With some adjustments to the wind, she had prevented herself from being completely thrown against the asphalt, but it was far from enough to keep herself from falling. As she stood, she twisted her arm, feeling the since repaired flesh and bone click back into their proper places. The group was strong, and there were six of them... something she'd have to keep in mind in the future, no doubt. She couldn't help herself wondering on why they needed to obtain the wings of a monster. but there were more pressing issues. Namely, the remaining, Ebon Mint girl.

The state of her wings suggested she was injured, and distracted. It was a prime and perfect opportunity to finish the job she started, but leaving her alive had merits. If the Mint knew about the group through her inevitable report, they might choose to seek them out and deal with them. It was a long shot in the greater scheme of things, but there was a chance it could work. A chance... giving the Mint a chance, how funny. With the adrenaline wearing off, Katelyn was beginning to feel sore, and with the addition of her still waning mana supply. she likely couldn't sustain a fight for too long. Her movements were slower than before, but empowered by wind and lightning, they were still much faster than most other girls. So she half lept, and half flew towards the retreating Mint Operative, aiming for a strike at her head with the pommel end of her spear.

The witch had forgotten about her original opponent for a moment after the fight. But before she could look over to see if Katelyn was still standing, Eliza was knocked down by a swift spear to the head. "You gotta be kidding me..." she facepalmed, then blasted a beam of light back at the dragon girl.

The counter-attack by the witch girl may have been nigh instantaneous, but by the time Katelyn had struck Eliza over the head, she was already transitioning into the second stage. As quickly as the pommel connected, she flipped the spear a hundred and eighty degrees, pointing the head at the girl. People usually acted the same if they stayed up from a harsh blow to the head; they took the initiative between their opponents strike to capitalise on the opening. So all she had to do was account for that. A surge of violent electricity ran through the hollow spear, building up considerable electromagnetic force in less than a second.

In the time it took Eliza to recover from the shock of the hit, and fire off her own attack, it was met with the explosive force, and speed, of a railgun, as the head of the spear exploded from the shaft, traveling at several times the speed of sound in a near instant. It would meet the beam of light, and no doubt shear clean through it.

Eliza cursed under her breath, and flew out of the line of fire. "Just get away from me!!" She yelled, swinging her scythe at Katelyn.

As powerful as her Railgun was, it was equally as inaccurate. Some slight adjustment on Eliza's part allowed the projectile to skim right past her, careering off on its trajectory into a nearby building. But it didn't stop - rather, it kept going, cleaving through the walls of the bottom two floors, and scattering dust and debris across the field. The same, perhaps, too, could be said for Eliza's scythe - though it was powerful, it had an equally long windup time to attack, as with any heavy weapon on its calibre. It would only take a small movement on Katelyn's part to escape the swing, and yet she hesitated. Just for a second, though that was all the time she needed to miss the window of opportunity.

In the next second the scythe was upon her, forcing her to raise the shaft of the spear to defend. It would clash against the handle of the scythe, impeding its progress, and a mere moment after, Katelyn forced a gust of wind between them - shooting her back out of melee range, but kicking up the dust from the nearby destroyed structures. She could feel herself weaking - the curse of the bullets had sapped more of her strength than she had originally anticipated.
"Tell them I said hi." she called out across the street to her foe, before banishing her weapon, "Follow me and I'll kill you, Eliza." was the last thing she said, before leaping off into a nearby building.

"...How did she know my name?" Eliza thought out loud, after seeing Katelyn leave. Either way, I'm glad that's over. sitting down by one of the buildings, the witch rested her head in her arms, trying to fight the urge to pass out from fatigue.



Mac had spent more of her time helping Katelyn than Eliza, but the desired effect was achieved. Regardless, she didn't think she was going to finish that shower today. She sighed and walked back to her apartment, where she would rest up and finish her shower tomorrow. There was no rest for the wicked, after all.

The unfavorable results had begun to take their toll on Emily. She was beginning to consider the possibility of simply giving up for now and finding a place to settle down for the night. The people in Penrose seemed to be upset. Given the constant activity in the city, it probably made sense, though. Even if humans were to rationalize that a monster attack was a gas leak, or destruction was caused by faulty equipment, or whatever else they could come up with, they were still victims of loss. They probably lost loved ones, or property, or prized possessions, who could really say? Maybe they were justified for their bitterness?

Or maybe they were just jerks.

In any case, the fact that Annabelle replied favorably to her request was both unexpected and a relief. A wide, genuine smile was Emily's response, and she immediately bowed out of respect. "Thank you, miss! Even if it doesn't turn out to be the same place, I appreciate your kindness!" a few more quick bows were given, before she followed along behind the girl. "Ah, I'm Emily Ackerson. If there's anything I can do to show my gratitude, let me know!"

"Well than you again. I wasn't sure I'd survive the trial, much less the verdict." She managed to joke to Kyle. Finding her phone she opened it up to see that she'd missed some messages. "Hm? Oh, Penny tried contacting me during the trial. I guess since she isn't Beacon she wasn't able to watch." Putting aside what she was about to do Janet was about to dial her friend but noticed some of the looks she was getting by others nearby. Giving what Alicia said some thought she conceded. "Maybe we could go elsewhere for now. I don't think everyone is happy with the judgement."

Walking outside with Alicia she glanced back at the building. She'd done so much damage and yet now it looked like nothing had happened. Though her name was cleared Janet wasn't sure she could ever fit in like she had before. Time would tell though, and she didn't want to worry herself or her friends with something like that now. She was alive most importantly. "I guess we head to your place?" She half asked.

Glancing over at Kyle, Alicia was fairly certain that she hadn't seen him around here before. Still, he'd been willing to lend them a hand in the trial and that was good enough for her. "Nice to meet you Kyle. I'd stay and chat but it's been a long day. We can have a proper meeting tomorrow." She felt bad brushing him off, but it really had been. With a nigh nervous breakdown from the exhilaration of the trial, she could use it.

Turning to Janet, Alicia perked up at the mention of Penny before glancing at her phone as well. "Oh, it looks like she sent me a message too." And it was from before the trial at that her good mood shuddered to a halt from guilt, even if she knew that she couldn't be considered entirely at fault when she had been distracted. But Penny was her friend too, and to just ignore that was unfair with everything they had been through.

Heading outside, Alicia came to a stop once they were past the entrance. "Yeah, that sounds good enough. I'll tell Mom and Dad that we're having a sleepover. They'll love it," she assured Janet. It had been a while since they had entertained guests overnight, and she had no doubt that her friend was looking forward to sleeping on an actual bed for once.

First though, she wanted to assure Penny. Coming to a stop, she pulled out her phone and accessed the camera app. Flipping it about, she moved closer to Janet, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she lifted it aloft to take a picture. "Say cheese," she told Janet, waiting until she had struck the pose she wanted before snapping the picture.

With that done she took a few steps back, looking over the selfie before sending it off to Penny. "There, that should tell her how things went," she said before nodding to Janet. "Alright, let's go. Hopefully we'll be back in time for dinner. Some home cooked food is just what you need." That said she headed off, looking forward to the day to come.

@t2wave@Shifter_Master

@BrokenPromise

“That sounds like her” Penny said holding in her sigh, it was starting to seem as if Thalia snapped or lost herself to the monster within. The cyborg wasn’t sure which truth she preferred at the moment, but didn’t dwell on it too much. She had other worries she had to keep track of right now. Turning to face the Golden Trove Penny started burying her hacked entry way and pulled out of the system. She might need to slip in again if her fears were right and this way she could do it from any computer she could find rather than need to come back here.

All the while Penny kept her attention on Mika, but didn’t turn to follow her as the other girl started to stalk around her. Sure she was trying to be nonchalant about it but Penny had spent a fair amount of time living with a Beast Monstergirl, she could tell the difference. Thus she had time to prepare for how she was going to deal with the incoming attack.

Barely a moment before Mika pounced at Penny the cyborg’s left eye flickered back to life and she reacted instantaneously when she felt the other girl land on her back. The first thing that happened was her body surged with electricity, effectively turning her into a living stun gun. Penny intentionally keep the power output low as she didn’t want to hurt Mika just stun her. Then, once the electricity had stopped, Penny reached out with her magic and tagged Mika’s phone and copied over the contact information and GPS codes in the phone. This would let Penny track Mika’s phone later. After doing that Penny turned and threw Mika back towards the middle of the roof before she could recover from being stunned.

”Take it I was wrong on my assumptions.” Penny would say neutrally as her eyes flickered through various colors before landing on a deep blue ringed with red. With a sigh she turned back towards the way she had taken to get here “Thanks for the info I guess” without any further delay Penny took off in a sprint away from the Golden Trove Hotel. She knew well enough not to loiter around in enemy territory.

---

@Flamelord@t2wave

Penny had been running none stop for the last five minutes. She didn’t have a destination in mind; she was just trying to put distance between her and the encounter she had just left. While she did have another lead to follow up on when it came to finding Thalia, she also now knew that there was someone, possibly more than one, who wanted her dead for no other reason than she was under Laat’AlOfan’s guidance. At least she was pretty sure that was the case, she would have to ask him to be 100% sure.

Eventually she came to a stop atop one of the taller buildings in Downtown Penrose. “This is so messed up” she muttered to herself as she looked out over the city. She knew it rather well as she spent her days patrolling with Beacon and her nights hunting Solo. It didn’t feel like home though, and sometimes she wondered if it ever would.

She kept her silent vigil for an unknown amount of time, just taking a moment for herself to relax and forget about all the insanity that was her life.

Said isolation was eventually interrupted by a text bringing up the message on her eyepiece Penny couldn’t help but give off a genuine smile at the selfie of Alicia and Janet. ‘Glad that went well’ Soaking in the happy outcome for her friends a thought came to Penny and she sent off a reply before she could second guess herself.

YAAY!
Glad to see things went well for you two, we should celebrate tomorrow. Shopping and lunch on me?

After sending the message Penny found herself once again looking at the picture message she had gotten. She spent a few more moment’s just admiring it before closing it when she noticed her gaze had been lingering on Alicia for a bit longer then she meant.

