Lily’s usually professional driving was momentarily disrupted by Alex’s concerns, causing her to wobble a bit before she corrected it.
”Well, yeah…The Beacon hasn’t made much noise, and neither has Mint or anybody else, really. I’m guessing the whole Mirror thing back in Dan’s place caused it…But it does seem a bit too easy." She passed by a couple of cars standing in diagonal spots at a red light, slipping by them using a sequence of 90-degree turns like a Tron lightcycle.
”I’ll ask Alicia about it. Maybe she knows some behind-the-scenes stuff. Anyway, there they are!"Lily spotted the pack of wendigos out in the distance, though it seemed like a cluster of blurs at first; the bestial fiends glowed with blue light as they sprinted at speeds comparable to motor vehicles rather than normal animals, and seemed to be chasing a car.
”They’re after someone! I’ll drive us closer, so try to make a wall or something to block them!" With that said, Lily took a deep breath, and visibly glowed as electric energy circulated from her to the motorcycle, accelerating it to wind-howling speed. At the rate they were going, the street was soon going to split into left and right at an intersection.
Rachel gave a simple nod as both Penny and Alicia agreed to fight the monsters. “If I must,” she answered sardonically. “Elora, contact Aurelio. Violette, prepare a team; we’re going to the bank area.” The cybermancer gave a small nod while in the midst of typing, and brought up the Beacon contact list to call Aurelio. “Aurelio, we have monsters sighted in Penrose central and surrounding sectors. Requesting for assistance.”
Violette saluted and left the room, while Rachel stayed to look at the map. “This number…is abnormal,” she mumbled.
Penny appeared at a rooftop looking over Business Street, usually a bustling area where shops and offices were situated. Not far from her location, she saw the Covington Tower, standing as a central landmark to the district.
“Eight wendigos coming in,” she heard Elora speak to her through her comms once she established the link. And soon enough, she saw the pack of monsters rounding the corner, seemingly hunting for any humans they could find. However, three of them separated from the pack and busted into a convenience store, ripping and tearing into the food products there even as the remaining five continued moving along.
That was when MDP also arrived at the scene, having spotted the separation of the packs. The five-strong pack, having moved closer to MDP’s direction, now surrounded a car with a couple inside, scratching at the windows and tackling the vehicle, about to push it over. The both of them then heard a scream coming from the store: “Help! Police!”
Alicia arrived at the hospital, and saw that at least 10 wendigos were in the area; seven of them were attacking the ambulances parked to the side of the building, clawing and tackling the vehicles in a frenzy. She heard someone screaming from inside the vehicle. The remaining three wendigos were at the entrance doors, trying to force their way through the barricaded door. On the other side, a group of civilians were holding the barricade down like in a zombie movie. “These are some goddamn mutated deers, not hoodlums!” She heard them screaming amidst shrieks of terror.
“Alwright, finally some fresh meat!” Belladonna howled, and took point as the vanguard of Sanctuary headed to the site in the industrial sector. However, the scene they arrived at differed from what they expected; the disturbingly numerous pack of wendigos had been taken down, some even in pieces as they laid amidst the corpses of the Beacon patrol, having taken their civilian guises upon death. A quick glance counted at least thirty of the monsters. However, one Beacon girl still miraculously survived, lying on her stomach. Belladonna’s eyebrows were raised, however, when she realized it wasn’t a wendigo stomping on her…but a
dark magical girl.
She was accompanied by two monster girls; one
wore an eyepatch, while the other
has gold-embroidered wings on her head and back.
The Beacon girl squirmed, blood trickling from her brow, as she seemed to try and free herself despite her wounded state, while the corrupted girls simply laughed at her misery.
“Serves you right, lamphead.”
“Doesn’t feel nice being curb stomped, right?” The gold-winged monster girl taunted, while the eyepatched girl simply looked on, until she glanced to look at the Sanctuary girls.
