How could I have gotten so distracted? Violet brooded as she strode down the corridor leading to the primary R&D lab. If I do not hurry, I shall be late for my meeting with Father… Simply unacceptable!

For one who held herself to such a high standard, Violet found her behavior more than a little worrying. She had never been late to a meeting before. Indeed, she had never even considered that such a thing would ever occur. Now, said occurrence was looking increasingly likely… Clenching her teeth with renewed determination, she moved along the corridor with even longer, more purposeful strides. Unfortunately, she was so deep in thought that she failed to noticed the scientist carrying a large stack of papers, who was just now rounding the corner ahead of her…

“Oh crap!” The scientist cried out in alarm. The next instant, the two women collided, causing the scientist’s papers to fly in every direction. “Great… Just great…” the scientist grumbled as she knelt down to gather up the scattered pages. “Why can’t people ever watch where they’re going in this place…”

“How dare you?!” Violet exclaimed, her tone filled with indignation. “First you lack the coordination to remove yourself from my path, and then you have the audacity to address me in such an impudent manner! I demand that you apologize at once!”

“M-Miss Covington!” the scientist gasped at the revelation of other young woman’s identity. “Oh my gosh! I’m so very, very sorry! I had no idea it was you! Please, oh please forgive me!” she pleaded, bowing before the heiress in supplication.

Yes, get on your knees and bow before me, Violet thought imperiously. That is the proper place for a peasant like you. Wait… Are these papers?

“What are these?” Violet asked pointing to the sheets of paper scattered about the corridor.

“T-These are my notes, Miss Covington,” the scientist explained. “I was just on my way to—”

“Why are they written on paper? Are you so unskilled with modern technology that you could not store them digitally?”

“W-Well, you see, Miss Covington—”

“And you doodle in the margins?” Violet added, after she’d taken a closer look at the papers, her voice dripping with contempt. “What are you a child? Depart from my presence immediately. And if I ever observe such disrespectful behavior from you again, your employment shall be terminated on the spot. Is that understood?”

“Y-Yes, Miss Covington! It won’t ever happen again! You have my word!”

As if that meant something… Violet mused as she watched the flustered scientist depart.

Continuing on her way, Violet reached her destination with mere seconds to spare.

“Ah, I see you’ve finally decided to join us,” her father noted as she entered the lab.

“My apologies, Father,” Violet replied with a submissive bow of her head. “I do hope I haven’t missed anything important. There were some matters that needed my personal attention, and, in addition to that, while I made my way here, one of your more absent-minded scientists actually collided with me in the corridor! You really must give them a lecture on attentiveness, Father. After all, such an utter lack of concentration and awareness must certainly carry over to their lab work.”

“I believe that is a lecture I shall allow you to give, my dear princess,” the elder Covington said with a knowing smile. “And you needn’t worry about having missed anything important. I am well aware that the Covington Combat Drone program has always been a particular fascination of yours, so I insisted the staff postpone their presentation until your arrival.”

“Thank you, Father,” Violet said, a slight smile of appreciation curving the corner of her lips. “That was most generous of you.”

“Nonsense,” her father replied with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I simply did not wish to be deprived of your insightful observations. If not for them, this project would still be little more than designs on a drawing board, rather than the technological marvels we have before us.”

With that, he gestured to where several humanoid machines stood at attention. The Covington Combat Drones were the apex of the corporation’s weapons technology program. Fully autonomous, they were armored with advanced alloys and armed with the most state-of-the-art weapons Covington Industries’ army of brilliant scientists could devise. And now, it appeared that a new breakthrough promised to make them even more formidable.

“Yes, indeed, Miss Covington!” the head of the Advanced Robotics Division agreed. “On behalf of the team, we are all deeply grateful that you could be here today to witness the achievements your invaluable assistance have produced!”

“Up until now, the CCDs have been mere robots, driven by primitive AI,” the scientist continued. “Today, however, marks the first step beyond that, the first step towards true integration of man and machine! Not as crude cybernetic fusions of flesh and metal, but as unions of human mind and artificial body. Thanks to recent advances in VR technology, advances pioneered by Covington Industries, of course, we are now able to link a human consciousness to more than simply a virtual avatar. We can now allow a trained soldier to essentially ‘pilot’ our combat drones from a safe location, far from the danger of the battlefield. Can you imagine the possible applications? Not just in the military sphere, but in the civilian world as well?”

Violet could indeed imagine it. The possibilities were certainly vast, but the most immediate thoughts that sprang to mind were first response operations: police, firefighters, and emergency medical personnel. In a devastated city like Penrose, such things were in both urgent need and short supply. If Covington Industries was seen as taking an active hand in the city’s recovery, it would be a major public relations coup. This was something the massive corporation could most assuredly use, especially in the wake of the numerous allegations recently made against it by environmental activists and various humanitarian groups.

“Yes,” Violet said with an approving nod. “Your team has done quite well, doctor. Wouldn’t you agree, Father?”

“I would indeed,” the elder Covington concurred. “But that is not all, my darling daughter. Doctor, show her your team’s latest creation.”

“Of course, sir. It would be my great honor.”

Taping a button on his tablet’s display, the scientist directed their attention to where a new machine was rising dramatically from the floor. It was clear to see that the new arrival was far more advanced than the other drones. It was also far larger, towering above the other designs, in a commanding fashion. It also seemed quite a bit more elegant compared to the other, more brutish automatons.

“This is our most advanced creation,” the scientist declared. “The very pinnacle of our efforts, a design worthy to be the commander of an entire robotic army, leading our Crimson Knights and Silver Sentinels to victory in every engagement!”

“I call it the Violet Princess,” the elder Covington said, his voice filled with pride. “In honor of you, my daughter.”

For several seconds, Violet was speechless. To have so deadly and beautiful a war machine bear her name… It was a far greater honor than she had ever imagined, and an unquestionable sign of her father’s love and admiration.

“T-Thank you, Father,” Violet said after a moment. “I-I find myself struggling to conceive the proper words with which to fully convey my appreciation.”

“Do not even try to, my princess,” her father told her warmly. “It is an honor you fully deserve. I could not be more proud of you, Violet,” he continued, beaming down at her. “You truly are a worthy successor to our illustrious line.”

Violet’s heart swelled with joy at the sound of her father’s words. That was, after all, what she lived for, what she had been groomed and trained to be. She would lead the Covington Family to a bright and prosperous future, and nothing in the present would stand against that. Yes, her little supernatural problem would soon be taken care of. Her coming meeting with the Mint’s operatives would see to that. But… What if she could take a more active role in such proceedings, to be a participant, rather than simply an observer? Casting her gaze upon the menacing form of the Violet Princess, the heiress felt the corners of her lips form a slight smile.

With this morning’s recent developments, I may have been provided with the opportunity to do just that…

---

Once again, Connie found herself on the roof of a skyscraper alongside Mia, staring down at the headquarters of Covington Industries. Both magical girls were bundled up in their cold weather robes, although they offered slim protection against the icy wind, which howled around them. Unlike the night before, however, Connie was in much higher spirits, her confidence having received a fairly significant boost after the morning’s unexpected combat training session.

“I can’t wait to hang out with Faith again!” Connie told her nymph-like friend. “She’s so nice and encouraging! Don’t worry, though,” she added after a moment in a playful tone. “She’s still no match for you, Mia. I’m so glad we became friends,” she said softly as she laid her head upon the other girl’s shoulder. “You’re like the big sister I never had.”

“And you are like the little sister I never had,” Gaia replied, gently nuzzling Connie’s head with her own. “Although… My little sister has certainly been doing a lot of growing up lately,” she added with a warm smile.

“Thanks, Mia. And speaking of, I guess we should get started, huh?”

“Indeed,” Gaia agreed. “Whenever you are ready.”

“Okay!”

Focusing her mystic energies, Connie directed what she hoped was a weak nightmare pulse at the rough location where Thane Covington would be sleeping. After a moment had passed, she retrieved the Eye of Fear from the folds of her robe and gazed into the mystic artifact to see what effects her nightmares were having. After what had occurred the previous night, she tried to steel herself for what she might encounter, but unlike that night, or any night for that matter, all she saw in the window projected by the crystalline sphere was a middle-aged man sleeping peacefully.

“Umm… I think something’s wrong, Mia,” Connie said, her tone betraying her concern. “My nightmare pulse doesn’t seem to be working…”

“I can see that,” Gaia replied as she gazed intently at the scene displayed before them. “Perhaps you’re still tired from this morning,” she suggested. “Your spell might have been too weak. Try using a more powerful pulse.”

“O-Okay…” Connie said hesitantly. “I just don’t want to hurt him…”

“Relax, Connie,” Gaia told her soothingly. “If anything happens, I am right here. Trust me,” she added putting a reassuring arm around her friend’s shoulders. “Everything will be fine.”

Connie gave a reluctant nod, before summoning up her power and unleashing an even stronger pulse of nightmare magic. But after a moment, it became clear that this, too, would have no effect on the sleeping magnate.

“I-I don’t understand it… This always worked before…”

“Hmm… It is rather strange…” Gaia agreed, while an elegant finger tapped against her emerald lips. “I can’t seem to think of any reason why this wouldn’t be working. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“Oh, it’s probably nothing,” Gaia replied, swiftly changing the subject. “Nothing for us to worry about at any rate.” She added with a smile that she hoped would be convincing. “Come on, there are plenty of other people in this city deserving of some good nightmares. Let’s go visit them, and concern ourselves with this little problem tomorrow.”

“Okay, Mia. If you think that’s best…” Connie acceded. “You are the big sister, after all!” she added with a giggle.

“Indeed I am!” Gaia declared, only too happy to play along and take her friend’s mind off the current concerning situation. “So let us press onward, little sister! More nightmares await!”

Gaia only hoped that none of those nightmares would be for them.

As the two friends departed, another pair of mystical beings arrived at the nearby Covington Tower, two beings who, incidentally, had quite an interest in the departing duo. As it was, however, the two pairs passed by one another without incident, or even notice, like ships in the night. The time for their meeting would come, of course, but it would have to wait for a bit. For now, another meeting was about to take place…

---

As with the previous night, Violet sat in her study, going over various weapons schematics and data feeds on her array of holographic displays. The room was slightly more illuminated this night, however, due to the presence of a dim desk lamp. This was less a concession to her hopefully-soon-to-be-arriving guests, and more as a way for her to get a better idea of exactly whom she would be dealing with. Shadows and secrecy had their place, but tonight she would be entrusting these agents with a very important task, and she wished to truly convey this to them face to face, in every sense of the expression.

The hour specified for the meeting had scarcely struck, when Violet sensed two new presences enter the room. Looking up from her work, she saw two forms standing on the far side of the darkened chamber.

“Viper and Vermin Killer, I presume?” Violet inquired coolly. “Please take a seat at the desk so that we may converse like civilized individuals.”

”Viper?” The dark figure in a top hat turned to the other. ”How fortunate that we get to meet face to face, but let’s conduct business with the client first.” A raven pushed its way out of his vest and flew a complete circle around the room, cawing once it got to the opposite end where Violet stood. ”Just checking for traps. Common procedure.” Vermin Killer strode towards the desk. Once there, he took a look under his chair before seating himself.

The person Vermin Killer had spoke to suddenly turned visible, though only barely due to the darkness that still lingered. She had clung to the ceiling like a spider, but acrobatically slid down the wall with a single hand and foot, making no sound as she landed on the floor. When Viper stepped closer to the desk, Violet could see that she matched the mugshot of her in the app, including the intense gaze of her eyes as she now held a sealed envelope, offering it to Violet.
“Here is the address to the party,” she stated, and after the exchange was completed she would take the other seat, crossing her legs.
“According to the brief you want a nightmare creator out of the picture and some Almanac, correct?” She asked, her agitation present despite her attempts to suppress it.

“Correct,” Violet confirmed. “But before they can be eliminated, they must first be found, which, I’m told is your area of expertise. On the subject of the Almanac, I was initially under the impression that Al Scarpe would be able to arrange a meeting with its current owner so that I might be permitted to borrow it for a brief time. Am I instead to assume that you wish to clandestinely retrieve said tome for me?”

”Al is a busy man, and Mint is a large organization. He told us the basics. Viper covered that, and you have confirmed as much.” Vermin Killer drew a cane from his coat and tapped it against the ground. ”Now it’s up to you to tell us, the ones who are going to carry out your wishes, how you’d like it to be done. Would you like this nightmare creator killed a particular way? Maybe you want them brought back for questioning first? Maybe something symbolic like removing their eyelids so they can’t dream? Same with the almanac. We can borrow it, steal it, copy the pages. It just depends on what you want.” He drove the cane between his knees and leaned on it. ”Of course this is going to take time. Time inversely proportionate to how much information you already have. Knowing what the dream eater looks like, roughly where they are situated, all of that will make things go a lot smoother. ” A pause. ”Oh, and details of what they’ve done. It would be embarrassing if we were summoned to deal with what amounted to a child’s generic night terrors.”

“Once the party responsible is located, I should like for them to be brought to me for questioning, after which, I should like for them to be thoroughly disposed of, in a manner that will send a message to others of their ilk that attacks upon my family will not be tolerated. As to their appearance, I know absolutely nothing, which is why I require Viper’s services. I was told you were the best the Mint has to offer when it comes to locating individuals of interest,” she said to the tracker. “I trust I was not misled in that regard. And as for your final request, I have compiled a file which you may peruse at your leisure,” she told Vermin Killer, handing the assassin a small data stick. “But, in brief, they have caused several CEOs and prominent figures in the Penrose underworld to suffer a string of violent, recurring nightmares. My illustrious father was one of these victims, and while I shall not go into details on exactly what he experienced, I shall tell you with complete certainty that it was not a child’s night terrors. If this is not enough to convince you of the reality of my claims, then I invite you to consider one final piece of evidence. My father has been beset by these nightmares for the past week, but tonight, the first night that I have had Mr. Scarpe’s pendant in my possession, he has slept with complete serenity. I highly doubt that this is a coincidence. In regard to the Almanac, I would prefer if it were simply borrowed, and in a manner that leaves no evidence that it was ever gone. I have no great desire to offend someone whom I may wish to conduct business with in the future.”

“Live bagging, huh?” Viper scoffed, and rolled her eyes at the question addressed to her.
“The Mint would be correct in stating that.” At that moment, shadows enveloped her for but the briefest moment, and the person who sat in the chair had changed completely in appearance; Violet couldn’t help but blink, as she was now looking at her mirror image; her clothes, hair, even her posture and body language were identical to hers.
Viper also had Violet’s voice as she spoke. “There is no information I cannot acquire.”
She then changed back just as quickly, a little smirk on her lips. “So the attacks have continued? That means the attacker’s still in Penrose. It’s going to be a pain, but I’ll find them.” She gave an evil smile. “Maybe they’ll have nightmares then, ufu~”
“As for the Almanac’s current owner, I know she’s still operating in the city, but she doesn’t live here. I’ve seen her use portal magic, so she could be literally anywhere. She is also fond of surveillance; we’ve found some cameras she has planted. One way to contact her is by leaving a message at one of those cameras.”

”The portal witch is not a concern. I have that aspect of this well under control.” Vermin Killer tipped his hat. ”Though we may need to work together to get the Almanac. If our client simply wishes to borrow it, I would suggest creating a copy by taking pictures of the pages. Unless she desires to hold the genuine article.” He turned over the data stick in his hand. ”I don’t think this will work on my phone. May I have access to your computer?”

“You may,” Violet replied. “To a certain extent.”

Her elegant fingers played over the holographic keyboard for a brief moment as she isolated a single display from the primary network, before turning said display to face Vermin Killer.

“You may use this. I have already brought up the relevant information for you. Peruse it at your leisure. As for the Almanac, I believe I should like to have the physical manuscript. I have learned that there are certain facets of such tomes that are lost when simply copied.”

”So we’re stealing the Almanac, letting you look at it, and then returning it.” The Vermin Killer smiled. ”How contrived. It may be difficult to hide the fact that it was ever taken, depending on how fast you read.”

“I am fortunate enough to possess a photographic memory, so no more than a single night shall be necessary,” Violet replied, her tone suffused with confidence.

“...Even if you do, might be a good idea to snatch some shots of the dusty pages,” Viper sneered. “Anything else, miss?”

“I believe that shall be all for this evening,” Violet replied. “I eagerly await the fruits of your efforts.”

”A single night is long enough for the owner to discover the almanac is stolen. I must stress this, as the portal witch is cautious and methodical.” He stood up and yanked the data stick out of the computer. ”But the almanac will be yours in time.” Vermin Killer gave the briefest of nods before turning around to leave, his cane softly thumping the floor as he moved along. ”If you’re hungry, Viper, I know a good place to eat.”

Viper stood up from her seat and gave devil horns on one hand. “Awesome. I’m starving over here.” She gave one last look at Violet, and gave her a scowl. “Later.” She was wrapped up by shadows, and disappeared, leaving no trace of her exit.

---

A man, massive in height, broad of shoulder, sat upon the bench of a public playground, watching as a monochromatic girl swung back and forth on the swing set, her gothic attire perfectly suiting the dreary weather. Neither of them made any sound, and the world was dominated by the creaking of chains, the roar of a distant plane. Peaceful; this was how the world should be. He adjusted the multitude of white roses pinned to his suit, clicking his head at disapproval when a couple wilted petals fell out of their own accord, before shaking his head.

“Well, Eden Campbell, was it? Or do you prefer Cynthia Martell? Heard ya got quite an interesting proposition for me, so...go on ahead. Whatcha need ol’ Sharpe for?”

”That name of mine has started making the rounds, huh?” Eden replied. She took her seat beside Al, the large, patchwork coat that hallmarked her human disguise creasing slightly as she sat. ”Suppose that’s four years of work keeping things quiet for nothing then. I wanted to source this locally, rather than turn to you, but apparently my specialists just aren’t special enough for this. As of the past two months, I’ve come into a large collection of magical energy - I need a receptacle that can safely accept it, and convert it into a spell of the users choosing, and I need it within the next week. You think that’s possible?”

“Secrets tend ta be easier spread than sealed, yeah.” Al Sharpe chuckled slightly, reclining further against the bench. “And the Mint’s settling back here now, so don’t worry yer pretty little head over whether or not you’re supporting local businesses, darlin’.” Another laugh. The bench creaked as the man’s body shook with mirth. Settling down after a moment. Al Sharpe brushed a couple of white petals off his suit, before turning his inhuman gaze fully onto the magical girl.

“As for this little receptacle o’ yours...suppose this is fer the rave?”

”And after,” out of her periphery Eden could see him looking her over, though she didn’t turn to look back in kind. Hands in her pockets, leaning backwards into the bench, her own gaze resided firmly on the girl at the swings. ”Collecting large quantities of Magical Energy isn’t much good if I can’t use it. There’ll probably be quite a bit of fighting in the near future, and a lot of energy to collect. An easy way to use it all’d be nice. How much of my soul’s that gonna cost me, eh?”

“Militarizing so eagerly?” Al Sharpe shook his head, more bemused than disappointed. “Always a tragedy to see journalists having to take sides, and doing so in such a drastic manner.” The giant tapped one of the spikes protruding from the side of his head, sparks pinging off it on contact, before saying, “Souls aren’t exactly a product the Mint’s interested in, unfortunately, ‘specially not one so cheap as yours…”

The Mint broker removed his finger from the spike, resting instead upon the head of one of his wooden puppets. He stroked it carefully, and the doll rattled, arms flailing in a panic. Though it damaged his roses, the squirming of these little toys always did bring a smile to Al Sharpe’s face. Didn’t count for much though, when everything did. “Remind me, Eden, how many magical girls does the PI employ again?”

”As of late,” she pulled a hand from her pockets, and reached deeply into her coat. ”Thirty one agents are employed. The Ascendancy has managed to both cull and boost our numbers.”

“Enough for a full class,” he replied. “Well, these sorts of receptacles are usually things only large organizations get to play with, y’see. If I were to get one of my...associates to craft something of that magnitude for the PI, hm…” With a snap of his fingers, Al Sharpe popped the head off one of his dolls, instantly ending its squirming. He rolled it between his fingers gently, molding it into a perfect sphere, before flicking it off into the frost-covered wood chips of the playground.

“Say, Eden, how ‘bout just working under the Mint?”

”Sorry, I don’t sign with record labels,” Eden retorted. Visibly she rummaged through the pocket for a number of moments, attempting to find something lost within its depths. Then she stopped, as if she’d found the things she was looking for, and withdrew her hand - empty, holding nothing. ”Should I be offended that you don’t consider us a large organisation? I mean, you could always come work for me instead - at least you won’t have to meet in places like this, but I guess you’re not much of a gambling man, are you? You’re too happy with where you are. So, what would you take instead?”

“Thirty-one girls is a club at best, not an organization,” Al Sharpe said, “Thought a playground would suit y’all just fine.” He laughed at that, a joke with no real threat behind it, before sitting up properly. “Being honest though, the PI becoming a subset of the Mint is the most generous offer I can give. We do watch out for the interests of our own, after all.”

“As for what else I’d take...it honestly feels out of your league, y’know? As far as track records go, the PI doesn’t exactly have the reputation to handle anything the Mint can’t do alone.” A shrug, a smirk. “Of course, you’re free to prove me wrong, but something like that will have to be done...beyond whatever deal we’re to broker regarding your receptacle.”

"Is that right?" for the first time since the meeting began, and she sat on the bench, Eden looked towards Al Sharpe. The gaze itself was apathetic, but somewhere deep behind it she was scanning him, taking in his every aspect, understanding him, at least on a physical level. She leant forwards, resting her elbows on her knees, and looked up into the giant man's eyes. "From what I hear, The Mint's got a lot of outstanding problems, don't they? Agents and Coin Brokers running off to join The Cradle, Chloe Irving's doing whatever she feels like, Veronica's off the grid completely and consorting with Beacon. If you wouldn't mind saying, The Vermin Killer's Mint, ain't he? - and he couldn't even take out Shion successfully. If it were my agents fucking up so consistently, well... honestly, I'd be disappointed, y'know? I'm not exactly sure what kind of third rate Magical Girls you employ over there, but see, when we do a job, we do it properly. 'Doesn't have the reputation', have you been paying attention lately? Or did you miss the Janet Howell Trial, which we had out as public knowledge within hours of its conclusion. I'll ask again - what will it cost?"

“So you’ve reported on a trial; congratulations,” Al Sharpe responded. With his eyes and face the way they were, it was hard to tell what sort of expression was hidden behind the constant smile of his. “Any news agency could have gotten that done, and your work elsewhere has been...unsatisfactory, no? The Mint’s got its hands on quite a few things these days; can’t exactly be bothered dealing with pests who’ve isolated themselves in a single city, y’know?”

A pause, a tilting of the head. Whatever machinery was within Al Sharpe’s skull was creaking now. “But I appreciate your gumption, if nothing else, Eden, so I’ll give you a chance to do something...bigger than merely printing local publications every month or two. Test the viability of dealing with your ‘professional’ group of middle school children.” Sparks bounced off the spikes again, as Al Sharpe toyed with another one of his dolls. “What do you think of Penny?”

"Penny Asimov," she echoed, sliding back against the rest of the bench, finished with her attempt at persuasion, or intimidation. She had no intention of fighting it further, not when he wasn't half wrong in the first place. For as strong as Eden herself was, The Penrose Independent was a drop in the pond. As she thought, she reached into her coat once more, delving into the opposite pocket from before, and fished out a small folder, labelled with Penny's name. She quickly undid the binding, to reveal a number of pictures. Some dated back to the Graveyard and further, but many were seemingly from The Beach. "Physically, she's probably the most powerful Magical Girl I've ever seen. One of the most connected in Penrose, too. She's allied with Beacon, Cindy Ford, and about a dozen other girls, including myself, though she's pretty heavily connected to Alicia Hayden and Chloe Irving mainly, especially since she's dating the latter. She's had dealings with Veronica in the past as well.

"Personally I think she's valuable - a bit too volatile maybe, but valuable, mainly as a combat asset," the assessment was truthful, if only thanks to her nature. She wouldn't have been surprised if The Mint already knew everything she was saying, but she wasn't interested in lying, or giving half-cocked information. "If you're looking for weaknesses, well, she's prone to overreacting, and is pretty weak magically. Course, you've got her girlfriend and other connections, and there's a Monster Girl called Thalia Alvoy who she's relatively attached to. I also noticed some audio distortion in a conversation I had with her the other day, so it's possible she's becoming more Corrupted."

“Oh, I don’t care about ‘common’ information, Eden. Really, I don’t care much about her at all.” Al Sharpe’s eyes flickered briefly towards the child still playing on the swings. “But y’see, I have it on good authority that Penny was recently...split in half. Human on one side, machine on the other side. And I also happen to know a...pervert of sorts that’s quite interested in divine machinery.”

The doll squirmed, shook, until its limbs were rattled out of its joints.

“Let’s call it a down payment. Either bring the machine, incapicitated, or bring accurate blueprints of its construction on all three levels: magical, physical, and spiritual. I usually wouldn’t give any sort of time limit for such work, but considering how pertinent this rave is...” The giant chuckled. “Once you’ve completed this assignment, the receptacle’s yours, and we’ll discuss the terms of your mortgage. Does that sound fair, or would you prefer, now, to just join in on ol’ Sharpe’s family business?”

”Figured as much,” Eden redid the binding on the folder, and slid it back into her pocket. This had gone poorly. Almost every moment since she sat down had been one fuck up after another. And now she was stuck between two less-than-ideal offers. She hadn’t known about Penny’s split, that alone was enough to beat herself up over, but the rest of the meeting was simply further punishment. ”Blueprints on her construction? That should be fairly easy. I’ll have them drafted in three days, and have them delivered by the fourth - to The Bowery, unless you’ve got somewhere else in mind?”

“Hrm...just send me a message; I’ll have someone collect. Now, for the contract…”

Al Sharpe motioned towards the girl on the swing, and the monochrome girl immediately hopped off, striding over at a controlled, graceful pace. Producing a matchbox from her frilly sleeves, she slid it open, before extracting a scroll, too large to naturally fit in such a container. Dark red script filled the yellowed parchment, already filled with the terms that Al Sharpe had just come up with. With a nod of her head, the girl handed the contract over to Eden for her inspection, before withdrawing a simple dagger from the matchbox as well.

Al Sharpe took it this time, slicing open his thumb. A greenish ichor seeped out. He wiped the blade with the cuff of his suit, stuck it into the bench, and pressed his bloodied thumb against the bottom of the parchment.

He motioned again.

“Go on ahead. Let’s seal the deal, eh?”

Without a sound, Eden pulled the blade from the wood of the bench, and drew it across her thumb. A black, viscous substance pooled within the open wound, and slowly began to spill down towards her palm, until she pressed it into the parchment. For as far as she could read, the terms were exactly as had been laid out in the conversation. This was a deal she could make, at least in relative comfort. Though, it was still The Mint she was dealing with.

Once two thumbprints, both made of inhuman blood, were made upon the parchment, the edges of it began to char, before the entire document dissolved to ash. Still rubbing his thumb, Al Sharpe stood up and said, with a tip of his hat, “Well, it’s been a pleasure, Eden. Hope ya prove me wrong, but we’ll just hafta see about that, won’t we?”

”Yeah. We’ll see,” Eden reciprocated the gesture with a tip to the bill of her cap. She remained seated, watching Al stand and prepare to leave. Just two more stages, and she would be ready. ”See ya around, Al.”

“Mhmm.”

And with that, the giant strode off, humming a song under his breath.

The gothic girl remained where she was for a moment, before bowing once towards Eden and dissolving to dust.

---

It was a few days from the Split as Penny was starting to refer to the incident. She had been spending a fair bit of her free time simply assisting in the day to day operations of keeping the Sanctuary running. Her physicality was less than it used to be, but her magical ability went from laughable to simply megar so that was still something she was able to do to help in the expansion of the place.

At the moment however she wasn’t working on that, nor was she about to go out on another patrol which she would do from time to time, nor was she off to try and track down any more leads on Sammy. She needed to hear back from her other half before she could do that. No, today she was looking for Cindy. As Penny had just remembered her deal with Eden.

“Cindy!” Penny would call out cheerfully when she finally found the regal monstergirl “Do you have a moment to talk?”

Cindy was overseeing the construction of a new tunnel when she noticed Penny calling out to her. “Goblina, take over from us,” she ordered ,and the smaller monster girl saluted.
She stepped to the sidelines to speak with the newly-changed dark magical girl.
“I currently do. Now, speak your mind, Penny.”

“Do you know much about the PI?” Penny would ask “I had a run in with them a couple days before you made your proclamation. They gave me some information in an attempt to help me track down Thalia again in return for a favor.” She would explain briefly “Well their boss, a girl by the name of Eden Campbell got a hold of me recently and wanted to cash in the favor. I was happy to agree as it was a really simple one. She wants to meet and talk business with you.” She would explain as she looked around at the tunnel still in construction.

“At least one of the things she wanted to talk about was getting a hold of a Red Coin to try and help Thalia, as her Monstrous half has gone kinda psycho”

Cindy had a tense look as she heard certain topics brought, most reactive to the mention of Thalia.
"The fox girl? I have received reports of one running amok in town, killing anything that comes too close. Thus, we have kept our distance." She tapped a finger on her chin, or the electric energy equivalent of one. "Tell Eden to meet me on top of the Town Hall at Dawn. I also have business to discuss with her."

---

Dawn had come, but Eden had arrived early. Despite her predilection to remain disguised, making her way up onto the roof had been an easy task; humans tended not to question things when presented with paperwork and identification, of which she and The Penrose Independent had access to in abundance. Magical resources had been stretched thin with The Ascendancy crawling every street of Penrose, but the mundane resources she had access to never dried up.

She had taken her perch on the edge, legs held over the side and allowed to dangle freely in the open air. Even if she was affected by the cold of the night, the thick coat she made her motif kept out the worst of it. With her collar turned up, her form was obscured from behind, save the red-purple hair that leaked out from under her cap. Eden stayed sat, for an hour, waiting for dawn and the meeting to arrive, looking out over Penrose City.

”Should be about time.”

Eden saw as a streak of electricity raced across the sky. As it came closer, she would see it had the shape of a humanoid female, her eyes intense as they looked upon her.
She slowly floated down, landing on the rooftop with a small crackle of static.
“Eden Campbell, I presume?” The mass of living electromagnetic energy approached the disguised girl with a smile. “I am Cindy, Queen of Penrose. I have heard from Penny that you sought an audience with me on the matters of business.
Now, what business would it be that you desire?” She asked.

”Yup, hiding my name isn’t gonna do me any good anymore,” she sighed. Her head tilted to look behind her, over her shoulder and towards Cindy. A living mass of lightning - as far as Monstrous Mutations went, she was easily one of the most curious Eden had come across. Her eyes trained on Cindy’s, scanning her face and body with a quiet intensity. ”We never got a chance to speak back when you first arrived. This probably would’ve been worth doing a long time ago - but I could do with your help.

“Things are… difficult, at the moment. The Ascendancy has been hurting some good people,” as she spoke, Eden looked back out across the city. For a moment she paused, and then lifted herself up off the edge of the roof. She began walking, towards Cindy, hair fluttering slightly in the breeze. ”Good people that thought I’d protect them. I want to do something about it - fight back against The Ascendancy - but with my numbers, I’m not sure I’d win. But you might. If you’d be willing to accept, The Penrose Independent will back your claim on Penrose, and join you in the war that’s coming.”

Cindy's expression, though a bit difficult to read due to her nature, still showed enough doubt for Eden to recognize. "I did not think the local news would wish to wage war against a fearsome power like the Ascendancy. Then again, they do rob the futures of everyone they meet, yours included. Based on what my people have spoken, you employ monster kind among others, without bias. That is commendable."
She looked to the distance. "I do wonder if your intentions are limited to revenge and freedom. Regardless, your offer is a welcome one." She offered a hand to shake. "I am willing to enter an alliance. However, I must first ask what you want from me besides assistance in the war to come?"

”Dunno if it’s commendable,” as Cindy looked past her, Eden stepped up before her, eyeing the handshake with vague curiosity. She didn’t often accept handshakes. But this one she did. ”Call my intentions a debt. To an old friend, and her dream. We - I, am a Monster Girl. It’d be hypocritical if I didn’t hire the ones who need my security the most. On that note, there’s another debt I need to clear, to Penny. She probably already gave you the details, but I need a Red Coin for a girl named Thalia - she came to you on the night you claimed Queenship. I owe Penny, and to that end, I’ve pledged to help save her friend.”

Eden felt a small jolt of electricity as she shook hands with Cindy, followed by a pleasant tingle; based on Cindy’s attentive look, it might have been a test of hers to gauge her reaction.
“Regardless, you provide hope to the downtrodden and the outcast. That is something that can’t be denied. As for Thalia, I do remember her; she is truly a misfortunate soul, burdened with grief and rage.” She nodded at the request. “I see. I can grant this boon, to honor your debt to Penny.” She then reached into her body, and brought out a sealed plastic bag. She opened it, and took out a coin of a vivi crimson hue: the Red Coin.
“However,” she then spoke, holding the coin on her palm. “In return, you will swear fealty to me as my vassal, and work for the good of monsterkind. For this night, and all nights to come.”

”Swear fealty, right,” with her fingerless gloves, only a small area of her hand made contact with Cindy’s body. But for it all, there was no reaction; not a single, subtle twitch or change. But, for the first time in any of her meetings that week, Eden managed a small laugh. Something heartfelt, borne of a memory that she closed her eyes on to remember. ”I haven’t had to pledge my allegiance to someone since Primary, Christ. No time like the present to try again though, I guess. My name is Eden Campbell.

“And you are my Queen,” at the end of the statement, she stepped back a small distance. Her right foot moved in front of her left, and her right arm moved horizontally across her chest. It was a more masculine bow, but Eden had no intention of lifting her coat like a dress. When she came back upright, she made half a move to reach for the Coin, though not fully committing, to allow Cindy to make it easier, and obvious that it was allowed. ”Not sure if there’s, like, any sort of Rites I’ve gotta take or anything. I’ve already bowed once, that’d better be all there is to it."

Cindy seemed very pleased with the courteous gesture that Eden displayed. She opened her palm, allowing Eden to take the Red Coin. "The Rites you shall perform next are those you choose yourself, to dedicate yourself to the crown." She smiled, and closed her palm. "I expect great things from you, Eden Campbell. But be warned; if you are to ever cross me...The Queen's blade shall be swift in taking your head off."

”Well, I suppose that’s some assurance,” Eden replied half-heartedly, eyes locked to the Red Coin she now held. Her eyes flicked across it rapidly, as though she were reading something, but for the moments of silence where she held it, her pupils remained unfocused. She wasn’t reading the power of the Coin - she was feeling it. Within a number of seconds, she turned to look back at Cindy, as she slid the coin into the depths of her coat’s inner pockets. ”If you don’t mind there’s one other thing I wanted to ask about. There are Monster Girls with - I don’t know how to describe it, the ability to project their auras as something tangible. The Bates had it, and surrounded the graveyard in it, but it wasn’t Specialisation based. I’m pretty sure it’s something innate, found in certain kinds of individuals. Do you have anyone like that serving you?”

Cindy put her hands to her hips, deep in thought. “Hmm...I have only seen Monster Queens possess that kind of power. They are ones who have dared to dip into the hellish gifts of the Ebon Mint even further. Most are overtaken by the power, and lose their minds. But a few have had the resolve to take it as their own. There is one such individual among my people. However, she is a reclusive one, seemingly afraid of losing herself to her wildness. I can arrange a meeting with them if you desire one.”

”If you wouldn’t mind, that’d be great,” she pushed her hands into her outer pockets, and leant against a large vent entrance nearby. ”But just so you know, if she agrees to help, I’ll want her at the party. I’ll keep her safe, and I’ll have Thalia give me her Meditation Stone so she isn’t so tense, but the first shots are probably going to happen there. When the time comes, I hope your people are ready to defend themselves.”

“...What makes you think so?” Cindy’s eyes sparked with electricity. “Why do you think violence will break out at the coming rave?”

”Why do you make it sound like it won’t?” Eden’s hands withdrew from her pockets, and crossed in front of her chest. For a moment, her gaze once again lingered on the skyline. ”There’s nothing too bold for The Ascendancy, and I have it on good authority that there’s an individual in their ranks who can nullify magic. Beacon has to attack for the same reason the party has to happen, frankly an assault is guaranteed; if we’re not ready then the war’s gonna start and end before we can even fight back.”

Cindy frowned. “So my suspicions were correct after all...There have been rumors circulating that Koothe Beacon has found the location.. However, I will personally make sure it won’t end in a riot. The party is meant to unite our hearts, and steel our resolve, not cause chaos and carnage!” She tapped her foot, and tiny sparks flew from the floor. “But what you mentioned is very intriguing. How much do you know of what is happening in Penrose? If you are to work as my vassal, you shall indulge the information you possess to your queen.”

”Honestly? Not as much as I’d like,” her foot began to tap, ever so slightly, against the roof of the town hall, which one of her index fingers began to match. The constant questioning was becoming tiring - all Eden had hoped for was a concise meeting, but it could never be that simple. And based on the way Cindy made no comments about being ready to fight, Eden couldn’t help but begin to agree with Elvira’s assessment. But even then, she reached into one of her pockets, and pulled out a photograph. It wasn’t exceptionally clear, and appeared slightly marred in interference or static, but it displayed the appearances of Leena and FanFan. ”The Penrose Independent has an agreement with Elvira, so we’ll be providing additional security in case things get out of hand. But if you want to help prevent a one-sided fight - one of these two girls has some magic nullification ability. If The Ascendancy attacks the party, they’ll be there, and the chances of anyone getting out unharmed go down massively. I’d say that’s probably the most valuable information I can give you, ‘cause stopping them is top priority.”

Cindy took the photograph, taking a closer look. "I see...They look very powerful. I recommend you exercise the utmost caution when dealing with them. Thank you for your hard work." She placed the photo in the plastic bag, and stuffed it inside her. "Well then, I must take my leave; if what you say is true, there will be a confrontation, and it is one I don't intend to lose. Therefore, our forces must be prepared. Let us stay connected for the future. Goodbye." She launched up into the sky, accelerating herself through electromagnetic forces far into the city.

”What do you think?” Eden asked aloud, remaining where she stood leant against the unit, watching Cindy vanish into the night. One more thing, she thought. And the stage would be set. There was no reply to her question, but she continued speaking regardless. ”She has spirit. Not sure that translates to being a good ruler, but we’ll see soon, I guess. At least she advocates helping everyone - you were big on that, I bet you two’d get along. Well… except for the whole hierarchy bit. Just hope she doesn’t fuck this up me.”

She pushed against the unit with her back, hand slipping into her pockets, as she began to walk, and whistle.

---

BZZZZT

On a lazy afternoon, the doorbell of Rina’s penthouse sounded, followed by the speaker sounding out. “Uh, hello, this is Nile Deliveries,” a male voice, rather high-pitched, sounded. “I’ve got a package for a...Katarina Nekrasova? Do I have the right address?”

Nile...deliveries?

Rina frowned. She hadn't been expecting any packages or deliveries or anything of the sort. In fact, she was staying at the Golden Trove with Mika since they had gotten back from the beach. She had only stopped by to grab a few things during her patrol. Weird. Maybe someone had the wrong person? Given Penrose state, she couldn't help but to think this wasn't a coincidence.

Putting a slice of Hawaiian Pizza onto a plate, she made her way over to the intercom to give a reply. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Ah, uh, ok. Could you open the door down here and I’ll bring it up? Or would you rather head down here yourself? Gotta get this thing signed, so I can’t exactly just leave it here…”

“Eh, I'll be down there in a second.” Rina said, before shutting off the intercom. She had to sign for it? Must be something important, but she hadn't ordered anything. As she left the apartment, this only seemed more and more suspicious. A minute or two later the delivery person would have the door to the place rather hurriedly opened.

“Yo,” Rina would greet them casually. “Nile deliveries?”

The person waiting at the doorstep was a young, pimply-faced man with a shock of unruly brown hair and a uniform that looked to be one size too large for him. ‘Nile Deliveries’ was branded on the cap that he wore, and when Rina opened the door, he bobbed his head. “Ah, you’re...Mrs Nekrasova’s daughter?”

A small box, perhaps the size of an encyclopaedia, was balanced on one hand, while he offered a tablet with a pen to Rina with his other. “Just sign here down below. Basically shows that you received the product and all.”

“Uh yeah, daughter.” Rina replied. Right, that was still odd sometimes being mistaken for a kid. She eyed the package curiously. A book? Maybe a computer tablet? Some sort of paper? Rina couldn't even begin to guess. Exhaling in mild annoyance, the magical girl took the tablet and pen, quickly signing her name. “Anything else?”

“No, thank you,” he said, taking the tablet back and handing over the package. “Have a nice day!”

With that, he moved to leave, heading back to his van.

Rina watched the delivery man leave, holding the package in her hands, shaking it lightly. Part of her just wanted to junk it and forget it existed. Whatever it was might be more trouble than it was worth, but...hm. Rina walked back inside, heading back up to her residence with the package in hand.
Soon she was back in her apartment, she moved the pizza box to a nearby counter and set the package on the table. Hesitantly, she picked up a nearby knife and opened the box.

There were two items inside, folded in corrugated paper. One was a tape recorder, the other a USB. Neither of them appeared to be magical in nature.

Rina picked up the USB drive cautiously. This setup felt like she was currently in some cheesy detective drama. They didn't seem magical, so she was fairly certain she was safe from anything of that nature, at least, but that didn't make the items any less concerning. Placing the USB back on the table, she picked up the tape recorder, turning it over in her hands a few times before hitting the play button to see if something had recorded.

After a couple seconds of static, two voices sounded, one male, one female, accompanied by the creaking of rusty metal.

“As of the past two months, I’ve come into a large collection of magical energy,” sounded the female voice. “I need a receptacle that can safely accept it, and convert it into a spell of the users choosing, and I need it within the next week. You think that’s possible?”

The male voice followed. “Secrets tend ta be easier spread than sealed, yeah. And the Mint’s settling back here now, so don’t worry yer pretty little head over whether or not you’re supporting local businesses, darlin’. As for this little receptacle o’ yours...suppose this is fer the rave?”

“And after. Collecting large quantities of Magical Energy isn’t much good if I can’t use it. There’ll probably be quite a bit of fighting in the near future, and a lot of energy to collect. An easy way to use it all’d be nice. How much of my soul’s that gonna cost me, eh?”

From there, the audio cut off, returning to static.

What...was this?

Rina listened to the brief exchange between what was apparently a Mint agent and a second party. Upon the tape finishing, Rina ran into the other room, snatching up a small laptop she rarely used these days. Magical energy? Receptacle and a spell? Were these the people behind the Rave? Hm...maybe, but they were probably just using it as a cover for whatever else they were planning.

Back at the table, Rina quickly booted up the laptop and plugged in the USB. She needed to see the rest of this before making any theories.

Inside the USB, there was one mp4 file, titled ‘Beacon_Ethiopia_August_4_2007’. Her antivirus didn’t pick anything up, and upon clicking it, the video was that of a static shot of a city in the distance, as if it were a CCTV recording. Dark green shrubbery dotted the arid dirt, and the sky was a brilliant cerulean, white clouds so perfect that it looked as if painted.

A minute passed in silence, before, strangely enough, the camera began to shake. Slowly to begin with, but the intensity raked up with each second. The sky brightened impossibly, the clouds turned to indiscernible vapor, and with a roar that recording devices could not capture properly, a massive pillar of light descended from the heavens, striking down into that Middle Eastern city.

A flash, an eruption, and the recording cut off..

For a moment, there was nothing but a black screen.

Then, something new popped up. An aerial shot, from a drone or a helicopter, sweeping over the blackened landscape. Only shadows of buildings remained; everything else was flattened completely. No, not everything.

There was a single person down below. Though the camera’s quality wasn’t enough to make out details, the quality reducing that individual into mere pixels, it could be seen, at least, that they had strawberry blonde hair and the lower half of their face was black. They turned, tilting their head in the direction of the camera, and soon, that recording too was cut off.

The video ended there.

She...had no idea what to make of this.

The file name was really all she had to go on. Something relating to Beacon? As far back as 2007. Was the tape and this video related in some manner? They were sent at the same time, by the same person so it was likely they were supposed to be...but one seemed to be relating to the Mint and the other Beacon. Tapping her fingers idly against the table and fishing for a slice of pizza, she quickly went to an internet user's best friend.

“Eithiopia...2007...” She muttered to herself as she hit the search button. What she found only caused her to ask more questions. There were several eyewitness accounts, along with dashcam footage of the event uploaded to some sites, but nothing solid. It had been labeled a hoax after some time, but in the magical world such hoaxes could easily be more than that.

She rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“City disasters in Ethiopia...” Rina quickly did a new google search, that was a little more fruitful. A dangerous gas leak in a city by the name of Dilla. The city had been completely rendered inhospitable by it. A travel ban to the area still persisted to this day. Any gas leak should have been cleaned up by now.

Rina tapped the table again.

What to do, what to do.

Guess the first thing she'd need to do is talk to Beacon. Talk to Alicia and see if she could maybe talk to some higher ups. Still, the most pressing question she had was who in the hell had sent this to her in the first place? She didn't want to go poking around Beacon and get on their bad side, but with everything going on, she didn't have much of a choice.

Rina closed the laptop, grabbed her jacket and pocketed the recorder and the USB.

While Deni was alone, she would hear a voice in her head. “Hello Deni. This is ‘more than friends’ Veronica speaking. I have the time to talk to you now.” There was a groan. “Enlighten me, there’s no need to speak.”

Deni had just returned to the place Valkyrie had offered her to stay at, after a long day of making friends and fighting random monsters while patrolling… and then the voice spoke in her head. Whelp. She leaned at the wall, taking a deep breath before she… well, didn’t need to talk, just needed to think it?

‘Okay, okay. Let me just start out by saying, I wouldn’t appreciate you actually hurting Mariette. I want to save her, along with my sister. I have no idea how to do that, but I want to save them both, and possibly also the rest of the agents of Asengav. My enemy is Asengav, not those under his command. Not that I stand a fraction of a chance against a cosmic horror, anyway, but still.

What happened was that I got consumed by Caroline, but then Caroline got defeated in the Overcity, and I was left behind. From the limited information I have, I deduce that Asengav abandoned me when I was taken. My Monster Girl form was a direct link to the darkness of Asengav, through me Justine and Caroline’s Horror could have attacked Asengav directly. To prevent that, I think he severed the link, so when Caroline then left me behind I was left with no patron. Then something, I have NO clue what, gave me power. Something gave me enough power to be resurrected, where I should have died. I don’t think I actually truly died, some sliver of me remained where Caroline abandoned me, in some form of monster-state.

Regardless, I got up, looked like this, then ran into Valkyrie who agreed to take me home, and, uh, then I ran into Justine von Visceral, because that’s just how life goes. She employed me to reach Mariette… and I’m ready to help her with that if it benefits me… but I don’t want Justine laying her hands on Mariette. As I said, I want to save them. If I really have to, I’ll sacrifice Mariette to save Eli, but I don’t want that, either. I… yeah. I just basically laid myself bare before you. I’m calling myself “Ronin” because if Mariette heard “Deni” is walking about she’d recollect me in a hurry, and then it’d be game over. I’m walking around trying to make as many friends as possible, because, yeah. When the time comes, I’m going to need all the help I can get.

… What do you think?’

“I think you chose the right person to come to. Though I find it disappointing that you don’t remember the most interesting bit. Can’t be helped though.” Deni could hear Veronica write something down. “I’ll fact check everything you said with your memories, but I’m not expecting to find anything out of place. More importantly, you have a debt to cover. I pay for the elimination of monsters just like everyone else, but I also pay extra when people complete assignments. If you’re looking for one, I have something available for you.”

‘I was sort of incapacitated at the time, sorry!’ Deni said with an amused tone, smiling back where she was. ‘Oh? I’m interested. I also sort of have a party I was hoping to go to in a couple days, there’s got to be a bunch of friends I could make there. Amanda told me about it when I ran into her on the way back. Still, what do you have for me?’ 

“Do I know amanda? Nevermind. Unless you’re referring to the dark magical party, cancel your reservations, because you’ll be going to that one.” Veronica sighed. “I suspect something will happen, and I want Cindy Ford to survive it. Simply ensure she lives to the end of the party and you’ll earn 2 silver and 3 bronze.”

‘Amanda’s one of Maura's group, I thought they were working for you?’ Ronin asked, raising an eyebrow on the other side. Anyways. ‘Amusingly enough, I AM talking about the dark magical girl party. Want Cindy to survive it? Well. I will expect the worst to happen, then, but consider it done! You have a Reinforcement specialist on the job!’ Deni replied, grinning over where she was. ‘… Oh, man. I really hope it isn’t Beacon attacking, I was hoping not to make enemies with them. Spent so long having to avoid them as a Monster Girl. … OH, WELL!’ Deni commented, before ending it on a very lighthearted shrug.

“I suspect that Beacon would not be fool enough to enrage the entire magical girl community in Penrose. However, I do anticipate someone trying to frame them. This is why Cindy needs to survive.” Veronica chuckled. “If things get crazy, I’ll update you on what to do next. I may even come up with extra assignments for you, so you will be well compensated for your help. If you don’t need anything else, I’ll be off.”

‘I appreciate it, ma’am! I am still 100% open if you want to just hang out as friends sometime!’ Deni replied to the later parts, also internally relieved that it probably wasn’t Beacon attacking. She nodded, not that she knew if Veronica would know, but. ‘I’m satisfied! I’ll hear from you later, then! Have a continued good night!’

“Be well. I think you’ll like the other agents when you meet them. Well, most of them.”

---

Betty was always on guard duty, but it usually wasn’t like this. Instead of remaining by Veronica’s side, she was stationed outside a bank vault. 

It was a bit nerve wracking though. Aside from it being the dead of night, Beacon and Mint were among the strongest forces in the city. Both of them had it out for Veronica and her agents. With the vault sealed up, Betty didn’t have the option to run. There was no way she could remove the contents and escape with them. She had to stand and fight if she wanted to complete the task she had been handed. The minutes passed like hours, and Betty had to be on her guard at all times. A single drop in her defenses could spell her doom. She made changes to her patrol paths so that no one could predict her movements. She didn’t look at her phone, or do anything that would distract her. 

With a sigh, Betty took a seat in the lobby. To call it that now was a joke, as the front half of the building opened up to the outside. Part of the roof had been blasted away and all other rooms had either caved in or been blocked off by rubble. It was by some miracle that this leather office chair had survived. It was the only comfort she had out here. If Betty had a choice, she would have preferred a pair of pants. Her skirt didn’t do much to keep the wind from nipping at her thighs. But if this was the only comfort Penrose would afford her, she would make due.

But it was here that she was able to spot someone coming. Betty couldn’t tell much about the individual from a distance. It looked like a guy wearing a top hat and a black cloak, but she doubted herself only because magical boys were so uncommon. With a tired sigh, she forced herself out of the comfort of her seat and walked towards the approaching stranger. Part of what made these types of situations hard to deal with was that Betty didn’t know what this person’s motive was. They could just as easily be a refuge trying to escape Beacon. She placed her hands on one of her swords.

”State your business!” She sounded a little meaner than she wanted to, but her situation had that effect on her.

The stranger continued to walk closer, not stopping for an instant. ”I’m just looking for a place to rest.”

”W-well, look somewhere else!” Betty drew her sword. ”It’s totally caved in. There’s only room for me here!”

