The Keijo tournament had begun, another round of pageantry and heated competition as the snow was traded for the sun kissed sand. Having done what she could to assist Rachel and Kimble, Alicia had returned to the stands to watch how it all went down. There were enough people competing as it was, she didn’t need to add to that.

One match had concluded already, and another was going on between two of Mariette’s posse. Alicia wasn’t as interested in that since she didn’t know the people involved. They were probably all working together anyway to get their precious mirror.

Because of that lack of distraction provided by the match, she noticed a familiar figure making her way up the stands. ”Hey Lily!” She called to the girl, waving and directing her to the open bit of stand near where she sat. She fully expected Alexander to show up in a few moments, but the opportunity to chat was worth it.

She’d wait until the girl had taken a spot next to her. ”Well, this Christmas thing really went out of control, didn’t it,” she noted with a nod towards the Keijo arena.

Lily and Alex were at the spectator seats. Lily was holding a big tub of popcorn with melted butter on top, intently following the dramatic events in the matches.
”"
”Woo! Go ice girl! Go beast girl!" She yelled, until she noticed Alicia calling out to her.
”Oh hi Alicia!" She waved enthusiastically to her, and tucked the tub of popcorn under her arm before grabbing Alex’ hand.
”She’s got great seats over there, Alex, let’s go!"

“Uh, okay I guess” Alexander shrugged and let himself be dragged off by Lily, while holding on to his own tub of popcorn

The two took their new seats, with Lily sitting between Alicia and Alex.
”Well, I guess it kind of did," She answered with a sheepish smile.
”But at least the feast hall didn’t turn into a food fight."
She extended the tub towards Alicia.
”I got some popcorn from Dan! Wanna try some?"

Alicia wasn’t sure her seats were that much better than the ones Lily and Alexander already had, but she wasn’t about to argue the point as they relocated to join her. ”Sure,” she agreed, taking a handful of popcorn when it was offered to her. It was pretty good too, just the right amount of toppings to enhance the flavor without being overpowering.

Idly munching on the popcorn, she gestured towards the stage. ”I guess so. Do you have any bets as to who’s going to win?”

“Do either of you even know the girls down there well enough to make any kind of bet? I mean, I have no idea who either of them are, so I’m not sure if what we’ve seen so far is all they’re capable of” Alexander piped in.

"I don't know either of them," Lily answered, "But I think the fluffy girl's gonna win it! She looks really strong!"

Admittedly, Alicia had been speaking of the tournament overall rather than this match, but she didn’t feel like correcting Alex. ”I saw ice girl earlier during the sculpture carving competition, and I think I saw her during the raid too,” she offered. After a moment she hummed in thought. ”That said, she seems to be lacking in energy. So I suspect it’ll be her opponent.”

“Fluffy?” Alexander wondered, not quite sure which one Lily was talking about “Although now that you mention it; an Ice Magic user in ice sculpture sounds like cheating. I was in a team of three for that, and we had to carefully carve our block of ice. While an Ice user could have probably just out right made their own into whatever shape they wanted. Hell, they could even make it bigger and add some weird additions if they wanted ”

Lily pointed to Freya in the arena in response to Alex' question.
"Yeah, her! You can tell she's a Beast girl by her menacing aura~"
She grasped a fistful of popcorn and stuffed it into her mouth as she listened to the two talk about the Ice specialist.
"Ice magic may make it easy, but our ice sculpture came from the heart! No magic can replace that, I think. But I do wonder if Dan took points off of cheating or not. I'm gonna ask him later!"
She turned to Alicia.
"Anyway, I heard that you trained Rachel in Keijo. How did that go?"

”Do all beast spec users have a menacing aura?” Alicia asked as she glanced over at Alexander. He was a beast spec, wasn’t he? But he didn’t give off a menacing aura, at least to her.

Lily leaned against Alex with a cheeky smile.
"Nope! Alex here may seem like a grump, but he's the sweetest guy around~"

Leaving aside her own magically aided show in the ice sculpting event, Alicia instead addressed the question that had been posed to her. ”Training would be a strong word, more like some pointers,” she replied with a shrug. ”She got pretty into it once she started treating Keijo like a somewhat serious sport. Whoever wins is going to have to work for their victory against her.”

Alexander snorted at the mention of Keijo as a ‘serious sport’ “I’m sorry, I just have a really hard time taking this insanity seriously” He shook his head “I mean, this feels more like something straight out of a lewd cartoon, than an actual sport. There’s a reason I only tried it once.”

Lily blushed at Alex' remark.
"Yes, Keijo can be a bit embarrassing, but it's also so much fun! I mean, the whole competitive nature to it is so compelling. And when you're right in the midst of it, it's...liberating." Lily reminisced as she looked out to the arena.
"Like that time I dueled Amaryllis...I really felt like our hearts were closer to each other."

Alicia could understand how Alex felt, and certainly she had a hard time treating it seriously too. But given the stakes involved in this particular contest she had little choice. ”Once you get past the particular tools used it’s not that much different from soccer or volleyball,” she pointed out. ”A sport where you can only use specific parts of your body to accomplish a goal.” But that was as far as she’d go in defending the thing.

After a few moments she shrugged. ”Well, anything to keep the mirror out of the wrong hands.” And by the wrong hands, she meant Mariette’s hands.

“I guess” Alexander shrugged as well. “I don’t know, I guess I’m feeling a little bitter that this nonsense had to come and interrupt my first real Christmas. I mean, I was just starting to really get into the spirit of things, when the turbo bitch had to come and ruin the mood.”

“Yeah...” Lily mumbled with a pout.
“I think Dan done goofed when he gave that mirror to Mariette in public and made Rachel mad. He’s kind of an idiot. But I hope the time we’ve spent here has been fun, Alex.” She looked to him with an apologetic look.
“I know it has been for me, at least.”

“I have enjoyed myself, for what it’s worth.” He nodded at her “But I guess shit like this is par for the course in Penrose. It almost makes me worried what will happen on New Years.” He snarked the last part.

“Yeah, I’m glad-OHHHH, SHE’S DOWN!” Lily practically jumped up to stand from her seat when Freya struck the finishing blow on her opponent.

“Wow, that match was great, even if it was a bit short! I hope the next one will last a bit longer.”

It turned out that Lily’s wish was granted, as the next match did last longer. However, it was the final match of the first round between Penny and Sam...And it didn’t end well.

Lily alone saw the moment in stopped time, her eyes wide open at the fact Penny managed to barely save herself from what otherwise would have been a guaranteed victory for the black-haired girl. Afterwards, she shook Alex’ shoulders.
“No way, she stopped time, and still couldn’t knock her out! Penny’s way too strong!”
Then, after the most intense combat the arena had ever seen, both of them collapsed, having to be carried away by Maura and Dan.
“That’s terrible! Why would they push themselves that far?” She asked, her face having turned pale.

Alexander shrugged and sighed “Who knows. I don’t think they have any kind of personal stake in this, so my only real guess would be pride, subberness, or something else like that. But it does feel like a bad omen, doesn’t it? I just hope that the other matches don’t end like that”

"Yeah, same here…" Whatever remained of Lily's joy had crumbled into a sad frown, followed by alarm as she saw what looked like a new source of conflict. While it seemed to end peacefully, Lily still seemed to be afraid.
"Was that Finn and Oliver over there? They looked angry…"

The next match was a far cry from the one before it, to use the greatest of understatements. Where there had almost been something akin to uncertainty on the part of one of the combatants, the match between Sam and Penny was more like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, and both of them breaking. Some part of Alicia wasn’t completely surprised, remembering how Sam had gone after Rachel at the Rave, but it was another thing entirely to see.

Looking over to Alex and Lily as they conversed in the aftermath of the match, Alicia could not relinquish her troubled expression. ”Who?”

“A couple of guys we met while Lily was teaching Justine how to play Keijo. They’re new in Penrose.” Alexander explained “We only really met them one time, so we don’t really know them that well. But they seemed like okay guys.”

“I think they’re with Maura and the Crimson Cradle, but I’m not super sure,” Lily added.
“Anyway, it looks like the first round matches are over.” She stood up. “Wanna go get a snack? I’d like to check up with Sakura and Justy before the second round starts.”

”I see,” Alicia mused with a thoughtful hum. Unaware of the bold declarations Finn was making, she proceeded to shrug whilst worrying. Still, if there was anyone who could recover it was Penny. After everything that had happened, it would be kind of silly for her to die in a keijo match of all things.

As Lily rose, Alicia followed a few moments later. ”How are you still hungry after all that popcorn?” she asked incredulously. Was this a Lighting/Time spec thing? Did they have increased metabolisms requiring them to eat more? How come none of the girls had mentioned this before? Or maybe she was just overthinking.

“No clue. She’s been like this for as long as I’ve known her.” Alexander answered, and then looked over to his now empty tub of popcorn “...but yeah, more food sounds nice. I just hope nothing else crazy happens while we’re away.”

Lily’s cheeks turned red as she pouted.
“I can’t help it, okay? When I get the case of the munchies, I gotta eat! Anyway, let’s go get a jumbo-size popcorn so we can all get to share it!”

It seemed she would not be getting an answer to her question. Alicia mentally shrugged to herself and put the matter aside for now. “Sure. Let’s go.” Maybe she could find Kimble while they were there. They’d have a decent amount to talk about with how her match went.

Sitting not far from the locker room entrance Penny slowly opened her eyes. Her last two diagonstics cameback the same and the last of her worry finally drained away. She had complete confidence that Violet would be able to repair her, but that wasn't what had kept her worry. The problem was that much like her magic parts of her code, and her soul as far as she was willing to assume at this point, was unstable even at the best of times. And something had shifted during the repair processes. What had shifted Penny wasn't fully sure, but she could tell that it was at least connected to some of her internal systems as her Evolution capabilites had gone dark. which is what she relied on to help decrypt these types of changes normally. She'd just have to keep an eye on her systems and see if anything popped up.

With a long exhale Penny would cancel the spell effect she had going and would stand up. Her next match was in a few minutes, and hiding wasn't worth the cost anymore. She hoped that Dina was fine, the lack of word one way or another was worring a bit. Yet Penny was sure that Dan would have kicked up a major stink of someone harmed her within the Beach. Was definatly something to look into when she had more time.

"I really need to get her an apology gift when this is all over"

"Y'ello."

Just as Penny revealed herself once more, Oliver had walked up to her, Finn not that far. The other boy took a drag of his cigar, his expression defaulted to unamusement at this rate. He looked back to Penny. "Well, Asimov. You wanted me here. Talk." He crossed his arms. The ghost on the other hand took a step back.

Penny mirrored, to a degree, the unwelcoming stance of both Finn and Oliver. "I assume that Dina was able to talk to you then." She would state calmly her gaze resting on Finn as she spoke. "I'll admit it feels like I’m in the middle of a game of phone tag. Last I had heard you had declared that you were planning on seeking me out for a challenge to my crown."

"I only agreed cause I owe it to someone who's been around for about as long as I have." Finn explained, his resting bitch face breaking into a frown for a moment, glancing aside. Though it was for a moment. His brows furrowed when Penny revealed that she knew of his intentions. "Right, right. The winged rat got too excited for a bloodbath I'm guessing? Dina already informed me." He shrugged.

"That took me off guard, I hadn't taken you or the Cradle to be the type. So I was hoping to parlay, see if we couldn't talk this over. As the sudden hostilities is a bit unsettling."

When Penny lumped Cradle with him as the perpetrators, his eye widened. "Don't be throwing Maura's new band of misfits; if there's any left now, into this. This is my choice, my plan alone." He glared slightly at her. Finn then shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "Look, from what the information I gathered tells me, the bigwigs of Penrose have been too busy playing headless chickens to do whatever the hell you lot think is "good". Even you, Miss "Monarch". So I decided to step in and play my own hand before things progress for the worst." He explained. "The fact that when you people heard about my plans, you automatically assumed I was going to paint the town red like the best of us?? That hurts. I'm not my infamy, Miss Asimov..." Finn frowned.

Penny would raise an eyebrow at Finn's response, curious to note his defensiveness and how quick he was to distance himself from the Cradle. "If I had assumed that you were in this to cause more havoc I wouldn't have wanted to talk to you. I would have just killed you during your challenge." She would explain. "And I'm pretty sure you need to get better sources. I spent the last few weeks making sure that there wasn't a riot in my capacity as Queen, as I was helping calm down those who would listen and helping to rebuild what had been destroyed while I was away. Hardly sounds like a headless chicken act to me."

Finn rose a brow. "What of your enemies? Or whatever the hell you think of the Ascendancy? I get that the Mint likes to hide in the shadows but you've gotta be more active on driving them out of town and into the light! Otherwise you'll be the next best thing to sitting ducks-"

“Like, there you aresie!” MDP declared with a satisfied, but still quite determined, smile as she burst into the conversation with her usual lack of subtlety. “Like, are you talking about birdy wirdies~?” the whimsical girl asked with a delighted gasp, as the word “ducks” caught her easily distracted attention. “Magical Dream Princess’s favorite wavorite birdy wirdy is a peacock weacock~! (giggle!) ‘Cause it’s so pretty witty and colorful wolorful and…” her voice trailed off as she realized she had come here to discuss something important, and this wasn’t it. “Stupid brainy wainy!” she whined petulantly as she rapidly shook her head. “Magical Dream Princess hates getting distracted wacted so easily weasily…” she grumbled, before her demeanor once again took on a look of intense determination. “Like, Amanda Wanda said that the Cradle Wadle doesn’t wanna fight you, Penny Wenny, just this meanie weanie head!” she told Penny, dramatically pointing a finger at Finn and giving the magical boy an indignant glare. “Like, why are you so angry wangry with Penny Wenny, Finnegan Winnegan?” the whimsical girl asked the bandaged young man. “Like, what did she ever wever do to you?”

For the third time in a row, Finn flinced, this time at the sudden sickly sweet presence. And the fact that she knew his full name? Word does get around quick! He turned to face MDP with a comical, tired look. "Must I repeat myself for everyone???"

Seeing as this was his cue, Oliver gently pulled MDP off to the side. "They're...getting it settled. _{I hope.}" He explained to her.

“They aresie?” MDP asked, slightly tilting her head at the boy she’d only just now noticed was there. “Like, Magical Dream Princess super duper hopes so, too~! (giggle!) But, like, who are you? Magical Dream Princess doesn’t thinkie winkie she’s ever wever seen you beforsie…”

The ghost smiled. "Oliver Kyle. I kinda arrived here with Finn, and now I'm here to keep him from doing anything stupid." He introduced himself, both of them comically glancing at each other before looking back.

Penny would thaw slightly at seeing MDP again, the news she brought was nice as well. As much has she trusted her abilites to detect lies, secondary verification was always appreciated. "Tracking down the Mint isn't easy, at this point I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they have things set up to specifically stymie Beacon's attempts. Which I am a member of in case you forget." She would let out a sigh before rolling her shoulders too release some tension. "Which makes excising the Ascendency even more difficult."

"Not everyone within Beacon agrees with them, most of the local girls don't and neither does the current leader. That said murdering them won't help, if anything it will make those that agree rally behind that death and push for a total purge. Proving them wrong is the best option at the moment, hence why I'm in the tournement." She would explain folding her arms across her stomach. "They want to burn the place down, but I can talk them down from that if I can get the mirror first, as all of us in Beacon agree that giving it back to a Horror's follower is a bad idea."

"Tracking down the Mint isn't easy, tracking down the mint isn't easy- Have you even tried??? Has anyone in fact?? Even Maura or Veronica???" Finn sarcastically retorted, holding his arms out wide as if to emphasize.

"As a matter of fact I have" Penny would retort. "Veronica leaving in the way she did has done nothing to make things easier and everything to make it harder."

"...You disagree and yet you let them continue to run wild? People can be stubborn on both ends, Kid." Before Finn could say something else, Lauren, though appearing uncomfortable with the change of outfit the island gave, walked over. She paused, then groaned. "Look this debate over if pacifism or manslaughter will settle this is getting nowhere and getting on our damn nerves, manly mine." The witch then turned to Penny and straightened up, bowing like a soldier would to their rival.

"I didn't get to introduce myself proper. Lauren Corvus, 8th incarnation of the Witch of Order. I've collaborated with the Canadian and European branches of the Beacon. Unlike this bozo who's instead on their kill list." _"Hey!!"

"Penny Asimov, Beacon initiate. Though I've got an odd amount of pull due to my unique station." She would introduce herself again. Her status as Queen was already known, and not fully relevant at the moment. "I'm nearing six months with them, though some of that time was stole away from me."

"Far as I can tell the fact that the Ascendency has slowed down what they've been doing is a good sign, but you might know better if you've worked with more than a single city branch."

The judge grimaced. "Honestly, I would've said something when the Inquisitor was challenged, but me and my sisters felt that it wasn't in our place to intervene." she explained. "Even if they are slowing down patrols, we don't know if someone could try anything stupid to put things back into square one. There's always an odd one out in the group. I get what you're both saying, but instead of butting heads, why don't you just....damn if I know, work together?? Last thing I need is to be your local janitor."

Meanwhile, MDP was trying to follow along with the ongoing conversation, but was becoming increasingly lost. Instead, she turned her attention to Oliver. “Sooo, like, Oliver Woliver and Finnegan Winnegan are friendy wendies~?” the whimsical girl asked. “Like, it’s super duper nicey wicey that you keep him out of trouble wouble,” she added with a smile. “Oh~! And it’s, like, super duper nicey wicey to meet you, too~! (giggle!) Like, would you like to be friendy wendies with Magical Dream Princess~?! Would you~?! Would you~?!” she asked excitedly.

"I mean, with a temper like his, someone's gotta keep him calm." Oliver shrugged. "Besides that, he isn't really that scary. Kinda like a bear... Hehe, a teddy bear." He chuckled. Then MDP asked if they could be friends too.

"Well if you're okay with a casper then... Okey." He shrugged again, barely phased and with a polite smile.

“Yaaay~!” MDP cheered with innocent glee. Like, that makes Magical Dream Princess sooo super duper happy wappy~! (giggle!) But, like, what does Oliver Woliver mean by a casper wasper~?” MDP inquired, tilting her head in puzzlement.

Oliver dramatically (playfully, more like) gasped. "Ya don't know who Casper the Friendly Ghost is???"

“Ummm… Not really….” MDP replied with a frown. “Is it a cartoony woony~? ‘Cause, like, Magical Dream Princess wasn’t allowed to watch any wany of those…” Then her eyes widened as something occurred to her. “Oh~! But, like, does that mean Oliver Woliver is a ghosty wosty~?!” she asked with childish wonderment.

Okay, now he was being serious. Oliver's eyes widened. He blinked twice, before wraping an arm around MDP. "Oh honey, we have GOT to binge watch some old cartoons someday, including Casper. Dunno how ya'd like the 1995 film, but I may have some VHS tapes back home I could get, ghost's honor!" he grinned.

“Wowie zowie~!” MDP squealed in delight, her eyes going wide and seeming to sparkle with a thousand stars. “Magical Dream Princess would absodutelylutely wuv that~! (giggle!)” she told Oliver with an overjoyed smile, while bouncing up and down in gleeful excitement. “Watching cartoony woonies with friendy wendies is, like, the besty westiest~!”