“Oh, hello there. Would you like to join us?” She asked calmly, to which the DMG simply scoffed as she summoned her bladed weapon. “Nah, I think we’re done here. I’ll just quickly kill her so we can continue looking for the Sanctuary.”
Oliver and Finn arrived at the train station, where they saw Roxanna and four of her duplicates fighting four wendigos stalking the area. The monsters were tall and thin with spindly limbs, resembling trees from a distance, though as one came closer the animalistic abominations soon showed their true colors of undead-like fiends, with patches of fur clinging to them and atrophied muscles. Their emaciated, frozen bodies were topped by the antlered skull of a deer. They possessed red eyes that peer from shadowed eye sockets, and wide jaws filled with sharp canine teeth, giving them an eerie juxtaposition with the herbivore skulls. The monsters glowed red as their hunting instincts have been woken, no longer content with eating frozen chickens and other meat products as warm-blooded creatures caught their scent.
Despite their large size and malnourished appearance, they were swift, able to keep up with Roxanna’s adequate speed. Fortunately, they didn’t seem to possess the same swiftness that the blue wendigos at Central Street did. While three of them circled Roxanna, cautious of her ability to inflict lasting damage with fire, the fourth one scrambled after it was knocked down, ripping out what looked like a wooden stake from its body. It’s wound was still smoking from the burning that Roxanna caused when it roared in bestial fury, only to be silenced by Roxanna as she delivered a kick that shattered the monster’s skull, causing it to tumble down. She couldn’t tell if the monster’s heart had burned yet or not, however.
Meanwhile, two of the wendigos pounced at the clones, causing them to disappear in puffs of purple smoke as the wendigos bit and clawed at them, while the third wendigo attacked Roxanna. Roxanna managed to hold her own against the beast, dodging the downward slam of its claws and returned a karate chop that rattle the beast, but immediately realized she was in trouble; the wendigo snapped its jaws on her thigh, but failed to puncture her thanks to her Enhanced Outfit providing a solid defense. However, as a result, the dress wouldn’t tear, and she was held in place as the other two wendigos turned their attention on her, savage growls emanating from their hollow throats.
Connie and Mia rushed to Penrose Bank, where they spotted six wendigos terrorizing the local civilians; two of them were at the doors to the bank, attempting to tackle through even as a bunch of people were pressing against it. They could hear someone scream as a woman fell back from the door, signaling that they wouldn’t be able to hold down the fort any longer. The other four wendigos were about to head to a butcher shop when they noticed the two magical girls; one of them howled like a demonic wolf, followed by the four monsters rushing to attack.
As Coco was reading, she gradually began to feel a subtle, uncomfortable feeling, as if someone was watching her. Then, she turned and saw it; in dark corner, a black blotch emerged. The shape of it resembled a tall, broad-shouldered human wearing a brimmed hat. Next to it was the shorter shape of a young woman.
“Greetings, miss Coco. I have been expecting your arrival.”
She saw the corporeal mass of shadows step out of the dark corner, as if freeing himself from a tangled web made out of the abyss itself. As it did, it took a more
defined shape. A
woman with cold eyes stepped out of the darkness behind him; she lifted a hand, and the swirling darkness behind them closed, giving Coco the impression that the woman was the one who opened the portal in the first place.
The man smiled eerily.
“Welcome to Penrose. My name is Al Scarpe, the local representative of the Ebon Mint.”
A cigar extended from the depths of his sleeve, as if pulled along by an invisible thread, and he lit it with a golden lighter studded with tiny jewels. He paused his speech as he smoked the cigar.
“Now, what have we here…” he muttered afterwards, and slowly walked closer towards Coco.
Justine, after she had made her preparations and dressed, stepped downstairs to have breakfast with Maura.
”Mistress…I saw that there were monsters attacks on Glimmr. I’ll…get rid of them,” she hesitantly spoke after she was finished eating.
”If that is fine with you.” However, Maura could tell that wasn’t the whole story, as if Justine was hiding something.