_{Dredging Up The Past, Preparing For The Future}

Considering the evacuated state of the city and all, Penrose Downtown Library, once an impressive Brutalist building with five stories full of books and bustling with children, students, and professionals alike, stood empty now. Their archives, where the rarest books had been kept, were emptied out, while the paperbacks on the main floor stood untouched, gathering dust as the months went on. The building, like many public facilities, was closed now, part of the western wall sundered by some magical attack from the rioters or the riot stoppers just last night, but as far as landmarks went, it was still easy enough to spot, easy enough to set as a meet-up point.

Heels clacking against the rusted, snow-covered stairwell that formed the upper floor’s fire escape, Amaryllis walked up to the rooftop of the library, her temporary chain-prosthetic snaking around the railing. Her Sword was sheathed and her backpack, newly sewn up, hung over one shoulder. Unless Penrose’s misfortunate naming conventions screwed with her again, this should be the place...but at the same time, it would have been nice to meet in a proper Beacon facility instead.

Reaching the top, the bespectacled girl, seeing no real reason to arrive transformed, leaned against a silent air vent as she waited for Alicia to arrive.

It was interesting, seeing all of these places abandoned like this. Alicia moved past quiet stacks of books and through empties rooms almost like a ghost passing through history. One could almost imagine that mankind had gone extinct, wiped out by some virus or simply snatched off of the surface of the Earth.

But that was not why she was here. So she walked on, headed up the stairs to the roof for the arranged meeting.

Climbing the steps, Alicia soon emerged on to the roof. Like Amaryllis she was not transformed, though she lacked the backpack and the sword to go with her look. Almost by reflex her gaze drifted to the arm, before she forced it back whilst approaching the other girl. ”Hello,” she said. ”I’m glad to see you’re doing better, though I hope that wasn’t your dominant hand.”

“I’m right-handed,” Amaryllis replied, waving with her flesh-one. “Though I was wondering if Beacon’s got any healing facilities that I can, uh, take advantage of? I’m borrowing this from someone else.”

Alicia considered the request for a moment before nodding. ”We should be able to do that. I know some of our medical resources are tied up with the Cardinal, but even if we don’t have everything I can call in what we’d need from one of the other branches.” It was the least she could do, considering what Amaryllis had done.

It was too bad that she had been distracted by the sudden appearance of Eden and Mariette at the time to really see what had happened with the Monster Queen, but now she had another opportunity. Standing near the air vent, she turned to that subject. ”Still, I’m kind of surprised that you went for that option. You always seemed fairly cut and dry when it came to monsters the previous times we interacted.”

“Thanks,” Amaryllis smiled. She rummaged through her backpack, before pulling out a box of caffeine-spiked chocolates. “Here, thought you might need it considering the whole thing.”

Whether or not Alicia took the gift, the buxom girl responded to her statement with a shrug. “Horrors are horrors and monsters are monsters, but that one wasn’t a monster, was she?” The chains around the stump of her wrist rattled. “Everyone deserves a chance. Much to the chagrin of my Patron.”

An eyebrow rose at the gift, but Alicia did not hesitate to take it. ”Thank you,” she replied in turn. This would help a lot, especially if things didn’t calm down. There was a slight tremble in her hands, but lacking any sort of infinite storage space she held onto the box for now.

She couldn’t exactly argue with Amaryllis’ sentiment either. It was the sort of viewpoint that she espoused after all. ”True. It is easier said than done when that person is actively rampaging.” Still, there was no doubt that Amaryllis was aware of that fact and had been willing to pay the price. Her face fell, but for a brief moment. ”It’s hard to keep thinking that way, with everything that’s happened.”

“That’s why I remind myself that, constantly.” Until it either became banal or inviolable. “But you hold more responsibility than me, so I guess it’s harder for you, huh? How’s the rest of Beacon taking it right now?”

“Hard,” Alicia replied as she gestured around the rooftop. ”This was something that doesn’t usually happen to Beacon; the planning and the scale of it made it as much of a shock as Justine’s bombing was. Some are scared, the Ascendancy is furious, and no one knows where it’s going to end up anymore. Initially the ascendancy was going to stick around until order was restored. But now? I don’t know when they’ll go.”

“Yeah, can imagine that.” Amaryllis pulled her fingers through her bangs. “What’s the endpoint anyways though? As a matter of fact…” Her eyes narrowed then, and she turned out to look at the rest of the city. “...what’s even so valuable about Penrose, that so many of us are here?”

Alicia followed suit, turning to face the city skyline beyond as she took a step towards the edge of the rooftop. ”The endpoint probably depends on who you ask,” she observed. ”I want to make a place where people are safe and can be the best of themselves, without judging just because they had the misfortune of being corrupted or a monster. Actions, not appearance.”

A shrug followed. ”The Ascendancy wants peace and purity. Order restored and all darkness gone, however they have to do that. As for everyone else, I can’t say.”

The following comment earned a small grin in turn as she considered it. ”as for why here, sometimes I wonder if there are girls in other cities right now wondering the same thing. But I don’t think there’s one specific answer to that either. Magical energy, schemes, rivals reacting to that scheming, and the like.”

“Feel like peace is something that everyone wants,” Amaryllis mused. “But they also want to be on the winning side of ‘peace’.” She couldn’t say that, with the city as it was, she was against the Ascendancy either. Penrose couldn’t even really be considered a city anymore, not when so many residents were displaced and the ones that remained were at risk of being cut down or caught in the crossfire of magical girls and monsters alike.

If she had taken a step off the path she had chosen, perhaps Amaryllis too would have concluded that twenty years of peace in Penrose was worth slaying every magical girl in the city.

“How’s the monster queen doing, by the by? I’d have preferred she be free to go on her own way after purification, but I guess the White Coin doesn’t, like, work that way?”

Alicia found it hard to argue with Amaryllis. That was what it seemed like. Understandable, even if it did make everything complicated.

Turning to Hyun, Alicia could at least relax with the easier topic. ”She’s settling in. Still adjusting, but it hasn’t been that long,” she confirmed. ”We still have the traditional purification rituals and the like, but the Coin is imbued with a bit of our Spark, so recruitment is automatic.” A shrug followed, since there wasn’t much she could do about it. She hadn’t made the things after all.

“Mm...suppose that’ll protect the girls from just getting recorrupted by their Patrons,” Amaryllis replied. She paused, frowning as the silence dragged on awkwardly. “Guess I’ll be expecting to see her ‘round town soon enough? Or will she be transferred somewhere less...volatile?”

”Haven’t decided yet,” Alicia admitted with a nonchalant shrug. ”We’re spread pretty thin, but it would be putting her up against former comrades. That could be a good or a bad thing.”

After a moment she regarded Amaryllis out of the corner of her eye. ”Do you want to meet her? You know, deal with some of the baggage? Oh, and the arm biting thing. But that might be less important.

“Former comrades...was she with PI? Or with Cindy’s people? And…” Another pause, more contemplative this time, before Amaryllis shook her head. “Naw, there’s no baggage to deal with. So long as Beacon fixes up my hand, yeah?”

Realizing the lack of information, Alicia was quick to correct that deficit. ”With Cindy’s people,” she explained. ”Apparently she was just ‘on loan’ to the Independent for the events of the Rave. Then that song started and she went out of control.” That was how it had been explained to her anyway.

The refusal was taken with all fairness as well. ”No problem. Just figured I would offer. I suppose this is the best way to get back in the action fast. Lord knows where the city will be in a week or two, much less a month.”

“And can you even imagine a year from now?” Amaryllis laughed. “How many times would the world have narrowly avoided the end by then?”

Alicia tapped her chin in thought, acting as if it was a much more serious question than it really was. “Well, considering the previous track record we’ve had….I’d say at least ten, with a few extra plots that endanger just this city specifically.” Just thinking about it made things seem just a bit more ridiculous, didn’t it?

Doing her best not to ruminate on depressing topics all the time, her hands collapsed together as she idly shifted in place. “Well, I’ve got some plans of my own. Some direct action for a change, rather than just reacting to every threat that pops up when it’s almost too late to do anything about it.” Her eyes gleamed with determination, the inner fire stoked by her feelings and righteous anger.

“So long as you set your kill switch off until it’s truly necessary. Drone strikes in the Middle East weren’t ever good publicity.” A bit too political? Maybe. Amaryllis brushed it off. “Where was Penny that night anyhow? What’s she up to these days?”

Brushing aside the political comments for now (since Alicia had no intention of getting killhappy unless she was confident the ones she was going up against deserved it), she instead addressed Penny. ”Well, these days she’s acting as...I guess liaison would be the best word for it. She’s trying to control the people who used to be in Cindy’s group, keep them from adding to the chaos and all the fighting going on.” It was complicated, as things tended to be with her nowadays.

“Working with Cindy’s people?” Amaryllis frowned, then spoke in a more hushed tone. “Does the Ascendancy know about this? Would they approve of this?”

Glancing away, Alicia’s answer was more noncommittal than she might like. ”I was told they would talk about it soon. I guess she’s waiting for the right moment.” She couldn’t say how it would turn out though, regrettably. Who knew how it would go with how things were these days.

“Hopefully such a moment exists,” Amaryllis mused. Her fingers scraped against the links of chain around her wrist. “So why did you shoot Mariette?”

”So do I,” Alicia agreed. She didn’t want to see her friend Excommunicated, but none of them could take back what had already happened. They just had to live with the consequences, no matter how painful those might be.

Faced with that, the subject of Mariette was almost a relief. It was a familiar anger to draw upon. ”Because she needs to be stopped,” was the Seraph’s succinct answer. ”Because she needs to be held accountable for her actions.”

“I wasn’t active in Penrose back then,” Amaryllis replied, resting her elbows on her thighs. “What happened? I’ve heard of stuff like Justine and the bombing of the HQ, but…”

It took a few moments for Alicia to organize her thoughts and work out how she wanted to present this. Once she had done so, she began her explanation.

”Okay, so when Justine was active Mariette worked with her by abducting girls for Justine to use in her grand ritual. This included Janet, who would be involved in that bombing. At some point they had a falling out and Justine tried to kill Mariette. At which point Mariette contacted me.” There was a shrug before she went on. ”Which is fair. I can’t blame her for following the route of self preservation. Mariette wanted Beacon to help her stop Justine before Justine got to her first. At the time she did seem like the bigger priority, so it seemed like a sensible deal.”

Her frown deepened as she reached the main event. ”However, while the fight with Justine was going on she used the opportunity to take most of the girls she had previously acquired for Justine. Plus more items besides, though I have less proof mof that. But she gave us a list of the girls she’d taken, and none of them have returned home. That’s why there has to be justice.” Sure, her Patron may have played some part in that, but it didn’t seem like she had a problem doing what her Patron wanted. In a case like that, understanding was hard to come by.

“Abducting normal girls? Or magical girls? And wait...Mariette gave you the list of girls?”

The clarification was swift. ”Other magical girls. And yes. It was one of her bargaining chips to give us a reason to not just kill her right then and there,” Alicia explained. She still had that list, back in her office.

“And the Patrons of all those magical girls didn’t do a thing about it either, huh?” Amaryllis frowned. “Did you get any chances to meet with Mariette other than the night before, Alicia?”

”Me? No, I didn’t. Too busy running astound playing damage control on Justine’s actions for my part, and I suppose Mariette was busy with whatever it is that she got up to those days too.” Alicia was honest with her answer, mostly because she wondered if there was something that Amaryllis was getting at, or if it was mere curiosity that drove her questions now.

“Well, uh, as it turns out, I’m sorta maybe friends with Mariette? So long as you promise not to go at each other immediately, I wouldn’t mind arranging and mediating a conversation between the two of you.”

Alicia winced as Amaryllis made her dilemma clear. Yeah, she could see how that would end up being awkward. Not that she held it against her, since it had already been made clear that she didn’t know what the girl had gotten up to before they met. ”Sorry, but after that stuff I just don’t feel like I can trust her.”

Amaryllis sighed. “I think sufficient time has passed for people to change, but, I guess if you’re adamant about it, I won’t press it.” She paused, wondering how much more she could say. “Guess my advice would just be to like, not to go for the kill right off the bat? Revenge is a self-fulfilling prophecy n all. If that makes sense.”

It was hard for Alicia to say that she wouldn’t. After all, Martiette was likely to portal away at the first opportunity if given the chance. Then she would be gone and everything would be back at square one. Still, she respected Amaryllis enough to at least take heed of her words.

”I’ll keep that in mind,” she agreed , even if she wasn’t sure how it would work out. ”Oh, I’ll send you a message on Glimmr when I’ve got the hand thing worked out.” That way they wouldn’t have to worry as much about the timing of meeting again.

“I’d appreciate that,” Amaryllis nodded. “Think I’d best to head off now. I’m sure you’ll be busy trying to deal with all the factions popping up in Penrose too, eh?”

”Like you wouldn’t believe,” Alicia assured her with an exaggerated eyeroll as she stepped back towards the stairs that led down from the roof into the library. ”I’ll see you around.”

“Hopefully not just when we’re stopping the end of the world.”

Amaryllis smiled, paused, and then frowned awkwardly, before she too began to walk down the same staircase Alicia did.

Turns out Penrose Park referred to a half dozen different parks in the now largely-abandoned city, all of them generally indistinguishable from the other. There were only so many variations of hills, fields of grass, and woodlands out there when viewed by the untrained eye, after all, and when winter came, the snow served to make things even more indistinguishable. Thankfully though, while the terrain itself was indistinguishable, the signs of vagrant kobolds inhabiting a place certainly wasn’t. Hidden behind pine trees bristling with icicles, both Raven Hilde and Connie, their attire tragically ill-suited for the weather, could see their marks.

Large campfires were set around the interior of the parks, burning anything from snow-drenched evergreens to walls torn out of nearby buildings. In shabby cardboard boxes and tents, the kobolds sought warmth from the elements as much as they could. Normally, the creatures would have been inhabiting the basements of houses or the garages of apartment complexes, but with all the destruction of property recently, it was safer to brave the cold than to risk being crushed underneath ten stories worth of rubble. The scaled creatures, merely four foot in stature, shuddered underneath layers of sleeping bags while chewing at rats, squirrels, and American pizza. They were a group twenty strong, but in such conditions, only three of them really seemed to be working. One, dressed in a purple bathrobe with a plaid scarf as a belt, handed out fragments of magical coins to the vagrant kobolds for consumption, while two others, bearing axes and rippling, reptilian biceps, hauled over the carcass of a luxury car over, tearing into the hood to rip out the gas tank.

They hurled it into the campfire, but the plastic melted away to reveal that whatever gasoline had once been in there was long gone. A collective wave of disappointment washed over the other seventeen, before they huddled together closer, chewing at magical energy and rodents.

Having scouted out the area as a raven, Hilde returned to Connie and changed back to her normal form. "Well they're not really bothering anybody. Just seem cold. Kind of hate to drive them out but they can't stay here. People will come back eventually and then we'll have a problem." She huddled under what cover her cape gave, which was only slightly helpful against the cold.

In her hiding spot behind the pines, Connie hugged her shivering body. Even though she was wearing her cold weather robe, the icy wind still seemed to cut right through her, chilling her to the bone. Her newest friend, Raven (or rather, Hildebell), had texted her about tagging along on a mission to remove some low-level monsters from one of Penrose’s numerous parks. Although somewhat reluctant, Connie knew that she could certainly use the experience. Since Mia was out on a mission from her Patron, she had left her a short note, before transforming and heading out into the winter night. For the most part, the monsters they’d be going up against didn’t appear too threatening. She just wished it wasn’t so cold…

“Y-Yeah…” Connie replied after Hildebell expressed her reluctance. “I-I’d r-rather not k-kill a-any of t-them, i-if t-that’s okay… M-Maybe I c-can use m-my m-magic to s-scare them off?” she suggested. “Oh! B-But, a-aren’t y-you f-freezing, H-Hildebell?” Connie asked, while casting a worried gaze over her friend’s skimpy attire. “Y-You’re n-not w-wearing v-very m-much…”

"I-I'll be fine." Nodding at the suggestion she peeked through the trees toward the fire. "That might work. I feel like they'd just be back though once we've gone. All 'their' stuff is here." Considering the environment and what they were looking at fighting, it might be a good idea for her to summon something a little more adept to the cold. While her palette of spirits tended to consist of warriors, humans weren't the only warriors to fight on Midgard. A lesser Jötunn would be excellent if it came down to having to clear them out by force. Being higher tier though it would only mean one and for a shorter period of time. "Maybe... if we set up some place warm elsewhere they'll go that way after we drive them out. Or we just trash all the stuff." Hilde had not expected for monsters to seem so pitiful or to feel sympathetic toward them. She'd expected to be all "Yeah, squash the monsters!"

“I l-like the f-first option,” Connie replied once Hilde had presented her suggestions. “W-Wrecking their s-stuff seems k-kinda m-mean…”

”Okay. Let me see what I can find further outside the city.” She transmuted again and flew up to get a good view of the outside of the city. A decently forested area should work. Would have to start a fire or something though. Hm, this might require a bit more preparation than it first sounded. They might just have to run them off after all. Hilde relayed that information shortly thereafter.

“O-Oh… O-Okay…” Connie replied, sounding a little downcast. Her heart ached for the poor creatures. It wasn’t their fault they didn’t have any place else to stay. Still, they couldn’t remain here, so… “I r-really h-hate h-having to do t-this…” Connie would say, before focusing her magic into a large nightmare pulse. She tried not to make it very strong, but it would still have a very wide spread, covering the entire kobold camp. It would hopefully cause each of the cowardly creatures to see something particularly frightening, perhaps a natural predator, which would prompt them to flee the park and never return.

Hilde’s sweep of the area around her turned up a tragic fact: the area that the kobolds were in had indeed been a decently forested area...until they began to clear up the area to create living space and cutting down trees for firewood. Evidence of this was everywhere, dozens of stumps of trees that were repurposed as tables or chairs while stacks of wood were piled atop each other haphazardly. While there were more patches of greenery around and beyond, especially in the area where they had once fought Aighorost, it wouldn’t be a farfetched thought to think that relocating the kobolds somewhere else would result in the same outcome.

Connie’s nightmare magic seeped out soon after, invisible to the untrained eye but undoubtedly potent as the nightmare pulse washed over the group of kobolds. As one, they stiffened, looking out to the west before their purple-robed leader screeched out in a voice that could have shattered glass. Immediately, the group sprung into action, grabbing sticks, branches, whatever they could get their hands on and tossing it into the main bonfire. The smallest of them sat closest to the stoked flames, while the larger ones cuddled the smaller ones, locking together into tightly-packed group around the bonfire. There they laid, limbs tucked in and head tucked down, bracing for a devastating blizzard that...wasn’t actually coming.

“U-Umm… T-That w-wasn’t r-really the r-reaction I was h-hoping for…” Connie said with notable disappointment. “I, uh, g-guess we c-could t-try to f-frighten them w-with one of your s-spirits,” she suggested to her friend. “D-Do you t-think that might w-work?”

Having checked twice now, there didn’t look to be a peaceful solution. Perhaps Oros had a point in how she behaved. Probably even more passive than the twins even. Bleh. ”I think we may be trying too hard. They’re monsters and if we don’t get rid of them then they’ll just make a mess somewhere else.” Raising up her head she watched as they huddled. ”Sorry Connie. We have to do this the old fashion way.” Back up she went, teleporting this time.

Instantly above the kobold, as Hilde dropped she waved her staff. ”Come young Jötunn! Walk Midgard once more and help us rid the land of these beasts.” For the uninitiated, Jötunn were beings that came in many shapes and sizes. In this case she would draw one that most would call a frost giants of Norse mythology. Such creatures could easily stand 20 feet tall. Hilde of course was not adept enough to call on a behemoth of such size, but that did not matter. Even a juvenile would easily be twice the height of the kobold and strong enough to boot. Big, stocky and with a tough hide it was built for battle. Hilde lighted on its broad shoulder as it formed and crashed into the ball of kobold.

Two seconds to react wasn’t a lot of time, but with Hilde announcing her presence and the general quiet of the world around them, the kobolds scrambled, scattering as a ‘giant’ crashed down into the center of the mob. A wet crunch and a wheezing squeal sounded underneath, a particularly small kobold with a cloak stitched of doggie sweaters gasping out blood and teeth as they were crushed underfoot.

The kobold leader, springing back up onto his feet, regarded the threat swiftly, before barking out orders that sent the rest scrambling. Three leathered kobolds took the smaller ones away, scrambling away between disorderly rows of tents and shanties, while the nine that remained hefted up whatever weapons they could. Axes, tire irons, baseball bats, crowbars, and butcher knives, surrounding the strange creature and the human that stood atop it. The kobold leader pulled out a Walther P99 out of his robe, pointing it at Hilde and aggressively shrieking at her, making wild gesticulations with his free hand.

Whatever he meant though, was lost to human ears.

The sound was sickening to hear and it sent an additional shiver down Hilde’s spine. She dare not look at what she’d just crushed for fear it would steal her resolve. Clearing monsters was one of the primary jobs of a magical girl, and if she couldn’t manage that then she might as well have never been selected. A frost giant could be considered a monster, but summoned under her control as a warrier it wasn’t the same.

Noises and gestures made by the kobold meaningless her focus went to the gun being brandished. Magical girl aside, even an ordinary firearm like that would probably hurt someone like Hilde pretty bad. Its exact capabilities were unknown to her as guns really weren’t her thing. Still, she couldn’t afford to get hit. One blink and she be standing aside, hand on the P99. A second blink and she would take the weapon away with her, appearing several feet away if she managed to keep hold of it. She obviously had never used or even held a gun before. So for the moment she had no intention of attempting to fire the thing.

The frost giant would move to do its own thing. Snagging one of the larger half burned logs from the fire, it pulled it free and slung it at a couple of the smaller creatures that were standing closer to one another. A deep grunt would escape as it charged forward. It’s goal was to reach one of the shanties and take one of the supports as a club for itself. If one of the kobolds got in the way it would simply try and go through them. Each step was heard and felt from the thump of its large feet.

Connie gave a horrified gasp at the sight of the frost giant crushing the small kobold. This wasn’t what she had hoped for. She’d never wanted any of them to die. But it clearly couldn’t be helped. Even as most of the creatures fled, ten remained, including what was apparently their leader. They would surely all be slaughtered by the mighty frost giant, but perhaps…

Drawing on the power bestowed upon her by the Lord of Nightmares, Connie conjured another nightmare pulse, this one considerably more powerful than the first. Focusing on the remaining kobolds, she sent it surging towards them. Although somewhat reluctant to do so, it was her hope that whatever terrifying thing was manifested would frighten the creatures enough that they would finally break and run, thus sparing them from the frost giant’s wrath. Of course, when tapping into such potent fears there was always a danger that whatever was conjured by the spell would actually take physical form, but Connie hoped that if it did so, Hilde’s frost giant would be able to take care of it.

Hilde had taken one step less than what she should have. The magical girl had surprised all the kobolds by suddenly appearing in front of the leader, and it was all too easy to place a hand upon the gun. But she hadn’t actually taken the gun out of the kobold’s hands before teleporting away. Hilde looked in her hands, and saw that they were empty.

The Walther P99, still grasped tightly in the kobold leader’s hand, was racked, aimed, an-

A shriek sounded from the kobold closest to Connie as her nightmare magic sank its talons into their psyche. Sharing the same nightmare, the rest of the kobolds began to panic as well, scrambling away from an unseen assailant even as the frost giant pounded through the camps to wrench a thin but stiff branch out from one of the many shanties in the area. The kobolds, against this nightmare threat, dissolved into a disorderly mess, none of the lizardmen having any clue as to what they were supposed to do. Trapped between flight and fight, they somehow ended up doing both, scrambling about and swinging at the air.

The purple-robed kobold snarled, then shot his handgun skywards, barking out orders and gesticulating once more. The kobolds froze for just a moment, and then split off into two groups of five, one dealing with a non-existent threat while the other dealt with the magical girl that summoned both threats: Hilde.

The two muscular kobolds from before hefted their axes on their shoulders, dashing at the frost giant and threatening with their very presence, while two less manly kobolds hefted up green-glass bottles that sloshed a yellow liquid instead, tossing them at Hilde. In the back, the kobold leader had both hands on his gun, ready both for the girl’s teleportation and for any opportunity to get a clean shot.

Realizing the mistake she’d made, Hilde took steps back further into the snow. The giant was taking up most of her focus at the moment but she could still make use of her magic for smaller things. Indistinct spirits circled around her in a flurry of snow and purple wisp, expanding out and obscuring vision. Three of the spirits flew out of the torrent and weaved around toward the kobold leader. They had a vague resemblance to translucent human heads. Screeching they had little physical impact that they could inflict on the kobolds, however they carried the chill of winter in their wake. Being non corporeal they could also draw fire if the leader were to aim a few at them. The spirits would react to such attacks, but actually be unharmed and would continue to chill the air. After several seconds they would dissipate.

Not forgetting the bottles having been thrown, Helde would use the cover to become a raven and fly out of the area where they would land. She didn’t really want them seeing that she could become a bird so she would stay low and try to keep the cloud in the way before bearing up and back.

The weapon that the giant managed to get was nothing special, but usable. That however would not be the only part of the shelter the creature would attempt to use. Using its strength it would heft the roof up and wrench some or all of it loose as a makeshift shield. Hilde was going to have to make note to pick more readily armed spirits in the future. The axe wielding kobolds would find that the giant seemingly had no fear and would stand its ground. It did not charge in though, instead reading to defend itself for them to make the first move.

Connie watched as half of the remaining kobolds broke off to engage whatever nightmare adversary her magic had conjured in the creatures’ minds, while the other five set themselves against Hilde and her frost giant. This was not what she had expected, not by a long shot. These kobolds were far more courageous than she had initially imagined. After a moment’s thought, she realized that this unnatural bravery was most likely due to their leader’s influence. If she could just manage to truly frighten him… Retrieving the Eye of Fear from the folds of her robe, Connie gazed into the mystic artifact in an attempt to glean some knowledge of exactly what terrified the purple-robed creature the most. She never liked doing this, as whatever terrible thing she found would ultimately end up terrifying her as well, but for the sake of her friend, and the kobolds themselves, she had to try…

With the frost giant on the defensive and the axe-kobolds just vaguely threatening it, that particular fight had dissolved into a non-violent showdown, one side waiting for the other to make the first real move. On the other hand, after some failed attempts at hitting at nothing, the group of five kobolds that were tasked with striking at a nightmare realized that it wasn’t much but an illusion either and quickly ran to circle the frost giant as well, increasing the amount of people committed to the vaguely pathetic standoff. The bottle-throwers, on the other hand, were packing up snowballs now, their bottles of urine having been lost in the torrent of spiritual energies that none wanted to encroach upon. With their enemy shrouded, they could only help their leader by tossing snowballs at the spirits that rushed at him, which appeared to be illusory as well.

In that case then, was the frost giant too, in some way, shape or form, an illusion? Sighting his target and squaring himself off, the kobold leader shot the giant in the foot, where the shield wouldn’t so easily cover. That monster had appeared out of nowhere, after all. Who’s to say there wasn’t another layer of deception here?

Connie, meanwhile, was pulled into the power of her mystic artifact, the Eye of Fear drawing her into its kaleidoscope of macabre terrors. Through the darkness, she began to see, no, feel something. The dampness of the air, the stench of sewage, the coldness of brick and moss. Goblins chattering happily alongside kobolds, as a river of refuse trickled down beside the two. A bonfire in a barrel, crackling bright. The yellow fat of sewered rats, popping and cracking in the heat. Something slithering by in the corner of her eye.

The vision changed.

Screams and fire, a walls of stone covered by scaled tendrils as a maw brimming with tombstone teeth rotated with the shrieking of a blender. Everything was mixed in, pounded and pulverized into indistinguishable sludge. The goblins ran and ran, scrambling into crevices, hiding holes. The kobolds ran further, farther, too large to fit. A group of sixty, picked off by the monstrosity of mouths and fingers. Gunpowder ignited, burst, to no effect. Traps, pitfalls, rockfalls, scattered with no efficacy. They scrambled away, all of them, stumbling over each other until…

A ladder. Upwards. Daylight. Silence.

The vision ended.

It was right about now that Hilde wished she had more physical prowess. Her problem was more likely that she didn’t know what she was doing when confronted with a group. The spirit she’d summoned was getting surrounded as the illusions were apparently being ignored. She considered dismissing the giant when it was shot to make them believe that perhaps everything was fake, but that may or may not help them. Probably should have fought numbers with numbers from the beginning. Too late now. The giant flinched at getting shot but remained standing. Neither side apparently moving meant they were both waiting for the other to make a mistake. Very well.

It was clear that the others were taking orders from the leader. Too many of them had surrounded the giant at this point though for him to break away. Having the superior reach the giant would advance to the right and take a mighty swing at the kobolds on that side. The branch whistled through the air.

Connie gasped repeatedly as she tried to catch her breath. She was still quite shaken up after experiencing the horrible vision her mystic artifact had provided, but she knew that now was not the time to give in to her fear. Her friend needed her, and so too did the kobolds. At least, if any of the remaining creatures wished to survive the night. Shuddering briefly, Connie took a deep breath and focused on the horrific creature the Eye of Fear had shown her. Gathering her magic once more, she fired a third nightmare pulse at the remaining kobolds, making particularly sure to hit their leader. With any luck, they would break and run, without the creature manifesting physically. If it did, she could only hope that her friend would be able to deal with it…

A cry of terror, followed by another, as the kobolds stopped, a couple of them battered away by the frost giant’s swing but more of them paralyzed by a creature that only they could see. One dropped their weapon, then another, and soon they scrambled away, tripping over themselves to retreat, abandoning all their possessions in their terrified flight. Only the purple-robed kobold, frozen stiff, remained. His arms fell to his side, his eyes dead.

Not figuratively, not metaphorically, but literally.

Before Connie and Raven’s eyes, a tendril of a pulsating green-brown extended outwards from the kobold’s chest as his own form seemed to shrivel up, shrinking like a juice box in a child’s hands. The tendril grew, extending further and further, until it formed a spherical, egg-like shape as well, bulging veins thrumming against a translucent shell that cracked open to reveal a mouth of tombstone teeth. They ground together with the roar of a chainsaw, as more tendrils popped out of bubbling boils upon the egg’s surface, spearing into the backs of the kobolds and sucking in more substance, more nightmarish substance for itself. What shrivelled remains were tossed into the grinder-maw, scales and skin turned to dust in seconds, half the kobolds turning to nutrition in the blink of an eye.

Five more remained though, running haphazardly away. If Connie and Raven wanted to retreat now, this was their cue.

What the... where had that come from? The kobolds fleeing as others of their kind were ground up, Hilde took the opportunity to get some distance and teleport back over to Connie. The frost giant would disappear and some of the magic used to form it would return to the girl. "Is that you? Should I be seeing it if it is?" She would peek around a tree to keep and eye on the thing.

“I-I’m s-sorry!” Connie stammered. “I d-didn’t k-know w-what else t-to do! I s-saw h-how t-their l-leader w-was m-making them s-stay, s-so I t-tried to f-find s-something t-that he was a-afraid of, a-and, u-umm, w-well… I’m r-really s-sorry…” she trailed off as she nervously peeked around the tree to take a quick look at the monstrosity she’d inadvertently unleashed. “C-Can y-you, u-umm, t-try to k-kill it w-with o-one of your s-spirits, H-Hilde?” she asked her friend plaintively.

Hilde would try and get a better idea of the thing that was now in the kobold encampment. Mainly if something in particular might perhaps harm it over throwing swords or what have you.

The kobolds, exposed out in the open with no convenient tunnels to turn down into, had no place to escape. One by one by one, they were speared and devoured, the horrifying creature becoming more substantial with every new prey. It sank down once the last of them were devoured, before the egg itself began hardening, the translucent shell turning opaque as tendrils near the base of the profane creation drove itself deep into the earth.

And then, very faintly, Hilde could hear the sound of snow turning to fog, melting and then evaporating in the area around the egg.

That didn’t sound good. ”Connie, stay hidden.” Hilde took to the skies again to get an aerial view. It should be easier to see from overhead even with the snow melting. This thing spawned from nowhere. Maybe it had some spirit like aspect to it that she could take advantage of using her own magic. That was just a hope given it looks like it had some tombstone looking teeth.

From a bird’s eye view, Hilde could see that the air around the strange shell was wavering, heat emanating from it and causing the snow to evaporate. The egg looked to be inactive now, but with the snow gone, she could see that the grass underneath was withering, while the earth seemed to be sucked dry of all its moisture. A drumbeat, a heartbeat, began to pound from within the nightmare-spawned sphere, and at the very base, the spirit mage could see that more tendrils, slimmer than the ones that had speared those kobolds, were extending out. They entwined with each other, solidifying into rope-like roots that surged deeper underground.

Strangely enough, or perhaps expectedly enough though, her spirit magic couldn’t sense it at all. This creation was soulless, empty on the inside, but whether that was because of its magical origins or because of its nature was a question that Hilde couldn’t easily answer.

Okay. So the thing was heating up and looked like an egg. That meant it was incubating right? So they just needed to disrupt that. That sounded about as good as any plan at the moment. Landing outside the reach of the tendrils she began spawning more of the frigid spirits from before. Not having the giant to take up her magical output she could create dozens of them. Circling around the egg they began to change the flow of the air and suck in more of the winter’s chill. It might just slow the thing down. Then again with time and effort she might be able to freeze the thing. She wasn’t really sure.

Meanwhile, Connie huddled in her hiding place behind the trees, occasionally peaking around to see how her friend was faring. This was her fault. She knew that with dreadful certainty. She had only wanted to make the kobolds flee, to keep them from getting killed… But it had all been for nothing, and now, a terrible monstrosity had been unleashed upon the world…

If… If only I had been stronger… the anguished girl lamented. Maybe I could have controlled it… Made it stop, before it… Before it… she shuddered as the kobolds’ horrific deaths replayed in her mind. Holding her head in her hands she started to sob bitterly. “W-Why m-me?! W-Why d-did I have to g-get this h-horrible p-power?! I-I’m n-not… I-I’m n-not s-strong enough t-to c-control it!” she whimpered. “I-I’ll n-never be s-strong enough…”

But you are, Empress, a voice sounded in her mind. You are.

Connie instantly recognized it as the voice of her Patron, the Lord of Nightmares. She had never thought, never dared, to ask before, but perhaps it could help…

“I-I’m s-sorry f-for a-asking, b-but h-how? I-I’m s-so s-scared! I-It w-was b-bad enough in t-that v-vision, b-but now t-that it’s r-real…”

YOU ARE THE EMPRESS OF NIGHTMARES!!! her Patron boomed. Think, Empress! How do you suppose it remains in this world? Who is giving it life?

That’s right… Connie realized. All the kobolds are dead… There shouldn’t be anything left to fuel its existence… It should have disappeared… Unless...! she gasped with sudden understanding. “M-Me! W-When I s-saw that v-vision, I g-got scared too! T-That’s why it’s s-still here! I-It’s drawing its p-power f-from me!”

Yes, Empress… Very good… the Lord of Nightmares commended. Now you know what you must do. Put away the coward’s heart, and become the ruler I’ve chosen you to be. That creature is your creation, command it as the Empress you are.

“B-But…!”

No… The Lord of Nightmares is right… Only I can do this. I have to become stronger… Connie resolved with newfound determination. I will become stronger! No more hiding! My friend is in trouble, and I’m going to save her!

And in that moment of beautiful resolve, Connie felt something wet slither around her ankle. A tendril of flesh, bubbling up as it gained more mass! Tiny pinpricks of pain shot into her foot, ankle, calf, and more of the earth around her ruptured. Lethargy and numbness began to weigh down on her, both her blood and magical energy being drawn in by the tentacle molded around her leg. And it was growing.

She was the source of power for the nightmare she had spawned, and now, it would seek to secure her.

In the distance, Hilde’s magic seemed to definitely be making the area around the egg colder. Snow that once turned to vapour condensed once more, damp dew settling over the aberrant egg’s surface, where it transitioned between frost and dewdrops over and over. No tangible effects manifested, however, and from her own vantage point, the egg appeared to be dormant still, unmoving and unreactive, merely growing.

Nothing, really? Alright let’s see about this then. The smaller spirits would begin to coalesce together at the base of the egg, concentrating the cold to an extreme and working to freeze the inky roots that anchored it to the ground. This thing needed to be dislodged from whatever it was trying to do.

Clearly Hilde wasn't taking this seriously enough and letting things just happen. That summed up her for the most part actually. “Oh no, let me just try this little thing and, eh.” With that in mind she would keep the freezing up while drawing on more of her magic to summon another giant, this one armed. In its hands was a great hammer. The head was massive and probably weighed as much as a smart car. Against small targets it would not be an ideal weapon, but for something this large it should work. The warrior would close in hefting its boulder smashing implement. Coming in with a wide swing the creature would slam the side of the egg with straight blunt force.

“Eeek!” Connie yelped as the tendril wrapped itself around her lower leg. In addition to the admittedly minor pain, she felt as though all her strength was being sucked out of her. She began to feel tired, no, utterly exhausted, and she found herself seriously contemplating simply lying down and taking a nap. This was terrible! She had just mustered the courage to go and save her friend, and now she was the one who needed saving! She really was worthless…

A part of her, a very large part, if we’re being honest, wanted to close her eyes and keep them closed forever. Or, rather, she wanted to open them, and prove that everything she had gone through over these past few months had merely been a dream, some horrible nightmare that she had finally awakened from. Nothing good had come from being a magical girl, only pain, suffering, and disappointment. For her, and now, for others as well… But, no… That wasn’t really true, was it? Yes, there had been some unpleasantness, a lot of unpleasantness, but there had also been good things as well. She had made new friends, lots of new friends, and for their sake, she couldn’t give up now.

Opening her eyes, and fixing her gaze firmly on the tentacle clinging to her, Connie knelt down and took hold of it with both hands. Squeezing it tightly, far more tightly than it was squeezing her, she dug her fingers deep into its slimy flesh. It felt disgusting, to be sure, but Connie pushed through her discomfort. She could do this. She had to. A dark aura of amethyst energy began to surround her, and the gem upon her forehead glowed brightly, as she poured all her mystic power into the tendril. It surged with the force of a pressure hose, until it had filled the entirety of the horrific monstrosity she had brought into existence.

“A-All right, you m-monster!” Connie shouted at the creature with all the strength she could muster. “I c-created you, so y-you’re g-gonna do as I say! I just w-wanted you to s-scare them off, b-but you had to go and k-kill them! Y-You’ve caused enough trouble, so I’m s-sending you back where you c-came from! ‘C-Cause I am the E-Empress of Nightmares, and you will obey me!”

With that, Connie reversed the flow of her power. Now, she was sucking the mystical energy back into herself, with all the force of a quantum singularity. Predictably, the creature tried to resist, but Connie was having none of it. When it struggled to free itself, spikes of nightmare magic drove ever deeper into the very fiber of its being. Its opponent was no longer a pitiful frightened girl. Connie’s fear had given way to a new emotion: anger. Because of her, the kobolds had died horrible deaths, and she refused to allow anyone else to suffer their fate. The monstrosity growing before her may have been mighty, but it was just a monster, and she was The Empress of Nightmares.

It didn’t stand a chance.

The tendrils climbed up further, desperate to sap in more energy from its creator than the creator could from it, but each needle that pricked into Connie’s flesh only formed another avenue for her to recall her own magic. The monster, no matter how terrifying, how destructive, was but a phantom of a dreamer’s fitful night. Like smoke, the tendrils that had climbed up over the Empress of Nightmare’s body dissipated, while the egg seemed to lose its substance as well.