Shaking her head, Penny forced herself to not think about why it was she had just spent the last few minutes gazing longingly at Alicia’s picture. Instead she started her trek back to her lair as it was starting to get late.

---

@Majoras End

Penny was about half way home when she stumbled across what looked to be a battle field she assumed she had missed the party as she couldn’t hear anyone fighting, but curiosity demanded she take a closer look any way.

As she walked through the wreckage she started piecing together bits and pieces of what happened here. She could tell it was a larger brawl, and that most of the combatants seemed to be on the same side, but couldn’t make heads or tells of the magic used. She could find burns here and there as well as what looked like concussive impacts but could only guess at what magic might have caused them.

Eventually she would find her to where the fight had ended, and Penny was honestly surprised to find someone still here, and not dead, though they seemed to be out of it. Unsure if it was due to injury or fatigue or even magic Penny cast a cautious look around before she started moving closer to the unconscious Witch.

Penny was once again surprised as she recognized Eliza, though she couldn’t place a name, she remembered the girl from the assault on Justine’s castle. A quick once over told the robotic girl that winged witch was mostly unharmed, but Penny was by no means a doctor.

After thinking about it for a moment she reached a decision. Picking Eliza up, Penny gently positioned the smaller girl on her back using her spider legs to keep the witches wings folded as well as keep her stable. After making sure everything was in place Penny continued her trek back to her lair, though moving with a bit more urgency and keeping an extra eye out for any impending danger.

---

”No worries Alica, I can tell you’ve had it rough. I’ll catch you two around” Aurelio replied waving off the apologize as he could latterly feel how tired the two of them were. With a parting wave he turned and walked back to the gaming room he had been shown to earlier.

As he walked he let his transformation fade.



After he was once again in his civvies he called out “Who’s up for a few rounds of Poker?” After all he was still planning on getting to know more of the people here at this Beacon and he had been promised a few hands earlier.

---

The sound of movement, those....'things' flitting about like dark blobs against the scenery up here, Nina stopped on a dime, extending a hand towards the aerial swarm of beasts. The spirit standing just above and behind her did the same action, even as the magical girl debated getting there for Alice. But at the same time, if anyone was in the fact of some strange, unknown creatures, it could very well be monsters. Dangerous monsters, the kind Alice woulda' said "take care of those first if ya can!" before anything else. Even small monsters could be lethal in swarms anywho, she'd learned that through experience.

But what had just happened with them, that they transformed into what seemed like pure lightning before her eyes and struck? That was a scary thing to ponder indeed.

Leaping back towards a prior rooftop she'd jumped from, Nina turned around after landing. Yet in doing this she noticed a few rooftops away the magical girls she seen before. Seen at the scene of the-....yare yare. She'd drawn attention to herself like a stalker, hadn't she? It wasn't hard to put two and two together, at least potentially, so letting out an annoyed sigh Nina gave a brief wave to to the duo before leaping over right to them with a burst of reinforced concrete-cracking strength. Landing in front of the, however, she seemed to softly land, Star Platinum floating silently behind her as always.

"Yare yare, do you two know what kind of thing just did that?" she said to the motorcycle-riding girls, not taking chances at an awkward "attempt to explain" style conversation right now, instead favoring asking about the current situation.

@MadManMoon

In a collab with @Rune_Alchemist

---

Chloe had no idea what that lightning or sonic boom was, but it was something she couldn't just ignore. Such a blatant display of power. Such a familiar feeling as her own, too, but so very different. Another one, then? Hm. Usually such things would try to be a little more subtle about their influence, unlike her own patrons desire for destruction - which is what made this particularly interesting. A horror who wasn't afraid of being seen? Or at least, someone with the powers of one. A small spike of pain in her head indicated Iesud's displeasure and desire for haste.

"Yes yes, I'm investigating. No need to get all rawr-rawr fire breathing angry dragon." She huffed, dropping down to street level, feet landing on the ground momentarily. Whoever it was, was moving quite fast and doing their best to potentially lose any tails they might have. Unfortunately for them, she had a few tricks up her sleeve. She wasn't going to let whoever this was escape so easily.

Picking up the trail again, Chloe swiftly moved once more. Iesud for the most part was as silent as usual, aside from the usual feelings of aggression and grumble of displeasure. She could guess why - this power scared him. Which was also why she was highly interested in it. She just had to figure out who it was coming from, and see if she could strike a deal with them. If they were friendly. Well, even if they weren't, surely they'd be interested in what she had to say.

---

The man-made light of Penrose at night was very bright, but something brought a stillness to the air. If the city was a lady, she was holding her breath in anticipation. Or, more aptly, Fear.

The Faceless Bastard stalked alone on the darkened streets, winding around different back streets and thoroughfares in the most frustrating ways he could think of taking. He couldn't just assume Treefingers or their potential accomplice wouldn't try to follow him, and take him off the board as well. Why they chose to shoot the Masked Massacrer instead of him was unclear, but he had his suspicions. Glass Prisoners tended to stay alive long enough to play the part of a chronicler, with Blogger as the usual method of sharing that story. His guess was that the Masked Massacrer's time had run out, and he was the next one up to the keyboard. It wasn't always a death sentence, but it meant that you were Fated to at least witness *something* big. Like greenlight, that old bastard.

At this point, The Faceless Bastard had cut through the subway for the fifth time. He'd found a long flashlight in a side pouch of the Masked Massacrer's backpack, one of the kind that was heavy enough to use as a club and built solidly enough to keep using it that way. She'd had great taste in flashlights, too. Shame she was dead. He held the flashlight in his left hand, loose enough to look casual but not enough for it to slip out of his grip.

He hopped down to the tracks, intending on following the tunnels for a while. And as he walked along, something on the walls caught his eye. "What've we got here?" He switched the light on and pointed into the shadows. Graffiti covered the walls as heavily as advertisements cover professional racecars, but the tunnel was otherwise clear. He focused his attention to the graffiti on the walls. Might as well get a better idea of the current situation.

embracethearchangel

Great. Timberwolf activity. Archie and his cultist cronies were in town. Yet another group of assholes that didn't like him.

Christ is gone, he's forgotten what he is.

Philosophical bullshit. Probably written by the same cultist.

Don't go up by Someone's covered that up with black spraypaint. It's Beacon territory.

Fuck me. Even the hospitals in this town aren't safe anymore.

How does Beacon's presence mean the hospitals aren't safe? Is it because one of their fights blew one up a few months ago?

The fuck. I thought Oathbreakers only infected people. When did they move up to bombings?

"...those assholes tend to be the mad doctor type, but not kind that cooks up Semtek." He moved the flashlight's beam around. He needed to see how deep that rabbit hole went.

---

Whoever this was, was being far too obtuse. Hmph. Should just confidently stroll about. If they were that strong, they wouldn't have such a worry, would they? Should just let whoever thought they were strong enough to fight them walk up. So why where they being so needlessly cloak and dagger?

The night air would have probably made someone dressed as lightly as her shiver, but she had bigger issues than her revealing clothing to attend too. The city was, too, it seemed. Something caused it to shiver, silence itself. Was it this person she was tracking? She allowed her feet to once again touch the ground near the exit of a subway for the fifth time. Hmph. This was starting to annoy her, but the pain in her skull from the irritable dragons urging made her more than eager to continue.

Gah, one of these days soon, she'd be the one in charge. Not that pathetic rotting old dragon.

"Grh-" He didn't like that thought. She winced, holding her head with a hand. "Have you ever tried honey instead of vinegar?" She grumbled aloud. "You might actually make me prefer you if you tried that every now and then." Exhaling, Chloe let her orb float in a circle around her, taking a brief look around at her surroundings. The path was easy enough to follow - the traces of residual eldritch magics were powerful, and obvious to anyone with a modicum of skill.

"Well at least he's not being as clever as he thinks. What, are they trying to just get me off their trail with boredom? Chuckling lightly, she hopped down onto the tracks following the trail. What was Penny up to right now, she wondered? She said she had something to go do. A meeting with the Mint. Hmph, she hoped they didn't lay a hand on her precious little Penny. Oh well, the Mint would get theirs soon enough. She just needed time. And if this person she was tracking was anything like she hoped...then this would expedite the process quite a bit.

---

Walking further into the tunnel, The Faceless Bastard spotted the next part of the graffiti conversation.

Oathbreakers? Infecting people?? What kind of rumors are these??? Look, the local Beacon may be zealous, but those Magical Girls are good people.

The fuck? Magical Girls? Those exist?

Yes? How do you know about Beacon, but not about Magical Girls?

"The Beacon" is one of the things we call the Fear of Disease. Shows up as a big, imposing motherfucker in a plague doctor outfit. Eldritch as fuck. Doctors in his little cult are called Oathbreakers.

Wait, is this some kind of Horror? And who's "we?"

Fuck it, this would take a lot of spraypaint, just message me on Blogger. Blog name's Illegible again, god fucking damnit. Cover it up once you've written it down.

"...on top of everything in this clusterfuck sundae, now we've got 'Magical Girls?' I'll have to track down that blog, but..." He wasn't that far from O'Briens. Maybe someone there would have spotted the name of that Runner's blog. If there was any doubt of him going there tonight, that put the last of them to rest.

The Faceless Bastard kept walking down the tunnel with renewed purpose. Although, as he got twenty steps away from his exit, he could have sworn he heard someone laughing. As he instinctively turned towards the sound, he spotted another bit of graffiti on the wall.

Don't turn your back on the body.

No, that chill running over his spine was just from The Morphs shifting inside of him. But he walked a little faster up the last of those access stairs.

The Faceless Bastard emerged from the service access stairwell, taking a deep breath of the night air. He was only a block from O'Briens at this point, but he figured he'd spent enough time walking around Penrose. Best not waste anymore of his time at that point. He strolled along, casual as one can be, down the back street.

The first thing he noticed was that O'Briens had gotten a new sign. It wasn't that big of a surprise, what with the explosion in Ontario taking the first one out of commission. This version had the lettering in some kind of gold-colored metal over a green background, possibly to make it look a little more like an Irish pub than what it really was. Thankfully, it didn't go so far as to add a tacky four-leaf clover, but The Faceless Bastard noticed that it kept the ⨂ symbol on the sign. Yep, it was ⨂'Briens all right.

