@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World


Himiko locked eyes with Lenore right as she vanished into the darklight. The fragments ended up flying off to the side and in between the two trains, not having to use even an ounce of mana to defend herself. The expected pain never came as some of the tension left her body as she had braced for impact. Thankful that she did not have to take the attack head on as she was left unscathed. Letting out a whistle as she peeked over the side of the train in the aftermath as it looked like if it had hit, it would have hurt like a real bitch.

“That one would have hurt alright, but alas, sometimes fate endlessly eclipses the actions of those not destined to succeed.” muttering as she shrugged her shoulders, taking that moment to reload both of her revolvers. Both problems having seemingly taken care of themselves with very little involvement on her own part.

Even with Lenore having vanished, and Marrie having dealt with the projectiles, it was better to be locked and loaded. She knew that the nun would show her face soon enough. Even with all the other action going on around her, she at least had a moment to regroup and regain her bearing. She felt a change in the air, and sensed that something was changing with Crazy Trains travel pattern.

If that dragon didn’t show back up, she would have to go along for the ride to wherever Crazy Train decided to go at this point. Her golden gaze shifted around her surroundings as even with the smoke present it was clear others had joined the fray, just based on all the racket being made. For the time being, she was at least left to her own devices, until Lenore or someone else decided to come after her.

Either way, she was going to take a wait and see approach, revolvers at the ready in case a threat presented itself. Why rush headlong into a wall of smoke and the sound of battle if she didn’t have to? Besides it looked like everything was being handled one way or another without her having to lift

Light shot out from her cross, and blood of the shadow demon splattered down upon Noah. Staining her clothing and splashing her face. The chill of it was horrible, and the wet feeling made her skin crawl. Plenty of gorey films and games had people covered in blood, and after experiencing it firsthand, Noah could safely say that she didn’t understand in the slightest how anyone could stand it. Her stomach rose to her throat for a moment, and Noah counted herself lucky that it didn’t get into her eyes.

The whale demon wailed so terribly that Noah’s ears rang, but it was clearly one of pain. It had stopped where it was, no longer approaching to bite her in half. Noah’s cross swung behind her as she frantically darted out from between the jaws of the demon. At its side, Noah found one of the demon’s eyes, and without thinking, changed course. Both hands gripped her cross tightly, and with every inch of force she could muster, thrusted her spear into the eye of the demon as deep as she could manage. She didn’t dare use more magic, even in her panicked state, Noah could feel how little she had left.

More of that disgusting blood would certainly coat her spear, but that was something she ignored. Her mind only cared about ending the threat to her life before her. With her cross embedded inside the demon, it would surely scream out once again, but with it blinded like this…

Whether or not she stabbed deep enough to reach the brain and ensure its death wasn’t the first thing on Noah’s mind. With that sniper down, she could run over to her fellow espers and get their help without as much of an issue, or help them, if it was needed. She planted her foot on the demon, and yanked her cross back out of its eye socket.

Noah held her cross behind her with one arm, and took the opportunity to run to her allies, not checking whether or not the whale demon had properly died. She had run from the whale only fast enough to see the scantily dressed swordswoman teleport away, and Noah blanched when she saw the state of the skull faced esper, her stomach rising up again.

“Oh my god- what happened to your arm?!” Noah nearly shouted, horrified. She couldn’t help but feel some measure of guilt, as well. Perhaps if she’d been more conservative, thought her melody usage through more, she might have enough to spare on some kind of healing for her ally… but with as little as she had left, she couldn’t afford to spare any. Whatever had gone on with his fight, it had clearly been much more difficult than her own. At least, he had survived.

Raphael looked… Well, she didn’t really want to say it, since it would be a very rude thing to say about a man who, as far as Noah could tell, was very devout, but… She decided it would be best to not focus on it.

Instead, at Raphael’s words, Noah’s attention was drawn upwards to the trains roaring above. She wasn’t getting a very good view from where she was, but it was pretty easy to tell which one was which, even from the bottom. One looked kind of normal, and the other was all fleshy and red. Noah was relieved, in part, but couldn’t help the dread mounting slowly in her stomach. If things had gone so sideways before they even got to play their parts in this mission, she couldn’t help but worry that things would get even worse from here. And not to mention, she was pretty close to her limit…

Suddenly, an arm wrapped around Noah while she was distracted, and she found herself held in an underarm carry. “... Uh...” Her cross was held awkwardly in one hand, and Noah tried to position it to not scrape off the ground. She turned her head to the side, more than a little bewildered, and she saw the skull-faced esper being held under the priest’s other arm. She blinked a few times when Raphael picked up the other freelancer's severed arm, fighting to keep her stomach under control, and then they were propelled into the sky. “Whoa-!”

Sudden as it may have been, Noah found the short distraction welcome. Even if the raging hurricane made it a bit difficult to appreciate the view. It kept her mind off of the last few minutes… minute? Seconds? She couldn’t tell how long that battle had gone on for. They couldn’t have been fighting for that long, but at the same time…

Her eyes drifted to her cross, and her eyes widened. Red blood had mixed with the black, and it was steadily being washed away by the rain. That was right, she realized. She’d almost killed that woman, hadn’t she? She hadn’t really been thinking about where she attacked, but if she’d just aimed upward a little more…

Noah swallowed, and brought her focus elsewhere. Raphael had made one heck of a leap, and they were on top of a futuristic looking train. There were a lot of espers all clustered about, and given that neither of the Black Sabbath nuns were attacking… things were probably fine here? Which was good.

Raphael set her down, and she got to her feet. She watched with morbid fascination as the skull faced esper’s arm was stuck back into place with a healing melody, courtesy of Lexi. Something she wished she could’ve done, but, again, didn’t have the mana to spare…

Lexi approached her, next. Noah’s face got a little red, but she was too mentally drained to have much more of a reaction than that. And, even if it was a bit strangely said, Noah did appreciate the other nun looking out for her. “A whale tried to.” Noah said, a little out of breath. “Didn’t let it. I think a bullet, um…” Noah checked her shoulder, and found that gash from the bullet grazing her as the battle started, still bleeding. “... Yeah, a bullet caught my shoulder a little, but... I think I should be fine to fix it myself after this is all done?” It wasn’t very big, and she could probably fix it right now, but Noah just didn’t want to risk finding out she needed that little bit of mana later.

Her eyes again turned towards the other unfamiliar, but not hostile, espers. “Um… Looks like things went well for you guys?”

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

Gemini and the freelancer’s mostly stood their ground, but there was still a bit of movement on top of the trains.

Marrie had opted for a slow and conservative approach to getting the Immortal Volcano’s attention. She called a beam from the heavens to strike Elroy’s shield and place her in front of him. He paid the mist froth on the front of his shield little mind and plumbited down towards his target. Marrie’s timing wasn’t perfect, it was impossible to be. When she appeared in front of Elroy, her “feet” were off the ground and she fell a few inches onto the train. While she managed to touch his shield with her knife, she was thrown onto her back, and Elroy flipped through the air before coming to a stop just a few feet away. He turned around, clearly intent on charging again, but his face went from teeth clenching anger to mouth open surprise.

"Mist girl!?" He hovered in place, listening to Marrie’s words. Once she had finished, he lowered his shield an inch and crossed his brow. "Usually we work together. I keep her safe." He looked past Marrie. "But you’re right, mist girl, I’ll carry her to the back and meet you there."

Regina hadn’t said anything since she collapsed. She struggled to get to her feet, but Lenore kept her eye elsewhere. ”We’re going to destroy this train, right?”

"That’s your mission, nun. I’m tasked with keeping the other train running." There were no more words as he scooped up his sister and ran through the smoke screen.

Meanwhile, Lenore’s gaze shifted to Ciri. ”Now that’s interesting…”

When Ciri’s melody went off, its shadowy magic seeped into the train, making part of it intangible. Such a massive object couldn’t possibly become totally Intangible, but it was able to work on part of it. The “train car” that she was on became intangible, but so did Ciri due to the AoE nature of her melody. She fell through crazy train and towardsTrixy, who was still on top of Boteg.

"I’ve got ya, baby!" Trixy reached out her arms only to discover that she couldn’t have been further from the truth, as Ciri fell right through her. Marrie fell down shortly afterwards, and she did manage to land in Trixy’s arms. She raised an eyebrow. "You uh, weren’t the one I was hoping for, but…" She stared at Marrie for a moment. "How old are you?"

Ciri continued to fall. She had become tangible again, and looked like she was about to splatter herself all over the roads of pax septimus. Then a sparkler harmlessly smacked into her back, and she began to bounce in the air as if a bungie had been attached to her. Vertigo was starting to set in as she violently bounced around, but she wouldn’t be eating pavement today. Then a giant hand reached out and plucked Ciri out of the sky.

”Nice shot, Tetrad!” Billy kept a firm grip on Ciri, even as the harsh rain pelted them.

”That was awesome!” She laughed from her motorcycle.

Bill kept his eyes on the road while he addressed Ciri again. ”How do we look up there? Anyone defending Crazy Train?”

Soon as he had asked, a pair of melodies had flown out from the direction of Peace Train back to back from each other. The twins hurried over to stand beside Ashley once she ordered them to keep Crazy Train from running into anything. They did their best to keep a close eye on the behemoth’s movement patterns, just to make sure they weren’t haphazardly wasting mana in the wrong places. With the scene becoming more hectic by the minute, they could only hope everyone would get the hint already to get off, killing Crazy Train or not.

Everyone that was presently on crazy train had disappeared from view, save for Himiko. On its way out of the park, Crazy Train noticed a hotel that would be perfect for scraping against. The GEMINI espers concentrated their mana on the hotel as the behemoth attempted to rid itself of the fleas on its back. The hotel only hummed as the creature brushed against the magical barrier. Himiko wouldn’t be able to wait and see much longer, as the train spun like a corkscrew while it passed. The shadow wall dissipated, and even the smoke walls didn’t hold up. It remained to be seen if Himiko had gotten out alright.

The nuns and it were missing too.

As were the Bates.

Or at least Regina was, as Elroy fell out of the sky like a comet. His flesh was cracked and oozing with lava, his clothes smoldering like dying embers.

”Woops!”

A darkened figure suddenly emerged, quickly moving under him with her arms reaching out to catch him. Despite being smaller, she seemed to have no trouble holding the wounded brother in her arms. ”Hey, I think you’ve missed one!” She called out with a chuckle. Her form slowly turned back into someone only Raphael, Asher, and Noah would recognize from prior.

Penumbra had followed them onto the trains. She spared a glance over at the group gathered onto Peace Train, and gave the aforementioned three a knowing smile.

A second shape hopped off of crazy train, though this one was big and notorious enough to be recognized by anyone. Big Tony had only made a few appearances, but it seemed like he had chosen to appear during this operation personally. Intel didn’t do his size justice. HE was twice as tall, twice as wide, and four times as muscled as the strongest esper present. Like any feline, he landed on his feet, and he had Regina slung over his shoulder. He looked up at the assassin flying overhead and scowled, or may that was just how he always looked.

”You have got to be kidding me…” The Timekeeper, though keeping quiet and to himself for the most part after the rest of the freelancers showed up, couldn’t help but react to the sheer fucking fact that both the Bates got their shit wrecked near instantly by a pair of new arrivals. He quickly stood straight back up, hands tightening around his weapon. The…weirdly familiar woman was one thing, but he was more concerned over the literally bigger issue that had accompanied her. Of course the Hand would show up eventually.

”So, any bright ideas on how to fight THAT thing!?” Finn called out to Ashley, and who he assumed was Raphael.

”They’re protecting that demon.” Raphael pointed. ”We can’t get distracted. We need to stop it to thwart their plans!”

”You can’t be serious-!”

Peace train was starting to pull away from Crazy, but that didn’t stop the priest from jumping onto it. Even as it spun through the air, he kept a firm grip on it.

”...Alright! Okay! Cool! Not as if everyone’s been going off of HUNCHES and a lack of solid evidence instead of oh I don’t know ACTUALLY USING THEIR SKULLS!? WE DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THAT THING’S ACTUALLY DEADLY YOU IDIOT!!” Wasn’t really a point in yelling at the proverbial brick wall, but Finn couldn’t exactly help himself.

Mika watched the display and groaned. She turned to Ashley. ”Orders?”

Meanwhile, Lexi had been listening to Noah's story. ”Interesting! And yes, it doesn't seem like Gemini is that interested in attacking peace train. We're fine!”

To Ashley’s considerable relief, her team’s attempts to prevent Crazy Train from damaging any of the structures it crashed into seemed to be succeeding. Even as she and the twins kept a fancy hotel from getting demolished, the Knight of Tomorrow noticed that nearly all of the behemoth’s unwanted passengers had either jumped or fallen off it. However, two, in particular, were of special note. First, a badly wounded Elroy plummeted through the air, only to be caught by an unknown esper, while Regina was soon revealed to be in the claws of none other than the aptly-named Big Tony himself. While the trains’ motivations didn’t appear to be particularly hostile, the enormous tiger’s most assuredly were. Not only was Tony the leader of the infamous Weretiger Mafia that had abducted and assaulted G.E.M.I.N.I. agents, he was also an important member of The Hand’s command hierarchy. Thus, his elimination was a top priority, one significantly outranking the destruction of either of the train behemoths, at least as far as Ashley was concerned.

“I’ll deal with him, Timekeeper!” the Knight of Tomorrow replied after Finn asked how they planned to fight a foe of Tony’s size and power. “I want you and Paradise to focus on assisting those freelancers in taking out Crazy Train! As soon as they’ve damaged it sufficiently to expose its weak point, hit it with the strongest ranged melodies you have!” she instructed. Of course the monstrous priest who appeared to be leading the freelancers was going to jump on Crazy Train the moment it had just gotten rid of everyone else riding on it, Ashley groaned mentally, but if what he said was true and The Hand really were planning on using the creature to aid them in accomplishing their dark plans, then it would need to be taken out, one way or another. That said, the safety of Pax Septimus’s populace still needed to be addressed. “Cereza, Cerise, continue protecting any structures Crazy Train might try to crash into!” the high-tech heroine continued. “Cerberus, keep watch over the nuns and make sure they don’t try anything.”

With that out of the way, the Knight of Tomorrow aimed the twin-pronged tip of her techno-wand at Big Tony’s hulking form and focused her remaining mana into a truly devastating attack. As the neon green orb nestled between her instrument’s twin prongs glowed with ever increasing transcendent power, she only hoped that the staggering energy waiting to be unleashed would be strong enough to spell certain doom for the titanic tiger…

---

And two of the fingers on the monkey's paw curled, forced closed by Ciri. Sure, now the smoke was a non-issue, and yes, being the only one who could fly on their own power meant that she'd soon be alone on Crazy Train... But seriously!? Herself, a half-dead Regina, not to mention Marrie's Maverick allies, and a seemingly no longer wanting to fight Elroy were all falling really fast. She didn't know if the nuns had gotten caught in the Melody too or not, so that was another problem to figure out as quickly as possible. Ugh...

And then a lot of stuff happened in quick succession. She watched Ciri fall through Trixy's arms and Boteg's body just before finding herself there. With terrified eyes she ignored Trixy's question and looked toward the ground below. Somehow, somehow, Ciri survived, now in perhaps the safest place she could be, in Billy's care. A quick look around showed Elroy's flame stopping before hitting the ground, and based on the light he was giving off it seemed like he had been caught. Which left Regina, and... where the hell was Sovereign?

Focus on what you can affect. As soon as she glanced back up at the trains, she saw a giant tiger person falling nearby. Shit...

Marrie turned her attention to Trixy. "Hey, I mean this in the nicest way, but there's really no time!" She jumped off of Boteg, angling herself so she launched and fell towards the hopefully friendly big cat and the Bates. At the last moment before hitting the ground next to them she cast a Melody.

{Bronze Self - Shield - Multicast}

She made sure to land on her feet, much like the tiger next to her, just in case her Leitmotif could factor in, then rolled forwards a moment before getting back to her feet. She had just enough time to trigger the second half of her Melody, putting her hand on Regina's forehead over Tony's shoulder as she did.

{Gold Touch - Stabilize - Heal}

Marrie really wanted to be able to hold her breath as she waited to see Regina recover, but she didn't feel she had time. It didn't help that as she turned to speak to the monster man, she saw a bright light from above him.

"Shit! Sorry about this!" She grabbed Regina by the arm and tried her best to pull her off of Tony and out of harm's way. While she hoped he was, she couldn't be certain the feline was an ally, and hurt feelings were easier to mend than dead people. In the second before the beam reached them, Marrie found herself pushing off of Tony's back with both feet in her desperate rush to ensure Regina didn't get hurt. And if she saved him from danger, somehow, that was a plus too.