Hilde’s giant swung its hammer down, and egg, silent and no longer releasing heat, burst into shadowy gas as well. No resistance, nor reaction. The park now, was empty, bereft of all but the signs of the monsters that once inhabited this wretched place.

It was over.

The giant’s foe suddenly vanishing left it swinging into nothing and impacting the ground. It looked around for a moment, almost disappointed that it had been brought in to fight only to lose its quarry. ”Eh?” Hilde would look around for anything that might indicate where it went. Maybe Connie ran out of magic or something, or the smack just knocked it back out of reality.

Turning her attention to her friend she would run over. ”Hey Connie, are you alright?” She would yell while still keeping an eye out.

“H-Hilde?” Connie asked with some confusion. She was still a little stunned by what she had just accomplished, and so it took her a moment to fully refocus herself on what her friend was asking. “Y-Yeah… I-I t-think so…” her voice trailed off, before she gave a sudden gasp. “Oh my gosh! H-Hildebell! Y-You’re okay!” she exclaimed happily as she leapt to her feet and embraced her friend. “I did it! I r-really did it! I s-stopped the monster! I-I m-made it go away! Oh, gosh! I c-can’t wait to tell Mia! Oh, b-but you were really cool, too!” she continued, being far too excited to even stop for a breath. “Y-You made that s-scary giant thing, a-and all those other things, and, oh gosh, d-did y-you want to come home with me and t-tell Mia about it?! S-She makes r-really yummy hot chocolate!” Connie added, while bouncing up and down with glee. “W-We could h-have some together!”

Well, they accomplished the goal in perhaps the most inefficient and potentially disastrous way possible. But the job was done. With the threat confirmed gone she dismissed the sulking giant and other spirits. Putting her hands on her head she let out a baited sigh. "Well, I'm glad you were able to get control of your magic. I think we both still have a lot to learn about this business." It would be a bit before her adrenalin would come down, but already she was beginning to notice the cold again. Shivering and holding Connie close she would agree happily. "Yeah, we have q-quite a story. And hot chocolate sounds amazing right now! I'm freezing, hang on while I get us out of here." Gripping Connie's hand she would look off in the direction of "home" and teleport them off. Damn winter.

It had been a few days since the contract business with Cindy had been taken care of but once again Penny found herself once again drifting back into deeper depths of Beacon HQ. The twins, (Read: Jenna) had wanted to talk to Penny about her most recent change. The robot girl could see where it was they were coming from, she had gone quite ballistic at the mention of Chloe after all, but she also knew that they had the wrong idea as to why. Granted convincing them of that was going to be difficult, as she was planning on keeping part of the truth secret, but that’s what she was here for.

That and seeing how they’ve settled in, the past week and a half had been quite the frantic one on Beacons end and they hadn't really had the chance to touch base with each other all that often. Not counting the Cindy thing at any rate.

Expecting the mechanical girl, the twins were waiting when Penny arrived. It felt like ages since they’d just met to talk. And even now it wasn’t something all that normal. Still they stepped up and each gave Penny a big hug. ”Thanks for coming.” They had set up a room by the entrance so they could sit and talk. It had obviously been inspired by those that Beacon had set up at HQ not long ago. Though Jenna only provided three seats in this case, presumably to prevent Penny from sitting on the far side of the room.

“Anytime” Penny would reply as she happily returned the hugs.

Seated, Janet would speak up. ”How are you doing Penny? I didn’t really get the chance to ask about anything last time we met. I kind of hogged all the attention” She joked a bit regarding her own situation.

“No worries” Penny would say as she took a seat as well, never realizing the limited seating might be connected to her prior actions “I'm guilty of doing the same from time to time after all” She would joke back, because if there was anyone in Beacon that had caused more situations where everything had to be put on hold it so that things could be talked over it was likely Penny. After all there were still conversations going around about the fact that she was a Monstergirl in Beacon, not that she cared about such anymore.

“And I’m doing well, still working out a few bugs that cropped up due to the reintegration, but nothing major. How about yourselves? Outside of the whole contract business that is” she would say as she leaned back into the chair to get comfortable.

Jenna would shake her head a bit. "It's mostly been work as usual, if such a thing exists anymore. We've kind of locked ourselves into Beacon's R&D department. Not really sure how successful our efforts have been though." She was surely referring to the White Coin and the war that's started. They had made a rather sudden leap into the forefront of purification magic seemingly out of nowhere. Penny had been their first subject and the magical coin had seemingly failed in some capacity. To some extent they wanted to know why, but more importantly they were concerned for their friend since she had remained a monster girl. That should not have happened and there was always the potential things at Beacon could go sideways.

“I’d say that you’ve been plenty successful” Penny would counter “I mean you’ve upgraded the Spark, and there are at least three new members that we’ve gotten that are directly because of your creation.” She would go on to say, thinking of all the girls who have been given a second chance due to the White Coin like Kimble and Hyun.

“What’s got you thinking that it’s not been helpful?”

”Well, not that it hasn’t been helpful. I guess we expected it to make a bigger impact. We were probably just hoping for too much.” She would huff a bit. ”But yeah, We haven’t been able to do much else with what happened at the rave. We’ve been working to get the ShineSpark out to as many of our sisters as we can. This is a welcome break let me tell you.” Jenna would lean forward and prop her chin in her hands. The two didn’t look exhausted, they rarely did because of their magic, but they were probably pretty mentally and emotionally drained.

“Considering that apparently people have already tried to steal one of the Coins I think the impact has been rather impressive” Penny would point out “But I’m glad you’ve been able to get a break, burnout doesn’t sound like it would be very fun at the moment”

Nodding a bit Janet seemed to consider something for a moment but then set it aside. She could ask that later. ”So, we were really curious how you’ve been doing. Obviously you’ve gone through another change. We had actually been working on something to try and put your soul back together but I guess you found another way.” She changed the subject back over to why they had invited Penny over in the first place.

“I’ve been doing better than I have for a long time, to be honest. Not entirely sure how much of it is being back in one piece and how much of it is due to the Red Coin but I’ve been doing really good since I used it.” Penny would answer, a soft smile on her face as she did so. “And sorry about not being able to talk to you two about it beforehand, the deadline for it very suddenly got brought forward. I’m just glad that I had talked to Binky about my idea as early as I did.”

”Ah, so you used a red coin. Hm… I guess Binky is better at making them than we are anyway. We kind of picked it up from her. If things go well we are hoping to learn some things from Cindy as well. Even though she’s never had our magic before she’d overseen a lot. We’re still trying to figure out how to break the news to Beacon that she’s in my head.” And right back off track. Janet in particular had been having a little trouble concentrating. Her new duality while stable, was still a bit unsettling. Still she’d wanted to do it so there was no one to blame but herself.

“Well Alicia knows, so it’s not like the leader of our branch isn’t aware.” Penny would say with a shrug, not really sure if anyone else in Beacon needed to know of the Cindy copy riding shotgun in Janet’s mind, but at the same time it wasn’t really Penny’s prerogative if Janet wanted to tell more people about it.

“But yeah, Binky modified a Red Coin at my request. If it hadn't been such a rush I would have been willing to bring more people into it. But no adverse effects so far so I’m just going to count my blessings and not worry about it” She would go one to explain trying to pull the conversation slightly back on track, as the meandering thought processes hadn’t gone completely unnoticed.

Jenna reached over and put an arm around Janet to comfort her a bit. ”Been wondering for a while now, there just hasn’t been a good time to talk. And I hope you don’t mind me asking. Why is it you think that you’re still a monster girl? Not that it really matters but the White Coin should have taken that away.” She smiled slightly. The fact that it didn’t work really didn’t bother them beyond potentially making a mistake. Which given they’d had full knowledge and a lifetime’s worth of experience just handed to them she couldn’t see how that happened. Of course they never actually told anyone that. Too dangerous. To let that information slip. They were already a bit miffed that the coins had been treated so casually.

“No worries” Penny would say brushing aside the fear that it might have been a sensitive subject “I’d wondered about that myself so makes sense that you’d be curious as well” Leaning forward she’d rest her elbows on her knees Snoopy would pop out, giving Janet and Jenna a happy beep, before floating in between them all. “Now, I’m not fully sure if this is why, but I do have a theory.” Snoopy would begin projecting a holographic set of blueprints of what was recognizably Penny back when she first joined Beacon, granted most of the technical information was scrubbed out, but it was a more detailed look at how Penny was put together then most people ever saw.

“This is how I used to be, in fact this is how I was when I first woke up in the magical world.” She would say gesturing at the image of her past self “And this is how I was before using the White Coin” As she spoke a second image would appear alongside the first one. Over all there wasn’t much of a difference, just the addition of more components. “Doesn’t seem like much, but here's the kicker”

In the second image a majority of Penny’s chassis would be highlighted in different colors. Her spider limbs and a small part of her torso colored purple. The rest of her torso was still colored blue, with another small portion of it colored white. From there however, the vast majority of Penny’s construction was painted white, with only her head and the upper parts of her arms remaining in blue.

“All the areas in white were metal that was donated to me by Beacon, or Beacon assisted in their installation.” Penny would explain so that the twins could have an understanding of what it was she was showing them “And as I learned the hard way I didn’t have the magical capability to fully integrate metal into my systems until recently. So all of the discolored parts still held the magical nature of who had enchanted it originally. Overall only about thirty eight percent of my construction could have been considered corrupted at least from a magical perspective. So when I used the White Coin and it purified my corruption it was left with this” She would gesture again leaving only the white highlighted areas, an obvious majority of Penny’s body “And built off of that”

The girls would watch as Penny attempted to explain. It didn’t really help that they didn’t entirely grasp where a majority of the additions came from. Evidently the mechanical girl would just go around taking whatever she could. Looking up and over Penny carefully things would at least look more cohesive. ”I would refrain from trying to add any more corrupted additions. That’s probably what partly lead to your split as the ShineSpark will try and reject them. Kind of hard to say since we don’t have two halves anymore to know for sure. But that’s not really a bad thing, right? The Red Coin probably more evenly distributed things so it’s not so much of a strain. But the purification of the coin is only meant to work at its use.” She would explain. They really hadn’t gone much into how the thing worked with anyone so there was bound to be hiccups like this.

Janet would speak up, having become distracted by the subject at hand. ”We can purify parts you bring in though. That way you won’t have to worry about conflicting systems and magic. That should make them safe to use. The ShineSpark is a pretty potent thing.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if that was part of the reason for the split.” Penny would agree, she also knew that it was because she wanted to get away from Jason and his self destructive mindset but voicing that would require explaining about Jason and that wasn’t something that she was planning on today, if ever. “And I’m planning on performing more complete cleansings of any more metal I plan on integrating now that I can, but I’ll definitely bring the mats here before doing anything as well.”

”Other Reinforcement girls should be able to do it as well. Light too but it might take longer. They won’t do it as well as we can though.” She would wink playfully. ”I’m just glad you’re safe. You worry us you know.”

“Hmm, wonder if Ishtar would be willing to cleanse things as well. Would be interesting to see if she adds anything interesting to the mix” Penny would muse aloud thinking about the recordings of the trial that had happened. Thankful that she had been preoccupied when all of that was happening, as she would have stormed in consequences be damned, and things would have devolved. “I’ll have to ask her once they’ve finished healing her up” She would say with a shrug before pushing the thought aside for the time
She noted.

Penny couldn’t help the wry smile that broke across her face as she went over the last statement “I worried myself. Before the Split I knew there was something wrong with the way I was going about things, but there wasn’t much I could do to stop myself, got stuck in a loop as it were. The Split just made it so much more obvious, still a bit chilling to think back on it.” She would give an exaggerated shiver, because it was true, yet it was no longer a worry to the android. “Another bit of silver lining to it I suppose”

"That's the spirit." Jenna would beam. It was clear she was trying to keep things on the rails for her sister.

Janet frowned slightly at the mention of the Cardinal. They had been brought to the park to try and protect her and things went spiraling out of control. When she herself passed out they even left the battlefield. They were excused for such given the circumstances but they hadn’t heard much about her condition since learning she’d been recovered. ”They’re still working on the curse?”

“Last I heard yeah, though I’ve not kept too close an eye on it, been focused on other things as of later” Penny would reply with a shrug.

Jenna would nudge her sister ”Hey now.” She would reign in her sister a bit. ”Stop moping. We’re not done yet.”

Janet would sigh before sitting up. She would close her eyes for a moment and shake a bit. A little hard to say what was going on in her head but she seemed to relax a bit. ”You’re right. We’ll see what happens either way. Hm…” Her eyes would wander a bit before settling on Penny. ”We’ve been debating telling Beacon about Cindy. She’s no longer corrupted and we have the contract so she shouldn’t be a direct threat. I know for a fact she wants to get back to the sanctuary you’ve made, but that could look bad if we leave our post here and go ‘join the enemy’ so to speak. What do you think? Any good ideas?”

“She told you about that I see” Leaning back and crossing her arms Penny would take a moment to consider the question posed to her, Snoopy had shifted to simply floating around looking at things in curiosity. “I wouldn’t risk Cindy going back just yet.” She would say after a moment “A lot of the girls there are still recovering. Even though you guys wouldn’t turn on them Beacon is something of a touchy subject there due to the Ascendency. I don’t think it would end well, especially if Cindy shows up.”

“I might be able to set up a way for you all to get in touch with Goblina however. She was Cindy’s second and has been a great help in keeping the place safe.” She would offer up as an alternative “She’d know best at the moment how the mood would be if any of you showed up, but that would require telling her about Cindy.” Which was something Penny had already done, she had given her word that she would do everything in her power to find out what happened to Cindy after all.

Raising a hand up to her face Janet would appear to be thinking. It wasn’t but a few seconds after that a pale blue light rippled its way down her body. Penny had been there for the contract’s creation. However, at the time the look hadn’t been decide so this would be the first chance Penny had to see it. ”Penny, I’m glad you’ve come to visit. I assume you’ve been talking about me.” Jenna didn’t seem to react all that much so she was either getting used to this back and forth or perhaps expected this might happen.

“Not quite” Penny would say, giving CIndy’s new look an appreciative once over “We were talking about my home, and how it might not be the best idea for you to go visiting it again just yet.” She would answer plainly.

“Most of the people there are still dealing with the shockwaves of your death after all”

”No?” She would ponder for a minute. Her death would surely cause quite a lot of disruption. Especially depending on if there was a struggle for power. ”I do not like this sitting and waiting of yours, but I will at least try and learn from my mistakes.” Drumbing her fingers a few times she would stare at Penny for a while. Her gaze would eventually drift over to Jenna.

”What?”

Cindy shook her head. ”Pondering…” She would let that hang in the air for a bit. Jenna herself didn’t have a response right away. ”If things have not completely fallen apart at your home then I would say inform Goblina of the circumstances. I trust that she will know what to do. Just be sure it’s her as the one that had come with me to the park had been a Mint agent. The twins here worry more about Beacon and how they will see the situation. A fair point with the Ascendancy present in the city.”

“I didn’t say sit and wait, just going to the Sanctuary might not be the best idea. I’ve stepped into the void that your death caused, but there are plenty of girls there that have not come to terms with your death. Your appearance will more than likely destabilize the peace that is slowly growing.” Penny would explain to Cindy, more resigned to the fact that there was no way to keep it from Janet and Jenna, not because she didn’t trust them, but because she didn’t want to also implicate them in her blatant heresy any more than she already had.

“Additionally, you’re going to need to find a way to hide your Sparks. As Beacon can track us by them, I have a way to hide mine but it isn’t one that will work for you. Until then it is just dangerous for any of you to go there. Especially because of the Ascendency.”

Jenna had expected that Penny had been working outside the bounds of Beacon, but not quite that deep. The idea of hiding their Spark must have struck some chord because she paled a bit. ”What on earth have you been doing?”

Narrowing her eyes at Jenna, Cindy would speak slowly. ”Hm, don’t know your friends as much as you thought? Such things would be unnecessary if we were left alone by your patron.”

“Not that’s hardly fair to them” Penny would rebuke gently “Beacon isn’t a bad group, and Alicia is aware of what I am doing. It’s the Ascendency that I am hiding from. I will not invite genocide onto those that are simply seeking a safe place to rest”

“To answer your question Jenna, I have an artifact that cloaks things from magical detection. Due to my nature I can afixit inside of me. That’s how I’ve been keeping mine hidden, and why it wouldn’t work for you.”

Jenna could have reacted much more poorly to learning about this, she wanted to, but that would tip her hand a bit more than she wanted. ”That actually didn’t answer my question, but okay.” She covered her face for a moment before groaning. ”And here I thought we were being paranoid about things.”

“Oh” Penny would say blinking a few times as she replayed the question in her head. She had thought that Janet and Jenna had figured it out already considering their nonreaction, especially since Cindy had told them about the Sanctuary. Penny had called out what she had been planning on last time they met up after all.

“I’m running the Sanctuary.” Penny would clarify turning back to Jenna “I’ve become Queen effectively and I’m not being that paranoid about it. I mean I’ve told people about it after all”

”Not me. Not my sister. We want to help. We shouldn’t have to learn about this stuff from other people or because Janet managed to perform a brain transplant.” Speaking of, off to the side Cindy changed back to Janet, armor and all. Glancing between the two she seemed content to just listen.

“I never told you guys directly because it is in direct violation of the Vows, and you guys have been put on trial enough as it is” Penny would counter running a hand down her face “Besides I kinda thought you guys had figured it out already. I did kinda throw it in Cindy’s face what I had planned on doing.”

"Alright, we’re not getting anywhere with this." Janet would cut in, once again deescalating the scene. ”It is a moot point now. Eventually the cat is going to be out of the bag that Cindy and I share a body. It’s likely that people on both sides will be unhappy with that considering we’re not immediately trying to kill one another. If you think you have the Sanctuary under control then that just leaves avoiding Excommunication. I for one believe being upfront with Beacon is more likely to work rather than hiding her.”

“I have it for now. Not everyone there is fully trusting of me and I don’t blame them, Mint assassinated Cindy; they have a right to be shaken.” Penny would say “And while being upfront with Beacon is likely for the best, I don’t think many people outside of Alicia and perhaps your Beckoner need to fully know. The Ascendency would love to corner Cindy to try and pull information out of her after all.”

”That’s what the contract is for. It may be an all or nothing gamble, but I can’t stand to see innocents getting hurt. They don’t all deserve to be demonized the way they are.” She paused briefly. She almost continued but thought better than to say what she had in mind out loud.

“And I agree with that” Penny would start the moment Janet stopped “It's why I built the Sanctuary in the first place. It’s why I stepped up when Cindy got taken out. Thing is, the change can’t come from just the outside. Alicia, and you two, have done a lot more than I have to change Beacon from within. The fact that I am here is proof of that. It’s also why I’m urging caution on your ends. I’m more expendable, as I am a monster girl, them not trusting me is not going to go away in only one year. Especially with my track record.”

“But if you guys and Alicia will be able to make a lot longer lasting impact from within while I work on the stuff from the outside.”

Janet would nod. ”That is the idea. We just need Cindy on board enough not to snap at people. She’s been getting better about bossing Jenna around. Not really sure if it was our conversation or the Twinned Soul kicking in.”

”I’ve told her everything I knew about the rave. Which was the main thing she wanted to know about once she was done trying to kill me. Do you think you have any more details you could show her about that. It’s really the most tragic thing to happen to both sides.”

“It's kinda a mess all together.” Penny would say with a shrug “Chloe was behind the tainted music, Eden set off a WMD, and a non Beacon member retaliated with a large scale barrage. Outside of that I know that the Monster Queen responsible for cloaking the place got purified, so she might have a bit more information, that and apparently Eden was still looking for Cindy later that night but that’s about all I can think of.” She would explain rather calmly, save for the growl that came with mentioning Chloe.

”When did the Ascendancy move in?”

“After they confirmed Elvira was there, but that wasn’t until the music had started playing. They set up the barrier once they had people in already.” Penny would answer “Not that that excuses them, they still went in with the intention of purging everyone”

Janet would roll her eyes. Always with their purging. Still they hadn’t gone in until after things were getting riled up. ”Suppose I’m looking for information of why they went in, which was as you said. It was obviously to lure as many Beacon as possible in order to kill them. Really wish they hadn’t been attacking everyone like that.” Stopping to think for a while Janet would close her eyes. She didn’t want to present a false narrative to Cindy. That would undermine the cooperation they’d established. ”I hate to ask, but did you see our sisters fall from Eden’s attack? What about the other girls from the lightning?”

Penny would slowly tense at that request. Her eyes gained a distant look as she recalled the events that happened only a short time ago. “Yes to both” she would say, her voice slightly flat as she spoke “I had Snoopy inside during both events. So I got footage of it all. I was even at one of the locations struck by the lightning retaliation. So there is that as well”

Jenna would shoot a look of concern at her sister. ”You’re not thinking of showing Cindy that are you? She already believes it was orchestrated. She may be mad that her people were used, but the Ascendancy still attacked.”

Nodding slowly Janet would confirm on both accounts. ”You are correct. And we know from reports that Eden was looking for Cindy after the massacre. Whether the mastermind was Eden, the Penrose Independant, The Mint, or someone else, once Cindy is back out in the open someone is going to try and spin the narrative to get her to side with them. Penny was with our forces before it all started so she can give a full picture of the events. Cindy has been lied to and manipulated to start a war. She should know what actually happened because it will be challenged.” She glanced at Penny to see what she thought.

“It was Mint, or at the very least that is what me and Goblina both agree on” Penny would say after a moment of thinking. “I have footage of Goblina at the Rave, but when I got to the sanctuary that night her first question to me was where Cindy was. As she had been knocked out before ever making it there” She would explain “And Cindy is already aware of how things went at the Rave to at least some degree. She asked me about it already, back before the contract was brought up.”

“Granted it wasn’t much more than a quick recap with a few pictures courtesy of Snoopy. So a full debrief might not be a bad idea. As would telling Goblina. Because with me having taken Cindy’s place whoever is trying to manipulate her is likely going to go through those that cared for if they can”

”Ah, I wasn’t aware you discussed that already. That makes things easier then as it won’t be as much of a shock. Like I said though, I don’t want to be the point which is hiding things from her and we end up with an even bigger problem. You ready?” If there was no objection then Cindy would tag back in.

”You have something to show me?”

“Yeah” Penny would reply, resisting the urge to rub the back of her neck “We kinda touched on it already, but we thought it would be best to give you the full picture of what went on at the Rave after you left. Someone worked to manipulate you, and the best way to counter that is with facts” She would say as Snoopy floated in between them, already projecting the start of the night from Penny’s point of view “So, The Rave, in all the detail I can. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll answer what I can”

At first Cindy looked a bit surprised that they were going to show her the event. Thus far she’d been content with Penny confirming what she’d been told as true. However, Janet must have concluded that the risk of potentially losing her trust outweighed any harm seeing all that transpired. The emotional rollercoaster didn’t show on her face as she watched silently. It could be sensed though as the static charge in the room built. The music starting, the Ascendancy moving in and taking out those she swore to protect. The sudden deaths of the Beacon girls gave her a slight pause. Then the lightning dragon coming in and cleaning out most everyone else.

She glanced over at Jenna from time to time who was also seeing this herself for the first time. Nearly all of it seemed to distress the girl which was not the response she’d expected. Especially at the end, most Beacon would see that as retribution. She had scooted further away to avoid getting shocked though as electricity had begun to arc from the lightning girl. Turning back to Penny she would query. ”Whom was it that summoned the dragon down upon the warehouse?”

Seeing Jenna scoot to avoid getting zapped Penny would exert a small amount of her own magic, turning her into a lighting rod for any of the stray arcs that were a bit too out of hand. At the same time she would shrug “I don’t know” She would answer plainly “Snoopy didn’t have eyes on whoever it was, and by the time the lightning was done I had already ordered him to leave and to meet up with me. I know that they weren’t Beacon, as the Lightning was Blessed, but other than that I have no clues.”

”I see. Thank you for showing me this. I understand that a Monster Queen was purified by a White Coin. That makes her part of Beacon now yes?” A great number of things were running through her head at that moment. She very much wanted to be out and fighting to defend her people.

“Hyun” Penny would inform her with a nod “I’ve not had a chance to get to know her, but yeah the use of a White Coin replaces the prior Patron bond with a Beacon one. As far as I am concerned she is free to leave if she wants, but, speaking from experience, Coins don’t work unless the user wants them too so I doubt that would be the case.” Snoopy would beep a few times before the holographic image shut off and the small drone would go back to floating around as it suited its fancy.

”Mmm.” She would look over at Jenna. ”And you and your sister are the architects of these coins?” It had been fairly obvious to her from the beginning, having first woken up in the lab with the coins. Though the twins had danced around the subject quite a bit.

Obviously uncomfortable with the subject Jenna squirmed a bit. ”Mostly, yes.”

Cindy would nod. ”Of course.” She would watch Jenna for a while before casually looking back at Penny. ”I must admit I am baffled by the Beacon of Penrose. Even the Ascendancy, who are known for their ruthless persecution of the “corrupted”, offered some kind of redemption to Hyun Long after slaughtering many others minutes before.”

“That’s because the Beckoners don’t all agree” Penny would explain scratching her head “I don’t know all of the details, but I do know that there is a division within the upper echelon” She would go on to say leaning back in her chair “I caught wind of it from my prior Patron, and I’m pretty sure which one is leaning in our direction as well. Just worried about the retaliation”

Cindy seemed to roll her eyes a bit. She had heard of the White Coins prior but didn’t give them much credence as they just made monster girls into Beacon. Presumably they would then turn around and attack their own. If there was some kind of ideological struggle for change then she was for it. Sounded as though the upheaval was in its infancy through and could very well collapse before any meaningful difference was made. Stroking her fingers down her chin slightly she would comment. ”Ishtar did indicate something of peace for the city. I dared not believe it meant more than purging us from Penrose.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Ishtar and Rachel share the same disagreements that the Beckoners do.” Would be the robot girls reply “And while I haven't talked with Ishtar I have talked with Rachel. While Ishtar is healing we will need to be careful of her. She is a zealot and an extremist, who I think has spent too long staring into the darker aspects of the magical world and has forgotten that it isn’t so black and white.”

Penny brought up an interesting point. Cindy would look over at Jenna. ”Does she merely need healing? I feel that Beacon should have the necessary resources to handle such a simple matter.” What exactly had happened to Ishtar had been lost on the girl. Just a bit too busy trying to survive herself.

Jenna shook her head. ”I’m not very familiar with how it works, but I’m pretty sure she was cursed. I wasn’t around to see how it all turned out in the end as I had to get Janet out after she passed out from your death.” It had been bad when she left and spread quickly. She could only assume it had gotten severe.

Curses were nasty things the old girl had seen several times. Proper ones designed to assassinate a target took time and preparation. If it had taken Beacon this long to heal the Cardinal then surely it was well advanced and complex. ”She is likely cursed for death then. That she still lives at all is a miracle. I have overseen removal of some lesser variants in the past. Death can only be delayed with sufficient healing.” Cindy seemed pretty sure about her statement. Beacon may yet still have something up their sleeve though. Cleansing and purification were their forte.

“Hard to say” Penny would muse “The Ascendency didn’t seem terribly worried about her chances once they got her back here so only time will tell at this point”

”Time we do not have if we wish to save ours from their hand.” She would say pointedly. Though Cindy had been shook before by her new circumstance, it didn’t appear to have made a long lasting impact to her cause or persona. She had sworn to protect her people. Penny’s remarks of her performance did have some effect though along with the twins. Charging in unprepared did not seem to be the direction Cindy was careening down anymore.

“I can agree to that, one of the reasons I took over as Queen after all” Would be the casual agreement. “Most of the focus has been internal as of late, while also working to make sure that those at the Sanctuary don’t try to lash out at Beacon or The Ascendency. Doing such isn’t helping anyone”

“On the upside they still don’t know where it is hidden away, and their assumptions are way off so that’s not a concern yet”

Relieved to hear that things were not as dire as she had feared Cindy seemed to relax a bit. What exactly to do next? There may not be a clear answer at this time. ”I am glad to hear that most have stayed safe. And I would like to… apologize for my initial outburst at you announcing your intent to challenge me. You have been nothing if not helpful at your own risk. It was not very becoming of me.” Admitting flaws was not something Cindy did often. It was fairly damaging of her image though and Penny had done a lot in assisting those under her charge.

“I wanted to challenge you because of the dangers I saw you drifting towards, not because I thought you didn’t care” Penny would say, accepting the apology with a kind smile. “The fact that you came to me asking to help set up more places like the Sanctuary told me that.” It also helped that, at least as far as Penny was aware, there hadn’t been anyone other than the two of them that had tried this. To set up a neutral area for the tainted to be safe, and not try to weaponize them in some capacity. Penny was always going to risk everything to keep such a thing safe, it was a dream she had inherited and one she fully planned on making come true.

“So don’t worry about it, I can see where you’re coming from.”

There was silence for a bit. Seemed there hadn’t been anything else lined up in Cindy’s head that she wanted to voice. It was clear that she was beginning to get restless. She may not have any particular mental thing pushing her anymore but it didn’t change how she was. ”Since the twins believe it best to talk with Beacon about Janet and I, how do you believe we should approach such a matter?”

“I…” Penny would sit back and think on that question. She never had to worry about them not knowing as one of the Beckoners called her out at the very start. “Alicia knows, I guess next would be to let the Beckoners know if they don’t already. After that I suppose you could just go about your business and only explain to people if they run across it. You could also schedule a small meet and greet?” It was kind obvious at this point that Penny was simply tossing out ideas. “That way the rest of Beacon would know and not freak if it happened in the midst of combat. Plus it would give you a chance to get to know some of the members of Beacon outside me and Alicia.”

Considering the advice, Jenna would nod. ”Not a bad idea. We will probably have to go through the Inquisitor though as she’s kind of running things to an extent. At least when it comes to talking with the Beaconers. Their hands are very full right now.”

Cindy would scowl. Rachel was a very sour subject with the lightning girl. The Ascendancy basically encapsulated the things that she despised about Beacon. Their holier than thou attitude and blatant disregard for the lives of people that by and large did nothing whatsoever other than exist. ”I very doubt she would assist us in any way.”

“Yeah I wouldn’t expect Rachel to be any help” Penny would agree with Cindy, as she held a lot of the same views on the Inquisitor. “Still might be able to put out a message on the Beacon servers and set it up that way. Talking to the Beckoners would be a good idea but not sure if it is a needed one. Especially if you have to go through the Ascendency to do it.”

“Could always try to contact your personal Beckoner and see if they could pass along the message.”

”We’ll consider it.” She sighed. ”It will be nice when we can go out and just do things again. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to plan things and help Janet and Cindy, and keep making the coins. Blah. I think we’re just too far down the rabbit hole for that though.” She would slump in her chair.

“Never too far down that once can’t start digging up” Penny would say offhandedly “And also just because me and others have given our opinion doesn’t mean that you can’t simply ignore them and go out and about.” She would offer up “Caging yourself isn’t always the right idea, even if it seems like it.”

Jenna stared at the ceiling for a while. Seemed to be considering something for a bit. The statement struck a chord. ”Well that’s ironic. We told Binky something like that. She always seemed afraid to leave. Guess she just didn’t trust us to keep her safe.” As she spoke Janet returned.

“Considering who she’s working with I’m not that surprised” Penny would reply with a sigh as Snoopy hovered around Janet, watching the transformation with a few curious beeps. “Vast majority of Beacon would have condemned her if they found out, plus there is the fact that there was the Outer Alliance that was also hunting for her. Lots of enemies and very few known people that she could trust.” Penny would shrug “Can’t say I don’t empathize with the situation”

Janet would nod in agreement. It was quite a list of people that would be after her. ”Yes indeed. Which begs to question, is she coming back any time soon?” Her tone wasn’t so much judgemental as it was perhaps concerned. Binky coming up missing wasn’t an unusual occurrence, however when it became clear she was no longer in the lab it warranted further investigation. ”A simple yes or no is fine.”

“No” Penny would answer “She’s fine, but she went back to the Cradle” It hadn't been her intention when she went off with Binky to have that happen, but more then once Penny had expressed the belief that Binky was free to leave if she wanted to. “Seems her girlfriend got abducted by Justine and she wants to free her” Which honestly made sense, but the fact that Beacon was working with Justine had Penny very wary. She doubted that it was a genuine alliance.

”Ah.” To some extent they had hoped not to know where the girl had gone. It was helpful information though. ”Only a matter of time before Veronica knows for certain that Jenna and I are the ones making the White Coins. The Beacon and purification components were not shared in detail so that is safe, not that they would have access to the things they would need to replicate it. We also eliminated any detail of Cindy before the clones could pass the information to Binky proper, though that will be a moot point eventually.” Pretty apparent Janet was going through potential issues and leaks that might arise from their colleague having gone back to the Cradle.

The twin’s attention was understandably redirected at the mention of Justine. There had been talk that the vampire girl was back in Penrose. By and large though they were unaware of things that had transpired though. They both might as well been staring holes through Penny for a moment though.

“In all likelihood Veronica knew for a while” Penny would comment, not really bothered by the laser like focus that was placed on her “She’s got free access to the thoughts of everyone in the Cradle at any time.”

She would wait a beat, to see if either of them would prefer the conversation about the Cradle, but seeing as they were still trying to bore into her head with their eyes Penny would shrug internally before having Snoopy project the image it had snagged of Justine at the Rave “I take it you weren’t aware of her being in the area?”

They both shook their heads. ”Not really. Do we know why she’s back?”

“Revenge” Would be the simple answer “Or at least that's what she’s said. Seems she’s got it out for Mariette. Enough that she’s told Beacon Mariette’s banes.” There was a notable amount of skepticism in Penny’s voice as she nearly glared at the holographic image of the girl. “I don’t trust her as far as I could throw her, but for the moment both Rachel and Alicia haven't moved against her. I’m hoping that they are both working on their own plans to double cross Justine, but I’ve not asked about it.” Yet at any rate, it was something that would be worth it to inquire about now that things have settled a bit.

Oh boy, another name that was not very high on their list of people to ever meet again. ”Joy.” She would state sarcastically. ”I take it we don’t know where either of them are?”

“Unfortunately” Penny would confirm.

Jenna would eek out a sly smile though. ”I might not mind running into Justine. If she tried to suck our blood now I’m sure she’d regret it.”

“That would be a sight to see” Penny would agree with a sharp grin. “Granted I’d be more wanting to throw Aurleio and Sally at Justine and have her melt that way. In the meantime, it might not be a bad idea to pick up a hand mirror, or a candle, as those are Mariette’s banes. Assumedly”

”Good to know. Easy things to carry around in a pinch.” Janet would make a mental note. She then would double back a bit to Justine. ”I wouldn’t underestimate Justine if I were you. The ShineSpark may be able to repel her manipulation, but she is powerful and likely resourceful. What Jenna is referring to others do not have and would be highly ill advised.”

“Well now you have me curious” Penny would say leaning forward as she looked at Jenna with a raised eyebrow. Penny had been referring to the Shinespark and Justine’s weakness to emotion, but was very curious as to what else there is that might work against the vampire.

Jenna glanced at Janet for a moment. There was likely some mental exchange between the two as nothing was said aloud. To some extent it was surprising that Alicia hadn't mentioned what happened. "Oh, well..." She would sit up, having slumped in her chair. ”Janet’s particular purification was one of a kind. It purified her completely. It still is, as far as we can tell, same with me. It was partly why we didn’t want to try moving Cindy to or through you. You’re still technically a monster girl and there’s no really telling what it might do. So yeah, our blood might just be like purifying holy water to a vampire. Not 100% sure on that though.” That was mostly true. Some things were more an educated guess. The fact that it overpowered the ShineSpark to purify Cindy though most definitely meant it was alive and well.

“Huh” Penny would say as she obviously mulled over that for a moment. It was an interesting idea to play around with, Janet and Jenna’s constant purification vs Penny’s unpurifiable nature. “I can see why you didn’t want to risk that” She would add after a moment, she wasn’t sure if she would have had the same caution, but that wasn’t much of a surprise really.

“Will be interesting to see if Justine ends up running afoul of that” Not that Penny wanted them to be in a position where Justine was munching on their neck, but it would be a unique sight “I’d recommend sticking to the stake her through the heart plan myself though.”

Janet would nod a bit. ”Agreed. I don’t like the idea of Beacon working with Justine even if they plan to cross her. That street runs both ways. I know we’re kind of working with Cindy but at least she has a code and isn’t trying to destroy the world or love or whatever.” Janet would massage her forehead with a couple fingers. Just thinking about how disjointed it all sounded gave her a headache.

"That's why I don't care for Horror's" Penny would reply casually but there was a cold gleam in her eyes for a moment as she thought about Justine and her Patron's goal. She would happily kill to make sure such a nightmare never came to pass.

"Think we should come up with plans of our own?" She would ask, for while Alicia might be working on plans herself, more to take down Justine would never hurt.

”Hm, really depends on how things pan out for me first.” She would say absently.

“Fair enough” Penny would acknowledge with a nod. “Any plans for the rest of today?”

”Not really. Have something in mind?”

“Patrolling comes to mind” Penny would reply “Gets you both out and about and potentially give Cindy a chance to see how Beacon helps.”

Jenna’s eyes lit up a bit. ”That’s a good idea.” She looked at her sister who would swap seconds later. Cindy glancied at them both curiously.

Alicia Hayden was tired. Exhaustion radiated through her bones, diffused through her being. It was another long night, and despite her best efforts there was only so much she could do in the circumstances. There was anger, frustration, and the feeling that things were falling apart around her.

The worst part was that she couldn’t ask Sylvia for advice either. Sure she had the others, like Aurelio and Serenity, but at the end of the day it was her call. They didn’t have the same experience managing an organization. So she had to handle it all, the fights, the hostility from the general magical girl populace, the fallout from the Rave and the bomb, and her own relationship with the Ascendancy.

That last thing was what she was addressing now. Bracing herself, she did what she could to hide her tired look, the haunted echo in her eyes from what she’d seen. Then she knocked on the door to Rachel’s office. A meeting had already been scheduled, but she wanted to be courteous. Get things going on the right foot.

Now then, fingers crossed.

Rachel’s voice promptly carried through the door. “Ah yes, come in.”

When she entered, she found Rachel standing beside a table, inspecting what looked like some kind of cooking utensil. However, upon closer inspection, she realized the items were not intended for cooking pasta or baking a delicious blueberry pie.
“You came in at the right time, Paladin Seraph. Thanks to your valorous efforts in the neutralization of the riots, we have received much useful information.”
She then noticed that Alicia was looking at the table. She smiled, and presented a strange-looking device to Alicia.
“Did you know that the Pear of Anguish was not originally intended to be an implement for use in interrogation? It was actually an invention of a deranged robber as aid in crime. However, it’s ability to open up a mouth makes it especially useful when combined with magical potions.”
She placed the implement down.
“Anyway, you wished to speak with me, correct?”

Entering the office, Alicia had not expected to find Rachel looking over her tools for some purpose or other. Not that she had to ask, as the Inquisitor seemed very eager to tell her what it was and how it could be used. More information than she needed, but the Paladin shook her head to clear those thoughts before returning to the matter at hand.

”I did, for a couple of reasons,” she confirmed with a small nod, though she left her head bowed. ”First I….wanted to apologize. What happened at the Rave, if I’d been faster, or better informed, it could have been prevented. I’m sorry.” Tears threatened to well up talking about it, but she kept them down for now.

Rachel noticed Alicia’s vulnerable nature, and walked up to her. She then placed a hand on her shoulder. “Alicia Hayden...What you witnessed was the true reality of our world, and not something you could have prevented. You did your best, and that is what matters, not what could have been.” She sighed. “We were given a grim reminder of the vileness that infests Penrose. It is in the darkest day that our resolve is truly tested, but also when our faith shines the brightest.” She lifted Alicia’s chin. “Save your mourning for later, Paladin Seraph. You are like a shepherd to your branch; they rely on you to stand strong, and to be the unshakable pillar on whom they can lean on. Once our blessed duty is fulfilled, and Penrose is free of sin, then can we properly perform our rites for the avenged fallen.”