He stopped in his tracks. At this range Betty could see that her initial assessment was right, and he was a boy. Fascinating. ”That can’t be the full story, can it? Just look at you, chilled to the bone.” There was just enough moon light for Betty to make out a smile. ”If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re trying to protect something, or someone.”

Betty snorted. ”That’s right. So you’ll understand if I can’t let you come any closer.”

The boy raised a hand to his chin. ”Of course.” He lowered his hand. ”You are Betty Barton, or Betty Bio-Hazard as the other cradle agents call you. You are Veronica’s bodyguard, and she has likely sealed herself away in that vault while you defend it from the outside. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

”If you’re thinking about breaking inside, you’ve got another think coming!” In a flash, a throwing knife was already in her hand. ”Leave now, or you’ll have to pull this knife out of your head!”

With a sigh, the boy turned around to leave. Betty was just getting ready to lower her weapons when he looked over his shoulder. ”You know, it’s an interesting bit of folly, being a bodyguard.” He turned around to face her again. ”You’re so caught up protecting others, that you never consider that you might be the target all along.”

Betty had just a moment to scan her surrounding and noticed a murder of crows spilling in from the roof. There had to be at least a hundred of them, and even with her superhuman speed she likely wouldn’t be able to fend off all of them. Her other two swords seemed to levitate out of their sheathes and began fighting alongside her. With a bellow, she hurled her dagger straight for the boy’s face. It flew through the air until a dire wolf lunged and snatched it out of the air.

”I see.” The boy stroked his chin as he watched Betty fend off the crows. ”You’re using wind magic to wield multiple weapons at once. You’re quite strong too, few can make my crows bleed with a single swing.” He shrugged. ”Draw four swords or eight, I outnumber you a hundred to one.”

Betty felt a little outnumbered at the moment, but felt like the tide of combat was changing in her favor. Every swing took out a few more crows, and one had yet to land a strike on her. But she was so preoccupied fighting the crows that she didn’t notice the enemy below her. And that would prove to be costly.

She didn’t see it coming, but she could feel something pass through her knees. It wasn’t clear what happened until Betty made her next swing. That was when her thighs parted from the rest of her legs, and she fell onto her stomach. Her floating swords did their best, but the crows landed on her back and started to peck away at her flesh. 

”Regardless of how strong someone is, it is just a matter of rallying enough people to take them down.” He tipped his hat. ”This wasn’t a fair fight, and it wasn’t supposed to be.”

Betty did her best to swing her katana at the birds that were slowly devouring her. She rolled over onto her back, but that wasn’t enough to crush them. Worse, more birds landed on her stomach and proceeded to peck her apart from both sides. She could feel she was going into shock. Past events were starting to flash through her mind, and the possibility that she would never see Binky again weighed heavy in her heart. Was there a way out of this? Should she call for backup? Would anyone come? She continued to fight what seemed like a decided battle.

---

Until there came a flash of light. A bead of brilliant blue just beyond the collapsed building, which build into a streak of piercing white within a fraction of a second. Before the onset of a storm, many claimed they could feel its approach on the horizon. The change in barometric pressure. The discomfort within the inner ear, or aches in the joints. The smell of ozone from brewing electricity. All of them fell upon the battle at once, with the crescendo of a thunder crack carrying the star.

Katelyn had been on the hunt in the days since she returned from the beach. She had lost time, another two months wasted playing pretend on a fantasy resort instead of focusing on what mattered. But she still held her tenable connection to The Penrose Independent, regardless of either of their true allegiances. A call had come in - an information drop, courtesy of The Boss herself, regarding a Mint Agent that had taken to attacking one of their journalists. It wasn't on Katelyn's agenda to play hitman for anyone else, not again, but the information happened to line up. One favour completed, and one Mint operative dead.

Her Dragon's Wings had remained on standby as she watched the fight from afar. Waiting for a moment to strike. And the seconds after the other girl fell, where her target would be the least prepared for an ambush, she took her chance, flaring into life as a comet of lightning. Wreathed in electricity, and bolstered by her wind, she could cross distances at speeds faster than most individuals could perceive, which barrelled through the nighttime air of Penrose City, spear outstretched within the enchantment, on a direct collision course with The Vermin Killer.

Vermin Killer looked to be oblivious to the incoming attack, which should have been enough to kill him. When Katelyn struck, there was a bright flash and a crack like thunder. It was enough to scare away the crows pecking away at Betty. ”Gah!” She fell flat on her back, but was quick to prop herself up so that she could see exactly what was going on. But when the light levels returned to normal, Vermin Killer was still standing.

While Vermin Killer was oblivious to the attack, his more attune companions were well aware of the incoming strike. A lunging honey badger took the shot square in the chest. Non-magical honey badgers had very thick, loose skin that enables them to resist attacks most creatures would be killed by. Even though they have a modest weight of about 20 pounds, they have no problem going toe to toe with the likes of leopards and lions. Their ability to roll and slide around inside their skin helps them absorb blows that their thick skin can’t. The result was that Katelyn’s attack caused the weasel to bounce and roll across the ground, but it was only a matter of time before it got back up on its feet and hissed at its attacker. Honey badger didn’t give a shit.

”What is the meaning of this?” Vermin Killer frowned at the dragon girl. ”You couldn’t have tried to kill me a bit earlier? I suppose you were just pretending to be incompetent.”

Katelyn skid across the ground, carried by her excess momentum, internally cursing the creature that had blocked her attack. She had spent the time tracking The Vermin Killer - animal Interference had been expected, but not the kind that could no-sell her blows with relative ease.

The preserved speed from her enchantment ran its course, grinding her to a halt, before she began a run. A second wind of The Dragon's Wings absorbed her body, drawing from her wings an intense electrical charge that rapidly engulfed her body in lightning and air, until she vanished in a bolt of thunder, once more aimed at The Vermin Killer. At range, it gave the opponent a chance to react, but in close quarters, she could cover the distance in a fraction of a second. Still, she had learned from her first mistake - the moment the spell began, she leapt into the air, aiming to kick whatever animal got in her way, and then slash The Vermin Killer in the aftermath. 

Vermin Killer was not a stationary target, however. Nor was the wolf who stood at his side. By the time Katelyn had started sprinting, the wolf was already upon her. None of the vermin killer’s pets could contend with a magical girl, but they each had an edge in a given situation. The honey badger was sturdy, but too slow to land a decisive blow on Katelyn. The wolf was almost the opposite, unable to take a solid blow but fast enough to intercept an opponent before they attacked their master. Her kick landed straight in the wolf’s mouth. Katelyn was swift and strong enough to kick the wolf free, but the delay was all the time Vermin Killer needed to escape. His body split into several crows and scattered to the four winds.

”Not today. I have an appointment.”

The wolf wrestled itself to its feet before bolting away. The honey badger trudged off, but not without giving one last hiss at the girl that stabbed it with a spear. This left Betty alone with the stranger. She crawled towards her missing feet, all while keeping an eye on the dragon girl.

”Shit, fuck,” Katelyn cursed. Control over animals had been in the forecast since the information came in, but the ability to turn into crows was new to her. She looked into the sky, watching the birds disperse, and attempting to find a distinguishable pattern in their flight, but quickly gave up, as the flock vanished in different directions into the Penrose sky. ”Can’t even kill some shitty knockoff vampire, Goddamnit. Shut up, you didn’t know anything about him. Cause if you did, maybe it’d please you a bit to tell me.

”So? What’s your deal?” she called out, her gaze falling on the pitiful sight of Betty. They were a Magical Girl, but not one Katelyn recognised - and not an exceptionally skilled one, she reasoned, considering her sorry state. She began to walk towards the girl, weapon held fast, with the shaft held in the crook of her arm, and the blade pointed out towards Betty. ”Why was he here? Why try and kill you?”

Betty collected her legs before looking up at Katelyn. ”You’re coming clo- oh, okay, of course you are.” She held her arm over her chest, as the shirt had been torn to tatters in that spot. ”I’m, um, I’m not entirely sure. He said he wanted to kill me.” She winced. The snow on the ground was starting to bite at her raw stumps. ”Can you let me put my legs back on? I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!”

”Feel free,” the head of the spear dropped a little, as Katelyn released a small amount of tension from her arm. ”But try anything else and you die, understand?”

Betty let out a sigh of relief before dragging herself over to her comfortable chair. While she had sat in it many times, it felt the most comfortable right now after a harrowing fight. Her wind magic wasn’t strong, but she was able to force herself into the seat without it falling on top of her. ”Alright, thanks.” She dropped her legs onto the ground and positioned her stumps over them. ”I’m Betty, in case you were wondering.” She took her arm out from in front of her chest. Hanging on a string behind her torn uniform was a tiny lantern emitting a soft orange glow. It had cracks running all over it, but they had since been filled with gold to piece it back together. Betty’s breathing softened as her legs started to fuse back together. Her open wounds emitted an orange light, and with the passage of time they slowly closed up. ”Have you been hunting that magical boy for a while? You seem upset that he got away.”

"Betty, right," Katelyn replied. But the words were half hearted. She seemed to trail off at the end, pulled into and distracted by some other, intrusive train of thought beyond the confrontation, and beyond the conversation at hand. Her eyes were firmly pulled to the item at her chest - the way it glowed, how the light reflected slightly across the gold spider web of cracks, and the number of other intricacies to its design. For a moment, she seemed almost transfixed, until she blinked it away, and looked back to Betty properly, her expression vaguely distant. "Right, uh, sorry, yeah. Yeah, a little while. He's been a bit... difficult, to follow, sorry, is, is that a Healing Artifact?"

”Yea!” Betty’s lips twitched into a smile. ”It’s seen better days, but it gets the job done.” She looked down at it. Not only were her wounds healing, but her uniform was piecing itself back together. ”Were you hurt? I can try to heal you, but it’s a little mana intensive and I just lost my legs.” 

”No, I’m fine,” Katelyn’s response came quickly, and abruptly. Almost as soon as she had said it, she turned and walked a distance away from Betty, to stand by one of the nearby walls. Her arm raised to support herself against it, and her head pushed into the crook of her elbow as she did. ”He was Ebon Mint. An assassin of some kind. Some people I know had a member of theirs attacked. Since I kill Mint Agents for a living, they asked me to help. So why don’t we start with why an assassin wants you dead, Betty.”

Betty cleared her throat. ”Right. That.” She reclined in her chair. ”I’m part of Crimson Cradle. I’m not sure how internet savvy you are, but we operate rather openly. At least in terms of who our members are.” She swallowed. ”And we’re led by Vermilion Veronica, who was a former Mint coin broker. She’s rather adamant about ‘exposing the mint’ and ‘removing the mint.’ I think you guys would get along.”

”You’re Cradle?” her head slowly pulled out from her arm to look at Betty, practically glaring at her through her periphery. Katelyn took a step towards her, arm dropping to her side. The pose she held was unlike any Betty had seen, but amongst the variety Katelyn had displayed throughout their meeting, it was the most notable; rigid, almost professional and robotic. But the stance, though it hid her intentions and emotions, let slip something else. Her bloodlust. ”Mint Agents can’t ever be redeemed. I hope you’re not a former Mint Agent, Betty - I don’t think killing you would be cathartic. But you can pass on a message from Katelyn Everance to Silhouette. The next time I see her, she’s dead.”

”I guess I can do that.” she whimpered.

”At least you’re smart,” in an instant, Katelyn’s stance shifted again. It was calmer, more relaxed. The intense, near murderous energy she had mustered forward vanished behind an exterior of collection. With the conversation essentially over, she turned and began to walk. Through the building and towards the exit. ”Hope we can have another chat like this, Betty. Just remember that I saved your life.”

---

Betty watched Katelyn leave without a word. She’d need to rest a bit before she went on patrol again. Fortunately, the vault door opened just a few minutes later, and its occupant stepped out into the open.

“Did she, now?”

Tetrad was admiring her reflection in a mirror at the Golden Trove. Some people thought she was vain and, to an extent, they were probably right. Though Tetrad wasn’t one to become spellbound by her own appearance. After last week, it was only natural that she acquired a deeper appreciation for her youth. She gave her reflection a wink before strolling down the hall.

The ruined streets of Penrose held little shelter for magical girls these days. Her interdimensional apartment was nice, but it brought few comforts for people like Terad. People who craved social interaction and partying like tomorrow would never come. It just so happened she knew someone who was trying to amass people for a party, and they recently joined Crimson Cradle. Tetrad placed her fingers beside her head.

”Hey new girl, you there?” Tetrad scanned her surroundings to see if she could spot Eliza’s glow.

"Yeah, I'm just on lookout if you wanna meet up." the witch replied, landing on a building near the hotel. She didn't have her hood on, but was still hiding her wings in her cloak.

Tetrad did not respond over magicoms, and instead ran up the stairs as fast as her legs could muster, which was faster than most humans. Once she got to the roof, she put on the breaks and skidded to a stop in front of Eliza.

”Oh yea, they said you looked a bit like a witch.” Tetrad rubbed her chin as she looked Eliza up and down. ”Pretty cute though! You wouldn’t happen to have a boyfriend, would you?”

"Oh! Uh, n-not really?" Eliza scratched the back of her head nervously. "Never had time to consider finding a date, ya know?"

”That’s fine, I know how to fix that.” Tetrad patted Eliza on the back. ”Mmmmm, doesn’t feel quite right.” She placed her hands on her hips. ”Hiding something back there?”

The witch looked around, then back to Tetrad. "Guess I don’t need to use my magic right now." Her illusion cloak disappeared to reveal her wings. "Better?"

”Oh, an angel!” Tetrad walked around Eliza. ”Alright, cool. cool. Yea that’s good.” She kept nodding. ”So, I heard you were handing out invitations to a party?”

Eliza nodded. "Cindy asked me to herself. Times like this, my illusions turn out pretty handy." She tilted her head. "Why? Did you want an invite?"

That was really all Eliza had to say.

Tetrad gripped the angel girl’s shoulders. ”Yes! A thousand times yes!” Her eyes were shining like rubies. ”How many tickets ya got? Are there games? Dancing? Boys!?” She let go of Eliza and folded her arms. ”I mean like, sure, why not? I’m not a dark magical girl or a monster though, is that a problem?”

"Not at all! Normal magical girls are welcome as long as they behave themselves!" The witch explained. "Though I'm worried the Ascendancy is going to ambush the party the first chance they get, so it might be best to keep your wits about you."

"I can't imagine a future in which they don't crash the party," The two heard a voice from a shadow on the roof, and from it, a familiar agent appeared. She gave Eliza a once-over, and then nodded before turning to Tetrad. "Is it really that exciting to you?"

”You bet!” Tetrad hugged herself. ”Look at you Silhouette, you just stepped out of a shadow. It’s natural for you to feel comfortable there I suppose.” She pointed at herself with her thumb. ”Well my preferred habitat is the opposite of that. Bright lights! Noise! Warm bodies moving side to side to the beat of the music!” She sighed. ”But hey, how long have you been up here? Eh, never mind that. Point is, the only other way to get into the party is with Trixy. I think she’s swell and all, but she’s been warming up to you a lot recently.”

"And I've got someone who doesn't seem to care much for me too," She sighed, thinking about Blair. What was she going to do with that girl? "I may have bitten off a bit more than I can chew." Samantha then turned to Eliza. "Try not to give me more work on the Cradle's site if you end up using it."

"Eh, don't worry. Keeping things in order has been my main focus, so I won't be on the site often 'till all this blows over." Eliza crossed her arms, shrugging. "I'll admit, it's been a long while since I've been to a party, so this might be fun."

That was when everyone could hear a voice in their minds. It was Veronica. “Oh good, the three of you are together. Make way to the harbor, I wish to speak with all Agents in person. I understand this will be the first time some of you are meeting face to face.”

”Now that’s a party!” Tetrad rubbed her hands together. ”Guess we shouldn’t keep her waiting. I kinda want to meet that styx chick. She sounds like a real gas.”

"Somehow I feel like it isn't going to be so jovial in nature," Silhouette sighed. "I'll meet you guys there." Silhouette dove off the roof of the hotel and then blinked out of vision.

"Understood. We'll arrive shortly."

Boosting herself back into the air, Eliza was about to fly off when she turned back to Tetrad. "Oh, do you need a lift or anything?"

Tetrad looked over the edge of the hotel, then back at Eliza. ”Yea, that would probably be fastest. ” She approached Eliza. For a moment, she seemed to look genuinely concerned. ”I’ve never done this before, where do I hold on?”

"Piggyback ride?" The witch suggested, turning around to let her climb onto her back.

Tetrad straightened out her back. ”Sounds risky, I’m in!”

---

The harbor was a shadow of its former self. Ships would come in at all times of the day to deliver goods to Penrose, But now the harbor was empty. Everything was covered in snow, and the lack of footprints gave the impression it had been abandoned for ages. The last time the harbor was used was to help evacuate the general populace. Now the water around the dock had frozen solid.

Betty stood guard near one of the docks. Silhouette was the first to appear, seemingly popping into reality.

”Hello Silhouette! Um, weren’t you with the others?” Not long afterwards, Eliza and Tetrad glided down to Betty’s location. ”Oh there they are!”

”That was awesome!” Tetrad hopped off of Eliza’s back and looked at Silhouette. ”You got here first, but I think my way was more fun.”

"Is that what you think?" Silhouette disagreed. She found her method quite enjoyable. If she could fly herself, then that would be one thing. But relying on someone else? She did not like that a bit. "Swift and quiet, getting around like that is my preference."

”Everyone else is already here. Silhouette, have you ever been inside Veronica’s interdimensional mansion?” A pair of black double doors appeared under the dock. There was a swirling darkness oozing out of their hinges. ”Either way, you can go inside whenever you are ready. I’m just going to wait out here for Maura before coming in myself.”

"I'll see you two inside, then." Silhouette gave both Tetrad and Eliza a nod, and then made her way to the ominous-looking doors. They screamed 'Veronica', but these sorts of things had long-since stopped affecting Silhouette. With an inhale, she pushed the doors open and stepped inside.

"Well if I know Maura, she'll arrive soon- Found her." Eliza pointed to the renegade sitting on the edge of the dock near them. Maura gave them a polite wave, and walked over next to Betty. "Well, everyone's here now. Let's head in." She said, following Silhouette through the door.

”Ohmygosh!” Betty squealed. She watched as Eliza and Maura walked inside. ”She’s so cool!”

”Better ask her for an autograph then.” Tetrad patted Betty on the back as they both took up the rear. Once they passed the threshold of the doors, they slammed shut and sunk into the ground. There was no trace anyone had been there save a few footprints that were filling up with snow.

---

Beyond the entrance was a long hallway filled with many doors, all shut except for the one at the other end of the hallway. Everything was very rustic looking, clearly inspired by the European mansions of the gilded age. There were portraits hanging on the walls that had to be a hundred years old. Yet there were also more “recent” additions. Most of the furniture was clearly from the 40s and 60s during the art deco craze.

Even from the entrance way, the arriving magical girls could see a banquet set up in the far room. A small one, at least if you went by the head count. Veronica was sitting at a giant round table facing the newly arrived. The other agents stood at attention. Once everyone gathered around the table, Veronica raised her hand.

“Be seated.” With that, everyone took a seat around Veronica. Naturally, Sil sat directly to her right while Betty sat to her left, with Eliza and Maura sitting practically opposite of Veronica. “I’m glad everyone could arrive. I have something important to discuss with all of you, but first, reports.” Veronica scanned everyone around the table. “Did anything worth mentioning come up?”

"Nothing to note during lookout, ma'am." Eliza spoke up, resting her head in one of her hands.

"The Beacon Ascendancy hasn't caught wind of the corrupted magical girls' location, as far as we know." Maura added.

Veronica looked to the duo. “Are you talking about Cindy’s forces?”

”Oh, you work with Cindy, right?” Trixy leaned towards the two. ”Does she trust you guys a lot??”

"I mean, she trusted me with handing the party invitations out, if that's something to go by." Eliza shrugged. "Other than that, she seems pretty cool."

”Hah!” Blair folded her arms with a smirk. ”A mere party organizer couldn’t possibly understand the deeper workings of Cindy’s operation. She has charisma, and you are but a pawn.”

Veronica leaned against her arm. “While I am inclined to agree that Cindy wouldn’t tell Eliza much, using the party for nefarious schemes does not fit with her profile. Cindy seems to have a lot of faith in those around her, and I don’t see her working with the Ascendancy. She’s too proud to work with anyone who holds themselves above her, and Beacon as a whole falls into that category.”

A white haired girl leaned in. ”Let me guess, you think the Mint is going to try something?”

“Maybe, if not someone else. The set up is familiar, is it not, Remedy?” A shadow portal opened up under Veronica’s hand, and a wine glass rose up into her waiting fingers. “Victoria Reales was assassinated in an attempt to drive a wedge between monsters and Beacon. Tensions were high, and it was a long time before Justine was discovered.”

Remedy leaned back in her seat. ”So history is going to repeat itself. A war between Beacon and corrupted girls.”

"The outcome could be worse if that were to happen." Maura crossed her legs, sighing. "A battle between light and dark on a greater scale as this can cause the order to shatter, tearing a rift in the balance of this world. Whether or not Miss Ford is keeping things from us, it doesn't matter as long as we can make sure both sides don't end up getting themselves killed in the end." She explained, giving Blair a stern look for a moment before turning back to the others. "After all, light cannot exist without darkness."

"This is beginning to sound like the plot to a generic fantasy film and I'm not a fan of that." Silhouette spoke, her eyes glowing. "But onto the subject at hand. We simply need to prepare for the eventuality. Light and dark be damned." She drew her blade, and a a schatten appeared before her. With a single stab to its chest, it disappeared. "If we knew who was going to act, then it would be much easier."

"That's the thing though. Even I don't know the exact outcome." Maura looked at Silhouette. "The dimension could collapse on itself, or it could just be a mass genocide. Either way, it won't end well." The renegade crossed her arms.

”I have an idea for that!” It was Trixy who spoke up this time. ”If the problem is that Beacon and Cindy will wipe each other out, we simply need to give them a different enemy!” She gestured towards Veronica. ”Veronica has a lot of black coins. If we can catch the would-be assassin, we can just plant a coin on their body. This will make the assassin look like a Mint agent, and cause Cindy to rebel against the Mint instead of Beacon!” She looked between all of her fellow agents with a huge smile.

"That is... not a plan I would've expected from you, of all people." Silhouette confessed. "A very shady proposal. But I don't think it bad." She glanced around the room, interested to see what other people thought of it.

Trixy clapped her hands together. ”Yea, I’m really cute, and I like cute people, but I’m also one of Veronica’s agents.” She giggled.

Both Eliza and Maura had comically blank expressions with Trixy's proposition. They didn't know what to make of it. "Well, I mean- That could work...?" The witch looked over to the others. "Any other suggestions?"

Remedy shrugged. ”Sounds underhanded, but I can’t think of anything better. If Cindy has to fight someone, let her kick the Mint’s butt.”

Blair slammed their fist into the table. ”I for one think it’s a horrible idea.”

Remedy rolled her eyes. ”You would.”

”Hear me out, it’s a more useful use of your time.” Blair gripped the edge of the table. ”This plan simply has no substance. The situation that Veronica is anticipating isn’t a sure thing. It’s great to prepare for an outcome, but it’s impossible to prepare for something blind. What if instead of a simple assassination it’s a massacre with hundreds of dead bodies? What if there’s more than one assassin? What if they manage to capture an assassin alive and he confesses to being part of Beacon? Planting a black coin in any of these instances does nothing.”

”This plan also hinges heavily on no one knowing Veronica has a stash of black coins. Everyone knows Veronica split, it’s not hard to assume she took some coins before leaving.” Tetrad was dealing Tarot cards at her side of the table. ”Also, if they had a divination expert like me, they would be able to tell that coin was planted. One look and I’d be able to tell you where it came from. Looking into the past a few seconds is child’s play. This plan could backfire pretty hard.” The next card she played was the fool. The result made her grin. ”I’d love to stick it to the Mint, but it feels a bit too risky.”

"We cannot be certain exactly which plan of attack they will use, but it would be wise to plan for something," Sil said agreed. "Still, it is troubling we don't have more to work with. I think assuming there will be an attack is most certainly the right course of action, so long as we don't overcommit before we confirm something, we stand to lose nothing." She crossed her legs. "I think the best we can do with as little knowledge as we seem to have is simply try to position everyone in such a way that we can respond according to how events play out."

"Yeah, I'd have to agreed with them on that." Eliza nodded. "Unless we find something out, Sil's plan seems to be our best shot."

”Hey!” Trixy waved her hands. ”It was my plan first!”

”But Silhouette made it sound good.” Tetrad winked at Trixy. ”Cindy has little reason to trust any of us, so even if all we do is prevent a disaster, it will improve our standing with her. The more she trusts us, the easier it will be to convince her to take action against the Mint.” she turned over another card, this time it was the magician.

”Do you even hear yourselves?” Blair lowered her palms onto the table. ”This doesn’t change the fact that we know nothing! I would be very surprised if the Mint didn’t already enter Cindy’s ranks. They certainly aren’t hiding in Beacons. They will likely do everything in their power to ruin our reputation, if not outright kill us. ” Her eyes scanned everyone in the room. ”There are plenty of magical girls with plans of grandeur outside of the Mint that would love to watch Cindy fall. Furthermore, I see nothing wrong with letting Cindy and Beacon wipe each other out!”

Before the debate could go any further, a ringing sound filled the room. Veronica had taken a spoon and tapped the side of her glass. What caused everyone’s voices to die down wasn’t fear, but reverence for their leader.

“Out of all the forces in Penrose, Cindy is the one that I am least threatened by. Her pride makes her easy to control, and we presently have no reason to remove her from power. A perfect contrast to Beacon’s rigid rule. We’re going to be at the party, so why not try and help Cindy out?” She looked to Maura “I also have a deep respect for Maura’s words. Cindy’s death would create a power vacuum that the cradle is unable to fill, and we would be left at the whims of whoever chooses to fill her throne. They would likely be stronger than Cindy, given they would be backed by the unrest caused by Beacon. If the Mint didn’t fill her throne, I shutter to think of who would.” She folded her arms. “But Blair also has a point. Many things have changed, and it will be difficult to attack what still lays in the shadows. Fortunately we happen to be of the intelligence gathering sort, and we have some time to prepare for the party. Don’t spend it all picking out a dress. This is our chance to earn Cindy’s trust, which will be important for Cradle moving forward. That takes priority over screwing over the Mint. You will all attend the party, even if you only stay outside to watch for suspicious activity.” Veronica turned to Betty and nodded.

Betty looked at everyone else at the table. ”I take it all agents have nothing left to report? Then let me give mine.” Betty stood up and placed. ”While Veronica was visiting a bank in Penrose, I was attacked by a stranger.”

Remedy raised an eyebrow. ”You didn’t call for backup?”

”There was no need to.” Betty fidgeted with her fingers.

”Don’t leave us in suspense, girl.” Blair squinted her eyes. ”What happened?”

”I-It was Katelyn. The monster girl Silhouette attacked when Soth appeared. She’s still alive. She, erm, protected me, sort of? It was kind of weird.”

Eliza's eyes widened when Katelyn was mentioned. Not just out of shock, but of a rising anger. "The dragon chick?? She attacked you?!"

"Elizabeth, calm down. You know what happened last time you encountered her." Maura patted the witch's back. "If Everance hadn't recovered via regeneration, I've to believe it was the work of her patron."

Trixy also seemed to be perturbed by the news. ”You let her live?” She raised an eyebrow while looking at Silhouette.

Silhouette shook her head fervently and directed a glare a Betty. "Nonsense!" she denied, nearly jumping to her feet as well. The thought she hadn't killed someone she intended to was ludicrous. They must have been mistaken. "As I mentioned in the report after that incident, I made a clean cut that left her head rolling. Even regeneration doesn't fix that, and she didn't have a soul jar either."

”B-but it was her!” Betty stammered.

“I looked through Betty’s memories myself. It is the same one. The only thing I could think of was that Shona must have blessed her on death, though her patron intervening is another possibility. One I even consider more likely.”

Blair was unable to contain themselves and erupted into laughter. ”Just be thankful you not killing something is worthy of a report, Silhouette.”

"I would have thought you wouldn't want us talking about people not worthy of report around you," Sil snapped. "Aside from letting Trixy get to you and threatening violence upon another agent, I've only seen you be a backup diversion plan for agents doing real work."

”Well, there’s a lot to be said for someone who never does things. As an example, I’ve never needed Veronica to personally extract me from any of my operations. I’ve also been doing operations since you’ve been shitting in your diapers.”

Another gentle ring filled the air, and the bickering stopped. “You may squabble online to your hearts content, but I will not hear it here. Sam, you know better than to rise to someone's taunt. Blair, you may have magic wrecking your psych, but that’s not excusable behavior for an agent.” Veronica set down her spoon. “Sam carried out my request perfectly. She killed Katelyn, she was simply resurrected afterwards. I had Betty bring this up because she may attack us again. Moving on.” She waved her hand. “While in the beach dimension, I discovered something rather troubling. I’m sure you all remember the Dijinn girls, correct?” Veronica squinted her eyes. “It seems that they are protected by magic now. Their presence is a nuisance, as their ability to grant wishes could spell disastrous for long term plans. Worse still, is that the magic appears to be tied directly to Mariette. I’m sure you noticed it too, right Sam? With your special eyes?”

Silhouette composed herself before answering Veronica. How shameful to be spurred on by the likes of Blair. She was just jealous. "That's correct," Sil affirmed. "My eyes see all, and such a connect was not hard to spot," her eyes lit up as if to emphasize this fact. She looked at Veronica. "What do you suggest we do about that, then?"

“It would behove us to find a way to kill or befriend Mariette, preferably the latter and the former if that fails. Normally tracking down someone is difficult, but Tetrad has proven to be quite dependable in that regard. I just want Eliza and you to tag along with her when she does. Eliza to help sort out if she’s telling the truth, and Sam is there to negotiate terms.” Veronica ran her finger along the edge of her glass. “Speaking of masterminds. It has also come to my attention that Justine has returned to Penrose.”

”Justine?” Trixy adjusted her collar, still visibly annoyed. ”THE Justine? Mrs 'remove love from the world' Justine? 'Budget Veronica' Justine?”

Veronica glared at Trixy before looking at everyone else present. “I do not know why she has returned, but we need to know more about her. She's working with a magical girl named Ronin, who is looking for friends. She is currently working for me on a temporary contract, and it is vital that you befriend her. This will allow us to monitor Justine's actions as well as increase the likelihood of Ronin extending their contract with us. Becoming a permanent member may even be a possibility.”

"Ah, yes. Amanda had informed me about Visceral's return. Or atleast someone who fits the description." Maura said. "Ronin seems like a nice kid. She's already befriended some of my girls, so there seems to be no ill intent.

"Huh...Justine as an ally. That's gonna be interesting."

“The information was relayed to me by your girls, Maura, though I was unable to confirm it until I met Ronin in person.” Veronica chuckled. “I did not expect their name to fit their appearance so aptly.”

Tetrad tapped her finger on the table. ”Not too sure I like the idea of using Ronin to spy on Justine. She’s a known brain washer.”

Veronica nodded. “I would normally agree, but my contracts allow me to peer into people’s minds as long as they are active. I do not believe Ronin has been brain washed, and if they are down the road, I will be aware of it. But only if they are under contract.”

Silhouette kept a hand on her chest as they spoke of Justine, some less than pleasant memories being evoked by the name. "I'd honestly rather have her be done away with. She's a dangerous individual." She closed her eyes. "If her reason for returning pits us against her," Sil opened her eyes and looked at Veronica. "Let me be the one to deal with her."

“I see little need to keep them alive. People don’t change all that much as the years go by. She’s dangerous, an anomaly. My greatest opponent as a Mint coin broker.” Veronica let out a slow breath before grinning. “Watching my top agent carve through her would be simply divine.” And just like that, she returned to normal.

“Something I neglected to mention earlier was Chloe. I spoke with her, she’s involved with the party somehow.” Veronica sloshed her drink before taking a sip. “She is difficult to figure out, and has many powerful allies. We included, but I trust her as far as I can throw her.” She raised her finger. “Out of costume.” Veronica added. “Do be wary of her. She has ties with Beacon, Mint, and Cindy. If someone wanted to start a war in Penrose, she could do it with the snap of her fingers.” Veronica snapped, just to show how easy it was. “She needs to be watched carefully. Unfortunately she is the type of target that needs to be eliminated or assisted and we lack the knowledge to figure out which course we should take.” Veronica sighed. “Thoughts?”

"What if Chloe decides to rat us out? She actually seems like someone I'd wanna kill. Uh- Technically speaking of course." Eliza scratched the back of her head, having not wanted the part about killing the spirit girl to slip out.

"That makes three to four we have to keep an eye on, then." the renegade thought. "Chloe and Justine running into one another wouldn't end well either." she dryly chuckled.

Silhouette nodded. "Nothing sounds like it wants to end well right now," she commented as she closed her eyes. "And water is wet," as she opened her eyes, she turned back to Veronica. "There's nothing of note involving Su, is there? I am to continue as I have?"

Veronica leaned towards Silhouette and nodded. “Yes, and inform me of any developments.” She looked at Blair. “Your opinion on Chloe?”

”If you want a dog to stop wagging its tail, you cut off its head.” Blair dragged their claws across their own neck, practically decapitating themselves. But then new flesh bubbled into place under the wound. ”Chloe, Justine, Mariette, the Dijin twins, they are threats to the Cradle and need to be eliminated. To pretend any of them can be reasoned with is folly. If a war starts, we’ll be better off for each one we’ve removed.”

”Classic.” Tetrad dealt another card. ”If Chloe is as powerful as you think she is, we can’t go against her right now. But let’s remember she’s friendly to us as well. I’m sure all of her allies share our skepticism. But hey, as long as she’s still a turbo lesbian, we have ways of keeping her interested.”

”We just need to learn more.” Remedy folded her arms. ”She’s plotting something, and if we can win her trust, maybe she’ll tell us what that is.”

Trixy let out an alluring hum. ”Well, if you need someone to put the moves on her, count me in!” She looked at Silhouette. ”O-only if the mission requires it, of course!”

Sil cast a glance at Trixy, but didn't say anything.

”Ahem!” Trixy went back to brooding.

“Perhaps I overestimated her as a threat to us. It would be worth our while to remind her of how fun we can be.” Veronica smiled briefly. “We covered a lot of ground today, but the main reason I brought everyone together was to discuss something else.” She brought her hands together. “My departure from Penrose.”

There were murmers all around the table. Save for Trixy. She was gritting her teeth with quivering palms. She had actually been that way for a while, but it hadn’t become especially noticeable until now.

Silhouette then 'uncomposed' herself immediately thereafter. "What?!" she seemed to be the most surprised of the bunch.

Betty turned to her master. ”Why?”

“There is much that needs to be done outside of Penrose, and I feel presently that those here can hold the fort for the time I am gone. You will of course come with me, Betty.”

Though her expression appeared rather saddened, the witch understood. "How long will you be gone?" Eliza asked.

“At this time, it is unclear.” Veronica stated.

"When did you decide this?" Sam demanded. "And when did you intend to leave? Not now of all times, right?"

“Trixy has established a base of operations for Cradle outside of Penrose. It is a good start, but I will need to be present to bring it to completion.” She gently placed her hand on Sam’s shoulder. “I have more things to do in Penrose before I depart, but I thought I should let you all know now.”

"But I..."

...Don't want you to go.

Samantha trailed off, not finishing her sentence. "Very well," she said. "Who did you intend to leave in charge while you're gone, though?" she asked.

“I would select you, but I feel that management would interfere with your ability to carry out duties. This is something that needs to be given to someone who has proven experience but won’t be missed on the field.” She pointed across the table. “Trixy, I will contact everyone for special meetings, but I believe you have what it takes. You kept Cradle together in my absence, and you will do it again.”

”Hmm?” Trixy relaxed her hands. ”Right, yea. Got it.”

"As long as she takes it seriously. I'm more of at tactics than a strategy kind of person anyways." she nodded.

“To briefly recap, we are all going to the dark magical party. You can tell Cindy as much if you’d like, Eliza. I may even show up.” She chuckled. “We are also to keep an eye out for the Mint, as well as Katelyn. If you’d like a more detailed account of what happened to Betty, you can speak with her over coms. I’d like you to make contact with Mariette at your leisure. We need to ensure the Dijinn sisters cannot interfere with Cradle operations. We need to ensure our organization remains attractive to Ronin so that we can continue to spy on Justine. Finally, Chloe is someone we need to know more about, while also ensuring she continues to see Cradle as a useful asset.” Veronica cast out her hand. You are all dismissed.

---

A crescent moon shone over the silent cityscape of Penrose this night, the sickle of the Huntress-Goddess primed for another harvest. Cold winter stars sparkled in the heavenly abyss, as down below, mundanes proceeded with their lives, desperate to get everything back to normal after the sheer chaos of the last few months. But though the Ascendancy brought some measure of peace, monsters still roamed the darkness, their blades sharpened and prepared to take more lives.

The gleam of ice glinted from atop a skyscraper. From such a vantage point, a creature, composed of angular plate armor that looked as if chipped from a glacier, balanced itself upon the needle of a radio tower. Its size and weight should have made such a feat an impossibility, and yet, there it was, its greatscythe leaning against its shoulder as it crouched, frosted eyes scouring the entirety of a city for another target.

But soon, it didn’t have to.

Moonlight glinted off another blade that night, a Sword of silver, embellished by roses. Singing as it grazed the concrete of the skyscraper, the Sword swung once through the air, drawing a double-helix as it hummed.

Another night was upon Penrose. Another monster was to be slain.

Wreathed in celestial fire, graced by the rusted petals, the Knight of Rose made her proclamation, standing prouding in the arctic gale.

“Amaryllis Evenings, Knight of the Rose! May the flower of your heart be reflected within my silverlight!”

Shortly thereafter, a ghastly ship swooped down out of the clouds, drifting down almost like a car as it stopped above and behind the moonlight rose knight. Its right broadside faced to where the beast was, black cannons glinting ever so slightly in the night air. Moonlit streams of light seemed to caress the figure of the ship, piercing through the holes in the sails and casting a great silhouette upon where the monstrous creature stood. Upon the edge of the ship stood a figure, however, a pirate-adorned human that was silhouetted in the night...all with their back to the moonlight, and their arms crossed with haughty pride and a wicked grin to match.

“Ere’s only one reapin’ goin’ on tonight in this here city! So prepare ta’ taste the might ah’ve Penrose’s best powder an’ steel, ya’ wannabe!”

“Hrm…”

A rumbling noise exited through the slits of the knight’s armor, sounding like the crumbling of ice floes rubbing against each other. Standing up, it brandished its scythe over its head, spinning it round and round and round as the winds howled with increasing ferocity.

Instantly, the area around the two magical girls was suffused in a chilling blizzard, snow slamming into them from the sides as if a cyclone fused with a snowstorm. Visibility dropped to zero moments later, and already, goosebumps formed on Amaryllis’s skin. Her nature as a magical girl made her sturdier than some, but without Environmental Shielding, it was only a matter of time before she froze.

The Knight of Rose remained calm though. Amidst the raging storm, silver buds emerged in the air, locked to place by her unique magic. Bending low and closing her eyes, she allowed her memory of the Artemis Knight’s location to be her target, and allowed her Sword to be her guide.

A burst of speed, and she shot forward, lunging from the space above the radio tower.

“Fire airburst rounds!” the pirate shouted aloud, extending her right arm as the cannons of her ship fired out a volley past Amaryllis at where she’d last seen the creature standing. Maybe she could soften up the target some?

Sophia’s cannonfire reached the target first, fiery ordnance blasting through the winter cover. The snow parted for a moment at the explosive blast, but revealed that there was nothing there. Amaryllis landed upon the radio tower that the frozen scythe-user had been crouching on moments before, and yet, even though the blizzard was clearly centered on this tower, she saw nothing.

Where had it gone?

It had gone to Sophia.

Behind the pirate girl, bone-chilling cold emanated, the decks of her spectral ship suddenly coated with black ice. Soundlessly, the reaper had gotten aboard, and with a powerful swing, it aimed for her torso, aiming to bisect her completely.

“Heh.”

She knew a good deal about tactics, one lucky boon of hers in being born into the world as a magical girl, and the moment that blizzard had gone up she knew something was fishy. She wasn’t all-knowing, but there were only certain sound decisions that could branch from popping up a smokescreen. Fleeing was one...ambush was another. Had this creature not read The Art of War? However, the sudden black ice upon her ship was nothing but a momentary indication of something bad going on.

A boarding axe barely even came up in time to help block the blow, along with a small golden barrier, though the pirate inevitably felt herself slide quickly to the side as the blow rang through her weapon and into her arms. Spinning on the icy deck to quickly turn around, though, the pirate then quickly let her weapon fall down and fire off a shotgun-like blast at the icy knight as her back slammed into a wooden wall. At the same time, though, a chain arm seemed to shimmer into existence over the top of her own right arm...all as her ten fingers shone with her usual ten golden rings to boot.

As Sophia fired her shotgun, a powerful explosion resounded, but not outwards. Her own hand flew back at the force of the eruption, a plume of ice bursting from the barrel instead. Looking at her Boarding Axe, the reason behind the misfire became evident: the weapon had frozen over. So too, did that freezing chill settle against her back, the wooden wall she had crashed against also sporting a black ice that was clinging onto her now.

And before her eyes, snow once more obstructed her vision, the Artemis Knight melting back into the blizzard.

Three sharp whistles sounded; through the storm, ballista bolts of ice shot at her sequentially, aiming for different parts of her body as black ice continued to consume her, and her ship, whole.

Sophia snapped the fingers on her free chain-arm-covered hand, a bit of powder quickly detonating under her feet and helping her leap up higher on her ship in a hurry. Two of the ballista bolts of ice would crash into the space where she had been standing as well, impaling it thoroughly in the process. She was now standing atop the main cabin of it, though, a serious look now donning her face. As more of the ice bolts came for her, she lashed out with her chain arm and used it to swiftly pull herself about the freezing ship’s rigging to dodge the remainder. All the while...she kept her eyes out as best as she could, leaving the arm to itself somewhat to automatically help pull her about to safety.

The ghost ship was groaning now, under the weight of all the ice, and her chain-arm too was suffering the effects of prolonged exposure, its flexibility worsening over time. No time to rest though, and hardly any time to breathe. Each lungful of air seemed to freeze her at the core further, freezing winds whipping into about her now that she was fully exposed to the elements. Black ice raced up the rigging now, shattering the network of ropes with the terrible crunch of an iceberg. Above too, the Artemis Knight fell, dropping down upon Sophia with its scythe spinning like a saw.

Gritting her teeth, the pirate had little time to react if at all. The freezing chill and the ridiculous shenanigans of this enemy were already something as it was, and the chain arm pulling her along wasn’t seeming in its best condition...much like herself in this weather. But she had a plan, a stupid one at least, and now seemed to be the time to execute it.

She nor her patron were going to truly like it though.

The pirate girl channeled her magic into her outfit, specifically on her right side, casting a spell and firing off a focused detonation of powder from her right side. While the clothing channeled her magic rather well and protected from outright damage, she hissed as the heat and the obvious pain from the self-afflicted explosion rocked through her...and of course the sudden jolt as her spell sent her flying hard towards the radio tower and very suddenly far off of the side of her ship. Yet as she was propelled away, and her ship was still just in sight of her for the moment, the pirate girl smirked and shot an imaginary finger gun at the Artemis Knight and her ship.

“Bang.”

All at once Sophia’s transport ship seemed to suddenly detonate like a magical bomb in the blink of an eye, unleashing a very distinct and mighty conflagration as the Artemis Knight would be headed still further down onto the ship’s deck. Even Sophia herself was sent flying farther out towards the radio tower by the explosion despite her distance.

The flying ship’s magical powder stores had been blasted by a gunpowder spec spell, one which the pirate had just used after blasting herself off of the side of the ship. Such a small spell, but ultimately big and ‘sacrificial’ results. She could almost already hear the angry creaking noises, and the exasperated chain klinking, but for the time being the pirate honestly did not care in her mind. At least this time her ship hadn’t been torn apart by a monster...but instead had departed in a truly big bang!

It was an explosion of fire and fury that could drive back even the storm. Flames clung to Sophia as she was blasted back by the force of her own attack, the Artemis Knight consumed amongst the conflagration. Had she done it? Had sh-

With the howling of the wind, the Artemis Knight appeared before her, the lower portion of its body a frosty gale as it hurtled towards the airborne pirate. Partially melted by the flash of heat, half its helm sported cracks and fractures that leaked with blue light, but whatever injury it sustained was not enough to thwart it. Scythe poised into a swing, it aimed to finally put an end to Sophia.

In that moment, the Gunpowder Girl collided into something remarkably soft.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Cradling her like a dance partner, Amaryllis twirled atop the radio tower, switching places with Sophia right in time to clash blades with the Artemis Knight. Instantly, her Sword froze over, her already pale skin growing paler as black ice raced up her fingers and onto her arm. Yet, the Knight of Rose’s smile was implacable, bold and brilliant as the fiery demise of the ghost ship allowed the faintest sliver of moonlight to slip through the storm.

“And I’ve got you, too!”

Steel ivies sprouted from nick she made in the scythe, wrapping around the haft and onto the frozen reaper’s own arm, before shooting back towards Amaryllis’s left. With a creaking of glacial metal, the Artemis Knight turned to storm again, attempting to fly away from both magical girls, only to stop suddenly.

The chain had been drawn taut. It could not flee any further than it already had.

Once again, the storm settled in, visibility dropping to zero. But this time, the Artemis Knight had nowhere to hide.

“Heh...at least take meh’ out ta’ dinner first, lass.”

The scorched pirate let out a small chuckle at her own teasing comment, all whilst standing balanced atop the radio tower where her ally had previously stood.

Yet as she stood there, a pair of brown wings emerged from the back of her outfit, bracing her against the icy winds of the renewed storm as she leveled her boarding axe and aimed it forward towards the end of Amaryllis’ chain. The stance Sophia had struck was a bit imposing, however, almost like a fallen angel of death had freshly unfurled its wings whilst standing atop a grim spire. Even her directed gaze bore into the storm itself towards the Artemis Knight, the magical girl’s glaring orbs like heated balls of fire as an utterly wicked grin once again took over her face.

“But ya’ screwed up by stayin’ and facin’ us in tha’ first place, you filthy wretch!”



The pirate’s words came out in a vicious growl, and as she spoke she discharged her weapon towards where the Artemis Knight would be at the end of the chain of silver’d ivy. Mana coursed through the magical girl’s weapon, magic pulsed within the firing chamber, and a mighty fire with its accompanying great spew of magical shot erupted from the end of the boarding axe. A combination of Focused Assault, and a magical spell to ‘overcharge’ her weapon’s attack, which shot forth with a great roar past Amaryllis and towards the intended target.

As the magical shot funneled out of its barrel a second time, Amaryllis grit her teeth and yanked on the chain with all her might, pulling the Knight forward before it could dodge in any fashion. A shuddering impact resounded as the focused blast shattered its skull, and from the veil of snow, the headless form of the Artemis Knight flew out, tumbling towards the Knight of Rose.

“Goodnight.”

Seven flashes in the span of an instant. Before its body could crash into Amaryllis, what remained of the monster was turned to frozen chunks in a spray of argent sparks. Its scythe bounced, skidded across the icy rooftop, before melting into white vapor.

The blizzard died, and once again, the building was bathed in moonlight.

Once again, winter has ended.

After a few moments Sophia let out a small sigh, and began to become slightly wobbly where she stood upon the radio tower as the tension from battle began to release. Despite that, a victorious and goofy grin was once again on the magical girl’s face, replacing the malice she’d shown to the enemy. Albeit...she looked rougher for the wear. Her attire had done wonders to prevent worse, but being caught in her own explosion hadn’t done any ‘good’ for her either.

“Whew! Weh’...weh’ did it, Amaryllis! Another monster slain ahn’ another victory! Haha! Penrose will sleep safely tonight ahn’...a-ah...”

The pirate let her weapons shimmer away as she rambled in her exhaustion, save for the rings on her fingers of course, before pumping an excited and happy fist into the air...and then finally teetering about a bit too much forward before ultimately falling straight down once more.

“Ah, careful,” Amaryllis said, clipping her Sword to her belt as she caught Sophia. The fight itself hadn’t lasted as long as she had thought it would have, but the effects of the temperature definitely took its toll on the two magical girls. Letting out a breath, she brushed her frosted bangs out of her face and hoisted Sophia up in her arms, princess-style.

The pirate had done most of the heavy lifting here; the knight may as well help get her back into a safe bed after this.

“Sophia, from whence do you rest?”

“T-Thank yeh’, but ah’ really don’t ave’ ah’ place ta’ stay though, never have or been able ta’...least’ ta’ tell ya’ tha’ truth,” the pirate admitted somewhat reluctantly, somewhat looking away to avoid eye contact as her tired body was carried in her ally’s arms.

Amaryllis blinked, then sighed.

“Understood. I’ve no great amount of amenities, but I can promise a roof and a bed, if nothing else.”

And without another word, the Knight of Rose was off, a Pirate Queen in her arms as she returned to her abode.

Tetrad had a functioning game room in her interdimensional home, but she had to admit the one at the Golden Trove was a bit cleaner. The Chinese motif didn’t impress her, but that could be easily overlooked. Darts, pool, and air hockey were largely the same game no matter where you played. It didn’t matter if they took place under a neon glowing beer sign or a paper lantern.

Not that Tetrad was interested in gaming at the moment.

”…I had this really sick card combo. I was like, woosh! And then I was like, yea! And then I had my strongest card…”

Tetrad was regaling Emily with tails of her heroics. Namely what was involved with chasing down her respective necromancer.  

”…I was basically the world’s best grandma for an hour. Quite the reward for saving everyone’s butt…”

Possibly embellishing a bit.

”…And that’s it. There’s only one way to tell that story, and that’s the way it happened. ” Tetrad folded her arms.

Emily had a brilliant glint in her eyes that betrayed her innocence. It was clear to see that she was nothing more than a star-struck girl, innocently believing every word Tetrad spoke. She trusted a friend more than anything else. "Wow!" she could only stare in awe at the incredible individual before her.

”You must have fared well, being in one piece and everything.”

Emily’s expression dampened a bit at the mention on how her fight went. "Um, well... I didn't really do much." She confessed. "I didn't even touch the Lich, and I nearly croaked."

”Hmph.” Tetrad made a sour expression and patted Emily on the back. ”Unlucky, but then again, you can’t really help it.” She danced behind Emily. ”You work for a puchuu. One who hates your guts. I find it kind of interesting how they are supposed to have the largest squads of magical girls, but It seems like half the time they just send their girls in without backup. It’s almost like they want ‘em to die.” A pause. ”Sorry, just remembered why you were still with Jethro, or whatever his name was.”

Emily's mood soured when Jonald was brought up. It was a painful topic for her. "I know I should cut ties with them, but I don't know where I'd go, and..." 

Jonald was Claire's friend. She found it hard to sever such a link, even though they were on terrible terms. 

Tetrad pulled out her phone. ”I feel like I should call Amaryllis to hang out, but she seems pretty busy. Have you talked to her recently?”

Emily did not wish to make things awkward around her friend. She smiled, "Um, I haven't gotten a chance to since we split up." she told Tetrad. "I think she can handle herself, but I still worry..." As if remembering something, she perked up. "Oh, but I'm glad we got all of them! Nobody else has to suffer, and the kitchen is safe!"