He went down the concrete steps to the door. Looked like your average solid core wooden door, but as he opend it, a closer inspection revealed that was just a veneer placed on solid steel. As he walked in, he could see it looked like a textbook depiction of a dive bar: brick walls, plenty of sturdy looking wooden tables, the pool table in the corner. The selection of booze was bigger than the last place ever had over the bar, that was for certain. Sullivan was serving a couple of drinks to a pair of girls sitting at the end of the bar, who were deep in conversation about something.

One of the patrons, wrapped in towels but still soaked to the bone, looked up at him and said, "Hellay!"

The Faceless Bastard waved back, and made a note not to let them anywhere near his drink. It wasn't like they'd slip him a mickey - though to be frank they were so covered in towels that their gender was all but incomprehensible - but you don't live long by letting a Camper play around with your drink. Not in the sense that mattered, anyways.

Come to think of it, O'Briens was pretty packed. Oathkeepers still in their scrubs were chatting each other up over cheesesteaks and beer. The faint smell of rust and musk drifted over from some Blood Vessels playing darts, and terribly at that. Thankfully, none of the trademark biker leather or gas masks that marked a Timberwolf were anywhere in sight.

There was a few spots open at the bar near those girls, and, for lack of better options, he cooly went and sat down in the center of those three empty spots. On his right, he could spot the familiar eye-shaped tattoo on a patron's hand. Dammit, even the Gavels were in this town. The Faceless Bastard found it interesting that the guy wasn't going nuts in this place, surrounded by so many criminals.

"Long time no see, Faceless." He turned at the sound of Sullivan's heavy Canadian accent. "What can I get you for?"

"Nice to see you too, Sullivan. Any good microbrews from around here?"

---

Chloe continued the chase, her wings carrying her swiftly through the tunnels. Whoever it was she was tracking lingered here for a bit. Checking the local artwork, hm? Humorous. Well, she couldn't spare the time to similarly enjoy it lest she let her quarry escape. The traces were becoming fainter, and if she hoped to track them then she'd need to hurry. Soon, her flight carried her up a service stairwell, and back out into the night air.

They were close.

Slowing her pace slightly, she focused. A few spirits emerged from her crystal ball - small things. Harmles poltergeists to be used as scouts of sorts. Make sure she wasn't about to be ambushed or otherwise walk into danger. She had other spirits in her employment, but no need to cause a huge ruckus just yet. She followed in the Faceless Bastards footsteps, eventually finding a quaint little place called O'breins, where the trail led into.

Curious.

Now she could go in looking like a cosplaying stripper, but she had a little more class than that. With a quick thought, her magical girl outfit was dispelled, leaving her in her normal black and red gothic loli styled dress. She'd likely look more than a little out of place once she entered, but such was fine. Easier to judge who exactly she was tracking here. Confidently, she walked down the stairs, and pushed open the door to the dive bar.

"Eugh, I didn't think I'd ever find myself in quite such a...cozy place." Chloe mused, taking a quick observation of the bar. Surprisingly though, they had no one to turn away an obviously underaged person such as herself. Not that it'd do them any good. She'd just ignore them and waltz in anyways, even if she had to get a little rough, and as expected she looked quite out of place.

Out of costume, her third eye was far less effective, but she could put two and two together rather easily. She'd just needed to take a moment to observe.

The fellow covered in towels noted the new arrival, and gave them a friendly "Hellay!"

Chloe wasn't quite certain what this thing was, but it certainly wasn't human, and what was with that weird way of saying hello?

"What manner of disgusting thing are you?" Chloe raised an eyebrow, frowing in displeasure at this thing that was speaking to her. Urgh, some creatures just needed to really cease their existence. Nothing more than a blight upon her world. "Out of my way, you aren't my quarry and I have little time to entertain whatever manner of filth you are."

The towel fellow paused. Then they said "Hellay" again, but this time in the inflection of a confused question. They shook their head, getting a few drops on a nearby patron, who immediately started dabbing away the moisture with bar napkins as if covered in fire ants.

"...right." Chloe raised an eyebrow, glancing over to the patron swiftly wiping up whatever liquid that was from their clothing. Probably a bad idea to touch it, then. "Well have fun being whatver manner of creature you are, I have better things to do."

The towel fellow merely blinked at her from where they were sitting. "Well have fun," they said, matching Chloe's tone with eerie precision. It went back to its drink, which looked rather clear. Vodka, maybe? Water? Hard to tell what it was, from a glance, but something told her she wouldn't want to try any. "...little time...to entertain..."

Walking past the creature, Chloe studied the bar quietly. Well, no one questioned a little girl being in the place yet, so this was probably a gathering for all sorts of sordid people if that...whatever it was, was any indication. Ah, perhaps this was going to be a gold mine of good opporunities. It didn't take her long to find her presumed quarry. Someone who looked like they hadn't been there for long, and he reeked of the same magic she had been following.

"Hm...this is quite the nice place, isn't it?" She walked over to where the Faceless Bastard was sitting. "You know, for someone who tried so hard to lose any tails, you certainly didn't mind showing off quite a bit back there."

The Faceless Bastard glanced over at the girl, running her appearance through some mental checklists. She didn’t fit the description of any Servant he’d ever seen – and sure as hell wasn’t a Doll, or else he’d just be having this conversation with Sullivan – so that left a few options.

A Runner, in which case they were a really fucking stupid one. You’re supposed to run *away* from the Fears and their Servants, that’s what the term fucking means. Or, spinning off from that, a Fighter. A really fucking bold one, but a lot of those types either die fast or have an affair with Lady Luck. He wasn’t sure how literal that was supposed to be, but he wouldn’t throw the possibility out.

Some kid who read too much Nancy Drew… which honestly, kudos for keeping up, but the absolute worst fucking place to follow a guy. Out of the corner of his mask’s eyeholes, he could spot one of the Blood Vessels eyeing her up like a piece of meat. Whether it was the kind one eats, kills, or fucks…or hell, even what order... he honestly didn’t want to think about.

Treefingers’ accomplice. Most likely person to have picked up on his trail, after maybe Treefingers. Probably not Treefingers, but if an Illim can disguise themselves so thoroughly, it wasn’t out of the question for such an unknown.

The Adrift. The kind of elaborate, childish getup and form fit the bill well enough. Then again, really easy to tell if it was her.

A final possibility came to mind: one of those “Magical Girls” that graffiti mentioned.

Five different cards on hand. Time to play some poker.

Three seconds had passed since she’d spoken. The Faceless Bastard took a casual, slow pull from his bottle of MacAnally’s Pale. It was the best beer he’d ever had, and he was gonna enjoy it, dammit. ”Why don’t you take a seat, kiddo?” He casually motioned to the seat on his right. “All that walking must’ve taken something out of you.”

"Kiddo, huh?" Cautious, but not overly stupid enough to try something right then and there. How quaint. She took a seat where indicated, doing her best to ignore that disgusting alcohol he was drinking. Ah, why'd it have to be some place like this. Why couldn't it be a fancy tea house or a upperclass club? "I haven't been called that in awhile. Still infuriating as ever. Can't say flying really tires the feet, though."

Now, Chloe had a few options here. It was clear this place seemed to be some sort of gathering ground for the supernatural. Other magical girls weren't present, and this amount of activity not drawing attention before would be odd. Must have some way to disguise itself. How best to approach? Well, might as well not beat around the bush.

"So I'm curious," Chloe continued to watch the man in front of her, watching for his reactions in case she needed to defend herself. "Who do you serve? And don't lie. I saw that little lightning trick of yours - your abilities obviously come from those that exist outside our normal concept of reality."

Well, that narrowed things down considerably. She sure as hell wasn’t The Adrift – for a start, she wasn’t making any creepy, unchildlike passes at him. And unless she was the freshest Runner around, she wasn’t one of those either. Information about The Morphs isn’t exactly hard to find in the blogosphere, and he was one of the most famous of their Nests… for better or worse.

So those cards went back to the dealer. In their place, he got a pair of Jokers. It was still possible that this was Treefingers’ accomplice, but it seemed unlikely at this point. The reaction to “kiddo” could have implied she was older than she looked, but it wasn’t enough to confirm anything concrete. It could have been another point in favor of Nancy Drew, a ‘hardboiled’ kid detective who wants to solve mysteries and be taken seriously.

Or that was another point in favor of the ever mysterious ‘magical girl,’ which – if the graffiti was any hint – also explained why she didn’t recognize the Morphs for what they were. And that little ‘flying’ remark, too. Though if Nancy Drew got ahold of a magic carpet or some shit, that could also explain it.

In this game, though, he had an advantage. Poker’s not really a game about playing the best hand – it’s about playing the people. Learn when they’re bluffing, get them to fall for your own.

One of many perks of being a Nest for the Morphs was the ability to use their connection to replace his eyesight. Obviously, he wasn’t shown anything from inside of him – which he was eternally grateful for – but this allowed him to see things in ways that most people couldn’t. For example, splitting his attention between this girl and on the Gavel sitting next to her.

The second she had sat down, that tattooed hand twitched. Whatever kind of self-control that Gavel had while sitting in a room full of Servants, it cracked. Not enough to go past that twitch, but The Faceless Bastard could tell from that reaction that this girl had some kind of sin on her hands. And with Blood Vessels in the room, it had to be something big.

He wasn’t sure if there’d be a finger twitch here or there if she started lying, but if that were the case she was telling the truth. So far, at least.
“Depends on what you define as ‘our normal concept of reality…’” He decided to be diplomatic. “…miss.” The Faceless Bastard took a thoughtful sip. Best not to risk throwing down, not before he had a better idea of what was in front of him. “If ‘we’ share a ‘normal concept of reality,’ well, that means we need to be on the same page.” He took another slow, deliberate pull to let that sink in. “To some people, ‘Magical Girls’ are a standard part of the ‘reality’ bundle. To others, not so much.”

