Even as blasts of neon energy dug ever-deeper into the Diver’s massive form, Ashley was dimly aware that a pair of equally massive wings had appeared behind the creature, and were now carrying it (and everyone on it) further into the sky. This was bad. The tenth, and final, plague would soon begin, and over a thousand lives would end. They had to move faster! With Ashley’s help, the cat girl had reached the harp that served as the monster’s heart and grabbed hold of it. But she didn’t seem to have the strength to destroy it, or pull it out. Not only that, but she and Ashley were both starting to sink into the behemoth’s molasses-like body…

That was when Ashely heard the sound of a loud crack. Looking up, she was barely able to see the Diver’s head falling off its shoulders. Before the Knight of Tomorrow could fully register what she was seeing, Leroux’s war pick shot out to imbed itself in the behemoth’s rapidly descending cranium. Despite the Diver’s myriad supernatural abilities, in this instance, at least, it was still beholden to the laws of physics, and Leroux clearly intended to use that fact to her advantage. Quickly comprehending the armored esper’s plan, Ashley tightened her grip on the cat girl, while pushing away from the Diver with every last ounce of strength that remained in her legs. Gritting her teeth as her body was stretched to its limit, Ashley felt her grip about to give out, when, all of a sudden, the harp was finally yanked free, and the chain of espers holding onto it was sent plummeting to the ground below.

D-Did we do it…? Ashley’s dazed mind wondered, even as she fell to her impending death.

It was so dark, she was so tired, and the wind and rain rushing by her was so loud, that Ashley didn’t realize a giant inflatable bag had manifested to keep her and the other falling espers from having a very fatal meeting with a building’s roof until she had landed on it with a loud “Thump!”. The impact was far from pleasant, and the force of it knocked the wind out of her, but Ashley knew she was still alive, from the painful soreness suffusing every inch of her battered body, if nothing else. Slowly making her way off the bag to stand on wobbling legs, the Knight of Tomorrow saw Veronica emerge from the darkness, asking about Breacher. Before she knew it, Fable had stepped up to their leader and begun explaining what had transpired, his voice filled with anguish, with rage.

Stepping up beside him, Ashley placed what she hoped was a reassuring hand on the boy’s shoulder. She should have been the one to tell Veronica the somber news, or Leroux, or Silhouette, not their youngest recruit, not a child! And yet, Fable had been the one say it, to convey the terrible truth, without sugarcoating a single awful piece of it. Was it bravery, youthful impetuousness, or something else altogether? Whatever the case, Ashley’s admiration for the boy had grown considerably.

However, as she listened to Fable speak, the high-tech heroine found herself increasingly troubled. The darkness still persisted. But why? If the Diver had perished, shouldn’t it have dissipated by now? And even if they truly had killed the behemoth, had they done so in time? Ashley had no idea, but she was sure of one thing- it wouldn’t be long before she found out…

---

---

---

With yet unforeseen group cooperation and coordination, they managed to pull out the Diver’s harp (heart?) out of its chest with the aid of its falling decapitated head. That was a satisfyingly fitting end, if Jacqueline said so herself.

As she fell in the darkness, relieved and exhausted at once, she wondered idly if she could survive something as mundane as a long fall in her esper form. She’d not get to find out for sure, but given that someone had the foresight to set up something soft for them to land on, the answer was evident.

Even with the stunt bag, the air was knocked out of Jacqueline’s lungs when she landed, but despite her fatigue, she managed to roll to her feet without too much trouble.

Their boss appeared all causal as you please, then, as if nothing were amiss at all. When she asked after Breacher, Jacqueline bluntly told her, “Dead.” Fable was the one who went into more detail then.

When the child esper asked why they were the only ones facing a literal 'wipe out a city or two' class of monster, she backed him up. “Yeah. Just what the hell happened? It’s not as if you didn’t know that ‘the enemy’ – whoever all that was – would act in some way, right?” Her tone wasn’t accusatory, just annoyed, frustrated, and tired.

When that was resolved, she stalked to the harp they’d pulled out of the behemoth, and to the straitjacketed person who was holding onto it even while she was unconscious. “So. We should get rid of this, yeah?” she eyed the object and woman both with equal dispassion.

---

---

Well, shit. Marrie didn't know Stacy was that strong. Still, the zombie girl had managed to take the Diver's head off, and that was incredibly helpful. She barely had enough time to get her footing as Stacie let her down before the Diver began to fall, causing her to do so in turn, right onto a giant airbag. Honestly, she was way too tired at this point to do anything, but she looked around and got stock of the situation. There was a harp, no doubt a mcguffin, and a bald person in mental ward attire...

Well, she hoped she was wrong about this new situation, to say the least.

---

Upon hearing news of Breacher's death, the smile ran from Veronica's face. ”I knew this was going to be a rough one.” When asked about why she arrived so late and where all the other espers were, she pursed her lips. ”Yes...” She put her hands on her hips. ”While we expected retaliation, we did not realize how well organized they would be. It's like every monster faction in the city banded together for the occasion. I was expecting them to lay a trap for the freelancers and the Mavericks, but we were more discrete with our planning. I think Justin was here as a last resort, to hold the line against any stragglers. It was inevitable that they would notice the convoy Binky and I were protecting. all of Gemini's agents are here right now. The top brass hasn't seen fit to send us more espers yet. Regardless, I can't imagine the enemy will continue fighting us now that the Diver is gone.” When Finn suggested they try to catch the brainwashed espers, Veronica's smile returned. "Agent? Can you even conjure a melody in your current state? As admirable as your enthusiasm is, it is unnecessary. With Justin dead their dark blessing should be far weaker now. Curing it should within the realm of possibility. But if you'd like, I can-”

”What happened to mom?!"

It seemed Mika hadn't been unconscious after all. She had become fully alert after Finn and Jacqueline mentioned Su was dead.

"Oh! You're Mika?” Veronica let out a nervous chuckle. "I had no idea you were an esper! Did you get a hold of Breacher's grimoire or is that something you've always had?”

But Mika was not in the mood to talk. She shook her head while stepping backwards. ”She can't be!"

"I'm inclined to believe her squad mates. I doubt they have any reason to lie.”

Mika brought her hand up to her mouth, but that didn't stop the tears from rolling over her cheeks. She took off across the cat bridge back to the police station.

”Mom! Mom!"

The precinct roof looked like a war zone. Everything was soaked in blood. That said nothing of the frog entrails, like corpses, flies, a scorch mark caused by a lightning bolt, puss that had leaked out of various boils, locust corpses, and that said nothing of the looming darkness. But despite all that, she did find a pile of wrecked cars. And among them...

She sunk to her knees. ”Not again..."

Veronica held her chin. "When she calms down, she could make for a good agent.” But veronica's attention was stolen away when Jacqueline asked about the stranger and harp. "They got pulled out of the Diver, didn't they?” She furrowed her brow. "It's not uncommon for behemoths to have some mundane object as a power source. But I'm not sure why there was a person in there.”

”Yea about that." Oros, half dragging herself, inched closer to the group of espers. ”I'm sure you guys could tell, but Holy Diver wasn't exactly your average run-of-the-mill behemoth." Her sword scraped against the asphalt roof. ”To avoid a history lesson, that harp right there is a grimoire. The idea was to make it invincible to attack, but like any good organ, they tend to stop working once they're removed from the body."

Veronica half chuckled when she turned to Oros. "I suppose you're here to make sure we don't capture them?”

”Negatory. I'm just here to pick my date up." Oros winked at Marrie. ”Assuming that you don't wanna just duke it out. But last time you bastards did that it didn't work out great. So I'm all for postponing our epic battle for a later time."

"I see.” The vermillion esper looked at Stacy, then Marrie. "So what's your roll in this?”

”I may be the meta character, but you're gunna have to clarify."

"You've arrived just after I did. I don't believe for a second that you're just here for a date. Though it's clear you know something about this mad house escapee and at least one other esper here. It doesn't seem like you were behind this attack.”

”That's right." Oros puffed out her chest. ”Look, uh, I know it's only mid day, but the city's been, like, totally ravaged and stuff. You probably wanna figure out where everyone else is, assess things, you know? Government stuff?" With a huff, she extended her hand towards Ashley. ”You wanted to date me too, right? Or was it a 'totally just wanted to look after my little sister' kinda thing? Whatever, you're still invited, and it's the least painful way to interrogate me." Provided she didn't run off, that is.

”I'll come too!” Stacy struck a flamboyant pose. She made a "v" in front of her eye with her fingers. ”I know a cool place where we can play some board games!”

Veronica's gaze shifted towards Agent Orion. "You've encountered her before?” Provided she didn't run off, that is.

We succeeded but... it doesn't really feel like it...

Samuel was exhausted by the time he ended up on the stunt bag. Slicing bugs out of the air was quite the workout for the arms, as it happened, and the rest of the events of the day hadn't helped, either. But in the end, it had been for something. The Holy Diver had been felled and Justin no longer could torment people.

His body protested as loud as it could with aches throughout his arms and legs, but the G.E.M.I.N.I agent grit through and took the impressive action of standing up. Or at least the effort he needed to do so made it feel impressive. Hopefully, it wasn't too apparent to everyone around him how ready he was to take a nice week-long nap.

”Kept you waiting, huh?” She folded her arms. ”Seems our enemy was able to predict the Diver’s arrival. But you were able to complete the objective regardless.” Veronica looked over everyone present. ”Where’s Breacher?”

By the time Samuel had realized it was Veronica who showed, Fable and Agent Leroux had already begun telling her of Breacher's fate, and while they did tell Veronica about Breacher, well, Samuel would have been a bit less vulgar in doing so. At the very least, Dr. Moller was generally not inclined to care about those things. Former Office Manager Howard, however? It might have cost the boy an ear.

But those days were behind him. And so, he cast a glance at the two holding the harp and retained a firm grip on his weapons. It was difficult to imagine Su's child suddenly turning on the lot of them, what with her being so integral to the Diver's defeat at the end, so he naturally was keeping an eye on the other, less familiar, girl.

But while Samuel was doing that, Mika approached Moller and, sadly, was forced to confront the sad reality that she had lost her parent in this fight. The experience was sad, but it was also quite frustrating for Samuel.

"..."

When Samuel lost his parents, he felt very little.

It was a shock, sure, but they ultimately weren't people Samuel cared for beyond the money they provided, and it was the parents themselves who wanted to have such a cold relationship with their child. As long as he didn't start too much trouble at school and kept good grades, they would not even pretend to have much interest in anything else about him. How could he love people like that?

