"Cindy Ford? More like Cindy got ignored! HA GOTTEEEEEEEEEM"
To the surprise of nobody, it wasn't long that Emily found herself alone on the rooftop. She was quickly joined by many of her sisters, although not all of them seemed to want to make friends. Luckily, however, the first one she met did. As a girl introduced herself as Shannon and extended her arm, so too did Emily. Giving a respectful shake to the girl, she nodded. "It is a pleasure to meet you. You can call me Luci."
They weren't given much time before another girl appeared, and this one far less welcoming in body language than Shannon. Lucifer would prefer to avoid fighting, but that didn't mean she'd blindly drop her guard against someone who seemed hostile. Her expression was tense, and she attempted to answer the query presented right after Shannon but was ultimately cut off by the appearance of the woman of the hour, Cindy Ford, who seemed to at least moderately enjoy making a spectacle of her appearance.
Not that Lucifer could blame her.
"How noble of you." Emily didn't pretend in the least like she was going to go along with the idea Ford presented. Sounded to Lucifer like Cindy just wanted to a place to play Queen. Threatening others just meant no matter what the objective, her motives probably weren't just. "But I'm not here to bow down."
It didn't take long for Lucifer to notice something was amiss. She turned to notice the changing scenery and, to her surprise, tornadoes beginning to form in the distance. They could cause a lotta damage. "A world in which I must ask for permission before I protect the innocent..." Lucifer's palms started glowing red-hot. "...is not one I'd willingly live in." Saying this, fire erupted from her palms and she jetted off towards the disturbances.
S i l h o u e t t e
"Don't remind yourself that at one point in her life, Sil was an adult male"
Keeping a low profile was nothing difficult nor new to Samantha. Since her 'escape', she hadn't been too active as a magical girl, instead continuing her part-time job helping the older storeowner. Her old routine continued, same as ever.
Yet, while things remained the same, they had also changed.
Ignorant as she was to certain social aspects of herself, Samantha was told by the storeowner that she had recently developed a skip to her step. The man claimed she seemed happier, but Sam herself never noticed it. At least, not until he pointed it out. But once he did, she began to notice certain things that weren't typical of her that she'd done. Things like offering to do more than necessary without ensuring bonus payment would be provided. Things like staying just a minute or two later to listen to the man finish up a story he'd been rambling on about.
And things like trying on a swimsuit, just to see if she'd look good.
Yes, while her routine had not changed, something did. She did. But for what reason? Samantha wasn't sure, even when she pondered why. Any changes in behavior would normally be associated with her lingering corruption, which while nothing serious had happened lately, was a problem she was aware hadn't gone away. But she could not use it as a scapegoat for this, as no matter how she thought about it, the corruption that desired nothing but death and violence and to erase her very sense of self should have absolutely no interest in those cute swimsuits.
And they certainly were cute.
...B-but it's not as though she even cares about those things in the first place! Just that, looking at it objectively, each one of those looked appealing and, if, say, she were to attempt to strengthen the credibility of her disguise as a normal human girl, then it would only make sense to find such things 'fashionable' or 'cute' or even 'sexy' because that is what girls her 'age' do! Yes, she was merely interested in them from a disguise standpoint, nothing else!
...besides, they were on sale! How could she NOT take at least moderate interest!
Silhouette hadn't seen anybody nearby, and sighed in relief as her hands came to her face. Her cheeks were flushed, perhaps due to embarrassment of what was going on in her mind. Thinking about such trivial things when Veronica had told her to head towards the graveyard... it was insane.
She needed to regain her composure and focus on the task at hand. Judging by the subtle change in scenery, and the forming tornadoes, it was likely something unpleasant was about to go down. The dark mahou shoujo, now collected, hurried towards the graveyard.
"You want to meet them?" began a voice from one side of a table. The muscled hand of Sasha Kasparov rested over the tablecloth, elevating a tablet a few centimetres above, displaying one of the more recent articles from The Independent. Published by Christine West, in regards to the stadium attack two weeks prior.
"Do you disapprove?" replied a second voice,belonging to The Boss, leant back in her favoured chair, at her favoured table, in her favoured restaurant - the Nerine Vista, "Nobody has called it a 'Blog', not before Lee. He's not from around here."
"Yes, Ma'am. I disapprove. Have you even looked into him yet?" came the thick, Russian accent, as she pressd onto the account linked to the comment, only to be greeted with with the words 'like%20i%27m%20stupid%20enough%20to%20provide%20my%20blog%20link%20here’s server IP address could not be found.'
The Boss let the question hang for a moment, as she reached for her glass, and drank deeply from it. "The Taskers gave him a once over, and the Surveyors are already doing a location sweep. He's not as clever as he thinks, I'll give you that for free." as she looked up from placing the glass back down, she caught Sasha's eyes. They were still unconvinced.
"What about the footage? Did you find him there?"
"I doubt he was at the stadium. Even if he was, Christine only watched the combat. No way of knowing what went on outside of that." when she finished, her phone began to vibrate. She pulled the device from her pocket, and read the message that had been sent - from Olympia.
"Ma'am, with respect, we know nothing about him. Yes, we have information, but not enough. If fight breaks out and he overpowers - or kills - someone with us? And why are we focussing on this than The Bate's threa-" her opposition was cut short, as The Boss raised her hand. Sasha eyed the phone, attempting to gauge what kind of message it had been, and comparing the ideas to the smile She wore.
"Really, who cares how strong he is, when I'm bringing you and Christine along?" she replied, before sliding the phone across the table to her friend, "Something more important just happened anyway, love. They met up at last."
Warily, Sasha read the message, listed under the contact simply named "Olympia"
002 and 003 together Weather distortion spotted, looks in line with Surveyor report
Sasha sighed. "That is twice you have been right today."
The Boss let out a chuckle in response, before pulling the phone back and standing from the table. "C'mon, it's been four years now, you should be used to it." a short walk away, she came to the window, and looked out through the one way glass to the street, and the people milling about outside, "Now then... work me a miracle, Penny Asimov."
~
Disparate Pieces
The Vixen took a back seat as Cindy, Lily, Alex, and the crowd of monsters arrived on the roof. It had barely been any time at all since her Bleeding, but with so many people - so much potential - around her, the flame of lust began to kindle itself once again. But she needed to keep control. She had a purpose for being here. It took effort, and more mental strain than she thought she reliably had, but she forced the flame down. Just until she finished what she needed to do.
However, before she could get to her purpose, she found herself, and the rest of those present, distracted by the weather show behind them. With her own bestial magic, she focused her eyes, gauging the intensity of the disruption in that direction. She hadn't been a magical girl that long, but the creation of tornadoes was somethingt she was entirely unfamiliar with. Lily was right, a Horror seemed fairly likely, especially if it was coming from the graveyard that one of Cindy's crew directed to, but The Vixen cared little.
She turned back towards Cindy, hoping to get to the reason she was there, but found herself, once again, cut off - this time by the rest of the girls that had arrived venturing off towards the disturbance. The girl on the motorbike, the girl with fire, the girl with stone. Things were getting annoying now. "Wait a minute, Cindy." she finally got out, now that things had calmed down, "I want to work with you. It looks to me like you have a lot of Monster Girls. I think I'd fit ri-"
Her proposal was cut off by another voice from behind. She had to force herself to stop, the annoyance of being cut off and stopped one too many times breaking the barrier she had tried so hard to maintain in the past minutes. The embers that made up her mental instability flared back into life, no longer satiated by the previous night, and the hunger drove itself back into the forefront of her mind. She turned herself to face the speaker, ready to kill them, when she heard the name.
“Thalia?”
"No..." with wide eyes, the tension that had built up in The Vixen's body tightened even further, as she locked gazes with Penny, "You're too early... you weren't meant to be here yet..!" involuntarily, The Vixen took a step back, up to the edge of the rooftop of Penrose Town Hall. Penny had arrived at the worst time. Hunger swelled within her, and friend or foe, it didn't care.
There was only one recourse. She could feel it taking over - her mind switching modes, passing the controls off from "Thalia" and onto "The Vixen". Beyond her control, her tails swirled together, forming a nine coiled mess of burnt and bloody fur, which rose into the sky behind her like a scorpion's sting, over the top of her equally burnt, and torn, red robes. "...Sorry." were the only words she got out, before energy built up behind her, firing a beam of fire from the tips of her tails, aimed directly at Penny.
The beam lasted for barely a few seconds, enough time to create a distraction, before Thalia dropped off the side of the building, clearly intent on running.
Rebecca took a moment, atop the roof. She banished her weapon, hoping to keep her nerves in check, and took to rereading the document Christine had passed onto her. It was covered in a few blocks of text, practically an essays worth, detailing her “story”. The stuff written there was in almost disturbing detail. The concepts, the ideas, and the motivations were scarily in line with Rebecca herself: how she might have felt; acted; believed - some years ago.
If this was the kind of detail necessary to get past a magical lie detector, then she was all for it, but still, she held a slight amount of concern to how She had created something so accurate. Charlotte must have told her everything. Twin Soul she may have been, but that girl hadn’t yet learnt the power of information. Ever since that Beacon article screw up...
Weather distortion spotted 006 is a Beacon member, and will most likely head there See Surveyor Data: _____
Rebecca’s phone buzzed with information. The number belonged to the Support Centre, Surveyor Division, and attached was a link. Pressing it opened the usual fanfare, confetti and digital fireworks included, and brought up the app the Surveyor Division had specially designed, with its various, ridiculous, and unnecessary embellishments. Why She greenlit something like it to be used for the Independent was beyond her. The moment the app opened, it switched to the view the link had provided her - a satellite image of a Penrose City, with a single, static dot, over what appeared to be a graveyard.
With a sigh, Rebecca resummoned her weapon, and took a few steps across the roof, to the door Christine had exited from some minutes ago. She stepped down the staircase, into the building, and then into the shadow of one of the rooms, only to disappear entirely.
Alicia was still thinking as she exited the HQ, trying to pick a good spot for a meeting. In all likelihood any old spot would do, but she wanted to make sure that it was in a place where she could receive reinforcements relatively quickly if there did end up being a fight of some kind. Not that she was expecting it, but these days taking chances like those was something that they couldn't risk.
She was in the middle of writing a text to respond when her glance rose, settling on the dark storm clouds that hadn't been there earlier. Hard to miss, with it being so dark as to practically be night time. Street lamps flickered on, for what good they would do. Yet at the same time it sent a chill through her bones as she remembered what Sylvia had so recently told her. It didn't look like a natural cloud formation, and a quick check of the weather forecast indicated as much based on what there had been in the morning.
"You know, when she said to be prepared because a great darkness was approaching, I didn't think she was being quite so literal," Alicia muttered to herself. At least it gave her a good idea as to what she could do for this meeting. She quickly typed up that message and sent it off, getting that out of the way to focus on the more pressing matter at hand.
Hello. I would be glad to discuss a partnership and potential cooperation between you and the Beacon. If you can see the ominous storm clouds above the city right now, I would be happy to meet with you at their epicenter, where we can get to know each other better and determine if a partnership would be worthwhile at the same time
Having sent that off, she wasted little time in transforming into her magical girl form. "Beckoner," she said aloud, glancing over to where her patron would undoubtedly appear. "I'm going to go look into this. If Sylvia wants to send reinforcements, it probably wouldn't be amiss," she told it as she gestured to the clouds, before heading off. Time to once again confront whatever was threatening the city this time. And hopefully, she would actually get to do something meaningful in the 'saving' part of the plan to save the city from doom.