"Magical girls huh," She smirked. "Now, whatever makes you think such childish beings exist?" Chloe mused playfully. He wasn't going to give her information so easily, was he? Well that was fine. She'd just need to make him an offer he couldn't refuse, as they say. "Certainly they're quite popular among the childish and some...creepy older men. You wouldn't be one of those?" She teased before sighing, a small twinge of impatience meeting her skull.

"Tsk, okay fine. I'll hurry up." She seemed to be speaking to herself there - or perhaps someone else that the Faceless couldn't see. "Never lets me have any fun these days. Hmph." She turned her attention back to the man. "What I am doesn't matter. Don't worry your pretty little birdies over it." She leaned on the counter top. "I am in need of...help. And you seem like someone who could point me in the right direction. Where could I find information on what certain people would call an 'Old God', hm?"

"The library," he deadpanned. "But I'm guessing you're at least a little familiar with Lovecraft." Another point for Nancy Drew, if it weren't for that little dodge she tried to pull. But that aside she just did, now that was interesting. He didn't see any wireless earpiece, so she had at least some other kind of communication. Or she was crazy. Maybe another clue he was onto something with that Magical Girl guess.

The Faceless Bastard sighed. "Alright, look. You seem like a sharp kid, with big enough stones to follow me. But I don't know if you've noticed, but you've waltzed into a real dangerous place. And frankly... if you start thinking any of these other as- ahem, yahoos, are a better option? You're gonna get eaten alive. Literally. In some cases at least. EAT'll do it the metaphorical way, like what happened to Towel Boy over there." He vaguely gestured in their direction.

'Towel Boy', meanwhile, was muttering something that sounded like, "...have fun... little time... to entertain...whatever... disgusting manner of filth...are you."

Chloe smiled. This. little. Bastard.

She was growing bored of this farce. Why couldn't things ever just be easy? She wasn't here for idle chat. He was being needlessly obtuse and she didn't like it. She had a schedule to keep. Places to be, things to do, people to murder. People just couldn't let her have her way, could they. Always had to fight, rolling around in their own filth.

"You seem to think these pathetic worms are enough to make me afraid of them." Chloe's tone took a darker inflection despite her smile. "...tell me, have you ever seen a persons soul before? Because I have. They're quite beautiful. Wiggling. Squirming. Screaming. They make such beautiful decorations." She paused, still smiling. "What color is yours, I wonder? Or would you even have one left? I'll ask one more time. If I wanted to find information - and potentially help. Where would I find it?"

Great, now those Gavels were staring. If she didn’t start something in the next few seconds, they would. And with this place being such a powderkeg, the bang'd attract all kinds of trouble. The Faceless Bastard calmly took off his hat and set it on the bar. “No need to get so worked up,” he said. Without making the movement too sudden, he lifted up his mask to reveal the hole in his head, most of the visible Morphs looking at this girl sitting next to him. “I just thought I’d let you know that it’s not too late to back down. Before you start getting involved in something you might regret.”

The pair of Gavels sitting behind the girl stiffened, and got real interested in their beers.

Yeah, unless Nancy Drew’s middle name was Gozer, no question of what she was now. “…look, I’ve been in your position before. It’s how I got these scars.” He gestured vaguely towards his lack-of-a-face, before picking up the bottle of MacAnally’s Pale. Empty. He set it down again with a sigh. This girl was reminding him too much of himself. He was gonna need several more drinks before the night's end. “If you’re really sure that you can’t get help from your normal circles? Fine. I’ll point you in the right directions.”

He reached into one of his coat’s inside pockets and pulled out a pen and a small pad of paper. “Couple of things you’ll want to know before you do, though. The price for help can get pretty steep, depending on who you go to.” He didn’t gesture this time, because that message was so obvious it’d be insulting to make it even more so. “You want information? That’s easier to get ahold of then you'd think. A woman called Scribe Sigma used to update a blog.” He wrote down the url on the pad. “Named after the organization she works for, calling themselves 'The Archive.' Posted a lot of "unclassified material" on the topic, or at least the kinds of information they wouldn't charge less than extortionate prices. But it's enough to get you started at least. You’ll start to learn that the blogosphere’s your best bet for information, no strings attached. Apart from that, pay attention to the local graffiti, and the bottoms of milk cartons. Runners leave all kinds of information for each other that way, and their "Runner Milk Carton Code" isn't too hard to crack.”

The Faceless Bastard paused. “Of course, if you absolutely need more than information for… whatever it is you need help doing… I can point you towards the ones least likely to screw you over in the long run. Fair enough?”

"See? Was that so hard?" She leaned back in her chair. "Your concern is actually rather adorable! If you were a girl I'd already have dragged you back to my place. I could turn you into a pretty little one, you know. Get rid of those nasty scars and everything...but I have a feeling you'd decline." Blogs, huh? Ah, being mildly technologically inept was a bit...rough, wasn't it? She had never been good with computers, but perhaps it was time to invest in a good one. Isana's old gaming rig should be around her house somewhere.

"So what of these people least likely to screw me over? I'd be kind of curious to see them try."

The Faceless Bastard put his mask back down. "Now, if anyone's the least likely to screw you over, it'll be The Archive," he said. "Their information's good, and they've got a lot of resources at their disposal, but talking to them's risky. They deal in information exchanges, deals. But at least they're up front about what it'll cost you. They're also a lot more easy to get ahold of then, say, Jack of All. Red glove on his right hand, really trigger happy with granting things that could be interpreted as requests. Information. Power. Stuff like that, he can and will try to give you. But always in a way you'd regret. Like the Monkey's Paw."

"Hmm..." Chloe took a few seconds to process the information she had been given. The Archive, huh. Appropriately named, if what this guy said was true. Perhaps this could be useful. Her patron of course, was growing more irritable by the second. Or was it excitement? It was hard to tell at times. Emotions got muddled because of the nature of them. "So how would I contact the Archive? Go to this blog of this 'Scribe Sigma' and ask for a date?"

The Faceless Bastard shrugged. "You could try that, though I'm pretty sure she's... what, mid-thirties, early forties? Not sure she swings that way, or for jailbait. Either way, she dropped off the grid years ago. Last I heard she had twenty-six years' worth of memories to transcribe." He paused for effect. "You're in luck, though..." He leaned back in his seat, giving the girl a clear view of the two girls at the end of the bar. They were still deep in their conversation, but the grey eyes of the shorter one flickered in their direction. "Two of their members are here tonight."

"...ho~" Chloe smiled, seemingly happy. "Well you've been most helpful, little birdie." She giggled. "But this is where you and I part ways. Thank you for not making this more of a mess than it has to be." Getting up from her seat, Chloe walked away from the faceless. She got what she needed, and if this Archive could help her then she had no reason to continue conversing with man. "Oh...one more thing," She cast a glance to the one at the bar. "Tell your overeager friends here that if they want a good time...just join me out back later. I'll make sure they get entertainment." She mused darkly. Focusing her attention back on the members in the bar, Chloe casually walked over.

"A little birdie told me you might have some information you'd like to share."

The Faceless Bastard simply watched as she walked... all of five steps around his seat to get to the girls on his left. It probably would have been a lot more dramatic if there had been more than one empty seat between him and those Archive girls, but give Spooky Scary Nancy Drew points for trying. He wordlessly wrote down his blog's url onto the notepad, under the other url, along with the note 'If you need to get in contact with me, message me through here.' He then casually tore the paper off, and placed it on the bar right in front of Chloe.

The two girls, who had been sitting at the end of the bar, looked up at Chloe. The one who was not short, a cute blonde girl in a snazzy hat and dark blue coat, glanced over at The Faceless Bastard. He gave a little wave to her, then turned to call Sullivan over for another round. She turned those baby blues back to Chloe as if she was trying to figure out what was with this sassy, lost child. "...that depends on what kind of information you're looking for."

"Well...a little information and perhaps a bit of help." Chloe continued, for the most part ignoring the Faceless already. Perhaps she might contact him later. Perhaps not. He had served his usefulness for the moment and she didn't particularly desire to converse with one such as him. "Information on things old and forgotten, sleeping things."

The blonde girl looked over at the girl sitting next to her, a grey eyed girl in a dark hoodie. "...you've heard correctly." She gestured to the open seat next to the blonde. "Why don't you take a seat, and we can talk business?"

"Lets talk then." Chloe smiled, taking a seat. "Let me introduce myself. I am Chloe...and let me just say you're both quite the cute one aren't you? Let me buy you a drink."

The blonde one smiled. "Scribe Xi. She's Collector Delta," she said, gesturing over her shoulder.

"Hello," Collector Delta said. Her gaze was cold and analytical, the kind that one gets while working out a new puzzle.

"So, were you interested in something specific along those lines?"

"Scribe Xi and Collector Delta." Chloe echoed with a smile. "As for what I want...my lord needs healing. To awaken from his unjust slumber. I think you can help me with that, but I can't say more here with such prying ears and curious eyes. I am fairly certain I already have suitable payment prepared, but we can discuss more in private later."

"I see." Collector Delta took out a pad of paper and a mechanical pencil. She turned to a new page and curtly wrote something on it. "And this private discussion you propose. Do you intend on making your proposal tonight? Or perhaps another time?"

"Well...I wouldn't mind having you two come sleepover at my place tonight." Stretching, Chloe smirked. "Been awhile since I've had two cuties over. We could discuss it tomorrow over breakfast if you do. I've been told I make some pretty great pancakes." She was pretty sure these two wouldn't try anything. She could handle herself if they did - her little apartment had some pretty tough defenses. She made sure of that the moment she moved in. "Otherwise...we could meet somewhere of your choosing, if you prefer. But I assure you, I won't bite unless you want me too~"

"Well, that's pretty hospitable of you." Scribe Xi looked to her friend. "Any objections, Delta?"

Collector Delta hummed thoughtfully. "...none in particular," she said.

Scribe Xi turned back around to Chloe. "In that case, we'll accept your offer."

"Wonderful!" Chloe grinned, hopping out of her chair. "My place isn't far. Right around the corner." She walked back by the Faceless, ignoring him completely seemingly uninterested in his existence any more. "Ugh, I'll be glad to get out of this place. It's nothing but a cesspool of filth." She grunted, pushing open the door to the bar. "Aside from you two, of course."