In stark contrast to his cold indifference was Mika's genuine pain at Su's death. It was the sort of reaction anyone with a normal, positive relationship with the parents should have. And so, they were nothing alike.

She lost a parent, I merely lost sponsors, after all...

Veronica held her chin. "When she calms down, she could make for a good agent.”

Temporarily, the sorrowful situation left his attention as Dr. Moller made an observation. "Assuming she had little to no experience before today, I would argue that she has shown absurd potential today, not unlike the newest agents," he agreed.

But would her mother want that for her?

As Veronica focused on answering Jacqueline, Samuel turned to the two younger agents, dismissing his demonic transformation. Noticing the reassuring hand on Finn's back, Samuel couldn't help but appreciate this was evidence they were becoming more cohesive as a team. "How reliable you two have proven to be," he glanced in the precinct's direction. "I think she could use friends like that if she were to decide to join G.E.M.I.N.I. And even if she doesn't."

He said this much and returned his attention to the conversation about the harp and the girl. Unfortunately, a person coming out of a behemoth was unprecedented, or at least Dr. Moller herself wasn't familiar with any such situation. That meant they knew laughably little about the girl, but rather conveniently, someone who knew spontaneously appeared.

O-Oros the Mad, here!?

Unfortunately, this individual was Depraved, dangerous, and known for her highly erratic behavior. And she was claiming to know Ashley.

Aside from the obvious surprise and concern, there was a small, unexplainable ire that cropped up in Samuel when he saw Oros, as well as an equally-random nostalgia. He vaguely recalled having a similar feeling about one of the Mavericks back at Justin's manor. Now if only he could figure out why he kept getting these strange flashes of nostalgia.

But it was more important to see what Ashley said, and to see where this interaction was leading. Surely, such a sizable threat and menace to society like Oros didn't show up a mere minute after such an important fight merely by coincidence and for the sole purpose of picking up a date, right?

"..."
Current Location: Precinct #11...Technically.

Fable's eyes widened in dread as Veronica explained what happened on their side. He was right. This was all planned. Every faction of espers had been attacked. The boy couldn't help but worry greatly for Mary, Elroy and the other freelancers. Mavericks only had his sympathies. He also couldn't help the scoff that escaped his throat when she mentioned the higher-ups not seeing a point in sending them extra help. "Well I hope this will be one hell of a wake-up call for them..." His tone remained bitter with malice. Until their boss addressed his wanting to search for the brainwashed espers. "Unnecessary? What do you-"

They were interrupted when Mika finally spoke up. Looks like she wasn't knocked out after all. Fable's expression contorted into a pained grimace when he realized she was Breacher's kid, and that she overheard him and Jacqueline. The boy turned his head towards the girl and gave her a sympathetic frown. He didn't stop her from running back to the precinct roof. Then the topic was changed to the harp, and the strange lady that appeared with it. Oros, of all people, appeared to explain what the deal with the two was. Normally Fable would keep his anxious distance from someone like her, but at this rate he was only half listening to the conversation he wasn't exactly a part of. Only picking out the important bits.

He had to hurry back to his parents, he had to search for any surviving espers, he had to gather information on every adversary involved in this hellish fight and take them out; even if that included the bald lady, and he had to mentally prepare for a funeral.

He had to confront Baphomet. He had to keep searching. With Justin out of the way, the only thing to do was continue the pursuit. It was almost as if Betty and Pac didn't want to be sa-

Shutupshutupdon'tthinklikethat!

Fable shook the thought out of his head. Well, no use in standing around. He shrugged Ashley's hand off him, mustered up a admittedly forced smile her and Samuel's way, and ran off and into the appartment complex; Betty's last known location.

A coordinated attack? That was why their backup had taken so long to arrive? The very idea that all the disparate monster factions, and even non-sentient beasts could all work together in such a way was highly unsettling, but the apprehension it generated was as nothing when placed against the far more relatable horror that came next. Breacher’s daughter (Mika, was it?) was still conscious, and had just heard what had happened to her mother. The pain and fear in the girl’s trembling voice wrenched at Ashley’s heart. She wanted to comfort the girl somehow, but the new esper’s swift departure made that impossible, and if Fable’s brusque response to her attempts at reassurance was any indication, that was probably for the best…

I really am useless here, aren’t I?

“Oh, um, thank you,” Ashley replied to Silhouette, her fellow agent’s words of approval breaking her out of her despondent ruminations just in time to notice Oros, of all people, emerging from the darkness.

W-What’s she doing here?!

Even as Ashley wondered this, the pink-haired Depraved esper began explaining how the Diver was different from normal behemoths, in that a grimoire served as its “heart”. In fact, Oros almost made it sound like someone had designed it that way, an insinuation that had all kinds of unfortunate implications…

Still, this was Oros the Mad talking, and the Knight of Tomorrow knew it would be wise to take anything she said with a grain of salt. Such was her line of thinking as Oros and Veronica had a little chat, but when the pink-haired lunatic addressed her by name and brought up a possible “date”, Ashley’s expression noticeably darkened into an annoyed scowl.

“The later,” she hissed through gritted teeth, before attempting to compose herself when Veronica inquired about her relationship with the infamous esper. “That’s correct,” Ashley acknowledged. “As hard as it is to believe, she actually saved Gale and I from a group of Depraved espers,” the Knight of Tomorrow added, gesturing to the blue-haired esper nearby. “She said she wanted to go on a date with Gale as payment for her help, and I wasn’t about to leave her alone with someone with Oros’s reputation.”

---

---

---

“Every monster?” Jacqueline may have been tired, but that was so blatantly unusual. “So, you’re saying they’ve got a leader now…?” Though whether it was someone they willingly followed or someone who pulled the strings from the background was unsure.

Then, Mika pitched in, and Jacqueline grimaced in discomfort. She’d thought the kid was out of it…but even if she'd known the child was aware, she didn’t know how she’d have relayed to her the information of Su’s death.

Mika ran away, and all the doctor had to say to that was that ‘she could make for a good agent’. Jacqueline gave her a look, eyebrow slowly creeping up. “If the Freelancers or Mavericks don’t get to her first,” she pointed out.

But it wasn’t just that…Mika was more of a kid than Fable, despite being older, and someone should probably do something about her.

…Wasn’t that someone Jacqueline, just by process of elimination? She sighed, and wondered if it might be better to leave the grieving child by her lonesome after all.

She was distracted from that line of thought by the doctor’s answer, and Oros the Mad’s sudden appearance. Behemoths were sometimes powered by mundane objects, apparently, but this time, it’d been a grimoire. “Whose idea?” she sharply questioned the Mad, eyes narrowing. It was dubious if she’d get an answer, because Oros was kind of avoidant about the whole situation. The depraved was clearly weakened, but so were all of them – maybe not Veronica, though.

In the end, Jacqueline decided that whatever Oros’ deal was, she didn’t want to talk with crazy right now, and wasn’t in a state to contribute much fire-power if things went south either. Turning to their boss, she said, “I don’t know if it’s safe detaining that one for long,” she nodded at the person she supposed was the owner of the harp grimoire. “But it’s your call, doctor.” Glancing in the direction of the precinct roof, she added, “I’m gonna go…” she didn’t know what, exactly. But she owed to Su at least this much.

She turned to go, then briefly regarded Orion and Silhoutte over her shoulder. “You two fill me in on this later?” At this point, she didn’t really care if Orion was going on dates with Oros or whatever else; she just wanted to go home, and sleep all this off. However, there was one final duty she could do, and wanted to do right – check in on Mika.

---

---

Nope, she was completely on the money. The Diver was a damned Esper, after all. And she still had a date with Oros to deal with, so finding Pac-

...

That's right, Pac was missing. That was good, right? She was okay, right!? Marrie didn't have the energy to do anything, and yet she still...

"Pfft, hahahAHAHAHAHA!" she burst out laughing. Whether it was from exhaustion, the fall of her adrenaline, the absurdity of going on a date after such an event, the fact that she was relieved that Stacy was going with her, the hope and despair of Pac's disappearance, or some other unknowable reason, she didn't know or care. It was funny. It wasn't funny. It was hilarious that she survived, it was solemn that at least one person apparently hadn't, Justin notwithstanding. It was mirthful that they may have saved a huge chunk of Pax, it was miserable that they likely had just as large a chunk die. Some things you just have to FUCKING LAUGH AT, she decided. And so she did, clutching her stomach as her worn-out body rejected the activity. A coughing fit soon put an end to it, and she straightened up slowly, a blank look on her face.

"Okay... okay!" she managed after a moment's silence, a small smile brightening her face for the first time since the Diver arrived. "Board games, sounds good." She reached out a hand towards Oros. "Hope you don't mind Stacy coming along? They say to always bring a friend on a first date, anyway."

---

Veronica allowed Finn to leave without stopping him. There were enough distractions in her vicinity that she didn't feel too pressed to look after him. "Careful!" was all she managed as the boy slipped into the darkness.

"Who's idea?" Oros raised an eyebrow at agent Leroux. "Oh! You mean to make the Diver the way it is?" The cultist grinned. "Have you thought about what makes a monster a monster, ma'am? They can look a lot like espers can't they?" With a chuckle, she pointed at Stacy. "I mean is she a monster or an esper? You need to do more than look to know the answer. A monster is just a creature or person who has come here from another world. Behemoths as we call them are a bit different. The Diver in particular was the result of trying to shove a harp shaped object through a human shaped hole. An experiment. Everything is kind of bullshitty in the space between dimensions and weird things happen when people try to cross that barrier." She waved her hand at Veronica. "Let Mrs magical scientist here figure it out. Why do you even care? You walked off to have a cute moment with Mika!"

"Are you done talking to yourself?" Fritzi narrowed her brow.

"Yea, I guess the four of us should depart so that we can be part of our own cute scene, amiright fellas?"

"Wonderful." Veronica turned to Samuel. "Seems they have everything under control, but I wouldn't care if you wanted to look after them. Alternatively, Finn should be watched. He looked exhausted, and I'm sure he's trying to confront Betty. I need to return and make sure Binky's alright. She should have called me already." And with that, Veronica stepped into the shadows and disappeared.

---

Darkness.

Finn could see nothing but darkness. The sky was pitch black, and lightning had destroyed the wiring for the apartment complex. A pistol and bandages were a great help if he needed to fight as a human, but it did little to assist him in these conditions. Eyes open, eyes shut, it all looked the same.

The only way Finn could get around was by touch or sound. With a hand on the wall, he listened for anything and moved forward. The sound of a footstep? Furniture moving? A heartbeat? Nothing came to his ears. He might have been able to use his cellphone, but that only threw enough light to get spotted.