Not seconds after lamenting the loss of her doughnut, did something unexpected happen. Her ears heard it first. The sound of something...climbing? Like scratching against stone. For a few seconds she simply passed it off as post doughnut loss stress, but it continued until she could very clearly hear it from close by. Once she looked up, she was met with a sight she had no idea how to even respond too. A girl - no wait - two girls, one with cat ears with a bag of...doughnuts in her mouth had somehow climbed up the entire building, carrying a second on her back.
It took Rina's brain an entire thirty seconds to process what she was even looking at. The cricket symphony she was pretty sure she was hearing wasn't helping. Had she finally gone crazy? Had the magic finally all gone to her head? What she did understand however, was one thing. Doughnuts.
Placing a hand on both of Mika's shoulders, looking at her like she was some sort of doughnut goddess, swiping the bag from Mika's mouth and quickly taking one out before realizing she probably should be questioning this more. A normal girl somehow speaking the thoughts of a monster girl was most certainly not normal. Yea, little red flags everywhere, but Rina didn't feel any inherent hostility from this one.
"...uh, right, okay." She coughed nervously, biting into one of the doughnuts. "I'm just going to...not ask questions because I don't think I want to know the answer, but uh, thanks. For the doughnuts." It was then, she got another beep from her phone. That was fast. Thankfully she wasn't startled by it this time. Quickly flipping out the phone, Rina read the message.
Hello. I would be glad to discuss a partnership and potential cooperation between you and the Beacon. If you can see the ominous storm clouds above the city right now, I would be happy to meet with you at their epicenter, where we can get to know each other better and determine if a partnership would be worthwhile at the same time
She wanted to meet...there? She was probably in the middle of cleaning up whatever that mess was then.
"Uh look-" Taking a second out of the bag, she handed the bag of doughnuts back to Mika. "Thanks, but I've gotta go." She motioned towards the ominous clouds in the distance. "I uh, dunno about your friend," She blushed slightly, remembering the 'more than friends' part. Actually. Wait. She had a phone now. She could...text people! Maybe...could she? Would she?...
She didn't have anything to write it with, did she?
"But I've got work to do and not any time to waste. I'll properly thank you later!" Said perhaps a bit harsher than she intended, but she was too embarrassed to try and correct herself. Besides, she did have a job to do. So Rina stuck one doughnut in her mouth before jumping off the rooftop, unknowingly dining and dashing on Mika for the second time.
Understood. I'll be the bow user with the swords. Red Attire. Meet you there - Rina.
What even was this? The feeling of illness in the air. A stifling, stagnating, sick smell that threatened to make her vomit. Urgh, this was just bad, wasn't it? The ominous clouds in the air proved as such. She could easily tell what was going on. From both the dragons experience, and her other sources of information. This was bad. Someone was doing something quite filthy.
How obscene.
She'd find whoever it was and make sure to thoroughly purify them. She wouldn't stand for such things in her world.
"Woooow! It's like it's almost nighttime!"
"Indeed, Aurora." Chloe said with a frown. "Smells like someone's doing something they shouldn't." The Dark Magical girl tapped her orb irritably, the dark sphere cold to the touch as usual. This was...troubling. Extremely so. She may have had slight...shall we say, not morally upstanding traits or desires, but she didn't wish the destruction of the world. Nay, she wanted something infinitely better for everyone.
"So what we gonna do?"
"Hm. Whoever and whatever this is, I'm getting nothing. The dragons' old memories say this seems familiar, but I'm getting nothing from our Lord except a hatred." Smirking lightly, Chloe shifted her stance. "I'll go...deal with them. No doubt Beacon is also going to be all over this, and It would be best I deal with them. I can at least, talk my way out of things easier than you'd be able too."
"Aww...I don't get to fight?"
"I want you to do something else for me. You've gotten a good grasp of your powers now, correct?"
"Hmm...I think so? I've been training on some ghosties I've found around the place."
"..." Chloe turned to look at Aurora, face turning into one of mild confusion before being replaced with obvious anger. Reaching out, she grabbed the boy by one of his cheeks, pulling on it roughly.
"Wah! Hey! What'd I do?!"
"Those ghosties were my scouts."
"Wah I'm sorry I didn't know!"
"Ugh, well It doesn't matter at the moment." She replied with a sigh. "I want you to simply keep watch for now, Aurora. If Beacon shows up in mass, I'll definitely be in a slight bit of a bind."
"But-" A swift glare from Chloe quickly silenced Aurora. "Yes Chloe sorry Chloe. Understood!" He meekly replied, before quickly bouncing back. "You can trust your back to the luckiest magical girl around, yep! I'll make sure nothing bad gets yer backside!" She had a few reasons for not including Aurora in this. Mostly because she didn't want to potentially reveal more of her hand to Beacon. She also couldn't afford to potentially lose Aurora in this. Man power was a precious resource she wasn't keen on wasting, and she if nothing else, protected her things.
"Lets get started then, shall we?"
Wings of crystal carried Chloe into the air, her orb trailing behind her. Hmhm, maybe she could have a little fun with Beacon while she was there. She really did want to get on some speaking terms with them, if possible. Maybe she could use this to build a relationship of some sort, hm? Either way, she couldn't let whatever this was happen on her watch.
”You don't know who I am?” Her arms remained on either side of Amaryllis. ”How is that even possible? Well, I don't think you're lying.” The girl took a step backwards. ”Lets start over.” She blinked a few times before saying anything. ”I'm Betty Barton. I'm protecting someone from mint agents. Who might you be?”
Mika watched as Rina flew over her head and hit the ground running, heading off towards the conflict.
"I think we came on too strong, Lupa." Mika giggled. "Of course not! You're a fantastic wing man!"
“Donuts!”
Mika picked up the bag of donuts. She felt pretty proud of herself. This was the second time she tried to talk to someone, and it went rather well. Mika was starting to think she had a gift for this sort of thing. But then she realized that, again, she failed to get a name out of the person. A transmission from Boteg pulled Mika out of her thoughts.
"Thou shall protect thy home while thy allies do work most splendid."
"Actually, I'm going to the disturbance."
"Wha-" Boteg's voice was trembling. "Little scare! Thou allies are already en route! Do not become a yeastly clapper-clawed barnacle! Defend thy home at once!"
A cloud appeared under Mika and Lupa's feet and they shot off into the distance. "Sorry Boteg, but I really need to get this girl's name. I've been here for a few weeks and you guys are still my only friends."
"Little scare!?" The dragon swallowed. "Dragon scare, you must not leave thy home! Sky scare has most splendid reinforcements! Thou shall protect thy true master!"
Elroy was counting the incoming magical girls. "Eight, nine, ten, eleven, and they keep on coming." He nodded. "I can take numbers like that with my hands tied behind my back, sand pushed up to my waist line, and a bag tied around my head!"
"That's about the numbers I was expecting." Regina didn't flinch. "They outnumber us Elroy, and even if they didn't, they just have to disrupt the ritual."
Elroy chuckled. "I hate to be the one to break it to you Regina, but if you expected us to go against odds that we couldn't possibly beat, might not have been a great idea to start this thing."
"I never said we couldn't beat them, or even that they had an advantage." Regina reached between her breasts. "Say Elroy, you're a curious sort. What do you think would happen if a monster girl used a black coin?"
"I imagine it would do something super cool. Like unleash rampant corruption through their bodies, infusing them with unimaginable power while inflicting mental mutations that are impossible to overcome. They would become saturated in negative emotions so intense that they become an entirely different person. At that point they aren't merely monsters, but demons." He looked to Regina. "Or maybe they turn into something called a monster queen, or I guess king if they were a boy. One of those options, if they don't die first."
Regina was flipping a black coin between her fingers. "Would you like to find out?"
"Did you..." Elroy placed his hand on top of his head. "Did you not hear a single word I said?"
"What's the matter Elroy? I didn't think you were the type to be cautious."
"You're not the type to smile, and here you are."
"I'm like anyone else. I smile when I'm happy." Regina held the coin up to her face. "I've been waiting for this moment ever since Veronica handed me this coin. Using this makes us a big player. It puts us on the same level as Justine Von Visceral."
"I seem to remember people saying she turned up missing, her castle is in ruins-"
"Elroy" Regina fret her brow. "The only thing I need to be happy in this world is one person like Annabelle. The world had my entire life to give me that, and they never delivered, not once. The closest thing I've ever had is you." She placed her hand on Elroy's shoulder. "You want me to be happy, right Elroy? You understand that we need to use this in order to win."
"...Yes."
"Then lets do it together." Regina's grin spread across her face as she held the coin out. "Put your hand over it."
Elroy groaned. "You guys better cook me a pizza after this." He placed his hand over the coin, and black clouds spiraled outwards in all directions. They were thick like smoke, and rolled over the graveyard. Even the incoming magical girls weren't safe as the inescapable cloud blew past them. Shrouding them in darkness. The smoke did not clear out entirely but sections of the graveyard did. This fragmented the group and forced them to fight apart in several small squads. They were all pit against different opponents in cut off sections of the graveyard.
Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Moirai Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Mystic Artifact
After Silhouette, Mika and Lupa hit the smoke and got to the other side, they found themselves staring at what looked like a mausoleum, surrounded by various cross-shaped graves. Atop the mausoleum stood a noble knight, her sword drawn and wearing a knight's helmet, with the visor opened. Her red cape fluttered in the stormy winds. We meet again, Black Rogue, Shona addressed Silhouette, pointing her sword at her. "You are tainted by darkness, and beyond salvation. By Beacon's merciful light, I shall smite you." She lowered her visor. "I challenge you to a duel. Face me in single combat! She stomped down on the mausoleum's roof, and cast a spell of protection on herself, strengthening her defenses with barriers of Reinforcement; in fact, a magical knight's shield formed on her free arm, shining with the symbol of Beacon.
As she did that, the small structure began trembling. Then, out of the dark depths began swarming Horror minions; small blobs with tentacles for arms and legs, and eyes for facial features, with varying humanoid shapes. However, they seemed to ignore Silhouette completely, and instead focused on Mika, who was still carrying Lupa on her back. The horrorlings were also glowing, their power amplified by Shona's magic, and they seemed to fight in rank and file, almost human in their intelligence thanks to Shona's Power of Friendship. Having confirmed that Mika and Lupa were occupied by the monsters, Shona leapt off the mausoleum, aiming a downward slash with her sword at Silhouette.
"Lupa, let's wrestle!" As the monsters approached, Mika offloaded Lupa and changed her arms into bear claws. Then she started beating them as they came close. Lupa was able to quickly transform and join in, punching straight through their bodies.
“There's a lot of them. But there were a lot of skeletons too.” Fortunately, Mika didn't have to mentally command Lupa to do every little thing. She seemed to be capable of defending herself just fine. However, Mika wasn't about to leave part of her pack out here by herself.
Su and Chloe broke through the wall of smoke together. They appeared to be in the pet cemetery that was located inside the graveyard. The gravestones were small statues, few rising above the knees. The largest grave was a statue depicting a trio of dogs howling at the moon together.
