“Well, it seemed that things took a U-turn all of a sudden,” Said no one other than Chie as she observed as all hell broke loose in the streets of Miso City from the roof of the tallest building she could find. “Good thing it’s not my problem to deal with that. But this; this a whole other business that I can’t miss at all,” she added as she set her eyes on none other than the group of light magical girls gathered around Soma.

“That’s the kind of fun I’ve been looking forward to after some jerk broke my favorite doll,” Chie twirled her lance over her head, pointing its tip towards the dark skies in a seemingly random motion. “Here, that’s all I’ve gathered ever since Christmas. I hope you’re starving, because that’s a jumbo-sized portion coming right toward you,” she shouted to someone who clearly wasn’t within earshot of her before throwing her spear toward a seemingly random direction.

“Now then, since I’ve done my chores like a good girl… I guess that I can have some fun, right?” the dark-haired magical girl said as a vicious grin found it way to her face before jumping off the building and plummeting towards the earth at terminal velocity. Somewhere in the middle of the fall, Chie pumped some power into her spear, making it grow several times bigger than usual, clearly trying to reenact some fighting game’s ultimate move or something like this.

“Heads-up, Shieldy! Let’s see if you can tank this!” Chie yelled when she was about to crash down on Soma, trying to snap the light girl’s attention while she was concentrated on some task that Chie couldn’t care less for.

---

@Noxx
Elina was met by her house partner on all the four of her limbs hissing quite agressivly at her when ahe had only mentioned her needing to get into the bath. Elina gritted her teeth, this wasn't gonna get easy was it.

Come on Eve! It is fun to go into bath!

Elina threw the sponge at Eve laughing quite fake as she exclaimed her worda with the animalistic girl. Whenever she had to chase the girl or not she would catch her with the many booby trap in and around the house. She knew Eve wouldn't escape to her water world since she was scared to encounter that woman again. Off course Elina knew no doubt that it was scary to meet her again yet she would still resort on these weaknesses.

After capturing the girl good and all she would agressivly undress the girl so she could be put into bath. Whetever Eve resisted these actions she would still be put into bath with or without clothes. Elina forced her into bath as much as she could before grabbing another sponge from the side and pushed it onto her hairs in attempt to wash her hair.



Elina lightly laughed again as she secretly hoped that this girl would just calm down and let herself be washed. She knew that she didn't hate water so what was so wrong about smelling nice and feeling clean.

---

Aegis rose up from under the rubble created by their impact before the dust it spread had even settled. The blonde's uniform was completely ruined, with dirty and long, ripped off bits revealing her underwear, however, she wasn't even scratched. If anything had been broken on Aegis it wasn't in her body, but rather her patience which seemed to wane almost completely after falling to such a ploy on the part of the corrupted magical girls.

"Great, first my books and now my uniform. What do you plan on taking next, you dimwitted grasshopper?" she said in an irritated tone, patting off the grayish chunks of concrete that stuck to whatever was left of her clothes while glaring daggers at Touka.

"I'd like to say your life, but we have a rule against that." Red Wire landed above her enemy, balancing precariously on a construction beam. The majority of the action was back the way they came, a factor she had been counting on. Now they were alone. "And a bigger rule against those who break it. You wanna tell me who you are? What you're doing in my city?" Wire crouched down, sneering at Aegis with a sharp grin. "You're awfully suspicious showing up days after a Magical Girl got murdered. I know you reek of light too, but that doesn't mean anything when we get down to it...."

"This again?" Aegis said, holding back the urge to facepalm. "Did the corruption affect your brain tissue as well? Wait, don't answer that, I already know it," she followed up with an obviously antagonistic barb.

"Look, whoever you are. I don't have the whole night to waste, so, if you go away now, I promise that I won't make you go to the dentist this close to New Year's. I heard they charge a fortune during the Holiday season," Aegis said, shooing Touka as if she were some kind of pesky bug that wasn't even worth the effort of squashing.

"Wow, you must be a riot at parties. Problem is dear, you walked into my city. Without an invitation," Wire said right back, eyes narrowing. "All you had to do was plead innocent and this could have been a lot quicker. But you're still dodging the question. Kind of makes you look guilty, doesn't it?" The dark girl rose up to her full height now, staring down the other Magical Girl. At the same time, a lance, gleaming from the dark night, landed where her foot was. "About time...." Swiping the weapon, she crushed it with one grip, a sudden surge of negative magic flowing through her; of this, no doubt, Aegis could sense.

"You've got an attitude that needs to be taken down. Even if you're not a murderer, you just piss me off. And I break whatever pisses me off," she said, intent to fight cutting clear in the air.

"It's not my fault if you cannot see the culprit hiding right under your nose," Aegis said, staring upward at Touka. "But you know what, that's not the point here anymore. You are getting on my nerves more than that fool with the ring blade. If you want to blow off steam so much, I'll take you on that one," she said before a momentary flash of light engulfed her form. When it disappeared, Aegis's clothes had changed to something more suitable to wear in a fight against another magical girl.

"Furthermore, there's something... different about you. Something eerily familiar that really gets on my nerves. I guess you can only blame yourself for showing up before me while I'm in an exceptionally bad mood!" Aegis finished her sentence, summoning a massive sword to her hand and slashing the air, sending a scythe-like blade of light flying towards Touka.



"Ooh, someone's getting serious. But you're right about one thing," Red Wire mused, noting the transformation and crescent of light heading right towards her. "The culprit's right under my nose, whether she likes it or not!" As opposed to leaping away from the attack, Red Wire rocketed forward, down towards her opponent. Her body mauvered to the side, barely avoiding the crescent of light. At the same time, she spun about to launch a propelled kick right for Aegis' chest.

Aegis didn't even bother with more talk past this point. The foolishness of this act was hurting the blonde in a whole other level. Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the flying brocolli right before her eyes. She hoped it was a false alarm, but there was only one way to be sure of it. At least one that Aegis cared for at this moment.

The diving kick didn't go unnoticed by Aegis, who shrugged at the sight of the maneuver. "It seems like a certain someone really wanted to be a tokusatsu hero," she said under her breath as she sidestepped the attack and grabbed Touka's ankle before flinging the green girl at a partially exposed steel beam. "Such a shame she's fighing on the wrong side..."

"So you can make jokes too? Now I know you've gotta be hiding something." Aegis' strength was comedable, flinging Wire away like a tossed bug. As she flew in the air, she curled her body and spun about with deadly speed before landing feet planted on the beam. "You're not helping your case. And frankly, I don't think I care if you're the killer or not. Make this easy for both of us and turn yourself in."

With a smirk, Wire held up one hand, revealing a wire running from her wrist to the end of the line, coiled around Aegis' own. With a yank that took more strength than she would have liked, she forced the other girl forward. As Aegis stumbled, she was already leaping off into the air, spinning behind her to plant a nice kick to the back of her head.

"Hmph, not bad for a pretentious little bug," Aegis thought as Touka yanked her off her feet before attempting a complicated attack to the back of her head. Certainly, very few, if any of the girls that Aegis found until now would be able avoid such a chaotic and furious strike, but.. "Mom would never let me hear the end of it, if I fell for such a choreographed strike," Aegis said. The blonde used the flap of her sword as a shield, intercepting Touka's kick and severing the wires the connected both of them at the same time.

The force of the other girl's blow was still strong enough to throw Aegis through a wall for the second time in a single evening, forcing a really irritated groan out of her, followed up by a solid beam of light tearing away everything between Touka and an angry Aegis.

Said beams of light were not what Wire was expecting, and she chose to dodge the attack as opposed to following up or blocking. Leaping to another support beam, she watched the massive wave of pure light roar and rumble past her. Along with the earlier sword strike, Aegis was doing a well-off job of making the construction site more of a mess. "Sheesh, you Angels are no joke...." Wire grumbled, looking back to where her enemye was standing.

Wires ripped and squirmed out of her wrists, cocooning themselves over her hands. A fine mesh of armor ending in enlarged claws was the result of this. Scraping them together, Wire shot off once again at Aegis, this time hacking and slashing away with hew new toys. "Give up cause I can outlast even you!"

"I'm an Angel, not an insurance company worker. It's not my fault that you are leaping around like a bug instead of letting me end this in one clean shot," Aegis said as she swung her sword blocking and parrying Touka's ferocious assault. The few hits that got through her active defenses would still struggle to deal any damage as they had to contend with Aegis' armor-like aura of light.