”The kitchen?” Tetrad needed a moment to think. ”Oh right! That one where you do community work or whatever.” She chuckled. ”That’s actually really cool. I have a hard time doing anything that doesn’t involve making money.” 

Since the topic of discussion was pretty light Tetrad decided to approach one of the dart boards. She had become accustomed to real dart boards with wooden targets and sharp darts. That was what she had in her apartment. But Tetrad was starting to warm up to the “kiddie” version of the real thing. The golden trove’s dart boards were made up of plastic buttons filled with tiny holes, and the darts themselves had rubber tips that posed a much lower chance for injury. It was fully digital, and lured in onlookers with a dot matrix display, urging them to play a game. Neither of the girls were transformed, so it wasn’t like one had an advantage over the other. Beyond skill, and Tetrad played darts frequently in her apartment. She didn’t ask Emily if she wanted to play, she just started setting it up. ”501, double in disabled, double out enabled.” She flexed her fingers before pressing the start button and jogging over to Emily. ”So the dark magical girl party, have you heard about it?” Tetrad offered Emily a dart while she spoke.

Emily had been watching Tetrad with piqued interest, having no experience with darts herself. But she had no problem playing it with a friend, that always made things better, she thought. "Yes!" she said. "It seems a lot of people are excited for it. It sounds really fun!" she looked at Tetrad, tilting her head. "Why? Are you excited, too?" she asked.

Tetrad chuckled. ”I’m surprised you even need to ask. We met at a party, remember?” She set down the darts. ”But I’m glad you did, because that means I get to fangirl about parties again!” With a swing of her hand, Tetrad snatched Emily by the torso and pulled her in close. She gave her friend a sideways glance and put on the biggest grin she could muster. ”I frickin’ love parties! The food, the dancing, the out of this world energy levels, only gambling and fighting monsters gives me a high quite like it.” Tetrad frowned, and her eyebrows settled a bit. ”But, now that I think about it, it’s kind of weird for you to be interested in something like that.” Tetrad stood up. ”I mean you like making people happy, sure, but you also seem kinda quiet? Doesn’t really loud music bother you?”

Finding herself being brought close to Tetrad caused her pause, and she was a bit embarrassed, too. But Tetrad seemed so happy talking about parties that Emily dared not to disrupt her for selfish reasons. So she listened intently, until Tetrad mentioned that she didn't look like one to enjoy parties.  

Emily shook her head fervently. "Um, I don't party often, but I don't hate them or anything," She explained. "It's just that I haven't really gotten to go to one with other magical girls before, though, so that sounds fun to me." She might not contribute too much to conversations and such, but just being around her sisters filled her with glee, assuming they weren't fighting, of course. "And, I do like concerts, so loud music is good, if anything!"

”Oh hoh! The more I know about the mysterious Emily.” Tetrad took a step back. ”Are you familiar with 501?” It’s a pretty simple dart game. You just need to score 501 points to end the game. But what makes it tricky is that your last dart has to ‘double out.’ As an example: If I needed 20 more points, I can’t just hit the 20 zone. I need to hit the outer ring on the 10 zone. The last dart has to hit a double to count. Otherwise you bust, lose your turn, and then the other player gets to go.” Tetrad pointed at the darts on the nearby table. ”The game is set up for 3 dart turns. I’ll let you go first.”

"Umm..." Emily didn't catch all of it, but she was apparently supposed to throw it and hit the board until she scored exactly 501 points. And then something about the last throw being off? Well, she'd focus on getting to that number, first. 

Emily picked up her darts and examined them. Surprisingly, they were darts. The flight was smooth, but unfortunately for Emily, she was inexperienced and didn't realize that would make the angle needed to actually stick a bit tighter. Or at least it would with a normal dartboard. Since they were using a plastic one, things should be a bit more forgiving in that respect. 

That aside, the only other thing of note was the flight. It had a gorgeous Chinese dragon design on it, and she thought it was beautiful. It even had some Chinese characters on it, too, but since she couldn't read it, she had to guess. Maybe it said "friendship" or "fun"? Probably not. 

Finally deciding to throw her darts, she raised one hand and tossed one. It... did not land on the board, falling to the ground with a light thud. "O-oh, sorry... I'm new to this," she said. But she tried again, and managed to hit the board the next two times, scoring a total of 12 by hitting the triple ring of two, and a flat six. She looked at Tetrad, and smiled, proud of the feat. "I hit it!"

”Not bad, you’d be in some serious points if that tipple was on either side of that two.” Tetrad hardly needed a moment to focus her aim, and threw each dart one after the other. Her grouping was a little loose, hitting the 5, 20, and 1 zones on the board. ”Hmm.” She walked over to retrieve her darts.

It was at this moment that both Tetrad and Emily’s phones pinged. Upon checking, there was a text message sent to them by Amaryllis.

Hello Tetrad and Emily,

I was able to take down Billy with the assistance of some of my contacts. The Ascendancy came over afterwards though, and caused some trouble. How did your lich hunts go?

Regards,
Amaryllis Evenings

Tetrad looked at her phone while pulling the last dart out of the board. ”Oh no! Work texts!” Tetrad danced off to the side and her lightning fast thumbs beat out a response. 

”Short version: Kicked some ass, took some names. Hard battle but everyone made it out alive. Save the necro but he was already dead  

Ascendancy showed up here too. Ended up needing to retreat. Not too hard.

Staying at Golden Trove. Breakfast was good. Lots of entertainment. Possibly too Asian.”

~4

Emily looked like a 10-ton weight was lifted off of her. She was relieved to see her friend was okay. She could easily sympathize with Helga when she was worried about Su. "Oh, I'm so happy she's okay! Do you think she'd want to come over?" she asked Tetrad, then retrieving her phone. After typing for a minute, Amaryllis would receive this: 

Hello, Amaryllis! I was wondering if you would like to hang out with Tetrad and I over here? I'm sure it could be lots of fun! Tetrad is showing me how to play darts right now, but if you're willing I'm sure she'll show you, too! Unless you already know how to? Oh, but if you're too busy or don't want to, then that's fine, too! 

I'm glad you're alright, 
Emily :)

With that out of the way, Emily looked back to the board. I'll do better this time, I'm sure!" she promised, picking the darts up again and taking her turn.

Another ping sounded after five minutes.

Glad to hear that everything went well. I’m still busy with work, but I can use a break too.

Could you send me the address to the Golden Trove?

Thanks,
Amaryllis Evenings.

Tetrad looked at her phone with a grin, and mashed out another response.

”lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+the+adress+of+t…

~4”

Tetrad’s attention was snatched away when Emily hit a tipple 7. ”Oh? Looks like things are heating up!” It was probably luck though. ”Let’s see if we can finish before Amaryllis gets here.”

---

From the outside, the Golden Trove didn’t look all too promising of a place. Most of the lights that lit up the sides of the building were either burnt out or covered by snow, while the brutal architecture made it appear much more grim than the name suggested. Was this address truly the right one? Dressed conservatively in a long down jacket, a ribbed sweater, and sweatpants, Amaryllis looked over the app on her phone again. It had been a good thirty minutes since she headed off for the place, and the lack of public transportation due to the evacuation meant that it was a cold thirty minutes too.

Would be a real shame if this was the wrong place, huh.

Switching her bag of snacks and sweets to her other, less-cold hand, she rapped the door twice, before patiently waiting for it to open. Didn’t knock too loudly, of course. It would be bad if she made it seem as if she were impatient or pissed or anything. Because she wasn’t. She was just perpetually tired and hungry.

"Oh, I'm so happy you came!" Emily lit up like a Christmas tree upon spotting Amaryllis, having waited like a puppy near the door. Two friends in one place, all having fun, without a current worry about monsters or lichs? She was beginning to feel like she was spoiled. She encouraged Amaryllis to come in. "We just finished our game, would you like to play something?"

Tetrad straightened out her cocktail dress before coming to the door. ”I think Emily needs a job here. This is the first time I’ve seen someone beat the manager to the door.” She peeked over Emily’s shoulder. Her costume might have had platform shoes, but she wasn’t wearing heels right now. ”Hey is that junk food?” She reached her hands past Emily. ”Gimmie gimmie gimmie!”

“Ah, yeah, here,” Amaryllis thrust the bag over to Tetrad. It was filled with such stuff like Pocky, Oreos, Hershey’s Kisses, and other sweet affairs. Savoury chips, it appeared, were not part of the snack array that the bespectacled woman brought over. “Thought you two could share it and all, since, y’know, you’re hosting.”

Emily gave a small nudge to let Tetrad know to back up, and then cleared the doorway. “Thank you,” she said. She glanced at the bag momentarily before turning back to Amaryllis, and then motioning her to come in. “I hope your work isn’t too stressful?” Emily imagined it to be hunting monsters or the sort, but if that was the case, she thought Amaryllis would have no real trouble there. But perhaps she was mistaken.  

”We can talk about work once we’re out of the lobby.” Tetrad hurried off. ”Quick, to the game rooooooom!”

---

The three girls were gathered around a table designed for Chinese checkers. But Tetrad had removed all of the marbles so that they could use it as a meeting space. In addition to the provided snacks, Tetrad had gotten everyone a can of soda. 

”To the best necromancer slayers in all of Penrose!” She raised her can before popping it open. some of it ran down her arm, which she promptly shook off. 

“Yeah...necromancer slayers…” Amaryllis raised her can as well, feeling pretty awkward about getting rowdy when this was a three-person party. She sipped at the bubbly drink, noting the peppery undertones and the cinnamon spice in it. Weird, but good.

”I really like game rooms. It’s much quieter here.” She sipped her soda. ”So now that you’re here, did you want me to regale you with tales of my exploits? Or did you encounter something interesting?”

“And, um, as far as Billy went, I sorta ended up eating him, so it wasn’t like there was anything left behind…”

”You ate Billy? Metal!”

Emily was munching on some Pocky as she listened to Amaryllis. "Ate?" she asked, puzzled. Billy didn't seem like he would taste too good. But she was not about to press her own eating beliefs onto someone else, so maybe she should just drop it?

Amaryllis’s eyes flickered up to the corner, as she wondered briefly about whether or not the whole Hilaria business should be shared, before deciding that it was probably harmless knowledge.

“Oh, but the Ascendancy that I told you guys about? They invited this Dark Magical Girl over, but then she returned unpurified afterwards. Then we sorta ate. And now I’m here. Eating more.” As if to demonstrate a point, Amaryllis popped open a bag of choco balls and tossed them in her mouth.

"The Ascendancy let a Dark Magical Girl remain one? Am I wrong, or isn't purification their entire thing? That sounds strange." Emily thought about it. "Did she come back weird, or something?"

”I’d wager they did something to her. I could probably figure out what if I met her.” Tetrad reclined in her chair. ”Anyway, probably not worth theorizing about. Whole city’s bat shit crazy, maybe they decided dark magical girls are cool now.” She sloshed her soda. ”It’s just a matter of time before there’s a revolution of some kind and something else takes Beacon’s place.”

“She was always, sorta weird, so…” Amaryllis thought about it, then decided that, yeah, whatever. “It’d be nice if the Ascendancy did suddenly think dark magical girls were alright though. At least enough that, y’know, they won’t do anything like start a big war over it.”

”It would be, but I still say they’re nut jobs.”Tetrad set down her drink and pulled a stack of tarot cards out of her tool belt. They were normal tarot cards and didn’t have the Cradle logo on the back of them. ”We were talking about ourselves post necromancer right? I’ve literally just been enjoying the hotel. Work’s a little slow at the moment, but I’ve been making connections with some of the people here.” She leaned towards Emily, ”Hey, wanna give me a kiss?”

As if she'd been zapped, Emily jolted up, and her face turned scarlet. "K-k-kiss?!" she shook her head repeatedly. "N-no, we haven't even held hands or anything...!" she declined.

Amaryllis double-blinked. “You...want me to leave the room for a bit then? Uh, didn’t know you guys became a...c-couple and all…” What did Sammy say about magical girls again? That they became lesbians really fast due to necessity and the lack of magical boys? 

Tetrad squinted her eyes, casting a glance between the two girls present. ”Didn’t realize it was such a big deal. Fine, I’ll just take one.” Tetrad leaned forward and stuck her hand in Amaryllis’s candy bag, and pulled out some Hersey kisses. She held them up for the girls to see before giving them a wink.

“O-oh, that’s what you meant…” Emily seemed relieved, closing her eyes and placing a hand on her chest to catch her breath.. 

”Dark magical girls seem to have a lower chance of being totally nuts. Our hostess is a dark magical girl, not that you’d ever know. But then you have complete psychos like Chloe.” Tetrad unwrapped one of the chocolates. ”Monster girls though, now those are bad news. Our organization has one and they are responsible for half of our problems. It’s a lot harder for them to function like normal people, and they’re a lot stronger to boot. I don’t think they need to be killed, but if they’re up for purification I’d be okay with that.”

Finally catching her breath after a slight misapprehension, Emily looked up. “Um, isn’t that a bit cruel, though?” she asked with the crimson on her face slowly fading. “I think the idea of being able to be purified may be great to some, but to force it on people…”

Tetrad was about to shove a chocolate kiss in her mouth, but stopped. ”If someone forces violence on others, having purification forced on them is the least cruel thing we can do. Right?”

The conflict was reflected in Emily's countenance, her hesitation only betraying the fact she had to think hard on the subject. "Um..." she eventually gathered her thoughts, then spoke. "If they've actually done something, then I suppose it can't be helped... But are the Ascendancy doing just that? It sounds like they're not making a distinction between the good or the bad sisters..."

As the heat left Amaryllis’s cheeks, she began to unconsciously pop chocolates in her mouth too, listening in on the conversation between Tetrad and Emily. Did they even really need her opinion? Probably not, right? So she just kept on eating, shrinking into the plushiness of her chair as she silently mulled over their respective positions.

”You’ve been a little quiet, Amaryllis. What’s your take on all this?” Tetrad had a few cards set up in front of herself, like she was going to begin a reading.

"Uuuuh… "

Shit. 

"I guess I have this thing going on where I usually give people a chance when I encounter them? So like, if it's a monster girl or a dark magical girl that I see for the first time, I'll play nice until they end up doing something crazy, in which case I kill them." A blink. Bit psychotic, isn't it? "Or, I dunno, get Beacon to purify them. That's basically it, yeah? Innocent before guilty. Though that changes, like, if they were obviously perpetrators of really bad shit before? Such as whoever did that spirit summoning to attack random civilians, way back when."

The Sword pierced her left index finger thrice, and Amaryllis balled up her fist.

"Honestly, don't think it's that big of a problem when we cause trouble to our own kind. Just changes when you bring in outsiders."

"Oh, that was so terrible! Those poor people!" Emily remembered the destruction wrought upon the civilian populace that day, and the pain it brought. She even lost a fellow volunteer due to the attack, and the position was not easily replaced. "I can't imagine why people would do such a thing. I don't ever want to be forced to kill a sister, but I don't want that to happen again either, so purification might be the way to go..." she took a long sip of her soda before turning to Tetrad. "A-anyway, s-so, um, are you going to do a reading?" she expertly (not at all) attempted to change the subject to something less serious.

”Oh this? Yea, I was just playing.” She shuffled all the cards together. ”I don’t really think Tarot cards on their own are very magical. But Here, let’s try this…” She handed the cards to Emily. ”So you’re just going to shuffle the cards up and hand them to me. Then I’m going to draw three cards and make a reading based on your past, present, and future.” She looked at Amaryllis. ”Did you wanna try? It’s a big deck, I can probably do two readings.”

“That sounds...fun,” Amaryllis said, edging her seat closer to the table as she examined the deck. “Maybe we can all do a bit of a talent show or something?”

”Of course, if you have talents I wouldn’t mind seeing them.” After Emily shuffled the Deck, Tetrad drew three cards and placed them face down in front of Emily. Then she handed the deck off to Amaryllis. Once she had shuffled the deck, She drew three cards and placed them face down in front of her. With everything set, she shuffled the cards one last time and placed three cards in front of herself. 

”And now, let’s turn over our first card to reveal our past. This is going to pertain to something we’ve been thinking about recently. Something that may affect our future.”

Tetrad turned over her card. ”Ah, the high priestess, a card that deals with knowledge and intuition.” She scratched her chin. ”It must be referring to the last mission I took for my Puchuu. Prior to my employment in Cradle.” She did not waste any more time dwelling on it and looked to Emily’s card. ”The seven of cups. Confusion, a need to get your priorities in order.” She looked at Amaryllis’s hand. ”The five of cups. Disillusionment, if you rely on the help of others.” She looked straight ahead without making eye contact with her friends. ”Do any of your cards sound eerily familiar?”

"Um, I don't know..." Emily kept her eyes locked on the card. "It can't be that I don't have my priorities straight, right? Protecting people is number one!" She then turned to Amaryllis, urging her to give her piece. “No, not familiar in the least…”

Disillusionment...Amaryllis stopped half-awkwardly-smiling for a while. “Yeah, considering the whole Annabelle thing, I guess that sounds about right. But then again, disillusionment sorta fits no matter what happens.” She laughed again, nervously, before slurping up some gummy worms. “We live in a society, after all.”

”Tell me about it.” Tetrad grinned. ”I know I said this before, but I wish I was there for that.” She looked to Emily. ”Really? Not your Puchuu or your friends? You’ve gotta have something.” Tetrad snorted. ”This is just for fun, and I’m a pretty shit reader if I’m going to be honest. That’s why I need as much information as you can give me.” She looked down at her second card. ”But let’s reveal our second cards and see if things don’t start to make sense.”

Everyone turned over their cards. ”Seven of coins. What’s that one again?” She looked through a pamphlet that came with the Tarot deck. ”Hard work, but I’m approaching my harvest. Hell yea, seems like Crimson Cradle is starting to go places. I’m sure I’ll be due for a promotion mission pretty soon.” She looked at the other cards. ”Emily got the King of Swords, and Amaryllis got the Six of Swords. Swords represent the mind and states of conflict. If your cards are to be trusted, Amaryllis is moving on from a negative situation, and Emily has won her war, but now needs to win the peace.” Tetrad grinned, waiting for their reactions.

Emily pursed her lips. "The closest thing I can think of to a war would be between me and Jonald," she admitted. "And since you two are kind enough to hang around with someone like me, then I guess that'd mean I won..." she wasn't very confident when speaking, and scratched her head. "Um, but what would peace be in this situation?" she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit dim, and am not good with these things..."

“Harvests are also followed by winter though,” Amaryllis mused to herself, tracing the borders of her own card. Swords were of the mind and states of conflict? Her hand slipped against her hips, for the Sword that wasn’t there. Did her card basically just symbolize her psychic, ever-violent Patron? That’d certainly be something, huh. “Not really sure about negative situations myself, cause, y’know, we all just came out of a beach vacation that was pretty alright, but, mm...Emily, in regards to war and peace, history is generally marked by discord rather than by concord. With that in mind, you may have won the war, but now, you ought to prepare for the next, y’know?”

Amaryllis scratched her chin. “Bit of an extreme example, but it’s like World War II and the Cold War that happened afterwards. If nothing’s bothering you now, it’s the best chance to ramp up.”

”See? Amaryllis has the right idea.” Tetrad poked her forehead with a card. ”Everything moves in a cycle. After harvest comes winter, then it’s time to plant more seeds in the spring. After War comes peace, then you prepare for the next war.” She held her chin. ”But Amaryllis, didn’t you just eat a necromancer? If the card doesn’t relate to the vacation, it might be something more recent than that. Or…” She turned a card over in her hand. ”This is just a bunch of silly crap that doesn’t mean anything. I dunno. Anyway!” She placed her hand on her card. ”We don’t have to worry about what comes next in the cycle, because we’re going to figure that out right now! One, two, three!”

Amaryllis’s card was the three of wands, and Emily was the five of coins.

”Uh oh!” Tetrad grinned. ”Looks like you’re going to have unforeseen expenses, Emily! Better stock up now!”

“Uuu…” Emily seemed down. She pulled out her wallet, and gazed into the nearly-empty pocket with dead eyes. “I don’t like that… not one bit!” she sighed. “Ah, um, well, I’ll find a way to deal with it, I suppose…”

Tetrad looked to Amaryllis’s card. ”And you’re going to lead by example. Cryptic, but I think it’s a cool future to have.”

“Lead by example?” Amaryllis awkwardly went for another attempt at a joke. “Hope I don’t, like, start a new trend of eating monsters, right guys? Ahaha…” She wasn’t a good example to follow anyways. Not in Penrose at least, where alliances and schemes and making full sized armies of magical girls looked to be becoming the norm.

Then Tetrad returned to her own card. ”Right I got so excited I didn’t even look.” She held her card up in front of her face. ”A second one from the major arcana? Having this many in your reading means something big is gunna go down.” After staring at the card for a moment, she started to push it back into the deck. ”Nothing particularly interesting.”

Scratching her head, Amaryllis offered her own card to Tetrad to shuffle back in, before asking, “So, uh, what did you draw anyways? I didn’t see it when you flipped it over and all…”

Tetrad shrugged her shoulders. ”Justice.” She blinked. ”A card that normally represents fairness, justice, balance and equilibrium. But I think it came up reversed.” She dipped her head. ”So it’s kinda boring, just like I said.”

“Justice in reverse?” Amaryllis wasn’t sure how cards like that wouldn’t be interesting; in fact, something about the word ‘justice’ tickled her pretentious, edgy middle school self just a little bit...but well, that was fine. At least it wasn’t the Devil or the Tower or anything like that. “And hey, I don’t think you need to worry about it too much, Emily. Peacetime preparations are like, always filled with expenses, so I guess, like, just don’t eat out too often?”

Yeah, that was as much financial advice as she could give, really.

Tetrad collected the remaining cards and shuffled them all back into the deck. ” They’re just cards. The meanings are vague enough that they could mean anything. I’m sure I could draw three more cards for everyone and they’d mean something if we tried hard enough.” The deck of cards sat in the middle of the table, taunting them. Tetrad reclined in her seat and folded her hands behind her head. ”Weird question, but if I forgot who I was, like, everything. Total amnesia like some bad JRPG. You guys would still be my friends, right?”

“Well, I’m sure there’s magic for fixing that…” Amaryllis said, scratching her cheek, “But yeah, of course. Same if it happens to me, right?”

Even if Tetrad assured her otherwise, Emily still seemed a bit concerned. Money did not come easy to her, to the point where it'd break the bank if she had to care for even a friend! Of course, despite this, that wouldn't stop her. She treasured her friends, after all. So, when Tetrad and then Amaryllis brought up amnesia, she couldn't imagine why they had to ask at all. 

"Oh, I would never abandon you. Either of you!" she cried, even sniffling. "You were so kind to hang out with me... If you guys got amnesia, then that's all the more reason to stay by your side, isn't it? Friends shouldn't abandon each other in a time of need!"

”Right, or course. I feel silly for even bringing it up.” Tetrad chuckled, and the corners of her lips curled into a smile. Even if she had been smiling all night, this one felt a lot more genuine. She leaned forward and folded her hands together. ”Feels kinda weird to use a call sign around friends.” Tetrad straightened out her posture. ”Luna Gallo. When we hang out like this, you can call me Luna.”

“Wait, Tetrad wasn’t your real name?”

As she wiped away one or two tears, Emily gave a small, inaudible clap in excitement. She repeated the name under her breath a few times. “Mmhm. Sure, I’m happy you told us!...Luna….” she tried out the name. “Oh, I suppose I should go next?” she asked, regarding the ‘talent show’. “Here…”

For once snow had abated in the city of Penrose. Life continued on, magical girls clashed in politics and personal grievances. Alliances, fights, parties, the drama of a hidden world playing out all the time.

Yet the monsters who threatened the city of Penrose had not simply abated. Some, the more wise, had taken flight with the return of those who had been swept away by a certain Dolphin. But plenty more remained, and they would not stop even if more danger had arrived.

What was once a clear night sky would soon become stained with dark smoke rising from the city. The crackle of flame soon joined it as an abandoned apartment complex began to burn eagerly.

But this was no natural fire. With so many people away there were plenty of unmaintained buildings. That meant plenty of materials to catch on fire and to burn. In turn the ability of the authorities to respond to such an incident was limited, though they would do their best. But this fire was one that would only spread and increase in intensity as time went by.

There was one reason for that in particular. This fire was no accident. Monsters swarmed the place, spiky black limbs allowing them to clamber up walls with ease while flaming maces and blades smashed and cut and further lit the structure on fire. At the moment only two could be seen on the exterior, though there were doubtlessly more inside. If someone did not act, things would quickly spread out of control.

Rina could spot the fire miles away. She had been mostly patrolling around the Golden Trove, but she couldn't simply let a fire like that burn. She had hoped it'd just be a mundane thing and she could simply help rescue anyone caught in it, but it seemed like that wasn't the case. Monsters of fire swarmed the place, eagerly looking for victims and to spread their chaos.

Well, she couldn't let that happen.

A metal snap echoed across the area, a flash of light reflected off the swords body as it streaked across the night air. It slammed into one of the monsters, Rina deciding to take a comfortable position across the street, dealing with them from a distance for now. Take out the two on the outside, then worry about the others that were likely on the inside.

The sword flew with the speed of a bullet, crossing the distance between buildings and slamming into the monster. A screech filled the air as one of the monsters legs was severed, throwing it off balance in its sideways perch. It struggled to adjust only to fail, and was sent falling to the ground in turn with an audible impact against concrete.

The fall did not seem to have finished it off alone, but it was slow as it rose back to its feet. Easy picking for a skilled range fighter. That left the other monster, who snarled at her before scurrying towards the roof. Its flail spun, an effort at some sort of heated shield against her and her projectiles. It did not have the same range that she did, but it seemed as though it did not intend to let that stop it from trying.

“Hmph.” Rina formed several more swords, smaller than the last. Pulling back the arrow she unloaded several in quick succession towards the fiery beast. Not giving it much time to consider or close in on her, she leaped off the building, twisting in air as she continued firing the smaller projectiles until she was behind it. Another sword was formed, larger than the previous ones before unleashing it in the creatures back.

Once again steel flew across the gap. This time it met with fire, heated by contact as the monster sought to defend itself. A few were deflected to the side from kinetic energy, but a flew slipped past to sink into dark blacks and glowing oranges. After a few moments they began to melt from the heat of the monster’s body, though the red iron did not seem to be doing much more damage beyond the initial stab wounds. Considering the appearance and weaponry of the monster, heat was likely not something it had to concern itself with.

With four legs it reoriented rapidly as she came down, burning into stone in impromptu handholds for its mass. It blocked with its knife, but her strength and the size of the blade meant that it could not block her entirely. The blade slashed into its side, earning another screech of pain. The wound glowed a bright orange and yellow, radiating heat and steam that made the air around it discernibly warmer.

Yet it did not stop, not yet. Instead it retaliated, blocking with its lesser blade while trying to bludgeon her with its flail. The monster at the base of the building was forgotten as the duo engaged in their duel.

“Tch, don't have time for you...!” Rina growled. Rina deftly avoided the flail, leaping to the side, using one of her blades to slice into the creatures arm in hopes of completely severing it. Regardless of the outcome, she'd then leap backwards, putting some distance between the two of them and swiftly knocking an arrow, launching it at the second one before it could go anywhere.

Rina’s moves were swift and precise. Her blade slashed through the monster’s arm and caused it to drop the flail. As that fell to the ground she fired an arrow downwards at the other monster outside. That scored a hit and the beast slumped again. Its fire faded, and soon it had dissolved away into nothing more than ash.

The remaining monster prepared to charge Rina as its body heat rose. The knife it held glowed brighter as it reared back and brandished its blade in her direction.

Yet before it could launch itself at her an arrow struck it from the side. Just like its companion, it collapsed onto the rooftop and its heat died as it faded away to ash. The culprit quickly revealed herself as Alicia stepped forward. ”Hope you don’t mind if I cut in,” she said with a nod to the sword wielding magical girl. ”Beacon picked up the fire via their scrying set up. I was the nearest member, so I figured I’d lend a hand.”

“Alicia. Thanks for the assist.” Rina said curtly as she took a chance to catch her breath. “I need to actually talk to you about something, but that can wait until we put these things in the ground.” She formed a sword in her free hand. “The rest in the building?”

Glancing downwards, Alicia stomped on the roof with a nod. ”Yeah,” she confirmed. At the same time she twisted the handle of the bow, and with a small flash it separated. The golden string of magic ran along both segments, blade and curved surfaces sharpening into blades as the bow turned into dual swords. It would be more useful indoors than her bow would have been.

”I’m not the biggest fan of fighting a bunch of fire monsters inside a burning building, but I guess we don’t have much of a choice,” Weapons at the ready, she made her way to the nearby door so they could begin their descent.

“Unless we want to blast the whole building.” Rina grunted, her bow morphing the handle until it formed a sword of a respectable length. She quickly moved to the door just behind Alicia, nodding to her partner. “I'll take point. I should be able to see anything before it jumps us.” Rina didn't wait for Alicia to confirm, only walk up to the door...and promptly shoved her foot into it, forcibly swinging the door off its weakened hinges and walking inside.

The door stood no chance against the power of Rina’s foot and flew open with a loud ‘bang’. A staircase led downwards and into the apartment complex, and Alicia followed as the two of them headed inside. The smoke wasn’t too bad yet, but it would get thicker as the fire spread and they moved deeper inside.

”Sadly ‘magic building destroying death laser’ is a bit above my pay grade,” Alicia remarked with her voice lowered as they moved along. There was no sign of the monsters yet, but they had barely begun their search.

Rina headed down the stairs, taking it cautiously fast as she descended. The blistering heat of the fires brushed against her skin, but she paid it no mind. A few burns were nothing for her regenerative abilities. In any fire, the worst thing was the smoke.

“Don't see anything yet.” She asked, moving into the hallway at the end of the stairs. Rina would move to the nearest room she could get to that hadn't completely been consumed by flame, keeping both her eyes and ears open for the monsters.

Behind Rina Alicia’s eyes took on a dull glow as she tapped into her Third Eye. Her vision now cut through the smoke with ease, and she glanced around as she sought the monsters. That would at least make it easier than having to search every single room.

She might not have the regeneration that Rina did, but her Enhanced Uniform warded her from the flames to some extent. ”I can see two more near us,” she said before Rina got too carried away. ”Looks like three floors down, closer to the middle of the building.” At least the closer they got, the more the sound of destruction could guide their way.

“Three floors down, eh.” Rina replied with a frown. “Alright, we can flank 'em. You can fly in from one of the windows on the lower floors. I'll engage from inside. Sound good?”

”Sounds good to me,” Alicia agreed. With blades at the ready she broke into a sprint before jumping out the nearest window. Wings flared outwards to catch her fall as she fell, before rocketing back inside on one of the lower floors. With her Third Eye she would have no trouble finding the monsters.

That left Rina alone, and free to begin her own part of the plan. The sooner probably the better.

Rina didn't miss a beat. Soon as Alicia agreed, she made her way to the lower floors. Soon she had made her way three floors down – and after killing another innocent door, made her way onto the floor proper. The monsters themselves were not hard to locate. Above the roaring fire and smoke, the growls and hisses of the beasts could be heard.

Zeroing in on them, Rina hoped to catch one by surprise and approached one from the side, slashing away with one of her blades in an effort to sink it deep into its side.

The heat rose the further down Rina went. Smoke increased as well, and the fire became more present all around her. Yet the further she went the more open things were. Walls had been smashed open, furniture destroyed, doors ripped off their hinges. Which was not to say that everything was uniformly flat either. Breaching into the floor above and below, there would be plenty of room to maneuver in this battlefield.

Through it moved the creatures of flame, and she quickly identified one as it clambered about. Sweeping in, the element of surprise was on her side as she struck a savage blow to the monster. The wound glowed a vibrant orange and yellow as it alerted its comrades before retaliating in pain and desperation.

Its wound was grievous, yet that did not stop it from turning and hurling itself against her with knife stabbing as it sought to drag her down through sheer mass and stabbing legs. Both to hurt, and to allow its fellows to close in on her as well.

As her blade sunk into the creatures side, Rina ignored the blistering heat to the best of her ability. Leaving the blade impaled in the creature, Rina formed another sword in her now free hand. Quickly, she deflected the blow from the dagger and turned her body just right to avoid it and flank its side. She thrust the next blade forward, jamming it into the beasts side before attempting to disengage.

If there was one advantage that Rina had, it was her ability to make swords. It meant that she would ever be without a weapon, and she put that to good use now. A quick series of moves followed as she slashed at the monster once again, dodging the retaliatory strikes in turn. She was in her element, a monster hunting machine.

And so it fell, brought low by her attacks. Yet even as she moved to disengage the second one drew near. The flail it held swung out towards her, yet unlike outside it seemed to catch on to the fire that was already present and hurl it at the sword wielding girl like a wave. That would make it much more dangerous.

In the distance one could hear the light twang of a bow, and perhaps flashes of light from arrows. It seemed Alicia had arrived as well.

Geh, it was times like this when she wished she had some more close ranged attacks other than 'stab until dead'. Vaguely aware of Alicia's presence, Rina rolled backwards, grimacing and unable to entirely avoid the wave of fire. As soon as she righted herself, however she fired two quick shots at the beasts face, hoping to give Alicia an opening to finish it off.

The shots were quick, but not quick enough it seemed as the monster dodged on its spider-like legs. If one did not know better, it almost seemed like the fire was making it move faster. The benefits of being in this sort of environment were not limited to attacks. Alicia was still busy with her own monster, and another two would become clear as well. One was moving to confront the archer as she switched between melee and ranged combat on the fly, while the other moved towards Rina at a diagonal angle.

The flail came in again, catching and casting the flames towards her. Its knife glowed a brighter color as the temperature rose and it maneuvered about. This time around it would try to catch one of her limbs, though with the chain made of fire it would be a lot more painful than being caught with normal steel.

On the plus side, there probably weren’t many monsters left besides these, if any. A small comfort.

Alicia had her own problems it seemed. She had only a few moments to think of a battle plan. The only downside with fighting indoors, was a lack of vertical maneuverability in most buildings. Glaring at the fire monster, Rina lunged towards the one swinging at her. Dodging under the beasts swing, she drove a sword into its gut, before leaping upwards and landing behind it, swiftly taking her other sword to the creature’s neck, already forming a new blade to defend against the other one.

Dodging around the oncoming blow, a howl was her reward for the successful strike that followed. Metal sank into its body, causing it both pain and hindering its movements. Yet she would find its smaller blade waiting for her when she went for the neck strike. It glowed with a brilliant incandescence, a sign of the power imbued in it.

That power displayed itself as it swiped at her sword. The blade was burning hot, warping metal and outright slicing through her created blade with ease. That certainly ruined her attack, and made it all the more dangerous as the other monster closed in, both stabbing at her as they engaged in melee combat.

“Shit-” Rina had barely a moment to react as her attack was completely countered. Unable to dodge in time, one of the creatures blades cut into her shoulder, earning a pained grunt from the magical girl. Well, fine! If they wanted to get her this close-!

Rina made no effort to disengage. Instead, she simply tackled the one in front of her, launching herself into it. Both of her blades would sink into its molten body as she hoped to knock it over. Nothing her regeneration couldn't handle.

It was a move that the monster had not been expecting. Most people would not simply tackle a being made of fire, even with magic to aid them. So at the very least she had the element of surprise on her side.

Admittedly, knocking over something with four legs was a bit on the trickier side, but its mass and previous wounds staggered it and sent it tumbling. Its smaller blade slashed and stabbed, the smell of scorched flesh filling the air as the incredible heat burned what was not cut. Plus she had earned a bit of breathing space from the other monster, a fleeting reprieve to finish off this foe.

As soon as the beast fell, Rina rolled off of it, righting herself. Before it could reorient itself, she brought two more swords down, impaling its head and neck.

“Tch...” Rina winced as she stood, her wounds visibly regenerating from the burns. Jeez, that hurt, but at least she had only one more to deal with now.

Her blades landed soundly, impaling the monster before it could harm her more and killing it. It faded, its body adding to the soot and ash that already covered the place. The fire continued to rage, but it did seem to be lessening a bit now that there were less monsters keeping it actively stoked.

Over to the side, Alicia was successfully able to kill one of her monsters as well, lopping off two of its front legs before flipping over it and filling its back with arrows. ”This is what we get for not bringing a Water girl with us,” she observed as she clashed blades to mace with her own final opponent.

Rina was met with her own, the monster using its flail in sharp jabs and throws, rather than the sweeping blows like the previous ones had. Perhaps it was learning, or maybe it assumed those would be harder to block and get around. They’d find out soon enough.

“If you know one,” Rina grunted in reply, forming a blade in an attempt to deflect the sweeping strike from the beast. “Better late than never.” The archer attempted to close in, using her other blade to strike the beast's other arm.

”They’re on the way. Though we may be nice and crispy by then,” Alicia answered with a grunt. Weaving, she found one of her blades entangled by a chain of fire The weapon was wrenched from her grip and sent clattering away near Rina, forcing her to fight one handed for the moment.

Meanwhile the monster jumped back as she tried to close in, the monster leveraging its mixed combat capabilities to keep out of arms reach. It was wary of her blades, moreso than its companion had been. Heat rose, stifling in spite of regeneration, and with smoke to match it. At least the burning figure was not difficult to make out amidst everything else.

“Almost makes me miss that dolphin and the beach!” Rina replied curtly, the flail from the monster meeting her blade – except she had positioned it slightly just to wrap around her blade. Smirking, the archer would make a move to shove the blade into the ground – with the flail still wrapped around it to prevent the creature from moving.

The monster was not expecting her clever tactic, eyes widening in response as it yanked at the flames only to find it stuck in place from the sword. After a moment it cut its losses, releasing the chain and letting that flame die out even as it crafted a new weapon for itself. But that left an opening for Rina to take advantage of, one that would not last long.

Smirking in a bit of self satisfaction, Rina lunged forwards, driving her sword into the creatures chest. A second and third blade were quickly formed, finding themselves soon impaled into the creature's neck and gut. Disengaging, Rina leaped backwards and knocked a particularly large blade into her bow. The metal wire string pulled back tight, a sharp snap barely audibly over the fire as it launched the sword towards the target.

The searing blade that it held deflected her initial blow off course. But without the flail to assist Rina’s speed soon proved superior as she stabbed and then shot it, finishing the monster off for good.

At about the same time Alicia was wrapping up with hers as well. She only had the one blade. She had maneuvered well and utilized her Light magic too, causing it to knock out a support pillar and bringing down part of the floor above on top of it. With the monster pinned, she was able to finish it off.

Yet they could not rest easy. One last monster appeared from the smoke, late to the party. Looking at its fallen comrades, a screech filled the air. Power flared, radiating from the being as it drew on its magic. In turn the fires nearby were pulled towards the monster, merging with it and making it stronger. And not just this room. It seemed like all the fire in the building would be drawn in that way as it grew in both size and power.

Joining Rina, Alicia retrieved her other sword and returned the weapon to bow form. ”We probably shouldn’t let that thing finish,” she observed, already stringing arrows to renew her attack.

“Tch, always one more crawling out of some hole.” Rina grunted, already making more blades to use. She'd preferably get in close and use her agility to her advantage, but with the fire growing more intense her regeneration probably couldn't keep up. “Lets not give it a chance then!”

Stringing up another sword, Rina launched it towards the beast, keeping her eyes on the creature for some sort of weakness or opening.

As the heat flowed in, the monster grew. Extra legs sprouted out as well as extra arms. The heat around it intensified, and space shrunk that they had to maneuver in as well. It was drawing on the fire, using it to make itself stronger. While that boost might not last long, it would make it much more difficult to defeat.

”I’ll flank left,” Alicia said, crouching low while moving in that direction. Rina would find that the short blade had lengthened more to an actual sword, one that swatted her blade aside as it moved towards her. Fear was vanishing with its rising power, and it would follow up with a kick from one of its many legs aimed at her.

Rina narrowed her eyes at the beast as it lunged forwards. Hot flames blasted towards her as it lashed out with one of its legs. The archer dove to the right, opposite of Alicia, rolling along the burning floor and firing a few quick shots as she came to a stop.

Her shots found a bit more purchase this time around. While one or two arrows would be avoided entirely, the others struck home. But with the increased size and mass of the thing, they did less damage than they had done previously. Soon the heat had them melting, limiting the harm they would do to its mobility.

Coming to a stop on the other side of the monster, Alicia began to marshal her magical energy. This would take a few moments and might cause more than a little collateral damage, but at this point they had little choice.

For now Rina would need to buy time as she earned the monster’s ire. Walls of fire swept towards her, burning and consuming with a suffocating heat and scorching flame. It then swung its flail at her, though by this point it was more dangerous, now sporting several balls at the end that caused explosions when they struck, rather than the one she was used to. But they’d known this wouldn’t be easy to deal with going in. What was one more challenge.

Rina grimaced as she noticed her blades had little effect. She cast a glance over to Alicia who was...doing something? Well, she'd just need to buy Alicia some time to do whatever it was she was doing. If she had an idea, then she'd let her do it. Rina formed a blade, larger than the ones she had used previously. If it was going to melt her blades, then she just needed to make them bigger.

Avoiding the flail as best she could, Rina fired the blade towards the creature's head. A particularly large blade was loosed towards its legs, in an attempt to knock it over.

Understandably the monster viewed the sword aimed at its head as the greater threat, and it focused on blocking that. While it did so, her following shot was more successful and caused it to stumble, dropping on one side.

From behind Alicia struck. A beam of dazzling light fired from her bow, not a simple magical arrow but rather a concentrated burst of energy that slammed into it like a hammer as she drew on her Blood Magic. It wasn’t the same reckless expenditure like what she had done back in the Overcity during the trip to Justine’s castle, but it was similar.

The monster screeched, thrashing in pain under the force of the spell. She did her best to keep her aim steady, but it did gouge into the ceiling and walls beyond a little bit. As the spell faded, Rina could see that a large chunk had been torn from the monster. Two arms had been blown off, and its left side had been savaged so as to reveal the fires burning within.

Whirling about, the monster responded surprisingly quickly as it swung at Alicia. ”Oh shi-” She managed to get out an exclamation of surprise as she dove out of the way. Yet the force of the impacting flails caused the ground to collapse, throwing her down to the floor below in a cascade of rubble and smoke.

With her likely incapacitated, the monster returned to Rina. Even now she could see that it was starting to regenerate itself with its gathered fire. If she didn’t finish it now, the fight would likely just get tougher.

“Alicia!” Damn, Rina didn't have time to worry about her. She narrowed her eyes at the fiery beast, ignoring the intense flames as she formed another sword. Tsk, if only she had a little more in the way of physical combat. Ignoring perhaps, a bit of better judgment, Rina moved in closer to the creature, leaping upwards, spinning she formed a large blade similar to how she had done at the stadium just a few months prior.

The massive blade slammed into the monster and the floor below, likely taking out another chunk of the floor with it.

What resistance the monster put up could not match against sheer force of mass. At best it could wrap the chains of its flail around the blade, trying to yank it to the side. While that might have saved it immediate termination, it caused the floor beneath it to crumble once again.

Legs grasped for purchase but failed, sending it tumbling to the floor below, and then the floor below that as damage from the fire took its toll on the building.

Yet it rose again, voicing its anger as legs rose to pull itself back up to her. At least she could see that Alicia was alright, the magical girl already pulling herself back to her feet and only moderately worse for wear. Moving to the edge of the hole, a sigil formed in the air in front of her before a veritable storm of arrows was sent down at the monster, courtesy of her Barrage powers. She intended to end this, right here and now.

Rina landed just on the floor above, at the edge of the broken floor. As Alicia moved to fire a barrage of shots at it, Rina formed several blades, knocking them into her bow. A swift upwards motion as she loosed the arrows, and the blades would impale themselves in different parts of the creatures body.

The monster roared, swinging and clawing as it suffered under the pummeling blows. It almost pulled itself away, only for Rina’s blades to pin it in place. It was the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, and with a last burst of fire that roared upwards and singed what eyebrows they had left, it fell just like its comrades.

Dismissing her weapon, Alicia nodded to Rina. ”Let’s get out of here,” she called. With the monster dead, most of the fires were outright gone. It had taken them with it. But she’d prefer to talk in fresh air, rather than here where firefighters might stumble upon them.

“Phew...” At least it was finally dead. Rina's bow disappeared, along with the rest of her unused blades. The monster should dissipate by itself soon enough and any evidence should be gone by the time others showed up anyways.

“Hey Alicia,” Rina walked alongside the other girl as they left. “Mind coming back to my place? I have something Beacon is going to be interested in.”

”Sure. Lead the way,”Alicia agreed with a nod. She had the time, and after all of that she didn’t mind a break to relax either.And if Katarina wanted to talk it was probably important.

The two of them headed off, leaving the monsters behind and their work here finished. The city could rest easy, knowing they were a bit safer.

To be continued….

---

Thankfully her own residence wasn’t too far, though it was up a few floors.

“Man, I want to take a shower after that.” Rina said with a sigh, opening the door to her apartment. It wasn’t the nicest place, but it had all the essentials. She pulled off her jacket, pulling the recorder from it and lazily tossing her jacket to the side causing it to land on a nearby sofa. Walking over to the nearby kitchen table, Rina placed the recorder on it. “Want a drink or something? Got some pizza and some leftovers in the fridge.” Might as well relax a moment before getting to business after that whole fight thing.

Arriving at the apartment, Alicia glanced around as she stepped inside. ”I feel that,” she agreed with a nod, running a hand through her hair to try and shake a bit more of the smoke and dust out.

Already transformed back to normal, she took a seat at the table. ”A drink would be great.” After all that heat it was a bit of a no-brainer. Another look was given to the room as she relaxed. ”So, do you live by yourself?”

“Mostly. I don't really...do other people that well.” She replied with a shrug. “Been staying at the Golden Trove recently, though.” For multiple reasons, really, mostly involving Mika and making sure the Ascendancy didn't try anything funny.

“Heads up.” Rina tossed Alicia a soda from the fridge and setting what remained of her pizza from earlier on the counter. “How's uh, the whole beacon thing going? Bet coming back to all...this wasn't exactly easy.”

Alicia hummed as Katarina explained where she’d been staying for the past few days. It had been mentioned before, but she’d never swung around or felt it worth looking into. No doubt someone had their eye on the place already. A snap filled the air as she opened the soda can, , taking a sip of the cool drink.

Enjoying the satisfaction of it, she turned to the matter of herself. ”No kidding,” she confirmed with a laugh. ”Came back, got hauled in and put on trial for heresy and various related crimes against Beacon, then I end up getting acquitted and made the leader of the local branch of Penrose. So now I’m balancing keeping the city safe from monsters with keeping the Ascendancy from doing anything too crazy. Oh, and one of my close friends tore her soul in half because of a split personality. So yeah, things have been a bit rough.”

“Uh...wow.” Rina blinked. Sounds like Alicia had a tough time of it. She was suddenly glad she didn't have to deal with some organization like Beacon usually. “Well, glad that worked out? Jeez, makes me a feel a little bad since I'm probably about to make your week even worse.” Rina gave Alicia a mildly apologetic expression as she reached for the laptop, idly eating a slice of pizza as she opened it.

“Before you ask later, I have no idea who sent me this stuff right now.” The magical girl slid the recorder across the table over to Alicia as she plugged in the USB. “Give it a listen.”

Nodding, Alicia held back any comment as she turned to the recorder. An eyebrow rose at how old fashioned it seemed, but that was probably all deceptive anyway. For now she needed to keep looking to the main objective.

As the clip came to an end, Alicia wore a frown from what she heard. ”So if this is legitimate, someone is conspiring with the Mint for an item that will let them use a spell, and a big one.” Holding in a sigh, she sank back into the chair with arms crossed over her chest. ”Well, we’d suspected that the rave was a trap. I guess this just proves it.”

Admittedly they could be talking about something else, but with that kind of deadline it wasn’t like much else would be happening that they would need it for. So it was a pretty safe bet.

“Mhm.” Rina replied with a quiet nod. “I've given it a bit of thought. Someone wants a large amount of magical energy for the party.” She took a quick drink of her own soda before continuing. “I can only think of a few uses for a massive amount of magical energy – and most are of the extremely destructive kind.” Rina frowned. She had been thinking about it, and more and more she had started to piece together a theory of a plausible version of events. “...hear me out for a second - and this is entirely speculation - they're likely using the Rave as a distraction for Beacon while they do something else. I don't know what, but, what if their target isn't the Rave? Killing a few beacon girls would be easy, but it wouldn't cripple Beacon in its entirety. It seems like they want to use some sort of energy for it and after, likely to make sure they can clean up whatever happens after.” She fixed Alicia with a serious expression as she said a final word.

“Which is why I'll be going.”

Alicia took another sip from her drink as Katarina elaborated on her own suspicions. ”With how the announcement went I’d assumed they were trying to provoke a fight to make us look bad. But with this, it’s a lot worse.” There was a big difference between picking a fight to rally everyone against them, and whatever this was intended to be.

Stil, Katarina raised a good point. ”That’s also possible. I’m not sure what they’d use it for though. We’ve already had our HQ blown up once before. What could they do that would make Beacon go away for good, shift the entire place into the Overcity?” Now that was an idea, she thought to herself with a scoff.

She met Katarina’s look with a curious one of her own. ”Do you know where it’s going to take place?”

“Mhm” Rina replied with a nod of her head. “I don't know if you know her, but uh, a girl by the name of Mika asked me to go with her, so I am. I wasn't planning on it, but I need to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid and it'd be good to scope out the place since I'm not affiliated with beacon.” It was in all honesty a pretty dangerous idea. Similar to some undercover jobs she took as a cop. Posing as a drug buyer/dealer, or other such things. Jobs like that always were risky. “I don't mind telling you, since I trust you won't do something stupid. Just don't call in the cavalry or something unless you don't hear back from me in a few hours or something.”

Alicia’s frown deepened at the mention of Mika, but it was only for a moment before returning to normal. Instead she kept her attention on what Katarina was offering to do for her. ”I’ll advise them to hold back, but I don’t actually control the Ascendancy here. I can’t tell them to do anything. So if they get impatient, well….” That was why she had intended to come along herself. If she was there personally, hopefully it would limit the chance of something tragic happening.

“Best I can ask for.” Rina said, quickly texting Alicia the address. “Now uh, one more thing...it's about Beacon and I might be asking for a lot here, but...there was something else that was sent along with that tape.” Rina opened the file, motioning for Alicia to come watch as well, making sure to note the name of the file to her before playing the clip.

“I don't think the tape and this are related, but whoever sent it obviously thinks I need to investigate.” Rina continued, a serious expression leveled towards Alicia as the clip played. Getting on Beacon's bad side was not ideal, and poking around affairs that they didn't want people digging around in was a good way to do that, but she couldn't in good conscience not investigate a little. “I've done a bit of digging on both the delivery service as well as some events potentially surrounding this...and maybe I'm letting my curiosity get the best of me, but I want information, Alicia, and I think beacon has some.”

Alicia’s phone buzzed, receiving the text that Katarina had sent. This would make their problem easier, and save them a lot of time as well. An unexpected bonus for the trouble they went through earlier.

Then Katarina showed her the clip. Her gaze narrowed on the file name before watching what transpired with widening eyes. ”I..I wish I could tell you but I’ve never seen anything like that before. No one has told me about us having the capability to just wipe out a city.” While she hadn’t been in charge for that long, she felt like that was the sort of thing that Sylvia would have mentioned pretty early on. Katarina might want information, but she just wasn’t in a position to provide any.