Noah’s body visibly relaxed, and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness…” She didn’t know why those GEMINI people weren’t attacking, but she didn’t really need to. All that mattered was that they weren’t. With this scenario, all Raphael’s group has to worry about is taking out Crazy Train.

Speaking of the demonic train, Noah turned to get a good look at the current situation with it. Instead of her eyes, however, it would be her ears that first got an idea. A horrible scraping noise stabbed into Noah’s ears as Crazy Train rammed itself against a hotel that was likely full of people. She winced, her free hand moved to cover one of her ears from the noise. All the while, Crazy Train spun itself around and around, for whatever reason.

Past the temporary pain, Noah felt her desire to end the threat of Crazy Train grow. If it wasn’t for the actions of those GEMINI espers…

Her thoughts on the near miss with extreme casualties were interrupted by the arrival of a flaming man falling from the sky, one of the Bates siblings, Noah realized with horror, only to be caught by a familiar voice.

Noah gasped. “Her again?!” It was that same scantily dressed swordswoman from earlier. How had she gotten so far up so quickly? And it looked like she had company with her, as well. A giant tiger man had followed swiftly behind Elroy falling out of the sky… with another flaming body over his shoulder. Likely Regina.

But… they didn’t come after them. Neither of them. In fact, both the swordswoman and the tiger man just dropped down to the streets below. Noah would’ve thought with how the swordswoman had interfered earlier, that she wanted to stop their group's goals, but it looked like she’d given up? Or maybe their goal was getting their hands on the Bates siblings from the start. Noah couldn’t say.

She looked to Raphael for what to do next, and he shouted his order. The three of them, Raphael, Skull Face, and herself, were to jump to Crazy Train and continue their mission. But not only were the trains starting to pull away from each other, Crazy Train was still spinning fiercely, so Noah wasn’t entirely confident-

Raphael then immediately jumped onto the train.

Noah, with a little bit of panic, apologized to Lexi, got herself a bit of a running start, and made the jump as well.

Her cross stabbed into the side of Crazy train, giving herself leverage to hold on to while the Train spun and spun, and with her free hand and legs gripped onto the Train as best as she could.

This was quite possibly the worst roller coaster she had ever been on, and she dearly wanted off, but she had to endure it. Despite the tears in her eyes from the spinning and her stomach once again rising to her throat, still had a job to finish.

Corruption:75%

The Timekeeper didn't know what was worse, the fact that Ashley seemed to agree that Crazy Train was still the problem, or that she believed she could down something as swole as Big Fuckin' Tony. "I still think that is a bad idea! _{Not like anyone's gonna listen to me....}" He grumbled under his breath. On one hand, orders were orders, and he swore he would play nice despite how he felt. But on the other, it didn't really feel right just...leaving the Bates at the mercy of the Hand like this. The fact that they were easily knocked out by those two was testament alone to their strength. The Knight of Tomorrow was wasting time and mana on a pointless gambit.

After a moment of deliberation, Finn sighed. After Ashley had fired her beam at Tony, he followed up with one of his own. Even if it didn't do much, maybe it could give someone else a chance. He just hoped she won't give him a damn earful for not letting her play the lone hero act.

@BrokenPromise@Vertigo@The World@Ponn@Kero@Majoraa@TaintedMushroom

Crazy train was really living up to its name, its twisting attempt to smear Himiko across the side of the hotel was proving problematic. Realizing that it wouldn’t be wise to try to fight gravity and the roll and try to move upward as that would just prolong the issue. Himiko decided to move with the twisting of Crazy Train, letting herself roll with its movement as she released her grip ever so slightly to allow herself to drop down its side until it had finished its course past the hotel.

It hadn’t been easy, or even remotely fun hearing the sound of impact a few mere feet to inches right above her, but she had survived the first attempt by Crazy Train to end her joy ride.

It was then she noticed the presence of all the others that had arrived aboard the Peace Train. She had known others had arrived at some point, but was not able to see them until the smoke had been cleared out. Even through the corkscrewing as she clung on tightly, her golden gaze glimpsed a figure leaping upon Crazy Train, followed by a second not far behind it.

Her golden eyes shimmered as a hidden grin spread across her face. An unexpected opportunity had just delivered itself right into her waiting lap. One that she planned on making full advantage of, no matter the cost.

She could get off of Crazy Train and get to safety, or she could deal with this chance to eliminate a high value target, even if it meant doing so at the cost of her own life.

Not only that, but the group he had arrived with had mostly not followed him. Instead focusing on other threats, leaving him undefended and open to one big attack.

The priest must die, there was no other option or choice in the matter. She knew what must be done and there was no hesitation in her heart, mind or body. It was time to take out the trash, to make one final grand statement, at the final hurdle to reveal some of her true full power before all was said and done.

Her mind made up, and her own fate decided, Himiko began to emit a golden glow as she gathered up her energy, once the process had begun. She released her grip from the side of Crazy Train, letting herself begin to fall to the ground below. Before she fell too far, she transported herself behind Raphael at the last moment. Going all out as she sacrificed any form of self preservation. There was only the plummet down to the ground after she had thrown herself into the air behind the priest. There was no safety net, nothing to grip onto, there was only the focus on gathering up every last ounce of energy she had preserved for a moment just like this.

This was going to be her all or nothing attack, she had to put every bit she had into this. She wouldn’t get another chance like this, even if it meant the sacrifice of her own life.

Both Revolvers aimed straight at his back as they glowed with an intense golden light and aura. The air crackled and rippled around her, strands of her hair lifted up by the amount of energy she was building up to unleash. An intense heat radiated from her energy as her golden aura took on a reddish tint.

A bright blinding glow formed at the end of her revolvers as her hidden smile grew even more. It was time to exit stage left, but she was going to take the priest with her. “I’ll see you in hell!”

With that she fired off her shot, the energy combining from both revolvers into a singular projectile which exploded as it approached its target in an intense blinding light.The force of recoil pushing Himiko back, as she had nowhere to go but down after using up the vast majority of her reserves. Himiko’s form disappeared into the blinding light as a shockwave emitted around the source of the blast.

When the light cleared, Himiko was nowhere to be seen, her white tattered jacket fluttered through the air as it fell towards the ground. Her two golden revolvers, smoking and glowing from the intense heat concentrated in them moments before clattered down to the ground. Ricocheting and coming to a stop in the middle of the street. The Golden Esper had taken her bow,

@Ponn@Majoraa@Vertigo@The World@Nakushita@TaintedMushroom@Kero

With the arrival of Tony, a lot of attention shifted over to the giant orange monster.

Ashley gave a few orders before charging her wand up. While green techno energy gathered at its tip, Tony was already starting to sprint away. For someone of such large stature, he was pretty quick. His comparatively tiny legs were more than enough to help the hulking feline find refuge. Before he could get too far, Marrie fell beside him.

?

With Tony being so tall, Marrie had to hop in order to cast her melody on Regina. The wound on the back of her head started to heal, and her eyes fluttered closed once the “stabilize” part of her melody took effect. The brightest fires burn the shortest, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Regina was a glass cannon, nearly done in by a single attack.

Though freeing Regina from Tony’s grasp would be more difficult. She needed to plant her feet on Tony’s back and pull. All the while his fist, which was closed around Regina’s legs, refused to let go. He ran for the back alley while thrashing about, but Marrie wouldn’t let go.

!

As impressive as Tony’s size was, his unusually thick back muscle made it difficult for him to reach around and snatch Marrie. Normally the feline would run on all fours and nobody would be able to hang onto him, but he was carrying cargo that needed to be delivered. The fur beneath Marrie’s feet shook when Tony roared, but she still held on for dear life.

Tony thrashed, Marrie held on, and then her shadow turned into a bird and pulled on her. The bird pulled on Marrie’s legs, and her grip on Regina’s arm started to slip. She slid down her elbow onto her wrist, then her palm, and then…

The bird and Marrie fell backwards off of Tony. She landed on her back, which was pressed against the shadow creature.

But Marrie could feel Regina’s hand in hers. But then why did she feel so light? And why did her own legs feel so warm? When Marrie propped herself up, she could see that she was holding Regina’s hand and little more. Behind her elbow was a stump that dripped crimson.

Regina couldn’t scream right away. The shock induced paralysis prevented her from doing anything, but she was wide awake now. Tony looked over his shoulder at Regina and noticed the wound, then shot Marrie a glare that could freeze water. But his eyes swiftly readjusted to the neon green glow from the back of Peace Train. He dove into the crevice as the beam whipped around the corner. While the cat had disappeared from sight, the blood thrown up on the wall had not. The cat howled before, presumably, limping out of sight.

Things were no less chaotic on the train. Raphael and everyone who followed him hung on for dear life, but the train’s spinning stopped soon enough. The only visible opposition was a single esper.

”Looks like we get a break.” Raphael growled. His demonic wings were pushed over to the side due to the spinning, but as the train slowed, they started to even out. ”I’ll take this one, you-”

But after a furious blast of light, Raphael’s position exploded. His silhouette, minus one wing, was sent flying off the train in a trail of smoke. He fell from the train like a meteor, but the coast was clear.

"What the…" Trixy flew up beside the train on Boteg’s back. She sighed when she realized there was no trace of Himiko. "Isn’t that just like my suitors to up and disappear." She leveled the rocket launcher at Noah. "Well, I can make you disappear too!"

Noah could feel Crazy train curve upwards. With so few people on its back, it seemed like it felt content to vanish into the sky. But what was Noah going to do?

Meanwhile back on the ground, while Tony had fled proper, Penumbra lingered for a bit longer. The blue-haired bleeding heart did only focus on retrieving Regina, so she figured she hadn’t seen her yet. Though as she had watched the two beams shot out towards her co-worker, the assassin was curious. The golden one. It felt a bit too overkill on an already weakened esper, but it did keep the Ruinous Meteor from recovering so soon. Kudos to whoever fired that. But the green one that managed to actually hit him, it seemed more…focused? Was that the term she was looking for? Eh, it didn't matter.

But Penumbra was very curious. Especially when she watched the dear preacher get knocked off Crazy Train despite his devilish power up.

She did warn the guy.

”Hm. Heeeey, Ramona???”

The young devil appeared nearby soon as she called. She handed Elroy over to her. ”Make sure this one doesn’t lose an arm either, I’ll meet up with you both in a sec!” With that taken care of, Penumbra went off to catch up to the trains.

”So, zombie face.” Bobo addressed Asher while trying to light a new cigar with her flamethrower. ”You blowing this popcorn stand?”

Mika's eyes bounced back and forth between the two before. "Orion? Was that an explosion? Did Crazy train crash?" This was, of course, in response to Himiko's final melody.

Damnit, Marrie! Don't let go, don't let go! The blue-haired esper's eyes shut in concentration and exertion as she tried her best to pull Regina from the tiger's grip. And once more, a finger on the monkey's paw curled, still in Ciri's tight grip. Marrie managed not to let go, even as she was thrashed around on Tony's back, even as her shadow tried to force her to...

Unfortunate, then, that it didn't matter. How the yellow beam had managed to have such accuracy without homing or any other modifiers from such a high starting point, she didn't know. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes, Marrie found Regina's forearm in her hand, and her blood on her legs.

God damnit, really!? Despite Tony's chilling glare, the esper was burning hotter than Regina's blood as she stared at the arm in her grasp. She looked up to see the catman diving into an alley, and the beam that she was trying to get Regina out of the line of was following right behind him. A splash of blood shot out, and she tried to get to her feet.

The damned bird laying under her back made it a bit difficult, though. After a few seconds she managed to scramble to a standing position, but it was too late. The tiger was gone. She looked up to check the status of the Trains, and Oh come on! Someone was falling from Crazy's back. She had no idea who it was, but it was decidedly person-shaped. At least the behemoth they came from seemed to be leaving... Was that a fucking missile!? She followed the smoke trail to Boteg and groaned.

"You're supposed to be protecting Crazy, and you shoot a missile at it!?" she shouted to nobody in particular. At least the monster should be able to handle a single RPG, right? Unlike the body that was about to crash into the pavement. Marrie didn't have a lot of mana left, but she had to do something. Options flashed through her mind, and she grasped at those that seemed plausible. It'd take too much mana for most of them, but one...

{Gold Self - Flight}

The next moment she was mid-air, going as fast as she could towards the falling, smoking, one-winged angel's corpse. She had to catch it, she had to.

As Ashley charged up her techno-wand with transcendent power, her eyes widened upon seeing a familiar, blue-haired young woman rush over to Big Tony and attempt to yank Regina out of his clutches. Gale?! However, the floaty freelancer’s actions, while heroic, were also foolhardy in the extreme and seemed destined to fail, with Tony’s strength being far greater than even the mightiest espers. Fortunately, the Knight of Tomorrow had prepared her forthcoming attack to fully avoid the possibility of striking anyone other than the massive weretiger, even if he went so far as to use them as a human shield. Unfortunately, not everyone was so cognizant of such potentialities…

To Ashley’s shock and horror, before she could fire her charged up weapon, Finn, in complete contravention of her orders, unleashed a beam of his own, one which only succeeded in blowing Regina’s arm off at the elbow. Timekeeper?! Still, as enraged as she was, the Knight of Tomorrow had no time to rebuke her disobedient subordinate. Although Tony had dodged into an alley, the high-tech heroine had thoroughly established a target lock on him, and so the ensuing cylinder of neon green annihilation was able to easily curve around the corner after the titanic tiger in complete mockery of the laws of physics. While she couldn’t see the results of her massive attack, the torrent of blood that shot out of the alley to splatter across every nearby surface and accompanying howl of anguish provided more than enough indication that Tony had been severely wounded at the very least. Of course, whether or not that damage would prove fatal was anyone’s guess, and Ashley wasn’t about to go down and pursue the monstrous mob boss to find out, not with a small army of Maverick espers waiting nearby. Besides, she had a more immediate issue to address…

“What the hell was that, Timekeeper?!” the Knight of Tomorrow snarled as she turned an infuriated glare upon the young agent. “I told you to focus on helping the freelancers eliminate Crazy Train!”

"Okay for one, considering my current streak of fuck ups consider just severing a limb lucky." It had taken Finn a moment to process what had happened. He really did consider that failed shot a lucky break, anything more and anywhere else would've meant death for Regina or Blue.

And no doubt would've marked him as a Depraved, himself. Elroy already despised them for what happened with Dante and Amanda, no doubt he'd hunt him down for killing his twin.

Whatever powers-that-be were toying with him, that was a warning from them. In contrast to Ashley's stark anger over his decision, he merely scowled back. "Two, if anyone was even bothering to listen to me beyond sparing Peace Train you'd know that I don't think killing either of them is a good idea." He tiredly sighed, turning to face her. "But frankly I should've expected it. No one really takes me seriously."

The Machine's expression then, surprisingly, softened.

"Look, forgive me for going against your orders again, but the last time I killed the wrong being I had ripped a father from his daughter." His voice gradually grew quieter. _{"I don't even know...I don't..."}

Great, and now he’s starting a pity party… Ashley took a deep breath. “It’s understandable if you had misgivings, but then why would you take such a reckless shot instead? I made sure my attack wouldn’t harm Regina, or anyone else that might have gotten, or been placed, in the way. You just fired off a deadly shot and hoped for the best! Yes, the loss of only an arm is lucky, but it never should have happened in the first place!”

"Well I could've just thrown myself off this train but I figured we'd lead up to here either way." He furrowed his brows. So much for trying sympathy again. "You really still don't get it, don't you? You don't see it?"

Ashley exhaled in clear exasperation. “No, Timekeeper, I don’t get why you continue to disobey orders just so that you can put people in danger with these reckless stunts of yours, and I don’t exactly have the time to discuss it right now.”

As if to prove her point, a blinding light burst into being where Crazy Train was currently spiraling through the air. Ashley doubted Paradise was responsible, especially when she noticed the “holy man’s” charred form plummet off of the spinning behemoth.

What the…?!

"I knew it..."

The next thing she knew, Mika had begun asking questions whose answers should have been blatantly obvious.

“No, that was almost certainly an attack,” the Knight of Tomorrow replied. “Although it didn’t appear to be directed at Crazy Train itself.”

Even now, the behemoth in question was rapidly ascending into the tempestuous sky above. At the speed it was moving, it wouldn’t be long before the twisted train disappeared inside the billowing thunderheads.