"If you haven't noticed, I still haven't even broke a sweat yet. This fight isn't gonna end before it's time for little girls like you to go to bed, so why don't you give up already?" Aegis followed her taunt with a punch aimed straight at Touka's gut, intent on knocking the wind out of her for good.

How readily Wire had a retort, only to have her stomach churned violently. She gasped and gagged, Aegis' fist landing hard in her gut and shoving her away. The dark girl was sent flying, crashing several beams before finally finding her footing again. "Bitch...." was all she could mutter, wiping some blood and spittle away from her lips as she glared in Aegis' general direction. "So you're one of those high and mighty types. It figures an Angel would be one, looking down on everyone else."

Hissing, Wire launched forward again. This time though she leapt and spun for a high-powered divekick intent on forcing her boots into Aegis' face. Or so it appeared; no doubt the Angel would either dodge or sidestep away. Wire was banking on it, landing just behind Aegis while the wires she had left trailing behind her snapped onto her form. With magic circulating into her muscles, Wire leapt off once again, the wires still holding her enemy. Spin and spin she did in midair before hurling Aegis straight downard. And given they were both high up in the half-torn building, the Angel had a lone way to plummet.

"Start looking down on me from there," Wire snarled, dropping from the air to continue her assault.

Aegis had a look of shock stamped all over her face after Touka's last maneuver. The reason for such was less because it was something that she didn't see coming from a mile ahead and more about how the other girl could be so persistent to the point of almost seeming blind.

"You gotta be really thankful that I'm not into breaking my openent's will, like a few certain people I know," Aegis said more to herself than Touka as she spun in the air just enough to land on her feet. Sure, she could have caught herself during the drop and avoid hitting the ground altogether if she decided to fly, but that wouldn't accomplish much. Not in this situation.

Instead, Aegis held her sword with both hands and swung it, shooting another, much wider scythe-like beam towards Touka. "Now, let's see you try to dodge this while you're airborne!"

The increased width of the beam only made it more and more difficult to maneuver in the air. So Wire chose not to, leaping from one falling debris to the next, zipping along speedily. As she passed by them, her wires would trail behind and coil around. Once they tightened and connected, the dark girl would twist and turn, spinning around like a deadly wheel. As a result, every bit of steel and building she caught was subsequently hurled right at Aegis and her beam. It was as if the building itself was raining down upon her. "Did you think I didn't come prepared? Whoever can kill Magical Girls deserves my very best!"

From this short of a range Aegis didn't have much time to avoid being buried under tons of concrete and twisted metal. Something that even she wasn't likely to come out unscathed from in her current state. Instead of risking that, she rose a hand in the air, casting a temporary shield just long enough to absorb the brunt of the impact, and taking the rest of the damage.

"Unbelievable, are you still on that page?" she said amid some light coughing, after bursting away the debris that fell over her. At long last, Touka's attacks succeeded in doing some real damage to her, though, with some of her dress ripped, and a few minor wounds spread around Aegis' arms and legs. "Do I have to spell it out for you or what? I'm not the person you are looking for!" the blonde shouted in an enraged voice, throwing away some of the rubble near her with the sheer force of her aura.

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" Wire's voice came from the side. And from above. And below. Jumping all over from one point to the next, she leapt at Aegis and lashed out with punches, kicks, and swipes of her wired claws. "I don't care if you're the killer. If I say you are, then you will be!" Even this onslaught was a precursor to what she had in mind and she suddenly jetted away from Aegis, putting some distance between them.

She stared the other girl dead in the eye, arms held out to her side before thrusting them forward in a violent fashion. At once the tell-tale sounds of metal ripping and supports failing became clear and soon, the spiraling tower of steel would not only come crashing down on Aegis but the sides as well, forced together to squish the Angel. "I came prepared to bring down whoever was stupid enough enter my city, stupid enough to make themselves a target to pin blame on. Or did you think I was going to go easy on you," Wire said, nearly having to shout with so much steel and concrete roaring down on her foe.

"Ok, that does it," Aegis said as the last shreds of her patience got burnt to ashes. What followed the blonde's cold fury was an attack of a whole other order of magnitude compared to all that she did until now. A roaring pillar of light extended towards the heavens, like the legendary tower the ancient humans built to challenge God's might, anihilating everything it touched. "If you don't give up on this stupid idea now, I can't guarantee that you will get out of this in one piece. Holding back my blows is beginning to become very troublesome, you know?" Aegis shouted over the sound of the cascade of broken debris and purging light.

"And you're starting to get old with that same excuse!" Wire halted her collapse of the building, bringing her arms up to try and block the light. What resulted were burns beginning to form on her arms, causing her to hiss in pain and jump away into one of the few remaining patches of shadow the torn building had to offer. "Do you ever shut up? Because you spend more time bitching about holding back than fighting me."

Like a demon enraged, Wire lunged from her hiding place and aimed herself like a cannonball towards Aegis. She shifted here and there, picking up speed and bouncing between the falling building's contents. At the same time, more and more wires leaked out from her wrists, trailing behind her. It was only until she forcibly spun herself in the air like a top that the wires snapped taut, surrounding the buzzing whirling form that was Red Wire. She was a bullet now, shredding through whatever light she could to plunge down upon Aegis.

Very well, then. If the brocolli wanted a fight, she would have it now that Aegis had throughtly lost her patience to try and convince her of getting away while she could. The blonde lowered her stance, getting a better grip on her sword, as Touka zoomed towards her at bullet-like speeds. It almost looked like Aegis was going to shoot another wave of energy at the dark magical girl, however, this time Aegis waited until the very last moment and intercepted Touka's strike with a swing of her blade.

Fast and hard, the golden edge rose to meet its mark. The moment it made contact, Aegis twisted its hilt, releasing a shockwave to kill some of Touka's momentum. The counter attack didn't end there, though as the blonde's weapon revealed that it had a few tricks of its own, like being able to break apart. The wider blade that Aegis was swinging until now was nothing but a sheath for a second, slimmer and much faster sword that Aegis swung down on Touka's unprotected back with inhuman agility. The best the blonde could do to ensure that her blow would be as non-lethal as possible was coat her weapon with light and use it to smash Touka against the ground like a hammer, hopefully ending the demented girl's temper tantrum.

The pulsing negativity throbbing off of the serraded bullet that had become Wire's spinning form wafted all throughout the night air. It met Aegis' sword swings blow for blow as light hissed and sparked from the impact. The initial swing held Wire, who had become a living drill at this point, back at bay and held there by her power alone. What the dark girl wasn't expecting, however, was Aegis' true weapon. Like a coiled link of chains being unfurled for the first time, the blade extended out and slammed into her with all the force of an Angel scorned.

Blood spattered somewhere out of Wire's spinning form, though her drill-like state didn't cease. It pushed back with all of the hatred and respite dormant in the girl's soul, forcing the both of them down, down, down until at last, they had each crashed into the earth below. The impact had slammed both girls at long last away from each other, Wire having been sent skidding thanks to Aegis' forcing her against the ground. Finally, her drill had been broken though with dust coating the area and blanketing any vision, she was bruised, bloodied, and now blinded to where her opponent could possibly be.

"And now, to end this!" Aegis said as she came from behind Touka almost as if she had teleported. The blonde girl swung her sword in a tight arc intent on disabling Touka with a slice to the neck that she knew that wouldn't be lethal for a magical girl as long as Aegis avoided hitting the green-haired girl's emblem, which she could easily tell the location of. "I'm sorry but this is the best I can do to avoid further harm," she added just as she felt her blade connect with the girl's flesh, but still unable to see the result of her strike thanks to all the dust.

Though perhaps there was no need to see the labors of her work; not when Aegis could clearly feel the soft pressure that was her blade cutting through bone and flesh. No sooner did it pass through that a horrid, anger-stricken screech fill the air. The dust slowy ebbing away, Wire was left gripping her left side, which was little more than a hacked stump in red. Her arm lay somewhere among the debris and she stumbled backwards against a slab of rock.

"You bitch!!" she seethed, all notion of barbs and banter replaced with a hot, burning wave of hatred. "You bitch, you bitch, you bitch-gaaaah!" Wire snarled, snapping her sharp jaws manically into the open air, writhing around as more hot blood spilled from her discarded arm. Despite the wound and red seeping down, there were no veins that connected her arm to her shoulder; instead, what were seen were a mass tangle of wires, keeping the two as one albiet not connected. "I'll kill you! I'll kill, KILL you!!"

