Annabelle the 3rd wouldn’t have much luck contacting Iron Mouse. She had already burrowed into the ground as per my last post and was not around to hear what the girl had to say. In fact, the illusion known as Iron Mouse was no longer anywhere on the battlefield.

However…

@Crusader Lord@Shifter_Master@Flamelord

Mac, still cloaked in invisibility magic, had moved to a rooftop to examine “Suwako” and also all of the other conflicts erupting all over town. It looked chaotic, but compared to some of the things that happened to Penrose, it was tame by comparison. Phase two was doing a good job of cleaning up, and wasn’t at all convinced the tanks would be enough to stop them. This was a problem for Mac. If she wanted to destroy the truce between Beacon and Wonderland, they would need to witness Suwako attacking them a fair bit. Suwako’s actions were no doubt troubling for Beacon, but she was just a footnote when compared to the likes of phase two.

Another development was how Beacon chose to react to Suwako’s appearance. Her bestial hearing let her hone in on Alicia’s voice. It seemed she was able to tell it was a ruse. That could be a problem down the road, but she made the choice to focus on her mission. This baffled Mac. Beacon were a lot of cowards who enjoyed ganging up on people who were different than them. It was weird to see the leader prioritize a rescue over saving their image. Perhaps she had more moxy than most Beacon girls. But this worked out for her, really. It would have been more bothersome if they had all tried to stop her. The clone was concerning, and Mac had considered striking it down, but it was just one clone. It probably wasn’t worth the effort to remove, and could even be beneficial. Time would tell, time would tell.

With the card men utterly annihilated (for now), Suwako moved away from one battlefront and towards another. The center of the conflict was before her: The Queen and Penny. She turned towards the pink Aurelio clone.

“I know HQ will not approve of my actions, but can we be at peace with these savages?” She pointed at the Queen. “Beacon’s laws can be bent. We can allow a monster like Penny to exist out of necessity, but the queen of hearts?” She aimed her bow at her target. “If we do not defeat her here, she will come right to Penrose and destroy everything we’ve just rebuilt. I won’t stand for it. I won’t!”



Mac had no way to pour a lot of her mana into a single spell, but she was going to push as hard as she could for this one. Suwako fired an illusionary arrow tipped with a tiny glowing seed. Mid flight, it sprouted vines that reached at the ground and pulled anything the gravity well it was surrounded by could get a hold of. Rocks, debris, a gravity well this strong could hold a lot. But rather than holding everything at its center, it held it out at the fringes of where the well ended. It would look like dozens of vines were latching onto things and carrying them behind the arrow.

One the arrow hit its mark, and there was no way an illusionary arrow would miss, the debris would scatter all around the queen, before being sling-shotted towards the center of the gravity well: exactly where the queen was standing.

Where the hell was Finn in all of this? He was coming back, right?

---

Chloe remained silent as Al divulged quite a bit of information. But in the end, it seemed that he hadn’t been convinced. She held her breath as the puff of smoke rolled over her face, only snorting in response to it.

"So let me see if I understand.” Chloe was still hanging off of his arm, though her tone had changed. Her eyes were half closed, and she wasn’t smiling. "You’re willing to sit here and tell me all about your woes, reveal secrets from men who treat it like a form of currency, but not make me a broker? If brokers have such little power now, wouldn’t it make more sense to have me as a broker so that we could pool our resources?“ After staring at Al for a moment, she cracked a smile. "Oh! I get it now! You don’t want me to get hurt when Penrose inevitably falls! That’s so sweet Al! I had no idea you cared so much!“ She kissed his bicep, hid her disgust, and dropped to the ground. "But since you care so deeply about me, I’ll let you in on a little secret. When I went north, I was in New York. I had to meet with an old acquaintance, and I also stopped to chat with the wolf of the north. You know? The New York coin broker? It actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. If they made you guys less powerful, you probably have no idea what they’re doing out there. But Nuncio and the other escapees had fled there and she was trying to find a way to get him out of hiding. I gave her a few pointers before coming back here. She really wanted me to stay, but I figured you were starting to miss me. Of course I had no idea you were so serious about our relationship. I always considered us professional acquaintances, but this?” She stepped in front of Al and placed her hands on her hips. The disgust on her face was visible. "I know how this game is played. Give me a job, Al. Let me ‘prove’ myself. But for the record, I’m not leaving Penrose since that’s a no-no for some reason. No attacking wonderland, no saying hello to Veronica for you, just work around Penrose. That’s how you’d prefer it anyway, correct?”

Okay, no one seems to have noticed him yet. Great! He readied his weapon. Just a bit closer and he can-

What the fuck.

Before Finn was able to assassinate Doormouse, the Engine had blinked behind her and held her hostage in a chokehold. Before he could internally complain about it, an ear-splitting warning screech emitted from the machine. With an involuntary flinch he quickly covered his ears. Letting his camouflage wear off now would be a death sentence. Honestly, screw this. Now what do I do? Finn thought to himself as he quickly moved a more reasonable distance away.

The Queen of Hearts seemed to be either trying to call Penny's bluff or really conciders Doormouse to be expendible. Pitiful. But she was distracted. If he hurried he can still behead the Queen herself.

Aaaand then "Suwako" appeared and fired a powerful spell at the bitch. What.

...Wait, the Queen was charging up an attack wasn't she? So if she has to waste it on countering that, then...

Soon as the heavy amount of debris Mac picked up flung towards the Queen of Hearts, Finn broke into a sprint, going in for a swift decapitation. He would've aimed for the heart alternatively, but he wasn't taking any chances with this one.

---

Hm. Everyone's gone quiet.

Oliver didn't account for one of his guards getting knocked over like fragile pottery, but thankfully someone else caught the stragglers before they can get far. "Don't worry about it then!" He reassured Connie as he repaired the fallen armor. A boy with empathic magic appeared to try and help, trying to drain as much panic out of the civilians as he could. Aurelio introduced himself. "Oliver." The ghost nodded. He looked back towards the crowd. "Appreciate the help, but this might not be enough before things get out of hand-"

The sudden appearance of MDP behind them somehow managed to startle the ghost, but frankly? She was exactly what they needed right now. With a relieved sigh he watched as she worked on calming the hysteric civilians back to sleep, and cracked a smile when she finally noticed he was there too. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes. Thanks for the help!" Oliver thanked her, returning the hug with one arm. At the mention of her "new friends" he curiously glanced outside.

"Wow."

So that makes both the evacuation and the defense basically in the clear, but he hadn't heard from Finn or Iron Mouse in a while. What were they doing?? Oliver noticed the clones trying to built a teleporter.

That tiny thing? Lame.

But he wasn't the one with metal based magic now, was he? The only one of them that was is stuck being mission control, so the least he could do was have his own clones help speed up construction.

Nykannis’s maniacal grin swiftly dissolved into an annoyed scowl as she continued to watch the thoroughly lackluster “showdown” between Penny and the Queen of Hearts. “Seriously Penny?” the mad scientist deadpanned. “You honestly think taking a hostage is going to be an effective tactic against someone who regularly decapitates her followers for shits and giggles? I thought you were smarter than that…”

And that wasn’t the only disappointing development.

Although Phase Two had been phenomenally successful with their initial alpha strike, the Wonderlanders were now launching a counterattack. Her enhanced vision easily penetrating the dense plumes of smoke, Nykannis could see a new wave of reinforcements cresting the far hill, in particular, a squadron of tanks supported by several squads of infantry. Although both Team Primus and Team Secundus had advanced midway through the burning fields, they were both proceeding at a cautious pace and wouldn’t be taken unawares by this new development. However, one member of Primus was apparently a little too eager to continue the carnage and had recklessly run ahead of her teammates. This lack of caution would have fatal consequences…

Even as one of the tanks was utterly annihilated by the iridescent beam of a poly-phasic neo-neutrino particle projector cannon, Primus-04 found herself in the crosshairs of another tank’s main gun. Before she even realized the danger, Team Primus’s resident pyromaniac found herself flying through the air, the force of the enchanted shell having blown off her legs. No sooner had her battered body slammed into the ground, then a hail of enchanted bullets from dozens of magitech assault rifles and tank-mounted machine guns drilled into her prone form, before a second explosive cannon shell completely blew her apart.

"Oho! that's gonna leave a mark!" The witch on Nykannis's shoulder commented with eagerness.

Yet, the dismembered girl wouldn’t stay that way for long. Slowly, but inexorably, a swirling cloud of nanites began collecting the girl’s various blood-stained pieces and parts, before setting to work reassembling her. By the time the cloud dissipated, Primus-04 was as good as new, albeit still rather shaken up by her recent experience.

“Be more careful next time, idiot,” Primus-05 admonished as she helped her teammate up. “Doctor Kannis is watching,” she added. “We can’t afford to be sloppy.”

“Whatever!” the pyromanic snapped. “That fucking tank is MINE!!!”

In a flash, she had darted off to leap atop the nearest tank and, like a flaming meteor, smash open its turret hatch, whereupon she promptly began bathing the war machine’s interior with technomantic flame.

Meanwhile, two other tanks, having destroyed one of the towering sunflowers, were now advancing into the town itself in an attempt to outflank the defenders, but they wouldn’t have long to savor this accomplishment. Indeed, they would soon find themselves under attack by the members of Team Tertiarius, who, from their position above the battle field, rained a torrent of bylithyian beta beams, megamorphic macro missiles, and hypersonic polyphasic quantum crystal spikes upon the pair of unfortunate war machines.

“Excellent… Most excellent…” Nykannis noted with approval as her creations handled the Wonderlanders’ counterattack with ease, barring a sole exception. And even she was working on redeeming herself, having captured an enemy tank. Yes, everything seemed to be going quite well. And what was this? One of the other defenders was approaching her with questions. Clearly he knew an authority figure when he saw one.

“Well now, aren’t you precious,” Nykannis said with an amused smirk as she loomed over the magical boy. Her smaller friend waved cheerfully at him. “Are all the bright lights and loud noises starting to overwhelm your primitive little brain? Well, lucky for you, I’m more than happy to explain things, and I’ll even try to use small words so you’ll actually be able to understand what I’m saying. So, basically, Queenie over there (not the Brave Little Toaster, the other one) found out your shithole of a city is the site of a Metaphysical Aetheric Generating Infinitely Coalescing Nexus, which she’d like to use for her own purposes, whatever the hell they are. Unfortunately for her, you and your little pals already live there, so to test your defenses, such as they are, she sent a bunch of wendigos to fuck shit up. Unsurprisingly for a group that includes the Tin Titan herself, you kicked their furry asses, leading Queenie to decide, in a rare moment of lucidity, that maaaybe deploying her invasion force in the center of the fucking city wasn’t such a great idea. Instead, she decided that attacking some random town in the middle of farm animal fucking nowhere and using it as a staging area was a much better plan. And it would have been, if only said town’s sole fucking magical girl wasn’t also a popular streamer, which, let’s be honest, with everyone and their fucking dog streaming shit nowadays is something Queenie really should have considered in whatever passes for her ‘planning sessions’. Anyways, I’m sure even you can figure things out from there, though you really shouldn’t worry about any of this shit, since Phase Two here is handing those moronic Wonderlanders their collective asses as we speak. Oh! But you’re probably wondering what Phase Two even is, right?!” the Monarch of Mad Science added with a gleam in her many glowing eyes. “Well, they’re nothing less than the next generation of magical girl, easily capable of rendering you and your pathetic little pals completely obsolete, and all of them were created by ME, DOCTOR NYKANNIS, QUEEN OF THE MAD SCIENTISTS!!! NYAHAHAHAHA!!!”