“Looks like you’ll get you wish,” Ashley added, turning back to Finn. “There’s no way we can eliminate it now.” She sighed again. “At least the city made it through all this relatively unscathed…”

"Ah yes, pity how my theory about how the behemoths behave was correct. I'm sure there'll be another one you lot can kill with glee next time." Finn rolled his eyes, stepping over to the edge of Peace Train. It was a long way down, but he still had a bit of mana left for a simple slow melody.

"Unfortunately what you imply isn't what I meant. And I fear with the way things are going, there won't be a time."

And once again, Finn was making the situation all about himself. How predictable… “We’re not killing anything with ‘glee’, Timekeeper,” Ashley replied with an annoyed scowl. “We’re just trying to protect this city and its inhabitants from threats.” Like the very familiar golden dragon chasing after Crazy Train… “You need to decide right now whether or not you want to be a part of that, or if you think you even can.”

"Hmm... Protecting behemoths is grounds for getting fired, is it not?"

The machine glanced back at Ashley. He smiled, turning to where his back was towards the edge.

"Consider this my formal resignation from everyone. Don't wanna keep jinxing everyone I meet, right?" He gave those still gathered a two-finger salute.

"Let this be the last time we meet as allies."

Finn let himself fall backwards, off and away from Peace Train.

Well, I suppose that’s that... Ashley sighed to herself in sullen resignation before turning away to begin attending to the operation's aftermath as best she could.

---

Corruption:??????????%

If he wasn't marked as Depraved yet, he had a feeling he will be inevitably.

Whatever sort of God-Entity that was setting him up had the power to do so after all, just as it did fucking up every other part of his life thus far. It was almost laughable to think anyone in this plenum place would spare enough empathy or common sense to realize something was wrong. No, instead most of everyone he thought would understand either turned their noses up in disgust, disregarded him like some lowly insect, or tried to hide the fact that they thought him a lunatic if it wasn't obvious from the get-go. He was right. God, he was right. All of these people didn't see him as a person. Just an object to use as they needed then discard when he outlived his use. The machine was half tempted not to break his fall. To just put himself out of his misery there and then.

But knowing his luck, God-Entity wouldn't let that happen. At worse he'd survive somehow and be left writhing in pain as punishment.

At best...





Finn's fall abruptly stopped. He found himself landing in the arms of...a monster? Some sort of ghost made of darkness???

"Hah. It really is raining men!" Penumbra chuckled to herself at her joke, tilting her head as she looked down at him. "Though you're a little bit young to be falling to your death. You're... Timekeeper, aren'tcha?"

Oh brother.

"Eugh, if you want to kill me too at least don't pussyfoot about it?" Finn groaned, squirming to get out of her hold soon as they were close enough to the ground.

"Why would I wanna do that? You were a stroke of luck for us!" The assassin slowly returned to her physical self. Though before she could explain further, she noticed the boy still had his earpiece. She tapped her own ear to signal him about it. Finn reached up to pull it out of his ear, then dropped and stomped it into the ground until it was nothing but pieces. He didn't have any more use for it now. Penumbra nodded in approval and continued talking:

"Someone was trying to pull Miss Meteor off Tony back there, but your attack helped him escape and kept her from recovering? You got some skill, kid!" She grinned at him.

Though Finn did perk up when, for once, someone had told him he had done something right, he sighed in response. "You do know I hadn't meant to do that, right?"

Penumbra tilted her head again, folding her arms behind her back. "Well I mean... maybe part of you did."

"I don't follow?"

Maybe it'd be better for the two of them to talk somewhere less likely to be eavesdropped. Penumbra nudged the Timekeeper forward, silently urging him to walk with her.

...

...

"So I maaaay have overheard your little argument back there. You don't see eye to eye with the rest of the little scraps of GEMINI that still call themselves a team, don't you?" She spoke. "And yet they still believe they can gain the upper hand in this turf war of ours, it's almost cute. Doesn't seem fair for them to put so much blame on you for them not being able to co-operate with each other though. Or for matters of circumstance."

...Right. He was only doing as he was ordered. He was just trying to do the right thing. And yet either way he was still blamed either way for the simple act of trying?

"If it's any consolation, you did do a good thing protecting the trains. And about that Dante guy-"

"I ACTED OUT OF SELF DEFENSE-"

Penumbra quickly raised her hands up at the Timekeeper's quick response. "Heyheyhey- Not saying you hadn't! Jesus, no wonder you're so tense. No one's really cared to listen to your side of things, am I right?"

Finn's silence said enough. Penumbra nodded. "Sounds to me like the community that once glorified you was ready and willing to throw you under the bus. I don't blame you for going against them." She shrugged.

"...How much do you all know about me?" The boy couldn't help but ask.

"Enough. You have been a person of interest for some of us since before Von Carnage was slain." She explained to him. "Me, well, I'm just catching up on things." She glanced back down at him with a smile. "But let's skip to the chase. If it's alright with you, I can put in a good word with you with the higher ups and arrange for you to meet."

Ah. Finn did have a feeling this was where she was going. He quietly thought for a moment. This was the path he was supposed to take, wasn't it? He already got on Maverick's bad side for siding with GEMINI; even before he join for real, GEMINI ended up treating him like shit, and him attacking Regina wasn't gonna bode well with the Freelancers no matter how they decided to twist his actions.

The Hand was the last option he had beyond pure depravity.

... They all really wanna make a monster out of me? Fine. Let's make this more interesting.

---

This was a mess, clearly, and Asher had not a clue in hell as to what was going on. What was supposed to be a simple job was evidently becoming more than that, again, which was a bit of a trend Asher was starting to recognize. The situation stank to hell and Asher was starting to get a bad gut feeling, on top of that an entire flurry of shit had ensued over the few brief moments that had passed while Asher had attempted to recuperate.

That golden haired bitch had carved his arm off, that much he could still feel regardless of the current state of things. The feeling of having your arm severed from your body wasn’t one Asher could put words to, but it was a feeling that wouldn’t be leaving him anytime soon regardless of his having been made whole. Shortly after that he’d found himself whisked away under the arms of some sort of hellish form the priest had been holding under his sleeve, figured. Asher might have given the man a piece of his mind had he not been blown out of the sky in a blaze of glory.

Fortunately for him Black Sabbath had come to their rescue, tending to the worst of his wounds and giving them a much needed breather after the pitched battle they’d had getting here.

The situation was grim, and Asher felt like the snake had just been beheaded. As keen as his ally had been to fight in their earlier battle Asher could tell she was an amaetur, and given that Black Sabbath hadn’t made a move to defend their employer it didn’t take much for him to surmise that the extent of their contract had been fulfilled.

And then there were all the new faces, some old ones mixed in with the bunch. Let alone it seemed there were not one or two but potentially three different forces at play here if Asher was doing any good at keeping up with things.

”So, zombie face.” Bobo addressed Asher while trying to light a new cigar with her flamethrower. ”You blowing this popcorn stand?”

“Yeah…I think I am actually…got any of those to spare?” Asher finally asked, responding to Bobo’s questioning with a mild tone of disappointment. “Say, any chance you know what the hell is going on here? This all stinks to hell, can’t quite say I am familiar with the city and its many players but things are starting to feel complicated and I don’t like feeling clueless.” Asher asked as he surveyed the scene once more.

@Ponn@Majoraa@TaintedMushroom

It may have seemed strange for Mika to ask what was going on right behind her head, but that was a testament to how intently she was watching the nuns. She didn’t look away from them for one second, despite how relaxed they seemed.

Mika was not relaxed though. As superior and inferior “talked” behind her back, she found her hands tightening into fists.

No one really takes me seriously.

Yet Ashley keeps you by her side in every job we take on.

You really still don't get it, don't you? You don't see it?

You’re the one who’s blind to everyone’s feelings but your own.

Ah yes, pity how my theory about how the behemoths behave was correct.

A broken clock is right twice a day, but we don’t know how this is going to play out.

I'm sure there'll be another one you lot can kill with glee next time.

The only one living out their power fantasy here is you, dummy.

And I fear with the way things are going, there won't be a time.

You’re just trying to be annoying now.

Hmm... Protecting behemoths is grounds for getting fired, is it not?

No, Finn. Being a liability by constantly disobeying orders and getting mad when Ashley slaps your wrist is!

Consider this my formal resignation from everyone. Don't wanna keep jinxing everyone I meet, right?

Oh look, we agree on something.

Let this be the last time we meet as allies.

Good, you'll help us far more on their side than ours.

"Whatever." She curled her lips. There was so much she wanted to yell about, so much she wanted to rub in Ashley’s face, but there was no point. Her anger was only building and-

What was that fluttering through the air?

As if Peace Train was curious, it floated up to it so that Mika could catch it in her hand. It was a jacket. Did it belong to Himiko? It looked like something she’d wear, and Mika couldn’t see her anywhere else on the battlefield. It was no surprise she had finally fallen. Mika had believed Himiko was on borrowed time, and her prediction came true. But it also brought the world back into focus. This was Pax Septimus. Everyone was fighting in a never ending conflict that nobody understood. Because the fighting never ended, continuing to fight lead to certain death. Her mother died, Angelie died, and now Himiko died. Mika had no intention of stopping, so she would die too. She knew she wasn’t as experienced as her mother was, and she only survived four operations here. This was Mika's third, so her number was coming up.

Mika slipped her arms through the jacket. The white tattered jacket looked a little weird with her Arabian style outfit, but it felt nice to wear something that belonged to someone she knew. Even if she was an idiot, she died trying to protect something. She deserved to be remembered, even if it was just for the small time the current espers were alive. She’d have to recover her Grimoire soon.

”It looks good on you.” Lexi commented, but she was ignored.

The corner of Bobo’s lip crooked upwards. She took the cigar she was smoking out of her lips and handed it to Asher. Then she pulled out a fresh one to smoke herself. ”I knew I’d be tempted to light your face on fire if I gave you a fresh one.” But the joke fell away as soon as Asher revealed how confused he felt. ”Eh? Are you sad or something?”

”Yes! We can explain everything to you. Lexi clapped her hands together. But let’s do that once we get out of here.”

Mika fretted her brow and pointed. "Don’t leave with them." She warned. "You’re a cool guy, and I don’t want to fight you later because they lied to you. You saw what they did to Angelie."

Then a familiar voice that belonged to a nun, but not those present spoke up. ”I thought it was hard to see with the smoke screen.

The trio were enveloped in smoke. Mika took a step back and raised her claw defensively, and just in time to defend from Lenore. She flew out of the smoke and collide with Mika before hopping back into the smog. Nova’s gravely laugh ripped through the air before the smoke, the nuns, and even Asher, were gone.

"He had better listen to me." Mika said while pointing at where Asher had been moments ago. "I’d hate to get betrayed twice."

@The World

Below, the priest plummeted. Even if he was just a corpse, he would turn into one hell of a mess if he hit the ground. Surely the vatican wouldn’t be happy to learn of Raphael’s death, but they could swallow it better if he was returned in good condition like his bravery warranted. Marrie was running low on mana, but she pushed herself as far as she dare go. She caught the giant gargoyle and nearly plummeted to the ground herself. But she was able to slow her decent enough that neither her nor cadaver were damaged by the fall.

But once the adrenaline wore off, Marrie remembered something. Dead espers revert back to their true form once they’re slain. Maybe their instruments or outfits remain in some instances, but if Raphael was keeping up this transformation, that could only mean…

”Than you.” The Priest attempted to stand up, but he found himself stumbling. ”We were unable to slay the demon, but the Holy Roller-” He raised an eyebrow. ”You didn’t come to my summons. Why are you here?”

Could this day be worse than it already was? Even as she was hit with the weight of a large man, she kept fighting to keep the smoking wreckage from crashing into the pavement. Relieved that she succeeded, she gave a deep sigh as she landed and lowered the body on the ground. With all the damage, it wasn't until now that she learned who or what she had even saved. Shit... It was Raphael. And he... had demon wings? And he... didn't turn back to a human. Was he a monster? Or was he...?

”Thank you. We were unable to slay the demon, but the Holy Roller- You didn’t come to my summons. Why are you here?”

Oh good, great! He was still alive! Marrie almost broke down crying. She tried her best to stifle the feeling, but her voice broke anyway. "You're alive..." She looked to the sky in gratitude, only to see the behemoths once more and remember that they existed. Her head turned back to Raphael, seeing his damaged state, reminded that he was probably on the brink of death. She took a deep breath and resolved herself once more.

"Look, I'd absolutely love nothing more than to find out what hit you so hard and talk philosophy with you later, but for now... She tapped the priest on the forehead with her index and middle fingers, casting a Melody as she did. "I've gotta make sure nobody up there gets themselves killed. Hopefully that'll help you out a bit." As her Melody ran its course, she cast the second half and began to fly upwards.

{Bronze Touch - Stabilize - Multicast}
{Silver Self - Flight}

"You focus on staying standing and breathing, okay!?" She shouted over her shoulder at the holy man as she continued her ascent. If she couldn't get to Crazy, she should at least be able to make it to Boteg, and he could get her the rest of the way up.

Marrie was damn near totally empty on mana, but as long as the remaining fighters were reasonable, she'd have a chance. Besides, even if she couldn't cast any Melodies, she could at least try, and she needed to. She needed to try.

After an eternity, the demonic train had finally ceased spinning. Noah slowly stood up, breathing deeply to keep her stomach under control. She braced herself on her cross to further steady herself, and looked to Raphael. Sick as she might’ve looked, and as much as she wanted this to be over… With what’s already happened, it’d be pretty silly to not see this through to the end.

Ahead of them, Noah saw another esper. She had blonde hair and dressed like someone Noah would’ve expected to see in some kind of cyberpunk flavored film. Her whole body tensed when she saw the weaponry of the esper, they wielded guns. Again. Two of them, even. Noah knew that there was no way she could deal with her with what little mana she had left, not with how much she had to work to take out that other gun wielding esper. But strangely, Noah couldn’t spot the skull faced esper anywhere. Had he failed to make the jump?

Raphael began to speak, but before he could even finish his sentence, the esper across from them unleashed a blinding light. Noah flinched and threw an arm up to shield her eyes, bracing for an attack… but none came. Not for her, at least.

The light dissipated as soon as it came, and an explosion rang out. Noah saw a go flying past her, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened when she properly looked… But it was far too late for her to do anything to help.

“Raphael!” She shouted in horror, only able to watch helplessly as his body sailed off the train. For a moment longer, she watched in pure shock, before remembering where she was. She gripped her cross tightly as she prayed for him, she turned in both fury and panic towards the blonde haired esper, knowing that she’d have no choice but to fight… only to see nothing. The other esper was gone. The only things that were still on the train, as far as Noah could tell, was herself and one of Raphael’s wings.

Noah was shaken, but she knew she had to keep going. She didn’t know if she even had that capability to destroy Crazy Train on her own, honestly, she probably didn’t, but she had to try. Putting aside the fact that she was on a job to stop it, she knew that monsters like this were incredible threats to humanity. Even if she couldn’t kill it, she could at least try to injure it. That way, whoever was forced to fight it next at least had a better chance at saving their homes from the demon. Noah didn’t want to think about how much damage the two hurricanes raging above Pax had already caused.

Thus, with a goal in mind, Noah ran as fast as she could manage. Behemoths had weak spots, she knew, and if the demon had assumed the form of a train, then Noah could only see its weak spot existing in its frontmost compartment. It’d have to be the engine. Still, it was going to be a bit of a run no matter what.

And, to make things worse, some few seconds after Noah had begun moving, she heard someone shout over the wind. Still running, Noah whipped her head to the side, only to be greeted by another esper. This time, one riding a dragon. Wielding what Noah could only assume was a rocket launcher. That was aimed directly at her.

Unlike the time before with the sniper, the adrenaline bursting through Noah’s body wasn’t able to stop a startled, scared yelp from escaping her. Noah’s body was coated in a gold white glow, and four crosses orbited around her body. A potent shield melody, one that Noah could only pray would be enough to prevent her outright death.

All the while, Crazy Train ascended toward the clouds. If Noah could just stay on long enough for the train to reach the clouds…

Boom! Trixy’s rocket scored a direct hit on Noah’s shoulder. She had to reposition her feet, but she was no worse for wear. She had absorbed the entire attack. The relief she felt couldn’t be understated, but she knew she couldn’t afford to take another rocket like that. Her mana was just too low, she had to end this before she lost too much more.

"Shielded huh? We’ll have to try this…" Trixy plopped herself down and tapped the back of Boteg’s neck. The dragon looked back at its passenger before soaring forwards. Despite the size of the creature, it didn’t seem like Boteg was too keen on getting close. He flew directly over the behemoth, albeit higher than he had to.

Taking advantage of the downtime Trixy had given her, Noah held her left hand, which was now glowing, behind her back. Her right gripped her cross tight and began to prepare a strike. She kept her eyes on the sky, shaking all the while.