Then sound and sensation came at once. His foot struck something while he took a step. Then with a click, his vision filled with a brilliant light that burned his eyes. A flashlight was shining on him. He had been spotted.

”...Time Keeper?” Pac-A-Fist had never met Finn, but his relationship with Betty had become a legend on Shimr. He couldn't make out her body, but her voice was coming from the source of the light. ”You're not here to fight, right?”

It seemed that Finn had kicked over a fake plant. The decorations in some of these apartment complexes were weird.

The metal of the knight’s boots clinked across the rooftops for a few steps, but as Jacqueline released her esper form, the sound changed to a light clicking sound. She was now a relatively unassuming business woman, suit and low-heeled shoes replacing her armor.

Even though she felt physically much better, she always felt strange about changing forms after going through the wringer in her esper state. It was deeply mind-fuckery to know she’d been injured in all those various ways, sometimes even feel the phantom pain of it, yet be perfectly fine as far as her body was concerned. But Mika had only ever met her like this, and there was no point in prolonging the change besides.

Jacqueline slowly walked closer to the kneeling child. Again? she wondered, but didn’t ask. Instead, she just quietly said, “Hey.” She stopped to stand by Mika’s side, and gazed at Su’s remains. They hadn’t known each other for long, but Jacqueline still felt melancholy about her death. It was…a terrible shame.

As careful as Jacqueline was, Mika was startled by her voice. She was eyeing her mother’s remains. There wasn’t much left. The cars tshe had been smashed between melded together. All that remained of Su was an arm that stuck out of the wreck.

Her fingers curled around Su’s hand. It was covered in crimson, but so was everyone else at this point. Not Jacqueline, as she had just reverted back to her normal form. Mika opened her other hand, and a cloud of spectral fireflies lit up the area.

“Jack-oh-line?” Her lower lip quivered.

The agent looked down at the child. “Yes,” she answered, meeting the girl’s eyes, solemn expression in place. Then she glanced at Su’s arm. “Can you get that out or do you need help?” she asked.

The question caused Mika to freeze in place. “Get…That out?” she looked back at the arm she was holding onto. Few people would refer to their mother as “that,” but she figured out what was being asked of her. Mika coiled her fingers around her mother’s elbow and pulled. “Is this going to hurt her? She feels stuck.” Though once Mika had spoken, the arm popped free. It still had the sleeve of her uniform on it. It was still in one piece. A miracle, considering what happened.

Once the arm was carefully extracted, Jacqueline stripped her suit’s jacket, and put the clothing item on the ground. “Let’s wrap it up for now,” she suggested.

If she heard Jacqueline, she didn’t make any attempt to acknowledge her. She stood there, eyeing the stump where the rest of her mother should have been. There was no expression on her face. Just the dry tears on her cheeks and eyes that had lost their luster.

Mentally sighing, Jacqueline picked herself up from her crouch, leaving the jacket on the floor. She looked at Mika, really taking her in. Cautiously, like approaching a spooked animal - even though this, a traumatized child, was so much worse - she extended her arms, then put her hands on the child’s shoulders. “Mika,” she called out to her, squeezing her shoulders once. “Are you still with me?”

With a squeak, Mika’s eyes returned to Jacqueline. “Uh-”

With soft but insistent pressure, Jacqueline led Mika where she wanted, coaxing her to put the body piece on the discarded garment. The agent gently urged the girl, taking the smaller hands into her own. “Can you let go?” she murmured. But she grimaced almost as soon as she said it, because she realized that had quite the double meaning, and maybe Su’s child wasn’t ready to ‘let go’ yet – in either sense of the words.

Her grip on her mother’s arm was firm, and it only got tighter once Jacqueline reached for her. But Mika was looking straight at Jacqueline now. It wasn’t clear if it was resignation or inner strength, but her grip loosened up on Su’s arm. Mika’s eyes drifted back to the arm as it slid into the agent’s hands. She wasn’t even half way through wrapping it up before Mika seized her arm.

“What’s going to happen to her?”

Jacqueline paused her work to look up. “We bury her. Or turn her remains to ashes, and put it in an urn. We hold a funeral to say our final goodbyes, and pay our respect to her. Then remember her. Pray for her, if you like.”

Mika’s grip loosened up, and she allowed Jacqueline to finish wrapping up the arm. “And then-” She sniffed. “What’s going to happen to me?”

Jacqueline busied herself with neatly bundling up the arm. She tied off the jacket sleeves around the macabre package, then stood up, keeping ahold of her finished work. “Well. If you want a normal life - as normal as you can get - then you’ll have to have someone adopt you. If you want to work as an esper…That, uh, an esper is basically a magical person, you probably noticed you’re a bit different now?” Mika nodded.

Knowing she was breezing past the issue of Mika’s adoption, Jacqueline sheepishly carded her free hand through her hair. “So…if you want to get rid of monsters, like we did today with that large one you helped us with…You could come work for the government like we do, I suppose.”

“Fighting monsters was okay, I guess.” She squatted down beside the car and gave it a push. “But mom died doing that. My first mom-” The words stuck in her throat. “She, she didn’t have anything to do with monsters and some gang people got her.” She traced circles in the blood. “I don’t think having a mom is for me. I don’t know if I should be fighting monsters though.”

Jacqueline huffed wryly. “No, what you should be doing is being taken care of, going to school, playing and having fun, being with friends…That kind of thing.” The agent pursed her lips. “Mother or otherwise, you do need someone willing to look after you. You’re not wrong that safety can be an issue, maybe-”

She trailed off, paused for a moment, then continued. “Maybe something like a safehouse…or you and them stay at one of our agencies…or we look into getting you as far away as possible from all of this. But it’s never a sure thing, and if you do ever decide to do esper stuff, whether on your own or with us, there’ll always be a target on your back.” Jacqueline shrugged roughy. “Sorry I don’t have any good news, kid.”

“A safe house?” Mika balled her hands and stood up. “I don’t think a safehouse is going to protect anyone if this happens again.”

“No, it won’t,” Jacqueline confirmed, smiling tightly.

The glow of the fireflies wasn’t very bright, but even from that alone it was easy to see how utterly devastated the city was. The roof was covered in craters from the hail, and it wasn’t hard to picture all the buildings and vehicles with shattered windows. Let alone anyone unfortunate to be caught outside. Who knew how high the final death toll would end up being.

“Bad things happened to me outside this city too. I don’t think I can hide from them.” Mika changed back into her normal self. Though unlike Jacqueline, she did not look rejuvenated afterwards. While changing back could shield an esper from physical pain and sickness, the mind was shared between forms. The tears were gone, but the thousand yard stare remained. “Last time we spoke, I said I wanted you and Su to be my mommy. But I don’t think that’s a good idea now.”

Jacqueline did sigh this time. “It never would have been a good idea, simply because I’m not a family person, and can’t - won’t - be your or anyone else’s parent. If you want a teacher, friend, coworker…That, I can do.”

“I know.”

The agent looked at the ruined city, and didn’t find it strange at all that belief in safety would be difficult, if not impossible, right now. “Yeah, bad things can happen anywhere, anytime. Some are lucky enough not to see any of it, ever. Some of us do what we can to prevent it.” She faced Mika. “Your mother died to protect you, and the city. She wouldn’t have wanted to leave you alone, but she took that risk, because she knew that if she didn’t, no one else would do it in her stead.”

“I know.”

After a brief pause, Jacqueline added something approaching an apology, or maybe just an explanation. “She was killed because one of our enemies saw that she was strong, and clever…She was a danger to him, and stood in his way, so he took her out in that one moment when she was looking out for the rest of us.”

“I know, okay? Most people think I’m annoying. Mom was different. I know that.” Mika huffed. “What I don’t know is what I’m going to do. Something’s broken. None of it works. This doesn’t work.” She stumbled forward. “I don’t wanna hurt anyone. I don’t wanna be an ex- spare-o-ment.” With shaky legs, Mika marched up to Jacqueline and extended her arms. “Let me hold mom.”

Jacqueline handed over the wrapped arm. Once Mika took a hold of it, the agent carefully extended a hand, and gently let it rest on the child’s head. She was ready to withdraw her hand in case the girl didn’t want it, but Mika wasn’t making any motion to pull away. Jacqueline said nothing else, because she’d exhausted the list of things that seemed like they were the thing to be said.

Mika hugged the arm against her chest. “Thank you.” Her eyes fell to the floor. “I want to be by myself, for a bit.”

“Alright.” Jacqueline’s hand smoothed down Mika’s hair, came to rest on her shoulder, and after one last pat, she walked away. “I’ll be over there,” she motioned vaguely to the other side of the roof. It was far away enough that each could be considered to be by themselves, and Jacqueline faced away from Mika, giving the child the desired privacy.

"Whoever says "It can't get any worse": kindly go fuck yourself."
Current Location: ???

Under the cover of darkness, the boy was forced to navigate through the building silent and cautious. His eyes couldn't exactly adjust to it instantly, especially out of his esper form. So Finn was stuck moving along the wall as if he was in a maze. He remained quiet. The last thing he wanted was the wrong person to spot him, armed or not. In his free hand he held his pistol, and his health-kit remained in his pocket.

Christ, it's way too quiet... Maybe I should just risk it and call out for-

His train of thought came to a halt when his next step accidentally knocked something over. Great. Then a sudden light shining itself in his face caused him to shield his eyes with a pained grunt. The source spoke up. He found Pac-A-Fist.

"Uh, y-yeah." Finn spoke up as he blinked away the temporary blindness inflicted on him. He spared a quick glance to the plant that could've screwed him over, but her next question was a bit more interesting. "I don't see any reason we should. Justin is gone, the diver's been dealt with, and I'm sure both of us are too low on mana to do anything else." He answered honestly, looking back towards Pac's direction.

"I just want to make sure you two are safe and sound. That's all."

”You two? You must be talking about Betty.” Pac exhaled before setting the flashlight on a nearby table. ”I don't know about her. Speaking for myself, well, I've been better. I have an appetite for blood now, but at least my actions are my own. Justin must have died. It's the only thing that makes sense.” Finn could hear her come closer. Her arm was partially illuminated by the light. It was still difficult to look directly at the light, but it was possible to see where she was. ”I was fully aware though, of everything that was going on. I couldn't defy Justin though. I am thankful that girl with the pigtails was there. You all did well, but she went out of her way to make sure I was safe.”

