Flamelord

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

"Well, thank you for letting me know," Alicia responded with her best effort at a calm demeanor. Still, Trixy had raised her curiosity. One might have considered it idle chatter, but typically 'party' and 'assassination attempt' did not naturally go together. It seemed to indicate at least that she knew more than she was perhaps letting on. It might not be worth pursuing at the moment, but it was something to keep in mind.

So as Samantha returned, the Seraph would provide her own knowing response in turn. "Still, it's all a bit odd. You go to the trouble of setting up a secret party with a secret address, fill it with people hostile to the Ascendancy, then you do the equivalent of throwing up a big neon sign that says 'hey we're over here'. I could probably pick up this aura halfway across town. Makes you wonder if this event is a bit more than it seems."

For a few moments she watched the dancing as FanFan and Trixy got into it. At the very least they could spare that much time, especially with how much her comrade was getting into it. But eventually she would dismiss herself, nodding to Leena as she did so. "I'll catch up. Just have some things I need to do first, people to meet, you know how it is." With that she slipped off, headed towards the various side rooms and the back of the hall for a bit of detective work.

But she did not make it very far before the lights dimmed and the music faded. Eyes wide, she turned towards the stage and the girl who emerged there. "No no, it's too soon. That isn't enough time." But there was nothing she could do about it, as events continued at their own inexorable pace.

As if hearing her inner thoughts, things got worse. Music rang out, her Spark flaring in response. Yet she was not the main target of it anyway as bedlam and violence began to spread. Girls went crazy, fighting each other and lashing out with their powers. A bar exploded, fire and darkness everywhere as the lights failed.

Dodging back, Alicia transformed into her magical girl outfit to handle this new, drastic, situation. Her Third Eye kicked in, cutting through the magically induced darkness and removing it as an obstacle to her moving about. The fighting was still a problem, but at least she could see it coming. Dimly, she heard Rachel's comment over her comms, a spike of worry lancing through her. This was dangerous by itself, but she still had not seen any indication of what the Mint was up to. What if there was more? "Vi's an empath," she said over the radio, coughing and trying to make herself heard over the music. "She's got this entire place going crazy. You send girls in here they're going to be walking into a warzone. We need to contain it! Leena, make sure FanFan is alright. Penny, please tell me you're recording all of this."

If someone was going to try and use this to make them look bad, she at least wanted it to be difficult for them.

For now she moved, Requiem's Dawn in its sword form and ready to act as she pushed forward towards the back rooms. This was not over yet, and she was not going to rest easy until she was sure that every threat had been dealt with - whether that was Vi or someone else.

---

"Ren," the older man replied, shooting her a crooked smile. "I could always say something profound about us all being travelers on the journey of life, if you'd prefer. Besides, a tourist has his tricks. I'm a bit more sturdy than I seem." He'd have to be, to hang out with magical girls on any sort of normal basis.

Finding themselves suddenly addressed by another pair, Ren shifted to look at the duo before tipping his head. "Ladies." He would allow Liss to explain the situation, figuring they would pay her more attention than they would him. In the end it was a bit of a moot point as the concert finally began.

An eyebrow rose as the song began, a call to abandon inhibition and follow the desires of the heart. Reaching into his pocket, he felt for his car keys as the violence soon began. "Looks like that's my cue to-"

Then the bar exploded.

Thrown bodily through the air, Ren slammed down with the air driven out of him. Pain flared through his torso, but he was disoriented enough to the point that he didn't have the attention to acknowledge it for a few moments. Man he hadn't felt like this in ages, not that that was a bad thing. He didn't exactly enjoy feeling like this.

Grunting, he slowly stirred and dragged himself over to a nearby table through grit teeth. Definitely some broken ribs at the very least, lacerations, plus who knew what else, but at least he wasn't on fire. Taking a deep breath he began to focus his inner energy, turning it to healing himself to the point where he could even walk. He just hoped he had the time to do so, with everything else going on

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

An eyebrow rose as Alicia observed Leena and FanFan change their outfits. It was a bit more extreme than what she had been expecting they would go for, and it left her feeling a bit self conscious with her own choices. Then again, maybe she was just overthinking things. It wasn't like everyone they had seen entering looked like a punk rocker. This would be fine.

Inside, Alicia saw many people she knew, and a few that she didn't. Honestly she could see why they had sprung for the warehouse. It seemed like a majority of the magical girls in the city were here for this rave. With the aura blanketing everything, it made it near impossible to tell what the threat might be, or any sort of trap. Sure, the power differences here meant that there were probably girls on their own who could be extremely dangerous, but that was not what was at play here.

Something told her that whatever it was probably was not sitting in the middle of the dance floor. If they wanted to find out what, they needed to look deeper.

But before she could get to any of that, they found themselves approached by a duo asking for a dance. One of them seemed familiar, though she was having a bit of trouble pinning down a face to the name. But she was the less talkative one anyway. Before Alicia could answer Leena and FanFan took the lead, the girl drawing in and challenging the eyepatch girl to a ballet competition in the middle of the rave. Now this would be an interesting sight to see.

"She just never stops," Alicia observed with a sigh and a shaking of her head. She got the message that Leena was going for, or at least she thought that she did. "I can't say I'm much of a dancer myself though. Hope that's alright." As fun as it would have been, their mission could not afford for them to get wrapped into dancing with random strangers. At least not yet. Maybe once the threat was gone.

Having said that much, it couldn't hurt delving in a little for information. "So, enjoying the party so far? We just got here, seems pretty chaotic doesn't it? Or is there other stuff going on that we've missed?' It was a decent probe that might give them a direction to look, at least in theory.

_{@Ariamis@BrokenPromise}

---

While unaware that the alcohol had been traded out for simple water, Ren was at least pleased to find that his effort had found some fertile ground. Liss had been distracted from her misery, though she did look like a mess. How long had she been here doing this? he wouldn't have been surprised if it had been since the party started.

Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and handed it over for her to use. At the same time her question would be answered. "You looked like you were in a rough spot," he conceded with a shrug. "I'm mostly a tourist as is. Go around to various dimensions, watch interesting things. No blue police box, but that's overrated anyway. Made a lot of sense to stop by a massive magical girl party."

Taking a sip of his drink, he took a moment to enjoy the taste before adding to that. "So, not really trying for anything personal, just lending a helping hand along the way to a fellow traveler. Make sense?"

_@ERode

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

"I'm not sure about that," Alicia replied as Penny suggested bringing a drone into the party for additional scouting. "That might be a bit too provocative." As if to accentuate what she had said, the sudden flaring of a magical aura covered the warehouse. Either someone was showing off, or they were trying to hide something in there. It would be for the best to not pick a fight by making people think they were being actively spied upon.

Admittedly they were doing that already, but at least this base was outside. That made it easier to forget about.

Turning to Rachel, she nodded as a hand rose to tap the communicator. "Of course. Here's hoping we work this out quickly." The sooner this evident plot was resolved, the better that she would feel.

With a wave to Rachel, Alicia departed the cloaking field and the rooftop. Her dismount was on the side opposite the warehouse, a small fig leaf in the name of the secrecy they were at least pretending to operate in. After a minute or two she would resume walking, not moving so fast as to keep Leena and FanFan from keeping up as they rounded around and moved towards the warehouse.

Entering, an impressed whistle escaped as her gaze swept the main area. She wasn't sure how big of a celebrity Vi actually was, but she had drawn quite the large crowd for this gathering. It wasn't every girl in the city, but it was definitely a significant chunk of them. It was going to be interesting to see how long this party could go without a fight breaking out, especially with the drinking going on.

Adjusting the glasses that she had bought for the occasion, Alicia wondered how many people had realized Beacon had entered the premises. More importantly, how many people would make an issue of it. At least she had dressed for the occasion, A dark blue dress that complimented her eyes. The low cut flowed around her feet, while straps held it in place. It was ad different from her usual uniform, that was for sure.

"Don't wander too far from each other," she warned her companions. "If one of us gets in trouble I want to be able to have a quick assist." Obviously they had to spread out to uncover this plot, but that didn't mean they needed to be reckless about it in a potentially very hostile environment.

For now she'd skirt around the fringes of the party, getting the lay of the land. As she had said, the sooner they worked this out the better.

---

Sipping his drink, Ren watched what was going on. Plenty of dancing, loud music, conversations everywhere, the usual. He noticed Alicia entering about the same time as he finished his drink, but did not head over immediately. They were meet sooner or later, and it would be rude to not give her the chance to enjoy the party first.

Recognizing his empty beverage, Ren wandered back over to the bar for a refill. It was there that he found someone who looked like they could use a supporting shoulder. Red hair, padded gloves, some kind of bikini outfit, and currently venting her frustrations upon the poor bar while crying.

Well, he had time to spare.

Taking a seat next to her, he requested his own drink before looking to the magical girl. "A wise man once said, there's no point in drinking if you're going to do it by yourself. Hope you don't mind if I intrude." he was the picture of calm, though it could just be the sunglasses hiding his eyes. One way or another, this was going to be an interesting night.

_@ERode

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

The day of the Rave had come at last. With the information that Beacon had obtained they had been able to set up an observation point near the event itself. A cloaking field was in place, allowing them to talk and prepare without worry about being disturbed.

At the moment she was talking with Rachel, nodding as the plan was laid out. "I understand," she confirmed, looking down at the girls who walked past without a clue as to who was watching them. She could see Lily and Alex down there waiting for her, but she needed to wrap this up first. "Katarina should be helping with the investigation on the inside, but some extra eyes couldn't hurt."

She returned the handshake, only to find herself surprised as both Leena and FanFan offered to come with. An eyebrow rose, before she nodded in approval. "If you want to come with, I won't refuse. Just keep on your toes." But she hardly needed to tell them that. Not with all the evidence to indicate that something was afoot here. The sooner they figured out what that was the better.

---

As magical girls moved through the doors of the warehouse and into the rave, they would be joined by an older gentleman. He was not magical himself, but he had been involved in the affairs of the magical girl community long enough to know how these things worked. Where to go, what to do to blend in a bit.

Moving inside, it was not hard for Ren to notice the alcoholic beverages, the magical girls mixing, chatting, dancing, all the stuff that one would expect. It wasn't the most intense party that he'd been to in his time traveling dimensions, but the party had only just begun. There was plenty of time for things to get more fun.

On the downside it looked like Alicia hadn't arrived yet, but that was fine. Even if she didn't, he could still enjoy himself. He snagged a drink, sipping at it while watching the festivities. It would be interesting to see what sort of fun things happened tonight.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

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Cardinal Ishtar

A few days after their previous fight and meeting, Katarina would receive a message from Alicia. As requested she had inquired into meeting with a higher member of Beacon, and gotten it approved.

The message itself came with a time for them to meet, as well as the location of the Beacon HQ. That latter part might be a bit redundant at this point in time, but it was better than just assuming that she knew.

Alicia would meet her in the lobby, Katarina having been allowed in without too much grumbling by the guards outside. It was still daytime, though it was towards the evening at this point. ”Hey Katarina, glad you could make it.”

She shook her hand before continuing. ”I can’t say whether you ruffled any feathers with that information of yours, but they’ve agreed to meet so it’s a good start. Assuming you haven’t gotten cold feet in the meantime.”

“First thing they teach you in the academy is that cold feet will get you hurt.” Rina replied with a dismissive, nonchalant tone. She wasn't sure what to expect. The archer half expected Beacon to just stone wall and make vague promises. That they even agreed to meet was promising, but she wasn't getting her hopes up. Dealing with large organizations was always a pain. They always had something to hide, and they never wanted anyone poking around their business. “Thanks again for setting this up, but lets get this over with, yeah? I'm not here for a courtesy call.”

Nodding, Alicia gestured for Katarina to follow as she led the guest further into the base. The walk was a swift one, the Paladin nodding to girls walking by in the hallways. The meeting aside, it was a normal day at Beacon. As normal as anything was these days.

As they neared their destination, she looked back at Rina. ”You’re going to be meeting with Cardinal Ishtar. Obviously the standards are a bit different since you aren’t in Beacon, but try and have some respect. Alright?”

Rina kept mostly to herself, not even bothering acknowledging anyone else's presence as Alicia led her through the hallways.

“We'll see.” Rina responded to Alicia curtly. Ishtar? As in that old Sumerian goddess or whatever? It was probably just a name or some title. “As long as I don't get jerked around, I doubt we'll have problems.” She was hoping it'd go well, but she was fully prepared for it to fall apart.

”Fair enough,” Alicia couldn’t ask for much more than that at this point. Especially with what the topic was. Besides, she was curious to learn what Katarina would find out anyways.

They soon reached their destination. It was a smaller portion of the HQ, one more suited for private conversations and quiet meditation. There were no bustling groups of people or loud distractions. Here one could focus, center themselves.

Walking up to one of the nondescript doors, Alicia softly knocked. ”Cardinal,” she called. ”Katarina Nekrasova is here to see you, as we discussed before.”

The Cardinal was praying before a small altar when Alicia looked inside. "Yes, come in," she quietly asked, and then stood up to meet them. Her eyes were still closed, hands clasped. "Thank you for your assistance with the monster threat, Katarina. These troubled times are when our kind is most needed," she stated. "How may I help you?"

Alicia waited for Katarina to enter the room before closing the door behind them. Eavesdroppers were unlikely, but the privacy for this conversation would not be amiss. Standing off to the side, the black haired paladin looked between the other two girls there. ”She came into possession of some information recently that she wished to ask about,” Alicia then looked to Katarina, to pick up where she had left off.

Rina followed Alicia in the room. She gave the cardinal a brief glance. Prayer? She had never been much for religion, but it was fitting at least that Beacon followed some such practices. Otherwise though, she didn’t seem special, but such appearances were often deceiving.

“Doing what is needed doesn't require thanks.” Rina replied dismissively. “If anything, I should be thanking you for both meeting me and letting me occasionally help out with Beacon even though I'm not a member.”
“I had assumed Alicia had informed you of what I wanted to talk about, but lets start at the beginning.” Rina casually folded her arms, her voice betraying no emotion as she gauged the cardinal's reaction to her next question. “Are you familiar with a town in Ethiopia by the name of Dilla?”
The Cardinal did not react unusually to Rina's question. "Dilla? I'm afraid I do not know of this town. Did something happen there?"

Rina returned the Cardinal's answer with a small frown. If she was playing ignorant, she was really good at it. Perhaps she was truthfully, unaware and ignorant of what the rest of Beacon was up to. Assuming this had something to do with Beacon in the first place.

“You could say that.” Rina responded curtly. “In 2007 there was a supposed gas leak that made the city inhospitable. I'll spare you the details, but a travel ban was put in place and is still in place there today. Kinda weird for it to still be there, ain't it?” The former police officer reached into her pocket, pulling out the USB with the file on it. She had already made a copy in case something happened to it back on her own laptop and a few other storage spaces.

Hunt criminals long enough, you pick up a few things about how not to lose information.

“Around the same time, some interesting reports started popping up. Some bright lights, and some videos people passed off as a hoax. Normal conspiracy stuff, really. I wouldn't have thought much of it myself had I just stumbled on it, but...” She flashed the Cardinal a soft smile. “You have a computer I can use, Cardinal?”

The Cardinal blinked upon seeing the USB; she also frowned upon realizing the gravity in Rina's words. "Yes, on that desk over there. Let me see the video, please. Because if what you said is true…" She seemed a bit technologically challenged, but after a moment of fiddling she played the video.