Trixy jumped off the back of the dragon with her rocket launcher held overhead.

Noah had been hoping to hit both her and that dragon, but her jumping off so suddenly had thrown Noah for a loop. She could hardly afford to wait, though, and it was too late to alter the components of the melody… but not the targets. Noah’s hand flew out from behind her, firing off an orb of light at Trixy. At the orb's pace, it looked like it would strike low on Trixy's falling body.

As it neared Trixy, the orb of light appeared to split in half. It transformed into two spears of light that shot upwards to both Trixy’s head and her weapon. With any luck, the esper would mistake them as both headed for her head, and try to shield herself. This would all be a lot easier if her opponent wasn’t able to see her strikes coming.

Noah herself gripped her cross tight and breathed deep. She’d taken two quick steps back, moving herself a bit out of range of the incoming overhead, and intent on leveraging the reach of her cross alongside the distraction her melody would hopefully cause for Trixy. Once the esper got close enough, Noah could thrust her cross forwards and take an arm or hand, out of the fight.

But when the orb detonated and attempted to skewer Trixy, her body broke apart as if it was made of clay and rock.

Wide eyed, Noah recoiled out of shock. ”What-?!” She started, before the remains of what she prayed was a clone scattered everywhere, and she was forced to shield her eyes from the resulting debris. The blood and viscera that should have spilled out was replaced with dust and mud. Her form only continued to break down as its fragments rolled off either side of the train.

The remnants of the clone gone, Noah frantically swiveled around, searching for the whereabouts of the opposing esper. That had, in all likelihood, been nothing more than a small distraction to buy time, and Noah hadn’t even thought twice about it! She needed to spot that dragon again, and she needed to do it soon.

Off in the distance, Boteg was flying a good distance off. But not so far off that Noah couldn’t make out the rider. It looked like Trixy was still there, as if she had never jumped off the dragon. Had she not jumped off, or was this the work of her magic? It didn’t matter. She leveled the giant cylinder on her shoulder with Noah and fired. The back of the cylinder flashed smoke, and a stone cannonball flew out the other end. This was not the same projectile that Trixy had fired earlier, which had most certainly been a rocket.

The clouds were starting to look a lot closer, and the world was getting smaller. If she could hold on just a bit longer…

Once more, Marrie found herself holding onto one of Crazy Train’s spikes, though from the opposite direction this time. She’d had just enough time with her flight to get to the behemoth’s side, but she had to pull herself up to get on its back. She took a deep breath and looked around to take stock of the situation. Just in time to see some sort of large projectile coming towards someone else who was there.

”Church!?” she managed to shout. As the words left her mouth, she realized that distracting the girl would not be great for her. ”Look out!”

Fortunately, Noah had been doing nothing but looking out for the entire night. She’d been mid-cast by the time Marrie had shouted, having spotted her opponent as she’d begun to fire. Her body was once again shielded by that white gold glow, and those crosses again orbitied her. If it was enough to stop a rocket, it would surely stop a cannonball.

But Noah was certainly not shielded from the surprise of another esper showing up, one of the very few she’d even met, as a matter of fact. Noah’s head had whipped to face the girl, in utter bafflement as to how Marrie had even managed to get on the train. “Marrie?! How did you even-?!” Noah cut herself off as she remembered where she was, and her focus spun back onto her opponent. She braced herself for impact and prayed that Marrie hadn’t taken a job for an opposing side.

If fate could feel such things, it would likely find amusement in Noah’s concern. ”I can fly!” Marrie took stock of the angle of the incoming projectile and started to move towards Walking Church while avoiding the path it should take, and likely paths from it bouncing off of her shield. ”How did- Nevermind, no time! This thing is climbing, if we don’t get off it soon, we’ll suffocate!”

As she continued her approach, Marrie took a look around. She didn’t see anyone else left on Crazy Train, but… ”Is anyone else up here!?” She was trying her best to keep the panic out of her voice; if there were others still there, that’d make getting them all safely off of the train’s back more complicated.

No one would answer Marrie but the stone cannonball headed for Noah. It had smashed into its target and blew into a hundred tiny pebbles. But unlike the rocket, the cannonball had bypassed the shield and sunk into Noah’s flesh. Streams of blood flew out of her shoulder as her body soared through the air.

Perhaps if Noah had more experience, she might have considered the perfectly smooth stone projectile could have been a melody instead of a physical projectile. Had it been another rocket, Noah would have been soaring through the clouds by now. But the stone’s violent explosion not only wounded Noah, but she was thrown off the train. The overcast sky fell away from her as she plummeted. In the end, the final thing Marrie would hear was a pained yelp.

If there was a silver lining, it was that Noah’s superior resistance to magic had prevented any significant harm from coming to her. While the attack had ripped through her garment and peeled back her flesh, her arm was still connected to her body.

But no one avenges their friends quite like the Mavericks. Trixy yelled at Boteg to chase their prey as they descended, but all the falling church could hear was the sound of the air whipping past her ears.

The pain had taken some moments to set in, and was continuing to set in as Noah fell further and further. Every part of her pierced with a stone was burning and stabbing at her body. Had she the ability or control in the moment, she would have gone stock still, trying to prevent any movement making things worse. Instead, her arm was forced to flap uselessly in the wind, magnifying it all so much more horribly.

Noah hadn’t even realized what had happened, at first. She had not been confident, she hadn’t been confident the entire night, but she had been sure that the shield would’ve been enough. But it hadn’t been. And she was cast from the skies above.

She had reached too high, Noah distantly reflected. Too high too soon. Green as she was, how did she ever expect to succeed with a task as momentous as this on her own? Without the assistance of the other two, with how little mana she had left, what could she even have done? What had even happened, for that matter? Where was the skull faced esper? Why had Raphael been dealt with so easily?

Question after question after question. None of them would assist Noah with her new predicament. Falling straight down, she could see the buildings below closing in. Biting her lip to keep a lid on the pain, Noah’s undamaged arm gripped her cross tightly. For one final time, Noah’s body was covered in a white golden glow. The orbiting crosses centered themselves above and around her head.

The city streets approached rapidly. Noah shut her eyes tight and prayed.

Marrie watched in horror as Walking Church was knocked clear of Crazy Train’s back. She didn’t even have time to run towards her before she was falling, too fast and too far to catch. She did the only thing she could do and ran towards the side Noah had fallen off, watching and hoping that she could manage a shield. But from the distance to the ground, she couldn’t tell.

With tears starting to sting her eyes, she took another hard look around Crazy Train’s back as she stood up. After a few moments, she was finally satisfied that there was nobody else trying to hang onto it, and began to slide down the back of the monster towards the earth. As she reached the bottom, she lined herself up with the center of Crazy's back, and waited for its movement to also align with the golden dragon below, then jumped off towards it.

"Boteg! Gonna need a safety net!"

The sudden call from above caused the dragon to look over his shoulder. Frenzied as Trixy was, a glance over her shoulder revealed what had gotten the dragon’s attention. She cursed under her breath.

"No point losing both of them…" As Boteg spun in the air, Trixy fired another rocket at the falling nun. Between Boteg’s erratic movement and Noah’s rapid descent, the rocket missed its target completely. The dragon rider grunted before looking ahead. Trixy stashed her rocket launcher behind herself and spread her arms. Marrie fell squarely into her arms. She said, as the impact rolled catcher and faller down the dragon’s back.

The tip of Boteg’s tail curled around and stopped the two from rolling further. "Thou art reckless, Mist scare!"

With Crazy Train departing through the clouds, and Peace Train moving towards the horizon, the storms began to settle. The turbulent winds let up, and the clouds started to change color. It would be a bit before it stopped raining, but already it looked like it was going to be a sunny day.

"I’m one for two today!" Trixy looked over Boteg’s head. "How about you take us down?"

"If thou wish it."

But even if Boteg could descend as fast as he could, he wasn’t going to beat Noah to the ground. On impact, the asphalt road detonated, sending blacktop and gravel soaring through the air. Noah had landed with her arms stretched out to the sides and a perfect impression of a cross was made in the road. Regardless of how hard she fell, the fall itself hadn’t harmed her at all. She only had a moment to process her surroundings before a familiar face appeared, and extended its hand.

”The holy roller is safe, at least. The demon yet lives, but by no fault of yours. Perhaps he had other plans for it.” After pulling Noah to her feet, Raphael pointed down a street. ”The Mavericks are still about. We should leave for the time being.” The dragon was about to touch down on a building, but it looked like Trixy was already jumping off to pursue on foot.

Noah’s eyes followed Raphael’s gesture, and spotting that rocket wielding esper again, she couldn’t help but agree. “Y-yeah, there’s… not much else I can do.” She had so little mana left that she could barely feel it. Like a tiny drop in a gallon of water. There was no way she could use it for anything, and then there was the matter of her arm… The pain was still piercing, and she did her best to ignore it, but there was no way she was gonna be able to fight with it. Someone else could, maybe, but not Noah. This was just something she had no experience with.

”Today, you did enough.”

With circumstances like this, against an esper like that… it was pretty clear that the best thing to do was to run away. Noah brought her light to as low a level as possible, and made to follow after Raphael. In a city like this, it shouldn’t be terribly hard to lose the esper, with the headstart they had.

As Boteg began to descend, and the adrenaline with him, she let out a barely audible murmur. ”Can’t help it. Peace Train was too fast, with the angle that Crazy was taking, I missed my shot at landing on it.” She climbed up his back from her position and patted him gently on the head. ”Thank you. I owe you one.”

"Tis praise most splendid, but thou doth not need bless this flying gossamer!"

Truthfully, she didn’t know why Trixy seemed to want Walking Church dead, and she wanted to prevent another meetup between the two, but with how out of mana and strength she was she didn’t think she could stop one. Still, as she sat back down, she spoke up to her. ”You too. Thanks for the catch. Let me know if there’s anything I can do to pay you back.”

The blue haired esper looked up at the clearing sky. Just as she registered that things might be okay, her eyelids closed against her will. It wasn’t until Boteg landed that she was jolted back to reality.

Trixy hopped off Boteg as soon as she was able, and swung her rocketlauncher around. Just as Noah had predicted, the low visibility and recent rain would make her very hard to track down at this juncture. With a groan, she fell on one knee and completely deflated. "She died keeping Crazy Train alive. Why do all of my…" She looked back up at Marrie. "Tetrad wasn’t lying about you. Heh! You uh, you were pretty good up there. I wish I could have done more." She rubbed the back of her head. "Hey uh, if you’re free we, eh, ah, never mind." With the Maverick biker rally peeling down the street, Trixy jumped off the building to join them.

Boteg looked a bit pensive, but eventually called to his sole rider. "Doth thou need to go someplace?"

"Don’t leave with them. You’re a cool guy, and I don’t want to fight you later because they lied to you. You saw what they did to Angelie."

That familiar voice didn’t quite surprise him but it did pull him from the brooding that he’d started to fall into. The esper addressing him was the wolfish girl from his first operation in the city, the one at the church. Asher frowned at her words, mulling over their meaning as he attempted to recall the church. It was his first real act as an esper in Pax Septimus and he’d had just as much of a clue about what was going on back then as he did now. Clearly he was supposed to be remembering someone but he wasn’t really placing the name. Contextually though he imagined she had to be referring to the girl who’d been unceremoniously decapitated. Asher hadn’t had the pleasure of knowing her any further than that but clearly the two of them had been comrades for a time, albeit short. Clearly she was trying to warn him off of his present course and using the prior events as an attempt to persuade him. She must think him a fool who walks willingly into the lion's mouth, pity. A slight scowl was all she received in response.

A voice called out, one not present. ”I thought it was hard to see with the smoke screen.”

Before Asher was given any time to respond further he was enveloped along with the other members of the party in a thick cloud of smoke and whisked away in a manner unfamiliar to him. Asher was no fool, but he was definitely treading a fine line here in his present company. But he needed answers and who better to perhaps share some of the truth than someone who might not altogether be fond of you? Asher had no doubt that every other group he’d met so far wouldn’t mind spinning him a tale to pull at his heart and convince him to rally to their cause. Black Sabbath might be just as manipulative, or perhaps their nature would lend a different brand of honesty. Only time would tell.

---

As they touched down and materialized in a nearby back alley Asher opted to transform back into his usual self. He didn’t really give a shit when it came to secrecy, he didn’t have a family to threaten or friends to harm or any allegiances to worry about. The worst that might happen is he would be recognized from his touring days, what a bore that felt like to him now.

“So…” He started, taking a drag off the cigar Bobo had so [i]kindly[/] parted ways with prior, “who wants to start talking? Or should I start asking questions?”

Most of the nuns remained silent. Nova and Lexi seemed a bit taken back by the fact that Asher would transform so suddenly. They weren’t that far away from the combat area. The sound of motorcycles and exploding rockets seemed to erupt from all around them. Bobo rolled her eyes, also in the middle of smoking a cigar. ”You want to have a heart to heart here?”

Lenore positioned herself in front of Asher. She was grinning like the Cheshire cat, but there was something in her eyes. Maybe it was pity, empathy, or something akin to a con artist spotting the perfect mark. Maybe it was a little bit of each of those.

”Pax Septimus is a confusing place.” She didn’t detransform, but her weapon was on her back. ”But being an esper is confusing already. You have all this power, but no way of making meaningful change by yourself. That’s why I founded Black Sabbath. I got tired of working for the government’s nebulous ends, but even with the four of us, we couldn’t really do anything. But as freelancers, we could at least decide who we worked for.” Lenore patted Asher on the shoulder. All of once before he twisted his shoulder to the side to avoid her touching him further.

Another scowl jumped to his face in response. “Not really a touchy person, if you don’t mind.” he explained. He didn’t like the way she looked his way as she spoke, that face that just felt like it hooked a fish. “Yeah I’m not the biggest fan of the government myself. But can the recruitment speech, I’m not some soft-gazed hopeful enamored with your big bad outfit. I’ve been at this for a few years now, just not really local to this area. Usually things aren’t this complicated but I can’t help but feel like I’ve stumbled into the middle of somebody else's theatre and I don’t know what the play is. What can you actually tell me about the city and it’s big players?”

Asher’s hostility didn’t seem to dampen Lenore’s smile. ”I hope you didn’t let the kitty give you the wrong idea about us. We’re just a band of freelancers. I wouldn’t take you into my ranks anyway. You might have noticed that everyone in this team has a certain quality that you don’t possess.”

Nova leaned in close and in a hushed tone said: ”It’s a vagina.”

”And I’d overlook that if I thought you’d look good in a habit. We’ll respect your personal space at least.” Lenore half bowed.

“Usually things aren’t this complicated but I can’t help but feel like I’ve stumbled into the middle of somebody else's theatre and I don’t know what the play is. What can you actually tell me about the city and it’s big players?”

”Pax Septimus was ‘protected’ by a ferociously powerful esper known as Penny, The Iron Queen. She was rumored to be invincible, until she wasn’t. Some unknown killed her, which created a power vacuum that the ‘big players’ rushed in to fill. Penny more or less allowed monsters to do their thing with impunity you see. GEMINI , being the US government, didn’t think it was going to be able to tax the monsters. So they have shown up to wipe them out.”

Nova positioned herself against the wall next to Asher. “But that’s mean, so Maverick Alternative decided to step in. They believe that there are good monsters, and want to give as many of them a shot as they can. GEMINI didn’t like that, so they labeled them a terrorist organization and fight with them and the monsters!”

“And where there’s a conflict of interest, there’s money to be made.” Lexi placed a hand on her hip. “I could tell you a lot about freelancers, but I feel like would come across as patronizing.”

Lenore looked at Bobo, but when she didn’t speak up, the sister of sacrilege continued. “And things were fine for a time, but then they discovered The Hand, a group of monsters running Pax Septimus from the shadows. Also the pope decided to get involved, so the Inquisition is here too. I couldn’t tell you why.”

Nova inched closer, just on the verge of what one might call Asher’s personal space. She might have even been slightly inside it. “And then you have Oros the Mad. No one knows why she’s here either, but with a name like ‘the mad’ I wouldn’t waste too many brain cells thinking about it.”

Lenore mirrored Nova and leaned against the wall, but on the other side of Asher. “It all comes down to money.” She hesitated. “Well, at least that’s the simple explanation. If you look at individuals it can get a little more complicated.”

Lexi, now in front of Asher, turned to look at her boss. “You use to work with the nut job who runs GEMINI’s Pax Septimus branch, right?”