Hands clenched tight, Alicia took deep breaths as Rachel walked over. She felt the hand on her shoulder, let her head be lifted, and heard the Inquisitor’s words. It was hard to think and accept, even though she knew that Rachel had a wealth of experience that she lacked. Even if they did not agree on everything, she had to take heed of that.

”it’s just….this was the first time I saw something like this as a magical girl. Even after the bombing, I wasn’t actually there for it. And that was just a distraction. This was deliberate, malicious, like they wanted to kill as many of us as possible and make it as painful as they could.” she admitted. ”It’s taking some getting used to.”

“It’s not something anyone should get used to,” Rachel answered, and removed her touch from Alicia. “The attack was not designed by any loose group of corrupted witches. No, this required the resources of an organization. They had planned for this ever since you arrived back from your dimensional prison.” She crossed her arms. “The Penrose Independent will pay for this. As for you…” Her expression turned more serious. “You have the opportunity to punish the one who caused Penrose’s downfall. Have you started making preparations?”

There was something comforting knowing that she was not expected to get used to this, to become cold and distant to the brutality with which this attack had been committed. While it did not erase the visions in her head, it made her feel less like she stood out from the norm of her peers right now.

She stiffened at the mention of their other task, before nodding. ”I have,” she confirmed. ”I’ve acquired some magical items that may be of use, and started scouting members of the strike force. I’ve also been scrying Mariette to see what other resources she has at her command, so hopefully there will be less surprises.”

Honestly she wasn’t sure that Mariette was the reason Penrose was like this, but she wasn’t going to bring that up. Whether she was or not, this still needed to happen.

Rachel nodded. "Good. From what we have learned of Mariette Pedersen, she is an extremely dangerous magical girl, with power over gateways. In a way, she is like Alice, having sunk down the rabbit hole…" She looked aside. "...But instead of Wonderland, she has discovered an ancient evil." She then blinked, having realized something. "How is Hyun Long?"

”If she’s Alice then what does that make us?” Alicia observed when faced with the unusual literary reference. She supposed that it fit, if one did not look at it too deeply. At least they could both agree on how dangerous she was.

The question of Hyun Long brought her to pause, as she considered events so far. ”Adjusting to how we operate. Eager to make up for the harm she caused when she was under the influence of her corruption. Why do you ask?”

"If that is the case...Enlist her in the task force." Rachel adjusted her glasses. "If she wishes to atone for her past, she is to prove herself in the battlefield. Her Fire magic is potent, even if she has lost much power. Don't you agree?"

An eyebrow rose as Rachel made her proposal, but after some consideration Alicia nodded. ”I can do that. It shouldn’t be an issue.” This sort of thing might not be what Hyun was expecting, but she was confident that she could impress the importance of this on the new recruit.

With that said, she paused and turned the subject to other matters that she needed to address. ”Besides that, I wanted to let you know that I’ll be going into the Overcity for a bit in the next couple of days. I plan to reach out to some of the girls there, but I’m not entirely sure how long it will take.”

She just wanted to be sure the city would still be standing when she got back.

"Don't worry, I shall take upon your duties until you return," Rachel responded, and took Alicia's hand for a shake. "Blessings to your recruitment, Paladin Seraph."

Alicia returned the handshake with a smile, glad that there had been no complications. It gave her a bit more confidence for this next step. ”Thanks. We’ll see how it goes.” A bit of extra luck couldn’t hurt.

Now then, about that other matter. ”There’s one other thing I would like to do,” she admitted once the handshake had concluded. ”We’ve had a public relations problem to this point, at least where normal magical girls are concerned. I want to pull back the curtain a bit, remind them that we’re still human too. I want to let them see a remembrance ceremony.”

Rachel did not react to her suggestion. "I will allow it, on the condition that the proper security measures are taken. We don't want a repeat of the tragedy to occur under no circumstances."

Alicia would admit, that had been easier than she had expected it would be. It wasn’t unreasonable to assume that Rachel would try to defend the sanctity of their traditions, which had always been a more private affair. Which aspect of her argument had caused the Inquisitor to change her mind? Or was it just the accumulated weight of everything that had happened?

”I will,” she assured her comrade. ”I’m going to combine it with our footage of the event, make sure people don’t get misled into thinking that the violence only started because we attacked first. If anyone is willing to listen, anyway.”

"Very good." Rachel went back to the table. "We all have our part to play. Yours is in reaching out to the people." She sighed. "I still remember the speech you made. Back then, I couldn't admit it but...I was moved." She began cleaning the table and placing the items into a box. "If anyone can improve our relations to the unwashed masses, it's you." When she was done, she turned back. "Anything else?"

Rachel’s words were somewhat undercut by the use of the term ‘unwashed masses’, but Alicia chose to appreciate the sentiment even if the exact message was a bit awkward. It was moving to know that she had had an effect on the Inquisitor, even at a time like that. ”Thank you, I appreciate you telling me that. I’m grateful for the leeway you’ve given me thus far, and I hope to keep working for the good of all of us.”

With that, she shook her head. ”No, that was it. I’ll let you know how my Overcity trip goes.”

For the briefest moment, Rachel's expression had a warm smile thanks to Alicia's compliments, only to be quickly replaced with a hard glare. "Indeed. Now, tarry not; a good deed waits on the maker." She then went back to work at her desk, like always; Alicia had never seen the girl take a break.

With a nod Alicia turned and moved towards the door. ”Right. Talk to you soon.” And with that, she left the office to go about making her plans a reality.

---

The time had arrived at last. Climbing the last flight of stairs, Alicia grinned silently to herself as she beheld a tear in reality. It was not visible to the naked eye, but to her magically enhanced Third Eye it was as clear as day.

She had previously told Rachel that she was going to go into the Overcity, and that was the task she was currently embarked on.There was no outstanding business when she left, and anything that arose could be handled by others. For now she had made her way to the back of some apartment complex, where the opening rested near the door to the roof. She had known that she could do this, but seeing it in action was impressive.

Activating it took a lot longer, but it was time that she was willing to invest. There was no one up here to bother her, so she was free to experiment, pulsing magic and feeding the entry until it opened. She supposed it would have been easier to just have someone Shift her there, but she wanted to do this herself. That way she’d have practice for the future if she ever needed it.

”Alright, let’s go for it,” she said to herself, taking a deep breath as she faced the opened doorway. Then she stepped through and into the Overcity.

Then she was there. It was surprisingly easy, and a different experience from shifting. Alicia took a moment to marvel at her surroundings; the buildings, the people, the sky above, and just how alien it all was from Earth.

But she wasn’t here to sightsee. The Seraph pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and glanced down at it. On it were names of former Beacon members who now lived within the Overcity. Names, addresses, even a few known occupations. It was her hope that she could perhaps persuade them back with her hopes for reform. At the very least she could learn from them.

Mind made up, she began to move. First she needed to figure out where she was in the Overcity, then she would begin with the nearest person on the list. Not a perfect method, but with a place this big it was the most feasible. ”Well, at least it’s a nice day for a walk.”

Alicia soon learned from one of the locals that the Overcity consisted of districts, each with their own theme. There was the Bazaar District, where people from across different realities would converge and trade exotic commodities. There was also the Entertainment District, where one could find both the highest of the high in thrills and pastimes, yet also the lowest of the low in the various gangs and crooks that lurked there.

Going through the list of districts, she decided to go to one of the numerous residential districts, where all kinds of magical girls lived. She would note that most former Beacon girls were situated in the same residential districts; one of them was the Angel District, aptly named for the winged magical girls who lived there.
She knocked on the first door. She heard a young-sounding girl’s voice:
“Go away! I’m not buying anything!”

Looking over the list, Alicia couldn’t help but notice the concentration of former girls. While it was specifically those she had pulled, it seemed likely that this was deliberately done by the Beckoners so they could keep an eye on girls after they had left the organization. This would take less resources if they were concentrated in a few areas.

Entering the Angel district, she noted the setup of the dwellings here. There was a lot of verticality to the place, seemingly designed to allow those who dwelt here to take advantage of their wings. A good thing she had her own then, as she joined other denizens of the Overcity in flying to her destination. That was easier too, whether it be because of physics or the latent magic here.

At last she reached her destination. Coming to a stop, Alicia pulled her wings back in and checked the address, before knocking on the door. She pushed past the initial response, instead speaking up. ”I’m not here to sell anything,” she called. ”I just want to talk. I was told to come here by a friend.”

“A friend?” The door opened, and a magical girl in pajamas greeted Alicia with an irritated look. “Who told you to come bother me? I was just about to beat Dragon’s Souls, and you caused me to die. Now I have to go through the stage all over again.”

Pajamas was not what Alicia was expecting. Or being chewed out over video games. At least this wasn’t the worst reception she could have gotten, though it was hard to consider it ‘good’ But the door was open, so that was a good step.

”Sorry about that,” she replied with a chagrined expression. She quickly moved to the pitch though, before said door slammed shut. ”My name is Alicia Hayden. I’m the head of Beacon’s Penrose Branch. I wanted to talk to you about coming back to the organization.”

The girl had a stupefied expression. “Beacon? No, I think you’re talking to the wrong girl...I think...” Her cheeks puffed as her eyes stared forward, as if a memory was about to come up, only to pass. “No, I’m sure. Besides, I’ve retired. I don’t do the monster hunting thing anymore.”

Alicia had been warned to expect something like this, since Beacon girls were mind wiped when they left the organization. So she did not falter. ”Let me show you a different perspective,” she offered, a hand rising. Before there was any sort of objection she released a flash of light, letting her magic clear the spell on the girl’s mind that kept her from remembering.

The girl's eyes sparkled, and she ended jumping from the rush of memories that flooded in.
"Woah! Wait, I...I was in Beacon after all! But then...Damn." She sighed, and offered her hand to shake.
"Well, might as well talk this over a hot cup of butterbeer. I'm Gabriel."

”Nice to meet you,” Alicia replied, now that the truth was out there. She shook Gabriel’s hand before they both moved inside to get that drink she was talking about.

The interior of the place was almost overwhelming. There were figurines, posters, some well used furniture, a nice tv, and more takeout boxes than was probably healthy. A few things she recognized, but there was much more she didn’t. She had the feeling that not all of it was from Earth either.

”This is pretty impressive,” she noted. ”I see you’ve been managing well for yourself.”

"I guess," Gabriel stated while in the kitchen preparing drinks, looking more downtrodden now that her memory was restored. "So you're from Penrose, right?" She asked as she brought two cups to the table; they had a pleasant, buttery scent to them. "I used to work in the local branch there. Did something happen?"

A rueful chuckle escaped as Alicia took a seat. She did one more sweeping look of the room before her gaze returned to Gabriel. “Well we’ve stopped a ritual to remove all emotion in the world, stopped a Horror from manifesting an avatar, had our headquarters bombed, gotten stuck in a paradise dimension for months, had the Ascendancy deployed in the city, had a bunch of girls from the Ascendancy killed in a mass psychic attack...so yeah, a lot of stuff has happened.”

"No kidding," Gabriel added, looking shocked.

There was an inherent sigh, but it did not escape. ”That’s not why I’m here though. You said you were done fighting monsters, and I respect that. But I, personally, need your help.”

Gabriel sipped on her cup, a morose expression on her face. "But why would you want someone like me? I failed and failed again, getting nowhere. And when I tried to make changes, I was hushed out of the room. Eventually, I decided it was pointless, and resigned. It was great to forget all that misery and frustration…" She mumbled, her cheek resting on the table.

Taking her cup, Alicia sipped from the drink while Gabriel expressed her frustration. From what she had read in the database, she couldn’t blame her for quitting. Sometimes she wondered if she would have ended up in the same spot, if things had not worked out as they had.

”i’m sorry if it brings up painful memories. But I think that the time for change is coming. I think all of this bad stuff is causing them to re-examine how they do things and consider that change is necessary,” Alicia explained. ”We’ve allied with monster girls, gone through a trial where the person who had been mind controlled into bombing our HQ was not put to death, modified the Spark, things that would be crazy before. And so far, the Beckoners have supported this.”

Gabriel's eyes widened, and she took a big swig. "No way. All that? I've never heard of Beckoners who'd allow that."

Her hands tightened around the cup as she leaned forwards, hoping to push out some of her passion to the dejected girl. ”I want help from you and others like you who left because I think that the louder a voice we have towards the changes we think need to be made, the more likely it is that we’ll be successful.”

The pajama girl was silent as she thought about Alicia's words. "So you were serious about all that…" she sloshed her drink in the cup. "I got into games because deep down, I still wanted to fight for a just cause. But you're giving the real deal." She slammed her hand on the table, groaning in annoyance. "Fine. I'm in. You better deliver on your promise of change, Alicia."

Alicia was prepared to argue on, to make her case that this time could be different, despite the presence of the Ascendancy within the city. As a result, Gabriel agreeing like that caught her off guard. ”i know things aren’t great right now but-wait, really? Just like that?”

Confusion held her features for several moments before she was able to respond. ”I thought this would be a lot harder. I still had more pitch ready.”

"What, you want me to refuse?" Gabriel answered angrily. "If you're going to butt heads with the Ascendancy, that means you're willing to change Beacon to it's very foundation. And I want to be there to make sure the changes will stay." She drank her cup empty, and slammed it down.
"Are you recruiting others too?"

”Of course not. I just figured it would take more convincing.” Alicia sipped her drink as well, not wanting it to go to waste. At the following question she nodded, lifting up the paper that she had brought with so Gabriel could see it. ”I am. I’ve got a list from the database of girls who left in circumstances like yourself. I just started here because it was closest.”

"Can I take a look?" Upon being handed the list, she nodded. "I know a lot of these names from the neighborhood. Some are even in my 'Muggles and Muds' game group. Can I help you gather these people to one place? These people know me, so they will come. Then you could do your memory restoration on them all at once, and speed up the recruitment process."

Nodding, Alicia passed over the list without hesitation. She waited to see what the outcome would be, and was not disappointed. ”Sure, that would be a lot of help.” At the very least it would save them time, and she was not going to complain in that case.

"Alright. You can count on me," Gabriel said with a thumbs up, and walked out of the door...Before returning. "Oh yeah. I could change my clothes."

…

Gabriel proceeded to spend the rest of the day calling up other former Beacon girls in Angel District. The sun was setting by the time Alicia went to the local activity center where the girls were gathered. As she entered, she saw Gabriel chatting with a group of girls, while other groups were scattered about; she could count 24 girls in total. "So nice of you to invite us Gabriel," a posh girl spoke. "You usually stay cooped up in your apartment. What's the occasion?" She spotted Alicia. "Oh my," another girl commented. "Don't tell me you got a girlfriend all of a sudden~"
Gabriel snickered. "Yeah, right. Anyway, I'd like to introduce Alicia Hayden, Paladin Seraph and branch leader of the Penrose Beacon. Take it away, A."

While Gabriel contacted the people she knew, Alicia would find ways to spend some time in the Overcity, whether it be exploring or writing. But soon everyone was gathered, and she stepped into the activity center to find a good amount of magical girls waiting for her. While she had no doubt she could have gotten to them on her own, this was definitely easier.

Stepping forward, she nodded to all of those gathered here as her gaze swept the room. ”Hello. Once you believed in a greater cause, of making a better world where people are judged on their actions and not their appearances. I’m here to bring you back to fight for that cause.”

Before they could object or scoff at her as Gabriel had before, she unleashed a burst of Light magic to clear the magic from their minds. Now it was time to see what they had to work with here.

When the light swept through the crowd, Alicia saw a mix of reactions; some were agitated, some were shocked, and some were confused. But most seemed to lose brightness in their eyes and lost their smiles, having been reminded of their hardships and downfall.

"Wh-I remember now!" One girl in the back exclaimed. "I was in Beacon!" "Me too!" Another girl shouted. "But….Oof. This sucks." A clamor soon manifested as the girls all at once came to grips with their memories. Gabriel crossed her arms, not saying a thing. Once the girls calmed down, one of them asked: "You said we could fight again. What do you mean by that?"
One girl immediately began walking away. "Don't care what it is. I'm not going through that shit again," they crudely spat out before they left out the front door.

Alicia waited, letting them all get a grasp on what they remembered before she would begin to speak again. The fact that only one girl left was pretty good all told, and she did not focus on that. That was their choice, and she would not waste the effort when still so many remained to hear her out.

”I’ve read the reports. I know why you chose to leave, and I probably would have done the same if I were in your shoes. But I’m here now to tell you that I think we’re approaching a pivotal moment that could change Beacon forever.”

Once more her gaze swept the room, making eye contact with everyone that she could. ”So much has happened in the past months, things that would have been inconceivable before. We’ve allied with Monster Girls, changed the Spark itself, they’ve even put me in charge of a Branch, and we’ve had support from Beckoners in doing this! With everything that has happened recently, they’re realizing that the system doesn’t work if they want to stay relevant in the modern age.”

She took a step forward, hands clasped together as she made her plea. ”You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to. But with your support and your belief in the good that Beacon can be, we can ensure that they listen to us and do the right thing, rather than doubling down on everything that has made the community hate Beacon to this point.” With that said, she braced for the reception either way.

While some of the girls nodded, agreeing with either hesitant smiles or frowns, most were not convinced. The moment Alicia said that they wouldn't need to fight, three girls began to leave. "We're not staying then. She's just some try hard."

However, Gabriel stepped before them with her arms spread. "Wait. Please, listen to her for just a bit more. She is serious about this." "Does she have any proof though?" One of the leaving girls asked. "To me it sounds like she's just BS:ing a bunch of lies just so she could gain more power. Sounds just like old Beacon politics to me."

The misstep was too late to take back, and the realization was nigh immediate. Alicia had wanted to be considerate towards them but she had merely undermined her own footing. Now they doubted her, questioned her, thought she was just doing politics. ”Wait, no...I-”

Her head fell, tears threatening to rise as she considered what she could do, say. How could she make them believe her?

Then she remembered what Ishtar had told her before, about her sincerity, perseverance. She had to speak with her true feelings despite all opposition. Her head remained bowed, yet her voice was clear. ”Several months ago, a girl arranged a meeting of all the magical girls in Penrose to combat a looming threat. She was killed at that meeting, and as far as anyone could tell we were the ones responsible. We had no evidence otherwise, none they would believe. We eventually found out what that threat was and stopped it, but not before our headquarters was bombed by one of our sisters who had been abducted and mind controlled. She was my friend."

The girls in the crowd gasped and held their hands up to their mouths, shocked at the revelation. The girl leading the skeptics turned with a raised eyebrow, but no longer attempted leaving.

Alicia continued. ”"More stuff happened after that evil was defeated. My friend was found, she was purified, they put her on trial. We stopped a Horror from incarnating on Earth, we found a way to make the Spark resist mind alteration. Then we got swept away by some Lesser Force to a paradise dimension for what we thought was a few days but ended up being months. The Ascendancy moved in to restore order. When we all came back me and my friends were put on trial for heresy, for working with monsters and going against tradition. Then when it seemed like things were returning to normal, some girl uses emotion magic to cause a city wide riot, another tries to assassinate a Cardinal, and a third uses a mass Psychic spell to destroy the minds of our sisters deployed to stop the violence.”

The girls continued to be shocked, and one weaker-looking girl actually fainted, held up by another. The skeptics group looked at each other with concern; it seemed Alicia's speech was causing them to think things over.

A sigh escaped Alicia, her hands clenched into trembling fists as images flashed before her eyes. She choked back tears, her heart speaking for itself. ”It’s so hard not to agree with the Ascendancy, when it feels like every success comes at that kind of cost. We try to help people, protect them, and they lash out at us. Maybe we should just kill them all and be done with it. It would be the simplest way.”

Her head rose, eyes shimmering with emotions that threatened to spill out. ”But I believe in Beacon, I believe in the mission and in my sisters. We should be an example people can look up to and aspire towards. But we can’t do that while we’re stuck in the past.” God, maybe she should have brought Penny after all…..

The crowd began to murmur one another, and now Gabriel spoke up. "Like you girls, I was someone who decided to quit from the Beacon. I felt that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't better the lives of people, that I'd just perpetuate the cycle of hate that Beacon is based around. But as Alicia said, we need to believe!" She pointed to the crowd. "Alicia had risked her life numerous times, fought against world-destroying plots, just like all of us. But she is still walking forward, carrying all those burdens. That's because she believes in a new future. It may sound like mere politics, but if that's the case, would she admit to have been nearly convicted of heresy? Would she have come to us veterans, bittered by our treatment, if she just wanted followers? She could have just as easily gathered some naive rookies to do that." The murmurs grew stronger, until the skeptics once again spoke.
"What do you suggest we do, then? How can we move on from our past?" They asked, willing to hear Alicia out.

Elation then. Alicia’s heart rose as her words reached the girls who had previously considered leaving. The fainting was a bit awkward, but hopefully they would be alright. At the same time she knew she couldn’t rest easy. It would be too easy to throw it all away like she almost had before.

So she turned to their question. ”We show that our way works. We help people, do good for the places we’re assigned to. We hold true to our beliefs and we find people in Beacon who feel like we do and who are losing hope or still struggling to do the right thing, and we support them so they know they aren’t alone.”

Her head rose, sadness no longer present as she advocated for action. ”I have the feeling that real soon the higher ups are going to have to address this issue, otherwise the Penrose Branch will be on a different path from the rest of the organization. When they do, we’ll have our moment.” And if they didn’t, well, Alicia could always force the issue if she had to. But that was for the future.

Most of the skeptics nodded, only one of them still frowning with a cold stare. "When that happens, you're going to be squashed. I've seen it before. I can't take it. The rest of you can try your luck." She then passed by Gabriel, who stepped aside, and left from the center. The rest of the girls stayed. "I believe in what she's saying." "Let's give it another try! If the Spark can change, so can Beacon!" "Beats staying at home." Alicia heard a number of voices, each unique, yet all of them sharing the same sentiment. "Uhh, excuse me," one strange-looking magical girl raised her hand. "So, uhh, where do we go? Back to our previous branches? I was in Briarazor, but that town was wiped out," she admitted with grit teeth.

It seemed her words had persuaded many. Not everyone, but she did not fault them for their choices. She did consider offering them mind wipes again, but if they wanted it they wouldn’t have stormed out. It would be fine, probably.

Instead she turned to the question. ”Anyone who wants to come to Penrose can,” she replied. ”As you may have noticed things are a bit crazy there, but there are a lot of good people there too. Otherwise I’ll put in a word with the Cardinal to have you sent back to your old branch or anywhere else you might want to go.”

“Hands up, who’s fine with going to Penrose?” Gabriel asked. In response, 19 people lifted their hands. “Alright, we’ll work out your relocations later for the rest of you, so wait for a call. As for the rest of you...Welcome aboard!” She shook hands with the girls, and they in turn went to shake hands with Alicia. “I’m still on the fence about this,” one of the girls said. “But I’m willing to give this another shot.”

All in all, Alicia couldn’t help but feel a bit proud. There had been some rough spots, but it had gone better than she had thought it would. This was nothing to sneeze at. ”Thank you everyone.”

The handshakes would be returned with an earnest sincerity, as she wanted to make sure they knew just how much she appreciated their decision. ”I’m honored that you’;re willing to give me this chance. I’m sure you all have a lot to teach me as well.”

After the handshakes were done, the girls began to leave in scattered groups, and Gabriel went over to Alicia. “Good job, Alicia! We managed to convince a big chunk out of the Angel District girls! Word of this might spread to other districts too, so we could get more girls to join back to Beacon. I’ll go work out the details in rejoining now, but let’s stay in touch.” As she said that she offered her phone number to Alicia.

”That sounds good to me, though I’m not sure how many of them will remember they used to be part of Beacon. But it will only help,” Alicia agreed once the group began to disperse.

Alicia took the phone number before giving her own back. ”Let me know if you need anything, and I’ll be over as quick as I can.”

Gabriel smiled after the exchange. “Got it. See you later!” She waved, and then left the activity center.

”See you later.” Alicia watched her go, humming to herself. With a pleased smile she looked around the room before heading for the entrance that had brought her to the Overcity the first time. It had been a very productive day.

On the morning after the rave, Violet Covington awoke from an unpleasant night’s sleep. Much troubled her mind, her restless thoughts churning like a tempestuous ocean. First and foremost was her father. She had spent most of the night at his bedside, while the two of them listened to classical music, only occasionally being interrupted by a member of the medical staff. Her father seemed to be fine, but it was still too early to tell for certain. And what had caused the heart attack in the first place? The elder Covington was the picture of health, his body in excellent condition for a man his age. Perhaps it was stress, just as her father had said, but Violet strongly doubted it. There was something else at work here, something sinister. Violet was sure of it. First the nightmares, then the break-in and vandalism of a highly secret and secure facility, and now this… They could not simply be mere coincidences. They had to be facets of something larger, something currently imperceptible, but what?

A pleasant chime sounded, bringing her mind back into focus.

“Pardon the intrusion, Miss Covington,” the refined voice of her butler called out, “but I have news concerning your father’s condition.”

“You may enter, Winston.”

With permission having been granted, the impeccably attired man emerged from a hidden alcove and approached the bed.

“The physicians report that your father is in stable condition, although he still remains very weak. They inform me that he is unable to take more than a few steps before his strength completely gives out.”

Violet gave voice to a soft gasp. “Then something is still wrong with him…” she murmured, her voice filled with worry.

“The physicians are at a loss to explain it, Miss Covington. They felt certain that he would have completely recovered by now.”

That was no mere heart attack… Violet mused, now more confident than ever in her suspicions.

“Is he awake?”

“He is currently sleeping, Miss Covington. If you wish, I shall notify you when he wakes.”

“Thank you, Winston. If there is nothing else, you may go.”

“You are, as always, most welcome, Miss Covington,” the butler said with a bow, before departing the way he had come.

That settled it then. She could not put off contacting Al Scarpe any longer. Too many incidents were piling up, and still she had yet to receive the promised Almanac or any information on her mysterious enemy. Picking up the phone the Mint had provided, she tapped the contact name.

Soon enough, the heiress heard the familiar sound of the coin broker's gruff voice. "Hello there, Miss Covington. How may I help you?"

“Good morning, Mister Scarp,” Violet began cordially. “Some new concerns have made themselves known, and I wished to see if you could be of use in dealing with them. First and foremost, my father has recently taken ill. He suffered a heart attack last evening, and is now incredibly weak, to the point where he is barely able to stand, let alone walk. The medical staff is unable to understand the reason for this, let alone treat it. I personally suspect that this is the result of a magical attack, very likely from the same source as the nightmares. Does the Mint have access to any remedies that may be employed to treat my father’s condition? Furthermore, I would like to have the investigation your agents are conducting broadened to include the party behind this attack as well as an incident of infiltration and vandalism perpetrated upon our secure R&D facility two days ago. I trust this can be arranged?”

“Hmm, yes...About that...” Al Scarpe could be heard flipping the pages of something.
“Based on the results of the investigation I had made regarding the nightmares and such...I have reason to believe that a curse was placed on your father.” The sound of him puffing smoke could be heard. “And it’s a potent hex, too. It’s a miracle the old man has survived for so long. If it is not treated properly, he could die in a fortnight. Fortunately, we at the Mint have means to procure such treatment for him.”

“I am most pleased to hear that,” Violet told him. “And what of the other matter I mentioned? Shall you inform your agents of these additions to their assignments, or shall I, when they finally deign to report in? I really must say, they are taking rather longer than I had initially expected.”

“Do not worry, Miss, I shall inform them.” Violet heard him flip pages again. “My apologies for the delay. They will hand over the deliverable by the assigned date.”

“That being?”

"It will be tonight. I assume you don't want changes to the location?"

“Correct,” Violet told him. “I believe the usual location will more than suffice, and I look forward to their arrival.”

“I am glad to hear that.” She heard one last puff of smoke. “Well then, I must return back to my work for now. However, do call if you require anything else. Goodbye, Miss Covington.”

“I shall certainly do so. Thank you for your assistance, Mister Scarpe.”

With that, Violet ended the call.

Since her father was currently indisposed, she decided to attend to another, more personal matter. Having been unable to attend, she had been rather curious about what had transpired at the rave the previous evening. Logging on to Glimmer, she opened a thread dedicated to the rave and began to read over the various messages.

---

At that point, Violet stopped reading and deactivated the phone. So, the rave had been a chaotic mess had it? Perhaps it was for the best that she hadn’t attended. Indeed, for all she knew, her adversary might not have even been there in the first place. She had such precious little information, but, hopefully, that would change, come evening. Until then, there was much with which to occupy her time, but what to focus on first? The decision was made for her a moment later, when a pleasant chime called for her attention.

“Pardon the interruption, Miss Covington,” the voice of her butler called over the room’s speakers. “But your father has awoken and is requesting your presence.”

“Please inform him that I shall be with him shortly,” Violet instructed.

“Of course, Miss Covington.”

Wasting no time, Violet swiftly moved through her various morning rituals until she had fully “perfected her elegance,” at which point, she exited her chambers and made her way to her father’s bedside.

“Ah, there you are, my princess. How are you this morning?”

“I am well, Father,” Violet replied. “I am more concerned about you. I was told you have yet to fully recover.”

“Just a bit of weakness,” the elder Covington said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Nothing to trouble yourself about. Still…” he added after a moment, “I think it prudent that you should begin officially overseeing operations in my stead from this point forward.”

“A-Are you certain, Father?”

“Yes,” her father confirmed with a nod. “As I have said before, I believe that you are more than ready for such a task. I know you shall make me proud, my princess.”

“Thank you, Father,” Violet said, while giving an elegant curtsy. “I shall make every effort to live up to the magnificent example you have set.”

“I would not be surprised if you surpassed it,” the elder Covington said with a chuckle. “But, before you begin,” he added in a lower voice, “there are some matters I wish to inform you of personally. The first, and most imminent of these, is the retaliatory strike against our old enemy, Demiris Defense Systems.”

“But, Father, we do not know for certain…”

“There is proof enough,” Thane Covington spat. “Furthermore, there can be no one else. Only Demiris has both the motivation and the resources to have conducted such an operation against our very headquarters. Thus, we shall conduct a similar operation against his. I have sent you the relevant files pertaining to it, but I wished to personally request that you assume direct command of our forces, while piloting the Violet Princess.”

Internally, Violet felt great reluctance, after hearing her father’s words. This entire situation was suffused with so much uncertainty. Regardless of the animosity she personally felt towards them, was it really wise to jump to conclusions and launch an attack against a possibly innocent party? Still, Violet chose to keep such concerns to herself. “Of course, Father,” she said with a respectful nod. “It would be my great honor.”

“Excellent,” the elder Covington said with a broad smile, clearly relishing the blow his daughter would soon deal to their hated foe. “Now, let me familiarize you with some of the… unofficial details, concerning the upcoming shipment of Silver Sentinels to the Republic of San Borleo…”

---

Thirteen hours later…

Once again, Violet sat alone in her darkened study, the only meager light provided by a small desk lamp. This time, however, not even a single holographic display was activated. Rather, the heiress simply sat with fingers steepled as she gazed intently into the shadows on the far side of the room. Al Scarpe had promised that his agents would be delivering her requested Almanac this very evening, and so she waited, allowing nothing else to claim her attention.

Like a black feather that fluttered in by a gust of wind, so did the two agents appear, silently yet letting their presence known to the modern-day noble. Even so, she kept herself to the shadows, only half of her visible in the darkness.

"Sorry to disturb you, but we have a delivery." Viper extended her hand, which contained the Almanac in a glass case.

The man in a top hat stepped into the open, but the collar on his trenchcoat covered his face. ”I was unable to get inside the portal witch’s home and steal it. She’s reclusive, and getting into her lair on short notice was not possible. Regardless, the genuine article is yours.” Vermin Killer gestured towards the book. ”She does not appear to have placed any enchantments on it, though I would not rule out her ability to track the book’s whereabouts.” He tapped the case. ”This should keep her from divining its location. All the same, I would be wary of where you try to read it. The case won’t hide the book’s presence if it’s open.” He adjusted his top hat.

“Excellent,” Violet said with a nod. “And I shall certainly keep that in mind,” she added after Vermin Killer voiced his warning. “What of the other objective I tasked you with? I had hoped that you would have been able to provide me with some information on my mysterious adversary by at least the time of the rave, and yet, here we are the following evening and I am still bereft of even a single clue to their identity.”

”You talk as if we turned up empty handed.” Vermin killer folded down his collar. While the shadow from the brim of his hat obscured his eyes, Violet could see he was not smiling. Worse, his lips were wrinkled in disgust. ”The Almanac was not easy to acquire. I doubt anyone but the Mint could have acquired it. Regardless, there hasn’t been much news of a nightmare bringer in Penrose. It was the chaos at the rave that caused them to finally reveal themselves… Maybe.” His lips curled up into a smile. ”An agent at Mayor Park spotted someone with unusual magic. It is difficult to tell without investigating myself, but their magic involved terrifying the people who were subjected to it.” He drew his cane and rested both hands on the handle. ”I realize it is not definitive proof, but surely you understand. Pardon the expression, but hunting down vermin isn’t as easy as waving a magical wand. The next step is to investigate this ‘Connie’ girl.”

“I see,” Violet said, placing a thoughtful finger on her chin. “So we at least have a name. Very well, I shall leave you to continue your investigation into this girl, while I shall employ my own resources to do likewise. Now that we have a place to start from, I trust that, together, it shall not take us long to apprehend her.”

”Before I forget, She’s not alone. She travels with another vermin. One with green flesh. I believe she is called ‘Gaia,’ though that is simply what I have gathered after the rave concluded.” He looked down to Violet. ”She’s magically powerful, but this usually indicates a physical weakness. I do not suspect she will pose a threat to us unless she has others protecting her. But this does change the situation. How do you want us to deal with the nightmare woman’s friends?”

“If they become obstructions, then I trust that you shall be able to remove them. I care not how you choose to do so. But… This new information does spark my curiosity,” Violet added after a moment’s thought. “This ‘Gaia’ you mentioned sounds as though she would be the sort affiliated with those detestable eco-terrorists who have become such a nuisance of late. Yes, I believe the pieces of this puzzle are beginning to fall into place…”

---

A short time later…

As soon as the Mint’s agents departed, Violet had carefully opened the case, and begun reading through the ancient pages of The Dreamscape Almanac. Having a photographic memory meant that Violet only needed to cast her eyes over a page for her to know its contents completely. And what contents they were… As she turned each arcane page, she could feel her knowledge growing by leaps and bounds, her horizons expanding, her gaze extending to perceive realms unimagined. It was exhilarating. After only an hour’s time, the young heiress had read almost half the enormous manuscript. It was at this point that Violet chose to take a short break to rest her eyes, before finishing the final half of her reading. Everything seemed to be going smoothly so far, exactly as Violet had expected it would, but to the heiress’s considerable surprise, it was here that her evening took a most unexpected turn…

One moment, the Almanac sat unmoving in its place upon her desk. The next, it glowed and crackled with mystic power, before expelling it in a massive, prismatic blast. The once dimly lit study was filled with light in all the colors of the spectrum. Sparkly clouds of pink and purple energy glittered and swirled around her, and she watched in astonishment as they coalesced into a rainbow with a unicorn’s head, the ears and tail of a cat, and a butterfly’s wings.

“Why, hello there, little sweetie~!” It said in an incredibly cheerful voice. “Thank you so very much for freeing me from that book~!”

“Y-You are very welcome,” Violet said hesitantly, her mind still reeling from what she had just witnessed. “Although I must admit, I am somewhat confused. I was unaware that you were trapped with in that manuscript’s pages. May I inquire your name?”

“Of course~!” the creature replied gleefully. “I am The Sovereign of Sweet Dreams, ruler and guardian of slumbering minds everywhere~! Many, many ages ago, my mortal enemy, the nasty wasty Lord of Nightmares had his champion imprison me in that book, leaving him free to turn everyone’s sweet dreams into icky wicky nightmares! Isn’t that just awful?!”

“Yes…” Violet said slowly as an idea occurred to her. “In fact, I believe this Lord of Nightmares may have been responsible for several recent attacks on my family. It was in my search for answers that I sought out the Almanac in the first place.”

“Oh! That’s sounds so horrible!” the creature lamented. “But that was good thinking on your part~!” the Sovereign added with a giggle. “The Dreamscape Almanac is simply filled with knowledge on dream magic, although it doesn’t have quite as much knowledge as yours truly~!”

“Are you saying you know the entire contents of The Dreamscape Almanac and more besides?”

“Yes indeedy~! I know secrets about dream magic that no one else has ever heard of~! And why wouldn’t I? I am The Sovereign of Sweet Dreams after all~!”

“Would you… be willing to assist me in my quest for retribution against the Lord of Nightmares and those who serve him?”

“Oh~! I’d be happy to~!” the Sovereign replied, her voice filled with joy. “The Lord of Nightmares only trapped me because he had a champion to do his fighting for him, and I always dreamed of how wonderful it would be to have a champion of my own~!”

“Wait… You wish for me to become your champion?”

“Yes~! I’ll give you all my power and knowledge of dream magic~! All you have to do in return is defeat the Lord of Nightmares, so everyone can have sweet dreams again~!”

“That is a… very tempting offer, but I am the heiress of a very powerful family and the head of an even more powerful corporation. I cannot abandon those obligations to fight in your stead.”

“So, you are a princess, then?” the creature asked.

“Y-Yes…” Violet replied hesitantly. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Oh! Then I see your dilemma! You needn’t worry, though~! You will only need to act as my champion at night, and even then, only when you wish to~! Being a Sovereign myself, I completely understand the responsibilities of a ruler~!”

Violet was silent for several seconds as her mind worked at a fever pitch, weighing the pros and cons of the monumental decision that had been placed before her. This creature offered her untold power and knowledge, yet at what cost? It had promised her freedom of action, indeed, almost complete autonomy, but could it be trusted? Ultimately, and as always, her company, her family, and, most importantly, her father were the deciding factors. She needed answers to so many questions, and the power to act upon them.

Of most immediate concern, her father believed that these recent attacks had been orchestrated by Lodovico Demiris, and refused to believe otherwise. But what if they hadn’t? An unprovoked attack against Demiris’s rival megacorp could have disastrous repercussions for Covington Industries, and Violet knew that her father would not be dissuaded by anything other than proof delivered by Violet herself. Even with all the technological resources at her disposal, she had no way of obtaining that proof, at least, not before tomorrow’s operation. But, if she could gain the necessary proof through magical means…

I’ve already asked the Mint, but they act on their own frustratingly incontinent timetables… I need this knowledge now, and there is only one way for me to do that…

“Very well,” Violet said, having come to her decision. “If it grants me the ability to protect all that I hold dear, then I shall agree to become your champion.”

“Oh~! Wonderful~! Thank you so very much~! Okaaay~! Here~! We~! Gooooo~!”

With that, a colorful rainbow of sparkly magical energy shot forth and swirled around Violet, enveloping the heiress in a whirlwind of mystic power. Violet’s heart raced as the Sovereign of Sweet Dreams’ magic flooded into her body, utterly transforming her. At first she endured the process in stunned silence, but a childish giggle soon escaped her lips. Then another. And another. The next thing Violet knew, she was giggling uncontrollably.

“T-That t-tickles!” she cried out in a high-pitched and incredibly cute voice.