"I'm just here to party." Jen casually added, glancing over at Primus-04's direction. "Speakin' off, ally-oop!" She launched herself off of Nykannis' shoulder, and with a quick teleport, landed on the tank 04 had captured. "Sooooo, calling shotgun?" She grinned.

---

“My heavens!” the Angel of Hope exclaimed as she and Gaia drew closer to the new arrivals and their apparent leader. “Such horrific implements of violence! Truly, it pains this humble servant’s heart simply to gaze upon them!” she added, placing her hands atop her chest.

Holy shit! They all look so fucking badass! And that huge-ass bitch cabbage tits is talking to looks like she’s packing enough firepower to solo ten behemoths! Damn it! I’d fucking kill to have weapons like those! Instead, I get this lame as fuck staff that can only heal people…

A moment later, Annabelle sounded a retreat after witnessing the tanks destroy one of her gigantic sunflowers, a sight that brought Gaia a twinge of pain.

May you rest in the peace of Mother’s embrace, noble guardian, she bade the flower silently.

“Good idea,” Nykannis agreed with a smirk. “You should leave the rest of these losers to the professionals!”

“Indeed!” the Angel concurred. “There may yet be those in need of healing at the evacuation shelter and we must not delay in aiding them! Farewell, mighty champions!” she called to the new arrivals. “Know that this humble servant prays for your success and safety!”

Smug fucking bitch…

As they headed back to the center of town, Gaia noted that Annabelle was setting up a number of smaller sunflowers to serve in both a point defense and anti-infantry role.

“Excellent thinking!” the verdant maiden commended. “Please allow me to bolster their capabilities,” she added, raising Nature’s Blossom high and infusing the flowers with additional strength and vitality.

“This humble servant shall provide a blessing upon them as well!” the Angel declared, conjuring a radiant aura around each plant.

Well, I guess these two aren’t complete amateurs…

Back in the shelter, Connie had just been freed from MDP’s crushing embrace when she noticed that someone new had joined them. “Eep!” she yelped, their sudden arrival having startled the incredibly nervous girl. “O-Oh, u-um, h-hello…” she greeted the magical boy in a voice barely above a whisper. “S-Sorry a-about t-that… I-I’m C-Connie,” she introduced herself, her mask forming a tentative smile. “I-It’s n-nice to m-meet you, A-Aurelio.”




“Like, thankie wankies for the helpy welpy, mister wister Aurelio Welio~! (giggle!)” MDP cheered as she bounced over to Aurelio and gave him a big hug. “Golly wolly~!” she exclaimed after getting a better look at the magical boy. “You’re, like, totally wotally a magician wician person werson~! Like, can you do magic wagic tricky wikies~?! And, and, can you, like, makey wakey those funny wunny baloonie woonie animals, too~?!” she asked, jumping up and down in childish wonderment. “Can you~?! Can you~?! Can you~?!”

However, before the magical boy could respond, something new caught the easily distracted Princess of Dreams’s attention…

“Wowie zowie~! Samurai Wamuri-chan and her sister wister are heresie weresie, too~! (giggle!)” MDP exclaimed happily as she darted over to glomp the two sisters. “Magical Dream Princess is sooo super duper happy wappy to see you againsie~! (giggle!) Ooooohh~! And she just wuvs your matching watching outfit woufits~! (giggle!)”

The car was soon past the front lines, and drew closer to its destination as the fighting intensified between Wonderland and new mechanized forces. Glancing back to Hyun, Alicia had a quick answer ready for the question that had been posed. "They want to pull us into the fighting. Probably Wonderland, hoping that we'll violate the deal so they can beat us up while looking justified for the other magical girl factions that care. Or something like that." That was the easiest explanation to reach for, though certainly not the only one that sprang to mind.

Soon they arrived at the shelter. Hopping out of the vehicle, Alicia nodded as Aurelio set to work setting up the teleporter. There seemed to be a situation going on there, and she held back a sigh as magical girls and boys managed crowd control. "So much for being asleep," she grumbled. At least Magical Dream Princess was around to rectify that problem with her magic.

Turning to the others who were already there, she was fast to address them. "We're here to help get the civilians out of here," she explained, figuring they weren't already aware that Beacon would be showing up. Once Aurelio and Oliver were done setting up the teleporter, she would begin helping by carrying sleeping civilians to the machine so they could be removed from the area. With the fighting still going on, they needed to handle that as quickly as they could.

_{@Ariamis@Shifter_Master@Crusader Lord@Ponn@Majoras End}

---

The injured swordswoman would look over as even more new arrivals rushed in, a car of sorts seemingly swinging in out of the blue and stopping before its passengers would likewise disembark from it. The mark of her patron would seemingly grumble inside of her in their presence, indicating something about them that wasn't rather compatible with herself or her Patron. But having felt this sort of thing before, she could tell it was likely forces of The Beacon and their 'Spark'. Spark. Just a marked magical girl of a different sort, bound to an organization. However, this feeling seemed a bit more than the rest.

Hmm. It didn't matter for the time being, really, since they seemed here to help in some capacity. Hopefully at least help in regards to her mistress' goal of trying to help innocent civilians out of this place. Once those were gone they could escape, or at least try to with some of these others to increase their chances potentially. Whatever worked in the end that was best for herself and her mistress really. In turn she could see some of what they were made of, even without the greater senses of her mistress. One of their number clearly had the Duplication power, another was some blue-haired girl, a busty maid in some ridiculous outfit, and then some black-haired girl in a fancy dress who seemed to address her and the others there.

"We're here to help get the civilians out of here."

Help get the civilians out? Perfect. The civilians would no longer be their problem if these people got their butts in gear, and that would make the situation of escape that much easier to manage. Not to mention-

“Like, thankie wankies for the helpy welpy, mister wister Aurelio Welio~! (giggle!)”

...oh no. They had an idiot with them. No, that was no person. That was a magical noise maker made for torture purposes. A living torture device, which was cruel even by Beacon standards, from the dragon woman's point of view. But even so this one seemed to be an at least 'useful' living audio torture device for keeping the civilians better contained by putting them to sleep. Didn't make her feel better, though, as she reflexively winced at the grating of MDP's voice in her ears.

But no, it was no time for complaints. This one was an ally. It was time to get out of there once the civilians were gone, lest she'd have to drag her mistress out kicking and-...yeah. No that wasn't going to happen for a number of reasons. Further, professionality was something she would maintain in this case, but if she got trapped on a car ride with this particular magical torture device-person she would not be happy. She knew that much instinctively.

Even so she would very quietly mumble under her breath.

"Your timing is impeccably classic, the 'good old last second', yet is so horribly overdone it is incomprehensibly mediocre. I'd rate your civilian evacuation service about one or two stars on Glimmr if it were not for the horrendous ear-scratching noise made by that little-."

A prompt 'bap' would land on her head as her mistress next to her gently chopped her head with one hand. The sour yet somewhat understanding look on Eliana's face told all, and the swordswoman would let out a small sigh before looking again to the newcomers and keeping her mouth shut. Even professionals had a time wherein they could get annoyed a bit too much. And between her frustrations at the situation, the magical noise machine of torture's voice, injuries keeping her from doing more (to her own increased frustration), and wanting to ensure the minimum of her mistress' safe escape in a rapidly-deteriorating situation it did not all put her in the best of moods. A slightly sour mood, really, but not enough to break her professional and disciplined appearance/expression.

This time she spoke properly aloud to Eliana.

"Apologies Mistress.

Yet once the civilians have been evacuated we must look to our own exit from this situation. The robot monster girl out there fighting still invited us to join the general escape effort, but in the case things deteriorate too quickly I would advise letting me displace us out of town as an emergency measure."

One thing would potentially be made clear to the Beacon arrivals, however, and that was the fact Kiyome was 'Marked'. The taint of a horror lingering upon her, the touch of it that was palpable to others and both sent lesser monsters into flight. Like a signal flare of the magical sort, it marked her as someone who had contracted with a Horror of some sort. Not that she seemed to pay any mind to it all herself.

---

"We will join the others as they escape as well then, and help get the other defenders out of here as well. This will help both of us to best leave here as well, I believe. I likewise do not wish to push you too far with your magic either, not when you are as injured as you are right now..."

Eliana pursued her lips as she spoke to her sometimes worryingly-loyal companion, before looking up at the new arrivals herself. It was certainty a small weight off of her shoulders to not have to deal with the civilians anymore, them falling back asleep this time, and she would get rid of the smaller barrier she'd made that had been being used to help contain them inside the shelter. Likewise as the vehicle the newcomers had arrived in approached, she'd let them pass through to the inside of her grand protective barrier as well. Albeit she was still putting her efforts into the barrier as she had been already, forming more layers inside of it and augmenting its strength consistently and at a steady rate.

Eliana then looked over to Alicia and spoke, a slight tiredness in her voice as she addressed the Seraph with a genuinely happy (if not somewhat relieved) smile.

"Thank you for coming! I will maintain my barrier until the civilians are gone at least, but I pray the enemy's main force does not get here soon."

Then another voice would pop up soon afterward, this time addressing the Paladin Seraph and general Beacon people in turn.

"I will assist how little I can to move them, mostly relying on these two minions with me for it as I keep watch over my mistress here."

Out of the corner of Eliana's eyes, she could see Kiyome let herself sit on the ground as the two horror minions with her dropped their taken items (more of the dragon's 'trophies' of a sort the magical gypsy wagered) before bent sent off to help carefully and swiftly move civilians to the transporter alongside the new arrivals. She didn't argue against it, but she did hope the new arrivals would not be adverse to it either. Maybe.

On sight alone she could tell they were members of The Beacon with her magical senses, due to the Spark within them, not to mention the Beacon emblem on their vehicle and clothing that was more than indicative of their allegiance. But it did confirm they were probably here to help as the black-haired girl in a dress had told them, rather than imposters seeking to grab up innocent people in the heat of all this. Even so, the spark in these ones seemed stranger than usual. Brighter. Hotter. Yet even so it felt peculiar to look at even on a glance...but she'd save thoughts on it all for later.

Truth be told she was just glad to see more help arrive.

@Ariamis@Majoras End@Card Captor@Flamelord@Ponn

---

---

---

As soon as the vehicle stopped, Serenity jumped out as quickly as she could and would begin to cast a basic speed-augmenting time magic buff on each of her allies and also on herself. Albeit she would not apply one to each of Aurelio's clones, but he had numbers to work with at least. She would then walk over to Hyun and put a hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes and giving an understanding nod.

"We've got this."

It was more a response to the reaction she'd seen out of Hyun back in the vehicle, but all the same it was an attempt to reassure her ally as the mobile teleporters was set up. Because all of this? To her this was nothing compared to what she'd seen, done, and saw before to be honest. A tiny fragment of nothing in comparison to far greater horrors she could recollect with a terrible ease. And yet at the same time as a human being it was a horrible and terrible thing indeed, as well as humbling, and was an injustice that ate away at her heart and fueled the anger simply to look upon. In that sense perspective was truly something...even more special since her rebirth and reincarnation. It was also something she was working on, and hoped to work on, as she lived her new life. One day, one trial, one thing at a time.

Meanwhile, she had a job to do for the time being.

Once Oliver and Aurelio would get the teleporter up and running, she would start going out to move civilians alongside Alicia to try to get them to the teleporter as best as she could. Anything to as safely and swiftly get the civilians to safety as she could alongside the others. Yet as she dropped off a civilian, and turned to bring back another sleeping one from the shelter, she would briefly stop in her tracks. Or rather, she would stop on a dime and visibly freeze.

"I will assist how little I can to move them, mostly relying on these two minions with me for it as I keep watch over my mistress here."