Her eyes opened, gleaming eyes filled with the kind of sorrow that even made Rina she'd a year from the welling emotions. "This is...Could it be?" She quietly spoke. "The Reckoning…"

“The Reckoning, huh.” Even if she felt some emotion for a moment, Rina quickly regained her composure. She closed her eyes a moment, processing the information and making sure not to let show any sign of weakness or her thoughts. The Cardinal seemed genuine. That much was certain from her reaction, but that in and of itself could mean anything.

“So you do know something. Mind sharing, Cardinal?” Whatever this 'Reckoning' was, it seemed like it was bad news. “I know I'm asking for a lot here, but I can't turn a blind eye to something like this.”

Alicia moved along with the others, watching for Ishtar’s reaction as she watched the video. She’d known the previous comment wasn’t a lie, but that only said so much. Now more of the picture became clearer. ”I hadn’t seen or heard of anything like this before. That’s why I arranged this meeting,” Alicia explained again. ”Either it was a set up, or something that should not be so easily handed out. Both options would be bad, especially with the timing of it.”

Ishtar turned to face Rina, her eyes again closed. “The Reckoning is...The Ascendancy’s final weapon. I have only seen it myself a couple of times, but it is a terrible power, destroying all in a wide area."

So her assumptions about what it was had been proven correct. The only question remained, was what to do with this information? With Penrose becoming completely unstable like this...Rina frowned, taking in the information. Why send this to her, then? Why not just blow the whistle completely? Were they avoiding responsibility? Or was this something only she could investigate for some reason? Did they want to turn her against beacon? They didn't know her very well, then.
“That's a pretty devastating weapon you got there.” She commented idly after a moment of consideration. “...I'm assuming you don't know where it's located, or how it's used.” Perhaps...no, that'd be too far fetched. “This town of Dilla became a target due to magical corruption, then?”
"That is the only explanation," Ishtar responded. "The Reckoning is only used as a last resort, when the corruption has spread too far to contain by normal means. I was not there, but I assume the Ascendancy deemed it necessary to purge Dilla using such extreme means. But, how did you get your hands on this file?" She asked with a frown. "This is a matter of utmost secrecy. Nobody but the higher captains in Beacon should know of this."

Alicia stiffened as Ishtar explained what the Ascendancy had at its disposal. It made some sense, to have a weapon this powerful on the off chance that things had escalated beyond the ability of humans to stop. If Soth had manifested in Earth, would it have been used then? Who could tell.

”An anonymous drop off. Which is about as worrying as it sounds,” she explained, glancing over to Katarina just in case she’d uncovered anything related to that in the time since they had last seen each other.

“Hm...” Rina turned away from the other two, taking a slow walk around the room. She could understand why one would need such a weapon – but to actually use it? That was just about effective as one country nuking another without thinking the rest of the world would eventually retaliate. Obviously peace and order needed to be kept, but...there was no way they could be certain that every single person in that town was beyond saving, or did they deem the collateral worth it?
“I don't know for certain who sent it, though I do have a few guesses from a bit of digging.” She turned to face the other two. “But I'm not going to be giving up a source to Beacon. Not until I can be certain of what's actually going on here.” Perhaps this was just a warning for what the Ascendancy was going to be doing to Penrose if they couldn't contain the current events.
Ishtar slowly nodded. “I see. In any case, I must ask you to keep this a secret, Katarina Nekrasova. If word got out about this weapon, it would cause the magical community to resent Beacon even more than before. Then, other organizations like the Ebon Mint would rise in power as people turn to alternative choices to cast their faith in.” She turned away. “You would also be in danger; the Ascendancy would hunt you down as an enemy of the organization if they learned you possessed this knowledge.”

”No pressure, sorry.” Alicia added with a small wince. Not that she could blame Ishtar for asking this. With how rough things had been for them in the past months, knowing that they had the ability to just destroy the city would only add to that fire.

“It's fine, Alicia.” She grunted, glancing towards the Cardinal. “Don't worry Cardinal. I may not agree with the Ascendancy or a lot of what Beacon has done in the past,” Rina replied, stashing the USB back into her pocket. “But I can respect what they've tried to do. I'm not looking to cause more trouble, and I don't think whoever sent this is either. If they were looking too they would have sent it to something like the PI.” Still, this meeting was enlightening but so far it hadn’t revealed much. She had a name and confirmed it was likely Beacon's, but other than that? “I assume that person in the video is likely also part of the Ascendancy?”

"Thank you, Rina; you are a good person," she spoke, looking slightly relieved. "I do not recognize them, if that is your question," Ishtar answered; her expression was marked a solemn color. "But I am almost sure it was one of the officers of the Ascendancy observing the weapon's activation."

There was a small sigh of relief as Katarina confirmed that she’d keep things to herself. Not only that, but they had some idea as to who the person in the video was. ”The question is, why include the other file with this one? Obviously the video of the Reckoning was to establish credibility of some kind. But what does including it with that audio file accomplish?” Alicia hummed in thought, not ready to make any judgments just yet.

Rina frowned.

“Assuming the Cardinal knows about the audio file.” Rina continued. “...I don't think it was to establish credibility. It doesn't make sense, Alicia. If anything, the Audio file would likely be what they used to build credibility or trust. I think the two are connected in some manner.” She held a hand to her chin, pondering a few scenarios.
“Allow me to talk for a few seconds, Cardinal.” She didn't wait for permission as she took a seat on a nearby table, propping her elbows on her knees as she continued, a serious expression formed on her features. “I might be rusty because I haven't done an investigation quite like this since my police days, but my gut is telling me that at least. The audio file itself doesn't tell us much. Someone working with the Mint is planning on using this rave to their advantage...that wouldn't be useful in the slightest to anyone aside from simply confirming what we assumed was going on. The video file itself, also does not tell us much by itself aside from maybe, a leveraging tool on Beacon. They should know sending it to me wouldn't accomplish much since I am affiliated with them, unless they wanted me to defect.” She really didn't have much to go on. One of the possible scenarios was that this was a warning for what beacon was going to be doing to Penrose soon, but again, why send it to her? Sending it to some other organization in that sense, would be far more effective.
“...Which leaves the question, why send both...and why to me. If they simply wanted me to investigate Dilla, all they'd need to do is send the USB. If they wanted me to investigate the Mint more, all they'd have to do is show up and ask.” She made a gesture with one of her hands. ”Sending both to me, tells me that both events are likely connected...and that I'm likely a select few people that could understand what was happening.” She leaned back, folding her arms across her chest as she continued, closing her eyes as she thought.
“Assuming they want to help, they probably sent it to me because there's a good chance Beacon would simply dismiss whatever it is unless it was from someone they tentatively trusted. Of course, there's a decent chance they simply want me to investigate the town of Dilla itself and were simply informing me of what happened to it, trusting that I wouldn't implicate Beacon easily. But again, then why send the tape?” She hummed, tapping a finger on her arm.
“The only connection I can make between the video file and the audio one, is that its meant as an example or a warning. Of either what the Ascendancy was planning on doing to Penrose...or perhaps, what someone else is planning on doing. If someone working with the Mint is collecting a massive amount of magical energy, there is only a handful of things I would believe they'd be using it for. None, would be good for anyone else involved.” Finishing, the former detective fell silent for a few moments before blinking, face coloring red with slight embarrassment.
“Aha, sorry. Got a little carried away there.” She hopped off of where she had been sitting. “Take anything I said with a grain of salt. Too little actual evidence to go on to make any solid conclusions.”
Ishtar seemed like she wasn't listening as she continued praying, until she spoke. "May I also hear this tape?" As requested, the tape was played again. By the end of it, Ishtar began crying tears of glittering gold. "No...I now understand…" She turned and took Rina's hand; the magical girl felt a gentle, soothing feeling from her touch. "The Mint plans to unleash a powerful spell on the night of the rave. With the Beacon drawn there, it must be something dreadful." She then collapsed against Rina's embrace. "The Ascendancy won't see kindly to acts of terror. It might even lead to...The Reckoning…" She whispered the last part. Rina was now so overwhelmed by grief that tears welled in her eyes beyond her control.

Ishtar’s observation was one that both of the other girls had suspected might be the case. Yet the way she said it gave it more weight, made it seem more likely than either of them had been willing to entertain. Alicia’s head fell, mulling over it in her thoughts.

”So we’ve got the Mint plotting what is definitely a trap of some kind. Considering the initial message, Vi is definitely involved somehow. I guess the question is whether Cindy is working with the Mint, or if this is all going down without her knowing. I mean, ‘coincidentally surviving’ the Reckoning of Penrose would make her a pretty big figure in the community, beyond just another ruler,” she said to the other two in the room. If this was a conspiracy, and if it went that far, they were in more danger than anyone had suspected.

Ugh, the Cardinal was most likely an Empath. As soon as she was able, she released the Cardinal from the embrace and wiped her eyes.

“Lets not start making any more wild assumptions, Alicia.” Rina said, zipping up her jacket. “We don't know that for certain.” Still, at this point she wouldn't be surprised if Cindy had something to do with all of this. Whatever the case, it wasn't important right now. “Either way, it doesn't matter right now. I don't think there's much we can do to stop whatever it is from happening. Not enough time and too little information.” In her opinion at least, their best idea was to wait and see what happened. They knew something was coming, but they didn't know what – it was far better to be reactive rather than proactive in this situation with such little time and information.
“Sorry if I'm being a little presumptuous, She said, turning to Ishtar. “I don't know how much sway you have over the Ascendancy, Cardinal, but...I'd steer clear of the party and focus more on making sure Beacon is safe from whatever it is this is. If you all die fighting in a trap, well...even if there are some heavy losses on all sides, Beacon likely won't be able to recover, even if it has the Reckoning. If they use it to wipe Penrose and whatever corruption off the map...they may not be able to cover it up so well this time with a city as large as Penrose.”
Ishtar nearly collapsed to the floor when Rina released her, though she managed to find her footing. “That won’t be a problem. I...I have somewhere else to go on that day.” She slowly moved towards the altar, and knelt down to pray. “Alicia, Rina...There might come a time when you’re faced with darkness so great you fall into an abyss.. But, even then, you mustn’t give in to despair. In you two, I sense a grand destiny, but only you can make it a reality. Please...bring peace to Penrose. May the light of Beacon guide you forward.”

Alicia winced, chastised sufficiently by Katarina’s words. ”Well, I don’t know about more wild assumptions, but I do know that that tabloid, the Penrose Independent, knows something. One of their people warned Penny to have Beacon members she cares about stay away from the event. That might be worth looking into.” She’d do it herself, if it weren’t for that standing commitment they had to Rebecca to find her Twin Soul.

As Ishtar returned to her prayer, Alicia moved to stand by Katarina. ”Thank you for your words Cardinal. I’ll keep them in mind and in heart,” she agreed with a small bow. Yet at the same time, she hoped that whatever this dark time was did not come to pass.

Rina cast a quizzical look towards the Cardinal when she said she had somewhere to be. That was...a bit odd, wasn't it? Or was there some beacon thing she had to do? Well, wasn't any of her business.
“I don't know about any 'grand destiny', or the light of Beacon.” Rina replied, making a move towards the door. “But I've been protecting Penrose before I was a magical girl. I'm not going to stop now. Thank you for the help, Cardinal.” She still wanted to know what exactly happened to warrant the use of the Reckoning in Dilla, but she got the feeling in the coming weeks she was going to be too busy to care. “The PI, eh...for a news service that touts being impartial, they've always seemed shady. If I had the time before the party I'd be doing some looking myself.”

Alicia followed as they moved to the door, closing it behind her once they had exited the room so the Cardinal could continue her quiet reflection. ”I’ll look into it as best I can. Still, it’s something worth keeping in mind even if we don’t learn much,” Alicia noted.

With that said, she began guiding Katarina back to the entrance. ”Well, I wish you good luck. If things keep going as they are, we’re going to need it.”

“Beacon is going to need more luck than I ever will.” Rina replied with a shake of her head as she left. “Stay safe, Alicia.”

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

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For once snow had abated in the city of Penrose. Life continued on, magical girls clashed in politics and personal grievances. Alliances, fights, parties, the drama of a hidden world playing out all the time.

Yet the monsters who threatened the city of Penrose had not simply abated. Some, the more wise, had taken flight with the return of those who had been swept away by a certain Dolphin. But plenty more remained, and they would not stop even if more danger had arrived.

What was once a clear night sky would soon become stained with dark smoke rising from the city. The crackle of flame soon joined it as an abandoned apartment complex began to burn eagerly.

But this was no natural fire. With so many people away there were plenty of unmaintained buildings. That meant plenty of materials to catch on fire and to burn. In turn the ability of the authorities to respond to such an incident was limited, though they would do their best. But this fire was one that would only spread and increase in intensity as time went by.

There was one reason for that in particular. This fire was no accident. Monsters swarmed the place, spiky black limbs allowing them to clamber up walls with ease while flaming maces and blades smashed and cut and further lit the structure on fire. At the moment only two could be seen on the exterior, though there were doubtlessly more inside. If someone did not act, things would quickly spread out of control.

Rina could spot the fire miles away. She had been mostly patrolling around the Golden Trove, but she couldn't simply let a fire like that burn. She had hoped it'd just be a mundane thing and she could simply help rescue anyone caught in it, but it seemed like that wasn't the case. Monsters of fire swarmed the place, eagerly looking for victims and to spread their chaos.

Well, she couldn't let that happen.

A metal snap echoed across the area, a flash of light reflected off the swords body as it streaked across the night air. It slammed into one of the monsters, Rina deciding to take a comfortable position across the street, dealing with them from a distance for now. Take out the two on the outside, then worry about the others that were likely on the inside.

The sword flew with the speed of a bullet, crossing the distance between buildings and slamming into the monster. A screech filled the air as one of the monsters legs was severed, throwing it off balance in its sideways perch. It struggled to adjust only to fail, and was sent falling to the ground in turn with an audible impact against concrete.

The fall did not seem to have finished it off alone, but it was slow as it rose back to its feet. Easy picking for a skilled range fighter. That left the other monster, who snarled at her before scurrying towards the roof. Its flail spun, an effort at some sort of heated shield against her and her projectiles. It did not have the same range that she did, but it seemed as though it did not intend to let that stop it from trying.

“Hmph.” Rina formed several more swords, smaller than the last. Pulling back the arrow she unloaded several in quick succession towards the fiery beast. Not giving it much time to consider or close in on her, she leaped off the building, twisting in air as she continued firing the smaller projectiles until she was behind it. Another sword was formed, larger than the previous ones before unleashing it in the creatures back.

Once again steel flew across the gap. This time it met with fire, heated by contact as the monster sought to defend itself. A few were deflected to the side from kinetic energy, but a flew slipped past to sink into dark blacks and glowing oranges. After a few moments they began to melt from the heat of the monster’s body, though the red iron did not seem to be doing much more damage beyond the initial stab wounds. Considering the appearance and weaponry of the monster, heat was likely not something it had to concern itself with.

With four legs it reoriented rapidly as she came down, burning into stone in impromptu handholds for its mass. It blocked with its knife, but her strength and the size of the blade meant that it could not block her entirely. The blade slashed into its side, earning another screech of pain. The wound glowed a bright orange and yellow, radiating heat and steam that made the air around it discernibly warmer.

Yet it did not stop, not yet. Instead it retaliated, blocking with its lesser blade while trying to bludgeon her with its flail. The monster at the base of the building was forgotten as the duo engaged in their duel.