Her giggles and squeals only got louder as the transformation surged inexorably towards its conclusion. Violet could feel her thoughts becoming confused and muddled as her mind was lost to dizzy delirium. Wave after wave of bubbly excitement, playful perkiness, and joyful innocence washed away the refinement, elegance, and calm maturity that had once defined her, until almost nothing remained. Finally, the whirlwind began to dissipate, leaving behind a girl who bore no resemblance whatsoever to the haughty heiress of just moments before.



Striking a cute pose, she called out in a shockingly childish voice, “Hearts, Candy, Sparkles, and Balloons~! Sunshine, Glitter, Unicorns, and Rainbows~! Taaa daaa~! Magical Girl Super Cute Pretty Pretty Magical Dream Princess is here~! (giggle!)”

Noticing her reflection in a nearby mirror, she gave a sharp gasp.

“Wowies~! Like, OMG~! Look how super duper cute I am~! (giggle!) I’m, like, sooo Kawaiiii~!!!” She cheered, while striking a series of cutesy poses. “And I feel, like, so totally wotally bubbly and hyper~! (giggle!) Weeeee~!!!” Stretching her arms out like airplane wings, she rapidly spun around, causing her short skirt to fly up and expose her frilly undergarment. The sight of her underwear elicited a squeal of delight from the new magical girl. “Golly-wolly! (giggle!) My panties have such super cute little kitties on them~! (giggle!) Oh! I just wuv being a magical girl~! (giggle!)” she cheered, hugging herself as she swayed her hips from side to side. “Super duper thankies, magicy wagicy person~! Sorries, but Violet totally wotally forgot your name just now~! (giggle!) Oh! But you aren’t even here anymore~! (giggle!) Gosh~!” she exclaimed as she placed a hand on the side of her head. “I feel, like, so super duper ditzy~! (giggle!) Like my brainy wainy is stuck inside one of those crazy wazy kaleidoscope thingies! That's gonna be, like, really, reeeally BAD! But... Violet can't remember why!” At this, the girl seemed to get upset. Her cheeks flushed, her lips formed an adorable pout, and she looked as if she might cry at any moment as she desperately struggled to make use of what little remained of her mental faculties. Then, apparently giving up, her eyes brightened and she smiled broadly. “Oh well~!” she declared, while giving an exaggerated shrug and shaking her butt in time with her words. “At least no one will ever recognize Violet when she's acting like this~! (giggle!) Wait...” she said slowly, her eyes going wide as a thought crept into her ADHD addled brain. “Did Violet just speak in the third person? Oh wowies~! She, like, totally did~! (giggle!) That makes her sound, like, so super duper cute~! (giggle!)” At this, she subconsciously manifested a trampoline, and began jumping up and down like a small child as she giggled with unbridled joy, the movement causing her breasts to bounce in exaggerated fashion. “Violet shouldn't worry like a silly willy~! (giggle!)” the ditzy girl declared with hands on hips after her trampoline celebration had concluded. “She's not even Violet anymore~! (giggle!) She's Magical Dream Princess, and she has a job to do~!” she added, while dramatically pointing to the sky. “A reeeally important job that she totally wotally forgot! It was something important for Daddy… Hmmm…” she struck a thoughtful pose and began tapping a finger against her cheek in an adorable manner. “Oh~! Magical Dream Princess knows~!” she suddenly exclaimed with a big smile. “She should do the thinkie winkie dance~! Think, think, think~!” she began, manifesting a pair of pom poms and starting something resembling a cheerleader routine. Placing her hands on her hips, she began shaking her butt to the rhythm of her chanting, occasionally kicking her legs up into the air. “Thinky winky wink~! Thinky winky winky winky wink wink wink~! If you can dream it, you can do it~! Don't give up, there's nothing to it~!” Suddenly, she squealed with delight. “OMG~! That’s, like, totally wotally it~! Horaaay~! Magical Dream Princess remembers~! (giggle!)” the girl cheered as she jumped up and did a split. “She has to make sure some super duper meanie heads aren’t planning to do some meanie weenie things to Daddy! Okie dokie~!” she declared, while striking a cute pose, winking to her reflection, and giving a peace sign salute. “For wuv and justice, it's time for Magical Dream Princess to make her dreams come true~! (giggle!)” With that, she waved her magic wand, and with a glittery shower of sparkles, a tall slide was brought into existence in the center of her bedchamber, much like the kind you might find leading into swimming pools. However, instead of a pool of water, this slide ended in a swirling whirlpool of magic. Quickly climbing up to the top, Magical Dream Princess sat down on the slide’s smooth surface and, with a big grin of childish glee, pushed herself off. “Weeeeee~!!!” she cried with innocent delight as she shot down the slide, her arms and legs extended into the air.

The instant she disappeared through the magical portal, it vanished, along with the slide and trampoline. Once again, the bedchamber was bathed in darkness and silence. Only the tome that once more rested, unmoving, beneath its protective case gave any evidence of the stunning, life-changing transformation that had just taken place. Or of the many, many repercussions it would have…

How magic was made? Sakura once pondered that in her past life. Magic was in the smallest of things. A stupid idea. A lot of people. Little details. Like a castle of cards they were carefully piling up. She weighed the disc on her hands. So flimsy, but full of wisdom. The root, the origin. What started it all.

The first Godzilla Movie. First of the many films piled up.

It had been a pain to acquire with subtitles. Sakura, much to her chagrin, had initially rented the original version one, only for her to realize almost no one in the group she had been acquainted with had a sparrow's chance of learning japanese. Oh well, she could always translate, but that'd be a major pain in the ass.

The other point was to get the locale. Emily had hosted it. She was such a cinnamon bun, really. Even though she probably should have not.

Circumstances had gone a bit out of control. Sakura had forgotten how MANY people she had truly invited. She had also forgotten how many of those would even bring friends. Oh well, no problemo. It would be sorted. They would She kinda had chicken-scrabbled a list of rules (her english writing was terrible, and Emily had to correct her a couple of times).



Sakura grinned, as she mentally gave herself a pat on her back. Penrose's way of entertainament was way too twisted. But she could fix that! Nothing that a good movie sitout would, right? Right? She hoped Emily would have fun too.

While all manner of chaos went on in the city, most of the citizens of Penrose went on with their lives none the wiser. It was late so most were sleeping by this point. One woman in her late 20s toiled away in an old estate, sorting through its contents room by room. It had taken months to inventory everything and she was finally getting to stuff in the attic. The place had been in the family for generations, and she'd now inherited it and its contents. Most of it she had no need for, including the house itself. So she'd set to task picking out and packing family heirlooms and valuables. With the end in sight she didn't want to have to come back for one last room.

There was certainly going to need to be some TLC before she could sell the place. Unsurprisingly for an old creeky structure on the outskirts of town there were rumors and tales that the house was haunted. Weird things would happen as if the place was alive. Melisa didn't entertain such nonsense. The place was old, drafty, and had settled cockeyed over the years. The place had electricity so working at night was trivial. So upstairs she went. Fighting with the door for a minute she managed to pop it free of the leaning door jam. "What a mess." The room was stacked high with boxes upon boxes. After a long sigh she set to opening each one to see what was inside. Managing to sort though half a dozen she decided to call it quits after all. This one room alone might as well be two or three. Didn't help that is was pretty tightly packed so she couldm't just spread things out.

Hauling box after box back into stacks, she took one heavy one full of books and set it back in place. She could hear the slight crackle and groan of glass under the weight. Pulling the box back off before she broke anything Malisa plopped it back on the ground. What she thought was just another box was actually a glass case tightly wrapped in canvas. It also weighed a ton so there wasn't any sliding the covering out from under it. Curious the boxcutter made easy work of the woven covering. What she found was probably the creepiest damn thing she'd ever seen. Inside the case was a two foot tall metal marrionette doll. It had a piece missing where its stomach was, though on closer inspection that looked to be a design choice. Oddly the figure didn't appear to be suspended by strings, rather it was held down by chains.

That should have been enough for anyone to put the tarp back on the thing and head out. Melisa couldn't help herself though and fiddled with the door. The opening itself actually had odd strips of paper with some strange characters scrawled on it. What was this, a horror movie? Over the creepy feeling because of how childish she must have looked, she cut the seals and opened the case. Works like this usually had an artists name or signature on it. Pulling it out and checking around the outside there was nothing. The hollowed out opening in the stomach though had was looked like another of those pieces of paper though. Taking hold of it she was drawing it out when she heard a voice. "Will you be my friend?" Recoiling and jerking her hand back Melisa looked around for the source of the voice. It sounded like a child. Looking down she had managed to cut her finger on the sharp edges of the doll. She didn't respond to the question and started to close the case. "No? That's okay. We can make friends together."

The blood on the doll ignited into a pink flame in unison with the cut finger. Panic instantly set in as in seconds her entire hand was seemingly on fire. It didn't hurt, but the spread was too quick to do anything but flail. It wasn't just outside though, the woman felt herself becoming lighter as she was consumed. Soon her entire body was nothing but this pink blaze throughout. Rattling in its case the doll began to draw in the flames through the opening in its torso. Disappearing from sight Melisa began to feel a cold sensation. Her vision that had gone out returned and she stumbled. Something was holding her back. She pulled and fought, breaking loose from the chains that were binding her. As she did her mind was hit and the fear left her. She was free. Everything was weird and huge though. Pretty quickly she realized that she was now the marionette. Eerily this didn't bother her as much as it should. A smile came instead as she loosened all her joints. There was a lot of work to do and she was hungry. The woman might not have wanted to be her friend, but now Melisa just needed to go out and make new ones herself.

Asi stated by the placed bounty, the crystal monster had taken up residence in a subway station. With the evacuation there were less passengers traveling overall, particularly after the disturbances of the past days. That meant those stations which typically saw low traffic were even less inhabited, making it perfect for any beast that might seek to make a lair out of them.

The station in particular was further from the downtown area, away from the port and the residential areas. This was likely why there was less traffic to it. It was on one of the branch lines, which ran a bit further down before heading back up and into the city.

A plaza was in front of the entrance to the subway itself, with a modestly sized fountain that was currently turned off for the winter season, as well as a statue to one of the cities historical founders of note. More importantly were the small crystals that could be seen growing from the ground, piercing through pavement and concrete in jagged clusters of the technicolor spectrum.

This was a result of the spreading influence let loose by the monster inside. One could feel it in their bones, the alien energy of another world that radiated from the crystals, the taste of the air as it shifted. Left unchecked it would only grow more prevalent and spread further.

But that was the purpose of the bounty. The call had gone out, and it had been answered. Now it was for those who had taken on the mantle of responsibility to challenge this foe in its lair and vanquish it…..

… Or simply relocate it. After all, who’d know the difference if Mariette simply had the core offered to Asengav? At the very least, that was what she was planning on attempting.

Mariette stood on top of a portal directed to the floor of a building some distance away, and then simply moved the portal forward as to float towards her target on a platform. In preparation, she put her arm into a portal, fired multiple beams of light over several seconds, and trapped these bolts of light into an endless loop between two portals within that same room so that she would have their firepower at a moment’s notice later on. Returning her arm, she looked down at Bunny, clasped under her arm, and then brought down her face to nuzzle her stuffed toy a bit, before opening her Hammerspace Handbag portal and placing him inside, right next to his wife Bunny recently made by Nuncio. Could get dangerous, would rather not hold him. So, Mariette now faced forward, towards the entrance of the subway, floating above the crystal-pierced ground…

Now, wasn’t there someone else that had also answered the call?

“This hunt again!?” An angry pink haired shrine maiden had her sword drawn, and was closing in on the monster’s lair. “It hasn’t even been three months and the grand magistrate sees fit to give us a re-skin of a quest!” She scoffed. “What is this, a JRPG? Oh nooooooo that would have been a palette swap!” After her outburst, she started to chuckle. “Let’s hope Sakura didn’t get this one. Maybe the outcome will be a little different.” She sniffed the air, and her nose guided her head in Mariette’s direction. “Holy shit, what the hell smells so good?” The shrine maiden sheathed her weapon and galloped towards Mariette on all fours. Once she reached that sweet spot where she was in the portal witch’s vicinity but also far enough away as to not be a threat, she stood up and dusted off her hands. “Hahaha! The hell are you doing out here by yourself? Don’t you have minions to do this sort of thing?” The maiden placed her hands on her hips. “Let’s get the introductions out of the way so that we can start this hunt proper.” She placed a hand on her chest. “I’m Oros. You’re Mary. Since you don’t have any minions, you’re going to need a bodyguard.” Her eyelids lowered in a seductive manner. ”A guard… for your body.” She hugged herself. ”And I’m in need of a body… to guard.”

Mariette was gently opening a couple tiny portals from her eye to around her to see in all directions and not be caught off-guard, was promptly caught off-guard by the shrine maiden chasing at her direction on all fours and was almost in a state of shooting her with a blast of light while drifting away on the portal she was standing on before Oros came to a stop, Mariette looking at her somewhat in alarm, not having fired yet. Still, then she could calm down and hear her out.

‘… There are some things my minions aren’t suited to handle. Very well, Oros. You may guard me during this mission. … At a distance. Over there. Without touching. Stay in front of me,’ Mariette said, a bit uncomfortable with Oros’ mannerism towards the end, there. ‘Leave the scouting and supporting firepower to me. My portals will ensure distance is not a factor. What of you? What capabilities do you hold?’

Oros did as was instructed. Her hips swung with each step, like she was a fashion model. ”I’m glad you specified ‘over there’ and ‘without touching,’ because I would have tickled your butt with a tentacle.” Oros rolled her shoulders before settling in place. She didn’t take her eyes off Mariette. ”Other than tickle torture, I can do this thing where anything within reach of my sword gets stabbed. I’m also pretty good at getting stabbed, bludgeoned, and whatever else my partner can throw at me. And I’ve got a nifty space filled with useless shit.” She reached into her robes and pulled out a desk lamp. ”But there’s more to me than my kit, Mary. You sure you don’t want to talk about my other interests? Maybe my tragic backstory or something?”

‘My b…? Why would you…?’ Mariette looked perplexed. She didn't get it. Then Oros said, in an actually slightly amusing way, that she's a physical Magical Girl with Hammerspace. Okay. Then that last point… Mariette visibly reeled. Sure, she knew she was supposed to make allies whenever she could, to make it less likely the entire town would try to destroy her when the time came, and additionally, she had a report on Oros from the park event… but, like, watching Oros movements was making her uncomfortable… Still, she… ‘W… w… wwww…’ Mariette sighed. ‘… Wwwwwould you like to exchange phone numbers so that we may attempt saving one another from trouble in the future?’ Mariette asked, awkwardly.

Oros shook her head with a chuckle, and a phone appeared in her hand. ”Pumpkin, you can save me any day of the week. So long as my ‘trouble’ is being really frickin’ bored.” She navigated through the menus until she got to her number, which she displayed for Mariette. When Mariette shared her number, Oros programmed it in. ”And of course I’ll save you Mary. if I don’t save your sorry ass when it’s in trouble, how will I be able to tickle it? GAHAHAHA!” Oros stashed her phone. ”Anyway, I get it. You’re all business because you don’t want to wait three months to finish the hunt. That’s fine, I’ve got your number and your scent.” She turned towards the subway. Every muscle in her body tensed up, and her hand came down on the hilt of her blade. ”You wanted to scout, right?” Oros lurched forward. ”Direct me, and I’ll follow.”

Mariette was a bit confused by the constant references to the rear end, but she was thankful to get the number, anyway. So, she nodded to the having number and scent after a while. ‘Thank you,’ she simply said, and then the both of them could face towards the subway. ‘Alright. My portals will go first. Then we’ll see,’ Mariette said, and held forward her hand-mirror. Multiple portals formed, half forming a wall in front of both of them and the other half forming a geometric shape looking in most directions (including up and down) further forward, letting them look in all directions through the wall and at everything surrounding the “scout”. She then let the geometric shape of portals drift inside the station, to scout out how it looked inside, them able to see in most directions from it by the use of the wall of portals before them, at a notable distance for their own safety.

Now, the “scout” had no agility at all, if it was attacked it’d be destroyed if the attacks hit the edges or the attacks would pass straight through the portals. ‘Be wary that enemy attacks may pass through my portals,’ Mariette warned, raising her own tentacles from her shadow just in case.

”Things can pass through your portals? Impossible!” Oros didn’t look away from the portal wall. ”I feel like I should be in there. Hopefully we you find something soon.” Oros might not have been able to participate directly, but her bestial senses were far greater than any humans, and most magical girls.

Downwards the scout descended into the station. It moved along long hallways, past opened and emptied rooms as they drew nearer to the train platforms. At least the avenues of attack were relatively limited in this space.

At first things seemed fairly normal. A normal train station, no worse off than the plaza outside was. But as the scout moved further in the environment began to change. The oppressive feeling of alien magic hung in the air, with groupings of multicolored crystals stabbing out from the walls, floor, and ceiling at seemingly random intervalds. The tile floor grew increasingly cracked until it vanished entirely, replaced by cavernous stone.

Crystals and stone were not the only addition to this place. As it drew near the steps that led to the platform, the scout would see a pool of black liquid, viscous and impenetrable. Crystals floated within it, and with reduced distance the pool began to stir. Ripples raced across its surface in unseen tremors agitating it.

The liquid then began to rise into the air, drawing together and coalescing into a bipedal form A grinding shriek filled the air as it finished constituting itself, before it turned. It then leapt at the portals, sharp claws outstretched and ready to gouge at the magical girls who seemingly laid in wait so close. This being did not seem to have the magical strength to accomplish what had been done here, merely a minion rather than the true boss. Just another obstacle on the path to resolving this situation.

Oros sprinted forward. The creature’s thrust came through the portal, and she turned her body sideways. Her sword scraped along the creature’s crystalline arm, causing a few sparks to fly. She used her empty hand to grab hold of the creature’s arm. Though as she reached, her arm took on the same features as the monster she was fighting. Her fingers became long like talons, her flesh became black liquid, and her bones and nails were radiant crystal. She tugged on the creature’s arm to pull it off balance before thrusting her sword into its head.

”A new one for the bestiary!”

Hm, that was an interesting creature. Mariette considered if she could cripple it and lock it up for examination- aaaaaaaand Oros was already upon it. Mariette grunted a bit but started to walk forward towards the portals, raising the hand with her hand-mirror to potentially shoot a blast of light if Oros looked like she needed the support. Mariette then wandered through one of her own portals and onto another portal, because she couldn’t bring normal portals through portals, but she didn’t want to stand on this ground in fear of crystal sprouting whenever, so onto another platform portal it was. She then shut the scout and replaced it with tiny portals linking directly to her eye that looked in various directions right next to her body, including down and up, and then trust her awareness and tentacles to catch any further attack. Then she drifted after Oros for now.

While throwing the beast off balance was less effective than what one might have desired, the sword to the head did the job just fine. Threw was a screech and the shattering of crystal, and for a moment the monster stiffened. Then it began to dissolve, the energy from the crystal body no longer present to keep it constituted now that it had been destroyed. The liquid flowed back down into a puddle, only dirtying Oros’ outfit a little bit in the process.

”Felled in one shot! Haha!” Oros looked at their outfit. ”Normally I’d wear my enemy’s gore with pride, but this shit is COLD!” Her crystalline arm acted as a part of the construct, and it drew the black liquid off of her outfit. Once she had it all gathered up, she flicked it away, leaving her outfit in pristine condition. ”So did you see that Mary? You didn’t wanna-” The portal scout closed, causing the portal wall, too, to close up. ”Mary? Mary!? MARY!!!” Oros’s arm returned to normal, and she galloped into the subway.

With the creature destroyed, Mariette could proceed unimpeded down the stairs to the main platform area. Where once there would have been turnstiles now there were no longer any such obstacles. However she would be able to see a couple of those same pools of black liquid up ahead, providing another nuisance to deal with as they plunged deeper into the lair.

”There you are!” Oros slowed her approacht. She looked visibly pale, but color returned to her face when Mariette was in sight. ”Are you upset that I killed that creature so quickly?” She bowed her head and turned towards the puddles. ”If so, you take these next two if you’d like. I’ll only intervene if they get close.” She stepped in front of Mariette and faced the puddles.

Now, Mariette hadn’t really been intending to leave Oros behind, simply figuring the girl would have no trouble catching up again. Mariette looked with the mildest of befuddlement back when she heard Oros scream after her behind, and then kept looking the same as Oros looked so pale when she appeared. Still, the offer to destroy those creatures herself… ‘I’ll accept your generous offer,’ Mariette said.

Mariette blasted a modestly weak shot of light at each of the puddles of liquid, simply intent on waking the beasts up, for they were far easier to handle when they were in a humanoid shape. She then reached out in her dimensional space so that her portal-range encompassed the entities, so that next she could make portals appear from in front of her to around them, after which she shot precision blasts of light to start needling off their limbs. Assuming everything went as intended, she’d then open an array of small portals around her directly to the crystal minions that her tentacles dove through, intent on gripping and restraining the minions. Should that be successful, she’d open a portal to her Interdimensional Home, to the protected Void Room, on the ground in front of her using her hand-mirror, and then one by one create a portal underneath the crystal minions directly to the hole in reality to have her tentacles pull them into her storehouse from which she could sacrifice them to Asengav… if everything went smoothly, anyway.

The shots would wake up the monsters, as she had intended. However, one would also note something odd occurring. As the second ball of light flew forwards, it passed by one of the clusters of crystals coming out of the wall. The glow of said crystals began to rise, illuminating particulates floating in the air. Conversely the glow of the ball of light magic seemed to diminish, almost as if it was losing energy. Strange.

Screeches of anger and frustration filled the air as Mariette unleashed her tentacles on the beasts. They tried to slash with sharp claws but found little purchase with how they were restrained.Instead the inky blackness that made up their forms began moving along her tentacles as if intent on going directly back to the source. One of them did get free by outright separating its arm, but it had to regrow the limb and did not have enough time to complete that before both it and its companion were pulled down into her Void Room. It seemed that this had all gone pretty well so far.

”Oh right, I forgot you had tentacles.” Oros looked over her shoulder. ”Anyway, I hope you don’t mind me saying that was kind of sloppy. That one there almost got away.” She pointed at herself with her thumb. ”You should practice with me. I could give you all kinds of pointers.” Her toothy grin was so big she had to close her eyes to display it.

She turned back towards the severed arm, which had become a puddle. ”So what do we know about these creatures? It seems their cores are able to manipulate the black gunk however they please, and the crystal formations on the wall absorb your light magic.” She scratched her chin. ”I feel like this is going to be important when we come across the main creature. We need to learn as much as we can now.” She squinted her eyes. ”But what happens if a person moves closer to a charged crystal?” She stared at it for a few seconds before raising her sword in the air. ”Steel yourself Mary! I’m going to take one for the team! Gahahahaha!” Oros charged towards the glowing crystal.

‘It did not get away,’ Mariette firmly said, absolutely minding, though her gaze was currently on the crystal that had seemingly sapped the blast’s powers. Did their foe have magic-draining abilities? If so, this could be troublesome… but also of much greater value should they manage to capture it. Better send something to test it out… … … ‘Sure. Knock yourself out,’ Mariette responded to Oros statements and simply kept herself ready to open portals and have tentacles grab her to pull her back and save her if something went awry.

As Oros charged forwards, the crystal would react to her presence once she drew close enough. A burst of colored lightning reached out from the pointed tip of the cluster, striking the girl and filling the air around her. Fortunately it had not absorbed much energy from the previous magical attack so any potential harm that might come of it was significantly reduced. It also seemed to be limited to that ‘cloud’ that they had witnessed when Mariette was fighting the monsters, so it had been an informative experiment too.

”Hah! That felt invigorating!” Oros’s hair was standing up on her head. Save her pony tail, which froze in the shape of a jagged lightning bolt. ”Do I look better like this? I don’t have a mirror on me.” She sheathed her sword. ”Let’s get a move on. I’ll stay in front of you just like before.”

‘…’ Mariette stared at the crystal/what may remain of it. She then extended a tentacle and checked if that one would be absorbed, too. It was magic, but it wasn’t specialization magic, so to say. If the tentacle was unaffected, she’d have it grab a piece of crystal, before dropping that, too, into the Void Room. If it was affected, guess she’d abstain for now. ‘You look fine. Let’s move on,’ Mariette said, opening some portals a bit further in to scout but keeping those around her looking about as they went further in. All while Oros giggled to herself.

Mariette would find that the crystal did not react to the presence of her tentacle. A sample was thus easily retrieved and stored in her void room before the duo progressed onwards.

Proceeding to the train station platforms, they would find that mundane reality had shifted to whatever strange world their foe came from. Tile and dull white had transformed to stone and crystal. While the tracks were still there, no doubt in time they would vanish as well. And at one end of the platform was a ramp that went downwards, turning this place into a multi-leveled cavern.

Clusters of crystal jutted from stone, meshing with shimmering pillars of light and more exotic formations. While not impossible to avoid, they were certainly more prevalent here. Foreign magic hung heavy in the air, and the further in they moved the more Oros would notice herself becoming lighter. It was as if the alien nature of whatever was here was warring with the gravity and physics itself. Mariette would not feel the same though, thanks to her portal magic enabling her movement.

The third layer would be the bottom, with pools of black liquid similar to those above dotting around the area. In the middle of the floor was a series of four crystal spires in a ring. These glowed differently, more vibrantly than the others. Close inspection could see that they were engraved with some alien language, and a mist flowed around them for some strange purpose.

And floating in the middle of that circle was a large being. No doubt the mastermind behind all of this, it loomed over both Oros and Mariette. The time to settle this was at hand.

As they moved along, Mariette would reach out with tentacles and break more crystals as if they were prevalently in the way for a potential action-sequence, perhaps dropping a few more of them into the portal to the Void Room but then throwing others to the side, simply. Then, there was the great monster that they’d come here to engage, and it was something, alright. A thrust from one of those weapons was sure to be the end of an unprepared Magical Girl. Mariette raised a hand towards it. ‘Are you prepared?’ Mariette asked. ‘Hm, those four crystals around it… it’s possible a magical assault would be ineffective,’ Mariette plainly stated. … This followed with Mariette’s tentacles lifting a couple of those crystals, pulling back in a preparation to throw.

”Not quite Mariette, I need to enjoy this just a second or so longer.” Oros’s eyes were transfixed on her chest as she hopped straight up and down. ”Sloooooow motiooooon jiggle physics!” She looked to Mariette and, sensing her disappointment, shrugged her shoulders. ”I mean I can’t do a bay watch joke because Lily beat me to it last season. Anyway, let’s prep.” Oros walked around Mariette in a circle and pulled out several stone slabs. The alien etching on the side made them look like sacrificial alters, and the blood stains on a few of them further promoted that idea. After lowering her sixth one, she dusted off her hands. ”There we go. I’m sure you can do something with these.” She turned to face the giant creature. ”I’m going to refer to him as the BAMF from here on out, okay?” Oros looked at the BAMF and squinted her eyes.

Mariette gave Oros a confused look about the “slow motion jiggle physics”. She didn’t get it. Though, then she nodded about being able to do something with the stone slabs. She just walks around with stone slabs, huh. Now, then. ‘Bamf it is,’ albeit Mariette had no idea where that expression came from.

The largest obstacle with giving humans the ability to fly is that they are three times heavier than they should be, and thus need large wings that no human would be strong enough to flap. Fortunately, Oros was far stronger than three grown men. A pair of butterfly wings popped out of her back, giving her the appearance of a dark fairy. Insect wings like these were preferable to bird wings for a few reasons. Butterflies were one of the few creatures that could hover in place, were plenty nimble, and it freed up her arms to hold her sword and other objects. The only downside that Oros had considered was that her wings were frail, and herflying speed was lower than it would be with a pair of avian wings.

”Just open a portal for me if you need me back here. But I’m taking the fight right to this BAMF!”

With a powerful sprint, Oros darted towards the BAMF at full speed, using her gravity magic to keep her traction up. Before she got too close to the crystals, she’d arm herself with a metal dagger courtesy of her hammerspace and chuck it at one of the crystals.

As the duo moved in the crystalline monster would respond to their presence. It turned, a low whine filling the air as it protested their presence here. The dagger flew out, impacting the crystal before bouncing away. No surprise there, it was tougher than your average rock when up against mundane weapons. Any cracks that might have been present remained small, for now. Then Oros had more to worry about as crystals rose from the ground and shot towards her like javelins. With the sharp tips that they had, getting hit was going to hurt.

At the same time the pools of black ink coalesced into more of those monsters that the duo had faced before. They would rush forwards, targeting whichever girl was nearest and forcing both to contend with at least a handful of foes while the main enemy continued to launch its crystal projectiles at them.

”Shitsicles!”

With crystals coming at her and enemies coming from either side, things looked bad for Oros. She made a sharp turn and ran straight for one of the mobs headed her way. The incoming crystal shards now had to turn mid air or lead their target if they wanted to hit her. ”Alright bro, it’s just you and-” Oros reached over her head, and a metal cage slightly bigger than two of the creatures appeared in her hands. It had metal bars on all four walls, a solid roof, and no floor. She hopped into the air and slammed it down on top of them.

”Yoink!”

Oros cut off her gravity magic and pushed off the cage, allowing her to soar into a loop as the crystals still trailed her. She attempted to fly beside the rest of the mob so that the incoming crystal projectiles would strike them first.

”How are you holding up, Mary?”

Hm, Mariette thought as she looked on. More enemies formed. Very well, then.

She opened portals under the rock slabs that Oros had presented to her, leading to somewhat above where the rock slabs had been lying. This led to them immediately starting to fall, and reaching some horrific falling speeds as the portals formed an eternal tunnel around her. Her tentacles lashed out at the creatures closest to her, and… then she opened a new portal, rerouting the falling rock slabs so they would fly out at the optimum angle to utterly demolish as many of the opposing minions as possible, and then she sent one of the rock slabs falling at terminal velocity towards one of the four crystals surrounding their foe for the sake of it.

She grabbed some of the remaining rock slabs with her tentacles to use as shields if needed. Or to slam down any remaining enemy minions with, her tentacles wielding them as weapons and swinging about to slam them out of her way. ‘I’m doing relatively fine, thank you,’ Mariette answered Oros, mostly because the big foe wasn’t shooting at her yet. Let’s see if that would change after she directed her firepower at it.

Oros would quickly learn that the crystal projectiles did not have homing capability, so a simple dodge was enough to safeguard herself from them. Her cage trap was more effective, leaving the minions trapped. They hammered at the sides before approaching things from a more tactical angle, wrapping the bars in that black substance. With her Awareness, Oros could see the metal bars begin changing into the same sort of crystal that comprised their bodies. That could be a problem later.

With more crystals incoming, the other minions trying to attack her would suffer as well. Someone would have limbs severed, forced to fall back and regrow them before they could rejoin the fight. Only one or two fell permanently, but with the rest of the damage done it meant there were only two left to leap at her. They claws glittered, seeking to scratch and tear at whatever they could reach.

Mariette’s rock trick would smash many of the minions who had risen up as well, before they could reach either magical girl present. While a handful were able to reform, more had been destroyed to such an extent where they were simply dead. Yet that did not stop more minions from emerging, rising from black ooze and answering the call of their master. As for the remaining rock, that was when the Creature would reveal a new trick.

The glow of light radiating from its core intensified, traveling up its long arms. When they were brought together a radiant beam of energy lashed out, shattering the rock slab before sweeping towards Mariette. It would go for several seconds before ending, leaving them a new danger to deal with.

Mariette was considering that it was probably a good idea to dispose of the liquid, when suddenly Bamf shot a huge laser first taking out the rock and then sliding towards her. Well. Sweeping lasers were a problem, they couldn’t be portalled because they’d just hit the edge first-

The portal girl dove headfirst into a portal to the other side of big, crystal and ugly, trying to make it low to make sure she didn’t hurt herself too badly when she hit the ground. She made one of her tentacles raise a stone slab in defense as she did, but as the monster had just demonstrated, they wouldn’t be a very capable defense. Mariette’s next course of action would be decided if she managed to hit the floor safely.

Meanwhile, Oros had changed the composition of her body again. Her arms and legs had turned into that black matter her enemies were made out of, with crystal cores acting as her bone structure. She had just dispatched the two creatures that had jumped at her with a single swing of her katana. ”These guys are kind of cool!” The crystal barrage had momentarily stopped, and the minions in the immediate vicinity had been vanquished. It was Oros’s cue to move. She hopped back into the air and flew towards the BAMF.

”Let’s see if it’s immune to monster damage!”

Oros had been splattered with some of the foreign black substance. She snapped off her ‘pinkie’ and used that to act as a core for all the extra material. The pinky crystal soon turned into a dagger. While she sprinted, she hurled the knife at the crystal again.

”And if all else fails… Kamikazeeeeeeeee!” Oros raised her sword over her head and prepared to give the crystal a beating.

There would be no deterrent to Mariette jumping through the portal. The landing was about as rough as landing on stone normally would be, not helped by the edges of crystal fragments, but better than it could have been. The slab ended up being unnecessary as well, as the laser ended before it could track around to her new position.

Even if it had not, Oros drew its attention on her own. In this case it seemed that like did not harm like, or at the very least the big one was made of harder stuff than its minions. The dagger would ricochet off of its hard exterior in a different direction, as it turned to face her and her war cry.

An arm rose, white lines tracing themselves along the low half before the crystal launched forward like the ones on the ground. This time the large object separated into numerous smaller ones along those white lines, a hail of shrapnel to catch her head on. The crystal then began floating away and upwards, even as the limb started to regrow itself.

Alright, Mariette thought with a grunt as she looked up from where she now lay. Time for portal battle strategy 101.

From where she now lay, Mariette waved forward her hand-mirror, which shimmered with power as portals opened as she predicted the opponent’s attack. It was two portals opened right next to one another, one facing the monster’s shrapnel and one facing Oros. If Mariette’s magic worked as intended and with enough speed, one portal caught the hail of shrapnel and sent it back at the attacker from another portal above the Bamf, while Oros found herself relocated to a portal in mid-air behind their giant foe, unless she felt like dodging the portal, that is, Mariette gave some room for Oros to recognize where the portal was taking her and make her own decision. Meanwhile, she herself opened a portal in front of herself as a shield preemptively, leading to just behind her for now.

"What is this shit?" Oros allowed herself to fall into the portal Mariette had set out for her. "I didn't even hit it and it already shattered!"

Perhaps the BAMF itself would be more of a challenge. Oros’s flesh returned to normal, even her wings had vanished. Instead she gave the BAMF’s torso its own gravitational field. This allowed Oros to stand on its back. "Have you ever played Shadow of the Colossus? Spoiler alert!" She drove her sword as deep into the creature’s back as she could. She had seen a crystal core in it’s chest, and if it was anything like its underlings, maybe it had a weakness too.

Crystals assaulted the monster from above, its own barrage directed back at it. They clattered off and stale to the floor, chipping and lightly fracturing the main body to give it more wounds to heal up.

Oros would run into her own difficulty as she tried to apply Gravity magic to the monster, for it countered with its own alien magics that she had already experienced when approaching the fight. It shifted beneath her feet, throwing off her aim and keeping her blade from stabbing into center of mass as she had intended.

"Agro!"

It then turned as her perch was disturbed by the conflicting gravity magic, remaining limb crackling with energy as it stabbed at her. Its other arm was just about finished regrowing too, and while the big one contended with Oros the minions turned their attention to Mariette as well as they clambered towards her to slash and claw without hesitation.

Without her wings or gravity magic to hold her up, there wasn’t much Oros could do to evade the BAMF’s incoming strike. She pulled another stone altar out of her hammer space and used it to block the incoming blow. She clung to it, with one hand holding the top of the massive stone, and another clung to the side. She was pressing herself against it as flat as possible.

The stone would dampen the lighting charge its weapon was powered with, but such a heavy blow was more than enough to decimate a mundane block of stone. It split the stone in half, ready to plow through whatever was on the other side. But the stone had broken in half with the center swinging outward into Oros. Because she was holding onto the upper half, the stone block acted as a hinge, throwing Oros’s body upwards and away from the force of impact. Such a blow would wreck a normal human, but for Oros, it was just another tuesday.

"Agro, I’ll avenge you!"

Once again, Oros sprouted butterfly wings. This time however, all she was doing was redirecting her momentum. She looped up and around, taking all of her momentum and using it to get back at the BAMF. No screw ups this time, she aimed to take the BAMF’s head with a swing of her blade.

Mariette stood up and took a step back onto a portal that then floated away from the minions while she considered a plan. Right, let’s remove the annoying little ones first. There were pools of liquid. Mariette spread her realm of influence, and Absolute Direction located an abandoned cellar with a locked door… she’d be taking a look at what she’d done later, but for now she opened portals from the pools of liquid into said cellar, intent on letting it drip away from the battlefield and be rendered meaningless for the sake of the current battle, while Mariette let her tentacles slap some minions that were getting too close. They should be adequate, as Mariette floated a bit further up.

The portal opened, Mariette implementing her scheme. She would find that it was slower than expected, as if the strange substance was resisting being pulled through the portal into a different realm. It was native to this alien space after all, and whatever odd force there was did not intend to part so easily.

As Oros came back for her strike after being thrown away, she would be assaulted from two directions. Crystal projectiles shot upwards to meet her in flight. More importantly, she would be able to see that same buildup in the crystal being from before. Its arms came together, another laser fired head on at her. Power against power, magic against magic, and their foe did not intend to back down.

Then Mariette figured, she’d just have to make it go through. Mariette created another portal, that just led into solid ground. Then, she’d have that portal shovel the liquid into the portal, force it through, administrating small movements to have it go through… also, that’s a laser. Mariette directed her other hand, and assuming she was too high for the minions to disturb, she took the remaining stone slab and chucked it at the somewhat cracked crystal, while Oros was distracting the big beast, while also using Absolute Direction to find other decently large rocks or heavy things outside of Penrose.

As sturdy as Oros was, there was only so much she could do against the full might of a magical laser. She was forced to bank away from the BAMF when it opened fire on her. She was sturdy and tolerant to pain, but the lazer cooked her arm in seconds. Her arm flaked away as soon as she took evasive maneuvers. Fortunately her close proximity to the BAMF meant that the laser couldn’t track her so easily. But she had been put on the defensive.

At least, until Mariette scored a hit with her stone projectile.

The BAMF rocked in place, slicing the side of the subway open with its weapon. Then another rock out of nowhere, then an entire car, The monster was briefly off guard, and Oros had been granted a second opening. Maybe this time, she could do something without getting totally cucked by flying projectiles, anti-magic, or lasers. Melee fighters needed a buff for sure. Oros looked down at Mariette’s position and immediately understood what she was trying to do. But Oros knew she could do her one better.

"Mary! Open another portal over here! Give that black shit to me!"

Funny thing about cars. Mariette couldn’t lift cars, but she sure could open portals under them, let gravity speed them up and then redirect the bottom portal to fling the cars at the magic-resistant enemy. Then, Oros asked to get the “black shit”. The liquid? … Fine. Mariette rerouted the portal that was taking the liquid.

A portal opened up over Oros. Normally the tar would be hard to move, but since Oros could replicate the cores of the monsters, she had no problem drawing the black mass towards herself. She tucked her knees against her chest as her entire body turned into a solid crystal. The ooze surged through the portal and surrounded the core, assimilating into a larger Oros. Her katana was too small for this form, but she held the blade between the fingers of her closed fist.

The Bamf was getting pounded by Mariette’s projectiles, but it would find a moment of reprieve to counter attack. The laser started up again and was going to cut through Oros’s “ribcage.” But it was too little too late.

"This is for exhausting my Shadow of the Colossus jokes without dieing!"

The one armed maiden drove her sword, and her fist by extension, as deep into the BAMF as it would go.