...The voice explained it, at least, but seeing horror minions trying to safely pull unconscious civilians over to the teleporter was not what had caused her to freeze up on the spot for a moment. Rather, it was something else entirely that caused her to act as she did.

A familiar thrum of energy, or rather a presence, lingered in the area of the shelter. Its source? The one who had sent the two minions, a swordswoman who seemed unable to stand on her own next to the other somewhat gypsy-like girl who seemed to be maintaining the very barrier protecting the shelter. And sure they were protecting civilians, but at the same time the presence Serenity felt was nothing alien to her. Not alien to her at all, in fact being incredibly familiar to her past self's memories to the point she could tell who it was without thinking about it.

...And that was the problem.

She forced her body to move, even as the feeling of being a deer in the headlights screamed inside of her brain, before finally getting back into the groove of working to move the civilian bodies. Yet now? Now a cold sweat was covering her skin, running down the back of her outfit even. Likewise a chill felt like it lingered right above the back of her neck, tickling the hairs on her skin and only a moment away from sending mighty shivers down her spine. To those who knew her, such as Alicia and Aurelio, it would potentially be easier to notice. Even so-

-IT was here, or rather its agents were. That THING that she'd hoped to never encounter ever again for the rest of her eternity even more than she dreaded ever running into the rest of her former self again. A being that even the Inquisition, or Soth peeking into the mortal plane again, could not strike more fear into her in comparison to.



The being that existed in eternal and most bitter enmity with that which spewed it forth from its own nothingness, even by the standards of Greater Horrors. That which sought to consume all things and bring all into one. The being which sought for all existence to grow, bloat, sag, rot, and decay so long as it grew and grew and grew forever. That which would devour and consume any traces of its hated foe, or destroy them, on sight without so much as a singular pause or moment of consideration to regard the situation or consequences of it.

Thos.

A being whom, for lack of a better word in the mortal tongue, one of the two 'children' of Soth. And they were the only ones, as well as being very well-known at the very least, for very good reasons.

She was going to die. He was going to find her and kill her. Wonderland? Who needed to worry about their tanks and guns and weapons and mindless soldiers when...when...



The Beacon maid paused for just a brief moment again as the panic tried to peak. Breathe. In and out. In and out. Good.

No, she had to focus on the work. Control herself. Just for this mission, and she'd be away from it. Just focus on the work in front of her. Yes. Carefully but speedily carry the civilian over. Put them down on the teleporter or next to it as her comrades wished for her to. Rinse. Repeat. Rinse. Repeat. Do this until all the civilians had been sent over.

She was controlling herself. One step, one thing at a time. Focus. Help her friends, the only ones she had in this world. Yes. She could do this. She had to.

@Ariamis@Shifter_Master@Flamelord

@Crusader Lord&@Ponn&@Majoras End

Due to Aurelio’s familiarity with the device, his clone and even an additional pair of hand, it didn’t take all that long to get the relay beacon set up. It took even less to get it synced up with Beacon’s wider teleport network, the perks of being a living node in said network. And once that was done, he made three more basic clones and all six of them went to work.

One of the magician’s now walking around was turning back towards Connie. Which was good timing as he turned around just in time to get wrapped up in a hug, which he returned on instinct really, “Hello there Magical Dream Princess” He would greet the bubbly girl more directly. And would open his mouth to answer her questions, only to let out a sigh as she had already bounded off to talk to Ronin and Miko.

“I’m never quite sure how her and Penny got together” he would say to himself. Before turning back to the small group that had been holding the civies from doing something ill advised. “And pleased to meet you Connie.” He would say with a soft bow.

Over at the teleporter Beacon one of the Aurelio’s would turn towards Oliver. “Thanks for the help with set up by the way.” He would offer with a tip of his hat. “Once we’ve gotten all of them moved out, I can give you a lift out as well if you need it.” He would offer. It wouldn’t be to HQ with the civies, but getting people back to Penrose was just as easy for him.

With Ronin, Miko and MDP another Aurelio would stroll up. “Evening ladies, glad to see more friendly faces.”

In the background there was an Aurelio helping ferry people up to the teleporter.

The last Aurelio would make his way over to Serenity, and place a calming hand on her shoulder. This Aurelio was quickly revealed to be the real Aurelio as the maid could literally feel her panic drain away from her. Not all of it, but enough to help her keep her calm. He said nothing, but the look on his face was clearly one of concern and questioning.

---

@BrokenPromise

Outside of town the Pink clone was a bit surprised when the illusion turned to face him. He had been tailing it, but at a distance. Which meant the caster had a really good vantage point over the conflict. His surprise was quickly discarded as he heard the rant that the illusion was building up.

As a clone himself there wasn’t a whole lot he could do, but what he did have at his disposal he started on instantly. As ‘Suwako’ had turned back towards the Queen of Hearts, Aurelio brandished his cane in her direction “Yeah, Illusions and blaming Beacon really original. Let’s see what you look like under the glamor shall we?” He’d ask and let his own magic roll forth.

Now as a Clone his magical skill was limited, and technically not in the realm of illusions. That was an Original Aurelio exclusive. But he was a mote of Confusion and still knew about illusion magic. So, while he couldn’t break the illusion he could scramble the one that he knew was there. Causing it the begin looking and sounding like everyone and anyone all at the same time.

The Clone grit it’s teeth in focus and poured everything it had into the disruption, if he was really luck it might even destabilize and fall apart. But even if it didn’t, He was still visibly trying to take down the illusion. Perception meant a lot when it came to politics. Just a shame he’d not likely be able to escape to tell the original what was going on over here.

---

@Ariamis

The Engine had to admit the fact that her opponent had stalled in her attack was a surprise. It was a display of humanity that she had assumed was out of character. Though if it was because her shield was more valuable than first expected, or actually due to the opposing queen’s morals was hard to quantify at this juncture.

Either way it was advantageous. As each moment spent doing nothing helped the Engine recover just a bit more. Or as was more accurate to the current situation kept her from falling more apart. So, stalling outright was something she was fine with. After all she only needed a little bit more time.



Speak of the devil…

The Engine was glad she was already smiling, she is unsure if she would be able to stifle the urge if she wasn’t.
‘Things feel so bizarre right now…why is that?’
But now she had to find a way to guarantee she had those seconds. Shock would be a good was to ensure it. Snap the Dormouse’s neck and take her head off. That would buy her the time she needed.

Before she could start with her next set of actions however, Snoopy pinged herabout someone else coming up on the fight. The fact that it was Suwako was a more than a little confusing, The Engine could recall the small party thrown in the druidic girls honor when she got reassigned.

Her being here and now was either enemy action or very bad. Her belief of such started leaning into the enemy action category when Aurelio also made an appearance and the subsequent Gravity spell that was fired off cemented it.

But it was also brilliantly timed for her own needs.

The Engine dropped all of her currently running augments, and poured as much magic of her own into the surprise attack being launched on the Queen of Hearts. Amplifying it’s event horizon and its Importance as far as she could. At the same time, she reduced her own significance as far as she could same with her captive.

Suddenly no one could pay attention to The Engine, not next to the gravitational assault that was roaring towards the Queen of Hearts. So, whatever it was she did next no one saw.

The one fact would be, that when the dust settled, The Queen of Penrose was gone. And with her the Dormouse.

---

@PlatinumSkink

[-Myra]
“You might want to go check on Mariette” Penny’s voice would softly chime in on the dragon girl’s headset. “Iracebeth did came here in one of her portals after all.”

---

@Flamelord&@Crusader Lord

Both Ellen and Tina would take a moment to themselves to catch their breath when all of the evacuees fell back asleep. What had caused it neither of them were immediately aware of but were thankful nonetheless.

The answers to their various questions were answered swiftly as the evacuations started actually taking place. They would assist in ferrying people up to safety for a bit, but they were obviously uncomfortable with the Beacon presence.

They would quietly murmur to each other and themselves often, but never close enough or loud enough for others to overhear. Eventually they would split off from each other, each of them seeking out someone else.

Tina would approach Alicia “You are Paladin Seraph Alicia, yes?” She would more state than ask. “The Queen of Penrose has requested that I pass along this to you.” She would state before removing the rather advanced ear piece she had on and hand it over to her. The moment that Alicia took it Tina would leave, making her way over to her sister.

Ellen on the other hand would approach Kiyome. “Hiya, sorry if I have the wrong person, but you ran into the Queen of Penrose out there right? She was the machine girl.” She would ask. “She wanted me to pass this off to you.” She would go on to say as she held out a rather sophisticated looking ear piece. Once Kiyome took it. Ellen too would take her leave.

Once the sisters met back up the went back to helping evac people.

---

@Crusader Lord

[-Kiyome]
“I hear things have gotten a bit more complicated back in the city” Penny’s voice would come out of the head set, carrying the same crisp tone it did last time they talked. “Though not all for the bad, my offer for an evac is still open if you need it. And this is going to be the easier way to stay in contact as I’m a bit occupied at the moment.”

---

@Flamelord

[-Alicia]
“Alicia” Penny’s voice would spill out of it, her voice sounding exhausted. “You mind if I just eavesdrop on you for a bit?” She would ask her voice shaky. “I need something to distract me.”

Mariette eventually realized she did have the Queen’s notebook in her pocket. She’s just going to have ??? photocopy every page as quickly as possible and then drop it through a portal onto the exact site you end up on if you Overcity Shift from the Queen’s castle. Because it’d be a real pain if the queen had someone use Absolute Direction and was able to both find it was in Mariette’s base AND find where Mariette’s base was in the process. Not that it was particularly hard to find.

Mariette was then going to open a portal over the battlefield, peek at what was going on. She needed to recover Mayra…

Though perhaps that’d take a bit longer than that.

__________________________________________



Mayra lay in wait, prepared to launch to Penny’s rescue… but basically found that she didn’t really need to. It seemed like Penny was handling her own, which was pretty annoying. Not to mention here came whatever else kind of supernatural attack and- ooh, it’s red fire guy! They fought together earlier! He was attacking the queen!?

Well, Mayra kinda wanted to save him, too. So Mayra braced for, specifically, the queen’s counter-attack. After the attack, whatever was the result for it, Penny vanished, but Mayra was ready to fire herself off to go to Finn’s aid. They were back-to-back badasses before, Mayra could totally save him again!

Now, time-wise this is a little bit wonky on account the Queen likely reacted and possibly counter-reacted directly after the attack, and Mayra had likely launched herself into the fray to help defend Finn from the counter-attack of some kind (albeit she would only help with a fireball, she doesn’t care enough to actually jump in the way of an attack), but at some point there she’d be a little sad to realize Penny had vanished and then Penny would talk into her ear. Something about Mariette because the Queen had arrived through a portal.

‘Eh, Mariette will be fiiiiiiine,’ Mayra answered, almost gleefully. ‘More importantly, are you fine? I was ready to jump out and help you, ya know! The perfect opportunity just didn’t present itself!’ she said, in the midst of whatever she was currently doing.

__________________________________________


For the twins, it seemed that things calmed down. Others were doing the fighting, and MDP came in clutch to put all the men to sleep. It was a bit unfortunate, Eli thought, as it would have helped if they could have carried the guys over on their own feet, would have probably gone faster, but eh, what can you do. And then they got glomped. I forget if they’ve actually met MDP since being changed.

‘Hahaha! It’s the Dream Princess! You saved us! We gotta talk more later!’ Ronin laughed at the glomp and did her best to glomp right back.

‘Oh, my. Close contact. Hello, princess. It’s good to see you,’ Miko giggled a little too, but it seemed like the time had come when they could relax a little. Emphasis on a little, because the battle was still waging over there. Then there was Aurelio.

