Justin had been correct in his assumption something bad would happen if he didn't act. The threat was potential friendly fire from the very same Freelancer he owed a comic to, who did not let him forget that fact. Had he not had much more important tasks to focus on, he might've reminded her he would not be able to compensate her if he perished.

Thankfully his tale nor his ability to walk had to end there. He smirked wide in satisfaction at his quick thinking. But said smirk then shrunk once he noticed the gunmen training their sights on him. Unfortunately, Noble Spark was not a mastermind hero who was five steps ahead at any given moment. His heroism was intuition-based. Which was a fancy way of saying he hadn't thought that far ahead.

It took him longer than he'd like to decide on a course of action. That time spent thinking gave the construction workers time to begin firing, and his old nun 'friend' from moments earlier time to begin fire-ing. Or so he'd likely have said had he not been the target of said flames. It turned out that being set on fire made it difficult to think of puns. His leg screamed in pain as it lit aflame, but thanks to Cerberus' timely intervention, he wasn't also fatally shot out of the sky. It didn't do much for his pride as a hero to be saved by his charge, but it was much better than dying.

As he started to fall back to the ground, he knew there was little chance he was landing without suffering of some sort. But that was fine. As far as Noble Spark was concerned, a hero was destined to suffer. A hero didn't avoid their own suffering, they used it to further a good and just cause. Noble Spark centered a defensive melody on himself as he focused on the flame-wielding bunny who was the origin of his current suffering.

Let justice rain from above!

His next melody cast was a simple blink note, as he had done a few times already. Yet this one had a curious placement. It was not aimed toward the ground to lessen the fall, but instead directed above Bobo. He intended to use his fall as a means to inflict damage. Of course, had he known she was going to set herself aflame before he cast the note, he might've done something different. But with the mana expended, he braced for impact as he committed.

It burned, enough so that Estelle briefly considered whether it'd be better off for her to have simply Blinked out instead.

But then, she stopped thinking and started rolling on the floor instead. The smell of burnt flesh mixed a bit too well with the smell of burnt food as the smouldering pile of refuse tumbled from one side to the other, even as bullets bounced and ricocheted off the fallen furniture and the floor. The Witch Hunter didn't need all the flames to be put out. She just needed enough so that she could open her eyes again, sight her target, and...

A holy sigil bloomed within the barrier of the biker-mages. A spawn spell to circumvent the boundary that separated a gun-wielding wizards from an Esper with a giant sword. If they knew so much about GEMINI and Espers, then they ought to know too, that Blink was a bullshit Note that required plentiful overhauls for the sake of balance.

Thankfully, Spawns were slower. They had time to react, to aim at the obvious tell. The Dai-katana was a greatsword, but it didn't offer 360-degree coverage.

And that response was what Estelle was banking on, when instead of Blinking, the Spawn note exploded.

Holy light surged outwards from that singular point, washing over the shadow wizards and smashing into their barrier from the inside. At the same time, Estelle sprinted forth as well, seizing the opportunity to reach the gun-wizards with her own hands and slamming their heads together. Perhaps that was a touch too much mercy considering how they literally set her on fire and then tried to shoot her full of holes while she was gone. There was probably plenty of argument for drawing her sword and beheading all three of them in a singular stroke.

But perhaps the Witch Hunter was still thinking about how she was the one that sparked this whole wizard fight to begin with?

Or perhaps, once more, she wasn't actually thinking of anything at all, outside of how she should have slapped on a huge Full Extend spell before any of this went down.

There's a little known benefit to having a shorter reach, at least Marrie thought so. That being that those with superior reach tend to use it, which gives a little more room to maneuver to the other combatant. Lenore seemed to be doing just that, and while Marrie wanted to take advantage in a certain way, her instinct took over and she failed to do so. Instead, she jumped back as far as she could, trying to keep out of the reach of the sword. As she began to move, she cursed her lack of training but prepared to try to counter whatever Lenore would do next. Ultimately, this may have been the right decision, though Marrie had no way of knowing that her opponent wasn't trying to strike with her attack.

Regardless, the wind-riding Esper turned her Instrument so that only one side was facing Lenore, trying to blind the woman's one eye with light from its reflective surface while also staying ready for a follow up attack from her sword. At least that's what seemed to be happening. Marrie didn't know if her idea would work, but if it could actually happen, things seemed to have lined up for it. She cast a Melody on the side of Apexer that was facing away from Lenore and readied herself to try to line up a follow up thrust with that very same spot.

{Warm: Gold Touch - Portal}

If nothing else, she hoped that her attempt would knock away the next attack from striking true.

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Feeling the thuds of the bullets impacting her body, soon followed by the radiating pain that surged from head to toe. Himiko was taken off of her feet, her left leg having been struck followed by a number of rounds that knocked her back. Having taken away her stable base as she hit the floor with a groan and a thud.

Not being able to observe the results of her own shots, she was left to hope that they had hit their mark. She knew what she did was rather foolish, but at the same time it was something she could use to her advantage. Sure it hurt like hell, and she wouldn’t want to get shot too many times if she could prevent it. It nonetheless opened a different option for her to take in all of this chaos.

Instead of trying to get back up to her feet, or get back into the fight. Himiko remained where she lay, keeping herself as motionless as possible. Having decided that it would be best to play possum in this situation while the others took care of the rest of the riffraff. After all, why exert the effort if the others seemed so willing to do it all for her.

She had faith that they would be able to handle the nuns and what remained of the henchmen without her help. Besides, getting shot still hurts like hell, so she had her excuse to play dead for the time being. It had been a calculated risk, but the calculated risk seemed to have more or less a mixed result. She was still alive, but she didn’t know if the same could be said of her targets.

Regardless of that, if Himiko hadn’t hit her mark, she at least knew the others would be able to handle what remained of them. In the meantime she was going to lay here, in pain and observing the ongoing fight around her. If both the enemy and the other espers thought Himiko was dead, it would draw the attention away from her. After all, she hadn’t come here to fight a bunch of nuns in the first place. She had other aspirations in mind, ones that would likely need her full strength and resources to pursue.

---

Asher smirked as the bunny girl casually threw a molotov and took her eyes off of him, the arrogance obvious in her intent. She was brushing him off, a big mistake. But Asher wasn’t one to steal the show, and lightning guy was already cookin’. The moment Bobo’s eyes left Asher clapped his hands together and they started to glow as he began forming a melody, time wasn’t necessarily on his side but if things paid off it might turn the swing of things. Asher’s eyes drifted towards Justin as he fell through the air and his melody fired off towards its intended target.