Finn pocketed his gun. "It's good you've regained your senses. Honestly. The bloodthirst can hopefully be managable until we can cure the rest of your curse." He said. He then frowned. "Every other esper got ambushed during our fight. I'm...not sure if the freelancers made it out better than we did. When this darkness dispates I can go and look for them next." The boy explained. "...I hope that creep didn't hurt you, Pac. I wish I could've helped more but I was a bit...busy." The fact that the both of them might've been aware of everything concerned him greatly.

”It doesn't matter anymore. He's dead, and that means there might be some hope for Betty and me.”

"Do you know where Betty went, by the way?"

She pointed at the light. ”She ran right past me. I think she ran out the emergency exit as soon as it stopped hailing. Wait, no, it's more complicated than that.” She held her chin. ”She had been bound by a melody. It took her some time to shrug that off. I was helping her get free when I noticed I was in control again. My will had been restored. I tried to talk her into surrendering with me, but she was so angry. She batted me away with her arm and ran out the back. I don't think she had a light with her, but thralls have an easier time making their way around in the dark.”

At that, his heart once again dropped to the pit of his stomach. He hurried over to the flashlight and snatched it up from it's resting place. "That was my doing. She was still trying to kill me even while untransformed. I thought I could get her inside before the hailstorm did us both in, but I was stupid AND running low on energy. She fucking knee'd me in the gut." Finn explained with a grimace. He then shook his head. Or rather, he shook away any grim thoughts trying to surface. "Her being angry at me or at the world aside, if this shit continues any further I might actually murder someone for the hell of it so let's go!"

”I um, wow.” Pac followed after Finn. ”It'll probably be better if I go with you anyway.”

"You won't have to supervise alone."

Pac-A-Fist may have caught some movement beforehand but for Finn, it would be as if Samuel had simply come into existence at that moment, his voice originating from only a short distance behind the boy. Standing up from a crouched position, a click could be heard as he turned on his clip light attached to his shoulder. "Sounds like we really should get moving. I'll help however I can... aside from the murder, at least."

Finn's head snapped around to look at Samuel with widened eyes. How long had he been sitting there? Seemed oddly calm at the mention of a possible crime but then again, the boy was opperating on a short fuse. It could've just been a mindless slip of the tongue. He regained a bit of his composure quickly. "No matter what happens, don't hurt her. Okay? Come on." Was all Finn said before he began moving in the direction of the emergency exit.

”He doesn't seem as scary as you do.” Pac kept up with Finn, but she did glance at Samuel every so often. ”I wasn't sure how Gemini would react to me. I'm glad we don't have to keep fighting. Do either of you have an idea as to how we're going to catch her?”

Finn scratched the back of his neck. "Could have me act as bait." He went on to explain: "She literally disregarded the rest of the fight just to try and pursue my ass. If she's still livid, no doubt she'll take the opportunity to try and finish me off."

Samuel followed the other two out of the emergency exit. He swept the immediate area with his clip light while they continued to speak about their intended plan. "That plan puts you at the center of attention and at risk," he noted, clearly unhappy about it. "If Justin's taint is still causing her to be aggressive, could the bait not be anyone?"

The boy furrowed his brows without looking back at Samuel. "Unless you have a better idea...? It's either lure her to us somehow or hope we miraculously run into her by our own volition." Finn's expression broke into a tired frown. "And I'm getting sick and tired of dead ends..."

”I wouldn't call slaying Justin a 'dead end.' I mean-”

"I wasn't even one of the ones to slay him though. They were." Finn clarified, sparing Samuel a quick, grateful smile before looking back to Pac. "But you know what I meant."

She sighed. ”I don't have a lot of mana left. As a thrall I'm not totally defenseless but I'm sure I'd get hungrier as I get more beat up. So I don't think I'll be of much use if a fight breaks out. Catching someone alive is tough, especially if they're strong. But your friend said something interesting.” Pac briefly looked at Samuel. ”If Betty is still under Justin's spell, why did I regain control of myself?”

For once, Finn had no idea. He opened his mouth with the intent to offer some theories, then quickly shut it with a grimace.

"...A good question," Samuel finally said after a period of silently cursing himself for not asking that very same thing. He turned to Pac-a-Fist before asking a question of his own. "Then perhaps it is not the same affliction? I overheard you say something about her being under the effect of a melody?"

The boy groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Just a restrain melody, my doing, she was angry before that. It has to be something else."

"Ah, I see." Samuel seemed a little disappointed.

”Her anger was unreal. It has to be part of her dark blessing, right? She wouldn't be mad like that for any other reason?” With a huff, the trio stopped at an intersection. ”I suppose that's not going to bring us closer to her. We need to find a way to track her and you need a plan for when you find her.”

Finn already had one. The problem was that her being pissed to high heavens was very most likely his fault too, he just kept silent when asked. If he could just...

Hahah...Is it bad I'm concidering asking Baphomet if he can help...?

His mouth twitched into another frown. "Not like any of us have a built-in GPS for this kind of situation. We could split up here to cover more ground, but something tells me neither of you will agree to it." He deadpanned, shining the flashlight he held around to look for anything out of place. There had to be something!

"I do not trust this darkness," Samuel said bluntly. "With everything that has happened today, I hope you can forgive me for being uncompromising. I won't see another agent perish today," Samuel declared, shining his flashlight around in search of a clue. "As for tracking her... I must admit, I am at a loss."

He pondered for a moment. "I wonder if she may have retreated to a familiar place nearby? Though I wouldn't have the slightest clue myself where that might be."

At that, something crossed Finn's mind.

"Could she have fled to The Great Escape?"

In waving around his flashlight, Samuel was able to spot some footprints. The blood rain had stopped, but the sanguine streets had yet to drain. a single pair of footsteps led deeper into the darkness. Pac looked to the others.

”I wouldn't rule it out. She probably doesn't know it's a hub for the freelance espers. Or at least, I never told her it was.”

"Even a potential lead is better than none."

While he wasn't quite willing to separate to cover more ground even if that may have been a better way to blindly search for someone, he was willing to take what they could get. And, perhaps thankfully, they had a little bit to go on.

As he spotted the footsteps in the blood, he followed their trail as much as he could with the clip light, stopping as they became impossible to see through the darkness. "Eyes on some footprints leading further that way," Sam relayed to the other two, directing them with a pointed finger. "I find it unlikely, but it is possible these are not hers," he cautioned, though he certainly wasn't suggesting they ignore them.

Finn's eyes widened once he noticed the footprints. Finally, something to go off of! He began to follow the path in a quicker pace even before he started talking. "Come on!"

”We’re just going to keep following her?”

Despite her protests, Pac followed after the Gemini agents. The footprints seemed to go on forever. The light would cut through the shadows, but there would always be more footsteps to follow. But while it was always dark, it wasn’t always quiet. Before long, the sounds of combat reached their ears. Melodies and spells, blades and claws, screams both monstrous and human. The diver’s death didn’t mean anyone could go home. There was some light ahead too. But at this distance, it looked like flickering stars.

"Christ..." The boy tensed up, cursing under his breath at the sounds of ongoing conflicts. The last thing they needed was to get swept up in...whatever the hell was going on while they weren't able to fight back. He couldn't even tell if there was anyone he recognized in the darkness. Too loud for his liking. Finn carefully pulled out his pistol.

"Alright, guess we're going stealth mode or are we just gunning for it?" He whispered, keeping his flashlight low.

Samuel became tense as things began to sound more and more dangerous. Naturally, the potential of getting caught by something malevolent was one of the main factors he considered when rejecting the idea of splitting up, so this only reinforced his feelings on the matter.

His immediately switch to a lower profile answered them far before his hushed voice did. "Doesn't sound like the situation is going to wait for us, but we shouldn't give ourselves away until we know what we're dealing with, either." If those cries were monster, a pistol was quite effective at doing nothing to it, and Samuel wasn't going to be casting any melodies.

"...Okay, stealth it is then."

As the espers drew closer, the fighting got louder. Not only that, but the bloody tracks became harder to follow. While it was easy to spot fresh footprints on a bloody street, they became harder to follow when you added other footprints, crumbling debris, corpses. Betty’s tracks were becoming harder to follow, but she had to go this way. Unless she was strong enough to jump into one of the buildings?

The lights were drawing closer, and their source was clarified. The Ruinous Commet had been this way. Her flames had taken to all the vehicles in the alley, and by the smell, a few bodies as well. The espers’s noses had long become accustomed to the smell of blood, but melting flesh was something most of those present hadn’t quite gotten used to.

The group stopped in front of the corpse. He was holding onto a sniper rifle, and the upper half of his head had been replaced by a raytube. Pac-A-Fist clasped a hand over her mouth without saying anything.

I believe those belong in old CRT TVs, don't they? How very strange... and awful.

Having an unfortunate amount of experience in situations where having a nose was a disadvantage, Samuel wasn't especially phased with the malodorous corpse. His power often had some... undedesirable methods to achieve the purpose of killing people, to say the least. He believed that such brutal deaths should be reserved for monsters, not humans.

Eventually, the sniper rifle found Sam's attention and he glanced between his baton and it a few times. It was pretty obvious he was considering taking it before they left.

Of course, Finn had the same idea. He pocketed his sidearm once again, held his flashlight in between his teeth and attempted to pry the rifle out of the corpse's grip. Despite the smell of charred flesh or the sound of his own rapid heartbeat bleeding into his ears, he didn't seem too phased by it. Strange...

Unfortunate they couldn't drag the corpse back to the higherups for analysis right now. Burnt or not.

But not as unfortunate as the local sound of gunfire.

He felt it before he heard it. A bullet ripped through the stomach of his chassis while the assailant leaned out the window. the glass tube stuck in its neck lit up when the rifle’s muzzle flashed. Pac-A-Fist whipped around and fired several rounds at the sniper. One of which struck the glass cathode tube and shattered it. The sniper tumbled backwards and out of sight.

Cursing under his breath, Samuel hurriedly shone his light around to spot any more threats lurking in the darkness before they could attack. He did not see any on his sweep, but that meant little for their safety. So by the time that Pac-A-Fist had finished dealing with the assailant, Samuel had already transformed back into his Esper form. A quick nod was his way of communicating thanks to the girl before he moved over to assess Fable's condition.

"You've been shot, Fable," Samuel made the rather obvious observation with a purpose as he made deliberate eye contact with the boy. Taking a bullet out of nowhere could easily send someone into shock even if it wasn't immediately fatal. "Are you still with us?"

Both of Finn's hands were pressed up against the bullet wound, dyeing them red. The poor boy was shaking like a leaf, still recoiling from the unexpected attack by how rapidly he was breathing. He was shot. He was shot.