“Tch, don't have time for you...!” Rina growled. Rina deftly avoided the flail, leaping to the side, using one of her blades to slice into the creatures arm in hopes of completely severing it. Regardless of the outcome, she'd then leap backwards, putting some distance between the two of them and swiftly knocking an arrow, launching it at the second one before it could go anywhere.

Rina’s moves were swift and precise. Her blade slashed through the monster’s arm and caused it to drop the flail. As that fell to the ground she fired an arrow downwards at the other monster outside. That scored a hit and the beast slumped again. Its fire faded, and soon it had dissolved away into nothing more than ash.

The remaining monster prepared to charge Rina as its body heat rose. The knife it held glowed brighter as it reared back and brandished its blade in her direction.

Yet before it could launch itself at her an arrow struck it from the side. Just like its companion, it collapsed onto the rooftop and its heat died as it faded away to ash. The culprit quickly revealed herself as Alicia stepped forward. ”Hope you don’t mind if I cut in,” she said with a nod to the sword wielding magical girl. ”Beacon picked up the fire via their scrying set up. I was the nearest member, so I figured I’d lend a hand.”

“Alicia. Thanks for the assist.” Rina said curtly as she took a chance to catch her breath. “I need to actually talk to you about something, but that can wait until we put these things in the ground.” She formed a sword in her free hand. “The rest in the building?”

Glancing downwards, Alicia stomped on the roof with a nod. ”Yeah,” she confirmed. At the same time she twisted the handle of the bow, and with a small flash it separated. The golden string of magic ran along both segments, blade and curved surfaces sharpening into blades as the bow turned into dual swords. It would be more useful indoors than her bow would have been.

”I’m not the biggest fan of fighting a bunch of fire monsters inside a burning building, but I guess we don’t have much of a choice,” Weapons at the ready, she made her way to the nearby door so they could begin their descent.

“Unless we want to blast the whole building.” Rina grunted, her bow morphing the handle until it formed a sword of a respectable length. She quickly moved to the door just behind Alicia, nodding to her partner. “I'll take point. I should be able to see anything before it jumps us.” Rina didn't wait for Alicia to confirm, only walk up to the door...and promptly shoved her foot into it, forcibly swinging the door off its weakened hinges and walking inside.

The door stood no chance against the power of Rina’s foot and flew open with a loud ‘bang’. A staircase led downwards and into the apartment complex, and Alicia followed as the two of them headed inside. The smoke wasn’t too bad yet, but it would get thicker as the fire spread and they moved deeper inside.

”Sadly ‘magic building destroying death laser’ is a bit above my pay grade,” Alicia remarked with her voice lowered as they moved along. There was no sign of the monsters yet, but they had barely begun their search.

Rina headed down the stairs, taking it cautiously fast as she descended. The blistering heat of the fires brushed against her skin, but she paid it no mind. A few burns were nothing for her regenerative abilities. In any fire, the worst thing was the smoke.

“Don't see anything yet.” She asked, moving into the hallway at the end of the stairs. Rina would move to the nearest room she could get to that hadn't completely been consumed by flame, keeping both her eyes and ears open for the monsters.

Behind Rina Alicia’s eyes took on a dull glow as she tapped into her Third Eye. Her vision now cut through the smoke with ease, and she glanced around as she sought the monsters. That would at least make it easier than having to search every single room.

She might not have the regeneration that Rina did, but her Enhanced Uniform warded her from the flames to some extent. ”I can see two more near us,” she said before Rina got too carried away. ”Looks like three floors down, closer to the middle of the building.” At least the closer they got, the more the sound of destruction could guide their way.

“Three floors down, eh.” Rina replied with a frown. “Alright, we can flank 'em. You can fly in from one of the windows on the lower floors. I'll engage from inside. Sound good?”

”Sounds good to me,” Alicia agreed. With blades at the ready she broke into a sprint before jumping out the nearest window. Wings flared outwards to catch her fall as she fell, before rocketing back inside on one of the lower floors. With her Third Eye she would have no trouble finding the monsters.

That left Rina alone, and free to begin her own part of the plan. The sooner probably the better.

Rina didn't miss a beat. Soon as Alicia agreed, she made her way to the lower floors. Soon she had made her way three floors down – and after killing another innocent door, made her way onto the floor proper. The monsters themselves were not hard to locate. Above the roaring fire and smoke, the growls and hisses of the beasts could be heard.

Zeroing in on them, Rina hoped to catch one by surprise and approached one from the side, slashing away with one of her blades in an effort to sink it deep into its side.

The heat rose the further down Rina went. Smoke increased as well, and the fire became more present all around her. Yet the further she went the more open things were. Walls had been smashed open, furniture destroyed, doors ripped off their hinges. Which was not to say that everything was uniformly flat either. Breaching into the floor above and below, there would be plenty of room to maneuver in this battlefield.

Through it moved the creatures of flame, and she quickly identified one as it clambered about. Sweeping in, the element of surprise was on her side as she struck a savage blow to the monster. The wound glowed a vibrant orange and yellow as it alerted its comrades before retaliating in pain and desperation.

Its wound was grievous, yet that did not stop it from turning and hurling itself against her with knife stabbing as it sought to drag her down through sheer mass and stabbing legs. Both to hurt, and to allow its fellows to close in on her as well.

As her blade sunk into the creatures side, Rina ignored the blistering heat to the best of her ability. Leaving the blade impaled in the creature, Rina formed another sword in her now free hand. Quickly, she deflected the blow from the dagger and turned her body just right to avoid it and flank its side. She thrust the next blade forward, jamming it into the beasts side before attempting to disengage.

If there was one advantage that Rina had, it was her ability to make swords. It meant that she would ever be without a weapon, and she put that to good use now. A quick series of moves followed as she slashed at the monster once again, dodging the retaliatory strikes in turn. She was in her element, a monster hunting machine.

And so it fell, brought low by her attacks. Yet even as she moved to disengage the second one drew near. The flail it held swung out towards her, yet unlike outside it seemed to catch on to the fire that was already present and hurl it at the sword wielding girl like a wave. That would make it much more dangerous.

In the distance one could hear the light twang of a bow, and perhaps flashes of light from arrows. It seemed Alicia had arrived as well.

Geh, it was times like this when she wished she had some more close ranged attacks other than 'stab until dead'. Vaguely aware of Alicia's presence, Rina rolled backwards, grimacing and unable to entirely avoid the wave of fire. As soon as she righted herself, however she fired two quick shots at the beasts face, hoping to give Alicia an opening to finish it off.

The shots were quick, but not quick enough it seemed as the monster dodged on its spider-like legs. If one did not know better, it almost seemed like the fire was making it move faster. The benefits of being in this sort of environment were not limited to attacks. Alicia was still busy with her own monster, and another two would become clear as well. One was moving to confront the archer as she switched between melee and ranged combat on the fly, while the other moved towards Rina at a diagonal angle.

The flail came in again, catching and casting the flames towards her. Its knife glowed a brighter color as the temperature rose and it maneuvered about. This time around it would try to catch one of her limbs, though with the chain made of fire it would be a lot more painful than being caught with normal steel.

On the plus side, there probably weren’t many monsters left besides these, if any. A small comfort.

Alicia had her own problems it seemed. She had only a few moments to think of a battle plan. The only downside with fighting indoors, was a lack of vertical maneuverability in most buildings. Glaring at the fire monster, Rina lunged towards the one swinging at her. Dodging under the beasts swing, she drove a sword into its gut, before leaping upwards and landing behind it, swiftly taking her other sword to the creature’s neck, already forming a new blade to defend against the other one.

Dodging around the oncoming blow, a howl was her reward for the successful strike that followed. Metal sank into its body, causing it both pain and hindering its movements. Yet she would find its smaller blade waiting for her when she went for the neck strike. It glowed with a brilliant incandescence, a sign of the power imbued in it.

That power displayed itself as it swiped at her sword. The blade was burning hot, warping metal and outright slicing through her created blade with ease. That certainly ruined her attack, and made it all the more dangerous as the other monster closed in, both stabbing at her as they engaged in melee combat.

“Shit-” Rina had barely a moment to react as her attack was completely countered. Unable to dodge in time, one of the creatures blades cut into her shoulder, earning a pained grunt from the magical girl. Well, fine! If they wanted to get her this close-!

Rina made no effort to disengage. Instead, she simply tackled the one in front of her, launching herself into it. Both of her blades would sink into its molten body as she hoped to knock it over. Nothing her regeneration couldn't handle.

It was a move that the monster had not been expecting. Most people would not simply tackle a being made of fire, even with magic to aid them. So at the very least she had the element of surprise on her side.

Admittedly, knocking over something with four legs was a bit on the trickier side, but its mass and previous wounds staggered it and sent it tumbling. Its smaller blade slashed and stabbed, the smell of scorched flesh filling the air as the incredible heat burned what was not cut. Plus she had earned a bit of breathing space from the other monster, a fleeting reprieve to finish off this foe.

As soon as the beast fell, Rina rolled off of it, righting herself. Before it could reorient itself, she brought two more swords down, impaling its head and neck.

“Tch...” Rina winced as she stood, her wounds visibly regenerating from the burns. Jeez, that hurt, but at least she had only one more to deal with now.

Her blades landed soundly, impaling the monster before it could harm her more and killing it. It faded, its body adding to the soot and ash that already covered the place. The fire continued to rage, but it did seem to be lessening a bit now that there were less monsters keeping it actively stoked.

Over to the side, Alicia was successfully able to kill one of her monsters as well, lopping off two of its front legs before flipping over it and filling its back with arrows. ”This is what we get for not bringing a Water girl with us,” she observed as she clashed blades to mace with her own final opponent.

Rina was met with her own, the monster using its flail in sharp jabs and throws, rather than the sweeping blows like the previous ones had. Perhaps it was learning, or maybe it assumed those would be harder to block and get around. They’d find out soon enough.

“If you know one,” Rina grunted in reply, forming a blade in an attempt to deflect the sweeping strike from the beast. “Better late than never.” The archer attempted to close in, using her other blade to strike the beast's other arm.

”They’re on the way. Though we may be nice and crispy by then,” Alicia answered with a grunt. Weaving, she found one of her blades entangled by a chain of fire The weapon was wrenched from her grip and sent clattering away near Rina, forcing her to fight one handed for the moment.

Meanwhile the monster jumped back as she tried to close in, the monster leveraging its mixed combat capabilities to keep out of arms reach. It was wary of her blades, moreso than its companion had been. Heat rose, stifling in spite of regeneration, and with smoke to match it. At least the burning figure was not difficult to make out amidst everything else.

“Almost makes me miss that dolphin and the beach!” Rina replied curtly, the flail from the monster meeting her blade – except she had positioned it slightly just to wrap around her blade. Smirking, the archer would make a move to shove the blade into the ground – with the flail still wrapped around it to prevent the creature from moving.

The monster was not expecting her clever tactic, eyes widening in response as it yanked at the flames only to find it stuck in place from the sword. After a moment it cut its losses, releasing the chain and letting that flame die out even as it crafted a new weapon for itself. But that left an opening for Rina to take advantage of, one that would not last long.

Smirking in a bit of self satisfaction, Rina lunged forwards, driving her sword into the creatures chest. A second and third blade were quickly formed, finding themselves soon impaled into the creature's neck and gut. Disengaging, Rina leaped backwards and knocked a particularly large blade into her bow. The metal wire string pulled back tight, a sharp snap barely audibly over the fire as it launched the sword towards the target.

The searing blade that it held deflected her initial blow off course. But without the flail to assist Rina’s speed soon proved superior as she stabbed and then shot it, finishing the monster off for good.

At about the same time Alicia was wrapping up with hers as well. She only had the one blade. She had maneuvered well and utilized her Light magic too, causing it to knock out a support pillar and bringing down part of the floor above on top of it. With the monster pinned, she was able to finish it off.

Yet they could not rest easy. One last monster appeared from the smoke, late to the party. Looking at its fallen comrades, a screech filled the air. Power flared, radiating from the being as it drew on its magic. In turn the fires nearby were pulled towards the monster, merging with it and making it stronger. And not just this room. It seemed like all the fire in the building would be drawn in that way as it grew in both size and power.

Joining Rina, Alicia retrieved her other sword and returned the weapon to bow form. ”We probably shouldn’t let that thing finish,” she observed, already stringing arrows to renew her attack.

“Tch, always one more crawling out of some hole.” Rina grunted, already making more blades to use. She'd preferably get in close and use her agility to her advantage, but with the fire growing more intense her regeneration probably couldn't keep up. “Lets not give it a chance then!”

Stringing up another sword, Rina launched it towards the beast, keeping her eyes on the creature for some sort of weakness or opening.

As the heat flowed in, the monster grew. Extra legs sprouted out as well as extra arms. The heat around it intensified, and space shrunk that they had to maneuver in as well. It was drawing on the fire, using it to make itself stronger. While that boost might not last long, it would make it much more difficult to defeat.

”I’ll flank left,” Alicia said, crouching low while moving in that direction. Rina would find that the short blade had lengthened more to an actual sword, one that swatted her blade aside as it moved towards her. Fear was vanishing with its rising power, and it would follow up with a kick from one of its many legs aimed at her.

Rina narrowed her eyes at the beast as it lunged forwards. Hot flames blasted towards her as it lashed out with one of its legs. The archer dove to the right, opposite of Alicia, rolling along the burning floor and firing a few quick shots as she came to a stop.

Her shots found a bit more purchase this time around. While one or two arrows would be avoided entirely, the others struck home. But with the increased size and mass of the thing, they did less damage than they had done previously. Soon the heat had them melting, limiting the harm they would do to its mobility.

Coming to a stop on the other side of the monster, Alicia began to marshal her magical energy. This would take a few moments and might cause more than a little collateral damage, but at this point they had little choice.

For now Rina would need to buy time as she earned the monster’s ire. Walls of fire swept towards her, burning and consuming with a suffocating heat and scorching flame. It then swung its flail at her, though by this point it was more dangerous, now sporting several balls at the end that caused explosions when they struck, rather than the one she was used to. But they’d known this wouldn’t be easy to deal with going in. What was one more challenge.

Rina grimaced as she noticed her blades had little effect. She cast a glance over to Alicia who was...doing something? Well, she'd just need to buy Alicia some time to do whatever it was she was doing. If she had an idea, then she'd let her do it. Rina formed a blade, larger than the ones she had used previously. If it was going to melt her blades, then she just needed to make them bigger.

Avoiding the flail as best she could, Rina fired the blade towards the creature's head. A particularly large blade was loosed towards its legs, in an attempt to knock it over.

Understandably the monster viewed the sword aimed at its head as the greater threat, and it focused on blocking that. While it did so, her following shot was more successful and caused it to stumble, dropping on one side.

From behind Alicia struck. A beam of dazzling light fired from her bow, not a simple magical arrow but rather a concentrated burst of energy that slammed into it like a hammer as she drew on her Blood Magic. It wasn’t the same reckless expenditure like what she had done back in the Overcity during the trip to Justine’s castle, but it was similar.

The monster screeched, thrashing in pain under the force of the spell. She did her best to keep her aim steady, but it did gouge into the ceiling and walls beyond a little bit. As the spell faded, Rina could see that a large chunk had been torn from the monster. Two arms had been blown off, and its left side had been savaged so as to reveal the fires burning within.

Whirling about, the monster responded surprisingly quickly as it swung at Alicia. ”Oh shi-” She managed to get out an exclamation of surprise as she dove out of the way. Yet the force of the impacting flails caused the ground to collapse, throwing her down to the floor below in a cascade of rubble and smoke.