Don’t blow it buddy, putting my chips on you

Asher’s shield enhanced shield note soared towards Justin in an effort to intercept him and enhance his attempt at attacking Bobo from an aerial angle. It was a desperate gambit but Asher was also trying to find a way to close the distance and not inadvertently cause the other Esper injury.

With the melody fired off Asher had to focus back on himself and the molotov flying through the air. Without time to think or check Asher threw himself to the side the moment the melody left his hand. His aim was to flop out of range of the Molotov and present the smallest target possible for follow up attacks. If he was lucky enough to avoid the fire he’d lunge back to his feet and make an effort to close the gap between him and the balcony. Should he be unlucky and not avoid the radius of the molotov, well he was already going to be two out of three steps into stop drop and roll, he’d have to hope for the best.

---

@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

The gangs were thinning out, but the flames were replacing them. The overhead fans were turning slow, but the arcane flames didn’t need much wind to spread. Typically arcane flames would never last this long, but all the spilled alcohol made the place a fire hazard. Smoke and flames brushed against the sprinklers, but they didn’t fire.

The fleeing gang members were helpless before Ashley’s shots. They didn’t retaliate, and only hastened their retreat. Dante’s had become a death trap and none of them wanted to stay inside. If thirty of them can't take on the espers, then the ten that were retreating stood little chance. They weren’t even cooperating. They shoved one another as they fought their way to the exit.

Ashley called for reinforcements, but Violet was still deep in meditation. She was primarily here to help those that had succumbed to dream magic, and was the only reason the last school girl was standing. Some might say she should multitask, and she probably should have, but GEMINI was fortunate just to have someone who could access dreams on a whim. There likely wasn’t another esper in the world that could do that.

But the Pink Pounder had heard Ashley’s request. He stood up a bit straighter, his grip tightening on his blade. The hostiles were starting to come out of the front door, and they’d surely overwhelm Violet if left unchecked. At least, that must have been what he thought. Because he wasted no time in rushing the fleeing gangsters. His crooked sword cut through the first to come out in a single slice, while the next one was kicked back inside.

“LEAVE MAGICAL DREAM PRINCESS OUT OF THIS!”

On the upside, it didn’t seem like any of the gangsters were going to escape. On the downside, that wasn’t a viable escape route for the last remaining school girl.

Speaking of which, said school girl was currently sleep walking under the arm of one of the wizards. Two yellow beads looked out at Ashley from under his hood, and he placed his hand on his piece. He didn’t draw it, but he kept his hand on it as he circled around the counter and walked against the wall. The flames in his path seemed to go out on his approach.

Meanwhile, Estelle was playing five-dimensional chess with the three agitated wizard gangsters. It was true that they knew Estelle and the other espers were GEMINI, but that was largely because a dryad had called out the insignia when she spotted it. The fact of the matter was that most magus didn’t know that much about espers. Their magic operated entirely differently, and had different limitations. Sure, you could broadly classify a group of spells as having similar components, and they were aware that some espers could teleport short distances. But a lot of espers could also create huge explosions of light, gravity wells, eldritch creatures, and all manner of other absurdities that would not be very good in this particular situation. Regardless if Estelle was teleporting or creating a nuke inside their barrier, the best course of action was to move for cover while keeping an eye on what was going on. But did it really matter? They couldn’t leave the safety of their bubble without risk, and Estelle decided to fill it with arcane light. They had dove into the booths on either side when the melody went off. It was just potent enough to shatter the barrier and stun the three shadow wizards.

It was the perfect time to act.

Estell managed to get her hands on “Larry and Curly” before smashing their heads together. They went out like a light and sunk behind the backrest they were using for cover.. However, “Moe” had dove into the adjacent booth and wasn’t in head smashing distance from his peers. There Estelle stood, burned and ears ringing from the shots that nearly hit her head. But Moe just aimed his gun at her. His hands were trembling, the gold rings on his fingers looked like they were choking gloved sausages. They both seemed to understand that even if he fired, it wasn’t going to land.

”Yo…” His voice cracked.

And then there was Finn, poor confused Finn. It seemed like everyone wanted him to have an epic battle with Dante, but he was too busy darting around and keeping everyone out of the back of the diner. But this was something Finn took note of, and attempted to exploit it by running out back as fast as he could. There wasn’t a lot in his way. Yes, his body was burning up, and the single healing note he used wasn’t adequate to heal such widespread damage, but it was enough to keep him on his feet. His natural resistance to magic made the flames go out, and he dove over the counter to run for the back room.

”Stop right there!” Dante bellowed.

But Finn would not stop. The time kid did the opposite of stop. He was already swift, but his melody made him that much faster. It was a straight shot to where he had to go, all he had to do was run through the illusionary monster’s hand to get there.

He ran into it instead.

Dreams may be illusions, but they are real to the ones who experience them. At least, until they wake up. Whatever Dante’s sand may have done to Finn, the giant creature that was reaching for him was very much real. At least it felt like it. It raised him into the air and proceeded to squeeze him. The blade on his chainsword spun, and its grip loosened just enough to let him go. But by that point, Dante was back in front of the doorway to the back room, hammer in hand. He was panting hard, likely for all the maneuvering he had to do around the growing inferno.

There was no need for words.

The demon released a bellow only Finn could hear. Simultaneously, the demon swung its fist in a wild haymaker that would clear out the whole diner. Dante surged forward, becoming a giant bullet made of sand. How would Finn respond?

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

The light that Marrie shone in Lenore’s eye got her to wince, but she was far too determined to follow through with her attack for it to be interrupted. This created a brief window where Lenore couldn’t course correct, making her susceptible to Marrie’s reversal. Trapping an esper’s weapon inside a portal wasn’t a bad tactic. Had Lenore committed to her thrust, it might have even worked. But with her wide sweep incoming, it was going to be impossible to catch anything meaningful inside the portal on her small blade.

The blow was deflected, Lenore’s blade cut a crescent shape in the floor in front of Marrie. She was much closer now, possibly close enough to cut. But Lenore kept up her momentum and her shoulder crashed into Marrie. She stumbled backwards, but not without swinging her blade at Lenore’s face. Arcane steel clashed against arcane steel, and sparks flew. Marrie had her back up against the portal on the machine, but she couldn’t pass through it because of how small the portal on Apexer’s blade was. The glow in Lenore’s eye wore away, as did her smile. She didn’t say anything, and resumed advancing on Marrie. She could deflect Lenore’s next few blows, but she was going to need to put herself on the offensive if she didn’t want to get overrun.