"That's not what I--" Aegis stopped herself short of making a shocked apology over the result of her miscalculated strike when she saw what happened to Touka's arm. The look of shock morphed into surprise as she dismissed her sword with no more interest in this fight at the moment. "What in the world happened to you?" she asked at the sight of the wires coming out of the girl's body.

However, Aegis would not be around to wait for answer. The chilling wave of darkness that spread all through the city caught her attention. "I'll find you again, but this is more important right now," Aegis said before retreating from their ruined battleground, in search of the origin of the renewed Nightmares. The response Wire gave was nothing short of an estranged garble of curses and snarls.

As Aegis left from their battle grounds, so too did Wire. Clutching her barely connected arm, she leapt away to recover, eventually stumbling into a dark alleyway. Once again she was far and away from the action, finally finding a spot to collapse her back against the ground. But there was no pain or regret burning her gaze as she stared at the stars above her, ears deaf to the chaos laying siege on her city. There was only a burning, bubbling anger that cooled into seething hatred. As once again began to snarl and screech, some of the wires connecting her arm snapped away, lashing out at whoever or whatever dared to intrude upon her rage, leaving large scorch marks into the alley walls.

"KANBARUUUUU!! ALANNAHHHH!!!!"

---

---

Yui's stare went from the newcomer to Ayumu. She, too, recognized her after all. "I'm no fai--" she tried to answer before Ayumu's companion cut her off to add to the injury. In the end, Gaia simply sighed before being brought back to attention by the blond girl addressing her. While still unsure of what exactly she was, Yui felt as if she could trust her to be on her side.

"Ask anyth--" again, she was cut off...but this time by a green flash passing by and taking Aegis with them. Yui took a step back instinctively and was about to take flight when she realized that they traveled...far. Not only that, but another aura came to chill the magical girl to her core. The darkness she felt in her dark counterparts - it just hit her ten fold. Her eyes briefly looked over to the present pair, confused; it was not coming from them. Soon, they would all realize what was happening.

"Although one thing you can expect is that Kiru here must be rather disappointed that her target got away. So shoo fly, before you become her next one. Of course, she does like a chase..."

Gaia was in no mood to fight them. She was not seeking conflict, after all. Conflict, though, did come to them in the form of Nightmares. Again? As Ayumu moved to slow the coming enemies, Yui flew to the edge of the building to look down, but only grasped how truly dire the situation was when she heard the rising screams of terrors from the streets below and the mass of nightmares all over the city. Even from up here, the desperation was palpable.

Time froze. Below her, the other Light girls were being targeted by more than just Nightmare. The pair present with her were also 'in danger' - but the city... as he eyes widened, her eyes were shaking from the sheer terror of the realization that was coming to her just now, for the first time; She could not help everyone.

As the Nightmares finally reached the roof, Yui had made her decision. She quickly rushed to the one closest to them only to pierce it with her sword and follow up with a quick slash upward, taking flight above it and carpeting it with a few bombs before falling back on it and trusting it's sword in it's neck area. Gaia then looked on to Ayumu, a serious look in her eyes "...Helping people." she jumped back and threw a few more bombs in the direction of the two remaining Nightmares coming their way, simply to slow them down. "Loved ones or not, helping people and giving them the opportunity for happiness. Even at the cost of my own. That's what I choose as my center stage. Please, I entrust the rest of them to you!" with that, Yui was off.

Hugging the wall of the building as she dashed down from it, Gaia extended her arm towards her friends and many roots extended from the streets below them to entangle themselves around Soma's building foundations, trying her best to reinforce the building in view of the coming attack. Having 'fought' what enemy they were now facing, Gaia knew she was nowhere close to top her speed so that was the best she could do to hinder them as much as possible. Her friends...would understand her decision. She trusted in their abilities.

"Someone has to..." she convinced herself as she launchd herself at the top of her speed deeper into the streets of Miso City.

---

---

Slashing, piercing and exploding what nightmares she found was how Yui progressed into the city.

Her sword still trusted inside the face of a Nightmare she was standing on, she raised her hand to sprout vines somewhere further to stop the claws of yet another form finding it's mark. Continuing on her movement, she took the sword from her enemy's face as she threw herself backward, throwing more bombs into it's back.

Panting and sweating heavily, she still planted her sword in the ground and raised both hands to order life around her to raise and protect those around her, encasing them in flower bulbs that should be tough enough to slow down Nightmares. Too slow. Too slow. Around her, more people died to the merciless nightmares who, thanks to their newfound strength, extorted a greater toll on Yui than she anticipated.

"NO!" she yelled, flying forward to cut down another nightmare - too late. The beast did die, but not before the headless body of a young girl fell to the ground, dropping the yakisoba pan she had been holding. Half eaten.

"Damnit...Damnit!" This new loss had to strengthen her resolve. She could not afford to be weak now. Taking flight once more, she scanned the city down below before landing on the corner of a rooftop, looking around when she heard a cry nearby. Her head tilted down only to see a wounded, green haired girl. Which she quickly recognized, having memorized the name from the park.

"Touka?" Yui said, as she landed softly in the alleyway below her, standing before the laid down girl, snow raining on both of them. The raging wires cutting the bricks and walls around the Dark girl's club president. Yui's expression was bewilderment before such a sight, her eyes narrowed. Not sure of what to think of...this?

"W-what...happened to you?" A question aimed not just at the girl's current state, but also at the deep anger and darkness Yui could feel within them - deeper than most others she felt before.

---

The icy magical girl blinked owlishly at her phone, as within moments of her text being sent did a ballistic missile strike the rooftop and carry off the very threat she'd messaged about. Kanbaru full well there wasn't anything psychic in Touka's head full of wires, but sometimes coincidence just smacked you in the face and left one stunned.

Ponderously rousing herself she pocketed the phone and settled herself back into the seat of her motorcycle, finding no reason to scale the building to chastise Kiru-Kiru and company when the Angel was already sent flying away. A smirk played out beneath her mask as she envisioned Touka's full fury set loose once more, and a shiver tore down her spine as it prickled recollection. "If only that were the worst of it."

The smirk fell, and with it her gaze drew to the streets and a sudden flare of Darkness to match the Angel's horrid radiance. Instantly she knew what it would entail, and sans a Touka-shaped-missile there was little to be done that would amount to much. Kanbaru was confidant in her skills, but between the sudden emergence of an Angel and a Demon, she was liable to wind up a corpse then a hero if she went off half-cocked.

Caught amidst indecision, she waited on the rooftops as two battles played out across the city. Between the Demon and unknown Magical Girls, and Touka's own duel with the Angel. Kanbaru focused upon the warring magics, and wasn't surprised to feel the Demon finish first. The sudden absence of a Light Girl presence made her consider another murder took place, were it not for the feeling of newly kindled darkness in its place.

Perhaps that was just her being confused by the surge of newly empowered Nightmare's, running wild through the streets. The sights and sounds from below were alarming enough to move her into action and Kanbaru grasped the throttle intent to get into the thick of things, were it not for a scream that resonated across distance and magic.

"Touka!" She cried out in turn, and without thinking, shot off the roof and drove as the crow flies upon a hastily formed tunnel of ice. Uncaring of its eventual thaw, she shot off at high speed and left the Nightmare's to her feast. Dimly she was aware of Chie and her madness at work, no doubt making the situation hellish for the Light girls without a thought for their mutual prey, but there wasn't a moment to spare.

A sharp turn and a moment to angle down to street level brought her to a dust choked alley near a now leveled construction site- Dear god this was a trend in her partners now- brought Fortuna to a sadly familiar sight...and one startling for its proximity to the former.

"Oi, are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Kanbaru growled, grasping Yui by the shoulder and throwing her roughly backwards into a wall before a flailing wire struck the ground she stood upon. "Getting near any of this is a bad idea on a good day. You want to poke a wounded one now?"

She didn't have the chance to talk more before Touka's flailing wire's struck for her too, but Kanbaru's eyes shone with a calmed surety. After all, the only one who knew Touka better then Allanah was Kanbaru...and maybe Chiaki.

Ice sheathed her arm with a thought and she reached out with an armored palm, sending a solid pillar to be cut deeply and refreeze around the cords, trapping them in place. Each wild strike, fueling by directionless anger and thus lacking the finesse and strategy of Touka's usual style, were easily neutralized in short order till the alley carried the chill of a dozen new ice sculptures stabbed into the walls and ground beneath their feet.