While she did that, Mariette figured she could do something dramatic too. She found a truck, filled to the brim, the driver currently out for a bathroom break. She opened a distant portal, straining somewhat to get the size, to make the bottom half tip and start dragging the whole thing down with it, brakes be damned. She let it fall from one portal to another behind her to make sure it gained in speed. As she did, she jumped forward out of a portal to be closer to the beast, behind it. Then, the truck came through a portal above the giant beast, and Mariette placed her hands on the floor beneath, her hand-mirror in one.

‘Fall!’ Mariette commanded, straining her magic to open as wide a portal into the Void Room as needed, hoping it would be shocked enough by Oros strike into its depths that the truck would smash it down into Mariette’s little room of sacrifice.

Both blows struck, one infused by magic and the other infused with sufficient kinetic energy. While it might have been able to handle one of those, both of them together was too much. The room was filled with a myriad of sound, from straining metal to loud ‘cracks’ of shattering crystal.

Down the monster went from the sudden impact, nearly dragging Oros with it in the process. While Mariette would get her wis the monster was significantly reduced from the simultaneous impacts. Chunks of crystal had been left on the ground around them and its inner light flickered and sputtered from the damage to its core. It would not be healing on its own.

At the same time the crystal pillars near them began to emit a low whine as their inner glow brightened. The alien magical energy intensified, the brunt of it seemingly directed to the monster in the portal as it shook and shimmered. Who knew what it could be building up to?

"Did it just get isekai'd?"

The black fluid fell away from Oros’s body as she fell from the sky. One armed with a singed torso, but still able to land on her feet.

"I wonder if I can regrow my limbs with this? Something to ask the Grand Magistrate later I suppose."

That went pretty well, Mariette decided. Still, the building sound made her think she didn't want to stick around. With a grunt, she dispelled the portal she'd just hit the bamf down into and then opened portals beneath her and Oros feet to the top of a building near the entrance of the subway, intent on not being around there whenever the build up met the breaking point.

The two girls would be disappointed, as no explosion followed their departure. Instead the magical energy diminished and dwindled, cycled out by the natural energy of the Earth now that the beast was not around to maintain it. Soon the environment would return to normal, though there was still extensive damage to the station and the cavern nearby that would need to be fixed. But perhaps it could be an opportunity for development in the future.

For now, Oros had a new monster to study, Mariette had a new (if injured) sacrifice for her patron. By all accounts, this had been a very successful outing.

Deep beneath the ground, crystals glittered in the dark as they were swept along by an underground stream. They radiated energy, minute and hard to notice on their own. Perhaps something would come of this in the future, but that was for another time. For now, the duo could relish in their victory.

Fin

"No bewm? This smells like a cliffhanger!"

"Hmm...Let’s see..."

For a long time, Lily was curled up on the couch, holding a slip of paper. She repeated the words and numbers in it in her head, thinking of the ramifications. It was a life-changing decision that she shouldn’t do lightly. But, she knew that she would need a Patron if she were to carry on Ixion’s wish, and fight to protect the world. And as it happened, someone had already expressed interest in her.
She typed the number into her phone, and then called the number.
"H-Hello? This is Lily Hanson. Is Mr. Umu there?" She asked, sounding a little nervous.

“Greetings.” said a voice.

But not coming from the phone. Rather from Lily’s feet. The tiny fur ball was pretty good at moving around. The creature’s eyes looked at Lily, as he tilted his head. “I have answered your summons, Lily Hanson. What do you require of me?”

Lily yelped in surprise, and her eyes opened upon seeing Umu.
"Oh wow! That was fast." She reached down, and gently picked Umukamui in her hands, placing the cuddly critter on her lap.
"Well, uh...As you know, I’ve recently become a Solo girl due to...circumstances." She sighed.
"It was nice for a while, but...If I really want to protect everyone, like Ixion wanted me to, then I shouldn’t do that alone. I need someone who understands what I’m going through, and who can guide me whenever I’m lost. Then I remembered that you gave this to me last time. Could you tell me about the contracts you make with magical girls, for example the pros and cons?"

Umu looked at Lily. "For starters, I shall give you a new motorcycle, but that much is granted. I do have a wide network of supplies and contacts, going so far as to have a working relationship with Beacon. Unlike other puuchus I rarely withhold information or mince words." The small creature blinked . "But I do expect you to pull your own weight and I like to keep a good grasp on my agents' actions." The creature said in an attempt to make a pitch. "Plus you would be alongside Sakura."

Lily gasped upon hearing the first benefit.
“R-Really? Can it still have the jagged horn on the front? I-I would love that.” She also nodded at the other useful sides to working with Umu.
“I’d also love to have new friends too.” She averted her eyes.
“And I’d get to see Sakura more...That doesn’t sound too bad. But, what do you mean by a good grasp? Do you want to see me every day, or something like that?”

Umu said,”The horn is no issue. The color scheme will be kept too.” He said in relation to the bike, and proceeded to answer the other question. “Just regularly. I do want to know the shape and state of my agents at regular intervals.” The creature stirred. “It makes for smoother operations.” He said.

"O-Oh. I see," Lily said with a nod. She flashed back to the times Alex and others offered to help her with getting a new Patron. But while they seemed decent enough choices, they all seemed so different compared to Ixion, and that scared her more than anything else. In comparison, Umu had simple conditions, and provided anything she could ask for in a Patron. She nodded to herself; she could spend more time with Sakura, protect her…She made her decision.
"I-In that case...I would like to make a contract with you."

“Excellent.” Umukamui said… as he leapt from Lily’s arms, and focusing for a second, made the magical girl glow anew, imbuing her in the powers of his contract. Lily’s motorbike materialized…

In a shade of pink.

“Force of habit.Let me fix it.” Umukamui said, as he applied the right colour scheme.

Lily closed her eyes as she felt the Puchuu’s magic grace her, forming a new bond.
When she opened her eyes, she opened her palm outwards, and her motorbike appeared, if initially a bit mismatched in color. Lily smiled, but there was also a hint of sorrow in it; even though the vehicle resembled Ixion in design, it no longer carried his spirit like before. But, it was also a reminder to her of the promise she made. She would be able to continue Ixion’s legacy.
”It feels different...But not too different,” she spoke out, looked down at Umu.
”Thank you, Mr. Umu. I promise I’ll do my best as a magical girl. But, now I gotta tell Alex. I hope he’s not too surprised.”

As if right on cue, Alexander arrived home. Currently in his Beast mode, he quickly dropped his transformation upon getting inside “-way too much of a mess. Nothing that small should explode into that much blood when it gets popped. It’s just-” Then he noticed their guest “um, what’s going on?”

Lily looked like a child with her hand in the cookie jar, and gave an uneasy smile.
”Oh, Alex! You came back early, hehe~”
She summoned the motorbike and put her hands behind her.
”So, umm...I decided to get a new Patron.”
She picked up Umukamui in her arms, as if to show the critter to him.
”This is Mister Umukamui. Isn’t he so cute?”

Alexander was surprised “Oh. It’s great to see you getting back in the metaphorical saddle, but what made you go with him?” He was also bothered by how familiar the small creature was ‘Where have I seen him before?’

“Greetings, Alexander. I am now both Sakura’s and Lily’s patron. We met back at the scrapyard.” The small creature droned, unbothered by the handling of Lily.

Lily nodded, and petted Umu.
"Umu gave me his contact info the last time, so I talked with him, and...Well, I decided to go for it, heh~" She averted her eyes.
"I mean, he even lets me have my motorbike again, and I can be there for Sakura, you know. I hope you're not mad."

“I’m...” To be honest, Alexander was a little disappointed. There was a small part of him that thought the idea of them having the same Patron was...exciting. However looking at her kept even the smallest mote of anger from forming ‘She’s starting to look like the Lily I know again’ he sighed, and then a small smile formed on his face “I’m just happy to see you recovering.”

Umukamui swished his tail thoughtfully, his expression unfazed. "I expect good things from Lily. Now, is there anything else you want?"

Lily gave a sweet smile. "Thanks, Alex. I'm glad we don't fight over this stuff like in MWJ," she would say, before she realized the reference she made.
"...To be more specific, the show I watched the other day." Lily then heard Umu speak, and immediately lowered the Puchuu down to the couch.
"Oh, sorry! I, uh...I guess you'll appear like this when you want me to fight, right?"

“I mean, I’m not sure why we would fight over something like this” Alexander shrugged “Besides, it’s your choice. No one else can make it for you”

“I will appear on a suitable form.” Umukamui tilted his head. “Now if you will excuse me, I have other things to do.” The little creature added, and began to walk away.

Lily watched as the creature disappeared from view, waving a bit of her hand for goodbye as she did.
”Yeah...You’re right, Alex. But I have a good feeling about this. I bet we’ll become great friends.”

“Well if anyone can, it’s you Lily. Alexander said with a nod.

_{Cold and Hot}

Even shrouded by clouds and besieged by barbarians and beasts alike, Penrose shone with the light of a thousand stars, electricity crackling through them and shedding brilliance against the snow-draped city. Softly, the winds of winter whispered, filling the tense silence with their suggestions and their assumptions, their wordless view of the world below. Few men still dared travel the roads of the humble city; when monstrosities so boldly revealed themselves, what hope could one have of a peaceful life? Only the supernatural paraded these avenues now, and the city continued to fall into disrepair.

Still, still, the boon of geniuses from eras ago filled this dark world with light, and still, the darkness that surrounded the city, formless and endless, could not fully make the world of mankind their own.

For her kindred and herself stood, bastions still in this desolate winterland, and in her hand, she wielded a brand brimming with lunar light. So long as there were those who slew monsters, the light of civilization would not be snuffed. So long as she drew breath, Penrose would still have a protector.

“They yearn for purity, so that they may defile it.”

A corrupting light thrummed from her chest, base instincts rising up in her skin even the power of the Infectious Yearn expanded further outwards. Her Sword thrummed in her hands, excitement racing up her lungs in a vicious haze. The Knight of Rose had promised a mountain of monsters as recompense for the deaths she denied that night.

Now, she would fulfill her vows.

One step, and she descended, plummeting deep into the living shadows of the city.

---

Amaryllis would have no problem finding monsters. It hadn’t even been an hour and her sword had found many. It was working just as Brittany said it would. OR HOWEVER THAT PART OF THE COLLAB WENT I WASN’T THERE! WAS THERE EVEN A COLLAB GEE WIZ

In the late hour of the night, Amaryllis would come across another girl. Her style was so loud that Amaryllis could practically hear her outfit before she saw it. It looked like she went into a designer clothing store and put on the finest jacket she could get her hands on. While the coat was striking, it wasn’t really the best for the weather. Her legs were clad in nothing but a pantyhose, and her shorts couldn’t have done that much to ward off the cold. While her jacket looked thick and warm, it was open, revealing a tube sweater with such a low cut that would give most men whiplash and cause woman to blush. Despite her clothing choice, she did not have the demeanor of the sex goddess she was trying to dress up as. She was jogging with a piece of toast in her mouth. She would occasionally use her hand to make sure it didn’t fall out of her mouth. If it was earlier in the day, it wouldn’t be hard to picture a girl like this rushing off to get to the movies or some special outing like that. She didn’t have a flashlight, nor did she have anything else that would help her see at this hour of the day. Her gaze was locked on something straight ahead. Something that wasn’t Amaryllis.

As she ran past, she looked at the rose knight. The piece of buttered toast that bounced in her mouth slowed with the cadence of her feet. She had come to a complete stop behind Amaryllis, looking at her over her shoulder.

A flick of the wrist, and the viscera of the swordswoman’s latest kill slipped off her polished blade as she stopped as well, taking an instance of reprieve. Though the more intelligent monstrosities resisted the urge, culling the horde held meaning too in restoring order within Penrose. Slay the mindless and convince the intelligent to scamper off elsewhere. She glanced back at the skimpily-dressed girl, but spoke nothing.

Penrose was filled with magical girls, after all, and she wasn’t the Ascendancy. So long as the monster girl behind her could repress the disturbed urges brought forth by her mutations, the Knight had no quarrel. Closing her eyes to listen for areas of activity within the labyrinthine alleyways, Amaryllis strode off once more.

---

Amaryllis would have difficulty finding anything else in the area though. There were always some monsters around at this hour, but things had gotten really quiet. Had something killed them all? Had another monster called them away? The sword did not yet have its pile of corpses, and it would remind Amaryllis every now and again.

Then a young woman’s scream pierced the air.

Energy returned to Amaryllis’s legs as she sprinted towards the sound. Down a dark alley there was another magical girl. One with pink hair and a black outfit. She was trying to scream, but some monstrous appendage had coiled around her mouth. It also had a tentacle around both of her wrists, and a fourth one was dragging her Katana around a corner. She attempted to struggle against her attacker, which retaliated by slamming her against the wall. It shook the building, and she suddenly lost her strength. The blow had to be painful, or at least put her in a state of vertigo.

When the fourth tentacle returned, it had a fluted spear sticking out of it. Not unlike the appendage a mosquito uses to feed. Just as the girl started to recover, she took notice of the spear hovering over her chest. Her breathing became more erratic. She struggled, but her arms were already right where the monster wanted her. She closed her eyes as the tentacle pulled back before thrusting into her rib cage.

A flash of silver, and the tentacle split into four, streaming out on all sides of the pink-haired girl. Before she could be tainted by the spray of monstrous blood, silver coated the wounds and raced down further to encase the entire tentacle in a mold of metal. The Knight of Rose, heralded by rusted petals, had arrived. One step in, and she sliced through the appendage wrapped around the maiden’s right arm, clasping it in her left and leading the girl into a spin. The second appendage twisted as well, severed as she drew her Sword back in a reverse draw cut. The final, most intrusive one seemed to simply fall off her face, chains of ivy forming a lattice over it that restrained even the flow of fluids through the flesh.

Surrounded on all sides by the restrained monstrosity, the two ladies twirled in the moonlight, and stopped in a dip that brought the pink-haired girl almost perpendicular to the ground. Staring deep into her eyes, the swordswoman spoke. “I am Amaryllis Evenings, Knight of Rose. Shall I offer you the liberty of becoming your own avenger? Or do you desire I take that mantle and slay this creature in your stead?”

The girl blinked a few times. Then at last she grinned. Her sword levitated into the air and thrust at whatever was hiding behind the corner. The squirming tentacles went limp, only to dissipate into smoke as time progressed. It was almost anti-climatic, but not everyone could be as flashy as the knight of rose.

Her arms slid around Amaryllis’s back, and the pink haired maiden sniffed the air. The breach between their faces closing with each passing second. “I’m Oros, and I like flowers myself.” Her eyes darted down to the glow coming from Amaryllis’s chest. “Is that a unicorn horn in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

“Can one not be beholden to both?” Amaryllis responded. Gently but firmly, she pulled Oros up once more. “It warms my heart, having disarmed this foul beast before it could claim the life of a sister, and if more of these aberrations come, this facsimile of a purebeast’s horn, stained as it is in the blackest of magics, will ensnare them to my attention, rather than scramble for you.”

“So I gotta keep you close? Okay, I can do that.” Oros hugged Amaryllis tighter. She stood motionless and didn’t say anything for a time. “Thanks, Amy. I feel really safe like this. Can you feel my heartbeat? I’m still a little nervous.” She rested her head on Amaryllis’s shoulder. “Mmmm, so you just run around stabbing monsters and saving maidens? That’s pretty heroic.”

“Nay, merely my obligations.” Amaryllis twitched slightly as Oros embraced her, but forced her shoulders to relax after a steadying breath. “The night carries on, and my Sword thirsts for more, but if you wish, maiden, I shall safeguard you on your journey back to your abode.” Placing her offhand on her shoulder, she gently pushed the pink-haired girl back, creating some distance between the two again.

“If you lack any such abode, however, I’ve heard of a hotel run by a Lesser Force in the area.”

"Abode, you’re so frickin’ funny with your vocabulary. I’d pinch your cheek if I wasn’t bear hugging you! Haha!" She picked her head back up. "You know now that I’m holding you like this, I’ve kind of become aware of a tragic fact." She locked her eyes with Amaryllis. "Amy, you’re kinda large, aren’t you? You’re thicker than a DQ milkshake, more beef than a Big Mac. You know what I’m saying? It’s not my favorite body shape, but I can’t lie: You. Are. A. Snack." She stared at Amaryllis for a moment. Were those pink hearts in her eyes? Yet the rest of her face had contorted into a snarl. "What the shit are you even doing Amy?! You’re walking around in a winter wonderland late at night, wearing the equivalent monster perfume, rescuing girls and what not." As she spoke, her skin turned darker and darker shades of red. "And you’re so oblivious to my sexual innuendos it just makes me wana-" She threw back her head to scream, only to then throw her head forward into Amaryllis’s ‘pocket.’

That is to say the source of the dark glow.

Her body was faster than her mind.

As Oros swung her head in, Amaryllis caught her by the chin, holding her face back with the heel of her palm. Not enough force to strike, only to arrest the magical girl’s movements.

“I seek neither.”

The dark glow died, the debased horn losing its alluring hue. She maintained the tautness of her arm for a moment longer, her muscles almost looking as if carved out of marble, but still, the knight answered not to her blade’s call for bloodspilling. “My apologies,” Amaryllis spoke. “The broker had certainly elaborated upon this artifact’s influences over even those only partially steeped in impurity, but I had not recognized you as one of them, Oros. Have you reined your impulses in?”

"Yea I’m cool." Oros said, as if absolutely nothing had happened. Her chin was still resting on Amaryllis’s palm, and whatever was going on with her eyes seemed to have worn off. "Can’t believe I have to wait two whole seasons to get that swole. Better than the five seasons I’ll need to catch up to Penny. Am I even going to be alive that long? Shit that’s depressing." Oros hands slid further up Amaryllis’s back. "Though FYI, I could have undone your bra strap. But I’m going to date Mary so I don’t want to screw that up." Her arms slid off of Amaryllis and hung at her sides.

"Anyway, this is kind of a shitty way to end things." She tapped her foot. "You want to hunt monsters right?"

The Knight of Rose remained unmoved by Oros’s chatter, if only because she didn’t wear a bra to begin with. Still, seasons? Certainly, it was an interesting way to denote the passage of time, even though Amaryllis didn’t believe herself that she had been active for eight months yet. The talk of monsters drew her thoughts away from such topics though, and she nodded. “I’ve promised my Patron to deliver a mountain of monsters upon their banquet hall, yes, though it certainly wasn’t my intention to have you caught up in it either.”

"Of course you didn’t! But that’s because you thought I was a damsel that needed rescuing." The maiden set her hands on her hips and laughed. "Anyway, I know where the bigger ones like to hide. Usually with their shit-eating minions. Important question though, ice skating or hockey?"

Amaryllis raised a brow at the question. Wasn’t one just an extension of the other? Still, while she could admire the tenacity and physicality of hockey players, it was certainly an uncouth competition, when giving in to adrenaline and rage was ingrained in the spectacle of the sport. “Ice skating,” she replied. “However, my feet are much less accustomed to handling blades than my hands are.”

"Imagine not being as good at doing something with your feet that you can do with your hands." She shook her head. "An ice skater magical girl would be cool, pun intended. Too bad Penrose already has too many magical girls." Oros pulled out a pair of ice skates. "So if you’re not boring, you’ll put these on."

---

Oros had guided Amaryllis to the harbor. A very specific part of the harbor where there did not appear to be any boats. Oros had her ice skates on and was tracing figure eights and loops into the ice. At one point she wrote her name in cursive.

"Flip on your thing and hop down here. I promise they’ll come screaming outa here. It’ll be like you’re wearing lewd cosplay to an anime convention, only the monsters probably smell better."

Amaryllis gazed pensively at her companion. “And what of the influence the artifact has on yourself?”

"I’m just gunna hang back." Oros was skating backwards. "Wouldn’t wanna become part of your sword’s meal. Or ‘banquet’ if you wanna be pretentious." she reached behind her back and grabbed her heel, which she had raised behind herself. "If I scare you though, you can always turn it off once they show up. I could also pay you for it." She held up a gold coin. "This is worth eight silver right?" She squinted her eyes. "Unless the grand magistrates shifted the continuum to increase the value of silver and bronze coins. You’ve gone too far this time!"

“No, that’s quite alright. Though I know not who these Grand Magistrates are, it’s recompense enough for you to introduce new hunting grounds to me.” She sat down at the edge of the harbor, her heels hanging off in mid-air. Watching Oros skate for a moment, Amaryllis visualized the same blades that the pink-haired monster girl skated on, before weaving her Metal magic into her shoes. Polished blades extended out from the soles in a crystalline fashion, and she carefully hopped down onto the ice below. Amaryllis pushed off, glided for a couple feet, and then pushed off with her other feet, slowly getting into the rhythm of it now.

Her lines weren’t so crisp as Oros’s, but she maintained her balance. It would be harder to stop on a dime though, and she’d have to be careful about how much strength she put into her legs too, lest the ice crack underneath the force of legs strong enough to send a sedan ten meters into the air.

A challenge then.

An aurora of malevolent energies exuded from the Knight of Rose once more, magenta ethers seeping out from the defiled horn in waves as she fed her artifact. In her hand, her Silverlight flourished, slicing crisp lines in the frosty air.

Seconds ticked on.

Crack.

Amaryllis glided to the side, dropping low on the ice as a dark blur shot out. More shapes followed, riddling the skating rink with holes. Fast. Almost fast enough that her eyes couldn’t track them. The darkened silhouettes crashed into the ice once more, before worming themselves up onto their flippers. In the moonlight, their form, their nature was revealed in all its slippery, spiny beauty.

The porcupoises have arrived.

Oros continued to skate around, even as the creatures burrowed up all around her. "I forgot how ugly they were, little shit-prickers! But see? They just took a bath. They can’t smell bad after a bath!"

The monsters seemed to ignore Oros and instead crawled closer to Amaryllis. They placed their front flippers over their heads before bending over. Then with a hop, they seemed to spin in place before jetting towards Amaryllis at high speed.

And the Knight of Rose skated to meet them. The ice beneath their feet were becoming more unsteady now, the holes punched into it cracking under the weight of the porcupoises, but remained steady, positioning herself sideways as the creatures leapt at her. Their spines flared out of their body, layering upon each other to turn each porcupoise into living spears. With no weapons beyond what their body had, however, they had no way of fighting in any other way. She dug her skates deep into the ice, cut off the magic that supplied the Infectious Yearn, and cut them down.

There were no bodies of flesh and bone that could withstand the bite of her Sword.

“Oros, I’ll leave the ones that retreat to you!”

"Hmmm?" The shrine maiden turned her head. "I mean, yea! Sure, why not?" There weren’t many monsters left once Amaryllis was done attacking, but a few had turned to flee.

There were here to ice skate as well as fight, or at least Oros was. She leaned folward so that she could raise her hind leg behind herself. Then with all her might, she swung her leg forward while leaping into the air. Before completing her first rotation, her sword flew out of her sheathe and cut one of the creatures in two. A second creature was decapitated, and a third one was minced by an array of carefully positioned swings. She landed after performing a perfect quadruple axel, and her sword arm was covered in quills. The last porcupoise was prepared to dive back into the sea when the needles came flying out of Oros’s arm. The porcupoise was juggled in the air by a salvo of flying needles. The last needle hit the creature between the eyes before it was allowed to sink.

"He now has enough holes for all his friends. Am I right, ladies?"

But that was just the first wave. Off in the distance, A creature slightly larger than a porcupoise revealed itself. It had a black and white body, and its quills were even longer than before. The Hystricia had surfaced to see what became of its minions.

"Oh man oh god! Oh man, oh god!" Oros skated up to Amaryllis. "We should do a duet!"

“Ah.”

While Oros was excited, Amaryllis was very much not. This wasn’t a foe that was necessarily leagues above the porcupoises she had made sashimi out of moments ago, but rather, this was the foe that was just enough to become the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Or in this case, the mammal that broke the ice.

As the ice broke into bits, the dozens of holes connecting to each other with fractures, Amaryllis recalled a very different situation, during a much warmer day. Grabbing Oros, she hurled the monster girl skywards with the force of a baseball pitcher who could pitch sedans.

And then she hit the water.

"Huh." Oros said as her body soared through the air. "I just realized how absurd Keijo is." She continued to have her discussion with no one in particular. "Everyone wears a bathing suit, but the goal is to avoid touching the water. Everyone is dressing up like they’re going to lose." She placed a hand on her chest. "Meanwhile, I’m not wearing a bathing suit, and I’m all about getting wet." She winked before plunging head first into the depths.

---

Meanwhile, the porcupoises and hystricia were able to make use of their underwater mobility. Mobility that the magical girls present didn’t possess. The hystricia surged forward as its smaller counterparts spun underwater. Even below the waves, they were capable of spin dashing.

No, that wasn’t wholly correct. Below the waves, their spin dashes became even more potent, their quills extending outwards to form propellers that shot them up at increased speeds! Miniature tornados, the remaining pack of porcupoises and their hystricia leader zoomed towards the two humans who had plummeted into an alien battlefield.

In the shock of freezing water, Amaryllis bit into her lower lip just to keep herself conscious. Dark waters surged all around, her pale flesh turning white in the frigid temperatures. Had her muscles turned sluggish, or was it just the resistance of water, pulling at her whenever she tried to move? Too dark to see where her enemies were, only that above, chunks of ice still bobbed up and down in the choppy waters. Holding onto her breath, forcing her blood to pump faster through her veins and counteract the cold, the Knight of Rose began to kick her feet, swimming upwards.

A phantom pain hammered into her back, and Amaryllis turned around just in time to block a porcupoise with her Sword, the monster catching onto the blade with a tangle of quills. Underwater combat was their domain, and they could hold their breath longer than any normal magical girl too. With a powerful flex of their tailfin, they swam further away from the harbor, pushing Amaryllis horizontally to prevent any ascent.

Ten seconds. She had ten seconds of oxygen left, before things became even worse.

And Oros was nowhere in sight. Nowhere to be heard even, despite never shutting up. Then again, Amaryllis had thrown Oros into the air. If she landed in the water, she had probably been separated. Though a bull shark had shown up from the direction of the harbor. It swam right for the monsters without a care in the world.

As dangerous as the monsters appeared, even porcupines didn’t have quills everywhere. Their bellies and faces were exposed to their predators, who often attacked these areas when they could. The bull shark was no different. It charged straight for a porcupoise’s exposed stomach and bit into it. Rather than letting go, it used the creature as a battering ram and strike another. It seemed Amaryllis had a friend in the sea today.

She didn’t know where the shark had come from or why it had chosen to help her, but the split second it bought Amaryllis was enough for the Knight of Rose to regain her composure. If she couldn’t reach the surface, then she would simply have to bring the surface to her!

Sliding her Sword back to her side, Amaryllis let the final bubbles of air left in her lungs hiss out between clenched teeth. She watched the direction they floated and stabilized her footing with two bulbs of silvered buds. The water was cold. Her temperature was dropping. Her hair floated in and out of her eyes, obscuring her vision. And from above now, the hystricia descended, fully armored in quills.

The Knight of Rose unleashed her strike.

The hystricia went flying, and she took her second breath of air as the waters parted.

The shark sped off in the direction of the hystricia, which had likely been killed or weakened by the attack. The remaining porcupoise had lost interest in Amaryllis and swam away to join up with their leader. The water was already dark at this hour of the night, but now it was also clouded with blood. The knight of rose was still able to find the surface of the waves.

Once she surfaced, she could see several monster corpses. Amaryllis was far away from the harbor, so none of these had been killed by her. Not one of them had been killed by a blade. Some of them had their stomachs bitten open, while others had been decapitated. A few unlucky ones had simply been speared on each other. Their blood looked like spilled oil or gasoline on the surface of the water. Splotches of various colors leaking out of the strange monsters. It wasn’t clear which direction led back to the harbor, but Amaryllis wouldn’t have to wait more than a few seconds for someone to discover her.

"Amy!"

Oros was paddling an inflatable raft over to her position. She had a life vest on, and was drenched. She wiped something off of her mouth as she approached.

"That was frickin’ badass!" She tossed a life saver at the freezing magical girl. "You tossed me to safety, and then you took on all of those critters underwater." She laughed. "Anyway, get your ass in this boat."

The life saver had a rope attached to it, which Oros used to pull Amaryllis closer to the raft. Once she was safely inside, Oros held out a towel for her. Though Oros’s eyebrows flicked upwards at a sudden realization. "You were never wearing a bra to begin with?"

Amaryllis sighed with some small relief as she climbed aboard the lifeboat. She hugged herself close as she shivered, teeth chattering against the cold. Environmental Sealing was beginning to sound like an amazing perk at this moment.

“It doesn’t come with the outfit,” she said between chattering teeth. “But more importantly, there was a shark too. Helped me for some reason.”

She draped the towel over her body, but still, the night breeze and the dampness of her hair and skin sucked heat out of her body.

"Oh! Yea, that was me." Oros turned her arm into a shark fin and flapped it around. "You looked like you had it all well under control, so I just took care of the stragglers." Her arm turned back. "I’m a little disappointed in the monsters though. I mean first of all, they were just a mish-mash of existing creatures. Secondly, that spin dash move is really situational. I’d feel weird using it just because they weren’t hedgefins that were using it." She reclined backwards into the raft, letting her arms prop up her torso. "Well, you look kind of cold. It’s probably not a good idea to keep fighting like that." She grinned. "Do you have a preferred way of getting warm?"

“Ah, a wearer of a thousand skins,” Amaryllis nodded. “I thank you for your assistance then, Oros. As for recovering from this dreadful chill that has seeped into my very soul…”

She paused, remembering the warmth of a hot meal after three days out in the woods. The spiciness of fried chicken, the saltiness of the broth, the textures of minced garlic and spring onions, the melting of slow-cooked meat. She had been eating a lot ever since she became a magical girl, huh?

“...noodle soup would be a comfort unmatched by anything but the embrace of another human being.”

The maiden raised a single eyebrow. "Really? Didn’t figure you for the type to say something like that." Her grin widened. "I think I know of one thing that can make you even warmer." Oros shook off her arms until they were somewhat dry before embracing Amaryllis a second time. But this time something was different. Everything behind Oros started to disappear. The raft, the water, even the stars in the sky were being consumed by a shadow. Soon, darkness blanketed Amaryllis’s entire vision. She felt a brief chill and then…

Sunlight.

Amaryllis and Oros were still in the raft, but they had been transported to what looked like the beach dimension. The cold air of penrose had been replaced by the sweltering heat of Dan’s dimension. It felt like she had just been rolled out of a freezer. Oros no longer felt warm. If anything, she was doing more to prevent Amaryllis from overheating.

But when Oros lifted her head to meet Amaryllis’s gaze, she could see pink hearts in her eyes again.

"Turnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoffturnitoff!"

“Oh.”

A flicker, and the horn became inert once more. Amaryllis gently pushed Oros off her and stood up to survey the location she had been transported to. She couldn’t feel the tug of Penrose’s barrier, that was for sure. So that would make it...Dan’s beach resort? The Knight of Rose slipped off her boots and let her feet into the warm, salty waters.

“Your Patron is Dan?”

Oros had simply allowed herself to fall onto her back with her arms crossed above her head. She was breathing deeply, like she had just run a marathon. "Nah, I just found this place in my travels." She picked up her sword and looked into the sheen. "This isn’t my first time in Penrose, I’ve been to that shit hole a few times. A bit more exciting than here I’ll admit." With a sigh, she lowered her sword back into the sand. "I didn’t entirely bring you here for the warmth. I have some business to conduct here too." Oros stood back up. She slid her arms out of her robes, which caused the top half of her outfit to fall around her waist. "Shouldn’t take me too long." A frilly bikini top appeared in her outstretched hand, which she started to put on. "You’re fine if I leave you alone for a bit right? I’ll be back in thirty tops."

“So long as your work does not add Penrose-esque excitement to this realm, feel free to,” Amaryllis waved. She took in a breath, enjoying the saltiness of the ocean waves and the gentle grittiness of the sand squeezing between her toes. “A moment of respite is never unwelcome the morn beyond a clash. Though this change in light and dark will doubtlessly befuddle my natural understanding of temporal cycles.”

"Heh!" With a tug, her bikini top was secured. Oros immediately set off towards her destination. "Tempura cycles? If you’re still cold when I get back, maybe we’ll get something to eat. Otherwise, we’ll hunt more monsters. The bestiary is a little empty at the moment."

Amaryllis smiled, and then turned her gaze back to the unending oceans, grateful for a moment without the haranguing of her Patron.

“Perhaps read a book or two as well.”

Lily arrived carrying a yellow backpack and two plastic bags brimming with junk food and soda cans. Behind her were Alex and Shane, whom she had invited along.

"Hi Sakura and Emily! She greeted the two. ”You know Alex already, but this is Shane; he's a friend.” She lifted her bags up.
"Should I bring these to the living room, or do we stash in the kitchen and retrieve from there?"
Depending on the answer, she would bring the snacks to the appropriate place; these included bags of cheetos, chips, marshmallows, gummi bears, and packs of Coca-Cola and Mountain Dew.
”So what kind of movie are we gonna watch? I hope it's not a scary movie; I don't do those well.”

“N-Neither do I…” A new voice said hesitantly. Turning to face the door, they would see two girls in casual clothes. Both were wearing backpacks and the one in the pink dress was squeezing the cushioned strap of hers particularly tightly.

Connie had been very excited when Lily had texted her an invite to the big Movie Night Miss Sakura was holding at Emily’s place. Indeed, she’d been so excited that she’d even sent invites of her own to Faith and Hildebell. But now she was getting a bit concerned. She’d never even considered the possibility of the movie being a scary one…

“Oh!” she exclaimed, the twin realizations that everyone was staring at her and that she had yet to greet them breaking her out of her worried thoughts. “H-Hi, everyone! It’s r-really nice to s-see you all again! M-Mia and I brought some s-snacks, too, s-so, um, s-should we just p-put them with L-Lily’s…?”

“What would Amber say in this position?”

Su wanted to believe it would be something along the lines of “just do your best!” but knew that “Don’t be crazy! That’s how you get killed!” was probably a bit closer to the truth.

Su did as she said she was going to do. She got in touch with Lily, who likely got in touch with Alicia, who contacted Vivi, and hopefully she would show up in the over city to get something to eat with them. A time had been given, and Su decided to arrive early to reserve a table. Everything should have been taken care of that way.

She was transformed into her magical girl uniform. She was wearing a nice-yet-not-too-formal dinner outfit she could untransform into, but she doubted anyone present would really care. She was meeting with the Ascendancy, as well as Askefye. Even if Su had a safe transformation sequence, you’d be stupid to leave yourself vulnerable for even a moment.

Not that Su felt particularly safe in her alien environment. Everything had an Arabian feel, with clay urns, pointed archways, and lamps decorating the place. This was also the over city, so there were plenty of mystical oddities to make the place feel strange. One entire wall of the building was a mural of sword wielding locusts flying towards spear bearing beetles. All of the lights were some eerie shade of green or red,

”Your table is ready, Sayida!” A blue genie pulled out a seat for Su. ”Would you like me to take your order now, or would you rather wait for the rest to show up?”

“I know we’re going ‘all you can eat,’ other than that, I should probably wait.”

”Say no more!” The genie raised his hand. ”The buffet table is open to your party. Just pay this one time fee!” The waiter held up a coin box with the price written next to it. Which caused Su’s brow to raise.

“A bit more than I was expecting.”

”Then I suggest you eat a whole bunch, Sayida! You won’t feel the same way once you’ve tasted it.”

With a sigh of resignation, Su paid the waiter. “I’ll take your word for it.” She smiled.

”A wise choice! May you enjoy every meal you eat!” and with that, the genie returned to his lamp.

Su practically collapsed into her seat. She rubbed her temple before looking to Helga. “Hopefully they show up soon.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can wait long with all this delicious food at hand’s reach.”
Unlike Su, Helga was untransformed, and wore a pretty dress with red bows.
“But yeah, keep an eye on the flat girl, I think she’ll be more punctual than-Oh, there she is.”

Helga pointed to Vivi,who was dressed differently compared to her uniform. She was talking to a waiter when she noticed Su and Helga, and promptly joined the two. “So, you seem to have friends in many places. You can consider yourselves fortunate that I didn’t immediately report you to the proper authorities,” she added, sounding just as smarmy and full of herself as before. “But in the interest of honoring the Paladin Seraph’s request, I shall not act on my holy duty unless the need arrives for it.”

A plate suddenly slammed on the table, laden with big, juicy locusts cooked in a variety of ways. Steamed, roasted, toasted, simmered, boiled, slow-cooked, blended, fried, barbequed, sashimi’d and then drenched in spices and sauces from twenty seven different worlds, the variety was as astounding as how visually grotesque it was for any magical girl with normal, basic Earth preferences. Askefye, dressed in the one outfit she wore and perpetually transformed, pulled her own chair out from under the table, the legs scraping obnoxiously over the marbled floor, before sitting down with an audible thump. She grabbed the first locust, its legs still twitching, and then twisted its head off, taking out the juicy innards like one would with a shrimp. Sucking out the juices, meat, and organs in one slurping go, the fire spirit nodded in violent approval, before tossing in the exoskeleton and crunching on it like a pork cracker.

She continued to eat five more in this same fashion, before waving at the others present.

“Don’t mind me. Do the meeting.”

Vivi audibly cringed upon seeing Askefye. “You have got to be kidding me.” She then proceeded to pretend she didn’t see the fire girl, and picked up her own pickings of the buffet.

Su watched Askefye eat for all of about five seconds before getting disgusted and going to the buffet table. Eating insects was something that Chinese people did for hundreds of years, and doing so today was simply carrying on with tradition. Though since people nowadays use pesticides to control locust, they can be dangerous to eat. Though that likely wasn’t a problem in the Overcity. Su scooped some rice onto her plate and coated it in fried locust. When Su got back to the table, she waited for everyone to return with a plate full of food.

“So!” Su had to raise her voice to be heard over Askefye destroying her meal. “Do you think it would be possible for us to get purified and pardoned?”

Vivi was eating like a proper lady when Su addressed her, and she daintily wiped her lips with a napkin. “Of course,” she answered poignantly. “Any corrupted who seeks salvation from their cursed fate shall have it given.” She smiled a bit. “There are two ways of how that can be accomplished. The first is by ritual. With Beacon’s blessing, a purifying light washes over you, and rids you of your corruption. The second method is...Newer.” She picked up a locust that was dropped on her plate accidentally by Askefye’s rampant gluttony. “A White Coin allows a faster and more convenient purification, while also shifting the source of your magic to that of Beacon. Not only can you be rid of your dark present, you can also abandon the dark past that led you to it.”

Helga nodded. “A White Coin, huh...Sounds a lot like the Black Coin.”

Vivi squinted. “But it is different! Like the day is from the night. Do not make the folly of mistaking the two.”

“Beacon’s the only way, hmmm?” Su thought about it for a moment. “The coin sounds interesting, but my present patron is not the source of my corruption, nor do I wish to abandon them.” She glanced at Askefye before looking back at Vivi. “The ritual, what is needed for that?”

“The ritual requires the corrupted to stay still for ten minutes in a magic circle especially prepared for the ritual without leaving it,” Vivi explained with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. “A savior of Beacon is also required to perform the rites, summoning forth the holy Beckoners to aid them in cleansing the darkness in the corrupted soul. The ritual is a tradition dating back thousands of years,” she said, puffing out her non-existent chest in pride.

Helga simply nodded as she stuffed her mouth with a taco sandwich. “Hwh hwyuo mmmghh?”
She attempted asking something, but it was incomprehensible before she swallowed and attempted again. “So what happens when you’re purified? Does it only get rid of bad stuff like wanting to eat or fight a ton?”

Vivi shook her head. “It removes all corruption, including one’s ability to curse their weapon or call forth dark powers. There can be no compromises there.”

“A savior of Beacon? So who’s that, Alicia? The cardinal?” She squinted her eyes. “You?”