After dispatching the last of the guards on the balcony, Mika looked off the edge at the remaining two on the other side of the smoke screen. As it turned out, a blind and deaf Himiko wasn’t able to land her shots on two men armed with submachine guns. She prepared to launch herself off the balcony when a gray pillar of smoke shot out of the smoke and almost hit Mika, only for her to transform into a spirit and float out of the vicinity. The spot where she had been standing was engulfed in smoke, and moving in close would be risky.

"Crap…"

Mika was down to her last life line. She could escape from one more attack like that, and then she’d be on her own. Mika slinked backwards and hoped the gunmen couldn’t guess her position.

Though when she turned around, she saw Bobo, covered in napalm, Pointing her flamethrower in Mika’s direction. She could prepare a melody, but it wouldn’t come out faster than Bobo’s burning napalm. It looked like Mika was about to say goodbye to her last “get out of jail free” card, but her eyes darted towards something in the air. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no! It was Justin!

The protection Justin had placed on himself was keeping the napalm on his leg at bay, but that paired with the sudden impact shattered his protective blessing, and possibly Bobo’s back. With a “GAH!” The nun fell on her chest. However, the burning napalm that she had coated herself with was now also stuck on Justin, which was going to be a problem.

Or was it?

While Asher had intended to land his shield melody on Justin mid-flight, he needed extra time to really power it up. As such, his melody landed late, arriving just in time to prevent most of the damage he would have suffered.

Mika was about to assist with a follow up, but noticed that Himiko was dead. Well, not dead per say, but out of the fight. Obviously if Himiko had died, she would have detransformed to her normal self. But if she wasn’t moving, she was surely close to death. Mika looked between her companions and Himiko, and cursed under her breath. That stupid esper would make sure she never heard the end of this. She extended her hand, and a spectral cat lept out of her palm and floated over to Himiko’s side. It bound over her, spreading its enchanted magic over her body and preventing her condition from getting any worse.

”What a waste of perfectly good mana."

”I couldn’t agree more!” Bobo pulled the trigger on her flamethrower, and a stream of napalm rained down on Himiko’s body. Before the napalm landed on Himiko, she drove her elbow into Justin. While the blow itself hadn’t hurt, ithe arcane charge in her elbow shoved Justin off of her back. She hobbled to her feet and looked between the two espers on the balcony with her. ”You’re not done yet, are you!?” A surge of smoke surrounded Bobo’s body, and she seemed to grow healthier as a result. ”Come here you little bitch! I’m not done paying you back yet!” She ran at Justin with her mace held out to her side. Mika also let out a war cry and charged after her, but she wasn’t going to reach Bobo before she reached Justin. Unless…

And then there was Asher. He had successfully evaded the molotov, but the machine gun goons were still firing at everyone from behind the smoke screen. The spectral cat was starting to look a little sad, and might not stand up to much more fire. Even if Bobo felt Asher was below his notice, at least the construction workers still thought he was a threat. And then Nova was waiting in the smoke somewhere.

If Asher was going to do something cool, this was the time to do it.

While MDP might have been too occupied with other things to provide direct assistance, The Pink Pounder was another matter, and, coupled with Ashley’s techno-wand shots, he managed to ensure that none of the bikers would be escaping through the burning diner’s front door. That just left the mage bikers, along with a couple of scattered cowboys and dryads tucked away in corners, leaving the Knight of Tomorrow to turn her attention towards what had started this debacle to begin with. Yes, Ashley was painfully aware that the whole fiasco had really kicked off when Finn transformed in the middle of the crowded diner and tried to play knight in shining armor to a group of possibly imperiled school girls. Those girls would certainly be imperiled now, but, thankfully, they had all escaped to safety. All, save one stubborn sleepwalker who was caught in the clutches of a mage biker currently crouched down right next to Ashley herself. Their eyes met in silent deadlock, neither willing to make a move. While the Knight of Tomorrow didn’t want to risk the possibility of this biker revealing her true identity to The Hand, her primary concern was for the unconscious girl in his clutches. Thus, after a few tense seconds, her first action was simply to speak.

“Thank you for shielding the girl,” the high-tech heroine told the mage. “Hand her over to me, and I promise I’ll grant you safe passage through that window,” she added, nodding in the direction of the broken window next to them.

That said, she still wasn’t taking any chances with her own safety, either, and even as she spoke, a glowing green energy field appeared around her body. Hopefully this would provide sufficient protection if the mage decided to take a shot at her with his pistol.

---

---

Asher had been lucky with the molotov, not that it had worried him so much as the time it would have wasted trying to minimize the damage if he’d not been fortunate enough to dodge it. Standing up swiveling to get eyes on the balcony situation he watched as Justin was thrown from Bobo’s back and the bunny girl seemed to envelop herself in smoke before shaking off the prior attack. That made things messy, clearly Asher wasn’t much use all the way down here and he needed to close the distance urgently. A plan started to piece together in Asher’s head as Bobo faced down Mika and Justin once more.

Sometimes when things weren’t going your way you just had to wade into the thick of it. Things weren’t panning out the way he wanted and as much as he was helping from afar he just couldn’t help but feel like he’d be more valuable in the thick of things. And so Asher directed his next beam cast towards Bobo and her outstretched mace and fired off another beam.

"Coming in hot!!" Asher called out as the beam fired off. Unlike last time though this beam wasn’t aiming to deliver protection but rather unholy retribution as Asher’s aim was to use the beam to blink into the side of Bobo in an attempt to tackle her out of her intended attack. Should he succeed Asher would attempt to grapple with her and restrain her arms.

---

The Witch Hunter looked at the gun, then lifted her eyes up slightly to look at the man pointing the gun. She still felt like she was on fire even when she wasn’t on fire, and she desperately wanted a drink but alcohol was on fire. Her ears were ringing too and all things considered, she couldn’t hear shit. Didn’t help that the guy was a shadow wizard biker, so there was no way for her to lip read as well. The ‘yo’ didn’t even register, really.

She lifted up one hand, took a deep breath, pinched her nose, scrunched up her face, and then tried to expel air through her sealed nostrils as hard as possible. Blood began to trickle out of her ears, but her hearing felt marginally improved.

“Ok, buddy,” the Witch Hunter said, “It was kinda my fault, but you three were the ones that escalated even further. Now there’s a pile-up at the entrance and the flames aren’t going out and we’re all going to run out of air and cook to death in this oven, so could you do something and put out the flames? You got magic for that, right? If not, just grab your buddies and join the orderly queue at the exit.”