”Were we the only ones who made it? I doubt everyone would have run away from some black smoke.”
“Gah!” Alicia stumbled away from some horrific minions, nearly tripping on a statue of a bunny. Blobs of tar with eyes floating in them. They rolled forward as their eyes constantly rearranged themselves. “It's an ambush!”
”Alicia?” Su raised an eyebrow. ”Weren't you behind us?”
“Something threw me!” She pointed over her shoulder. “Can you please just shoot the monsters already?”
”Right.” Su fired some small cyclones at the towering horrors.
Alexander and Emily were surrounded by dozens of empty graves. Things had gotten so bad in Penrose that sometimes they would dig graves in advance just to have them on hand. It was just a rumor, but it looked like it might be true. Sitting in the middle of it all was a giant black mass with a single eye and tentacles. Standing on top of it was non other than Tonya.
”T-that boy from the colosseum!” She was looking directly at Alexander. ”Alright buster! I tried to swing you to the right side before, but you were too ignorant and stuck up to help us beacon girls save Annabelle!” She folded her arms. ”Just because you're a healing expert doesn't mean you can sit on the side lines and act all indifferent! You need to take a stand for what's right! And what's right is Beacon!'”
Lily and Kyle both emerged from the smoke to the sound of Abigail's obnoxious laughter. The gravestones here were mostly traditional tombstones, Though it looked like funeral service was prepared, but everyone fled once the ritual started. The casket was suspended over a hole, and there were yellow roses scattered about the area. Just behind it, Abigail was surrounded by robed cultists who's heads were a single massive eye. There was a giant horror behind her that had a large bubble on its back. The bubble was transparent, and a nebulous energy was swirling around inside it.
”Hi Aurelio!” Abigail gave her fellow beacon boy a wave. ”Did you want to try meeting the Bates again? They were kind of disappointed you ran off.” She placed a hand on her chest. ”I for one was a bit troubled that you didn't want to join us. I thought we were friends!” She started to blush, and her eyes closed to half mast. ”I let you touch my hand, and I let you put that magic mark on me. Hoping that you'd come by. Once, even just once.” She sniffed, and tears started to run down her face. ”I thought we had something after that!”
Alicia, Summer, and Rina were the only ones who made it to the center of the graveyard. Off in the distance was the crypt, which was the only source of light in this place. The dim glow of a powerful magical barrier kept intruders out. Standing on top of the crypt were the monster of the hour: Regina and Elroy.
But they were different.
Regina looked a lot more primal in appearance. Her horns were longer, she had more of them, and her tail looked like a long black spine. There was also a massive dragon head hovering over her shoulder, salivating as it eyed up the magical girls.
Elroy looked different too. He looked less like a monster and more like a king. He wore a cape and had gilded chains holding his regal outfit together. Elroy even wore a clip that looked like a crown, as if signifying his right to rule.
"Socks!" Elroy cast out his arms. "How long has it been? I know it's been a little over a month, but it feels like a little over a year, doesn't it?" The boy jumped off the top of the crypt and landed in front of the girls. He already had his shield and gauntlets drawn.
"Hope you weren't expecting to just march in here." Regina Raised her rifle, but didn't look through the sights. "Tell her how it is, Elroy. I'm ready to start."
"Surely we can spend a second catching up, right?" Elroy tucked a hand into one of his pockets, remaining stationary. "That was a wild night though, wasn't it?" Elroy tipped his head. "I mean, tin can tried to kill my sister, I thought she did, and then I got sorta mad at her. I think that's cool because I remember we were almost done talking our way to a peaceful solution." He pointed at himself. "But I was the one you decided to shoot at. I find that kind of interesting." He chuckled. "Now don't worry, I'm aware all three of you are pissing yourselves right now, but there is no correct answer to the question I'm about to ask. Admission of guilt doesn't lower your sentence in the Bate's court. But before I slaughter the three of you, I just gotta know if Socks would have done things differently knowing what she does now." His eyes focused solely on Alicia. "Is that really what Beacon stands for? Helping your own, even when they're in the wrong?"
Alicia did't know Elroy well, but she could tell he had changed. This wasn't the patient boy who wanted to peacefully talk out of a fight, or was willing to ask her if he'd let her retreat. Whatever sort of transformation he went through did more than just alter his appearance and power.
Alexander's eye twitched "Now you listen here; I am not ignorant and stuck up, I am jaded and bitter! There is a huge difference, so get it right! Second; don't you dare call me a healing expert!" he practically spat like it was disgusting to say "I am not some good little boy who will stay somewhere safe to patch up every little cut and booboo you get! I am just as capable of kicking ass and fucking shit up as the next person!" As he ranted, he called upon his bestial magic, transforming him into his second form. "Also, what exactly are doing on top of that thing?" He asked, his anger being replaced with confusion "Isn't Beacon all about killing things like that?"
As Lily and Alex rode towards the dark and gloomy graveyard, gaining distance from the Town Hall, Lily's confident posture began to slump, and she began to shiver. "You don't think we gotta fight...Ghosts?" She asked, sounding scared. "Well, even if we do, you'll protect me, so there's nothing to fe-AAAAGHHH!" Her eyes widened, and she let out a stereotypical scream queen's wail when black smoke erupted, consuming them both within it, causing her bike to disappear as it crashed on a gravestone. She couldn't see anything, her sense of direction completely lost. "Alex!" *cough cough* "Aleeeex! Where are you!" She called out, trying to walk in the direction of his shouting voice, only to find herself on the other side of the smoke, somewhere else. She found herself staring at a strange, flashy boy wearing a top hat and holding a cane. "Whoaaaah..." Her eyes were wide. "You...You're not Alex. Wait, are you...Tuxedo Mask? Without the mask?" She blushed, only to blink as she heard some high-pitched, mocking laughter. She turned to see Abigail, and lifted an eyebrow at the strange speech. She puffed her cheeks. "The Bates? Are they responsible for all the darking around here?" She then saw the horrific cultists, and summoned Ramuh, her trusty bow. "Aurelio, don't listen to her! I've seen this magic before: she's hypnotized! And the only way to remove it is to kick her ass! She looked at Aurelio with a determined expression. "Don't worry, I'll make sure you two can be together again! True love wins in the end!" She drew back on her bow, and an arrow in the form of a lightning bolt appeared on it, aimed straight at Abigail. Then, she let loose, launching a Barrage of lightning arrows with even faster speed than before; thanks to her Time magic, she was able to accelerate the firing speed to equal a semi-automatic rifle. As she did so while strafing around the arena, she focused completely on dodging the smiling girl's spells.
Cindy crossed her arms, displeased with most of the girls ignoring her words and heading off, looknig towards the graveyard. ‘Hmph. Just like I thought,’ she claimed, even though her expression hinted the opposite. ‘This city needs order, before it crumbles in the face of anarchy. All these magical girls running around will only result in ruin. Well, it is my responsibility to lead everyone, so...’ She took a step, about to leave the rooftop, when she stopped; someone actually wanted to join her. Cindy's expression turned to a warm smile, knowing that her authority would finally be respected. ‘Of cou-’ She managed to say, before her smile turned into an angry glare; another monster girl, this one mechanical, caused distress in the fox girl, and she fled. Before Penny could pursue her, Cindy stopped her, blocking the way with her arm. ‘That girl is under my protection now, and I won't allow you to lay a hand on her, not as long as her desire is to be free from you,’ she spoke coldly, her face in a neutral expression. She assumed that the likelihood of this strange girl attempting a pursuit with hostile intention is considerable, and she wasn't going to let that easily slide. ‘Now tell me: how do you know her? Why do you seek her?’ She stared her down, not willing to budge an inch.
Since the last incident which resulted in Boteg's crew acquiring a handicapped magical girl, Helga had realized the sacrifice the wolf girl had made in protecting Mika...And more importantly, how she was not there for her. Flashbacks to Amber caused her to stay cooped up in her room for a several days, until finally she came out, having found new resolve. Having dressed up back in her maid uniform, she set out to make Golden Grove a sanctuary for weak magical girls; a place where they can find solace, safety, and friends. To make it happen, she had requested Boteg to be given more responsibility, and in a couple of weeks began working in more management roles.
One day, while she was working on the reception desk and typing using her claws (she found them far more accurate than her normal fingers for some reason, although they needed to buy a custom-fit keyboard for them), she was summoned to Boteg's office. The dragon looked quite goofy in his attempts to resemble humans, as his saurian head popped out of a business suit. Helga stifled a giggle, only to turn serious once she understood that Su needed her. "I'm on my way, Master Boteg!" She leapt out of the window, and transformed, using her mechanical twintails as improvised gliders to gently land on a nearby rooftop. Soon enough, she found the source of commotion, and passed by the Vixen, giving her a friendly handwave with a toothy smile before she continued, charging right into the black smoke. "Su! I'm right here!"
A certain girl was perched on an antenna, crouching with her forearms tucked between her legs, as she peered down. The sheer blackness swirled and fumed, having enveloped the entire graveyard. She sighed, and pawed at her head as cold winds caused her earring to jingle. "Nyaaah...Mistress is once again out there, fighting..." Kimble quietly mumbled to herself. "And I'm sitting here, uselessly. I know she wants to keep me safe, and that's why she doesn't take me to missions..." She jumped off the antenna, and stood up on the roof. "But I'll prove nyaself to her! I've gotta help! But how?" Her fluffy cat ears perked up to the sound of screams, and she saw that one of the tornadoes was approaching city limits. "Nyah! I'll stop the wicked wind!" She ran on all fours, her two tails whisking behind her, and she began flying, brought aloft by green whisps of magical air. "Mrrrow! Die, bluster, die!" She hissed, having brought her sickle to bear, and fought the black hurricane, cutting it away.
Summer transformed on the way to the graveyard, her trusty bat forming in her hand as she did. When they arrived though, everyone was separated. It was by luck alone that she was in the same area as Alicia, and that fact made her even more confident that they'd win against whatever came next. That being a boy dressed in an adorable king's outfit and a girl with a dragon.
While Elroy wasted time talking, Summer decided to figure out what they were up against. She set her bat against her leg and pulled her sketchpad from her handbag. She began stretching the scene in front of her which with her experience didn't take long at all to have a rudimentary picture of the Bates and the graveyard behind them, crypt included. As she drew, she learned more and more about what she was drawing; the crypt was their main target, if that wasn't obvious from looking at it, and the Bates had apparently used another Black Coin to stall for time!
"This isn't your average darkness... this is advanced darkness! Alicia, they're double coined! Hopefully that means they're doubly weak to light, right? Not... half weak. Oh no, what if they have new magic!? We... we..." She paused and filled in more details of the Bates in her drawing. She flipped to another page and quickly drew Alicia and the final girl in the area. "Well... shit." Summer ran over to Alicia and whispered into her ear. "Do you think you can get through the barrier and make it to the crypt? Me and sword-girl over there can handle these two in the Overcity. Alternatively, I could do what I did to the cathedral to the crypt and a bit of the rest of the graveyard, just on purpose this time. I'll probably get slaughtered on the other side but at least we'd win. Up to you though, great leader."
Betty Barton…man, people named their kids Betty still? What was this, the 70s?