Penny's lip would twitch up at the conversation that MDP and Oliver were having. She knew that one of these days that her and MDP would have to have a movie marathon with all of the old classics.

On the more serious side of things "It wouldn't take much, Rachel is looking for an excuse. It's why I wanted to talk with Finn. I'd prefer to work things out and long term work together. Especially since I know that she is keeping an eye out for Sanctuary related things."

"I dunno, it could be risky on this kid's end. They know he's a sinner." Lauren stated, pointing a thumb to Finn, who at this rate gave up on keeping things on the down low. The witch then smirked. "Althooough, she wouldn't dare cross paths with a witch or two, would she?"

"Ha, one thing at a time. Let's see if Rachel is willing to uphold a small bargain first before trying to get everything all at once." Penny would say with a smile. "All of us trying to talk to her at once will push her over the line. She went through a pretty horrific event due to a Monstergirls banding together once already. We need to prove that we aren't her enemy first. That's my goal with the Mirror right now. Talking Finn down from a Challenge is to keep her from assuming the worst of the Sanctuary."

"What prompted the sudden hostility by the way?" She'd ask looking at Finn. "We seemed to have been on the same page not to long ago, what changed?"

"..." Admittedly, Finn was hesitant in answering. He had been trying to explain something, anything as to why things were at a stalemate. And yet it seemed Penny was more trusted than this lowly stranger. It was too obvious for his oblivious anger. He expressed no hostility towards Lauren however, Maura had told him she and her sisters had truced. Guess this was damage control? The wrathful boy crossed his arms, looking away with a frown. How the hell was he supposed to explain that people left cause of Penny?

Penny would wait paitently to see if Finn would speak up, frowning slightly when it became apperent that he wasn't going to. She would cut a quick glance at Lauren in speculation, but wouldn't speak on such. instead she would refocus on Finn. "At least assure me that your reasons are important." She would say "I'd rather not think you'd be willing to kill me over something petty."

They... They are." Finn would nod. But if it is to him, or to the others, even he didn't know. "And for the last time, I don't intend to kill anyone."

"I wouldn't have given you much of a choice" Penny would smile sadly "A challenge for the crown is settled with a fight, In front of witnesses. The fight goes until one of the participants surrenders, or dies. Being knocked unconscious doesn't end it." She would explain "And I've let every challeneger know that I will only stop when dead. Those I'm sheltering deserve nothing less" There was one other way to remove Penny from the throne that she would be willing to accept, but she wouldn't advertise it.

Although MDP was enjoying her conversation with her new friend, her limited attention span kept drifting back to Penny and Finn (and Lauren, too, although the whimsical girl had regrettably forgotten her name). She was particularly puzzled by the bandaged boy’s reluctance to speak on why he wished to challenge Penny. It seemed strange that someone who was being so forceful and belligerent didn’t want to reveal the reason for his obvious anger.

“Ummm… Oliver Woliver~?” MDP asked her new friend in as much of a whisper as her excitable, high-pitched voice could manage. “Like, do you know why Finnegan Winnigan is so angry wangry~?”

"He's...been through alot." Oliver would explain back in a whisper. "Part of me thinks that sort of anger was always there, just more restrained. He was never one to let an ally get hurt. Especially by his own hand... But some people would rather toy with such anger, use him as a weapon among other things. Having been force a bad hand, I suppose it was inevitable it'd be unleashed. Thus his title of the Sinner of Wrath."

Oliver then frowned. "He doesn't like that title. He can be brutal, yes, but every time he was forced to kill it haunts him. And maybe I'm partly to blame for not always being there for him, or not being a good enough friend or partner but there's a good person in there. Just...kinda stupid."

“Like, that soundy woundies kinda winda scary wary…” MDP said with a frown. “But Magical Dream Princess thinkie winkies everybodywody can changey wangey, if they work super duper hard at it~!” she added, brightening up significantly. “And, like, having good friendy wendies helpy welpies a LOT, so, she’s super duper happy wappy that Finnegan Winnegan has such super duper nicey wicey friendy wendy, like Oliver Woliver~! (giggle!)”

The corner of Oliver's mouth quirked up into a smile. "We're both doing our best."

“Um, Oliver Woliver?” MDP asked as a very important question popped into her ditzy mind. “Like, Magical Dream Princess was wondering… If you’re a ghosty whosty, then does that mean you can’t give huggy wuggies?” she asked, frowning slightly.

The ghost blinked. "I mean..." He looked around before setting his sights on the distracted Finn. He casually walked up next to him and hugged the other boy.

"Ack- Again?!" Finn exclaimed in surprise.

"As you can see, Dan's magic helps make me more corporeal. Does take a bit of effort outside of here, but hugs aren't a problem!" Oliver explained to MDP.

"You're still cold you dimwit."

"Oh? I didn't see you complaining back at the Feast Hall did I?" The ghost smugly retorted the other boy.

“Oh, wowie zowie~!” MDP squealed in delight. “Oliver Woliver can give huggy wuggies~! (giggle!) Awww~!” she cooed placing her hands over her chest. “Like, you two look super duper adorable worable together wether~! (giggle!)”

"Again, again?!" Finn's voice gained a higher pitch from MDP calling the two adorable, like Kate had back at the Feast Hall. Oliver, seeing the other boy's face flushed in embarassment(?), decided to draw back to a side hug with a giggle.

Penny would let out a giggle of her own as she stepped around the two boys, moving to give MDP a small hug so as not to be left out on the hugs going around. "Finn" She would say, her arms stil encircled around her girlfriend. "Thank you for at least humoring me and agreeing to talk first. I know we haven't really dealt with anything yet, but I'm willing to sit down when we have more time to really dig in to things if you are"

"...Yeah. We'll see." Not like Finn had a choice at this point. He'll just have to play nice for now. At least he's calm again.

"Okay then, if you pairs of lovebirds are done talking, I gotta take Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum back to Maura." Lauren finally spoke up, having decided to just lean against the wall until the four were done talking.

Penny would cut a slightly annoyed look at Lauren but otherwise not respond to the witch. Instead, she would nod towards the two boys "Finn. Oliver. I'll catch you two later." She'd then give MDP a gentle squeeze before letting her go. "I'd should be off as well. My match is bound to start any minute now." She say as she would move towards the locker room, her focus now shifting to her upcoming match now that this had been shelved for now.

MDP giggled happily as she snuggled into her girlfriend’s embrace. “Like, huggy wuggy time is the besty westiest timey wimey of all~” she cooed, closing her eyes and smiling blissfully. A moment later, her eyes shot open as a thought occurred to her. “Oh~! Magical Dream Princess knows~!” she squealed in delight. “Like, we should all have a group huggy wuggy~! (giggle!)” the whimsical girl declared in her usual innocent manner. “That’ll, like, totally wotally make everybodywody feel aaaaall better wetter~! (giggle!)”

At MDP's suggestion, Finn quickly shook his head. "N-No thank you! I think we're all okay now! _{Besides I'd rather just cuddle him in private at this rate. Good lord..."} He mutter the last sentence, sheepishly looking away.

"There are private cabanas dotted across the beaches here if you need them." Penny would toss out with a smirk. She would remain silent on the thought of a group hug, as she wasn't entirely sure how she felt about such an idea. On the one hand touch starved, on the other lingering touch phobic. Would require more contemplating.

Finn snapped his head back to Penny. "How did you-?!" He cut himself off. To think maybe. A second passed when he spoke up again. "That...That'll work. Thanks. _{...You can let go now, Oli.}" _"Nah."

Though from seeing Finn's annoyed glare, Oliver released him, and the two walked off. Lauren stood back up from her spot against the wall, then with a nod to Penny and MDP, followed behind the other duo.

@Ariamis@Card Captor




Tenebra was distressed. Too many things had happened at once, even a short time after the revival. After being used and discarded by Justine once she had turned a new leaf, the darkness awaited her.

Only for fire to inhabit her lungs, as she gasped into life over more. A silver haired being had pulled her off, that could pass off as her sister. She had been brought to an strange dimension she had only heard of… and to a tournament with a certain silly, very anime-like premise. The swimsuit was particularly embarrassing.

But before she could make any sense, she was dragged in a competition for the dimension crumbling. She didn’t want to make it crumble. It was a fancy beach! If Amy and SoulBurner were alive, they would certainly enjoy it too.

The things were changing, and enemies of the past were friends, and friends of the past were enemies. It hurt her regenerated brain… as she saw and witnessed what had happened. She had little time to hesitate, after seeing dearest Elroy and the will of Sakura duking out in her stead. She would do what she was revived for.

Yet...things gnawed at her mind. Was this alright? The so-called Queen bout had ended with blood and grief, and here and there signs of things not being alright were there. Justine was not bound in chains, that scoundrel, tyrant and soul-ravager all in one. Yes, for her youth, she did exactly realize what Justine had done to her, and to other girls.

Being locked away in anguish would have been acceptable, but each breath hammered on her like someone was trying to hammer nails to her beating heart. How could they allow her...to go unscathed after what happened? How could they, the same people who had driven her first team to Death. She had tried to find solace on the cat-like Regent, regal and matron-like, but she too was facing the first stages of despair.

And to top it off, Lily was coming. She had tried to begrudgingly accept her, but she had switched sides once. Maybe it was for the best, as the rat was a deceitful being… but she had a feeling she wasn’t any better than the others. She just gripped her healing artifact, squeezed dry.

She hoped this storm passed by and she had to focus on the match.

Lily herself could not believe what she saw when she first saw a certain the listed matchup for the tournament; Tenebra vs Elroy. As far as she knew, Tenebra had died at Justine’s hands, yet somehow she was there. She knew she was not a copy or an illusion, but the real Tenebra herself. This was because she had met her before in an arduous battle; one that ultimately cost Lily her first friend she made when she began her life in the world of magic.
When the match ended, with Sakura having won in Tenebra’s place, Lily went to seek her out, trying to find answers to her questions. Finally, she found her at a remote location in the summer islands, seemingly basking in the warmth of the sun.

”Hey! Tenebra!" Lily called out to the girl as she approached her, followed by a big hug.
”It really is you! I thought you died! What happened?" She asked, and spun her around in the embrace.

“Woah there Lily” Alexander pulled the girl back “I understand your enthusiasm, but give the girl some room to breathe. She’s not looking too good.”

Tenebra reeled at the touch, the gravity wobbling at the area a little, before her eyes rested on the duo. “Wahwahwahwah! Oh… It’s you.” She said, half-distracted by something. “Also him too.”

She sighed. “I don’t know… Lily. I was gasping my last breath one moment, the other a certain winged girl pulled me out from the darkness to fight for a Russian cat against ...Elroy.” The paused when she mentioned his name was remarkable, as well as her tired expression turned to a wistful look.

Then she looked at Alexander, and smirked a little.”Heh, can’t compare.” She muttered.

“Then Sakura beat Elroy… she is crazy good.” She added.

Lily calmed down at Alex' suggestion, and released Tenebra.
"Oh, right! Sorry."
She blinked at the answer the somewhat strange girl gave, looking quizzical.
"A winged girl, huh…The Russian cat girl must be Dina then."
She afterwards nodded with a smile.
"Yeah, Sakura was awesome! She went all ka-pow and blammo on him! So cool!"

“I couldn’t lift a finger. I couldn’t. Elroy was too dreamy.” She mumbled. “I have to be worthy of these two. I have to fight Penny and win!” She then indicated.

“Dreamy?” Alexander raised an eyebrow “I would think that would make fighting him more appealing, or something” He shrugged “But it sounds like you’ve been dead for quite awhile. Were you just dragged back to the land of the living and told to fight, or did someone take the time to bring you up to speed on what’s happened since you died?”

“What are you, stupid?” Tenebra said, flustered. “I can’t just scratch a stud and then date him. I think.” She added. “I was told things, but only pertaining to the fight.” She then confessed.

"So you’re competing to prove yourself. " Lily realized, a hand on her chin.
"Penny’s going to be a tough opponent, but I’m rooting for you, Tenny B! Anyway, so you like Elroy, huh~?" She asked coyly.
"Have you told him how you feel yet?"

It was then when Lily’s tact, likened to a bull in a china shop made Tenebra short circuit, unable to answer. She fell to her knees, reddening like a tomato.

Lily was taken aback by Tenebra's reaction.
"Oh, umm…"

“Unless he’s petty or insecure as hell, you can most certainly ‘scratch a stud and then date him’, if said scratch comes from something like a tournament match.” the painful irony of Alexander of all people giving relationship advice wasn’t lost on him “But if you keep running from him, then you’re not going to make any progress. Hell, he might start to think you hate him or something. I know I would if a girl seemed to go out of her way to avoid interacting with me.”

Lily managed to smile a bit despite the awkwardness.
"What Alex said is right. I know it can be super scary, and you can get flowers in your stomach, but being silent is not the answer."
She took Alex' hand.
"I was like that too...Scared to admit how I really felt. But I had a friend who helped me overcome that hurdle." She blushed a bit.

Tenebra looked at Alexander, tilting her head. Then she shook her face, blushing like a tomato, and teleporting him far away off the island. “Shut up!” She said, almost on her breaking point.

Lily gasped when Tenebra spirited Alex away with her magic.
“Alex! What did you do to him? Where is he?” She asked frantically.

Tenebra eyed her hands, before looking at Lily. “I um… he’s on the other side of the island. With a bunch of cat...girls in bikini? Yeah, that.” Tenebra replied.

---
Meanwhile, as Alexander kept dodging and deflecting the attacks of catgirls overly excited to play Keijo:

“Where the fuck am I!?”
---
Lily blushed hard at the revelation, and stomped her foot on the ground.
"Y-You bring him back right now!" She sounded genuinely angry, her eyes shining yellow and her hair crackling with electric energy.
"Or you'll get a thousand voltages!"

Tenebra looked at Lily, her gaze sharpening, as she waved her hand and brought Lily's boyfriend, on top of Lily. "He was being pretty intrusive."

“Gah” Alexander groaned as he got up “where the hell was that!? I didn’t even know there were that many catgirls on this island...at least I think that was on the island.” He then noticed Lily on the floor and helped her to her feet.

Lily was dizzy from the impact of Alex landing right on top of her, and her eyes briefly spun before she recovered.
“Oof...Watch where you drop my boyfriend next time, Tenny!” She groaned, and blushed when Alex corroborated Tenebra’s ludicrous answer. She pouted.
“So it is true...Tenny, do you know something about them?”
She asked with her arms crossed, looking surprisingly serious.
“Because I need to tell them to back off if they know what’s good for them.”

"Absolute direction. It seemed one of the safest most secluded places." She then eyed Alex. "Oh, maybe I should spirit away Alexander for practice with Elroy then." Tenebra smirked coyly.

“How about not teleporting me away, did you ever think about that?” Alexander snarked

Lily puffed her cheeks.
"Well, that might not be as-" she blushed again, and walked briskly to Tenebra, putting her hands on her shoulders.
"Ok, that's enough! Don't send anyone anywhere for now!" She sighed, and grabbed Alex' arm with her own.
"Anyway, I think me and Alex will be going now. I'll see you later, Tenny."

Tenebra raised an eyebrow. How come someone so old have less maturity than herself. "That what was I … revived for."

It was then when a shadow encroached Lily, and swooped from up the Sky. Dark wings enveloped the magical girl, as a voice whispered to her ear. "Making friends with our little teleporter, sparkplug? We have to talk, little revenant."

It was Sann.

Alexander pulled Lily out of the newcomers grasp “Damnit, don’t just ambush people like that you weirdo!” he looked to Lily, who he had pulled into his chest “She didn’t do anything weird to you, did she Lily?”

Lily was taken by surprise when Sann arrived, but quickly realized who it was as Alex pulled her out from the Valkyrie’s roost and right into his embrace.
”I’m okay,” Lily answered, though she sounded more quiet than usual.
”Anyway, what do you want?” She glanced back at Sann.

Sann just raised an eyebrow, before smiling. A dark fluffy oppressive darkness engulfed both as she wrapped herself on Alex's back and around the couple. This time, though, there was a sharp difference. Alex himself would find it difficult to struggle free of the feathery embrace.

“What a gallant Knight… Sann was just being friendly.” She said, before closing Alex to whisper. “Sann would love to play...but I have business with my charge there, and besides… pappy Odin told me to keep my hands off Sol’s chosen out of professional deference. Gods and the like.” She then giggled, as the wings opened free, but not before giving Alexander the cheekiest peck on the side of his face, before freeing both. “See you around, Lord of Beasts…”

Alexander rubbed the spot where she kissed him, as if trying to wash it off “Weirdo” he grumbled

Tenebra was eyeing Sann. She wanted to say something but she sheepishly bowed down to the quirky interloper. She owed her life. She had expected some sort of talk, or command.

“My, are you alright?” She said, as she knelt in front of Tenebra, her eyes facing her downcast face.

“I’m fine.”

“Tenebra…”

“...I don’t understand what’s going on. I...I mean, I am supposed to fight for what? Penny? But she’s my next opponent. And I let that stud flee.” She then began to talk, slowly opening up. “And there’s ...Justine of all things… I miss my friends. And Penny’s last opponent was...was...I mean.”

Lily grit her teeth, offended by Sann’s flirty move.
”You harpy...” She grumbled. However, before she could say anything further, Sann had already moved on to address Tenebra, causing her to blow a raspberry and cross her arms in an annoyed manner.

“Do you think we should just find Elroy and lock the two of them in a room somewhere?” he asked Lily “Because at this rate, she’s not going to make any kind of progress at all.”

”You’re right on that one, Alex,” Lily answered with a sigh.
”Hey Tenny, if we bring Elroy to you, will you tell Sann to stop bugging us?”

Tenebra looked at Lily, her eyes a glimmer of hope. "I mean… I will try."

It was then when Sann smiled, as her sight rested against her. "My, such fighting spirit. But Elroy's gone." Sann would then drop the fact. "Apparently he is gone. Penny's last fight upset a lot of people, dear."

You could probably hear the sound of Tenebra's dream crashing down. "NO!" She squeaked. "You lie!"

"Why would I lie when you can find people with your gift?" The winged lady said. "I am sorry, Tenebra. I will find someone for you."

"But I need you to do something. I need you to step down from the fight. Your opponent is her Majesty." She added.

"But I…"

"No buts."

“...Crap” Alexander felt a slowly creeping sensation of dread “Lily, are you also getting a really bad feeling about this, or am I just crazy?” This whole thing felt like it was spiraling out of control; first, what was a simple christmas party was hijacked by a nutjob, and now the resulting tournament was getting infected with politics. Or at least that’s what it felt like.

Lily was so stunned by Sann's revelation that for a couple of seconds she didn't respond to Alex.
"...Oh, uhh…" She felt terrible at having lifted up Tenebra's hopes only to dash them, and bit her lip.
"You're not the only one, Alex. We might need to do something before Ascendancy decides the tourney is not worth it anymore."
She took a step away.
"I want to go check on a few things. Tenny and Sandy, you wanna go with me?" She asked to not sound rude.

“Sann would love to, but I do have a match. With these changes happening around, who knows what might happen.” Sann deflected Lily, with a smile. “That mirror does spark the wildest dreams in people. Figures… even Elroy believed it could hold him somehow in this dimension.” Sann would then caress Tenebra’s chin. “Leave this for us, child… you should stick to plan B. I’m sorry.” said the Valkyrie.