"Well, if you asked nicely, I could," she answered. "Any chosen of Beacon with the necessary training could do it. However, it is a great honor to perform the cleansing, so high-ranked members are given the privilege first, followed by the lower ranked members."

"Sounds kind of dumb," Helga added. "It's like fighting over who gets to clean the house."

Vivi's eye twitched, yet she kept her smile. "Your friend here is awfully noisy. Does she have a mute function by any chance?"

Now Helga pouted. "No, but I can make you quiet."

Su patted Helga on the back. “Tact Helga, tact.” Su looked back at Vivi. “It’s just a sound spec joke.” She cleared her throat. “I was being serious though. I might need some time to think this over, and if I personally knew of a ‘savior of beacon’ I would feel more comfortable with the whole process.” With a sigh, Su leaned back in her chair.

She did want to get purified. What happened at the rave was embarrassing. Su was eaten up with envy and would have followed Lei Zi to the end of the earth if given the chance. If not for the speakers blowing up, she probably would have hung around while that psycho fried her and everyone else at the rave. If her mutations were going to come in between Helga and herself, they had to go. It wasn’t like her dread wings had even helped her that much. To date, it had caused her more harm than good.

But there was her pride. She didn’t like the idea of being some prize an Ascendancy member could gloat about purifying. It was petty, but letting them do anything with her was resignation of her ability to help herself. There were also all the unknowns, like if they would really forgive Helga, or if it was even something Helga wanted to do.

It also dawned on her that she had another goal here.

“But you’re ascendancy, so you should be able to do it, right?” Su sat up right. “I think if I got to know you better, I’d be okay with you doing it.” The hotel manager forced a smile. “Let’s start with your relationship status. Do you have a special someone?” Su reached an arm around Helga’s waist and pulled her closer.

"Like I said, I am capable of doing so," Vivi answered, about to sip on her tea when she saw Su hold Helga in an intimate manner, causing her to nearly spit the tea out.
"W-What?" She turned slightly flustered. "Well, as an agent of the holy light, I have been too busy to think of things like that." She poked her index fingers together. "And, well, our work requires one to be steeled at heart and sharp by our wits. In that sense, romance is, well, a hindrance."

Askefye continued eating. She had already finished three-fourths of her plate, and had left absolutely no part of her locusts untouched. Vespers of fire flared up the corner of her mouth from time to time, searing bits of shell or sauce into nothingness. The topic of relationships caused her to give a deadpanned stare at Su though.

“You hoard girls?”

Su was about to tell Vivi something when Askefye found a way to make the atmosphere awkward. Su’s body was frozen. Her finger was outstretched for the next thing she was going to tell Vivi, but her eyes were locked on Askefye.

“Well, firstly, that’s kind of a rude thing to ask. But my answer is, sort of?” Su relaxed in her seat. “I mean, I wouldn’t call the hotel business hoarding. They are free to come and go as they please. ” She pat her chest. “My mental mutation is something more akin to envy. Actually, I have to share this story now. Don’t blush Helga.” She brushed back her hair. “When Helga and I weren’t in a relationship, I was getting jealous of another couple. I told Helga about it, and she offered to help me find a girlfriend.” Su chuckled. “But I had my eye on her for a while. And once she said that, I knew I wanted it to be her.” She gave Helga a squeeze; she was paralyzed by shock, but didn't say anything as her face grew red. “A-anyway! Haha, you uh, looking, for someone, Askefye?”

“No. Heard marriage was like joining the Mint. And I’ve been turning them down like, every week.” With that, Askefye promptly went back to eating, slurping away innards and crunching on spiced and battered shells.

"Um, I assume you mean Mint's recruitment offers." Vivi looked awkward as the girls around her talked about relationships; she didn't have much experience in the topic, so she couldn't help but stay quiet for most of it. She pouted. "Not that I care how many marriage proposals you get." She proceeded to eat her own food.

“Wow, you two have a lot in common.” Su folded her hands together. “You both like to fight, neither of you like the Mint, and you’re not looking for a serious relationship.” Su nodded her head.

Vivi's eyes widened, and she dropped her fork on the plate with a clink. "What? No Beckoner-damned way! I am in no single way similar to a hotheaded monster like her!"

Askefye smirked, smug as fuck in that moment. “Lmao, I’ve seen mentally mutated warrior girls with more chill than the Ascendancy. Ya sure about that, washboard?”

“Did...Did you just say ‘lmao’ in casual conversation?” Su leaned forward onto her elbows. “B-but yes! Looks like you’re both into trash talking as well.” Su smiled as innocently as she could.

"Of course she would,” Vivi struck back. “She's obviously part of the braindead internet generation who can barely grasp the English language!" She sipped on her tea.
"But unlike her, I'm not as vulgar as to resort to trash talking. I merely state the facts, pure and simple."

“Facts? Oh yes, A L T E R N A T I V E F A C T S, right?” Askefye giggled at that, then decided that she wanted this locust totally fried. Blowing a jet of blue flame over it, she watched its skin blacken, and tossed it into her mouth.

“I’m sorry, the longer you guys talk, the more convinced I am that you belong in a relationship.” Su looked totally deadpan as she delivered her assessment. “Moving along, did Beacon get a chance to look into Justine’s involvement? I really think she had something to do with the rave incident.”

Vivi’s eye twitched. “You really are insistent on that, huh?” She sighed, and spun a spoon in her cup of tea.
“We made a background check of the participants, but nobody had met Justine before. As strange as it is, she was not involved in the events there. Still, I find it hard to believe she went there just to dance or see Vi-chan. Eyewitness accounts did mention that she confronted a slime girl there, who was then protected by a magical girl dressed in red. There are rumors it was Veronica of the Crimson Cradle, and she was there to make a backroom deal of sorts with her. Take those how you will.”

Su almost coughed up her food in surprise, but then she realized that Veronica wasn’t making a backroom deal with Justine, but the slime girl. Since she had met with Deni she had to assume that was Eli. Did that mean Veronica and Mariette were working together? Something to ask Samantha or Deni about later.

“I see.”

Su looked down at her plate. She had eaten most of her food over the course of the discussion.

“Helga and I have a bit to discuss, but I think our final decision will be beneficial to all parties involved.” She stood up and walked to the other side of the table, standing in the space between Askefye and Vivi’s seats. “Thank you for coming.” She extended her hand to shake Vivi’s hand.

Vivi shook Su’s hand in a respectful manner. “I suppose this meeting wasn’t a complete waste of time,” she dryly answered, though Su could tell there was a hint of hesitation. She afterwards shook Helga’s hand. “Thank you for this business lunch. It was productive.”
Helga shook back with a grin on her face. “Not as productive as seeing you two together! You’re so cute like this~”
Vivi kept her cordial smile, but gripped the hand hard enough for Helga to wince in pain.
“Keep dreaming, buddy. As for you,” she said turning towards Askefye. “Consider my debt to you paid in full!”

Askefye scoffed, a toothy grin on her face. She certainly had no intention of leaving yet, and was still dual-wielding locusts. “Sayin’ that your life is worth a lunch? Sure thing, washboard~”

“Excuse me, I was the one who paid for everyone’s food.” Her voice was gruff, but that was because Vivi was continuing to behave in a manner she considered unprofessional. “And I’d prefer you not break Helga’s hand, otherwise you’ll owe me something too.”

Vivi’s face turned red from both embarrassment and fury. “Well you didn’t gibe me-I mean give me the opportunity to do so!” She yelled, and groaned out of frustration. “That’s it, enough! I’m done listening to these insults! Goodbye!” She then promptly teleported away in a pillar of light.

Helga stretched out the fingers in her hand, and rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, that went well. At least she didn’t decide to call her Beacon bubs in here.”

After having been spoken to yesterday by Vermillion Veronica, who had mentioned Justine von Visceral no less, Mariette was eager to find her. She’d use her surveillance of Penrose to pick out her most likely location and start opening portals, scanning inside of buildings and outside, seeking for the perhaps elusive person. Or perhaps Veronica would find her, first? Regardless, Mariette had placed herself inside an abandoned building with Eli looking on with slight concern, her standard point of visiting the city, and spread her field of portals to seek out Veronica’s most likely locations based on the information that had been given to her.

Seems that was enough. Mariette could see the tower poking out from some dilapidated buildings, but she was still contacted first.

“There you are.” It was Veronica’s voice again. “I was just having a talk with Beacon. I was offered an alliance in which I would help them despite their inability to keep their mutts from biting at my heels. Can you imagine the gall?” Mariette could hear the familiar groan someone makes when they stretch their arms. “Would you prefer to have this conversation face to face, or is this fine?”

Mariette kept quiet for a bit, feeling like she'd lost by being found first. Regardless, she opened a portal decently close to where the tower stood. Her hands clutched around Bunny and stepped through, head held high, and Eli stepped in behind her in silent but absolute support.

‘Face-to-face,’ Mariette simply stated, giving no reason.

The shadows in the corners of the room grew tendrils and crept into the center of the room. The darkness pooled until it was large enough to make a portal, and the cradle mother rose from the pool of inky tar not long after. The dark tentacles retreated, and the tar settled into shadows on Veronica’s uniform. “I saved Eli at the cost of my bodyguard. Though that’s not a price I plan on having you pay.” She folded her arms behind her back. “It seems we both have the same enemies.”

Mariette was drawing a lot of parallels to her own way of doing things when Veronica appeared. Hm. Regardless. ‘Eli, cast a cloak of silence upon the room, just in case.’ Being an avid one herself, Mariette was a bit wary of eavesdroppers.

‘Yes, mistress,’ Eli said, starting to walk along the walls of the room and casting her spells of darkness. Meanwhile, Mariette turned to look at Veronica.

‘You speak of Justine von Visceral,’ Mariette said. ‘I played a major role in her downfall last time, and it would appear she wants to see me. Worrying, as she is the one creature I am aware of that can enter my home without my permission. The one person that could launch an attack at my heart,’ Mariette said, some fear in her voice. ‘I’m thankful for your intervention, and sorry for what it cost. Indeed, I would do mostly anything to vanquish Justine, and the threat she poses to us,’ Mariette said, squeezing her bunny against her chest some more.

“Hardly took you any time to accept. I’m a little disappointed, I had prepared a pitch and everything.” Veronica’s lips curled into a smile. “Regardless, this is a desirable outcome. Unfortunately, Justine, the PI, and the Mint all benefited and had forces at the rave. It would not be impossible for them all to be working together.” She kicked a piece of rubble with her shoe. “We have particulars that we need to discuss. How friendly we want to be with each other. I also insist on a contract. I’m a rouge Mint coin broker, and you’re a horror worshiper. We need to ensure we can trust each other and not abuse the other one.” Veronica stopped moving and locked eyes with Mariette. “What sort of resources are you willing to put forth?”

A black veil settled over everything around the room. The portals leading out of the room still functioned, but anyone trying to listen or look into the room would not be able to hear what was going on.

Mariette kept her hands clutching Bunny, while just keeping her eyes focused on Veronica. Accept? Did she accept anything? … Still, it would be bad if they all worked against her…

‘I have firepower in the shape of both Magical Girls and monsters. I have the ability to go practically anywhere I like with portals. I have more tricks than I know what to do with. I have the intel that Justine is liable to attack my mansion at any moment…’ Mariette took a slight pause. ‘I feel compelled to ask the same of you.’

“The Cradle’s advantages are it’s communication network, equipment, and agents. By now you must have heard of agent Silhouette, and while no other agent is on her level, consider her a resume of what Cradle agents are capable of.” Veronica approached a chair to sit down. “The Cradle itself holds a trove of artifacts and weapons. While only I can access it directly, we can better equip your troops if you so desire. I’m going to insist on a policy where if something comes out, something has to go in first.” She placed her fingers beside her head. “As for the communication network, I think you’ve already seen the tower. I can sense every mind in an area with it up. It’s possible to communicate with just about anyone, even if you aren’t on the Cradle’s ‘network’ with the other agents.” She extended her hand. “You’re free to stay in my mansion if you think it’s a more defensible location.”

‘Yes, I know of her,’ Mariette replied, albeit she wondered if she’d have known of her if not for her own information-gathering system. ‘Equipping my troops…’ Now, Mariette considered them decently equipped already, but if they could be equipped better that’d be good, too. ‘If possible, that would be nice. I am somewhat unsure what would need to be put in first.’ Then Veronica suggested living in her mansion. Mariette had to pause to think about it. She was currently in the process of making her own mansion a fortress, but living somewhere else could decrease the chances of being assaulted. Justine could find Mariette’s home, but could she find Veronica’s? ‘Is your mansion an Interdimensional Home, in the Overcity, or otherwise?’ Mariette asked, looking curiously at Veronica.

“My mansion is located within the cradle itself, and counts as an interdimensional lair. This makes it difficult to breech, and extremely dangerous to intruders.” She cast out her hand. “Though by way of contract, you’ll have little to worry about. Of course I can understand if you’re unwilling to move into an area saturated in my magic.” She placed a hand on her chin. “Though perhaps you should remain in your home. If we are to catch Justine, we are going to need proper bait. Think of my mansion as a possible exit strategy.”

‘Those were my exact thoughts. I can receive their attack at my dimension, and escape to yours when I leave,’ Mariette said. ‘Would I be able to count on firepower support as well, and in turn perhaps support your agents when needed?’

Veronica rubbed her chin. “Perhaps we should decide on the nature of our cooperation: If this is going to be a one time joint operation or an alliance.” She tucked her arm behind her back. “Presently my agents are low in number, and I do not believe they could readily offer you assistance without proper notice.” With a nod, she looked at Mariette. “We can always form an alliance later if we so choose. Let us treat this as a single operation that could yield future cooperative endeavors down the road. If that is agreeable, then we need only concern ourselves with our agents behavior for our trap.”

‘Hm. Very well. For this operation,’ Mariette said. ‘I can trust you to not have an ulterior motive against me on this?’ she then asked, simply to satisfy her lie-detector.

Veronica inhaled deeply. ”I am far more pragmatic than idealistic. You have not captured any of my agents, and Asengav has yet to start any world ending rituals. No, Justine is the single target of our collaboration. I’ll ensure you are unharmed simply out of spite.” Veronica sat down, and a chair appeared under her. Shortly afterwards a table popped out of the ground, along with a chair, and there were two glasses and an assortment of drinks from whiskey to orange juice. ”I am interested in gaining access to the Dijin sisters. But that is something we can discuss later. Regardless, we’re going to draft a contract that satisfies you, so there will be no foul play between us.”

Good enough for Mariette. She didn’t think Veronica meant harm to the Djinn Sisters, but even if she did, Mariette’s wishes should protect them. ‘Very well,’ Mariette said, as she sat down on the chair that Veronica had pop up. And here’s some information I don’t know if I want people to have read before the event. ‘I’m going to collapse the dimension on my intruders,’ the portal girl stated simply. ‘I have that power. It would take up to five minutes, but I intend my forces to hold the enemy off for that long. Outside my mansion is a howling blizzard filled with traps, and the walls of my mansion is reinforced with Reinforcement and Curses, not to mention the gathered monsters and Magical Girls of Asengav’s might. If only I could remove Sonia, Justine’s interdimensional travel girl, I could prevent Justine or whatever forces she’s sent from escaping my home dimension as it collapses. That is… my current plan,’ Mariette told, definitely hoping Eli’s darkness magic kept this information from escaping.

”You really do want her dead, don’t you?” Veronica mixed some pineapple juice and orange juice in a cup. ”Unfortunately, I’m not so sure Justine will show up to personally kill you. However, if she means to capture you, we know that Sonia will be there. In which case she will be our primary target for your trap. Her death would severely hamper Justine’s mobility.” She added a splash of rum to the glass. ”So long as you can control where people enter your dimension from, it would be a simple matter for you to notify me when I can deploy my own forces. Though I am concerned about ways to leave the dimension if you’re going to implode it.” Veronica raised the glass to her lips and froze. ”Are we thinking too hard about this?” She lowered her glass. ”Dan was able to prevent me from shifting out of the beach dimension. Surely if he can do that, it must be possible to trap people inside your dimension. It would certainly make escape for Sonia difficult, even more important if she manages to get her hands on you.”

Mariette did not respond to the first statement. The answer was obvious. ‘I don't even know if she's going to attack at all, but if she attacks with any less than all her might, I'll happily pick apart what she did send for her,’ she said with a sharp look in her eye. ‘There are two main entrances to my dimension. The front, from which they'd currently face the full power of my preparations, or through the Void Room, a place where I temporarily store monsters or passageways to other dimensions. If they enter there… they'll die,’ Mariette stated simply as fact. ‘If they spontaneously appear anywhere else it'll be harder, but they'll be assaulted by an unending amount of traps and firepower in rooms where they’ll have a hard time dodging, the walls reinforced with magic to make breaking them not worth the effort, with my portals giving us a significant advantage…’ Mariette sighed out at the end. It truly felt like there was no more she could do.

‘Your concern is justified. My portals would be the only way in or out for us, and while I’ll attempt to rescue anyone, it’d have to be a last-second escape as the defense have to hold strong until then. I can make it so that your agents would be the first ones to be allowed to escape,’ Mariette said, the order not all that important. Then, the thing with Dan was raised, and Mariette’s eye notably widened. ‘… I could certainly contact him and ask. Even if he cannot, a member of my group should certainly have contact with another Lesser Force with similar or equal powers… Hm,’ Mariette said, considering.

”We’re not going to dream up the perfect death trap in an afternoon. All the more reason to stay in contact.” Veronica snapped her fingers, and a small earring stud appeared on the table. ”Wearing that will enable you to contact me, or vica versa, with relative ease. It even works past most dimensions.” She placed a finger on her chin. ”Maybe not me, per say, but someone who can handle the cradle’s end of your plan.” She eyed the bunny. ”Do you like stuffed animals?”

Mariette slowly reached over to pick up the small earrings, considering a bit that they might conflict with the ones she’s already wearing. Anyways. Stuffed animals? Mariette’s grip on Bunny tightened like he’d just been threatened or something, looking at Veronica a little defensively. ‘… What’s the occasion?’

”I’m not sure I follow.” The Astolfo plush appeared in Veronica’s hand. ”I like dolls myself. This size is just perfect, where the torso fits in the palm of the hand.” Her fingers coiled around the doll’s chest, and her thumb caressed the doll’s face. ”I wasn’t sure if you liked them or you did it to lower your enemy’s guard. People underestimate their opponents when they display childish behavior, or are handicapped.” Veronica tucked her knees against her chest and used her other hand to pet the doll’s hair. ”Though I am genuinely fascinated by dolls. I think they are superior to most people I’ve met. Most, but not all.” She looked at Mariette again. ”Do you feel the same way about your bunny?”

‘… Oh,’ Mariette made a light noise of realization, her expression softened. Veronica was talking about a shared interest in stuffed animals or dolls. Mariette looked curiously at the Astolpho doll as Veronica petted it. Then she looked to the bunny she was clutching… ‘… Bunny is my friend. He's always there to comfort me. He's the only part of my lost life I retain, and I cherish him…’ She held Bunny close before looking to Veronica again. ‘I like other animals and dolls, too, but Bunny is… different. He's the only one I'm comfortable with…’ Mariette said, patting Bunny's head.

”It is a genuine then?” Veronica lowered her legs and rest her hands in her lap, still clutching the doll. ”Regardless, please follow up with Dan and discuss your final plans with the Cradle. Preferably soon enough so that we can get all of your troops armed and ready for the encounter. I’ll be taking my leave unless you had something else you wished to discuss.”

‘… Yes?’ Mariette asked with some uncertainty. She then nodded a bit on meeting with Dan, and then… If there were more… ‘One more thing. You’re going to need certain keys in order to enter my home dimension without all the traps trying to destroy you, in order to prevent an agent of Justine sneaking inside. I’ll also be conducting a brief interview with each before handing them the key that works with them and them alone, plus a visual check from my security girl. Do tell me how many keys I should potentially prepare,’ Mariette said, looking to Veronica.

”Four keys at the very least. That would be for my core agents. Silhouette, Trixy, Eliza, and Ronin. You’ve likely seen all of them at some point I trust?” After downing her drink, the table and everything on it sunk into the shadows. ”When you are ready to have your forces outfitted, send them to penrose middle school. There will be someone there to handle weapon and artifact arments.”

‘I have, some more than others,’ Mariette replied, nodding. ‘Very well. Until next time.’

”Until next time.”

Mariette walked back into her portal, Eli following closely behind, and Veronica sunk into her shadow. Once the shadowy barrier around the building fell, it was like nothing had transpired at all.

There was a room in a cellar of a house in Penrose. Here, Mariette stood… in the midst of a brightly lit room with walls plastered with drawings for children, water-themed. There were kids having fun literally swimming with fishes, sharks not being shark-like and just looking happy hanging out with their fellow fish, random cartoonish submarines, the lot. In the midst of the underwater-themed middle of the room was a circle made for summoning, in the midst of which stood a tank filled with water. In said tank was a cartoonish animal from another world. The name unknown to Mariette, it was a yellow-blueish person-sized fish that just so happened to have the curious trait of leaving behind a rainbow of colours wherever it swam, a natural evolution to throw off predators, yet it was also supposedly interesting to look at and very colourful.

Mariette had ordered a couple of her Magical Girls to round up the materials to make this and Suzette collected the fish. Now it was simply a matter of hoping the Lesser Force she sought appreciated the gift.

‘Dan,’ Mariette called, clutching Bunny as she asked. She was just supposed to call his name, correct?

Soon after calling the Lesser Force, the aquarium filled with bubbles, only to clear as Dan appeared in the water. “Wooo-wee!” He squeaked, marvelling the sights. “What a fun fish! I’ve travelled to countless seas, yet never have I seen one with such resplendent colors.”
He then climbed up and hung on to the edge of the aquarium as he looked around himself. “Not to mention all this art! It’s just like at the beach.” He noticed Mariette, and practically leaped out of the aquarium to hug the dark magical girl, splashing her with water in the process. “Mariette! So it was you who called me; color me both surprised and impressed! This is the first time someone has put this much effort into summoning me.” He floated around her. “The last girl used a can of sardines and a pineapple. But to be fair, those were some really tasty sardines. Yum! So, did you want to make a pact with me too?”

The summoning was a success, Mariette could conclude while breathing out in relief. Now, it was just a matter of- wait, hold on, is he- Mariette’s eyes (even the one under the eyepatch) widened considerably as she saw the big dolphin leap directly for her, using her last free breath to lob Bunny to safety before she was snapped up into the Lesser Force’s soaking wet hug and she seriously thought she’d die. Turned out she did not in fact die, but her dress was drenched and she had an inconvenienced expression.

‘I… wasn’t sure how much it would take,’ Mariette admitted, feeling a bit silly that apparently that would have sufficed… ‘A-anyway, I wanted to ask you for a question and perhaps a favour,’ Mariette said, looking to him if he had anything to say before she’d go on.

Dan blinked, and realized he had turned Mariette’s clothes wet. “Whoops, sorry! I was so excited, I didn’t remember I was in an aquarium. But how to get you dry again? Oh, I know!” He summoned a giant hair dryer, but then dropped it to the floor. “No, that would mess up your beautiful hair. Or maybe-!” He then summoned a giant white towel, but dropped that as well. “Hmm...White doesn’t suit you...” It was then that he realized Mariette had asked something of him. “Oh, a favor? What did you have in mind? And you also wanted to ask something?” He continued summoning new items in a futile effort to find the perfect drying tool, and soon the floor began to clutter.

‘Indeed…’ Mariette replied with a sigh as she watched Dan pull up the weirdest selection of things. She really couldn’t keep up with this guy’s pace. ‘You once used magic to take us to a beach dimension. There, you used some form of power to prevent us from being able to leave said dimension. What was that power?’ Mariette asked.

Dan was mid-way to pulling out another strange object when he stopped, and smiled at Mariette. “Oh, that. I possess the power to destabilize a dimension’s place in the space-time continuum, basically removing it from space as you conventionally know it,” he explained in a casual manner. “It had the unfortunate effect of disrupting the flow of time, but I managed to fix that. That’s why time skipped for you girls when you left it. Uh, sorry about that, by the way. I didn’t think it was a problem as long as you girls stayed and had fun. But now I understand the responsibility I have, and the duty to bring smiles everywhere.” The item turned out to be a portable drying cabinet, which fell with a dull thud as Dan set it aside. “Hmm...Oh, this will work, 100%!” He pointed his flipper at a wall, and zapped it with a blue bolt. Then, a door formed in the spot he cast the spell. “”Let’s go to the beach dimension! Your clothes will dry up there in no time flat! Oh, and don’t worry, I won’t force you to stay anymore. You can leave any time you want.”

‘…’ What a very odd, specific power to have. For a dolphin-lesser-force focused on fun and enjoyment to have. Mariette winced when the drying cabinet appeared, and then flinched a bit as the beach dimension portal appeared. ‘I-’ Nonono. No displeasing the Lesser Force you’re going to make an outrageous request to. ‘… Okay,’ Mariette said with some hesitation, starting to head for the portal, a bit afraid of if she’d look different in there or something…

When Mariette stepped through the portal, she found herself to be in a much brighter and hotter place. The air had a faint scent of seawater from the roiling waves in the distance, and lush palm leaves shuffled in the pleasant light breeze. She had found herself back in the magical paradise that once held a group of girls prisoners. She saw that she was at the outdoor beach bar, an open-air roof providing shade from the harsh sunlight. Mariette also felt an immediate change on her person; instead of damp, cold clothes that clung to her skin, her uniform had changed to the very same swimsuit she wore during her last visit, completely devoid of moisture.

"Welcome back!" Dan cheerfully said as he appeared a couple of seconds later. "Yes, it worked! Your clothes are now dry." He squeaked happily, and sat on a stool before the counter. "Anyway, why did you wish to learn more of my powers?" A glass of juice with a straw appeared on his flipper, and he sipped on it. "Oh, you want something to drink too?"

Yupp, Mariette was afraid of this. She’d once again ended up in a swimsuit, and a really exposing one at that. Still, suppose the warmth wasn’t that bad, she thought as she portalled Bunny back into her grasp. She was a bit wary of being sunburned, though. … Well, better bite it up and go sit down at that same bar as Dan had appeared. ‘A juice, thank you,’ Mariette said, feeling a tad defeated. In any case. What she wanted to hear about his powers for…

A glass of pineapple juice, complete with a straw, appeared on the counter of the bar, and Dan picked it up, offering it to Mariette with impossible dexterity. "Here you go. It's on the house," he stated. "But still, I am very surprised that you of all people are interested in what I do," he stated afterwards, bouncing on his stool a bit.

‘I’d like you to seal a dimension for five minutes when I give the command, preferably while letting my portals be the only way in and out of the dimension,’ Mariette stated, bluntly.

Dan's beak opened wide. "What? What dimension? Is it taken?" A big droplet of sweat formed on his brow, looking befuddled. "Uh, sorry to disappoint you, but...Uh, I can only seal away a dimension that I control, you see. Uh, why did you want it sealed?"

Ouch, there was such a requirement? Mariette frowned a little, thinking maybe she’d wasted her time. Still, let’s see what he has to say. ‘My Interdimensional Home dimension. See, extremely evil vampire witch Justine von Visceral is probably going to attack me inside it. It will be a fierce battle. However, even if I win, she’ll be able to slip out through dimension-hopping as easily as, well, I can if I start to lose. In order to settle the deal, I need to create an arena where she cannot escape from…’ Mariette said, and then sighed.

‘Not exactly your typical job of spreading joy and happiness, I realize. But without Justine, it would be very much easier for the people of Penrose to be happy, I can promise,’ she then said, having prepared that angle that was sorta true ahead of time which sounded like one someone good-hearted might agree with.

Dan was taken aback but quickly drawn in by Mariette's tale, leaning on the counter with his flippers propped up as if they had elbows to lean on as he listened intently. "She sounds like a bad egg, that's for sure. Well, uh…" His beak scrunched up comedically as he thought hard. "I suppose I can do something if I am in the same dimension. Maybe not completely seal away, but perhaps distract them from escape? I am very talented when it comes to drawing attention to myself," he stated, only to blink. "But only because I want to make my audience smile."

Mariette definitely had to pause all manner of mental activity. Uh. The field Dan would be in would be a complete war-zone. There were no words to describe just how terribly his visage would clash against the area he’d be surrounded with. ‘… How do you mean? Would this distracting still work in the midst of a battle where I’m trying to defeat her?’ Mariette had to ask.

Dan also looked unsure, but he rapidly nodded in confirmation. "Sure, yeah...I think. As much as I hate violence and conflict, it's much worse to know you can't help someone in need. But I can't rest on my laurels while evil is afoot! So, I can prevent them from teleporting away and escaping. I can promise at least that much." He took Mariette's hand. "So don't be afraid. I'll be there, and you can be happy and smile again!"

This was slightly complicating the matter. Very complicated. She now had a Lesser Force that was willing to help out, but his means of helping out was… still, Mariette had to take help however she could get it. She swallowed a little and nodded, gripping the dolphin’s… grip… back where he held her hand. ‘Thank you. I’m glad to have your assistance. I’m not actually sure when Justine’s attack will be, as I don’t know her schedule, but I will have a place ready to summon you at any point when the time comes,’ she said instead.

Dan nodded, looking as serious as a cartoon ish dolphin could. "I understand. Please hold on to this." When Dan lifted his flippers from Mariette's hand, a seashell was left in her palm. It was aquamarine, with a shimmer that travelled across its surface like light refracted by the water's surface. "Hold this to your ear when you are in trouble, and I will come."

‘Ah,’ Mariette made a noise of realization as she was given the seashell. It was… it was pretty. She heard what Dan said about it, and gave him a nod. ‘I will. Thank you, again.’

Dan nodded, and took a sip from his drink. "This is all I can do right now unfortunately. If we were to form a pact, I could help you so much more. But I understand that you're happy with your current Patron, right?"

Mariette nodded slightly. ‘Yes, unfortunately. You don’t leave the charge of a Horror, and I wouldn’t want to make Asengav enraged at you. I’m not sure you’d survive that,’ she then said, unknowing of that her mind-bending made her unable to even consider the option. ‘Are there girls that have made such a pact with you?’ she then asked, sorta curious.

Dan seemed to tense up as Mariette mentioned working for a Horror. Even though it lessened as the dark magical girl changed the subject, she could still sense unease from the dolphin. “Yeah, of course. In exchange for bringing happiness and smiles to others, they get to visit this place any time they want to. And for fighting against bad guys, they can channel the ancient wisdom of Keijo masters, kicking butt with butts.” He squeaked a bit after that. “If you’re ever interested, I can form a pact with you, and you too can get to join the fun.”

Oh, he didn’t know? Hm, he could grow used to the idea. Though, what he said next was at least… mildly amusing. Not that Mariette would have much use of it. ‘Hm,’ she made a noise with the mildest of smiles. ‘If I ever find myself in a situation where I can consider it, I just might,’ she made a noncommittal answer that still hinted at maybe with no real intention of following it up.

“Uh, sure.” A big sweat drop formed on the Lesser force’s brow. “So, want another drink? We also got other flavors like strawberry and blueberry.”

‘I’ll take some strawberry, thank you,’ Mariette said, letting it get poured up before sipping some. Yeah, it was a really sweet taste, nothing that Asengav ever procured for her. ‘Would these girls be interested in helping fend off an evil vampire, as well?’ Mariette asked, just in case.

Dan blinked, but then put a flipper to his chin. "Would they?" He rubbed his chin. "Wait, does that matter if I want them to help? Yeah, they can help. Let's work together to defeat this vampire. Then we can save so many smiles!" He sipped on his drink. "This is good timing as well, since I plan on hosting a welcoming party to our newest member. I can give them the assignment there without much hassle."

‘Indeed, we can,’ Mariette made herself give a first of those smiles they’d save as she lifted her drink to him. ‘I look forward to working together, then. I’ll have trapped my mansion to help defeat the attackers, but I will guide everyone so we use them against our foes rather than get caught in them ourselves. I’ll get the keys to enter my mansion safely ready, how many do you need? I’ve also established a partnership with Vermillion Veronica for this mission, who has offered to equip my girls in exchange for… something, perhaps. Now, Veronica is apparently also a vampire, but a way more agreeable than Justine, that’s for sure. I could send your girls along to get equipped with artifacts, too?’ Mariette suggested.

Dan's eyes sparkled, and he squeaked from joy. "Ah, the pure smile of a magical girl. There is nothing better in this world." He listened to the explanation silently, and then nodded at her statement about the keys. "Four,” he answered. “I’d like to have one for myself, and three for my Smiling Sisters." He gasped at the mention of the other vampire, but sighed in relief at Mariette's assurance. "Ooh, you have artifacts. The girls love artifacts! Please do!"

Looked like smiling worked. The dolphin’s carrots were easy to give, if a little embarrassing. ‘Good. I’ll need a means to get into contact with them, then, unless I should be using the shell for it,’ Mariette said, about the equipping the girls with items.

Dan nodded. “The shell will call them too, so no need to worry about that. Once they arrive they can then be equipped and so on. If you want to, you can do so in advance, and I can return them back here.”

Mariette nodded. ‘Aside from that, there’s a matter of…’ she was then about to say, when she turned around to look at where she’d come from because…

‘Er, hi, mistress!’ Eli called from the other side of the portal. She wasn’t alone. ‘Since, uh, the rest of the troops have been sorta exhausting themselves preparing for the attack, they were wondering-’

‘Could we have a slight, brief, actual, voluntary vacation in the beach dimension?’ Victoria asked, somewhat eager. Also there was Mayra marvelling in amazement over how sticking her arm through the portal made it turn from dragon to human, an inconvenienced Taihei who’d been made to take a break by Josefin who’d made sure she got here, Tullia looking a bit nervous about being chewed out for being here behind Victoria, Jelena here with a handheld gaming device ready, Freya looking a bit embarrassed to have been dragged along and then Ronja and Suzette behind them looking just mostly amused at the crowd. Oh, and Esther, standing like a tree behind them for some reason.

Mariette looked at them, sighed a little, and then turned to Dan. ‘… Would you allow my girls a brief vacation here?’

Dan was silent, his jaw having dropped to the ground upon seeing the crowd of girls on the other side of the portal. “Of course, of course! Come one, come all!” He bounced over to the portal, and using magic lifted the portal with his flippers as if it was a giant plate.
“No need to be shy, just jump in!” He said, and angled the portal downwards, causing the girls on the other side to fall as if the gravity at their side had turned sideways towards the portal. However, instead of falling down into the beach dimension, they found themselves sliding on a blue waterslide that extended from the bottom of the portal, sending them out of the juice bar and onto the hot dunes of the beach. Mariette also saw that much like what happened with her and Mayra experimented, their outfits turned into swimsuits upon passing through, some of them assuming more humanoid forms to accommodate them.
“Welcome back, everyone!” Dan floated up to them. “Let me know if you have any questions, and have fun!”

There were some cries of excitement (Mayra, Victoria, Jelena), slight distress (Tullia) and amazement (Eli, Josefin), those holding it in (Freya, Taihei, Esther…?) and those just laughing (Suzette) or giggling (Ronja) about it as Dan had them slide down the waterslide and to the beach. They were immediately put into their various swimsuits again,



before they were finally deposited on the beach. It took a while as they were readjusting to being back on the beach, but eventually numerous of them started playing off in the water again (Victoria, Tullia, Suzette, Esther pulled along), some started looking after the sports equipment to start doing sports (Mayra, Jelena, Eli, Freya), others were simply chilling about, relaxing during the break in the sand (Taihei, making an advanced sandcastle with Josefin looking on happily, before they both suddenly had to stand in defense of the sandcastle as Taihei’s bad luck assaulted it with waves, crabs, meteors and stray volleyballs… and then Ronja, casually weaving on the side), but otherwise simply having fun.

Mariette thanked Dan for allowing her girls to relax here, and then simply took it easy at the bar for a bit. Even a horror-girl could use a break, you know.

‘Say, have you seen two twins, one with-’ Ronin once again attempted to ask a random magical girl she’d ran into about the Djinn Sisters.

‘Oh, those two? Good luck. They’re REALLY hard to find nowadays,’ the girl replied, shrugging and jumping off somewhere.

‘So I’ve been told,’ Ronin sighed out for not the first time tonight. Still, she’d started looking for the two of them ever since the event at the park. With that, she continued her patrol of Penrose, running casually through the streets and back-streets, just hoping to find any sort of clue or hint as to the location of her used-to-be friends.

The Djinn Sisters had been laying low for a while. Of course they would pop up every now and then to grant some normy a wish, as was their charge. Perhaps word got out that someone was looking for them or they simply happened across her. Either way the two would be spotted by Deni milling about in their normal forms. When approached, Sakura would smile and wave. ”Hey, long time no see!” She would say without hesitation.

Ronin breathed out happily as she finally found the two of them on a street somewhere… and Sakura immediately recognized her! Despite not being slime! That’s, uh, dangerous! ‘I finally found you!’ she said, and then, as quickly as possible, ‘But before you say anything else, let’s go somewhere else! Do you have a place you’re staying at, or so?’ she asked, looking a bit tense, unable to do more than pray they don’t say her name.

Blinking a couple times Sakura would giggle just a bit. ”Of course we do silly.” She would put a hand on the little girl’s shoulder. There was a rush of magic and the three of them would be in a room filled with seating, pillows and all the furnishings you would expect from a couple djinn. The two would be in their transformed state now. ”Tada! This was a great wish by the way.”

”Did get a little old when we were trapped in here though. Missed almost the whole beach event.” She pouted a bit. The sentiment didn’t last long though before she gave Deni a little hug.

”We heard you were dead. Guess they just don’t kill people like they used to.” She would plop down on a big pillow.

Ronin looked a bit confused as Sakura put a hand on her shoulder, and then… ‘Oooooh, so you have a home! Figures you’re hard to find, then!’ Ronin giggled a bit more. ‘Someone wished you an Interdimensional Home? Cool of them,’ she then said with a grin, listening to them… and got hugged by Violet, Ronin… Deni smiled, hugging the girl back.

‘Well. I was consumed by Caroline von Visceral, so to anyone watching there probably wasn’t much of a difference~’ Deni laughed a bit. ‘But while I was consumed, Asengav severed his ties to me. My guess is he didn’t want Father, Justine and Caroline’s patron, to have a direct link to him through me. But, when Caroline was defeated, I was left behind! But, I was sort of in a coma, or something, I kept having dreams. Then something, I dunno what, gave me power out of nowhere, and I came back as a samurai-girl, no slime involved!’ Deni explained. ‘But I can still shape-shift, like your wish made me capable of!’

”We noticed. That’s how we knew it was you. We tend to leave a mark.” The girl smiled. ”We’ve been meaning to meet with your sister and Mariette but with everything going on it’s really risky.” She frowned, more perturbed than disappointed.

‘Right. Do you happen to know what they're up to?’ Deni asked, her smile turning a little bittersweet. ‘See, by being freed from Asengav, I happen to know they're mind-bent to follow him. I want to rescue them from him, which is a little hard as if they find out I'm around Mariette will be forced to kidnap me back. A horror can't have loose ends like me running about, can they?’ she asked with a little grin.

Violet would put a hand up to her mouth and pace for a moment while her sister took over. ”We don’t really know what they’re doing right now. We know that some of their associates have been trying to locate us. Well, they have once or twice, but they can’t catch us. Past that though I think Mariette showed up briefly at some big battle or another. Yeah, things haven’t really been good for a visit.” She would admit. There wasn’t much else they could provide as far as what their friends were doing.

‘I see. Alright. Well. I’m gonna save them. Unfortunately, I know for a fact that Justine von Visceral is going to attack her, and, uh, she’s going to take me with her. For some reason. I’m going to take that opportunity to attempt saving them, both from Justine and from Asengav. Possibly in that order. It’s DEFINITELY going to be an uphill battle, I wanted to see the two of you before it happened,’ Deni said, still smiling at them.