"Hey, it's going to be alright now. Kanbaru's got you." She said, dropping down to one knee before the wild eyed Magical Girl, pressing her armored hand to Touka's stump and freezing the hole over to contain her. Given Touka's nature, a little more pain wasn't going to make a difference to her. "Though we should really stop meeting like this. It's not even the tenth time I've had you frozen to a dingy alley wall, Touka~"

Kanbaru forced her daytime cheer past her Magical Girl facade, trying to bring down her ex-partner's fury least she have to be more thorough in her restraint.

@Noxx @KoL

With all the strength she could muster, Tama lashed out with a wing, fused into a razor-sharp structure. It took off a Nightmare's head just as the creature lunged. Locking the other set of fragments together, she blocked a set of swiping claws, then punched with a dagger-like formation protruding from her armour. Her wings spread and split into shards again, fine threads of magic coursing between the gems, and she swung them as hard as she could to unleash a flurry of energy crystals.

No matter how many Nightmares fell, the slaughter continued, bodies lying limp and broken in the snow like discarded dolls.

Set on saving as many people as she could nonetheless, Tama threw her full armoured weight into a punch. Instead of connecting with the Nightmare's head, her fist struck a solid wall. "Ah!" She staggered off-balance, not so much hurt as jarred, thanks to her crystal shell and the natural toughness of a magical girl. She stared up at the bubble surrounding her, then at those that held civilians. The uninjured tried to run, panicking at the invisible walls that stopped them, bracing themselves for attacks, faces overcome with relief when none happened.

"Good job, Soma," she commented, "but you wouldn't mind letting me out? Gotta be on the battlefield, not stuck in the barracks..."

As a tower started to appear - no, not so much appear as rip its way into reality - Tama understood Soma's reason for protecting everyone nearby, her included. The rifts in space flung the Nightmares around as if a tornado had whipped up, Soma chanting some kind of speech that probably only made sense to her all the while.

"Huh." Tama couldn't help but raise her eyebrows. "I'm going to guess that translates to something along the lines of 'you Nightmares are picking on the wrong person'."

Surprise gave way to shock as a blur hurtled down like a meteor, right at the shield user. "Soma! Watch out!"

---

"It's okay, I wasn't here long." The hug got a little tighter, Ami easily seeing through her partner's lie. "Really I'm fine!" Her pout grew deeper, Tsuruga's limp struggles not even registering to her as she warmed her partner up. "C-Can we just go already? We don't need to bundle up when we're just going to transform anyway..." Ami practically growled as Tsuruga asked, but finally acquiesced and released her prey. For now.

"Alright, but after we're done tonight you're coming over for a sleepover! Or I'm coming over to your house. I'm not picky really." While it was worded as a demand, Tsuruga would know that really this was just a very aggressive request. Like most of the Dark Girls, Ami didn't exactly have any friends outside of the Detention Club, so she of course clung to them as tightly as possible, whenever possible. Regardless of Tsuruga's answer, Ami quickly transformed into her battle attire to crank up the heat even more. "I feel like tonight is gonna be a good night."

---

Tonight was not only a good night, it was quite possibly one of the best nights ever. "EAT FIRE!" A wave of flame swept through the street, incinerating several Nightmares that were chasing after the weak. More turned to her, ready to tear her limb from limb, more burned away in the fire of Knight. Something struck at her from behind, one of the humanoid ones, but it struck at mere air as the Black Knight ducked the blow and bisected the manlike shadow. "I don't know how this happened, but whoever did this is awesome!" She laughed and laughed, continuing her dance of death as she struck out at every nightmare in her path. A byproduct of this was that she happened to save a lot of people yeah, but she didn't really care about them.

She just cared about all the fun she was having right now.

---

The skies darkened above as if to reaffirm the gods dislike for this queer abomination that which should not have been created, the structure she built was an affirmation to the fact that Soma’s powers were never meant to be. The world outside the shield turned around into a maelstrom of Nightmares twisting in a counter-clockwise circle smashing their heads or other body parts into the debris of the area around. Walls and floors were being built up faster and faster the as it seemed Soma was winning her argument with the universe and now the entire area was bending to her whim and with that the last thing, she needed to do other than supplying more mana was to place the flag where it was when she originally captured the structure. Picking up her weapon in hand spinning it around neck playing the disaster outside their walls like a fiddle as the chaos and destruction followed the direction the tip of the spear was swung. The shield around Soma created a small cut out hole in the top of the tome just enough for her Spear to slip through.

“As you come seeking your sanctuary, know that our walls will not fall, know that you will be safe from the rain, the cold and invaders!” she screamed tossing her spear upward through the hole she made. The very energy that summoned the building was now carrying the spear with a speed that was completely impossible, combined with the fact that the reality ripping force followed her spear upward determined if it couldn’t stop this from happening then the universe at large would help summon and bring the building to the physical plane.

The spear shot up through each floor completing their contraction and finally, the meter object that was hurtling towards them was pierced completely through and continued its path. The object in question would now have to barrel through two solid stone floors magically sealed together and on the bottom floor Soma’s own signature barrier. The shield around Soma itself faded slowly becoming much weaker as the girl who performed a summoning in such a hurry with no experience with this building in particular expended a significant chunk of her mana reserves, she stumbled from her original spot having her legs give out completely, the far back side of her own shield kept the girl upright.

"Now..go out and get back on the battlefield....this is now home base for now" she panted waving her hand dispelling every shield that encased the other light girls.

---

It didn’t take long for Eve to be caught and thrown into a tub of warm water, which caused the girl to panic at first, but it’s not like she particularly disliked water itself and the liquid rushing over her naked body felt relaxing so different from her territory. The two girls splashed around in the water together mostly Elina wrestles to make sure Eve was getting herself clean instead of just twisting around in the water like fish. For once it was peaceful where the only thing where the two sharing a moment of solitude together not being hunted, all that came to a halt when Eve transformed completely out of the blue and shot herself through the wall entering the sunken world without a moment of hesitation only to come back a second later with a nightmare clutched between her teeth holding it by the neck until eventually she snapped down on it severing its head.

“Trouble, outside!” she shouted, grabbing Elina out of the tube and diving right back in the Sunken world only to pop out on the street both girls still completely naked.

@I Need A Name @SimpleWriter @1Charak2

Through the shock, Phantasmagoria forced a snicker at Gaia's little speech. Those words, exactly the kind of thing she might have once said... the kind of thing she'd once have been stupid enough to say. "Wow, even now you still think life's a fairy tale," she jeered, aiming another card at a chink in a Nightmare's armour. "Suit yourself, this is nothing we can't handle anyway."

She danced out of the way of the Nightmare's claws, disappearing from view. It turned this way and that, only for a red-outlined card to fly from thin air, cleaving its head from its shoulders. Phantasmagoria reappeared in a swirl of black mist, the translucent wisps that formed the hem of her cape and tails of her jacket thickening like pollution clouds as she absorbed the dying creature. A laugh juddered through her.

"We've got ourselves that fight you were spoiling for, all right," she said, eyes gleaming as she glanced at Kiru before summoning a jackalope silhouette from her hat. "C'mon, let's get 'em before those party poopers do!"

As she leapt from building to building on the back of the giant rabbit, her grin faded at the full, sobering impact of the scene. All those broken bodies, all that blood... A sudden wave of dizziness hit. Sympathy? Surely not. She'd discarded that long ago, at least for strangers. It was more like... Memories. An old wound ripping open. Images of limbs at sickening angles, crimson-splattered concrete, eyes that would never shine with happiness again, carved deep into her mind.

Her ribs clenched, an involuntary cry leaving her lips. She tightened her grip on the mount to keep from sliding off. No! Focus! she mentally screamed at herself, tearing her gaze away from the carnage, and from the nearby light girls. Little Miss Sparkles in particular might even try to help if she noticed, and like hell did she want that stick in the mud's pity. Trying to concentrate on the corrupt energy roiling through her, she rode past the dead and the desperate. It wasn't like they had anything to do with her. And it certainly wasn't like all these people could be saved.

Before long, she caught up with the flock of Nightmares pouring down the street. "Thank you all for gathering here tonight!" she called, her stage persona covering up any weakness. "Uh-uh, forget the movies." She flicked cards at some of the creatures making a beeline for a movie theatre. "Wanna see a magic show instead? I now present my assistants!"