With her likely incapacitated, the monster returned to Rina. Even now she could see that it was starting to regenerate itself with its gathered fire. If she didn’t finish it now, the fight would likely just get tougher.

“Alicia!” Damn, Rina didn't have time to worry about her. She narrowed her eyes at the fiery beast, ignoring the intense flames as she formed another sword. Tsk, if only she had a little more in the way of physical combat. Ignoring perhaps, a bit of better judgment, Rina moved in closer to the creature, leaping upwards, spinning she formed a large blade similar to how she had done at the stadium just a few months prior.

The massive blade slammed into the monster and the floor below, likely taking out another chunk of the floor with it.

What resistance the monster put up could not match against sheer force of mass. At best it could wrap the chains of its flail around the blade, trying to yank it to the side. While that might have saved it immediate termination, it caused the floor beneath it to crumble once again.

Legs grasped for purchase but failed, sending it tumbling to the floor below, and then the floor below that as damage from the fire took its toll on the building.

Yet it rose again, voicing its anger as legs rose to pull itself back up to her. At least she could see that Alicia was alright, the magical girl already pulling herself back to her feet and only moderately worse for wear. Moving to the edge of the hole, a sigil formed in the air in front of her before a veritable storm of arrows was sent down at the monster, courtesy of her Barrage powers. She intended to end this, right here and now.

Rina landed just on the floor above, at the edge of the broken floor. As Alicia moved to fire a barrage of shots at it, Rina formed several blades, knocking them into her bow. A swift upwards motion as she loosed the arrows, and the blades would impale themselves in different parts of the creatures body.

The monster roared, swinging and clawing as it suffered under the pummeling blows. It almost pulled itself away, only for Rina’s blades to pin it in place. It was the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, and with a last burst of fire that roared upwards and singed what eyebrows they had left, it fell just like its comrades.

Dismissing her weapon, Alicia nodded to Rina. ”Let’s get out of here,” she called. With the monster dead, most of the fires were outright gone. It had taken them with it. But she’d prefer to talk in fresh air, rather than here where firefighters might stumble upon them.

“Phew...” At least it was finally dead. Rina's bow disappeared, along with the rest of her unused blades. The monster should dissipate by itself soon enough and any evidence should be gone by the time others showed up anyways.

“Hey Alicia,” Rina walked alongside the other girl as they left. “Mind coming back to my place? I have something Beacon is going to be interested in.”

”Sure. Lead the way,”Alicia agreed with a nod. She had the time, and after all of that she didn’t mind a break to relax either.And if Katarina wanted to talk it was probably important.

The two of them headed off, leaving the monsters behind and their work here finished. The city could rest easy, knowing they were a bit safer.

To be continued….

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

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Kimble

It was another day for the city of Penrose. Relatively pleasant in atmosphere, though light flurries of snow fell to the ground as winter continued to grip the city. But it certainly could have been worse.

In Beacon HQ things remained busy. Girls trained, hung out, ate food, and enjoyed the luxuries that the HQ could provide while the city was still in such a rough state. Many did not want to be alone in a time like this, so Beacon had turned to providing temporary housing for its members to give them some companionship.

Through it all moved Alicia. She didn’t necessarily need to, but she wanted to. No doubt she would have been told if there were any issues. But after being gone so long she wanted to reassure those who were still nervous about her and suspected heresy.

So she walked through the main common areas, stopping to chat with Beacon members both new and old. They talked about how things were going, if any supplies were needed, caught up on the newest movies and tv shows, and a whole host of other topics. It was time well spent, before she had to turn to the business of administration.

Sure, some of the Ascendancy members might still be cold, but she liked to think she was at least recovering some ground and some trust with it. So she hummed as she walked along, headed to her next destination.

Along the way, she heard movement behind her, and spotted Kimble; she was following behind, attempting to stay hidden from her. "Ah!" She meekly walked up to Alicia, smiling nervously. "Sorry, nya. I know Mistress is very busy and shouldn't be bothered. Still, I wanted to see you." Alicia noticed that at first glance the former catgirl seemed to have her bestial qualities back, but it was just an illusion brought by Sylvia's technical feats; she wore a cat-eared headband that perfectly camouflaged into her hair, and a robotic pair of tails that were attached to a belt concealed under her jacket. "Please don't be myad."

Glancing back out of the corner of her eye, Alicia nearly missed it as Kimble flickered in and out of sight. She didn’t know what the girl was doing, but played along with it for a bit longer until it had become obvious that she had been spotted.

But it soon came to an end, Alicia smiling as Kimble approached. Her eyes flashed for a moment, Third Eye identifying the magic and its source. ”It’s fine,” she assured Kimble with a dismissive wave. ”This is kinda off time for me anyway. So I’m not actually that busy.”

Smiling, she patted Kimble on the head. ”So, how’s it going? Are you having some trouble adjusting after using the White Coin?”

Kimble's eyes brightened and her mouth opened from sheer joy. "Really? How nyanderful!" She purred upon receiving the head pat, and the headband-mounted ears flicked, imitating real ears.
Afterwards she gave a loving cat smile to Alicia. She nodded, looking a bit unsure. "A bit. It's a big change, nyeh. But Sylvia's gifts help a lot!" Her tails whipped behind her. "They help me relax, though the meanies stare at them."

There was something inherently cute about the way the fake ears moved, almost as if they were imitating the real deal. Just as Sylvia had promised, she could get up to a lot more when she didn’t have to also worry about running the place.

”Oh? What else has changed?” she asked. ”Or is it just the lack of a tail throwing off your balance?”

Kimble swayed from side to side. “Nhh, a bit, but it’s not that bad. I have very good balanyance!”
To demonstrate, she backflipped into a handstand, and then another backflip into a perfect landing. “What really changed is losing the sniffing skill!” She sniffed the air. “Nyaw I can’t smell Mistress’ scent unless I’m this close.” She came closer to Alicia, continuing her little sniffs. “But people don’t like it if you smell them this close.” She averted her eyes, and stepped away. “Um, Mistress...” She looked like she had something to say, but lacked the courage for it.

”Well, I guess trade offs are to be expected,” Alicia noted. Kimble would earn short applause for her display before things returned to normal. Kimble’s hesitation was noticed, yet it seemed as though she was struggling to say whatever it was that was on her mind.

Because of that Alicia decided to go first. ”Well, I’m glad to hear you’re doing better. Especially after how the Ascendancy treated you.” She knew that they felt like they had a reason, but it could only come off as excessive in her eyes. Not that that was new when it came to that organization. ”You shouldn’t have had to go through that.”

“Nhh, it’s okay. As long as I can be with Mistress, all my sadness flies away.” She looked up at Alicia. “Mistress, could I ask you...” She took a deep breath. “...On a...nh...date?” She bit her lip, and took one of her tails in her hands. “I mean, if you’re not busy this week.”

It would be a lie to say Alicia had not totally been expecting a question such as this. She knew Kimble’s feelings after all. And after what Penny had said to her a few days ago she was more committed to carrying out that discovery. She’d just been busy with trying to get settled after the long absence.

”Sure,” she agreed with a smile. ”As long as you promise to try and use my name rather than ‘Mistress’ while we’re on the date. Okay?” That would have implied things about her relationship with Kimble that she didn’t want normal people to think. Besides, it might be useful practice.

Kimble was about to yell out a great cheer upon hearing her positive answer when she heard the condition for it, causing her to stifle it with hands on her mouth. “Mmmph!” She attempted speaking, blinked upon realizing her hands blocked her voice, and lowered them.
“But Mistr-!” She made a cute squeak as she caught herself. “Nhh...Okay, I promise, nya. I’ll do anything for you. So when do you want to go?” She asked, bouncing in place. “And what do you want to do, nya?”

Well, Alicia wasn’t expecting perfection off this first time. But at least Kimble was willing to try. That was good enough. Now she just needed to think of something for them to do.

After a bit of thinking she presented an idea. ”I know an arts and crafts place in town. If it’s not closed we could do some painting?” That might be fun. And it was probably safer than going to a haunted house, since there was probably an actual ghost at whatever one they ended up choosing.

“Painting?” Kimble’s ears flicked up in surprise, a curious look in her face. “I’ve never done it before, but with Mhh-Alicia, I bet it’s going to be fun!”

---

Later, after Alicia was done with work for the day, she and Kimble went to the crafting shop to do some painting, the latter having removed her cat accessories and untransformed, looking like her usual self. Kimble first wanted to paint a portrait of Alicia, but the shopkeeper managed to persuade her to go for a still life painting, and placed a bowl of fruits on a stool for her to capture into art.
Kimble got into the painting activity fast, constantly moving her head back and forth between the canvas and the fruit bowl. “I’m gonna paint the best painting ever, and give it to Mis-NHHH!” She grit her teeth. “-to Alicia!” Despite her troubles though, Kimble had held on to her promise, showing how much value she put into Alicia’s trust in her.

Inside the crafts shop, Alicia was also engaged in painting. For her it was a modestly sized vase of flowers, to contrast with the fruit bowl that Kimble was currently working on. It was nice to do, relaxing in a way. And beyond her own efforts she was impressed by how well Kimble was keeping up with her promise.

Glancing over at her companion, Alicia flashed her a warm look. ”So, Kimble, did you have any sorts of hobbies or interests before that period under Justine?” She had said she wanted to get to know Kimble better, and now it was time to do just that.

Kimble drew her lips in her mouth as she thought for an answer. “Nhh...I do like knitting, especially with big balls of yarn! And I like gardening, because you can grow pretty flowers and catnip! I tend to sleep late on Mondays...I hate Mondays, nya.” The shopkeep raised an eyebrow at the verbal tic, and Kimble was startled, quickly correcting herself. “It’s a joke from Garfield, he’s a cat you see, so I added that in!” The shopkeep seemed to doubt the excuse, but decided not to inquire further on it. Kimble made sure they weren’t looking in her direction, and quietly sighed in relief. “Anyway, I did all kinds of things when I was with Mama Lamashtu. She seemed so fond of me...” She frowned, looking quite sad. “...So why did she abandon me when Justine came?”

”Huh. Gardening I can see, but I wouldn’t have expected knitting,” Alicia admitted as she paused her painting to think about it. There was a slight interruption from the person managing the shop, but they soon went on their way and allowed the girls to converse once more.

As Kimble’s regrets swelled, Alicia couldn’t help but inquire further. ”She was your Patron? Or a fellow magical girl?” she asked. She suspected the former, though it was not impossible that it was a different answer.

“Mama Lamashtu is...Well, my mother,” she answered, glancing in the shopkeeper's direction. “She’s given me so much, and I was really happy to be with her. But, stuff you know happened, and I never heard from her again. She couldn’t have just forgotten me, n-now did she?” She said, suppressing her vocal tic. “Because if she did, she’d be a bad Mama.”

Alicia’s expression shifted towards a frown as Kimble related what happened. It certainly looked that way, but she didn’t want to ruin the happy memories that Kimble had of that time. There would be no point in doing so.

”Well, I wasn’t there so I can’t say for sure,” she conceded as her brush lightly worked over curves and edges of the painting. ”It could be that she didn’t have the power to match up against Justine and her Patron. Maybe she thought you were dead.” There were reasons, though it was pure speculation at this point..

Then she looked over to Kimble again. ”Have you thought about trying to find her to get answers?”

Kimble shook her head in response. "Not really. Mama was nice, but...She was often distant, and never cared so deeply. But you do. I've never been happier than when I've been with you...Alicia." Her lips curled into a smile, having succeeded in getting over her mannerisms. "I want to stay with you, no matter what."

Hearing Kimble’s reluctance, Alicia nodded as she finished up the segment of the painting that she had been working on. The brush dropped slightly in her grip as she was confronted by that warm smile. ”I can’t imagine what it’s like, being abandoned by your patron. And that sort of devotion, I’m not sure that I deserve it.”

Turning, she placed a hand on Kimble’s shoulder. ”Still, I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations. There’s plenty of years ahead for the both of us.”

Kimble nodded, a cat smile on her face as she slightly leaned her face against Alicia’s hand. “We sure do! And I’ll do my best to be the best pet you’ve ever had!” Once again the shopkeeper raised an eyebrow. Once again, the former catgirl was fast to react. “A pal! Ah, I accidentally said the wrong thing, sorry.” Kimble excused herself with an awkward smile, and once again she sighed in relief when the moment passed.

Well, at this point convincing the shopkeeper that they weren’t weirdos was probably out of the cards. ”I still think I’d prefer a pal to a pet anyway,” she admitted.

Returning to her painting, a thought did occur to her. It would have been hard to forget, given the vitriol with which it had been said. ”Actually Kimble, do you remember Mika? That girl from the tournament with the shapeshifting powers? Did you do something to her after that event was over?” It seemed uncharacteristic for her companion, but it was best to ask and make sure first.

“Uh-huh,” Kimble nodded her head, and followed it up by leaning her head to the side, looking puzzled. “No, why do you ask?”

”I ran into her while I was at Brittany’s shop to buy some things. She got really in my face about some ridiculous conspiracy about how we were plotting to ruin her life, and she mentioned you specifically,” Alicia explained with a shrug. She was just as clueless now as she had been back at that time.

Clearly that girl had problems.

Kimble's expression turned into a sad one. “Oh...I’d never do that...Unless they tried to hurt you,” she mumbled the last part to herself.

”I didn’t think so. But since we’re here I figured I’d check,” Alicia assured her. She didn’t mention the rest of the exchange, since there was no point in making Kimble paranoid for no reason.

Having addressed that topic, she tried to steer things back in a more positive direction. ”So, how’s the painting going?”

“Almost finished!” She turned the painting to show it, and Alicia saw the result: her paint strokes were haphazard and blotchy, similar to a child’s first time attempting to paint. But for it’s faults, it did resemble the fruit bowl on a basic level. “What do you think?”

”You’re catching on quick,” Alicia told her with a grin. ”There’s room for improvement, but as long as you’re enjoying yourself it doesn’t matter that much. It’s all about the experience, not the result.” She was far from an expert personally, though she suspected that Kimble would not see it that way. Her painting was not as rough as Kimble’s was, but there were still plenty of errors, mixed colors, and the like on her own portrait.

“Yeah!” Kimble responded with enthusiasm, and went back to making her painting; she seemed to take Alicia’s words very seriously as she carefully added finishing touches to the work.
It didn’t take long before the both of them were finished. After Alicia paid the shopkeeper, they took the dried paintings, Kimble carrying hers excitedly with arms up in the air, like she was about to go sledding.
“This was a wonderful date, Alicia! Thank you so much for bringing me here!” She hopped up to give a little peck on Alicia’s cheek, giggling a bit afterwards.

Things wrapped up fairly quickly. With her painting dry Alicia paid the shopkeep, and the duo returned to the brisk wintery outdoors with products in hand. She shivered, but found herself buoyed by Kimble’s exuberance.

”You’re welcome,” she replied, picking up a light blush at the swift kiss. ”I said I wanted to get to know you better, so I’m learning. Feel free to interrupt my important work of walking around in the future.”

Kimble herself also blushed, and used the painting to partially hide her face. "Ok...I will." And so they continued to do from then on.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

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"If this was my original author there'd probably be a catchy tag line here"

Locating the shop had been a bit more difficult for her than Alicia would like to admit. She was sure that it wasn’t intentional, it was just the changes to the city which had thrown off her sense of direction. At least, that was what she would claim was at work, and nothing could tell her otherwise.