Clicking her tongue a few times, Violet would come back around from her wandering. ”You’ll need a way to break that mind bending. What’s your plan for that?” She would lean a little closer to Deni. ”Do you have a plan for that?”

‘Sooo, I got a bit of an alliance with Veronica, who also doesn’t like Justine. She says that she, or one of her agents, has the necessary powers to remove mind-bending. Still, it’s going to need the person in question to be restrained while we make a ritual, which isn’t that easy, because it requires us to basically kidnap Mariette and Eli to do it…’ Deni said, chuckling a bit. ‘But it’s a shot, that’s potentially doable, just reeeaaally hard.’

”And this is to help them, yes?” They had a somewhat tenuous, almost coerced relationship with Mariette really. It was solid enough that they couldn’t do anything directly to interfere with Asengav’s plans. However, that didn’t mean they couldn’t do something to push in a direction right? ”You could always bring them here first to be somewhere safe. Our home is special and no one can get in or out of here if we don’t want them to.” She grinned.

‘That is an EXCELLENT idea!’ Deni said with a grin right back. ‘Yeah, it's to help them. Asengav's plot will eventually make them enemies of Penrose, and then they will either die or, even worse, win. I need to save them before that. I'm not going to involve you, because all we've done to keep you safe from my previous patron, but having a safe place, with friends, where I can place them means a lot to me. Veronica has helped me a lot, but I still can't be 100% sure she won't do a 180 when we've captured Eli and Mariette, hah.’ So she summed up.

Sakura would shrug. "We've never dealt with her before. Admittedly we aren't all that well versed in how to get rid of horror mind stuff. But we do know some people that have a good grasp of it. Not sure if they'd want to help or not though."

‘Oooh? Who’d these people be?’ Deni asked, tilting her head and listening attentively.

”A couple other twins. They wished to be able to purify other magical girls. They’re Beacon though, so we’re not really sure where they stand. Working with them can be risky.” She confirmed. Beacon has sought them out before trying to get hold of their wishing power. So they were a little wary of the group.

‘Eeeeeeeeeeeh… Probably… wanna keep Mariette away from Beacon, hah,’ Deni told, expression twitching a bit. ‘I did a loooot of scouting with Mariette around the world at one time,’ when they were kidnapping girls from across the world, ‘and Beacon’s… not very understanding of monsters and horror-girls, generally. I know people are saying our Beacon is different, but eeeeeeeeeeeh… If I have no other choice, maybe,’ Deni told with a grin.

Sakura bobbed her head in recognition. "Yeah, just let us know and maybe we can work something out. That'll be plan B though."

‘Yupp!’ Deni said, smiling. ‘Yeah, I already really had a lot of a plan, I just… really wanted to find you two and tell you. And also tell you two that I’m alive. Because I didn’t want you to grieve me for longer, if you were. Because I’d hope to continue being your friend now, and forever more. I’d like a future where me, Eli and Mariette are free from patrons making us do things and just could hang out with friends as we wished, maybe save the world, perhaps travel and live happily ever after with our friends. That would be my wish right now, heh,’ Deni said, the use of words just used for irony, as it’s not a wish they could grant, heh.

The two girls would smile. Violet spoke. ”Well, we can try and help as long as we’re around.”

‘Alright! … Are you going somewhere?’ Deni asked, because that last part sure sounded like they were going to travel.

Scratching her head a bit Sakura would respond. ”It’s always a possibility with us. We go wherever Cafar sends us. But with this home we can make it where you, Eli, and Mariette can come in. It can be a safehouse for a little while. Try not to abuse it. After the beach thing he’s been more picky about how we use wishes.” She would lower her voice. Not that it mattered being mind linked with her patron.

‘… Oh, that was you?’ Deni asked/concluded with a light laugh at the end. ‘Yeah, probably a good idea. Who knows what silly people might wish for, after all. Alright, that makes sense. If you could make it so, I’d be really happy. I wonder, could one go from one Interdimensional Home directly into another? Since Justine will be attacking Mariette’s, that is,’ Deni wondered curiously. ‘But rest assured, I won’t use it unless I’m bringing Eli and or Mariette. You got my word on that,’ Deni said with a nod. ‘… Unless, uh. I find myself in a strange situation where doing so would save the life of someone else, maybe? Er. Could I?’ Deni wondered.

”Maybe? It’s still a Dimensional Home. Pretty sure only five people we allow can come in. So if you figure out who could help you with Eli and Mariette then let us know so we can allow them in too. Not sure if there’s a time limit though if we’re not here. Never tested that.” She was just throwing out thoughts at this point. Mostly speculation.

‘Haha, alright. Let’s settle for Eli and Mariette for now, and testing if one can go from dimensional home to dimensional home when it’s make or break and I’m literally staking my life on it because I probably have Justine right behind me,’ Deni said with a grin. ‘Okay, so how do I make myself enter on my own, when I have them?’ she then asked, because that will probably be relevant.

”Focus on coming here for ten seconds and you should be whisked away!” She would make a playful gesture as if picking someone up and flying away with them.

‘Got it, thank you!’ Deni said with a smirk, before looking them over… then she’s just gonna go in, grab and pull one of them a bit so she can hug both Violet and Sakura at the same time, looking really happy. ‘I’m so happy we’re friends. I’ll come find you afterwards, too, alright?’

The girls would return the hug. ”We’re glad too. And we would love that.” The two didn’t really have that many people they could call friends. Even if it started out as something rather forced right now it felt more real than most before it. Deni needed to get going though so they would part ways. Lots of little pieces to figure out. The twins themselves though would need to keep what they did to a minimum. They did have an agreement to maintain after all.

It was strange, Penny mused from her perch overlooking the Golden Trove, how life would travel through the same cycles at times. Once again she found herself watching the hotel in an effort to find someone. She hoped that this time it would end up more peacefully than last time.

There was no time like the present however. And with that, she would make her move.

Down in the hotel lobby the phone would begin to ring. No strange magic, or anything unnatural, just the phone ringing. Hopefully this would get things off on the right foot. If not, well, Penny still had her backdoor into the computer systems.

Someone picked up on the other side.

”Hey hey! This is Charlie with Charlie’s angels!” His greeting was followed with a laugh. ”Yea, welcome to the Golden Trove. I’m going to say right now that if you want an economy room you’ll have to bunk with someone. Otherwise, almost all of the luxury rooms are open! HA! So what’ll it be today?”

Right... Why did Penny think this was a good idea again? Oh yeah, because the Dragon that lurked in the hotel might have a grudge against her and she’s in no mood to get into a death match with another one so soon.

“Hi, not calling about a room, I was actually hoping to get a hold of someone from management if they are available.”

”Management? Uh, wait one second valued customer!” Penny could hear Charlie shout for a manager a few times before someone asked him a question. ”I don’t know! She didn’t say!”

The phone was handed off to the manager. “Hello, this is Su. I’m the manager. Can I help you?”

“I’m hoping so. My name is Penny Asimov and while I’m not sure if we have met, I’m pretty sure you are aware of me. I’m calling on behalf of the Sanctuary. Would now be a good time to have this talk?”

“Penny?” Penny could hear about five other people, including Charlie, say her name in an inquisitive voice. “Yes, Mika said you were no longer working for Laat. Some of my newest guests also talk about you. Um.” She hesitated. “Did you want to talk face to face? The lobby is cleared out right now, or we could talk on the roof. I think Mika found you there last time, right?” She chuckled.

“Face to face would be preferred” Penny would reply as she started walking. It was only a handful of steps from the ledge of the roof but she simply walked off it, before using her Gravity and thrusters to land gently all without breaking her stride. “And yeah that’s where she found me. Considering what I know now was a bit of luck that she was the one who found me as I was also looking for her at the time.” She would go on to reply with a grin of her own.

“Also curious to know what people have been saying about me” She’d add as she pushed open the front door to the Golden Trove. “But that’s not really why I’m here”

When Penny stood up to the glass door, she could see Su talking on the phone with her. It didn’t take her long to realize that Penny was just outside. She hung up the phone and swung her arms towards the waiting area. “Come on in.”

Once Penny entered the waiting room ,she would find no shortage of things to sit on. Though perhaps the best things to sit on were the couch or any of the chairs. All of them were covered in a red plush fabric.

“Alright.” Su exhaled before collapsing into a chair. “You have my attention.”

“First thing to ask about is if you are under Boteg’s patronage.” Penny would start, seeing as the whole potential thing with the stolen ship could end this before it ever took off. “I’m here for both a personal reason, which ties in with Boteg, and as the one running the Sanctuary.” Would be the explanation as she carefully settled into the chair next to Su.

“Mika didn’t tell you? Surprising.” Su folded her arms. There were a few people Penny didn’t recognize behind the front desk, but they mostly talked among themselves. “Regardless, I am. In fact, I am his oldest magical girl.”

“Only times I’ve talked to Mika was shortly before she jumped me and at the Beach” Penny would point out. “Figured it wouldn’t be a good idea to tempt the dragon who was after my head because of my last Patron. So I avoided this area.”

“I ask because I inadvertently stole something from him.” Penny would go on “And I’m wondering if he, or any of the girls following him thinking about it” As she spoke there would be a dull gray halo that formed above Penny’s head before passing over her rapidly. In its wake Penny would be sealed “Are holding a grudge about that. As I would like to deal with that issue if possible before trying to enter an alliance.”

“An alliance?” Su blinked. “R-right, the boat. Helga told me a little bit about that.” Her arms tightened around herself. “The boat never belonged to Boteg. It was always Amber’s. I doubt that old dragon even cares what happens to it. But it is all that remains of her.” Su didn’t blink. “Did you come to return it?”

“Oh” Penny would say simply, she wanted to be surprised at the fact that yet another Patron seemed to disregard their charge as anything other than a useful tool, but she wasn’t. She could also tell that her next answer wasn’t going to go over well. She didn’t know how Su knew Amber, but Penny got the feeling that they were close. After all, Helga and Amber had been from what she could gather..

“No” She would say after a moment, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees while she rested her chin on the back of her hands. “Partly because I don’t know how too. The Earth Bastion is connected to me in a manner I don’t understand. Less so if Boteg’s never cared for it. As I gained it while under one Patron, but it followed me to another. It’s mine now, more so than most things I own.”

“I also still need it. The Sanctuary is hidden, and for the moment the Ascendency doesn’t know where it is. I’m not expecting that to always be the case and I’ll need the Earth Bastion for when things start going sideways.”

And lastly it was hers, now truly hers, she had been the one in control when they first acquired the ship. She had to share it with Jason, much as they shared everything back then, but now it was hers. She didn’t have enough to be willing to give up what little she had.

“Of course.” Su curled her fingers into her palms. “So what’s this about an alliance?”

Penny would sit there for a moment just watching Su. “I’m sorry” She would say at last “It had never been my intention to steal it away. I don’t know what Amber meant to you, and I’m sorry that I’ve taken away a cherished keepsake. I can’t promise that I’ll give it back, I can only promise to treat it with as much care as it deserves.” Penny came here to try and clear the air then work on building an alliance. She could easily tell that the air wasn’t clear. Mending this bridge came first. She wouldn’t feel right building an alliance with Su and the rest of the Hotel with this still sitting between them, not any more.

“That’s fine, there’s no point talking about it if there’s nothing that can be done.” She placed her hands on her knees. “What do you want?”

“If you’re sure” With a shrug Penny would sit back into her seat. She could push, but there is a point where trying too much just makes things worse. “When it comes to the Sanctuary you should know that I have claimed the mantle of Queen of Penrose and I’m wanting to set up a defensive pact and trade agreements. The Golden Trove is much better at getting supplies then we are, but by the nature of those at the Sanctuary I’m willing to bet we have the larger numbers of combatants.”

“Well yes, the hotel is a business. Most of the people who reside here are customers instead of citizens. Regardless, you want a nebulous amount of resources for a nebulous amount of protection.” Su reclined in her seat, and her hand came up to her cheek. “Penny, you’ve been queen for a few days, right? Let me give you some advice from someone who was also plunged into queen hood.” She flexed her fingers. “Rule number one is that your image is your greatest asset. If the public thinks you are invincible, you are invincible. If the public thinks you are petty, you are petty. A nation will rebel against a just leader if they think they are unjust.” Her eyes hardened. “Rule number two is that alliances are founded on similar interests. You’re building a nation and you need resources. Lots of resources. But why do I need protection?” She picked her head off of the seat. “The Mint wanted Cindy dead, you’ve taken her spot. I’m unsure how the Ascendancy is going to react to you creating a haven for monsters, but ‘not favorably’ is my prediction. Seems to me that agreeing to help you is a surefire way to get all that enmity directed towards me. Your protection won’t bring piece of mind, it’ll be an essential resource.”

Penny would listen quietly before letting out a small sigh. She would then stand for a moment before lifting the chair she was sitting on easily. She would set the chair directly across from Su before once again sitting down in it, Penny’s eyes just a fraction colder then they had been beforehand. “My explanation was done in good faith and with the expectation that there would be some bartering, not as a final offer. I also said trade, not tribute. We have resources, we want comforts.”

She would lean forward interlinking her hands as she rested her arms on her legs. “And if the offer of a defensive pact isn’t something that eases your mind then you haven’t been thinking far enough ahead. Mika and Helga are both listed as Monster girls in Beacon’s databases, I’m not sure about you but I’d place odds on you at the least being a Dark girl. That means there are three corrupted running a hotel that the uninformed public also uses. The Sanctuary might be a larger target but that doesn’t Mean the the Golden Trove isn’t one. Also If the Sanctuary falls completely more of them are going to flock here as another safe haven. If you want to go unnoticed then it is in your best interest to try and mitigate the fall of the Sanctuary, as if we fall you’re most likely the next target”

“In addition, you are running a business. Do you really think that if you get large enough that the Mint won’t want to try and take a part of the profits? Once again keeping me the larger target protects you from closer scrutiny.”

“Mika is a normal magical girl, so her being a monster is simply untrue. As for Helga and I, we are going to meet with the Ascendancy to discuss avenues for purification. OR MAYBE WE ALREADY HAVE HOLY SHIT THIS COLLAB MESS IS INCREDIBLE!” Su sat upright. “Who can say what the Mint actually wants? They likely already have agents in both the Golden Trove as well as Sanctuary, which makes accepting manpower from other sources unreliable. Or have you devised a way to reveal Mint operatives? The problem with corrupt girls is that most of them have used their coin already, so there’s little physical evidence linking them directly to the Mint. Any manpower I received from you would give me little reassurance for this reason.” Su gripped her armrest. “But maybe there is something you can offer us. What type of supplies do you think I have though?”

“I’ve met Mika, so I know that, but she puts up a convincing act to outsiders. And I wouldn’t recommend going to the Ascendency, go to Beacon proper, as they are two different forces within the organization.” Penny would say not changing her posture as she spoke. “And I believe that you have food and bedding. We have supplies, but they are basic, I’m wanting to give the people at the Sanctuary more variety and finding usable bedding is tricky with all of the Ascendency Patrols out and about.”

“I’m not asking for a lot, at least not so far as I see it.”

“No, I suppose you’re not.” Su folded her hands together and rest them in her lap. “Is manpower the only thing Sanctuary has to offer? Guards are only useful when there’s trouble, but magical girls who can be trusted and don’t mind menial tasks are hard to come by. If they are close acquaintances of yours, that is to say, zero percent chance of being a spy, I might be interested in them. But people are a strange resource. At least to trade for material good.”

“Not all that strange, the basis of barter after all.” Penny would say as her eyes drifted off to the side for a moment as she thought “I can’t offer anyone that fits you requirements just yet, but manpower isn’t the only thing I have to offer, just the most plentiful. I have information as well, though I’m not sure how much of it is of any use. Payment is also possible, but it would have to be case by case if that was the route taken.”

“I should mention I do think a trade route is a good idea, but a protected trade route is only as useful as the people using it. If you can get others interested, I would be more enthusiastic about the idea.” Su tapped her armrest. “What type of information do you have?”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Penny would say with a nod, it wasn’t hard to see how this meeting was going to end, and she would take all the good she could from it. “A bit of Intel on the Mint and potentially useful piece of information for Boteg. The Mint has someone capable of impersonating people, It was how they got to Cindy. Reports say that they were injured, so you should have some time before they are out and about again, but on the upside they don’t seem the kind to kill the person they are imitating.” Hard to say how useful that nugget was, but the best way to counter someone so capable of infiltration was simply raising awareness of them in the first place.

“Next bit is harder to prove, but the source is from someone that has never lied to me, so I trust it. Boteg isn’t the last of his kind. They were massacred, don’t get me wrong about that, but it wasn’t a genocide. He might have other golds out there that he could contact. What that would mean for you and the other girls under him I don’t know but it is what it is.”

“Well, I don’t think Boteg would forgive me if I didn’t follow up on that.” After rapping her fingers on the arm wrest a bit, she nodded. “Very well. Today we will negotiate what you’d like for this information. It should not take long to get what you seek, depending on the quantity.”

“A dozen blankets, two dozen pillows and any fruits that you’d be willing to part with”

“I can prepare it within a day. Have someone ready for pickup.” Su pulled out a notepad and pen. “Who did you get this information from? I would like to get details.”

“Haa. That’s where things get difficult.” Penny would reply slumping back into her chair. “As I got it from a God. In fact I got it from the God I used to serve under. I’m not comfortable saying his name, if you don’t know it already, as he’s a secretive son of a bitch as speaking it aloud is a sure fire way to get his attention. Something I’m not sure would be healthy at the moment.” She would run a hand through her hair sighing lightly as she did “As I said, he has never lied to me, which is why I trust what he was saying. It was something he mentioned when I asked why Boteg might want me dead after Mika jumped me last time I was here, he also mentioned that it could have had something to do with the ship.”[/color]

“I see. Then I will contact the terrible one at a later date.” Su folded up the notepad without writing anything down. “Third rule of being a queen is not to make any decision by yourself. That’s why royalty surround themselves with intelligent people.” Su stood up. “I will talk with all concerned parties about a possible alliance in your absence. I will stop by sanctuary later to inform you of our choice.” She extended her hand to shake.

“Ha” Penny couldn’t help but laugh at Laat’s given moniker “That fits him in far too many ways.” she would say as she too stood ignoring the wave of nostalgia that washed over her at thinking of the destructive god. “His name and breaking something old will get his attention, but no guarantee that he will answer. He keeps to himself most of the time. Hell I didn’t see him for the first few months of being his champion.”

She shook the offered hand, careful to not grip too tightly. “Thank you for your time Manager Su.”

“Just Su is fine.” She nodded. “Take care, Penny.”

The shining city. The gleaming beacon of hope and promise. The gateway to progress and prosperity. Silverburg has been called all these things and more. Thus, it should come as little surprise that it is seen by many as the utter antithesis of its neighbor to the east, blighted and luckless Penrose. Where Penrose is an anarchic cesspool of warring factions, both Sliverburg’s magical and mundane communities are orderly and cooperative, working together to keep their beloved city safe and peaceful. In the mundane world, this takes the form of a wise and benevolent city council, aided by a robust and forward-thinking chamber of commerce. The latter of these is guided by the insightful hand of Lodovico Demiris, CEO of Demiris Defense Systems, one of the world’s most powerful megacorporations.

On the more magical side of things, the city is protected by a surprisingly small, but exceedingly well-organized group of magical girls. In an incredibly uncommon state of affairs, they are actually well known by the city’s civilian populace. Operating under the guise of the Silverburg Magical Girl Cosplay Society, they take part in numerous community service projects and charity events. Indeed, thanks to Lodovico Demiris’s own daughter being one of their members, they even have access to their own state-of-the-art headquarters, located at the pinnacle of Silverburg Spire, right above the headquarters of Demiris Defense Systems. Even the recent influx of refugees from disaster-stricken Penrose has done little to dampen the city’s optimism, its residents welcoming the new arrivals with open arms. Yes, Silverburg is certainly a safe, friendly, and peaceful place to live, free from crime, danger, and disasters.

It is also incredibly boring.

All problems are solved swiftly and efficiently, with exceedingly minimal damage to property and absolutely zero loss of life. Feuds and power plays among the major magical and mundane factions of the city are non-existent. Everyone gets along with each other. Yes, there is certainly a good reason why not even a single story has taken place here. At least, until now…

To be fair, our tale does not actually take place within the bounds of Silverburg proper, but rather in a location nestled within the mountains west of the city: the primary R&D facility of Demiris Defense Systems. Tonight, this highly secure and secretive installation is about to have a most unexpected visitor…

For this is the story of…





Within a cavernous testing chamber, a swirling, multi-colored vortex of mystic energy formed a short distance above the chamber’s floor. A moment later, a girl dropped out of it and landed with a cute pose. Noticing that the speed of her decent had forced her skirt up, she gave a sharp gasp.

“Ooopsies~!” Magical Dream Princess called out, while placing her hand over her mouth in an exaggerated pose of embarrassment. “Like, super sorries about the PANTY SHOT~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess is just wearing such a super duper cute pair that she just, like, totally had to show them off~! (giggle!) Wowie zowie~!” she exclaimed as she smiled up at the portal she had arrived through. “That was, like, so super duper fun~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess can’t wait to do it again~! Like, super duper thankie wankies, mister magical portal thingie~! (giggle!) Bye bye for nowies~!” she added with a childish wave as the portal winked out of existence.

Looking around, Magical Dream Princess was disappointed to discover that no one had been present to see her cute panties. In fact, there seemed to be no one here at all…

“Aww... There's, like, no one here... That makes Magical Dream Princess really super duper sad...” the cute magical girl said with a sullen frown. In fact, she looked like she was on the verge of tears. “She, like, really wanted people to play with her... Sniff... Oh~!” she suddenly exclaimed, her demeanor brightening to its usual overwhelmingly cheerful state. “But, maybe that's, like, actually a good thingie wingie~! Magical Dream Princess is on, like, a totally wotally super duper secret mission, after all~! (giggle!) Golly wolly~! Magical Dream Princess is, like, such a super duper dummy when she's like this~! (giggle!)”

Just then, an ear-piercing alarm sounded, while warning lights flashed, bathing the chamber in a harsh red glow.

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!” an artificial voice repeated.

However, if any of this was supposed to frighten a potential intruder, it failed miserably in the case of Magical Dream Princess.

“Golly wolly~! (giggle!)” she shouted with the biggest smile of childish delight. “Magical Dream Princess was totally wotally wrong~! Everyone just wanted to surprise her~! (giggle!) Oh, wowies~! (giggle!)” she added looking around with innocent wonderment. “So many pretty lights just for her~!”

Unfortunately for the childishly innocent magical girl, the lights and alarms both ceased after a disappointingly short time, leaving her in dullness and silence once again.

“Awww… All the pretty lights went bye bye… Bye bye~!” she called cheerfully, standing on her tiptoes and energetically waving her arm like a little kid.

It was only then, that Magical Dream Princess took the time to fully take note of her surroundings. The cute magical girl found herself in the middle of a war-torn cityscape, filled with ugly, gray buildings and scattered piles of rubble. The virtual atmospheric and weather systems were all deactivated, so she could see that she was in a large, artificial chamber, but that just made things even more gloomy and depressing. Still, this place felt somewhat familiar…

“Ohh~! Emm~! Geee~!” Magical Dream Princess cried as her eyes widened with sudden recognition. “This place is just like that fake city thingie Daddy has! These meanie heads are total wotal copy wopy cats!” she declared, placing her hands on her hips in a pose of exaggerated indignation, which still managed to look utterly adorable. “Humpf!” she grumbled, while folding her arms over her chest. “Like, this placey wacey isn’t gonna have the stuffy wuffy Magical Dream Princess needs to find for Daddy… Oh well~!” she added in a far more bubbly tone as she twirled around with her arms extended. “That just means she’ll have to, like, look somewhere else~! (giggle!)”

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere,” a condescending voice told her.



Her reverie having been shattered, Magical Dream Princess discovered that the voice belonged to a blonde-haired young woman in somewhat skimpy military attire, who was pointing an assault rifle at her. Six additional young women in similar outfits had also taken up positions to surround her. But if this show of force was supposed to intimidate the ditzy magical girl, her adversaries would soon find that they had succeeded in provoking a very different reaction…

“Yaaaaay~!” Magical Dream Princess cheered, her eyes practically glistening with joy. “Magical Dream Princess finally has people to play with her~! (giggle!) Do you girls know any funsie wunsie games? Magical Dream Princess knows lotsie wotsie, but she never got to play any wany of them because Daddy Waddy wouldn’t let her! But now she can play them all with her new friends~! (giggle!)”

“Seriously?”

“Is this girl for real?” a pair of redheaded twins asked with raised eyebrows.

“You’re certainly an original one,” the blonde noted with a chuckle. “But, sure, we can play a game. It’s called ‘we beat you to a bloody pulp and then throw your carcass into a deep, dark pit where you’ll spend the rest of your life’. How does that sound?”

“Hmmm… Magical Dream Princess doesn’t think she likes the soundy woundy of that game…”

“That’s too bad,” the blonde replied. “‘Cause you don’t get a say in the matter!”

An instant later, the seven girls sprung into action. Five of them kept their weapons trained on Magical Dream Princess, while the blonde and a silver-haired girl darted forward and drove the stocks of their rifles into her face and stomach. Simultaneously, and to Magical Dream Princess’s great shock, a pair of thick metal binders appeared to pin her feet to the floor, preventing her from dodging her opponents’ blows, never mind escaping.

At least, it certainly appeared that way…

As it happened, Magical Dream Princess had no interest in escaping. For the moment, she was content to simply bat the rifles away with a massive frilly pillow. The next thing her two assailants knew, their weapons had also become pillows, albeit of a slightly smaller size.

“Oh, goodie woodie~!” the childish magical girl cheered with delight. “Magical Dream Princess always wanted to have a pillow fight~! (giggle!) They’re, like, so much super duper fun, but you gotta watch out for the sneaky weaky Tickle Wickle Monster~! (giggle!)”

At that, a cloud of swirling pink smoke formed in front of the two startled girls. It grew in size until it towered over them, before taking a form that resembled a child’s rendition of an octopus with a large smiley face. Before either girl could react, they found themselves wrapped in its tentacles, while the creature began to tickle them relentlessly. Wasting no time, their five comrades opened fire on the monster, the hail of bullets, mixed with a smattering of energy bolts, quickly shredding it to pieces.

“Hey!” Magical Dream Princess shouted angrily. “That was, like, super duper mean! Like, everyone knows that you stop a Tickle Wickle Monster by tickle wickling it back, not by shooting your meanie weanie guns at it! Humpf! You girls are just a bunch of meanie weanie heads!” she declared with an adorable pout, while throwing her pillow on the ground. “Magical Dream Princess is gonna go find some other friends to play with!” she added, before dissolving the shackles on her feet in a swirl of pink mist and reforming them into a cutesy pogo stick. “Byiiieee~!” she called out as she bounced away.

“F-Fucking bitch…” the blonde girl hissed as she struggled to get to her feet, her weapon having returned to normal. “What the hell are you waiting for?!” she snarled at her team. “Get after her!”

“Roger!” they acknowledged, before sprinting off.

However, they didn’t get far before the next wave of their adversary’s innocently unintentional resistance made itself known.

“Hmmm… This place is, like, so super duper ugly wugly!” Magical Dream Princess observed as she bounced along. “But Magical Dream Princess knows just how to fix that~! (giggle!)”

Summoning her magic wand, she waved it around her, causing a shower of glitter to spray across the ruined cityscape. Within mere moments, the crumbling buildings were transformed into whimsical pastel palaces, while lampposts became colorful lollipops and piles of rubble turned into mounds of pillows and cute stuffed animals.

“The fuck is this shit?!” One of the redheads roared in stunned disbelief.

“I know right?” her twin concurred. “This is almost as bad as that Djinn we fought in Iraq…”

“Cut the chatter you two!” the silver-haired girl snapped. “This girl clearly has reality warping abilities of some kind, so we need to be dialed in to the max if we want to have any chance of stopping her.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself, Two,” the blonde added. “Alright, Four, Five, put on some speed and see if you can get ahead of her. Two and I’ll tail her and try and force her your way, once you’re in ambush position.”

“Roger!” the redheads responded in unison.

“Six, Seven,” the blonde called to a pair of girls armed with heavy weapons. “Take up an elevated position in a location with a clear LOS on the target.”

“Got it, Boss,” the pair acknowledged, before heading out.

“Three,” the blonde added, addressing a longhaired brunette. “Stick with ‘em. Something tells me they’ll need the firepower boost.”

“Y-Yessir!” the girl stammered, looking slightly unsure of herself.

“And you said security detail would be boring,” the heavy weapon girl with short, dark hair holding an advanced energy rifle snarked at her machine gun wielding comrade.

“Dee doo deet!” bleeped a small spider-like drone perched on the shorthaired girl’s shoulder.

“Yeah, you’re right, buddy,” she told the robot with a grin. “She did practically ask for it.”

After only a short while, the trio found themselves in front of the tallest structure in the whimsical cityscape, a fantasy-style castle tower fit for Rapunzel herself. It also had a cartoony face, which smiled at them as they approached.

“Hello there!” it called jovially. “Are you girls playing war?”

“U-Uhh… Y-Yes…?” The longhaired brunette replied uncertainly.

“Oh, happy day!” the tower cheered. “I just love that game! Come on in!” it said, opening its doorway/mouth wide and unfurling a red carpet “tongue” for them. “You’ll have a great view from the top of my turret!”

“Okay, now that’s fucked up…” the girl with the machine gun observed.

“Deet deet dooo…”

“You said it, buddy. ‘Come into my parlor’ doesn’t even begin to describe how wrong this feels…”

“B-But, this is the tallest place,” the longhaired brunette pointed out. “B-Besides, all of the buildings here are probably like this…”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” the machine gun girl conceded. “But keep your eyes peeled in there. We don’t know what kinda crazy shit we’re walking into…”

As it turned out, the sentient tower was completely safe, and they soon found themselves at the top of the turret.

“See, what did I tell you?” the tower remarked amiably. “Quite the view, isn’t it?”

“You’re not kidding…” The machine gun girl replied as she gazed out over the colorful cityscape. “We can see the whole chamber from here.”

“Yeah, and there goes little miss ‘dream princess’, now!” the shorthaired girl exclaimed pointing her finger towards the ongoing chase. She gave voice to a small chuckle. “Stupid ditz has no clue she’s bouncing right into a trap!”

Down in the streets below, Magical Dream Princess was having far too much fun to worry about silly things like traps. Especially when it had just occurred to her what the two girls chasing her were really doing…

“Oh~! Like, do you girls wanna play tag~?!” she asked excitedly, a cute grin spreading from ear to ear. “Magical Dream Princess just wuvs that game~! (giggle!)” Not wasting a second, she turned around an bounced over to the pair pursuing her. Before they even knew what was happening, they were each bopped on the head by the childish girl’s sparkling wand. “Taggy waggy~! (giggle!) YOU’RE IT~!!!” she cried triumphantly, before bouncing away at even greater speed.

“That. Little. BITCH!!!” The blonde roared as she resumed her pursuit with far greater ferocity. However, her outburst only caused Magical Dream Princess to giggle.

“Ha ha~! You can’t catch me, you can’t catch me~!” she sang in a childish voice, while thrusting her butt out and shaking it at her pursuers in time with her words, making sure they got a good long look at the cute kitty cats decorating her panties. She giggled to her heart’s content as she bounced along without a care in the world. The ditzy magical girl couldn’t remember when she’d ever had this much fun, and the gleeful smile on her face gave clear evidence that she was having the time of her life. She was having so much fun, in fact, that she completely forgot where she was going. This was somewhat unfortunate, as it meant she failed to notice the pair of redheads in front of her. Before she could even give a startled gasp, they opened fire with their P90s, unleashing a torrent of bullets at the surprised magical girl.

With an agonized shriek, Magical Dream Princess fell from the sky at the height of her bounce, her pogo stick disappearing in a cloud of pink smoke. With a thud, her bloody form landed on the street. Not taking any chances, the two redheads moved towards the prone form slowly, while keeping their weapons trained on it, just in case.

“Did we get her?” one of them asked.

“Looks like it,” her twin replied. “Still, she hasn’t changed back yet, and happy clappy fantasy land hasn’t gone away either…”

“Like, that’s because Magical Dream Princess isn’t deady weady, you silly willies~!” the magical girl said with a giggle, while winking up at the two redheads. “And, like, this isn’t icky wicky bloody woody, either! It’s yummy wummy ketchup~! (giggle!)” she added, sliding her finger across the “blood” and then giving it a lick. “Here, try some~! (giggle!)”

With that, a pair of ketchup bottles appeared in each of her hands. Giving them a squeeze, she shot twin streams of the stuff into both of the redheads’ slack-jawed mouths. Before the two girls even knew what was happening, they had both swallowed the liquid, and it wasn’t long before their faces began to turn a brighter color of red than their hair. However, this wasn’t so much due to anger as to heat. Both girls began to sweat profusely and gasp for breath.

“Hot! Hot! Hot!” they panted, dropping their weapons to fan their faces in a desperate attempt to cool themselves.

“Oh! Golly wolly!” Magical Dream Princess exclaimed. “That wasn’t ketchupy wetchupy! That was hottie wottie sauce! Magical Dream Princess is so super duper sorry! Here!” she said urgently, her eyes filled with concern. “Like, have something to drinkie winkie!”

Pointing her wand at a nearby fire hydrant, she conjured a pair of fire hoses, which snaked towards the badly dehydrated girls. Their only thoughts being how to extinguish the inferno in their mouths, the redheads turned on the hoses and gulped the water down their throats as fast as they could. It wasn’t long before they began to inflate like comical cartoon balloons, and just when it looked like they might burst, they lost their grips on the hoses and shot off through the air. Magical Dream Princess couldn’t help but giggle as they disappeared into the distance, but her moment of childish delight ended a second later when she heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind her. Turning around, she discovered the blonde and the silver haired girl. Neither of them looked pleased.

“What the fuck did you do to them, you bitch?!” the blonde growled.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess just let them have a drinkie winkie~! They’re not, like, deady weady, or anythingie~! They just went sleepy bye~! (giggle!)”

“I’m gonna make you go sleepy bye…” the blonde snarled. “Forever!”

Squeezing their fingers tight against their weapons’ triggers the two girls fired a hail of bullets at the cute magical girl. Or, at least, that’s what they intended to do. In reality, instead of bullets, a stream of bubbles poured out of the barrels of their rifles and floated lazily through the air. The silver-haired girl opened her eyes wide in shock, while the blonde looked absolutely livid…

“Enough of this shit!” she shouted, throwing her weapon down. For a moment, her hands seemed to glow, before a pair of crackling fireballs appeared in each one. “I’m gonna roast your frilly ass alive!”

Magical Dream Princess gave a shocked gasp. “Like, that’s not very nicey wicey!” she scolded the blonde, wagging her finger, while scowling at her in an adorable fashion. “Magical Dream Princess thinks you need to cool off!”

At that, a dark cloud with a cartoonish face formed above the two girls. Glowering down at them, it unleashed a torrential downpour, which utterly extinguished the flames the blonde had conjured. As soon as it had began, the deluge ceased, leaving the two girls completely soaked, and violently shivering from the freezing water.

“Like, that’ll show them, huh, Mister Storm Cloudy~? (giggle!) Thankie wankie so much~!”

Giving the ditzy magical girl a big smile, the storm cloud nodded, before floating away. No sooner had he done so, than a pair of giant teddy bears appeared behind the two shivering girls and wrapped them up in tight hugs. Meanwhile, an anthropomorphic cartoon alarm clock that was dressed as a police officer appeared before them.

“Since you were so grumpy before, Magical Dream Princess thinks you need a nappy time~! (giggle!) Nighty night~!” she called to the pair, while the clock cop bashed each of them over the head with his baton. They were instantly knocked unconscious by the blow, while little birds circled around their heads.

“Super duper thankie wankies, Mister Officer~!” She said, standing to attention and giving a peace sign salute. The clock cop tipped his hat in return, after which Magical Dream Princess turned around and began skipping along the street, humming cutely to herself as she did so. She hadn’t gotten far, when the world around her was blown apart by a string of explosions and mighty blasts of energy.

“Keep firing!” the machine gun girl instructed her partner. “She’s a tough one!”

“Ya don’t gotta tell me twice,” the other girl responded, as she continued to fire blast after blast from her energy rifle at the cute girl in the street below. “We both saw what she did to the others…”

Meanwhile, the longhaired brunette was crouched between the two heavy weapons specialists, having placed a glowing hand on the back of each one. Her eyes were closed in deep concentration as she imbued her comrades with increased accuracy and their weapons with increased power. For all the good it did… Scant seconds after they had begun their focused assault, and they could see that their cutesy opponent had escaped it unscathed. In fact, she was flying over to them on the back of a winged Unicorn. Despite their attempts to blow it out of the sky, it evaded their fire with laughable ease, and soon enough, Magical Dream Princess had arrived at the tower.

Jumping off her most girly of steeds, the childish magical girl landed with a blast of sparkles and glitter, striking a pose as she did so.

“Tada~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess is here to save the pretty witty princess from the meanie weanies who locked her up in this nasty wasty tower!”

“W-What the fuck are you even talking about?!” the machine gun girl asked, while trying to keep her composure after all she had just witnessed.

“Like, aren’t you girls playing castley wastley?” Magical Dream Princess asked, somewhat confused. “And, like, isn’t this little cutie wutie pie playing the pretty witty princess?” she added, pointing her wand at the longhaired brunette, who was looking increasingly nervous.

“Not really…?” The shorthaired girl with the energy rifle replied. “We’re actually here to stop you, cause you broke into this place.”

“Deet doot deeeet!” her drone bleeped loudly.

“Not now, buddy,” she told it under her breath.

“Oooooh~!” Magical Dream Princess squealed as she finally noticed the small robot. “That little wittle guy is, like, soooo super duper cute~! (giggle!) Like, does he have a name~? Is he, like, your pet~? Or maybe waybe your bestie best friend~? Can he do any cool tricky wickies~?” she asked in rapid-fire succession, her eyes gleaming with delight. “Can he, can he, can he~?!”

“Uh, well, his designation is BD-E, but I just call him buddy,” the girl explained, more than a little taken aback by Magical Dream Princess’s childish enthusiasm. “He’s more like a friend than a pet,” she continued. “As for tricks, well, he can do this.”

The instant the girl finished speaking, the small drone began rearranging itself in a blur of motion. It also seemed to be growing larger. Much larger… A few seconds later, and the drone’s metamorphosis was complete. What had once been a roughly basketball-sized device on four spider legs was now larger than Magical Dream Princess’s Unicorn Pegasus, and armed with a frighteningly massive energy cannon. A cannon that was charging up to fire…

“Okay, buddy!” the shorthaired girl shouted. “Let her have it!”

With a mighty blast, the cannon shot forth a blinding cylinder of destructive power. In the blink of an eye, it consumed Magical Dream Princess, reducing the cute magical girl to little more than ash. Or, at least, it would have, if a shield of rainbow energy hadn’t stopped it in its tracks. It soon became apparent that the “shield” was actually a second, larger, beam, emanating from the magical girl’s wand. At first, it merely held the drone’s beam in place, but all too quickly, it began forcing it back, slowly at first, but with ever-increasing speed. A few seconds later, and it was over. The rainbow beam had inexorably pushed the opposing beam back to its source, whereupon both the cannon, and the drone mounting it, exploded in a blast of sparkles, glitter, and swirling pink smoke.

“Like, wowies~!” Magical Dream Princess cheered. “It’s, like, sooo pretty~! (giggle!)”