As the three girls left the bar, The Faceless Bastard finished his second bottle. At this point, there wasn't much more for him to do that night. He knew that at some point in the near future, he'd have that particular urge to blog about the night's events. Hooray for being a Glass fucking Prisoner. Though, considering what would happen the second someone got word about Magreat's whereabouts, and it spread far enough? Perhaps being a Glass Prisoner had its benefits.

But for the rest of the night? He didn't see much else to do, except counting out time. "Hey, Sullivan. I'll have another Pale."

"Hey there." A young, feminine voice spoke up from behind him. Christ, he couldn't just get a drink in peace, could he? "You look like you could use a drinking buddy."

The Faceless Bastard didn't bother turning around. "...you know what? Sure. Why the hell not?"

The chair on his left scraped back a few inches, and a lithe figure hopped up onto the seat. "Mind if I get what you've gotten?"

"Knock yourself out."

"Hey, barkeep! Make it two."

The Faceless Bastard's bottle touched down onto the bar first. "Thanks." The newcomer's bottle reached her a second later, and she gripped it with dainty fingers. She let out a sigh of her own when she did so. Something about that seemed familiar. "Lemme guess: long night?"

"Oh, I don't know..."

The Facless Bastard finally turned to look at his new 'drinking buddy,' and...

...oh you've got to be kidding me.

"I'd say it's still pretty young," said the Masked Massacrer, right before she lifted the bottle to her lips.

Charlie listened to Su's explanation with a relaxed posture; he was a bit tense before as he expected a fight, but now he was all smiles. "Oh, we're not superheroes. We just...larp. Like super hardcore. Right Janice?" Now he received a slap to her cheek from the miffed girl, and he only laughed in response. "Don't mind her. She can be a bit moody." Noida hard her arms behind her back as she cocked her head form side to side, pouting. "But still, what a bummer! I was hoping we'd get to do some heroics!" When Su mentioned the ice cream, Charlie lifted an eyebrow. "A hotel, you say? Well now, that would sound wonderful. Especially if I get treated by such a pretty girl-Oof!" Suddenly, Janice punched Charlie. She stared intensely at Su. "Will there be...Ice cream?" She asked with a soft voice, very uncharacteristic for her tough appearance and violent attitude.
"Sure there is!" Helga responded, happy to see that the situation resolved itself. "Come on, I know the way there." After Charlie was lifted up by Noida, the whole group began walking there, Charlie still holding his arm. "Ooh, talk about jealous..." He muttered. Soon they were at the hotel. When the gang was busy admiring the lobby, Su whispered about the attack to Helga. Helga then quickly excused herself and dashed up the building.

---

Penny's attack wasn't very effective against Mika. She seemed to be fairly resilient, and the electricity coursing through Penny was little more than a static shock to her. It made her uncomfortable, but wasn't going to weaken her grip too much. It did make her hair stand up on end however.
”I'm going to have to groom my hair again!” When paired with her sprint, Penny was able to shake off Mika with little effort. The beast girl fell onto her back as soon as Penny dove off the roof. She giggled when she landed.
”Yay! I chased off the champion! Boteg's going to be so proud of me!” She cheered as she saw Penny flee from the scene.

"Mika! Are you okay?" Helga appeared from the rooftop entrance of the hotel alongside Sue. "Su just told me what happened, and we got back as soon as we could. Did the champion attack?"

”I'm fine” Mika lifted her legs into the air and kicked forward, which was enough to get her onto her feet. ”I think that was the champion person that Boteg kept talking about.” Mika folded her arms behind her back. ”She fled right away, but I got a really good look at her!” She giggled. ”She was really strong, and felt like she was made out of metal or something. She didn't look like she should have felt that hard though.” Mika's grin widened. ”Like a cyborg?”

Helga gasped in surprise, and nodded. "...If that is true...Then we have a bigger fish to fry than we thought." She offered her hand to Mika. "Now, let's go back. We have a couple of customers staying overnight, but I'll take care of them." She turned back to her maid uniform. "You get some good night's sleep, okay? We'll talk more tomorrow." And with that, the Golden Grove hotel had it's first magical encounters beyond Boteg's forces. It remained to be seen whether it would be the last.

---

When the sun was starting to show itself at the crack of dawn, Helga was already awake, delivering breakfast to Charlie's Angels who had stayed in the hotel and were now eating at the small restaurant at the bottom floor. While the other two had normal ones, Janice had a big banana split ice cream. Not only that, but she used a small spoon to eat it carefully, once again showing a different side than her initial impression had to tell.
"Hey Janice, leave some for me!" Noida exclaimed with a big smile, and cut a piece of the banana. Charlie was leaning back on the teetering chair, his hands behind his back. "Ahh, this is the life...I feel like a celebrity." Helga then appeared, and bowed. "I'm glad you have enjoyed your stay. Now here's the bill." Charlie gasped. "Oh crap, that's expensive...Uuuhh...Noida, you got cash?"

It was then that Su heard something at street-level. When she peered outside, she saw that at the end of the street was a massive horde of monsters; they resembled skeletons, with rusty, broken weapons and armor. They seemed to have a purpose to their wandering, as they were walking away from the direction of the hotel. "Come on, you gotta pay somehow." Helga was still occupied with Charlie, her cheeks puffed as she put her hands to her hips.. "Do I have to call the manager here? He's the kind of fellow you don't want to mess with!"

”It's fine, Helga. I was the one who invited them over.” Su was standing by a window, watching the monsters walk around outside. ”So long as they didn't damage anything in their room, we can let them go without paying. Just this once at least.” She didn't look away from the window. ”But maybe next time, don't eat quite that much ice cream.”

Janiuce's ears perked up, and she looked down at her ice cream, blushing profusely. Charlie immediately stood up, shaking his head. "Oh no no. I will pay, for serious. I'm not the kind of guy who'd dine and dash. I just realized I should have only reserved one room instead of two." Now Noida was the one who slapped him, not breaking her smile at all. "We can work the money off too, right Charlie?" Charlie blinked. "Uhh, yeah! Are you fine with that? Please?" Helga smirked. "Well, we might...Hey Su, you saw something?"

Su stepped away from the window. ”Yes, I just saw some very strangely dressed men outside. I don't remember a parade event being scheduled, and it's a little early for Halloween.” Su looked towards the group with her arms folded. ”Very convincing outfits.” She shot Helga a worried look. ”I hope Mika doesn't get distracted by it all. She's very much into Halloween, and those skeletons look very life like.”

Helga immediately realized what Su meant, and she turned towards the gang. "Um, I'll put it on the tab. I gotta go...clean rooms. Goodbye."

”I should also head off.” Su immediately followed after Helga, half breaking into a sprint.

Charlie blinked, but didn't say anything until she left. "Strange maid...Really cute, though-Ooof!"

Helga and Su hurried to the rooftop, where they saw the last glimpses of the skeleton legion turn a corner. Helga transformed, making sure her incantation was drowned by the wind, and then looked at Su. "Monsters...There might be other girls too. Let's check it out, Su."

Su had transformed on her way to the rooftop when no one was looking. Her magic permitted such types of quiet, fast transformations. ”I suppose it can't be helped. They could have at least waited for me to eat breakfast first.” Su passed a tiny cyclone between her hands. ”All the more reason to take care of this quickly.”

Helga had a wide smile on her lips. "That's what I like to hear." And with that, she jumped off the roof, landing on another one. As the two approached the skeletons, they realized that there was a magical girl at the scene, watching the skeletons. "Hey, what are you doing? Aren't you going to fight them?" She yelled out at the mysterious stranger.

---

Lily woke up with a bit of a wobble to her step, holding her head.
"Ooh...Did I see a vision in my dreams? It was something about...A dragon..It looked like...It was in pain..."
She was still wondering about that when she stepped out of the bathroom, her pajama shirt hanging off one shoulder and her hair upright due to static electricity.
"Morning, Alex," she called to him as she turned to the kitchen. "I saw something in my dream, it was-Aaagh!" She lifted her leg up in shock at the weasel. One of her eyes twitched as she a look of utter disbelief.
"Uhhh....What is this? Did you buy Bob a new friend?" She grabbed a bowl, and ate cereal from it as she sat down at the kitchen table. "Well...I guess it doesn't matter. I've decided that I want to go to school here. Ixion has promised to forge me the papers for it. But, uhh...Would you be fine with that?" She looked down her bowl. "I mean, I feel like I need to...see other people. I realized after our talk that I...I'm not the best with people, and relationships. So I thought, maybe I could try and make friends. Uhh, friends other than you, haha." She went back to stuffing her face with cereal, regretting her awkwardness.

---

The Beacon HQ's magical girls had a rude awakening, as sirens blared out across the facility. "Alert! Monsters have been sighted!" Sylvia announced on the loudspeakers. "Assemble at the briefing hall!"
Magical girls arrived to the hall with chairs littered haphazardly across the floor, and a giant monitor at the back wall. Sylvia spoke at the front. She opened the TV, and a map of Penrose was on it, with two red dots.
"We have identified the location of two sightings. One is at the Penrose Stadium, where a baseball game was just interrupted by a bunch of mummy-looking creatures. They are reported to attack with their bandages. The other group is a coven of witches: Halloween-looking hags, with green skin and curled noses. They're flying on broomsticks around the cathedral, here." She pointed with a stick at the map. "Alicia, Sally, you will lead separate squads to these locations, with reserves on standby." Sally nodded with a determined look, her ears flopping on her head as she did. "Penny, Aurelio and Cherry, you will be in Sally's team, and Summer and Janet will be in Alicia's, with volunteers as the rest. Our priority is to act fast, and eliminate the monsters before they cause further damage. Any questions?"

"That's Tim" Alexander said when Lily noticed the weasel "And no, I didn't pick him up. He was just hanging out in Bob's cage when we got home, and I have no idea how he got in there." He shook his head before going back to eating. Then Lily mentioned wanting to go to school "You...actually want to go back to school?" He sighed "I mean, if you actually want to go back to that hellhole, more power to you. It makes no fucking sense to me, but more power to you anyway." Alexander then found Tim on the table, staring at him "oh...right" He took a long strip of bacon from his plate, and handed it to the tiny creature "Here, go nuts." Tim proceeded to do just that, snatching the offered strip of fried pig flesh and rapidly consuming it.