With that, she turned away, golden light coating her Dai-katana once more as she scrambled over furniture and dodged flames to get involved in yet another fight. The Witch Hunter couldn’t see the demon that Finn faced, but what of it? The supernatural had always shrouded itself from the gaze of the mundane, yet humans sensed their presence nonetheless. The fluctuation of chaos, the manifestation of the arcane. Fate conspired to continuously push Finn to combat with Dante, no matter what the lad himself attempted, and Estelle would not change that.

An invisible, monstrous force descended, and the sacred sword, sheathed in sigil arts, rose to meet it, the collision marked by a burst of cleansing sunlight that would catch the Sandman surging forth too.

That worked much better than Marrie had expected, but she wasn't done being underhanded yet. Lenore seemed to have her full attention on Marrie now, but also appeared to think she'd already won. What were those sayings? "An animal is most dangerous when cornered," and "If something is possible, carry on as planned. And if it isn't possible, do it anyway?" These flashed through her mind, alongside the seeming success of her gambit.

She placed her hand on Apexer's back to steady it, preparing to block with it. Or at least that's what she did her best to give the impression she was doing. She put her full focus on Lenore, brow furrowing as she put every bit of focus she could into preparing for Lenore's next attack. Though again, this was her own version of a feint. She made sure that her palm was flat against the portal on her Instrument, and cast a melody into it, attempting to keep any tell from it hidden by the side of the blade.

{Warm: Gold Projectile - Scatter- Homing - If:Foe - Damage X}

She put everything she had into this attack, including almost all of her mana, but kept her focus entirely on Lenore and staying on the defensive, trusting in her Melody's composition to do what it needed to. At the same time, she was keeping her defensive facade in case she needed to block while also mentally prepared to attack if her Melody gave her an opportunity to.

He ran into the demon's hand.

He ran. Into. The hallucination's hand.

WHAT!?

Now, maybe if Finn had the opening he could've maneuvered around before he was grabbed (He swore he had the reflexes for that, damnit!), or perhaps he was simply too small to out speed the gargantuan demon in comparison. The fact that he ran into it like a brick wall seemed to catch him off guard long enough for it to lift him up in the air and attempt to crush him. It was a miracle that Atropos was still able to cleave into it's palm and break the Timekeeper free before he suffered any significant damage. But now both the hellspawn hallucination and Dante were about to attack him.

They were going to kill him.

God, why does this keep happening? Why does he keep being forced to face enemies he was outmatched with alone? Even with teammates, they seem to always think he could handle things by himself.

Even if he could, at least some help would be nice! H̸e̵ ̷c̶a̵n̴'̴t̶ ̴d̵o̷ ̵e̶v̶e̶r̴y̴t̴h̷i̴n̶g̶ ̷a̷l̴o̴n̴e̶!̷!̸

And now the Timekeeper didn't know what else to do. He was forced into a corner against a monster he couldn't kill. His eyes darted around in a panic, scrambling for anything that'd help turn the tide to his favor.

... Alcohol's flammable.

The fires are still going.

Maybe his idea could still work, but he'd have to hurry!

And a small sliver of luck, Estelle finally hurried over to Finn's side to strike at the demon, the sandman, giving him a chance to finish him off.

Thank you!

Golden electricity flowed through the Timekeeper again. He grabbed as much of the flame-coated bottles as he could and began rapidly throwing the impromptu molotovs at Dante.

I swear to god if this doesn't finish him off I'm going to scream so please just d̶̻͂ï̵̬ẹ̶͑ ̵͕͆á̵̙l̷͚̈́ř̵͖e̴͙̽ä̶͍́d̶̩̕y̶̘̿ ̸̞̉ġ̵̡ŏ̴̻d̷̖͒d̶͂ȧ̸͉m̶̱͆ṇ̷̎ī̷̲ț̸͑!̷͚̆!̷̯̓!̸̱̔

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Just as Himiko had started to get cozy and comfortable where she lay, she noticed her first visitor. She hadn’t expected Mika to try to help her out honestly. But that just meant that Puddy cared far more about Himiko than what Puddy was willing to admit. Next time she chatted with Puddy, she had a little more ammunition to use.

But those warm thoughts started to get even warmer, and her time of relaxation came to an abrupt end. A stream of napalm rained down from above catching the attention of her golden gaze. What a shame, she had hoped she could just lay here unnoticed for a good while longer. But all good things must come to an end at some point.

Going into motion, Himiko quickly rolled out of the way of the napalm. While shielding herself just in case any of it managed to get on her. Knowing that it was nasty stuff that would stick to her body and burn her to a crisp otherwise. Using the momentum of her roll to roll back up onto her feet. One to her feet she started to dust herself off with a disappointed sigh. At least the time she had spent laying there had given her enough time to mostly recover her senses. But it was a shame that she couldn’t bask in the satisfaction of receiving help from Puddy for just a little bit longer.

Her golden eyes scanned the scene around her, taking it all in and most importantly finding the wretch that had interrupted her peace and enjoyment. She was going to pay for trying to cook Himiko like a baked potato. Plus she had the audacity to interrupt a touching and warm moment from Puddy. Two things that Himiko wasn’t about to let slip without repercussion. Though it seemed like Bedhead was already in the process of taking care of Mojo Bobo for her.

Which meant, she could turn her attention back to those pests hiding amongst the smoke. She had played nice earlier, but her patience had worn thin and her desires had grown ever more ambitious. Bringing her revolvers back up, she unloaded both into the smoke screen to get the attention of the gunmen as best as she could. Once she had their attention, that would be the time to give them a little surprise.

She was greedy to desire more time basking in the satisfaction of getting Puddy to crack and show some sign of compassion. But why not eliminate the interruption so she could get more of what she truly desired?

It was important to note the rather dangerous plan Noble Spark had gone with was made and had begun BEFORE his target had lit herself on fire. Although he was prepared to incur some damage from the fall even through his own protections, he wasn't expecting to be coated in napalm. But by the time he had noticed he was about to hug a humanoid bonfire, it was a bit too late to change plans.

Yet Noble Spark wasn't the only hero around and at the last possible moment, he noticed a protective melody tank the majority of the damage he would've otherwise taken the brunt of. The grunt of pain he made wasn't near as loud as the 'GAH' he heard beneath him, so he considered the aerial attack a success.

"Such heroic timing! My thanks!" he shouted down to Asher, before feeling an elbow in his stomach, forcing him off the foe he had just landed on.

He quickly hopped back to his feet, his body yelling in pain from the strong self-induced collision he just suffered. But that may as well have been a whisper compared to the screaming his leg was doing since it was still covered in napalm. He hurriedly grasped his pant leg a bit above where it was coated and tore it off, tossing the flaming attire to the side.