“Yea, but that was a long time ago…”

Asher tucked his hands in his pocket and stepped out of between the two nuns to his side and slightly past Lenore as he took a deep drag on his cigar. “I appreciate your consideration of my personal space,” he started, sarcasm dripping heavily from his words as he exhaled, “so what can you tell me about GEMINI? Or more so their local branch? Your old gig huh?” Asher asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. Asher took a few casual steps towards the opposite end of the alley, no clear destination in mind but more so as a means of putting a few feet between him and the group. He still wasn’t one-hundred percent sure they weren’t attempting to trap him and thus wasn’t willing to be entirely unguarded.

If he was being honest with himself he wasn’t quite sure where to go from here, a little background info helped make sense of the situation but he still didn’t really feel beholden to any sort of side. He hadn’t been lying though when he’d mentioned being anti-govt, Asher had always been a bit of a misfit with an authority problem, so anarchy and anti-govt tendencies simply ran in his blood one could say. Mayhaps he’d simply cause a little chaos and fuck with the government, or something. Asher was still feeling a might bit directionless. Idly he began scratching the back of his head as if the very act itself might help produce an idea. It wouldn’t.

As Asher came out of his head, he’d find his predicament hadn’t changed too much. Nova and Lenore were walking with him side by side at either of his flanks, and Lexi was hovering behind him. Asher was a tall dude, but Lexi was practically an amazon and hovered to boot. Her breasts were level with the back of his head. Bobo would have been leading the group, but she waited for Asher to walk past her before following everyone from the back.

“As I said, long time ago. Though if you already distrust the government you probably have a good idea of how they operate. Lots of ‘rules for thee but not for me.’ Money motivates every action they make, but only to assist a few bureaucrats. The machine works by running fresh recruits through a meat grinder. I know the process pretty intimately because I use to train those fresh recruits. Dr Moller and I were…Close, but we had different ambitions and the administration picked up on it. Dr Moller went on to research grimoires and I was put in charge of training. That was when I started to realize that the government was a giant corporation and we were all expected to climb that ladder. Only the ladder had no rungs, so you had to use a pile of corpses to scale it. I was expected to use my students I guess. I’m not sure what ol’ Fritzi used, but she’s standing quite high up now.” She looked at Asher with her good eye. “They’re all motivated by hatred. Both for monsters and each other. A little bird told me that there is constant infighting in their squad, which is why they keep transferring their agents to and from Pax.” She looked ahead, ever grinning. “I’ll never pass up a chance to fuck with them.”

“So, what’re you planning to get up to then? I’m admittedly not too sure where I’m going to fit in with all this business, might be best to steer clear for a bit and let shit blow over, not too sure…What about you though? You lot seem like an industrious group, I’m sure you have some grand scheme in the works?” Asher asked, fishing obviously.

“Some of our contract holders have schemes, but I’m in it for the money.” Lenore said with a not-so-subtle deflection. “When everyone’s wicked to the core, it’s hard to care about much more than the paycheck, eh? I just go for the highest paying contracts and feel no remorse for what’s on the other side of my sword.”

He was starting to feel like it might be time to make an exit. He couldn’t tell if they were pointedly avoiding giving him space or if they just liked to casually crowd people. It was best to err on the side of caution and so Asher attempted to convince them to give him a little room. He turned casually and took in the three crowding him, of course in Lexi’s case he had to make a pointed effort to look up and over the two obstacles before him in order to meet her eyes. “There a reason you’re all crowding me so heavily? Reminding me of the damn groupies from my touring days, no sense of personal space or common courtesy sometimes I swear…” Asher huffed as he crossed his arms with a mildly perturbed glare at the three offenders. “Do you mind?”

Lexi gave Asher a look like she’d clutch her pearls. That was, if she was wearing any, and Lexi didn’t wear very much. “We’re in an alleyway, and you’re not in your esper form. Walking single file behind you would leave you exposed.”

“Lexi, this dude thought we wanted him to join Black Sabbath. He’s obviously an ultra progressive.” Nova ran her hands down her waist, but didn’t let go of her cigarette. “He’s probably gay and a transvestite.”

This seemed to horrify Lexi, who floated backwards. “Who did you vote for during the election? Was it Lydia Vanhorn or Davis Gallo?”

Asher’s first reaction would have been to maybe roll his eyes at their concern, mock or genuine. But before he really had the time to respond in any way one of the group began making a slew of wild accusations that Asher barely kept up with. The more bewildering the statements became the higher his eyebrow went in apparent shock and confusion. It was easy to tell by his face that Asher wasn’t used to being toyed with in such a manner. Typically his gruff attitude demanded a certain level of respect but clearly Black Sabbath carried enough clout to be unswayed by such tactics. Unfortunately Asher’s playbook wasn’t very thick.

Lenore rolled her eyes, but she was grinning. “Girls? The end of the alley is here. How about you go ahead and spread out.” Without another word, Nova and Lexi left the alleyway to check the street. Once they were out of Asher’s hair, Lenore looked back at him. “You’ve been doing this for a while, Deadhead. You’ve visited a lot of places, and I can tell you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the past. Sure, the politics of Pax look like a ball of yarn, but it’s going to be in the rear view mirror someday. I could tell you whatever you wanted to know, but I think what you really need to figure out is what you want to get out of your time here.”

When Lenore came to the rescue he was actually grateful, not that he would let it show of course. And then she asked him what he wanted. That one was a confusing question to answer and Asher was struggling with the fact that he’d admittedly had no long term goals in mind. And then a slight itch in his right arm began. A mild sensation that was mostly mental than physical but it served to remind Asher of one thing.

That [i]bitch[/b] had cut his arm off. He hadn’t liked that.

“What do you know about those other espers? The ones who waylaid our party originally and then showed up to wreak havoc at the end there? I owe the golden haired one a little havoc of my own.” Asher held his right arm up as he spoke. He turned it, flexed it, scanned it from top to side, anything really that reminded him that it was present, something that would make that persistent itch vanish. It was the first time he’d ever been dismembered in a sense. Not a sensation he’d plan to revisit, but one that he certainly wanted to impart.

“I’m not sure who waylaid you, but the ones that captured the Bates were from the Hand, if the rumors are to be believed.” She leaned on her shoulder. “The big weartiger is called Big Tony. He’s head of the weretiger mafia and owns a few businesses here and there. All covers for his less legitimate businesses of course. Penumbra is someone I know less about. They’re a bodyguard for some very wealthy entrepreneur, but said entrepreneur always remains out of sight. The rest are small fry and not worth talking about.” That, or they were so obscure that even Lenore didn’t know about them.

Then Bobo stomped her way up to Asher. “Excuse me?” she pointed at him with her mace. “You set us on fire, and now you want to get revenge on someone who cut your arm off? What’s the big deal? It’ll grow back like my skin!”

Asher’s eyes narrowed down the length of the mace but he didn’t back down an inch, in fact he leaned in closer. Intimidation was a language Asher could speak in and something like a weapon in his face just got his blood running. “First of all, get your stick out of my face unless you mean business. As I recall I even said you were free to take your try at evening the score if you felt some sort of way, I wouldn’t blame you with the way I tossed you around in that fight.” Asher was trying to egg her on, not that he necessarily wanted to get into a fight. But that wasn’t really important to him at the moment, the other esper was getting his blood boiling and the previous op had left him more than a little frustrated.

“My reasons are my own, I’m not beholden to anyone else’s ideals and if I feel like tracking down the bitch that cut my arm off, even if it grows back, then that’s what I’ll damn well do. If you got a problem with it then I didn’t ask.”

Bobo groaned. “I do not understand what goes on in that head of yours.” She lowered her mace and walked on ahead. “And at this point, I don’t even think it’s worth trying to understand you.”

“That ‘bitch’ also happens to pay really well.” Lenore pretended to clean her fingernails through her gloved hand. “But I won’t stop you. Well, unless it goes against my contract.”

“Wait, who pays well? Penumbra? She paid you? For what?” Asher was definitely surprised and he didn’t attempt to hide it in any way by the way he reacted to Lenore’s words. “Were you working a contract against us while also working with us? That’s a new one…” he added with a scowl.

“Oh did I imply that? Woops, my tongue must have slipped.” She was on the verge of laughter, but kept it in. “Raphael wanted us to save the ‘holy roller’ and slay the ‘demon train’. Our other client wanted the Bates. There is no conflict of interest because both clients wanted different things.” She leaned in, not unlike what Asher had done earlier when ‘threatened’ by Bobo. “But if I can only complete one of those objectives? And the other one is a lost cause? I’m going for it. Especially when the pay is better.”

Asher’s opinion on that was very evident on his face. But of course Asher couldn’t say much himself as someone who’d just left at the end due to, in a manner of saying, a crisis of faith. So, with a slight flaring of his nostrils and a barely hidden scowl, he said “I see. Well I don’t see much point in wasting more of my time here. I don’t suppose you have a problem with me splitting do you? I’m not a part of your contract am I?” he goaded, although realistically it would be a bad time to be eating his foot if they decided he was.

“The head of some confused, drifting freelancer isn’t worth a whole lot to anyone. Besides, I enjoy watching you banter with Bobo. I haven’t seen her this fired up in a long time.” She pushed herself off of the wall. “It’s unfortunate. I feel like this was our last chance to work together. Your face doesn’t look like it’s going to let us work together a second time. The feeling’s not mutual.” She turned around to leave. “At least you’ve stopped sulking. I’m glad you’ve found your purpose again. Losing one’s faith and direction is a horrible thing, initially. But don’t expect leniency when you get in the way of mine.”

Asher rolled his eyes at the threat as Lenore and her group turned to leave. She was overstating things when she said he’d ‘found his purpose’ but that wasn’t something he felt like imparting. Asher wasn’t necessarily known for his loyalty but it wasn’t something he’d ever really felt that strongly about. But from the get go the Bates had been teammates and the idea of double crossing your team just because it didn’t conflict with the overall goal felt slimy. Lenore might not see it the same way but as far as Asher could tell they also directly caused the failure of the overall goal by eliminating two of their heavier assets right when things were starting to come to a head. She was right, they’d likely find themselves on opposing sides in the future. But Asher wasn’t altogether too sure and had some soul searching of his own to do still. He let the troupe leave without another word.

Another operation down, and another member too.

The briefing room was starting to feel empty. Just a few weeks ago, Angelie would be cracking jokes, Estelle would be spacing out, and Finn would be trying and failing to hold himself together. But they weren’t here anymore. They had replacements, but how long would they last?

The briefing room was empty. Only Mika was present. She hadn’t bothered to shower or change her clothes. Himiko’s jacket sat on her shoulders while she waited for the post mission briefing to begin. Her phone was in her hand, but she wasn’t looking at it.

Ashley, now back in her mundane form, slowly entered the briefing room and sat down a fair distance away from Mika, her face set in an expression of weary resignation. Even though she was out of her battered esper state, the Knight of Tomorrow still felt like someone well over three times her age. Her completely unharmed, actual body may have been in healthy, well-rested condition, but her mind, and, more importantly, her spirit, ached with a soreness so all-pervasive, it left her feeling as if she was about to collapse on the spot. Yes, this was a wound of the soul, one which threatened to pull her into the deepest depths of hopelessness and despair.

The high-tech heroine knew that she should have been relieved that the recent mission had ended with little to no damage inflicted upon the city’s infrastructure and zero civilian deaths, and a part of her was. However, another part knew with dreadful certainty that the events of the past few hours had served as the catalyst for the creation of several potential threats, none of which she or her team had been able to prevent. Indeed, one of them was a former teammate himself. Finn’s presence on the mission had been her call, and now she couldn’t help but wonder if anything would have changed if she’d refused to let him come along. Even though she knew second guessing her choices was pointless at this stage, the Knight of Tomorrow couldn’t keep herself from pondering all the myriad “what ifs”. She didn’t know for certain, but she was pretty sure Mika was probably doing the same thing, albeit while mentally berating Ashley for her poor leadership.

I never asked for this… I never wanted to have this kind of responsibility. After all, I know more than anyone how unqualified I am for it…

Still, as she glanced over at Mika, her attention was drawn to the jacket the young agent was wearing. The feline-themed girl had been wearing it ever since the conclusion of the operation, having caught it in mid-air as it was blown by the storm’s harsh winds. For some reason Ashley hadn’t been able to name, it had seemed somewhat familiar, although, as she continued to gaze at it, memories finally began to click into place. She had seen it before, on the freelancer Mika had brought in for questioning. Sovereign… If memory served, Mika had never thought particularly highly of the money-obsessed blonde, and Ashley couldn’t really blame her. Yet, now, here she was wearing her jacket like some memento of a cherished friend. Or maybe claiming the jacket was Mika’s way of taking revenge on the freelancer for all the humiliations and annoyances the blonde had put her through. Regardless, it didn’t really matter one way or the other, and Ashley’s gaze returned to the floor once more as she waited for Director Moller to arrive.

It would be a long wait though. Raven was getting looked over, and the miko twins probably were too. Dr Moller was usually punctual but tended to be lackadaisical when it came to showing up after an operation. Perhaps it was simply all the things she had to get in order before tending to her agents. It was rare for a scientist to be as interested in people as their craft.

Mika glanced at Ashley out of the corner of her eye. "We should have left him, huh?"

Ashley took a deep breath and then exhaled it in a long, tired sigh. “It certainly looks that way,” she replied, her gaze still fixed on the floor.

They really had needed the additional support and, at first, things had actually gone well. Finn had followed instructions and assisted his fellow teammates in a pleasingly capable manner. Indeed, Ashley had begun to hope that the many issues surrounding the troubled teen were finally beginning to sort themselves out. But then, as was so often the case, that hope had completely turned to ash. Now, the young agent was gone, and while the removal of a major discipline problem could perhaps be viewed as a positive outcome, such thinking failed to take into account the very real possibility that the liability they had lost might very well have become an asset waiting to be found…

"It’s okay." Mika looked at her phone. "I thought he would be a fun person to date. Turns out he just likes to trick girls. Guess he did the same thing with you in a way."

Ashley had to admit, she was a bit taken aback by Mika’s response. For a moment, the Knight of Tomorrow just sat wide eyed, her younger subordinate’s statement having completely shattered her dark ruminations. “H-How do you mean?” she finally inquired.

Mika sighed. She put her arm over the back of her seat and turned to Ashley. "He lies." She clarified. "We were showering together the other day. He told me he was going on a date with someone, but he didn’t seem to mind me tagging along. Then when I got there he was with two other girls. At least I think they were both girls. He got really mad at everyone, including me. I was calm and I even drove him there but it was weird." She rested her chin on her arm. "He’s kind of a jerk."

“He’s clearly been going through something,” Ashley replied with a sigh. “Something more than just being harassed by a dream demon. While I didn’t want to pry into his personal life, the effect it was having on his performance during operations was something that needed to be addressed. Yet, every time I tried to talk with him, or even suggest he take time off to sort things out, he would always get so aggressively defensive. And you’re right about the lying,” she added. “Each time he refused to follow orders he promised it would be the last, but it would just keep happening. I truly hoped that after seeing the disastrous results of his insubordination, he would realize why he shouldn’t act so rashly, but I guess it was always a lost cause from the start…”

"I see that on TV all the time. The good girl always wants to make the bad guy change, but he never does." Her head rocked into the crook of her arm, as if it was a pillow.

“Well, I didn’t exactly think he was a bad guy at the time,” Ashley noted pointedly. “He was obviously in trouble and I was just trying to help him.” She was more than a little exasperated by the younger agent’s attempt to find parallels between tv shows and reality, especially since life had proven again and again that such things weren’t even remotely the case. Still, Mika wasn’t exactly the most mature girl, so the high-tech heroine couldn’t really be all that annoyed with her.

"I think we should do something with his girlfriends, Mika declared. “They could be a problem later. The white one talks to Finn nicely, like nicer than you do, and the girl-boy would do anything to get back with him. I don’t want to hurt them.”

“Neither do I,” Ashley agreed. “What did you have in mind?” she inquired, while fervently hoping the other girl wasn’t insinuating taking violent action against the pair. The Knight of Tomorrow doubted that possibility was very likely, but after spending so much time with the violence-obsessed Finn, she didn’t want to take any chances.

“Don’t know.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I thought because you were the leader you might have an idea. I’ll have to talk to Frit-Z about it later.” Mika’s eyes hardened. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t think you are very good at the leader thing. You were going to send me away to fight by myself, and I think we probably should have killed the monster that we were ordered to. Even if we failed, I know we could have killed one of those nuns.” She looked away. “But you’re not Finn. At least you don’t blame us for what happens out there.”