‘Oh, it’s you…’ Miko made a possibly strange comment towards Aurelio. ‘Thank you for coming to our aid. Both and all of you,’ Miko continued.

‘Now, then. Sister. We need to move the civilians,’ Miko commented, turning to the civilians.

‘And we have the perfect tools for that, don’t we?’ Ronin smirked. ‘Stand back, princess! It’s our turn to shine!’

The two twins grabbed each others hands, and now undisturbed, they could amass their magic. By themselves, they were nobody special, but together…

‘With the power of wind…’ Miko said.
‘With the power of floating platforms!’ Ronin called with a chuckle.

‘Let’s see them to their destinations.’

With that, the two unleashed a great deal of the magic they had left, in order to send out a low wind paired with miniature platforms that would attempt to pick up as many of the fallen civilians as they could. The wind would pierce in under them, lifting them just the slightest from the ground, and thin rectangular platforms manifested, allowing the civilians to lie on them as the twins used their combined magic to let a soft wind blow as many as they could over towards wherever the others were carrying them.

Were they able to carry all of them? Probably not. Were they able to carry more than they would if they just used their muscles to lift them one by one? Absolutely.

Annabelle retreated from the square back to the evacuation center, weaving spells of conjuration to bring out defensive sunflowers as she went. The plants, further invigorated by Gaia and Angel of Hope, continued repelling the invaders at street level, buying precious time for the evacuation. The veteran looked relieved once she saw how the civilians were brought to the teleporter, and began to help as well.
“Thank you so much, everyone! I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you!”

Once the teleporter was built and activated, Violette nearly shouted through the Beacon squad's comms: “Throw the civilians in as fast as you can, I’ll handle the rest! Don’t worry, the destination is cushioned!” Hyun Long, following the instructions, began chucking the civilians into the central round chamber of the device; before the sleeping farmer even hit the bottom, they were rapidly zapped away, as the device now rapidly flashed, teleporting any matter the moment it entered its circular center.

Justine finished off the final Spades, and descended back to the evacuation center once she noted the assembly of the teleporter was finished and civilians were being taken to it.
”Agreed!” She proclaimed her intentions upon hearing the others, and began to help with the rescue effort, using her magic to close her wounds to avoid bleeding on the townspeople.

Hyun rolled her eyes and sighed loudly upon seeing Kiyome and feeling her aura, but held her tongue, knowing this was no time for hostility. She continued yeeting folks when she noticed that something seemed to be bothering Serenity. “Hey, is something wrong? We need to get these civilians out!” Despite her sour attitude, she seemed genuinely worried for her. As Beacon evacuated civilians, they were joined by Ronin and Miko, who used clever sorceries to efficiently move a bunch of people at once. Though the twins felt their mana dropping dangerously low, thanks to their efforts and not having to worry about having to carefully place the locals and being able to use their strength and speed better, they helped the evacuation force to amazingly evacuate half the population.

---

Lily continued fighting even as Alex’ defensive front was soon breached and both enemy infantry and armor started going through. Lily refused to retreat despite becoming surrounded and taking enemy fire, and Alex’ barriers were destroyed. One of the tanks turned their cannons toward the teleporter in the distance, when suddenly a burst of electric energy blasted from behind it causing the engine to explode.
”Die Assholes! Die! DieeeEEE!"
Lily’s Monstrous Metamorphosis activated, surrounding her in a coating of electricity that seemed to crackle and boom at a rate much faster than would be physically possible. Her legs had turned into a tail-shaped black cloud with thunder pouring out, and her face was entirely covered in a black veil; in fact, her face seemed to disappear. Her skin had turned green with blue veins, as well as old and wrinkly, with long, gnarled fingers on her elongated arms.

She flew around swiftly like an evil spirit, dropping lightning arrows down in a thunderstorm, the thunder strikes continuously repeating as if looped in time. As a result, she continued managing to suppress even some of the vehicles as their engines were overloaded and exploded. Any bullets and shells that were about to hit her were stopped mid-air, leaving an eerie trail of ammunition behind her as she kept blitzing around. However, now lacking any focus, she easily let more and more troops advance past her. Soon, she was completely separated from Alex, with troopers and tanks between them. Another tank now turned their cannon towards the teleporter, and with a single shell destroyed the barrier Eliana had conjured. The teleporter was now in dire need of defense; it was obvious that the Mahou had to split near-evenly between protection and throwing civilians into the teleporter if they were to succeed.

---

In the lull of her duel against Penny, her eyes coldly gazing upon Dormouse’s terrified visage, the Queen continued hearing more worried reports of the supposed Phase Two as the Heart commanders had called it, she rolled her eyes. “Focus artillery on them!” She muttered back. But before she could relay more orders, suddenly a spell was aimed at her; she found herself surrounded by debris seemingly gathered by a vine-dragging arrow, before the debris collapsed all around her in a central point, creating a cloud of dust. “Damn Beacon!” She yelled just before impact. This was the moment that the Engine had decided to disappear, taking Dormouse with her, as well as when the remaining artillery cannons now took aim at the new arrivals, and scored two more casualties among them.

As the dust settled, Finn caught a glimpse of the Queen as he aimed for the deathblow; she was still standing, visibly injured with blood seeping from the corner of her lip. She looked roughed up, and seemingly had difficulty standing. It was strange how the queen had not dodged or defender herself, but it seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch her while she was weakened…except her purple eye was glowing, as was her sword. It was too late for the Sinner of Wrath to back down as the Queen unleashed her stored attack.

“You will be my example to everyone.”

As Finn swung with his own blade, so did the Queen respond in kind. In that moment, her sword flashed, and the sound of a ripping page could be heard, resonating through the world:

*RIIIIPP*

When Finn came to, his vision sideways while lying on the ground, he saw something shiny spin in the air, before it finally embedded into the burned ground right before his eyes; it was his magical weapon, Briar Rose, now split into two broken pieces. But how was this possible? Magical weapons were impossible to break. Furthermore, it did not mend itself when summoned again. That was when Finn realized the strange point of view he had of his hand clutching the broken hilt; it was too distant, as if it belonged to someone else. Finn attempted standing up…But as he did, his point of view did not change, even as the body he knew had sluggishly risen up to one knee. It was strange; his body was slow and cumbersome, as if he had been injured…That was when he realized, seeing something was lacking, in his horror; he had been decapitated. But strangely enough, there was no blood seeping from the solid black neckhole that once housed his head. Nor was there bleeding where his head rested on the ground; it was cleanly removed by powerful magic. He didn’t feel any worse than usual, either, as if it was perfectly normal for his head to be detached from his body.

He saw the Queen’s legs step carefully closer, and he craned his eye up to see her look around. The glow on her weapon and purple eye had disappeared.
“Penny had disappeared…Interesting.” She then looked down at Finn, her lips curled in a mocking grin. “I saw a glimpse of my story, as well as yours, Finnegan Vanhorn. You intended to take my head while I was distracted. I suppose that did happen in one edition. But here and now, you’re mine-” She reached down, about to grab his head, when suddenly a fireball was launched at her. It scorched her sleeve and leaft burns on her forearm; it turned out to be Mayra, who had come to the rescue. “Another one? I thought I saw all the stories…I suppose I still need training,” the Queen mused as she lifted her free hand to her eye. She then pointed her blade towards the monster girl. “No matter; I will gladly add you to my collection.”

---

Al sighed heavily as Chloe went on a tirade about her being disappointed in him, and upon mentioning the New York broker he nodded. “Good old Brooklyn Bonnie. She’s a gal who can run a tight outfit. Did you know she started from the very bottom, with only a few coins and her clothes to her name, only to rise up as one of the most accomplished of us? Even had a hand in Al Capone’s business, or so I’ve heard.” He looked to the distance, as if reminiscing, when he finally dropped his cigar, and stomped on it. He looked like he made a decision.

“You know what? I got a job for you.” Before Chloe realized what had happened, Al had taken his hat, and placed it on her head. The moment he did, she felt a surge of magic course through her, like shadows extending down her limbs. The black coin tattoo on his head glowed. Chloe then realized the same tattoo had appeared somewhere on her body as well.

“There; you’re now a junior broker. Your job is to run operations and agents in Penrose until I’ve seen enough to make a call on whether you can handle it. Of course, anything you do has to be approved through me first, but I’ll let you take a shot at it. I’ll even throw in a few hints for free. If you can manage to save the local business from disaster, or salvage enough of it, I’ll make it official.” He chuckled. “Lucky for you, you get to decide if you want to bail out, with an added debt. I didn’t have that choice when I got the hat. I guess Veronica did teach me to break some of the rules, hah.” He then snapped his fingers in realization. “Oh yeah, you can transform the hat to something else, like an accessory or scarf. But you have to wear it as part of the curse. Congratulations, kid.” He clapped a couple of times.

On the one hand, she had given him a straight answer. On the other hand, she was pretty insufferable about it. 'So some nutjob tried to take over Penrose, failed, and are now trying to take this place over to help in their next attempt. That's...actually a lot more simple then I expected to be honest' Alexander thought to himself. Wanting to get away from the clearly unhinged girl, he began to make his exit "Right, so, thanks for that doc-" And that's when Alexander noticed that the teleporter was completely open "Shit! When did that happen!?" He immediately broke out into a mad dash to the teleporter 'I was only talking to that nut job for about a minute, how could things have gotten so bad so quickly!?' He cut down the few enemy troops that got in his way

He managed to reach the teleporter before anything managed to attack it 'Alright, time to get to work. Why am I always responsible for this shit?' He mentally grumbled to himself. Working quickly, Alexander surrounded the teleporter (and himself) with a dome barrier, with a few person-sized holes in it. Said holes had a slightly larger barrier in front of them. This wouldn't stop human sized enemies from getting inside, but range foes wouldn't have a clear shot at the teleporter or anything/one inside. Once that was done, Alexander made a bunch of clones to guard the entrances. With basic defenses set up, he got to work on reinforcing the barriers 'This sucks so much. I hate being stuck on defense.'

@Majoras End@PlatinumSkink@Shifter_Master

The intention of speaking with the pink clone was to gauge its reaction to her actions. While Mac had little respect for beacon, she had seen first hand that not everyone believed in the rigid extermination of all monsters. Not all aspired to become the ascendancy, and most were willing to live and let live so long as the monster in question wasn’t a murderer. Given that this one was from Alicia’s unit, there was the possibility that he, like her, had some ideas that did not fit in with Beacon’s stringent code. Maybe he was able to see the suffering the queen of hearts brought to everyone, and understood the need to oppose her. Perhaps a few sensible words was all it would take to get him on board.

Mac would be disappointed.

The outcome shouldn’t have been a surprise. Even if the clone was just a clone, the pink boy seemed to have more magical power than most clones did. That was to say, it could cast spells, and even rivaled her own magical might. It was astute enough to try and disrupt her connection to Suwako by way of confusion magic. The illusion flickered and changed shape before her eyes. Not a bad trick. In fact, Mac might have been impressed if she didn’t take her job so seriously. But Mac was a specialist, and this situation fell squarely in her realm of expertise.

With a bink of her eyes, a third eye on the center of her forehead opened up and surveyed the area. All of the unusual magics in the area could be understood with ease, and the barrage of magic designed to attack her mind was rendered inept. Between her replica of Endless Eclipse, Magic eye, and true sight, she had more than enough ways to overcome any sort of confusion magic. Even if its magic had been countered, it was still a threat. Mac would have to take care of the clone post haste.

As soon as the attack on the queen went off, the pink clone was covered in an illusion of itself while simultaneously being turned invisible. Once the replacement illusion was in place, a well of gravity built up around the clone. A magical girl/boy might have been able to resist it, but the clone would have little choice but to burst.