Speedwagon took a deep breath, in through her nose, and paused. This... wasn't what she expected to smell from this mystery girl. Bloody hell. This girl... she's the type that's got a true sense of justice! The type who looks cold at a first glance, but her blood runs passionate and burns inside! And from deep within her heart, she felt the familiar thrumming of her Power come to life, telling her to...

Joanna whispered to Speedwagon, taking advantage of their close proximity to do so. "Your intuition, does it say that she...?"

Speedwagon's eyes flickered to Joanna. "I don't think she's the one," she whispered back. "I think she would help us find them, though."

"Those creatures we just saw..." Speedwagon said at a normal volume. "I'd heard stories of them in my travels, even caught sight of them a couple of times. Call them what you like - Thunderbirds, The Morphs." Speedwagon pushed the brim of her hat up slightly. "But they don't exactly fly down to Penrose for migration season."

As Speedwagon began explaining about The Morphs, Joanna was in the midst of sorting out her own feelings. Something about this mysterious girl seemed... familiar, somehow. Almost as if she knew this girl from somewhere, more than just that passing glance back at that intersection. Was this girl part of a past life? Or her future, and that destiny that she was Fated to claim?

"...I think this is the kind of conversation we should really sit down for, though." Speedwagon pulled out her cell phone - several phone generations old, but when that was classified in years or months, not quite as old as you'd expect. "I have the feeling we have a lot to talk about, and not just about The Morphs being in town. Like our leads on what happened at that intersection."

@Crusader Lord

Morning time had arrived, and it was back to Beacon HQ. It seemed that being a hero waited for nobody.

Alicia yawned as she entered the briefing room, still shaking the cobwebs from her head in the process of waking up. It had been a long night, though it had absolutely been worth it. She and Janet had talked and her friend had been brought up to speed on what she had missed in the past month. They'd played some board games and Mom had made some chicken fajitas. It made the resulting tiredness from having to save the day all the more worth it.

She sat near the front of the room, as was fitting a Seraph, while Sylvia began the briefing. Two monster attacks at once? This was either a very unfortunate coincidence or coordinated action, and at this point they couldn't rule out either. But that was something to worry about once they had dealt with this threat, and there were no civilians in danger.

Having been informed of the situation, Alicia frowned as she examined the map. She was ready to get to work, and put down some pests. "What are we looking at in terms of civilian presence around the cathedral?" Given the attack at the stadium had interrupted a game, it stood to reason that anybody there would be hiding or had run away by now. The cathedral attack was less clear in that regard.

That was the only question she had for now, and she turned to shoot her team mates a thumbs up. They were going to do fine, she was sure of it.

@Ariamis@t2wave@Shifter_Master@DarkwolfX37

---

If Beacon still had eyes on the scene at the interrupted baseball game, then what came just after into the stadium not too much later would potentially set the alert level even higher. From the entrances onto the field to the entrances into the stands, something like a....a small 'swarm' seemed to begin to push into the area. Panicking humans were swallowed up within the wave of creatures that moved onto the stadium's grounds, coordinated, as if under some kind of orders. A myriad of eyes, some with multiple mouths on their bodies, some sporting tentacles, and some floating, flying, or running on some number of legs. They were horrid to the eyes, literally maddening to the senses of the already fleeing and screaming and terrified humans going about.....in fact, they were clearly lesser "horrors" of some kind. The servants of a truly greater "horror" of some kind.

Several of these monstrosities from who-knows-what dimension or plane of existence began to grab up the humans, though the ones who tried to fight back were swiftly dispatched before their corpses were collected. Said corpses, and any living target, began to be passed off to other lesser horrors within the building itself. From here the bodies of the living and dead humans they had taken were being run by the swiftest ones, into the shadows, away from the stadium....perhaps in the direction of their "home" around here? Perhaps some portals had been set up nearby for faster transport that was concealed from view nearby? The latter, in reality, was the most true....though perhaps the former had credence to it as well?

In truth these monsters, these lesser horrors, were behaving much like...."ants", actually. Ants who were gathering food, and seeking to bring prey back to the nest. It was coordinated, with even some creatures standing on the top wall of the stadium, or in the parking lot on cars or slinking about hidden in shadows....protecting the perimeter. So perhaps more like army ants then, making a trail and setting the larger ones to guard the smaller transporters. But such a menagerie of monster types, twas' like a book of faerie tales and Lovecraftian lore had been spilled into the area.

Meanwhile, others among the "grunts" of this more modest and small force that had been brought in were zooming down to mummy-like monsters themselves. Entangling, seeking to pin them down, sometimes attempting to be using their bodies to hold them down with weight, far more attempting and trying to keep them "alive" it seemed. But then another figure seemed to enter, something human sized, actually....was that a-...?

"Ok guys, you're doing fine trying to get em' tied down for me! So sweet! But maybe let more of the people get out, ok? Boss said only grab a few if we can, alive too at that if ya can. Besides, they're just mummies! At least i think they are....meh.

Anyways, gonna try to get these guys tied up so they are easier to transport!"

-...a magical girl, who wasn't fighting the horrors or being attacked by them.

Annabelle walked over to any of the monsters her grunts could manage to pin in place enough, casting magic upon them. Darkness seemed to twist up around the bodies of those she cast her magic on, the bodies of the mummy-like monsters being bound up in chains made of darkness magic. Darkness with a small infusion of void at the center for the "just in case" situation. Then the same as the human corpses and captured living ones, these bound monsters went along the same chain as they were passed along by lesser horror to lesser horror, then to the swiftest runners who would cycle away to the shadows of a nearby building or two before coming back for more.

Yet beyond this binding of the "prey" before her and her squad, Annabelle kept her eyes on the sky, and entrances, as if waiting for something...or someone(s) to come. Her boss had warned her that other would likely respond to this, do something to try to stop her. Or maybe some to get a chuck of her prey for themselves. The horror of this being done to normal humans was not something that could phase her even if she wanted it to, but...at the same time it gave her a funny feeling. A strange feeling inside, like this whole deal was kinda "wobbly" somehow. Like it wasn't quite right, or that perhaps something frightening was looming over her, or something like that in the end.

For the first time in a long time, Annabelle almost dropped her usual sense of cheer and positivity. Almost.

"Eh, wonder if those two from last night will show. Oh! If they didn't hear me last night i can tell them about Majora being actually a goddess! I really didn't mean to get that classification wrong her her..."

....well, at least her optimism was also intact. Hell, she actually felt bad about the accidental misinformation, as noted by a small pout that temporarily took over her face as she had last spoken.

@Ariamis@BrokenPromise[@Anyone else coming to this scene]

@Crusader Lord

---

It was happening again.

What was happening to this city?

Her Sword gave her no answers, only a dull impact against the small of her back to remind her that it supported her actions, if only for the bloodshed that would occur because of them. The screams had been loud even three blocks down, and now that she was actually across the parking lot of Penrose Stadium, the horrors that filled the baseball field to the brim were literally spilling out from the seams. Whatever regrets she had about slipping out of her physics class had long gone, leaving only the same indignant flame that burned the day before.

What was Beacon doing? How did this situation spiral out of hand so quickly? When were Horrors so inclined with acting so brashly, so openly? Did the Gods no longer care? What the hell was going on in Penrose?

The girl let out a breath as she dragged her Silverlight against the pavement, sparks gently bouncing off from the tip as it rasped out the first strings of the nightmare waltz.

Her family didn’t go to Penrose for these games. They should be safe.

Her classmates probably wouldn’t be skipping classes when midterms were right around the corner. They should be safe.

Her landlord was a notorious shut-in who spent most of her time getting mad at kids on the internet. She should be safe.

That old lady who runs the cashier at the corner of Kingsway and Granville usually sleeps til around 2PM in the afternoon. She should be safe.

Mentally, she ticked away all those she cared about. Mentally, she kept score of all those who could be hurt by this event even if they weren’t physically involved. Mentally, she shaved away every last remnant of ‘Amaryllis’, leaving only a void for the ‘Knight of Rose’ to fill. Graceful and invincible. Stalwart and fleeting. Elegant in evisceration, eloquent in execution. The silvered blade that reflected the true worth of a soul, the color of saints and sinners.

Her sword burned with lunatic resplendence...


...and became quicksilver against the wretched abyss.

An azure bolt pierced through the vanguard in the perimeter, leaving a trail of rusted petals in the wake of the first step. There was no pause when the second step pulled her into the heart of the stadium, a venue of athleticism converted into a cesspool of depravity, and the burning ichor of her steel-blood seeped only deeper as her eyes caught the sole maiden dancing amongst the demons.

She had been willing to give the Maiden of Mystic Darkness the benefit of the doubt. Had planned on paying back the favor of information with a similar deed in the future. Now though…

The third step began the dance proper, the Knight of Rose cutting a thick swath through the horde at a speed purely physical. The strokes of her blade sheared through fresh flesh before the monstrosities behind her even had time to fall apart, while the shockwaves caused by her movement drove back lesser creatures. It was slaughter at high speed, but it was mere afterthought as the influence of her Sword spread further throughout the stadium of fiends and monsters, unlike, like a virus, the dark chains that bound the still-living humans glowed silver. Shadows dissipated, overridden by the specialized spellcraft of the Knight, and, with the schlink of rasping metal, each silver chain linked up with one another, locking down all the captured humans down where they laid.

A fourth step, and she leapt out of the eldritch quagmire, standing atop the unlit floodlights of the stadium. Her hair billowed in the wind. Her sword glittered against the morning sun. Her roses fell, as condolence for all the lives taken so soon, so violently.

The horde beneath her still writhed, and the perpetrator still breathed, still sinned, but her declaration had to be made regardless. Flourishing the rapier, Amaryllis pointed it down towards Annabelle, feeling the bloodlust and battlejoy of her Patron pounding into her lungs.