With that, an army of figures were upon the Nightmares. Illusory copies of every other dark magical girl in the club lashed with their weapons, manic glee on their faces as the monsters hissed and flailed. By the time the images disappeared upon being struck, it was too late for many of the mutant creatures. Cards spun through the air, the razor edges the scarlet aura gave them biting deep through armour.

Phantasmagoria jumped from the back of her shadow contruct, which faded. "Your turn, Kir-" Her shout choked into a whimper. A few feet away from her, a small form lay unmoving in the snow, stomach and throat torn open. She recognised what was left of the girl's face. The child who'd watched her earlier show.

Claws jabbed into Ayumu's left arm, yanking her away from the corpse. Her surroundings rushed past as she found herself being dragged across the ground. Several pairs of jaws spread wide, looming over her... only to let out a screech and snap upwards at the air as a giant drill burst through its back, out from its stomach. Black goo splattered all around. Just for effect, Ayumu thought, dismissing the illusion with a flick of her hand and leaping to her feet. Before the Nightmare realised it was uninjured, the cards the magician flung dug into its neck.

"And that, dear spectators, was the Drill of Death!" she announced, hoping the banter hid just how shaken she was. Distraction had been her attacker's undoing, just as it had nearly been hers. She gripped her upper arm, feeling stickiness, torn cloth, broken skin. Just an inch under her emblem. Her heart thudded. That had been close.

Reaching out and drinking in the monster's essence, she kept alert from the buzz. A cluster of Nightmares gathered nearby, zeroing in on a target concealed from view, some breaking from the group to face the magical girl about to disrupt their meal.

Phantasmagoria smirked, lifting one side of her cape and sending a murder of crows to greet them. "What, you thought you were the guests at this banquet? Life's full of surprises, huh?" She skipped towards her struggling prey, resolving to think of nothing but the hunt. "Kiru, let's tuck in!"

---

Tsuruga acknowledged there was no arguing with her partner without making a big deal of it. She could have dug in her feet and refused the cavalier request, but that would only invite concern and curiosity she didn't want to deal with. So she stopped struggling against Ami and nodded her head like one of those knick-knack birds that constantly dips their beak into a glass. "Fine, fine! We'll do it at your house. That way you can clean up the mess."

The timid girl exhaled gratefully upon being dropped, knowing her partner's battle lust, once stoked, would consume her thoughts and leave all else forgotten. How she envied her partner some days.

---

While Ami crashed and burned with her typical panache to great success, Tenshi flew overhead and saw Hell upon the city.

Towers opposing god being struck by a creature of terrible madness. Humans rendered into so much meat and bone, lifeless upon the once safe city streets in the broad daylight hours. Great explosions of energy beyond the ken of the Detention Club president.

Most pressing of all were the new Nightmares emanating from one of the darker forces to unveil itself within Miso city. There were those who were mockeries of knights whose focus lay solely upon the Magical Girls of both light and dark, going so far as to ignore easy civilians just to charge to their deaths. Inversely were the Grotesqueries with their hinged jaws and wild blood lust that struck out at anything they could reach. Even the hordes of typical Nightmare's had never posed such a threat, and it made the airborne magical girl anxious.

Anxious not for the lives lost or the danger below, but for the change that would come with the morning after, for the shift from what she had known into a frightening new world of frightened people in a city without safety.

Yet on witnessing a bright flare up of fire, the image of her brash, bold, bull headed partner came to mind, and the indecision melted away. That day isn't today. Right now, we're still Magical Girls, and this...this is our city, damn it.

A burst of repulsion sent her into a dive bomb to the ground below. Like the rest in the area she'd gather a hard of tag-along knights to deal with, waiting with open anticipation of striking her. A thunderous boom signaled her acceleration before striking back at the earth a foot from impact.

For once, she nailed the landing.

---

Magical Girls both light and dark descended upon the infested streets in force, if not in unity. A certain Dark red head's actions in engaging the Light girls would no doubt make matters of containment all but impossible if Bastion had not blocked an entire avenue with her fortifications and barriers. With the majority of civilians safely cut off from their pursuers they started to create distance and escape immediate danger, though stragglers would still persist on the Magical Girl's side of it.

A consequence of the Girls all congregating was the Knight Nightmare's could draw together in force to combat them. There would be a noticable change in tactic from them as their numbers consolidated together, with many focusing less upon outright killing their foes and more upon bogging them down so they could be brought down under weight of combined arms. Like a pack of wolves, they circled and harried, trying their hardest to bear an unfortunate Magical Girl to the ground and render her a pincushion, emblem and all.

But in consolation there was a small boon, as Phantasmagoria's mass illusion had confused the predatory Grotesqueries, losing themselves in savaging the wall of illusions and thus being caught just inside the lobby entrance. By now the people inside had realized some crisis was going on and had retreated into the wings to allow the responding Magical Girls a chance to act upon the Nightmares before they lose interest in illusory blood and drew the genuine article.

@Noxx @KoL

Before Angelite could react, the attacker had hurled herself right against the forming walls, plummeting onto Soma's spear with an awful tearing sound. A gasp caught in the blue-haired girl's throat. Shedding her crystal shell for faster movement, she rushed towards the broken heap of a girl. It didn't matter that this was their enemy. She needed a healer, and fast.

"Hold on," Tama urged. "I'll go get someone who can help-" Just as she was about to search for Alara, the attacker jumped up. It was as if she hadn't even noticed the ragged hole in her torso, or her gaping eye socket, both of which poured forth wiry black strands instead of blood. Magical girls sometimes had unusual ways of showing damage, but Tama had never seen anything like this.

The dark girl's injuries did nothing to slow her down as she swung her spear. Leaping between her and the exhausted Soma, Tama crossed her wings. "Get past me first," she growled, her diamond-like barrier appearing.

---

“This is boring.” Palis’ grumbles fell layway to the shrieking chaos overtaking Miso City’s night winds. Since her encounter with the dark one and her recently acquired prey, she had settled fit to watch over her work from above. Sitting atop the edge one of the city’s skyscrapers with legs dangling into the night, she looked down at the invisible forces at bay, the many denizens of the town scrambling about for safety. Their panic only caused her frown to deepen.

“Am I overthinking this? Because this got old real quick. Or maybe I’m doing something wrong here….” Still in her transformed state, she didn’t care if Rania or the recently corrupted Alara had tagged behind her to follow. They were both none of her concern and beneath her notice. What wasn’t, though, was the clash of magical energies thriving at the other end of the city. Palis casually stared at the abandoned construction site before turning her gaze back to the endless night below her.

“No, no. It’s childish to sit here and pout. This is exactly what I wanted.” Staff in hand, she raised herself to literally stand above the rest of the girls. Her frown curved into a sneer as she took in the stench of darkness. “This is what real justice is. People need to learn through hardship and turmoil if they want to persevere, and this is exactly what I gave them. Only the strong can be allowed to carry out their justice,” she said. “The night is ending, but I think they got the message burned into their souls.”

Indeed, the endless dark would be concluding soon, but that didn’t mean the scars inflicted upon the city would close and heal. If anything, the open wound struck upon Miso City seemed to spill out more and more like a festering disease. A wave of negativity flowed through the streets, and their source came from a dark alleyway that was soon to be coated in ice.

When Gaia arrived upon the scene, all she would get as a response from Red Wire were more hateful screeches of anger and rage. In response, the wires spiraling out of the dark girl’s shoulders and arm instantly lashed towards her in retaliation. It was only by choice or chance the girl was saved by her enemy, Fortuna snatching her away from the sharp wires cutting the air itself.

So enthralled in her self-sustained madness was she that Wire didn’t realize her magic was being neutralized. The alleyway soon dropped in temperature until finally, all of the spread-out wires had been frozen in place. Some, however, showed building cracks along their lengths, as if they were ready to burst at any moment; so great was the darkness that spilled out Red Wire.

By the time Fortuna had closed the distance to her former partner, Red Wire had lowered some of her screeching. Her sharp teeth continued to bite the air in front of her while her deranged sight snapped from the dark girl to the light girl, uncaring who was friend or foe. A madness all too prevalent was still present in Wire’s aura, one that was no doubt causing a rapid spike of aggression into Chie on the other half of the city.

Still, Gaia was the first to arrive and the first blood to be drawn. Snapping her gaze sharply at the Magical Girl, Red Wire roared anew. It soon sputtered out into a wet gasp as wires suddenly spurted from her maw, each one as violent as the other to tear apart Gaia. They didn’t care for Fortuna, only for the fool who had showed up first practically asking for a death wish.