But such a technique with so many layers of magic took a lot of Mac’s focus. She noticed too late that Finn had appeared, and could only watch as the queen attacked him.

Her lips trembled. She didn’t know Finn that well, but she had seen how he had interacted with Oliver and knew this wouldn’t please him that much. What even prompted him to do that in the first place? The queen was powerful, and there was no way her own spell was going to distract her for more than a moment. Hadn’t they come here to keep an eye on Penny and Lily. Hadn’t she been the one to suggest that? And instead she was trying to get Beacon and Wonderland to fight each other…

Maybe the confusion spell had worked better than she thought.

Mac bit her lower lip. It would have been easy to just break stealth and charge the queen head on. She may have indirectly caused Finn’s death while pursuing some personal vendetta. But she stowed her loathing with a growl. There would be time to get emotional later. The queen was still talking to Finn, and that weird lizard woman was trying to save him. Penny was nowhere to be found, and Lily looked like she was just normal pissed at the moment. Might as well press the situation and see if they can salvage Finn.

---

A few smaller arrows flew from Suwako’s bow and towards the Queen of hearts. “You’re not the only headhunter here.” Suwako drew another arrow. “For every one of us that you strike down, five more will take our place. Ten will take theirs, and a hundred theirs. Such is the price of your villany!” She fired again, and it wouldn’t be her last.

The Pink Aurelio looked like he was about to start casting a spell, but in truth, Mac needed to conserve her mana. So this was just an attempt to make it look like there was another body participating in the fight.

---

"...Bonnie?”

Contrary to her behavior earlier, Chloe was very quiet, very not smiling, and very not flirty as Al continued to talk about the broker. Her eyes shot open when Al placed a hat on her head, and she could feel the tattoo manifesting on her flesh… right beside the other one.

But Chloe remained still, right up until Al started clapping.

She lifted the hat off of her head and looked it over, occasionally glancing up at Al. "Ah, I see.” She looked into the hat a bit longer. "I’ll think about what shape I want it to be later. I mean, us girls do like our wide brimmed hats.” She cracked a smile before placing it back on her head. "But I don’t have any intention of stepping down from my new position. Up is the only direction for me.“ She placed her hands on her hips. Having the hat called a “curse” was not something she liked the sound of, but it couldn’t have been that bad. "Well, I have a lot of ideas I’d like to run by you, and quite frankly, two brokers should speak in a more refined location than some graffiti covered back alley. Feeling peckish?“

Though Alicia herself did not have the means to convey a large amount of people at once, she did her part to contribute to the evacuation. Things were going well now that they had handled that diversion on the way here. There were plenty of girls helping besides the Beacon crew, and all that together meant that this was easier than she had thought it would be.

There were some...hiccups, admittedly. She frowned for a moment at the feeling of a Horror from Kiyome, but after a moment she returned to what she was doing. The civilians were getting where they needed to go and there didn't seem to be any sign of magical tampering. No doubt the Horror was carrying out their own agenda, but after all that stuff with Mariette she was tired of trying to mind game Horrors. As long as she didn't do something bad, Alicia was willing to leave it for now. Serenity also seemed to be having some trouble, but with Hyun already moving to help her Alicia figured she would leave it until later, when there were less pressing things on their hands.

As she worked, she found herself suddenly approached. "Oh, hello," she replied. "Sure. Thanks." As they stepped off she slipped it into her ear. It wasn't the oddest thing Penny had done, so she didn't worry about it too much.

When it crackled to life she was, admittedly, a bit more concerned. But she rolled with it all the same. "I accede to you spying on my activities," she replied with a small grin. As long as the Ascendancy folks didn't get mad, she did not mind in the slightest. This wasn't exactly super secret stuff after all.

The evacuation was going well, so naturally complications needed to arise as the tanks and clockwork soldiers of Wonderland closed in. With the mighty sound of artillery the barrier came down, and as she stood outside it looked an awful lot like those troops were headed for where they were. "Violett, Wonderland is moving on the teleporter. I thought you guys said we had a deal."

A deal there might have been, but it seemed that Wonderland had forsaken any notion of diplomacy. Summoning her bow, Alicia strung an arrow of light and began firing at the approaching Wonderland forces. Infantry were easily disposed of with pinpoint shots, while she sought to destroy the barrels of the tanks so they could not shoot. "Defend the teleporter!" she called, figuring that neutrality was basically out the window now. If it was a fight Wonderland wanted, it was a fight they would get.

_{@Ariamis@Shifter_Master@Crusader Lord@Ponn@Majoras End@Card Captor}

“Don’t mention it,” Nykannis called after Alexander as the magical boy ran off. “I always enjoy helping confused and frightened lower lifeforms make sense out of their surroundings,” the mad scientist added with an amused smirk. However, that smirk vanished a second later, when Tertiarius-01 reported in.

“Doctor Kannis, we’ve eliminated our assigned targets, but additional Wonderland infantry squads and AFVs have just appeared behind our lines and are moving to engage the defenders at the evac shelter,” the aerial combat team leader explained. “They must have been cloaking their presence somehow, or were possibly deployed via that subspace warren you said they have access to.”

“It’s certainly plausible,” Nykannis agreed with an annoyed scowl. Or is it more than that? the mad scientist pondered, even as she swept a massive, clawed appendage through the air to create an arc of holographic displays, which presented detailed depictions of each part of the battlefield. This is your doing, isn’t it, Magistrate?

“One of the defending magical girls has also activated a monstermorphosis, and is currently engaging them,” Tertiarius-01 continued.

“That would be Lily,” Nykannis noted dryly as she watched the monsterized young woman attack the Wonderlanders with reckless abandon and admittedly impressive power.

“Should we provide assistance?”

“Negative. Fall back to defend our deployment zone,” Nykannis instructed. “The Penrose Pack can protect their pathetic excuse for a teleporter on their own,” she continued. “We have more pressing concerns to deal with…”

As the Monarch of Mad Science’s many eyes viewed the events playing out on the various holodisplays arrayed before her, she saw that although Team Quaternarius’s apocalyptic bombardment had annihilated the vast majority of the Wonderland artillery, as per her instructions, they had kept well clear of the field pieces closest to where Penny and the Queen of Hearts were facing off. Thus, a handful of the heavy cannons remained active, and, even now, they were switching from bombarding the town, to attacking Phase Two directly…

As the ensorcelled shells rained down upon the flaming fields, they passed effortlessly through the various defensive shields Teams Primus and Secundus had erected to explode amongst them in a series of deafening detonations, blowing apart Secundus-03 and 04 in the process…

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Primus-05 sighed in annoyance, before sending her restorative nanites to reconstruct her fallen comrades.

But that wasn’t all…

While Penny’s standoff with the Queen had ended as anticlimactically as Nykannis had expected, with the Mechanical Monarch having chosen to flee with her hostage, Finn had chosen this moment to assassinate the ruler of Wonderland via ambush. Unsurprisingly, his daring attempt failed miserably, but that wasn’t what drew Nykannis’s full attention to the scene. No, it was how the Queen had countered his strike. Using her empowered blade, the Wonderland monarch had sliced clean through the magical boy’s own weapon, and then severed his head from his shoulders.

“No way…” Nykannis whispered, her eyes going wide. According to the rules of this reality plenum, magical weapons are indestructible, yet she completely broke that sword in fucking half… Could she have nullification abilities on the level of Pentius-03, or was it simply due to the raw power of the attack…?

Her eyes glowing with even greater intensity, the Mad Scientist Supreme subjected the Queen of Hearts to a deluge of spy rays, finder beams, and a myriad of other hyper-advanced, ultramagitech sensors and scanners, in a frantic effort to ascertain the information she sought.

Well, at least Time Boy’s edgier analogue is getting that royal meet and greet he was hoping for…

Even as her various data accumulators set to work, Nykannis opened a communications link to all the members of Phase Two.

“Primus, Secundus, continue your advance.” Nykannis ordered. “Quaternarius, finish off the remaining artillery.”

“Affirmative, Doctor Kannis,” the three team leaders acknowledged.

“And Pentius?” the mad scientist added, her many glowing eyes narrowing. “Take aim on the Queen…”

“Roger that,” Pentius-01 confirmed with an eager grin as she readied her enormous ultramagitech weapon.

“One way or another, it’s time to put an end to this shit…”

...

Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, an unlikely meeting was taking place…

“Gah!” Primus-04 yelped when the (false) Witch of Time materialized next to her. “Oh, it’s you,” she added a moment later. “Doc says you’re cool so, uh, ya wanna help me operate this thing? I’ll drive, while you shoot, sound good?”

"I get to man the gun? HELL YEAH!" Jennifer's grin grew with excitement, and she swiftly took her seat behind the tank's gun. There was a wild gleam in her eye. "WELCOME TO AMERICA, MOTHERFUCKERS! HAHAHAHAHA!!"

“Okay, you I like. All right!” the pyromanic exulted as she sent the war machine surging into motion. “IT’S TANKERY TIME, BITCHES!!!”

A moment later, the captured AFV was speeding across the flaming fields, crushing dozens of hapless Club soldiers under its treads with a series of satisfying crunches as it barreled towards where the Queen of Hearts was standing…

Jen all the while was gunning down every enemy soldier that tried to approach and reclaim their lost AFV. The bloodlust was soon made apparent in her wicked grin. The blood they shed, the carnage they created... it was euphoric! She could barely contain her cackling!

---

“Like, we totally wotally do~! (giggle!)” MDP agreed with a cheerful smile when Ronin said they should spend some time talking once things had calmed down. “Like, Magical Dream Princess wants to hear aaaaall about how you got your adorable worable new outfit woutfits~! (giggle!) Oh~! Like, hello wello againsie wensie, Mister Wister Aurelio Welio~! (giggle!)” she added happily when one of the magician’s clones came over, before her eyes widened in childish wonderment when she noticed just how many copies of the magician were running around. “Wowie zowie~! Like, there are lots and lots of Aurelio Welios heresie weresie~! Like, can you duplicatey watey yourselfy welfy, just like Olivier Woliver~?! Can you~?! Can you~?! Can you~?!”

Even if the magician were to respond, he would find that MDP’s ever-wandering attention had been drawn away from him and over to where Ronin and Miko were using their dual specializations to help move the slumbering villagers to the teleporter.

“Wowie zowie~! You two work super duper well together wether~! (giggle!)” she told the sisters in her typical bubbly manner. Then she noticed some more familiar faces… “Angel Wangel~! Gaia Waia~! (giggle!)” she cheered, rushing over to the pair and wrapping them both up in a big hug.

“Well, this is certainly a pleasant surprise!” a slightly stunned Gaia replied after being subjected to her whimsical friend’s unexpected glomp. “It pleases me greatly to see you, Your Highness,” she added with a warm smile as she returned MDP’s embrace.

“Oh, my!” the Angel gasped as she suddenly found herself being hugged. “Well met, whimsical champion!” she added with a giggle. “It brings such abundant joy to this humble servant’s heart to know that you are here to aid in this most noble endeavor!”

Great, when the fuck did this bitch get here?!

“Like, you’re both totally wotally welcome~! (giggle!)” MDP chirped. “And golly wolly~!” she added, looking over the pair’s shoulders. “Magical Dream Princess just wuvs all the pretty witty flower wowers Gaia Waia made~! (giggle!)”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Gaia replied demurely. “Although I cannot take all the credit,” she added, gesturing to a nearby magical girl. “Annabelle, here, is quite the talented wielder of nature magic as well.”

However, before MDP could dart off to annoy the hell out of befriend the local Mahou, a familiar voice called out.

“Mia!” Connie cried in relief as she rushed over to hug her best friend. “I-I’m s-so glad you’e s-safe!”