---

The raucous noise of slain monsters and the sudden entrance of another magical girl caused Annabelle to look over, only to see a face familiar to her. Smiling somewhat obliviously at what was going on, she began to wave in a friendly manner to the other magical girl as she made an entrance. Though a swath of the grunts sent with her had been cut down. Maybe Amaryllis thought she was trying to kill people? Eh? That sort of action might explain it, perhaps. One could perhaps consider the swarm of beasts sent here to nab up some mummies as a killing force anywho. Oof, this was an awkward situation she'd have to explain.

Still friendly, Annabelle tried to approach Amaryllis, speaking aloud to the girl with not even a shred of offensive or harmful intent in her.

"Hey there! Good to see ya again, eh, Amaryllis i think? My boss sent me here to gather up the monsters! He also said to gather some injured people to safety, i guess to heal em' up back at base or something? He really didn't give me the details!

Oh! And about last night! I forgot to correct something, heard my boss wrong! Majora is actually a deity, and-....eh?"

Annabelle stopped in her ascent very suddenly towards the other magical girl as she came across several corpses to her right. As she looked at them she could tell they were HUMAN corpses that lied between some seats in a row, like some sort of struggle had happened. But weren't the mummies on the field or something? Looking to her side she noticed the corpses of a few of the grunts she had brought in, like....wait a second. What were the guys doing!?

Not looking at Amaryllis, Annabelle pouted and looked back at the other beasts still moving about.

"Hey!!! You guys were told to bring back the injured for healing, right? Why are ya killing some of the people here? Boss didn't say a thing about doing that to me! Put em' down, we just came here to stop the other monsters, ok?"

Some of the creatures stared back at her that hadn't seemed fazed yet by their companions' deaths, a few dropping whilst some almost seemed to shrug and continue on as they had been. At this Annabelle's brows furrowed, her hands coming to her hips in some indignation, still seemingly utterly oblivious to her position in this as seen by likely others arriving at this location.

"Guys! I said stop! Don't make me kill some of ya to make the rest of ya listen!!! Sheesh, what's gotten into you guys, you normally listen to me...." Annabelle said, concern beginning to take hold, and as a minor bit of frustration crept in she pointed her orb at a couple of the lesser horrors trying to cart off a couple bodies, before-

-...her orb didn't do a thing? She'd even willed it to fire a beam at the lesser horrors, but the only one who could stop that orb so easy was...Lord Soth?!

"Boss? What ya stoppin' me for? I just wanna' get the guys back in line, sheesh! You told me we were here to bring people to safety and get the monsters!"

Raising her eyebrow at it after uttering her complaint aloud, Annabelle lightly shook her head as she pushed the orb aside and extended her hand again. Here she was hoping to be able to fire off something personally this time to avoid more trouble. She had to get the guys in-line, even if boss didn't want her killing em' right now. He'd understand, right? She didn't wanna turn out to be the villain or something, eh?

...she wasn't the villain right now, right?

@ERode

@ERode@Crusader Lord

---

The rest of the night was what one would call an all night for Katarina. Wasn't unusual in her days in the force. Solving robberies, staying on patrols and stakeouts. Ugh, the more she thought about it, the more she rather missed those days. Well, whatever. She could do more good on this battlefield than she could on the mortal one. Someone had to make sure none of these otherworldly threats spilled over into the real world.

It seemed like no matter what, things just couldn't settle down. She wanted to spend most of the day tracking down this 'Majora', but it looked like that would have to wait. Not a single day didn't go by without something happening it seemed. Scanning Penrose from atop her high perch, Rina made a few observations. Several attacks were going on in several areas. A Cathedral...the stadium. Narrowing her eyes, Rina had to make a decision. She would have wanted to save all of them - but she was just one girl. Ah, not being part of a larger organization at times was tiring. So she chose the one that looked to be the most dangerous.

Leaping from her perch, Rina left her lofty home and descended towards the roof tops below, using them to cover ground quickly. Metal swords impaled the beasts that stood in her way, already hearing and noticing the sounds of conflict from within. Someone had beat her here, it seemed. Good. She just needed too get to a high enough vantage point.

Rina dashed through the perimeter, easily finding her way up the steps of the stadium, inhuman athletics and agility making parkouring up the stadium's side easily. Once perched, she quickly found the culprit -

"...Tch." Frowning, Rina closed her eyes at the sight. She wanted to give the girl the other day the benefit of the doubt, but it was apparent it was a misplaced desire. Horrors couldn't be trusted, and their servants even less. A little sad? Perhaps, but she learned quickly she shouldn't let herself get her hopes up that things would be different, no matter how much she wanted to believe otherwise.

Monsters were monsters. Selfish, greedy, violent people would never change. Such was the way of human nature.

Amaryllis was the one engaging the girl. A small blessing. Silently stringing up her bow, Rina inhaled. A long steel projectile formed in her hand. She'd assist the knight from range, first taking out all of the peon monsters so they couldn't interfere with Amaryllis and to cut down on casualties.

Exhaling, a single arrow launched itself from her bow, followed by several more. The first was aimed at Anabelle, both to let Amaryllis know she was there, as well as to perhaps throw the other girl off balance. The other arrows would hopefully make short work of the remaining mummies and creatures.


@MadManMoon@Shifter_Master

---

The next morning came swiftly, and Chloe was in an understandably good mood. One slept on the couch, and she had given the other Isana's mattress that she used to lounge on all day while playing video games. Ugh, just thinking of that Neet filled her with unholy amounts of rage. Urgh...she might have also missed her a bit, but that wasn't important.

Ah, it had been so long since she had a sleepover! With Isana off playing hero or something, here she was, all alone. The girls from the Archive though, were quite entertaining. Made for some fairly good roommates. Didn't act up, either! Huhu, she was starting to like them more and more. Moving swiftly through the apartments kitchen, Chloe began making breakfast. She'd probably wake them up, but that was fine. She had a busy agenda today so she needed to get moving and reach a reasonable agreement with these two.

Placing two hot pancakes on a plate, Chloe placed them on the table before quickly grabbing the Syrup and butter from the cabinets. This place might be automatically stocked with that cheap Ramen her former roommate was so fond of, but she would not subject her guests or herself to such garbage. Only the best for hers, after all. Oh right - one more thing. Swiftly poking her head out the door, she took her phone and texted Penny. The fact that this place didn't have cell reception was really, really, annoying.

"Hey! How's my adorable little Penny this morning? Wanna stop by later tonight? I miss your face already and I might have a new friend to introduce you too. Don't make me find ya and drag you back here! Gonna be busy most of the morning and afternoon so I may not text back, but see ya & love ya!"

No, the dragging bit was not a joke. First thing done for the day then. Now she just had to make a deal with the Archive girls and then find that hospital and the girl one of her spirits had been tracking and she could finally have some help. 'Terror Attack'. Hah! That Penrose Independent really was clueless. Smiling, Chloe grabbed some tea for herself, already having brewed some coffee and set a few other drinks aside in case they wanted something else.

"Delta! Xi! Pancakes as promised, and I made it so you can go ahead and tell me how great it is." Chloe shouted, hoping the two would hurry up and get ready as she took a seat. "Lets try to hurry this up a bit, yes? I'm a busy girl and I have things I need to do."

It was early, very early, first light had only just broken over the horizon, but in a small hidden nook of the industrial zone Penny was waking up. Her lair was filled with the sound of thunder as her phone's alarm went off rousing the cyborg from her rest. With a small groan of annoyance Penny pushed herself up to a sitting position and silenced her alarm before looking around the single room of her Lair.

The lone table and its chairs had been pushed up against one of the walls, and all of the supply boxes had been placed on top of it so that there was enough room for Penny to lie down without bumping in to something as she slept as the mechanical girl had set Eliza down on the nest of blankets that normally served as a bed. Reaching out with her magic she started the electric motor, and thus turned on the lights.

It was stupidly early but Penny had things she needed to get done before checking in with Beacon today, and with luck her guest wouldn’t mind the early wake up.

"Ugh..." With a drowsy groan, Eliza turned over to where she was laying on her stomach, and hid her face in the blankets. "F-Five more minutes, Mum..." she grumbled mindlessly, then finally raised her head up and looked around. "Okay, how did I get here?" The witch asked herself, a bit concerned.

"That would have been me" Penny would reply from her position over at the table. She had cleared off most of the boxes from it and set them off to the side and was currently digging around in the parts boxes occasionally pulling out computer parts and setting them off to the side. "Found you passed out in a wrecked alleyway" She explained as she looked over her shoulder at Eliza "Figured It would be safer for you here then out on the streets"

"Oh. Right, I nearly got killed." The witch scratch the back of her head. "Well, thanks...Penny, right? Last I saw you, you turned into a war machine. Sooo, what happened after that?" She asked.

"The chick I was fighting went nuclear and tackled me in to the lake, I survived the explosion through sheer luck, then reinforcements arrived and after we got patched up I tore down the castle." Penny shrugged "Nothing all that interesting if you ask me.But I take it something must have happened on your end if your sporting wings now, as I'm pretty sure you didn't have those last time I saw you." she added pointing at the new appendages for emphasis before returning to looking over her supply of spare parts.

"Oh and I've got some food if you're hungry, not all that filling but better than nothing" Penny slid the cardboard box labeled food over to the bed. Inside the box was dozens of protein, cereal and granola bars. "Help yourself"

"By yourself? That's pretty cool." Eliza said, grabbing a couple of cereal bars. "After we got teleported away from the castle. Me, Alex, Sue and Shade were the only ones left fighting Justine. In the middle of the battle, I got pinned down by a spear to the foot and couldn't free myself. So I used my black coin to become a monster girl. Starting to regret that choice now, heheh.." she explained with a sad chuckle. "Turns out though, the ritual wouldn't have worked after all. Justine still loved her sister, so it was null and void. And now here I am, nearly getting murdered by a lizard girl, getting some of my feathers plucked out, and now probably going to get my ass kicked for not completing my mission."

Penny snorted when she learn that the reason for the assault was nearly pointless “We did rescue Janet and Lily, plus that’s one less evil lair in the Overcity, so it wasn’t a waste in the long run. And I know the feeling of having a target painted on you back for no good reason. Ran in to a beast girl the other day who wants me dead for no other reason than who my patron is” Penny sighed at that bit, she still needed to call Laat and verify that assumption plus possibly call Veronica to see if she knew who Mika’s Patron was. Her list of enemies was growing and she was still undecided how to deal with it.