Flame... off...!

By the time he had accomplished that, he had lost any potential initiative he might've had on the pyromaniac rabbit nun, and he was also running out of ideas for referencing the Human Torch. It was hard for him to decide which was the bigger tragedy, but it was easy enough to see he could probably leave the answer for later as it seemed Bobo was not exactly a fan of his aerial stunt and was now intent on taking a more blunt approach to killing him.

"A reckless charge preludes an ugly defeat, villain!" he taunted, seemingly unthreatened by her. In reality, he was a bit hesitant to get too close to a foe who had no qualms about being engulfed in flame, but confidence in every situation was the name of the game for a hero like Noble Spark. It also helped he had an ally flanking behind, though he'd need to survive an attack or two before Cerberus would be in a position to help.

Noble Spark initially intended to cut the rabbit off with a more offensive melody, but Asher seemed to want to take center stage and what kind of ally would Noble Spark be to deny the very person who just propped him up? He snapped his fingers and an area on the ground in front of him began to hum and spark with blue-hued crackles of electricity until suddenly a paralyzing bolt of electricity spawned as if from nowhere, obviously striking the area and Bobo were she to be in it.

@Vertigo

Joshua was having a pretty interesting day.

He had really just come here for a few days to visit his family, and was using the hotel because his parents didn’t have enough room in their house to accommodate him. In truth, he didn’t like to move around very much, and would have preferred to stay home. But he did genuinely care about his parents well being, even if it was kind of a hassle to hire a ‘figurine sitter’ to protect his collection when he was away for an extended period of time. Not only that, but Pax Septimus had some pretty high crime rates and was experiencing all kinds of weird weather phenomena. Though that was also why he was here. He planned to help them a bit and return home. It was just a shame there weren’t any stores around that catered to his very specific tastes.

Then some totally hot oni cosplayer jumped through his window, along with someone in a bigfoot costume. She flashed him a pretty disgusted look, which just made him more curious. Her outfit looked well made, and the beauty wearing it was very in character. He couldn’t tell if she was a tsundere, dominatrix, or something else. The situation was a little strange, and he figured it was best to not give chase. The guy in the bigfoot suit was probably her boyfriend, and if she was single, she might have just been a very well dressed thug. He sighed, thankful for the chance encounter, and prepared to boot his favorite website for looking at scantily clad anime girls.

Then someone fired a shotgun.

This was very confusing. The oni girl didn’t look like she could conceal a sawed off. It seemed inconceivable that a fight had broken out on his floor, but then again, how often do really cute cosplayers run through your room? Maybe something happened to her, and he could be the one who saved her. Only when he rushed to the door to open it again, his punk oni princess dove on top of him, just in time to avoid the buck shot.

Was this real, or fantasy?

He’d be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy how assertive she was. This was the closest a woman had ever been to him, and he could feel the warmth from her finger as she shoved it into his nose. She smelled nice too. But more importantly, she needed his help. So as soon as she got up, Joshua screamed. It was shrill, unmanly, and drained his dignity faster than it did his lungs. His eyes darted between the empty doorway and the Oni gir- Hey, where did she go?

Thensomeone in pillaged military gear stepped in the doorway and aimed their gun inside the room. It was at this point that Josua wondered why he was asked to scream like that. Surely, if this soldier person was hunting them, wouldn’t they have naturally come into the room anyway, him screaming or not? Well, he wasn’t going to stop screaming anyway. His eyes darted to where the cute oni girl was last seen, and then back at the soldier. He must have been pissing them off, because it looked like they were going to shoot him.

Then a bolt of darkness slammed into the side of the soldier’s head. It looked powerful. He fully expected the soldier’s head to explode. It certainly looked like it might with the helmet fragments flying everywhere, but there was no blood. Only lots and lots of cyan hair swirling in the air. It eventually came to rest on the soldiers' back. Though their face didn’t look like it belonged to a soldier. Aside from their aqua colored hair, they were wearing a gas mask that had glowing yellow rods sticking out of it and… Holy shit, was this a girl too?! It was hard to tell with the mask, but the face shape did look kind of feminine.

The soldier/gasmask girl pointed her shotgun down the hall, only for a shadow creature to barrel into her back and shove her out of the way. There were a few more shotgun blasts, some sounds that he couldn’t comprehend, and then…

Joshua looked out the window. It looked like the three of them had left the hotel and were running through the street. Well, the soldier girl and the shadow thing was running, but the oni was sitting on the shadow creature’s shoulder.

This was the best day of his life.



@Ponn@Majoraa@ERode

Just the Shadow Wizard Money Gang and Dante now.

The wizard “holding Estelle at gunpoint” didn’t exactly look relieved. While still holding the gun at Estelle, he looked to the pile of dead bodies by the door, the window that Ashley “opened” to let plenty of fresh air in, and the flames that were being fed by all that fresh air. It wasn’t clear if Estelle was mistaken or just making a threat, but the wizard pulled his gun off of Estelle and started to walk around the Diner. The flames around him faded and went out, as if there was some oxygen deprivation bubble around him that was suffocating the flames.

The one holding onto the school girl drew his gun as soon as Ashley’s magic flared up, but he didn’t point his gun at anyone. It took a moment for the words to sink in. He looked back at his homies. Two of them were out cold, with the third pacing around like some fire sweeping roomba. With a nod, he gave the school girl a push. With a groan, she stumbled into Ashley’s arms. ”A’ight.” He pointed at the window with his finger. ”I ain’t goin out there with no pink nutjob though.”

Which left Dante, Finn, and his hallucinations.

Their arena was no longer the entire Diner, just the small space behind the counter. At one side was the world’s second largest man holding a hammer, and at the other was a small child with a chainsaw that barely had an effect, and magic that had no observable effect. A wall of sand against a firefly, and that was without considering the impossibly large demon lunging for Finn.

Finn looked for something to use, anything at all.

He found something.

Maybe he found something.

He just needed time.

And that was when Estelle swung her Dai-Katana. While she could feel the presence of the massive demon, it was a creature that only existed in Finn’s imagination. And a child’s imagination is a very powerful thing. The demon’s body split, not because Estelle cut it, but because it wished to avoid the incoming attack. As soon as her blade was free, the demon slammed back together and surged forth. Dante on the other hand was struck by the sword. The swirling barrier around the sword did more to disperse his body than the chainsword could. In fact, Dante was half spun by the attack, and was turned to face Estelle in the process. While he spun, one of his hands flew up and tossed a handful of sand at Estelle. After being burned, the sand hardly bothered her at all. But now she could see a second demon, one that more closely captured something she was afraid of. What did Estelle see?