---

---

"Oi. Eyes right here. You gotta listen to me Touka or I'll- Damn it!" The Icy Magical Girl scowled, head whipping to the side to see her topiary of ice straining to contain the taut wires. She knew full well it wouldn't hold another minute and when they snapped free they'd cleave through this alley with force Touka couldn't manage alone. "Get a hold of yourself already!"

Kanbaru could at least take some small solace that Touka's rage was directed at the light girl, though whether that was in opposition of Yui's purity or recognition of her former partner was anyone's guess. What mattered to the bluenette was that she was up close and ignored, which made her course of action far simpler. With her arm still armored in an inch of brackish ice she clutched the Detention Club President's face, her thumb beneath the jaw as the tips of her fingers dug into the brow, sealing Touka's lips before the wires could spill forth.

"But if you aren't going to mellow, well, I'll just have to make you mellow myself." And then Kanbaru knelt there, one arm restraining Touka as she drew in the miasmic darkness radiating from her ex-partner. After all, if they can feed off the waste of Nightmare's there was nothing stopping her from drinking in this outpouring of Touka's wild energies. It was as wild as a beast and struggled against her will, but gradually she picked up in force and drew the ambient energy radiating from Touka into a shroud of umbran energy around herself.

It took all of her concentration to keep it steady and hold Touka in place, but it seemed the fastest way to neuter Touka without trying to bash her head in till she lost consciousness. A prospect that seemed rather pointless if the pain of a severed arm only drove the green haired girl more wild then anything else.

---

A night of feverish battle dripping with desperation drew to a close. For all the horror and malice the new Nightmare's wielded, they were as remarkably finite as Pallis' interest in continuing the slaughter. With no new monstrous variants made they fell to the paragons of Light and Dark in time. Time was the great equalizer. It bore the civilians away from danger and dwindled their foes against the rock of magical might that was the Miso City magical girls.

Zero hour passed, and the last man eater fell to the snow before breaking apart into wisps of magical energy. The opening of the Siblings battle had concluded with the rising sun, leaving the city's inhabitants to pick up the pieces. The Magical Girls stood unseen upon their battlefields even as the sounds of sirens drew closer with each breath. For all that their efforts kept Pallis' Nightmare's from drowning the city in blood, there was still a massacre in the streets. No doubt it would dominate the news for days to come, and an aura of fear would continue along with it.

But, what was done was done. Time was neither friend nor foe, bearing all onward towards success or failure with equal vigor. For now, it was time to make oneself scarce, lest they wish to linger among the first responders.

---

Still shook by the sight of someone in...that state, Yui did not see the other girl come in behind her. not one to be easily riled up and angry, she did not react all that much to being thrown back into the wall. Especially after witnessing how it could have ended badly had she not been taken out of her torpor. "I was helping people..." she said to Kanbaru's comment "...everyone. She, included!" she added.

Although there had not been much helping, to be frank. "I remember you." she said as she looked on Kanbaru work and talk to Touka as one would to calm a wounded wild animal. "At the park...You attacked us." once more, there was no aggressiveness in both Gaia's tone and demeanor. "Why would you attack us--" screeching and snapping at nothing, Touka seemed to just now be reacting to Yui's presence as her eyes locked onto her. In a surreal demonstration, wires were about to sprout from her mouth and attack Yui, but were stopped only by Kanbaru once again.

Gaia had not just been standing there, though. Her mind had been busy during this whole time, ever since she saw Touka in such a berserk state...ready to attack her. Kill her, perhaps? Her eyes were rapidly moving back and forth as ideas were developing in her mind. The earlier scene on the roof when Aegis was taken away came back to mind...as well as how one of the other Dark Girls saluted Touka for the deed. A green flash. Just like the one that had taken Luna away during their fight at the parks weeks before.

Even focused as she was, Kanbaru could probably notice a flower growing incredibly fast through a crack in cement below them. And it wasn't the only one; a direct cause of Gaia focusing her magic. Be it intentionally or not. Raising her hand up and pointing her open palm in their direction, roots - thick and larger then her usual vines - blasted from the ground beneath both of them and lashed out at the duo. One of them made sure to circle around Touka's throat, choking her and forcing her mouth shut, while others secured the rest of the monster's body, not blind to the cracking ice. More roots grabbed a defenseless and otherwise focused Kanbaru, making sure to keep her hands as far away form each other as possible, and wrapping around their palms to force them open.

"How could you fall this deep..." she said, taking one step forward. She, too, could feel the Darkness emanating from the wounded magical girl. She felt the same Darkness earlier this night in the city - and while she was angry, sad and distressed at the idea of possibly having Luna's murderer in front of her the few tears on Gaia's cheeks were of pity for her.

"Look at you... how could you let yourself fall in such a state? Little more than an animal...little more than nightmares."

Nodding towards Kanbaru "Are you not their Leader? Are you not supposed to guide them through...whatever twisted path you chose to follow? Are you that ready to abandon them - to abandon yourself - to that madness I feel in you? If so..." She brought Vestige up and in a gracious movement and pointed it at Touka's forehead "Tell us now, and I will do what I have to do..."

With a softer and hopeful tone she added "...Otherwise, let go of whatever madness and anger has a hold of you before it consumes you to a point of no return."

Dark Magical Girl. Light Magical Girl. Friend or Foe. It didn't matter. All lives were worth living - and saving. As she repeated herself those words, still struggling with the image of Luna in her mind, her grip on the sword tightened.

---

Rania did not, in fact, follow Palis. Even after seen their power and having her own ideology reaffirmed it would have been to submissive a move to simply throttle along. Instead, Pharaoh slowly made it's way through the city being lost in her own thoughts. As a sort of token of respect towards Palis, the Dark Magical Girl decided to only kill whatever stray nightmare was bold enough to attack her first and let the rest do whatever they were created to do. Their numbers seemed to be dwindling, anyway. By the time she arrived at her destination, the night seemed to be mostly over. Chiaki, even in her apparent torpor, was sure to have also felt what happened this night.

Rania untransformed and made her way to the room her partner was staying in "President...you missed quite the party." She closed the door behind her, turning back to her friend with a serious look. The kind which Rania did not display often.

"I have information that you'll want to hear. It's about your sister."

Location
Outside Elina's house
@Noxx

Elina luckily got Eve into the tub, with a lot of trouble of course. Elina felt relieved now at least. She could already imagine it; the nice smell in house, being able to get close to Eve and of course, touching her! Elina was in a bliss of thought when she was painfully scrubbing the dirt of the kuudere blonde.

She was just about done conditioning Eve her lovely blonde hair when Eve suddenly decided to go to her watery dimension and come back out with a nightmare between her teeth as if she was an animal. The bath water exploded everywhere when Eve landed back in the tub making everything in the bathroom completely soaked. Elina watched in tired manner as the girl bit through the nightmare. Water was dripping down her face while deeply sighing. Trouble? Probably.

Eve hastily called out to her that there were problems outside making Elina kind of conscious as well. They had to be quick! Dress in pajamas or something and go outside! Elina couldn't even think and they were outside. What. Elina confusingly watched around her trying to figure out what had just happened. She had noticed the sunken world pass by but it was only quite abruptly. A chill went down her spine as she gazed at Eve. What was... Eve was naked, she was naked! A loud shriek came out of the brunette as she clutched for her bare body immediately transforming into her magical outfit.

While blushing she gave a mean girl at the blonde snapping somewhat aggressively at Eve. She could be quite the tsundere sometimes!

---

Sharp, deadly slashes scored themselves across Fortuna's palm, digging into the ice and threatening to tear it asunder. The wires splurging from Red Wire's maw acted almost like vomit, quick and without focus. Each one vibrated and tensed with dark energy, Wire's rage spilling forth hatefully as she continued glaring at Yui. It was only through Fortuna's quick thinking that the motions slowly died down, negativity being siphoned off towards her. Even so, the sheer force of darkness entering into the ice girl was potent and manic.

At once, thoughts of deathly, disturbing actions would filter into Fortuna's head. Thoughts of mania, bloodshed...these temptations found the easiest target they could latch on to. A young girl who sported hair similar to Fortuna's. As soon as she came into view, the thoughts deepened, goading her on to perhaps commit terrible acts. Be it murder, ruination, or perhaps worse. But whatever forcible ideas the darkness had in mind for Fortuna, it was all halted by the actions of the sole light girl among them.