Tenebra for the most part shook her head sheepishly. “...I will go…” She said to Lily, motioning to walk. “NO!” She snapped. “I DON’T WANT TO!” She snapped, a furious spacetime warp gathering around her.

“Don’t be silly, what can you do? Beat Penny? And what for…” Sann said, before tapping Tenebra on the back, leaving some sort of...runic enchantment.

“I WILL. I WILL BEAT PENNY! I WILL BEAT JUSTINE! I WILL BEAT ALL OF YOU! FOR SOULBURNER! FOR AMY!” She said, before warping off.

“Whoops.” Sann would then deadpan. “It seems she snapped. Ah well, Granny Kitty should be able to handle this.”

“...Well that was deeply concerning.” Alexander commented “geez, just what happened to that girl?”

Lily gasped at Tenebra's outcry.
"Wai-Ah! She's gone!" She slowly shook her head as she held her arm.
"She must have been through a lot...Well, if there's nothing else, we'll be going now. Bye, Sandy." She half-heartedly waved at Sann before turning and leaving.

"Fare thee well." Sann would reply, as she watched them leave… a hint of a smirk forming in the corners of her mouth.

“This whole thing feels like it’s starting to spiral more and more out of control” Alexander said as he and Lily walked away “I’m starting to wonder if we’ll even reach the championship before it all dissolves into chaos.”

Well, tough luck. Despite their efforts, nothing was stopped. In fact things could become worse now that there was no reason for Rachel to find out Finn's identity. She did, and at some point she'll try and kill him. As much as he empathized with her, with what Penny disclosed about her going through hellish stuff as well, she didn't seem the type to easily listen. For now he had to play nice. He had to prepare for the worst.

"So now what? You gonna call Riona back?" Oliver's question broke him out of his thoughts, as the two idly searched for a cabana to rest in. Finn shook his head.

"No need. Sent out a group text, we'll meet up early tomorrow." he explained, showing Oliver the message on his phone as proof. Just cause he can't tackle the magical side of Penrose thoroughly, doesn't mean they cant focus on restoring the mundane side. Might be good business oppertunities too!

"Oh. Okay, but what then? You still wanna leave? They're gonna do the tournament no matter what so..." Oliver asked him.

"Fate's a bitch like that." Lauren spoke up, having walked up ahead of them at some point. She turned her head to glance at the two. "You either gotta wait to do something, or you can't at all. We all had that feeling. Anyways, the others should be near here..." She trailed off, looking around. Then Lauren spotted the other witches sitting in one of the cabanas. "There they are, come on then." The judge walked over to meet up with them, motioning for Finn and Oliver to follow.

The two looked at each other, then hesitantly followed.

It was one of those seating area cabanas, rather than the ones with the beds. A couch, and two separate chairs. Surprisingly, Maura was with the other two witches. But she appeared lost in thought, leaning against Rowena who quietly sat beside her. Maribel herself took one of the corner seats, casually drinking a Bloody Mary. The nightmare witch was the first to notice the three, looking over with her usual smile.

"Well, well! If it isn't Wrath and his wraith~!" Maribel giggled. Finn was too tired to care that they knew him at this point, though something crossed his mind.

"...You spied on us?"

"She spied on alot of people, apparently. Didn't even think that can work with our type of portals." Amanda appeared from besides Maribel, still untransformed. She collaped onto a spare chair. "Anyways, guess your plans went to the dogs?" She asked Finn. He hesitantly nodded.

"Oh don't feel bad, Dear. Lots of ideas get shot down in the same day~" Maribel tried to reassure him. "A bit suspicious though..."

"Frankly I didn't want to clean up after them if shit hit the fan, but...hmmm. Oi, 'Manda. You know of Pinkie Pie's relation to Penny?" Lauren asked the magician.

"Girlfriends."

"...And the catgirl?" Rowena spoke up.

"Regent. They're royals, remember?"

"Obvious bias..." Finn grumbled with his arms crossed. Oliver gently nudged him.

"Playing nice, remember?"

The wrathful boy looked back at his partner with an eyebrow risen. "They're not all-hearing, Oli." He then looked back to the group, then to Maura. She's been strangely quiet. "Ma'am? Hey, is everything okay?" He quietly tried to get her attention. Nothing. He frowned in worry. "Maura?"

"I think she dissociated or some shit. Okay, anyone got an answer for-"

"I do." Rowena spoke up once more, wrapping an arm around the smaller woman. She mirrored Finn's frown. "Your friend, that Samantha girl...I don't know if she made it. I'm sorry." The quiet witch of life let them process the information she gave them, before continuing. "I don't understand how, there were no external injuries or broken bones. But judging by the amount of blood, it was like her innards ruptered, or even melted if that's possible." She then sighed. "I don't think Maura took it too well..."

Finn, too tired to react at this point, facepalmed. He gave Lauren a side glance. "What was that about Fate being a bitch again?" then something hit him. "What do you know about the Grand Magstrates?"

"The Magwhomina? Oh, the big bosses. Well, I guess they sometimes act like the Fates." Lauren shrugged, grabbing a tablet from her hammerspace. "They're the ones who made the Laws of Magic and other lore stuff, so either the bigwigs of each patron faction got together to do our job, or there's some higher rank no one speaks of. Either way."

At that explanation, Finn sighed. "....That explains so much." He checked back on Maura, who after a while, finally said something:

"Have...I failed...?"

"Maura, don't think like that-

"Haven't I been trying to?!" Maura weakly snapped back at Rowena, then hugged her knees. "My first day as leader and everything's gone to hell! I shouldn't have let Justine join, damnit!! And now they're gone!! T-They're..." She had to silence herself, or break down again. Her sister pulled her back into a side hug.

"You shouldn't be blaming yourself for the inevitable, Dear." Maribel told her without looking at her.

"Wh-What are you..?"

The nightmare witch smirked, taking another sip of her cocktail. "Y'know, with all this talk about fate, mayhaps this was unavoidable. One way or another, they would've left. They just needed a catalyst~ If they hadn't left earlier, they probably still cared about you." Maribel stopped Maura before the reaper could argue back. "Atata~ No regrets now~! This may be a burden now, but tomorrow's another day. Take what you're given and make use of it!" She then turned to everyone else.

"I know there might not be a point in such an endeavor, but what's stopping us from telling the Fates to fuck off already~? Maura, I know you're unwell, but we can help you! If you'd rather ditch this dump, well, I hope my Horror friends find this world delectable~" Maribel shrugged. "So what do you say? You're the one most experience in this field."

Other than being surprised Maribel swore, Maura thought. Then her brows furrowed, and she sat up straight. "If this world must burn, then let there be fire. We'll give them all hell in time, every last one..." She sighed. "But not now. Not here. Not where we can be stopped like Finn was." Maura stood up from her seat. "I think we overstayed our welcome. Let's go." With that, the witches and Amanda left for the exit. Finn and Oliver remained by the cabana.

"Okay, now we're alone. Unless you want me to scare off the next person to bother us, what do you wanna-" With a thump, Finn had let himself fall onto the couch. "....do."

"Ah, sweet peace and quiet, I have missed you so!" The other boy tiredly chuckled. Oliver stared at him for a moment, then shrugged. The ghost sat down next to him while he adjusted himself, summoning his satchel back to him and setting it down beside their seat.

The beach dimension was abuzz with activity as contestants prepared for the next round of matches in the tournament. Most of that talk was about the dramatic finish to Penny and Sam’s match, as well as the confrontation that had taken place between Rachel and Finn afterwards. Some talk was spared for other matches though, as people touted their favorites and discussed the wacky maneuvers on display.

Having gone to the concourse with Lily and Alex for food, Alicia had procured herself some Dippin’ Dots ice cream to enjoy. She had grown tired of popcorn for now, and so had defaulted to ice cream even though it was technically winter at home.

In the midst of that, she spotted Kimble amongst the crowd. She had a feeling that the girl was looking for her, but it had been too soon after her match for them to meet up. So she took the initiative and made her way over whilst waving. “Hey Kimble!" she called.

Coming up next to her girlfriend, she ate a scoop of Dots. “Nice match, though I’m sorry things didn’t work out like you hoped they would.” She knew the feeling.

”Alicia!”
Kimble yelled, initially elated to see Alicia.
When she brought up the match however, her cheery demeanour changed into an embarrassed frown, her eyes having averted down to the ground.
”I-It’s okay,” she answered, and looked back up at her.
”It was a learning experience for me. I was conceited, and thought I’d easily win. Actually, umm...” She bit her lip.
”...There’s something I need to tell you, Alicia.”

Alicia gave a small shrug to the first comment, not terribly worried by Kimble’s slightly soured mood. “Hey, it’s fine. There’s not much point in competing if you don’t think you’re going to win,” she pointed out. Sure, Kimble hadn’t planned on winning the whole thing, but gunning for Justine meant she had to have some level of confidence about her skills.

However, Kimble’s warning caused her to slow with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Not that she allowed herself to show it. “Sure. What is it?”

Kimble first looked around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping on them, and then spoke in a more quiet voice than usual:
"I didn't actually win in my match with Penny...She took a dive." She put her hands to her face.
"I was so stupid. I really thought I managed to beat her. Can you forgive me?" She asked with a sniffle.

That tension released with a feeling of relief that washed over Alicia. Stepping over, she patted Kimble’s shoulder as her girlfriend wilted under the weight of her own feelings. “Of course I forgive you. It’s not like you were deliberately trying to mislead us,” she pointed out.

She ate another spoonful of Dots before adding to her point. “And as far as not getting to fight Justine goes, I know the feeling,” she added. It had happened to her more often than she might like.

Kimble lifted her hands from her face, her eyes having turned slightly wet from tears.
”Thank you, Alicia...” She answered softly, and leaned her head against her shoulder. For a moment, she was quiet, enjoying the time the two of them could spend together.
Then she spoke: ”I couldn’t get to fight against Justine again...But I don’t mind. As long as I can be with you, that’s all that matters to me.” She blushed.
”Anyway, it was quite crazy what happened with Penny’s match, right?”

“You might be able to ask Justine for a match outside of the tournament if she doesn’t get roughed up too badly,” Alicia noted with a gesture towards the arena. Unlike her own efforts, it seemed unlikely that someone would render it meaningless to do so.

The mention of Penny’s match brought yet another frown as she reflected on what had occurred. “It was. Some people are way too competitive.” And she meant that to include both Sam and Penny, given the escalation had been far from one sided.

”I just hope neither of them got injured too badly,” Kimble spoke softly, looking out towards the distance.
”Especially Penny. If she can’t continue competing, Rachel might end up winning.”

“I’m not sure,” Alicia conceded with some chagrin. “Time stop’s one of those things that takes a lot of effort to use, doesn't it?” The fact that it had been employed here did not speak well to the physical state of either combatant, to say nothing of how it had ended with referee intervention.

A shrug then followed. “Still, imagine dying in a keijo match. No self respecting person would be able to live that down.”

”That would be very embarrassing, yes,” Kimble responded with a nod.
”Anyway, wanna go somewhere before the matches start? I heard of a new shop that’s opened up close by We could visit that if you’re not too busy.”

Alicia could definitely agree that dying in a keijo match would be super embarrassing. If only because of the methods used and nothing else. But they both seemed to move on past that quickly enough, perhaps to forget that very occurrence.

Before she could forget entirely, Alicia took the opportunity to focus once more on what really mattered. “Listen, all I’m saying is that you shouldn’t feel too bad. I’ve got robbed of resolving things with Justine, Mariette, and Regina. You get used to it eventually. It’s just a matter of tempering your expectations. But you can still talk to her if you want.”

The mention of a new store caught her attention, though she wasn’t sure if it was necessarily her interest. “Most stores are new in Dan’s dimension, relatively speaking. But alright.” She didn’t mind checking out something new, though hopefully she didn’t miss the final match by leaving like this.

With a decision made, the two of them headed off to the destination Kimble had decided upon.

Although she was somewhat upset that no one seemed to like her idea of having a group hug, MDP knew that she had more important things to worry about. There wasn’t much time left before Penny’s next match, and the playful Princess of Dreams had just remembered that she had yet to apologize to a certain friend for missing her match. Thus, the whimsical girl had set out to do so before the next round began. Upon finally catching sight of the friend in question, she gave a squeal of delight as she bounced over.

“Mayra Wayra~! (giggle!)” MDP called out, before glomping the dragon girl and squeezing her tight. “Like, Magical Dream Princess is sooo super duper sorry for missing wissing your matchy watchy!” the bubbly girl told her draconic friend. “She, like, really really wanted to be there to cheer Mayra Wayra on, but she was, like, super duper busy wusy training waining with Penny Wenny, but, like, Connie Wonnie told her all about it~! (giggle!) Like, she said that you were totally wotally awesome wasome, and that you even weven turned into an actual wactual dragon wagon~! (giggle!) Like, Magical Dream Princess thinkie winkies that must have been sooo super duper cool~! (giggle!) But, like, Connie Wonnie also said that you losty wosty…” the whimsical girl added with a frown, before brightening back up again an instant later. “But then she said that you weren’t super duper sad about it, which made Magical Dream Princess super duper happy wappy~! (giggle!)”

The scene MDP walked into had three individuals in conversation. There was the green-haired, elfin girl Lea, looking at Mayra with a stern expression. There was Mayra, smiling right back and nodding. Then there was Jelena, who was sitting and kicking with her legs looking slightly bothered about something.





Then MDP called out, making Lea frown as she looked over, Jelena turn from looking bothered to chuckling, and Mayra turning to curiously look over before being promptly glomped.

‘Oh!’ Mayra called out in surprise at the realization that she’d been glomped, and immediately kicked to spin around with a minor fiery burst to spin with the dreamy girl while grabbing ahold of her in turn. ‘Heeey, it’s the dream princess!’ she called happily before eventually not actually coming to a stop but would totally try to keep spinning throughout the conversation.

‘Haha, no worries! You can’t be everywhere at the same time. That’d be a cool power…’ Mayra said, immediately distracted. ‘Anyway, training with Penny, eh? What kind of training? Did you beat her? Hahaha!’ The idea of MDP beating Penny in anything was hilarious.

‘Yeah, I did that! It’s too bad the rules say you lose if you just touch the water, because I could totally have beat her if it was a real fight! I’m tougher than that! Oooh, but that Avatar power, though. That is SO SWEET! I wonder if she’d tell me how she got it? Aaaah, I want to fight her again…!’ Mayra said, giggling about events that had transpired.

‘… Hmpf. Don’t forget,’ Lea just said, before turning and walking.

‘Yeah, yeah, I got it, I got it,’ Mayra replied, still focused on MDP as she waved off Lea. Jelena was leaning a hand on her chin as she was inspecting MDP clinging to the dragon girl for the moment.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Mayra’s spinning hug didn’t seem to bother MDP in the slightest. In fact, the whimsical girl found it quite fun! “Weeeee~!” the playful girl cheered, while giggling happily. Then Mayra inquired about her training with Penny, and a small blush began to color her cheeks. “Weeeell… We mostly wostly just played aroundy woundy…” MDP conceded, while slightly averting her eyes. “But, like, Magical Dream Princess also helpy welpied Penny Wenny practice wactise some special wecial strategy watagies~!” she added, quickly brightening back up. Mayra went on to ask if MDP was able to beat her cybernetic girlfriend. “Like, she did manage wanage to do it one timey wimey, but that was only because Penny Wenny let her~” MDP replied with a giggle.

MDP grinned broadly as Mayra talked about her match, but her expression changed to one of slight confusion when her draconic friend mentioned a power she had never heard of before. “Avatar Wavatar~?” the innocent girl inquired. “Like, what’s that~?”

‘Hahaha! Yeah, play-fighting is fine. One of these days, I want to fight her, too. Not just fighting for fighting's sake, but like a real encounter with an objective beyond our control, and… hahaha…’ Mayra thought it was amusing to think about it. She listened to MDP’s bunch of comments, and then grinned at the last mention.

‘I had to ask that, too! Apparently it’s a power that allows you to use every specialization, AT THE SAME TIME! Something about at reduced magic strength and it taking a bunch of mana to do, but that girl boosted herself with all enhancements imaginable for that last attack, and used both time and darkness to catch me! That’s like, SO powerful! Hahaha!’ Mayra laughed as she discussed this.

They’re still spinning, Jelena’s raised an eyebrow at them.

Hearing Mayra’s desire to fight Penny caused MDP to frown slightly. “Like, Magical Dream Princess guesses wesses that might be fun to watch…” she conceded. “But, like, Magical Dream Princess wouldn’t be able wable to cheer for Mayra Wayra if she was fighting Penny Wenny,” the whimsical girl added, looking somewhat upset. “A-And you and Penny Wenny might get hurt, and, and, Magical Dream Princess would really wuv it if you and Penny Wenny didn’t fight and became friendy wendies instead~! (giggle!) Unless…” she said after a moment as an idea occurred to her. “By fighting each other wother, Mayra Wayra and Penny Wenny can helpy welpy each other wother get stronger wonger, then that would be, like, totally wotally okie dokie~! (giggle!)” the bubbly girl declared with a big smile.

A moment later, MDP gasped in shock when Mayra revealed just what Avatar allowed one to accomplish. “Wowie zowie~! Every wevery magical wagical thingie wingie at the same timey wimey~?! That’s, like, super duper powerful wowerful~!” the whimsical girl exclaimed in amazement. “Like, Magical Dream Princess had no idea something womething like that was even weven possible wossible~!”

‘RIIIGHT!? It was so awesome…!’ Mayra had to say about the Avatar-power. Taking that first, because on that first part… Mayra had a lot more to say.

‘Hahahaha, no, getting hurt’s part of it!’ Mayra declared with a wide grin. ‘Back where I came from, those battles happened all the time! The leader of the pack was the strongest one, and her power could be challenged at any time! There were battles to decide who led what pack, battles to decide who gets to hunt where, and battles to decide who gets to mate with the one they want! Those battles with something on the line, those were the greatest! Now, nobody actually aimed to kill the opponent, the more of us the stronger we are, after all, but some bruises and bleeding was always part of it! That’s not even mentioning the battles for our survival against other species… They were so exhilarating!’ Mayra said, smiling widely. Her home dimension was a very different place.

‘Here’s not entirely the same, it’s not the strongest that leads, and things are a lot more complicated most of the time. But I get to hunt random monsters and get paid for it! It’s great! And, and, battles DO happen! And there’s a whole lot more friends! I’m stronger than I once was, too! It’s great!’ Mayra said, the dragon girl decently excited as she spoke.

They’re still spinning, and Jelena is starting to wonder if she should do something to stop the spinning. Maybe they were about to drill through the floor or something. Or burn through. Mayra’s feet was on fire continuously propelling them to spin, after all.

As MDP listened to Mayra’s explanation of how things worked in her home dimension, the whimsical girl tried to wrap her ditzy and innocent mind around what was being said. While she certainly didn’t like to see her friends get hurt, even with her currently watered-down intelligence, she could still understand the basics of what Mayra was telling her. Animals who lived in packs behaved in a similar fashion, after all, and if no one got killed, then she supposed it was okay. That wasn’t to say she didn’t have any questions, though.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess guesses wesses that’s okie dokie…” MDP replied with a thoughtful frown. “But, like, where exactly wactly did Mayra Wayra come from~?” she inquired, completely oblivious to the fact that they were still spinning around.