Shaking away those thoughts Penny continued “And If you really regret the Corruption I know Beacon has ways of purifying it. I’ve been looking in to it in my spare time and it should be an easy process for you as you just ended up with some wings. Can’t say anything about the mission failing bit though, I try and keep the Mint at arm’s length so no idea on that front”

There was another crack of thunder from Penny as she received a text. Pulling it up on her eye piece she saw that it was from Chloe smiling she sent off a quick reply

"Sure I should be free tonight, got some plans this afternoon myself so if nothing else I’ll see you tonight "

"As that reminded me, you got any plans today Eliza? As I've got a couple and it's something of a nightmare to get in or out of here if you don't know how and I've got a bit more time before I have to head out" Not that Penny was trying to get rid of Eliza, but she really did need to make a few calls, she had some parts but she needed more if she was going to build a decent computer and she needed to get some answers from Laat if no one else.

"Don't have anything else to do besides update Maura and Veronica on what happened." Eliza shrugged. "...Do you really think the beacon could help me? What if they try to kill me too?"

"So long as you had the right introduction I'm sure they would help out. I can even ask about it and let you know, as I'll be checking in with them later. You'll just want to keep the Mint thing secret. That is unless you want to join up with the Beacon." The cyborg replied as she gave all the parts she had pulled out another look to make sure they were useable and putting any that didn't pass her second inspection off to in a pile "And I'll make sure they don't try and kill you but I doubt that will happen. They're going through some reforms at the moment and have started to cut back on the monster hate"

"Really?" Eliza tilted her head in confusion. If the beacon was going to start trusting certain monsters, then what was with the girls with the Bates? Something didn't seem right with them. "Okay, yeah! I'll ask them for help. As for joining, I'll keep that in mind for when my debt's cleared. But I don't wanna part with Maura yet. Not till I help her out with her curse problem."

"Fair enough, and yeah they have, though at that moment it's just me and a cat girl named Kimble. But they pardoned Janet for being messed up by Justine." Penny explained turning to face Eliza as she absently munched on the parts she had deemed unusable "Can't help with the curse issue, not very magic myself, but if Maura's been stuck with it an especially long time Laat might be able to help. He tends to dislike things staying the same for too long"

"According to her, she's been stuck that way for as long as she's been a patron to magical kids. A demon, possibly a horror, wearing a strange mask was the one behind it. She's been trying to hunt it down so she can convince it to change her back, but it's not easy for her." Eliza explained. "I'll let her know about Laat and see if they could meet up."

"Ouch, that’s got to suck, only been under a small curse myself, one that was weak enough to fade after a few minutes, can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck with one for that long." Penny sympathized while shuddering slightly "Hopefully it's not a horror, they tend to be trickier to deal with from what I've gathered" Checking the time Penny stood up "Well I've got to head out things to do, people to call, Laat among them. So how about I help you out of the maze that is my front lawn?" Penny asked moving towards the entrance of her Lair as she did.

"Oh, sure!" The witch nodded, walking up besides the cyborg.

Crouching down Penny helped Eliza up on to her back and waited for her to get situated before opening the entrance in the massive scrap yards that was the inside of the warehouse she hid her home in, and a few moments later both Penny and Eliza were standing atop one of the other dozen or so buildings that lay abandoned in this part of Penrose. "I would say feel free to come back, but as you can tell it's not the easiest place to get in too without help. So instead I'll just give you my number" Penny said as she crouched down to let the little witch off her back "That way you can reach me if you need to"

"I'm surprised you can get through this place easily." The witch said, climbing off Penny's back. "But thanks! Again!"

"Eh I've got the advantage of having set the place up and no worries" Penny replied with a smile before the sounds of Cymbals emitted from her eye piece as an alert popped up in her field of view

Two monster attacks have been detected. You have been assigned under Sally's command, report to HQ ASAP

"Seems Beacon's got trouble so I'll have to catch ya later" she added before taking off at a run towards Beacon HQ while firing off a reply to the Beacon

En route to HQ, ETA 45 min. Give me my target local and I'll redirect and meet with Sally there

‘We’ve picked out a few suitable spots,’ Freya said, looking out over the vast table in this dining hall of Mariette’s new gothic mansion HQ. Numerous girls were gathered in this dreary room, lit by a luminescent glow emitted from the floor. It was Mariette, Freya, Suzette and Tullia. None of the latter three girls were transformed, which most likely made them look out of place in this shiver-inducing place to call home. Mariette, the only one transformed, simply stood as always, clutching her bunny. She looked over the noted which the kimono-clad Freya had presented, letting the others talk, only speaking when needed to.

‘However, the town is, rather frankly, a mess.’ Freya continued.

‘Messes are good for us, makes it easier to act without being noticed,’ Suzette giggled a little, looking over the map.

‘Normally, I’d agree,’ Freya looked to Suzette. ‘Except there are powerful forces creating said mess. They’re unpredictable, and if they turned on us at the wrong moment we might be facing a force we’d have trouble contending with. As it is, our operation faces risks from unknown forces that’d attack just for the sake of it.’

‘Oooh, scary. Very well, then,’ Suzette kept a smile, looking over the map.

‘So… What do we do, then?’ Tullia asked, eyes unsure and folding her arms, looking from Freya to Mariette.

The list was a bit more extensive than Mariette would have wanted it, and it seemed like more would be appearing. However, her eyes lingered on a name…

All their phones rang. The fact the phones rang even though they were in this shut-off region of space meant it was one of their own. They took out the phones from their pockets, and put to their ears as a single voice spoke to each of them, briefing them on the current situation. Tullia’s eyes widened a bit in alarm. Suzette’s lips curled in the slightest of a smile. Freya frowned just a little. Mariette’s expression did not change at all. This was just normal, after all.

_{‘Damn it, Victoria…’} Tullia muttered.

‘Sooo, seems like some of our own are doing their own thing,’ Suzette giggled. ‘What do we do, oh fearless leader?’ she asked, looking to Mariette. Freya also opted to do so. Mariette was still looking at the name. As terrible as this was, there were objectives that could be accomplished today. The events at hand could be used as distraction. In addition, she was interested in…

She made up her mind.

---

Once again, Eli sat and scouted in the real world. Her other duties done, other girls out on missions and Mariette handling those that weren’t, Eli finally had some time over she didn’t need to manage Mariette’s new mansion on. And… she used it to scout. There was something therapeutic about just focusing on a simple mission in the real world, lazily concealing herself with her Darkness magic and keeping an eye on an individual.

Today’s target, whom Eli spied through a window from one of the nearby trees, was one miss Brittany Todd, the Mini Mystic. The young-looking magician was an alchemist of some prowess, though most of the time she was just cooking up absolutely nothing of note, just things that spontaneously lit on fire, changed the size of her table, or made everything in the room green for a couple of seconds. Brittany seemed to have a lot of fun, but she didn’t appear to be capable enough to actually be an asset to Mariette.

While her unpredictability could be masking a massive capability, there was a problem with trying to capture her. Brittany had the “Get Out Of Jail Free” card up her sleeve, which they knew because it wouldn’t be the first time someone tried to kidnap her for her alchemy skills. She was, of a fashion, uncapturable and an eternally free soul. That said, there were still ways to take advantage of her by offering her a deal, but it was hard to say if the mini mystic would even be interested in such an-

Her phone started buzzing, vibrating within Eli’s slime body. It was honestly uncomfortable. Because of the arrangement they made, everyone in the team carried phones, including the one with no clothes and a slime-body. She had it on sound-less with minimal vibration to indicate calling, but having something there and having to press around herself to keep it there was rather annoying. She pushed it through herself so the phone exited out her shoulder so she could place it next to her ear, as to listen in on the conversation.

Oh. Something was going down. And… she had orders.

Eli launched herself onto the roof of Brittany’s home, looking out in a different direction. Something was happening, and Mariette was using it as a distraction. It was time to tip our hands a little, then.

---

@BrokenPromise @Ariamis

A girl in purple stood as bewitched, in a small witch-hat looking over the horde of approaching skeletons. Helga called out to her, and her face immediately contorted in a wicked little smile as she turned to face them.

‘… Teh-heh. You’re talking to me? Magical Girls talking to me. Hahaha,’ she said, an aura of chill around the purple little witch. In body, she was but 9 years old. ‘Nah. I don’t feel like fighting monsters tonight. I’ve fought nothing but monsters for so, so many years. With nothing but Tullia to accompany me, I’ve been used to hunt monster, after monster, after monster… It has been ages. We still lived in cottages and castles when I started,’ she said and giggled a bit. ‘As a result, I’m pretty boss at monsters, now. These… these have a purpose. They were summoned here by someone, and commands were put inside their dumb heads. Who did it, and why? I dunno, and I’m not interested, either,’ the girl shrugged, still smiling. ‘That said, they make excellent bait for Magical Girls!’

The girl’s gaze sharpened, her legs parted and she lifted her fists, which froze icy gauntlets around her hands as she took what was unmistakably a battle-stance, the air itself around her cooling numerous degrees. ‘I’m the “Frostbite”, Victoria Tretyakova! You’ll make this fun for us, won’t you?’

‘Heeeey! Frosty!’ Another girl yelled out from an adjacent window, with two great metal hands holding the railings. This girl had arms and legs of metal, white hair and eyepatch under a massive black coat which hood somewhat resembled a bunny. Sticking out from said coat were two massive metal hands. She looked rather excited. ‘Are we starting? The ice restraining our monster is about to melt!’

‘Fu-fu. Let it! Just didn’t want her to be the first thing they saw!’ Victoria simply replied, which the eyepatched girl replied to by nodding excitedly and then spinning around and running into the apartment for the moment.

Now, that was a lot of talking, so it is reasonable they got time to do stuff if they felt like it, like completely ignore her if they so choose, or whatever else. What would Su and Helga do?

Now, while Victoria was completely ignoring the skeletons, that didn’t necessarily mean the skeletons would be ignoring her… but that’s up to the GM.