With Fortuna wretched away from her, Wire was free to rage once more. Almost instantly the negativity feeding into her had reflected right back into Wire, bolstering into a well of darkness. Though it seemed Gaia had other plans in mind, swiftly using her own magic to restrain and incapacitate the two dark girls. As she gave her little speech, pointing her blade right at Wire's head, the dark girl sputtered and gasped, sharp teeth finally curling into a sentient smirk.

Fortuna would feel it before anyone else, and there was no doubt Gaia could hear it; the sound of cracking ice, bursting into shrapnel as Wire's severed arm emerged from its icy prison. Wires still holding it, the limb swerved once before snapping itself around Gaia's throat, clenching in an inhuman fashion. "An....eye for an eye," Wire finally spat out, some form of intelligence leaking in. Be it from Kanbaru's intervention or Gaia's, it hardly mattered now. "And who the hell are you to tell me what I should be responsible for," Wire sneered, strangling Gaia just as hard as the vine around her throat.

The sound gave what would follow away, but the light girl was too slow on the draw. A vine did wrap itself around Wire's arm, but too late to have any real effect. Stuck in the awkward web of metal and plants, there was a small moment of silence where you could only hear the crackling sound of the 'ropes' tightening. Through the pain of being choked, Yui managed to break the silence with a smile. "I'm only someone who doesn't want any more pointless loss of life..." she answered, her free hand holding Touka's arm at her throat. "I also don't seek...conflict." Taking a risk, Yui released the binds that were holding the blue haired Dark girl against the wall. Her 'calmness' had impressed Yui earlier, and while the light girl did not know who she was to Touka, they seemed to be close enough that she thought now that the Dark Girl's leader was a bit more mentally present, her companion might be able to defuse this whole thing.

Kanbaru hadn't been certain that it would even be feasible to siphon off Touka's power but it was working beyond her wildest expectations. Too well, perhaps, for the power lacked the aimlessness of Nightmares that was so easily absorbed. Tainted with the President's psychosis that had terminated their partnership, the bluenette ground her teeth as images flashed into prominence before her mind's eye. The ache to return home after a long day magnified by malevolence, a twisted desire to wrap her hands around her sister's neck and claim the power she long denied. She wanted to reject the violent impulse but the more she siphoned off the stronger it grew, till Yui's intervention snapped the connection between them.

"You dumb bitch!" Kanbaru screamed, not grateful in the least to be snapped free from Touka's influence when it entailed full on vine bondage at the most precarious of times. True to form Touka showed a complete disregard for her own body and reacted with a savagery that overcame Yui's vines. The bluenette was about to burst the gauntlet of ice she formed and slip free of the vines to shoot her way free as well, only for Yui to panic and free her as soon as the vines had settled. There was no relief to be had when she could already feel her restraining ice fracture under the pressure of a slightly more intelligent but still rampaging Touka.

"You've got a hilarious way of showing it." She scoffed with excessive bitterness, moving into Touka's field of view and wrapping her gauntlet around the vine at Touka's neck. It steadily froze over before growing brittle enough to snap under Touka's own strength. "Oi. Boss. Eyes on me. If you can talk, you can think. Now quit throttling the idiot and cut yourself loose. We can sort out this shitty night at your place, but not here."

An animalistic hiss bubbled out from Wire's lips. The strings of black veiny wires that had been barraging out of her maw were still leaking out in shreds, and they only streamed forth more now that the pressure around her throat was ceased. Ignoring the bruising on her neck caused by the vines, Wire whirled her hateful stare from Gaia to Fortuna now. She spent a good moment or two glowering at the other dark girl before finally evoking yet another hiss. "Fine. We'll do it your way," she snarled. Almost immediately the arm holding Gaia let go and flopped to the pavement like dead prey.

There was no telling what would have happened had Fortuna not been present; no, that wasn't entirely true. Even now as her arm was slowly being reeled back to her body and she was hacking away at the remaining vines with a chopping hand, Wire replayed all the bloody scenarios she could have enacted over and over again in her head. The bolstering negativity was dying down again, this time for good as Wire settled back into an apathetic state of disregard for their enemy. "You're lucky I'm hurting like a bitch, you bitch. I have half a mind to break that pretty face of yours into a wall," Wire spat towards Gaia.

The lack of thanks did not bother Yui. Not only was she used to this kind of behaviour but, here, she expected it. While it was easy to see her intervention as hardly any help at all, she knew what she saw and what she felt leaking from Touka and the effect it had on her friend. She did not regret her intervention. If their words and attitude wounded her in the slightest, they could never guess just from looking at her.

Gaia's sword disappeared into thin air as she looked in the distance, feeling like the night was dying down. She was glad to have saved those she did, even those dark girls, but couldn't brush off the feeling she could - should - have done more. Her stare fell back onto the duo, more so the leader of the two."This anger that you bear towards me..." she began while straightening herself and dusting off her costume "...What is it's origin, truly; the fact that I was right, that you lost a fight or simply because you know you were slipping away?"

In the absense of conflict Kanbaru could breath easy, dispelling her icy constructs as Touka disentangled herself from the vines grasp and ended the standoff before any more bodies littered the Miso City Streets. This rising ease staggered a touch as Yui offered another sanctimonious rejoinder to end their confrontation upon, causing the bluenette to flinch from Touka to Yui and expect a haymaker to follow. "I'd think it obvious someone would be pissed when they are literally backed into a corner and confronted by an enemy. Touka's the amputee here. What's your excuse?"

With her coat whirling behind her she stepped past Yui and straddled her parked motorcycle, a flush of magic starting the engine and setting it into a low rumble. "Get on Touka. I'm taking you to your place and I'm not taking no for an answer."

Had she been in any other mentality, she might have mangled Fortuna here and now for letting slip her real name to the enemy blatantly in front of them. But Wire chose to bemuse the light girl's sentiments with more sneering reproaches. "For someone on the opposite side of the spectrum, you do like worrying about your enemies. Who knows why you piss me off. Probably because you don't have any idea what you're talking about." As Fortuna moved to mount her bike, so too did Wire step forward until she was inches away from Gaia. As much as she would have loved to, she didn't make to tear apart the other Magical Girl.

"Maybe it's cause you smell funny. Your magic really, really pisses me off and I don't know why," she breathed, uncaring if her iced breath was blowing directly into Gaia's face. "It's an itch that makes me want to mangle you more and more so there. That's your answer. Why don't you crawl back to your so called friends and think it over for the both of us, eh?" With those words spoken, she shoved past Gaia before taking the space behind Fortuna on her bike. Soon enough the two of them were speeding away, leaving Yui left alone with her thoughts.

The Light girl was quick to regret her words. Simply because it was unnecessary and aggressive, which was unlike her. She was about to answer the icy one, but Touka's answer came quick and sharp before she found an answer. Again, nothing surprising. As much as she tried, Yui was not able to grasp Touka's logic of pure hatred, it seemed. She was reminded of the other dark haired opponent she faced in the park some weeks ago; she remembered feeling the same madness in her.

At the very least, the idea given was not a bad one. Gaia spread her wings to the sound of the Motorcycle driving away and took to the skies, heading back to where she had previously left Tama and Soma, hoping they were unhurt.

---

“iF yOu InSiSt, SpArKlY--” Chie’s voice came out as a feral growl. It looked like her attack wouldn’t stop even when Tama intervened to cover the wasted Soma, at least until she did. An abrupt, jarring motion that seemed to defy laws of conservation of moment itself when the blade of Chie’s spear screeched to a halt a hair’s breadth away from making contact with the other magical girl’s barrier.

“...” Where before was rage now remained only silence as Chie rose head and looked towards some unseen yonder, not unlike a dog listening to a whistle from her owner. “Tsk, you are lucky. But don’t think this is the last time I see you,” Chie said as her voice came back to normal, even if it still had a feral touch to it. “Now that the Puppy is no more, you’ll be the one to give me some fun whether you want it or not,” she added before leaping away in the darkness right as the Nightmares began to crumble and break all around them.

---

Stupid, stupid, stupid, Allegra inwardly yelled at herself. She couldn't fight, could barely even move or breathe, for the mound of vile creatures covering her.

One moment she'd been holding out against Nightmares unlike any she'd seen in her short time as a magical girl, pouring as much power as she could into her plectrum bullets. The next, she'd found herself on her rear end, unprepared for quite that level of recoil. The mutant Nightmares had wasted no time, and one now unfurled its petal-like jaws, so close she could see shreds of human flesh between its many, many teeth.