Ashley winced. “Look, I never wanted this position, and I’m painfully aware of how unqualified I am,” the Knight of Tomorrow confessed. “But I still do the best I can to complete each mission I’m assigned and ensure the safety of both the city and our team. That said, I don’t recall ever sending you off to fight by yourself,” she added. “I always ensured you had another agent as backup.” Even if that agent was Finn.

“What I meant was with Gemini team mates. I only had Angelie because she insisted on coming with me, but the free lancers were okay I guess…”

“Oh, right…” Ashley replied with another, even more pronounced wince. Yes, the complete clusterfuck of an operation where they’d tried to help Finn with his “dream demon” problem that saw the young agent make things worse at every turn and ultimately ended with GEMINI gaining a new enemy and completely burning bridges with the Pounder and MDP. “Well, as for the behemoths,” the Knight of Tomorrow continued, attempting to change the subject with all the awkward subtlety of a tank driving through a tea party. “I fully intended to eliminate Crazy Train, as that was the one The Hand seemed to be most invested in protecting, but I think you already know why that didn’t work out.” Thanks again, Finn… “Finally, as much as I despise those fake nuns, that wasn’t the best time to engage them in combat, not with everything else going on. But… Thanks for the compliment,” she said after a moment, giving Mika a small smile. “It’s nice to know I’m doing at least something right.”

Mika stared at Ashley for the better part of a minute in silence before saying “sure,” and turned straight ahead.

Not long after, Raven came through the door and stretched her arms. "The miko are going to be arriving a little late. They wanted to look for Finn."

Though it seemed like someone new was going to be joining everyone. Faith tended to stay out of the briefing room, but she walked in while adjusting the sleeves on her jacket. ”Oh! Looks like everyone’s back! Well, no, not quite everyone. Did someone…”

“Worse.” Mika didn’t look up from her phone. “It sounds like he turned against us.”

”Oh dear!” Faith lowered her head and glanced at her empty hand. ”That sounds a lot worse than Shinji.”

In actuality, from what Ashley knew of Evangelion, Shinji had channeled his inner angsty edgelord and gone awol for a time, although it had taken the apparent death of a friend to instigate it. Finn’s reason seemed far more petty and nebulous. Of course, the reason for that was simple- Finn wasn’t Shinji. He was a real person, not a fictional character. He had his own agency, which was what made him so unpredictable, and that unpredictability was what made him so dangerous…

“As much as it may sometimes feel like we’re a bunch of superheroes, this isn’t a comic, movie, or tv show,” Ashley replied. “This is reality. It doesn’t have a scripted plot, and people can’t be fit into neat archetypes so easily.”

Faith turned her goofy, tilted gaze onto Ashley before batting her eyes innocently. ”Ah, sorry! You’re right of course. We spoke once and it was something of a running gag between us. Obviously I don’t know all the details of what happened with him yet, but I’m sure you’ll tell Fritzi when she shows up.” Her slight overbite caused her teeth to stick out like a cartoon rabbit. ”Hmmm...” The corners of her lips curled into a smile. ”Ashley, you know what Evangelion is?” Before she could respond, Faith clapped her hands like a seal and approached her. ”I guess it only makes sense! Your outfit kind of looks like a plug suit. There are obvious differences, like how it’s a leotard and doesn’t cover the arms and legs. That would obviously be a big nono in many mecha anime but then again it’s not like you have a mecha of your own to pilot! Wouldn’t that be cool? I bet if you get strong enough you could summon an evangelion of your own to pilot in battle! That would be really cool, and useful I imagine. You’re demeanour is very demure, which is kind of like Rei but also not really like her. It’s like you said, nobody really fits into an archetype perfectly. But you do have a white ‘plugsuit’ so I think you might share some similarities. You definitely aren’t as headstrong as Asuka and seem a bit better put together. Not that I don’t like Asuka because I actually think she’s a really fun character. It’s just unfortunate that nobody else here is really like her. Raven is the only other tech heroine we have and she feels more like your partner than a rival in skill and love, and while Mika can get a little sour sometimes I don’t think she’s like Asuka. Either way it’s kind of fun to think about you engaging in a battle with a behemoth from an EVA. Like two big kaiju duking it out in a city. Or maybe outside a city since I know we really don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Ashley blinked. Faith’s torrent of words was enough to rival even Olivia’s disjointed ramblings, and the Knight of Tomorrow found herself earnestly hoping that she would not be present if the two ever ended up crossing paths. Yet, despite the myriad topics mentioned, it was Faith’s last comment that stood out the most prominently. As it happened, the local G.E.M.I.N.I. branch had already fought what could very well be called a kaiju, and the irony that Faith herself had served as the creature’s living battery was not lost on the high-tech heroine. Indeed, she found herself wondering if that was the reason for the young woman’s various… idiosyncrasies, or if she had always been this way. After all, Mika was rather immature for her age as well, to say nothing of Doctor Moller herself…

“I suppose something like an EVA might prove helpful when dealing with exceptionally sizable behemoths,” Ashley conceded, having moved back a step to counteract Faith’s slight invasion of her personal space. “But, as you said, it would only really be viable in an area where collateral damage could be kept to a minimum. And, uh, yes,” she added somewhat awkwardly. “I am familiar with Evangelion. Someone I used to tutor back in high school was a big fan, and he lent me the original dvd set for the series and all the rebuild films. It’s an… interesting show.”

Raven shook her head. "I hadn’t realized this was how everyone behaved after operations concluded. Though I think I prefer it to being dour about everything." She turned to Ashley. "I’m sure Dr Moller will ask us when she arrives, but I’d like to know what you think of my performance."

“I think you performed quite admirably, all things considered,” Ashley replied. “In fact, I think everyone performed as well as could be expected, given the opposition we faced,” she added. “Aside from an obvious exception, of course…”

Raven’s lips almost curved into a smile, but with a nod, her face became firm again. "It was a good operation, all things considered. While we were unable to destroy either target, Pax Septimus was unmolested by either behemoth."

Mika leaned back in her seat. “Let’s hope Fritzi sees it that way…”

It wasn’t long before the doors to the briefing room swung open again. This time, it was Binky who entered. Mika balled her hands into fists as the green haired woman approached the podium Dr Moller usually stood in front of. ”Dr Moller is giving Estelle an evaluation, and requested that I start the debriefing on her behalf.” Her eyes wandered over everyone. ”I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that this operation didn’t go according to plan. We were unable to destroy a single behemoth, had an agent go AWOL, and allowed many high value targets slip through our fingers.” She looked to Ashley. ”Orion? The twins were unable to relay much, but they said you were able to negotiate with the enemy. While that may have seemed fortuitous at the moment, I think it’s more realistic to say you allowed Elroy to convince you that Peace Train was not going to be a problem. In hindsight, that was likely a lie. No ‘angel’ would heal a ‘demon’ that it is at war with. The Vatican and their espers are fools, and while I can see Elroy believing the honeyed words of a priest, I’m a little surprised to see you cast aside common sense. Were you afraid, agent Orion?”

Ashley took a deep breath. “Not at all,” she replied in an even tone. “I simply took into account that Peace Train was not harming Pax Septimus in any way, and I reasoned that, if it indeed wished to combat the presumably more aggressive Crazy Train, it would be to our advantage to allow it to damage said behemoth further so that my team and I could finish it off. As it happened, Peace Train unexpectedly healed Crazy Train instead,” she continued. “At that point, we didn’t have enough offensive power to eliminate it ourselves, and so I prioritized protecting the city’s infrastructure, especially after learning that Crazy Train had no intention of attacking Pax Septimus after it had removed its unwanted passengers. However, once The Hand made their appearance, and it became clear that they wished to protect Crazy Train, its elimination became essential. Thus, I instructed agents Paradise and Timekeeper to launch ranged attacks on the behemoth once the freelancers had sufficiently damaged it enough to expose a weak point, while I attempted to eliminate Big Tony. I am sure I don’t need to tell you why neither of those plans ended up working out.” She paused for a moment, before concluding, “It may not have been a successful operation, in terms of our assigned objectives, but at the very least, our overarching goal of protecting the city and its inhabitants was still attained nonetheless.”

”That was one of your goals. Your primary objective was to destroy Peace Train.” Binky dropped her hands onto the podium. ”All those behemoths have to do is destroy a building in another city to completely invalidate your efforts here. The issue is that you trusted the enemy and their intel was bad, either because they were ignorant or lying. You’ll have plenty of time to congratulate yourselves later, but right now Dr Moller wants to know why things went so far south, and if it was really completely out of your hands.” Binky folded her arms. ”Orion, you have had difficulty reigning in Timekeeper. Cerberus has made it no secret that you aren’t her favorite person to work with. What I’m wondering, we’re wondering, is if maybe Dr Moller overestimated your abilities when she decided to have you lead this unit. Blame the operation’s shortcomings on whoever you choose, but it’s clear you don’t even have your fellow agent’s respect!”

Raven huffed. "Binky, I think-"

”Quiet.” Binky didn’t take her eyes off of Ashley. ”She doesn’t need you to speak for her.”

Ashley clenched her fists. “I never asked for this position,” she replied, her voice quiet but hard as steel. “And I’ll be the first person to admit to how unqualified I am. All I can do is attempt to carry out this role I’ve been assigned to the best of my ability, because apparently, Doctor Moller thinks I’m the best agent we have left to fill it. I won’t blame anyone else for the mission’s failure,” she continued. “Timekeeper has always been a discipline problem, but perhaps a leader of greater proficiency could have handled his issues in a more satisfactory manner. Obviously, it was a mistake to trust his word that he would follow orders during this operation, and I take full responsibility for it. Of course, even without his presence, and under the command of a better leader, I still can’t say whether or not the team’s objectives could have been completed. All I can do is admit my failures and allow you to draw your own conclusions. If they lead you to remove me from command, then that is a decision I will accept without protest.”

”Fair enough.” Binky rolled her shoulders back. ”Then, agent Orion, what if the choice was up to you? If you were to step down now, who would succeed you?”

Ashley thought for a moment. In all honesty, there wasn’t exactly an easy answer to that question. Mika was obviously too young and inexperienced, the twins weren’t suited to combat operations, and even if Estelle wasn’t still recovering from the recent weretiger ambush, she’d shown no great desire to take on a leadership position. That just left Raven, and while the young woman had certainly seen her fair share of action prior to joining the Pax Septimus branch, she was still new to the city, and the action she’d seen had all been of a threat level far below what Ashley herself had already dealt with several times over the past month and a half. I really wish Samuel and Jacqueline hadn’t been transferred… Still, if there was no other choice in the matter, she would simply have to go with the best alternative.

“If I had to choose a replacement from out of our current stable of active agents, aside from yourself, then I would have to pick Paradise,” Ashley finally declared. “She may not be the most ideal candidate, but we’re suffering from a distinct lack of veteran agents at present, and I believe she’s the best option currently available.”

The green haired esper clicked her tongue. ”I see. Under qualified as you are, you still believe you’re the most ideal choice.” She tapped the corner of the podium. ”Everyone is dismissed, except for you, agent Orion. Dr Moller wants to see you in the simulation room when you are ready.” Binky pushed herself away from the podium and departed through a hallway. The other agents in the room looked at Ashley, but said nothing.

“Understood,” Ashley acknowledged, her tone remaining measured and professional despite the considerable trepidation she felt. “Try to get some rest,” she told the other agents as she headed for the door. “I have a feeling things are going to get a lot worse around here before they get better.” With that, the Knight of Tomorrow exited the room and set off for her impending meeting with the director.

But she was stopped when someone grabbed her arm. Mika poked her head over Ashley’s shoulder and looked down the hallway. Once Binky turned a corner, Mika turned Ashley around. “We feel the same way, leader.” Her face twitched when she emphasized the word, as if it tasted like bitter medicine. “Our squad has never been this weak. If our hunch about Binky is true, you’re going to want us nearby.”

Raven lifted an eyebrow. "A hunch? I don’t know Binky that well, but she does seem especially sour today."

”Oh that’s good!” Faith sighed in relief and placed a hand on her chest. ”I’m sure all you need to do is use the power of friendship to get her mood fixed up. I can’t see her staying mad at you for long.”

Mika didn’t take her eyes off of Ashley. “We can’t let her divide us.”

“Don’t worry,” Ashley told Mika with what she hoped was an encouraging smile as she placed a hand on the young agent’s shoulder. “I won’t.”

And with that, Ashley walked down the hall after Binky. With a sigh, the teenager turned to look at those nearby.

“I’m tired of being tricked. It’s time to do a trick of our own.”

…

…

…

The simulation room was presently offline. It had gotten some upgrades since operations started in Pax Septimus, but without the holographic machine active, everything was exposed for what it really was. Ashley could remember the first time she came in here. She had fought with a giant burger and tripped up a hamburgler to rescue the most dashing and underdressed version of Ronald McDonald she’d ever seen. Though at this time, the giant burger was a box with wheels, the burger village houses were shipping crates, and the swamp was an inside pool that was due for a cleaning. But what would be most unusual, Ashley would notice, was that Fritzi was not here. It was just Binky, who was sitting on a small crate just outside the “mission area.”

”Come to think of it.” Binky said while examining her hand. ”I think the real reason she had us use that silly practice program was because she likes vibrant hair colors. I have no idea why she insists that we color our hair like this. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she had a fetish for it.”

“Well, my hair color is fairly natural and she hasn’t asked me to change it yet,” Ashley replied as she entered, her tone casual, despite the inklings of suspicion she was starting to feel. “Come to think of it, aside from you and Estelle, all the other agents have normal hair colors as well,” the high-tech heroine noted as her eyes scanned the room, taking note of every potentially suspicious detail. “More to the point, though, where is Doctor Moller? I thought you said she’d be waiting for me here.”

Binky didn’t look at Ashley, and instead continued to examine her hand. The seconds ticked by in uncomfortable silence before she finally decided to answer. ”I’m sorry, I was wondering if I should dignify that with an answer. Obviously I was talking about the administrative members of Gemini. Estelle only dyes her hair because she’s rotted her brain on japanimation. It really shows in how she fights, and is probably how she managed to finally get taken out by weretigers of all things.” Binky stood up and turned to look at Ashley. ”It’s really quite deplorable. Becoming a government agent just so that you can live out some foolish power fantasy. Not that the rest of the squad is much better. Cerberus wants revenge, Finn wanted to save his girl and quit when he realized he was no white knight. Why are you doing this, Orion?” She folded her arms behind her back and approached. ”Do you like the idea of being a leader? Is that why it’s so hard to let go? Despite you clearly sucking at it?”

Ashley frowned, but didn’t allow the rising frustration she felt to enter her voice. “Personally, I hate the idea of being a leader,” she replied. “And I have absolutely no problem stepping down. Like I said before, I don’t know if any of our remaining agents are particularly suited for the role, myself included, but if you wished to replace me, I feel that Paradise would serve as the best alternative. As for my reasons for joining G.E.M.I.N.I.,” she continued. “Well, I don’t know why I was granted the power of an esper, but I do know that I want to use that power in the service of helping others. When a pair of recruiters approached me less than an hour after my first transformation and told me about how G.E.M.I.N.I. could provide training and an opportunity to use my new abilities to protect the helpless, I naturally accepted their offer to join. And since we’re on the subject,” she added after a moment. “Why did you choose to join G.E.M.I.N.I.?”

”Does it matter? It feels like forever ago. I was probably like you, some dumb kid that just went with the flow.” she started twirling her hair around her finger, though it was short enough that it slipped off after just a few twirls. ”When you’re a follower you forfeit your reason to do anything. Everything you do is just in service of the group. Hmm, maybe that was why I joined. I wanted to be part of something bigger. I wanted to be appreciated by the boss, admired by my colleagues, maybe fall in love with a co-worker and punch out a few babies before I get too old. Ahh, but that’s only because my parents wanted me to continue their bloodline. It’s hard to figure out where Gemini ends and I begin. Maybe I never do begin.” Her hair got tangled on the end of her finger. With a grunt, Binky tugged and a few green strands were ripped directly out of her scalp. ”You’re no different I assume? Just one of Fritzi’s dolls to pose and play with as she pleases?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Ashley replied. “While I’ll follow her directives to the best of my ability, I’m not just some mindless drone who obeys commands without question. I won’t do something morally objectionable simply because she orders me to.”

”You tried to kill a monster kid once. That seems morally objectionable to most people.”

“If I could have avoided it, I would have,” Ashley replied. “But that ‘kid’ was at least partially responsible for inflicting considerable mental torment on another, human, child, and that’s besides the fact that there was no way of knowing how old she truly even was,” the Knight of Tomorrow added. “It’s not outside the realm of possibility for her to have assumed that form simply to garner sympathy, to say nothing of inflicting even more mental anguish on Timekeeper.”