“Mhm, I thought so.” That'd have been too easy. “Took place in Ethiopia. Fairly certain it's the city of Dilla. Around the same time this event took place the city was quarantined, and a travel ban still is in place to this day. Pretty odd for some gas leak to make the city inhospitable for that long.” Rina said with a sigh. “I don't want to say Beacon's at fault here for anything. That person that was seen may not even be part of Beacon, but they likely do know something.” Rina hesitated only slightly at her next request.

“I want a meeting with some beacon higher ups.” She shouldn't treat this any differently than any other investigation she had done in the past - which meant Beacon should be just as responsible for any crimes as any other.

With the video over Alicia leaned back in her seat. A hand rose to rub her chin while she thought about it. ”Something like that, if it was Beacon then they wouldn’t have done it unless they felt they had no other choice. After all, Penrose is here so they’re not that trigger happy with it.”

With that said, she couldn’t blame Katarina for wanting to talk with someone, to see if she could get some answers. Alicia would admit that she was just as curious, even if it didn’t mean much in the end. ”I’ll see if I can set something up,” she agreed without debate. ”Looks like there’s a lot for the both of us to think about.”

“Thanks. I realize that's probably putting you in an awkward position.” Rina said, closing the laptop and unplugging the USB. “That's one of the reasons I don't think it was Beacon. I know Beacon can be a little zealous, but unless there was no other way they wouldn't have done something that drastic.” Sighing, Rina flopped onto the couch next to Alicia, pizza box in hand.

“I'd offer to let ya stay over, but I don't really have any I dunno...sleep over stuff? I don't usually have guests.”

Taking another swig of her drink, Alicia shrugged as Katarina joined her on the couch. ”Not much more awkward than it was already. Don’t worry about it,” she replied. She was just passing the responsibility up the chain, really.

Although she did glance around, she wasn’t too bothered by this as they turned from business to relaxation again. ”It’s fine. After being gone for months my parents would be worried sick if I was gone for too long so soon. Besides, you did say you were mostly staying at that hotel. So I can’t blame you for not being ready to entertain guests here.”

Thinking on topics, she found one that would be a bit easier. ”So, have you heard from our shakespearean swordstress yet? I’ve been a bit busy, so catching up with people has taken a bit longer than I’d like.”

“Amaryllis? Not really.” Rina replied with a frown. “Been a bit busy doing the usual work and helping out with the monsters and Beacon occasionally where I can. Aside from apparently now dating Mika I've not had a lot of downtime. With all this,” She offered a slice of pizza to Alicia. “I think I'm gonna have even less.”

Taking the slice of pizza when offered, Alicia let herself enjoy the meal as she alternated between it and her drink. So, she hadn’t? Seemed she wasn’t the only one who had been busy with things. ”Well, I’m sure she’s fine. Still, I feel that. This rave thing isn’t the only pressing issue on my hands right now. But Beacon thinks I can handle it, so I have to do my best.” It was slow going sometimes, but she was getting the hang of things.

“I don't envy you.” Rina said, idly placing the pizza box on the couch between them. “I was a police officer before I was a magical girl. Can't tell you how many times I wanted to smack my higher ups for giving me the work of ten people. Guess it just means we're good at what we do, eh?” She chuckled lightly. “We should take a vacation together sometime. Preferably not getting kidnapped by a dolphin I want to murder.”

”I don’t know. Considering what happened during the last, I have this feeling that if I try to go on vacation the city will be on fire by the time I get back,” Alicia chuckled as well after finishing the slice of pizza she was working on. Considering everything that happened in this city, it wasn’t an entirely unfounded worry.

Taking a small break before she went for another piece, another thought presented itself. ”Actually, how would you like to come and teach a lesson or two at Beacon some time? You know, when this all blows over. Considering all the monster hunting you do, it’d be nice for the new members to see an outside perspective.”

“Eh?” Rina blinked. “Me? A teacher?” A bout of laughter followed as she considered the idea, nearly spilling her drink in the process. It wasn't that bad of one, if she were to be honest. The only problem would be not knowing where to even begin. “Ahaha, last time I trained someone in the force was...” She paused, a somewhat wistful smile crossing her lips as she leaned lightly in Alicia's direction. “Heh, well, whatever. If Beacon's offering, I could use some extra cash. Just uh, don't expect me to go easy on 'em.”

Allowing Katarina to work out her surprise and amusement, Alicia nodded to confirm what she had said. ”I wouldn’t expect you to. Besides, you’ll probably need to beat some sense into one of two of them to get them to accept you as a teacher anyway,” she observed with a smirk.

This time she did move for another slice of pizza. ”Still, you’re good with monsters, you know the city. Plus as a former cop you’ve probably got a bunch of skills for tracking and detective work that a normal girl doesn’t have. That could be pretty useful, especially since we’re trying to turn a new leaf over here rather than just blasting everyone who looks remotely suspicious on sight.” A bite of pizza followed, a hum escaping as the taste soothed and comforted. She’d have to talk with some people, but arranging payment shouldn’t be that hard if the Beckoners were fine with the idea.

“Hey, beating some sense into upstart little shits is something I've always been good at.” She laughed again. “If they're willing to drop their attitude and actually try learning, I can definitely try.” Hm, that said...Mika might not like that idea too much. Well, it was probably fine. Mika was more or less harmless. “You're doin' me a lot of favors for someone that might be pokin' their nose into Beacon's business a lot in the near future. Thanks, really.”

”Well, nothing’s set in stone just yet,” Alicia pointed out calmly. There was always the chance they wouldn’t go through with it when Katarina was done poking.

Leaning forward, her hands came to rest clasped together in her lap. ”But the Ascendancy isn’t going to be here forever. When they do, I don’t want Beacon to be isolated like it was before, especially when I’m trying to change things for the better. Sometimes you have to take risks.” Turning, she flashed a warm smile to her friend.

“Fair, fair.” Rina chuckled. “Hopefully that works out. Changing an organization as big and as rigid as beacon isn't easy.” She continued, tossing the empty soda can across the room, perfectly landing it in a garbage can. “Just be careful, alright? And if ya need any help just give me a call.” Rina got up off the couch, nabbing her jacket from the other end before turning to Alicia again.

“I should get back to the Trove. Promised Su I'd help around there a bit.” Surprisingly, Alicia could tell that was somewhat of a lie.

”Change has to start somewhere,” Alicia observed as she finished her second slice of pizza. ”Even if I don’t succeed, hopefully I’ll inspire others to feel the same way.”

Alicia rose from her seat as well, not intending to stick around in the apartment while Katarina wasn’t here. Though she could pick up the lie, she did not inquire about it. She’d come this far with honesty, there didn’t seem like there was a reason to pry. ”I will. You can do the same, or just ring up if you hear of any monster hideouts that need to be dealt with.” For now, she had a meeting to arrange, among other things.

“Yep, I'll see ya around. I shouldn't be much busier than normal until the Rave unless I'm fluffing Mik-ahem-helping Su around the hotel. Help around the hotel, yep.” Rina held the door open for Alicia as they left.

There was a big problem with actually trying to investigate a disappearance. … Namely, Mariette was no investigator. She could watch things from afar, but when it came to being a detective? That needed talking, and when the general public knew you’re a horror patron girl there’s only so much you can talk about. Wasn’t that many one could talk about with the disappearance of this one girl, and those who should have known the most were the ones who had put her up to the job. It was annoying. Mariette sighed, as she settled for leaning against the wall of an apartment that she’d been scanning around by opening portals. She couldn’t do that too much, or people with Third Eye would find her, and… sigh. She needed to wind down. Calm down a bit. Just turn off her head a bit, just be comfortable. And she really couldn’t be comfortable in her home-dimension with the presence of Asengav looming above her…

Hence she randomly opened a portal in front of Lily/Alex wherever they just happened to be at the time, since she knew Lily was on a patrol right nearby.

When the portal opened, Lily was balancing on top of a power line.
"Kiyaah!" She screamed in surprise, causing her to wobble just a bit before she embraced the swing of the power line, showing off her impressive agility.
"Wait, this is a portal...Mariette!" Her eyes turned into thunderbolt symbols as she jumped right through the portal, ending up at the apartment Mariette was staying at.
"It's you! It's really you! Oh my Ixion, this is so crazy!" She yelled, her excitement very obvious as she rushed to hug Mariette, only to stop herself.
"Wait, you're the type who hates touching, right? Sorry, forgot! Oh, could you make another portal for Alex at ground level? That would be easier for him, tee hee~"

Mariette’s first thought was something along the lines of “why did I think this would be calming”. She winced first at Lily’s scream, not entirely thinking that perhaps her portal would be alarming, and then Lily jumped through without hesitation and Mariette stumbled back because her intention had been to herself walk out, not have Lily jumping in.

‘H… hello, Lily…’ Mariette started, breathing out a bit as Lily was shouting about that “it’s you”. ‘“Hates” touching is an exaggeration, I’m just not used to it, but thanks for the consideration,’ Mariette commented, but otherwise simply opened a portal to ground-level for Alexander if he wanted it. ‘I had a moment, so I wanted to reconnect a little,’ Mariette said, decently meaning it.

The apartment itself was one of many abandoned apartments in town, which Mariette had been walking through more regularly than streets these days, with simple tables, a kitchen, a hall, the lot, and it obviously did not belong to Mariette, who stood there slightly awkwardly, holding bunny under her left arm.

Alexander walked through to see the familiar face, and raised a hand in greeting “So what’s up, you got something for us?” He asked “Things have been kind of...tense, with the new girls around, but I can’t imagine them giving you too hard of a time. Since your magic makes you pretty hard to pin down.”

Lily was already checking out the apartment by the time Alex had arrived there, spinning around on a foot..
”Is this where you live? It’s...Nice, I think.”
She stopped to hear Mariette. Her eyes widened, and she bit her lip, looking emotional.
”M-M-Mariette! Do you...Really mean it?”
She stepped in place, looking like she wanted to run around.
”Does that mean that...we’re finally friends? Or is it still too early? I, um, don’t want to force you into it. I know that you’re serious when it comes to your friends.”
Her anxiety came apparent from how fast she was talking. Fortunately Alex was there for her to lean on, and so she clung to his arm when he spoke.
”Did you want to talk about something?”

Mariette looked over when Alexander entered, and so raised her own hand in greeting. Before she could entirely respond, Lily was speaking again, and Mariette blinked a bit at her. Huh, this meant that much to her? … It made Mariette wonder a bit. Had she eventually softened? The last time they’d met had been in…

‘Oh, yeah… last time was in the Pit Stop, and Violet…’ had given Lily a bit of a lesson. Mariette had appreciated it at the time, but then it had sort of faded out of memory, and Mariette’s version of their relationship had diverged from Lily’s…

‘… Indeed, so far I’ve had no trouble avoiding a hard time. Thank you,’ Mariette started to Alex, and then turned to Lily. ‘This is actually not where I live. My place is a lot more unfriendly to anyone not under my patron. This is an interim, a safe place I can take a break in between harsh outside and the tense home where I can feel my patron’s influence all around…’ With that answered, she took a bit of a breath.

‘… And yeah. Sure. We can be friends. I don’t… see any harm in it,’ Mariette said, softly. She had something more to say, but perhaps let Lily have a reaction to that first.

Alexander was a bit taken aback ‘Is this really the same girl who told Lily off for being so friendly before? Weird, but I guess I’ve seen stranger things lately’

Lily squeed the moment Mariette’s confirmation reached her ears. She then flash-stepped, moving so fast even Mariette’s Awareness wasn’t able to follow her movements before she was caught in a hug.
”Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” She cheered, rubbing her cheek against the paler girl’s own.
”I’m so glad we’re friends now! I was afraid you didn’t like me after how much I screwed up! Thank you so much! We’re gonna be the best of friends, I promise you!”

Alexander pulled Lily off of the other girl “Okay woah. I know you’re excited, but try not to make her immediately regret her decision. Personal space and all that.” He then turned to Mariette “Yeah, you...probably know her well enough to understand how...enthusiastic she can get”

Lily blinked with a dumb smile on her face as she was forced to release the dark magical girl, seemingly unaware of the social faux pas she committed. ”Eh?”

It was a good thing Lily didn’t want her dead, Mariette mentally remarked. Because, as perturbed as she was at being hugged, she was far more perturbed by the sheer speed that Lily had hugged her in. There hadn’t even been the option to avoid her. Now she had to awkwardly stand there getting squeezed by the girl and have her cheek rubbed against while looking rather stunned herself until Alexander separated the two.

‘Y.. Yes, I know how she becomes, thank you,’ Mariette agreed with Alex and breathed out, happy to have a calmer presence here. ‘The time at the diner I was irritable for a number of reasons, but it didn’t make me dislike you. So… don’t worry?’ she then said to Lily, still recovering from the hug.

‘Still, it wasn’t entirely just to reconnect that I did contact you, but being friends certainly makes my next request more reasonable,’ Mariette continued.

”Oh, I’m sorry I-Huh?” Lily was about to blow up into a storm of apologies when Mariette told her not to worry.
”Oh, ok. What is it?”

‘I’m currently in the middle of an investigation. It is possible that, when I find the villain, they will attack me, and there’s a theoretical possibility that I’ll end up in peril. Should such a time come, I’d like to know if I can throw up a sudden portal asking you for aid. If I end up able to handle it on my own, I don’t want to have involved you unnecessarily, for even the information could put you in danger. But… it would be nice to know if I could rely on… my friends… at a time of need. Only if I judge the situation to be morally just, of course, not if my patron told me to do something bad. Then I’ll handle it on my own,’ Mariette explained with a serious expression.

‘In exchange… I can give you my number,’ Mariette then said, picking up her phone from the portal that was her hammerspace handbag. ‘And so you can call me when you need my help… or just… feel like calling… or something,’ she then finished.

Lily first thought for a moment, and then nodded, looking surprisingly serious as she took out her own phone.
”If you’re in danger, then I’ll be there to protect you, no matter who is after you. That’s what friends do.”
After a moment of quickly tapping on her phone, she collected the number, and showed her own to Mariette in turn. Her eyes seemed to be drawn to something.
”You have a cute phone, Mariette, but it lacks stickers. Want to have some of mine? They’ll make your phone super adorbs.”

“I’m kind of concerned about this trouble you’re expecting. I’ve seen how bullshit your portals can be, and you could easily hold up somewhere safe while taking pot shots at whoever you wanted. So why do you think you’ll be in danger?” Alexander asked

Mariette nodded thankfully to Lily’s confirmation. ‘That’s what friends do,’ she echoed, her tone one of confirming to herself. Then she blinked a bit in surprise at the next part. ‘Stickers…? Er… sure? I could borrow some…’ Mariette said, having no idea what she was getting herself in on. Wasn’t a phone fine just being a phone…?

Alexander was more on Mariette’s wavelength, asking the questions she had been expecting to be asked. ‘I lack offensive presence, and there’s a good chance I’ll be outnumbered. Other than that, I may be trying to save someone. Saving someone is a time-sensitive thing, and while my portals are adaptable they’re also occasionally slow. Especially with multiple hostiles, I may only have enough awareness to keep myself safe. Hence, it would be greatly appreciated if I have this as a last-resort kind of thing,’ Mariette explained. ‘It is also because my enemy this time might be very powerful. I don’t want to needlessly trouble you if it turns out I can handle it myself.’ Yes, that should do it, Mariette thought.

Alexander nodded “Alright, that makes enough sense. You seem to have a pretty tight grasp on the specifics, so you’re clearly far enough into your investigation to at least have an idea who your opponent is, as well as a possible VIP. So why don’t you tell us exactly what we’re getting ourselves into?”

‘… Because I’d rather not put you in danger if I can avoid it, and the information itself may be dangerous,’ Mariette replied, very briefly.

“I’m...not sure how information can be dangerous...but okay” Alexander sighed, a little disappointed “It can never be that simple for us, can it?”

Unlike Alex who concentrated on the discussion, Lily was ignorant of the topic, rummaging her bag for stickers to hand them out to Mariette: they depicted miscellaneous cute things like hearts and stars and anime girls in a chibified style.
”Here you go, these are all the stickers I have with me, but we can go and get more! Oh, and you should have a keychain too!” She removed one of hers and attached it to Mariette’s phone: it was a tiny Sailor Moon figurine performing her famous pose.
”I already have three of these, so you can have one! Yes, now your phone is accessorized! Anyway, why does it matter if it’s dangerous, Alex?”
She looked up to him with a confident smile.
”I’m sure Mariette has a good reason for keeping things quiet. I trust her, so should you too,” she stated with a cute pout.

“Because I’m tired of dangerous things pretty much ambushing us, and would love to be on the other side of it.” Alexander answered Lily “It’s got nothing to do with trust, and everything to do with prep work and planning.”

‘… Thank you,’ Mariette said, staring with a strange look at the sticker added to her phone and the stickers she’d been given. She didn’t exactly know the purpose of this, but… suppose it was style. Was it her style? … Not sure. In any case, what Alexander said… struck true to Mariette. She considered something about it, and…

‘… Alright. Lily, leave us for a bit. I’m going to tell Alexander,’ she said. And before Lily asked why… ‘If I tell you, you’re going to get involved regardless of what I say. That’s just the kind of person you are, and that’s a good thing. But I believe I can tell Alexander, to allow him to prepare for it without necessarily causing trouble, because I believe he’s the kind of person that I can tell this without worrying. Then he can decide what’s best.’

"Oh?" Lily blinked, not having expected Mariette to confide with them. But then, as the realization dawned on her, she smiled sweetly with a sigh, her eyes having wettened a bit.
"This must be hard for you, Mariette. But you can trust Alex. Call me when you're done." She then turned away, and went to watch TV in the living room.

When Lily was out of earshot, Alexander said “Right, so it’s sounding like this less of a memetic hazard, and more something you’re worried we’ll act on too soon and fuck up everything?”

Mariette was thankful Lily didn’t take the solution too badly. She breathed out softly, and then looked at Alexander. ‘… I’m potentially going to battle Ebon Mint, for they captured the small Magical Girl called Sammy. It’s a matter of that drawing the ire of a large underground organization that is not above assassinations is not a good idea for those who typically live in the light, like you two. That’s why I want to attempt handling it myself, first. It won’t just be me, Amaryllis will also be there. However, if things go wrong, then I’d very much rather ask if you’d want to risk helping me than that I die or fail, never having asked,’ Mariette summarized.

Alexander groaned “Wonderful, this is just what we need; another organization causing trouble. We haven’t even gotten rid of the zealots that moved in...and now this” he shook his head in frustration “If...if it really comes down to it, then yeah, I’ll help. Fuck knows why I’m saying yes; since this has nothing to do with me. Lily’s clearly a bad influence on me.”

Mariette nodded to his reaction, decently understanding it. ‘Thank you. That means a lot to me. I’ll leave it to you if you want to tell Lily about this, but the situation is mostly that Amaryllis hired me to help, and therefore I will be saving Sammy. She didn’t know it was the Mint until I investigated and found it to be the case, but now we’ll be moving on to investigating different points of interest until we can track the girl down. At any point during this, the Ebon Mint might decide to ambush us, and that’s when I might want the help… and also during the rescue mission itself, depending on how many hostiles we find there to be. I just gave Lily my number, so you can reach me there if you have questions or would like to change your stance on the matter. For now, you can continue your life, and if the situation has resolved I’ll let you know. And, if a random portal appears in front of you, be ready it might be that I’m requesting aid. Does this work with you?’

Alexander opened his mouth to say something snarker, before pausing. He then shook his head and said “Yeah...yeah that’s fine. I’m going to need some time to get some stuff ready. I could get a few temporary power boosting trinkets ready in a couple of days, maybe some healing items too. It’ll have to be something on the side though, since I’m working on something for Lily. But if you really think you’ll need some gear, I can put a rush on it.”

Mariette initially nodded, then looked a bit surprised towards the end of that. ‘”I’ll” need some gear? I really wasn’t… expecting you to make things for me, if that’s what you’re saying. That said, if you are… I’d be very thankful.’

“There’s not a lot I can make. Healing stuff, power boosting stuff, things that can make shields. It’s basically me storing my spells in something solid for later use. They don’t last too long unless I put in a lot of time and effort into making them solid enough, and even then I’d still need to fix them from time to time. So the best I can do is a bunch of disposable stuff that might come in handy. If you need time to think about what you’re going to need then fine, just get in contact with me once you know what you want.”

‘… Alright. Then, wide-spread shields and healing artifacts are what I may need the most. My portals can be unreliable as shields depending on how quick or many the enemy attacks are, and our investigation party currently lacks a healer should someone get hurt so that would also be greatly appreciated,’ Mariette said, still looking a little off-guard because making something for her? Huh. Is he about to ask about payment? Mariette expected him to, any second now.

Alexander nodded “Got it. Oh, and by the way; these are really only going to be good for a couple of hours of continued use, and you’ll have to use your own mana to use them. The shields don’t drain mana once there up, but you can pour more into them to reinforce/fix them. So if they’re still functioning after the fight, you can just keep them if you want. Was there anything else I needed to know?”

‘That is fine. I have a lot of mana,’ Mariette commented with a nod, taking in all the information that Alexander was telling her. At the end, she felt she had sufficient understanding, and… ‘I believe that should be all, I’ve sufficiently told you what I’m doing and what I might need help with. We can call back Lily now,’ Mariette said.

“Alright.” Alexander turned around to face the direction Lily was in “Okay Lily, we’re done! Get in here!” He yelled to her.

”Okay!” Lily came walking back, holding a big cup of popcorn.
”Man, that South Korean film on TV was really good! I think it was called Parasite.” She took Alex’ hand.
”But I only managed to catch a few minutes of it. How about we buy the Bluray on our way home?” She asked, before turning to Mariette.
”I’m glad you got to an understanding. Anyway, we gotta go now. Bye, see you later!” She waved goodbye, before leading Alex out through a portal.

“Where did you get the popcorn?” Alexander mumbled to himself as Lily dragged him through the portal.

Mariette was a bit surprised that, almost as soon as Lily returned, she was also about to leave. Guess that’s simply how this girl operated, at pretty high speed. Still, Mariette raised a small hand to wave them off. 'Goodbye for now. You have my number if you need me,’ she simply said, letting them get back out on the street before closing said portal and being left on her own again. … Those were Eli’s popcorn, that she’d prepared for when she returned from her scouting mission. … … … … … Oh, well.

_________________________

About ten seconds after Lily emerged from the portal with Alex, she was already talking about the movies she'd like to buy...


...When a tiny Magical Girl rounded the corner and completely froze, staring wide eyed at them… before she grinned widely.

‘Lily Lightning! I’ve found you! … Oh, and Alex, too!’ said the currently unknown little girl in the obviously eastern-inspired samurai-outfit, grinning at them.

Lily stopped in her tracks, looking surprised.
"Whoah! So cool!" She immediately dashed over with high speed, looking around the tiny warrior.
"Very nice cosplay, I-wait, how did you know my name? I'm not that famous, right?" She looked back at Alex with a confused expression.
"So you’re magical girl then. I really hope you're not here to test my skills in battle. That would be a big bummer.”

Alexander rubbed the back of his head “I…think we’ve met her before? She looks like one of the tiny girls that hung around Mariette. Although the Eastern outfit is new, and she doesn’t look as...slime-like as those girls.”

‘Heeey, it’s not cosplay, it’s my Magical Girl outfit! … Which is kinda cosplay, sure, but it’s also kinda just my uniform! Haha!’ the little samurai claimed with a little laugh, grinning widely as Lily looked her over. Then Alexander said that, and she had to act really darn quickly.

‘Huh? Mariette? Who’s that? Anyway, no, I’m not here to test your skills!’ the girl said, before giving the both of them a salute. ‘I am Ronin! I came to find you because my new friend Penny told me you’d be a good person to befriend! I want to make friends with as many people as possible, and so asked her where I could find other friends! And so…’ Ronin grinned widely. ‘Will you be my friend?’

Lily’s mouth turned into a circle, looking baffled.
”Wait, you know Penny?” Her eyes turned into sparkles at the mention of friendship.
”I can’t believe it! For the first time, someone actually comes up to me, and-” Her hair electrified as her excitement expressed itself through magic.
”YEEESSS!” She screamed, anb grabbed Ronin in a hug, lifting her high into the air while rapidly spinning around.
”Today’s my lucky day to get so many new friends! Yahoo!”
She then stopped spinning, having realized that Ronin’s face was turning green.
”Whoops, my bad! I just got so excited I couldn’t help it! Where do you come from Ronin? I haven’t seen you before in Penrose.”

Alexander, not believing her claim that she wasn’t one of Mariette’s friends, opened his mouth to call bullshit, before pausing and closing his mouth while shaking his head ‘Fuck it, I don’t care enough. If she wants to mess around like this, then I’m sure as hell not going to stop her. It’s not worth the headache.’

‘Woa-!’ Ronin sounded out in surprise as she found herself squeezed by the excited girl’s hug and then promptly spun around by Lily. Now, Ronin was a Genki Girl herself, but Lily totally out-Genki-ed her right now. Ronin laughed as she was put down on the ground again, stumbling a bit. ‘Weee, hahahaha! Yay, I got more friends…!’ Ronin said, smiling widely. ‘Yeah, I arrived in Penrose just recently! As for where I came from, well,’ Deni thought her answer over, and considered how to change the question in her mind so that her answer wasn’t a lie.

‘I’m actually from Penrose, I just wasn’t a Magical Girl until very recently! Had to move out of town while I was still normal, and one day I woke up a Magical Girl! Something had given me power, and I had no idea what and was very confused, waking up in the middle of nowhere with no patron… but fortunately, I met Valkyrie and Amanda and then Penny and now I’m up to date on how everything works and what’s been going on, and just seek to make the most friends ever and defend the world from whatever may come our way! Yeah!’ Ronin claimed happily. Her story was true… assuming “normal” was her state living in Penrose as a Monster Girl, which is different from being a Magical Girl like now, and “move out of town” was due to being consumed by Caroline. Yupp.

”That’s awesome!” Lily responded, still recovering from her terminal case of hype. Then, she turned surprisingly smug.
”Well, clearly Penny knows the creme de la creme when it comes to friends, tee hee~” She flipped her short hair back with a hand on her hip, attempting to imitate a celebrity type.
”Since she has so cordially directed you to me, it is only fair that I will make your stay in Penrose hospitable.”
She then dropped the act as fast as she began it.
”Let’s go watch movies together! Wait, maybe ice-skating! No, Ski Jumping! Oh, I Know! AVALANCHE SNOWBOARDING!” She was screaming by the end of her suggestions, until she realized she had let her excitement take the best of her.

”...Or...Um...We could work together and destroy some monsters. Just, casually, no big deal...That alright?”

Alexander spoke up “For the record; I am 100% on board with this ‘go around killing monsters’ idea. I think it is incredibly well thought out, and I’d be proud to be a part of it. So let’s do that.”

Ronin just grinned widely at Lily’s act and then the subsequent suggestions. ‘I’m totally on-board! I want to see how well my new Magical Girl body would do in skating, jumping, or snowboarding! Oh, but I have a TON of movies I’d like to see, too! … But Alexander seems to be more leaning towards hunting monsters together, so let’s do that, first! Oh, and let’s befriend anyone who dares cross our paths!’ Ronin called, continuing to grin, skipping a bit on the spot, excited to get moving.

”Great! Let’s go!” Lily took Alex’ hand enthusiastically, following Ronin as they went on to have a good time together.

“I’m not sure ‘befriending’ works the way you think it does, but hey; you do you.” Alexander said to ‘Ronin’.

‘It totally does!’ Ronin claimed with another little grin, and then they were off on the streets.

---

It didn’t entirely matter when, where, how or why, eventually any person had to be alone for a while. It was simply a matter of being patient enough to await the time when they’d be alone. For a being that may as well have existed since the beginning of time itself, patience was something the elfin monster-girl had a significant amount of. Fortunately, Kimble was hardly the secretive type, occasionally going off and just being extremely cat-like, so it didn’t take all that long before an opportunity arose.

It eventually came to pass that Kimble was wandering on her own, balancing on fences before she jumped inside an abandoned convenience store, pouncing on the few rats inside. However, upon catching them, Kimble simply released them; she no longer had the urge to kill, and simply continued the stalking out of a force of habit.

Suddenly someone spoke to her from behind.



‘Kimble,’ Lea said her name, the creature in green dress floating abscently in mid-air behind the girl, on a ten meter distance so as to not startle her too badly. Last time they met, Lea had falsely introduced herself as Frida Merkel. Time to see if the no-longer cat-girl remembered.

“Nya?” Kimble meowed with a curious look as she turned, and gave a cute smile upon seeing Lea. “Oh, Frida! Nice to see you againya!” She hopped up on a shelf, knocking the various box of cereal down. “Thank you again for helping me: I managed to confess my feelings to my one true love, and she didn’t reject them! And now we’ve even gone on dates!” Her tails whipped around in a sign of joy, though Lea couldn’t help but notice something was off about them.

‘… Well done. You’ve attained something that many but dreams of,’ Lea replied, not actually very concerned if Kimble gets loved or not. Now immediately onto the subject at hand, due to Lea being bad at wasting time. ‘I came to find you again because I grew interested in you, as one of ours affiliated with Beacon, perhaps you were a sign Beacon had grown more accepting of our kin…’ … then Lea slightly tilted her head, inspecting the tails and ears… ‘… Yet I see you’re not of our kin anymore. It is a shame. They could not accept you as you were, so they removed the parts of you they couldn’t accept, leaving the parts they could so you could stay. Is that it?’

Kimble's joy quickly turned into sorrow. "Nyo, that's not true! Mistress is accepting, I know she is." She averted her eyes, her tails lifted up in an agitated manner. "I did change, but I wanted to! Now I can be with Mistress…" She lifted a hand up to her cat-eared hairband. "So it's okay, nya."

‘… Oh?’ Lea kept her head tilted a bit, watching Kimble’s reactions. ‘Then tell me. If hypothetically I came to talk to them, or even that they found you to be talking to me…’ Lea intentionally let a bit of a fluttering ripple go through her body, for a brief moment her mid-section was completely separated and see-through, simply to show the fact Lea wasn’t entirely corporeal… ‘… How would your allies react, currently?’

Kimble first blinked, not having understood. "Nh? Well, they would-" Her eyes shot wide open, and she let out a distressed meow. "They'd kill you. But I won't let it happen! Even when Mistress was in a tough spot, she chose the right thing, and even risked her life for it. So, I'll also do the right thing and protect you, nya."

‘…’ Lea was intrigued. This little former monster girl was saying she’d protect Lea, and that it’d be the right thing to do? How could she assume protecting Lea would be the right thing to do, after such limited contact? ‘… Hm,’ she smiled the slightest of a smile. Curious creature. Doing so would potentially lose you your new allies. … Lea didn’t say that out loud, but. ‘I appreciate the gesture. I’ll avoid a scenario where you have to do so,’ she shared. … Well, with that confirmed. How about going to the main subject?

‘I heard rumors of some form of “White Coin”. Am I correct in assuming it’s what changed you?’ Lea asked.

Kimble nodded, and hopped off the shelf. “Nyes. The kind Cardinal gave me a White Coin, and it purr-ified me!” She now went to scrounge around the freezer, and found a box of fried fish n’ chips. “It also gave a Shiney Sparkle that will protect me, nya! Now only Mistress can put a leash on me!” She took the box to the break room in the back, preparing to heat it in a microwave.

‘Hm,’ Lea nodded a bit, confirming that. ‘What does it take to have a White Coin offered to you instead of them killing you on the spot? The two options appear rather contrary,’ she continued, floating abscently after Kimble as she asked, merely watching as Kimble warmed herself a snack.

After the food was heated, Kimble separated the contents into two plates, one for the fried fish sticks, and the other for chips. “Well, it depends on if you seem like a monster who wants to attack, or one that doesn’t. If you ask nicely, I’m sure they’d at least listen first, nya.” She sat down by the table and began eating the fish sticks, offering the plate of chips to Lea. “You can have these, Frida.”

‘Hm. I see,’ Lea said, her face as straight as possible. Then she realized Kimble was plating up for two. The first thing that occurred to Lea was that Kimble had to be waiting for someone else… but then she was offered them herself. Lea stared silently a bit. She was used to being bribed in the Overcity, by people who wanted something from her… but Kimble appeared to simply be so innocent that she just did it automatically. …

‘Thank you,’ Lea said, using focused wind magic to grab the plate. Hm. Fish. … ‘I am curious about you, now, Kimble,’ she said, gently slicing up the fish sticks into more agreeable portions using focused air-molecules and more wind-magic. ‘Where did you come from? How did you become affiliated with Beacon?’ So Lea asked, as she gently started picking the individual pieces of fish to chew on while listening to Kimble.

Kimble was nibbling on a fish stick when she heard Lea’s q uestion. Her ears drooped a bit.
“I...I was born in Mama Lamashtu’s litter,” she quietly answered after a moment of silence.
“Mama Lamashtu was nice, nyeh; she told me she had high expectations for me. But, one day, when I was on my own...Justine put a leash on me, and I was forced to be her pet.” She hissed.
“I don’t remember much of it, just small moments...But she was bad. I might have been stuck with her forever...When Mistress saved me.” Her expression brightened as her ears sprang up, and she blushed.
“She saved my life...And when she looked into my eyes...I was in love, nya. And well...You know the rest, nya!”

‘… I see,’ Lea said, far less full of expression than Kimble had. ‘… I could take you back to Lamashtu, if you so wished. But, I expect you’re happy where you are,’ Lea suggested, knowing who said Lamashtu was. She could find her. Still, another thing occurred to her. ‘It appears our stories are not so dissimilar. I, too, was born powerful, told I was of highest quality, but then later brought down to a lower level. Yet, the one who leashed me was my beloved, and I acted as his second. I needed no savior, for I was happy…’ … Happy until, for whatever reason, Mariette was put in charge of this operation. Lea frowned the slightest. What did that little upstart-!? Lea shook her head a bit, to shake off the negative emotions.

A chip fell from Kimble’s mouth, her eyes staring directly at Lea. “Back to...Mama...” It seemed she hadn’t thought of it being a possibility in the first place, and her tails whipped the ground behind her as she thought hard about it. “Nhh...I could see her again...After all this time...”
She listened as Lea told of her own story, occasionally nodding, but clearly caught up in her own inner turmoil. Finally, she placed a firm hand on the table.
“Okay! I wanna see Mama! Because, once I see her, I can ask her why she never rescued me.” She looked angry, surprising Lea. “And I’m gonna say I’ve found a new family, and that she can forget about me, nya!”

Lea indeed blinked. She did not think such a notion would have such an emotional impact on the former cat-girl. Ask why she never rescued her… ‘… Heh,’ Lea smirked a bit. Anger, huh? She wanted to see her mother… in anger. Such a precious little reaction. Lea couldn’t retract her smile. She was angry at her mother. Just like Lea was angry for Mariette being given the gifts she had not. How exceptionally endearing. This girl…

She wanted this girl.

‘… Very well. I will find her for you. However, I’d like something in exchange…’ Lea said, unable to remove her smirk.

All around the room, outside as well as inside, unbeknown to Kimble, small specks of magical power started to move. Little magical minions, crawling about inside walls and on top of the roof, by the doors. Slowly but surely they gathered to lock away all the exits. Because she wanted to collect this girl, take her for her own. Her hoarder mentality had decided that she’d lay claim to this girl and add her to her collection…

‘Frida,’ Mariette’s voice spoke silently within Lea’s head, through the communicator embedded within her incorporeal head before embarking on this mission, not audible to Kimble.

Lea growled in slight irritation, and the tiny magical minions retreated, her mental corruption temporarily kept in check by Mariette’s reminder, and Kimble was safe for at least this encounter. Still, from Kimble’s perspective Lea had now sat silently since the last words she’d spoke, despite them begging to have a follow-up.

Kimble’s ears flicked, and she turned her head around. “...Huh? Did I say something strange, nya?” She asked. “Maybe you heard something?”

Lea stayed quiet as she looked at Kimble… and the voice in her head spoke some more. Describing what they could have use of. … So be it.

‘… I will take you to Lamashtu. In exchange, I want you to take me into Beacon HQ,’ Lea told, raising her head a bit. ‘Show me around. I have often imagined how it must look in there, and I’d like to see it for myself. Of course, I understand that you cannot bring a Monster Girl inside the building…’ … Lea held forward a hand as she finished talking, and… a single butterfly jumped off her finger. A green, moderately pretty butterfly. Then, Lea’s form as it was completely scattered, a mass of butterflies suddenly released of the power that controlled them and they flew off in various directions, while the single butterfly simply fluttered over to settle down on Kimble’s finger if she allowed it.

‘… but perhaps bringing a single butterfly would be possible?’ Lea’s voice asked, from the butterfly.

Kimble's mouth rounded into a look of surprise when Lea gave her offer, and her ears flicked. "Well, I'd need to ask Mistress first…" She mumbled. But then, when Lea took the form of a single butterfly, the girl's eyes sparkled. "Oh, now I don't have to ask. Like this, I can show you the place without anyone asking questions, nya." She sniffed the butterfly, and gave a catlike smile. "But just a quick tour, okay?"

Lea wasn’t entirely comfortable being sniffed on as a butterfly. She wasn’t entirely comfortable revealing the fact she could manifest as a mere butterfly to someone this affiliated with Beacon. Still, if this were her means to infiltrate Beacon HQ…

‘A quick tour should do nicely,’ the butterfly replied.

Amaryllis walked into the Virtuous Pie, dressed in a puffy coat and a long skirt. Striding up to the counter, she looked the cashier right in the eye and said, “H-hello, I’m looking for a Valerie Herztein? I heard she worked here…”

Yeah, there was no way she could sustain this sort of confidence in real life, huh.

“Welcome to Virtuous Pie!”
The cashier, who was a pretty young woman with long pink hair, immediately greeted Amaryllis upon her arrival; her uniform seemed to accentuate her figure, the top button unbuttoned to show a hint of cleavage, while her skin was unblemished and clean, her eyes a brilliant green.
She blinked at the mention of the name, and her lips curled into a surprised circle.
“Oh, Valerie Herztein? Umm...I’m not sure, hehe. I’ll need to check with the employee registry in the back. Just a minute~” She then walked to the back, closing the door behind her. About five minutes later, she returned, her previous wavering look now replaced with all smiles.
“Miss Herztein did work here for awhile, but she quit a month ago.”

“Oh, uh, really?” A month ago?” Amaryllis could have sworn that they were at the Beach Dimension as well, and it hadn’t even been a week yet since she returned. “Would you happen to know why she quit? I’ve been out of town for the last few months, and she hasn’t been responding to her cellphone and all, so...yeah. Trying to find her…”

The cashier started to look annoyed. "I don't know. Maybe she stole from the cash register and quit before she was found, or something like that? Look, are you gonna order anything or just yap about some gone girl?"

“Uh...huh.”

Amaryllis scanned over the menu for a moment, one hand pressing against her stomach. She hadn’t had much to eat anyways, considering how late it was at night. From monster-hunting, to Mariette-talking, to this, all the social stuff was making her much hungrier than she thought. Her Sword, though it was no longer in her hand, still bothered her in her mind as well, poking and prodding for more opportunities to kill.

That cashier looked like a good midnight snack, after all…

The bespectacled girl shook her head. “Oh, I’ll take the Brussel Sprouts Slaw, the Street Corn and Superfunghi pizzas, Blue Cheese dipping sauce on the side, and...your Tiger Pint ice cream, two scoops.”

Really, with the evacuation and Penrose’s condition, it didn’t really look like there was anyone else in the shop anyways...so she may as well help them move their stock. Felt like she was always hungry these days though.

“Coming right up!” The cashier responded, looking relieved that the girl gave up on her questioning. She went to the kitchen, leaving Amaryllis alone.

With the waitress gone, Amaryllis began to pace the restaurant, alert not for any misplaced objects, but rather for her Sword to pick up any sort of familiar or unfamiliar scent, magical or otherwise. In some ways, it would be nice if she got lucky and stumbled across a big find, but even being able to rule out this particular location as an important one in their investigations was useful: the less places they had to consider, the better.

So she continued to pace around, feigning boredom as she allowed her Patron to do its work.

The Sword, once it was allowed to fully manifest, soon picked up a familiar magical scent from the back of the restaurant; it was Valerie’s. The Sword also detected at least two different sources; both of them had a corrupted tinge to them, suggesting the presence of dark magical girls. When one of them came closer Amaryllis desummoned her sword; she saw that the scent belonged to the cashier, who had returned with Amaryllis’ order. “Here you go: Brussel Sprouts Slaw, Street Corn, Superfunghi pizzas, Blue Cheese dipping sauce on the side, and Tiger Pint ice cream with two scoops.”

“Ah, thanks,” Amaryllis said. “By the way, how’s the Mint?”

The girl froze, her eyes widened and her body shaken. However, despite her brief lapse in balance, she kept hold of the numerous plates, showing off athletic ability beyond normal humans. “Oh, ah...Sorry, we don’t sell breath mints here.” She continued smiling, but her eyes told a different story; they looked intensely at Amaryllis, as if she was trying to gauge her true nature. She placed the plates on a tray and offered it to her. “So, here’s your order~”
After Amaryllis took the tray, she lifted a hand up to her ear. “Oh, please excuse me.” She then turned, and exited to the back room.

“Mm, unfortunate.”

The bespectacled girl blinked, before drawing in a deep breath. Seating herself and placing all the trays down, she manifested her Sword once more, leaning it against the table. Calm. All she had to do was stay calm.

She was a Knight now, even if she still appeared just a girl.

And as her Sword stuck needles in her arms, alerting her to the proximity of the two traces it sensed, Amaryllis began to partake in her meal, relishing every bite.

The cashier soon returned, back to holding her post behind the counter. However, Amaryllis could tell from the corner of her vision that she was occasionally glanced at while she was eating, the other girl purposefully sneaking peeks every once in a while.

Food was food, that was for sure, and after taking it slow at the beginning, Amaryllis quickly picked up the pace of her consumption. Her ice cream was going to melt otherwise. Polishing things off with a glass of water, she allowed everything in her stomach to sit for a moment, before she stood up again.

“Thanks again,” she said, striding up to the counter to pay. “And stay safe, please. Feel like there’s been nothing but trouble going around Penrose these days.”

“Thank you, come again~” The cashier cheerfully responded with a polite bow.

With that, Amaryllis left the restaurant, her canvas-wrapped Sword click-clacking against the linoleum as she circled the perimeter of the building.

She spotted a shadowy figure on a distant rooftop, jumping to another. However, as she started to pursue the mysterious runner, she heard a strange sound coming from above her, resembling a whirling buzzsaw mixed with a bat’s screech. She managed to parry the spinning, bladed projectile that was launched at her, and it struck a car, causing the car alarm to blare. She then saw the attacker on the rooftop of the Virtuous Pie. “Sorry, but you know too much. Nothing personal,” she stated, and jumped over Amaryllis to a rooftop blocking the route to the mysterious runner. She lifted her hand up, and the scythe-like projectile ripped itself off from the car, flying back up to her.

Amaryllis’s hands were still numb from deflecting that immensely powerful blow, but it hadn’t knocked her Sword out of her grasp, and she was otherwise uninjured. Even with mere human strength, skill found a way to bridge the physical gap between contestants. From the shadow of the rooftop, a demon girl emerged, salaciously dressed with two scythes hovering around her. Definitely dark, but monstrous also?

She breathed in. Out. And with a flourish, she tore the canvas off her Sword, speaking the words that rang through her heart, that brought silvered light into the world.



Rusted roses bloomed and burst, the Swordbearer wreathed once more in her Edenic regalia. Like a tuning fork, her Sword hummed as it carved through the air, before being thrust into the ground. She did not attack, yet.

“I’ve strode into your establishment knowing nothing, but you’ve proven to me everything, simply with your emergence, Spider-Fiend,” she spoke, her voice ringing amidst the shrill cry of the automobile’s alarm. “And still, I find myself questioning. Who is Valerie Herztein to you? We’ve no need to quarrel, if this turns out to be merely a misunderstanding of allegiances.”

The attacker took the time when Amaryllis transformed to look back behind her and confirm that the mysterious runner had successfully escaped, before resuming her attention on the Knight of Rose. She raised an eyebrow, her lips in an amused smirk as she listened to her speak.
“What a nice lie, if pointless; no ignorant girl would immediately move towards the back of the building after they arrived from across the street.” She let one of the scythed orbs rest on the back of her hand like a pet, and made a mocking laugh at the question.
“Hah! Well, it won’t matter since I will shortly silence you, but to grant your last wish, I shall tell you this: Valerie Herztein was once one of our members; a gluttonous, stupidly curious one. Her nose led her to a truth that she paid with her life.”

Amaryllis closed her eyes. She remembered the corpse-eater still. Annoying and combative, but did she deserve such an end? Perhaps she did. Perhaps she didn’t.

They’d never know now.

“If you’re willing to grant one wish, then surely you’ll be generous enough to grant another?” The Knight of Rose allowed her magic to seep into her bones, breathing deeply. “Your name, my dear?”

The fiendish girl laughed again. “Oh, you’re that interested in me? How quaint. Very well then, I’ll give you something to chew on. How about...Nightwing? I do like Detective Comics, hah.”

“The Dark Knight’s Squire, hm?” Amaryllis replied, her Sword gracefully twirling in her hand. “Well, then, en garde.”

Rocking her body back like a bow, the Knight of Rose lunged upwards, Sword streaking out as her powerful legs carried her up to Nightwing’s rooftop. A simple engagement; this wasn’t a fight she had to win, just one she could get past.

Nightwing scoffed, and with a simple motion of her hand launched one of the whirling bladeballs towards Amaryllis. One might assume this was a foolish move considering Amaryllis’ ability to block the attack even when untransformed, but it didn’t end there; the moment Amaryllis swatted the ball away, another was already sent her way by the time she reached the rooftop, Nightwing having made a leap back to keep her distance. Then, Amaryllis realized the first bladeball was called back, now aiming to hit her in the back at the same time.

Ranged attacks, nowadays, were indeed a foolish move to be using against Amaryllis. Inches away from striking her in the back, the bladeball was forced to a halt, steel ivies sprouting over it invasively and locking it in midair. It struggled against its bonds, but even a momentary halt was enough for Amaryllis to accelerate further, vaulting over the second bladeball and locking it down against the edge of the roof with more chains. Planting both feet upon the captive weapon, she kicked off further, a silvery comet through the winter night.

Nightwing grimaced upon witnessing Amaryllis' chains, and her hands formed smoky darkness. "Metal magic, huh? When it comes to tricks you're second rate!" With a sweep of her hands, she created a smoky veil, concealing her. However, her voice continued taunting the knightess. "It's only a matter of time before my Blade-Bats make mincemeat of you!" The bladeballs continued spinning, and the chains were cut, releasing them once again to harass Amaryllis, relentless in their assault.

Amaryllis though, was a step ahead of the Blade-Bats now, and she had faced such darkness in the past. Closing her eyes, she allowed the Sword’s inhuman senses to take over completely, rushing in blind as the whine of the rotating weapons closed in from behind. Where was it?

There it was, the scent of her quarry.

She closed in, vespers of smoke clinging off her form as the Knight of Rose, guided by her Patron, thrust her blade into the unknown.

Though Amaryllis could not see, or even hear, in the sense-sealing black fog, she could sense the sword stained wet with blood; it had made its mark on her shoulder. “YIAAGH!!” Nightwing screamed, her howl loud and disorienting. The Knight of Rose had struck the Ebon agent far to the side of where the voice originated, overcoming the aural deception with the Sword’s sheer hunger. ”Now you’ve pissed me off!” The Bladeballs came hurtling in a whirlwind frenzy right into the darkness, forcing Amaryllis to defend or dodge them. But the moment she would lapse her attention, she felt one hand grab onto the blade of the sword, cutting herself but managing to keep it in place long enough to latch her cruel, hooked fingers onto her stomach, digging into her flesh.
“Time to die!” She announced, and the Knight of Rose felt dark magic attempting to push its way into her wounds. Nightwing’s eyes glowed a vivid purple in the darkness.

“Death Curse!”

Amaryllis felt like the darkness attempted to sap her vitality and drain the life out of her, attempting to consume her very being...But she found herself able to resist the curse, causing Nightwing to shriek. “No! Work, dammit!” She tried pushing even more magic, but in the process her knee buckled, her own body unable to handle the stress on her body from the mana surge as her grip on Amaryllis weakened.

Indeed, there had been a simple reason why the Death Curse was resisted. As Amaryllis felt Nightwing’s claws dig into her stomach, piercing skin and drawing blood, the Knight of Rose sealed her wound with metal. Just as she did with the wounds she left on others, she did so with the wounds others left on herself, stopping further advance. Darkness magic pushed against purifying metal, and yet, without access to her veins, the effect was muted.

Did it hurt? Of course it did, but that was a problem for her future self to deal with.

Gritting her teeth and doubling the chains upon the Blade-Bats to prevent them from slicing her into bits, Amaryllis held back the homicidal urges of her Sword, the indignation of her own wounds, and, with her free hand, formed a fist. Perhaps Nightwind had orphaned children before, perhaps Nightwing had orchestrated massacres before. But until Amaryllis uncovered such sins, she will not eat.

A punch with the force of a flying refrigerator curved upwards, slamming into the Spider-Fiend’s gut.

“Hurk!” Nightwing doubled over from the impact of the punch, causing her to release her grip on Amaryllis’ sword and body, and was sent down the rooftop, right into an open dumpster full of black garbage bags, hitting her head on the lid. The Bladeballs once again cut themselves free, but before they could apply a single slice, they turned into normal bats and flew away.
When Amaryllis came to inspect the scene, she saw that the monster girl was unconscious, bleeding from a wound on her head; untreated, she would perish on her own.

Amaryllis let out a sharp breath and gripped her Healing Artifact. The silver that coated her wounds like a second skin rusted away, and before blood began seeping again, healing magic shone upon the injury, regenerating flesh and patching over skin. It’d leave a mark for a day or two, but it wasn’t anything terrible.

Dropping down upon the alleyway, the Knight of Rose did the same for Nightwing, sealing the head wound and sending a message to Mariette on her phone.

Captured a dark magical girl. Was attacked when pursuing another individual from the restaurant. Collect and question, please. If possible, don’t harm more than necessary.

Mere moments after the message was sent, a portal opened next to Amaryllis. Mariette, holding bunny under her left arm and with Eli behind her, walked out into the alley.

‘It appears our restaurant wasn’t so innocent,’ Mariette commented. She looked over at the fainted Nightwing, with Eli peeking out on the side, and made a small confirming nod. ‘I can handle the interrogation. What will you do now?’

“The dining hall, from the three labourers I’ve encountered thus far within, are all magical girls corrupted by some exterior force. Though I’ve let one slip, I shall venture onwards and see what else I can glean from this lair they’ve vacated.” Amaryllis turned back to the Virtuous Pie, her Sword hanging from her belt (and mightily displeased that it didn’t get another snack to chew on). “Do you require my assistance with binding this woman?”

‘Back at it, huh,’ Mariette simply commented. At the last question, Mariette raised her free hand. A portal opened on the ground next to the fainted Nightwing, and from said portal rose a large mirror rose from the hole. A mirror on a pedestal with a black frame, ornately crafted. ‘That won’t be necessary,’ Mariette stated, walking up to the mirror and placing a hand on the frame. The reflective surface of the mirror promptly vanished, leading only to a pit of unlimited darkness. ‘There will be no escape from where I’m putting her.’

With that, Eli hurried over, the black slime-harpy with white face picking up the fainted monster-girl _‘Yosha,’, and gently carried her over to simply let her fall through the hole in the mirror, into nothingness.