Of course, Amaryllis wasn’t nearly brave enough to vocalize her snide remarks, and instead spent all her time hoping she could sink into the wall like a ghost, her head tilted away slightly by this weird anti-Mint girl who…somehow thought she was Mint? Without actually knowing who she was? Such overconfidence and audacity. She certainly wouldn’t be able to do something as embarrassing like that, especially not when a crowd was just passing by!
Thankfully, Betty stepped away, and Amaryllis relaxed slightly, the flush of her cheeks receding. Readjusting the collar of her sweater (not that it needed adjusting at all), she took a couple of seconds to stabilize her breathing, deep breaths causing her chest to rise and fall like a balloon being pumped while there was a small hole in it. “Okay, good. Start over, yes,” Amaryllis nodded, “I’m, uh, Amaryllis Evenings. Sorta wanted to check out that whole Cindy Ford thing…but what were you saying about Mint agents? And why’d you think I was one of them? I mean, like, you know…”
She tilted her head to the side, before quickly shaking her head, hands raised up.
“Oh, but like, no pressure or whatever. Just super curious cause I mean, I thought you only tackled people you loved…ehehe…not that I’m insinuating anything at all, nope.”
Huh, she felt like her Sword was trying to tell her something, but for now, Amaryllis was content with having a proper conversation with her less glamorous self. @BrokenPromise
"In which Silhouette decides to use her pride as a skilled killer as a way of hiding her edgy 12yo OC from her friends"
Upon seeing the knight atop the mausoleum, the Crimson Cradle's Idol clutched the grip of her knife tightly. Her expression slowly warped into that of a vicious wolf baring its fangs, and she trembled with primal anger. The foe before her was a familiar one, a victim of an attack made by someone who was not herself. And with the trauma of that incident came a near-relapse that threatened to send Sil into another berserker rage.
But she was now stronger than that.
This feral rage is for mutts with no skill, that's not what I am! You can sit back while I show you who the real Samantha is!
Her features began to ease back into the stoic expression she was known for, the grip on her weapon following suit. The being inside her said nothing, but she could tell that it was displeased, to say the least. But she didn't care. This body of hers, it belonged to Samantha, the former contracted killer, and a current member of the Crimson Cradle. It was not property of some beast who could not differenciate between a target and a victim! Tighter than any vise, Samantha would take hold of the traits that separated her from the corruption, even if it was difficult or unfamiliar with her.
The girl from before, Shona, had in this time issued a challenge to Silhouette herself. The beast inside would love nothing more than to come out and play, Sil knew, but she'd stuck it in a time-out it was going to stay in so long as she could help it. "Perhaps," Silhouette clenched her left hand into a fist and then traced its entirety up until the elbow with her right hand, applying Stasis to it, before continuing, "But even if that is the case, I really don't have the time to listen to a squire telling me I'm not worthy of something I've never asked for."
Things had occurred in such a way that made this particular fight, as least for now, a strict duel between the two girls. With the others currently distracted by the horrors Shona had apparently summoned, she wasn't likely to receive help until they were dispatched. But this was fine by her. If anything, she preferred it this way.
When the fight began, it did so signaled by Shona's leaping from the top of the mausoleum and subsequent slash at Silhouette's position. Her response was to raise her left arm and position it to deflect the blow, it now acting as close to a shield as Sil was going to get at the moment. Once it had done so, she attempted to jab her knife straight into Shona's neck before she could recover from her attack.
E m i l y
"Nothing written here will ever compare to what was written in my previous post, I'm sorry."
Emily preferred to avoid fighting her brothers and sisters whenever possible, but knew the inevitability of doing so. For whatever reasons, Magical Girls and Boys would have to clash with other Magical Girls and boys, and in particular, those under the control of a Horror were more prone to do so. So it was needless to say that when she spotted the girl riding atop of a horror, she had her doubts that things would resolve themselves peacefully.
Emily did not let her guard down.
But even if she were going to fight another magical girl, she would certainly not throw the first blow uncessarily. And since this girl and this boy knew each other, she clung to the hope that diplomacy would prevail. While she wasn't subtle in showing she was prepared to break into battle at any given second, she eyed the two of them and waited for whatever conclusion their speaking might reach.
"Rina, alright then," Alicia muttered to herself. At least she had a name now, and she turned from that to what they would soon be confronting. Progress was initially easy, and she caught sight of other magical girls in the distance heading towards the same place. At least she wasn't the only one to recognize the dangers of this. Now hopefully it would work out better than the whole Justine business had.
Difficulty arose with wall of darkness, and her arms rose to cover her face as she was buffeted by the sudden burst. Though it pushed her back, she was not knocked off of her feet. Almost as if by reflex her power flared, illuminating around her and allowing her to chart a course forwards and to whatever was causing this.
Emerging from the smoke, Alicia would find several things to draw her attention. The first was the crypt with a magical barrier around it. It also served as the only source of light, meaning that this had to be the center of what was going on.
She also found that she wasn't alone. Nodding to Summer, her gaze shifted to the other girl. Red outfit, though she didn't seem familiar. Most importantly were the duo that approached them, and she took a step back as realization set in. For a moment she hadn't recognized them, but the mention of that nickname brought it all right back. No one had mentioned that their appearance had changed so drastically!
Her face darkened as he spoke, ironically agreeing with Regina in that sense. Light twisted and formed as Star Seraph appeared. The bow rested comfortably in her grip as she raised it, aiming directly at Elroy as she pulled back the drawstring and manifested a shining arrow of light. "Plan A, no shifting by yourself," she replied swiftly to Summer, her attention diverted but a moment.
Facing down Elroy, he would meet with only a steel resolve and iron certainty. "We have nothing to discuss," she growled, meeting his challenge head on. "Whatever this is, it ends now." She had gone in fully expecting there would be no peaceful retreat, and was prepared to face that. She'd given the Bates a chance before, and they'd taken it and brainwashed her sisters. And now they were aiding this...whatever it was. They wanted to force this to the bitter end? Fine.
In any case, she was more than willing to shoot first and did so, her aim adjusted as she fired over Elroy's shoulder at Regina. It would cross part of the distance between them, nearing before exploding into a vibrant star of pulsing light. She then dodged to the side, in case it wasn't effective on Regina's altered form and there was a retaliatory strike.
"Rina, right?" she called back without looking. "You take care of the boy. I'll handle our sniper problem." Another arrow was strung and fired, this time without the fancy tricks as she engaged Regina in a long range battle. At least she had cover on her side as she slowly advanced towards the crypt.
After speaking with Regina, Soth had moved his final pieces into the now-sealed crypt. Specifically, onto the single, great lower level that had been dug into it when it was originally built. A great and spacious room, its floors and very walls were covered in sigils and symbols of strange and alien make, defiling what had once been a resting place for the dead with nothing short of a Greater Horror's influence. Dark forms, some walking on fours, some moving about on long yet slender tendrils, and others moving about in cloak and hood as they skittered about in anxious anticipation of what was to come.
In the center of it all lied a stone-carved altar, carved with immaculate and inhuman levels of skill. Designs of eyes and tendrils caressed the altar's curves protectively along the sides, almost seeming alive, as dark sigils glowed upon it with a black yet soft light. Edges of it were inlaid with gold, silver, and jewels originating from Earth and other alien worlds. It was indeed a sight to behold, and lying on top of it was the most important part. A large white sheet, under which the still form of a human corpse could be perceived. The body of a dead magical girl, prepared with implanted organs and fluids and magic beyond what mankind could hope to grasp...at least, not without going utterly mad in the process. Multiple beings were looking over it, making magical marks upon the sheet and speaking to each other in a hushed but alien tongue.
Further, the room was lit in an eerie glow, purple orbs around the area lighting it up well enough to easily make one's way about.
'Good, good! Now then, it is time to begin the ritual. Now.
Our guests are being entertained, and deployment from the school to targeted areas is going smoothly. The fodder is doing its job nicely as well.'
The Greater Horror's words rung against the walls, an eerie echo that bounced about the greater chamber like it was some kind of chasm.
A certain magical girl, who had been leaning against the far wall across from the stairs since her arrival, then stepped forward. White hair glowed softly in the light, and her red eyes were a striking fire amidst the fleeting shadows. An orb floated next to her, inky black like the abyss it had come from, and her attire stood out like some kind of cultist garb. However her face wore a mixed expression, filled with concern and worry, and tinged with hints of curiosity and frustration alike.
"Boss...you'e not saying everything. I've helped you all this time, and nothing's been bad i mean, but after getting here i've been getting a strange feeling more and more.
I want to know what is really going on here...what is this ritual supposed to do? Are you just making another magical girl?"
Annabelle's words caused the great horror to seemingly take a brief pause, and the air seemed to ripple about her as if something was...thinking. No, debating something? It was hard to read the mood of a Greater Horror all of the time, even when one had been mentally warped by him. Monster parts, people parts, tricking her, and now the body of a magical girl?
'Listen well, young ones.
For the longest time, i have destroyed worlds, removed civilizations. I have seen the stars be born in all their brilliance, only to watch their lights fizzle out into an empty abyss.
When i emerge in full, the erasure of what i touch is inevitable.
So I eventually came to a curious question...what would it be like to experience things myself? To see all of this through a mortal’s eyes, without any danger to myself?'
As he spoke, Soth produced several tentacles from a portal forming on the ceiling of the chamber, and several eyes came out alongside them. One tentacle gestured towards the sky somewhat, as if to help illustrate his point. His tone, as ever, seemed relaxed and cordial, though somewhat perplexed if not fascinated in a fashion as well.
’Thus i came here, this little planet so many seem to glance at with...opportunity. You may call them gods, or ‘lesser forces’, or ‘puuchu’, or ‘horrors’, but regardless their petty squabbles have been most amusing to watch. Such narrow perspective...so, mortal. So much like the sapient flesh-bound creatures dominating most of the planet, i sought out a mortal of my own.
Eventually, i found a mortal compatible with my power, fueled with the desperation and despair that made them a worthy candidate. So i extended myself to them, sought to make them a vessel, an avatar if you will....'
Soth’s eyes seemed to then look between the body on the altar, and then to Annabelle, before he continued once more.
’….but the first one failed miserably. Of course, that failure was what became you, “dear” Annabelle. Of course, it was but an experiment, nothing that which has seen the movement of all time would dare to fuss over.'
Annabelle’s face went as pale as a ghost at the words, and a tremble rocked through her body. She...she hadn't been intended to be a magical girl?! W-What had happened at the stadium made sense then....she was part of him, he was part of her. But then-!?
’Yet after that event I searched for this place, a nexus of magical energy and phenomenon, and brought my influence here.
I secured the essence of spirits, the parts of monsters, the furnished flesh of some humans….
I also acquired a black coin from a foolish member of the Ebon Mint as well, and finally now this body of a deceased magical girl to infuse it all with.
All of this to make...a more useful one ultimately, one even more compatible with containing some of my essence to act as an avatar.'
"Then why am i here?! Why keep me a-around if i am some...some failure! Why want me here at the ritual site if you have all you need-!"
Before Annabelle could finish her outburst, tears nearly coming out of her eyes as the anger and frustrations finally peaked within her, the voice of the Greater Horror cut of her off in a heartbeat.
'Because, young one, you have been of great use to me...and the greatest purpose you can serve is here and now.