“B-Buddy!” the shorthaired girl cried, tears filling her eyes as she aimed her energy rifle at the overjoyed magical girl. “Your gonna pay for that!”

But, before she could fire a single shot, Magical Dream Princess bopped her on the head with her sparkly wand, followed by her companion with the machine gun.

“Magical Dream Princess thinks that’s enough playtime for now~! (giggle!) You were starting to get cranky wanky, and that means it’s time for beddy bye~! (giggle!)”

Then she noticed the longhaired brunette trembling behind where the two other girls were now lying.

“P-Please d-don’t hurt me!” she begged. “I-I d-don’t wanna fight anymore!”

“Awww, it’s okay, little cutie wutie pie~!” Magical Dream Princess said with a giggle as she knelt down and gave the frightened girl some head pats. “Magical Dream Princess, like, doesn’t wanna hurt any of you girls~! She just wanted to play~! (giggle!)”

“B-But...” the girl stammered, while casting a concerned look towards her comrades’ prone forms.

“Oh! Like, you don’t need to worry your pretty witty head about them~!” Magical Dream Princess assured her. “They’re just having a nappy nap~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess will make sure they have, like, super duper sweet dreams, too~! It’s, like, her super duper special wecial promise~! (giggle!)” she added, while making a heart with her hands.

“Oh… Uh, okay…” the girl said tentatively. “I, uh, guess I’ll take a nap too, then… I-If you don’t mind?”

“N-No…” a groggy voice muttered. “Y-You… g-gotta… s-stop herrr…”

The brunette and Magical Dream Princess both turned to see the machine gun girl slowly moving her hand to touch a small device on her wrist.

“I-It’s… all up to you, Three…”

“Oh, golly~! Nap time’s not over yet, silly~!” Magical Dream Princess said with a giggle. “Now, back to dreamy land~! Boink~!” she added, bopping the girl a second time. However, the girl had still succeeded in reaching the device, which now emitted a soft beeping sound…

The brunette gasped.

“O-Oh, no…” she whispered, her eyes filled with terror. “N-No… N-No! P-Please, don’t make me…!” she pleaded, clutching her head as her body began violently shaking, and then, expanding… “N-No! Please…! NoooaaaiiiiIIIAAARRRGH!!!” she roared in agonized fury, her rapidly growing body exploding with muscles. They shredded her clothes, revealing a black leotard beneath.

As Magical Dream Princess watched in stunned horror, the once-timid girl swiftly turned into what could only be described as a monster. Her skin became a deep purple, while her hair grew to twice its length and turned a bright green. Her ears elongated to sharp points, and her eyes took on a look of wild frenzy. Most frightening of all, her nails and teeth all grew into wickedly sharp talons and fangs.

“HUURR… HUURRR… HUUURRT!!!” the creature roared “CRUUUSH!!! KILL!!!”

Swinging with staggering strength, the creature tried to slice the horrified magical girl in half, but Magical Dream Princess dodged at the last minute, laving a trail of sparkles in her wake.

“KILL! KILL!” the beast screamed as she pulverized the tower to pieces in her attempt to kill the magical girl. “KILL!!!”

“Wowie zowies!” Magical Dream Princess exclaimed as she deftly avoided each of the creature’s savage blows. “You’re, like, super duper mega cranky! And, like, Magical Dream Princess thinks you need to go nappy bye super duper extra wextra bad!”

As she was saying this, she hopped on her Unicorn Pegasus, which flew a short distance away from the tower, in an effort to keep the creature from destroying it and inadvertently injuring her slumbering friends in the process.

With a fearsome roar, the enraged creature leapt from the tower towards the flying unicorn. Such was the monstrosity’s speed it succeeded in knocking the magical girl off her steed and onto the roof a nearby building. Leaping down upon her, the creature prepared to deliver the final blow. However, just before it could strike, Magical Dream Princess smashed her wand against its head with all the strength she could muster.

“Night night~! (giggle!)” she shouted cutely as she watched the creature stagger, and finally collapse in an unconscious heap on top of her. Thankfully for the delicate magical girl, the creature had completely reverted by the time its head had reached her ample bosom.

“Awww, Magical Dream Princess’s little cutie wutie pie is aaall better now~” the magical girl cooed. “She just needed a little nappy nap~ (giggle!)” she added as she gently ran her fingers through the girl’s long hair. “Magical Dream Princess would, like, totally wotally wuv to stay here for hours and hours and hours, but she has something reeeeeally extra wextra important to do, so she has to say bye bye, now~! Don’t worry, though, little cutie~! Magical Dream Princess will make super duper sure you have the most sweetie weetiest of dreams~! (giggle!)”

Waving her wand, she created an extra comfy bed for the girl to lay in, filled with fluffy pillows and cute stuffed animals. Gently taking the slumbering girl in her arms, she carried her over to the bed and carefully tucked her in.

“There~! All nice and snuggly wuggly~!” Magical Dream Princess declared, looking quite pleased with herself. “Goodnight, cutie~” she whispered, bending over to place a soft kiss on the girl’s forehead.

With that important task taken care of, Magical Dream Princess hopped back on her Unipegasus and flew over to the far end of the chamber, where a large door awaited her. Stepping up to it, she noticed a camera in a spherical turret just above the door. She knew what this was! Her daddy had them above many different doors. They allowed someone inside to see who was at the door, and decide if they wanted to open it. But Magical Dream Princess also knew that she had to ask politely, or she wouldn’t be let in.

Stepping up to the camera, she stood with her hands clasped behind her back, while she swayed from side to side like a nervous schoolgirl about to ask her crush out on a date. “Like, may Magical Dream Princess please come in~? (giggle!)” she asked innocently, while beaming up at the camera with her cutest smile and batting her eyes in the most adorable manner possible. “Pretty pretty pleasy weasy~?”

Unfortunately, despite her endearing performance, the adorable magical girl was met with only silence.

“Aww… Nobody answered…” she sighed dejectedly. “Like, maybe nobody’s home…? Oh~! Like, Magical Dream Princess has an idea~! (giggle!) Maybe waybe she has to, like, use this buttony wuttony thingie wingie~?” she added, noting a keypad beside the door.

The buttons’ tones made a sound that was greatly pleasing to the innocent magical girl, and she took childish delight in pressing as many as possible as fast as her fingers could move.

“Golly wolly~! These buttony wuttony thingie wingies make such pretty witty soundy woundies~! (giggle!)”

After having her fun, Magical Dream Princess still had just enough of her rational mind left to know that she needed to press “enter” after pressing all the numbers. Of course, having input a code as far from the correct one as could be possible, the console emitted a harsh buzz the moment she pressed the “enter” key.

“Humpf! Like, that’s not a very nice soundy woundy! This thingie wingie is a meanie weanie!” she declared as she put her hands on her hips and glowered at the console, looking ridiculously adorable while doing so. “It won’t let Magical Dream Princess in, and it, like, makes such icky wicky noises at her! But Magical Dream Princess will show that meanie weanie~! She’ll just make her own codey wodey~! (giggle!)”

With that, she waved her magic wand, and in a shower of glitter, a colorful hopscotch court was conjured in front of the sealed door. Magical Dream Princess jumped up and down with childish glee at the sight of it.

“Oh~! Goody woody~!” she squealed with delight. “Magical Dream Princess, like, always wanted to play this game, and now she finally winally can~! (giggle!)”

Clearly pleased with her creation, she hopped into the court, cheerfully singing as she skipped her way across the numbered squares.

“One, two, buckle her shoe~!
Three, four, open the door~!
Five, six, pick up sticks~!
Seven, eight, raise the gate~!
Nine, ten, start again~!”

Upon reaching the end of the court, she giggled happily, while striking a cutesy victory pose.

“Wowie zowie~! That was, like, so super duper fun~! (giggle!) Magical Dream Princess wants to do it again~! (giggle!) And this time it’ll be even more fun, cause now she’ll be doing it backwards, while jumping rope~! (giggle!) Okie dokie~! Here she goes~!”

“Ten, nine, feeling fine~!
Eight, seven, she’s in heaven~!
Six, five, still alive~!
Four, three, wait and see~!
Two, one, now she’s done~! (giggle!)”

Upon finishing the course a second time, Magical Dream Princess watched with glee as the sealed door spontaneously slid open amid a shower of sparkles and small fireworks.

“Hip, hip, horaaaaay~! (giggle!)” the childish magical girl cheered with unabashed delight, jumping high in the air and doing a split, while waving the colorful pompoms that had just appeared in her hands. “Magical Dream Princess did it~! She’s, like, so totally wotally happy wappy right now~! (giggle!) If only Daddy had seen her~! Then everythingie would have been super duper perfect~! (giggle!)”

Wasting no time, she happily skipped into the chamber beyond, the whimsical world she left behind returning to its normal state upon her departure.



Meanwhile, and blissfully unbeknownst to Magical Dream Princess, her entry into this new and far more significant part of the facility did not go unobserved…

“Fascinating…” a young woman noted with awe. “She defeated them all single handedly… Hmm… But now she’s moving on to the labs… We certainly can’t have that… Okay, ladies,” she said with a grin as she glanced at the two figures on either side of her. “I think it’s time we introduced ourselves…”

✩✩✩ Who are these three mysterious figures? What threat do they pose for Magical Dream Princess? Will our heroine accidentally reveal her secret identity?! All these questions and more will be answered in the exciting conclusion to Magical Dream Princess’s Adventure in Silverburg!

Look forward to it~! (giggle!) ✩✩✩

Catching up briefly via messaging, Shane made his way to see a good friend. An old friend actually. What a mess this was.

It didn’t take long once they confirmed they would meet up for the boy to arrive. Remaining transformed, he walked up to the door and rang the bell. The air was a tad tense given what he knew what was going on.

Lily answered the door, looking confused.
"Oh, hello? Can I help you? W-We're not buying anything."

Elaborate explanation or simple one? Probably best not to toy with Lily at this time. Reaching into a pocket he would take out his phone and show her the messages.


He would give her a second to read. ”I wasn’t kidding when I said I didn’t look the same.” He gave a slight smile.

Lily’s eyebrow lifted when Shane picked out his phone, unsure what he wanted to do. But when he showed her the message log, she nearly screamed.
”SHA-mph!” She stifled her scream by putting her hands to her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked the magical boy over.
”Butbutbut-Whah?” She stammered, pointing at Shane, and then at herself.
”I-Is it really you, Shannon? You’re...You’re a boy now!”

He couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. ”Yeaaah. I was not expecting that to happen. I can explain how that came about once we’re inside. Most of my stuff got transformed with me but I still have this.” He pulled his sleeve up to reveal a charm bracelet that Lily and s/he had made together years ago. Probably looked odd having such a girly thing on a guy but for the most part his outfit hid it anyway.

Lily gasped upon seeing the bracelet. It took her a moment before she realized Shane was waiting on her.
”Oh, right! Come inside, I-I’ll make us some tea or whatever’s in the fridge.”

Soon enough they were settled in the apartment, and Lily brought over a cup of tea for Shane. She then sat down, looking less tense than before, but still coming to grips with the revelation.
”So, uh...Can I ask about how this happened? Or is that...Something personal?”

As was customary when provided tea, Shane would stop and take a sip before speaking. Old habits die hard. ”Oh no, that’s partly why I’m here. I wanted to tell you sooner but I had made an agreement that no longer applies. Have you by chance heard of the Red Coins?” He would ask trying to see how much detail he might be able to skim over.

Lily’s mouth widened in realization.
“Yeah, I do! So that’s what you used?” She leaned her head to the side.
“I thought they only shuffle your magic.”

Good, saved that complicated explanation. ”You’re not wrong. Thing is, apparently there is some facet in magic that means you turn out as a guy instead of a girl. It’s rare that anyone ever gets it which is why there are so few magical boys around. I also chose something they refer to as Rebirth that basically changes all of your magic around. Guess I won the lottery because I‘m a boy again.” He shrugged. Having been a girl for 8-9 something years it didn’t really make much of a difference to him. If anything it was almost weirder being his birth gender again.

Lily simply sat there in awe as Shane explained more of his transformation, until she remembered she still held a cup in her hand and took a sip.
”Again...So you used to be a boy before becoming a magical girl. I never could have figured that out, tee hee~” She giggled a bit.
”So, how are you feeling? Did the Red Coin cause any strange side effects or anything?”

”Not... really.” He would say after his eyes drifted to one corner. Yeah, he would look back at Lily. ”I feel fine. Had to adjust to the new magic but I had a little help, and a little experience from watching an old friend.” He would smirk, taking out his spell book as he spoke and setting it open on the coffee table. Tapping the page he would draw out a ball of lightning. ”Deeeefinitely different than my old Earth magic. That and I have the inexplicable ability to drive anything. Which is odd since I don’t own anything to actually drive.” He would throw in the comment off hand, emphasizing the "actually drive" part rather comically.

Lily nodded, smiling at the Lightning magic Shane displayed. ”So you also have Lightning magic? That’s awesome!” She took Shane’s hand and shook it.
”Want me to teach you how to use it? I know a few tricks a newbie might not know.”

”That would be awesome. Is a little different though. I have to craft spells and put them in this book to use the most effective stuff. But so far I’ve been able to make whatever I’ve needed once I have a grasp of it.” He would smile brightly.

Just then, Alexander arrived home, grocery in hand “Ah, home sweet home. Time to just veg out and-” then he saw their guest “...who are you?”

Lily went over to Alex with a big smile, and took his hand.
”Hi Alex~” She took the grocery bag from him and went over to the kitchen to restock it.
”This is my friend Shannon, or Shane as he goes by nowadays. He used a Red Coin and transformed! Isn’t that neat?”

“Huh?” It took a few seconds for that to sink in “Ohhh, you’re trans! Right, now I get it” he plopped down on the sofa “Well, make yourself at home I guess”

Shane couldn’t help but let out a brief huff of a laugh. ”Hah. I mean. The reverse?” He had a slightly confused expression. ”Magic is weird.” He would confirm.

A look of horror slowly creeped onto Alexander’s face as his mind processed that “Wait...you mean you were actually born a guy...but changed into a girl upon first getting magic, and have only recently turned back!?”

Shane would shrug. ”Yeah. That first part is actually pretty standard fare for magical girls. That’s why there are so few magical boys around.” Suppose if one didn’t actually talk with people much then one might not pick up on that. Hm… The reaction was rather amusing though.

Alexander looked down at his lap “I never realized how lucky I was. To think I could have turned out like you and Sakura.” he shook his head “That’s a really scary thought. I mean, having my body altered into a teen was weird enough, but having my gender changed as well...I’m not sure if it would still feel like my body then.”

”You get used to it after a while. Well, most do anyway.” He could think of a few that didn’t enjoy the experience. He would make a mental note of someone named Sakura.

Lily returned back to the living room, carrying a bowl of Cheetos that she set on the table.
"Here you go, take as many as you want." She sat down next to Alex.
"So how's it been, besides your new look? Penrose has been a bit wild recently."

There was no denying that much. ”I’ve been around. Was at the rave for a bit, fought a monster queen, tried to fight the one that attacked Cindy. Yeah, wild is pretty accurate. Cindy’s actually the reason we haven’t spoken sooner. Also the one that gave me the coin.” He would sigh a bit. ”Part of the terms we had. I was trying to get her to work with people. I probably could have done it eventually if people would stop mucking it up. And now she’s dead. So much for that plan.”

“What even was the point of that?” Alexander asked “The rave, I mean. Lily and I kind of left the grid so to speak, and have been mostly holed up in here, so we haven’t heard much or any news. But did anyone ever find out what was up with that rave. I don’t really buy that whole ‘monster liberation’ thing, or whatever nonsense it was. Given all the insanity that happened that night, my money’s on ‘distraction’ ”

Shane’s expression tightened a bit and leaned forward in his seat. ”It was supposed to be a fun get together. Mostly for the people that the Ascendancy were targeting. A few Beacon girls and neutrals were invited as well. Other people used it as a distraction and bait. I don’t know all the details, I was split between the two locations trying to keep a war from starting. I know The Mint was involved somehow. Obviously the Penrose Independant with their announcement or whatever. Nonsense.” He threw a hand in the air. He hated when things turned into this kind of ideological hate. Always drags people down with them.

Lily frowned as she listened in on the exchange.
"So it was even worse than I thought…" She gripped her knees.
"Alicia has told me that the Ascendancy suffered a heavy blow from it, and they suspected Mint's involvement too. But I should have figured a tabloid like the P.I. was up to no good after all!"

Alexander groaned “Insane zealots on one side, and hyper capitalists on the other. When it rains, it fucking pours in this town! I mean seriesly, how can so much crazy shit happen in one town!? Was this place built on some kind of Indian burial ground or something!? What are they even fighting over? Penrose is kind of a magical ghetto by now, so whatever property value it does have is probably abysmal. And it’s not like there’s some inherent magical thing in this place that makes it worth more. So why?”

”It’s not so obvious, but Penrose is a magical nexus. I don’t entirely know what that means but it tends to draw in monsters, horrors and the like. I’ve seen it in other places too. There are several around the world and from what I understand activity sort of shifts around. People just happened to build here. It’s one reason Beacon has such a big presence.” Shane would provide context. There could be some inaccuracies riddled in there, but as far as activity it seemed to fit the things he’d been told. Run into a lot of characters when you are a traveling magical girl boy.

Lily looked surprised.
"I didn’t know that. That does explain why the Ascendancy decided to come here aside from us missing for so long."

Alexander facepalmed “Of fucking course it is.” He sighed “I don’t suppose there’s a way to make Penrose not a magical nexus anymore, or would that just blow everything up or something?”

Shane’s eyes got wide for a moment. Not that the same thought hadn’t crossed his mind before. ”There might be. I’m pretty sure it’s well beyond any of our capabilities though. I also have no clue what that might do to the flow of magic around the world either.” He scratched his head. ”Like I said. It shifts around. So the activity will move away from Penrose to some other nexus eventually. There’s just no way to know when. Could be a few days could be in a few millennia. Just look at Rome.” Imply that Rome had somehow lasted as long as it did due to a nexus.

"But the Roman imperium lasted for at least a thousand years!" Lily retorted.
"We can’t wait for that long for it to shift. We need to do something before Penrose is completely destroyed. But I don’t know what. Alicia’s doing her best over at Beacon, but she’s got her hands full."

Alexander crossed his arms in thought “And then there’s also the fact that any attempt could catch the attention of the nutjobs fighting a war. Getting something like this organized without them catching on would be extremely hard.” It was then that a thought came to him “Hang on; how long has Penrose been a magical nexus?”

Shane shrugged at the question. ”Beats me. No one I’ve ever met knows where they come from or why they are where they are. Our job is to keep them out of evil hands.” He would go back to what Lily said just before. ”I’m not saying we do nothing, just we can’t move it. Rome thrived most of the time because of its nexus. Penrose could too if we can get people to stop trying to kill each other all the time.” He tried reign in some of the fear there. Wanted to be sure they understood that a nexus didn’t mean destruction.

”I see your point,” she stated, and took a handful of Cheetos to stuff in her mouth.
”Well, we gotta start with stopping all the fighting between Beacon and what used to be Cindy’s group. Do you happen to know anyone from their side? Maybe we could convince them to parlay.”

”Hmm… Well I think the main one I knew isn’t around anymore. There’s Alicia who I think took over. The Ascendancy is the main problem though. They’re basically the elite crew they send in to crush whatever threat there is and don’t really care what you’re trying to do. Old Beacon on steroids. I’ve seen their work after arriving late somewhere. They get the job done. I don’t really know any of them. Not the chatty sort.” He would roll his eyes just a bit. Anyone that knew Shannon, or Shane, would know he didn’t particularly care for Beacon’s usual policy.

“So it sounds like none of us have the required contacts to put this fighting on hold” Alexander said “But maybe one of us knows someone else who does. So maybe we should reach out to anyone we know who might know someone on either side. Alicia might be able to do something about the zealots, but considering who we’re dealing with, I’d rather not take any chances.” he suggested.

Lily slouched in her seat, leaning slightly against Alex’ side.
”Geez...I guess we just gotta ask around. Oh, that reminds me!”
She sat up with a smile.
”One of my friends is going to hold a movie night. Do you want to come with us? I bet it’ll be tons of fun.”

Quite a mess they’ve found themselves in. They had a direction though which was enough. In the meantime though it seemed they had some socializing to do. Lily invited them to a movie night. ”That does sound like fun. I’m in.” He would respond fairly quickly.

Lily positively beamed, and thrust her fist into the air.
”Yay! I’ll see you there then!”

Alexander raised an eyebrow at Lily’s sudden change of topic, but after a few seconds, just sighed and shrugged “Well, I suppose there really isn’t much else we can do now. So fuck it, why not?”

Shane didn’t get around to discussing Lily and her patronage. At this point though it would be a bad subject to bring up. He didn’t want to bring her down when she was happy. They’d have the chance again another time.

<probably also before Lily gets any sort of new management>




So, on some evening when Mariette knew they’d be at home because of her information network, she simply stepped out of her portal in front of the door to Lily and Alexander’s home, closing the portal behind her and holding Bunny in her grasp. She was a little nervous to just show up unannounced, maybe she should have called and asked if she should come first? … Actually, yes, that’s a good idea.

Mariette pulled aside and called Lily’s number on the phone as she leaned against the wall on the outside.

Mariette had to wait a bit longer than was comfortable before the call was finally answered by Lily.

"Oh, uh...Hi, Mariette," she greeted; unlike her usual energetic and peppy self, she now sounded apathetic and troubled.

‘Er, hello, this is Mariette. … Can I visit, or is now a bad time?’ Mariette asked, sounding 8the slightest unsure, somewhat concerned at the tone she was using.

"Well, I...No, it’s fine. I wasn’t doing anything constructive anyway. You know where me and Alex live, right?"

‘I do. I’ll be right over. Thank you,’ Mariette said, and then ended the call. She then waited for quite a few seconds.

---

Alexander was just bringing lunch to Lily when she hung up her phone “Who was that?” he asked as he handed her a plate with a burger and fries as he took a seat next to her and started eating his own.

"Oh, thank you Alex. I was getting a bit hungry." She graciously took the offered plate, and picked out a couple of fries. She seemed a little happier than before, though her lack of energy was still apparent.
"It was Mariette," she answered, and munched on a french fry.
"She asked me if she could visit. She’s probably here any second now."

Alexander nodded “That’s good, you could use another friendly face” before he resumed eating.

"I guess..." Lily mused to herself as she continued eating her meal.

‘I just hope this isn’t going to be trouble, I’m still worried about Lily,’ Alex thought.

---

After a while, Mariette knocked on the door, deciding she’d waited long enough to not be distressingly fast.

Alexander opened the door a few seconds later, Dave perched on his head “...hey” he greeted a little awkwardly not entirely sure what to say as he gestured for her to enter “Lily’s...been having a rough time, so she’s going to seem a little...a lot off. Just a heads up.”

‘Hello,’ Mariette greeted, then blinked at little Dave more so than at Alex when he peeked over. Tiny… … … and then what Alexander actually said connected. ‘Oh. I see. May I ask why?’ Mariette asked.

Alexander stepped to the side to let her in, as Dave just stared at her with unblinking eyes “I’m...not sure if I should talk about it behind her back. I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before, so I’m kind of working blind. Although I am hoping that seeing another friendly face and socializing with someone other than me will be good for her.”

‘Alright, that’s fair,’ Mariette said about not wanting to talk behind her back. She decided to simply enter instead.

After entering the apartment, Mariette saw Lily sitting on the sofa, having curled up in a blanket as she watched a magical girl anime running on the TV. She turned her head, and her hand poked out from the blanket to wave at her.

"Hi, Mariette. I’m sorry I didn’t greet you at the door. I just...I didn’t want to move from my spot." She admitted. "Still, it’s nice to see you again. How have things been with you? I guess you’ve also had it rough because of all the riots and stuff."

Bob and Tim suddenly jumped on the sofa and went up to snuggle with Lily, laying in her lap in an adorable pile of fuzz. Lily petted them gently, managing a small smile as she did.

Mariette was a bit bewildered to see Lily like this. This was not what she’d really come here for, but, huh. Now she was concerned.

When Alexander walked in behind her, Dave took one look and Bob and Tim and flew off somewhere else.

‘I’ve been fine. We successfully saved Sammy, as intended. I’ve been trying to save people in the riots, seemed the least I could do…’ Mariette said, her eyes trailing to Bob and Tim, a slight tint on her cheeks appearing at the rabbit and weasel being cute in Lily’s lap. ‘H… how about with you? I’ve… never seen you like this,’ Mariette asked, looking back to Lily, some concern in her voice.

"Yeah...About that..." Lily sighed, and averted her eyes from Mariette.
"After me and Alex escaped from the rave, I happened to spot a family being attacked by some magical girls. They were bullying a young girl...I decided to go and stop them." Her expression turned sad.
"They turned out to be a lot tougher than I ever thought. It was the first time I broke so many bones. But that was nothing." A tear streaked down her eye.
"The girls went for a suicide attack, and I tried to stop them...But it failed. And...at that point...Ixion protected me. And now...He’s..." She sniffled, unable to continue with her story.

Bob and Tim suddenly got up and climbed to both of her shoulders, and then resumed snuggling. Lily lifted her hands up to pet them both, and pressed her cheek against Bob’s.
"Thank you, Bob and Tim. I’m glad you’re here with me."
“Why are animals better at comforting her than I am?” Alexander grumbled under his breath.

… Her patron had sacrificed itself for her? The sheer idea boggled Mariette’s mind for a bit. Magical Girls are the pawns of their patrons… yet clearly, something was different between Ixion and Lily. … Mariette was somewhat at a loss as for what to say to that. … But… ‘I understand. I’m sorry to hear that. I believe… it’s natural to grieve. Take your time,’ she said, looking a bit lost in her own eyes, clutching Bunny a bit harder. She looked to Alex with those same slightly lost eyes, basically saying she can’t really do much more on that front.

“It’s been kind of rough lately” Alexander said as he rubbed the back of his head “but Lily’s doing a lot better now. We’ve mostly been holed up in here since then, so we don’t really know about any new developments on the outside though.”

Lily picked up the two pets, and placed them on her lap.
"Thanks, Mariette. I’ll get over it. I need to, so I can get stronger, and not let his sacrifice be in vain. I’ll take these burdens, and I’ll make them beautiful again."
She giggled a bit.
"It’s a line from Model Warrior Julianne. It’s one of my favorite shows, even if it’s old."

Mariette took a moment to clutch Bunny as she was listening to them, wondering how she’d handle hard times. Then… she blinked a bit. Oh. That’s what she does. Mariette considered for a second, what Lily had just said…

‘I’ll be… right back,’ Mariette said, turning around and letting a portal open in the room, which Mariette walked through and just left hanging there.

It took numerous seconds. Numerous seconds of very quickly consulting with Eli about what a few things were, how they looked, and then using Absolute Direction for maximum efficiency.

Then Mariette came back, her one visible eye entirely wide and her cheeks just the slightest rosy, closing the portal behind her. She now had something in both her hands. In one, she held Bunny, her eternal companion. In the other… Mariette walked over and pushed a plushie of said Model Warrior Julianne at Lily, looking a bit bewildered herself.

‘Whenever I’m sad… Bunny makes me feel better,’ Mariette said, pushing the bunny to her cheek. ‘I need Bunny, but… you… liked Julianne, you said…? Then she can look after you…’ Mariette said, insistently pushing the plushie at her.

Lily was a bit confused by Mariette suddenly leaving.
"Wait, I...Oh." She lowered her head down on top of the pets.
”I knew she’d be weirded out. Why did I say it? I’m such a dork."
But then, Mariette returned, and Lily’s eyes widened upon seeing the plushie that she was given.
"N-No way...These go for at least 500 dollars online! How did you get one, and so fast?" She stared at the plushie, and then hugged it against her cheek; Alex saw that Lily’s smile, that he had grown accustomed to see everyday, had returned.
"Oh, thank you so much! I don’t know how I could ever repay you."

Alexander couldn’t help but smile ‘It’s about time. Although...this probably would have happened sooner if I wasn’t horrible at providing comforting people and stuff like that’ his smile shrunk as he continued that line of thought ‘She’s only been here for a few minutes and she already got Lily to smile. Man, I’m really useless, aren’t I?’ and that, his smile disappeared with a huff.

Mariette kept dead silent about where she got the plushie. “I stole it” would cause so many weird reactions, after all. Instead, Mariette simply smiled at the slight delight of seeing Lily smile again, and… ‘Don’t… worry about it. Just maybe save my life if you find me in danger sometime,’ Mariette instead replied to the last statement about repayment.

Lily lifted her head up to look at Mariette, looking surprised.
"Danger? Is that why you came to visit? Did something happen?"
She asked, sounding concerned.

Alexander mentally sighed ‘of fucking coure! That’s just how things work in this dumpster fire of a town. Lily can’t even get any friends over without some bullshit getting in the way.’

‘Wait, no, I meant theoretically…’ Mariette suddenly looked troubled, sad to see Lily stop smiling so quickly… but she had to sigh and step back, guessing she had to bring up why she came now. ‘… but yes. I am in danger. Justine von Visceral is back, and she does not like me. She is also the only individual I know that can attack me in my Interdimensional Home, where I'd otherwise feel safe, and it has me worried…’

“Wait, that nutty anti love bitch who kidnapped Lily?” Alexander asked bewildered “Why does she have a grudge against you? I’d have thought if she was here for revenge, she would come for Lily and I first, since there’s two of us in a easier place to reach then your home.

Lily nodded. "If that is true, then we must do something about it." She took her phone out. "I'll ask Alicia. The Beacon will surely help with Justine."

‘… Multiple reasons. We once had a partnership, until she decided to murder. I was then the one who opened the portal that brought everyone through to chase towards her palace. I… or, well, my assistant, Eli, was the one who defeated her little sister, Caroline, as well. She came after Eli at the rave earlier, asking about me. I’m also far more of a threat to her, with my ability to go anywhere and so. That’s why I’m being wary. You may still be in danger, but then I will defend you,’ Mariette said. ‘I did send Alicia a letter. She’s yet to respond.’

"You did? That’s weird, she’s usually good about responding to stuff."
Lily sent a text message to Alicia.

“Shit, how long ago was this?” Alexander asked worried “I really hope nothing happened to her. The last thing we need is for Beacon to be going through some kind of succession crisis. The city’s already in bad enough shape as it is. One of the major factions imploding might just push us into the deep end.”

Mariette felt slight apprehension at Lily suddenly texting Alicia, what kind of answer would she get? ‘Not that long ago, I don’t have any reason to believe she’s taken out, her reason to not answering me is probably different…’ she replied to Alexander.

Lily suddenly perked up.
"Oh, Alicia responded with a yes!" She showed the message to Mariette. "When Justine attacks, the Beacon will be there!" She got up, and hugged Mariette. "Now you have nothing to worry about."

‘Wait, uh,’ Mariette sounded out in confusion as she was suddenly hugged. From what she read of the answer, which was just the single word “yes”. It was exceedingly noncommittal and could mean basically anything. Oooookay, then. ‘Um. Good to know…’ she supposed. Means they’re aware of Justine, at the very least. She wasn’t entirely about to ask for their help, however. There was something she’d come here to ask about, though.

‘Say, Alexander? There was something that I hoped to ask of you,’ she said, still in the midst of the hug by Lily.
Alexander was a bit confused, since he had thought that Mariette was here for Lily, but she had something to ask him “Um...sure. What is it?”

‘… So, as said, there’s a chance Justine will attack me inside my home dimension. If she does, I would like my mansion to stand as a fortress against her assault. As such, I came to ask if it was possible to give Sol’s blessings to my mansion? Like you did with the Earth Bastion? I realize that maybe he wouldn’t want to bless something that technically belongs to a Horror, or maybe it would be more effort than it’s worth, you already made those defensive artifacts for me…’ Which Mariette had collected at an earlier time. ‘… But I still wanted to ask if it would be possible,’ Mariette asked, very aware of the weight of Lily clinging to her.

Lily realized she was making Mariette uncomfortable with her clinginess, and released her.
"Oh, uh...Sorry." She turned to look at Alex, waiting for his answer with a bit lip.

Alexander couldn’t help himself and broke out laughing “S...sorry. It’s just, the idea of it being ‘more effort than it’s worth’ to Sol is just hilarious. That moron is such a bleeding heart, that my first day on the job involved looking around for animal shelters and orphanages to bless. He’d probably lecture me if I outright said no to blessing the home of someone working to save the lives of innocents.” his laughter slowly died down as he shifted to a more business like demeanor “That being said, he’s going to need some kind of guarantee that this is for a good cause. I know I rag on him all the time, but he’s not an idiot who just gives out blessings willy nilly. Now granted, I think he’ll be willing to hear you out, after the role you played in the attack on her place. Although...” Alexander began to trail off “...I don’t actually know who your Patron is, beyond them being a Horror. So I’m not sure if there would be any kind of conflict of interests. Sol hate’s evil, so the idea of his power being used to aid it in anyway really pisses him off. But hey, maybe your Patron is one of the good Horrors, I sure as hell don’t fucking know” he shrugged at the end.

"What kind of Patron is Asengav? What does he like?" Lily asked Mariette. "Ixion loved batteries," she added, looking down.

Mariette looked away. ‘Asengav is… not good, really. But he’s reasonable. He operates in a multitude of different dimensions, and in each he allows the girls he’s stationed there to operate as they please as long as they contribute to the cause. He likes monsters and magical artifacts, and wants me to offer such to him. Which I do, when I can,’ probably mostly off-screen which she isn’t paid for, ‘but the current matter was me probably getting attacked by a more vicious-minded horror-servant. Or so.’

Alexander scratched the back of his head “Thats…maybe workable. I mean, maybe that’ll make Sol okay with blessing your place. I can’t read his mind, so you’ll need to talk with him directly. ”

Mariette bit back a bit. ‘I could try that.’

Lily’s face scrunched as she thought about Mariette’s explanation.
"So Asengav likes to collect monsters and stuff? Hmm...Oh! He’s a janitor!" She lifted a finger, her eyes gleaming with the idea.
"Asengav wants to help by cleaning up! Phew, I’m glad that’s the case."
She gave an easy smile.
"I was worried he’d be another really bad guy, like the one Justine worked for." She looked at the TV; there was a scene where the main heroine was delivering a sappy speech about the light of friendship. She nodded, and turned to Mariette, taking her hand.
"Hey Mariette. Um...Even though I’m still recovering, I do feel a bit restless just sitting at home. So, uhh...can I be there when Justine arrives? I want to talk with her again.”

Mariette kept exceedingly quiet about Lily's misconception about Asengav. Then, though, Mariette found her hand taken, and held a lightly surprised expression at Lily's request. Before she could respond, though…

“Yeah, I’m going to have to veto that.” Alexander spoke up “Lily, I don’t want you anywhere near that nutjob, especially in your condition. If you’re really feeling restless, then we can go take a walk or something, not face down a crazy person!”

Lily looked upset as she turned to Alex.
"But this is Justine! We’ve fought her before, I know we can defeat her again!" She made a sad pout.
"I’m sure if I just get to talk with her, everything will work out...I think."
"And, uh...Mariette needs me to support her as her friend."
She now looked Mariette in her one eye.
"Because that’s what friends do, right? I am your friend, right?"
She asked, practically pleading.

‘I…’ Mariette started, throwing a lightly worried glance at Alexander before looking back at Lily. ‘You are my friend, and I could give you a place to stay and be thankful for any help if you'd give me, but I don't want to argue against Alexander about a matter concerning you. I'd prefer if you sorted it out between the two of you, and I'd accept the verdict…’ Mariette said, looking unsure about this matter.

Alexander flinched and took a step back at the sight of Lily’s sad face looking right at him “I...uh...” He was starting to wonder if she had suddenly gotten mind magic or something. Because it just felt like he was being stabbed in the heart while something squeezed his brain “Look it’s just...I don’t want...” but he suddenly found his linguistic skills waning ‘Dammit, what do I do!? I want her to stay here, where it’s safer, but...’ the memory of Lily’s sad face, the one his words caused, suddenly flashed in his mind ‘...what if I’m just making things worse? She’s a strong girl, she can take care of herself, even in her condition. What if...what if I’ve just been holding her back?’ He derailed that train of thought with a wild shake of his head ‘Dammit! I don’t know what to think anymore.’ he let out a defeated sigh “Just...do what you want, I won’t get in your way”

"Oh, ok…" Lily answered Mariette, and then bit her lip at Alex' outburst, understanding how frustrated he was. The both of them had entrusted her with the decision, and she was torn.
"Alex…" She closed her eyes.
"Thank you for supporting me. I know it must be hard to be with an idiot girl like me sometimes. But this is something I need to do. I don't want to lose any more friends. I need to do what I can to protect the ones I have left." She held a hand out for Mariette.
"I may have lost Ixion, but I have not lost my will to fight! You can count on me, Mariette."

Alexander started to chuckle “You, an idiot? Lily; I’m the idiot! This whole time I’ve been struggling to cheer you up...and yet the freeloaders ended up having more success than me. And then she-” he points at Mariette “-just drops in, gives you a stuffed animal, and suddenly your smile is back.” The energy in his voice faded quickly “I...don’t understand people, I never really have. And I’ve never had to comfort someone emotionally before. These past few days just reminded me of that, as I fumbled around trying to fix you. It’s painfully clear that I don’t know what you need, so I’m not going to fight you on this. Just...promise me something Lily” He took the hand she held out for Mariette “Please; don’t make me regret this.”

She blinked when her hand was gripped by Alex, but he proceeded to shake it, looking determined.
"I promise, Alex." Then, Lily pulled Alex closer, and kissed him on the cheek. She giggled a bit, and turned to Mariette, still holding his hand.
"So, what are we going to do? Just be ready for you to create a portal for us?"

It was a little confusing to Mariette, watching Alexander and Lily’s exchange, her one visible eye looking back and forth between them. She was about to take Lily’s hand, but then Alex took it himself and Mariette had to retract hers. But, it seemed they’d reached a conclusion. ‘Being in a relationship sure seems complicated… I’m glad we never have to argue, Bunny…’ Mariette whispered to Bunny as she clutched him with one arm. ‘Yes. I could open a portal at any point back to my mansion. … Did you want to come at once, or…?’ Mariette asked, a bit unsure what the exact proceedings was.

Lily shook her head with an uneasy smile.
”Not yet. I still have things I need to do, like finding a new Patron for myself. Luckily I know where I can start my search.” She pat one of her pockets, and nodded to herself.
”Anyway, would you like to stay for lunch, Mariette? We could hang out and just do normal friend stuff if you’re not too busy.”

“If you’re looking for a new Patron, I’m sure Sol would be willing to take you in.” Alexander spoke up, his cheek feeling strangely warm where Lily’s lips had touched it “I...was planning on suggesting it once you were feeling better. I didn’t want it to feel like I was saying Ixion was...replaceable? Or something like that. I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right.”

Lily turned to Alex with a surprised look.
"Oh, you were? Well, I'll first talk with Umu, see what he has to offer, ok?"

Suggestion to just stay over and eat lunch and do normal friend things… Sounded nice, reminded Mariette she should probably visit Violet and Sakura at some point…
No, she was not about to suggest her own Patron for Lily. That was not the way.
‘Maybe another time, when I’m not quite so occupied making preparations. For now, I’ll take my leave. You have my phone number if you’d like to reach me. Good luck on your search, I’ll see you later,’ Mariette said, opening a portal for herself to depart through. Lily waved back eagerly with a smile as Mariette disappeared through the portal.
"Ok then, see you later!"
Lily was truly glad that she did succeed in becoming friends with Mariette. She only hoped that they were ready for when Justine attacked...