‘I am considering if I should release her after I’m done. Not doing so might draw even more ire… but perhaps what we’re doing is already enough for them to attempt murdering us,’ Mariette wondered aloud.

“I know little of the machinations behind the Mint,” Amaryllis replied, stalking back to the restaurant, “But if they are the pragmatists I believe them to be, they would not send an agent that had already failed once to dog our tracks again. Show some benevolence; they didn’t poison my meal, after all.”

‘Hm. Perhaps I will,’ Mariette nodded, figuring she would. Assuming the choice wasn’t taken out of her hands again, that is. ‘Eli. You know what to do,’ she then said to her attendant. Or rather, “who to call”. Eli gave a knowing smile. ‘On it!’ she said, before also skipping through the mirror, then Mariette let the portal within close and sent the mirror back through the portal she’d retrieved it from. That done, Mariette simply turned to watch Amaryllis walk towards the restaurant for now, expression blank.

A pause, and then Amaryllis turned, a smile on her face. “Thanks. I should be fine from here, so could you focus your attentions on Nuncio? My intuition’s telling me that he should be about done too.”

‘I’ll check how he’s doing. Good continued luck,’ Mariette said, nodding, and then opening a portal for herself to step through, though giving Amaryllis an extended look before actually walking through. Some part of her wanted to head off with Amaryllis to check the place out, but Mariette had her own duties.

“May fortune smile upon your own endeavors,” Amaryllis responded, before striding into the darkness of the now abandoned restaurant. Flipping off the sign that read ‘OPEN’, the Knight of Rose advanced into the back room. It was in disarray, of course, obvious signs that someone had hurriedly taken the important documents out of the area before running off. She clicked her tongue. Some aggression may have yielded greater results, huh? Sitting down on a chair, Amaryllis scanned what scattered documents remained, as she ran over everything she knew thus far.

The cashier had been Nightwing; someone else inside must have been their superior.

Those blade-bats had been mundane, ultimately. Nightwing had been a polymorpher of sorts.

The magical trail for that second dark magical girl had gone cold too quickly, but her Sword will remember the taste next time.

And from these documents, the supplies within this restaurant came from a certain warehouse.

“Warehouse Q...intriguing.”

The night carried on, and still, the Knight did not sleep.

Penny once again found herself looking at the Red coin she held. It had been a couple days since she, both halves of her, had helped Thalia undergo a Rebirth with one of these coins, and since then the robotic girl found herself often contemplating her own pending Reforging. Quietly an idea occurred to her and after turning it over for a moment in her mind she slid the coin back into its hiding place and turned towards the labs.

The trip was uneventful, word seemed to have spread that the Ascendency no longer held any more animosity for Penny then any of the other members of the Penrose faction so the boys and girls were at last starting to become more comfortable with Penny’s presence.

Silently she would slip into the Lab where Binky, Jenna, and Janet were most often found working away at producing more White Coins. A quick survey told Penny that she was in luck and that currently Binky was the only member here.

She was examining a blubbery mass on top of a pedestal. The transparent, onyx ooze seemed to stare back at her. Binky kept eye contact with it as she reached her gloved hand for a lever. Then with a swift tug of the lever, a giant stamp fell onto the pedestal. It arced electricity and the entire pillar soon glowed a crimson red. A few seconds later the stamp lifted into the air, and the pedestal cooled. Binky picked up a pair of iron tongs and lifted the fruits of her labor into the air: a white coin.

She would knock on the door frame to garner Binky’s attention before speaking “Binky. I have an inquiry that requires-”

”Ga!”

Before Penny could get out another word, Binky threw a pair of iron tongs at Penny. When they harmlessly bounced off of her forehead, she pointed her fists at the automatron and rained streams of linguini on her. ”We’ve been breached!” Binky ran deeper into the lab screaming.

Penny would simply let out a sigh. She was a bit surprised at the fact that Binky hadn’t heard of her or didn’t recognize her. She would pick up the tongs and walk after the fleeing scientist. “Binky. I do believe you are operating under a misunderstanding. I am a member of Beacon, not an invading entity.” She would call out as she sought the startled girl.

Binky peaked out from behind the threshold of a door. She was cornered in a closet. Fear must have made her forget where the hallway was.

”This area is off limits.” She pulled back a bit. ”People only come in here to retrieve the coins, or talk with Jenna and Janet.” Binky pointed towards the pedestal. ”If you want something else, I’ll give it to you. J-just don’t hit meeeeeeeeeeee!”.

“I have no intention of striking you, or taking anything from you” Penny would say calmly keeping a healthy distance so that BInky could calm down “And I came here to talk with you. Janet and Jenna don’t know about Magical Coins as well as you and I have some questions about the Red Coin and questions about how difficult it would be to alter them.”

The scientist stepped out from behind her cover. ”Oh, so you want information.” She pressed her fingers together. The red coins may be my creation, in concept and founding. But it was another scientist that had the breakthrough to make the red coin what it is today.” Binky folded her arms behind her back and kicked the air. ”Modifying the coin is possible, but there’s only so much I can do without extensive research. Even with help, it took years to finally make the red coin. On short notice there’s only so much I can do.” She looked up at Penny. ”Why? What did you want me to do to it?”

Penny would lean back on to her heels for a moment before ”I am currently only one half of who I was. An Incident with magic required that we split otherwise our Soul would end up destroying itself. I knew that a Red coin would facilitate the remerger, but I was wanting to… Release my other half from the magical community.” She would explain carefully “They have never been comfortable here”

”Is that so?” Binky held her chin in thought. ”The red coin shuffles one’s magic, but you’d like something that shuffles away someone’s magic and leaves them human?” Her eyebrows flicked up for a moment. ”Oh! So you’re Penny? I heard about you, but I don’t get out much.” She looked up at the abominable robot. ”Is there a reason why you’re here by yourself? You chose to come talk to me at an interesting time. The other scientists are away for the moment, and my clones are deeper in the lab.” She folded her arms. ”Is this something you have the authority to be doing?”

“And I have heard about you as well Binky, from talks with Janet and Jenna. In essence you are correct, I would like to shuffle it away from them and into me.” Penny would clarify with a nod “And while my timing is due to luck, I will not deny that discretion on this matter is appreciated. That said so far as I am aware I am not violating any regulations in speaking to you and Paladin Alicia is aware of my possessing a Red Coin as well as my intention to use it to facilitate a remerger” She would explain as she allowed the Coin she owned to surface in her hand.

“This idea is a recent one, and at present only you and I are aware of it.”

Binky sighed and leaned against the coin press. ”I could make something. Maybe, probably.” Binky let out an exhausted sigh. ”They’d have to be willing though.” She nodded. ”A second coin would be necessary. One to make the other Penny release her magic, and another to pull it into yourself. Sort of like how a black coin lets you borrow magic from the mint.” Binky grabbed her knees. ”Do you think you could do a favor for me in return?”

“Delivery method will not be an issue” Penny would reply with a single nod “Additionally I am willing to perform a favor in exchange for this What is you you are requesting?” She would add before tilting her head to the side in contemplation.

“Secondary inquiry, would it be possible to limit the amount of intake? I am not wanting to become corrupted with this course of action. Simply wanting to help my other half gain freedom”

Binky placed a hand on the side of her head. ”I hope you don’t mind me saying you already look pretty corrupted. But in regards to getting corrupted, that’s a hard one. I mean, you won’t get corrupted due to a huge influx of magic. You might get corrupted by taking in the other Penny’s magic though.” Binky Pushed herself to her feet. ”As for me, there’s someone I need to go back to. I need to let them know I’m okay.”

“Your observation is noted, and understood, however my appearance is not indicative of any corruption oddly enough” Penny would explain with a small smile. It seemed weird to her but Rachel was the one to say that she had no corruption, and who was she to disagree.

“As for who you wish to contact. I can relay the message to them, who is it you are wanting to let know?”

Binky shook her head. ”No.” She took a step towards Penny. ”If you tell her I’m safe, she won’t believe you. Betty needs to see me with her own eyes.”

“Are you proposing that we both head out to find this Betty?” Penny would ask for clarification as “Where would we begin in trying to find her?” Not that Penny didn’t have a lot of resources at her disposal when it came to looking for a missing person. Both of her halfs had spent some time looking for Sammy after all. Still a place to start would be the best option.

”I can find her if you get me outside.” Binky got on her hands and knees before Penny. ”I won’t try and escape. You’ll need me to be around to make sure everything works for the transfer. Instead of bringing other Penny here, we can go to her!” She looked up from her spot on the ground. ”Then we can make a short detour and visit Betty. It’s a win-win for everyone really.”

“When would things be ready for the transfer?” Penny would ask after a few moments. Things had gotten a fair bit more complicated then she had hopped, but in all honesty she wasn’t surprised at that. Magic was a temperamental force at the best of times in her opinion and she was trying to do something rather unprecedented at that.

”I don’t think it would take long to prepare.” Binky nodded. ”I think we have everything here to make the coins.”

“And do you have any thoughts on possible side effects or consequences of this being done?”

”Eh.” Binky folded her arms. ”One complication that could arise is if the process was interrupted or aborted part way through. If your other half refused to release her magic you might merge again.” Binky lifted a hand to her chin. ”If she has a patron, they might interfere with you trying to claim their magic. I must stress I’ve never tried anything like this before. I’ve never heard of a magical girl going back to being a normal human again. There could be other complications that I have no way of predicting.” She folded her arms together. ”It’s important that you realise what you’re trying to do is highly experimental. There are a lot of variables to consider. Magical girls are made out of a lot of mana, and you want to take all of hers away.”

“Understood” Penny would reply absently as she ran through various potential scenarios leading up to the Coin being used. Once it was used she could only hope for the best so didn’t bother trying to determine what would happen afterwards. “I shall acquire a location that won’t be disterbed then. When would it need to be ready?” She would ask again, that would give her some time frame to work with.

”That depends on what the higher ups think.” Binky pointed up in the air. ”If I get a break, then it shouldn’t take more than a few hours to make the coin. Ideally I’d like to run some tests, but it doesn’t sound like your other half is going to be willing to show up here. So all I’ll be able to do is make some coins and arrive on sight with some equipment.” She exhaled. ”So figure on a few hours after I get permission.”

Penny couldn’t help the grimace that formed “No, she wouldn’t” she would agree, but that wasn’t the most difficult issue to get around. The two of them knew plenty of nooks that they could use for this process, no the most glaring issue was getting her other half to agree to show up in the first place. She knew that they wanted this, but outing that a possibility like this was on the table seemed like it would be dangerous.

“It is going to be a few days before I can get them to agree to meet up.” She would supply after a few moments of thought. “Last time we ran across each other we ended up arguing” The again was left unsaid. “We can seek Betty beforehand if you would prefer.”

”I’m not sure that would be a great idea.” Binky shivered. ”While I’m not keen on being a prisoner here, no one in Beacon wants to kill me. Yet.” She walked deeper into the lab. ”At the very least, I can find time to work on a side coin over the next few days. Take care Penny.”

Penny would stay a moment where she was playing over that last bit of information. As far as the android was aware Binky wasn’t considered a prisoner, but obviously the girl thought otherwise. The part about not wanting people in Beacon to want to kill her yet was what really worried her though.

Regardless, she would follow through on her offer to help Binky and Betty meet up again, if for no other reason than to find out why that was a danger to do early. Turning she moved to leave the lab, her reason for coming here complete. Before she left entirely she would turn back “Binky. Thank you. Even if it doesn’t work, Thank you for being willing to try on my behalf.” she would say softly into the room her voice enhanced by her magic so that Binky would be able to hear it regardless of where she was in the room and with that done she left.

She had a few tasks for Beacon to take care of before she could start trying to convince her other half to meet up.

The day after Reaver had met with Chloe, he would hear the ring of an old phone coming from one of the side alleys he passed by. Upon entering the alley to investigate, he would see that there was a door opened at the end of the alley; the sign said “Moody Blues Cafe”, and from the inside jazzy music could be heard, and cigar smoke floated out like a black, foggy trail. When Reaver entered, he found himself in a monochrome world: the cafe was in black and white, as if he was walking inside an old photograph. The cafe resembled the type used in the 1920’s, where big bands played on a stage, and cigarettes were found between the fingers of every hand. But now, only ghosts lingered, phantasms who laughed and conversed meaningless murmurs, the cacophony and livelihood of the place a mere illusion.

What was most striking was the darkness that pervaded the corners of the room, shifting and moving as if alive, only kept away by candlelight on the tables, and a single spotlight on the otherworldly musicians.
“So you finally found your way to the Big Strawberry eh, peguci?” Reaver heard a familiar voice, and turned to see the shadow of a tall, british man in a pinstripe suit extend on the floor from a candlelight. The shadow then physically lifted itself up from the floor, resembling the leaning move Michael Jackson made in “Smooth Criminal,” only he stood up completely, towering over the Ebon agent. It was Al Scarpe, and he didn’t look pleased. “And first thing you do is find some pretty heels to step on you.”

Reaver raised an eyebrow, eyeing the tall Al Scarpe. He sighed, drawing a hand through his well-kept hair. He was dressed sharply, with a three piece suit. He thought he would fit the atmosphere. Sometimes you had to meet the bosses. Even if it was a ghastly place.

“Mr Scarpe, Business sometimes intersects with pleasure. That lovely dark orchid is definitely a morsel on the eye. What lacks in size, she has in technique.” Reaver said, cordially as he bowed slightly to the tall man. “But I find this intrusion… on my life peculiarly poignant.”

“Hah, you still know how to speak like a wretched snake, Reaver,” Al responded, and held two fingers to the side. With a tiny burst of black flame, a lit cigar appeared between them. “There is a time...” He paused to smoke, puffing out a black cloud of smoke right in Reaver’s face. “...And place for getting kicks, and getting kicked, capische? We are now living the big times.” He turned towards the bar, and with a snap of his fingers a ghostly bartender began mixing a couple of sophisticated drinks. “But first, we drink. It has been some time since I last saw you, peguci. You might want to learn what has happened here, si?”

A new spotlight shone on the wall facing away from the bar, resembling an old-fashioned projector screen. Live video of various events began playing on it.
“‘Penrose was left to dust, and monsters took a clip to the place. So Beacon called in Ascendancy; you may have heard of them before. They are ruining the family business, shutting down banks and forcing us to lam. But now, there will be war between cops and zips. And that is why I called you here.” The drinks were now ready, and Al made one of the drinks slide through the air to Reaver before he took his own. “But, first, I have a job for you.”

Reaver took a deep inhale of the smoke. When would he get his own cigars? He wondered, they looked kinda nasty, but manly and definitely dapper. He eyed Scarpe as he awaited the drinks. “Io capisco, signore Scarpe.” He then began seeing the images, and could not help a smile draw on his face. More like a smile, it was the kind of grin a hungry wolf did before prey. “Odin will be pleased.” He said before taking a sip. “Chloe not so much, although that pretty broad insists on plundering a Beacon cardinal. Oops, that was supposed to be the big plan. I am such a loudmouth.” He added. Al Scarpe rolled his eyes. “Even if it’s family, it was a buried job. I’ll make sure to punish her for the slip.”

“Does it involve blood?” Reaver asked. “My deity’s being… kind of unreasonable these days. Sure he was accommodating at first with… my image change, but now it’s all Snake poison on the eyes while being trapped in Hel. He say he’s sick of pig. Can you imagine? Sick of tasty pork!” He babbled before eyeing the mafioso once more.

“You’ll have your fill, when the streets run red,” Al responded, and took a swig of his glass. “When the day of the party is at hand, there will be great chaos. You are to take the opportunity and perform lupara bianca on...Who was it...” He pulled out what looked like a black binder tucked in his suit, and opened it. “Ah, yes...Cindy Ford. The capone of the underground zips.” He took another puff of his cigar, and it now came out as an ashen, gray cloud.
“But for now, you will go back to Chloe, play little dog for her, and report what she eats alone; making crank, collecting cugines, everything. She thinks she can run an outfit, but she has yet to realize; the Mint always collects their debts.”

“I suppose you don’t mind er, the pretty beacon thing going missing? Part of the cover of course.” Reaver said, although he probably had much more mundane intentions. Like getting stepped on. “Mm, hiding it is often more difficult than performing the deed, but alright.” He tilted his head.

“Understood signore Scarpe. I gotta say, I really like the style of this joint. Very classy… and dark. I sincerely hope you don’t have to try and collect mine in such a way. I’d hate to actually consecrate every single person of the Mint to Odin.” Reaver added. “It won’t be personal though. Just… business.”

For a moment, Al simply looked at Reaver, as if to see if Reaver would add anything else. “You might be a masochistic bastard, but you get the job done. And those who work, they get to eat.” He now manifested another cigar, lit it, and flicked it like a coin to Reaver. “Here, for not getting on my nerves. Your little barks amuse me.” However, the moment Reaver took a smoke from it, he realized the cigar itself was made from slips of paper advertising the services of various dominatrices and other masochistic interests, just as the cigar began burning from the far end:
Reaver had to choose between taking the smoke or putting the flame out before the cigar turned to ash.

Reaver cracked a smirk after being had in such a way. It was really creative and amusing, so he took the cigar, and opening his mouth… quenched the flame on his tongue, a sound of flesh charred and burning being heard.

“Woof, Woof.” He added, his grin wide.

^{Ally in the Alley}

Nuncio stepped out of the portal and into the alley. At a glance, it looked like any other snow covered alley in Penrose. Nuncio had walked past so many alleys he wondered if he had deja vu or had gone insane. The dumpster was overloaded with garbage, a wall was covered in graffiti, and the tall buildings on either side obscured everything in shadow.

Every.

Damn.

Time.

”Keep watch Rossa.”

His faithful white tiger looked up at him with her crossed eyes before looking out. Nuncio pulled out a doll. To many it would look like an artist's mannequin, but it was an artifact that let Nuncio divine things from his surroundings. He held the doll out and swept it from side to side as he walked deeper into the alley.

The doll opened its eyes when it was swept in the direction of a spot right next to one of the buildings. After he cleared away the snow Nuncio discovered a balled up piece of paper, frozen in ice, and also a scrap of black fabric stained red with blood. 

”Hmmm...”

Reading the paper in its current condition would normally be out of the question. Fortunately that did not pose a problem to Nuncio. He twisted the arm on the doll, and before long it was projecting an image of the note on the wall. He just had to track the note’s condition backwards through time until it was in a state he could read. He’d do the same thing with the bloodied cloth once the paper satisfied his curiosity.

Nuncio was able to restore the paper’s original writing on the wall, and was shocked to see he recognized the handwriting; it was Sammy’s. The paper was ripped from a notebook Sammy always held on her person, and was a list of clues regarding a case of disappeared people. While most entries on the list were crossed out, the last one remained: “Valerie Herztein, worked at the Virtuous Pie”. As for the bloodied cloth, upon closer inspection it was not from Sammy’s clothes, but instead those of another person, possibly the one who had kidnapped Sammy.

With trembling hands, Nuncio slipped the frozen ball into his pocket. For the cloth, he needed a more delicate touch. ”You’re up, Fabio.” He pulled a house cat out of his vest and placed him near the torn cloth. The cat picked up the corner in it’s mouth before looking up to Nuncio. ”Good boy.” He grinned. ”Let’s look a bit more, then we get outa here.” The mobster pointed his doll straight ahead and finished examining the alley. If there was something else here, he’d find it. But that seemed to be it. 

Nuncio stashed his doll and picked and pulled out his phone. He dialed up Mariette and waited for her to answer. ”It’s Nuncio.” He sighed before looking at Fabio. ”Didn’t find much, but it’s somethin’. Wanna see?” 

‘If your findings are inconclusive, do not worry,’ Mariette mentioned over the phone, before a portal opened near Nuncio’s location. Out from it came Mariette, walking directly from one alley to the next, looking around where she was for spies or eavesdroppers. She emitted a slight bit of light-magic, reveal any secrets kind of thing, after which she looked to Nuncio. ‘Amaryllis found Virtuous Pie to be a Mint infestation, she was attacked and we have captured her attacker. What have you found?’ she updated Nuncio before asking, portal closing behind her.

Nuncio pulled the frozen note out of his pocket and dropped it in Mariette’s outstretched hand. ”Seems Sammy was workin’ on a missin’ person case.” He used his doll to project the note for Mariette to see. ”Fabio’s got a cloth scrap in his mouth. It ain’t Sammy’s, but it’s gotta be related to all this.”

Fabio pawed Mariette’s leg while looking up at her. The cloth scrap was still hanging out of his mouth.

Mariette accepted the note, looking at it. Then, there was the cat pawing at Mariette’s leg, making her take a small step back by instinct as she looked down at the cat. … She also very instinctively lifted bunny higher. Cats were known to scratch stuffed things, right? Still, that cloth… ‘… I… don’t know if I can do a lot with it. That’s not what my methods use. …’ Her eyes were fixated on the cat by her leg. … She was not looking away. ‘… But suppose I could try finding someone who could.’

”I leave it all in ya care.” Nuncio tipped his hat. ”I’d stick around for that interrogation, but I’d give ‘em concrete shoes and punch in their lungs so they don’t float.” He turned around to leave. ”Ya can keep Fabio for the time bein’. He don’t claw too much.” 

Mariette listened and nodded to the interrogation part. Then he mentioned keeping Fabio. ‘… Eh?’ Mariette looked a touch surprised as she looked up from Fabio to Nuncio. ‘…’ she was about to say that her home wasn’t the most cat-friendly of places, but… she gently, gently deposited bunny into her hammerspace handbag, and then attempted to crouch down to attempt to similarly gently pick up Fabio, to inspect him. Now, not all cats appreciate being picked up, but Fabio seemed more like a living plush than an animal. He was content just to be held. Mariette felt her cheeks burning and eye widen as she held the soft furry living creature in her arms.

Nuncio looked over his shoulder. ”I spoke with the others. If we can get Sammy back, they’ll get ya a red coin.”

Mariette’s eye was finally pulled from Fabio to blink a bit in surprise at Nuncio. She had 100% gotten the impression she’d been tricked into only getting a doll for her services, and while she was super-happy with the doll, it wasn’t something she could show off to Lea or Asengav as fruits of her labour. Due to this, she’d already made a completely different arrangement…  ‘… Thank you, so very much. We’ll get her back,’ Mariette said, having already decided to get involved with this, regardless.

---

Penrose Middle School had been closed down for some time. The faculty members and students had fled long ago. What remained was a vacant building covered in snow. So much of the building had been snowed in that it started to look like a massive igloo. 

The basketball court had been neglected even before the monster attacks, but Veronica had cleared away the snow to shoot some hoops. The ball she used in question was actually a magical girl weapon, but it served the same purpose. She’d been shooting hoops for the past ten minutes, but killing time was not her goal here. She had arranged for a meeting with one of Brittany’s suppliers, and had come early to ensure she met her contact.

When Veronica could hear the snow crunch under something’s feet, she snapped her fingers and banished the basketball. The woman in red turned to examine the newly arrived.

A girl, monochrome in complexion and dressed in gothic attire strangely fitting for Penrose’s current atmosphere, curtsied as Veronica turned to face her. “This is our first encounter. My designation is Dolly. It is fortuitous to become acquainted, but for what purpose do you seek us?” Gray eyes remained affixed to Veronica’s face; even when the gothic girl had been curtsying, her head did not bow.

Veronica turned her body to face Dolly. “You may call me Veronica.” She also bowed, not taking her eyes off the stranger before her. “You have a curious appearance, not that it will affect our transaction.” Veronica folded her hands together. “I’ve chosen to meet with you in person because I wish to commission a large project. Because it is not located inside Penrose, I cannot rely on Brittany to take care of it. She has willingly sent you to me after I also became a supplier of hers. Dealing with me will not compromise any standing relationship you have with her.” She folded her hands behind her back. “As for my request, I wish to furnish a lab. I have observed your wares and they are among the finest I have bore witness to.”

“Research being?”

“Does it matter?” Veronica shrugged her shoulders. “Medical artificing. That’s what I’m primarily interested in.”

“It matters if you are to obtain the correct furnishments,” Dolly responded blankly. “You are Crimson, affirmed?”

“If you mean to say that I lead Crimson Cradle, you are correct.” Veronica walked closer to Dolly, but stayed out of her personal space. “And you are an affiliate of the Gourd. A group of artisans with legendary origins. I’ve wanted to make contact with someone who holds such connections for a while now.” She stopped. “Are you interested in my organization?”

“No. For clarity and to prevent possible issues further down the line, we would like to inform you that, as an individual, we hold contracts with the Mint,” Dolly responded blankly. “Do you wish to proceed with your commission?”

Veronica grinned. “Of course, it was when I was working for them that I first witnessed the Gourd’s work. If I had a problem with it, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.” Veronica continued to pace around Dolly. “I would like the details of my commission kept confidential. Otherwise I don’t really care.” She turned to face Dolly. Her grin had vanished already. “So, what’s next?”

“Specifications, then discussion of payment,” Dolly responded blankly. “We don’t need coin, and prefer unique materials. A world eater’s heart is cheap, compared to the magic of a gifted mage.”

Veronica nodded. “To start, I would like a focus, a strong one. Something that can be used to broadcast one’s magic hundreds of miles away. The distance is more important than power mind you.” She approached Dolly. “As for payment, the Cradle is home to a vast array of treasures. There’s junk like you mentioned, such as monster organs. But I also possess artifacts and weapons that were crafted by some of the best mages. Some are tools used by renown magical girls who are centuries old.” A wreath of treasures appeared around Veronica’s head. “Some of my treasures harken back to the age of myth.”

“And some of our colleagues harken back from that same age,” Dolly responded blankly.

“Then you know they’re good.”

“Of raw material, what do you possess? And of your focus, is this for the purposes of communication, or for an actual magical effect?”

“Both. I plan to use it for telepathy.” Veronica tipped her head side to side as she examined Dolly. “I should have a near endless supply of mundane materials. As for things more mystical in nature, I haven’t taken stock recently. With the imposed vacation and everything. I should still have an abundance of black orichalcum.” The treasures behind Veronica vanished, and a black bar with a purple aura appeared in her hand.

“We’re interested in rarities, not abundance,” Dolly responded blankly. “What do you have that the Mint can not provide?”

Veronica blinked. She looked between the block of black metal in her hand, then back at Dolly. After doing this a few times, she laughed. “I don’t think I’ve shown you a single thing that you could get from the Mint.” The bar of metal disappeared and Veronica folded her hands behind her back. “You seem to know a bit about me. Perhaps there’s something you want that I haven’t offered yet? Because the only other thing I have are secrets and connections, which are far less rare around these parts.”

“Mayhaps not this planet’s Mint,” Dolly said. Her silver eyes flashed momentarily, a flicker of knowledge passing through. “But understood. I will clarify my intent. Magical girls are known for stumbling across magics that frustrate the capabilities of trained mages. We can start your payment with a Stasis’d object.”

Veronica threw out her arms. “There it is.” She tipped her head in thought. “I’ve never viewed my agents as gifted mages, but she fits that discription, doesn’t she?” Veronica pointed in the air and a time bomb appeared. It looked like a digital clock with TNT tied to it, and the display was frozen at 00:02. “Items locked in stasis are difficult to transport without magic.” To demonstrate why, Veronica jumped on top of the bomb. It remained in place. “I can deliver it to a specified location for retrieval.” She hopped down. “But you’d have to sweeten the deal for me.” Veronica placed her finger on Dolly’s forehead, and traced it downward, between her eyes and over her nose and lips, before stopping on her chin. “I wouldn’t mind having a doll that looked like you. Roughly this size.” The Astolpho plush appeared in her other hand. “If these terms are agreeable, I will draft a contract.”

Dolly’s countenance remained unaffected by Veronica’s touch. Her skin was cold and smooth, bereft of oil or other imperfections. “A to-scale doll, in exchange for information on the magical peculiarities of your agents,” she replied, her eyes dimmed once more. 

Veronica squinted her eyes. “The magical peculiarities of my agents, with the understanding that such information is strictly for the Gourd.” Black flames appeared under Veronica’s outstretched hand. When she closed her palm, the flames parted to reveal a contract. “It is preferable that the doll’s head is slightly larger than scale.”

“Understood.” From her sleeves, Dolly produced a matchbox that she pulled a feathered quill and a pot of starry ink from. “Any other preferences we should be aware of? Viscera and genitalia to match?”

Veronica squinted her eyes further. “To match?” Her eyes scrolled up and down Dolly. “Do you have any surprises I’m not aware of?”

“Would you like to draft another contract and find out?”

At this point, it was hard to tell if Veronica was closing her eyes, or actually squinting. “Let’s table the doll for now.” The contract in her hands was engulfed in flames, and a shorter one appeared in its place. “Just the focus today, as was agreed upon.”

“Understood. Your medical artificing and broadcasting equipment will be delivered within three days, in exchange for magical effects generated by your agents, starting with Silhouette’s Stasis,” Dolly responded, dipping the quill in ink. The gothic girl offered the quill to Veronica first.

Astolpho seemed to melt away as a thin stiletto took its place. With a swift thrust, Veronica drove the blade into her neck, causing a bit of blood to spray onto her shoulder. She didn’t flinch, but proceeded to use the blade as a quill to write her name on the contract. Once she was done, the blade vanished, and her wound had healed. “Your turn.”

For an instant, Dolly’s lips twitched upwards. A smile? Or just a trick of the eye? In the span of a blink, she was expressionless once more. With the quill, she marked the document with a symbol of a stylized circle.

With that, both items disappeared into her matchbox once more, and she motioned towards the time bomb. “If you please.”

Veronica stepped off to the side and gestured towards the bomb with an open hand. “It is yours.”

Dolly curtsied once more, before kneeling before the bomb. She obstructed the frozen explosive from Veronica’s sight with her sleeves, and when she stood up once more, it was gone.

“Thank you for your business. Have you need for further provisions?”

“Not for the time being, no.” She placed a hand on her hip. “Though that will likely change if the Gourd’s focus lives up to expectations.”

“Certainly.”

Contract completed and verbally dismissed, Dolly curtsied once more and dissolved into dust, leaving nothing behind.

Veronica blinked. “Was she some form of golem? That would makes sense.” She blinked. “He a golum? It a golum?” She growled and clenched her hand into a fist. “Mark my words, Dolly. I always get what I want. I will have you added to my collection if I need to burn down Penrose to do so!” Before departing from her location, Veronica snapped her fingers, and a black mist rolled off of the school and surrounding area. It had all been an illusion, and the former middle school had been reduced to nothing more than a crater surrounded by frozen timber. Only the basketball court had been spared. 

---

The good news was that the rave was going to be a very proffitable event for Mac. The bad news was that it was going to be a slaughter. No matter how many showers she took now, it wasn't going to make the upcoming event any easier.

Why something like this had to happen at all was beyond Mac's understanding. But at least it would land a good solid blow on Beacon... as well as the rest of Penrose. This was the turning point in Penrose's history when the scales of power shifted. All of the factions would get weaker as a new power rose from their ashes, and Mac dared not speak their name.

But it was Penny.

In preparation for the onslaught, Mac requested lots of military gear. Proximity mines, pyrotechnics, the works. She'd be hard at work right up until the rave's scheduled date. Though most of her work would be done at the nearby park. She would not be noticed, she was never noticed...

A pipe unwisely devoured a somewhat exceedingly strange occurance. At long last, the inhuman burden of the nonchalantly dreaded, fungoid Horror was revealed! It took no cryptic nightmare to make such creature knowingly nonchalantly transfigurate the surface of the waters, but the foreign splendor was hideous. When one sees an outer mark upon the transparent blasted sand, it means that the vestigial beast assimilates the chlorinated depths. A speech lectured at long length about the Amorphous living inside the drain. When the tepid library self-flagellates, some torch meditates. Oh, the so-called Necronomicon of it ALL! When a carelessly putrid splendor propagates, a gateway toward the trench draws itself up. When the polygon hesitates, a non-euclidian symbol sweeps the floor. A frantically horrible tape recorder avoided contact with the anomaly. Remembering the underhandedly memorable vista of a shadow from the insignificance, one can only prostrate themselves before the canyon of the dripping bargain that stood before me. At long last, the iridescent abstraction of the typical, nearest symmetry was revealed! The glory from a tentacled egg is blasphemous, the doorstep beneath the burden learned by the hardly false township. Oh, the vaporized abstraction of it ALL!

Penrose Northern Swimming Center was covered from head to toe in caution tape, and simply from looking at it from a distance, it became clear why. Pulsating meat bordered the windows and seeped beneath the cracks of the door, held in check only by a previous magical ritual meant to seal the Vestigial Horror’s advance while braver, hardier magical girls were called to deal with the root of the problem. The testimony of the late-night lifeguard had dissuaded many though, and it was only recently that Penrose received an influx of magical girls who were well-rested and ready to fight.

Still, from a distance, the two that had converged were, in a word, able to leave. If they entered, however, there was no knowing whether or not they could get out unless their grim task was done. A clocktower, non-existent, rang for thirteen o’clock, and the moon opened its eye, awaiting what lunatic fates laid for the foolhardy investigators.

Penny was the first to arrive on the scene, her arrival was nothing more than a minor spark of light. Hovering gently in the night air before drawing into itself it’s soft light pulsing to vastly greater intensity before expanding outward to become a great sphere of light. It would last only an instant before it would flicker out of existence to reveal the mechanized girl in all her glory.

She would take a moment to surverey her surroundings before focusing her attention on the twisted and corrupted building that stood before her. Her thoughts unreadable from the passive look on her face, but the sounds of metal covers sliding open from her right arm would cause any observers to notice the gleaming teeth of the chainsaws installed into her hand and arm were fully active.

An experimental revving of the exposed weapon and Penny was ready to venture forth into the horrific pool.
“So, this is the place, huh. Looks… well, like the underside of my kitchen, to be fair.” Sakura raised an eyebrow upon gazing the broken door of the Penrose Swimming Center. She had been set up with Emily not long before, she had even convinced the girl to let her crash at her place.

She had to pay her back somehow. And that’s when the little rat chimed in. She had heard about… a suitable first job for her. She didn’t believe him for a single moment. But what choice did she have? She was a nice girl. And Sakura, change of shape aside, was an old and grown person who had to take responsibility for himself.

“Well, I am told that cleaning… these places is where most people start. You should do fine.” Umukamui said, as the damned thing scurried off to somewhere else.

“Yuck.” Sakura said, as she started to slip past the entrance. “I think i’ve seen worse in hentai films, but it’s fairly disgusting.” She talked to herself, trying to not think and smell too much of how gross it was. “Spark spark love of my heart.” She said, making sure nobody saw her transforming, and ventured in.

That rat had sent him into some really fucked up wetwork with the excuse of training, didn’t he? Well, strangling would come later. There was some burger quality mishap that had to be taken care of.

There was another figure that descended into a ball of light, and then decided to rev a chainsaw in her own arm? Were robo-magical girls a thing? Sakura tilted her head as she watched the other magical girl. “Oi, swiss knife-chan!” He called her attention with a loud expression. “You trying to hack up this mess with a chainsaw? Forget it, it’s gonna get clogged sooner or later.”

Penny would turn to face Sakura after being addressed, tilting her head slightly at the oddly appropriate nickname. “Salutations” She would reply before holding up her arm “Odds of it being clogged are low. Vibrational repulsion will keep any organic material from being dragged within my arm. In the case of such an event happening I am equipped with additional weapony” She would reply as she held up her other arm to reveal her hand morphing into a wickedly sharp set of claws as a blade grew out from her elbow and up the outside of her arm.

“Your concern is appreciated however.” She would go on to say as she let her arms return to her sides their weaponized states not reverting. “Inquiry. What is your designation? And am I correct in assuming that you are also here to clean the Horror’s taint from this building?” Her voice was even, if a bit emotionless, as she spoke and she would slowly approach the smaller girl as she asked her questions.

“Tall”, Sakura said. Well, it's not that she was that tall, it’s just that her own body had shrunk due to the Puuchu’s fault. Even after being transformed, the heels didn’t prop her that much up. “So, you have other things and even a self-cleaning feature. Could something about the part where you talk like an answering machine, though.” Sakura said as she folded her arms, closing one of her eyes. “Haaah? Did my handler make things difficult for me again? I think he was supposed to arrange coordination with other magical girls. Well, at least you don’t seem the greedy slimy type of bitch. I can work with that. So yes, I was told to clean this mess.”

She sighed. “It doesn’t look that good, probably that bastard is now thinking that a hentai film scenario is going to break my will, or something. Anyway I’m Sak… I mean Magical Girl Sparky Heart. Nice to meet ya.” She added. “We’re going to hack a lot of stuff, you’d probably want a heavy blade like an axe or machete.” She spoke. You didn’t use sophisticated tools to cut meat, as he had learnt in her past life. Just a heavy blade. “Swiss knife-chan.”

“Speech habits are a work in progress” Penny would reply simply, as she knew she had an odd way of speaking, granted it got easier the better she knew someone, but still work in progress. “Insufficient information on your handler, but if you are new to the community, odds indicated that they are a prick” She would offer up with a slight shrug.

Penny would give Sakura a look of confusion for a moment at her given name “You remind me of Aurelio” She would say after a moment before shaking her head “My name is Penny. I am a part of the local branch of Beacon.” She would introduce herself before moving back to the topic of tools “Simple blades will be most effective against inert flesh, agreed. Chainsaw is better at lasting damage and against being grappled. Additional utility in taking out walls if needed. Weight is inherent to my frame, current weight is in excess of 100 kilograms.”

Sakura smiled at Penny’s definition of Umukamui. Well she could still swear to an extent. She wasn’t a complete loss “The pigs, uh.” She added when she mentioned the Beacon. Maybe this Aurelio person was a colleague. Or a robosexual sugar daddy. No one knew with the weirdos these days…

“You’re heavy, swiss knife-chan”. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the mention of Penny’s weight. “Well, far from me stopping you from getting chainsaw crazy, I’m just saying. I would love to use my fists too, but taking this much of a pulsating mess of meat on with my dainty little hands will be… troublesome.” She added, as she immediately turned to face one of the emergency fire axes. She wrapped one of her fists in cloth, took a stance and…

“Hoi!” With a single strike she shattered the glass and retrieved the fire axe from within. “Now we’re talking.” She said, with a small hint of glee. “If you want, we can get a couple of other things to scrape off fleshy murk. This is a pool, there’s bound to be a couple of chems around too.”
“Side effect of being composed mainly out of steel” Penny would say with a small smirk while Sakura retrieved a more suitable weapon for the task at hand. She would bring up the Beacon topic again later if needed but for the moment was content to let it pass. “Acquiring acid is not a poor idea, uncertain how much use it will have before the core has been taken care of however.”

“Magic might be a better alternative until then. My external magical capability is limited, but personal modification is possible.” She would say raising one of her arms again for emphasis “Which Specialization do you possess?”

Sakura tilted her head. Yes, robot rears were notoriously heavy. “Yeah… it’s not like we can just ask them to reveal themselves, show their weak point, pour some chem and go home, huh.” Sakura scratched her head. “Speciwho?” She thought for a second, straining her hazy memories… until something came to her mind. It was Emily’s face. Then the word Specialization.

“Oh i guess I am a loli shaped taser.” She added, conjuring some sparks on her hand. “Bzzt bzzt dirty sleazebag oniichan. Whatever.” She finished with no small amount of snark. “Guess I could wake this thing up?”

“No need to worry about friendly fire then” Penny would reply as she allowed a few arks of electricity to dance between her fingers as well. “Lightning doesn’t affect me” Turning once again towards the flesh filled building she contemplated the offer before nodding.

“You start and I’ll stick nearby. Odds dictate that getting separated isn’t a good idea.”

“Alright.” Sakura said, while she stuck the comically big for her size axe on her belt and rub her hands, creating a spark. She noticed the more thick and pulsating growth, and grinned with glee.

“WAKEY WAKEY BURGERFUCK!” She yelled as she sent a strong current through the pulsating flesh.

Lightning arced through tumorous flesh, and immediately, the meaty structure quivered. The area that Sakura had contacted with was left charred and blackened, but the neighbouring areas began to crackle and burst instead, like sausage that broke out of its own skin from the heat. A wave of pungent aromas hit the two magical girls like a wave, greenish-yellow vapors sifting through as puss, blood, and tainted water oozed out from various portions of the afflicted area. Though Penny, fully robotic, was unaffected, the stench was nauseating for Sakura; it was as if invisible horror ninjas were cutting onions over her eyes and nose.

Yet, the fleshy lobby that would lead to the showers and the change rooms did not respond in any other fashion. Beyond the horrifying stink caused by electrocuting the outer edges of this infestation, none of the abnormal flesh-clumps seemed to respond towards the appearance of the magical girls. It was patient, after all. It would wait until they were deeper in.

Sakura coughed ever so slightly, trying to contain the tears from her irritated eyes from the awful stench that came from electrocuting the flesh. “Did...it ...just...fart on my face?!” Sakura said with incredulity. While trying to regain her senses this kind of reminded her the smell of that cabin in the woods a long time ago.

Suffice to say seven dead was a mighty mess. This… well, horror flick knockoff was even worse. And that was irritating her. She hefted her axe, and looking at the corridor, she spat. “Bah, so much for the quick -n- easy way. That thing wants to sit on its ass all day.” She frowned.

“Just in case, swiss knife-chan, don’t you have some kind of big bang explosive at hand? I’m done being nice with this thing.” She added and began to trudge around in the stench, axe at hand and gritting her teeth.

“Negative” Penny would confirm “I possess no explosive weaponry and my Gauss system is insufficient to cause large enough scale damage to force a response” She would go on to say as she followed after Sakura.

As they entered the building a small drone would disconnect from Penny and begin floating a small distance above her shoulder. It would beep quietly a few times before turning on a flashlight to light their way.

The deeper they got, the more invasive the pinkish, veinous flesh became. Soon, the ground that they stepped on was soft, squelching and squirming underfoot, and behind them, there was a distinctive slurping sound, the entrance they took now sealed. Within the change rooms, the air was moist, a mixture of blood and sewage, accompanied, almost disconcertingly, by the floral accents of shampoo.

Their path remained unimpeded, until, in the distance, the two magical girls could hear a faint cry coming from their right side. A pillar of flesh stood, perhaps having assimilated with the building’s supporting pillar, and extending just a little bit out of it, was a small hand, adorned with a frilly, white glove. The hand grasped weakly, shakily, and a muffled voice sounded as well.

_{“Help...help me...mom…”}

Penny hardly spared more than a glance at the way they came when the slurping echoed out from behind them. She had assumed that it would close behind them before she got here. Still she kept the saw in her right arm at a soft hum, using the sound it generated as an advanced sonar mapping the place out much further and faster then simply using her eyes.

That said the hand sticking out of the pillar still brought her to a stop, as did the whimpering cry coming from it as she would narrow her eyes at it. “Odds that this is a trap?” She would ask, raising her arms in preparation of an attack.

Sakura spent half of the trip frowning, to contain the disgust of the entire situation of an entire room made flesh. It was like painting a room with bodies. With the chunky bits. Her head throbbed like crazy, and then directed the sight at Penny. “The hell you doing, swiss knife-chan. My head hurts.” She said. It was like a nagging barely noticeable thrumming, but it felt as painful as a vuvuzela.

“Pretty high. Can’t let the girl stay stuck like that, if it’s a girl we’re talking about.” She looked at Penny and hefted the axe. “One extracts, one lookout, fair?”

Penny would simply point at her floating drone who would beep a few more times before projecting a hologram of the sonar map that Penny had been able to map so far with her magic. While that was happening the robotic girl would also walk forward to grasp the dainty hand coming out of the wall.

Assuming that nothing happened immediately she would use the blade on her right arm to start carving out the girl out of the pillar.

The task was a grisly affair, more blood and pus released into the air as Penny shaved away at the flesh. The pillar squirmed, tremored, squealed, but though errant shreds of flesh splattered against the mechanical magical girl’s countenance, she proceeded on unabated, until finally, they were able to tear out a humanoid lump from whence the hand originated.

Had it been assimilating her, or eating her?

No clothing remained beyond that lacy glove, no skin either. Veins traced over raw, pinkish flesh, while yellowed fat stuck out at places, accompanying sinew. Gone were the lips, nose, and ears, left only with gaping orifices leaking with fluid, and the crown of their head had been stripped away, until only the skull remained. Their eyes gaped open, milky white and blind, while they continued to expel words through instinct rather than rational intent. The constitution of a magical girl meant that she could survive even this, but if left alone, it wouldn’t be long before she was reclaimed by the Horror that surrounded them all.

Another wet, slurping sound. The exit of the changeroom too was closed off by walls of beating flesh.

Sakura had been attentive to her surroundings while Penny was extracting the little girl. The door apparently closed after they finished releasing the poor sap. How ...cute. Did it really think it would matter to close the exits? She had no intention of going out or turning tail. Not after seeing this. Even in the mind of a seasoned Yakuza, there were lines that should not be crossed. She jumped at the daintly disfigured form of the girl, and took her alongside Penny.

“This is easily the fourth most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.” Sakura admitted, her tone stern and neutral. It was like the calm before the storm. This thing had to go. Probably in the most excruciating way possible. She then remembered something out of the corner of her mind, and manifested an elaborate dress on her hand out of thin air.

That rat had duped him with this skill. Eternal Style was not a martial art, it was all about fashion and clothes. Even temporary, manifesting fancy clothes out of thin air would prove useful. She began ripping the dress earnestly, creating some sort of makeshift bandages for the girl. It would hurt beyond belief, but he was using one of the most fashionable silks for her bandages. Even if it was a couple of hours, she couldn’t bear herself to leave the victim alone.

“You’ll be okay, kid. You did good in clinging to life this much.” She said, in an uncharacteristical soothing voice.

It was when she noticed a couple of droplets of blood on the bandages. Searching for an external source, she soon realized. She was biting her own lip so hard, trying to contain the cauldron of rage.

“It will last two hours though. And it seems we’re trapped. But that’s it. No spikes in the ceiling. No monsters. What a pompous ass.” Sakura heckled. “I’m fed up. Let’s wreck this entire thing. I did notice these fleshy disgusting things aren’t very solid compared to you. If I lease you some of my lightning…”

Sakura said. “Think you could run through walls, Penny?”

When Sakura would turn her attention back towards Penny the girls eyes would be a blazing red. It had crept in while she had been saving this girl, as the robotic mahou had actually assumed that there was no one alive in this building other than her and Sakura.

To be proven wrong and in such a horrific fashion? Penny had long since past anger and was now lingering just past hate. If she was whole, this entire place would already be a mess of rubble, but logic dictated that this girl wouldn’t be the only one, so there was grim satisfaction in not having access to her full might at the moment.

“I am willing to find out” She would say her voice would come out smooth and cold as arctic ice. As she spoke her armor would shift for a moment allowing her Purification amulet to surface. It might not do much in such a place by itself but she had an idea that might get a result if she needed it.

With a glance at the map she had created she would turn herself towards the most direct line to closer to the center of this place. Once she did her legs would light up as she triggered her hover systems and at the same time her hidden spider like limbs would unfurl. She wasn’t going to be holding anything back against this abomination.

“Ready when you are, once this starts I’m expecting it to turn into a running battle” Penny would say never turning away from her goal “Your call if you want to protect her or if you want me to”

Mentally she was preparing a distress signal to send to The Beacon. Not for the assistance with clearing out this nest, but for the medical aid that his girl, and possibly others, would need once they were done here.

“Well, call me insane… but I guess extra weight will not hurt in this case…” Sakura grinned, as she made some makeshift straps to affix the wounded girl on her back, before moving with brisk steps and jumping on Penny’s back, making it a three people ride. “Let’s kick this fucker all the way up the Sanzu river.” She said while concentrating her lightning in her embrace, hopefully energizing the robotic magical girl even more.

Penny would curl her bottom two inhuman limbs around Sakura and their passenger acting both as a cradle and cage. She was going to be moving quickly and she didn’t want either of them to fall off, plus if any attacks came from behind it would offer some protection until Penny could reorient to get them out of the line of fire.

Her drone guide would land on her shoulder with a notable clang. Still projecting the map above itself.

Then she would focus on the Lightning being fed into her systems directing it to the systems that would need the boost the most. Her gauss system and her thrusters. Then without warning her gauss system would let out it’s roaring declaration as Penny blitzed forward fully intending to simply bulldoze her way through to the Pool propper.

Sakura’s attempt at first aid caused the magical girl to squirm in further displeasure; skinless as she was, any contact at all looked painful. But it was a necessary measure, if only so that she could be secured on Sakura’s back.

With a thrum of her engines and her passengers fully secured, Penny flew off, lightning crackling in her wake as she accelerated to the highest velocity she could before contact with the wall. Her drone, though its map constantly fluctuated due to the organic nature of their location, was still able to point the path to the most open area within the pool...which was the pool. The machine-girl crashed into the flesh-covered walls with bombastic ferocity, the crunch of shattering concrete and pavement muffled by the elasticity of the walls. With two passengers on her, her speed had taken a hit, but where velocity failed, brute force reigned.

Pushing, pushing, pushing through, Penny rammed through the flesh...only for it to then give way. The wall she ripped through parted in an instant, as the pool, infested and covered with meat and fat, stood before her. In the center, laid a bulbous construction, dark blue veins spiraling upwards to a fleshy sphere the size of a truck. It beat visibly, with the rippling intensity of a human heart, and the water of the pool had turned into a black mud now.

But that wasn’t what gave Penny pause.

Though near the walls, the vapors were thin, it was clear that there was something strange in the air. A thick smog, yellowish-green in color, pervaded the entirety of the pool area, the air heavy and moist like the breathing of an in-patient. They had made it now, but the question was: were they invaders, or were they guests?

“Good call.” Sakura said. “That fog stings my nose like crazy from here. Betcha it’s something, poisonous, corrosive or worse.” Sakura said, while taking a look at the other girl. “Maybe you can withstand it, but I probably wouldn’t like breathing in that stuff.” The petite girl looked at the pulsating pillar, and then the other magical girl besides her. Well, what was left of her, anyway.

An all out attack could work, but I distrust this fucker who has been sitting on its ass all this time Sakura thought, as she strained her mind. “There should be a way to vent this room and leave this fucker’s ass exposed. Once we do… we rain hell on it.” Sakura commented still gazing around to see where she could poke holes to vent the entire room.

“We need to act quickly” Penny would say softly as she too scanned the room for an easy way to vent the room “Something is triggering my Spark” She had two, possibly three, ideas as to what it was that was doing that. Yet at the end of the day killing the core of this nightmare would solve the issue regardless.

“Bringing down the roof might be our best option” She would offer keeping a vigilant eye out for any possible attacks. She had another few seconds before her Gauss system would be ready for another shot, which she was planning on using as her opening volly.

While she spoke she brought up a hand to her purification amulet, and clasped it gently before letting like call to like. When she let go of it a soft white glow encompassed the white gold star, the diamond in the center glowing with it’s own inner flame. Penny wasn’t sure if it would help, but it was better than nothing.

“Wrecking the place, huh? I feel bad for the lil’ girls losing their favorite splashing place, but in the other hand… I’d love to see how that rat deals with… collateral damage.” Sakura added, her face growing to a wide grin as she focused her lightning and started the bombardment on the upper side of the pool, with a twofold purpose. Create ventilation, and squash that phallic thing with the debris.

A crack of lightning, a surge of power, and…

Ignition.