Soon though, she found what she was looking for. After hearing that the store had reopened here in Penrose, Alicia had assessed her own coin reserves and decided she should go shopping. With times more tense than ever, it couldn’t hurt to be better prepared. So she set off when she had the free time, intent on doing just that.

The bell above the door rang as she stepped inside. A quick look confirmed that it was the same shop, though there was a lot less beach paraphernalia this time around. For now she began browsing to see if what Brittany had in stock had changed in any other ways. “Hello again,” she added, if the bell had not alerted the shopkeeper to her arrival.

Brittany was dusting off the various wares of the shop when Alicia arrived, using a sparkling orange feather duster made of gleaming phoenix feathers.
‘Oh, welcome to Brittany’s Boutique!‘ She stopped her current work, and rushed over to behind the counter.
‘Feel free to browse as much as you like! Today we have special offers on magical weapons and ammunition. Better safe than sorry, after all!‘

Nodding, Alicia began to do just that as she paced the length of the various shelves and examined what there was to purchase. “So how does it feel, going straight from the beach to the dead of winter? I assume a shop owner has to adjust a bit differently from the rest of us.”

‘It’s terrible, kyahaha!‘ She made her trademark laugh.
‘While I did alright in the sales back at our impromptu island getaway, it was still a fraction of what I could have sold in Penrose during the summer season. Now that winter has rolled around, I’ve had to catch up quickly to the newest trends, with stock coming in late. To be honest, if it wasn’t for Cindy, I’d be in real trouble. Luckily she’s there to support the entrepreneurs.‘ She put her hands on the counter.
‘Anyway, is there any way I can help? Are you looking for a specific type of magical artifact? We have quite a selection.‘

The door to Brittany’s shop sounded again, and two more girls walked inside.

”Boom! We’re here!” Tetrad struck a pose. ”Quest complete, now where’s my reward?”

The feline magical girl rolled her eyes before rummaging around her purse. “Here.” She dropped the coins in Tetrad’s waiting hand before walking over to the weapon counter.

Tetrad counted the coins before slipping them into one of her pouches. ”Any reason you didn’t come here with mommy?”

“She wouldn’t let me buy what I wanted.”

”Haha! Cute kid.” Tetrad rustled Mika’s hair and walked over to the ammo counter and eyed the items for sale. ”Hmmm hmmm hmmm, oh! That one looks like a keeper.” Tetrad picked up the blessed fairy bolt and walked to the front counter with it. ”So what can you tell me about this guy? Does it really work exactly as advertised? Sounds too good to be true.”

Turning slightly, Alicia’s gaze narrowed as she found a familiar face. Yet she did her best to keep calm, keep her cool. There was no point in getting into an argument in the middle of a store. ”I don’t suppose you have any magic mirrors,” she asked, still browsing while keeping an ear on the conversation that Tetrad was having. You know, just in case.

Brittany greeted the new customers like she had with Alicia, nearly hopping in place as Tetrad brought the arrow over, suppressing the urge to slight vertical movement.
‘Ooh, you clearly have an eye for the extraordinary ma’m! This one is special, even among magical arrows.‘ She was about to explain when she heard Alicia’s question.
‘Yes we do! Aisle 7, Household artifacts. I’ll be there shortly.‘ She then resumed talking to Tetrad, lifting the arrow in her hands.
‘Allow me to explain. If this arrow is shot at a visible target, it will always hit them right between the eyes; it will home in and even avoid obstacles in order to land the hit. However, it can only be shot once, after which it disappears. They are also incredibly rare; I only got a couple in my stock, and it might take some time for me to acquire more.‘
She noted how Tetrad went on to look at the other magical arrows as well.
‘And here’s the rest of our magical munitions. I’ll go check up on the other customers now but if you have any questions, feel free to call me over.‘

Nodding, Alicia walked over to that aisle in question. Of course she left out the fact that the only reason she wanted the mirror was so she could break it. Brittany didn’t need to know that. Her browsing resumed, as she looked to see just what kinds of sizes there were to work with.

Alicia found a small selection of magical mirrors at a corner of the shop, set up for visitors to view themselves in any angle. One mirror warped the appearance in comical ways, similarly to a funhouse mirror, only in varying ways every time the viewer turned to look at it. Another was a hand mirror, and seemed to work by scrying magic, showing anything the user wished it to show. Yet another was a mirror that had a mask-like entity appear in it, having appeared for a moment to look at Alicia before it disappeared in green flames, leaving just her image.
‘As you can see, we have magical mirrors for any price range,‘ Brittany spoke as she came to check on Alicia.
‘From the most impressive and luxurious ones fit to queens of vanity, to simple ones that non-magical people have their own variations on. Are you looking for any special function in particular, ma’m?‘

Looking over the mirrors that were available, Alicia would admit that she was at least a bit amused by some of them. The Scrying mirror seemed useful, though its size wasn’t really conducive to what she intended to do. And the funhouse mirror was just amusing (which was the idea)

Glancing over to Brittany as she approached, Alicia shrugged. ”Not particularly,” she admitted after a moment. “I suppose I was mostly driven by curiosity. I’ve had it a bit on the mind recently.”

Tetrad rolled her eyes. ”Well I plan on buying something. So stop badgering the clerk with questions so that she can focus.” Tetrad gave Alicia a dismissive wave of her hand without looking in her direction. ”Alright, I also wanna take a closer look at a few other items.” Her finger shot out and pointed at a vile of ink. ”Yea that one and the other item next to it. The Gothic looking steampunk heart thing.”

Brittany nodded, and picked up the vial of ink.
‘This ink can be made into a magical tattoo called the Unseen Hand that you can wear when you’re untransformed. For the cheap price of 7 Silver coins, it will protect you from any ranged attacks while transforming you, ready to fight back against the devious assassin. ‘ She showed how the ink slowly formed a hand on the glass, before sinking back into a black puddle before placing it down.

She smiled as she noticed the other item Tetrad pointed out.
‘But if you want a way to stay alive for a higher price, I have the Twisted Steamgear. This is capable of turning back one minute of the user’s personal time, restoring them back to their previous condition. However, for the effect to occur, the Steamgear must first be installed with a chosen command word; after that, it replaces your heart, keeping the original in magical stasis inside it. Repeating the command uninstalls it, returning the heart back to where it was. When the user’s heart stops for three or more seconds while it is installed, the time-reversal spell will activate. However, while it does mimic a heart’s function for a time, it is not a perfect replica.‘ Brittany’s smile turned into a frown.
‘Extended or repeated use will put more and more pressure on your body, until it finally blows up, breaking the user’s heart….Literally. With an average vitality, the Twisted Steamgear holds for about..ten seconds or so, increasing with better endurance. However, I would still exercise caution and not rely on it too much.‘ She then took a deep breath.
‘So yeah, the price is 2 Gold, 5 Silver, and 10 Bronze if you’re interested in purchasing it.‘

”So the heart is reusable?” Tetrad scratched her chin. ”I could use the Steam heart if I see an attack coming, Unseen hand for when I can’t, and a bolt for when it’s easier to prevent trouble.” Tetrad scratched her chin. ”You can bag the steam heart, I’m getting it. I just need a moment to decide which of these other items I want.” She chuckled. Brittany nodded with a smile, and began preparing the artifact for purchase.

Mika looked in Alicia’s direction and bit her lower lip. She briefly sneered before looking back at the weapon case. “Hmmm.” Her eyes scanned the contents of the cabinet before she tapped on the window. “When you’re ready, I wanna take a closer look at these pool fists.”

‘Coming!‘ Brittany ran over like an excited child, her smile wide at the bustle that her shop was generating.
‘Now these Pool Fists, as you can tell by the name, are designed for Water Specialists. The weapon wielder can activate the hydro pumps on the back of the fists when they perform a punching attack, propelling the user forward at high speeds! But wait, there’s more! The water created by the fists can afterwards be used for Water magic, or for filling a swimming pool. It does have a limit of one megalitre per day, but given a couple of days or so, it can be used to fill an olympic swimming pool. All this, and for the low, low price of 2 Gold, 1 Silver, and 3 Bronze!‘

Mika raised an eyebrow. “A megalitre? Is that even real?” To this, Tetrad laughed.

”You’re European, aren’t you Brittany? You won’t convince me otherwise. We don’t use the Metric system in the good ol’ U S of A.” Tetrad swiped through her phone. ”She means a quarter million gallons, give or take a few thousand gallons.”

“Oh.” Mika’s tail wagged while she looked at it, but she was still thinking about it. “It looks kind of childish.” She lifted her eyes from the weapon to look at Brittany. “Do you think it can be upgraded? Maybe add some claws or give it more ways to release water? Is that something your shop does? I notice you sell ‘cons-truck-shun’ materials.’”

Brittany flashed her teeth.
"Of course! I can customize artifacts for an extra fee. What kind of material would you like for the claws? Iron claws would be about 4 Bronze, Steel claws about 1 Silver and 2 Bronze, and adamantium would be at least a Gold Coin. As for increased output, I could add 50 percent more for 3 Silver, but it would be dangerous to use due to overheating; it might even explode."

“If it can kill me, it’s scary.” Mika shook her purse until 3 Gold, 8 Silver, and 7 Bronze tumbled out. “Am I short?” She then looked inside her purse. “All I have left are silver coins. I can just pay you an extra silver if you don’t have change. Just make ‘em terrifying.”

Tetrad cleared her throat and gently pushed the arrow off to the side. ”Eh.” She looked at Mika for a long time. ”I think I’ll just pass on the arrow for now. Preserving life is looking a bit more important right now.” She pulled out a few coins. ”Huh? I’m short too!?” Tetrad turned to Alicia. ”You wouldn’t happen to have 3 bronze on you, would you? Trade you a silver!” She held out the coin with a nervous smile.

”Since when was one question ‘badgering’?” Alicia grumbled to herself. Slow breathing followed as she focused on her vow, refusing to let the card wielding girl get to her.

Still, she wasn’t expecting it either as both girls realized that they were short on coins, and Tetrad had to turn to her instead. She didn’t answer for a moment, simply taking this opportunity to appreciate the shoe being on the other foot before looking at her own Coin reserves and doing some mental math.

Then she stepped over to the duo, pulling out three Bronze coins and offering them with an open hand. ”Here. Three Bronze for One Silver,” she agreed. She might have wanted them to squirm a bit, but she wasn’t petty.

But when Alicia extended her hand, Tetrad pulled back.

”Wait a second…” Tetrad looked in her pockets again. ”Haha, how silly of me, I have plenty of bronze coins, I’m short on silver.” With a shrug, she pushed aside the unseen hands. ”I’m just getting the twisted steam gear today.” She waved at the ink vile. ”Maybe next time my love, we will be united!” After Tetrad collected her remaining coins, she looked at Alicia again. ”You kinda look familiar. Do I know you?”

‘Alright then!“ Brittany responded, having prepared the Steamgear in a shopping bag. Then she handed 4 Bronze coins for breaking the Silver coin Mika had.
‘Alright then! That should break the Silver even, and if not, consider it a gift from me for being such a nice girl, kyahaha!“

An eyebrow rose as Tetrad revealed that she had made a mistake, Alicia’s hand pulling back as she returned her coins to her stash. That had been slightly weird, but she still had her coins so she wasn’t about to make an issue of it on ‘being weird’ alone.

For a moment she debated how to respond, before opting for the easier choice. She could have held a grudge, but no one had seen Regina since they came back. Apparently she was on her way to some other part of the country for personal reasons, or so the Beckoners had told her. Personally she didn’t really care, it got her out of Alicia’s hair and that was good enough.

So she went with the simpler choice. ”Keijo match,” she replied before turning to Brittany and sliding over the Fairy Bolt. ”I’ll take this one. Do you still have that ‘move through time’ arrow in stock as well?” Tetrad was still scratching her chin.

Brittany counted the coins for the Fairy Bolt, and then brought out another arrow from the same shelf.
‘Do you mean the Temporal Displacement Arrow? The target is sent from thirty seconds to three minutes into the future. However, it works only against human-sized targets, but is useful for taking them momentarily out of a fight! For only 10 Silver and 10 Bronze it can be yours!“

”That’s the one,” Alicia confirmed with a nod. She hadn’t intended to get it at first, but she’d thought of a potential use for it At the very least it might be a useful tool to have.

Counting out the coins, she handed the amount over as requested. ”There you go.”

Brittany graciously accepted them, and smiled after a quick counting.
”Thank you very much!”

”Oh!” Tetrad’s head shot up. ”Right, Alicia! You had the whole ‘beacon knows best’ intro and I kicked your ass or something right? Man, feels like a lifetime ago.” She gave the paladin a pat on the shoulder. ”I’m glad you didn’t take it personally. Once Beacon completely ruins its reputation, I’ll put in a good word for ya. ” Tetrad walked towards the entrance. ”We’ll leave when you’re ready, Mika!”

The cat girl nodded, but remained focused on Brittany. “I didn’t see anything on the shelves, but I’d like you to keep an eye out for something to store all of my water guns in. Also, how long should the upgrades for the gloves take?”

"Alrighty! They will be done by the end of the week," Brittany replied.
"I plan on getting all orders done by then so I'll have time for the party!"

”I may have more ideas for it, but that’ll be good for now. Thank you.” Mika took a step away from the counter. ”Alicia.” She looked at her out of the corner of her eye. ”I know Beacon wants to ruin the party. They exist to make everyone worry and suck happiness out of everything. But if you or any of your friends shows up to do that...” Her teeth chattered. ”I’m killing Kimble. That’s a promise.” Mika slipped her thumbs into her waistband and walked towards the door. ”Let’s go, Tetrad. Su’s going to be back soon.”

Tetrad looked genuinely horrified as Mika strode past her. ”Mika, I’m all for banter, but this…” She hurried after the girl. ”Is this about the money? You can have your coins back!” The two vanished from sight. Brittany looked after them befuddled; she too was caught blindsided by Mika's change in behavior.

The corners of Alicia’s mouth rose as she let out an amused snort in response to Tetrad’s comment. ”I seem to recall that match being a bit closer than you think it was,” she replied in turn. Judge decision based on time wasn’t what she would call ‘an ass-kicking’

She was relatively dismissive of the assurances provided, which was a shame as she was suddenly confronted by Mika. It was an assault that left her motionless, concerned, and confused. They had really only interacted at that one event but she had come off as carefree and happy-go-lucky. Where had this conspiracy stuff come from?

The zero-to-sixty approach left her unable to react before the duo had exited the shop. ”That was….odd,” she said at last, glancing over at Brittany before picking up the bag with the items that she had purchased. ”See you around,” she said before leaving. Well, it probably wasn’t anything to be overly concerned about. Right?

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

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7 pm. Thursday. The fire station roof.

Sporting her magical girl outfit, Alicia found herself seated on the edge of the low roof as she waited for Lily Lightning to arrive. They had worked out this meeting during the eternal vacation, and now that they were back she intended to follow up on it. The question was whether the presence of the Ascendancy had caused her to change her patrol route or not.

Her legs kicked with an idle energy, the magical girl distracting herself with the small clouds of whitte that appeared in the cold air from her breathing. Some things you never outgrew, and with things as they were the little pleasures became a bit more important than ever,

For now she waited. She was here, now it was just a matter of Lily doing the same.