The question prompted Mayra to very suddenly give a burst of flame in the opposite direction of their spinning, making them come to a complete stop. She gazed intently at MDP, before grinning with wide eyes at her. ‘Would you like to see!? I could totally take you there! I could introduce you to the pack, show you the sights and the battles, and…!’ Mayra said, not answering the question.

‘Mayra’s a dragon from the dragon-dimension,’ Jelena answered in Mayra’s place, chuckling and leaning back over there. ‘It’s filled with dangerous and wild monsters, and there’s no civilization, technology or even humans to speak of. Mayra here has never once actually been human, and had to learn all human things from scratch. As for the dimension, I don’t recommend going there if you don’t like things trying to eat you whole, heh,’ the girl with the mechanical limbs continued, with some more chuckles.

‘Oh, she could totally handle it! Dream princess is strong! Besides, I’d be there, too!’ Mayra defended with a grin, to which Jelena just shrugged.

MDP was slightly taken aback by Mayra’s offer, but quickly recovered her usual bubbly disposition. “Wowie zowie~! Like, that soundy woundies super duper fun~! (giggle!)” the whimsical girl cheered, innocently oblivious to any potential danger until Jelena spelled things out. However, MDP’s main take-away from the explanation was perhaps somewhat different than what the metal-limbed girl might have hoped… “For realsies~?!” the whimsical girl exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “Mayra Wayra’s an actual wactual dragon wagon~?! That’s, like, sooo super duper cool~! (giggle!) And, like, Mayra Wayra’s totally wotally right about Magical Dream Princess being super duper powerful wowerful, and if Mayra Wayra was there too, then she’d feel, like, super duper safey wafey~! (giggle!) Oh…” she frowned, her voice trailing off as something occurred to her. “But Magical Dream Princess just remember wembered… Penny Wenny’s next matchy watchy is starting super soon, and, like, Magical Dream Princess wants to be there to cheer her on, so, like, maybe waybe we can visit wisit later water~?” she inquired hopefully. “And, like, when we do, could Mayra Wayra maybe waybe turn into an actual wactual dragon wagon, and could Magical Dream Princess maybe waybe ride her~?!” she asked, her eyes glittering with excitement. “Could she~?! Could she~?! Could she~?!”

‘See!? She’s totally safe!’ Mayra insisted happily. Jelena shrugged.

‘Whelp, it’s on you if she gets eaten by a plant, crushed by a behemoth or poisoned by a manticore or something,’ Jelena figured. There was a reason why Asengav had wanted to tame something from that dimension, it’s really dangerous.

‘Teh-heh, yupp! Dragon made into magical girl form! It was really weird at first, but I got the hang of it!’ Mayra declared with a big smile. There then was the part about needing to watch Penny’s match. Of course Mayra understood that, and…

‘That’s fine. Mayra’s going to need to ask a couple people for permission and help, first, as she can’t actually get back on her own, she needs the help of people who can actually cross dimensions to get there,’ Jelena mentioned, and Mayra acted like she hadn’t heard. Then there was the part about riding Mayra…

‘That’s not a good idea. When Mayra goes back to being a dragon, she loses-’ Jelena started.

‘OF COURSE you can! It’ll be great!’ Mayra completely cut her off.

‘_{… loses her human gifts and becomes basically a beast that can’t necessarily see the difference between ally and prey, but you know what? You do you, you’re apparently safe, what do I know,}’ Jelena finished, a bit more quiet.

“Yaaay~! (giggle!)” MDP cheered, completely oblivious to Jelena’s concerns. “Like, Magical Dream Princess always wanted to fly aroundy woundy on a dragon wagon, and it’ll be even weven better wetter if that dragon wagon is a friendy wendy, like Mayra Wayra~! (giggle!)”

‘Great! It’s decided, then!’ Mayra says with a grin. Jelena sighed behind there.

“Okie dokie~! (giggle!)” MDP chirped, while winking and flashing a peace sign. “Like, Magical Dream Princess thinky winkies she should probably wobably get going nowie, but she’s, like, really, really looking forward to visiting wisiting Mayra Wayra’s homey womey~! (giggle!)” she added with a cheerful smile. Twirling around, the whimsical girl gave voice to a stream of happy giggles, before racing off to the location of Penny’s next match, her arms held out like a pair of airplane wings. “Bye bye for nowie~! (giggle!)”

‘Byyye!’ Mayra waved after her with both hands and a wide smile as MDP skipped away, Jelena looking on with a slight frown as she watched the scene that was currently concluding. She waited a couple seconds before she said what’s on her mind.

‘Are you sure making friends with people from this world is a good idea?’ Jelena asked, looking with a little frown at Mayra.

‘Eeeeh, what’s the harm?’ Mayra asked, shrugging and smiling so happily.

‘She’ll be really hurt, you know,’ Jelena reminded, continuing her incredulous look.

‘Haha,’ Mayra gave a brief laugh, before looking back at Jelena with a happy grin. ‘Yeah.’

While the tournament was undergoing the second bracket of matches, Mariette had set up a plan behind the scenes. After a lengthy argument with Lea, she had decided to not steal the Black Mirror. Instead, she would place the cursed artifact under surveillance, and ensure nobody else would be able to steal the Mirror. Three people were selected as the security task force: Lea, Jelena, and someone who was enshrouded in the shadows of their hiding spot, their identity unknown.

The three arrived in place and saw from a distance that the Black Mirror had not moved from its spot in the back of the winter lodge's dining hall based on the large present box and the Dan clone sitting before it on a chair; the duplicate was wearing a guard uniform, black sunglasses, and was reading a magazine of sorts. However, the three could observe that despite his lax appearance, the clone kept vigilant watch, and wouldn't let anyone approach the present box.

The three had decided on a plan to insert an electronic tracker equipped with a miniature cloaking device on the Mirror, allowing them to follow its movements. However, based on the way Dan's aura resonated, he was capable of detecting anyone using stealth magic. As the three pondered their options, they had a stroke of good fortune: Shamrock Sally approached the Dan clone.
"Hey Dan, do you happen to know about this coin? I found it outside the lodge. Do you know who owns it?" She asked.
Guardsman Dan flipped his sunglasses up and grumbled. "I don't know, and I don't care! Now, move along. I'm not letting anyone come close to this, you know!"

While Dan was distracted by Sally, the task force realized this was their chance: they snuck close enough, and then, using Mariette's portal magic, Lea entered inside the present box silently, aided by stealth magic to hide her tracks. Mariette herself obfuscated her involvement with the scheme by having her comrades surround herself in the audience seating, blocking line of sight to her use of magic.
Thus, Lea successfully planted the invisible tracker on the wooden frame of the Black Mirror, seemingly placed by Dan himself.

"Nope, I haven't seen this before," the stoic Dan duplicate answered once he took a casual look at the coin Sally handed to him.
Sally sighed. "Alright, but...Oh, I know! I'll flip the coin: if it's heads, I can keep it, and if tails, I'll give it away to someone lucky~"

Lea portaled out back to the rest of the task force members, and the anonymous member took out a handheld device with a screen on it; she saw that the tracker was operational, and providing a signal.

"Alright, here goes!" Sally announced, and flipped the coin, launching it into the air. But then, instead of catching it, the coin bounced on the roll, and rolled away to behind the present box.

"Whoops!" Sally exclaimed. "I guess I got clumsy...?" and Dan pouted in irritation. "Alright, hold it right there. I'll get the coin back for you." Dan floated over to behind the present box, and then returned back to Sally holding the coin on his flipper. "Be careful with this thing; you were lucky it didn't roll under the present box."

"Sorry about that, tee hee~ I promise to be more careful."

Sally then began walking away, and Dan sighed. "Alright, what page was I on again..." The clone mumbled as he returned back to his seat.

In the aftermath of the scene, the anonymous girl's expression tightened, and her eyes widened in shock: the signal from the tracker had disappeared.

(a bit back in time)

On a beach away from everything else, two blonde girls were hugging one another while a spider-girl was watching them with satisfaction.

‘Right, it’s about time she goes home,’ Ronja said, nodding towards Suzette and the other girl. Suzette turned and nodded, looking then towards the girl.

‘Yeah, things will become unsafe around here soon. I’ll get you back home before then. It’s the responsible thing for me to do,’ Suzette said.

‘This has been… really weird,’ the girl Suzette had been hugging said… ‘… but thank you for showing me part of your world. It’s a great weight that has been lifted from my shoulder… mom. You never… you never actually did mean to leave dad and me. You had no choice. I am… so happy to know that,’ the girl said, raising a hand to dry some tears.

‘Of course I wouldn’t…’ Suzette said, raising a hand to dry her daughter’s tears. ‘No matter if I look older or younger than you, I’m still your mother. I come by to look at you both occasionally, okay. … But I won’t be contacting you because it could put you in danger. Do you understand?’

‘I… I understand. I understand you put me in danger just to speak to me. Thank you… so much for speaking to me anyway. I’m so happy you did,’ the daughter said.

‘Heh. Right, let’s get you home before your father starts missing you,’ Suzette said, walking forward to put an arm around her daughter to start leading her off. ‘Ronja, you’ll cover for me, won’t you?’

‘Of course I will,’ Ronja said with a nod. Suzette gave a thumbs up as she and her daughter wandered off to return the girl home…

<sub>‘Why don’t you tell dad, too? He’d be so happy.’

‘Nah, he wouldn’t be as understanding as you, I’m afraid.’

‘… Are you sure? Maybe he’d really like to interact with a younger version of his wife. It’d be like a blast from the past, or a…’

‘Aw, shush, you.’</sub>

‘Hah,’ Ronja shook her head at the silly mother and daughter pair that definitely looked more like sisters due to the mother having become significantly younger. With that, Suzette was escorting her daughter home and Ronja was left on her own. She turned to start wandering back to the Keijo stadium in order to witness the continuation of the games.… but then stopped, because.…

Someone was approaching her.

Not far away from the beach side was an island filled with cat girls in cat swimsuits. Most of them were covered in bruises and were either tending to their wounds or grooming each other for some comfort. None of them were paying attention to Ronja, but someone had left the island and was moving straight towards her position.

They were approaching from behind, maintaining distance behind her. If she stopped, they stopped, when she walked, they walked. If Ronja had eyes in the back of her head, she might have been able to see the tan skinned girl with a feathered headband trailing behind her, but she would not look familiar. She wasn’t even able to recognize the mind with her psychic magic. But she could tell that it was at least a dark magical girl that was following her.

Ronja momentarily stopped when she realized someone was following her. When they also stopped, she continued walking on her many spider-legs. They followed, and she stopped again, and so too did they stop. Ronja started to chuckle, for the experience of being followed was not one unbeknown to her. In fact, she knew it all too well. It reminded her of her past, and as such…

‘Welcome, welcome!’ Ronja called, spinning around in place and also spinning a couple balls of web in her hands. ‘Come to see the show of Ronja Koskela, have you? I am honored, truly!’ she said, chuckling as she lobbed her balls of web into the air and started to rather deftly juggle them. ‘Alas, I’m afraid that while I would have loved to show you a magic trick like my audience of old, my magic tricks were actually magic through my affinity for sorcery, and they would not be impressive to you. Alas,’ Ronja sighed as she caught all three webbed balls in one of her hands.

‘Mancini didn’t send you, did he? Or was it Romano? I rather assumed I’d be safe from the likes of them the moment I became a magical girl, hah. For their information, I scammed them fair and square!’ she called, and chuckled a bit privately.

The girl flinched when she was noticed, but otherwise remained impassive to Ronja’s questions. She just stared at the dryder with what most would call morbid curiosity. But curiosity implied that the stranger didn’t know what she was looking at.

The tan skinned girl stepped closer, no longer feeling the need to hide. Even if the girl didn’t speak, Ronja could clearly see that her mind was not showing any hostile intentions. She was calm and relaxed, and even the sight of a juggling dryder didn’t seem to throw her off any. She walked closer, her eyes locked on the web balls as they were tossed between Ronja’s deaft hands. She was just outside of her personal space and was still walking closer.

‘Oh? What have we here?’ Ronja asked, tilting her head a little at the approaching girl. It was a bit odd, her walking forward like that, but supposedly Ronja was entirely safe inside this dimension. Still, maybe she was about to be Overcity Shifted or something. Even then, no hostile intentions. ‘Is this a volunteer for my magic trick?’ she asked, still partially in performer-more. She stayed still and let the girl approach.

The nameless girl continued to approach, not saying anything as she did so. Once she got close enough, she hopped the rest of the rest of the distance between them and coiled her arms around the dryder’s torso. She rested her head on Ronja’s shoulder and gasped, only to let her breath go as a sigh. There were no attempts to use magic, no bone crunching squeeze that could kill a man, just a hug. Ronja couldn’t confirm, but she might have felt tears falling onto her naked shoulder.

Ronja was initially startled by the girl’s jump and embrace, not sure what to make of it, but then felt what could have been tears…

‘Oh, dearie, what’s the matter…?’ Ronja asked, confused by the girl’s actions and instinctively hugged the girl back after the feeling. Was this someone she knew? She couldn’t imagine there’d be anyone so happy to see her that she’d break out in tears…

The girl pulled back her head. She looked at Ronja square in the eyes, prepared to speak-

*Yoink*

”The hell is going on here?!” Oros, still wearing a not-so-very-temperature-appropriate yakuza jacket, grabbed the nameless girl and flung her off of Ronja. ”Listen here!” She pointed at the Indian. ”I gave you an island filled with bodacious cat girls to play with. There’s no reason to play with this, eh, thiiiiiiing!” With a dismissive wave, the the girl stood back up and walked towards the cat island. She glanced over her shoulder once, but immediately looked away when Oros noticed. ”Bzzzzz! Bzzzzz!” With that taken care of, she turned to face Ronja. ”Surely you have better things to do than flaunt your balls? Kids her age are very impressionable, and they don’t need some blind, blue, big-breasted bitch bopping balls between this babe’s bye-balls!”

Ronja turned her face to Oros as she appeared. This was all a modestly confusing turn of events for the spider-girl. Still, she looked after the quiet girl as long as she could, listening to Oros on the while. That last part made her react. ‘Oooh. That’s some decent alliteration. Did you come up with that on the spot? I’m impressed,’ Ronja said, clapping a little abscently.

”Yea, but it took my player like thirty seconds to think of the words. He’s getting slow in his old age!”

‘You wouldn’t happen to be so kind and able to explain what just happened to me, would you?’ she then asked, modestly curious.

”Nope! i can't say I would be!” She reached into her pockets and turned them inside out. ”Fresh out of kindness, patience too! I don’t have a single Damn to give, not a hoot, not even-” She shoved her hands deep into her pockets. ”Oh! Ahhh!” When Oros pulled her hands out of her pockets, she flipped off Ronja with both hands. ”Looks like I’ve got exactly two fucks to give, but after this, I’m spent!” She snarled before turning away from Ronja. ”Don’t you belong to an army of magical girls anyway? If you’re feeling lonely, go to them! Mariette has tentacles, you’re a spider, Esther is a tree, Mayra is a lizard...” She looked over her shoulder. ”Your entire trope is a hentai dojin waiting to happen! Go poach your own chick...” With a growl, Oros continued to saunter away.

Then the collab abruptly ended with one of the players leaving the roleplay so instead of investigating Ronja decided to cut her losses and head back to the stadium. The girl hugging her was Mika from this world and was crying because she realized she’d made Ronja blind (but she can still see with Psychic spec) in their encounter and felt sad about it, even though she’d done it because Ronja emptied Lupa’s mind, but that had turned out to be a non-issue apparently so okay, that done.

________________________



Mariette was a bit in a state of panic. This situation should never have happened. Yet, there was still a chance everything could work out for her. A lot of it relied on Penny. That was why Mariette had to contact her. She initially wanted to just portal in, but she'd gathered Penny was hurt and doing so could step on a couple toes. A call it was.

Mariette had removed herself from the stadium and was sitting on a rock on an empty beach as she dialled the number. She brought it to her ear and nervously waited.

The call would connect rather quickly. Though at first there would, not exactly silence but the soft static in the background of the call wouldn’t seem all that important.

“Mariette” Penny would say after a few moments. “This is unexpected. What’s the occasion?”

‘The mirror. Why are you playing for it? What's your… what are you going to do with it?’ Mariette asked, voice sharp but nervous.

Penny would raise an eyebrow at the question, even though she knew that no one would see it. “I’m more playing for the Beach than the mirror if I am to be completely honest. But keeping a Horror’s artifact away from the Horror is also an acceptable goal now that I am in this.” She would reply, her own tone cool and slightly bored. She recalled how Mariette discarded her phone last time they talked after all. “Either way, handing it to Beacon for disposal is the short term idea.”

Mariette took a moment to respond. Because this was by phone, Mariette was more or less convinced she was listening in. Nothing else to it.

‘… Could I convince you to give it to me should you win? I’m… willing to negotiate,’ Mariette said, voice strained.

“I don’t trust you” Penny would lie, her tone not shifting in the slightest “But seeing as I’m not going anywhere for the moment I am willing to hear you out. What possible benefits could there be to me giving you the Mirror?”

Mariette was a bit taken aback by that statement, particularly the fact it was a lie. It was a lie for the one that might be listening… wasn’t it? The portal girl had to take a moment to consider her next words.

‘... That… that’s cold, I came to your aid when the sanctuary was under attack. I did this despite that my own mansion had just been under attack and I needed to recover and regroup, and I asked for nothing in return. But, I suppose that’s what I get for being Asengav’s champion,’ she said and sighed.

‘I could give you an army. Asengav’s forces have monsters under their command and weaker Magical Girls. They can stand as sentries around the Sanctuary, and follow your every command. I can promise that, even should I for some reason I attack, they would defend the Sanctuary against me. I also offer artifacts of power, as I have the means to develop them. Perhaps you’d like one especially ordered? If you want a very specific effect, name it, and I shall ask if it is possible to develop,’ Mariette said. However, this was just to divert attention from what she was about to offer next.

There would be a momentary pause after Mariette gave her first pitch before what sounded like a disappointed sigh could be heard. “You realize that you’ve offered me all of that before right?” Penny would ask. “Back when I first took the reins of the Sanctuary. I didn’t accept your offer then, when I had little to offer, what makes you think that I would be willing to accept it now, when if I do win I get something that is a notable prize if the amount of people you’ve arrayed for it is anything to go by.”

“I’ll admit you did earn some points with helping out with the clean up, but treading the same ground now isn’t enough to cover the heat I would bring down on my head for handing it over to you. Not when the Ascendency Inquisitor had gotten her interest peaked by it.”

‘I see. That is unfortunate,’ Mariette said, and then considered her next set of words. There was something that she wanted to convey to Penny, but to mention it in a business deal was stupid. Yet, she had to say it.

‘… Then consider this. I want to work with you. I want to be allied with the people of Penrose. I want to play nice and not cause too much mayhem. However, should I not be able to recover that mirror, you may find that my replacement to be… far less agreeable.’ With all likelihood, Lea would take command, and Lea doesn’t care about Penrose or its inhabitants, even the slightest. … Anyway. It was time for the idea she’d been brewing to be mentioned.