As Sakura’s magic shot through the tainted air, her lightning, bright and burning, the pool caught flame, an explosion of light and heat surging out towards the magical girls. Penny’s mechanical fortitude prevented them from being tossed back by the blast, but that wasn’t the problem. The entirety of the pool was aflame now, the pulsating heart of the creation pounding ever faster. Every inch of aberrant flesh was burning with white fire, and the temperature within the large room was rising rapidly as a result. Worst was that the Horror’s flesh had an almost reciprocal relationship with the fire that consumed it: it regenerated fast enough that there was no lasting damage to it from the flames, and what visceral pus and gas that popped out from its veins from the superficial damage served only to stoke the flames further.

The same could not be said for Sakura, Penny, and their nameless charge. Caught inside, they were going to be cooked alive if nothing was done.

‘Shit’ That was the only extraneous thought that passed through Penny’s mind as the situation turned for the worse. The rest of her processing power was put towards finding out another avenue of Dealing with this thing. And in all honesty bringing the roof down still seemed like the best plan, as that would vent the noxious fumes as well as deal with the rapidly growing heat from the room effectively being on fire.

“System recalibrated”

A moment later Penny loud out a thunderous roar easily louder than any other gauss round to date. The reason would become very apparent as well, her round was fired with no lightning. Just a two foot steel spike and a visible wave of sound aimed directly at the heart beating within the center of the room.

She would then step back to the wall and place her chainsaw blade into the flesh before triggering it at the same time her thrusters ramped up to maximum. The result being that she was dragged upwards toward the ceiling. When she got there she would prace against the wall with her normal legs and against the ceiling with her spiderlegs, her plan? To start tearing down the roof and either open a vent hole for the fumes or to get out herself and continue this from the outside.

During this she wouldn’t stop unleashing her modified gauss round at the heart every time it came online.

Sakura for her part stood wide eyed for the briefest of moments, before muttering something under her breath. "Shit." She said solemnly as she clung to Penny in her rampage. Eyeing the situation, she saw the thing on fire and she gritted her teeth. They needed to finish it quickly. She took aim from behind the robotic girl. "Penny, brace for impact." She added before starting to channel her Killing Blow.

"Sparkly heart Justice Breaker Lance" she said, her aim at the center of the thing and the pool underneath. "Go to hell!" She added as she mentally prepared herself for the simultaneous detonation of all the flammable liquid of the pool at once, while hopefully piercing the target as well.

Penny ripped and tore through mounds of regenerating flesh, her metallic frame soon coated with gore that sizzled like grilled meat, seeping into her joints. Each breath Sakura took burnt her lungs, the caustic odors and the stinging smoke leaving marks on her skin. All the while, the flesh rebelled still, squirming against the assault as everything continued to burn. It was a mess, a bloody, gross, violent, ugly mess. Gauss rounds smashed into the euclidean sphere, over and over again, to no effect. Against adversity, the bulbous roots of the Sphere generated massive braids of fat and blood, bursting out of the tepid pool to deflect the electromagnetically propelled shots. Flesh too, obstructed Penny from breaking through the roof so easily. Her chainsaw roared constantly, teeth shredding into the bloody mess, but the going was, just as it had been to break through the wall, slow, and her attacks were ineffectual.

Sakura’s though, was not.

A killing blow. A bolt out of the blue. A lance of thunder and lightning, composed of the entirety of a magical girl’s energy. Coalescing between her hands, pink lightning shot out in an incandescent stream, blasting into the wall of flesh that protected the Sphere. What defenses it erected carbonized almost immediately, while the corrupted water beneath vaporized rather than ignited, the sheer heat of the Justice Breaker Lancer overwhelming. Sakura immediately felt her back pressed against Penny’s, the recoil of her magic giving the Magical Machine enough propulsion to dig deeper into the flesh barrier than ever before!

What she didn’t notice, however, was that the girl once secured on her back had slipped off, fat, grease, and the recoil from Sakura’s Killing Blow knocking her loose.

But Penny did.

Before their charge could plummet beyond their reach, one of Penny’s arms snatched out, the parallel minds of the magitech girl capable of focusing on all aspects of the chaos that surrounded them. With everyone secured, the machine redoubled her efforts, and right as Sakura’s lightning smashed into the Sphere, Penny’s chainsaw tore into steel and concrete, opening a hole into the night.

Even coated with blood, even soaked in gore, the magical girls could taste the sweetness of the night air...and so could the flames within. A draft of air, powerful and continuous, swept into the burning pool, reoxygenating the oven they were in, and for the second time, the hellish pool burnt red.

And rather than being on the side, the three girls were right above the surging fire.

“Oi, swiss knife-chan!” Sakura said, panting heavily after the strain of having no magical power remaining. “Got a hookshoot, by any chance?”

Time was a precious commodity at the moment, because of that Penny didn’t bother to reply to Sakura; she simply lifted her bladed arm towards the side and launched it off letting the long chain that trailed off after it answer the question on it’s own. At the same time as she was securing a way off the build before it blew up she was preparing to say her goodbye to the creature below.

“System recalibrated”

The moment he left arm caught hold of something sturdy was the same moment she fired off one last Gauss round, but this was once again different from any of her prior rounds as all it consisted of was a single large bolt of electricity, and with timing only possible due to being a machine the next instant a flare of light erupted from Penny as she pushed her Spark to its limits and focused the flare through her purification amulet, mixing the purified light with her lightning.

Not bothering to see if it had any real effect Penny allowed the winch mechanism to drag her and her passengers away from the rooftop redoubling her grip on them both to make sure they were secured for when this place blew its top.

Penny’s final shot streaked through the air, but whatever effect it had was obstructed by the plumes of flame that jetted out at them. The magical machine’s winch had guided them out from the hole Penny created, but it certainly hadn’t been what propelled them. A roar, an air-sucking flash, and they were cannonballed out of the exploding swimming pool, embers and smoke clinging to them all.

For a moment, as their ascent apexed, Penny and Sakura saw the infernal ruins that the building had become, concrete collapsing and flesh roasting, as the entire building was demolished.

And in the next, they crashed into cold water, bubbles of oxygen burbling all around them.

A penthouse pool.

They had been launched so high up that they ended up on the roof of an apartment building.

“Y’know… swiss-knife chan… normally i’d be thrilled when a good brawl ends up with a couple of chicks in a penthouse pool… but like this… Well, I'm glad it’s over and done with. That was fucked up.” She added as she allowed herself to float in the water, a calm moment of respite after a hard fought battle.

“We should get help for our friend tho.” Sakura said, her magic depleted and forcefully being stripped of her magical uniform. “Oi, Kamui… san”

Just as if some magical words had conjured a spirit, the Puuchu appeared besides the pool

“Yes?” His eyes were trying to discern something, no doubt why the change in why he was addressed.

“Can you fix her?” Sakura insisted, her eyes darting to the wounded girl.

“It’s possible, yes.”

“But not free, s’what you say.” Sakura added, scoffing.

“Yes.”

“Do it… please.” The once-gangster asked, no, pleaded to do so.

“Your speech has been altered. Is it perhaps due to a concussion?” The Puuchu answered.

“Maybe. But y’know, maybe this world of magical girls and sparkles ain’t so bad. Stupid fashion aside, it feels good to punch bastards, do justice… and save the girl.” She added, throwing a fist to the air, and then trying to grasp the sky.

“Don’t you think so, Swiss-knife chan? Being good, feels actually good, eh?”

“Indeed it does Sakura” Penny would reply as she smiled at a job well done. “I’ll contact Beacon to have them send over a group of girls to purify the place now that the core is gone.” She would add sending off the message she had prepared when they first found the girl trapped within the defiled pool.

“We’ve got medics as well,” Penny would add as she crawled out of the pool, “So you don’t need to pay for another good deed if you don’t want to.” It was an offer made out of companionship, as she felt that her original evaluation of the Puchuu was rather spot on so far.

“Won’t it put a lot of work on the Beacon to handle both cleanups?” Sakura said. “‘Sides, I don’t mind helping a lil’ girl.” Sakura added, although the last part drawled off, as if it was an uncomfortable truth.

“It shouldn’t” Penny would reply “I was sent in to tear the place down if needed after all, the hard part has been accomplished. I lack the capability to properly purge the corruption from the area however. Besides Beacon is founded on helping people, regardless of how the Ascendency goes about performing its duties. It would be antithetical to deny her help after what she went through.” Her explanation held a quiet conviction that was notable purely for the emotion that it injected into how she spoke.

“You have helped her, and countless others with your actions tonight. I would be remiss in my own sense to not extend just as much assistance to you as you have done to me.”

“Fine, you take the girl. Remember that these bandages are temporary and will disappear in a hour or so.” Sakura eyed the robotic girl, as she hauled herself out of the swimming pool, and with one last application of Eternal Style, dried herself prim and proper.

“Oi, rat bastard, start the bike.” She said to Umukamui, as the pink bike materialized in front of them, and both climbed up. “Good thing this stuff is magical. Let’s do some joyriding.” She said, trying to ignore the garish pink color as she started it up.

“See ya, Swiss-knife-chan. Get in touch, kay?” Sakura added.

“Understood” Penny would reply with a small nod, gently lifting the girl up as she did so. “And easily done” She would reply with a rare smug smirk, as Sakura’s phone would receive a text from the robot in question. “Don’t hesitate to call if you need assistance, or simply wish to meet up.” She would add, as several more flashes of light, much like the one that happened when Penny first teleported in could be seen in the parking lot of the now destroyed pool.

With one last wave, with her spider-like limb, Penny would step backwards off the roof, using the remaining boost she had received from Sakura to float gently to the ground with her thrusters before turning towards the support crew that Beacon had sent in, she had wounded that needed to be taken care of after all.

“Hm. It was too soon to poach someone, shifty rat.” Sakura added. “There’ll be more chances, I’m sure.” She nodded before driving off the building in a spectacular fashion.

It was time to meet again. This time, Mariette had specifically requested their meeting to take place at a secure location, indoors. So, within a ballroom in a particularly large abandoned room, Mariette had suggested their meeting take place. The chandeliers were off, but plenty of light still shone through various windows blocked by forgotten draperies, the colourful but abandoned floor being plenty dusty and supporting the abandoned look.

Here, on the exact time they had decided, Mariette strode out of her portal at the other end of the entrance, because that felt fitting enough. Behind her was a set of stairs that led up to a higher floor; it was where Cindy’s waiting had ended.

‘Greetings, Cindy. I trust you’ve been well?’ Mariette started, clutching bunny as she said, after having turned around and looked up at the lighting-monster-girl, who always was so quick to take higher ground.

“Well met, Sage of the Mirrored World,” Cindy greeted back, her arms crossed with a courteous smile. “We are pleased to see that our arrangement has so far borne fruit. Soon, we shall cast the invaders out of our lands.” She began walking down the steps, each lift of her leg manifesting a tiny spark. “So, what desire hast thou for us? Mayhaps you wish to swear fealty after all, hm?”

‘I am afraid I cannot do the latter, for as I said, I am somewhat of a princess of another dimension. To swear fealty to another royalty would be unsuitable, as I already have a liege,’ Mariette said, shaking her head, that liege being Asengav. ‘However, I am prepared to assist your rule, for I believe your guiding hand would be of great benefit for this town. Therefore, I’ve prepared something for your use. but before that…’ Mariette took a bit of a breath.

‘I’ve heard that you have at your disposal a number of Red Coins. My first suggestion is an exchange. You give me Red Coins, and I provide you with a number of my monsters for your use. How does that sound?’ Mariette asked, first.

Cindy lifted an inquisitive eyebrow of crackling electricity. “Pray tell, what dost thou seek with the Blood-tinted Pieces? We are not wont to hand them out like sweets to mere children.”

Mariette had to pause for a moment.

‘They have properties that interest me. The ability to completely change the way an individual’s magic is expressed could be of great use to my liege, if the magic behind them is understood. I wish to conduct research on them, see if they can be duplicated, and also see if the scope of their use can be expanded upon. Yet, so far, the Red Coins have evaded my grasp. It has been quite infuriating,’ Mariette said. She wanted to do that, too, so not really a lie.

Cindy placed her hands on her hips, creating a miniature electric circuit. “At least you comprehend their true worth. That also means you comprehend they are worth a queen’s ransom. Now, tell me of these monsters you bid.”

‘As you wish,’ Mariette told, as she turned towards the great emptiness that was the abandoned ballroom. As they watched, dark portals opened, into the vast emptiness. Numerous of the portals were just a bit larger than human sized, but far behind them were two dramatically larger ones. Out from one of the smaller ones in the front skipped Eli, the tiny slime harpy. She curtsied before Cindy and Mariette, substituting a skirt using her wings, before she turned back towards the line of portals.



‘Forward, march!’ she yelled back, like a parody of a legion commander.

And then forth they tread. It started with the clunking sounds of heavy metal armour wandering forward, their boots hitting the floor with resounding clangs. Honestly loud enough that Mariette became a bit worried they’d be found from someone following the sounds, but regardless. Forth strode warriors in bronze armour, head-to-toe cloaked in metal, automatons in motion. The insides, glowing from between the lines of armour, were the black smoke of the dark energies powering the beings. Two dozen of the smaller ones, that were still towering over a regular Magical Girl, lined up.

‘Halt!’ Eli told, and the automatons stopped short, staring ahead into nothing in particular. She threw a look at Mariette, who nodded to her, and then turned to Cindy.

‘Allow me to introduce you to Talos,’ Mariette said, looking to Cindy again. ‘Once a gigantic bronze statue supposedly created by Hephaestus to defend the island of Crete, it was destroyed by Jason and the Argonauts… after which its corpse was taken by my liege, who copied the designs and recreated it powered by his dark energies to become his foot soldiers in whatever wars he reigns across the multiverse,’ Mariette told, her expression looking a bit strained.

Eli, who had practiced this speech with Mariette earlier by supplying the unschooled girl with all the knowledge she needed, looked on proudly.

‘They’re tough, strong, follow every command without fail and have been enchanted to be at least somewhat resistant to Metal-specialization trying to affect their armour. In addition…’ Mariette continued, until a loud slam came from a massive boot hitting the floor behind the other gathered automatons. ‘… They come in very varying sizes,’ Mariette explained as two giant Talos now stood behind the rest.

‘… I will note the average gathering of Magical Girls can with all likelihood handle them. They should be supplements to your main force of firepower, not the core of it. However, when it comes to durable minions to support in a large-scale war, I believe you’ll find there is none more reliable,’ Mariette finished, now feeling a bit exhausted having to recount all that she learned to say for this encounter. She breathed out in relief, for not having stumbled on her words. Eli looked so proud over there. With that, Mariette refocused on Cindy.

‘I believe they would serve well, as sentinels for your kingdom,’ she finally finished.

Cindy looked on with great interest as the automatons assembled, nodding to herself as she saw them respond to the vocal commands. “Excellent. We would make fine use of these weapons in the coming war against the Ascendancy.” She offered a hand to Mariette. “Very well, I shall agree to your offer of trading Red Coins for Talos soldiers. We will discuss the exact amount later, once I have made a proper check of their capabilities.”

‘Absolutely. You can have the first batch for testing purposes. I will drop off a single investigator to keep track of the progress,’ Mariette nodded, turning around to the portals. ‘Freya.’


‘I’m here,’ a cold voice said, as a furred snake slithered out of a portal, her hands claws and her eyes a stinging predatory yellow.

‘She’ll stay to keep watch of them and answer any questions you may have. She’s not obligated to follow your commands, on account she’s one of my elite commanders. For now, that will do,’ Mariette said, nodding. ‘Anything else you wish to discuss?’

Cindy examined the naga-like girl who had arrived, and nodded. “The preliminary testing will only take a couple of days. However, in order to honor our deal, I shall prepare living accommodations for Freya.” She approached her, sliding a tingling blue hand down her shoulder. “Still...She does not seem disheveled or in poor health.” She turned to Mariette. “Well then, this matter is settled. Anything else that is on your mind? I won’t be available for further meetings until the day of the rave has passed.”

Freya raised an eyebrow as Cindy approached and touched her over. Still, she was proud of who she was. ‘I appreciate it, Lady Ford. I am one of Asengav’s primary monster commanders, as well as his strongest physical combatant. I can answer any question on what these guys can and can’t take,’ she simply said.

‘… The rave, huh,’ Mariette commented. ‘I would actually like to ask. Is something going to happen during the party? I will not be present myself, because I am far too wary of it either being a trap or being attacked by the Ascendancy, but I intend to send at least one of my agents. What can they expect?’

Cindy's brow, or an electrical approximation of one, furrowed, and she turned away.

"War," she simply stated, and, having given a final nod to Freya, walked away from the ballroom and disappeared.

‘…’ Mariette stood silent, as Cindy’s intention were laid unavoidably bare. It would appear there was no avoiding it.

‘War it is.’

---

There were three individuals in the room standing around a fourth, tied to a chair in the middle. The person in question was blinded and bound by spider webs.



‘My, my. What do we have here?’ Suzette asked, smirking at the little fainted Nightwing, inspecting her body.

‘A bug caught in the net! Eli brought her! Needs her mind read!’ Josefin called excitedly, hands placed firmly on the girl’s shoulders from behind.

‘No use delaying the inevitable, then,’ Ronja, resident spider-girl, said with a sly little smirk as a couple smaller spiders crawled on the girl’s body. It was her Reinforcement web that tied down Nightwing, and the spiders did the rest. Both Suzette and Josefin were here as a precaution, in case Nightwing woke up and tried something. In absence of that, Ronja gently retracted her hand, and charged… an enormous amount of magic power. Both the other girls looked away, as-!

‘OVERWRITE!!’ Ronja’s hand slammed into the head of the poor captive with an enormous Psychic blow! … After which she slowly pulled her hand back, webs leaving her hand. However, it wasn’t just any webs. The webs were being pulled out of Nightwing’s head, not out of Ronja’s hand.

‘Now, let’s see if the web that is your memory will reveal anything,’ Ronja told gently, inspecting the webs as she held them, each giving her a mental picture of her catch’s memories as she looked them through. ‘What am I looking for?’

‘Ebon Mint!’ Josefin called out happily. ‘Secret bases, who her dealer is, what tricks they have up their sleeve, basically whatever we might have use of!’

‘But specifically, we’re looking for the girl called Sammy, as part of our leader’s plan to be as do-goody as possible to gain friends…’ Suzette told, putting her arms behind her head as she watched what was happening. ‘Eh, can that really be so useful? Suppose we got a Mint agent for it, but…’

‘So be silent, you two,’ Ronja told them, as she maneuvered the web that was Nightwing’s literal memories. ‘Now, let’s see…’

However, that’s when she had to hesitate.

‘Hm? What’s wrong?’ Suzette asked.

‘Encrypted memories? Really?’ Ronja asked out loud, sounding a touch amused. ‘Those Ebon Mint guys think of everything, huh,’ the arachne commented, giggling a bit as Josefin looked quite worried and Suzette a touch annoyed.

‘So, that’s it? We’re not getting in?’ Suzette asked, only to be met with Ronja’s clicking tongue.

‘I didn’t say that. Just… give me some time and effort, and I’ll make something out of this…’ Ronja insisted, with frowning eyes, as the spider-girl sat back, and started knitting with the webs of the girl’s memories.

It took a while. Longer than Suzette had ever known one of Ronja’s operations to go. She had to take a break every now and then, apparently the contents of the memories were jarring. It went back and forth, Ronja looking deep in thought as they went on…

Finally, they were done, and Nightwing had started to wake up so Josefin dragged her off. Ronja held onto a small, knitted scarf of memories. In the midst of the dark room, Mariette strode forth to meet Ronja, a cat on her arm.

‘What did you find?’ Mariette asked.

‘All that you wanted to know, lady Mariette,’ Ronja told, proudly.

---

It was in the dead of night, when none would expect-

when everyone would expect a burglar to break into a top-secret weapon’s testing facility.

However, the reason why these three burglars broke into said testing facility was, perhaps… a little unorthodox.



They had managed to practically beg Mariette to drop them off inside the facility, after having heard what was in there. A dragon-scaled fiery girl with excitement alight in her eyes, a girl with metal limbs and a black bunny hood that looked much the same and a tiny purple-clad ice-witch with a sneaky smirk on her lips. All three were super into what they were about to do.

With excited little giggles, the two regular Magical Girls stole away towards the control center, while the scaled dragon girl rolled her shoulders and dashed over for the testing area, grinning widely. Over at the control center, the metal girl with an eyepatch grabbed a USB and plugged it into the computer, which caused the computer to activate with a start, and then the computer itself was no match for the software on that USB. Jelena grinned as she prepared to type away.

‘Do you know what you’re doing?’ an excited but still mildly concerned Victoria asked.

‘Don’t you worry! I’ve been given expert hacking coaching!’ Jelena declared proudly, raising her metal fingers in pride before starting to press away.

Over in the field, Mayra slapped herself in the face with both hands twice, paced herself back and forth a bit, and then hunched down onto all fours, preparing for encounter.

‘Alright! I’m ready!’

And with that, Jelena hit the button, Victoria looking on in mischievous happiness.

A large door slowly opened on the opposite side of the vast testing chamber (which was filled with a sizable replica of downtown Penrose), revealing two squads of five humanoid machines each. Eight small spheres floated above them. Four of the machines in each squad were silver in color and carried triple barreled light rotary autocannons, while a larger, crimson machine seemed to serve as a “squad leader” of sorts. It was armed with what appeared to be an advanced heavy assault rifle, but the bluish glow on the side of the weapon gave some evidence that this was not a conventional firearm.

<<Target acquired>>the drones announced in unison. <<Advancing>>

‘… Awwww,’ Mayra made such an utterly humbled sound. ‘You gathered all this… for me? I’m… so… honoured~!’ Mayra clutched over her heart in her hunched over posture for a bit.

‘Hey! Those robots mean business! You sure you can dodge gunfire!?’ Victoria asked over their communicators, that they totally brought, looking excited and worried from over there by a super-grinning Jelena.

‘Oh, don’t worry,’ Mayra smirked, as she gathered magical fire in both of her palms. ‘To shoot me… they’re gonna have to see me!’

A sudden explosion was triggered, as Mayra directed the focused magical power along with her sheer arm-strength into the ground right in front of her, intending to completely blow open the asphalt and blow a large amount of dust and fire into the air as cover. Then, as quickly as she could, she’d dart to the side to run alongside the other side of the buildings, using slight Darkness-magic to just obtuse her exact position. As she ran, her head and body was held low, like a four-legged animal running with only the hind legs.

<<Target employing evasive action>> <<Tracking>>

Realizing that their heat sensors would be somewhat ineffective with all the fires their target was setting, the drones switched to their motion sensors, which provided a clearer picture of where the monster girl was moving.

<<Target attempting to outflank>> <<Employing negation procedures>>

With that, the eight spheroid gun drones ascended high above the surrounding buildings to position themselves for an aerial attack. Once the barrels of their light machine guns had pinpointed Mayra’s location, the gun drones unloaded a hail of bullets down upon the monster girl, hopefully catching her unawares.

Mayra was pretty quick to notice the drones flying into position to fire upon her, but was also sort of left blinking at them for a slight moment longer than recommended.

‘WOAH-!’ Mayra shouted out, as she through sheer instinct punched one of her dragon-claws forward with a fireball blasting forth with considerable might, intended to swallow up the bullets while Mayra dug her fangs into the asphalt for a quick dive into the building to her left, in order to take cover from the incoming bullets.

‘Okay, take out those, first,’ Mayra grinned, as she then JUMPED, for the roof inside was no obstacle to her. She broke through floor after floor, breaking her way upwards, intending to get closer to those flying drones…!

The spheroid drones would, of course, continue to track Mayra’s position as she took cover in the nearby structure, it’s walls serving as little impediment to their machine guns’ armor-piercing rounds. However, Mayra’s sheer speed prevented her from being hit as she swiftly made her way to the roof. Once she reached it, she would notice that the small drones were now arrayed in an encircling formation slightly above her. She had less than a second to act before they opened fire once more.

As Mayra broke through the roof… she came through holding multiple layers of debris she’d collected along the way, long walkable slabs of matter that she’d just held onto. There was a moment of stunned surprise as she saw the drones overhead… but that just meant she needed to act fast. She threw the debris overhead… and then blasted a powerful shock-wave of fire to simultaneously blast the pieces of debris up at the drones at remarkable speed while also blasting herself back down the building to escape their incoming fire!

The torrents of bullets unleashed by the gun drones’ machine guns sliced through the majority of the makeshift missiles, but the extra speed Mayra’s shockwave had imparted to them allowed several pieces to strike three of the drones. Normally, the drones’ armored shells would protect their fragile interiors from being damaged by what amounted to little more than pieces of rubble, but, once again, the speed at which the projectiles were traveling was a decisive factor. Like the hypersonic rounds of a railgun, the small clusters of debris shot clean through the three drones like knives through tissue paper, shredding the drones’ electronics in the process. With nearly half their number eliminated, the remaining five gun drones pulled back to rejoin the humanoid drones who had taken up position in the street in front of the now visibly damaged building.

‘Phuuu…’ Mayra breathed out at the bottom of the building, having successfully taken the rather harsh landing and then hidden herself behind some walls.

‘Nice! You got three of them! Two more times, and it’ll have wiped them out!’ Jelena said, not entirely considering that the drones were pulling back.

‘Wha, no, they’ll expect it next time,’ Mayra immediately declared, breathing out with a smirk.

‘Er, eh? … Listen here, Mayra, AI don’t typically learn,’ the resident gamer insisted.

‘They don’t? Eh,’ Mayra shrugged. ‘These don’t feel particularly typical-!’ she said as she spun around to fire a single speedy super-heated fireball out the entrance at one of the silver humanoid drones to see how it’d react!
Although the drone in question had about the same reaction time as a trained human soldier, along with the ability to detect the massive spike in heat before Mayra’s fireball was launched, the monster girl’s swiftness was far in excess of the machine’s reflexes. Thus, while the drone registered the threat, it could not take evasive action before the incandescent orb struck it with considerable force. The magic missile left a red-hot gash in the silver drone’s chest. Smoke still streaming from the “wound” in its torso, the machine raised its autocannon and sent a spray of rounds towards the position the attack had originated from. An instant later, it’s barrage was joined by the fire of its robotic comrades, creating a torrent of armor-piercing rounds, which seriously threatened the building’s structural integrity.

Mayra grinned as she saw the damage she’d done with her fireball attack. ‘Yeah, that’s some good dama-’

Then she had to very immediately duck, as a barrage of fire came upon her position, and then she thrust her legs down with a slight blast of fire to assist the speed to just launch her out of the exposed position, breaking through several floors once again. … Oh, was the building almost falling? … … …

Mayra blasted herself down on the other side of the building, trusting in her speed and instincts to avoid the gunfire, until she landed on one side of the building, inside. Then… let’s see, what would be the load-bearing pillars… eh, she just needed to destroy them all!

As a speedy, black flash of a dragon-girl, Mayra hunted through the building to utterly tear through any and all pillars that came even close to her range as she went from one side of the building to the other…!

… The first way the building collapsed on, however, was straight down. The parts that no longer were supported just crashed straight down, while the rest of the building stood. Not one to be discouraged, Mayra just moved on to decapitating the next row of load-bearing pillars on the way back! … They, too, just collapsed straight downwards, leaving a very thin building which support was utterly demolished. … This was when a slightly more desperate Mayra dashed out on the opposite side of the building, took her stance, and-

‘HYYYAAAH-!’ jumped up and KICKED the wall at a place between the floors from the other side…! … The result was, firstly, her foot going straight through the wall! … The second result was that, finally, the building was starting to tip over in the direction she wanted it to! Mayra was so proud!

While all this was going on, the drones had kept up their barrage, their sensors taking note of their target’s rapid movement inside the structure as they did so. When the building finally began to collapse towards them, the machines had already repositioned themselves just beyond the area of potential danger. Now that the obstruction was out of the way, they had a much better line of sight to their target. Possessed of this advantage, they redoubled their efforts to bring the monster girl down. Assailed by a blizzard of autocannon rounds, bullets, and energy bolts, Mayra would certainly have to think fast if she wanted to survive.

Mayra had already thought of the next step of her plan.

Instead of, who knows, running around from the falling building that might descend on the robots… Mayra followed along with the falling building. The moment it became clear the building wasn’t going to hit them, she launched herself from the top of the falling building, her grin wide and full of battle-lust as she descended upon the ground with one fierce speed, to slam down to the left of the leftmost drone. If there was no other cover, she’d just have to use them as cover. This, of course, meant-

Mayra blasted a quick and violent fist of fire at the sentinel’s autocannon, after which she focused firepower into her feet and blasted, shooting both herself and the Silver Sentinel directly into the next unit. Of course, this probably meant they all turned to face her, but she had a secret trick. Firstly, for as long as she could she kicked and punched out a few fireballs at whatever guns were coming to be aimed at her first, using her awareness to select the prime targets, but soon enough there would be more guns than she could handle. That’s when she grinned, jumped, and a shadowy effect encompassed her body as she curled up and turned briefly intangible as she leapt through towards the nearest piece of infrastructure. She really couldn’t do that a lot, but this was the first time today.

Three of the Sentinels’ autocannons were rendered inoperative by Mayra’s attack, the heat of the fireballs melting their barrels into curving trunks of dripping sludge. Unable to track her after she employed her mystical means of concealment, the remaining drones assumed a circular formation, alert to every avenue of possible attack, while they waited for Mayra to make her next move.

‘Huff, huff,’ Mayra momentarily hid, breathing a bit heavily as she listened for the movements of the drones. Still for now, huh.

‘Woah. Humans can build this sort of stuff? I’m impressed,’ Jelena reported from over there.

‘Probably not without help,’ Victoria questioned from over there. ‘… I hope.’

‘When you told me of armoured behemoths, I imagined a lot more “punch, punch” than “shoot, shoot”, hah,’ Mayra reported with a grin.

‘You’re not giving up, are ya?’ Jelena asked, amused.

‘Never.’

With that, Mayra took a couple of steps into the center of the room, and breathed deeply… … … huh, she was bleeding. She took a look, and it appeared something had burrowed into her arm, which scales were way tougher than a normal human’s skin, which probably would just have been drilled through. Mayra’s blood, though, that was basically magma. With a smirk, and ignoring the pain, she took some of that magma and started gently coating her fangs. Oh, yeah. Mayra grinned as her body was rapidly increasing in temperature. It was showtime.

A wall blasted open as a super-heated Mayra flew straight through it towards the closest Silver Sentinel. This time, her body heated as she slammed her claws into it, was entirely focused to tear through the drone’s powerful armour. And with that attack delivered, hopefully before their guns already tracked her down, she kicked to launch herself from the Sentinel she’d just attacked at the next Sentinel, intent on taking out the ones still with guns first.

Once again, Mayra’s speed was such that the drones scarcely had time to loose a few initial shots, before the draconic monster girl was upon them. In moments, one of the Sentinels had collapsed in a ruined heap of smoke and sparks, while another was in the process of being torn to shreds by the monster girl’s molten talons. The other drones spun to face their monstrous assailant, but Mayra was moving so fast that their shots couldn’t seem to find their mark. Seeking to increase the distance between themselves and the rampaging monster girl, the gun drones floated higher into the air, while the remaining Sentinels and pair of Knights slowly fell back, continuing to pour fire into Mayra’s general position as they did so. In some cases, this fire ended up striking some of their fellow drones who were too close to the dragoness to disengage, and one of the Sentinels convulsed violently as it was perforated by dozens of autocannon rounds.

Mayra now had a sense for how long she could be at every specific location before she had to leave in a hurry, and that gave her a pace to fight this battle. She launched herself off the next Sentinel and hit into a wall, from where she quickly launched a fireball at one of the Crimson Knight’s energy rifles before she launched herself at the next Sentinel. Honestly, these brutes were way too bulky to keep up with her, what she more had a problem with was-

On the next Sentinel, she hit herself into its chest, gripped its arm and turned its autocannon upwards at the flying gun drones overhead. ‘DOWN!’ she cried excitedly as she really wanted that autocannon to fire at them, before her less-than-a-second was over and she kicked the Sentinel into a wall to escape the incoming fire and launch herself at the next one!

The co-opted autocannon blazed away in a deadly arc, its friendly fire blasting two of the gun drones out of the air. The remaining trio of silver orbs continued to spray machine gun fire into the blur of motion that was Mayra, but even if they managed to score a hit on her, the monster girl’s thick scales and unique internal anatomy would protect her from most of the damage the bullets would usually cause creatures of flesh and blood.

In a rather surprising turn of events, the Crimson Knight with the damaged energy rifle dropped its weapon and proceeded to advance on Mayra’s position, with the seeming objective of engaging the monster girl in close combat.

Mayra smiled at the Crimson Knight approaching. She wanted that, too. But first, the distractions had to go.

Which is why the next step was to launch herself straight up into the air. Mayra bent her knees, charged her feet and blasted herself way up after the surviving trio. As she flew up after them, she charged fire in her hands, and intended nothing short of a one-two-three rapid thrusts of her hands to throw quick fireballs to attempt to intercept them at as close of a range as possible. After that, she caused another minor explosion to blast herself back to the ground, before any surviving guns tracked her flight.

With Mayra in their midst, and dishing out fireballs at so close a range, the gun drones were unable to take evasive action fast enough, and so were swiftly dispatched, the shattered spheroids falling to the ground like metallic hailstones. While the Crimson Knight still bearing a rifle attempted to blast the monster girl out of the sky, its energy bolts failed to find their target, having been aimed at the place Mayra occupied mere seconds too late.
The machine’s “brother”, conversely, took up a defensive stance as twin chainsaw-like blades emerged from its lower arms.

<<Close assault mode initiated>>

‘OH, NOW YOU’RE TALKING MY LANGUAGE!’ Mayra happily shouted out, positively beaming as she landed before the two brothers. Those chainsaw-blade-arms were positively awesome. Mayra had to look at her own arms and contemplate if it was possible to have surgery… before she had to sidestep the next energy bolt, grinning excitedly as, finally, it was time for the kind of challenge that Mayra enjoyed the most. And so… she dashed straight up to the chainsaw-wielding Crimson Knight.

She wanted to meet that chainsaw. She knew how stupid it was… but she just had to try it out! So, in her next movement, she blasted fire behind her foot as she delivered a horrific kick directly towards the chainsaw-like blade that came for her first. She likely wouldn’t get out of that exchange without bleeding a bit, but it’d be her magma-hot blood that’d come out of it.

Striking the scaled foot of the monster girl, the chainsaw blade dug deep into the appendage. But it was not red blood that sprayed over the imposing war machine, but molten magma. The molten droplets only signed the thick armor plating of the Crimson Knight, but the magama’s effect on its weapon was more pronounced, the blade’s “teeth” swiftly becoming dulled and melted by the staggeringly high temperature. This also had the unforeseen effect of partially fusing the melted metal to Mayra’s foot, causing her to become a bit stuck. Perceiving the opportunity this provided, the Crimson Knight pulled back it’s other arm to take a mighty swing at the monster girl’s neck, aiming to separate her head from her body.

‘YYEEEAAA…!’ Despite the pain to her foot, it was an awesome thrill that went through Mayra from this competition of strength and power… the proud realization that her leg was causing the blade to malfunction… and then the realization she was stuck to it. ‘… Uh-oh.’

Mayra quickly ducked, crouching herself underneath the sudden other arm. Of course, being in no place to dodge further, she instead opted to lift her arms and grab the other arm, doing her best to avoid the sawblades. Despite the fine mess she’d gotten herself into, Mayra could but grin, it was so thrilling. … She lifted her other leg and brought it down with all her might and fire-blasting magic down in the arm her foot was stuck to!

The armor coating that arm was formidable indeed, an advanced alloy several times stronger than steel, but under the force of Mayra’s magicly amplified blow, even it could not hold. The arm buckled and then gave way, snapping in half amid a shower of sparks and molten metal. The hulking drone attempted to free its other arm from Mayra’s grasp, but the monster girl’s grip was too tight. The magma on her talons was also beginning to fuse with the arm’s metallic surface, aiding her efforts to keep it in place. However, there was a second threat to worry about, and it now made its presence known. Taking up position to the side of the interlocked pair of combatants, the second Crimson Knight raised its energy rifle and fired several quick shots at the monster girl, who now seemed unable to avoid them.

Mayra was briefly elated that the arm of the Crimson Knight was cleaved in half. Now, all she had to do was get loose, and- and she’d managed to bind with the other arm. She gave the other Crimson Knight an awkward little smile, before being overtaken by a shadowy mist that let her fall straight through the grip of the current Crimson Knight as she made herself intangible again to avoid the energy rifle shots. A slight bit miffed that she had to use this again, and was actually sort of running towards the end of her magic reserves by now, Mayra landed on her feet and blasted herself up to kick that energy rifle and then continue on to unleash a barrage of kicks and punches against the second Crimson Knight, to knock the arms away and to just slam her talons into its face and chest over and over-!

The second Crimson Knight reeled under Mayra’s furious assault. It had been designed for use in heavy combat, but nothing on earth possessed the capabilities of this girl when it came to close combat. Chucks of armor were torn away as the monster girl attacked with reckless abandon. Bereft of its rifle, the metallic juggernaut attempted to bring its close combat weapons to bear, but Mayra was too close, essentially clinging to the mighty robot’s chest as she worked her way up to its head, where its optic sensors were shattered in a flurry of slashes. Meanwhile the first Crimson Knight, having now been freed from its union with Mayra, moved to assist its besieged comrade. Lunging at the embattled pair, it attempted to pin the monster girl against the other robot. At this point Mayra would hear an artificial voice intone:
<<Self-destruct procedure initiated>>

‘Ahahaha! This is… the best!’ Mayra cried out happily as she just whaled on the robot, knocking aside its attempts to fight her off… before the other robot arrived. Now, Mayra had awareness, but she decided in that moment that she was going to measure her power against both of them at the same time. She turned, and found herself exactly where she wanted to be, pushed between the two of them, and she grinned as she strained her muscles to hold them off… when she heard that voice. Oh. Oh, that’s not good.

‘Mayra! Do the shadowy thing!’ Jelena shouted to her, now in alarm from way over there.

‘N-no way! I’ve already done that twice this fight…!’ Mayra objected, instead thinking of what else she could possibly do…!?

Now, she could do that.

No, that’s risky. She didn’t know what she’d do.

…

But isn’t that just part of the fun?

Mayra grinned so happily, all while shaken at her impending doom.

A spark of magic went off… and then the creature the two robots were trying to restrain grew.

Grew longer, grew wings, grew additional horns, grew a longer tail.

‘Oh. She’s doing that,’ Victoria commented with a neutral expression as Jelena looked on in awe next to her.

Finally, what the two Crimson Knights were holding back was no longer a dragon girl…

But an honest-to-god dragon.

Which, obviously, wasn’t very comfortable being pressed between two automatons.

Mayra roared, and then threw open her wings with full force, spreading herself with the full force of the muscles within that draconic chest, to throw the oppressors off her.

The two Crimson Knights were flung in opposite directions by Mayra’s mighty exertion of power. Scant seconds later, and they were both consumed by a pair of brilliant detonations. The battle was over. Mayra stood victorious.

In the light that followed the two detonations, the dragon reared its head and roared out in triumph.

‘AAAWESOOOOOME…!!!’ Jelena punched into the air due to the display of her companion. ‘You go, girl! That’s our Mayra! Hahaha, that’s so cool! That’s so…’ Jelena blinked as she looked over at Victoria who’d picked up a phone. ‘Eh, who are you calling?’

‘Mariette,’ Victoria said bluntly.

‘What, why? I want a turn fighting, too!’ Jelena complained, looking positively hurt by this betrayal.

‘Oh, you will,’ Victoria said with a shrug. Jelena looked at her in confusion… when a loud CRASH resounded and another roar from Mayra caused the metal-girl to flinch. See, the dragon in the cityscape test-environment had suddenly struck down a building with a massive claw, then breathed out a massive spray of fire that toppled another building, her tail striking through a third like it was made of powder, and was in general on a rampage through the fake city.

‘… Oh,’ Jelena said with a start. ‘Ooooooh, you mean…’

‘Yes…’ Victoria said with a sigh, watching their most destructive member having completely lost grasp of her reason as her phone beeped for Mariette.

‘We’re gonna need the whole team for this.’

---

The day after…

The workers that arrived would find the field to be completely and utterly decimated. The city that once stood there were nothing but ruins, giant burn-marks scorching materials and far walls. If there were any security cameras or logs that should have documented what had happened, they’d been wiped by someone rather thoroughly. In place, was a small letter with the handwriting of a child sitting in the control room.

“Sorry”

The letter contained $5,000 in cash.

Thane Covington had half a mind to incinerate both the letter and the money with his pocket lighter.

What kind of a fool does he take me for?

The undetected infiltration of one of the most secure locations of Covington Industries’ world headquarters, along with the subsequent hacking of their computer systems and the utter destruction of their testing area and two full squads of drones could have been the work of only one person.

“Demiris…” Covington spat. “You shall pay dearly for this.”

The CEO of Demiris Defense Systems, a corporation, which for many years had stood as Covington Industries’ greatest rival in their bid to become the premier contractor for the most top-secret black-ops elements of the US military, Lodovico Demiris was Thane Covington’s most hated foe. Over the long years of their rivalry, much espionage and industrial sabotage had been conducted by both megacorps, but nothing like this had ever been attempted. Nothing even close.

And they shall soon learn why… Covington thought darkly.

“Father?” a refined female voice called out. “What has happened here?”

The elder Covington turned to see that his daughter had entered the control room, the maintenance techs giving the imperious heiress a wide berth.

“Our old enemy has just struck a particularly contemptible blow,” he explained, gesturing to the devastated testing chamber beyond the reinforced view pane. “One that we shall soon repay sevenfold.”

“But how could they have accomplished this, Father?” Violet asked, still somewhat taken aback by the sight before her. “Our security systems are impenetrable.”

“Clearly, that is no longer the case,” he replied with a mirthless smile. “It would appear Demiris has made significant advancements in those genetic augmentation programs of his. Well, we have made some recent advancements of our own, and I believe the time has come to put them to the test.”

Violet simply continued to stare at the smoldering piles of rubble in silence. She knew her father was obviously referring to the new VR link technology, but, if her suspicions were correct, even that would not stand a chance against what had caused this devastation. With the knowledge she had recently gained, she was certain that this was the work of no mere corporate strike team. No, this could have only been accomplished through mystical means, and that meant a response would need to employ assets far in excess of what Covington Industries had at its disposal.

It would appear that it was time for another conversation with Al Scarpe...

Days after the Split Penny had found herself bored, or was it distracted? It was hard to tell the difference at times for the once again human. These events had become increasingly common, and more often than not the girl found herself either working on a new task or going off in search of Chloe. The most recent bout had her searching through her phone's contact list for someone to hang out with. And on it, she found a contact listed that she couldn’t recall adding.

She supposed that her other half had snagged it back when she had fought with the person on the contact, after all, keeping track of someone by their phone signature wasn’t a bad idea, she just didn’t know why it hadn’t been pushed along when it happened.

Not that Penny spent much time worrying about that, instead she simply sent off a text to the number.

You still up to showing me where I can get a good cup of coffee?

There was no doubt in her mind that she did not give this girl her number, so it evoked confusion from Sil when she saw Penny had texted her. It might be prudent to return to throwaway phones like she used in her human life. Breaches like that were a way to get yourself compromised or killed, after all. But with the subject at hand, she did not feel threatened as of right now. Her response came after only a brief delay.

I suppose. There’s a cafe I know of that has good food and even better coffee, I’ll meet up with you since it is tucked away.

Nice! Also glad to see that his number wasn’t just a hoax. Do you have any ideas how I got your number? I’ve got one, but it’s not making the most sense.

Anyway, I’m not far from the theater on 4th and Starstruck. That a good place to meet up?

“Yes.”

Upon hearing her voice, Penny would find that Samantha was standing behind her, putting away her cell phone. “Merely a coincidence,” she spoke before Penny could get the chance to ask, assuming she would. “As I mentioned, it’s tucked away. There’s a few restaurants that most people don’t know about, too.” she added. “But out of any establishment I’ve been to here in Penrose, this one takes the cake, or rather, coffee.” she motioned Penny to follow.

“Gwehh!” Penny fumbled to not drop her phone at Sam’s sudden appearance “A bit more warning next time would be appreciated!” Penny would berate as she tried to get her heart down from her throat.

Shaking her head she would follow after the taciturn girl. “Were you on the way to get a cup already or was this just a massive stroke of luck?” Penny would ask once they were on the way her anger already spent.

Silhouette either didn’t notice or care about her reaction, answering her question while continuing forward. “I was considering it,” she told Penny. “I normally go a lot earlier since mornings are… difficult for me, but I was caught up in something. So I guess I kinda wandered into the area while I thought.” she shrugged. “Suppose your text made the choice for me, though.” Sil would lead Penny down some roads, turning off at one point from the main road, and then down a series of smaller, side roads. It really wasn’t someplace you’d stumble upon unless you were really curious. It made one wonder why anyone would set up shop there. “So,” she said after a bout of silence. “You don’t seem the same since I last saw you,”

Penny just nodded along with that explanation, her gaze wandering aimlessly upon their surroundings as they walked. “So more or less luck” she would hum to herself. It wasn’t very often that her luck came into play, but that made the events that did deal with it all the more interesting.

“Last time you saw me I was wearing an illusion that made me look like I was in a swimsuit” She would point out with a smirk “But yeah. Got Split from myself a few days ago. It’s been weird. My other half is with Beacon at the moment.” She would explain as they got deeper into the nooks and crannies of the city.

“Split from yourself?” she repeated. She walked a few more steps before replying. “As odd as it sounds, I believe I can relate,” she sighed, opening her mouth to speak again, but nothing came out. It seemed this was a difficult subject, in a way.

“Can I ask what it was that you were up to earlier?”

With her back to Penny, it was impossible for the girl to see the momentary flash of scarlet paint Silhouette’s features. The morning’s events came back to her in a wave of confusion, embarrassment, and… some form of positive emotion she wasn’t entirely sure of. She stopped for a moment and raised a hand to the bite mark on her neck. “Being rudely awoken by an idiot with an even dumber question, and making plans for that party coming up,” Hidden from Penny also would be the smile she unknowingly had when she talked about it.

As they reached the final stretch before the cafe, Silhouette spoke again. “Do you intend to go?” she asked. “Almost seems like everyone’s going… though that might not be a good thing…” she trailed off. Expecting the worst of a situation probably wasn’t the ‘cutest’ thing to come of a person. Did Trixy mind that sort of mindset, she wondered briefly, before spotting the final road to turn into. “Ah, it’s right he---” A sudden crash into her back nearly sent Sil tumbling to the floor. Did she just get hit by a truck? Thankfully she was not in her human guise at the moment as she was too embarrassed to walk around in her new getup, but enjoyed it too much to take it off. Some weird looks by normal people were nothing to her. But wait, trucks couldn’t even fit in here, could they? This was a narrow path!

Sil turned around, spotting some big-breasted buffoon before she could even turn to face Sil. It was clear what had happened. “You’re supposed to keep your eyes ahead when you walk,” she growled. Perhaps that was a bit harsh, but perhaps that girl could’ve ran into her AFTER she had her coffee, when she was in a slightly better mood. “But it’s whatever,” she sighed. It wasn’t worth blowing up on some random girl, especially since she seemed like a clutz. She did have a sorta familiar vibe to her, but it wasn’t important enough to bother with. She continued to walk. “As I was saying, it’s just over here. But sorry, I didn’t let you answer. Go ahead?”

Even if she couldn’t see Silhouette’s face Penny could tell there was more to the story then she was letting on. After all, the momentary pause and the neck rub were hardly normal reactions, especially with someone that understood Penny’s prior emotional state.

Anything she would have said was lost by the momentary collision, and even as they stepped around the other two Penny couldn’t help but feel she had seen them before. Shrugging off that line of thought she refocused on the question that had been given to her.

“Sadly no. I’ve got plans set for that night already” Penny would reply with a shrug “Was moderately curious about it, however, so if there is still time after I’m done with my stuff I’ll try and swing by.” Penny would answer. “My other half might make an appearance, depending on if Beacon learns about the location I suppose.” They might also stay away. After all, Eden had been rather explicit in her warning to keep Beacon members away from the Party.

“I guess you’re going there though? You get invited or is Veronica sending you?” Penny would go on to ask moving to be more in line with her more stoic friend.

Sil thought about the question briefly before answering. “We’re here,” she said, as a neat little corner cafe came into view. Its design was rather simple, yet still eloquent. Though small, it had an outside patio, and a set of speakers played a calming tune that, just like the name of the establishment, was completely stolen from Persona 5. Don’t worry about it.

Inside Cafe Leblanc, few customers sat. Almost assuredly because of it’s removed location, the place never really was ‘poppin’, but a majority of the people that did come were regulars, many of whom Samantha recognized from prior visits. As she led Penny into the place, she nodded to the girl currently on shift and with a kind voice, the girl told them to take a seat wherever they liked and that she’d be with them shortly. So, Samantha took a booth that placed them next to a window, motioning for Penny to sit across. Sam found her hand briefly grazing the window before she noticed that rude cow from earlier entering the terrible-smelling steakhouse for potheads. It explained how ditzy she seemed, at least. Turning to Penny, she suddenly remembered she didn’t answer the girl’s prior question. “Oh, I’m sorry. You asked about my reason for going? Someone asked me to accompany them for the night.” she explained.

“So you’re going on a date?” Penny would ask with a sly smirk. It wasn’t a bad idea now that she thought about it, sadly she would have to figure something else out for her next date with Chloe. Shouldn’t be too difficult to find something though.

“T-that’s correct,” she nodded after some time. Such a… convivial relationship was not among her experiences, and she was not confident in her ability to provide for another. She could do tasks asked of her, like with Veronica, but emotional matters were her weakest point. And telling people more intimate things about yourself was a lot harder, she thought, than simply signing a contract that revealed them. Would she be capable of that with Trixy? Well, she was going to try.

As she thought this, a minute passed and the girl that greeted them came to the booth they sat at. “So what’ll you take today?” she asked with a kind smile, as she waited patiently with a pen and notepad to take their orders.

Samantha hesitated not. “A cup of your dark roast is fine for me,” she ordered. “And whatever she wants.” she added. The waitress then turned to Penny and waited.

Penny was a bit taken aback by the honest reply to her question. She had been trying to tease the other girl after all, not find out that she was correct. “Huh” She wasn’t quite sure how to react to that and was left stunned, thankfully Sil seemed to be in the same situation.

“I’ll take the house blend?” Penny would try to say, not meaning for it to turn into a question as it did at the end but hopefully that would be fine.

The server would just smile as she took Penny’s order before walking away to fill said orders, leaving the two alone once again.

“So… Who is it that you’ve got a date with?” Penny would ask once it was they were alone. “And did they ask you or did you ask them?”

“Someone with processing power rivaling even the best supercomputer when it comes to posting about pointless stuff,” she sighed. “She lacks a filter, has a big mouth, and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer, so I’m sure you’ll figure it out once you meet her, assuming you haven’t already.” Sil then turned the question on Penny. “What’s your situation? I believe I saw you with Chloe a while back.”

“Sounds… like an odd match” Penny would say after a moment of digesting that description. “Sounds like you got pestered into the date, but then you don’t seem like someone who’s easy to push around so I guess there is something there.” She would before breaking out in a soft smile at the mention of her girlfriend “Yeah, I’ve known Chloe for a few months now. She was the first person I met in Penrose in fact. She’s been a good friend to me. She gave me a key to her apartment a long time ago, but I moved in shortly before the whole beach thing happened.”

“That was a good vacation” She would add on with a large grin as she remembered the end of said vacation.