The body cannot be made my avatar if it remains...deceased. And your life force is most fitting for this task of reviving this deceased form. After all, you survived the failed possession of your body, though your past was quite lost in the process. I had to rebuild that personality and such things, even.
Then as agreed, once i am within my avatar your body will be released from my service and handed to that 'Regina Bates' as she calls herself.’
As the horror finished, Annabelle acted instinctively and attempted to lash out at the altar itself with magic from her left hand. It was an action that came from the basest desire of humans, that primal urge that had led their species to take over this planet...life. The will to live, to continue onward, to avoid the penalty of death, as it were. Equally as fast, the tentacles of the greater horror appeared from the orb next to her in a heartbeat, grasping her left arm. Then another tentacle shot out and grasped her right arm, then another to wrap around her mid-torso, and then two more respectively to grab each of her legs.
The tendrils held on with a tight grip, gentle enough to not break her body, but hard enough to stop her movements physically. The inky black orb moved around behind her, holding her up in the air by the tentacles themselves. It was like she had been chained to a wall, but in this case it was the tendrils of her own patron tying her down and keeping her still. Like a parent, scolding a foolish child.
"You...you bastard!!! You lied to Regina...you lied to all of us dammit!" Annabelle shouted, teeth gritted in a look of pure rage as she attempted to struggle against her bonds, albeit fruitlessly in this case, "You knew what your were saying, you knew it all along!"
'I lied not in my promise to her, though i fear the human tongue has failed to convey the true nature of her agreement with myself. One cannot truly say i lied, for i told nothing but truth to all of you. The fault lies with this 'language', though the concept has its useful points.
But it is truly nothing to worry about. In fact, i must thank you all, if i am to properly practice and learn about mortal standards for after my incarnation.
With this, i shall grasp many a good millennium of amusement from examining the mortal condition. To see that which will only return to my domain in due time, but through another lens i have not yet been able to see through. Albeit, it will be fascinating to see if this world can handle my arrival, haha!
Though even if it does not end up so, i have anchored this place here in space-time just in case. It is but one world among the sea of stars, but this mere token of my power guarantees my vessel remains intact at least. You mortals would call it a 'precautionary measure', as it were.'
Annabelle merely glared back daggers at the Greater Horror as he spoke, before a small but swiftly growing laugh rung out from Soth himself.
It was an almost guttural and primal sound, inexperienced, something unlike any other she'd heard from him or others before. It reverberated through the earthen walls, through even the walls of the crypt itself. Those close enough to the crypt could perhaps even hear it as well, almost like an earthquake as it shook the land. The calm and ever-existent cordiality never seemed to fade with this Horror, but this was different. It felt like more than that...like a child learning to laugh for the first time after seeing a goofy cartoon.
It was the most terrifying thing she had ever witnessed in her life.
Arriving at the sight of the commotion, it had only been a few seconds before black smoke covered the entire place with nearly impenetrable darkness. Taking a deep breath and focusing herself, Rina simply moved forward. It was dark, but navigable if she paid attention. She just had to trust her instincts on this, and eventually she made it to the epicenter. The only source of light was from the dull glow of a magical barrier surrounding the crypt.
Ah, why couldn't she just finish her doughnut in peace, really.
Rina said nothing, eyes wide as she quietly arrived near the back of the group. Two other girls were with her, which she didn't recognize. The two monsters in front of her caused her skin to prickle lightly with fear, but she brushed it off. It was regrettable, but it seemed she had to mete out justice on these unfortunate souls.
"Understood." Rina replied sharply, finishing the last bite of her delicious baked goods. "We can get better acquainted later...shifting to the Overcity is a good plan however. Our goal should be stopping whatever is going on in there...but on the other hand," Rina frowned lightly. "I don't want anyone being alone. Too many unknowns. From what I can tell however, these monsters aren't worth such an effort. A last resort should we need to quickly get into the Crypt."
A little overconfident? Perhaps, perhaps, but fear was something she wasn't going to let get to her. Rina formed a sword in her hand, before darting towards Elroy, engaging in melee.
Now this was quite the predicament indeed. Hmhm. That smoke was likely the result of dark magic. A black coin? Its power felt familiar. Irrelevant, that just meant the Mint had a hand in this, even if however small. Perhaps she could make them indebted to her for cleaning up this mess, hm? A thought to ask next time she met one of their agents. She really should see about recontacting them.
"Now...what's this?" Chloe descended from the sky, crystalline wings shattering into light as she landed with a light thud in the pet cemetery. "Aren't I a lucky one! In the midst of chaos I can still find the cuties!" She giggled, holding a hand to her chest, the violet orb floating idly next to her. "I'll have to ask for your number later, darling..." Her jovial smile didn't fade, though her demeanor changed drastically as she cast her gaze towards the person claiming to be Alicia. "...heh, I do suppose I did come here to help out, so..."
Raising her orb, a flash of pale light pierced the darkness.
"...perhaps you should introduce yourself so I can date you later too then, darling?~" A concentrated blast of energy slammed right by Divina's head. "Your illusions don't work on me, lovely, so why don't you show me your pretty face already? No need to be shy."
Chloe's orb flashed once more, gathering spectral energy for only a moment before the ground around her began to shift and tear, the dead spirits of these pets rising from their graves.
The trip into the fray was one that was interesting. From her vantage flying toward the graveyard she got a brief overview of the grounds. Unfortunately before landing a surge of magic rushed out from the center and covered everything in a thick dark cloud. "Well crap." Dropping in Shannon disappeared from view and the boulder she had been riding crashed landed. Blindly tumbling across the ground she felt the earth to orient herself. Unlike many her magic afforded her additional methods of sending. Fighting blind was not a new thing to Shannon, having fought underground with little to no source of light to speak of there wasn't that much difference. In this case though her opponents weren't exactly trying to hide. It became abundantly clear that a hoard of minions were running around everywhere. It was hard to tell what was happening at the outer periphery of the cemetery with the vibrations blending all together. But it was enough of a picture to point her toward the center where the major targets were likely to be and the enemy was near her.
Whipping her staff around her the dirt began to rise up and blasted forward to plow through several oncoming fodder. Unhindered and the battlefield literally made of her ammunition keeping them at bay was fairly easy. Having made space she charged forward bounding over the graves and folding a tunnel of earth around her. The magical girl was very careful to not disturb any remains of those buried there. People should be ashamed of turning a place of rest into a war zone. The advance was hauled when a low rumble the earth began to shake everything. Was that laughter? Innately aware of the subtle ways sound traveled through a solid medium it definitely felt like a voice. If there was any doubt before of where the target was there wasn't any now. Who or what it was still wasn't clear, but it was dark and sinister regardless. Sending out a pulse in the direction of the source it was stopped dead by a magical barrier. So they were protecting something... In that case she would make use of her cover and strike from here. Thrusting her staff into the ground the earth shifted.
Cracks formed, streaming out from the darkness near the group in the center. Traveling beneath their feet and beyond three columns of stone burst forth and impacted the barrier. The move was both an attack and a test of not only the strength of the barrier, but whether or not her magic could effect the earth within or if the structure could be moved. While this scale of an impact wouldn't topple the structure it should glean if the barrier was anchored or not. A followup was going to have to wait however as more of Soth's forces were closing in once again. It was also a good bet that her sudden assault wouldn't go unnoticed. However she was going to hope that at least some of the other people would keep the enemy occupied.
After an initial delay of consulting with the Beacon on whether the twins should enter the fray, it was decided to send in some more reinforcements. The dark magic prevented them from being teleported directly to those engulfed within. Arriving nearby they were met by a swirl of darkness. What was going on was nearly impossible to discern. They would make out where several minds were, but the magical interference prevented them from identifying who was who, at least at this distance. There wasn't much choice but to dive in and hope they find something.
Moving through the cloud was something of a task. The ground wasn't entirely clear so on more than one occasion tripping over a gravestone caused one of the two to trip. Keeping track of one another psychically though they stuck together as there was no telling if they would come across an ally or an enemy. At this point their best bet was to move as one. Happening across an idea though Janet raised her lance and used her magic to purify the area nearby. Shining in the dark the light from her banner began to cut away at the haze.
The condensed blast of flames accomplished their job of buying time, Penny dodge on reflex, her mind still reeling from running into Thalia unexpectedly. Her following reaction had her blitzing across the roof top, desperate to try and catch up to the fleeing fox girl. She had seen the shift in Thalia’s gaze, the subtle hints in her stance, which spoke to the fact that it was her mental derangements holding the reigns and Penny desperately wanted to help her friend.
She would only make it half way there. Cindy had moved to stand in Penny’s way, stalling out the robotic girl’s frantic rush. Penny figured she could overpower the other monster girl, it would take only a handful of seconds at best, but that would take too long. She had gone on enough hunts to know, played enough games of tag, to know that she had lost her chance to catch her friend, because Cindy had stopped her for only a few moments.
Her eyes nearly turned completely crimson as she glared at Cindy, her entire body tensed ready to unleash havoc on the living bug zapper, for making her lose this chance at getting Thalia back. Her anger barely held for a second before she just slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut. Her eyes cast longingly at the last place she had seen Thalia. Venting her anger wouldn’t help, not if this other girl was going to actually try and help Thalia.
“She’s my friend, or at least she used to be” Her voice was tired and filled with hurt “We used to hunt together, shared a lair. We would spend our free time playing tag across the roofs.”Her voice was starting to grow shaky as she did her best to summarize her and Thalia’s time together. “But a few weeks ago, there was an encounter that I got injured in. She Redlined and got us out of there and when she woke up afterwards, she just… Ran” Penny was on the verge of tears at this point. Veronica’s taunting words were replying in her mind from seeing Thalia run away from her. Again. At the one who still held part of her heart not trusting her. Again.
Before she could breakdown, however, Penny forced herself to breath. Using the needless action to just set aside the sadness and hurt, same as she had done earlier in the day when she had learned the truth about Thalia. Same as she learned long ago to keep some semblance of control on her emotions. As she did her coloration would pale and gray drastically, pushing her appearance into the uncanny valley.
A monotone voice would chime out from Penny as she forced herself to be calm “Orange alḙ̷͒r̴̩̽t̴̝̂. C̸̰͛ȏ̴̬g̴̥̿ǹ̸̩à̷̧t̶̻͋ḯ̷͎v̴̯̿e̷̝̔ safeguards have M̴̛͙a̵̜̕l̶̯̅f̷͙͋u̴̢͋n̷̰̈́c̶̘̊t̸̠̕i̷͖͌ö̴͖́ǹ̴͍e̷͎̔d̴͕̀ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ ̶̵̨̛ has reached 75%. Heightened Ḋ̸̯i̷̢͐ş̸̽c̶̗͒ṛ̴͝e̶̝̕t̸͈̍i̸͇̿ő̷̼n̸̹̓ required”
“I’ve been looking for her since. As I wanted to make sure she was okay” She would finish her entire demeanor uncomfortably calm compared to just a few moments earlier. Standing up she would return her gaze to Cindy. “Satisfied?” she would ask tonelessly before turning away from the supposed ruler to survey the storm clouds above the Graveyard.
Shaking her head she started to walk away, her destination obviously the Graveyard in the distance.
Aurelio had originally volunteered to be part of the diplomatic detachment that was going to head to talk with Cindy Ford, and had been mostly relaxing and chatting with a few of the other members of Beacon while the tech crew worked to set the Teleportation coordinates.