‘Okay, then how about the following? Win the Black Mirror, and hand it back to me… and I will free the Magical Girls I once kidnapped,’ she offered. ‘If it is in exchange for recovering my master’s artifact, even he will agree it is an acceptable loss. I cannot return them all, because the attack on my manor killed over half of them, and one cannot be returned because a role has been given to her to play…’ Olivia, that is. ‘but the rest of them I can return safely, with their memories of the events cleared. You must understand, no regular deal would be adequate for just handing over such a valuable fighting force. This is a special offer. What do you say?’ Mariette asked.

This was… a little plan of Mariette’s. A way to, without Lea or her master questioning it, return the girls she had previously kidnapped. To make amends without making amends. If this deal went through, then Mariette would actually want Penny to win. She hoped the queen would pick up on that.

There would be another silence a more calculating one as Penny processed these new bits of information. “That” Would say slowly “Might be workable.” Rescuing the captured girls was definitely a high priority for Penny, especially since it seemed that Mariette wasn’t aware that Aurelio had managed to save some of the girls who had gone down in the assault. Not all of them, but some. Beacon could likely also pin down the one that wasn’t released to try and cut off Asengav’s next plan of action, assuming they had information on the one.

There was also keeping Mariette alive, or at least in charge. Though the Queen wasn’t sure why the girl was choosing to stay under the Horror’s shadow right now. Sabotage seemed like the name of the game so far, which could be useful, but Penny got the sense it was more than just simple sabotage, though how that was, she wasn’t fully sure of.

“Have a small request that could make it an easy deal for me.” She would go on, though the likelihood of her taking this deal was already high at the moment, even though it also meant she would have to go talk with Rachel again. “You helped pass along a few Coins to me a while back. But you did something to them, they are lesser compared to the genuine ones.” It was something she had discovered while inspecting the coins in question after the near riot at the Sanctuary. She hadn’t been able to fully comprehend what had been done to them, but she could still tell that something had been. “Care to share? Or return what was taken?” The last bit was a shot in the dark, though it made sense.

Mariette resisted a breath of elation at Penny's statement. If that worked, then…!

That part first. Oh, yeah. She did something to those. There was a slight bit of regret, doing that felt so pointless now.

‘I didn't "lessen" them, they still purify as intended. I just removed the part of them that forced the user to tie themselves to Beacon. I didn't like that the one option for someone who didn't want to be a monster anymore was to become a pawn of Beacon, so I removed that aspect of the coins. If they want to join Beacon, they can do that out of their own free will afterwards. That was all there was to it,’ Mariette explained. Then she sighed.

‘At the time, the coin was the only way to be purified. Since then, more options have appeared, making this gesture of defiance meaningless. Yeah, you can have them back. They are useless to me.’ So she said.

“Trust me, looking at them side by side the ones you altered do feel ‘lesser’.” Penny would say. Though she supposed that would make sense if Mariette removed whatever it was that linked the user to Beacon. Penny wasn’t even sure how that was possible, but those thoughts were for another time.

“Regardless, as soon as you can get those parts back to me the better” She would go on “Those should be able to buy me the freedom needed to get you the Mirror. Though I warn you, It’s not likely I’ll be able to simply hand it to you if I win. I’ll need some time, but no more than a day.”

Mariette gave no reply to the coins feeling lesser. It did seem she was getting away with that act of sabotage relatively harmlessly. So, for the next part…

‘So I will simply have to trust you not to lose my mirror in the meantime. Very well. I would like your word that you will not allow anyone to tamper with the mirror, somehow sabotaging it or adding anything that would be to my detriment or your advantage later on. If you can promise that, then I will promise to free the girls upon recovering the mirror without any tampering to them other than removing their memories of their time with me, and then we will have a deal,’ Mariette said, adding her own requirement.

“I wasn’t going to mess with it” Penny would mutter with a sigh. “But I’ll promise you that I won’t let anyone add to, or take anything from, the Mirror to the best of my abilities.” Both statements were honest.

“I suppose that’s everything” She would say, since it seemed that their bartering had gone rather smoothly. “But I do have one other Question. What if I get the Mirror without winning?”

Mariette’s eyebrows twitched. That… was a curious, and perhaps ominous, statement.

‘… The deal will be the same. Should you be in possession of the mirror at any point, then the deal is the same. The captured girls for the Black Mirror,’ she said simply.

“Good to hear, and I’m just checking my options really.” Penny would say with a chuckle. “Not expecting that I’m going to need to fall back onto a plan B, but I like to make sure that I’ve got them as an option anyway.” Would be the explanation.

‘I, uh. I see,’ Mariette replied, not entirely sure how to take that. Anyway… ‘So, we have a deal, then?’

“I’ll keep my word so long as you keep yours” Penny would agree.

‘Then, for a final bit, allow me to give you a word of warning. I’ve significantly powered up your next opponent,’ she told very frankly. ‘You must understand, I had to prepare for every possible circumstance. No matter who wins, I have to be on their side.’ No matter who won, Mariette needed to obtain that mirror.

‘What I’m saying is, underestimate her at your own peril. Good luck.’

“Hah… Sounds like I’m not the only one who is looking to stack the deck and get back up plans in order.” Penny would remark. “Any other bits of insight you're willing to give me in regards to Tenebra? or am I just going to have to find out in the ring?”

Hm. Perhaps she did. Tenebra hadn’t explicitly promised Mariette to give her the mirror, after all, and deep inside she wanted to give the captured girls back, so she wanted Penny to win. Very well. Sorry about this, Tenebra.

‘She’s a warper. She can create a path between two spaces in existence. It’s similar to my power, but it’s far more unstable and unpredictable, and it can be used on your current position with impunity. As for what more she’s capable of now when she’s powered up? It may turn out to be really dangerous. After all, she will only need to hit you once.’

“So I was going up against Time, and now I’m against Space. And here I thought I’d be able to catch a break in all of this.” Penny would remark a touch sarcastically. “I’m assuming she’s more of a caster, much like you as well?” She’d ask, more to be certain than anything else. Either way it would prove to be an annoying bout. Especially with her mimicry systems on the fritz.

‘I would claim so, albeit I haven't seen her physical output truly tested,’ Mariette replied. It was a bit amusing that she was up against a master of space directly after one of time, the portal girl agreed.

“Welp, that just means I have to find a way to hit her I suppose.” Penny would say, though her tone conveyed her annoyance. “Why is it that Magical skill is proving to be the ace in a physical sport?” She would complain to herself.

“That does cover everything, unless you’ve got another topic you’d like to bring up.”

‘I wish you good luck.’

Mariette then hung up.

________________________


It was a bit later. Matches were already ongoing, and Mariette was using a moment’s reprive to ensure that the mirror would not be stolen. Jelena was near the mirror, just sitting as an additional guard, watching it with her Third Eyes because then nobody should be able to use magic and be able to get away with the mirror, and of course there were more people watching the scene. In any case, Sally distracted Dan… which spared them the effort of distracting him themselves. Of course they had plans for how they could do that themselves, but this let them save their own plots.

‘Now,’ told the voice in Mariette’s ear, and Mariette nodded.

Hidden away she opened a portal directly to the portal inside the present, and Lea, with her outrageous agility, quickly slipped in.

They’d had an argument. Lea was of the opinion that they should steal the mirror and get the heck out of there immediately. Mariette wanted them to earn back the mirror by the rules of the game, and only steal it if they absolutely had to, because then they wouldn’t lose the trust of other members of Penrose and make more enemies.

As Mariette was in charge, they went with Mariette’s plan, but it did come with an important caveat. They had to ensure the mirror wouldn’t be stolen by anyone else. Hence why Lea now placed their non-magic tracker on the mirror frame, and then swiftly darted back, only Jelena with her Third Eye watching the present seeing the portal-magic that had appeared within the box for the briefest of moments.

The portal closed, their unnamed member confirmed that the tracker was indeed attached, and the mission was done. Now it was just to let Jelena constantly watch the scene with her Third Eye and they’d be alright.

Or so they had figured.

It vanished.

‘It’s gone,’ a voice reported in Mariette’s and Lea’s ears. Mariette raised her gaze and met Lea’s furious one, and there was no time to waste. All at once, multiple portals opened to every available magical girl in Mariette’s team.


‘Freya, Jelena, Tullia, with me,’ Lea immediately told, gathering the fastest among them, Freya grunting a bit while Jelena looked excited and Tullia confused. Lea immediately grabbed around them and Overcity Shifted. The most likely scenario was that somebody had taken the mirror and Overcity Shifted, which would place the party with the mirror in the Overcity, and then Lea would find and intercept them instantly by proximity, potentially. It was a possibility that was so strong they didn’t even wait for confirmation before going to go look. If it was incorrect, Mariette could retrieve them more or less instantly.

Jelena was with the Overcity crew basically exclusively to throw a look around herself with Third Eye. If she didn’t see anything immediately, she’d be back in this dimension within ten seconds.


‘Suzette, distract Dan. Taihei, give her an illusion,’ Mariette commanded, and Taihei shrugged before casting a specific gem over to Suzette with a raised eyebrow, but then smirked and acknowledged. Mariette deposited Suzette with a portal. She let Suzette head to work, and then turned to a new trio.


‘Mayra, Ronja, Josefin. Pursue, and if possible, obtain Sally,’ she commanded. Sally was, from all possible evidence, intrinsic to whatever had happened. The trio were ideal for hunting down someone lucky. Mayra, to hide them with darkness magic. Ronja, to restrain and obtain info from someone. Josefin, to just hopefully equalize the luck disparity between them. Mayra grinned and acknowledged, Ronja nodded and Josefin was a bit startled but otherwise ready to move. They departed, stalking Sally for now and looking for an opportunity. With this being Dan’s dimension, kidnapping her may be out of their reach, but she was very likely involved and they couldn’t let her get away.

A second or so later Jelena would be back, having done her immediate overview of the area in the Overcity. Then it was time for the next part.

________________________

So, there was Guardsman Dan, with his sunglasses and overall coolness, watching over the present… when something came around the corner. Someone that was sure to draw his attention. Totally.



‘Hey, big guy. Are you free?’ asked the resplendent image of a beautiful female dolphin, similarly humanized like Dan was, with definitive curves and assets, leaning at the corner and looking over at the dolphin guard.

This was actually Suzette in an illusion, and soon enough she’d slip away or laugh saying it was just a harmless prank if she was actually caught for what she was.

If there was even a single moment when Dan was distracted, Mariette broke open the portal into the box again, to check if the mirror was still within it or not. It was possible it was just the tracker that had somehow malfunctioned, after all. If so, this would be a little embarrassing. If it wasn’t, then Jelena would be there to look with her Third Eyes for whatever kind of magic trace might still be there for what had been done.

If the mirror was not there, and there wasn’t any immediate trace of where it had gone, then Mariette would lean back, focus her power, and then break the dimensional rift as she opened multiple portals into different dimensions. With their tracker expert right beside her, the hope was that the tracker would reappear if a straight path to the right dimension appeared. The obvious places to check was their own world of Penrose, the Overcity, and any other immediately adjacent dimensions. It didn’t matter if it was straining right now, they had to find that mirror.

Of course, with Freya suddenly recruited for this, it meant she couldn’t face Victoria, who was already waiting in the ring, in battle. Not to worry, Mariette had prepared for that, too… (battle added to fight-club-links for commentating)

As Jelena became aware that something had happened at the scene based on Lea’s quick orders, she had come to realize that there was something strange about the coin that Sally had accidentally dropped; she could not tell exactly what it was, but she had a suspicion there was magic involved. But there wasn’t time to ruminate on the discovery, as the team quickly shifted to the Overcity. There, the anonymous girl’s eyes tightened on the monitor; the tracker’s signal had come back. However, there was nothing in the team’s vicinity that warranted suspicion, suggesting that Overcity Shift was not utilized.

Meanwhile at the feast hall, the Dan duplicate flipped a page when he heard a sultry voice from around the corner.
“Huh?” He lifted his head, and squeaked loudly at the sight of the alluring member of the Artiodactyla order. “M-Madam?” He stuttered, his face having turned red as he shied away from the disguised Suzette, before flashing a nervous smile at the apparently cetacean charmer.
“Well, I suppose I could be...” He managed to answer, ignorant of Mariette having portalled inside the present box.

Using the light of the stadium to illuminate the area, the eyepatched girl confirmed her suspicions; the Black Mirror was gone, frame and all. However, that was when Mariette’s Awareness kicked in, and she immediately discovered something unusual on the floor; a wooden splinter, and a somewhat round, very thin scratch mark on the floor.
She also noticed a tiny bit of water dripping from outside the present box under it, and discovered two tiny puddles of water outside the present box, strangely symmetrical in a way that seemed familiar.

Back at the Overcity, the anonymous girl had just managed to collect enough data to form coordinates when the signal disappeared again. She couldn’t help but sigh as she realized where the coordinates pointed to; the downtown area of the Overcity capital. Due to the electronic interference from the city, she could only manage to form an approximate location in a 500-meter radius in the area, but at least it was a clue she managed to secure before it was lost.

Elsewhere, the capture task force tracked Sally down to the lounge near the stadium, where she grabbed a drink and was about to head out. It was the perfect moment to grab Sally, with no apparent eyewitnesses. However, just as Ronja shot out her ensnaring web, the dice managed to roll in Sally’s favor despite Josefin’s attempt to manipulate fate; Lily came running in fast at the worst moment.


”Oh hi Sally, whatcha doing-" Lily managed to say before the web wrapped around her mouth and body, and she was pulled right into Ronja’s bosom. Of course, this caused Sally to scream in surprise.

“What’s going on over here!?” Rachel was the first to arrive, her glasses shining as she held a fist up, ready to pummel the kidnappers. “Unhand that girl at once!”

This snapped the prime Dan back to attention, who teleported to the feast hall. “Okay, what is going on here?” He lifted the present box up, and gasped.

“OH NOOO! It’s been stolen!” He brought up a microphone, and announced to everyone in the dimension:

“Attention, everyone! The tournament has been placed into an indefinite hiatus. The reason is...The Black Mirror has disappeared,” he finally managed to say, sounding miserable as his nose drooped.



Justine gasped upon hearing the news, and immediately went to seek Maura.
”Mistress Maura! The Mirror’s stolen! What do we do now?"

Kimble was also concerned, and she held Alicia’s arm tightly.
”We should go to the feast hall, Alicia!”

Thing is, at this point, Maura and most of Cradle had already returned to Penrose. The only ones that hadn't left were Oliver, Finn...

And surprisingly, Elizabeth. So when Justine went searching for Maura, that's who she found instead. "Hey." the tired woman waved. "If you're looking for Maura, she already went back to town with the rest. If you want, I can relay to her that the mirror got taken." She'd wait for justine's answer before telling Maura what happened through magicoms. "Bad news, someone lost their patience and stole the mirror."

There was a moment of silence on the other side, then Maura spoke up. "And we should care because?"

Eliza's eyes widened. "Ma'am, you do realize there's a chance an ally could be screwed without that thing, right?? ....RIGHT????" She could've sworn she heard the other witch roll her eyes.

Maura groaned. "Yes, I'm damn well sure. And I'm also damn well sure they don't need our help anyways, you know how this stupid town is. Look, tell...Justine....she should focus on the tournament. If you really want to help, then let Finn know a crime's been commited." She didn't say anything further, hesitating on addressing Justine by name.

Elizabeth nodded, looking back to Justine. "Guess she gave up on the mirror. She said you should focus on the tournament, and that we probably won't need to involve ourselves. But if you insist, we can also look for Finn and let him know."

...

..

On the other neck of the woods, nay, dimension, Dan's dreadful announcement managed to reach the ears of Oliver. Looking up and over to where the stadium was, the ghost didn't react as strongly as others might have. "....Hm. Sucks to be them I guess." Oliver quietly said with a shrug. Quietly, because even if he managed to overhear it, Finn had fallen asleep next to him, and he didn't want to wake him up abruptly. So Oliver decided to get back on his laptop for the moment.

As per usual, Alexander was left behind when Lily found someone she wanted to talk to. At first, he found this a little tiring, but like most things about Lily, he had gotten used to it. In fact, her excessive energy was actually a little relaxing now...somehow. 'Heh, I can always count on Lily to do something to cheer me up' And then she got yoinked by a web, and Alexander saw red. His Reinforcement and Beast magic both flowed through his body as he readied his weapons and ran to where Lily had been standing, where he quickly saw the kidnapper. His mind briefly flashed back To the castle "Let. Her. Go!" He practically growled. But the stand off was interrupted by an announcement that sounded like it was coming from an old PA system

“Attention, everyone! The tournament has been placed into an indefinite hiatus. The reason is...The Black Mirror has disappeared,”

Alexander didn't let the news distract him for long 'I barely understand what that damn thing does and why everyone want's it anyway.' and quickly turned his attention back to the kidnapper and Lily "Lily, try to stay calm, I'll get you out of there" He said as he began slowly approaching. He put up a quick forcefield around himself and readied a barrier to deflect the next attack.

Seated in the restaurant that Kimble had guided them to, like most Alicia was taken off guard by Dan's announcement. Of course one culprit immediately presented itself. Mariette's group had probably done this on purpose, not willing to risk the possibility that they might have their plans ruined by losing. And as servants of a Horror, it wasn't like they had any particular negatives for making Dan mad at them.

With Kimble grasping her arm, Alicia rose to her feet as she processed the news. "We may want to find Rachel first," she mused, though whether they could get to her before she got to the feast hall was another matter entirely. "You know, before she declares that she won the tournament by default." Even if she didn't go through with destroying the place, she might still try to take it out on Dan for losing the mirror that he was supposed to be looking after. And that would be bad, at least as far as their reputation with everyone else was concerned.

Taking one last sip of her drink, Alicia headed out with Kimble to go and do just that.

The stage was a merry-go-round. A larger, round platform rotated clockwise in the middle, and around it a series of smaller platforms rotated counterclockwise around it, while they themselves also rotated clockwise in the water. Nothing in this stage stood still.

Cheerful festival music began playing, accompanied by Dan’s voice.
“Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazed and awed, as our competitors take to the spotlight on board on the Ferry-Go-Round! A challenging stage for any Keijo performance, the rotating platforms are sure to perplex and befuddle!”

A spotlight shone on the first competitor to arrive.
“In the north corner we have the Snowflake Fighter, the Furious Frostbite, Victoria!”



Victoria was dressed as usual, in her little bikini and her long purple hair flowing. She waved at the audience, ready to show what she truly amounted to. She stood on one end of the rotating platform, her arms crossed, smirking confidently.

It was an amusing little thing. She was one of the few that could actually win against Freya. More accurately, she was someone Freya just simply couldn’t beat. Mariette had said that the less powerful should surrender, but Victoria honestly believed she stood a better chance than Freya in the battles ahead. Sure, Freya was stronger and faster than Victoria, but Freya couldn’t attack the opponent with fifteen different versions of herself at once. Victoria was confident she’d be able to pull some clever tricks to beat her enemies in the future…

So she wasn’t surrendering.

So now it was just a question of her opponent…

“And in the south corner, we have the Notorious Naga, the Union Beast herself, Freya!”

… But nobody appeared. There was silence for numerous seconds, before Victoria laughed out loud.