He never looked so terrified.

"...H-Hurts...I'm fine but, i-it hurts..." Was all he could muster out in response to Samuel. Looks like that was a yes.

Sam could not entirely hide his relief that the boy was still coherent, his tone briefly losing intensity. "Good, keep pressure on that wound so we can keep it that way."

As if waiting for him to finish, the group could hear something in the distance. Samuel once again looked to that rifle...

The gunshot, or maybe Finn’s agonized scream, drew someone’s attention. They could hear hurried footsteps rushing to their position. She had soot all over her face.

"Fable?" She approached the clockwork esper.

But she was met with the barrel of the sniper rifle being pointed at her as she tried to get too close. Samuel did not recognize her and was clearly ready to pull the trigger if she did not respect their distance. "STAY RIGHT THERE!" the chorus of voices that followed his own repeated in varying speeds and intensities. "Who are you and what do you want?" he questioned.

Mary pulled back her arms. "Wah? I-Im-"

”Cthulya is a friend.” Pac reassured Sam. Even she looked a little nervous with his apparent aggression.

Samuel was clearly on edge, but he had no reason to doubt what Pac-A-Fist was saying. "In that case," he lowered the rifle in cooperation, leveling an apologetic look toward Cthulya. As he was currently transformed and his face was static, the 'apologetic' part probably didn't get across from his body language. "I apologize for the aggression. I was not expecting a friendly face so soon after an ambush," he paused, considered something, then added, "This place is just as safe as it looks."

"Which is to say, not very." Mary agreed. "There’s snipers and the largest weretiger I’ve ever seen out here. We need to go inside and-" Mary ended up cutting herself off again. Her eyes wandered over Finn’s prone form. "Oh my god!"

”Keep an eye out for me.” Pac kneeled down beside Finn and examined him. ”Alright, Fable, you with me?” She patted the side of his head. ”Stomach wounds are one of the most painful injuries you can receive, but they are survivable. The sooner we get you to a hospital, the better. I’m sure Gemini has their own facilities that are going to be better than anything Pax Septimus has.” She forced a smile. ”Entering the Esper state isn’t going to heal you, but you might find it easier to move if your other form isn’t too badly hurt.” She looked at Samuel. ”We should really leave.”

_{"Not...c-coincidence..."} Finn couldn't help uttering from what Mary explained, prying one of his free hands away from the other to grab his Grimore. A broken chuckle slipped out of him. The one time he's untransformed, and he got caught off guard. "Fuck my life..." With that, he turned back into the Timekeeper.

Taking a deep breath, the mechanical esper stood back up. "Well I dread the moment I have to revert back." He was lucky enough to have healed before attacking the Holy Diver. The boy was still shaken up, but at least he wasn't in pain like this. "Let's not waste any more time out here than we need to. We'll talk more inside." He picked up the flashlight he dropped off the ground. _{"God, what am I going to tell my parents?"}

”Pax Septimus was just hit by a series of crazy storms. It shouldn’t be too hard to think of an excuse.” Pac looked for a door. ”There’s so much rubble.”

Mary stuttered. "W-w-w-w-w-what are you doing!? Heading inside will protect you from the snipers, but there are still monsters about. This. Place. Is. Not. Safe!"

”It would be preferable to get Fable to a hospital, but I don’t think we can make him turn back right now.”

Pac and Mary might have been considering their options, but Samuel was not going to let someone else get the jump on them. They weren’t being quiet, and Fable’s scream could likely be heard by everyone in the district. And a certain thrall couldn’t resist Fable’s cries of anguish.

With a shriek, Betty launched herself out of a second story window and dove for the esper’s position. Her violin was poised overhead, ready to smash whatever it hit to pieces.

Welp. They found her.

Quickly spinning on his heel towards the direction Betty was approaching from, Finn held his weapon up to block the blunt instrument.

Samuel naturally redirected the borrowed rifle toward their sudden aggressor, but even had he wished to ignore Finn's request, he wasn't confident enough in his marksmanship to shoot with friendlies so close. Not unless he absolutely had to. But since he had given them some space to look at Finn's wounds, they were surely in a better position to help him.

And so Samuel held back and waited. Hitting an ally wasn’t something he was willing to risk. But he may have overestimated the help his esper allies were able to offer. Pac-A-Fist’s pistol was in her hand, but she likely had the same reservations about shooting someone so close to an ally. Mary on the other hand was armed with her puppet and little else. Neither of them had much mana to speak of.

When the blow came down, Finn was knocked onto his back. From there, Pac and Mary took two very different approaches to dealing with Betty. Pac-A-Fist stepped back and focused her pistol on Betty, but Mary moved in to punch some sense into the thrall. But Betty had an eye on the cthulian esper. As soon as her violin left Finn’s sword, she plowed her makeshift club into Mary’s ribcage. She clutched her side and toppled over as Betty prepared for another swing towards Finn.

With an audible, disappointed sigh only hidden from notice by the cacophony of combat, Samuel discarded the rifle and returned to using his Instruments as he moved to assist Finn once Mary had been knocked down.

"Damnit!" He practically lept up from off the ground when Mary got hit, letting his rapier collide against the instrument and move it off course. "Stop it, Betty! He's gone, he won't hurt you anymore! We don't have to fight!!"

Samuel had gotten close enough to threaten Betty by the time Finn had started trying to appeal to her, deciding to wait to see if it was in vain or not.

But it didn't look like Betty was going to hear Finn out. She was raging out of her mind. Someone with sound thinking facilities likely would have hesitated before jumping into the situation she had put herself in. The only reason why Betty hadn’t been bodied already was because no one wanted to hurt her. Mary was laying motionless on the ground, Pac held off on shooting, and Finn remained on the defensive. But Samuel…

He drove his knife into her just as she was getting ready to swing. She didn’t even have time to react before he shoulder tackled her, wrenching out his blade as she tumbled sideways. She was quick to return to her feet, but it was evident she didn’t like that last attack too much. Her right arm trembled as streams of blood ran down her arm. She was holding her violin with her only good arm.

But even if Betty had been weakened, she wasn’t giving up.

With another cry of hatred, she rushed in to attack Samuel this time.

Seeing the injured Betty resume the fighting, Samuel lost a lot of the confidence he had in Fable freeing her from whatever violent fog clouded her mind before she ended up murdering one of them. "This isn't going anywhere. She is beyond reason," Samuel exclaimed, at least thankful that the heat had been taken off of Finn for the moment.

"I don't think we can play nice here, Fable," Samuel was focused on the girl trying to beat him with a violin so he couldn't shoot the boy an apologetic look like he wanted. "She needs to be disarmed and restrained, then we can focus on remedying her."

Finn opened his mouth to speak up, but found himself unable to with the lump that formed. He was right. She hated him, after all. Why would she ever listen? With a grimace, he aimed his pistol at her left shoulder, and fired. "I'm so sorry!"

The bullet ripped through Betty’s shoulder. By this point it was impossible to distinguish between her cries of fury and her cries of pain. She was getting angrier, but she was also getting weaker.

But she didn’t release her weapon, even as her arms started to fail her. With Sam so close, Betty opened her mouth and leaned in to bite the agent.

Finn couldn't let that happen.

The boy fired his gun at the back of her leg in an attempt to stagger her. The temptation was there to just unload the whole clip and be done with it. He was sure as hell they'll both be admitted to a hospital after this is said and done, but he was trying to be smart about this. Especially with Samuel taking the brunt of Betty's seemingly endless ire.

As he abstained from any attacks targeting vital points on Betty, Samuel made it a point to abuse the injuries she had sustained. He chose her working arm as his main target but would swing from the injured arm's direction, try to force a lockout with the violin so that he could use his offhand to strike, etc.

...How so very close...

Despite how nervous bullets flying so close to him made the more experienced G.E.M.I.N.I agent feel, Samuel remained determined to keep her locked in conflict with him. He had no other option besides, and the injuries were starting to have a more pronounced effect on Betty, whose body seemed less willing to continue the fight than her spirit.

But man, her spirit was tenacious. On Samuel's end, the bite was rather a bit awkward for him in particular. He wasn't about to risk her accidentally killing herself on his blade, so he had decided to try to meet her with a strong elbow.

Sam’s elbow connected with Betty’s head before she could bite him. While Finn’s shot was certainly risky, he did manage to miss Samuel despite their close proximity. They were so close in fact that Pac-A-Fist was still hesitating to fire. But maybe she wasn’t going to need to. Betty was stumbling back, and it looked like she was on the verge of falling over.

Then she transformed.

The blisters and burns all over her body hadn’t gone away, but she was more than strong enough to hold her sword at the ready. Her ceaseless howl continued as she swung her blade towards the gemini espers. Even the nearby building couldn’t halt her blade. It’s outer wall crumbled under the heft of her blade.

"Nothing's working!!" Finn cried out as he moved out of distance from her attack. Hurting her seemed to make her worse, but trying to get through to her without violence didn't do jackshit! He was so close to just...giving up...

Who was he kidding? This wasn't worth the hell he had endured.

He didn't deserve to get popular cause of a fight that was never his. Some fucking relationship Shimr made them out to be. He just wanted to go home and forget everything that happened this whole incident.

"...I'm sorry for everything." The mechanical esper spoke in a small voice to no one in particular, then fired the rest of his clip at the swordswoman, timing it to avoid accidentally hitting his fellow agent. When he ran out of ammo, he charged in for a stab.

Samuel had naturally made it a big priority to avoid being cut by the blade, so he was not quite as concerned with what Fable was doing until things became a lot louder. The staccato of shots ripped through any notion of understanding Samuel had and left the man confused.

What were they doing anymore?

While reason escaped everyone, reality unfolded. And the reality was that a wounded, brainwashed esper like Betty wasn’t up for a lot more pain. Samuel was staying clear of Betty’s sword, so it wasn’t too difficult to avoid hitting him. Beyond that, Betty couldn’t defend herself mid swing. The physical bullets had little difficulty ripping through her pulverized flesh. Her shoulder, her legs, the building behind her. The erratic spray would have killed a less resilient esper, but Betty still clung to life. Her howls had quieted down to an agitated growl, and the flow of blood blinded her sight. Even if she had the strength to raise her sword, she wouldn’t know what to do with it. The distant sound of combat was enough to mask the boy’s advance.

Finn ran Betty though. The world seemed to freeze once his sword was hilt-deep in her torso. A few weeks ago they were calmly drinking coffee while getting to know each other. Now she was just another monster Finn had to cut down. She hissed as she slid off the blade and collapsed in a heap. Betty had been defeated.