Allegra closed her eyes, a scream coming out as a strangled sob, as she braced herself for the fight's conclusion... which, it turned out, wasn't set to happen just yet. A flash of red whizzed past. The hand gripping her neck loosened, the creature's body toppling to the ground, its head landing a short distance away.

"Wha...?" the musician coughed out, picking up on two more presences. Magical ones, she instinctively knew, but there was something off about them. Something dark and twisted. She heard a chuckle, along with a voice.

"Well, look what we've got here," one of the strange girls said, her tone much too laidback. "Seems the wolf pack found a rabbit."

Panic threatened to seize the new recruit once more. Who were these two? Was it truly out of altruism that they'd acted? Nonetheless, as some Nightmares broke away, Allegra took the opportunity she'd been given. Gripping her guitar, she strummed a single, magically amplified Power Chord.

"Aaargh!" Phantasmagoria had only just sensed the light girl through the dwindling mass of Nightmares. Now, the goody-goody made her presence all too clear, kicking up a racket that juddered through Ayumu like an electric shock. As she writhed, so did the cluster of creatures, a scarlet-haired, guitar-wielding bundle of zeal bursting from its centre.

Flatpick-shaped projectiles blasted like gunfire from the musical instrument. "Oh! You wanted peace and quiet?" the redhead shouted at the disintegrating sludge monsters. "Well so did everyone out here!"

Although her ears still rang from the musical assault, Phantasmagoria stood tall. "Uh-uh, don't you go stealing our spotlight," she said, flinging cards at a Nightmare and absorbing it before the little wannabe had a chance to cleanse it. She could teach the punkass a lesson she wouldn't forget, if she wanted - which Kiru would gladly go along with - but that would risk letting their feast go to waste. "I'd be more concerned with that one than any of these." She pointed out a hulking form behind the girl. A thirty foot tall abomination that looked as if several mutated beings had merged together, its many heads and limbs poised for attack.

Whirling around, Allegra stared up in horror. She launched a volley of bullets upwards, staggering back, nearly toppling again - and blinked as it vanished. No trace remained, no sludge or shadow. Like it wasn't even real.

"Huh?" She turned and gasped. Not at the ringblade-wielder who seemed to enjoy this fight a little more than was healthy, but at the macabre magician, who stalked a cluster of creatures like a fox, waiting for the right moment as they targeted their own quarry. Human formed sprawled in the snow, sporting gruesome wounds, shrieking as claws and fangs sank into their flesh...

Another sonic blast sent the Nightmares and the dark girls reeling. "What do you think you're doing?!" Allegra screamed, sending pick bullets ripping through as many monsters as possible. "We're meant to protect people, not use them as bait!"

The brunette regained her balance, sighing as she waved her hand. The mound of mangled bodies disappeared. "Don't tell me you're so slow on the uptake," she said, slicing up another shadowy form, "that you hadn't figured out I've got a few tricks up my sleeve." Right before Allegra's eyes, the dark girl drew more streams of that vile essence into her outstretched hand. Why was she doing that? "Then again, they were pretty convincing decoys."

An illusionist. Of course. Mentally scolding herself for falling for the uber-Nightmare prank, Allegra ignored the magician's taunting and focused on taking down the stragglers. It wasn't long until morning sun rays began to illuminate streets free of Nightmares...

... And strewn with broken bodies, which this time were no illusion. Police and ambulance sirens wailed, paramedics hauling bloody forms onto stretchers, people crouching over motionless figures and begging them to respond. "We've got to search for survivors!" Allegra yelled, rushing forward, only for her legs to give out as the horrific scene lurched all around. Dizziness, nausea and battle fatigue held her down like lead weights.

Through the haze, she heard a muffled rhythm. Footsteps. "So you've learned," came a voice, a familiar one but more hollow-sounding, "that you can't save everyone."

Shuddering, Allegra turned her head towards the speaker and opened her mouth to reply. Instead of words, out came the contents of her stomach.

"Eugh!" The magician drew back just in time. "I saved you, and you repay me by nearly ruining my shoes? Tsk, you should be more grateful." As Allegra spluttered an apology, the dark girl did something unexpected. She helped her up, albeit somewhat roughly. It was then that Allegra noticed something about her.

That air of snarky confidence was gone, replaced with one of vulnerability. The illusionist stood with her shoulders hunched, fists clenched by her sides, skin sickly pale. Blood seeped from a cut on her arm, as did curls of black mist like the wisps trailing from her clothing. Whereas the shadowy miasma had given her twisted theatrics yet another unnerving edge, she now looked as if the slightest gust of wind would evaporate her. Her gaze flicked from side to side, then down at the snow, away from the aftermath.

Allegra's glare softened. A moment ago, she hadn't known whether to thank the girl or slap her. Now, she went with a different instinct. She rested a trembling hand on her rescuer's back. The girl tensed, but didn't shrug away. "You're hurt," the light girl whispered.

Her words earned a snicker. "Yeah, I'd figured out that much. Ehh, it's nothing though, you're the one who needs the most patching up."

With the adrenaline wearing off, jolts of pain sharpened with every movement. Gritting her teeth, Allegra looked down at the claw marks running across the left side of her torso, the crimson stain spreading from the wound. It didn't seem deep, but in any case, her own physical state wasn't her main concern. "It doesn't matter... I don't need help, they do..." One look reminded her that many of these people were beyond help. "Th-This... This isn't how things are supposed to be..."

As the newcomer staggered onwards, Phantasmagoria accompanied her, with none of the usual spring to her step. Normally, she'd only follow a light girl while joining Kiru in a chase. Watching someone's worldview get shattered beyond repair, though... There was just something about that she couldn't ignore.

"Can't argue with ya there," she muttered. "But it is what it is."

---

@Noxx @SimpleWriter

Just as suddenly as the attacker's battle-rage had come on, it stopped. As the shield faded, Angelite kept her wings curled around her body, keeping on her guard and primed to regrow her crystal shell if she had to. This could be some kind of trick, after all. Instead of resuming the fight, though, the girl muttered a threat before slipping into the shadows.

Angelite stared blankly in the direction the crazed girl had vanished. "I'm not even going to try to make sense of that," she muttered, before turning to Soma. "Are you alright?"

The chaos had died down, not just in front of them but all around them. Remnants of the last few Nightmares floated and faded like smoke from doused flames. It should have felt like a victory, but with all the carnage spread throughout the city, could it really be said to have been such?

As if denying the situation could change it, Angelite shook her head, only looking up when a glimpse of green and white flitted into view.

"Gaia... Oh thank goodness you're ok," the crystal user breathed, pushing through the aches in her limbs and running to her. "Have you seen Alara?"

Eve and her partner had shoved their way outside and begun to clear the infestation of nightmares that were massing around Elina’s home until all at once it was over, the once threat started to poof away to smoke one after another. Eve looked around in wonderment this being the first time she had witnessed what looked like a retreat from an enemy with no wherewithal or inclination to do so in the past.

“Soma!” Eve suddenly gasped, looking back at Elina with pleading eyes

The chaos down in the streets of the town threw the girl into a frenzy as her protective nature for her younger sister kicked in snatching up Elina without listening to the girl’s protests. Diving deep underwater into the Sunken world she shot both her and her friend at nearly forty miles and steadily climbing, Eve’s impressive strength along with manipulating the water current it must have looked like a miniature tidal wave rampaging through the streets. Eventually, with no one to attack the Sunken World kicked Eve out, ejecting the two of them at the blinding speed they were originally swimming into their feet Elina having to cling to Eve as she transitioned smoothly losing little inertia until natural resistance slowed her down; when all was said and done the two girls were exactly where Soma’s house used to be.

“Soma!” Eve huffed clawing around the now vacant lot for some form of clue as to where her last living family member could have gone now.

---

Meanwhile, at Soma’s actual location the shield girl was completely passed out ignorant of the danger that showed up and left even more so now that the threat was completely over. Gaia rejoined the girls to hopefully offer assistance. Looking to the sky a dark shadow appeared above the party and quickly grew in size until it hit the ground with the force of a wrecking ball breaking open the pavement, out of the smoke and rubble stood a six-foot metal woman.

“Sorry the cavalry came late just entered Japan’s air space, let me offer aid” she spoke quickly scooping Soma up in her arms.

---

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