“As am I, little sister,” the verdant maiden replied, returning her emotional friend’s embrace. “Thankfully, it would appear our mission here is drawing to a close,” she added as she took note of the ongoing evacuation of the sleeping townsfolk. “And not a moment too soon…”

Indeed, even as she spoke, Gaia saw an enchanted tank shell shatter the protective barrier surrounding the evac zone. More tanks were preparing to finish what the first had started, while a hoard of infantry was advancing ever-closer…

Thankfully, Alexander was quick to raise a new barrier, one which the Angel of Hope promptly reinforced with her own magic. “Excellent work, valiant champion!” the heavenly beauty told the magical boy with a radiant smile. “Please allow this humble servant to bless your construction with an endurance as strong as your selfless spirit!”

Damn… It fucking sucks that all I can do is reinforce these idiots’ pitiful attempts at making shields… Still… kind Master Chiichuu shall surely reward his humble servant with such blissful contentment in return for granting them her assistance!

Not to be left out, MDP bounced into action as well. “Aww~! Those soldier woldier people weple wanna play~! (giggle!)” the bubbly girl exclaimed with cheerful innocence. “And, like, Magical Dream Princess knows the perfect werfect gamey wamey~! (giggle!)”

Waving her whimsical wand, the Princess of Dreams created a prismatic arc of hearts and stars, which quickly expanded into a curtain covering the width of the street.

“Come on, Connie Wonnie~!” MDP instructed as she gabbed the confused masked girl’s hand and enthusiastically dragged her along. “You, too, Gaia Waia~! This gamey wamey is, like, one of Magical Dream Princess’s super duper favorite wavorites, ‘cause it’s, like, soooo super duper fun~! (giggle!)”

“G-Game…?” a confused Connie stammered as she was dragged along.

“Uh huh~!” MDP confirmed with a happy smile as they came to a stop in front of the colorful curtain. “Like, when the soldier woldier people weple fire thingy wingies through this pretty witty curtain wurtain, we try to catchy watchy them~! (giggle!)” the hyperactive girl explained.

“C-C-Catch them?!” Connie cried in uncomprehending horror.

“Just watch Magical Dream Princess~!” MDP reassured her. “You’ll get the hangy wangy of it in no timey wimey at allsie~! (giggle!)”

A moment later, Connie saw exactly what her whimsical friend meant. As soon as a tank shell or spray of bullets passed through the bubbly girl’s barrier, they were instantly transmuted into big, fluffy pillows, or tiny, colorful candies.

“M-My heavens!” the Angel gasped in stunned amazement. “That precious little darling is changing all the awful projectiles from those horrid weapons into items utterly devoid of harm! N-Not only that,” she added as she caught one of the oversized pillows that had managed to slip past the Princess of Dreams and her two friends. “Just touching these objects fills me with such peace and joy! Oh, what a sweet and kind soul!” the angelic beauty gushed, elegant hands clasped over her chest. “This humble servant thanks you from the bottom of her heart, whimsical champion! Truly, your presence here is the greatest of blessings! Indeed, you are an inspiration to us all!”

Seriously, what the fuck even is this girl…?

‘Uuuh,’ Mayra answered, stopped short when Finn got his head cut-off, but somehow without it being particularly gruesome or actually life-ending. Which was troubling, because Mayra had really wanted to intervene before it got to that point, and now she instead stood there looking pretty stupid having achieved basically nothing but attracted the queen’s attention into what was pretty much a one vs one that she didn’t really want to fight. There were things she wanted to fight, but she wasn’t really in the mental state to fight this one. It didn’t feel right, the stage wasn’t set.

‘Aw, I wasn’t really looking to fight you. I just wanted to help Penny. And then Finn. And then, eh, I’d get to that,’ she said with a shrug, but then a silly idea formed in her head. Something way more amusing than just fighting.

‘Tell you what, what can you get if you mix fire and darkness?’ Mayra asked, as she summoned her magical power in both hands… and then slammed them together, producing a giant cloud of black smokescreen. If timed correctly with “Suwako” shooting arrows, that could be proper distracting.

So, Mayra has duplication. But Mayra liked pretending she does not have duplication, so she can take enemies unawares with it. So, in the midst of the smokescreen, hopefully hidden from the eyes of their enemy, Mayra duplicated. Real Mayra immediately applied Darkness magic to sink into the shadow of her own smoke beneath. The duplicate, meanwhile…

‘HEY COME FIGHT ME IN HERE, IF YA AIN’T A COWARD!’ duplicate Mayra shouted at the queen, hoping to draw her in. As a Darkness girl, she could see in darkness, like this smokescreen. And if she didn’t take the bait, duplicate could lure her over to fight somewhere else, but regardless, she trusted her supreme physical ability, high even by Magical Girl standards, to at the very least allow her to dodge somewhat. And even if she was taken out…

As soon as Real Mayra saw the opportunity, she manifested from the ground, grabbed Finn’s body and head, and then grin as she rocketed herself back towards town with a fierce, loud blast of fire.

She’d turn in mid-air to make sure she didn’t have the enemy commander right on her tail or about to slice her from behind or something. That would be annoying. Then she’d leg it, if she were able to. Much more amusing to try to trick the enemy commander like this.

It could've been easy.

It seemed so simple.

Defeat the enemy, everything would be over, right? His plan seemed so perfect. He even ditched the camoflague once he was close enough.

The queen was injured. Still standing, but injured. Why didn't she do anything to prevent that?

His reckless plan seemed so perfect. It was too perfect.

And he payed the price for it.

It was far too late once Finn's sword collided, and in a flash of light and a sickening sound of a page torn asunder he felt himself being flung away, hitting the ground with a hard thud. It took him a moment to regain his senses, and when he did, he saw something very dread inducing.

Briar Rose, his trusty canesword, broken.

No. Nononono- How is this even possible!? Magical weapons were meant to be unbreakable, but as he kept summoning it back to himself, it remained broken.

...Why was he still laying on the ground anyways? He had to keep fighting.

Finn willed himself to get back up. But as the body in front of him rose to his feet, his perspective didn't change. No, not one bit. Its movements were strangely sluggish too. And then he glanced up.

And his dread turned into horror.

W-What.

The Queen. She had decapitated him. But he was still alive. His head was detached from his neck. But he was still alive. There was no bleeding, or exposed flesh and bone, and he was still alive. The Queen, that damn woman that could've killed him, approached his severed head. The words that followed her sickening grin only made his heart race. Even when he tried to remain composed, glaring tensely back at the mad monarch, he was afraid. Afraid of what she might do to him next.

And then she reached down towards him.

NononoNONONONONO-!

Luckily for him however, Mayra had stepped in and diverted the Queen's attention off him.

It was admittedly hard to keep up with what happened after that. If anything Finn just wanted to grab his head and get out of there. As he tried to maneuver his body back over to where his head fell, Mayra grabbed both and rocketed the both of them back to the town.

_{"Th-Thank you."}

---

"_{Damnit, what was he thinking?!} Mac, Finn's still alive! I don't know how the hell that bitch did her parlor trick, but I don't feel our mental link being severed! He's okay!" Mac would hear Maura quickly informing her of Finn's condition. "Mayra's getting him out of there, but Oliver's position is being compromised, he might need some hel- Or maybe not."

---

Things were going well on Oliver's end. The teleporter was quickly finished, the twin samurai were helping speed up the pace of actually getting people out, and a cute magician dude was offering to give him a lift outta there.

"Thank ya' for the offer, but I ain't that willing to leave my teammates to walk." Oliver grinned. Half the populace was teleported out by now, maybe they can actually relax?

Hah. No.

Oliver casually glanced at the teleporter defense being broken through. "Oh. Okay." Well then, he had plenty of mana left to expend. Maybe he can send out a few toys for them to play with. Along side whatever summons were helping with the teleported, the ghost summoned as much armored spirits and clones as he could with the full intend of stalling (or even overwhelming, on a good day!) the encroaching army.

"'YA MIGHT WANNA SPEED THINGS UP!"

---

The swordswoman raised an eyebrow, but would ultimately accept the device that Ellen offered her and pop it into her right ear.

“I hear things have gotten a bit more complicated back in the city”

“Though not all for the bad, my offer for an evac is still open if you need it. And this is going to be the easier way to stay in contact as I’m a bit occupied at the moment.”

Well, it seemed she was still alive after that rampage of hers at least. Fortunate, at least when it came to that one's offer of assisting with the evacuation out of the city for herself and her mistress. But it seemed she wasn't the only one getting an earpiece either. Hmm. One of the Beacon members, the same who'd first addressed them, also seemed to receive one from what she could see. Curious.

"It has become certainly more complicated, yes, but we'll accept your offer for an evac. I and my mistress that is.

Currently the evacuation of the civilians is underway, with Beacon having brought a teleporter with them, but I'll assume you're aware of their presence given the circumstances."

A fair assumption, she felt, to make based on what she'd seen.

But more than this, one of the beacon members seemed to have a reaction to something. Her 'marked' status, perhaps? The chill and aura that clung palpably in the air, that of a greater horror of no small reputation at least, was not something everyone reacted to kindly. Some worse than others. But this one rather scantily-dressed 'bunny maid' seemed to take it rather badly on that spectrum of reactions she'd seen, even as she could see out of the corner of her eye the potential reaction of another one of the Beacon members in turn. A reaction that spoke more than any words could about her obvious fear. She could almost taste that fear from where she sat at that.

And then came the shattering of Eliana's barrier, her mistress flinching reflexively as her hard work was torn asunder and exposed both the teleporter and what remained of the sleeping civilians to danger.

Other magical girls/boys would seem to take actions, from the barrier of the living-torture-device-please-make-it-stop-talking, to the lightning girl seeming to transform into an angry evil spirit going on a rampage within the enemy's ranks, to that one magical boy's dome barrier, and otherwise. Her first action, meanwhile, was to gingerly help Eliana sit on the ground next to her as best as she could. Not a terrible blow that would have hurt her mistress, but an unacceptable sudden shock to her as her mistress had seemingly been distracted with looking over at the civilian rescue effort.

"Breathe, mistress, but we must make haste if we are to ensure your safe evacuation from this place-"

"We...we have to get the civilians out of here...everyone...we have to get everyone out..."

Her mistress spoke with a resolve, gritting her teeth as she stood back up once more, only putting a hand to her head briefly before trying to shake the brief headache off. In response the draconic swordswoman could only take pause, and then somewhat sigh before continuing on.

"...Understood, mistress. In that vein I won't be of much help right here, but I'll have to impose on you to hold onto something for me in the meantime. Also these two weapons I've captured."

Kiyome would remove the magical slippers from her waist, tying them to Eliana's waistband as her mistress looked down at her with a small bit of surprise. She then nearly tossed the two magical guns into her mistress' arms, who caught and held them despite her surprised state, before she opened her mouth in some attempt to protest-

"I'll be back, alive, when you next see me. That's a promise. Until then, focus on the work in front of you...and don't lose my treasures either."

Kiyome would then push her closer toward the teleporter, Eliana nearly falling on her butt as she caught her balance again, before the swordswoman want about putting a hand quickly up to her provided earpiece. The two minions she had sent to help move civilians would also divert to stand on either side of Eliana, moving to protect her as well as one of them moving to gently take and hold to two guns the cosmic gypsy carried in her arms.

"I'm going to teleport back out to where we were, see if I can stir up any trouble back there or find any idiots I can send back to help evacuate the civilians better than I could. Can't really use my legs, but that won't be much of a problem.

...Should I fail to show up in time for the evacuation, just ensure my mistress gets out of there. Simply ask for Eliana at the shelter."

Pop.