The waitress arrived with their orders, a grin on her face. “There you go,” she said, placing each one’s mug before them. “If you need anything else, let me know!” and so saying, she retreated back to the counter.

Sam didn’t touch her mug immediately, opting to wait for it to cool down. She seemed to recall something painful when Penny brought up the vacation, her mood taking a slight, but noticeable, drop. “It’s good to see others enjoyed it,” she said, the sentiment clearly not shared between the two of them. “But I do hope that the dolphin minds his own business in the future and lets people come to him. Look at how the city looks right now because of that. Not to mention the plans people might’ve had that were canceled because of it…” she seemed to dwell on that statement a moment. “Anyway,” Samantha finally took her first sip of the mug, and her features began to relax. She then turned her eyes upward to Penny. “...Have you kissed?”

“Oh trust me if I find that dolphin I’m tearing him into shreds” Penny would agree, her smile never lessening but definitely becoming sharper. He had caused a grand mess, after all, even if he had helped her get with Chloe, that wasn’t enough to offset the devastation he had brought to Penrose.

Still, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at Sam’s question “I take it you didn’t pay much attention to the stage shows” She would remark dryly before taking a drink from her own mug, humming in appreciation “But yes we have, mind if I ask why?”

Sam shook her head. “I was busy trying to avoid it, at that time, so no,” she answered, recalling Shade’s persistent attempts to get her on stage. They ultimately failed, much to a few people’s chagrin, but that sort of stuff just wasn’t going to happen ever!...right? “Oh, uh,” she hesitated. “...well, I heard that sort of thing is supposed to be like a contract or something and you can’t do it repeatedly? I suppose in truth it’s just curiosity.” feeling a bit embarrassed, she took another drink from the mug.

Penny couldn’t help the baffled look that crossed her face at her friend’s beliefs about kisses. “That… You really didn’t have a normal life before all of this did you?” She would ask shaking her head “A kiss isn’t like that, it… it’s a show of affection. So long as both you and whoever it is you want to kiss agree, you can kiss each other as many times as you feel like, hell when I was a teen I spent hours just making out with my girlfriend at the time.” Penny would shake her head again as she took a drink of her own coffee.

“Is that how it works? I see. Maybe they meant with other people...” Samantha sat and ruminated on the new information she was provided, staring at her mug. A lot of this affection stuff seemed so pointlessly complicated. But she owed it to a certain someone to attempt to learn about it, at least. “Thank you.” she nodded to Penny.

“Depends on the relationship.” Penny would chime in with a shrug. “Some people are open with Poly relationships some aren’t. At the end of the day, it all depends on the people involved in the relationship. No two of them are going to work the same way, even if they have surface similarities.”

Penny would go to take another sip from her coffee before making a face “Geez I’m starting to sound like Aurelio”

“Should’ve looked at the fine writing before I agreed, I’m beginning to think.” Silhouette finished her coffee. She stared into the bottom of her mug without betraying any real emotion, but odds are she was thinking about her new affliction, and how to best deal with it. But then, as she realized she’d been stressing over it all day, she yet again sighed before calling the waitress over. “I think one more cup wouldn’t hurt anyone.” she declared and ordered both her and Penny one more.

And so, the cafe, conversation, and coffee remained the focus of the two’s afternoon for a little while longer.



“Geez why is everywhere closed at the moment?” Viva would grumble to herself as she scrolled through her phone leaning against her bike. On her phone’s screen, there was a list of restaurants in Penrose, both mundane and magical. Sadly most of them were either closed down permanently or simply closed up early. Which made finding something to eat very difficult.

“I just want to find a bloody place to eat! Is that so much to ask?” She would half yell as her stomach rumbled again. She was hungry, in more than one sense, but she didn’t want to dig into her stash of food just yet, she was saving some of the things in it for the celebration when she finally became one of Lamashtu’s children. But if her luck didn’t change soon she was going to be forced to dig in early.

“I just want some food” she would sulk as she scratched off another place on the list as closed.

“Oh~! That’s so terrible~!”

The girl would hear a dramatic voice coming from behind her, the source being a rather busty, silver-haired girl. Without warning, she would take Viva’s hand into her own, and stare deep within her eyes. “To be deprived of nourishment is the most horrible of woes~! But Hilaria won’t allow you to be Famished~!” she stated with a determined look. “Would you follow? Hilaria will ease your suffering~!”

“You know where to get food?” Viva would ask, hardly registering that this strange bombshell had come out of freaking nowhere. All that really made it through to the corrupted nurse was the fact that this person knew where to get food and that she was easy on the eyes. But mainly the food.

“Yes! I’ll follow you to where I can get food, lead the way!” She would say excitedly as she stood up from her bike, banishing the thing with a vague hand wave.

There was not a single person who enjoyed food as much as Hilaria, this much was as sure as the sky was blue and the sun was hot. In her many years, not a single person had matched her appetite. Dark Magical Girls who were compelled to eat anything and everything would pale in comparison, and so long as it was indeed 'food', she'd beat anyone who ever tried to take her throne.

So naturally, she was knowledgeable when it came to food and its procurement. Hilaria would begin to lead the girl down the street, across the road, past a pathway leading into a small turn-in where some smaller shops and a cafe resided, and on onwards. After this, it wasn't too far away. "Mmm~" the magical girl looked back. "The best places to find food are never the obvious ones~! Those just make you pay for bells and whistles, while the real deal is mediocre at best, so you’ll convince yourself it’s very fine food because otherwise you just kicked yourself in the bank and won’t forgive yourself. Food critics are nothing but imposters! They pretend to appreciate food, but all they care about is prestige!” she warned as though Viva's very life depended on this message being received. "Mm, but what do you prefer~? There's a couple of places Hilaria knows~"

“Steak or a burger.” Viva would reply when prompted “Or any meat dish really” Regardless of that Viva seemed to be very intently listening to the message that Hilaria had been trying to tell her. She was trying not to drool as well, for as much as she was compelled to eat by her corruption, she was something of a foodie as well.

“You’re in luck~! There is a steakhouse, I believe it’s called, um… ‘High Steaks’, just past the cafe I mentioned~” Hilaria had a skip to her step and started walking backward without losing speed. “Hilaria has been treated recently, so she’ll cover for you~” she explained. “But what has caused you to land in such a dreadful, unforgiving situation, Hilaria wonders~?”

Hilaria apparently knew the way by heart at this point, effortlessly walking backward and making the turns required to reach their destination tucked away, but no matter how familiar one might be with the roads, if you weren’t paying attention, you’d walk right into someone. And, as she turned the final corner that would lead them into the pocket of unappreciated cuisines, she did just that.

“Oh~!” She had nearly bulldozed the person she bumped into. “Hilaria’s very sorry~!”

The person, a moody-looking girl, seemed displeased. “You’re supposed to keep your eyes ahead when you walk,” she growled. “But it’s whatever.” Said girl turned towards the person they were walking with and said, “As I was saying, It’s just over here...” having lost any interest in Hilaria or Viva.

“Mmm~ Hilaria gets a bit too excited when it comes to food~!” she laughed.

“I’m a solo act at the moment” Viva would explain to her current savior’s query “That doesn’t pay very well unfortunately and a girls gotta eat. My appetite tends to be larger than most others as well so I find myself often hungry” Her hunger tended to not be very specific most of the time, just her being hungry, but her darker cravings always tended towards cannibalism.

Thankfully Viva was rather light on her feet and didn’t continue the chain of bumping into people when Hilaria ran into the stranger. Not that Viva would have complained about bumping into Hilaria, but food first.

“Hey I hear you, nothing beats a good meal.” She would pick up the conversation and hardly give the two they ran into a second look, though one of them seemed vaguely familiar. “I’m working on getting a Patron. So I’ll definitely pay you back for this when I can” Viva would promise, after all, one never forgets a debt of food.

“Oh, to see another who understands cuisine chivalry brings a tear to Hilaria’s eye~” The busty girl stopped in front of a restaurant. The building wasn’t anything special and looked as generic as a steakhouse could get, aside from the sign. ‘High Steaks’ it read a wavy font resembling heat distortion on top of a leaf. But this was not just any leaf. It was the kind that gave ‘High Steaks’ a new meaning. “Here we are~! As far as steaks go, there’s only one other place that gives here a run for its money, but it’s on the other side of Penrose, so you’ll have to take Hilaria’s word for it.”

Viva looked up at the sign with an intrigued expression. She wondered if the leaf in question was only used as a spice or for more recreational purposes while eating. Either way, she was interested and quickly pinned the address in her phone. Before she took hold of Hilaria’s hand and dragged her inside “Why are we waiting around? let’s go!” she would say her stomach rumbling loudly in agreeance with that plan.

Inside the steakhouse, the two were blessed by the wonderful scent of freshly-cooked meat, but this was shortly-lived as another smell soon overpowered it. The place had a fair amount of customers despite the fact it was nearly hidden away, and the restaurant was filled with the sound of chatter between people as they dined. A man wearing a black shirt with the place’s logo stood at a small podium at the entrance to the place greeted them with a somewhat droopy (but probably well-meaning) smile that widened as he apparently recognized Hilaria. “Oh hey guy!” he laughed, then looked at Viva. “And other guy. Weh-heh-helcome to High Steaks!” he looked over the small divider behind him and grabbed the attention of a busboy who’d just finished his job at a booth. The younger man, who looked even less stressed than the one standing before the two girls, gave him a thumbs up and nodded, before moving to attend to another area. “Seems like you guys are good to go with a booth if that’s cool with ya.” he told them as he turned back.

“Ye~” Hilaria nodded, drawing out the ‘word’ even longer than normal as if she were under the influence of some strange plant. The man led them to the booth that was just cleaned and then told them to wait for an ‘Ed’, who was presumed to be their waiter. Hilaria sat down and waited for Viva to do the same before speaking, doing so in the same way she had just done. “It’s all good steak here, gal~”

“Smells like it” Viva would agree once they had been seated looking about the place as she did. “Is there a reason you’re talking like you’re already stoned out of your mind?” She would ask as she picked up the Menu to take a look at what her options were.

She wasn’t offended by the fact that this place was a druggy den. If anything, it actually upped the appeal because if there was a motto that Viva lived by it would be ‘Hell I’ll try anything twice’

Hilaria nodded. “Cus’, it’s like, how everyone else speaks in here, gal~” she replied with a grin, taking a glance at her own menu. It was more of an idle action while she waited for someone to come over and take their order, as she was very familiar with what they had. “They also have, like, a totally good dessert menu, too~” she informed, eying a guy starting towards their table. He’d be there shortly. “Order what you want~ Nobody should leave a restaurant when they’re, like, unsatisfied, gal~”

“You keep spoiling me and I’m going to end up following you home to show my appreciation~” Viva would reply with a grin of her own because seriously a woman like Hilaria was looking more and more like a dream come true to someone like Viva. fun, friendly, curvacious and willing to make sure that she had enough food to become satisfied? It wouldn’t be hard to fall in love with such a woman.

Sadly she wasn’t sure if Hilaria was on the menu. As for the food menu, it didn’t take Viva long to make her choice of food. A nice rare porterhouse steak a big as they would allow, if she could get a drink of some sort along with it as well that would be all the better but she wasn’t sure if they would be checking ID’s or not, but with the smell in the air she doubted it.

Taking another sniff of the air, she’d opt towards getting a nive hit of some of that as well, whatever it was they were offering up really, she wasn’t picky about that at the moment.

A man wearing a nametag that clearly said, “Rohnathan” approached their table. “Hey there, guys. Do you, like, want a bit of drinkage first, or nah? If ya look in the back of our Munchie Menu, we got some good deals on herbal medicines, too.” Rohnathan gave what was probably supposed to be a wink, but looked more like a mini-stroke.

“...ye…~?”

Even Hilaria was concerned about this man, but she only let it show momentarily. She ordered their special filet mignon, enough sides to feed a family, and drinks to go with it. There was also something she grabbed named the “Purple K”, which, if Viva decided to look at the menu, would notice it was on the back of the menu, along with other oddly-named ‘herbal medicines’. Rohnathan gave Hilaria a thumbs up, presumably as a way to communicate he got her order, before turning to Viva and taking hers. Once they were done, he went to retrieve them.

“Mmm~ You said you were alone right now, gal? Hilaria was in the same way until, like, just recently~ If you like good eats, you could join with Hilaria’s patron~”

Viva for her part showed no concern for the waiter, but she did add to her order some of the ‘herbal medicines’. “I’d have to ask who it is that you’ve gotten to pick you up” She would ask with a smile, not that it was likely that she was going to agree with Hilaria, after all, she liked Lamashtu, and truly wanted to join in her ‘family’, but know her options was never a bad idea.

“But you being with them is a plus already~” She would add flirtatiously, after all, she did need to find out if Hilaria was on the menu for later.

Hilaria sat back in the booth. “Dan,” she said. “Dan the dolphin~ He’s, like, a really cool dude who lives in a resort in a beach dimension and has a lot of good stuff to eat~” she raised a finger to her lips. “Hilaria assumes you’ve probably at least heard of him, what with all the commotion he’s responsible for, though~” She figured if anything that might be the dealbreaker, but there wouldn’t be anything she could do about that. If Viva declined, then she declined. “Oh~” Hilaria smiled as she was complimented. Clearly this girl liked having an eating buddy, and Hilaria could never have enough. It was the closest thing to a friend she felt she could have, after all. “Mmm, like, Hilaria eats and sunbathes at Dan’s place, all the time~” she added. “Hilaria’d love to see you there if you join~”

The ancient pondered something for a moment. “Mmm, but why is…?” something caused her to pause. “...Hilaria doesn’t believe we’ve, like, introduced each other, have we~?” she gave a small laugh. “Hilaria’s name is Hilaria, and you are~?”

“No we haven't but we both had something more important on our mind.” Viva would say with a laugh of her own “Vivian, or Viva is my name and it is a pleasure to have met you Hilaria” She would say with a large smile. Before leaning back into her seat.

“Hmm, free food, a warm beach and you being there for it all? Tempting offer” She would muse aloud, and it was, but she didn’t really know this ‘Dan’ She had heard a bit about him from the grumbling from people back at the shelter. Most people seemed annoyed with him, but she hadn't been affected by him so she didn’t really care.

“For the moment I’ll have to decline, not very polite to just drop a Patron who I’m working for without finishing the job after all” Viva would add with a shrug “I wouldn’t mind dropping by to visit this beach with you at some time, however.”

After Viva finished speaking, Edward (Rohnathan) returned to their tables, along with their steaks and ‘herbal medicines’. The scent alone was enough to perk her up, and if they tasted even half as good as they smelled, Hilaria would leave more than satisfied. “Hilaria thinks Dan would love the company.” she said, but that was all she could manage before she turned all her attention to the steak.

Hilaria, tired of addressing things as ‘herbal medicine’ or ‘Purple K’, Hilaria set the weed to the side. Purple Kush would have to wait. The steak was the priority here, so she took her knife and set to cutting a piece off and devouring it. “Mmm~!!!” it was just as great as she remembered. Most people find murder to be a horrible thing, but if people tasted as good, well, Hilaria might actually become the biggest threat to humanity. Thankfully, nobody was reading her mind right now. However, in a rare bout of self-control, she managed to pull away long enough to spy on how Viva was enjoying her food.

Similar to Hilaria, Viva had set aside the drugs in favor of the main reason she was here, the food. A steak as close to mooing as they could get away with selling. For unlike her table companion Viva did find people to taste as good as a well-cooked steak, and her choice was fulfilling her urge quite nicely. She was going to be lost within the bliss of food for a fair bit of time, but that wasn’t exactly a bad thing considering the present company.

As the two finished their steak, Hilaria squealed in delight as she normally did upon eating something fantastic. This was the only happiness afforded to her, after all, and she did not forget this one truth. But, that left only one thing left. What followed the steaks was the reason why this place was tucked away and hidden, and why everyone seemed so happy. But truth be told, something so lightweight as this wouldn’t have much of an effect on Hilaria. At least, normally it wouldn’t.

But even if she kept her heart under lock and key, there was a small but notable truth to the world: Most things were better enjoyed when in the company of another.




And on another day...

Trixy was impressed with the Golden Trove. It was a little run down, but the inside was brimming with style. She could spend all day walking up and down the hallways.

”Sam lives in absolute luxury! I wonder if I can get a room beside hers? Or maybe we can move into a bigger room together!” Trixy’s marble white skin was turning red at the thought.

But she had to focus. Samantha had wanted to see her. Trixy had asked for more information but she wasn’t getting any. It wasn’t long ago that she had stepped into the ring with the Contender, so maybe Samantha had finally seen a youtube video of it. Maybe she prepared a special treat for Trixy. She could use some good food right now. It had been a whole hour since she ate something and one could only have so many apples.

As she approached the door, she opened her phone to look at her wallpaper. The phone company had been able to recover the data from her old phone, so she still had that picture of Samantha in glasses to use as her wallpaper.

She picked up her leg and pushed her foot into the upper corner of the door frame before knocking on the door.

”Honey, I’m home!”

The knob would turn as the door opened, revealing a normal Schatten. It beckoned her to come in with a hand before shutting the door behind her and bowing and then melting back into a normal shadow that snaked along the ground until it reached the bed. Sitting cross-legged at the end of the said bed was obviously Silhouette, who was facing the wall just to the side of where the door was, where there was a dresser with a TV on it. She did not turn her head, only moving her eyes to look at the girl, with an unamused expression. “Come in,” she said. “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t take a husband in a 50’s sitcom tone with me.” Samantha patted a spot on the bed next to her and urged her to sit down.

"It’s also a 1999 song by Shania Twain.” Trixy chuckled at her own joke. There was an odd feeling in the air. The atmosphere wasn’t what it had been the day she got her date. What was more disconcerting was that she couldn’t smell any cake. Trixy strode over to the bed and sat down on it, right beside the intense magical girl. "So, Sam.” Trixy wasn’t oblivious to the situation. She now realized Samantha had called her over because something was bothering her. It felt grave, something that jokes alone wouldn’t be able to fix. "Has something been bothering you? You seem a little on edge.” Trixy kicked her legs into the air.

Samantha quietly gave Trixy a look over that lasted a bit longer than necessary, as if looking for something on her. When she was done, she turned and faced the girl sitting next to her. "That would be because I am," she replied. Her gaze slowly shifted from Trixy and onto the screen of the TV, which was currently turned off. There, as if contemplating something, she stared for a long few seconds. Finally, with a sigh, she turned back to Trixy with a stern expression. "We need to talk about something," she said. "It's about you..." there was a short delay. "...and me."

Trixy’s legs stopped swinging. ”Oh, okay.” She looked away from Silhouette. Her energy was completely different from before. It was hard to believe this was the same girl who was on her phone’s wallpaper. Trixy felt like she was being judged, but had no idea what she had done wrong. This was no time to smile. She dragged her hand over her face before looking back at Silhouette. ”Alright, I’m listening.” She patted Silhouette’s thigh. ”You can talk to me, Sam.”

Her eyes lingered on Trixy momentarily before she returned to face the TV. She raised a hand, which held a remote, and pressed the power button. As the television powered on, Trixy would see that at the center of the screen was a man on fire, a face she would undoubtedly recognize as the man she fought recently. "I was there," she spoke. "I witnessed every moment of it. Each time you two clashed... each movement, each thrown punch or kick, each grapple... I allowed none of it to hide." as she spoke, a highlight reel of the fight was playing, showing the parts people enjoyed the most, usually in slowed speed.

She abruptly stood up, and then, without turning her body, looked at Trixy. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

Trixy remained seated. The moment was strangely bittersweet. ”I didn’t want to hide it from you!” She wore a nervous smile. ”The timing was just wrong. I scheduled myself for the fight weeks ago and asked you out only the day before. I almost forgot about it myself until they phoned me up. I didn’t want to bother you.” She tapped her fingers together. ”I uh, I’m glad you saw it though! I was thinking about you when I stepped into the ring with that guy.”

Samantha's expression quickly transformed. Its appearance was that of someone bewildered. "What?" she tilted her head. Then, as if realizing something, she snapped back to normal. "No, I'm not talking about the fight itself." Turning back to the TV, she raised the remote and pressed a button, the images sliding in reverse until it landed on her first attempt at a grapple. The screen showed Trixy taking a hook in response to her first grab attempt, and then the failed sweep. She then paused, the TV showing a frame right before Trixy took a punch from The Contender.

Samantha yet again turned to Trixy. "Pay attention to this!" she ordered. "What was that?" she demanded an answer from the girl but didn't give her time to give one. "Is rushing in blindly all you can do? That rash action could have cost you dearly had he been just a bit quicker." Sam seemed more frustrated than angry, though. "Where'd you learn to fight?"

Trixy had watched a lot of fights. Sparring matches, live magical girl fights, and everything in between. Lots and lots of fights. But she hadn’t done much live sparing herself and had only been a magical girl for a few months now. Most of which she spent without Veronica or anyone who could offer her proper training. But even Trixy realized this sounded like an excuse, and likely wouldn’t appease Silhouette.

”About that.” Trixy chuckled nervously. "Veronica implanted a bunch of techniques in my head with her magic. I haven’t really had a lot of time to practice them.” She shrugged.

Samantha’s eyes narrowed. “She what?” Her tone made a drastic shift as she went from irate to livid. “You’re telling the truth? What you’re saying is the truth?” Sam was worked up harder than she’d been in some time. Maybe ever. “Hold on,” she said, holding up a finger to shush Trixy as she looked off to the side. “Veronica,” she mentally spoke to the vampire over the link. “What’s this I’m hearing about Trixy being implanted with fighting techniques? Is this true?”

”You didn’t know? I forget sometimes that you weren’t part of Cradle from the beginning. But if she told you that, she isn’t lying.” Veronica confirmed. "Most of the early Cradle members were just as much experiments as they were agents. I copied some techniques from one agent and bestowed it onto Trixy. I can’t say the results were favorable, but I do believe they helped her out some. Why, Is there a problem?”

Trixy could hear the telepathic communication. She didn’t know if Silhouette had made a mistake, or if Veronica chose to let her hear, but it was making her uncomfortable. She refrained from joining in knowing that it would likely make things worse.

"Yes, there most certainly is!" Samantha didn't even register Trixy's presence at this exact moment. "They know of the techniques, but they don't seem to have been taught them! It's not enough!" Noticing her breathing had gotten a bit erratic, Sam took a moment to calm herself. After a few deep breaths, she continued. "It's irresponsible to leave them like this. Who did you ‘teach’? I need names.” she asked.

”Trixy was the only one I’ve done this to.” Veronica groaned. ”She had some experience fighting before turning into a magical girl, I simply gave her tools to do more than flail at her opponents. Not unlike when I gave you a black coin. She is a strategist that does very well with a rifle at range. What I gave her was something to protect her if that fails.” Now Veronica sounded like she was getting irritated. “Is this what I have to look forward to when I leave Penrose? Can you not function without me? As I’ve told you previously, she has to answer to you. Her managing Cradle operations does not change that. If you find her performance unsatisfactory, it is up to you to flush out any weakness she may have. Don’t waste my time with this drivel.”

Trixy Had started to crawl across the floor while Silhouette was distracted. The atmosphere was getting tense, and it was starting to upset her stomach.

"What you 'gave' her was knowledge she can't make effective use of, and potentially confidence she shouldn't have," Sil snapped. "And this 'drivel' had the potential to get your substitute killed. It's a 'weakness' you introduced by a misguided attempt to bandage a shortcoming of hers."

Samantha sighed. "Whatever. As long as she's the only one, then it doesn't matter. I'll fix it.”

“You’d do well to.”

Samantha didn't say anything more to Veronica.

Unfortunately for Trixy, a shadow snaked along the floor at an incredible pace and grew into a Schatten that blocked the door. "Where do you think you're going?" Samantha's head made a slow, yet disturbing turn towards the girl, her eyes open wide.

”Uhh.” Trixy turned to look at Silhouette. ”I thought I saw a cockroach, so I was gunna try and eat it.” She stood up and dusted herself off. ”B-But anyway, the crowd loved me out there, and I survived!” She grinned. ”I’m not sure why you’re so upset.” She laughed. It sounded forced. It was forced. ”I mean okay, a sniper going up against a boxer with her fists and her mouth probably isn’t the greatest idea, I knew that, but he’s been getting his butt kicked every year for the past 2 decades! I wouldn’t have gotten in the ring with him unless I knew I could win.” She put a hand on the back of her head. ”Where’s Shade by the way? I think she might have something to say about this.”

Sil glared at Trixy, but it slowly relaxed into her neutral expression. "I wasn't actually upset until I learned about Veronica's choice to do that to you," she sighed. Samantha suddenly appeared behind Trixy, and then placed one hand on her shoulder. She didn't allow the girl to turn around and instead forced her to twist to one side and then the other as she inspected the girl. When she was done, Sil suddenly reappeared in front of Trixy. "You seem to be fine, considering the fight," she said. "You did do extraordinarily well," Samantha didn't seem to acknowledge the request for Shade, instead looking Trixy in the eye. "Might not sound like it, but I'm impressed.”

Trixy’s heart skipped a beat. ”R-really?” She let out a sigh. Her stomach settled. Maybe it was just because she was so nervous before, but she felt like she was on cloud 9 again. ”Thanks. You seemed a little intense when I first came in here, heh, glad it was nothing.” She approached Samantha and placed her hands on her shoulders. ”So uh, since I’m here, did you wanna do something?” She lifted one of her legs up and rested her heel on Samantha’s shoulder. ”We could work on my Judo a bit, among other things.”

Samantha eyed her leg, offering the smallest of smiles. "Sure," she agreed. "I invited you here because I wanted to work on you, after all."

A duplicate split off of her and stepped behind Samantha. “Dusty”copied Trixy and also placed a heel on Samantha’s shoulder. ”What did you have in mind?” Dusty placed her hands on Samantha’s forearms and leaned forward. ”There’s probably an abandoned gym we can tussle in.”

Trixy also leaned in. ”Or did you want to continue going over the video?”

Silhouette looked at the twins and then nodded. “We can find a place to ‘tussle’ in, I think the best way to get comfortable with this sort of thing is to practice.” she grabbed Dusty’s leg with her index finger and thumb and slowly moved it off of her. “I’m proficient in Jiu-Jitsu, Krav Maga, and Tae Kwon Do, but I am not very familiar with Judo.” she smiled. “So we can both learn whatever Veronica put in your head.”

Dusty shrugged but gleefully smiled before merging with Trixy. Her eyes rolled into her head, and she stumbled backward, her foot sliding off of Samantha’s shoulder. ”Uguu!” Merging with her duplicates was always a disorientating experience. Not for any reason other than having their experiences and memories transferred over to her was always dizzying. But the disorientation was never long-lasting. With a shake of her head, everything was normal. ”That’s a lot! I’m not sure I’ll have a lot to show you. I’m told the basics of most styles are pretty interchangeable. But I don’t mind being shown a few things.” Trixy slid her arm under hers and pointed towards the door. ”Let’s be off!”

…
…
…
…

Samantha stood a back entrance to a Karate Dojo that had been vacant since the evacuation. She investigated the room to find nothing out of the norm. There were some mats to train on, gis laying in the corner, as well as some weapons, such as bos, sai, katana, nunchaku, and bokken. The bladed weapons were mounted on the wall, suggesting they did not see actual use.

Where better to train?

Sam had brought a few water bottles and a towel for herself. She was in her magical girl form, but once it seemed as though there was nobody there to interrupt them, she changed forms. At the moment, she was wearing a black gi. She turned to Trixy. "Alright," she began stretching her limbs. "What do you feel most comfortable doing?"

Trixy banished her hammer space wardrobe. She was wearing a Hapkido. While similar to gi, the outfit was much heavier to handle rolling on the floor and resist tearing when students threw each other around. It was a common uniform for students of Judo and Jiu-jitsu. It was mostly white, with the Cradle’s crest embroidered on the back, shoulders, and the left side of her chest.

She took a moment to stretch herself as well. ”Well, I know Judo!” she folded her leg around her back and over her shoulder. Almost all of Trixy’s limbs were double-jointed. She could probably pack herself in a suitcase if she really wanted to. ”Everything else is self taught. So I guess I feel best grappling.” She rolled her neck around. It cracked a few times before she shook out her shoulders. ”Though I’ve got lightning fast strikes too. They just don’t hit with the same power as other girls.” She curled her arms around themselves like a corkscrew. ”Unless you’re talking about a specific technique, in which case I’m going to say any of the basic throws.” Once she was done, she passed a quick glance over Samantha. It was a real shame they didn’t get uniforms for everyone, they would look a lot cuter in a gi.

“Then we’ll work on your striking,” Samantha stated, taking her stance, facing straight at Trixy with raised hands, yet open palms, slightly-bent knees, and a tucked chin. “The absolute most basic thing about any martial art would be learning its stance,” she explained. “It is from a stance that you can unleash each and every attack with full effectiveness, ignoring outside factors. Though I imagine you already know the stances associated with Judo, I’d like you to mimic me.”

There were only so many ethical ways to position the body for a fight. The stance Samantha used looked common, with the feet spread apart just enough to give some stability while giving the fighter access to a multitude of different strikes. The most unique thing about it was the open hands, and that her feet were spread apart a bit further than they would be in Judo. It didn’t take Trixy more than a moment to mimic Samantha. ”All right. So is this Krav Maga, or Tae Kwon Do we’re doing right now?”

“We’ll start with your hands first. This would be Krav Maga’s fighting stance,” she confirmed. “You want to take a wide stance like this because unlike, say, Boxing, you need to be ready to throw and defend against any sort of strike. With this stance, we can more easily string together punches and kicks from each side, while intercepting our opponent’s own attacks,” Samantha threw out three quick jabs into the air with her left hand. “Fast strikes are good for keeping an opponent at distance, for testing their reaction speed, and changing things up,” she said. “But ultimately, they’re best used as a supplement, not your main form of offense,” she threw out a hook with her right hand. “You’ll want something with a bit more ‘oomph’, like a straight or a hook, if you’re looking for damage.” Samantha looked at Trixy. “Throw a few my way. If you can throw those decently enough, we can practice my preferred strike.”

The basics that Samantha was covering weren’t new to Trixy. Even if most of her training pertained to Judo, it was important to know about different types of strikes. When in stance, one side of your body was always closer to the opponent. This was the leading side, which could deliver faster strikes. The side that was further back was slower but gave a combatant’s limbs more room to extend and build up power. This is why leading hand jabs were faster but never as strong as hooks and straights coming from the other side.

”Sure thing!”

Trixy hopped closer to Samantha and threw a jab at her chest. Like her instructor stated, this was just to test her reaction speed. The rest of the combination would come out afterward.

Samantha made minimal movement, her left hand catching the jab as it neared and directing it away from her in a single motion. As the straight came, she took a more proactive approach to deflect it, and then weaved out of the way of Trixy's first hook. As the final hook came, Samantha's arm reached out to meet it, stopping it in its tracks and in that instant, Samantha's free hand snapped out into a straight to her gut, followed by a heavy strike to Trixy's jaw with the palm of her hand, strong enough to force her to stumble back.

Samantha took a step back. "You did well.”

Trixy’s jaw had been dislocated by the blow. Perhaps there was a downside to being so flexible. She grabbed her head with both hands and straightened herself out. ”Just remember, you might end up kissing this face down the road.” She said with a humph. ”Alright, let’s try this again!” She lunged forward again, this time leading with a straight. She wouldn’t be afraid to use her elbows this time. Dirty tactics, but it seemed like her instructor threw out the rule book anyway.

Like earlier, Samantha parried the straight out of the way and weaved through the hook that followed. Only this time, Trixy threw out something Sam wasn’t expecting her to. She was in no position to move out of the way of the vertical elbow her ‘pupil’ had thrown, so she suffered a blow that snapped her head up, and she stumbled a step back.

As her head came back down, she rubbed her chin. “...doesn’t seem like you need instruction on elbows,” she smiled. “But that’s good. Being unpredictable will let you get through anyone’s defense,” she took up a stance again, only this time her hands were closed and her right foot was further back. “Allow me to demonstrate, and I’ll teach you some kicks, as well…”

…
…
…
…

It had been a few hours since they started, and by now Samantha had gotten a feel for what Trixy was capable of, and what she needed to work on. Since she was not wholly incompetent and could throw standard punches, Sam gave her a few advanced strikes to work on, such as a hammer fist to supplement her moveset in a grapple, a spinning crescent kick to keep opponents on their toes (and totally not because it looked cool or anything), and a spinning back fist. Unfortunately, Samantha’s idea of introducing these techniques involved implementing them into their sparring without prior notice. Trixy suffered because of this, and by now, she was certainly ‘feeling the burn’, and in multiple places too.

Sam took a drink from her water bottle, looking mostly unfazed. “How are you feeling?” Samantha asked as if it weren’t already apparent.

Normally Trixy had no difficulty keeping her cheerful smile up. Even when receiving a beating from an opponent. But that was not the case today. Samantha and her were on the same side. They were going to go on a date in a few days. She had listened to Samantha tell Veronica that she could get hurt without proper training. If that was the case, this was not proper training. Trixy was in too much pain to be angry though. She just felt tired and a little sad.

”I look the way I feel, Samantha.”

She was hunched over, one hand on her probably dislocated shoulder. There were a few bruises on her face, but most of the damage was under her outfit. She felt tender all over. ”By the way, I’m not an instructor, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.” She dragged herself over to a bench. ”But if you cripple half of my body? I can’t train with it.”

“Toughen up,” Sam said. “It’s just that I’m trying to teach you techniques you can use in an actual fight. And I want you to be able to use them with the intent to permanently put down your opponent if need be.” She explained.

Trixy bit her lower lip. ”Permanently, huh?” She thought to herself. But she didn’t have the energy to argue with Samantha right now.

Silhouette looked down. “If a few bruises is what it takes to make sure you can defend yourself from people trying to kill you, then that’s how I feel I should teach. I.. don’t want you to die.”

Trixy’s teeth chattered. ”I heard you over coms. I know what you’re trying to do.” She hauled herself over to a bench and sat on it. Practically dropping her butt onto it. ”What happened with the Contender won’t happen again. Not unless I get a lot better. If he was more than a boxer, I wouldn’t be here right now.” She placed her hands together, they were trembling. ”I’m going to transform, that’s okay right?”

"You heard...?" Samantha looked up to Trixy. Well, she was arguing with Veronica in the same room so it's not like it mattered. She grabbed her drink and placed the bottle of water to her lips and took a nice swig. Now that she thought about it, had she ever fought with Veronica like that? That sort of argument wasn't common, at least.

Having caught Trixy's request, Samantha nodded. "I don't see why not. I think we've done enough today.”

Trixy closed her eyes and uttered her incantation. As she sounded out each part, her body started to glow. One by one, her outfit assembled itself over her form.

”P-E-N-R-O-S-E…

M-I-D-D-L-E…

S-C-H-O-O-L…

Let's roll…"

Her chant was lower energy than what she typically used. Pain had that effect on her. Once her transformation was complete. Trixy took an entire water bottle and chucked it into her mouth, swallowing it in one gulp. ”Ahhh!” A banana appeared in her hand. She peeled the skin about halfway down before chucking the entire thing into her mouth. ”That’s already starting to feel better.” Trixy reclined against the wall. Eating was important to activate her regenerative abilities, but eating tasty food also did a lot to improve her mood. She extended her arms, and a grape fine bridged them together. It wasn’t long before the vine started to bear grapes. She could hardly contain herself and started to eat them as soon as they appeared.

”The rave isn’t too far away now.” Trixy plucked a grape off the vine and offered it to Silhouette. ”Are you excited?.”

Samantha took the grape and plopped it in her mouth. "Anxious," she said. "I fully expect something completely dumb and dangerous to happen there. An attack of some sort, or maybe some pointless conflict," she sighed. "And parties and dates aren't something I'm accustomed to, so I don't know about that..."

Trixy smiled. It was nice to see that even Samantha had a vulnerable side. There was the time she was betrayed by her double, but this felt different. ”We won’t be able to get too comfortable, that’s for sure.” Trixy was about to shove another grape in her mouth, but instead layed her arm across her lap. ”I’m not as crazy about it as I was at first either.” She brushed her hair back. ”I never thought I’d have a date for it. Figured there'll be plenty of people at the party to hook up with. But after I spoke with you, and then Veronica being all doom and gloom about the whole thing.” She chuckled, but grabbed her side afterward. Still seemed like she was a little sore. ”We’ll have to do a real one after the rave. Kinda hard to be an operative and be casual at the same time.”

"I don't mean to dampen your experience or expectations," Samantha finished off her water bottle and then set it down next to her. "Looking forward to and enjoying a party should only be natural. That is the point of one, yes?" she said. "I even envy that eagerness, to an extent. But I can only see and expect the worst to come, probably because of what I used to be," she wasn't looking in any particular place as she said this. Perhaps trying to elevate the atmosphere then shrugged. "But who knows? Maybe things'll go swell there. And if not, I suppose we just try again. I wouldn't exactly be averse to doing something another day."

”I fully plan to try and enjoy myself.” She flicked the grape into her mouth. ”But a little caution isn’t bad. That’s what you’re trying to instill in me, right?” Trixy leaned her head on Samantha’s shoulder. ”Let me just say this. If someone tries to hurt you, I’m gunna hammer fist them and pull them into a suplex before biting their legs off. Barring that, I’ll shoot ‘em.” Another grape appeared in her hand, which she slowly guided towards Samantha’s mouth. "Otherwise I’ll tear up the dance floor with my break dancing.”

"Just enough to keep you from being too lost when things go south. But being close to paranoid is my job," she joked. Samantha eyed the grape Trixy was trying to serve her with a confused look, apparently not understanding her intention. "Uh?"

”Zooooooom!” The grape
moved closer to Samantha’s lips. ”Here comes the airplane!” She covered her mouth with her other hand and breathed into it to create static. ”This is Trixy air, Ground control, please clear the runway.”

Samantha only seemed more confused. "That's not a plane. That's a grape," her expression then twisted to worry. Had something broke in her?

That was exactly what Trixy was thinking when Samantha acted so. She fret her brow. ”That’s right, and you’re supposed to eat it!” She plunged the berry past Samantha’s lips.

While the grape did indeed taste good, Samantha found it strange Trixy thought she needed to be fed. Trixy was the one that was in pain, wasn't she? Chewing the grape and then swallowing, she raised a concern. "Then why did you call it a..." It suddenly dawned on her that this was some kind of display of affection or something of that nature, probably. "...well, anyway... um, thanks...?" she might've returned the action had she a grape to do so with, but that wasn't the case.

Trixy smacked her own face. As she sat upright, it came to her. Sam’s unusually brutal training, her inability to enjoy things like parties and dating, how awkward she was in certain social situations. Why this woman didn’t know how to love! Trixy was mortified by the thought. She found it hard to look at Samantha with anything but a wide-eyed expression. This would not do.

”Sam.” Trixy folded her hands in her lap. "I’m your first, aren’t I?” Samantha looked away and remained silent in response.

Trixy sighed. This was going to be hard. But it would also be a lot of fun. Samantha must have felt this way when she decided to train her. "Your romance game needs a little more pep.” She cracked her knuckles. "But first, tell me this: What do you feel most comfortable doing?”

What did she feel most comfortable with? Was Trixy the one tutoring now? Well, in this matter she could certainly use a teacher. “...Training?” Samantha spoke. “And drinking coffee, I suppose. Oh, and--” she suddenly cut herself off. She was terrible when it came to romance, but even she could see that speaking about her ability to kill someone was not something Trixy wanted to hear about. “...that’s all, I think. Probably not too romantic, I know.”

As easy as it would have been to turn coffee drinking into an innuendo, she wasn’t sure if Samantha would get it or appreciate the humor. That didn’t stop her from smiling about it. She opened her hand, and a single coffee bean rested in the center of her palm. "Let’s start with coffee, then.”

Some coffee would’ve really hit the spot right now, Sam thought. She eyed the coffee bean and then paused. The student had, in a way, become the master. Their roles had definitely been swapped. And though they wouldn’t be training in the same way they had, Samantha worried about something:

Trixy would take it easy on her, right?

---

“Alright, that’s the last of ‘em.”

“Mate, you doing alright there? Didn’t catch a cold, didja?”

“Eyy, the bois and I are going out after this. Ya down?”

“Hrm, looks like gas prices spiked again…”

Within an abandoned warehouse on the western end of Penrose, ten men in well-tailored suits stood, a stack of very large binders before them. A foot or a hand stuck out from a couple of the binders, and on the concrete floor, a complex magical script was drawn. Say what one may about the advances in human rights during the modern era, people were always a commodity with a high demand, and the Red Nest was one of the many supernatural gangs capitalizing on it. Sketchy Puchuu needs new girls, fast? Horror’s got some exceptional interests? Gods prowling about again? Red Nest’s got ya covered. Delivery in two days, incognito, or your money back.

Large freighter crates created a labyrinth within, corrugated steel and shadow minimizing the chances of some hobo or vagrant stumbling upon the place, while the lights above were turned off; the weretigers operated in almost total darkness as they did their task and chatted about meaningless, innocent things. It was a comfortable routine, after all. The Ascendancy, powerful as they were, were still just a bunch of children, accustomed to fighting mindless monsters. With a little creativity, a little intelligence, there were a myriad of ways to slip under their radar.

Anyways, the Red Nest enjoyed the challenge.

---

Trixy and Eliza arrived outside the warehouse.

”We’ve arrived!” Trixy sent a transmission to their Patron.

“Good. I trust you all remember what your mission is?”

”The elimination of the weretigers, and the retrieval of the civilians!” Trixy smiled.

“Sources say there are at least ten weretigers, but there may be more. You never know with weretigers.” Veronica had previously briefed them on their ability to shift between the overcity and back. “I don’t want them escaping. You may begin the operation.”

”Right!” Trixy was a little nervous. This should have been Tetrad’s mission, but she was completing a more important operation at the moment. That left Trixy and Eliza to deal with the weretiger situation.

”Looks a little dark in there, but my scope should be able to see just fine.” Trixy looked at Eliza. ”Hey! You know illusion magic right? I don’t suppose you can turn us invisible can you? Maybe make us look like weretigers? If we don’t spook them too bad, we can do this 007 style.”

“Well, I can try camouflage. Hold on.” Eliza focused her illusion magic to make herself and Trixy appear like weretigers, down to the voices. ”How’s this?

Trixy examined herself. She was wearing a fine red suit and her rifle had more or less vanished. ”It’s perfect!” She removed her scope from her gun, and it turned into a monocle in her hand. This was just an illusion though. She tried to hold the scope in a way that made the illusion look natural. She had coiled a finger around the center of the scope to do this. But this meant she had to hold the “monocle” a few inches away from her face. Trixy looked at Eliza. ”We’ll be fine so long as they can’t detect illusions. They might not fall for it if they’re a tight knit group though, so be ready for that. But let’s see if we can remain hidden, find the humans, and maybe turn on the lights.You might have difficulty navigating in the darkness, so just follow my voice and stay by my side.” She holstered her gun across her back and hummed as she walked into the warehouse.

She examined her surroundings carefully. Her scope was a mystic artifact, but at present she was just using it to navigate the darkness. Trixy needed to find out where everyone was.

Though the labyrinth of freight containers was pitch black, Trixy’s mystic artifact enabled them to navigate without any mishaps. As far as the two magical girls could tell, there were no particular magical effects present in the area, and the closer they got to the center of the warehouse, the louder the conversation sounded.

Soon enough, the duo made it, sidling up against the side of a freighter as they scanned the area. Through her artifact, Trixy could spot ten humans in sharp suits, their firearms hanging off from their bodies. So far, neither of them were detected yet…

Then one of the humans sniffed loudly, audibly, and began to turn.

Trixy approached the group, still holding up her monocle and acting like there was nothing out of the ordinary about her or Eliza being there. ”I think they’re all here.” Trixy relayed telepathically. ”Ten men, all in dapper suits. Seem to have guns too!” Though the man sniffing the air didn’t go unnoticed by Trixy. She quickly assessed the situation and chose what she felt was the best course of action.

”I do say!” Trixy added a bit of British charm to her character. ”If I didn’t know any better, I’d say one of you custards smells like a human!” She reached behind her back to pull out her rifle. Though it looked like an old sawed off with Eliza’s illusion magic. ”It’s not you, is it?” She said while looking directly at the man glaring at her.

”Do you think I botched that?”

”Just roll with it.”

"Of course dey smell like human. They've been handlin' em fo’ god know how long da’ smells bound ‘ta rub off on ya’.” Eliza faked an unamused look to Trixy, with a clear boston accent. Or at least some accent of her own. “Unless ‘ya mean the actual humans, than dayum, one of em’s needs a shower…”

“Yer late,” one said, flicking the smouldering butt of a cigarette off into the corner. It bounced against corrugated steel, then smoked still. He gestured towards the circle, his ponytail swishing like an actual tail. “We’re already done.”

The sniffer sniffed again, eyes narrowed. “And you two...soth, you’ve been rolling with prepubscents? Have some class, will ya?”

The remaining eight similarly looked displeased, but beyond a couple of grunts, simply stood at attention more.

Ponytail-man sighed, “Whatever. Sensed any magicals ‘round the area while you two were out? Should be a couple of darks, going by the tip.”

Trixy holstered her gun. ”Well my good chap, there are always magicals about. Though we appear to be safe for the time being.” She he adjusted their tie. ”Which is all the more reason why we should conclude our business here as soon as possible.”

”That worked? But then where are the captives?”

”Beats me, we’ll get to find them soon enough, I hope.”

“Hah, apologies for ‘dat. Most of em’s busy dealin’ with the brighter bastards ta’ even spare a glance! We should be fine, but best ta’ watch for any lurkin’ at da’ Ova’city, ‘ight?” Eliza grinned, resting what appeared to be a flintlock rifle on her shoulders.

“Sure, sure,” Ponytail-man sighed. “Get into formation; we’ll transfer the goods out and then shift back.” With those orders, the rest of the weretigers-in-suits moved, forming a circle around their leader, all of them facing outwards. The reorganization of bodies allowed Eliza and Trixy now to see the binders that were atop a magical circle.

“Well, what’re you two waiting for? Get to position.”

Trixy had been momentarily distracted by the binders. ”O-Of course my good man.” Trixy jogged towards the circle with the other weretigers. She slipped the monocle into her pocket, which was an illusion she competed by sending the scope into her hammer space handbag.

”We aren’t letting them leave.” The temptation was to allow herself to be shifted to the other side. But then they would need a way back, with half a dozen binders filled with people. But crippling the red nest as a whole wasn’t part of the mission.

”Say ol’ chap, your hair is mighty distracting.” Once Trixy got to the magic circle, she lunged for the pony tail man’s jugular.

Eliza just silently followed Trixy, up until she froze up when the other girl made grabs for the leader(?)’s ponytail. ”Fight now??” she asked through their magicoms with urgency.

“And your plan hinged on us not being able to count,” Ponytail-man replied, almost flippantly.

As Trixy lunged for him, she heard the ripping, the shredding of fabric beside her, moments before a transformed weretiger, in his full, bestial glory, smashed into the magical girl. The two tumbled into the ground, rolling, before Trixy found herself pinned by the tiger’s paws, as its jaws opened up inches away from her face to reveal a set of ferocious fangs.

Around Eliza too, were the metallic rick-rackings of automatic weaponry, the firearms all pointed at her, but not firing yet.

Ponytail-man’s ponytail swished back and forth with delight, and with villainous delight, he continued, “Honestly, I heard corrupted girls were supposed to be smarter than the regular kind, but I suppose you can’t do much with underdeveloped brains, no matter how much magic ya jam into them. What were you thinking, really, trying to sneak into a group of ten as the eleventh and twelfth?”

Behind him, the magic circle was humming now, glowing as it prepared to transport the goods to the Overcity.

“Now, let’s keep this nice n simple. Who do you two work for?”

”Was I too subtle, Eliza?”

Trixy had expected something to go wrong. The possibility that they were being led on had crossed her mind, but poor communication between her companion and herself ended up tripping things more in the weretiger’s favor than she would have liked. Just as much her fault as it was Eliza’s really. Underestimating the leader’s intelligence and overthinking the situation was a small oversight, but at least it confirmed that this was all of them. They didn’t have any backup, they were all right here. It was just a shame that Trixy’s arms were splayed out and pinned by a weretiger. The fangs were a turn off, but not as much as his breath.

”We’re not in trouble yet, alright? I’m going to create a distraction and some cover. You need to be ready to attack them and get down!”

Trixy chuckled, and her guise dissipated. ”You seriously don’t know who we are?” An acorn appeared in both of her outstretched, pinned hands. ”Haven’t you read my blog?”

Trixy couldn’t throw the acorns very far, arms being pinned and all, but it was fortunate she was close to the circle. One acorn rolled between Eliza and all of the weretigers pointing guns at her. It sprouted into a stumpy tree that could be used as cover. It had no branches, but it was slightly wider than Eliza and came up to her waist. It was all Trixy could do to offer Eliza cover.

“Aw man, and I thought we could be good friends.” Eliza’s illusion disappeared, with subtle sarcasm. As soon as the second acorn was in the circle, she quickly ducked behind the tree given as cover and fired a volley of light daggers at the weretigers.

The second acorn rolled into the circle and simultaneously exploded outwards in a mass of branches. It shoved everything out of the circle, including the binders and the weretigers. Trixy’s magic was never really designed to handle massive spells like that, and her mana was taking a hit because of it. It was fortunate that there was a fuel source breathing over her. With a quick snap, her vice-like maw popped up and crushed the jaw of the weretiger.

“Tch!”

With the binders scattered by the sudden emergence of a tree, the magic circle’s glow dimmed, whatever catalyst required for the transportation gone. The weretigers scattered as Eliza’s light daggers shot out; though human in appearance, their instincts were sharper than any man. Her magic disappeared into the darkness once more, before bursts of gunfire smashed into the tree she took cover behind. It had been wide enough to hide her, but that only worked until the gunmen began to fan out. The shattering of wood chips told her that she had moments to find new cover, lest the magical girl be turned into swiss cheese by the all-American arsenal.

Trixy’s maw, though, was certainly capable of chewing through fur and fang, flesh and bone. The monstrous girl could only delight in the flavor of rare tiger meat for a couple seconds, however. With a distinct shnnnk, the four-inch-long claws of the weretiger unsheathed, razor sharp and coated in silver. It roared, enraged at her retaliation, before slashing at the prone magical girl with its claws, ripping and tearing chunks of flesh at a time, the hot blood that splattered from its face half-blinding Trixy.

The upside to this was that Trixy’s arms were no longer pinned down by the weretiger. While the beast tore its way into Trixy’s entrails, she took hold of its chest hair and pulled her torso upright. The weretiger prepared to drive its claws into her exposed back, but she thrust her free hand into the monster’s throat. She flick an acorn down his throat, which grew violently enough to sever the beast’s spinal column from their skull. The beast went limp, and Trixy finished devouring its head with a single bite.

One down, nine to go.

She was in a lot of pain. Even regeneration as potent as Trixy’s didn’t instantly heal wounds, and these were pretty severe. But she couldn’t stop now. Eliza was under fire, and she’d be eating lead if she didn’t do something. Now wasn’t the time to rest, now was the time to toughen up.

For the time being, it seemed like all the other weretigers were focused on gunning down Eliza. Trixy rolled out from under the weretiger’s carcass and set her Barrett on top of it. Because it had transformed, the weretiger’s body had the same functionality as a pile of sandbags. Trixy snapped the scope back on her gun and wiped the blood out of her eyes. Her duplicate, Dusty, rolled out from Trixy’s side and placed her gun directly on the floor. They didn’t need to communicate their intent. They racked their rifles. They opened fire together.