Soon enough, Alicia would hear the sound of a whirring engine, and saw Lily driving a motorcycle, jumping off a roof and landing right on top of the fire station. The impact caused the back of the vehicle to lift and the front wheel to grind against the concrete as Lily braked, lifting up a small black cloud before the vehicle stopped completely. Lily waved the smoke away, smiling widely.
“Whoops, a bit less space than I thought. You okay there, Alex?”
She looked behind her to check on her boyfriend. She then noticed the other magical girl.
“Hi Alicia!”

Alexander grumbled “Eh, I’m used to your crazy driving.”

Rising to her feet, surprise flashed across Alicia’s face as she eyed the duo. "You didn’t mention the flying motorbike when we met during the eternal vacation,” she said to Lily as she stepped over. She also hadn’t mentioned that she’d be bringing company, but that was fairly easily adjusted to.

"But it’s nice to see you again,” she added with a smile. It was a dynamic arrival, but better than her not showing up at all.

Lily smiled widely as she came over and took Alicia’s hand, slightly shaking it.
“I wanted to leave something as a surprise, tee hee~” She joked, though her smile didn’t last.
“Yeah, same here. It’s crazy what’s happened to Penrose. I mean, not only did we skip right to winter, the city’s crawling with creepies; and not just monsters, either.”
She put her hands to her sides.
“There were some girls who helped us out with monsters, only to immediately turn on us the moment we won! Isn’t that just mega rude? They said they were the Ass-”
Lily’s eyes widened upon realizing her spelling mistake, and she put a hand to her mouth to cut herself off from giggling. “-Mmh, Ascendancy, and they sound just like you Beacon people. Do you happen to know something about them?”

Alicia held back a sigh as Lily revealed that she had run into the Ascendancy already. Not that she was surprised by that fact, but it was a bit disappointing to hear. At least it looked like things had worked out that time.

“They sound similar because the Ascendancy is Beacon,” she replied after shaking Lily’s hand. “Up until now you’ve only had to deal with Beckoners from the local Penrose branch. The Ascendancy is a part of the central administration.” Hands clasped behind her back, she slowly paced around the rooftop. “When the eternal vacation happened, there weren’t enough magical girls left to keep the monsters under control. So Beacon deployed the Ascendancy to get a handle on the situation.”

Turning, she looked between Alex and Lily while shooting them an apologetic smile. “They mean well, they’re just very...orthodox.”

“That’s what you call it?” Lily looked dumbfounded, and made a pouting face.
“They tried to kill Su and Silhouette right on the spot. They’re acting like some kind of inquisition!” She crossed her arms.
“At least they do hunt monsters too, but I think they’re going too far.”
She then blinked, as if she remembered something.
“Hey, can you do something about it? I think you mentioned being pretty high-ranking in the organization. Or did they ‘assume direct control’ Mass Effect-style?”

“The fact that you consider that orthodox doesn’t really say good things about your organization. I mean, the locals seemed to have chilled out compared to that...peace rally? Truce meeting? That...thing where one of your’s got brainwashed into suicide bombing the girl holding the thing.” Alexander added. Lily nodded to that, looking wide-eyed as she remembered the event.

“I’m not sure what else I should call it,” Alicia admitted with a wince. “The mindset that I’ve worked under isn’t actually the norm for Beacon. I’m as frustrated with it as you are.” For the moment she refrained from mentioning the trial. It likely wouldn’t help her case.

Instead she focused on the request made of her. “Nothing that drastic. For the moment we do our own things separately, and I’m supposed to stay out of their way while they restore order to Penrose. Not that that’s going to stop me from having our people out patrolling too from now on.” Now that she was the one in charge, she intended to do whatever she could to uphold those beliefs of hers.

Alexander sighed “Well if these guys are from your HQ, then I guess it makes sense that you wouldn’t be high up enough to tell them to fuck off. Because I guess that would be too easy for us.”

“Bleh...” Lily stuck her tongue out, and caught a snowflake.
“At least they’re not running the whole show. Anyway, want to go grab a bite somewhere? Doesn’t look like there’s trouble, so we could take a break.”

“Food sounds good,” Alicia agreed with a nod when it was suggested. “Getting promoted and having to manage this crisis, it really builds up an appetite.”

Walking back over to the motorcycle, she eyed it for a few moments. “Will three people fit on this? I can fly if I need to.” The more she thought about it, the better a break sounded. Especially with a friend.

Lily leaned her head to the side as she examined her motorcycle.
“Maybe if you sat on the wheel cover on the back...Nnnnnah, too dangerous. We’ll go slow enough for you to tag along.”
She hopped on the bicycle, waited for Alex to get in, and then took off, at a speed a regular motorcycle would move in heavy traffic.
“You’re also not the only one to have wings. Check this out!” She announced, and drove off the rooftop. A second later, Alicia saw Lily and Alex gliding thanks to metal fins that flanked the vehicle, allowing it to descend at a much slower, if still dangerous, pace.

“By the way, did you mention something about a promotion?” She asked as she parked before the Pit Stop. While many businesses were closed thanks to the mass evacuation, some fast food joints such as this one were still operational.
She untransformed, only to turn to Alicia and giggle, blushing a bit.
“Oh yeah, this is how I look out of costume. It’s a bit embarrassing, heh.”

Alexander raised an eyebrow as he too untransformed “How is it embarrassing? I think you look fine.” he asked as they entered the diner. “Or...do you just feel kind of exposed like this? I mean, I can kind of understand that, since we can’t use our full power like this” Ah guessed as they all grabbed a seat.

The flight was easy enough, especially with Alex and Lily slowing down to allow her to keep pace with them. Glowing wings carried her through the evening sky until they reached their destination at last.

She came in for a landing before joining the others in reverting back to normal. “It certainly is vibrant,” she agreed with a small grin. After a moment she glanced down at herself. “I always feel a bit plain when I’m like this. I guess I could dress up if I wanted to, but it comes down to finding the right occasion for it.”

Lily sat next to Alex, fidgeting in place with her hands clasped on her lap.
“No, you look really pretty, Alicia. Meanwhile here’s Miss Disaster...” She mumbled the last part to herself, and then covered her face with the menu.

They moved inside then, Alicia taking a seat across from the couple before reaching for a menu. “And yeah. When you mentioned me being high placed, as of a couple days ago I’m actually in charge of the Penrose branch of Beacon. It’s taking some getting used to.”

She then leaned a bit closer to Lily, almost conspiratorially. “Though admittedly I’m more interested in hearing how you got him to come along for this. I figured you’d be on your own.”

Alexander scoffed “Like I would let her wander around on her own with crazy zealots crusading here, no offense to you” He quickly added “Lily has a berserk mode that makes her a little bit beastly. One of the Ascendancy girls became almost hostile to me after I healed her because she saw my beast magic form and my tentacles which look like fluffy tails, and thought I was a monster boy. If Lily gets caught like that by them, I fully expect them to try and put her down like a rabid animal.”

Lily felt a bit better hearing Alex grumble about how much he cared for her.
“You’re so tsun, Alex. It’s super adorable.” She also got hype upon hearing Alicia’s story.
“Wow, congratulations on the promotion!” She yelled, and called for the waitress.
“Three milkshakes for this table, please!” She then sipped on her own milkshake, having scooted a bit closer to Alex.
“My treat, tee hee~ So how’s it like being big boss? Do you have to shove the meanie Beacons away with a stick?” She asked with a giggle.

Now holding on to a strawberry milkshake, Alicia thought for a moment whilst sipping at the dessert. “Well, obviously there’s some hard parts, like the Ascendancy and how everyone else feels about them. Since I do have to work with them after all.” After all, those who were already hostile probably wouldn’t mark much of a difference between the local branch and the Ascendancy itself.

Lest they think it was all bad, she went on. “But at least now I can try to promote my personal philosophy and try to extend that change beyond just Penrose.” That was the hope anyway, and she would do her best to make it happen.

“It’s just a matter of dealing with the current problems,” Alicia mused while glancing out the window. “I’ve been thinking on things we could do besides just fighting, but it’s still a bit of a work in progress.”

Lily listened intently, her eyebrows furrowing at the mention of the Ascendancy.
”Yeah, you talked about doing more pre-emptive work back at the beach. I think what you really should do is raise more awareness of Beacon and it’s goals.”
She sipped, thinking about it.
”Oh, I know! Hold another one of those public announcements, like you did with the White Coin. But this time, extend a hand of friendship to the magical girls in town. If you could form a proper peace treaty with Cindy, I bet that will improve the lives of everyone! Isn’t that right, Alex?” She turned to look at Alex with an excited look; she didn't seem to notice that her glasses were a bit crooked on her nose.

Bothered by the sight of her crooked glasses, Alexander reached out to correct them “The problem is...” He began, mid glasses straightening “...The new girls, not the local Beacon. I feel like the last few huge events have kind of mellowed out the locals enough to live with. I mean, I’m not worried about them trying to kill me if I use my Beast magic and look kind of like a monster boy. The new girls however, don’t sound like they answer to the local Beacon. Which kind of handicaps Alicia’s ability to do anything. Since they might just piss away any goodwill you manage to build. They might call themselves the Ascendancy, but they’re still clearly Beacon. I feel like you’ll only be able to make any real progress on PR stunts once the new girls stop Crusading around here.”

“A peace treaty? I didn’t realize we were at war,” Alicia noted with a lofted eyebrow. More of her milkshake vanished, slowly eaten up as Lily and Alex provided their viewpoints. “Still, a general callout could work. The Ascendancy will leave once they feel order has returned to the city, and I doubt Cindy is as eager to have monsters running around attacking people all the time as we are.”

Lily blinked as Alex corrected her glasses, and then blushed afterwards.
”Geez, Alex...Even when I’m like this...”
She then continued listening quietly to Alicia’s thoughts; though she normally hated politics, she found Alicia’s thoughts on it interesting enough to follow.

Of course Alex had a point, but Alicia knew that already. It was part of what she was struggling with when thinking about how to proceed. “I could always appeal to the Beckoners directly, though things will probably have to get better in Penrose first.” She gave a small wave out the window. “And a lot of my ideas were also not with this kind of situation in mind. Like tutoring. Not much use in that when the schools aren’t open.”

After a moment she regarded Alex again. “Still, I’m glad that you’ve gotten over what happened at the hospital. It was an accident, and things were hectic enough as it was that we didn’t really have the time to explain.”

”It’s fine, it’s fine!” Lily interrupted, looking a bit tense.
”I told you already that it’s fine, Alicia. No need to bring it up. Just promise that something like that won’t happen again, okay?” She took hold of her cup with both hands, taking a long sip while glancing at Alex to see how he thought.

Alexander shrugged “Honestly, what really soured my opinion of Beacon was when back at that peace rally when one girl’s Patron suddenly appeared out of nowhere to threaten her to stop thinking that maybe peace with the more beastly magic users was a possibility. That was what made me think of Beacon as new age Nazis, and I’m probably not the only one. The incident at the hospital only just confirmed what I thought.”

A hand rose in a modest ‘stop’ gesture as Alicia looked between the duo. “Alright, alright. I get it,” she agreed. Better to just drop the issue, and let the bygones stay that way. They hadn’t come here for an argument. “It won’t happen again.”

Returning to normal, more of her milkshake vanished as she let the sugary taste provide a momentary uplift for her thoughts. “Anyway, before I forget we should probably trade phone numbers. Since we didn’t get to back at the beach.” Not that she minded repeating this meeting, but they might as well get to it while it was on her mind.

”Sure thing! Let me show you mine!” Lily seemed to jump a bit too eagerly at the chance to change the topic as she scrambled to get her phone out. It was a flip phone with a yellow case, decorated with stickers, sparkles, and with a heavy set of keychains dangling from it depicting various anime characters and imagery.
”Ta-daah! Isn’t it super cute? Now let me get my number...Here!”
She showed the number to Alicia, energetic thanks to the milkshake she had.

“It definitely fits its owner,” Alicia agreed. She pulled her own phone out of her pocket, though it was fairly tame in comparison. Looking between it and Lily’s, she wrote down the phone number and saved it before turning the device around so the duo could do the same thing. “If you guys ever run into monster trouble, feel free to let me know. The Ascendancy has their own information collecting methods, but they won’t be around forever. I’d like to be able to find the bad guys before they become world ending threats once in a while.”

Alexander scoffed as he pulled out his own, plain looking, phone “But that would get rid of the only thing that makes us special” His voice was drowning in sarcasm “Penrose: Doom capital of the world! Come take a trip to the place that reality keeps trying to destroy! See the sights, fight the monsters, save the world, visit the gift shop!” He sighed “This entire place is nuts.”

Lily’s thumbs tapped away, quickly collecting Alicia’s number.
”Got it! And you can call us too, whenever you want!”
She took Alicia’s hand, about to say something else, when Alexander commented on the unique state of Penrose. She sighed.
”It is a bit nuts, hah.” She let go, and sipped on the last of her milkshake.
”But that’s why we’re here, right? To prevent things from getting even more loco. But we’re gonna bring peace back to Penrose, right Alicia?”

Numbers were quickly exchanged, Alicia returning the phone to her pocket once she had both of their contact info. That would be useful, or at least she hoped that it would be. Even just hanging out wouldn’t be that bad.

"I’ll keep that in mind,” she agreed, before sitting back in her seat. "That’s the idea. How does that curse go, ‘May you live in interesting times’ or something like that?

Her milkshake was nearly finished as well, and she limited herself to one or two sips at a time to try and prolong it. "And I’m certainly not going to argue with peace. We just have to take things one step at a time.”

"Yeah!" Lily lifted her fist up into the air.
"One step at a time!" But as she said it, it only then occurred to her what she repeated, and she slumped back to her seat, adjusting her glasses.
"...But maybe not, like, every step? Skips and hope should be fine, too?" She took a look at her phone, and pouted.
"What, it's that late? That sucks-a-tromboni." She smiled at Alicia.
"Let's meet sometime again, okay? Give me a call, and I'll be there!"

"Skips and hops are fine. You need to take advantage of opportunities when they arise,” Alicia assured Lily as the other girl sank into her seat. She could understand the sentiment. After all, she wanted this over fairly quickly too. But if they moved too fast they were just setting themselves up for failure.

Glancing at the clock, Alicia held back a snicker of amusement at Lily’s exclamation of annoyance. "That sounds good. I’ll be in touch," she agreed with a nod.

Alexander simply waved goodbye as he and Lily left the building.

Darkest Before the Dawn: A CYOA Magical Girl Roleplay [Completed]

&

It had only been a small period of time since Alicia had departed the rooftop with one half of Penny in tow. She had chosen to walk rather than teleporting back, figuring she would give her companion time to adjust to everything before throwing her to the wolves of the Ascendancy and the rest of Beacon. It was only fair.

So for now they walked, a supportive shoulder offered to the machine girl when it was needed. There was a lot to think about, a lot to take in. Chloe might be having an easier time of it, but Alicia was not.

She had been silent for a while, but eventually she spoke up. ”So, which Penny are you? I mean, besides the one that has the Spark. There has to be some other kind of distinguishing feature, right?” Her curiosity could not be sated for very long, especially on a subject this important.

“I’d like to say that I’m the smarter half” Penny would reply, she sounded tired and she accepted the offered shoulder for the time, as she let her native magic work on bringing this new form into tolerance. “But I don’t think that’s what you meant”

A few dozen different distinctions blitzed though Penny’s mind as she worked to find the right answer. In the end she went with the one that was the most honest, something she hadn’t really been to Alicia. “A thing to realize about us, me and my other half, is that we’ve never been fully integrated with each other, we’ve both been here since she was dragged into the magical community.” It was something that Penny had always known even if she didn’t really do anything about that fact, other than try to ignore it. “This split broke along that division, and the witch worked within those parameters as well. What that ends up meaning is that you got... Me” Penny would say somewhat lamely. She was obviously uncomfortable but there was also a look of confusion on her face. “The easiest distinction. Is that I am a machine, and always have been. The Monster” She'd grimace at that but that too was quickly replaced with confusion. “That was within. She’d call me the Engine at times, but I always viewed myself as Penny.”