Finn was not going to waste the opportunity afforded to him. He became quick, and immediately rushed to fling as many burning drinks at Dante as he could. The first one soared over Dante’s head, but the second one hit him square in the chest. He roared, as the flames hit his gut into glass, which fell to the ground and shattered. If these were normal flames, Dante might not have been affected by them. But they were arcane and devastating in nature. Momentary exposure was enough to do serious damage to him. Dante could not reassemble his body due to the curse Finn’s sword inflicted on him. Neither demon could protect him, as Finn and Estelle’s imaginations were incapable of affecting the real world. The next bottle turned his shoulder to glass, then he stumbled backwards into the flames and his leg turned to glass. Each new molotov he was struck with, his body would harden and shatter. His hammer fell out of his hands. Before long, he was just a torso and a head.

”Amanda! Ruuuu-

The last molotov struck Dante’s head, turning what remained of him into a glass sculpture. Half of his mustache cracked and fell off.

The demons disappeared instantly. There were no more hostiles, the battle was over.

Right?

What remained of Dante was parked directly in front of the doorway to out back, where he had been trying to keep the school girls and Finn out of. But now someone was emerging from the confines of the darkened room. It appeared to be a teenage girl, who couldn’t have been much older than Finn. She was wearing a few unusual accessories. She had a bluetooth headset on. It looked very space age, and had to be something designed for gamers if the boom mic was anything to go by. She had a long white shirt that came down to her knees, and it had a picture of a controller on it. She was also wearing a wrist computer, and a choker that had lights to show how strong the area’s wi-fi signal was.

Her gaze was fixed on the glass sculpture in front of her. Wide eyed, mouth agape, she sank to her knees beside the glass bust and wrapped her arms around its neck.

”Dad!”

She called to the glass sculpture several times, her voice cracking more and more every time. Finally she was sobbing too hard for her words to be understood.

Estelle could sense one more chaotic entity in the vicinity, and it was that girl grieving over her father.

---

@Vertigo!?!?!?

Viper dove out the window, and Ciri followed her on the back of her friend. There was a point where it looked like Viper might have been chasing the gold dragon, but she ducked into one of the side streets and disappeared mid chase. The dragon was running into Maverick territory, and Viper wisely chose to keep her head down.

That shadow bolt should have knocked her head clean off. It certainly should have done more than just shatter her helmet. But it wasn’t uncommon for some espers to have special forms of defense against possibly life-ending attacks. It was difficult to determine the exact nature of Viper’s defenses with just one attack. For good or for ill, it didn’t seem like Ciri would get the chance to experiment further.

But the dragon was in view now, at least. They just needed to make sure he didn’t take to the sky. While there were wider streets that might be better suited to the dragon, it didn’t seem like it was pursuing them. Instead, it stuck to the backstreets. Maybe it felt it would have a better chance losing them in the narrow passages of the city. Or…

The trio had arrived at what looked to be a run down diner. Standing just outside was a girl in a pretty pink dress, a knight in pink, and now the dragon man. He had stopped running, and cast his eyes inside the smoldering building.

---

@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@FamishedPants

Expensive melodies were always a gamble. Sometimes they did what you wanted, sometimes they didn’t, and sometimes the results were greater than what you anticipated. Regardless of the outcome, it was always unexpected.

Lenore was already upon Marrie, hacking away at her. It almost felt like she was being played with. Several times, Lenore’s blade would make a shallow cut in her cheek, or swing through her ethereal skirt. Having your back to anything put you in a pretty bad spot. IT was fortunate that a melody only need a second or so to prepare.

Marrie could hold her weapon however she wanted, but anyone with experience with the paranormal, especially an esper, was going to know when a spell or melody was being prepared. Even something as swift as a projectile had tells that someone like Lenore could pick up on. What Lenore couldn’t pick up on was the nature of the melody, which would prove to be critical.

She had hopped backwards in preparation for what was coming, and raised her blade. But a sword was ill suited for protecting against a flurry of ice shards. Briefly, her eyes went wide and she attempted to roll out of the way. Her blade managed to cut through a few of them, but one of the shards found its mark in her ankle and severed her foot. With a groan, she rolled to her knee, just in time to raise her blade and meet Marrie’s Apexer.

After deflecting Marrie’s follow up attack, she fished a cigar out of a pocket and chomped down on it. The cigar immediately burned into ash, and a cloud of smoke connected her ankle to her foot. In no time at all, her foot and leg were one again. She stood back up with a grin.

”Not too shabby! Think you can do that again?” Her body surged with blacklight, her sword poised to strike, and then she disappeared in a spray of black particles. As the darklight faded, Angelie’s head fell out of the light and landed where Lenore had been standing.

Further down, Himiko rolled out of the way of incoming napalm and stood back up. The stabilizing cat that plugged her wounds did enable her to move like normal, but a single shot was all it would take to undo the melody. Not that Himiko had any sense of self preservation. It was her mana supply that she was primarily concerned with.

What is the definition of insanity? Himiko fired at her unseen adversaries, and it was unclear if she hit any of them. She couldn’t see it, but they turned their guns on her and were prepared to fire. However, not all of the variables were the same this time. Much like the rest of the freelancers, the construction workers had been ignoring the little duel between Marrie and Lenore. As such, they were woefully unaware of the guided ice shards flying in their direction. They were both struck down, as one lost his head while another was punched straight threw the chest. They both sunk to the ground without firing a single shot. Some of them even entered the fog where Nova was hiding. It was inconclusive if any of them hit, but everyone could hear her mumble an ”Aw shiiiiiiit!” from inside the smoke.



Justin had already exhausted enough burning wordplay on Bobo that Mika didn’t feel the need to mentally add any more. Yes, “flame off” had to be the lamest thing she had heard all fight. She wanted to be done with these nuns.

The air sparked in front of Bobo. Of course she was just going to notice it and jump over it, what was Justin expecting to accomplish with-

Suddenly, outta nowhere, Asher just up and teleported onto the burning bunny nun and tackled her out the open window. Normally grabbing onto anything that was on fire was a bad idea, but would that have been cool? Could Asher look at himself in the mirror if he let some scalding napalm get between him and a cool stunt? Was he going to totally wuss out and try to shield himself?

No.

Fuckin’.

Way!