Then a storm blew in from nowhere, and started setting off alarms all across HQ. Dozens of horror signatures were popping up at a local graveyard, and just like that the diplomatic mission was put on hold. The only upside of the horrors popping up was that it took only seconds to lock on to the Graveyard.
Without any further delay Aurelio warped out of Beacon HQ, along with a couple more girls from Beacon.
When he finally rematerialized he knew several something’s had gone wrong. The overpowering smog that was drowning out everything was his first clue really. That none of the others had landed with him was his second.
Hoping the others were okay He took stock of the surrounding, only barely able to peer through the black smog. He was able to make out another person not far from him and strove towards them. He was waving the smog out of his face when he heard them speak
"You...You're not Alex. Wait, are you...Tuxedo Mask? Without the mask?"
Causing him to break out in a wide grin “Glad to see someone else who can appreciate the classics, but no. The Great Aurelio at your service” He would introduce himself to Lily, just in time to hear Abigail’s crazed laughter.
“Hey! Me and Sally spent weeks looking for you Abi, but we couldn’t find any of you.” He would say in response as he started to stride towards spinning his cane in his hand as he did so. With a snap of his fingers a half dozen clones sprung to existence with a Red and Sky Blue copies in the middle of them “An address would have gone a long way to me having visited ya know!”
As Aurelio spoke his cane started to pulse with light and his clone scattered with most of the normal clones heading to harass the cult members with hit and run tactics mixed with perfect teamwork.
Red and Sky rushed at the large Horror, using the base copies as spring boards. Their cane’s glowing their respective colors.
The last clone tapped his cane to the originals, the glow transferring as he did so, before sprinting towards Lily “Don’t worry Boss, knows about the hypnotism” it would say before pointing his glowing cane at Lily “Have a boost” it would add as it discharged the stored spell. It was a mix of magician’s mark and an all-round stat booster.
“And lastly we didn’t run off, you guys did” The real Aurelio would start up again as he bounced on his feet as he did, his staff starting to glow a frightful Yellow. “After Elroy got smacked for getting handsy with Sally” It was the first step of Aurelio’s combat style, never stop talking and force the opponent to focus on him.
“I mean what kind of jerk does that to his friends?” He was eyeing Abigail closely as he knew he was egging her on. So he was prepared to defend himself for when she went on the offensive.
Storms were heading in towards Penrose. Tornadoes chasing towards the buildings of the public while so many Magical Girls were converging on the origin of the magic…
Lea stood in mid-air, high over the city, glaring at the incoming storms. An elfin form with butterflies leaking off her clothes and flying about her. She really didn’t want to interfere with the natural workings of this city, or show off her capabilities… but there really was too few Magical Girls fighting to defend the city against these storms. If nothing was done, then the city may be destroyed far before the Magical Girls could stop the source. This city would take damage that wouldn’t be repaired for numerous years… that just wouldn’t do. Asengav had invested in this city. Lea was NOT about to let it be destroyed because some OTHER Horror had a plan in the works!
The Windfall Sprite blew forth at magnificent speed towards the nearest tornado. Upon reaching it, she let a burst of wind blow forth against its own flow, her magic charging to disrupt the formation of the destructive weather phenomenon. It might require a few bursts, but the Magical Girl summoned her Wind-specialization and scattered it to still the air around her… and eventually it worked, that particular tornado was no more, the wind in the immediate area slowed to a stand-still. … But that was far from the only one that was approaching. If nobody stopped what was going on, Lea herself would most certainly be insufficient eventually.
‘Tsk… we don’t want to fight another Horror. Are we left to hope the powers of the local Magical Girls are enough…?’ Lea asked herself, glaring back… Wasn’t there someone…?
_______________
‘Wo-o-oaaahahahaha…!’ Mayra laughed, the scaly monster-girl looking up at the present storms from a rooftop. She had actually gotten up here in order to look at (and possibly intrude upon) the meeting with Cindy Ford, but she’d been greeted by something so much bigger! Tornadoes and promises of destruction and whatnot! ‘Awesome! This city is awesome!’ she called for herself. This last week and something she’d been staying at Su’s, mainly just being a nuisance and wanted to hang out all the time and ask all sorts of questions and wanted to get involved in every kind of fight that had been going on. But, this was something extra…!
Huh? She knew that piece of green over there, looking like a tiny fairy in the distance. ‘Oh, it’s Lea! Heeeeeeeeey, Lea!’ Mayra waved at her, utterly unconcerned. ‘Huh?’ Lea was pointing at something. First now did Mayra become aware that there was black smoke surrounding the graveyard, and a ton of Magical Girls that were heading in… ‘Oh-wow, oh-wow, oh-wow, oh-wow! It’s becoming a giant brawl!? A huge free-for-all!? That… that’s so awesome…!’ She turned and grinned at Lea, knowing that Lea probably would never allow her to go there. Mayra thought of going anyway~
Huh? Lea was staring at her. Mayra blinked in surprise, pointed at herself, then pointed at the smoke.
In the vast distance, Lea nodded to her. Mayra’s excitement, chest and eyebrows all rose high.
‘DON’T START WITHOUT ME!’ Mayra launched herself with fire straight off the building, sending herself flying across town to come crashing down into the black mist.
‘Keh-heh!’ laughed a little witch in purple and dark clothing with a small round purple/pink creature flying by her head. She was inside a building in Penrose, accessible only from the balcony outside, and currently utterly unconcerned with the storm going on outside. Within, she was furnishing with magical artifacts and weapons that she had collected over time, as well as some donated by Cindy Ford in order to buy her allegiance. ‘Soon, I’ll be ready! I’ll be opening my grand magical store in Penrose! Oooh, I should get into contact with Penrose Independant, see if I can place an add for my grand opening!’ She jumped up onto the table next to her cash register (for magical cash) and pointed up excitedly towards the ceiling.
‘Brittany Todd’s Magical Market for artifacts, weapons and divination will soon be open for public! It’ll be the best, Agatha!’ she announced to her Lesser Force patron, oh, so, happily.
‘Damn straight! Keh-heh-heh!’ Brittany laughed. She then looked around at the different shelves… ‘… Though to be honest, the shelves are still pretty bare. If only magical artifacts weren’t so rare. Keh-heh, guess they wouldn’t sell so well if they weren’t!’ And so, Brittany chuckled for herself as she stood on the register bench…
That’s when the door opened.
‘Wow! I’ve never seen so many magical artifacts in one place! This is truly a store in the making, huh?’ called a bubbly voice.
Brittany spun around and assumed an immediate fighting stance, eyes wide and alarmed. Before her stood an energetic-seeming yellow-haired short magical girl with long twin-tails and a sword on her back, pretty innocent looking, alongside the most terrifying-looking monster girl she had ever laid her eyes upon.
‘Wh-what are you doing here!? Th-the store’s not open yet!’ Brittany shouted out at them, clearly alarmed, Agatha taking a stance on her shoulder, just in case.
‘Oh, but we heard what you were setting up so we thought we’d come in and take a look!’ Josefin said with a happy tone while Taihei advanced slowly, looking around herself with a blank look on her face.
‘Come back when we’re open!’ Brittany shouted to them, now frowning. ‘I’m warning you, any attempt to steal my wares - and I’ll know, I’m Psychic Specialized - and you’ll not only face the power of my magnificent magic, but you’ll also be marked for death by Mistress Cindy, not to mention immediately targeted by the full might of the Lesser Force Agatha, right here on my shoulder!’ With that call, the purple/pink creature that was Agatha swelled to take up the majority of the available space above Brittany, pulsing with power.
‘���� ���� ���� ��’ Agatha called.
‘W-wait, hold on, that’s not-’ Josefin started, suddenly panicking and raising her hands in a panicked motion.
‘You’re misunderstanding,’ Taihei calmly stated, pulling a bag that had been wrapped around her shoulder. ‘We’re not here to be either thieves nor customers…’ she said, opening the bag’s top and turning it upside down. Brittany’s eyes went wide.
‘We want to be your suppliers,’ Taihei calmly stated, as a considerable amount of magical artifacts spilled down on the floor… Josefin giggled a bit by the side as Brittany watched the spectacle in awe. Then, the little witch smiled oh, so widely. There had to be some spirit of luck looking out for her after all.
Then an artifact at Taihei’s feet exploded and several of the other artifact’s effects also took shape, suddenly leaving Taihei 50% smaller, deaf, purple, flammable and on fire. As Taihei muttered that she should have seen that coming, a stray tornado suddenly took off the roof JUST before Lea could finish the tornado off and threw them all out on the street next to them (and obviously that also was the only building hurt by said tornado), leaving Brittany and Josefin scurrying to pick up all the artifacts while Taihei bid her farewell before her terrible luck could mess things up further. Josefin and Brittany would then start negotiating the deal by themselves.
_______________
Mariette sat silently in one of the chairs of an empty apartment, watching through small portals as the events of the day were unfolding. Held to one of her ears was a small phone, listening to the reports of what was going on across town. Lea was fighting off tornadoes, Mayra was their somewhat expendable recruit that would tip the likelihood just a bit towards their hopeful success while hopefully being tough enough not to die, Josefin and Taihei followed the tip which they’d received by phone a while earlier, and the rest…
Jelena and Victoria were backups, while Freya, Suzette and Tullia was once again preparing something as the city of Penrose was distracted. That made the second time they were setting something up while the city was distracted. If they could keep that up… well, suppose this didn’t need to be so difficult after all.
Mariette stood up. She had someone she wanted to talk to today, after all. A small warning to deliver…
”You tackle people you love?” Betty lifted a finger to her lip. ”Football isn't nearly as aggressive as I thought it was.” She lowered her shoulders. ”B-but anyway! Amaryllis, the thing about the mint is that you don't really know who they are. They could be anyone! I just know they want to attack a V.I.P. I'm protecting, so I need to be on my toes.” She pointed at the girl and swirled her finger in the air. ”I thought you were walking after us, and just decided to transform. Naturally I had to do something.”
That was when a regal-looking girl approached. If Amaryllis had spent enough time in Penrose, she might have seen Scarlet Hallewell a few times. She had family in England that were trying to get her into a number of prestigious public schools. But if the rumors were true, Scarlet wasn't a very pleasant person to be around. Things like starting fights with students and going out of her way to sabotage a teacher's lesson plans. It seemed Scarlet was content with her tutor, whoever that happened to be.
Scarlet glanced between the two girls. “A milkmaid and her cow.”
”M-milkmaid!” Betty stammered.
Scarlet strut her way towards Amaryllis and squint her eyes. “Amaryllis? Yes, you were at the stadium a few weeks ago. I remember the name.” Her eyes flicked downward. “And your udders are just as freakishly huge in costume as they are out.” Scarlet placed a hand on her hip. “I do not typically reveal myself to strangers. However, I've taken an interest in your sword.” She stepped closer. “You see I have a collection going. A magical rapier like that would fit in wonderfully with the rest of my weapons.” She looked down at Amaryllis, as if she was examining some insect. “I do not know how you managed to get a hold of such a weapon.” The woman in red relaxed her stance and turned away. “But I suppose you hold it for a reason.” Scarlet looked over her shoulder. “Though in the future, I'd suggest finding a more secluded place to transform. It's not quite like it is on TV or comics. You're at your most vulnerable that way. You also might want to consider working with someone who knows a thing or two about all this magical girl nonsense. You can only get so far without an extensive network.” And with that, she vanished into the crowd. It wasn't long before Betty followed behind her. Then a little voice called out.