Binky struggled to suppress a smile, but she couldn’t. ”Right, a young girl runs out to her dead father, totally helpless, and your first thought is how she may harm Finn. If we’re going to use future events to justify past actions, then why did Finn’s daymares stop after Dante was slain?”

“At the time, we had no way of knowing that was the case,” Ashley replied in an even tone, despite Binky’s thinly veiled mockery. “And I shouldn’t have to tell you that she was far from ‘totally helpless’.

”Now we’re looking at past actions strictly in the moment? Predictable.” Binky rolled her head between her shoulders, and a deep crack echoed through the room. ”I’m getting bored waiting for Dr Moller. If we’re going to spar anyway, why only use words?” In an instant, Binky had transformed. Standing in her place was the bane of all monsters, and likely all espers as well. A mechanical spider with a human head and a lab coat. An abomination jokingly referred to as Dr Feelgood. None of the apparatuses hovering around her head looked like they would feel good no matter how they were applied. One of her syringes squirted just enough to expel the air trapped inside, and all of the saws began to spin. ”I hope you were able to get some rest. I’d hate to think you have nothing left for our sparring session.”

“So this is why the Director wanted to see me here?” Ashley inquired, doing her best to keep her breathing steady and her rising panic in check, despite remaining untransformed in the face of quite possibly the strongest G.E.M.I.N.I. esper currently in Pax Septimus. “Just to tell me I had to spar against you?”

Somehow, I seriously doubt that…

Still, brainwashed by The Hand or not, if this really was Binky, then the green-haired agent could only remain in the esper state for 30 seconds, meaning time was Ashley’s greatest ally here. Each second she could keep from transforming meant just a little more of her badly depleted mana would be replenished, and each second Binky wasn’t attacking was another second closer to a forced reversion. Of course, if this wasn’t Binky, then the Knight of Tomorrow was in far greater trouble than she cared to think about…

”I don’t know.” Binky pulled out her clipboard and looked over her writing. ”I think she was concerned that there was a spy undermining our operations. There’s been lots of bad intel coming our way, and agents keep winding up dead or missing.” One of her metal arms took the crate and slid it across the ground, and it left a red stain where it slid. ”Maybe it’s her? It would explain why she hasn’t shown up yet.” She flicked her eyes up and clenched her hand into a fist. Dr Feelgood’s eyes flared red, and the passageway behind Ashley filled with saws. From left to right, hallway height circular saws buzzed as they ripped into the hallway and peppered Ashley with debris. ”What would you like to practice first? Accuracy or evasion?”

Despite her best efforts, Ashley couldn’t keep her eyes from widening or her breath from catching in her throat upon noticing what looked for all the world like blood leaking out of the crate Binky had been sitting on. It was looking more and more certain that her green-haired mentor was indeed the enemy agent in their midst, but even if what she’d seen was merely some innocuous coincidence, it did nothing to change the Knight of Tomorrow’s planned course of action. Although the same couldn’t exactly be said of the hallway being transformed into a buzzsaw-filled death trap. Wincing slightly as the hail of debris generated by the saw blades’ activation pelted her, the high-tech heroine kept her attention fixed on her opponent. “Let’s try evasion,” she replied, before diving behind the closest shipping container. “You once told me how you beat this obstacle course with just a standard issue sidearm,” she added with an easy amiability she most certainly did not feel. “I’d like to see if I can manage something similar.”

Binky waited for Ashley to get into position and finish speaking. For someone with an esper form that burned through as much mana as hers, she was moving at a pretty reserved pace. ”I’m honored that you want to replicate my challenge, or are you mocking me?”

“Never,” Ashley replied. “I’ve always said how much respect I have for you, and none of that was a lie.”

Binky approached the container, but Ashley could only hear her footsteps as she drew closer. ”I wonder if you remember what else I told you in here.”

Once Dr Feelgood was in front of the container, Ashley could hear the sound of buzzsaws right beside her head, and when she turned to look, it seemed like they were spawning out of thin air. The cluster was growing, and it looked like it might explode any moment.

Ashley’s eyes went wide when she noticed the buzzsaws begin to materialize next to her. Even if Binky was using the slowest-casting melody type, the Knight of Tomorrow knew she only had mere seconds to act before being sliced into bloody stew. Using all the speed her recent training sessions had afforded her, she darted around to the opposite side of the container, reached into a jacket pocket and chucked her sole flash bang at Binky’s towering, multi-limbed form.

“Hngh!” Dr Feelgood flailed her limbs. She had clearly planned on pouncing on Ashley as soon as she left cover, but being directly hit by a flash bang had slowed her considerably. Even the strongest esper in Pax Septimus was not impervious to modern weaponry, but the effects would not last long. Ashley didn’t stop moving, instead racing over to the crate the greenette had been sitting on and dragging it with her behind the container farthest from her previous position.

A quick glance at the corridor beyond the training room had revealed that it was still filled with buzzsaws, but, as it happened, Ashley did remember what Binky had told her after her first attempt at the obstacle course. The greenette’s esper form only lasted 30 seconds if she didn’t use any melodies, with each one she cast lessening that already small window even further. That was why she mainly relied on her esper state’s prodigious physical abilities in combat and only employed melodies when absolutely necessary. Yet, in this “sparring match” she had already used two melodies, and fairly costly ones at that, considering just the notes Ashley knew they had to contain to manifest the properties exhibited. “Far too many recruits try to solve everything with melodies”, Binky had told her, and now here she was seemingly doing the exact thing she’d cautioned against. That meant one of several things.

First, most flatteringly, and also most unlikely, was the possibility that Binky really viewed her as that much of a threat, even out of the esper state. The second, and far more likely option, was that Binky was being controlled by an outside force, and whoever was pulling her proverbial strings either didn’t know or didn't care about her esper form’s time limitations. Finally, and most concerning, was that this wasn’t Binky at all, but rather someone or something that could mimic her up to and including the abilities of her esper state. If that was the case, then the weakness Ashley was banking on might not even exist, which meant she needed help, and fast…

Moving as rapidly as she could, Ashley looked over the crate and tried to see if there was an easy way of opening it up. She didn’t know who she might find within, but if her suspicions were right and the potential occupant was still alive, then they just might provide the advantage she was looking for…

The crate was not sealed too tightly. It had been pried open a long time ago and was held in place by a few strips of duct tape. When Ashley got the lid off, she could see Estelle’s blood soaked body. It wasn’t clear if she was alive or not, but if she was, she was in critical condition.

”Oh, that box wasn’t for you.” Feelgood clicked her tongue and slowed her approach. ”It turns out isolating you each one at a time makes you a bit easier to deal with. She was starting to catch onto me but ignored that simple fact. Her hubris was her undoing.” Binky stopped right in front of the box. As valiant as Ashley’s efforts were, a human could only do so much against an esper, least of all one that surpassed human limits like Feelgood could. ”I can’t help but feel like you’re waiting for my mana to run out. That would be rather silly of me, wouldn’t it? To let you run me ragged and then get the jump on me.” With a snap of her fingers, all of her weaponry dripped with blackish green slime. Some dripped off her rotary blades and burned holes in the ground. ”We’ve upgraded the simulation room, you know? I’m basically god here, and nobody escapes god.”

Ashley couldn’t keep from gasping in shock when she saw Estelle’s badly wounded body in the crate instead of Doctor Moller’s. In one way, it was a good thing the director was still safe, but in another, it meant that her potential ally was distinctly less powerful than she had hoped, to say nothing of the young woman’s current condition. Despite the danger of her situation, the Knight of Tomorrow’s compassion and concern for her fellow agents took precedence. Thus, in a flash, Ashley entered her esper state and began attempting to heal what appeared to be the most serious of the bluenette witch hunter’s injuries.

It wasn’t much, but a large gash on her stomach shrunk closed. She was still too weak to wake up, but maybe this would keep her going a bit longer.

All the while, Ashley could hear Binky getting ever-nearer, the greenette choosing this point to drop whatever remnants of a facade still remained. Before the high-tech heroine knew it, Binky was standing right in front of her, confirming her worst fears.

“All right,” Ashley conceded through grit teeth as she glared up at the agent she’d once thought of as her mentor. “I obviously don’t stand a chance against you, so can you at least tell me why you’re doing this? That is, if you’re even Binky to begin with.”

”Of course I’m Binky. Who else would I be?” She lifted a hand to her chin. ”As for why I’m doing this… I don’t know. It feels right though, doesn’t it?” She waved her hand at everything. ”Humans are not supposed to have power like this. If everyone was an esper, do you think the world would be a safer place? I don’t think it would be. You don’t have to look very far to see how easily power corrupts. Look at this faction war. None of us knows what’s best for the world, but we’re willing to kill each other over the fate of some trains.” She sighed. ”Hand me your grimoire and I’ll spare you. You don’t need to die needlessly if you can surrender your powers.”

“And you think just surrendering to The Hand will make the world any better?” Ashley asked pointedly. She knew she had very few options here, but she wasn’t about to hand over her sole means of protection so quickly. After all, it wasn’t a stretch to imagine this person claiming to be Binky would just kill her the moment she was defenseless. “You say you want us all to stop being espers, but then who will protect people from monsters? Or do you think humanity should just be wiped out by them?”

”The monsters do not want to wipe out humanity. They need our emotions to stay fed. If you cooperate with me, there will be a spot for you in the new world.” She held her saw under Estelle’s chin. A blob of acid nearly dripped onto her arm. ”This isn’t an interview, Orion. There will be plenty of time to talk later. If you won’t cooperate to save your own life, maybe you’ll do it for Witch Hunt.”

Estelle’s body twitched in Ashley’s arms. She was still alive.

Ashley grit her teeth before giving voice to a long exhale. “Fine,” she conceded. “But please just allow me to heal Estelle first,” the high-tech heroine requested. “Then my grimoire’s all yours.”

Binky stared at Ashley for a moment, then pulled back her blade. ”You have ten seconds.”

Setting to work as fast as possible, Ashley removed several Improved Techno-Arcane Reactive Bandages from her medical kit and applied them to the worst of Estelle’s wounds, before infusing each with a burst of healing energy. Once she had finished, the Knight of Tomorrow reverted to her mundane form and unclipped her grimoire from her necklace. “Here,” she told Binky as she held the green sphere out for the greenette to take. “I hope this proves I have no intention of fighting you.”

“It does.” A mechanical claw reached out to take the trinket. “You were a good student, and I’m glad you’ve decided to trust me.”

The claw neared the orb, its menacing shape reflected in the green polished surface. But a katana gently swung between the two objects.

”I hate working overtime.”

The badly wounded Estelle had been replaced with the fully healed Witch Hunt. She rose to her feet while keeping her katana in place.

“Are you serious?” Feelgood growled. “Stop this nonsense, or I’ll end you this instant!”

”Sure, why not?” With a flick of her katana, Feelgood’s claw was flung back. ”I won’t have to work overtime and you won’t have to pay my pension.” A metal arm pointed a syringe at Estelle and fired a stream of acid. But upon colliding with her sword, it was divided and fell on either side of Witch Hunt and Ashley. ”I think I can keep her busy for a few seconds. Now you’re working overtime too!”

Ashley couldn’t keep a small smirk of satisfaction from tugging the corners of her mouth as the transformed Estelle came to her aid. She’d known from the start that her plan was a long shot at best, so she was glad to see it had actually worked out.

“Right!” Ashley confirmed as she shifted back into the esper state herself. Placing a hand on Estelle’s shoulder, she imbued the Witch Hunter with a defensive barrier that would absorb, or at least mitigate all forms of damage Binky might potentially inflict, while simultaneously snapping off a quick energy bolt from her techno-wand at one of Binky’s more threatening appendages. Then, activating her comm, she called, “Attention all agents! Binky has been compromised and is attacking Witch Hunter and I in the training room! We require immediate assistance, but be advised that the corridor is heavily obstructed and Binky’s power level has drastically increased!”

"Sounds like we’re taking the shortcut after all," Mika’s voice answered back. "You guys hear that?"

One of the far walls burst open, and a mecha surged through. While many of the metal plates were scorched with flames, a “Steyr“ logo remained present on the upper half of the machine. Despite its outward appearance, it seemed to be in full functioning order. The mech was flanked on either side by Mika and Raven who charged towards Ashley’s position.

As awesome as Estelle’s defensive abilities were, she only had one sword that could deflect anything that touched it. Feelgood had six arms and each of them was equipped with something that had more reach than Estelle. Not only that, but Binky could cast melodies independently of what her exoskeleton did. While pressuring the witch hunter, Feelgood only needed to swipe her pen across her clipboard to send saws rising out of the ground near Ashley’s backup. They scattered to avoid the blades, but that couldn’t have even been a fraction of what Feelgood could have done. Most of her abilities were a closely guarded secret, and she never fought for very long anyway with her form’s high mana requirement. But if her mana was truly unlimited now, this was just a warmup.

"We need to weaken her." Mika shouted into her mic, still too far to be heard otherwise. "It’s the only way we can take her alive. Otherwise, we’re doing exactly what the monsters want."

Then Raven added: ”We just need to outlast her, right? A minute is tough, but we can do it."

“She’s not affected by time constraints anymore,” Ashley noted over her comm through gritted teeth. “She mentioned the training room being upgraded, and if it’s true, then that might be what’s feeding her so much extra mana. We need to see if we can locate the generators and knock them off line!” the Knight of Tomorrow instructed, trying to do just that while also keeping herself and Estelle safe from Binky’s attacks.

"I think Binky said a generator helped make the place change." Mika ducked under a flying syringe. "The projector is in the back of the room, just past the pool."

”If we all run for it, She’s going to jump us." A saw blade cut through the tail of Raven’s coat, but she didn’t slow down. ”Did you need any help, Orion? How many of us should assist you two?"

The reinforcements would be at Ashley’s position shortly. There was only so much Ashley herself could do against Binky. Only Estelle had any ability that could stop Binky’s attacks. But she wasn’t content to remain on the defensive. If there was even a fraction of a chance to get a hit in, Estelle would take it. She flicked her blade into an airborne buzzsaw and flicked it back at Feelgood, who caught and dissipated it with a despell melody. The bionic doctor retaliated by spraying the air with acid, trapping Estelle and Binky in a ring. Every moment that passed, the ring got thicker, but Estelle did not back away from her opponent. To do so would have invited Feelgood to fight someone who was worse equipped to deal with her.

“Cerberus, head for the projector,” Ashley instructed as she fired another bolt of neon green energy at a saw blade-tipped appendage that was descending on Estelle. “Paradise, you and whoever’s piloting that mech can help us keep Binky pinned down!”

"That’s Faith." Mika managed before hurrying off. Yes, Finn had accepted a mission to intercept a group of disgruntled tractor supply workers, who had repurposed several tractors into power armor and a mecha to attack one of the mayor elects. While the mecha’s pilot had escaped, Finn had suggested Gemini drag the mech to HQ so that he and Sharr could work on it. Ashley hadn’t been getting updates on it, but it seemed like it was in fully functioning order.

The mech had little issue running right over the ring of acid. Estelle jumped out of the reach of a wild swing, and planted her feet on the incoming mecha. She then raised her blade, and allowed herself to be shoved into Binky. Both the mech and Feelgood bounced away from each other. Raven pointed her gun and fired several rounds into Binky’s mid section. Most of them landed, few drew any blood, and her wounds started to close shortly afterwards.

“I should know better than to go easy on my students. Going for 100% output.”

With a flick of her finger, a beam of goopy acid soared past Mika and detonated. From the explosion emerged several spider-like robots equipped with scalpels, pillars covered in saw blades, and what appeared to be a few land mines. This only caused Mika to hesitate for a moment. She ran forth, determined not to let this slow her down.

Feelgood swiped her pen across the clipboard again, and her limbs grew longer. The hydraulic lines going to her bionic arms swelled, and the fittings looked like they could burst. Some of the lines developed pin holes that sprayed a green, corrosive mist. Faith and Estelle rushed Feelgood, but not before she reached over the mecha and took a swing at Raven.

”Hngh!" She was nicked by an incoming circular saw. As minimal as the wound was, the acid rapidly ate away at her coat, then her flesh. Binky continued to follow through with her swing right into Ashley.

Of course it was Faith piloting the mech, Ashley thought to herself, even as she raised her shield to block the incoming saw appendage, while simultaneously thrusting her twin-pronged techno-wand at one of the limb’s joints and firing an energy blast into it at point blank range. But even this failed to do anything. Perhaps the limbs were part of her instrument and nigh indestructible. At least Faith seemed to be doing well so far, despite, or perhaps because of her eccentricities, and the Knight of Tomorrow only hoped that would continue to be the case.