In a flash of magic, the draconic sword user would case a Space spec spell and disappear from before the eyes of those at the teleporter once more.

---

Kiyome would appear once more, standing on her knees and silently gritting her teeth through the pain, as she reappeared once more on the battleground she'd formerly been fighting on in the outside area of the town. Yet in particular she would appear about the time the real Mayra would, whenever it occurred, be trying to rocket back toward town in an obvious and seemingly rather loud blaze of glory. In fact she appeared in the general direction that the rocketing Mayra would be headed in the direction of, actually, if the other dragon managed to get that far. Likewise in enough time to see the smokescreen and quickly take a glance at the situation, all to calculate that-...ah.

Nope, this one was still an idiot.

But at least the swordswoman had arrived in time to try to help in case anyone sought to pursue the dragon and the two parts of a now-headless other ally from the battlefield.

Kiyome would prepare a Space spec spell as quickly as she could, targeted at sending Mayra/Finn back to the center of town, using her precognition to keep an eye open on things and be ready to cast the spell as soon as anyone (if they did) tried to grab Mayra/Finn or intercept them. Meanwhile she held her overly-long sword up in a combat stance, or at least what she could make of one in her current (and somewhat awkward) position.

---

Eliana handed the two weapons over to one of the two minions coming to her sides, which Kiyome had summoned before at least, taking only a momentary pause at the injured swordswoman's sudden disappearance before turning her attention back to the evacuation. Specifically the attempts by others to help protect the civilians and teleporter after her barrier had suddenly fallen.

The Cosmic Gypsy would toss up a smaller dark energy enemy-repelling barrier to add to Alex's own protective dome, seeking to at least augment the work, before running over to start helping move the rest of the civilians as quickly as she could to the teleporter. Whether it was using dark energy spells to make them levitate off of the ground to help herself or others more easily move them, or carrying them with her own two arms, Eliana would throw herself back into the work and push to get all the civilians out as quickly as she could. Especially since more help seemed to arrive on-scene in the meantime to assist in protecting the teleporter and such.

At the same time...

'That...that stupid idiot!!! She had better not get herself killed!

Her cheeks puffed out in a bit of a huff as she tried to hold in the mounting frustrations inside of her head, now somewhat aimed at herself, the enemy, and Kiyome all at once by this point in time. Ugh. Herself for putting such pressure on her already-injured compatriot, who couldn't even walk on her own, and the rest on the stupid situation the enemy had caused here as well as at Kiyome's tendency to act so rashly without regards to her own health and safety! On the other hand, they had to help the civilians and other magical girls get out of there! It was...but...aaargh!

Conflicting enough as it was, she would do her best to help move the civilians this time. If her first barrier was not doing so well, she'd have to rely on the others and get hands-on with the work once more! But with Lilly seeming to go into some kind of 'monstrous transformation', she worried about the other girl's safety to boot as she helped move civilians. Not that there wasn't enough she was concerned about already in all of this. Not to mention her curiosity about the 'where' those magical slippers now tied to her own waist had come from! The guns, though, were less surprising.

She'd focus on the work in front of her, but there really wasn't much time to talk with anyone else or anything. Just do things. Further interaction with the rest of the cast would have to come after the hard work maybe? Unless someone approached her to talk to her. Ha.

@PlatinumSkink@Ariamis@Majoras End@Card Captor@Flamelord@Ponn

---

---

---

As she felt the panic sucked out of her, like a vacuum cleaner or something, she softly looked over to Aurelio and gave a small but silent thankful nod. But his look said it all without words, and she frankly had no idea where to begin. Much less she had zero good ideas of how to explain, in the middle of an evacuation of all things, how the presence of this one monster girl was setting off one of her deepest-seated fears since becoming incarnated as a human and then made into a magical girl. Not without alerting the servants of one of her worst enemies that she was something that their patron would be highly interested in killing...eating...maybe worse. Maybe worse? Yeah, maybe worse. Eternal torture and suffering was but the tip of a fate worse than death, after all.

“Hey, is something wrong? We need to get these civilians out!”

As sour as she was, she could see the genuine worry in the former monster girls' face and eyes at the same time. Gulping, Serenity then nodded at Huyn before the sudden shattering of the initial protective barrier grabbed her attention and caused a shudder to run down her back out of surprise.

Hastily, the magical maid looked back at Aurelio and then Huyn once more before she suddenly and quickly moved to get back to work in moving the civilians. She'd even cast another series of time-spec speed buffs to herself and the others who were moving the civilians to try to help them move faster. Yet even then, before she moved suddenly to get back to work and try to stifle the worries of her allies, for the moment at least, Hyun and Aurelio would be able to clearly see in her eyes that something about that monster girl's aura had deeply troubled her. Jarred her, for a lack of better words, more than it had the rest of them in particular.

Even so, the sudden disappearance of Kiyome to elsewhere would admittedlly set the maid's mind more at ease as she did her best to speed up efforts.

@Flamelord@Ariamis@Shifter_Master

@Crusader Lord&@Ponn&@Flamelord&@Card Captor&@Ariamis

Aurelio wanted to be surprised that his attempts at striking up conversation fell flat, but seeing as he is still in the middle of an active warzone, he isn’t really. Plus, he’s been in Penrose long enough to be used to things going suddenly pear shaped.

Without a spoke word all of his clones break off from those that they were trying to talk with and all start hauling people to the teleporter. Getting them out of here ASAP was top priority now. Because as soon as the civies were free the sooner the rest of them could also make good on getting out of dodge.

The only Aurelio not making a mad dash to scoop up sleeping people to safety was in fact the true Aurelio. He was standing right next to the teleporter platform deep in focus. His cane, planted firmly in front of him was a swirl of sickly green. He had a surplus of Panic on hand. And a plan to make better use of it.

The swirl of green would slowly transition into a bright red cloud hanging about his shoulders. “Shows almost over people, but we’ve still got time for one more act.” He would say to himself as a bright smile over took his face.

He would tap his cane sharply on the ground once and the cloud of red would condense and then silently erupt. A wave of that same cheery red would wash over everyone he knew was helping. He would poor as much as he could into it. Keeping enough to keep his clones up and running and one more low-level spell in case of emergencies.

And everyone else? They would feel a jolt of Excitement. A second wind, and an increase to their capabilities.

“Now is not time for the curtain.”

---

Neither Tina or Ellen did much more than they already were doing as Wonderland pressed down upon the shelter. Their magic wasn't built for this set of circumstance anymore, so the only thing they could do was ferry people to safety as quickly as they could. Some of the animals that they had enchanted earlier were assisting as much as they could as well, though the animals weren't able to carry people up the stairs they were dragging them closer to them to cut down on the time it took. It wasn't much, but at the moment seconds were worth everything.

---

@BrokenPromise

The Clone would let out a silent sigh as soon as it noticed the illusion settle over it. The Queen of Hearts hadn’t even bothered to take notice of him trying to disrupt the illusion. His time in this fight was over, and he would admit to some annoyance over being made part of the trap against Beacon. But that was simply how it went some times.

“Give her hell for me I guess” The clone would say softly, before he popped. Because he did get it, most of the Penrose branch did. The fact that Beacon simply stood aside in regard to Wonderland was a source of vexation for all of them.

So, in a fit of pique, because the Ascendancy has never sat well with him, because he is a clone, because he will never know the outcome, because he wanted to do more. He spends the last instant of his existence lining the illusion over him with as much Confusion as he can. He hopes it will aid in some small way who ever this interloper is. Make his illusionary double stronger, or more real, or something.

Because he wants to help people, and his hands keep feeling tied by the Ascendency.

---

Panic, fear, shock, lack of air. There were plenty of reason that Dormouse could have fallen unconscious. And perhaps the fact that she woke up at all would come as a surprise to her, but she would. With fleeting memories of the spatial burrow that Robert used to traverse before nothing but black.

The room she would find herself in now was plain. A cubic room, twelve by twelve by twelve with seeming florescent lights embedded in the ceiling. The bed she woke up on, more of a cot than a full bed, was nestled in the corner.

Most of the room beyond was blank sterile metal, no markers or designs at all. There also didn’t seem to be a door anywhere that could be seen. Nor vents, but there was a soft flow to the air meaning that they had to be there somewhere.

The main feature dominating the room was the fact that one of the walls seemed to be entirely consumed by a screen. Though at the moment the only thing it was displaying was a single line of text ‘Voice activated’. Behind that was the bouncing DVD screen saver.

There was also a small table at the foot of her bed. It had a water bottle and a small Tupperware container holding a mixed green salad.

But that was it. She had been left in this room, by Penny presumably, alone and seemingly cut off from everyone.

---

[-Myra]

@PlatinumSkink

“I figured that was the plan” Penny would say once Mayra had put some distance between her and the Queen of hearts. “I felt the headset when you moved closer, and you were the only one out there with me.” She would explain.

“Didn’t know about Finn otherwise I might have stuck around” She would add. “He doing okay?”

---

[-Kiyome]

@Crusader Lord

“Yeah, I’ve got eyes on them. Plus I know Alicia. She is good people.” Penny would reply to Kiyome. A note of warmth seeping into her voice as she mentioned Alicia.

”Once Myra and Finn are secured don’t stick around. Queen of hearts is being waylaid by unknow party, that is throwing Beacon under the bus at the same time. Could be more hostiles.” She’d advise the lithe dragon girl once she teleported to her interception point.

---

[-Alicia]

@Flamelord

“Shit” Penny’s voice went soft, enough to easily be tuned out by Alicia as Wonderland’s armada continued to pour into the city pressing down on those trying to evacuate the populace.

“I’ve got ears on almost everyone here already.” She would go on to say ”If you need to know where someone is just say the name and I can update you. And if you need something taken out, I can do that as well.” Penny’s voice would crackle with static. “But try to use that as a last resort? I’ll explain once everything is done here.”

---

Penny was curled in a ball up against a wall. There were no lights in the room she was in, not that it mattered as her eyes were closed. She was breathing, something that she normally ignored doing while alone as she didn’t really need to. But she needed the action to ground her. Her mind felt like it was one light push from falling apart, even as it felt like it was burning down.

She left at the best time for her. Had she stayed for much longer she wasn’t sure if she’d have ever been able to recover. But that didn’t mean she was recovered. She felt fragile in a way that was impossible to put into words. Hearing Alicia’s voice helped. The fact that she was now in the middle of danger didn’t.

The fact that Penny could keep an eye on everything happening in Bolorton did help, but also didn’t. She held to keep stopping herself from doing anything else other than listening and watching the fights. Because she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to stop herself once she started. The Engine protocols were blaring in the back of her mind and there was a phantom prickling along her skin, the old itch of a destructive withdrawal.

So, she stayed sitting in her dark room, forcing herself to take deep breaths that didn’t really do anything. Ignoring the raging voices in her mind trying to get her to slag the city. All the while wishing she still had the ability to cry, because at least that could release some of this pressure that had landed on her.

Quietly praying that nothing bad happened to Alicia. She could survive losing MDP at the moment. She would be devastated for sure, but she would survive. But not Alicia. Not the first person to simply let her be herself.

‘Oh, these...’ Miko giggled at MDP's compliments at the outfit. ‘Can I be blamed for wanting to look like my heroic big sister?’

‘Hah!’ Ronin laughed a little. While the two was born in the same body, they had agreed that Ronin was the big sister on account of being the first personality. Then again, twin personalities born in the same body only later separated by magic. Was any of them really older than the other?

‘This is only half of it…!’ Ronin then replied to MDP’s praise, and indeed, they were only able to save half.

‘And that’s… basically all our mana. Whop, that’s as much as we can do,’ Miko sighed, feeling drained, yet Ronin looked as energetic as ever.