Alicia was silent as Penny responded to her question. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting honestly. Some completely different individual, some long repressed twin inside her mind. Whatever it was that she had wanted to hear, it was not this.

As Penny went on her head fell, slowly, not by much. Her pace slowed as well, even though it did not need to. ”I see,” she replied once Penny had finished. So that was how it was? It did explain a few things, she supposed. ”You also answered the other question I had, so we can skip that one.”

Instead she found something different to ask. “Is that division why only you ended up with the Spark, rather than both halves of the soul?”

“No” Penny would answer with a smile that faded slowly, but this time confusion didn’t replace it, resignation did “I sought to keep the Spark, Reasons were irrational and selfish. No prior data suggested that it could not be split amongst the two of us as well. Yet logic dictates that the witch would not have bothered to acquiesce to her… possession” She nearly spat the word venom dripping from her tone “To also be housing it. Nevertheless, the Spark you help me obtain freed both me and my other half from the tyranny of our prior Patron. It means far too much to me to be willing to part with it.”

As Penny spoke it would become increasingly obvious that her inflection and cadence were changing. Monotonous wasn’t the right word, but emotionless was.

”Yeah, you’re probably right,” Alicia agreed with the beginnings of a sigh. She didn’t know Chloe that well, but it seemed entirely possible that she would have tried to do something like that if faced with that particular situation.

Well, at least they could be together in being angry at Chloe. She deserved it after all.

Alicia did her best to keep them moving forwards, even with the fall in her mood. ”So what’s the plan now?” she asked. ”Go on a world spanning quest to find yourself? Defeat the other Penny Highlander style? Take up knitting?”

Penny for her part was fully functional, easily able to walk on her own if she wanted, but she didn’t break away from the support offered as from her perspective it was Alicia who now needed the support. “Current objectives are to work through the backlog of trauma that was being ignored. Continue my services to you and Beacon. No plans to fight my other half, though your reference is apt as in the end there can be only one of us.” A small ghost of a smile at the movie reference slipped through the passive look on her face

“Degradation of my soul is at risk if too much time is spent separated. Reformation will be simple however.” Penny would go on to say as she raised up her free arm and a Red coin slowly emerged from it “Mental and emotional trauma needs to be dealt with first. That way I’ll stop being an idiot” She let out a huff at her last statement obviously annoyed at herself.

Well, at least this Penny would be staying with them, that was nice. Unaware of the silent support that her friend was providing, Alicia would take on a surprised look at the Red Coin. For a moment she thought to ask, before deciding that she didn’t want to know how that had happened.

”That seems easy to say, but what if she doesn’t during her time with Chloe. It doesn’t seem like it would solve much if only one of you resolves your feelings,” Alicia pointed out. After what had happened, she was not prepared to take any chances when it came to how things with Penny would go. Now that she knew it was a risk.

Penny saw the question on Alicia’s face but chose to wait on that one “She won’t. She never did, but I am rather skilled when it comes to integration. It is part of the reason why we remained a Monster girl after the usage of the White Coin. I accepted and adapted to the Beacon’s magic” She would explain simply as she let the coin slip back into her frame “I will make sure that our traumas remain dealt with.” The conviction in her voice was subtle but as strong as steel.

“I was handed this Red coin by Cindy. Due to an agreement made at the Beach” Penny would go on to say “She had contracted me to start building safe houses and refuges for Dark magicals and Monster girls. It was something that I had already started doing in fact. My idea was to give them a place of safety and someone they could turn to that wasn’t the Mint or others that would take advantage of them. Or to act as a halfway house, before purification if they wanted it. Now it’s already filled with those who are in hiding from the Ascendency”

She couldn’t help but shake her head softly at that, her plan usurped so completely by someone that she didn’t fully trust. Part of her wondered if that was Cindy's plan all along. “I will not keep secrets from you anymore, I did that far too often before.”

Simply saying the ‘trauma would remain dealt with’ was not the most reassuring thing, but Alicia supposed she would have to take Penny at her word. It wasn’t like she had the ability to go into her soul personally and make sure one way or the other.

More interesting was the story that Penny provided as to how she had obtained the Red Coin. ”I...see,” Alicia replied after a few moments, her head falling. ”It’s odd. I had a similar idea some time ago. Things just kept coming up so I could never actually do it. And now that I’m in charge of Beacon I doubt anyone would show up if I did do it.” Once again, it seemed like the Ascendancy had taken the decision out of her hands.

She flashed Penny a weak smile. ”Thanks, I appreciate it, even if it might not mean all that much at this point.”

“If the girls out there knew that it was you who was running it, I think you’d have your hands full within a week” Penny would say softly “I wish I hadn’t been so afraid to bring the idea up to you before.” A small shrug and a shake of her head, it was too late to contemplate what if’s. “Once we’ve gotten Penrose back on it’s feet we can revisit the idea.”

“And the information I have is not yet obsolete. I know where to find Cindy, and know of at least two people she has contacted and made deal’s with other than myself. I know something about Veronica, and possibly have a way to contact her if you need, though I would advise against such an action. I know of one Mint held location. I know of a headquarters of the Penrose Independent along with the name and appearance of the Boss of said organization.” She would explain keeping eye contact with her friend, one who she had never treated with the honesty she deserved “I am very well connected, and any information that I know is yours. It is the least you deserve in return for staying by my side, even as part of me was throwing it all away.”

Alicia wasn’t so sure about that, but any consideration she may have had about her own ideas was lost in an instant as Penny explained the other things that she knew. The Penrose Independent stuff was less relevant, beyond Rebecca’s mission, but she knew where Cindy was, and a Mint location too? This was….unbelievable.

Their eyes met and Penny would see a glimmer in them. There was sadness, a bit of anger, even while she tried to make it appear like she was taking it all in stride. Then she flinched, breaking eye contact as she looked away. ”Well, we should probably look into the Mint location at the very least.” They couldn’t just let the Coin Brokers run around doing whatever they wanted. ”We can talk about that more when we get back to base.”

“Alicia” Penny would say, quietly bringing them to a stop so that she could face her friend “I am sorry, even if that doesn't amount to very much right now. I know that I might never truly earn you forgiveness and I recognize that is entirely my fault. So if you want to rage at me I understand, I deserve it. If you want me to find Aurelio or Kimbel or Serenity to help console you I will and I’ll stay away until you feel better” She would say softly “And if you have any questions for me, about anything, I will answer them the best that I can.”

“You are my friend, but I’ve not been a very good one. Just let me know what I can do to help you, even if it means giving you space.”

Alicia was silent, motionless once Penny had brought them to a halt. Emotions crashed against the barrier of her mind, threatening to wash over and consume her as the other girl spoke. Her vow of patience was as much of a hindrance as it was a help, for in many cases she wanted to hold back and restrain herself as much as it might be nicer to let go.

She remained motionless, lips trembling and fingernails digging into her palms as her mind went around again and again. Eventually something presented itself. The only thing she could ask in a situation like this. The only thing that she had to know.

So Alicia spoke, her voice low and almost plaintive in a sense. ”How long. How long have the two of them been….”

Together

Penny wanted to sigh, she knew that the mess with Chloe was going to hurt someone, she had just always thought it was going to be her. “That topic is more complex than you would think at first read.” She would start slowly, her eyes never leaving Alicia, she wanted. No. Needed to see how this secret affected her friend. “Full relationship, somewhere in the range of hours, shortly after the stage performance. We moved into her Apartment about two weeks ago from our perspective. My other half has harbored feelings for her for approximately Four months prior to this status change.”

“Chloe was the first non hostile that either of us had encountered in the magical world, and in a lot of ways she was our first friend in the magical community. Thalia was our second and you were out third, to add a bit of context to that. When we first met her, we were in critical need of repairs mentally and emotionally. We had spent the five and a half months leading up to that lacking any relevant data to the situation at hand, due to that I spent a lot more time in control then my other half did.” It would be the only time she paused during her explanation, as she recalled those fear filled months. Those were dark times for Penny and likely the cause for a lot of her issues.

A slight shake of her head and she would return to answering Alicia’s question. “Laat’s first reveal started with him forcefully uploading information to us so that understanding could at last be reached. The asshole also showed up just to give us orders to come here to Penrose to meet up with Chloe due to a deal that he had made with the Dragon that Chloe works for.”

“After the incident at the park, Chloe vanished, our access to her apartment was denied. It wasn’t until after the installation of the hover module that she appeared. It was also the beginning of the division within us.”

“Personal preference would have been Chloe never returned.

It was both better and worse than Alicia had expected. Better in that the full relationship had only happened fairly recently, after the stage show proper. It was worse in how much had been going on in the background for months, and she hadn’t even noticed. Had never suspected. There had not been a reason to, but that did not make her feel better.

”I...I see. I guess it’s true what they say,” she lamented with tightly clenched fists. ”You never really know someone…”

Frustration rose, threatening to surge to the surface. She wanted to hit something, break something, even though she knew nothing here could stand up against her strength as a magical girl. ”All the things we did, the sleepovers, the upgrades, the stuff with the Spark and getting rid of Laat, I guess it didn’t mean anything in the end compared to that murderer’s whirlwind romance.” And now she was left with the machine, who very well might have been obligated to come with because of that spark. It hurt to think about.

“If it meant nothing then I would not be here” Penny would reply, laying a gentle hand on Alicia’s shoulder. “Logic dictates that my greatest chance for survival would be with Cindy at the warehouse. Not with you and Beacon. I don’t care. Logic dictates that Chloe held the highest chance of fixing the damage to my soul or at least treating it. I don’t care. You have proven time and again to be a friend and I will not ignore that again” Penny’s mind was churning, at all the moments that her other half ignored or sought to forget due to such a pitiful reason as her feeling not being returned.

“It was a poorly thought out plan to ignore what it was I had gone through and a worse one to hide those things from you. I spent too much time feeling and not enough time thinking.” She would shrug lightly “Kimbel is lucky to have your eye”

Alicia flinched at the hand on her shoulder, her head slowly turning as Penny went on and refuted her claim. It was reassuring to hear it, to know it was not merely the Spark which compelled her to be here rather than genuine feelings. It did not put everything at ease, but it helped.

”She’s changed, actually,” Alicia admitted to Penny. ”The rest of us got put on trial for heresy while you were here. She and Serenity, Sylvia, Sally, myself. But we made it, and we got the ShineSpark too.” The corners of her mouth rose in an amused smile. ”She’s mostly not a catgirl anymore.”

For a small moment Penny’s features would nearly wash away as even diminished as her emotions were, the depth of her anger was still notable. But a moment later she would force a blank and shortly after she would return to normal. “Seems it was best that we were out of communication for as long as we were. I doubt storming the HQ would have gone over well for any of us.” she would say with perfect calm as she turned to continue the trek back to base.

“Question. How is she ‘mostly’ not a cat girl?”

”Verbal tic,” Alicia explained with a shrug of her own. ”Considering up to the trial the Ascendancy viewed the White Coin as witchcraft it’s definitely a strong step forwards. There’s just everything else that I have to deal with now that I’m running the local branch. And this on top of it, it’s all a bit much.”

She then sighed, shaking her head. ”I’ll be alright. I just need some time to process things.

“I understand” Penny would say with a nod “Take all the time you need and don’t forget that I am at your disposal”

The duo resumed walking, now that things were out in the open between them. It might hurt, it might take time, but hopefully they would come out the better for it. ”Thanks,” Alicia replied. ”But I’ll try to not take too long. I’m sure we’ll both be pretty busy soon enough.” With that, they headed on their way once more.

---

&

Sylvia Starshine

Entering Beacon HQ, Alicia couldn’t help the small jitters that ran through her as she neared her destination. A nervous energy had risen, overwhelming all the things that she felt as a result of her encounter with Chloe and Penny. There was one preoccupation that held her mind right now.

This was it, after all. Her first full day as the leader of the Penrose branch of Beacon. It still boggled her mind to think like that. She had so recently become a Seraph, and had barely earned her wings. And now she was in charge of all of this? Sure the Ascendancy was an issue, but that did not dampen her amazement or enthusiasm.

Coming to a stop at her destination, for a moment she merely lingered and looked at the door handle. All of the times she had come to this office to speak with Sylvia. Now it was hers. Taking a deep breath, she reached out and swung the door open before stepping inside.

Now it was just a matter of waiting. As her first day, she intended to meet with Sylvia, and have the former leader detail what she was supposed to do, the gaps that she might have had from mere observation before. So she busied herself with exploring as she waited for the other girl to arrive.

Alicia had seen the office a couple of times before in her career as a Beacon magical girl, usually when she had come to give out a report to Sylvia. Back then, it was a busy room, with plenty of decorations scattered on the walls, and a messy desk full of papers and documents. Now however, it was all gone, tucked into boxes marked “Sylvia” that were yet to be moved out. The desk was also empty, with only a small pile of empty papers stacked to the side.
After a while, Alicia heard a knock on her door, followed by the familiar voice of Sylvia. “Alicia, may I come in?”

As expected, there was not much to see. A lot of boxes, shelves, and a desk. Some papers remained, but those all seemed to be empty and ready for use at the moment. In lieu of something else to do, Alicia decided to test out the chair that came with the desk. As such she was quick to answer when asked for. ”Sure, come in,” she replied. ”I thought about keeping all those boxes for myself but I guess I’ll change my mind.” She wore a slightly teasing look, ready to get to work.

Sylvia made a lighthearted chuckle as she came in. "Hah. Very funny. Acting all big the moment you get a nameplate on a door," she joked back. "I thought about hauling my stuff with the Handbag, but then realized what an organizing mess that would be. Anyway, let's get started on this Boss Baby sequel of an orienteering day." She pulled out a thick book out of her Hammerspace, and dropped it on the table kicking up a cloud of dust. It was titled 'Beacon Common Way of Working For Dummies: the Comprehensive Guidebook.'
"Now, Beacon protocol states that you must read this whole book cover to cover. But that's baloney." She tapped the book. "This is best used as reference material. As for actually learning to do the job, there's two rules; practical experience is the only way, and realize you don't have to manage everything. I learned those two things way later than I should have, and all because I was simply following the word of the letter."

She activated the projector on the back wall. "You got your basic paperwork like shift schedules and inventory, and handling any family situations; the latter should be strictly left to Beckoners. As for the rest, delegate tribes to handle accountable duties on a squad basis, forget that actually exists and make up the plan of action on the spot. This is important: use continuous agile scrum waterfall systems thinking devops buzzword monster hunting as your manifesto, starting with a turnaround title and changing the name every few months until the fourth month when you switch to just assigning available people to get the job done."

She brought up an organizational chart. "Don't try to learn this until your second year when everything's completely changed, then forget the entire thing cause it's pointless anyway, pretending to remember names as necessary." She then brought up a training video. "Never use these; rookies only listen to live instructors. Use a stamp system if their score fails by twenty or more points cause you don't want to hear them cry about how much they've failed. Also never use live monsters for training, especially in HQ. And get someone on coffee brewing duty 24/7 to survive the horrible soulsucking grind." She suddenly turned quiet.
"Right, been rambling a while now. Uhh, any questions?"