“Try not to get too close if you can help it,” the high-tech heroine instructed as she leapt away from the sinister surgeon. “She’s most dangerous at close range!”

"She’s dangerous at long range too." Mika called over coms while rushing past a drone. One of the pillars slid and rammed into Mika, but she harmlessly appeared on the other side of it. She had lost one life during the operation and one here, which meant this cat only had one left. Fortunately she was on the other side of Feelgood’s trap and only needed to cross the pool to gain access to the generator.

As Ashley had already noted, Faith was doing very well. She hadn’t fired any of the mech’s weapon systems, but she was making it easier for Estelle to move around. An energy shield covered the mech’s arm as half of Feelgood’s arms rammed into it. The shield flickered like a light that was about to go out, but it held. Estelle managed to reach in and touch Binky, sending a blue flame racing across her skin. It wasn’t her form that had caught fire though, it was her mana.

“I’m disappointed, Ashley.” Binky groaned. “You said you had no intention of attacking me. I think I should show you how futile your struggle is.” With a stomp, Feelgood activated a massive burst of acid right at her feet. It was enough to blow the mecha backwards, but Estelle was able to divert the blow to either side of her by using her sword. But she couldn’t do anything to stop Feelgood from racing to Mika’s position.

”Here!" Raven placed her hand on Ashley’s back, and the two of them were wreathed in light. ”Now we can catch up! She put everything into running after the doctor, and fired a few rounds at her for good measure.

​​“Thanks!” Ashley told her teammate as she employed the provided speed boost to keep pace and, ultimately, leap in front of Binky with her shield raised. “I hadn’t been planning on attacking you,” Ashley informed the gargantuan greenette as she fired an energy bolt into her legs. “But I won’t just stand by while my teammates are in danger!”

The Knight of Tomorrow knew getting so close was a massive risk, but she also knew that if they were to have any chance of stopping Binky, then Mika had to be protected at all costs.

Even with the acid filled robots and deathtraps at Ashley’s back, she didn’t budge from her defensive position. Feelgood continued to push forward. Maybe it was the adrenaline from before, but Ashley hadn’t realized how loud all of Binky’s equipment was. Between the spinning blades and hissing hydraulic hoses, it sounded like some prehistoric creature was bearing down on her.

“I know.”

Binky prepared to trample Ashley, then her entire body turned into a green dot and soared past her. It looked like a heart monitor: a neon light blipping from one destination to the other. If you’d blink you’d miss it. Feelgood reappeared beside Mika and lashed out.

"Grah!” Mika used her last get out of jail free card to appear on the other side of the generator. While both combatants were near it, it was evident that Mika wasn’t sure how to shut it off. The thing was heavily reinforced, but had to have an emergency kill switch somewhere. It was just difficult to find with her former mentor trying to slice her up. Though with Binky standing right next to the generator, she made an observation to the others. "She must be guarding the switch. Mika looked for a way through the doctor, Feelgood attempted to box in her prey.

Estelle followed up by blinking in herself.

With a deft defence, she sent half of Feelgoods arms reeling before rushing in to further put space between Binky and the generator. Both espers stumbled backwards, and Mika raced to the other side of the generator. She threw open a panel, threw a lever, and the generator rumbled to a stop.

A spray of blood soaked the side of her face.

One of Feelgood’s corrosive saws had found purchase in Witch Hunt’s wrist and cut her hand off. She tried to hold her asian blade with one hand, but it was no match for Binky’s six. A stream of corrosive acid severed her shoulder from her body. Estelle refused to grimace at the situation, but a stone face wasn’t strong enough to prevent Feelgood from swinging her saw into her midsection. Before she could double over, Feelgood kicked her off to the side, and she slammed into the wall before falling in a heap. Without stopping, she turned her attention onto Mika, who was guarding the shut off switch.

Raven shouted something, and used another melody to hasten Ashley. She fired on Binky, but everyone knew it was futile.

The mecha wasn’t fast enough, and the flamethrowers it had been equipped with were ill suited for fighting a battle at such a range. Faith would never make it in time.

It was up to the Knight of Tomorrow to secure the future.

Ashley’s heart had stopped as she watched Binky blink to Mika’s position, and her horror had only grown as Estelle’s butchered form was slammed against the far wall mere moments later. The generator may have been deactivated, but Binky still wasn’t backing down. The Knight of Tomorrow knew with rueful certainty that there was nothing she could do for the wounded Witch Hunter at the present moment, nor did any of her attacks seem capable of seriously hindering the deranged doctor, at least, none she could employ at her current level of mana. The only option she had was to use the boosted speed provided by Raven to race to Mika’s aid.

Upon reaching the imperiled agent, the high-tech heroine used nearly all of her remaining mana to encase Mika in a neon green field of force, which would hopefully serve to shield the cat girl from any further physical strikes and reflect the damage of any melodies Binky might try casting on her. Meanwhile, and with no regard for her own safety, Ashley once more placed herself in front of her former mentor. This time, however, she was not just between the sinister surgeon and a fellow agent, she was also preventing the greenette from reaching the generator. “Get out of here, Cerberus!” the Knight of Tomorrow instructed, even as her techno-wand’s dual prongs began to glow increasingly brighter. “I’m taking this thing out of the equation permanently!” While her attacks had been mostly ineffective against Binky’s superlative defenses, she was pretty sure the same couldn’t be said for the generator fueling them…

Mika was clearly taken aback by the order, but while Ashley couldn’t see Mika, she could hear her. She hadn’t moved from the switch. "You have no idea what that’s going to do. What if it blows up and kills everyone?” But Ashley wouldn’t even have a chance to respond. She was quite busy deflecting all of Binky’s weaponry. While Feelgood was trying to conserve their remaining mana, Ashley didn’t have nearly the defensive capabilities that Estelle had. She got nicked in the shoulder, some of her hair was cut free, a swipe at her legs cut into her shin on one leg and severed her other foot. Who knew if Binky had fifty seconds left or ten? All Ashley knew was that her techno-wand was charged up and there was still an obstacle between her and the generator’s control panel. Then Mika’s voice got loud, and something erupted from under the knight of tomorrow’s feet. "I wanna see mom!”

A beckoning cat sprouted up under Ashley, and pushed her up and above the incoming strikes. Mika used her nails to slice the handle off before rushing to engage Feelgood. A challenge that the bionic spider doctor seemed willing to oblige. But this fight wasn’t purely between these three. Estelle raised her finger and pointed it at Binky.

”Not today, kiddo.”

Estelle’s body turned into a ball of blue flame and flung itself at Binky. She was engulfed, yet the blue flames did nothing to harm her. Other than momentarily startling Binky, it looked like the attack was entirely ineffective.

Then her form seized up.

Binky’s esper form collapsed to the ground before she turned back into her normal self. “Heh!” Binky chuckled. “She really loved burning mana, huh?”

That was all she managed to say before Mika tackled her to the ground. By that point, Raven showed up to confiscate her side arm. ”Are you alright, Orion?"

​​“Y-Yeah,” Ashley replied weakly, wincing from the pain of losing her foot. “I-I’ll be fine. Is everyone else okay?” she inquired, her weary eyes scanning the room for signs of her fellow agents’ conditions (a task made considerably easier by sitting atop Mika’s giant conjured cat). While the mech Faith was piloting was easy to spot, as was Mika pinning down the (finally) defeated doctor, Estelle was nowhere to be seen. “W-Where’s Witch Hunter?” the Knight of Tomorrow inquired, a worried frown beginning to form on her haggard visage.

“I wonder.” Binky responded with a taunting tone. “I think I feel something under me. Maybe it’s her?”

Mika looked to Raven, who looked to the mech. Faith used the mech’s hand to roll binky onto her back before securing her in the mech’s vice-like grip. There on the ground was Estelle’s business suit. No words were exchanged as Mika approached the clothes and lifted them up. "Second one this week.” She transformed back and shrugged off Himiko’s jacket. Then she slid her arm through one of Estelle’s sleeves.

”Um-"

"We had a nice walk together.” The suit looked a little weird on Mika. She wasn’t as slender as the witch hunter, nor as tall. That didn’t dissuade her from wearing it. "We talked about life and looked at some animals. I want to remember her.”

Ashley bit her lip before closing her eyes and bowing her head. So, she was gone, then. Another agent lost to the slaughterhouse that was Pax Septimus. I won’t let her sacrifice be for nothing, the Knight of Tomorrow vowed before exhaling wearily. “Where’s Doctor Moller?” she asked. “We need to inform her of what’s happened here.”

Raven nodded in response, and pointed her pistol at Binky. ”What did you do with her? Where is she?"

Initially, Binky didn’t answer. But a slight shift in how the mech was supporting its weight caused her to groan. “She was too important to dispatch. I sealed her in the prison and set her grimoire in the lab.”

Raven reached for Binky’s name card and pulled it off from around her neck. ”I’ll be back shortly." and with that, Raven rushed off to find the doctor.

Once Mika had Estelle’s dress shirt on, she placed Himiko’s jacket back over it. With that done, she turned around and looked up at Ashley. "Do you need any help getting down?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ashley replied with an uncertain frown as she took note of the distance between herself and the floor. “I think I might…” If she was in normal condition, and not missing a foot, things would be a bit different, but as it was, the Knight of Tomorrow didn’t want to risk exerting herself any more than necessary. “Oh, and speaking of grimoires, we need to separate Binky from hers,” the high-tech heroine added. The last thing she wanted to see was a repeat performance of this debacle…

Mika placed her hand on the beckoning cat, and its spirit-like form sunk into the ground. Once Ashley was on the ground, Mika picked up Ashley’s severed foot and attempted to heal it back on. The wound was great, and Mika’s healing magic was not especially strong. Hundreds of tiny spirit animals were able to stitch her flesh back together, but it was still going to be painful to walk on.

Then she turned to Binky. The mecha hoisted her into the air and clutched her between both hands. “It’s my pendant. Or you can strip search me if you prefer. I think my skirt might go well with everything else you have there.”

The feline esper reached behind Binky’s neck, and she turned her head. Mika fretted her brow and reached further, and Binky turned her head more. Then she grabbed a fistfull of Binky’s hair and pulled her head forward. There was a cathode-ray tube glowing faintly on the back of her neck. It was similar to the ones Mika had reported seeing at the church. The construction workers who had shown up had something like this sticking out of their eyes. Mika looked over her shoulder at Ashley.

“Is that your original grimoire, or did you get that one from The Hand after you joined them?” the Knight of Tomorrow questioned her former mentor. She still didn’t know if Binky had chosen to act against G.E.M.I.N.I. willingly, or if some form of mental control was being exerted over her, and any information that might point toward an answer was information worth learning.

“Oh, now that’s a scary thought. Do you think monsters have started making grimoires?” Binky smiled, or at least her tone of voice seemed to suggest it. Mika hadn’t let go of her head. “Maybe it’s a bomb that’s going to blow up and kill everyone if you continue to man handle me like this.”

Ashley sighed in annoyance. “I guess we’ll just have to ask the director to look into it. Until then, let’s be as careful as we can.” She was pretty sure the glowing tube wasn’t an explosive, but in light of The Hand’s ingenuity, coupled with how things seemed to keep going from bad to worse, the Knight of Tomorrow wanted to take as few risks as possible.

The loud speakers on the mech crackled to life with static, and then a voice came through. “That won’t be necessary.” A small, vice-like bionic arm popped out of the mech’s chest and closed in on the tube. “I’ve encountered a few of these in the field, and so long as you remove them carefully there’s no adverse effects on the subject, so long as they’re not replacing anything important.” The mech used its thumbs to hold Binky’s head steady while the vice hand seized the cathode-ray tube. “There’s going to be some blood, but don’t panic. Some of the circuitry is running into her skin.” The vice squeezed down on a spot at the back of Binky’s neck. Her body trembled, blood flowed out of the fresh cut, but the cathode stopped glowing. The vice seized the tube and pulled it off of Binky’s neck before releasing her. “That should work provided there aren’t any more.”

Mika slid the pendant off Binky before taking a step back. When the greenette lifted her head to look at everyone, she looked just as exhausted as everyone present. Then with a sigh, she hung her head. “Ashley.” Her breaths were labored. “Nothing I did, or said, was really me. But I remember all of it.”

So it was mind control…

“It’s okay,” Ashley replied with a tired smile. “I’m just glad you’re back.” Then, turning to the mech, she inquired, “So, I take it you were the one piloting that thing all along, Doctor Webber?”

“Ho ho! You can pick out my voice over the speaker. I’m impressed!” There was no shortage of pride in Sharr’s voice. Ashley had absolutely been able to identify her because of how important she was, despite having never really spoken with one another. “Faith is my co-pilot. We decided it would be best if I piloted it given that Finn and I were the ones rebuilding it. The walker’s creator was awfully inefficient, and we really updated the cockpit along with its other capabilities. I didn’t think any of that was important enough to clarify while we were fighting. Also, Faith’s access to the loud speaker seems to be inoperable. Or disabled, I’ll have to look into it later.”

Mika batted her eyes and shook her head. "Bink, do you remember everything?”

Binky nodded. “I do, from when I was captured to now. It was like I was sharing my head with someone else. They had all the control, but I saw everything. There’s this massive TV in a penthouse suite. It has a ridiculous name. Morning Dragon Fruit the ‘some-number-or-another.’ It was a really pretentious sounding title, and they made me say it several times. I’m surprised I forgot it.”

Mika narrowed her eyes. "So their plan was to use you as a mole, and expected us to rescue you from the weretigers?”

“Yes, but I know where that TV is. They couldn’t have moved it, and it was definitely calling the shots in a pretty big capacity. I think it might have been one of the leaders of the Hand.” She looked over her shoulder at the mecha. “Can you release me?”

“Once we’re sure you’re not pulling our leg.”

“You think I’m still being mind controlled?”

“Likelihood is low. What do you think, Miss Avenir?”

“I’d like to believe she isn’t, but I really don’t want to take any chances,” Ashley replied. The greenette indeed seemed to be back to normal, and while her story was certainly strange, such oddities were distressingly common in Pax Septimus. Yet even so… “If I had enough mana left, I could probe her mind with a high intensity finder beam, but my reserves are basically empty… Binky,” she asked after a moment. “Do you know what happened to your original grimoire? Does The Hand still have it?”

“Um…” Binky hesitated. “What makes you think I have more than one?”

“Well, the one we just removed looks like a piece of Hand technology,” Ashley replied. “So I figured it was likely that wasn’t your original grimoire, but rather, one they replaced it with.”

“I think there’s some confusion here. I’d be happy to enlighten you, Miss Avenir.” The mecha’s head pivoted over to Ashley. “The cathode-ray tube looking device is not a grimoire. It seems to be a device that facilitates brainwashing or mind control. The exact answer eludes me but Oros and I saw a fair number of punks sporting them. Sometimes entire organs are replaced by these devices, but that was not the case with this one. Though if you suspect it to be a grimoire, you could always try destroying it. I just figured Fritzi would like to study it. Perhaps it would be more productive to try and destroy the pendant to establish its validity.”

“Oh… I was under the assumption that the mind control device was the pendant,” Ashley replied, sounding more than a little embarrassed by her blunder. Still, with how physically and mentally exhausted she felt, the mixup was somewhat understandable. “Sorry about that…”

“You should say ‘thank you’ instead of ‘i’m sorry’ when someone helps you out, Miss Avenir.” The mech’s head turned to Mika. “Well?”

Mika turned the pendant over in her hand. At the end of a long chain was a coin that seemed to have Binky’s profile on one side. Mika took her sharpened nail and poked at the surface. Then she tried to scratch the surface, but her claw slid off every time. With one frenzied flick of her finger, she managed to slide off the coin and cut her palm. Her fingers coiled around the coin tighter. "Seems real.”

“Fantastic.” The mech spun around and strut towards the hallway leading out. With Feelgood defeated, the saws blocking the path had expired along with all the other things she had summoned. “I think I’ve earned my freedom, so I’ll be taking my leave now. I’ll be sure to drop Binky off in a cell so that you can decide what to do with her later.”

“All right,” Ashley acknowledged with a nod. Turning to Mika, she added, “Let’s head over to the detention center as well. Paradise and Doctor Moller should also be there, and if the director’s condition allows for it, I’d like to discuss these recent developments with her.”

Mika’s ears twitched as Ashley spoke, but her eyes were focused on the mecha walking out of the room. "Alright.”

Moller was rather eccentric at the best of times, but even so, Ashley fervently hoped that the director would be able to offer some valuable insights on all the troubling revelations they’d learned, as well as guidance on how she and her team could best respond to them.