The Barrett M82 has a reputation for being used as a sniper rifle in many video games. While it could certainly be used as one, its primary function is as an anti-materiel rifle (AMR). It’s used to penetrate light armored vehicles, as well as concrete barricades, buildings, or anything else that could provide cover. In addition to this, they were semi-automatic and could empty their 10 round magazines rather quickly. They were also very loud, and would probably draw the attention of the weretigers soon. Trixy and Dusty didn’t want to waste any of their bullets. They aimed for center mass and hoped for the best. Each shot caused Trixy to wince in pain, but since she was laying on the ground, she was confident her guts wouldn’t fall out due to the recoil.

Taking the opportunity, Eliza quickly made illusion clones of herself; Two appearing to be fleeing, and the third taking her place behind the tree, and made herself turn invisible. The witch hurried over to Trixy, and used her healing artefact to help speed up the sniper’s regeneration.

“Damnit, they got Mercer!”

“Break up, break up!”

“Those are fakes, half-shift now!”

The first shots from Trixy and Dusty struck, but the sheer penetrative power of the M82 meant that the bullets pierced through much too cleanly; it took more shots than they’d have liked to down a single target, and by then, the others burst off as well. She could see now that they had partially shifted, fangs jutting out from their lips as orange fur burst over their skin, the suits they wore tearing at the seams as their musculature increased. Two down, eight to go.

“Use the humans as shields.” From the darkness, Ponytail-man’s voice sounded, followed by a motley chorus of affirmatives. Immediately, the human-sized binders were lifted up, forming almost worthless cover versus the penetrative ability of the M82, if not for the fact that the two magical girls had been sent there specifically to prevent the loss of human lives.

Soon, the gunfire continued anew, firearms bursting at sprodiac cycles as they meticulously pinned the magical girls down behind their distingrating cover. They may have been low-tier supernatural criminals, incapable of offensive magic, but the Red Nest hadn’t survived this long just to get done in by a couple of children!

Staccato beats sounded on, bullets whizzing closer and closer to Eliza, Trixy, and Dusty.

They got two of them at least, and her stomach felt like it was holding together now. This was considerably better than a moment ago when they had Eliza at gunpoint. But Trixy was still pissed. Those cowards were hiding behind hostages. It didn’t matter if they were hiding behind cute girls or not, filth like that didn’t deserve to live. That was something they would fix though.

”We need to spread out, and we need to get offensive!” Trixy rolled an acorn under Eliza, and the angel girls could feel a stump form under her body. ”Spread your wings, take the fight to them! Rain death upon thee foes!” The stump grew with such speed that it popped Eliza into the air.

Trixy took aim and fired over the binders, Each shot would split apart over the weretiger goons and drop seeds into the air. These seeds would turn into poison ivy vines, which would grow and ensnare the head and arms of any nearby weretigers. It would also give them one hell of a rash if they didn’t wash afterwards. If the vines were allowed to crawl to the weretigers’ hands, they would attempt to jam their weapons and push the binders from their grasp.

Dusty did not have the ability to use magic like that. So she took cover behind the newly created tree and waited for an opportunity to fire.

Trixy’s poison ivy wrapped around limbs, but with bestial grunts, they were torn off as quickly as they could spawn, the thick fur of the weretigers shielding them from much of the ivy’s effects. Still, it did its job; though not all of the weretigers were occupied with removing the vegetation away from their bodies, the rate of fire blasting against Trixy’s obstacles decreased swiftly, enabling Eliza to ascend without instant retaliation.

Eliza quickly took flight when she was boosted into the air. She used her focused assault to rapid fire light bullets and beams at the Weretigers, making it to where her attack avoided the binders. If the binders were separated from their adversaries, the witch would use her ribbons to pick them up.

From her vantage point now, the winged magical girl unleashed her concentrated barrage of light. One weretiger, too occupied with the ivy, was torn apart instantly. Two more had to shift fully into their tiger forms in order to sustain what injuries they received from the lasers; as such, Eliza was able to pick up two of the human-sized binders. It looked good, for a moment there.

But just for a moment.

Weighed down by what was essentially two human bodies and no longer behind any sort of cover, Eliza wasn’t able to react in time when a single shot sounded from the far end of the clearing. The bullet drove into her right shoulder, piercing flesh and breaking bone, rendering her dominant arm useless.

”Eliza!”

Trixy too, found herself in greater trouble now. Making the best out of an awkward situation, two unshifted weretigers rode on the backs of the shifted tigers, holding up the binders still as a rudimentary shield. With a roar, they charged right for Trixy and Dusty’s barricade, intending on crashing through and tearing her apart in melee once again.

”Shooting a cherub? You guys have no class!”

Dusty had abandoned cover to join Trixy behind the bullet ridden weretiger corpse. While still holding their guns, the twins picked up the corpse and charged forward, screaming in unison.

The carcass did serve to absorb incoming bullets, but it also hid the muzzle of their guns. Once they got close, they fired through the corpse and into the transformed weretigers. Their Barretts proved to have too much penetrating power when used against an untransformed weretiger. But the two charging them were fully transformed and horizontal to the ground. There would be plenty of time for the bullet’s kinetic energy to dissipate inside their massive bodies.

”Get to cover Eliza, but don’t stop your assault!”
Eliza hissed in pain when her arm was shot through. She fired a beam at the direction the sniper fired from, then rushed to get to cover, holding onto her wound. But she didn’t let her rain of projectiles let up, even if it took a toll on her mana.

As both sides got closer, the tigers leapt, their claws outstretched as they lunged for Trixy and Dusty. In retaliation, the dark magical girl unloaded as well, Barret M82s eviscerating the beasts in a burst of gunfire. The creatures let out an agonized howl, but were still able to hook their claws onto Dusty, knocking her prone before she could get onto the rider’s binder. As her maw opened to devour the still-warm corpse that laid upon her, there was the clicking of a trigger. The rider, having remained atop his steed this entire time, jammed the barrel of his gun against the clone’s face.

Seven bullets later, and her skull was paste, the clone’s body dissipating moments later.

Trixy was more fortunate; the other tiger didn’t manage to snag her dress. Instead, however, all three individuals, rider, magical girl, and tiger, collided mid-air, before tumbling into the ground, their respective firearms scattering away from them. The rider crashed into the concrete first and only just managed to pull his human shield up to interpose it between himself and the ravenous magical girl. Planting his feet against it, he kicked up, launching both binder and Trixy away from him before springing up to his feet. Unsheathing his claws, he took a stance, ready to engage the eyepatch kid in a one versus one, hand to hand fight.

Eliza’s beam crossed through the darkness of the room, splashing beside the sniper. It briefly illuminated his features; he was the ponytail-man who looked to be the leader of the Red Nest. Such discovery wasn’t anything that she was able to capitalize on, however. In such an open space, there was little cover that she could take advantage of. All Eliza could do was take evasive aerial measures, flitting up and down, somersaulting and diving to avoid the bullets that trailed her. One of her beams hit their mark, another of her blades sliced off a couple of fingers. But the binders that the weretigers used as protection were large and wide, without ground support from Trixy, she could no longer get an easy bead on her target.

Another explosive blast resounded through the warehouse, whistling right above Eliza. Sparks burst above, and with the popping of screws, the tearing of wire, a large, suspended light the size of a kitchen table swept down, right in Eliza’s path.

Trixy slid a ways before she pushed the binder off to the side and ran back towards the weretiger. It wasn’t that Trixy wanted an honorable duel, that was just the easiest looking target at the moment. Her outfit had been dyed crimson with tiger blood, which had also started to dry around her eyes and mouth. Trixy was determined not to lose herself to her urges, but she was on the verge of a frenzy. Dusty might have just been a duplication, but she would be avenged.

Eliza rushed to heal her arm with her artefact, then promptly yelped when she saw the suspended light fixture begin to fall above her. She quickly flew out of the way, then creating a large sledgehammer out of her magic, she knocked the fixture at the weretigers sniping her, and aimed her rain of light on them instead.

Instead of engaging Trixy, however, the weretiger brawler held his ground, legs bent as if to receive her charge. He didn’t though. A fanged sneer emerged and he leapt off to the side, right as a burst of gunfire sounded behind Trixy. Six bullets slammed into the bloody maid’s back before the distinct ‘click click’ of an empty magazine sounded. The fake-brawler was diving for his gun again, his bait complete; his partner was in the process of reloading, popping in a new clip in hopes of firing more before she could recover.

Eliza’s hammer technique seemed to have worked as well. With a sharp ‘snap’, the last chains holding the fixture up broke apart, hurtling down towards the weretigers below. They snarled in retaliation and disbelief, but abandoned their binders immediately as the fixture crushed those hostages flat. There was a crash, but there was a splat as well, blood bursting out the two binders like crushed ketchup packets.

A mistake?

Definitely.

But two down below were no longer under cover either. Under the barrage of light, they were forced to shift immediately for the added durability, dropping their guns and turning into massive beasts. Another crack from the far end sounded; in that moment of mixed horror and accomplishment, Eliza felt another dull thud in her gut, almost losing control of her flight as the pain began to spread.

Trixy had taken quite a beating. From having her guts nearly pulled out of her stomach to having her back riddled with bullets. But nothing hurt as much as watching the light fixture fall and crush defenseless hostages.

“I’m not paying you lot for dead humans.”

Veronica’s words didn’t stir anything inside Trixy. She was too fixated on what had just transpired. Her body trembled. To anyone looking on they might mistake it for death spasms. But they most certainly weren’t. Inside, Trixy’s heart was racing. She would never throw up anything, but at this moment, she felt like she could.

“We’re leaving! They’re killing the merch now!”

”No you’re not!” Trixy forced herself to her feet. There were so many seeds in her hand, they were spilling out of her palms. ”I haven’t devoured enough of you cowards yet.”

The seeds started to grow around her body, quickly forming a flora based exo-suit. Her limbs were caged in branches and briars, giving her long wooden talons. She looked at the “fake brawler” out of the corner of her eye.

”Not nearly enough!”

He got a few shots off, but Trixy’s arm grew a thick wooden shield that blocked most of the bullets. Some penetrated her arm, and one even grazed her cheek, but she was undeterred. When she got close, 4-inch thorns stuck out of the shield moments before she made contact. If the brawler even thought about diving out of the way again, Trixy was ready to spear him with her other hand. Even as she charged, several branches twisted together over her hand in preparation for this.

Regardless of which attack landed (provided one landed) she’d devour the tiger man’s head, maybe his shoulders too. This was one of the strongest utilities of her magic, but it was draining to use. She needed to keep feeding just to keep it together.

”The buffet isn’t over!”

She’d then take his machine gun and empty the rest of the magazine into the closest weretiger. Only if she could do so without hitting the binder he was standing on. She was a professional, after all.

Eliza would’ve fell from the air out of sheer terror if she didn’t catch herself, yet it was obvious from her expression. Not only was she in pain, she was traumatized, as with her first accidental murder. Murder, murderer, for a moment, that was all that was running through her head. The witch lowered her head. She never wanted to be a monster. She never wanted to be a murderer.

...But what’s a bit of bloodshed to kickstart a massacre?

”You are going nowhere.”

When Eliza looked over to the weretigers, she appeared deranged, having more or less snapped and allowed the chaos engine within to cause havok for the first time. The witch used more ribbons to grab whatever debri she could to block the entrance, even going as far as using her magic, and made the light rain disappear. Then she landed back onto the ground, and grabbed her rifle, letting it shift into her scythe. ”I’ll kill you, I swear to God, I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” While Trixy dealt with two of the weretigers, Eliza went after the other two, knocking their binders aside before slashing the weretigers. At this rate, she might as well be straining herself, but she felt like she deserved it.

Madness and rage, yet they forgot.

Weretigers could Overcity Shift. Could they?

In letting up her barrage of piercing light in order to go close the entrance, Eliza had neglected to continuously pressure the three weretigers that had been targeting previously. She dropped to the ground, grasped her scythe, and charged at them, but as she swung, they dissolved, shifting dimensions into another plane.

Her scythe shed no blood.

Trixy too, found no satisfaction, nothing sating her ravenous hunger. Even as her jaws clamped over the fake-brawler, even as his limbs twitched sporadically from terror and agony, the one she targeted with the firearm she stole puffed into the aether, bullets zipping through and scattering against the freight boxes behind.

In an instant, the Red Nest had exfiltrated, leaving nothing but the stench of blood and gunpowder.

Blood, of both beasts and men.

As her rage came to a screeching halt, Eliza collapsed onto her knees when the weretigers managed to flee either way. The witch felt like she failed. Even if she wanted to cry, she refused to, hiding her face in her hat. She wasn’t weak. She wasn’t…

Trixy’s makeshift exo-suit crumbled away as she shoved what remained of the weretiger into her mouth. Once she was done, she ran over to the next corpse, and the next one. The air was filled with the sounds of breaking bones and tearing flesh. It didn’t matter how big the body was or how many bullets were inside it. She ate every scrap of flesh and every severed finger. Trixy was so thorough she even licked up the blood that fell on the floor. But it wouldn’t sate her. The maid sunk to her knees and covered her face with her hand. She refused to look in Eliza’s direction.

“You didn’t kill all of them, you didn’t save all of them.” The impartial voice of Veronica rang out in their minds. “Though it appears most of the binders are safe, and you annihilated most of the red nest.” Around each of the binders, a black shadow loomed that expanded under all of the binders simultaneity. The black claw of the cradle reached out of the bubbling darkness and pulled the binders inside. “This was not a stunning performance, but I am willing to call this operation successful. Most of the girls will be returned, but I’m counting on a few of them joining your ranks.” Once the Binders had been pulled into the inky portals, the shadows blended into the darkness. “I expect a better performance in the future. That was one of the sloppiest attempts at stealth I’ve ever seen.”

”Right.” Trixy growled. ”I’ll do better next time.” She walked towards the barricaded exit. With a snap of her fingers, her “eternal style” magic activated and shed all the blood and dirt off of her uniform. Though it didn’t make her feel any better. Once she was in front of the barricaded exit, she started pulling away the rubble, eating through what she couldn’t move.

Eliza stayed silent, only using her ribbons to help move the barricade without turning around herself. ”Go ahead and go, I’ll catch up later. I...just need to think...”

Trixy looked over her shoulder at Eliza. There was no doubt that she was upset with how things had turned out. The angel’s actions managed to get a few civilians killed. It wasn’t something she did intentionally, and it certainly wasn’t her idea to use people as human shields to begin with. Perhaps that was what made this so upsetting. The only people worth being angry at got away. Her enemy here wasn’t Eliza, but the weretigers.

”Eliza.” Trixy approached the angel with her arms spread. She did her best to force a smile and wrapped her arms around her. ”You don’t want to be alone with your thoughts right now.” She tipped up Eliza’s hat so that she could look into her eyes. ”Come on, you don’t have to punish yourself.” the corner of her lip twitched. ”I know a place that serves waffles at this hour, but I don’t want to eat alone. Did you wanna come with me?”

It was obvious Eliza was holding back the urge to cry, as a few tears had managed to escape. She was surprised Trixy wasn’t mad at her. Then again, she was mad at herself. ”Really…? O-Okay!” she managed to crack a smile, accepting the offer.

Trixy took Eliza by the hand before leading the way. ”Yup! Nobody should go to the Waffle Palace alone!”

Trixy would be lying if she said she didn’t partially blame Eliza for what happened, But it was an outcome born from their inexperience rather than malice intent. Under the right circumstances, it could have even been Trixy who ended up killing innocent people. It was hard to be mad at Eliza when it was clear she was already punishing herself. If Trixy was really going to manage the Cradle in Veronica’s absence, she needed to take care of everyone’s problems. Sometimes that means tending to their gear, other times that meant disciplining them.

But today, she could buy them waffles.

---

An instant later, and the surviving members of the Red Nest emerged in the Overcity, the smell of blood and gunpowder still clinging to them. Their leader, the unshifted man with the ponytail, flicked out a cigarette and lit it.

He took a drag, his eyes closed, before letting the smoke hiss out between his teeth.

“Sorry fuckin’ lot, aren’t cha?”

The weretigers grunted, shuffling about and licking their wounds.

“No problem though; they got the jump this time.” Another drag, before he grimaced, flicking the smouldering stub out into the ethereal fog. “We’ll have our satisfaction next time.”

Trixy and Eliza, of the Crimson Cradle.

He knew of a couple of patrons who would be interested in seeing that organization gone.

Like beasts in the jungle, the Red Nest dissolved once more into the lights of the Overcity.

On another day...

Greetings Eliza. The Mint has noticed that you have nothing to show for your efforts within the organization. But do not worry, for they have decided to let you fulfil a simple objective to earn their trust back. You are to eliminate the Cardinal of Beacon as soon as you are able. It should be noted that this will likely be your last chance to prove your worth, and the mint doesn’t suffer incompetence. You are encouraged to put everything you have into this assignment. Al still holds the ace of diamonds, you would do best to remember that.

~The Vermin Killer

Again and again, Eliza read the message sent to her by her old employers, of all people. "Why...? Why??" Between the Ascendancy, Katelyn, her failing to eliminate the Red Nest, and now this, the witch was fighting the urge to scream. "Why me?!" She couldn't understand why the Mint was willing to give her a second chance. Hell, it seemed easier to just fight off whoever they sent to kill her.

So why?

With everything that has happened, it seemed easy for Eliza to break. She was torn between two sides of her psyche after all. But she couldn't just kill one of Beacon's leaders. Something like that was what the witch was avoiding. At the same time, what was she supposed to do?

After a moment of thinking, the witch had a plan. But first, she had to find another way to get rid of the black coin's corruption, her final tie to the Ebon Mint. And luckily Eliza knew who to look for.

---

---

Contrary to what would be assumed, finding Violet and Sakura wasn't exactly a difficult affair. It was true, that they seemed to be able to vanish into the air both literally and metaphorically but it would only take a handful of hours of search before Eliza would run into the Twins. Or more accurately they would run into her.

Eliza would be minding her own simply trying to track down the elusive pair when she would suddenly feel someone using her as a spring board from behind. “Hah!” Violet would call out as she leapfrogged over the witch. “Told you I could get to them first!” She would call out in triumph while she landed with a needless flourish.

“I didn’t say you couldn’t Sis” Came the slightly exasperated reply from Sakura. Who would walk past Eliza with at a sedate pace, passing an apologetic smile to the likely surprised girl. “But did you really need to jump off of her? That was rude” She would go on to chastise her sister. Who would reply in the most mature fashion of sticking her tongue out.

"I-It's fine. The Dijinn Sisters, right? You knew I was looking for you?" Eliza asked, more surprised that they were looking for her somehow as well.

"Sorta" Sakura would reply as she just rolled her eyes at her sister "We have Absolute Direction, I think is the most common name for it" she would explain.

"Every now and then we use that to know the dirction of people looking for us or for a wish" Violet would continue on "We've been in Penrose for a while, yet your the first person whose gone looking for us. At least intentionally."

"Well, I was hoping you could help me with something." The witch pointed to her wings. "A wish can turn a monster girl back to normal, right? No loopholes or anything?"

"That's correct" Violet would reply with a wide grin.

Eliza's eyes lit up. "R-Really?! Okay, um, how do I word this correctly? 'I wish I was no longer corrupted??'"

"Your wish" Violet would say softly as she stepped forward into Eliza's space her hands and eyes gaining a soft white glow. "Is my command"

Violet would gently cup the little witch's face, a soft warm smile on her face, before gently leaning forward to plant a feather light kiss upon her brow. At that kiss Eliza would feel for a moment weightless as a warm sensation would flow through her. The warmth would slowly grow until it became nearly uncomfortable before suddenly spiking intensity and then fading just as suddenly.

A deep exhaustion would settle over Eliza as Violet would slip away, back to stand near her sister. “You’ll start feeling better in no time.” Violet would say with a smile.

“It’s just your body readjusting to no longer having to fight against the corruption.” Sakura would explain with a giggle.

"Y-You...You did it!" Having turned back to normal, Eliza's old disguised form took over as her main transformed state. She felt a weight had been lifted off her chest, no longer needing to hold herself back in fear. Not to mention she could actually go to the party without risk of her ears bleeding, so that's a plus!

With a pure smile, the witch hugged the sisters. "Thank you, thank you so much!"

Violet would simply buff her nails on her shirt for a moment looking smug at the praise tossed in her direction. She was partially caught off guard by the hug, as was Sakura, but the more somber sister at least had the good grace to return the hug.

"Yes, well.." Violet would cough slighty before regaining her composure. "That's one Wish down. Hope it helps." She would say as the two of them turned to walk away

"Goodbye, come looking for us again if you want another wish" Sakura would save with a slight wave before the two of them vanished from sight.

Eliza waved back as they left, yawning from the sudden fatigue. "They don't seem that bad. Hm...this is a start, but it isn't enough. Maybe I can buy myself some new equipment?" the witch wondered, walking to Brittany's shop as she relayed the information she got to the other cradle agents. "Just ran into Violet and Sakura. Apparently they use absolute direction to find anyone they can grant wishes to. You might be able to catch them before they reach their wish limit."

---

---

It took a bit out of her funds, but Eliza bought a new outfit and weapon, and a meditation stone, to prevent herself from snapping like last time. She thought of ways to enhance her new sword, until she saw two familiar girls nearby.



"So how's being in Beacon?" Celia asked Anaya, running into her after she was purified by the White Coin. "It actually feels kinda good! I actually get to sleep, I finally have parents now, and the others are pretty cool too." Anaya said, stretching as the walked.

"You joined their side?"

The two stopped to look at Eliza, eyes widened. "Well technically? She did." Celia pointed to Anaya. "Hey!!"

Eliza shook her head. "Nevermind that. I'm glad you two are still kicking after all this, I've been better." She looked over to the spirit girl. "Can't you tell the Ascendancy to back off of this, Anaya?"

"Sadly, I don't think it's in my power. They're pretty serious about this." Anaya frowned, crossing her arms.

The witch cursed under her breath. "Alright. Guess I'll have to find another way. Thanks anyways." She would've walked away if Celia didn't stop her. "Wait!" The empath handed Eliza her ruby coin.

"You might need this more than I do." Celia explained. "And if you ever need to take out your frustrations, Anaya might need a sparing partner." She added, sensing the negative emotions Eliza was going through.

The witch looked down at the second ruby coin, and back to the empath. "Thanks. Be seeing you two." With that, the three of them went their separate ways, Eliza heading to the sanctuary.

---

---

After getting a second ruby coin from Celia, Eliza rushed back to the sanctuary. She dreaded the thought of Cindy and the others being quick to assume the worst when they found out the witch was back to normal. “I’ll just have to explain beforehand…” she told herself, and stepped inside.

“Your Highness??” She called out.

The sanctuary bustled with activity, girls and boys both going about their business with a surprising energy. The return of Cindy and so many girls from the vacation had revitalized the place, and brought it a hope that it had lacked in the past months.

Eliza earned more than a few glances in her hurry from those passing by, a result of her haste and eagerness. But they paid her little mind, and soon she would be rewarded by the familiar appearance of Cindy as she drew near. “Greetings, Eliza Winters. We are pleased to see that you have returned to us unharmed. It seems more than a few girls have set to the task of ridding the city of the pests that sprang up in our absence, and we would hate for harm to come to one of our subjects because of it. She smiled, falling silent as she allowed Eliza to speak.

“Yeah, a lot of stuff happened. Anyways, firstly I like to let you know that I and those within the Crimson Cradle will be attending the party to ensure your and everyone’s safety.” Eliza explained. “And, I come seeking a request from you, Miss Ford…” she showed her the message the Vermin Killer sent her. “I need a red coin. I’ve finally cut myself off from the Mint, and I cannot go through with this assassination request. So there’s no doubt they’ll come after me. With the Ace of Diamonds, no less.”

Cindy nodded, hands clasped together as she listened to what Eliza had to say. ”Though it would be foolish for someone to incite violence at such a large gathering of people, I am nonetheless grateful that you are willing to act to ensure the safety of all our subjects.” she replied with a smile.

It was not an expression that lasted long as Eliza revealed the trouble that currently plagued her. The electricity that made up Cindy’s form grew more agitated, and Eliza would be able to feel a hum in the air.

”I see. That is troublesome indeed. Of course I will do what I can to ensure that no harm befalls you. But how does the Red Coin play into this? It does not increase your power, merely alter it.”

“Because, I’m gonna use it with these.” Eliza held the two ruby coins she had on her. “Guess you can call it a gamble, but please ma’am…”

Understanding came quickly as Eliza showed off the Ruby coins she had obtained. That would certainly provide a boon to her efforts. Red Coins are a limited resource,” Cindy noted aloud. ”We understand your desire for security from the Mint, and recognize the service you have provided for us in the past. But we cannot simply hand out an item like that without service in turn. Our relationship is still young and yet to blossom, much as we might wish otherwise.”

“Thing is, this isn’t just about the Mint!” Eliza paced back and forth, appearing more stressed as she rambled on. “If this battle goes from bad to worse this place will one way or another go to Hell-in-a-Teapot, if I fail to protect you guys and those unfortunate enough to get dragged into this mess I probably don’t even deserve to be a magical girl, and if the stupid Ascendancy- the Mint- ANYONE stupid enough to NOT to calm their jets decides to turn the party into a bloodbath I swear I am going to SCREAM!” as soon as she calmed down, realizing her outburst, the witch recomposed herself in embarrassment.

“M-My apologies, your highness. Being conflicted between two sides of myself has been stressing, but yes, I understand. What services do you require from me?”

Eliza’s panic was rising, yet Cindy remained as nonplussed as ever. Either she was not as concerned, or she simply did a better job of hiding it. For now she waited until the witch was done venting before resuming where she had left off.

” Your concern is heartwarming, Eliza. If only all of living in the kingdom could be as devoted to the cause of peace and coexistence,” she replied with an approving smile.

That just left the matter of the ‘request’, and for that she had something special in mind. “A trade. A Red Coin, for your soul.”

Eliza paused for a moment. “Dunno how that’ll work, but one of my patron’s is literally Death, so I’ll see what I can do.”

”It’s simple enough,” Cindy assured her, pleased to hear that she was willing to go along with this.

”You are aware of what a Soul Jar is, yes? Once you have used the Red Coin, one of my associates will place your soul in the Jar of your choice. Then I will hold on to it, so even if something happens to your body because of the Mint or any other faction, you will be reborn safe and in my care.” It was quite the clever solution, if she said so herself.

“Alright, seems easy.” Eliza nodded. “But how do we make it to where I can be far from my Soul Jar without turning into the walking dead?” her tone showed slight concern.

Electricity danced and twirled in agitation, a sign of how pleased Cindy was that Eliza was willing to go along with this.

”A Soul Jar formed by magical contract is significantly longer in range than a normal one. So it should be fine as long as you don’t plan on going on any world spanning trips,” Cindy assured her.

“Alright, it’s a deal then.” the witch decided.

’Excellent. Follow me,” Cindy told Eliza as she turned and made her way through the shelter. She did not carry those coins on her person all the time, after all.

As she moved along, there was one question that sprang to mind.

”Are you sure your Cradle associates will be alright with this? We understand that having divided loyalties can be difficult,” Cindy asked, regarding Eliza out of the corner of her eye.

“Asides from you, my loyalties now rest within the Cradle. They’re the only ones who make sense nowadays. Not to mention my first patron is also now my ally? Co-worker?? So it works out pretty well.” Eliza explained. “But don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll understand.” She reassured Cindy with a smile.

Cindy was pleased to hear that Eliza remained as firm as ever, and that their deal would not inspire any further difficulties. They soon arrived at their destination, a small room that acted as a de facto study for the self proclaimed Queen of Penrose.

Walking around a desk in the corner of the room, she delivered a precise electrical shock to the hardened safe. The door swung open with nary a sound, and she reached inside before returning to Eliza with token in hand.

”There you are,” she said as she handed the item over.

”We hope it serves you well.”

Eliza held up the Red Coin in one hand, and the ruby coin in the other. “...Cindy, thank you.” she gave a warm smile to the other girl, before using all three coins; being eclipsed in a vibrant crimson light.

Cindy stepped back as Eliza used the coins, engulfing herself in a burst of magical energy. There was little more the Queen could do except wait and see what came of it.

From the light, Elizabeth stood. “Woah…” The newly incarnated witch looked herself over, then back to Cindy.

“Well? What do you think?” She had felt a new surge of power flowing through her, not to mention the witch seemed to have aged up a bit.

Cindy gave a small bow as things returned to normal, with Eliza having been altered by the combination of coins that she had used together. She took a few moments to look her companion over before answering.

”You look very distinguished. People will definitely treat you with the respect that a witch of your status deserves,” Cindy assured her. Whether that was what Eliza wanted, well, that wasn’t really her problem now was it.

“Thanks. So, how about my end of the deal?” Elizabeth asked, wondering how they could transfer her soul into something.

Nodding, Cindy walked over to the door, calling to one of the magical girls as she walked past. ”Coraline, go tell Suzanne that I need her.”

Glancing back, the girl in question nodded before hurrying off to carry out her will. Still wearing a smile, Cindy turned back to Eliza. “Please, have a seat. This may take a few minutes.”

The witch nodded, taking a seat nearby.

After several minutes, as promised, a girl would enter the room. She glanced at Eliza, before proceeding over to where Cindy was. “My Queen,” she said after coming to a stop, providing Cindy with a respectful bow. “You requested my presence?”

”Indeed,” Cindy replied with a nod before gesturing to Eliza. “Eliza here needs a contract drawn up, transferring ownership of her soul to me until such time as I relinquish it, or until the Ebon Mint has been eliminated in Penrose.”

Taking a seat, Suzanne reached into her handbag, producing a small bottle of ink as well as some paper. With quill in hand she began to write, while Cindy regarded Eliza to make sure that she wasn’t getting cold feet at this point.

The witch curiously watched Suzanne write out what she thought was the contract. “Oooh…”

After another few minutes Suzanne was finished. She turned, placing the paper down on the table so both parties could read it before offering Eliza the pen. “Mix a drop of blood with the ink,” she explained as she sat back. “That will ensure the contract has a magical connection.”

Eliza carefully cut the palm of her hand with the pen until she drew blood. Then with the blood, she signed the contract. “There. Is that good enough?” She asked.

An eyebrow rose before Suzanne took the pen back. Unscrewing the top, she let a bit of ink drip down onto the blood. Just to make sure. “Now it is,” she replied.

Cindy then took the pen for herself. Electricity bridged the gap, the pen now sparking slightly from her power in lieu of blood. She signed next to Eliza’s name, sealing the contract.

”We believe that is that. Suzanne, do the honors.”

Nodding, Suzanne stowed the items away in her handbag before turning to Eliza. “This will probably hurt,” she warned, before reaching out and placing her hand over the other girl's heart. Her hand began to glow, an ethereal light radiating out and into the magical girl’s chest. It endured for a minute or so before she pulled back.

As she did so something came with it. Eliza might be able to feel the void left behind. Or maybe it was merely some rationalization of her mind. Yet there was no doubting that the object that now sat in Suzanne’s hand had not been there before. “Your soul, as agreed upon,” Suzanne explained before handing it over to Cindy.

”And as promised, I shall keep it safe with me. The Queen of Penrose does not go against her word.” Cindy added as she rose to her feet.

The witch somehow felt the wind knocked out of her, feeling an emptiness were her soul once was. She’d have to get used to it later. Elizabeth reoriented herself and looked back to Cindy. “So where are you gonna put it?”

Electricity danced around the soul gem, a protective shield from any physical harm. A fall was unlikely, but in such a moment precautions were not to be dismissed out of hand. They were dealing with a soul after all.

After a few moments she shook her head.

”I think it is best if I do not say. The Mint is cunning and resourceful. Should they learn of its existence they may try to steal its location from your memories or other forms of psychic persuasion.

“Right, I understand. Well, guess I should get going.” Elizabeth walked to the door. “But really, thank you.” She looked back to Cindy with a smile.

Truth be told, Cindy was surprised that Eliza would so willingly accept her explanation. But she would not reject the good favor either.

”Goodbye, fair witch. May you see good fortune in your endeavors,” she replied as the girl departed.

Now then, it was time to see about getting this stored away, where it could be safe.

It was a logical thing, really. Sakura was a grown person, who did not like to rely on others as soon as she could strike on her own. That other girl… Emily, had so far been an accommodating master with her desires, and had already given her a place to sleep and a few pointers. But diving head-first into this unknown and shady world, with a less than trustworthy handler, required extra effort.

And so, without telling the other girl, Sakura was engaging in secret training. Who knows, maybe she could so some solo hunts if this was successful. In order to do that, she needed a few things. Junk to break, and a place to be alone. The recently abandoned Salt Mine junkyard fit her purposes.

Here and there the old mine’s machinery stood tall, announcing the greatness of a past era that had been overrun by decay and waste. Lots of things were dumped here nowadays. Sakura did remember at one point that her old life cleaner’s liked to … put their sensible matters deep inside the mine, where they would never be found.

Thankfully undead didn’t exist yet. Or maybe it would be a good thing. They’d make good moving targets, the newly minted magical girl though. She had come here in a flash. The motorbike provided by the Puchuu was top-performance… if only the colour was not pink. That was the huge drawback.

Well, that and the whole frilly uniform and incantation. But those were worth the wait, as she could manipulate lightning. She did need to seriously learn to control it. Accidental discharges could lead to harming allies and she didn’t want to do that.

So she had set an improvised shooting gallery and a sparring dummy, where she could test the moves without being afraid of breaking things. They had been broken anyway. If something caught on fire, the salty earth would also help put it down.

“Hiya!” She snapped as she focused on releasing her lightning. The lightning hit home, in the wrong target, several meters behind herself.

She was aiming at the front.

“Your aiming could… use some work.” said the insufferable bastard that had condemned her to a life of fluffy clothes. The coy rat was making himself at home in a discarded sofa, smug and judgemental eyes upon her.

“Shut. Up. Or you are next.”

“With that aim? Unlikely.”

”You need to learn to whip those lightning bolts, that will improve your aim a lot.”

Suddenly, a green-haired girl dressed like an arabian dancer came crashing in from above, riding on top of a sleek yellow and white motorcycle; it had lightning bolts painted on it, and the front ornament of a metallic unicorn’s head, with a zigzagging horn. The wheels were shaped like cogs, and the display for the meters was shaped like a clock, the hands serving as handles for the vehicle.
She parked the bike next to Sakura’s pink one; she noticed it quickly.
”Oh wow, a pink bike! It’s sooo cute!”
She turned to wave at Sakura.
”You must be new in town, right? I’m Lily Lightning, but my friends call me Lily. Hi there!”

A boy riding on said motorcycle spoke up “It’s a good thing we have magical powers, or your driving would have killed us several times over. I mean; you just crashed through a roof! I shudder to imagine what your driving was like before you got magic. ” The boy turned to Sakura “Welcome to Penrose; leave your sanity outside the city limits, because it won’t help you here.”

Sakura raised an eyebrow at the new presence. Well, at least this city was a bit more welcoming to magical girls than thugs. So far there had not been any major scuffles. Her eyes scanned Lily up and down, before letting a little scoff, arms folded. The mention of the pink cute bike set some switches in the ex-Yakuza’s mind, but surprisingly, remained composed. She was a cute girl, this Lily. But Emily filled the suit better.

“Hi Lily. Aren’t you a bit… er, young to be dressed like that? There’s barely anything to show, Sparkly-chan. Points for the bike, though.” She paused, narrowing her eyes. “No, scratch that… you are older than you seem, Sparkly-chan. But still, not much to flaunt with that dress.” She said.

Lily gave a pout at Alex’ commentary on her driving.
”Geez, you don’t have to bring it up in front of the new girl...”
She then blinked at Sakura’s question, and she looked down at herself. Then, as if a lightbulb was switched on in her brain, she smiled brightly.
”Oh, my magic keeps me warm, so no need to worry about that! Besides, this is the latest fashion, you know~” She added with a wink.
”Anyway, what’s your name?”

“They call me Sak…”

It was then when she was interrupted. “Magical Girl Sparky Heart” said the cozy, feline-like Puchuu. “We’re dealing with fellows here. Learn to use your alias.” He turned to the other two beings. “Apologies. My… employee seems to still be grasping with the basics. I am the one known as Umukamui.”

Lily’s eyes brightened up. ”Aww! What an adorable kitty! Can I pet you?”

It was then when Sakura eyed the boy, and letting a visible gasp, eyed Umukamui. Then the boy. Then herself. Then Umukamui.

“Explain that, rat.”

The Puchuu did not bat an eyelid. “It’s a magical boy.”

“I know that. Why is he a boy?” Sakura added, her teeth gritting.

“Sometimes… magical boys are born instead of girls. It can be a convoluted process, but it can be influenced to a degree…”

“Does that mean I could’ve kept my manly attributes?”

“Perhaps? But It would probably have impacted your overall performance. I need you in top shape for my requests.” The Puchuu added.

Sakura did not say a word, instead beaming a smile. “Okay! If you say so! Magical Girl Sparky Heart will become the best, and cutest girl there is.” She said, her words sweet and melodious.

“Glad you’re starting to… reason” The Puchuu added, not noticing how… clashing her behaviour was.

“Anyway, Lily-chan said a super awesome pointer, why not prove it? I will use a moving target!”

“Surely you do not mean…”

“It’s a good thing you’re immortal, Kamui-chan!” She said, with childish glee, before spinning around herself. “Sparky Heart! Justice! Breaker! Lance!” She added, before a massive column of lightning incinerated the poor animal-like creature. Lily gasped, her hands on her cheeks as she watched the cute creature be obliterated in an instant.
”Noo! Kitty!”

“Well, looks like it was on-target, this time!” She smiled and giggled, before her face suffered a tremendous shift and turned into a disgusting scowl as she spat to the ground. “Serves you right, you c*nt”.

Alexander’s eyes widened as he took in the new girl’s outburst, and what it implied “Oh...you poor thing.” His heart stung with a sensation that, while still new to him, he was able to identify as empathy “I...I can’t imagine how horrible it must be for you. Here;” He created a warhammer shaped barrier and held it out to her “I find mindless violence is wonderful for dealing with pent up rage. Take all the time you need, I understand.”

Sakura eyed Alexander with a scowl of disgust at first, reeling at his expression of pity. "Cut it out, bud. That's creepy. But I like your 'tude, heh." She concluded as she hefted the hammer, only for her knees to fail at that precise moment and diving headfirst into the ground, strength failing her.

Lily meanwhile was in shock.
”Wait, was that...Your Patron? Because that means-”

It was then when a much charred Puuchu considered sitting atop her head as he shook off the burnt and the soot from the attack, causing Lily to sigh in relief. "Killing Blows usually deplete your magic." He paused. "You should use them wisely… Sparkly Heart."

"...hate...you" Sakura moaned.

Lily came over to Sakura, and gave her a comforting hug.
”There, there...I know this all must be very scary to you. But don’t worry; I can teach you how to use your Lightning magic!” She then stepped back and summoned her weapon; a magnificent bow with a bowstring made of a crackling arc of electricity.
She nocked an arrow, and aimed at the dummy.
”I usually shoot arrows of lightning,” she explained as she performed a triple shot, each arrow hitting the bullseye after the other.
”But I can also do this!” She lifted her bow up in the air, and yellow flashed as it changed into a staff, the top of it resembling an hourglass, only with sparks falling down instead of sand. She aimed the staff at the dummy, and with a whipping motion shot a lightning bolt, hitting it right in the center.
”See? You should try it like this! Why not give it a shot?” She asked, smiling brightly.

Sakura had little way or strength to fight the embrace, but did not find it very comforting. She clicked her mouth in annoyance as her body failed to move upon her command. Lily’s hug would be nice in a few years, but right now it was just… annoying. The archery contest and self demonstration did not help when she could barely move.

“Hey bud, tell your girl to … go slower.” She addressed Alexander. “...I’m running on empty here.”

Alexander spoke up with a sigh “Hey Lily; you do know that...they’re low on magic...right? I doubt-” he paused for a second, in thought “-Sakura isn’t in any condition for target practice.”

Lily lowered her staff, looking embarrassed by how she didn’t consider Sakura’s current state.
”Oh, of course she isn't. Silly me, te hee~” She unsummoned her weapon and pat Sakura on the head.
”It’s very good for you to be so diligent. But remember to always keep a bit of magic in reserve. You never know when a meanie monster might show up!”

She patted her on the head. She. Patted. Her. On the head. Sakura’s teeth gritted, as she trembled so slightly and managed to get her poise back, standing up once more, while Umukamui scurried to a safe distance. The petite girl was once more standing tall, and glaring at Lily.

“I don’t need magic to beat a few schmucks upside down.” She added, as she began to walk towards a pile of rubble and eyed one of her targets. The wood was quickly reduced to splinters after her heel hit the target dead on following a rather skillful spinning kick. “For the record, I don’t need weapons. My own body is one.”

Alexander nodded “That’s a good attitude to have. Especially if your own magic doesn’t lend itself very well to kicking ass. It took me awhile to get to the point where I could reliably kick ass on my own.”

Lily began to slowly realize that Sakura wasn’t a tsundere type of girl like she initially thought she’d be. For one, she seemed somehow revulsed by the headpat, which shocked her. And for another, her language and mannerisms seemed rough, even for a tomboy. She frowned a bit.
”Well, you don’t seem to have any trouble with fighting then, I’m glad~” She tried putting up a friendly face. At least Alexander seemed to share her enthusiasm.
”Alex here also loves to fight up close and personal. How about you two do a little sparring?” She approached Umukamui and, if allowed, would place the adorable Puchuu on her lap as she sat down to watch, petting the fluffy fur.
”Hello there, Umukamui. That’s such a cute name~” She spoke to the little Patron.
”I hope we can work together in the future.”

"Oho?" Sakura said, her eyes with a mischievous glint. "Why not? Maybe i will shake off this rust." The girl said, while beginning to do stretches. This body was way less stiff than her old one, probably a small consolation. She then took a martial arts stance and goaded Alexander.

Umukamui for the most part, allowed the liberties taken by Lily, but his expression did not change at all. "Working under me has advantages. I possess a wide resource network and experience. Please think about it, I would most welcome a girl like you should you switch patrons."

Lily scratched behind Umukamui's ear, a bit taken aback by the Puchuu's strangeness.
"Oh, sorry, I meant just teaming up. I'm happy with Ixion, thanks.” Her motorbike made an electronic-sounding whinny, and the head ornament turned to look at Umukamui, followed by a slow nod.
"He's not used to talking."

Alexander raised an eyebrow “Oh, we’re actually doing this? Alright, I’m game.” He began to stretch out a little “We going to use any rules, or is this just going to be a good old fashion street fight?”

“What do you think, bud? That I’d be training in a junkyard if I played by the rules?” Sakura said, as she reaffirmed her stance.

Alexander shrugged “Eh, still had to make sure.” Then, boosting his body with magic, rushed at his opponent, fist ready to strike right at their stomach.

Sakura’s eyes gazed sharply at the attack. It was something she had seen, and yet something she had not ever seen. Something was forcefully making the punch having more speed and penetration that his body might have suggested.

Still for an advanced martial arts user, the punch was telegraphed to a degree, which allowed Sakura to jump up and forward, past Alexander’s head in a front flip. She followed with a sweeping kick, just because she could.

She had never felt so nimble, despite being magically depleted.

With his body being boosted, Alexander was able to react just in time. Stabbing a quickly formed sword shaped barrier into the ground. So when Sakura’s kick knocked him off his feet, he didn’t fall on his back, and was able to use his anchor to get back on his feet quickly. Turning around, he then formed a large flat barrier around one of his hands, and used it to swat at the still aerial opponent. Making sure to anchor himself to the ground with a few more barriers as he did so.

Sakura, upon perceiving the effects of several barriers applied, decided not to commit the attack further, and with a couple of backflips, put some distance between her and his opponent. This is fucking crazy. I got almost as much strength as my heyday and I’m just a nimble wee girl. But my agility has gone through the roof, I feel like I could juggle tigers on fire now. That slam midair hurt, though Sakura said to herself as she clutched her side and decided on the next move. Defensive opponents required a careful approach.

Alexander paused for a second after seeing Sakura clutch their side. This wasn’t a real fight after all, and was more some exercise then anything else. He wasn’t used to sparring, as pretty much every time he got into a fight, it was with something or someone who wanted him dead ‘In fact...’ He thought ‘The only other time I can think of was during that weird sport thing I did back during the vacation.’

With a shrug, Alexander dismissed the barriers holding him to the ground and around his hand, and created a new one that was the size and shape of a large log of wood, and swung it at Sakura ‘If you want to keep your distance, I can oblige.’

Sakura looked at the log, and rolled her eyes. It was strong, but an easy attack. She pulled even more back, doing a couple of backflips into a pile of junk. Let’s evade for now

After a few swing, Alexander gave up on the log ‘Too nimble, I’m going to need something harder to dodge.’ He dismissed the log, and made two more large square shaped barriers around his hands and tried that. Swiping with them one at a time to try and catch Sakura mid dodge.

Sakura just grinned at them. In trying to catch him with his barriers and swipe them into attack, he was making it harder to fall back into a defensive position. She just kicked a small toaster of the pile of Junk aimed at Alexander’s face, before crumbling her foothold into a tide of junk, going lower than the two barriers.

The lone toaster smacked Alexander in the face, but with his magic, he was able to pretty much ignore it. ‘There it is’ He thought upon seeing Sakura ducking benieth both of his barriers. Dismissing them both, he formed a quick forcefield around his body and dove into a tackle at the juck concealed pugilist.

Sakura just watched Alexander strengthen himself for a tackle and aim at her. It was powerful, but easy to read, her body spinning around and instead of being tackled, displacing the still powering Alexander deep down in the dirt. Grappling techniques were something she was taught too.

“Gah!” Alexander grunted as his face hit the dirt “You...are incredibly annoying to hit.” He commented before getting back up. “Right, so...this might not be the best time to ask this; but when are we supposed to call this? The only other fight I’ve been in that didn’t pit me against someone or something that wanted me dead was a sporting event. So I’m not really sure how long this is supposed to go on for. ”

Sakura sighed, not pressing on the attack and allowing her opponent to speak. "Not for long. I give. Those barrier thingies of you are stupidly durable, and I might have overstretched myself without using any magic. Can't seem to penetrate enough to deal any serious blow. It's a great defense, that will keep you alive, bud." Sakura said. "Good fight, still you should get some proper, martial arts training. You telegraph your attacks too much." She added, running a hand through her hair.

Lily, who had done little else but cheer during the spar, finally spoke up.
"Great duel, you two! Great use of barriers, Alex! And nice footwork, Sakura!"
She was happy to see how much constructive criticism the two had, without falling into the usual compliments, so she decided to be the one to give them.

Alexander shrugged “I was an orphan who only managed to be combat capable not very long ago. When I started out, I couldn’t use my boosting magic and engage in melee combat, so I was stuck on support duty. so I think I’ve done pretty well for someone with zero formal training. Still need to pick up a real weapon” He pulled out his Rod “This dinky little thing is all I have right now, and the only way it can function as an actual weapon is if I make a weapon shaped barrier over it.”

“Typical. Don’t you know staves and sticks make terrific weapons if you really know how to use them? Usually you see them in martial arts because they’re humble, concealable, and most people don’t see the threat in them until it’s too late. Pool sticks are actually great for bar brawls.” Sakura said. She’d not gone the extra mile otherwise, but the boy had said it was an orphan. “I will give you a few pointers, clearly your life hasn’t been easy. “ She added as she walked towards him. “Thingie, bud.” She asked for the rod, hand wriggling.

Alexander paused for a second ‘Can...can we even lend other people our weapons? For some reason, I never thought of that.’ He shook off his confusion and handed Sakura the ‘thingie’ “I get the distinct impression that you’ve got a lot of experience fighting.”

Sakura took the device without much hesitation, and weighed it. After a few tentative swings, she nodded. “Okay, listen up. This is a small weapon. Which means you can conceal it in the sleeve.” Sakura added by putting the rod parallel to her wrist, and then in a single fluid motion, bringing the rod out while swinging her arm upwards like a whip. “This is how most experienced users of sticks and blades get the first blow, you literally whip it out at an opponent’s face. Moving on.” Sakura moved towards Alexander, and then began to slowly poke in fluid movements slightly the joints and parts of the face and neck. “You’d want to hit these spots, they’re either very sensitive, or you can cripple them with a sharp enough blow. If you aim at the wrists, you disarm people.” She then handed the rod back.

“Got it? Next is how to throw a mean punch, if you’re interested.” The seemingly little girl put a hand to her hip, awaiting.

“I’m always up for learning how to do violence better.” Alexander replied “That being said; how do you know all this? I mean, You seem to have a much better grasp on melee combat then any other newbie I’ve met.”

"Oh, well I suppose there's no harm in telling you." She moved closed and whispered into his ear."I was a 58 year old Yakuza, kid." She added, probably trying to avoid being pitied by the other lightning girl again. "Now show me your punching stance."

Alexander raised an eyebrow “Yakuza!? Geez, no wonder you actually know what you’re doing in a fight!” With that question answered, Alexander took his stance; one fist in front of his face, one in front of his stomach. It was his best attempt at mimicking a stance he had seen boxers use.

“Blabbermouth.” Sakura narrowed her eyes. “I whispered that for a reason, you know.” She said, before going to Alexander. “Well, not half bad for an amateur, but the mistakes are here.” She began to correct Alexander’s stance, all the way from the knees all the way to the shoulder. She pushed and pulled, until she got a good approximation of a stance.
“Now, don’t do this, like if you were about to throw something.” Sakura said, mimicking the excessive movement of an amateur punch. “Move it like this, like a whip, and turn your hip while doing so. Hummm…” She added while picking a plank.

“Try hitting this.”

Alexander took a breath, and lashed out at the piece of wood as Sakura had instructed, breaking the plank of wood “So...like that?”

“Well, did you not feel your punch has extra force like that? Also, faster.” Sakura added.

“A little bit” Alexander answered as he looked at his fist “It’s going to take a bit of getting used to though.”

“Nobody aces it on the first go. Martial arts require perseverance, just to get the basics alone. But once you do, it’s reliable. Also consider using your barriers as boxing gloves. If you can’t do weapons, you can instead reinforce your fists. A normal person’s fists, given enough training, can smash bricks.” She elaborated. “Okay, I will teach you the basic low kick, and we’ll be set for now. High kicks are fancy, but you require a good grasp of your body’s proportions, else you’ll fall flat in your butt, kid.”

Sakura then moved and then put her hands on her hips. “Watch my hips. It all starts here.” She said, as she proceeded to do a fast low kick. “And that’s about it.”

“Huh...fascinating. I didn’t realize that hip movement was so important” Alexander mused as he watched Sakura.

"Me neither!" Lily commented, having become so absorbed with the lessons Sakura gave that she was now holding Umukamui in her arms like a plushie.
"Thank you so much for teaching Alex! He is strong, but he can be a bit of a dummy when it comes to fighting, tee hee~"

"A sparring dummy, more likely." Sakura finished. "It's getting late… so if you excuse me and mr rat over there…" Sakura said, indicating that she was going to leave. Umukamui soon followed.

Alexander grumbled, but otherwise said nothing in response to their...comments about him

Lily stood up, and dashed to Sakura; the latter girl got a glimpse of how incredibly quick the green-haired girl could be.
"Wait, before you go...Do you have a phone? If not, I’ll just write out my number...And here!." She handed her a note with her number written on it.
”Let’s hang out again, okay? I’ll call ya!”