After a minor conflict and having only suffered multiple gunshot wounds and stab wounds, they had successfully neutralized the threat Betty posed... and maybe Betty herself? It wasn't pretty, at least, and the pitiful mixture of blood, stress, and exhaustion weighed heavily on Samuel, who was more than ready to regroup with the others and leave the terrible day behind them. Whether Betty was with them or not didn't personally matter to Samuel.

Whatever emotion the Timekeeper felt faded into a cold indifference as the beserker finally collapsed. "That's for what you did to me back at the mansion." A quiet voice carried a careful spite. He may be an idiot, but he wasn't that stupid. He moved to kick Betty into laying on her back. Dead eyes stared down at her. He almost didn't look human. "You know, for all the shit you put me through these past few weeks, I could just go ahead and finish you right here and now." He spoke, resting the point of his rapier where her heart was. "But leaving you like this would make us even, wouldn't it? Just depends on whether or not I do what you weren't able to last time. I do wonder, will it'll bite me back in the ass no matter what I do?" Despite his words, Finn pulled out the first aid kit from his pocket. He crouched down, and casted his gaze aside. "And you call me a dumbass? You're borderlining on suicidal with how stubborn and pissed you've let yourself get. ...Then again, for the former, I admit this is hypocritical coming from me. But you have a life, don't you? Friends, family, dreams, were you really willing to abandon all that? You're lucky to have people that care."

Finn would have to wait for her to untransform to do anything about her wounds. Until then, he was taking the opportunity to finally drill some sense into that thick skull of hers.

And to apologize.

"...I really am sorry. For everything." After a moment, he spoke again, repeating his words. "You have every right to hate me, I get it. I let Mary scare me out of the diner, I let a behemoth corner me before I could head back to find you, and...I let Justin hurt you." Finn let the words form themselves, but he avoided looking back at her. "I wasn't the only one worried about you either, many of the freelancers were. I've been taking every lead I could off Shimr, but it seemed that no matter what I did, I was always...too late, too weak." He frowned. "I should've been there to protect you, but I failed." But the boy’s pent up emotion did nothing to move Betty, who remained unresponsive. She laid there as blood seeped out of her wounds. Maybe that's why he refused to look at her.

"But maybe you'll get the chance to make it up to her. Now isn't the time for regrets or despair, save that for when you know you've failed," Samuel produced a small glowing ball from his person, kneeled down beside the beaten Esper, and touched it to her, applying the Stabilize note it was enchanted with. Samuel hadn't discarded caution entirely and was ready to introduce Betty to the pommel of his sword if she got a second wind and chose to attack again, but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. He also hoped Veronica's power could even help for Finn's sake, but tempered his expectations.

Hopes aside, the poor visibility and uncertainty of the surrounding area made for a poor place to attempt to mend someone's critically-serious injuries, let alone when Betty was liable to turn aggressive again if she regained her strength. Samuel wanted out and fast, knowing there wasn't much point to cuffing a transformed Betty. "But I think we'll need a bit more than just this cursed darkness for that, and I'm running on fumes and borrowed power. If she's going to survive, we need to get her some real help."

As he prepared to lift or help lift Betty under the bold assumption they weren't just going to leave her there, the older agent glanced around, settling on Pac, who had been rather quiet, not that the situation had encouraged small talk or anything. "I appreciate the discipline, especially in light of Justin's tainted influence," the demonic voice said after noticably lingering on the gun she had. He didn't say anything more, though, his concerns now on getting out of danger as safely and as quickly as they could given their encumberance.

Pac-A-Fist snapped out of her trance. ”I guess.” she lowered her gun and approached Mary. ”I’m just hoping nobody else has to die today. Did you save her? That stab looked fatal.” But Betty’s esper form was holding out. There was a purple stain where the ball had touched her. When she picked up Mary, she winced. ”I just hope Elroy and the other freelancers are okay.” She turned towards Finn and gave him a good hard look, but said nothing. Without wasting any more time, she followed Samuel away from danger.

And no one but Finn could hear it, but a certain deer headed demon chuckled somewhere in the darkness.

"..." Finn said nothing as they picked up their wounded and left.

He just sat there, eerily still. He already said what he wanted to say, no matter whether or not she lived or died. Baphomet laughed at him. He didn't react. The mechanical husk lagged behind the two as they made their leave.

It was honestly rather surprising to Ashley that Veronica seemed so nonchalant about letting her go off into the darkness and play board games, of all things, with one of the most infamous Depraved espers on the planet. Even if she was only doing so to make sure Gale was safe (even more so, now that the bluenette had begun laughing like a complete lunatic), the Knight of Tomorrow would have expected Veronica, head of GEMINI operations in Pax Septimus, to at least be fairly antagonistic towards Oros, and yet, they had interacted as if they were old acquaintances, perhaps even friends! In fact, even with the harp and it’s mysterious owner still laying on the ground, unsecured, Veronica had chosen to depart, trusting the remaining agents to handle the matter, almost as if Oros was a fellow agent herself…

Could that really be the case? Ashley wondered. Is Oros actually a deep undercover agent?

Regardless, with nearly everyone present being dangerously low on mana, and thus in no position to resume hostilities, it seemed a relatively moot point, although that still didn’t make its possible implications any less unnerving. And the same could be said of the lingering darkness…

“Do you happen to know why this darkness hasn’t gone away yet?” Ashley asked Oros. “I thought it would have cleared up once the Diver was defeated.”

”You thought wrong, clearly." Oros stretched her arms out with a groan. ”You know how when a monster stabs you the wound persists even after they’re slain? This must be the same way. The diver’s magic didn’t darken the sky, their magic did something that darkened the sky. It’ll clear up eventually. Probably."

”Of course it will!” Stacy said with a level of certainty children used when talking about santa. ”As bad as things get in Pax Septimus, they always bounce right back! Now, does anyone have a place where we can play board games? I have the games, buuuuuuuut I don’t think most places are going to have power.”

Marrie didn’t respond right away, fidgeting with her clip light a little for a moment, before finally saying, ”Should be able to get a generator from a store if we need. I don’t really know of anywhere with its own power supply.”

“I suppose that would work,” Ashley replied. As it happened, she did know of at least one place that would have a backup generator, but she highly doubted one of the most wanted espers in the world would be welcome inside GEMINI HQ…

”You girls are something else! I thought you’d be against stealing a generator." Oros shrugged her shoulders. ”Though it does look like the end of the world. I doubt anyone will really care if we borrow a generator for a time. Just gotta get some gas or something to power it up. It’ll be an adventure!"

Stacy threw her arms into the air. ”Like the zombie apocalypse!”

”Sort of, yea." Oros gazed into her sword. ”Why don’t we drop by the local Wally World? Any supercenter worth their salt should be a one-stop-shop for everything we need. It’ll even save Stacy a trip home to get her board games."

”I was intending to pay for it, but I guess that most people wouldn’t really care given the circumstances.”

Although Ashley hated to say it, Oros actually had a good idea. Well, except for the whole “steal the generator” bit. “You know, we don’t even have to take it out of the building,” the Knight of Tomorrow spoke up. “We could play our board games in Wally World itself,” she suggested. “Don’t you think that might have a better, um, ambiance, anyway?”

”Yes, I think the inside of a Wally World would have a bit less blood and such. Even though red is kind of a romantic color." Oros placed a hand on Marrie’s shoulder. ”And we can, like, leave some money or some shit if that makes you happy."

…

…

…

Maybe Oros’s plan wasn’t that great after all.

Turns out, all those plagues happening one after the other tend to drive people to places of safety. Not only were people flocking to Wally World, but many of the patrons there refused to leave. Many had taken out electric lanterns and were “camping” in various corners of the store. Others were trying to call loved ones or eating produce right in the isles.

”Well, whatever." Oros groaned. She placed a shopping bag filled with junk food on a picnic table. It was for sale, but the scrambling employees were more concerned with restoring power and managing other customers. ”You guys get everything you wanted?"

”Yup!” Stacy had gone shopping for some board games, which were piled at one end of the table. ”I’m just going to need a moment to set something up. I don’t normally play with so many people.”

Marrie had found a few electrical lamps, similar to what some other people were using, and brought them over. ”Are we still going to play here, then?” she asked.

“I think that’s our best option,” Ashley replied. “We’re in something of an out of the way corner, so as long as we keep to ourselves, I don’t think anyone will bother us.”

At least, I hope not…

It also technically wasn’t stealing if nothing left the store.

”What’s a good ice breaker?" Oros popped open a bag of chips. ”So Marrie, what sort of stuff do you do for fun? You don’t strike me as the sort who lives to be an esper."

”Ah, well..” Marrie looked around, sort of at a loss. It’d been a long time since she’d gotten to explain her passions. ”I’m sort of a computer nerd, and I love art. Especially, like, drawings and paintings. I’m not… the greatest or anything, but I don’t know many artists who are proud of their own work, heh. She nearly continued, but figured that explaining that most of her work was either written fanfiction or sketches of said fanfiction wouldn’t be the best way to start off a conversation like this. ”Honestly, aside from tracking Justin’s stuff, I haven’t had time to really do much of anything other than esper work recently. Plus, even if I didn’t need the income from it, I had to help out Stacy and Pac-a-Fist, since… Yeah. So I’ve had a lot of stuff coming before having fun on the priority list.”

”That’s a shame. I’ll have to look at something you made sometime." Oros grinned.

Ashley shot an annoyed glare at Oros when the pink-haired girl casually revealed what was apparently Gale’s real name, but as she listened to Marrie describe her hobbies and lack of time to pursue them, the Knight of Tomorrow realized that not only did the bluenette not seem to care about the revelation, but secret identities themselves were kind of pointless when dealing with someone with Oros’s supposed abilities. And there was another very pertinent reason to revert to their mundane forms as well, one Ashley had completely forgotten about until just now…

“Um, not to interrupt, but do you think we should revert back to our mundane forms?” Ashley inquired tentatively. “Normally I’d be against revealing our true identities, but I’m pretty sure Oros already knows exactly who we are, and I don’t really think we should be playing games, or sitting in these chairs, while being covered in blood and… other things…”

”Most people who have been outside are covered in blood, but… yeah, makes sense.” Marrie looked around, and finding that nobody was looking their way, reverted from her esper form.

The cultist scoffed. ”No one’s going to ask me to leave if I stay like this. Besides, I’d like to keep the mystique my true form holds alive just a bit longer."