‘Right, we’ll leave it to the clones, now!’ Ronin called.

‘Yeah, we’re saving what we have left in case of emergency, now,’ Miko determined. With that, they turned with the rest and…

Well, most of everyone seemed to have this handled. For now Ronin and Miko, low on mana, could just stand around and watch as more impressive people acted, but nonetheless kept themselves wary in case someone needed them to leap to someone’s aid. That should do it.

The defenders had split into three groups. Annabelle, Lily, Alex, Alicia, Nyakannis/team, MDP, Gaia, Connie had organized a defense of the teleporter against the invading force. The other group, comprised of Aurelio, Eliana, Serenity, Ronin, Miko, Tina, Ellen, and Hyun, were in charge of evacuating the civilians.

Justine was initially a part of the latter group, and made an initial attempt to help with clearing out the civilians by throwing them into the teleporter, only to gasp as Eliana’s barrier went down. Fortunately, she saw Alex react first to the loss with a barrier of his own, tailor-made to enable effective defensive action. At 20% mana, little by little he was starting to run lower. However, he wasn’t alone in his efforts, as Eliana augmented their last line of defense with dark, repelling sorceries, like black markings that writhed over the surface of the spell.

”Damn! They’re already here! I’m gonna help defend! You get them out!”

Biting on her lip so hard she drew blood, she called upon her red magic, and coated Alex’ barrier with a crimson blood coating, further reinforcing their fleeting defenses against Wonderland’s onslaught while also covering it in barbed spikes; perhaps a cruel method of deterrence, as some troopers ended up charging right into the serrated shield, but for the former Seventh Sinner, it was a necessary evil. She then proceeded to cast blood javelins through the holes, skewering infantry and jamming tank treads to stop them from bulldozing through.

Annabelle continued sprouting sunflowers, attempting to divert the enemy’s attention by using them as decoys at worst and as turrets at best, peppering the enemy with machine gun-like sprays of small solar beams. “Just a bit more…Hold out a bit more…!” However, based on her slowing tempo and sweating brow, it was obvious to tell that she was running on fumes at this point. Magical Dream Princess weaved a twinkling curtain of starlight and candy drops that transformed ammunition shot through it into floating little gifts and treats. While a powerful spell that had taken 20% mana, it effectively neutralized the rest of the attacks coming in.

The evacuation force was in full swing. After their major contribution, the twins were on standby, and with teamwork took down a couple of flanking troopers. Aurelio cast invigorating energies of Excitement, keeping the fighters active without stopping for breaks. Pulling double duty with a massive surge in mana that dropped him to 50%, Oliver conjured a horde of ghosts and duplicates, and had them in both evacuation and defense duties. Hyun continued lifting and throwing the civilians the best she could. Serenity aided by casting an acceleration enchantment, further speeding the crew, while Alicia covered her compatriots with arrows of radiant light’s successfully disabling many of the heavy weapons by sabotaging their barrels. She and the rest of Beacon heard Violette chiming in with a confused voice: ”But that’s not…Wait, it couldn’t be…” They heard her rapidly clacking away on a keyboard before she resumed radio silence. With a resounding battlecry, Alicia then rallied the Mahou for a shared cause.

As a result of this, the civilians were successfully evacuated to the last man, woman, and child. The entirety of Bolorton’s population was now gone, leaving the town as nothing but a ghost town, ravaged by war.
But there was little time to rejoice. While Lily had continued to fight the good fight, deranged as she may have been in her bout of Metamorphosis-induced madness, even her luck had run out.
”AAARGHHH!" Her mana, having rapidly drained due to her rage, had dissipated, and she failed to enchant the tank shell that had struck her. As a result, she collapsed to the ground with a thud.
”Ughhh…"
She was groaning in pain, unable to stand up; one of her legs had been blown off from the knee down.

---

The Queen of Hearts scoffed at Mayra’s taunt, and flourished her weapon with grace as she waited for the draconic girl to jump out from the smoke. “Very well. For you, I will grant the repose of death.”
But as she prepared to strike, Mayra instead grabbed the separate pieces of Finn, and leapt out with bravado, using her magic to propel herself. She turned to see the Queen scream at her:

“You’re the coward! Get back here!”

She swung, about to slice at her, when her eye flashed and she turned to spin the blade before her, scattering the volley of arrows that Suwako had seemingly shot at her. That was the moment Kiyome needed to cast her spell, and as Mayra consented to the spell, teleported her out with Finn in tow to give them a clean getaway. The Queen’s eye glowed, and she sneered at Kiyome’s crippled form with a barely noticed look of disdain, as if she had witnessed a crawling insect.

“So that’s what happened…” She proceeded to ignore her, and turned to look at Suwako, charging her magic. It was at this moment that Nykannis had her chance, and used her advanced magitech to examine the Queen and her source of power.
“I don’t know what would motivate you to set me against Beacon…” She suddenly opened a portal, and sliced through it with a glowing blade; accompanied by the sound of a tearing page, Suwako’s illusion was dispelled and the stealth magic undone, revealing Tonya’s true self. “But your petty tricks won’t work on me…Tonya Murphy.”

The Queen lifted her sword, but with a flash of her eye, she then jumped in a somersault, dodging the AFV as it drove right at her. As she spun in mid-air, she spun her sword, splitting the vehicle in two and causing the Second Phase crew inside to collapse out of it. She then looked towards the distance, her eyes locked on Nykannis.

“So it has come to this…Scientist Sovereign. What do you hope to accomplish with this vulgar display?”

When the Queen’s power manifested again, Nykannis finally understood the secret to her immense power.

“Or, have you already realized it?“ The Queen smiled with an off-putting grin.

Nykannis had her suspicions, having had made extensive research on the subject but now, without any doubt, she understood the truth behind the Queen’s magical weapon. A truth that made her realize the two of them were not so different, and that caused her to stop in her tracks, even as the Queen opened more portals and the battlefield flooded with Wonderland’s forces of war, threatening to swallow them all like an avaricious abyss.

The truth of the Storyslayer.

---

Meanwhile, in a mysterious location, Dormouse would wake with a scream before she went quiet, trembling at the isolation she found herself in. Holding her neck; though by that point it had healed, she still remembered the iron grip that Penny had on her. Had she brought her here? But why? She looked at the water and tupperware, and realized she had shared the White Rabbit’s fate, and had been taken as a prisoner of war. Would she be interrogated for information? Tortured? Brainwashed into betraying her motherland like Rabbit had been?

Fear seized up in her heart again. Even if she had been told time and again to prepare for such a possibility by the Queen, and even taken steps to prepare for it, the truth was she never expected to end up like this. After all, she only agreed to head the Bolorton mission because she figured it would be a safe assignment; who cared for some backwater farmer town full of yokels? Just send the locals to sleep, and then walk in and grab them to work in one of their labor camps while setting up an outpost. And after that, she could proudly state she achieved great victory to her glorious motherland in battle, and could go back to working on R&D. But it looked like fate had other plans for her, as she had to contend with terrors unlike anything else.

Her stomach grumbled, and she pouted. Then she looked at the table. The food could be poisoned, drugged, maybe even enchanted for all she knew. But did that really matter at this point? Throwing caution to the wind in light of her hunger, Dormouse partook of the water and salad, nibbling on it like a cute animal´as she sat in the corner. She figured it would be her last supper. As she ate, her thoughts went back to the battle. Thinking about how the Queen cruelly cast her away and broke her trust in her, she shed tears in silence, letting them stain the floor.

---

Al chuckled, pleased with the enthusiasm that Chloe showed for her promotion. “That’s the spirit!” He grinned widely at the prospect of food. “Yeah, I could have a bite. How about the Pit Stop?” He embedded his hand into the wall beside him, and a black portal to the diner opened up. The two of them passed through, and he took a seat at one of the tables beside the windows. “My treat. What’s your poison?” He asked, referring to the menu.

"That's everyone!"

Alexander wasn't sure who said that, and he didn't really care. For a brief moment, he forgot he was in the middle of a warzone and felt relief "Thank fuck" But it didn't last long, as a nearby explosion dragged him out of his peace "...fuck, that's right. Alright, what's next?" Due to having been on civilian rescue and evacuation the entire time, Alexander wasn't really sure about the status of the war(?). Was there any sort of organized counterattack, or anything like that 'Well, the civilians are out of here, and I don't have any real attachment to this place, so I'm fine with booking it.' And then he saw Lily, and that train of thought was thoroughly derailed

"LILY!" There she was crumpled on the ground with one of her legs blown off. Not having any time to think or plan, Alexander ran into action. Charging straight for her, and cutting down whatever monster got in his way. Once he reached her, he made a clone and tossed her to it, which then carried her back to the teleporter. Then, tapping into his Absolute Direction ability, he honed in on her missing leg. Luckily, it wasn't too far away, and while it was pretty messed up, it was still recognizable as a leg "Please let this work" he mumbled to himself as he grabbed it and made his way back to the teleporter himself. Lily didn't look like she had much juice left in her, and he was starting to run low too, so they wouldn't be able to do much to help even if they stayed 'Besides, we did enough...right?' he thought to himself as he reached the teleporter "Come on, we're done here" he told his clone, which had Lily completely covered in protective tails, as it followed him through the teleporter.

The fight against the queen was not going well.

Finn had been decapitated, Penny had fled, and the queen was able to shatter all of her illusions and invisibility cloak with a single swing. An impressive feat when she was still hiding on top of a building. Though that didn’t seem to be enough, as the queen called out her full name. What was more shocking was how she paradoxically didn’t seem to know why she was trying to pit Beacon against wonderland despite knowing everything else.

It would have been easy to lose heart, but Mac was rather pleased with this development. Finn was headless, but alive. Mac was discovered, but the queen always seemed to know who she was. There was no point in getting bamboozled like some harem protagonist in a seasonal anime. Magic was bullshit. If artifacts like endless eclipse could exist and be duplicated, what prevented other magical girls from having such tools? The rules to this game were so convoluted and messy that I don’t even know how patrons are supposed to have fun with it. Like what gives? Magic is absolutely limitless and there’s no way to determine what your opponent has until they use it, provided they’re not just pulling shit out of their ass. There’s nothing wrong with a strong opponent, but with the doctrine of combat supremacy and patron’s doctrine of fighting getting revamped and ignored at the grand magistrate’s whim, it can’t even be considered a game anymore. And fair enough! But it’s this sorry state of affairs that makes people not want to interact with the main plot. All I wanted to do was get with with the flat chested one there but this bullshit-

Mac stowed endless eclipse.

It was hard to say how Maura was going to react to her performance here. They had done a number on Wonderland’s forces, but it didn’t look like there was much to be had from sticking around. Her illusions had been shattered, but it was a simple matter to put her invisibility cloak back up and disguise herself as a certain loud mouse.

---

@Majoras End@PlatinumSkink

Mayra had been pretty clever with her use of concealment magic, but such smoke and mirrors couldn’t do much to fool an active third eye.

"Thanks for the save, burning lizard! Looks like my buddy went to pieces after meeting the queen.” Iron Mouse was keeping pace with Mayra when she looked at Finn’s head. "I didn’t think your meeting with the queen was going to be so violent. Guess diplomacy won’t be an option in the future.” She chuckled. "Let’s go grab my boyfriend and blow this midnight carnival. If Nefer is still here, she can steer into the clear with us in the rear while we down beer with a cheer.” She looked up at Mayra. "You could come too if you want, but you’d have to sit on someone’s lap. I’ve got dibs on Oliver!”

Of course, that depended on the very specific circumstance that Nefer hadn’t driven off already, and Oliver was still around.

"Oliver, you there? We uh, we opened the box. And…”