”You imbecile!” Was all Bobo got out before the two of them tumbled out the window. Though part way through their decent, Bobo’s body started to fall slower. Asher was dangling from Bobo’s mace swinging arm, all while the napalm on her uniform tried to eat through his fingers. ”Let go of me, jackass!” It was a bit of a stalemate. Asher couldn’t get a hold of Bobo’s other arm, and Bobo couldn’t aim straight with Asher trying to wrench her mace out of her hand. Blobs of napalm flew past Asher and scorched the earth beneath them. Eventually, she channeled a force into her mace that shoved Asher away. By that point he was close enough to the ground to make a graceful landing. Bobo pointed her flamethrower at Asher, but a beckoning cat sprouted up between them. ”I hate you!”

Behind her, Nova and Lenore ran out of the smoke barrier that blocked the front door. ”Come on, Bobo. Let’s get out of here.” Lenore waved her hand. ”One out of two ain’t bad, and we’re fresh out of support. We’ll have Lexi with us next time.”

Bobo seethed, staring directly at Asher through the transparent spirit cat. A wall of smoke erupted behind her courtesy of Nova. She pointed into her eyes, then pointed at Asher, before vanishing behind the smokey veil.

Mika was leaning against the edge of the window frame, observing Asher from above. He was kind of annoying, loud, and everything Fritzi had cautioned her about freelancers.But when the chips were down, he had taken the operation seriously.

"I… Didn’t think that was going to work." She raised an eyebrow. "Did you need any help putting out your fingers?"

He... He did it! Finn had to take some deep breaths to calm himself down, letting a relieved laugh slip as he stared down the broken statue that used to be Dante. These near death experiences are going to give him a heart attack one of these days. The patrons, asides from a few stragglers were dead. The infernal demon only he saw disappeared, a hopeful sign that he might've been cured. And hopefully this burnt shithole will get torn down with the death of it's owner. The Timekeeper would've turned to thank Estelle for the long overdue assist.

If someone hadn't emerged from the back room Dante had lost his life protecting. And now they'd see why.

Amanda wasn't a part of the curse, wasn't a part of the hallucinations forced upon the both of them. She was as real as the sandman they had killed, right in line of her sight. She was...Dante's daughter. Finn's eyes widened when she revealed herself, and more so in fear when she cried out for her dead father and cradled his glass corpse. He was just protecting his daughter! But Finn didn't even want to kill him in the first place! Dante could've just played along instead of forcing his hand, but no! The bastard was just as fickle as the rest of this fucking town and now he had more blood on his hands and a ringing in his ears and oh god why does this keep happening!?

The boy bumped against the counter, not even aware that he was backing away from the scene, not even aware of his surroundings or the people. The corpses, or the way he was hyperventilating. He didn't want any of this. He didn't want to be dangerous! He didn't!! And yet every time he tries to be a good person it always fucks him over so he's had no other choice but to-

Finn's body acted before his mind registered it. He ran. Out the diner, past the small crowd gathered outside, he ran away as quick as his legs could carry him. He couldn't stay there any longer.

@FamishedPants@BrokenPromise@The World@TaintedMushroom

Her ploy to act as a distraction had worked just long enough for Marries' attack to deal with the remaining gunmen. Before she could even start to implement the plan she had in mind to deal with them once she had their attention. But Himiko wouldn’t complain, that just meant a lot less exertion on her own end. The fight as a whole seemed to wrap up rather quickly at the end of it. The nuns retreating from the confrontation, leaving Himiko both disappointed but relieved that she wouldn’t have to use up any more resources then she already had.

It was also of benefit that Puddy’s help had given her the ability to move and act more freely. Of course she could just heal herself if she felt like it, but it was so much better to have someone else on hand to help alleviate part of the issue. With a sigh, she finally holstered both of her revolvers as a glint shot through her golden eyes. It was time to make the next move, and with that in mind she finally decided to heal herself as best she could to move around with more ease.

Moving over towards Mika now that the fight had finished up as she climbed her way up to the balcony. Sure she didn’t get to the bottom of what Oros desired with Puddy. The nuns had put a stop to that for the time being. Whether they were associated with Oros, or had their own agenda Himiko could not be certain. However, that mattered very little, as Himiko’s own agenda remained right on course.

Once she reached the balcony she spotted Mika leaning against the frame of the window. Approaching as she slung an arm around Mika’s shoulder as she gazed out the window “Boy, you sure look a lot worse for wear eh Puddy? Its like you just had the fight of your life” Himiko let out a laugh as she pulled Mika closer. It was good to have Puddy mostly alone and isolated for this brief moment, it would make things much more streamlined. With Bedhead down below, Marrie a decent distance away and Noble Spark a short distance off, this was the best she was going to get. Though with both being free lancers, it didn't worry Himiko too much.

“I appreciate you caring so much about me as to go out of your way during such an intense battle to protect me….perhaps I owe you a little something, I don’t take requests often, but if you have one, and I deem it reasonable then I will fulfill it….” A hint of teasing and sincerity behind her tone and her offer to Mika. She enjoyed having new material to use against Puddy, but she also appreciated her help.

Though it was a shame that Puddy did seem so embedded with Gemini. It would be fun to form a little team of their own and grow it from there. But she doubted Puddy would be receptive to such an idea, though it didn’t mean it was worth taking the shot. “You know, if you ever get tired of getting bossed around by Neonbrite, Jar Jar Binky and Dr.Freeze and feel like leaving Gemini, you are more than welcome to join up with me, I know that one boy in Gemini that I met before is cute as a button, so it might be hard to leave him behind, but the offer will remain on the table for you….after all you can only do so much while being a member of Gemini…and I can tell you have ambitions of your own that may not totally align with the goals of the organization…ambitions that I can better help become a reality” There was no laugh, or teasing this time. Every word she had said, she had meant it. But it was up to Mika to make that determination for herself when the time came.

Himiko had no dislike or grudge against Gemini. They had a part to play in everything after all. One that was more beneficial for Himiko more times than not. Though it was easy enough to tell that once you join an organization like Gemini, it limits a bit of your freedom to do what you wished so freely. Rules, regulations, they all had their purposes and needs and a chain of command. All things Himiko felt only served to hinder her own goals and aspirations. Things that Himiko felt that Puddy might value as well.

---

That had gone off so much better than Asher had envisioned it in his head. He’d popped out of nowhere much to the shock of that nasty bunny lady and totally derailed her plans when he and her both went flying out of the window. The napalm thing was kinda lame but Asher was used to playing with fire so it wasn’t something he’d be writing home about. He wasn’t quite sure how he and her didn’t end up on the ground with a few broken bones each but that wasn’t really his concern as the bunny girl seemed to reluctantly be making her escape.