Stacy was sitting beside a pile of wet wipes, which were red with blood and stacked up almost as high as she was. But her skin and hair looked pristine. Well, as pristine as it can look when you’re a zombie

”Wew! That stuff runs right between your toes!” With a flick of her wrist, two mats skid across the picnic table. They were checkered boards, one white and black and the other red and black. Once she pressed them together, Stacy started to place checkers and chess pieces on the board. ”Normally I’d suggest we play Monopoly, but they don’t have my favorite expansion packs in stock, so this will have to do.”

Oros looked at the board games. ”There were no board games for four players? I thought I saw twister there somewhere. Playing two separate games is kinda weird."

”Silly! This is a four-player game! The idea of chess is to capture your enemy’s king by moving them into checkmate. The rook moves in straight lines, bishops move diagonally, horses move in ‘L’ pathways because they’re losers-”

”Right, but what are the checker pieces for?"

”You mean the serfs? They are interesting in that they move diagonally, but only one step at a time. And they can capture many pieces at once by hopping over them like a frog! Oh! But they can only head up the board, but if they reach the other side they can become barrons, which look like two serfs stacked on top of each other.Those can move diagonally in any direction.”

The serfs were set up in a standard lattice formation, with the chess pieces nestled in among them. One side had all black pieces, while the other had white chess pieces and red serfs.

”So we play as teams or some shit?"

”Yup! One team has a player commanding the royal army while another controls their serfs. Turns alternate between white, black royalty, red, black serfs.”

”That’s fair.” Marrie replied to Oros’ comment on not transforming. As she listened to Stacy’s explanation, she was pretty impressed. ”You came up with a way to fuse checkers and chess, huh? That’s pretty smart. But, uh… It seems like it’s just the two games simultaneously?” She took a closer look at the boards.

“Whatever…” Ashley responded to Oros with a tired sigh, before returning to her mundane self. “And if anyone asks why we’re so clean, we could just say we were inside when the blood rain started,” she noted. “Or that we used some of those…” she added with a slightly concerned frown as she glanced at the mountain of bloody wipes Stacy had created.

The zombie girl hadn’t changed back either, but Ashley wasn’t going to ask for an explanation. Gale, or rather, Marrie, looked pretty much the same as her esper form, with only a few cosmetic differences, like hair color, but maybe Stacy was embarrassed by her real appearance, or even physically impaired to such a degree that she wouldn’t be able to play the game she was setting up. And what a game it was…

“Um, did you make those rules up yourself?” Ashley asked once Stacy had finished going over how the game worked. “They’re very clever,” she added with a small smile. “So, uh, how did you want to decide on teams?”

Stacy shook her head. ”I wish I could take credit, but this is how chess is supposed to be played. Though it’s a game that’s been around for a thousand years or so. It’s natural that the game would evolve and become more simplistic. There is something romantic about two brains duking it out, but classical chess was always designed to be played this way. as far as player order goes, I think I’ll let someone else work that out.”

Oros shook her fist. ”Yea! that was a lot of dialog Stacy spat out. Maybe you guys could pick up the slack a bit? Though if you want my opinion, hmmm." She scratched her chin. ”Part of me thinks Marrie and I should be on the same side, but Ash is such an adorable onesan I couldn’t get upset if they were on the same side for this."

”I don’t mind either way. It’d be fun to play with or against someone called ‘insane,’ I think. Maybe we should go with the third option and have you and Orion be a team?” Marrie slightly smiled at the idea. ”Though maybe that would be unfair to you two, since there’s the most friction between you two.”

“I don’t really mind who I’m teamed up with,” Ashley replied after the others had made their suggestions. “But if it’s too difficult to decide, perhaps the teams should be chosen randomly?”

”Regardless of what we do, I’m sure we can get along fine.” Stacy nodded at Ashley. ”How would we go about randomly selecting teams?”

”I guess… Well, we could play multiple games and switch? That way we’d all play alongside everyone? Doesn’t even have to be the same game after this, just something with teams.”

“I guess…” Ashley conceded. “But that still leaves the problem of choosing the initial teams… How about this,” she suggested after a moment’s thought. “We place two black checkers and two red ones in a cup and blindly draw one apiece.”

Stacy gave Ashley a thumbs up. ”Works for me! We just need a cup now. Anyone got one?”

…

Before long, everyone had drawn their checker.

”Yes! Red! just like the color of my voice!" Oros had been the last to draw, but they had decided to reveal their hands once everyone had their checker. ”I hear going first is quite the advantage, in high tier play anyway."

A black chip danced between Stacy’s fingers. ”I’m the most experienced here, so I don’t mind a handicap.”

“I got red,” Ashley announced, unable to keep a tinge of disappointment out of her voice.

Marrie simply held up the final black checker. It was going to be a very interesting match if not only was her opponent “insane,” but also teamed with someone who didn’t like her. Their team chemistry was liable to explode.

Oros only roared with laughter. ”Oh man! I guess it’s going to turn out just like Marrie wanted." She held her chin. ”Since we’re six pages in and nothing’s happened, how about Stacy and I play as the serfs?"

”I’m fine with that.” Stacy sat down on one side of the board. ”The other chess pieces have quite a bit of strategic depth, but as you’ll soon see, the serfs are no pushovers.”

”Exactly why I picked them." Oros looked to Ashley. ”You can feel free to start interrogating me so that your boss doesn’t get upset that you spent your evening playing games instead of filing reports."

”So, do we just… play chess? While you guys play checkers? And then something happens to make them interact?” Marrie asked.

”Yup!” Stacy nodded. ”You probably noticed the serfs can only ever threaten half of the board due to only ever being on one color. But that changes once you get some barrons. I’ll elaborate once we get one.”

”I guess we’ll find out as we play.” Marrie moved over to the chessboard.

Six pages? Ashley wondered. What does that even mean?

Then again, Oros was completely insane, or at least, was pretending to be. Either way, nothing she said could be trusted, which made her offer of allowing Ashley to “interrogate” her seem like nothing more than a fool's errand. Still, there really wasn’t much else to talk about, and if Oros actually was some sort of undercover agent, then perhaps this was her way of passing on vital information. Indeed, when viewed through that lens, even her most unhinged ramblings took on a new, and far more significant meaning…

“Okay, well, for starters, what were you doing while we were fighting the Diver?” Ashley inquired. “You looked pretty beaten up back on the rooftop, so I imagine whatever you were up against was fairly formidable.”

”I had it all under control, thank you very much!" Oros sneered. ”I trust Gemini at least knows what Marrie has been telling everyone already? Then you should be aware that the Hand exists. They were the ones responsible for this attack." Marrie and Ashley had moved their first pawn. The larger board and number of pieces was going to make this game of chess considerably slower. ”I was doing battle with their secretary, Glex. I’m sure she was despatched to prevent me from participating in the fight, as she left as soon as the Diver fell."

“The Hand?” Ashley repeated with a confused frown. “I’ve heard the name before, but that’s all I really know. Are they a monster, a depraved esper, or something else?”

Whoever, or whatever they were, if Oros was telling the truth and the Hand really had orchestrated the Diver’s arrival, then they were a threat several orders of magnitude greater than Justin, or anything else in the city, for that matter. Thus, gaining whatever information she could was a top priority.

”They’re a group. Organization? Cult? Secret Society? Something like that. The hand consists of just six members, but each of them is a big shot in Pax Septimus. Not even I know who all of them are, but that kinky vampire was one of them for sure." Oros made a potato chip dance along her knuckles. ”Couldn’t even tell you what ‘finger’ they were supposed to represent. But I’m sure the others were out and about tonight. Someone must have spotted them." She looked back over to Marrie. ”Okay so like, what do you like doing in your spare time? You seem like you enjoy spending time on computers."

”Well, I did call myself a computer nerd.” Marrie replied. ”Usually, if I have free time and I’m not drawing or writing on my desktop, I’m learning new programming languages.” She put her arm on the table and rested her head on her hand. ”Or talking to my mom in a chatroom, I guess. But usually I keep the programming to work-related stuff, nowadays.”

Stacy wrapped an arm around Marrie. ”Well that’s good that you keep in touch with your mother at least! I haven’t seen mine for a while. Mothers are the sort of people that you take for granted, you know?”

Oros moved one of her pieces with a snort. ”Not like anything lasts forever. But what do you plan on doing with all of those computer languages?"

”Mm. It’s been a while for me, too.” She was about to ask about Stacy’s mother when Oros added in. ”Oh, well… I really want to make an AI. Like, a real one. That’s my dream goal, but I doubt I’ll ever get there.”

“An AI?” Ashley spoke up, Marrie’s revelation breaking her out of her internal musings on the Hand. “That’s quite an ambitious goal,” she told Marrie with a smile. “I’m really impressed. But, um, back to the Hand,” she added, glancing at Oros, while moving a rook. “Before today, I would have said the idea of a secret society covertly controlling every antagonistic faction in the city was nothing more than an unfounded conspiracy theory, but with the recent concerted assault against GEMINI forces, it seems much more believable. With that in mind, which of the members do you know, and was Penny once among their number?”

”Repeating what I already know is such a pain in the ass." Oros took a deep breath. ”I already mentioned Glex and you’ve been acquainted with Justin. The remaining ones are a behemoth, probably Tony if not someone higher up, whoever’s doing the capacitor-in-head thing, and some guy who reads books on the beach. Maybe." She rolled her eyes. ”And of course you’d bring Penny into this. It’s possible she was part of the hand, but I doubt she was an important member. My bet is that the hand found it beneficial to give her the spotlight. She gets to be public enemy number one and the hand avoids exposure. Now where was I?" Once again, Oros’s eyes returned to Marrie ”So this AI, what would you wanna do with it? Like, would you make a robotic cat maid or would you go full Somnium Files and give yourself a cute virtual assistant that can be mapped over the real world with augmented reality?"

Marrie listened to Oros’ explanation. She didn’t really follow what she was saying, but she figured she’d find out what she meant eventually. ”I don’t want to like… subjugate it. I just want to do it to prove it can be done. That there can be life that isn’t carbon-based or magical. I… I guess I just want to do it for the sake of doing it, and to make sure that the first person to manage it doesn’t screw it up by not giving it empathy or something. The singularity is scary.” There was a hint of excitement in Marrie’s voice now.

”It’s not really subjugation if it enjoys doing it, right?" Oros propped up her head with her hand. Her fingers smeared the blood on her face. ” You say you don’t want to subjugate it but then you also want it to have empathy. Sounds to me like you want at least a small hand in guiding how this thing behaves."