‘Oh? You’re just gonna give me the win? I understand! I’m a bit disappointed, but I’ll take it! In the grand scheme of things, it’s probably the wisest cause of action! Hahahaha!’ Victoria celebrated her victory…

Then, a portal deposited a letter to Dan, who caught it with a look of surprise on his face; inside was a piece of paper with a simple message.

After the dolphin read it, he spoke to the microphone.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Freya has decided to substitute another player in her stead! Please give a warm welcome to our mystery duelist!”

Then someone jumped from the stands. When her feet met the rotating platform, there was a splash as the brown-haired girl’s weight was somewhat heavier than that of a regular human. She stood up straight and looked towards Victoria on the opposite end, the rotating platform making their position relative to the audience constantly shift. The girl’s body looked human, but it was actually composed of something else. For whatever reason, she was wearing glasses.


Esther stood in her swimsuit, a blue and flowery bikini, standing staring blankly at her opponent.

“Introducing the Stoic Beauty, the Mysterious Madam...Esther!”

‘You… you cheater, hahaha,’ Victoria stated, laughing a bit as she looked over her apparent unflinching opponent. ‘So they put you up to facing against me. They think you can beat me. Very well. I’ll just have to prove them wrong, eh?’ Victoria stated, smirking and leaning her head back a little. Esther hadn’t moved. ‘Well, guess there’s not gonna be much banter in this battle. Shall we get rolling?’ she asked, and the icy witch and the mute tree faced off.

“Without further ado, let’s begin! Battle!”



Victoria grinned as she just stood there, and spawns of herself started jumping out of her. One, two four, eight, Victoria viciously used her mana to create copies of herself that spewed out around her and jumped off onto varying rotating platforms. Numerous of them ran forward to confront Esther directly.

Esther calmly advanced at walking speed, her eyes not even moving to acknowledge that she was being surrounded by clones.

“Victoria starts by duplicating herself into nine!” Dan commented. “While a powerful weapon, it can prove fatal on her part!”

‘Haha, with your agility, you could never keep up with me!’
‘You better give up or be launched!’ Victoria duplicates taunted as they rushed in at Esther. Esther wasn’t as agile or as strong as the physical fighter with a myriad of duplicates that surrounded her, but there were two other stats which Esther thoroughly defeated Victoria in.

Two duplicates slammed their butts into Esther’s side, and another jumped to slam her (diminutive) chest into Esther’s shoulder, and they all connected. They were all aimed for the same side as to send Esther into the drink. However, while Esther recoiled, she didn’t move much at all. Under her feet, plants grew, and roots had rooted themselves inside the rotating platform making her resist the blows.

“And Esther stands her ground without breaking a sweat! What incredible durability!”

‘Haha, that’s fine! That’s fine! I’ll just let you take a pounding until-’ a duplicate said, swinging her butt towards her target… only for Esther to completely spin in place, as if her legs weren’t even connected to her feet, and Esther’s (significantly larger) chest slammed into the duplicate’s head while the hip the duplicate had been aiming for just kind of bent inhumanly out of the way. The confused duplicate broke into a million shards of ice and a dozen or so Victorias grunted at the same time.

“And Esther slams, shattering a clone into submission! It seems our enigmatic entrant is more than mere appearances suggest!”

Because when your whole body is composed of a material your magic controls, you’re not really constrained to the form of the human body. Esther had demonstrated this as her body reassembled into human form, after both her hips and her feet had deformed out of regular shape. Her expression was as blank as ever.

‘So you do understand the rules of Keijo. I was wondering if perhaps your mind was completely gone, but I guess that proves you’re pretty aware in there!’ a Victoria stated, and the duplicates started to run again, around this rotating platform.

‘Well, that’s fine! I just need to break your roots!’ a Victoria shouted, and revealed herself to be the real deal as she slammed her hands down into the platform, and a freezing streak of magic carried itself through the platform intended for beneath Esther, intent on freezing and breaking her root-system. As she did a crowd of five duplicates descended on Esther at the same time, intent on taking full advantage of when the roots broke…!



The platform broke apart. Multiple Victorias suddenly stumbled, only due to great awareness didn’t any stumble into the drink. One of them had no choice but to leap straight over Esther’s position, while another was about to stumble in but was kicked at full power by another duplicate, sending its icy shards of disassembly flying.

Victoria looked down with alarmed eyes, and saw how there was a web of tree-branches inside the platform that had broken it apart, placing Esther on a tiny island and creating giant cracks across the rest of it, separating her and the Victorias. Even more alarming, there were roots growing underwater, hunting for the rotating platforms around the stage, piercing into them and taking them under Esther’s control. A single root was hunting downwards, and soon connected to the bottom of the pool and giving Esther a single wooden platform to stand on.

Dan was excited at this turn of events. “How cunning! Esther had single-handedly split the very platform she was standing and created a new one, nearly trapping Victoria’s clones in the water! ”

‘Pah. Have you forgotten who you’re fighting?’ Victoria asked, frowning. She took a step forward, looking like she was stepping right out to fall into the water, yet under her foot the water turned to ice, and then started to spread across the area of water around Esther. The real Victoria made a head-gesture, and the crowd of duplicates jumped in around her and placed their hands on her so that she could put some extra magic inside them.

‘I’m not as magically powerful as Tullia. I can’t shoot ice-beams or bring out a blizzard to envelop everything in snow. But, I CAN freeze this water, and I can brawl the everliving heck out of you, and that’s what matters in Keijo!’ Victoria declared as the platforms were being broken apart by roots around them. She pointed forward, and all the duplicates on the ice prepared themselves.

‘Victorias! Advance!’ she shouted, and as the real one was freezing the water beneath their feet as they ran at Esther.

“Victoria is freezing the water, just like Tullia did back in round one!” Dan added. “And she has gone on an all-out offensive! How will Esther respond?”

Esther gazed at them blankly, perhaps coldly, and…

‘KAH!’ a Victoria clone shouted out in alarm, as Esther’s roots started breaking through the ice in front of her from underwater. Victoria grunted and just applied more magic. Not her strongest suit, but she started trying to freeze the roots trying to break their footing from underneath. A magical battle took place at the water’s surface…

“Esther has launched roots through the ice, like a hungry kraken grasping at vikings!”

While above the water the Victoria duplicates launched at Esther! Esther wasn’t as agile as them, but her body moved to try to counter and bent out of the way of some attacks. That said, she wasn’t quite as physically competent as Victoria, and there were a lot of Victorias. Esther’s swinging of her chest and rear in unnatural angles managed to take one or two off guard and shattered them into ice, but on the whole the Victorias were now far more wary of Esther’s unnatural movement and scored far more hits back; hits that Esther definitely felt but didn’t send her flying because she was rooted to the wooden platform she was standing on. Yet, it was definitely clear. In this battle, Esther was losing, and being unable to actually strike Victoria with her superior magic it meant Victoria was winning. The duplicates just needed to land enough blows to tear her from her roots, and they sure were, hitting durable Esther with chest-slams and rear-butts over and over…!

‘Hahaha, you scared me there, but controlling the terrain isn’t enough when you can’t fight back with it…!’ Victoria announced…!

Then she felt herself descend a bit.

‘… What the-’ Real Victoria looked down in shock as her duplicates kept attacking Esther. What was that? She was definitely lower than she was before. Yeah, the battlefield level had gone down a bit, and Esther’s platform had risen a little. What was?

‘Oh, you gotta be-’ Victoria suddenly realized. It wasn’t that the stage was going down. It was the amount of water in the pool. The water-level in the pool was descending because someone was drinking it. All Esther’s roots underwater were absorbing water…!

Esther shot a blank look back at the attacking Victoria’s, suddenly filled with more power. A powerful vine grabbed around her legs and shot into the air, forcing the duplicate Victorias to leap backwards! Esther suddenly towered above them, a wooden vine holding her high… before suddenly descending rapidly!

“I can’t believe it!” Dan shouted. “Esther is draining the pool itself of water with her roots! At this rate, if she drains the entire pool...there won’t be any Keijo! Oh, the humanity!”

‘Eeep!’ Victoria duplicates started crying out as the giant wooden vine swung Esther at them at high speeds, butt-first, and then swung her back chest-first, impacting a duplicate each time and sending the shards of ice flying. It was basically impossible to hit Esther as she was being swung around by her own magic, but…

‘Haha, you just created a massive weak spot…!’ Real Victoria grinned as she dashed off at massive speed towards the place where the vine was sticking out of the water, a sword of ice manifesting in Victoria’s hands. Dodging the giant vine would be easy for someone with her agility, and since the vine wasn’t part of Esther’s real body Victoria could slice it through with a weapon, and then Esther would come crashing down into the water due to having broken all the platforms…! Her roots took some time to manifest, she wouldn’t be able to make a new one to save her from splashing into the water! Her fate would be sealed…!

Instead of swinging at her, though, the wooden vine suddenly rose straight as an arrow, becoming a straight tower sticking out of the water, Esther at the top. Victoria was mid-flying at the tower to slice it through, but she did think this was odd, what was Esther doing up there-

‘AH-!’ Victoria made a horrified noise of realization.

The tower was no longer connected to the bottom of the pool. Over time, Esther had made other connections that were more diagonal underwater, and then removed the main pillar that held up her root-system. Meaning…

Esther did a small jump, then KICKED her tower with all her might. Like a rod of kinetic bombardment, the tree lost all support and rushed with massive force down into the water. As it did, the rod was connected by roots to Victoria’s icy platform, as the icy girl had so kindly frozen the roots and incorporated said roots into the ice, so they were fundamentally interlinked with the wooden tower. This, of course, meant that when the tower went underwater, so too did the ice all the Victorias were standing on, pulled along by the massive force of the tower and the roots connected to it.

Dan screamed: “And Esther kicks the tower, sending the Victoria’s plummeting!”

‘GAH-!’ ‘NO-!’ ‘WHA-!’ ‘ACK-!’

There were varying screams from duplicate Victorias as the very ice they stood on was pulled underwater. Real Victoria was magical enough that she could jump and establish a new frozen island to stand on, but her duplicates were not so fortunate. Not all of them managed to react in time, and those who did didn’t all have the magic to establish a new frozen platform so quickly, and Real Victoria didn’t have the magic to freeze that big an area for them all. In the end, numerous duplicates splashed into the water as the tower dragged their ice down underneath them, and Real Victoria landed on an icy platform but could but gaze in stunned shock at her duplicates splashing angrily in the water.

‘OH, MOTHER-’ Victoria then abandoned English to curse loudly and explicitly in Russian, _{a language her player isn’t brave enough to try to curse in}. A second later Esther, as expressionlessly as always, fell into the water with a big splash. Nope, she no longer had anywhere to land after sending her tower underwater, she just knew she’d have won already at that stage.

“What an incredible match, ladies and gentlemen!” Dan popped out floating over the water.
“This one is going for the records. Esther wins!”

________________________



‘There was something weird with that coin Sally dropped! Try to obtain it!’ Jelena called before being taken away by Lea into the Overcity.

Then there was that part of it appearing in the Overcity.


‘The signal reappeared. It’s in the Overcity,’ the girl said, as she received the signal through Lea’s hole in reality. ‘Lea, do you copy? It was in the Overcity, at coordinates <given coordinates>.’

Mariette immediately opened a couple portals to take the Overcity team as close as reasonably possible. Maybe Overcity had rules against portalling in, if not, basically right above the coordinates.


‘Hmpf. They dare flee through the Overcity? The Overcity is my home. I will find whatever trace they left behind! Tullia, Freya, let’s go!’ she announced, and departed at once, with the fastest and possibly one of the strongest teams that Mariette could gather, backed by Lea’s speed, Freya’s strength and Tullia’s magical prowess.

________________________




‘Good~’ Suzette-illusioned-into-sexy-dolphin said, and was going to start taking sultry steps towards Guardsman Dan… when prime teleported in and flipped the box and it seemed the game was up. Whelp, time to bail. Sexy dolphin Suzette gave Guardsman Dan a wink and then ran for it.

________________________



There’s something to be said about the ridiculous amount of luck this girl was carrying, that apparently not even Josefin’s presence was giving them any boons. That said, the instant she saw that Mayra cloaked herself and Josefin with a stealth-darkness spell, leaving Ronja to take the blame.

Ronja tilted her head at the bound Lily in her arms pressed up against her chest.

‘My, my. How do you keep ending up in these situations, Lily?’ Ronja asked, then looked up at the immediate issue. There was Sally, Rachel and Alexander all way too intent on making her release the poor girl. Not that she had any intentions of holding onto her. Still, there was something she could do with this. She leaned down to whisper to Lily.

‘You’re a believer in justice, aren’t you? … Sally has a magic coin she used to steal the Black Mirror with. Mariette would be very happy if you could help us find out how she did it,’ she whispered, and then smirked, before looking up towards the incoming threats.

‘Ops, my mistake,’ Ronja said, letting the webs unravel from Lily and then gently lobbing her over towards Alexander. ‘I do wonder, however. Was all of Beacon complicit with the theft of the Black Mirror… or was this a rogue action by one Shamrock Sally who may have stolen it for a different faction altogether?’ Ronja said, and figured that if Rachel was not complicit with this, she may be furious.

‘If you were not complicit with the crime of stealing the Black Mirror, then allow me to read her mind. We shall find out both where the Mirror was taken, and if Sally has a more sinister side she has yet to reveal to you. Feel free to summon Alicia, and she will know I speak the truth.’ So Ronja said.

Meanwhile, in the darkness.

‘Hahahaha, did you see that insane timing!? The briefings weren’t lying about her luck…!’ Mayra laughed quietly, holding onto Josefin.

‘G-geesh… That is ridiculous… I’m not used to seeing that happen to anyone but me…’ Josefin said, but shook her head. ‘Don’t worry! I believe in my luck! If we just wait, the opportunity will present itself…!’ she asserted, and they’d wait in the darkness, and/or follow Sally if she tried to depart. Worst case scenario, Mayra would totally throw Josefin at Sally. To see who’s really the luckiest.

________________________

Then, left at the scene of the crime… was Mariette, Jelena and Taihei.



‘… Right, I think I’m just gonna leave so I don’t make things worse…’ Taihei said, turning and walking away.

Correction, there was Mariette and Jelena!

Jelena scanned for more magical somethings, while Mariette stood inspecting the two round puddles. Two round, tiny puddles that for some reason seemed familiar. Her player currently has no idea if Mariette is supposed to recognize these two puddles. Is this someone’s breasts? Someone’s butt? It definitely would make sense if it had something to do with Sonia, but, meh. Water? Does that mean whoever came here did so from somewhere with water? There’s not a lot of water-girls. Eh, I don’t frickin’ know.

Anyway, that’s just a setup, because now a couple people appeared and it’s time for a collab at the crime-scene.

The walk back to the feast hall felt like a long one. It wasn’t, Penny knew that for certainty as she checked the chronometer in the corner of her HUD, but it still felt like it. Part of it was because she could feel her thoughts shifting. The damage she sustained from her mimicry systems going haywire had changed things. She was still herself, at least as far as she could tell, but the underlying runtimes had been altered. Wither this was due to the near brush with death, the repairs, or something all together different she wasn’t sure.

But that was only one part of why it felt like a long time.

Another part was the fact she refused to let herself rush over there. She kept her gait measured and even the entire time. Even as she focused ahead, and her thoughts plotted out who to look out for and who she would need to talk to. She forced herself to act calm, demanded of herself that she remain on an even baring. As otherwise she would have torn apart everything in her way.

Everything that had happened was far from what she preferred, but it had been workable.

The last part, and the truest part, was because Penny was gathering herself. Dan’s realm, even for all that she disliked about it, was a place that she allowed herself to relax. That was no longer something that she was indulging in. Each step closer to the feast hall she would silently refitting her thoughts. Stepping more and more fully into the role of Queen that she had picked up. She would have allies and friends in the room to assist. As well as enemies and foes to dispatch if she got the chance.

The vacation was over.

Because of all that Those in the hall would be able to sense Penny a fair bit before she entered the hall. Her presence, while never a large one, was acutely felt in the air. Weighted and charged. But it wasn’t hostile, a fight wouldn’t solve anything. Yet.
Still her gaze carried weigh to it when she cast it across the hall. Surveying all those that were still here. “Time to get to work” She would mutter to herself.

First order of business. Rachel and the Ascendency. A Horror’s artifact was now in the wind. So regardless of how they felt about each other it was time to work together.

In the mean time Snoopy would fly elsewhere. Mariette was also here and Penny wanted eyes on her until she had a chance to talk to her. As she was the next priority.

Nykannis would be one to approach if circumstances allowed, but the crazed scientist wasn’t important at this moment.

"Ah, I see..." Justine spoke to Elizabeth with a somewhat disappointed tone, and nodded.
"Very well. I'll see if I can help in some way. Goodbye," she added politely, and left for the cabanas with a heavy heart. Though she knew it wasn't her fault that things had ended up like this, she couldn't help but feel responsible. Her mistress' negotiations seemed to have gone sour, yet she had no way to her. But there was someone she could talk to, and maybe even assist with looking into the missing mirror and the situation around it.

Having reached the cabanas, she knocked on the door.
"Finn? Are you there?" After a moment of silence, she slowly opened the door, and peeked inside, only to discover he was sleeping.
"Hey, now's not the time for a nap! Wake up!"

From his spot next to the aformentioned boy, Oliver gave Justine an unamused look. _{"Can't have shit in Detroit."} He muttered. Though he didn't stop Finn from waking up anyways, ruffling his hair.

"Hm...? Finn sat back up, rubbing any drowsiness out of his eyes. "Guess I passed out. Sorry, Oli." He apologized to the ghost, who simply shurgged in reponse. Then he looked to the one who woke him up. Oh. It was Justine. Oh boy...

Subtly gulping down any dread he felt, he spoke up. "Do I dare ask what happened?"

Justine bit her lip as she averted her eyes, and nervously fiddled with her fingers.
"So you didn't hear the announcement then...The mirror is gone." She grit her teeth.
"There's no doubt that it was stolen."

Finn's eyes widened. "Stolen??" He looked away to think. "So if someone stole it, does that mean we have a case?!" Surprisingly, instead of being angry, there was an excited glimmer in his eyes. But then in realization, he turned to pout at Oliver. "And you were going to make me miss out, you idiot!"

Oliver shrugged again, putting his laptop up. "They've probably already started investigating, Finn. _{Besides you needed a clear head for a while.}" He didn't say anything further, but that wouldn't sway the other boy. Finn shot up from his seat with an excited grin.

"That just means we gotta get there before they hog all of it up, COME ON!" He quickly said, grabbing Oliver's wrist and running out.

...Though just in case, he picked up Justine on the way out as well.

"Ah!" Justine exclaimed upon being picked, a blush on her cheeks.
"I-I can walk there myself!"

Soon enough they were at the crime scene, where most of the party goers have already gathered to inspect the scene. And at the center of it all was the girl most affected by the apparent theft: Mariette.



Mariette was standing on her own, staring down at the two puddles of water that for some reason were familiar to her. That and the wooden splinter, and the somewhat round, very thin scratch mark on the floor. Water dropping out of the box, forming the two strangely symmetrical puddles that looked familiar.

Jelena's there, too, mostly because the mistress shouldn't be left alone in a time of crisis. Not that the girl with the mechanical limbs could do much to help right now. Jelena noticed the ones approaching and moved to be a good guard, though Mariette wasn't moving and just kept looking at the puddles.