”Of course,” Alicia replied to the joke in turn. ”I have to get it all in now before I become old and jaded.” But she fell silent afterwards as Sylvia began her explanation,

The book being deposited on the table earned a series of coughs, and frantic waving to get the dust out of her face. For a moment Alicia was intimidated, at least until the girl went on. The same could be said for the complex jargon, though she also as quickly caught on that that was a joke. In the end it seemed simple enough. ”Sounds simple enough. So just try and find ways to do things that work for me, don’t set loose monsters in the base, and get a taste for coffee.”

After a moment she leaned forward, hands clasped in front of her. “So how do we, you know, get information on things going on? Obviously big monster attacks with the ominous weather and spooky auras are easy. But if we’re going to put this city back together we need to get ahead of crises, not just react.” Hopefully Sylvia had some insights into that.

“Glad to see you get it,” Sylvia noted with a smile, and closed the projector. “It’s something you gotta figure out for yourself, really. Otherwise you’ll never be able to grow into the role.” After Alicia shifted the topic, Sylvia turned a bit more mellow.
“Remember our talk back during the whole beach getaway? Turns out the Ascendancy had the same idea. It’s not much, but they have set up some basic surveillance over Penrose downtown ever since they arrived.” She pointed out some files on her computer. “Elora shared these just now; it shows the current network of cameras and microphones, as well as the patrol routes the Ascendancy uses to cover between the gaps. Impressive work, I gotta say; explains the statistics they so proudly presented.” She rubbed her chin with two fingers. “We could adopt that strategy as well, maybe even add in some drones for better adaptation. But with the resources we currently have, we’d need to borrow tech from the Ascendancy. Which means you'd have to request stuff from Rachel.”

Alicia nodded as Sylvia went over the system that was now in place. So, the Ascendancy had beaten them to the punch? It made sense, so she couldn’t be too surprised by it. Of course that just left the fact that so long as the Ascendancy was here they would have to use their system rather than making one for the local branch.

”Something tells me she would rather have a tooth yanked out than help me,” Alicia mused with a sigh. ”Well, I guess it’s better than nothing.”

Sylvia shrugged. “Probably.”

Alicia nodded, shooting Sylvia a grateful look. ”Thank you for the help. This transition would have been a lot harder if I had to do it on my own. Now I just have to come up with a plan to restore peace and order to the city without everyone else thinking we’re just killers at the end. Easy as pie.”

“Just doing my job, boss. But thanks for the appreciation,” Sylvia responded with a smile. “A part of me is sad I can no longer make sure everything’s working, but...A bigger part is happy. You see, my true passion was always in engineering. Now I can devote myself full time to what I like to do best.” She gave a thumbs up. “You’re gonna pull through, Alicia. Anyway, you have any other questions?”

Alicia stiffened for a moment before recovering. ”Man, getting called ‘boss’ is going to take some getting used to. But I’m glad to hear you’re taking things well. I was kinda worried about that after how rough the trial was.”

Fingers drummed a momentary drumbeat on the desk before she added on to what she had said. ”I guess I’ll look forward to seeing what sorts of crazy things you come up with. As payment for saddling me with your job, of course.” It was mostly good natured ribbing, though she was curious to see what Sylvia came up with now that she could focus all her attention on it. Given what she had done for Penny in the past, it was sure to be worth it.

She was about to wrap things up when one thing did occur to her. ”Actually….what’s the word on the White Coins? I know back during the trial Rachel said she had Binky, Janet and Jenna locked up, I’m just wondering if anything has happened since then, and if they’re letting us have access or not.

"Yeah, that…" Sylvia looked unsure. "The Ascendancy put a hold to White Coin production when they occupied HQ. But since you and the Cardinal convinced Rachel that they're not witchcraft, she let those three to continue making more...On the condition she has exclusive access to them from now on." She sneered. "You should talk about that as well. We still want to upgrade the rest of our members, and they're real valuable on their own too."

Well, it was better than Alicia had expected. She had been worried that they would still be locked up. Rachel having exclusive access was more problematic, but once she saw that they weren’t some sort of trick she’d probably be more willing to part with them. Making the organization more protected wasn’t a bad thing after all. ”Alright, I’ll do that,” she agreed after a moment. That was another fun conversation to have.

”But I think that’s all for now. If anything comes up I’ll find you.” Neither of them would be going that far after all.

“Alrighty then,” Sylvia noted with a casual wave of her hand as she turned to leave the room. “I’ll start working on the drone implementation, and maybe some equipment for our soldiers on the field too. See you later.” She lifted up a box from the floor, and carried it out of the room.

Alicia nodded as Sylvia took her leave. ”Alright. See you around,” she called after her friend. She let the door swing shut before picking up the handbook that had been placed on her desk. Now where was she going to put this thing….

---

&



&

It was a dark night at the gates of the Beacon headquarters when the two guards looked up and spotted something moving in the sky; the black shape resembled a bat as it’s wings floated it up.
Then, the two Beacon girls let out a horrified scream, for they recognized the person addressing them.

“Bring me the leader of Beacon. I wish to meet with them,” Justine stated, her arms crossed before her as she looked down on the guards. She now wore the same dress she had back when she attempted to change the world, her smile evil and posture dignified, though curiously she lacked her hat.
“Quickly! My patience runs thin.”
It didn’t take long before a messenger rushed to Alicia’s office, dread apparent in her visage.
“B-Boss! You gotta come see this! It’s...She’s back...Justine is back!”

Eyes widened as Alicia rose from her seat. ”You’ve got to be kidding me.” Reaching over she grabbed her Scrying artifact. With a wave it sliced through the air, creating a small rift that let her see the present. And indeed, as she had been told there was Justine outside the base and looking very annoyed.

”You weren’t kidding,” she huffed, placing the artifact back before moving around her desk and for the door. She’d tell the Ascendancy but she suspected that Rachel knew already. Justine hadn’t been particularly subtle.

A few minutes later the door swung open as Alicia stepped out. Her black dress flowed around her, though she did not have her bow out yet. ”Well, I guess no one ever claimed you didn’t have a lot of guts. Either that or a death wish,” she called out. Keeping a respectable distance, she folded her arms over her chest. ”Talk fast. I’m not in the mood to play games after what you did.”

Alicia saw that the Ascendancy had already made a welcoming party to Justine; led by Rachel, they had their weapons out and pointed at the monster girl. “You’re Justine von Visceral, correct?” Rachel shouted, her hammer summoned and hoisted over her shoulder.
“Did you come here to turn yourself in?”

Justine laughed.
”So this is the infamous Ascendancy? A bunch of fanatical nutjobs without any common sense.” It was at that point that her eyes spotted Alicia; she seemed to recognize her.
”Oh, and who is this? You seem familiar, though I don’t think we have met...” It took her a moment before her eyes flashed.
”Oh, now I remember. You were the one who worked together with Mariette Pedersen.” She chuckled.
”The Reflective Witch had an odd sense of picking allies, it seems~”
Rachel now looked at Alicia. “Wait, is she referring to the assault you made on her castle?”

Well, this was going about as well as could be expected. True to Alicia’s guess the Ascendancy was already there and waiting, though Justine seemed fairly dismissive of them. Not that that was much of a surprise.

Teeth grit as annoyance rose, with Alicia taking a step forward in turn. ”She is,” she confirmed to Rachel.

”Justine here had Janet blow up our HQ while she was brainwashed. Desperate times called for desperate measures. A mistake I won’t make again!” Her voice rose as she finished, making it very clear just how she felt about that ‘alliance’ with Mariette. Being used like that, it was one of the major regrets she had over that whole series of events.

Anyone would have expected Justine to react negatively to Alicia’s threatening words, even if just with a small scoff or aside glance. Instead, the monster girl grinned, looking pleased. ”Yes...That is the exact kind of hatred that I wanted to see!”
Rachel looked confused, and adjusted her glasses as she grit her teeth. “What do you want? Surely you didn’t come here just to taunt us?” She asked, to which Justine sighed in response.
”That would be very entertaining, but unfortunately no. What I want is something you will benefit from.” She created a red sphere of blood in her open palm, and let it slip from her hand, causing it to drop down. However, instead of splashing, it seemed to bounce, morphing into the shape of someone Alicia immediately recognized.
”You will help me find and kill the Reflective Witch.”

Tsuki swung her staff aggressively. “Never! We will never help a horrible fiend like you!”
Hudie had her palms open and arms crossed, looking like she was ready to cast magic. “You are foolish to think we would even consider such an option.”
Rachel however didn’t look as angry; in fact, she looked calm as she looked up. “You have ten seconds to surrender yourself. Then, we will attack.”
Justine rolled her eyes as Rachel began counting, and put her hands to her hips.
”So that’s how you want to play? Very well then. In just a short moment, you won’t have a choice.”
The air was tense as Rachel continued counting, the Ascendancy’s weapons gripped tighter and tighter, their faces in tight scowls. But, when Rachel got to nine, Justine finally spoke:

”I know the Reflective Witch’s Bane.”

Rachel was in the middle of spelling ten when she stopped with an inhale. The rest also looked surprised. Justine smiled, and descended slowly towards the ground.
”That’s better. Now, listen closely, children. I will only say this once.”
Once she was hovering a couple of feet above Alicia and the others, she stated:
”Broken mirrors, and candlelight. These are the true identity of Mariette Pedersen’s Bane.”
Rachel still held her hammer, but she turned it to point the heavy end down, one hand resting on the pommel. “Why should we believe anything you say, you lying snake?”
Justine flipped her long hair back.
”You will, once you use those items against her. You and I are not so different you see,” she looked at Alicia.
”Deny it as much as you will, but we both share a grudge against her. She had used you, and she had destroyed Penrose. It is something I cannot forgive.” She looked up at the sky.
”Before I can return back to my peaceful, quiet life, I want to see her beg at my feet before I crush her like the aggravating insect that she is. Surely you want the same, no?”
“...” Rachel looked pissed. Yet, she couldn’t help but continue listening to the vampire girl.
“...Go on.”
”So you are listening. Very good. To further satiate your appetite, I shall tell you what I have come to learn since our last encounter. Not only has she stolen my fortune and slaves, she also stole the Black Mirror, a priceless artifact with the power to create a pocket dimension. I believe she has chosen to make her lair there. But fortunately for you, I have access to dimensional magic. Given the proper resources, I believe I can open a pathway there. What you do with that is all up to you.”

For a moment it seemed like a fight might break out. It would be a big one, no doubt, but Justine was at the seat of Beacon power in the city. That was a fight even she could not win, yes?

Fortunately it resolved itself as Justine revealed why she was here. Alicia stiffened, her attention fixed now as the topic of the conversation turned to Mariette. Smouldering anger lingered, and she couldn’t help but remember asking Chloe about this very fact earlier. If she was offering a way to find Mariette and stop her for good, that was a very tempting offer.

”She does have a lot of the magical girls that Justine had brainwashed, as well as a lot of money. In the hands of a servant of someone like that, it’s a very dangerous combination. Especially since we never had much luck tracking her down afterwards thanks to that portal magic,” she pointed out to Rachel. It was at least worth considering the idea.

Still, there was something nagging her, and her focus returned to Justine as she took a few steps closer. ”Why now?” she asked. ”It’s been months since that fight happened. Why wait until now to show up again and finish what you started before?”

Justine stifled a little giggle.
”Until now, I was content with living a simple life away from the drama that so surrounds the magical world. But as it was willed by the whims of fate, I found myself back here.” She looked around, as if reminiscing.
”On its own, Penrose is worthless; just a torn battlefield fought over by desperate people. But, it is still a home to someone I respect. And to see it torn asunder by that cyclops...” She had an unnerving smile to her lips, her sharp teeth glistening in the moonlight.
”...I must admit, it makes my blood boil, ohoho~”
Rachel interrupted. “So if I understood correctly, you want to use us to get revenge on Mariette Pedersen?” Justine scoffed.
”I suppose, if you want to put it in such plebeian terms. But I’d rather not waste my time discussing semantics. Will you accept the help I graciously offered to you?” She stared at Alicia.
”This may be your last chance to catch her. Will you let it slip by, like it has once before?”
Rachel’s knuckles were white from how tightly she held her weapon. “Grr...” However, she was not quite ready to call the negotiation over, evident by the fact she did not attack her.
“Seraph Paladin Alicia, you were involved with this demon...” She muttered. “Is she trustworthy?”

For a moment Alicia was silent, looking into Justine’s eyes as if trying to see into her soul itself. To see to the truth of the matter. ”Trust is a strong word I’m not sure I would use,” she replied after a bit.

She then turned, looking to Rachel instead. ”But from everything I’ve heard about what happened in that last battle, I think she’s being sincere in this case. And, well, it wouldn’t be the first time she tried to kill Mariette.” A modest shrug accompanied that. It was what had prompted Mariette to approach her in the first place after all.

Rachel was deep in thought after listening to Alicia. “We should burn this witch at the stake...” She spoke. “...But if you co--operate with us, we shall instead grant you a purification. Take it,” she lifted her hammer up, ready to strike. “...Or leave it.”

Justine’s smile turned wide, in fact just wide enough to look creepy, before it turned back into a courteous one.
”We have a deal.” She elegantly stepped down on the snowy ground, and offered a hand for Alicia to shake; if she were to accept it, she had to be careful not to cut herself on the monster girl’s unnaturally sharp nails. Afterwards, Justine snapped her fingers, and Sonia suddenly arrived with a teleportation next to her. Rachel and the others flinched, but Justine giggled.
”This is my maid, Sonia. She will aid us in gaining access to the hole Mariette has dug herself in.” Sonia curtsied without a word, and summoned a phone in her open hand. Justine took it, and then offered it to Alicia; she saw that it was a crimson red in color.
”Unlike the communication crystal I gave to Mariette, this one unfortunately lacks the capability to explode into a sphere of ruinous energy,” she explained, chuckling.
”However, it will have to do if we are to keep contact for the time being.” She then turned away, taking Sonia’s offered hand.
”You lot may be disgusting brutes...But when it comes to eliminating unsavory characters, I can imagine no better. Well then, until next time...” She leaned her head back, smiling at Alicia.
”Goodbye~” The two then disappeared, followed by the statue of Mariette dissolving into a pool of blood that stained Alicia’s shoes.
Rachel de-summoned her weapon with an angry grunt. “That witch! Who does she think she is?”

Taking the phone, Alicia could only marvel at how fast things had turned around. Here they were, allying with the very person who threatened everything, to stop another person who could very well do the same in the near future. She glanced at the phone before slipping it into her pocket.

”A magical girl of untold age who once nearly destroyed the world,” Alicia responded with a shrug as Rachel expressed her frustrations. She was going to need to get new shoes now too, great.

Idly kicking her feet to try and scrape off the blood that way, Alicia remained calm. ”You know she’s never going to take that purification. We may have to be prepared for the time after Mariette has been defeated. There still needs to be a reckoning for all of our Sisters that she killed.” And if Justine didn’t expect that, then she was more foolish than the Paladin gave her credit for.

Rachel, despite her anger, managed a smirk, adjusting her glasses. “For once, I fully agree with you, Paladin Seraph. I trust that you will handle this matter.” She gave a salute, and then turned to return back inside with the rest of the Ascendancy.

”Yeah, I’ll handle it.” As Justine had so autely noted, she had her own score to settle. One last look was given to the horizon, before she turned and headed inside as well. It was time to start planning.