Stacy jumped one of Oros’s serfs. ”I don’t think anyone wants to make a rogue AI.”

”That’s sort of my point, nobody wants to give their creation unrestricted freedom." Oros smiled. ”I mean look at roleplayers, especially the play-by-post kind. I’m not going to say what they do is anything like making an AI, but they are making artificial people with artificial personalities. Doesn’t feel too removed from making artificial intelligence."

”But they have near perfect control over their creations.” Stacy raised an eyebrow. ”I don’t think roleplayers and AI engineers are all that similar.”

”They’re plenty similar. So are parents now that I think about it." Now that it was Oros’s turn, she looked over the board with a grin. ”They all want to live vicariously through their creations." She picked up her checker and jumped a pawn. ”Children are conditioned to behave a certain way." Then a serf. ”As are programs..." And another one of Stacy’s serfs. ”As are characters." Oros lifted her hand off of her piece. ”That’s why Mary Sues are so prevalent. People can’t help but make perfect versions of themselves. I’d be willing to wager the main reason Marrie wants this AI of hers to have empathy is because it’s something she has. You wouldn’t hurt a fly unless you absolutely had to."

”I guess that’s a fair assumption. I want it to have empathy partly because it’s part of the only way I know to live, which is as a human with it, and because if it doesn’t have it, it might get all Terminator-y.” Marrie replied. ”Good move, by the way.”

Ashley listened to Oros and Marrie’s little chat, while moving her chess pieces as appropriate. Marrie’s enthusiasm was genuinely inspiring, but what Oros had said about the Hand still weighed heavily upon the young agent’s thoughts. She was aware of Tony, of course, and had read a few reports on the bizarre cyborgs appearing around the city, but Glex was another matter altogether. Ashley had seen the name before, but precious little concrete information was known about her. Yet, that meager knowledge still painted a highly disturbing picture…

Then there was the mention of a behemoth among their ranks. As far as Ashley knew, all behemoths were little more than mindless beasts, driven purely by instinct. The possibility that one was not only intelligent, but also a major player in the power structure of the city’s underworld was worrying in the extreme…

Still, there wasn’t much to be done about that now.

“I think it’s good you’re putting so much thought into this,” Ashley told Marrie. “I’d be happy to help out if you ever need any assistance,” she added. “And if you ever decide to join up with GEMINI, you’d have access to a wealth of additional resources.”

”Oh my! you’re rotten!” Stacy laughed. ”The only way the government would fund something like that would be if they could make robot soldiers, or robot espers. I don’t think going for that would end very well.”

Oros nodded. ”Yea, we don’t need Penny 3.0 to show up. And if she does, I’d just as soon she not be affiliated with one of the two big factions in Penro- Uh, Pax Septimus."

Marrie was silent for a moment. It probably wouldn’t be the best idea to say her opinions on the government. ”Aside from a supercomputer, I don’t know what they could really do to help. I wouldn’t be okay with other programmers working with me, so I don’t think it’d be worth it. But I appreciate the offer!” Marrie said as she made a move in the game.

Ashley frowned as her offer was shredded to pieces and then some.

“Okay, I understand,” she replied once everyone had voiced their opinions. “You’d like for this to be a personal project that you can accomplish on your own,” she added, turning to Marrie as she lined up a bishop for an attack on one of the girl’s pieces. “But I don’t really see how employing robots to eliminate monsters would be a bad thing,” she continued. “I mean, as long as they were properly controlled and used responsibly, they would be able to save a lot of lives.”

”I mean, that’s subjugation of non-organic lifeforms, isn’t it? Unless their AIs are so primitive that they can barely manage to fight things… Which sort of defeats the point of using robots. If they’re smart enough to fight monsters, you’re losing robot lives in place of human lives, and that’s probably bad PR in the opinion of AIs like the kind I want to make.” Marrie replied. ”I for one welcome our new robot overlords. Heh.”

”Why do I get the feeling Wall-E is your favorite movie? And also, what the hell are you doing, Stacy?" Oros pointed at the board. ”You haven’t moved your back line yet!"

”That’s part of my strategy!” Stacy continued to wear a pleasant smile.. ”You seem smart, so you can probably understand what it is.”

”Yea, with the back line filled, I can’t get any barrons. That’s just the sort of thing I’d expect Maverick Alternative to do."

”Um…”

”It’s fine." Oros placed her arm around Ashley’s shoulder. ”Ashley is a cool agent. She’s not going to blow you up if you seem like a good egg. If she has a hate boner hard enough, she’ll even work with espers on Gemini’s kill list."

Ashley frowned at Marrie’s response. That wasn’t exactly what she’d meant, but before she had a chance to say anything, Oros returned to being her typical unpleasant self, causing Ashley’s frown to turn into an annoyed scowl.

“W-What are you even talking about?” she asked the pink-haired lunatic, while pulling away from her as much as possible. “I’ve never done anything like that!”

Oros grinned. ”Didn’t the two of you beg me to save Klava?"

“A-And you’re a Maverick?” she added, turning to Stacy. “I-I thought you were a Freelancer… But I guess it’s fine,” she said with a tired sigh. “After everything that’s happened today, I don’t see why we can’t remain civil towards one another for the time being. And I wasn’t suggesting using sentient machines as expendable cannon fodder,” she told Marrie. “I was actually thinking of the possibility of having a single sentient AI controlling multiple robotic units remotely. That way, no robot ‘lives’ would be lost, and it would also ensure that no organic lives would be needlessly endangered either.”

”So, like… ants? I mean… I guess we can’t know what it’d feel like for it, so I can’t throw out the idea… I guess that’s something to ask when possible.”

”Man, this get together was a great idea. A shame it's just us here." Oros pushed her thumb against the hilt of her sword and gazed at the blade. ”Eh?" She raised an eyebrow. ”Finn? What are you-" Her eyes went wide as she cut herself off mid sentence. ”Why…did…he…" She stood there frozen in shock.

”What happened?” Stacy didn’t sound all that concerned. ”This Finn fellow, is he in trouble?”

”...Heh." Oros’s grin swiftly returned. ”Guess it doesn’t matter how many worlds we jump. You’re always gunna get your ass murked." She stepped away from the table and nodded to everyone present. ”I hate to leave a date early, but I’ve gotta save a friend and avenge another. Maybe we can do this again some other time?" Oros didn’t wait for a response, and started to casually walk towards the exit.

“W-What’s going on?” Ashley asked as Oros got up. “Is Finn okay?”

The last she’d seen of him, the boy was chasing after Betty, which meant that all kinds of unpleasant consequences could have very easily ensued…

”For the moment." Oros flashed a grin. ”That’s gunna change once I get to him though."

“What are you planning to do?” Ashley asked warily, while rising to her feet and fixing Oros with a stern glare.

”Not sure yet. But I’m in a rush, so just look over the obituaries tomorrow if you’re curious." She didn’t stick around long after that. She was sprinting straight for the exit. Even without the assistance of any melodies, she was much faster than your average esper.

“What?!” Ashley gasped, her eyes going wide.

The next thing she knew, Oros was sprinting for the door…

“I-I’m sorry, but I need to go after her!” the bespectacled brunette told Marrie and Stacy, before shifting to her esper form and running after Oros as fast as her legs would allow.

The Knight of Tomorrow had no idea how she would go about stopping someone as powerful as Oros, if she could even catch her in the first place, but for Finn’s sake, she had to at least try…

It took Fritzi a moment to return to the convoy of assault vehicles. By this time, the second behemoth had fled and the remaining agents were recovering from the battle. The damage that had been dealt to the convoy was minimal, but this was unsurprising given she had only been away for a moment. Yet there was something off. Something wrong, even more so than the dark sky.

"You were able to hold out." Fritzi approached one of the drivers.

”Barely.“ He said between breaths.

She looked around. "Where did Binky go?"

”Last I saw her, she was on one of the vans. It suddenly sped up and drove into a wall. Then the sky got dark, and…“

Fritzi turned to look down the street. Sure enough, one of the vans had crashed into a wall. She stepped over to it and inspected the wreckage. The wall above the van had been smashed in, which could have been caused by Binky if she was riding on top of it. But that was the thing. But with all the damage there were no bodies. There wasn't even any blood at the sight of the crash. This entire operation had been going for several minutes now. With Binky’s transformation lasting seconds at best...

"We need to find them."

”What if that thing shows up again? We're not a match for that thing.“

Fritzi pinched the bridge of her nose. Though once she lowered her hand, she had a subtle grin on her face. "Alright, we’ll withdraw for now."

”I’ll radio the others.“

---

Jacqueline watched over a daughter as she grieved.

Gemini agents withdrew from a massacre, thralls in tow.

A mad esper moved to avenge a friend with an agent hot on her trails.

But where did this leave Sharr?

The former Gemini researcher had approached the straight jacketed woman. She was keeping her distance though. Jacqueline was in the vicinity and would likely take notice of her doing anything to the girl. Moreover, she didn’t think Veronica would be gone for long. In all the years they had worked together, she had always been insistent on handling things like this herself. Since they last spoke, at least. Unless one of the agents were supposed to be watching her, in which case they were doing a pretty shit job.

The bald, restrained woman was starting to wake up. In truth, Sharr had little interest in her. She had mostly shown up to speak with Fritzi, but a curiosity like this could at least pass the time until the aforementioned came back.

”Hey there, sleepy head.” Sharr kept her distance from the woman. ”Care to explain what just happened?” The woman only looked up at Sharr from her position on the floor and blinked. ”Please don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to talk?”

”I can talk just fine.“ She pulled the harp closer to herself and winced. ”Nnngh! I feel like I just woke up, and maybe fell down a flight of stairs.“

”Not too off the mark, actually.” With a huff, Sharr placed her hands on her hips. ”But alright, lets start with something easy.” She placed a hand on her chest. ”I’m Sharr. Who might you be?”

”I’m Faith.“

---

Ashley did her best to keep up with Oros. Fortunately neither of them had much mana left, but the mad esper’s raw speed was above and beyond most other espers. Still soaked in blood, black blade drawn, she blazed a trail towards her target.

Ashley was slower, but not stupid. Even if she couldn’t catch up to Oros, she probably contacted them and let them know she was coming. It didn’t matter though. More than power, she had experience. Their years of training were nothing to her decades of experience. It would take a miracle to save that little bastard from her.

She could hear them coming. Oros waited behind the corner of the building, and then she struck! The blood soaked esper leapt out of the darkness with her sword drawn.

”Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!"

That last part was a joke. We'll pick this up again next year. Maybe. Sometime.