Spotting what seemed to be the center of the crime scene, Finn walked on ahead of Oliver and Justine, the former following behind a bit more slowly. Finn reached into his sleeves to grab a notepad and pen to jot down any clues, only to stop when Jelena barred them from approaching Mariette. "Hm?" The boy looked up, unphased by the metalic girl. "Easy there, I'm not a foe." He reassured them, holding up his notepad. "More or less, we're here to assist with the investigation."

Justine followed behind the boys with a sullen expression, and approached Mariette, briefly exchanging eye-contact with Jelena to acknowledge her role as bodyguard. Once she met with Mariette, she averted her gaze and hitched her breath.
"It seems that nobody can keep their hands for long on that accursed glass." She spoke carefully. "First me, then you, and even Dan. Looks like I won't be getting to play against Freya after all." She paused for a moment. "However...It doesn't change the promise I made you. I'll help you get it back, Mariette...If you'll let me, that is."

‘Heh, you think you'd do better than we did?’ Jelena asked, chuckling to herself. Mariette, though, took the time to look towards them as Justine came over to talk to her. She said nothing as Justine said her peace, and sighed at the end of it. ‘I'll allow it. I'm already risking everything, anyway.’ With that said, she turned to the new arrivals as a group.

‘We had a magical tracker on the mirror. Right after it vanished it briefly showed up in the middle of the Overcity, before vanishing once again. The manner of its disappearance suggests it was taken to a different dimension. If you're able to find anything from your investigation, then I am all ears.’ That'll do for now.

Finn gave Jelena an unamused look. "I used to be an investigator, I know what I'm doing." He calmly explained. Then he turned his attention to Mariette. He wrote down the details she shared as she spoke. Though the mention of the Overcity caught his interest, moreso the possibility that the culprit went further than there.

"Do you have anybody searching the Overcity? Or someone who can hop through dimensions??" He asked. If anything, he can quickly shift there and help. But who of them could pass through dimensions? Amanda and Maribel had pocket dimensions of their own, but how far could they go?

‘Heh. Good luck, then,’ Jelena shrugged and stepped aside. For the next question, Mariette answered.

‘I do. I'm able to open portals between dimensions. I've sent a couple people to investigate at the location,’ she said, summoning Bunny back to her hands since she'd briefly deposited him in a dimensional pocket in the previous excitement.

"That should make things a bit easier then." Finn said with a nod. "Once we get done looking around here I can meet up with the- Hello, what's this?" He paused at the sight of what remained in the mirror's place. A splinter, a scratch mark, symmetrical puddles. Odd combination. But something told him the water was magic in origin.

"Did you have any enemies here besides the obvious? Do you know anyone who specializes in water magic?" He asked, swapping his pen out for a camera to document the strange clue, then swapping back.

‘... I can't recall anything that has to do with water, but I do have an enemy with reason to utterly hate me with the ability to warp instantly past dimensional bounds and could easily have swiped the mirror if she could pinpoint its location,’ Mariette said, turning to look at Justine. ‘I believe Justine should be able to tell you more about her identity and powers.’

When Mariette pointed Justine out, she sighed.
"Are you referring to Sonia? She would be someone who's capable of something like stealing the mirror. But...She wouldn't do that. She'd be painting a target on her back." As she spoke, she looked at the two puddles, her brow furrowed.
"Hmm..." She stepped towards the puddles. She then re-oriented herself so she was standing behind them, one foot behind each puddle, causing her stance to slightly widen.
"...It's...almost like..."

Finn listened carefully as Justine told him about her past servant. Despite her doubts, he still jotted Sonia down as a possible suspect. No stone unturned. Though did she have water magic??

As if in tune with his thoughts, Justine stepped closer to the puddles, then behind. Once she appeared to have realized something, the investigator walked around to stand next to Justine. Was a change of perspective needed?

"Huh. The puddles could've been used to warp into the box, but would it fit a person inside? Nah, they must've used it to grab the mirror." Finn offered up a theory. "But where did the water come from?" He glanced around, there wasn't any leaks or pipes anywhere. Hm.

"...Could there have been something that triggered a spell? An artifact or likewise??" Finn asked.

"The puddles are definitely too small to fit a person inside," Justine answered as she pondered. She lightly stepped on one of the puddles.
"They're only about the size of my foot, give or take a few inches."
She also took a look up, and then at Mariette.
"Do you have any ideas, Mariette?"

‘None,’ Mariette told straight. ‘I know no person who'd bring water by standing there. It would be if they teleported from somewhere with water, but if so, the winter landscape around us makes anyone a potential culprit.’ Oh, and speaking of possible culprits...

‘... Sally of Beacon came by and dropped a coin that was magical just as it happened. She rolled it under the box. It is highly likely she did something. I have a team pursuing her as we speak,’ Mariette continued.

Finn groaned. Of course a Beacon hopeful had a hand in this. He noted Sally as a suspect, as obvious as that may be, then spoke up again.

"I'll have to take a look at this coin. Do you know where Sally went??"

‘Yes. She went here,’ Mariette said, kind of unceremoniously opening a portal next to her into the general area of Sally, where the "hostage situation" was taking place. Of course Mariette had been following that with some tiny portals under her eyepatch.

"Huh." Finn looked into the portal, then nodded to Mariette. "Thanks. Let me or Oli know if anything pops up." He then turned to Justine, and Oliver who's been quietly observing for the most part. Eh, he was more of a forensics guy. Field work was Finn's thing. But just in case, Oliver summoned a clone to help guard the scene.

"Let's go." Finn said, before they stepped through the portal.

@Shifter_Master@Ariamis

The crowd was somewhat more silent than earlier matches, as the fights had gone on their collective feelings had gone from amazement to dread. More and more people were realizing how wrong this was getting. Dina herself could barely hold together upon sensing the maelstrom.

She stood there, as both opponents were related to her. Sann was nowhere to be found for the time being. She eyed the girl the valkyrie had rescued. She was a boon, but…

The downright hostility flat out hurt. Her eyes weren’t even focused on Dina.

“Tenebra… please. If I can’t get Penny to back down, maybe you should… It’s getting too chaotic.” She called, her hand trying to reach for the Gravity girl, only to be swatted by a gravitic field.

“No. I refuse.” She growled as she walked towards the ring, her teeth gritted. Gone was the dithering and the blushing, only a heartfelt anger was present on her face.

From her place on the other end of the arena, Penny was noting the somber mood with more than a touch of unease. It was a mood whiplash from the last time she had been out here only a short time ago. She was having a difficult time reconciling the changes with the relatively short time difference. A matter only made worse by the apparent hostility she saw a supposed ally directing towards Dina.

‘The hell did I miss?’ She would wonder as she slowly walked towards the ring herself. Her gait, stiff and robotic.

“Tenebra” Penny would greet with a nod. “You doing alright?”

Tenebra eyed Penny, her gaze somewhat resembling a thousand yard stare. "I feel fine." She said.

"Thank you for waiting, everyone!" Dan appeared before Penny, a microphone in his hand. He sounded less excited than usual as he addressed the crowd, yet still kept a smile on his face.

"The Queen of Steel has returned to face off against the dark horse of the race, Tenebra! After her tag-in partner Sakura secured a victory, we now have the crafty mage herself ready to throw her lot in. Let's give them a welcoming applause!"

Once he roused the audience to share in his gesture, he quickly leaned towards Penny with a whisper: "I know you want to win, but try to keep your cool, ok? Rachel did not like it when I delayed your match to be the last one. Ok, good luck!"

He then disappeared in a puff of smoke, and his face appeared on the wide screen.
"It's time to duel!" He announced.

It was then when Dina eyed Tenebra and then Penny, offering a frown. "Your Majesty… I am certainly surprised you showed up."
Penny would nod to Dan subtly, internally scoffing at the ridiculousness of Rachel throwing a fit at Penny’s match getting pushed back by fifteen minutes. before replying to Dina “I’m still operational” She’d say with an attempted shrug, though the movement was stilted and unnatural. “Not really my style to simply give up.” She would keep her eyes on Tenebra, her concern easily discernible.

“Is it a who, a what, or a why?” She would ask the gravity girl. “Because even if you are doing fine” Which Penny knew was a lie. “You still look like you’re ready to commit homicide.”

Dina's mood would deflate significantly, as Tenebra eyed Penny. "Why, I have to step up… given the results of the last round. Dina wanted me to back down, Sann said. But I won't. " She eyed Penny. "I was foolish to think that I was brought back out of kindness and I would get some bits of my old life back."

"Tenebra, we can…" Dina would begin to talk, before a nudge of gravity shook her.

Penny would shift into an easy stance, since the match had started. “So you want to stay in the matches.” She would tilt her head to the side just a bit. “Personal reason for wanting to continue up the ladder? Or just annoyed at people trying to tell you what to do?” In contrast to her last match Penny was opting to play defense. Which if her jerky movement was any indication meant she wasn’t fully healed. Though only a few people would know the truth of that at the moment.

[color=9e0039]“And is there anything I can do to help?”[/color

Tenebra would eye Penny. "You could not get in the way of things, your… Majesty." Tenebra eyed Dina, who was now eyeing Penny.

Dina looked like she wanted to say something, but at this point… she just gave up. It was bad for Penny to go back on her words, and now there was a teenager acting like such.

"Lots of points need to be made." Tenebra would then add.

Penny would raise an eyebrow at the rather ominous statement. Sending her own glance at Dina as well. “Well. Let me know if that changes.” She would say before giving another stilted shrug.

“Oh, and feel free to call me Penny.” She’d add shifting her stance. “I only need the title in formal situations.” And with that she would leap at her opponent. Though it was glaringly obvious that she was moving slower than she had at her last match.

Tenebra for her part just vanished, the air wobbling and rippling, before reappearing a fair distance overhead the ring. Her gaze still pierced Penny as she aimed at her with one hand.

Space would warp and twist around Penny, save perhaps a 2 cm region around the Cyborg. It connected two unseemingly disconnected portions of space, sending Penny and the unaffected space bubble around her to the bottom of the pool.

Despite her target vanishing Penny didn’t falter. She simply turned her leap into a dive and rolled before coming up in a run. Her left eye had gone dull and once again glowing tattoos were alight across her legs lending speed to her stride as she seemed to lift above the platform ever so slightly.

The warping of space wasn’t something that Penny was blind to, even with her mimicry systems throwing up dozens of system alerts every time she tried reaching for it. Gravity was one of the elements that resonated within her soul, and with it she could still map out the areas that Tenebra was targeting. Just before the area she was in was to be shunted, the bottom two of her hidden limbs would lash out at the ground below her, suddenly kicking Penny forward and out of the warped space.

Though she would leave just the tip of one of her limbs within the targeted zone. If it got sliced off it might end this match with a disqualification. Something that Penny wasn’t above utilizing.

Not willing to stay still long enough to check if that would end things, Penny would keep running, quickly building up speed as she went. Shortly before the edge of the platform she would give a mighty leap. Rocketing up towards Tenebra, Penny would fold in half aiming her posterior towards the Warper, and rather than losing speed at any point, it seemed that Penny was gaining speed the entire way.

Tenebra would just emit a choked grunt, before tweaking the spell to allow Penny go unscathed. She did not move otherwise, but Penny would find out the space between the two was being stretched, roughly at the same speed Penny was travelling towards Tenebra. Of course Penny would notice this, but given she had propelled herself towards Tenebra she was already caught in the warped space before she could realize it. Just like a sticky fly-trap.

Tenebra would then snap her fingers as the warped space sprung back to normal, the sudden rebound compressing the air around Penny past the point of self-ignition, creating a huge shockwave comprised of fire-rings. However the most important thing was that all momentum Penny was committing in the attack would suddenly bounce back at her by the sudden recompression of space-time. As a further insult, Tenebra briefly robbed Penny of weight by boosting Penny's usual gravitic reduction just to make Penny be sent back even further with the rebound.

The compounded rebound would knock Penny away, but she wouldn’t fly down very far before she continued her upwards trajectory at an accelerated speed, though it wasn’t aimed at Tenebra anymore. This was in part Tenebra's fault as well, because Penny didn’t reduce gravity’s effect on herself. She inverted it. Thus amping that effect just made her new down pull with even more strength.

Penny would waste no time in removing herself from the ceiling and resuming her running. Though at this point it was a bit more aimless, and more for building up speed again and making targeting her difficult.

After a moment of this Penny’s hand would disconnect and grab tightly to the ceiling as she raced along above Tenebra. Then she would launch herself downward, gravity once again inverting as she redirected her falling momentum into a pendulum swing once again aiming to strike Tenebra.

“Isn’t the ceiling a ringout?” Tenebra would then go on nonchalantly, as she warped space to dodge Penny’s strike. The same fly-trap effect would be in place on the field. As much as Penny tried to sped up, the feint was lost on Tenebra. Knowing she was the point of the attacks, all she needed was to adjust the warping of the space around her to compensate for that. She also adjusted her gravity to just nullify Penny’s weight this time. Blood trickled from the nose as she did so. After all, Penny’s blatant gravitic upgrade was enough for her to zero in with her Absolute Direction.

“Ringout is in the water” Penny would reply once she retracted her way back up to the ceiling. “Otherwise ice platforms would also be a ringout.” She would once again flip her gravity and start skating around on the ceiling once more.

“You slapping me in the face with a spatial rebound is closer to breaking the rules than me touching the ceiling.” She would explain before going for another pendulum swing approach, though she didn’t expect it to have any more luck than the time before. The rebound, while it did hurt, was more akin to her falling off a building and hitting the ground than it was her being directly attacked. At least that was the case with the pendulum strategy, the falling up of her original attack hurt a lot more with the rebound.

No, the reason for the repeat was more to try and cause Tenebra to burn out of her mana before Penny did. She had no way of telling how much Mana the warper had, but she was no slouch when it came to stamina. Her staying on the ceiling with the occasional swing down couldn’t have been as expensive as the expanding and contracting of space that was being used to counter it. That and the nosebleed hadn’t gone unnoticed.

“Crude bitch.” Tenebra would mutter. This time, though, there was no space warping, and Penny’s attack seemed to almost connect, except this time Tenebra vanished from Penny’s sight. She was now just walking above the water outside the ring.

“You can move through space, and it’s clearly defined within bounds. If the ceiling isn’t the outer boundary, then what is?” Tenebra would then focus. “Brute force approach, just like a computer program. So like you. My best techniques are lost on you.” She would then say, as water began to float around her, gravitic fields pulling it from the pool. “So let’s start easy. Phase Transitions, for instance.”

It was then when the gravitic pull would increase, compressing the water, until the all familiar crackling of ice covered Tenebra in a shell… but something was off. This ice did not give a cold vibe, at all. If anything its temperature was rising.

Then, something else happened. A rune began to glow on Tenebra’s chest, as the familiar sensation of a Reinforcement enveloped her enhancing her magic. “Sann, huh.” Tenebra muttered. “How twisted, but I shall make use of it.”

‘Everyone is always running away from me’ Penny would sigh internally as she passed through where Tenebra had been just a moment prior. At the end of her swing she would push off the ceiling, her disconnected hand releasing its grip and retracting as she did, and go racing towards the center of the arena only to land near weightlessly in the center.

She wasn’t sure what Tenebra was going to be doing next, but Penny had her own theories about where out of bounds would end up being if she got knocked through the ceiling. Something that she hadn’t thought she would need to worry about, but it was looking more and more likely that all of her matches were going to be thinly disguised bloodsport. Which was a bit annoying if she was being honest.

“Everyone has to criticize the simple route don’t they?” She would say aloud as she took a balanced stance once more as she waited to dodge whatever it was that Tenebra would be throwing at her next. Which did seem to be the water of the pool itself. “No appreciation for the straightforward things, not everything has to be a grand complicated display.” Her tone was one of minor aggravation and reproach, though the sharpness in her eyes never wavered from the compressed shell of water that surrounded her opponent.

At this point it was more than obvious to the Queen that she wasn’t going to achieve anything by being the aggressor. So she stayed waiting, though she wasn’t standing completely still, she was drifting side to side a bit as she let her hover legs come into full effect. There wasn’t any point in hiding them after all, the same was assumed when holographic barriers snapped to life around Penny’s limbs. She was tired of getting attacked with lethal intent while she tried to keep things friendly after all.

"Going on the defensive? That will not do!" Tenebra said, jumping this time in a bit of an offensive with her rear. "Comet Rear!"

Penny would at first seem to plant herself in preparation to just tank the incoming attack, but shortly before impact she would side step out of the way just to quickly hip check Tenebra as she flew past.

Tenebra would widen her eyes ever so sligthly as Penny seemingly dodged and countered….

And an explosion ensued, as Penny's interference perturbed the fragile equilibrium of the ice armor, who turned into steam in a fraction of second.

Of course Tenebra herself received some damage, even as Penny took the brunt of the steam explosion, but despite the bruising and some cuts she was cackling, as she skidded to an halt, the ice rearranging itself to cover the gap.

"Ice VII was not on your computation model, love?"

No words would be exchanged as Penny came racing out of the steam cloud she had been enveloped in. Her own injuries were light due to her bringing her armor online just before the attack. She let the injuries remain visible however, choosing not to engage her Regeneration as she approached. This magic was a step too far Penny felt, but once again she wasn’t going to stand around waiting for Dan’s judgement.

Her approach seemed simple, a straight rush followed by a leaping hammer strike with her bust. Mid leap her spidery limbs would lash out however, caging Tenebra in as they also pulled Penny in even faster.

Tenebra would grit her teeth, as Penny seemed to be unfazed. She needed to be more throughout to score a win. So, when Penny charged forward, seemingly going for a chest blow to pull her in, Tenebra made a split decision.

Gravity wobbled as Penny's cage was finished, before transporting them both to the bottom of the pool. Of course, Penny enveloping Tenebra would be the first to be soaked in, there simply was no way she could be wet by the water first if Penny's limbs wrapped her. But to further her stance, she dismissed her armor in a controlled explosion just as Penny's assets hit her fully, to stall the water for precious microseconds before gravity, in a much reduced area this time, wobbled once more to pull her out back to the platform.

Tenebra's nosebleed and wounds were patent, but she still stood up.

The shifting of gravity was a blaring warning of what was about to come, but at that point Penny was too committed to her physical course of action to change anything. Thus she knew that she was shortly to be at the bottom of the pool, and had even less time to prepare for it.

Hidden underneath the gravitational fluctuations on Tenebra’s warping, Penny would augment and alter her own gravity. From those changes a thin veil would encase her, separating her from everything outside of it. And that veil would do one thing, but it would do it very well, it pushed everything away. A shell of gravity, inverted so that nothing would touch her.

She would spend only a second longer at the bottom of the pool. Normally she would have given a sigh before jumping out of the pool, but the urge escaped her. Her thoughts had changed, she could tell, and even knew the reason most likely at fault. But those examinations could come later.

A simple hop, her strength no longer being hidden or constricted, brought her surging out of the water. Her barrier was obvious to see as she left the pool, the liquid cascading off the invisible protection. She wouldn’t land upon the platform, instead stayed suspended over the water. her legs aglow with light as she hovered there.

She would go to say something before stopping and glancing away, off towards the other island. Her expression turned dark shortly afterwards. “How important is this match to you?” Penny would ask. “As something important just came up, but you seem to have a chip on your shoulder.”