”Where were you?!”
Sammy was riding on the back of a giant tiger, who looked massive under her tiny body. ”The Cindy Ford thing was too crowded. But I smell something foul on the horizon. I've deduced that this darkness can't mean anything good.” She patted the tiger on the side. ”Want a lift? Big Tony here can take us right to the action!”
...Cindy's placeTM...
While Penny was stomping off, an octopus girl soared over head. There were no wings on her back or anything that might assist her with flying, but she was. Though such things are hardly out of the norm for a magical girl. Her costume looked dated, almost like she walked out of a vintage movie. The tentacles on her head were held together under a bonnet, with the rest cascading down the back of her dress. The strangest thing about her was the massive chest she was carrying, which looked like it had been unearthed from the ocean floor. The metal bands were rusted, the chest itself covered in barnacles, and there were a few star fish that were stuck to the chest as well. Despite the size of the chest, the girl carrying it didn't seem burdened by it at all. Once she was hovering over the roof top, she descended with grace and made a soundless landing. Her eyes were wide open, like she was possessed, and she was passing her gaze over everything.
”Hmmmm.” She took a few steps towards Cindy before standing on her toes. ”Hmmmm.” when she fell back onto her heels, there was an audible clunk as a large object shifted around in the box. ”Proud posture, relatively tall, and you certainly look like a thunderbird's champion.” She shrugged her shoulders. ”Hmmm, but even more like a lightning bird's champion. Regardless, you are Cindy Ford, no doubt about that.” The octopus girl lowered the chest on the ground. Once it was off of her shoulders, she hopped backwards onto it. ”I'm Lotus. They call me the terror of the deep in some parts. I wouldn't call myself a queen, but the waters right outside Penrose harbor are my territory.” Lotus placed a hand on her chest. ”Cindy Ford, or do you prefer your highness? Hmmmm. Regardless, I am not one of your subjects. Though we are neighbors.” Lotus's expression remained unchanging through her description. Just a wide eyed stare and straight pair of lips. ”There is another one who rules over the forests of Penrose. If you are Penrose's queen, that makes us the rulers of your neighboring nations.” She gestured to the chest she was sitting on top of. ”We would like to congratulate you on your ascension to queen hood with this gift.” Lotus hopped off the chest and stepped off to the side. ”Hmmmm. I seem to have misplaced the key. Surely a rusted lock won't impede the queen of Penrose? But do be careful not to destroy the contents.” She folded her fingers together.
"Of course." Elroy snickered at Alicia's comment before her arrow flew over hiss shoulder. Before it detonated, both twins vanished in a puff of smoke. The Bates had demonstrated their ability to shadow step previously, and the storm had darkened the fight to the point where they could freely do so from virtually anywhere. The arrow illuminated the area, but neither Elroy nor Regina were there anymore. Regina had reappeared a bit further away, and Alicia fired another arrow before taking cover behind a gravestone. But that arrow would also miss its mark, as Regina seemingly vanished and reappeared elsewhere. "Hey!" Elroy's chains wrapped around Alicia and pulled her body to his shield. Apparently he had been hiding behind a grave stone just behind her. "I think I see tin can." Sure enough, Penny had just come through the smoke wall. "We should go say hi!" Elroy took off running. Alicia was bound in place on the front of his shield, but she wasn't entirely helpless. Only her waist, legs, and left arm were pinned by the chains. It was still possible for her to move her right arm and torso. "Thanks for the assist, tin can! I was waiting for reinforcements!"
The initial shadow step threw Rina off Elroy's trail, But it wasn't long before the chatterbox was giving away his location again. He was a pretty strong runner, even without shadow stepping, but so was Rina. However, she would find her path impeded by sniper fire. Regina was shadow stepping all over the battlefield and firing before reappearing somewhere else. Rina had incredible reflexes, but she wasn't expecting an assault like this. The first two shots struck her in the shoulder and thigh. It hurt, but it was nothing her regeneration wouldn't take care of in a few minutes. Far more noticeable were the curses the bullets were laced with. Rina noticed she couldn't hear, and her weapons felt considerably heavier. She would need to do something if she didn't want to end up like Swiss cheese.
Summer was not ignored by the Bates. The dragon head that hovered by Regina's side had since flown over to Summer's position and began biting her. Summer had the physical prowess of a normal human being, and was woefully under equipped to avoid the ensuing attacks. Summer's magic wasn't able to warp the dragon in any way that would effectively weaken it. Instead, her magic turned to making Summer's body like a dog's plush toy. Every time she was bit, her legs and head expanded while making an adorable squeaking sound. The pain was negligible, at first. But the curses quickly compounded every time the dragon nipped her. Defense crush, mana burn, crippling pain, Summer's magical reserves were being put under a lot of duress. Something had to be done before her magic finally gave out.
Shona seemed to falter in her grunting voice and posture as her strike was deflected by Silhouette's bare arm, seeming like expected to cut right through it. Silhouette took the window of opportunity, and thrust the deadly dagger. The attack cut through her barrier, but failed to kill her. Shona then engaged in close combat, swinging her sword with precise yet powerful blows, before she made a sweep and leapt back. "A squire? I was knighted by the holy Beckoners, and given the sacred duty of crusading against the darkness." She stabbed the sky. "While you are nothing but a wretched villain, skulking in shadows and murdering others!" An aura of bright light enveloped it, extending out of the blade as she Reinforced herself. "I commend you for your ability to pierce my defenses. To respect that, I'll show no mercy." And with that, she once again charged, now using her vastly improved reach to her advantage; the empowered blade shimmered and scattering beautiful traces of her swordsmanship with every slice.
As the duel between the blade-wielders continued, the Horrorlings resumed their coordinated tactics on Mika and Lupa. Even though the two girls used their bestial might to demolish the smaller monsters, they proved to hold their own. Even worse, they kept rushing out of the mausoleum, like a never-ending tide of darkness. At one point, as Lupa performed a roundhouse kick, they jumped her, stabbing with their sharp-ended tentacles, and using them to pull on her, towards the mausoleum while Mika was forced to fend off a similar wave of attackers.
"Lupa!" Mika dropped onto her hands and kicked at a few horrorlings. Her lower half briefly turned into a pair of horse legs and knocked a few creature clean int the air. This made for a brief opening that allowed Mika to close the distance between herself and her friend. "There's no end to them! We need to close the doors!"
“It's time for the pack to come out!” Lupa had the power to transform parts of her into any animal that was next to her. Mika was able to freely turn into whatever she wanted, but only momentarily. Together, Lupa had an impressive stock of animals to empower herself with. While Mika rapidly changed shapes, Lupa picked the parts that she wanted and added them to herself. The arms of a bear, the legs of a kangaroo, The carapace of a rhino beetle. She looked ridiculous, but she was getting stronger. Once Lupa was satisfied, she dug her feet into the ground and flipped the minion into the mausoleum.
"Let's keep it up!" Mika and Lupa were standing back to back, totally surrounded. "Let me know if you're hurting Lupa, I'm here for ya!"
“Sam.” Veronica's voice called out inside Silhouette's head. “Mika still has her use to me. You will make sure she stays alive. You will not disappoint me.”
The magical girl that just started flirting with Su out of the blue didn't phase her at all. Amber was at the forefront of her mind at the moment, and there were no room for pleasantries. This girl was easy on the eyes, but Su knew the best things in life were always hard to get. And this girl's rampant flirting showed that she was very easy. But for the moment, Su was more interesting in seeing if Alicia was, in fact, not Alicia.
”Uh!” It was apparent “Alicia” was shaken a bit by having a projectile explode so close to her head. ”Well, I can show you my true form.” She raised one of her fingers. ”But I'm in a standing relationship with Elroy, so a date is out of the question.” Divina's disguise melted away.
Su raised her eyebrows. ”You're one of the beacon girls from the stadium. Elroy must be your boss.” She balled her hands into fists. ”Tell me, did any of you dig up the body of a magical girl?”
The corners of Divina's lips twitched. ”That was a requirement for the ritual, yes.”
Su furrowed her brow. ”We're done here.” The wind kicked up around the Chinese girl and she flew into the air. The cyclones around her arms were getting bigger with every passing second. Chloe could tell she was preparing a massive spell.
”Um.” Divina placed a hand on her chest. ”I'm sorry if that upset you, but I'm not going to back down!” Divina jumped backwards and rows upon rows of black monoliths rose out of the ground. Before long, Su, Chloe, and her spirit pet army were surrounded by a forest of monoliths. Each one had a massive flickering eye that was glancing over everyone. One fired a laser and swept it across the front line of pet spirits. Everything in the laser's path exploded, be it spirit or tombstone. Divina's magical signature seemed to have vanished, but she was likely still around. But they had bigger problems at the moment, as more and more eyes were powering up.
Helga dove out of the smoke wall and landed beside Chloe.
Tonya pointed at Alexander. ”We are not all about killing things! We're only mostly about killing things! Aren't you one to judge a book by its cover?” She lay down on her stomach and hugged the blob beneath her. ”I'm fully capable of allying with a monster if it's pure and innocent on the inside!” She stood herself up. ”Something that the two of you are severely lacking!” Tonya hopped and drove her legs into the blob's gel. It was slightly opaque, making it possible to see Tonya's legs through the blob. ”Now lets get this over with!”
The blob used its tentacles to shove itself forward, lunging straight for Alexander. Tonya opened her umbrella and fired a barrage of apples at Emily. But these were no ordinary apples. These were apples with tiny black creatures riding them. Tarantulas with a single eye that cackled as they flew through the air.
Mayra stylishly flipped through the smoke wall before landing in the area.
Lily's arrows came out fast, but the cultists were quick to throw up individual barriers to hold back her assault. They cracked and shattered under the stress Lily's arrows put them under, but not a single shot hit their mark. What few projectiles the cultists managed to throw at lily were easily evaded by her sublime speed. The cultists didn't just have just lily to worry about though. Quite a few of them needed to keep a shield in place just to prevent the red and blue Aurelios from getting in. It was a battle the cultists were going to lose.
The entire time, Abigail could only stare.
”Wah!?” While Aurelio made a fine attempt to capture Abigail's attention, Lily's words seemed to hit closer to home. ”How can my feelings towards Aurelio be genuine if I'm brainwashed?” Her eyes expanded. ”Does that mean I won't love bro anymore if you beat me?” She stood there, dumbfounded for a moment longer. The last shield between herself and Lily's arrows was about to crumble away. That was when she cast her hand towards Lily.