Asher, having no qualms about rubbing salt in the wound, made sure to deliver her a freshly flipped bird and a smirk just dripping in arrogance as she pointed his way, "Yeah hey, fuck you too!" he called as she slinked away into the veil of smoke.

"I… Didn’t think that was going to work. Did you need any help putting out your fingers?" A voice called out from above. Asher looked up towards where Mika stood, the girl they had been hired to escort. Given her mostly intact appearance and safety Asher chalked the whole thing up as a win, although he wasn’t quite entirely sure if they were actually done, although he was hoping so with so little gas in the tank. All in all they'd only really shown up to the meet up point and just as suddenly been ambushed by the chastity squad. Although, given appearances and violent tendencies, Asher didn't think these nuns were big on preaching your standard gospel. Clearly the firey one was going to have a bone to pick with Asher now. The thought brought a feeling of excitement, Asher would be thrilled to settle the score next time the chance came up.

“It’s not about thinking, it’s about doing. You don’t plan for things to work, you make them work.” Asher called back as he did a bit of pointed stretching. It was a bit of Asher's personal philosophy as well a bit of boastfulness. When things were going quite how you wanted Asher would always recommend that you just reach out, grab a hold of em, and make em go your way. A direct approach was always the best approach, do rather than wish to do. Asher held his hands up in front of his face, admiring the burnt flesh and feeling the scorched nerves and flesh screaming in the back of the mind. He gave them a little wiggle before shrugging absently, "Nah, fingers will be fine, me and fire go way back. So what’s the deal? Did this whole thing just turn out to be a trap? Are we done here?” Asher asked as he started looking around and attempting to locate everyone that had been a part of the operation. He wasn't sure if everyone would choose to gather inside or out and so simply started making his way towards the main door.

---

Well, this operation had certainly been a complete clusterfuck, Ashely reflected. Of that, there could be no doubt. While all the schoolgirls were now safe, and most of their adversaries, including Dante himself, had been eliminated, the whole point of coming to the diner in the first place was to gain some answers on Finn’s condition, and doing that now seemed highly unlikely, considering the current state of things. The conclusion of the chaotic battle had happened in a confused blur, with Ashley taking custody of the last remaining schoolgirl, even as Finn had apparently landed a fatal blow upon Dante. Yet, before the Knight of Tomorrow could even fully register that, a teenaged girl’s voice could be heard, crying for her father. A moment after that, and Finn had darted out of the diner like a bolt of lightning, leaving the high-tech heroine and Estelle to deal with the battle’s aftermath.

Her father…

The words, and the horrifying revelation they imparted, echoed through Ashley’s mind and pierced her heart like a knife as she rose to her feet and surveyed the shocking scene before her. There were still a few potential hostiles left in the room, but she doubted they would cause any trouble. Instead, the Knight Of Tomorrow’s full attention quickly focused upon Dante, now little more than a glass sculpture, and the young woman hysterically sobbing over him.

Oh Finn…

The thought of the boy’s name filled Ashley with a powerful mixture of concern and anger, for while her heart ached for the trauma that had been inflicted upon the young agent, trauma that had now reached its horrific apex, she couldn’t help but reflect that, in this instance at least, it had all been the result of Finn’s own recklessness. If he had only waited like she had instructed, if they had only proceeded with caution and never even entered the diner, then none of these deaths likely would have occurred. Yes, they had been monsters and criminals, but they hadn’t been doing anything hostile to the innocent, just enjoying some rest and relaxation. They didn’t deserve to be slaughtered like this. Dante didn’t deserve the tragic fate that had befallen him, and neither did his daughter. Ashley and Estelle had only fought because Finn had given them no other choice. All the death, all the pain, was on his hands. And just like the child he was, upon seeing the monumental mess he’d made, he had chosen to flee and let the adults clean everything up…

Looking down at the still-sleepwalking girl in her arms, Ashley gave voice to a tired sigh.

“The girl is safe with me, now, MDP,” the Knight of Tomorrow told the pastel-garbed freelancer over her earpiece. “Thanks for all the help. You too, Pounder,” she added, before switching to Dr. Moller’s line. “Director, Dante has been neutralized and the situation is now relatively stable. However, Timekeeper just fled the diner at considerable speed, and I have no idea where he’s headed. I’d like to request a cleanup team be dispatched as soon as possible.”

Switching off her comm, she turned to the mage biker next to her. “If you don’t want to leave, then could you help your associate put out these fires?” she asked. Out of all the factions in the diner, the mage bikers had been the least openly hostile, only reacting to defend themselves from attack, and this particular biker had even helped protect a civilian. In addition, based on their initial vantage point on the far side of the diner, there was a good chance that none of the mage bikers had gotten a good look at any of the agents’ mundane forms, if they were even affiliated with The Hand to begin with. Thus, Ashley found herself reluctant to eliminate the remaining mages, especially since it was far more likely that the hysterically sobbing “Amanda” would lash out in a burst of anguished fury, and the Knight of Tomorrow wanted to conserve her manna so as to respond to that potentiality in swift and decisive fashion.

---

What did she see indeed?

It didn’t matter, not when everything ended before the apparition could even manifest. In the shadow of the colossus that dwelled within her dreams, Estelle was left with only the broken remains of Dante, a teenage girl who cried over his body, and Timekeeper.

Scratch that, Timekeeper bolted, leaving her there, alone, with this bullshit.

With all this bullshit, really.

What had the point of this mission even been? What were they even here for? Did this constitute as a success? Did Timekeeper get what he wanted? Did they just make even more enemies? Was she supposed to kill this monster-daughter now, because that was GEMINI protocol? The Knight of Tomorrow was reporting in to Dr. Moller over comms, the fires were dying out as a result of the assistance of the mage-bikers, and this whole thing was a mess from start to finish.

She never had to deal with this in the past. Never had to, back when she was just the guardian of a village, dealing with masses of malice that hardly possessed sentience. Then she had picked and chosen, realizing her limitations and maturing like an adult. Life became an endless set of trolley problems and compromises. And now, if she considered all this, considered what was bound to happen, the adult in Estelle, the Witch Hunter of GEMINI, would act immediately and cut this grieving monster down now, before sorrow turned to hatred and distilled into vengeance.

She made a thing though, of never drawing her sword.

And she was only twenty-two years old. A young adult.

…

Estelle knelt down beside Amanda, and gave her a consolatory hug. Allowed her to cry until there was a break in between her sobs, and then said, “Your friends are outside. They were looking for you.”

What was Dante hiding her from? The schoolgirls hadn’t seen her, so she hadn’t been sent away just because he saw Finn.

“Do you want to join them?”