"I wanted to have a good second chance at life. But it was a lie. Everything is a lie. You turned a simple affair in an overcomplicated tournament and toyed with everyone's affections and goals. Complicated enough to revive me. Don't go asking and talking now in order to appear as a just ruler"

Tenebra would say nothing, as she jumped off the platform into the pool, the same shell forming around her as she descended into the depths. Given that Dan had not called a win it meant that as long as one could stay dry on the bottom, the match was still ongoing. An ominous silence then followed.

I need more power…

DO YOU DESIRE MORE POWER? A voice echoed in Tenebra's head. To understand what was happening, one had to rewind back all the time just before the start of the tournament. When Odin offered Sakura assistance to revive a comrade it had a price. Dina and Sakura never looked too hard at how Sanngridr had performed her revive.

She had reconnected something, to which Umukamui, the current patron of Tenebra had not realized. She was a loan, and thus the bridge with the Puchuu had been severed.

Then, who was Tenebra's actual master right now? None other than a cosmic horror.

Odin smiled.

Outside, above the water, Penny could hear a scream from beyond the water as gravity created fluctuations. Something had happened to Tenebra.

“Right” Penny would say softly as Tenebra jumped into the water. Her attention once again turned towards the lodge on the other island. The scream from below the water concerned her, as did Odin’s smile, but honestly she had other things to worry about at the moment.

All of a sudden the lights from Penny’s legs would cut out and she’d drop into the water with a splash. Hardly a moment later her spider limbs would strike out of the water onto the far ledge and hoist her from the pool. She’d wipe the water from her face as she strode away, uncaring about her now drenched state after all she had more important things to focus on right now.

Though it did explain why Dan had been so quiet.

"And the winner is Tenebra…" The booming voice of the norse god said as she clapped. "Well...played" She said, a smug grin on her face. "But will it be enough to save the current situation, I wonder…"

Meanwhile Dina scrambled as soon as the combat had finished, taking a dive into the pool. "Tenebra!!" She yelled before vigorously swimming towards her, the gravitic changes rattling her bones. She clamped hard on the bundle of Gravitic energy, as dry snaps announced her bones were broken by the runaway energy.

But the child. The child needed her.

Fight it off! Damn that one eyed god! Is there anyone capable of purification around?

Penny had been fully ready to simply leave the arena. Her focus already turned towards the lost Mirror and all the potential ramifications that were held within that turn of events. The events under the waves weren’t something that Penny was able to fully perceive, and with everything else that had happened the mechanical girl had simply assumed that it was yet another trick that the augmented gravity girl had tucked away.

That changed with Dina’s panicked actions. Dina was one of three people that Penny had placed at the highest levels of priority. So she was always paying at least some attention to the Regent. To see her diving towards Tenebra with such fervor was notable, and worrying considering the violent turbulence that had enveloped the water.

So she changed directions again. And with more urgency then she had just a moment ago Penny dove back into the water to assist Dina. Just to get a face full of static from the oddities in the water coming from Tenebra. Not that it stopped her from pressing forward. It just meant that she had to orient herself using Dina rather than the warper herself.

Dina had barely time to focus with all the pain, when something brushed her fractured tail. She winced with pain, as she grabbed ahold of whatever lunatic had decided to follow suit her. No matter who, help was well received. Hoisting Penny’s hands towards the target, a denaturalized white coin in tow.

Is that...?

The explosion was heard throughout the rings, as the three people were scattered unceremoniously, Tenebra falling the first in the remains of the ring, unconscious but stable. Penny followed soon after, falling a bit ahead, her body sprawled around the spectator benches.

But Dina…

Dina wasn’t resurfacing at all.

‘Why do I keep getting caught up in explosions today?’ Penny would wonder as her spider limbs pushed her back upright. In no time at all she was once again back into the water looking for Dina. Snoopy had been sent zooming off to check on Tenebra in the meantime but Dina still held priority.

Hopefully whatever the static interference from early on was, it had gone away, but even if it hadn’t Penny still had a trick or two to locate Dina.

Dina was just in the bottom of the pool, bleeding profusely as bubbles escaped from her nose. She was unconscious and unable to leave the pool on her own. While she was still alive… it could change in a manner of seconds-to-minutes.

The Regent being at the bottom of the pool was something of an advantage for Penny. It was easier for her to reach Dina that way then if she was floating somewhere midway down. Still she wasted no time in getting to Dina.

Then as gently as she could Penny would scoop up the cat girl before launching herself out of the water. A mix of her hover systems and her spider legs cushioning the landing. Soon as they were out of the water she would lay Dina down before retrieving her Christmas gift. Thanking her luck and her mysterious benefactor she would start pouring mana into the artifact as she wielded it to try and assist Dina.

Dina just shifted somewhat, before convulsing and coughing, thrashing back to life. Until it stopped, as a second artifact was added into the healing mix.

A limping, haggard Tenebra held her own Healing Artifact, while clutching the straps of her own swimsuit and bruises with her other hand. She had cut her lip, but managed to utter something.

"You...use...them like this." She added, as her more experienced hand managed to help Penny stabilize the Regent.

Penny only cast a single momentary look at Tenebra before she began shamelessly mimicking Tenebra’s technique with the Healing artifact. When it was clear that Dina was no longer in any danger Penny would let herself relax.

Sitting down cross legged she would turn her healing efforts towards Tenebra. Though it was easy to tell that Penny wasn’t putting as much effort into healing the other girl as she had been towards healing Dina.

“Thanks” She would say as one of her spider legs reached out and ripped out a section of railing from the nearby stands. Penny would quietly start consuming the metal railing as she also turned her attention towards herself. Consecutive explosions had compounded the damage she had taken, but if there was one truth about her that reigned above all it was that she was built to last. Still, since there were no immediate concerns she started up her Regeneration and let it run it’s normal course. She’d be back at 100% in no time.

“You doing alright?” She would ask Tenebra after a moment. “Aborted corruption via purification doesn’t sound like it would have been particularly pleasant. That’s discounting the eruption at the end.”

Tenebra chose not to talk to Penny, before staggering to scoop up the unconscious Dina with a gentle gravitic field as she began to walk away.

“...I feel fine.” She said, her words echoing the ones she had said at the beginning of the match.

Upon turning around Tenebra would see that her path was currently being barred by two of Penny’s spider limbs, though the metallic girl was still sitting down.

“Didn’t buy your lie the first time, not going to buy it now.” She would say as she turned to look at Tenebra. “Want to give me an honest answer?”

"Do you even deserve an honest answer?" Tenebra would add, before teleporting out with Dina in tow.

Penny would simply shake her head at Tenebra’s departure. Penny knew she was missing a lot of context, but the push back she was getting just seemed misplaced to her. But for now it wasn’t worth tracking the girl down. Dina was stable and safe. So it was time to tackle the next task.

Standing up Penny would once again start towards the feast hall. As she did the water on her would start to bead up and fall off leaving her dry in a matter of moments.

Initially, MDP had been so happy as she watched Penny’s second match. Just as with the mechanical monarch’s prior match, the whimsical girl had taken up the role of a vivacious cheerleader, jumping around with her usual hyperactive glee as she encouraged her girlfriend to do her best. However, the childish girl’s bubbly demeanor dissolved in an instant, as she watched a clearly concerned Penny concede the match by dropping into the pool. “P-Penny Wenny…?” MDP gasped, her eyes going wide with shock and her pompoms vanishing in twin puffs of glittery pink smoke. A moment later, the cybernetic girl emerged from the pool and began walking away, only to pause as a sudden eruption of power from the bottom of the pool violently warped and twisted the water. L-Like, what’s going onsie? the whimsical girl wondered. Her ADHD addled mind struggling to make sense of what she was seeing, MDP watched in stunned silence as Dina leapt into the pool, followed by Penny herself, before another massive detonation of mystic power blasted Penny and Tenebra into the stands. “Penny Wenny!” MDP cried as she rushed to her robotic girlfriend’s side. The mechanical monarch appeared to be fine, however, as she quickly jumped back into the pool, presumably to retrieve the still unaccounted for Dina. Once Penny had done so, MDP promptly raced over to make sure everyone was okay. Thankfully, with Penny and Tenebra’s help, Dina’s very unpleasant-looking injuries were soon completely healed, and MDP found herself feeling warm and fuzzy at the sight of the former opponents working together.

Then Dan announced that the tournament was being put on indefinite hiatus because the Black Mirror had disappeared…

Now, MDP wasn’t too sure about what, exactly, the Black Mirror was, but she did know that it belonged to a horror, and if it was missing, that could only mean trouble. Lots of trouble… Penny apparently agreed, seeing as how the mechanical monarch wasted no time in heading back to the winter island. MDP followed after her, but decided to give her girlfriend some space. Penny was clearly on edge, but despite how much MDP wanted to wrap the cybernetic girl up in a big hug, and cuddle and snuggle with her until everything was better, even the innocent Princess of Dreams knew that this wasn’t the time or place for such things. MDP would still be nearby, of course, ever-ready to help her girlfriend should the robotic girl need it, but she would be far enough removed so that her bothersome hyperactivity wouldn’t get in Penny’s way. Thus, she used every ounce of her willpower to keep herself at a respectful distance and allow Penny the freedom to do things at her own pace. She only hoped that, ultimately, everything would work out…

---

Upon MDP and Maribel’s departure, Connie, Gaia, and Amanda had gone back to looking at books, but a short while later, the dream magician informed them that she, too, had to get going. Bidding her friend farewell, Connie gave Amanda a big hug, before presenting her with a Christmas gift (A book of whimsical landscape paintings, along with a painting by Connie herself). Once Amanda had taken her leave, Connie and Gaia had continued to relax in the bookshop until Dan's announcement about the missing mirror shattered the small store’s peaceful ambiance.

“O-Oh, g-gosh!” Connie exclaimed upon hearing the troubling tidings. “W-What do you t-think h-happened to it?”

“I don’t know, little sister,” Gaia replied with a frown. “But regardless, I sincerely doubt anything good will result from this development… Come on, Connie,” she added, rising to her feet and returning the book to its place on the shelf. “We should probably get back to the others and decide our next course of action.”

“O-Okay,” Connie said with a nod, as she followed after her verdant friend.

Soon enough, they had rejoined Shane, Rose, and Iris, who had just exited the arena. Unsurprisingly, the twins and magical boy were equally concerned by the recent turn of events. Rose and Iris, in particular, said that they needed to rejoin Kayli at once. After promising to meet up again later, Connie gave a shaky wave as the twins hurried off. Meanwhile, after talking things over with Shane, Gaia had decided that they should return to the lodge and see what they could do to assist with resolving the situation. As they headed out, Connie couldn’t help but frown at the current state of their “Christmas Party”. So much drama had already taken place, and it seemed as if even worse was to come. Not only that, but many of her friends had either left for various reasons, were far too busy to bother with her, or were simply nowhere to be found. Now she was just left with Gaia and Shane, making her once again feel like something of a third wheel. At least they would be returning to the winter island, she reflected. That would surely make things seem a little more festive, right? She certainly hoped so…

Mariette’s pursuit squad had arrived at the Overcity downtown at about the center of the coordinates, and saw something spectacular; it was a bustling metropolis, with every building reaching up to cloud-piercing heights, and the streets packed with magical residents going about their day, flowing in and out of the underground metro like a tide. Magical auras and enchantments floated everywhere like a thick cloud of smoke, obscuring magical attempts of locating something specific. In comparison, Penrose seemed like a quiet little town even in its heyday. Even with all of them splitting the area up, it would take weeks if not even months to search through it.

---

”That would be bad,” Kimble agreed with a nod as she walked with Alicia.
”But maybe she’ll decide to pity Dan and leave it alone? That’s what we should hope for.”

They arrived at the feast lodge, where Mariette had already begun inspecting the scene of the crime.
”Mariette’s already here...Do you think she could have done it, Alicia?” She quietly asked her.

---

”Hmmph hm hm," Lily attempted answering Ronja’s question, sounding more surprised than frightened by her predicament. As terrifying as the situation could have been for anyone else, having been ensnared by an arachnid monster girl, Lily knew she wouldn’t be hurt. For one, she believed that Mariette wouldn’t allow any harm to come to her without good reason. She also knew that Dan would intervene should such a reason come up, having seen him intercept conflicts in the past.

She looked happy as Alexander demanded her to be released, glad that he had followed her, followed by blinking as she heard Ronja whisper to her ear.
”Hmm?!" She mumbled, sounding shocked. As if right on cue, Dan’s announcement confirmed that the Mirror had indeed disappeared. Sally gasped, and Rachel grunted. Lily’s eyes then lighted up, having realized Ronja wasn’t aiming to capture her, but Sally. But would Sally really do something like that? Lily didn’t have much time to ponder before Ronja split the strands and set her free with a playful shove, causing her to stumble right into Alexander’s arms.
”Whoah..."

Rachel stepped up to Ronja; she lowered her fists, but kept them clenched with a pained expression.
“So the Mirror was stolen…” She glanced back to Sally, who looked startled by the sudden attention the Inquisitor gave her. “What is the meaning of this, Shamrock Sally?”

Sally’s rabbit ear-headband swayed frantically as she fidgeted in place. “Uhh, well, how should I put this...”

At that moment, ronja suggested performing a mind reading on Sally, which Rachel immediately rejected with a sweep of her arm.

“No! This is a Beacon matter! Besides, I wouldn’t let you devils touch her even if it wasn’t!” She grit her teeth into a snarl. “And if you try-!”

As if by another stroke of Sally’s luck, the tense situation was resolved by the sudden opening of a portal that led to the feast hall, with Mariette, Finn, and Justine on the other side.
However, as Finn attempted stepping through, he was shoved back by Rachel striding in with the power of an elephant on the march, with Sally following behind with an unsure look.
“Out of my way! The Beacon shall now begin their investigation.”

”Geez...Well, better go and confirm it as well, Alex," Lily spoke softly.
followed suit, and as they did they changed back into Christmas gear upon entering the winter island again.

They arrived at the sight of Dan bonking the guardsman Dan repeatedly with a toy mallet.
“Ouch! Hey! What’s the big idea?” The clone interjected, followed by an angry squeak from prime!Dan. “You tell me! What were you doing, flirting with hot dolphin babes in your local area? You were supposed to be guarding the Mirror!”
“You got distracted too with the Penny versus Tenebra match, especially when Dina fell into the pool!”
“Urgh!” Main Dan made a frog-like croak, and with a poof caused the clone to disappear.
“Well, at least this can’t get any wors-” He turned to see Rachel, her arms crossed with an angry glare.

“...Eep.”

Rachel stomped right up to him, and grabbed the Lesser Force by its bottle nose.
“You let the Mirror be taken, knowing how important it was! You absolute imbecile!” She shouted.

“I-I’m sorry, miss Inquisitor,” Dan apologized, even as his nose was twisted.

“You think an apology is enough to fix this problem?” Rachel asked with a snarl, and released Dan.
He straightened the nose with a goofy sound, and looked flabbergasted.

“I-I guess me and Penny broke our promise, since we couldn’t fully play out the tournament.” He summoned a white flag, and waved it.
“Alright then , I surrender. You can proceed with destroying this place then. Just, please let me say goodbye to it first.”

Rachel had turned away, her glasses cast in shadow from her head’s downward angle.

“...”

“...Not yet.”

Dan blinked. “E-Excuse me?”

She adjusted her glasses. “I need to preserve the crime scene. Erasing this dimension would only hinder the Beacon’s investigation with the loss of vital clues.” She sighed, and looked at Sally. “Also, the crime was committed while a member of Beacon was present, and for that, I will take full responsibility. It seems I had failed in training the Penrose branch to respond in a timely manner to such an incident.” She glanced at Penny, who at that point had been angle to listen in on the conversation.
“And Penny...It was a valiant effort, and I wish to see that determination first-hand in the arena as well.” Her lips momentarily twitched to something resembling a smile, followed by a grimace as she shook her fist.
“But don’t misunderstand, I will wipe out this wretched haven of indecency and indolence at some point. However, right now...it is in Beacon’s best interests to secure the area.”

”Did I hear that right?" Lily whispered to Alex once Rachel concluded her speaking.
”Did we actually manage to save this place?" While she knew she couldn’t burst out cheering at the spot, her puffed up cheeks told of her desire to scream and shout in joy.

“With that said, let’s begin the investigation,” Rachel spoke. “Paladin Seraph, we will need your assistance,” she gestured over to Alicia, and then questioned Sally. “Now, tell me everything you know about this incident; what you were doing, what you saw, anything that comes to mind.”

Sally twiddled her thumbs, looking sheepish. “Well, I decided to go on a little stroll around the island after the first round matches,” she began explaining. “I went around to the back of the lodge, where I saw what looked like, uh, something moved near a tree. I went over to look, and found some snow stomped flat, as well as a coin. I thought someone dropped it, and went over to talk with Guardsman Dan. Then, well...I guess you know the rest.”

---

While everyone else was investigating, Justine was on the sidelines, her arms crossed as she contemplated what had happened so far. She remembered the Penny versus Tenebra match, and managed a small smile.

”So, Tenebra managed to win..."
”I wonder what would have happened...If we could have been able to duel..."

There was a non insignificant part of him that just wanted to walk from all of this, after all; compared to all the other incidents he'd been involved in, the stakes this time seemed trivial. Who knows, he might even be able to salvage this Christmas Eve "'Saved' is a bit of a strong word. This is more like a stay of execution. But I still don't understand just why she wants this world destroyed. I mean, besides it's connection to an item connected to a Horror. But even then, you don't really see much of that connection reflected in the world itself"

Alexander sighed "I just...don't really get it. All of this over one stupid mirror, and on Christmas Eve of all times" He shook his head "I don't know, sometimes it feels like something is doing all of this on purpose, or something. Actually, now that I think about it, how did an inquisitor even get an invite to the Christmas party anyway?" He wondered

Well, they did try walking through. They just didn't think of the timing. Soon as Finn took a step in, he was forced back by the four-eyed annoyance, and who he assumed was Sally trailing behind her. Oliver helped yank him back before he could be trampled or something. While the ghost didn't react much, Finn looked irritated. Great, now Beacon's claiming this case? Not on his watch! He shot an annoyed glare at Rachel. "Kinda late to the party aint'cha?! We've already started searching!" He yelled over to them. He was tempted to add the fact that Sally was a suspect...but nah, Rachel would deny it in a heartbeat.

Speaking of, Oliver watched as she confronted Dan about their predicament. Dan was giving up on the bet? Hm. How spineless. Then again things have already gone down the rabbit hole, might as well go deeper- Hold that thought, was Rachel hesitating?? Such a sight left the boys confused, but atleast it bought them time.

Now they didn't know who Alicia was, but the title she was addressed as gave them enough of a hint.

"Think she's light magic?" Finn asked Oliver. As much as a light specialist would help, even more if they can analyze traces of magic with a Third Eye, he'd rather work with someone...less biased.

"Probably." Oliver shrugged. Before he said any more, Finn shushed him. They were interrogating Sally. Back of the lodge, figure in the trees, possible footprint. An important suspect might still be in the dimension!

They nodded to each other, and Oliver sent out a few clones (plus the one charged with guarding the scene, too late for that,) to search the back of the lodge.