Lily was lone of the fastest girls in Penrose. But as soon as Abigail closed her outstretched hand, she was locked in place, hovering a few feet off the ground. One of the things that makes certain gravity spells so deadly is that they don't need to “hit” their target. All Abigail needed was line of sight in order to use this particular spell. The laws of gravity didn't seem to apply to lily anymore. Every twitch of her body caused her to spin, but she always remained isolated in the same spot. Since she was firing her bow, the recoil caused her to spin end over end, missing most of her shots after Abigail's spell activated. But that was just the first effect of this particular spell. Lily could feel the gravity ramping up around her, strengthening to the point where it was getting harder to breathe. If it kept up, she could black out. But even that wasn't the end of Abigail's spell. The tombstones around Lily were starting to crack and break apart, and the chunks were starting to pelt her. It wouldn't be long before bigger fragments started coming her way. The gravity wasn't just effecting the tombstones either, Aurelio's clones were being pulled into Lily's gravity field too. ”Waaaahahahahahahahaha!”
The strange monster opened its mouth and fired a laser at Abigail, covering her in the same shimmering substance that was stored in its back. It was hard to tell what its effect was, but Abigail seemed a bit more lively when under its effects. Her posture was a little straighter, and she seemed to be bouncing her weight from foot to foot.
A few cultists stuck around Abigail, but with their opponents drop in offensive power, they pushed their advantage. They extended their hands and threw wave after wave of fire at Aurelio, burning up all of his neutral colored clones. It was clear they were planning on surrounding him.
No one noticed Janet and Jenna's sudden arrival through the fog wall.
[@t2wave]
As the three stone columns erupted from the ground violently, and slammed into the barrier around the crypt, the clashing sound of their impact rang out into the air. However...the barrier didn’t seem to budge, buckle, bend, or break at all. The earth within also remained in place...though one thing did happen in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Dark cracks began to form along the lengths of the columns, branching like spider webs over their surface until they reached into the earth itself...and continued to spread briefly over the ground itself just around the columns.
Then black flakes, like burnt ashes flitting about in the wind, began to float up from the crack-covered columns and ground. In fact, the columns and ground themselves were seemed to “disappear” into thin air rather quickly, until eventually nothing was left but a clean small crater next to the crypt where the attack had once protruded from.
And then “it” happened.
’Well well, a little slave of the Puchuu making a little prod? These grounds can’t be moved if you tried to move all of this meager world’s dirt and stone at once, though I am amused by this little effort of yours to try to “disrupt” this barrier. So you will be rewarded.
I shall make a miniscule effort of my own, as mortals tend to do, as practice. But what to inflict...?
….perhaps physical suffering?’ the voice of Soth said, ringing intrusively within Shannon’s own mind, speaking as if it was talking over a cup of tea and biscuits. ’...No no no, it would not be sporting, I’m afraid. Mortal flesh is frail, weak, and disgusting….albeit yours is somewhat interesting enough.
But perhaps the mind….hmmm, that should be sufficient. Such a weak, impressionable mind...much like any other human.’
Swiftly after the voice of Soth rung in the magical girl’s head again, a swift flood entered into her mind following this. Waves of gruesome and horrific images and sounds rushed in, of maddening masses of tentacles and ever-seeing eyes that no sane mortal being should ever behold, the screams of terror and the last sensations/emotions from “acquired” human captives from the stadium attack, and scenes of Soth tearing apart planets as the mortals of these planets died by the millions in vivid and disturbing detail upon the planets’ remaining surfaces. Every single one of these images and sounds, everything had been shown in such vivid detail it was beyond what the human mind could have perceived….but not too much at all for the mind of Soth.
And then the images too would suddenly cease, the invasive stream of them not flowing into her mind anymore. Like a water hose had suddenly been turned off, even.
’Ah…..enjoy those glimpses whilst you can. But this was an enjoyable activity, I suppose, to tide things over for now.
As thanks for volunteering for this, I have a special present heading your way…..do enjoy~’
And then the voice of Soth, after sending its final message that echoed around the magical girl’s skull, disappeared entirely once more.
The smoke wall was a confusing place to be, as it blocked nearly all of one's senses. It was teaming with horrorlings, moving about, preparing to dive into a battle at a moments notice. Shannon was aware of them, but most simply ignored her.
She wouldn't see it coming, she wouldn't hear it coming. The only indication she might have gotten was a horrorling suddenly stopping its movement. But there was too much to focus on. The vibrations this creature was making only stopped because it was no longer on the ground. It had jumped to Shannon's position, and it was hungry. That's all it was, an extra mouth to help expand the void. It didn't have a name, not that it could remember anyway.
Shannon didn't have the reflexes to avoid the creature. As soon as it landed nearby, it charged forward and collided with her. Rather than being thrown, the creature's tar-like body stuck to Shannon, taking her along for the ride. It wasn't long before the creature dove into a large tombstone, shoving Shannon deeper inside itself. That was when the teeth came out, and started biting Shannon as she sunk into its body. But if there was one thing she had, it was the tenacity to take blows like this. The other horrorlings must have gained wind of this discovery, because Shannon could sense them coming from all directions. But the champion horrorling wasn't concerned with that. It was just a matter of time before it eroded this shape. It would break, it would ruin, it would devour.
Normally creatures in this dark space could not be seen, but the smoke wall seemed to be lifting here. Rebecca Suthers stumbled upon this curious scene entirely by accident. There was a faint veil of smoke in the distance, and she could see all of the combatants fighting the Bates just beyond it. Would she venture forth, or would she try to help this magical girl wrapped up in a tar baby?
Age: 24/11 | Gender: Female/Female | Illusion, Gravity Body | Power of Friendship, Regeneration, Third Eye | Moirai Coercion, Soul Jar, Martial Training, True Sight, Parasite, Gifted, Awareness, Mystic Artifact
Of course, there were things that even the horrorlings couldn't see. Things like Mac.
In truth, the tar baby's initial bite and slam would have been a lot worse if Mac wasn't there to soften the blow. But the fight had only started, and she would be needed elsewhere. She had faith that Rebecca would do the right thing and help this girl out. That would free up Mac to help some of the other girls out.
'Fuckkkkkkkkkk' Alexander mentally groaned. Forming a very large bowl shaped barrier attached to his wand, and boosting his physical strength as high as he could, He swung the bowl at blob. Catching and then flinging it away as far as he could, after words he put a forcefield on Emily. "Why the hell are you even attacking us anyway!? We're here to deal with Horror shenanigans...or something like that. I would have thought that Beacon would have..." Then he facepalmed "You're fucking brainwashed, aren't you?" Without waiting for an answer, Alexander started speaking again "Dammit, why is it always brainwashing?" He sighed "Alright...I'll try really hard not to kill you. However I won't shy away from maiming you, since I can fix that latter." He then shifted his reinforcement to a more general boost, and formed a large barrier in the shape of a sword blade over his wand. He then lept at the presumed brainwashed girl, aiming to cut off her arms.
"Tsk." Silhouette clicked her tongue, annoyed her attempt to end the fight early wasn't successful.
She was able to raise her weapon and deflect the attacks Shona had launched in retaliation but was grazed by the hit from the sweep Shona used before backing off. The damage was negligible, nothing that would impede her ability to fight, but it did prevent her from immediately chasing her as she tried to gain distance. "A squire with a verbose title, huh?" she scoffed, raising her dagger towards Shona. "As if it matters. You're no better than a drone. But if it's darkness you want..." Silhouette's shadow slowly slinked into her, eventually disappearing. "...I'd be right happy to let darkness be the last thing you experience!" Saying so, she engaged once again with Shona. Though she was experienced with her blade, the fact quickly became apparent that she would be at a disadvantage if she were to continue to fight so directly. Her 'shield' had made the engagement somewhat manageable, but blocking thrusts with her arm proved to be a bit difficult to do consistently, eventually leading to her suffering a few hits that would've been a lot worse were she not able to twist her body in such a way to minimize the damage they had done at the last moment.
A different approach was going to be needed. Silhouette wasn't going to be able to treat Shona lightly, but she was prepared for this. As the two continued to fight, Sil forced a clash between her stasis-locked arm and Shona's blade, bracing it with her other hand. It was around then that Veronica's voice rang inside her head with new orders. Consider it done. She answered mentally, though in all honesty, this wasn't exactly as easy as her confident reply might've made it sound. Her best bet to successfully ensure Mika's safety was to break off from this duel and personally assist the girl, but she had the feeling Shona wouldn't just let her do that. Alternatively, she would have to finish this fight quickly, but Sil noticed that Mika wasn't faring too well against the countless horrors descending upon her, so she needed help immediately.
I suppose I can't be too selfish right now.
Still in a clash with Shona, Silhouette's shadow leaked out from beneath her and began to take on a physical form, its appearance being that of Silhouette's... silhouette. Knowing what its purpose was upon its creation, it quickly ran off to assist the two magical girls who had become surrounded by horrors, hopefully providing some relief to them while she dealt with Shona. She had originally intended to use her shadow to throw in more unpredictable attacks at Shona, but now she was missing the shadow she needed to do so. She would have to manage somehow. "You're not bad yourself. For a drone, that is. I suppose I'll extend to you the same courtesy and not hold back." she told Shona, then attempted to push her weapon to the side. If successful, she would throw stabs at Shona with her dagger.
E m i l y
"Talk shit, get clicked....tongues...?"
"Tsk." Emily clicked her tongue, annoyed despite how obvious that it was that this was going to happen.
It was a shame that things led to this, but there was nothing to be done now, except defend herself. Ignoring the unwarranted insult to her character, as it was something she was used to by this point, she extended her arm towards the apple-riding spiders being launched at her. "By fire, be purged!" She greeted them with a stream of fire from the palm of her gauntlet, presumably vaporizing them. Admittedly, this was perhaps the only time she actively enjoyed defending herself against another magical girl, as the only good spider, in her eyes, was a dead one. Bugs, in general, weren't pleasant to deal with.
Still, she did not appreciate this girl attacking them. And since it seemed like the magical boy with her thought she was being brainwashed, it was unlikely they'd be able to talk her down. A nonlethal solution was preferable, and with the two of them against her, Emily felt the odds were on their side.
That, of course, perhaps changed with the appearance of another, scaley girl. Emily was not one to discriminate against monster girls, though in her experience more had been hostile than not, though not to the degree of a horror girl. Still, it wasn't like she could instantly identify friend from foe in this hectic place. "You there! Can you teach me how to do that flip shit was awesome State your business!" she demanded. Of course, this meant she wasn't able to follow Alexander in his attack on Tonya. At least, not yet.
Mayra flew in through the smoke, flipping through and landing so that her legs bent her down into a squat, her tail slamming into the ground around her carried by the force of her jump. Then she looked ahead, and…
‘Eh?’ Mayra came to a complete stop when she arrived through the smoke, seeing Tonya and Alex and Lucifer and the blob and whatever else. None of which she actually knew. So, they were definitely firing upon one another, and there was fire and monsters and… This strangely skimpily dressed woman who asked her to state her business.
‘My business? Er, I kinda don’t have a business. I mean, I do, but it’s not my business, I do work for others occasionally, but mostly I do what I want, but that’s just free time, not business~!’ Mayra laughed a bit. ‘That aside! I’m Mayra McCullough, and I’m here to fight! I thought there’d be more. Huh. Anyway! Who should I fight!? The guy, the girl, you, all of you!? I honestly can’t tell! Hahaha!’ The scaly monster-girl smiled eagerly, standing up with the yellow patterns and her hair heating up, fire sparkling off her as she prepared to do battle looking at the confrontation between Tonya and Alex, her legs gathering power to potentially launch.
She wasn’t throwing her fire or launching just yet. She hadn’t decided on her target yet.
