op2024
VitaVitaAR
Izurich
Genkai
twave
Knight 7In the Name of Science
Starring
“Slightly Less Deadpool Than Deadpool’ Oros “That’s me!”
“Peeping Tom’ Shion
“Slightly Less Deadpool Than Deadpool’ Oros “That’s me!”
“Peeping Tom’ Shion
“It's a shame I've already met all the magical grills outside of the Beacon/Mint clown fiesta... right?”
— Oros
The beginning of this particular bounty was what one would consider to be mysterious. At the agreed upon location, when the magical girls arrived they would each be met separately by a mechanical ball with four legs sticking out of it in the cardinal directions. It would lead them to a nearby building, inside of which was a modestly furbished antechamber.
There they would find their mad scientist….over the intercom. The task was laid out before them. Samples were needed for the purposes of research. Bones, claws, skin samples, blood, these and various other items that could potentially be used to develop an understanding of how these dragons functioned and other things that they had been assured was ‘too complicated for them to understand’. They wouldn’t see much of the lab itself, though bubbling cauldrons and humming tesla coils did serve to cast a certain image of their employer.
However, the two girls would not be ill equipped for this task. The robot familiar they had met before proceeded to provide them with Hammerspace Handbags, for transportation of their assorted goods. Inside they would find surgical knives, flasks and tubes, syringes, that sort of thing.
With items in their possession they would be unceremoniously removed from the antechamber and sent to the edge of the city. There they would await the arrival of the dragons that would be the focus of their efforts today.
“What a silly guy!” Oros looked over the things in her hammerspace handbag. “I’ve already got an assortment of cages and my patented tru-space hammerspace! But if there’s something playing MMO’s taught me, it’s to never say no to free stuff!” She turned over a syringe in her hand. “Besides, some of these quests can only be completed with quest related materials because the developers didn’t think of doing something cool like letting players-” Oros turned to the other girl who was standing in roughly the same place. “Hold on a second.” She stepped closer to the stranger. “You look like a schoolgirl, but that can’t be right.”
How did Shion get into this mess? Oh, right. Greed. That and Ko’s helpful advice that someone was willing to pay for dragon samples. She had just arrived at the edge of the city when someone approached her.
”I… I do, yes? Don’t like… half of us look like schoolgirls? Isn’t that the whole shtick?” She could tell this other girl was there for the same reason, seeing as she had the same gear that Shion had received.
“No no, I get that, but check this out.” Oros pointed at her head. Or more specifically, the cat eared hoodie she was wearing. “I’ve got like, this totally snazzy hoodie, and this sport bra, and this katana that’s also super cool. I look like a thirsty/jailbait cosplayer. But you?” She squinted her eyes. “You like, legitimately look like a school girl. Are you going to transform?”
Shion took a closer look at the girl. She did look pretty cool. Hell, if she were a boy, she might even be into that. But as it was, she was more envious of the outfit than anything else. ”I, uh… am?” she replied, looking down at herself and her definitely school uniform that she was wearing. Though to be fair, she didn’t look any different normally, barring the outfit.
Oros fret her brow. “So this is what you look like when you fight monsters and other magical girls?” She pointed at Shion with both hands. “Just, exactly like this?”
”Yeah? What about it?”
“It’s…” Oros’s face flushed red, followed shortly by her mouth curling into a mischievous smile. “…Totally adorbz!” Oros made grabbing motions with her fingers as she closed in on Shion. It seemed like she wanted to hug.“I’m Oros, what’s your name?”
”Thanks?” Shion had a bad feeling all of the sudden. ”I’m Shion. Nice to meet you?”
The hooded girl’s approach was slow, but when Shion didn’t back away, Oros closed the distance and curled her arms around Shion’s waist. “that’s a very pretty name. Short things are always cute, regardless of what they are.” She released Shion after just a few seconds, and positioned her hands on her hip and chin. “It’s just a shame you’re probably in bed with Beacon or the Mint.”
Shion tensed up when Oros grabbed her, and didn’t relax just yet. ”You’re the second… third? Third person to think that. I’m not Beacon and the Mint was, until recently, after me. Might still be, for all I know. But I’m working towards taking down both of them as a favor to someone. Plus, at least the Mint is going to try to get in my way with something, so I’m definitely trying to get them out of the picture for a while if I can.”
There was little warning before Oros Pulled Shion into a second, much tighter hug. This one pulled her legs off the ground as oros rubbed her cheek against Shion’s head. “OhmygodyouaresopreciousIhavenoideawhywedidn’tmeetsoonerbecauseIthinkit’sreallyhotwhengirlscanstanduptobigfactionsandevengoagainstthemthere’stoofewpeopleinthisworldthatarejustcontenttobesatisfiedwiththestatusquoandwilljustkeepdoingwhatsocietydemandsoftheminsteadofwhattheyknowisrightintheirheartsifanythinghappenstoyouIwillpersonallysetoitthateveryonewhoharmedyouisslainandthenIwillkillmyself! ” With herself (and likely Shion) out of breath, she set the girl down and gasped for air. “I really miss not needing air, *WEEZ*`` After she had regained her composure, she folded her arms. “Well I don’t fully trust you yet. We just met. It’s rare for someone not to be an ally of at least one of those two. But if what you say is true, maybe we can help each other after we’re done here.``
Shion’s eyes practically popped out of her head while she tried to parse what Oros had just said. She held out her arm to keep her away as she collected herself and caught her breath. “Th-thanks. And yeah, I get that. Not trusting me is probably smart; like you said we just met. But if you think we can help each other later, then I’ll look forward to that.”
“ Suppose we’ll focus on the job at hand, then.” Oros drew her sword. “I’ve assessed your fighting abilities through a proven method known as the embrace of jolly cooperation. My estimates place your strength and speed far below mine, but you seem to have a moderate amount of durability.” She glanced at her black sword for a moment before locking eyes with Shion. “The assumption is that you have powerful magic. Is that the case?”
”Fairly powerful, I guess. I’ve seen stronger, but… I haven’t met anyone with as versatile of a magic type as mine, other than M-... a certain person. And she’s practically cheating, so I don’t count her. I do have some martial skill, though.”
“Feel like sharing what type of magic that is?”
”Magnetism.”
Oros’s eyebrows raised, if only momentarily. “We that should be pretty useful for this!” Oros examined her “sample collection apparatuses” again. “Most of this stuff is made out of metal. So if I keep the dragons busy, you should be able to collect a fair bit of samples for both of us! Sounds good right?”
”I mean, yeah, I guess that could work. Seems like it would be easier to do it manually, or try to get on their good sides and ask nicely, but that’s a good method too.”
“Hol- up!” Oros raised her hands. “You, wanna try talking to them?”
”I, for one, have always had the fantasy of talking to a dragon. So yes, if that’s at all a possibility, I’d like to.”
The hooded girl thumped her foot. “But they’re so fun to murder…” With a sigh, she sheathed her blade. “Alright, I guess everyone deserves to talk to a dragon at least once. If a dragon offers up itself to have its body harvested, that might be a conversation I want to hear.” Oros pointed at Shion. “I won’t like it, but I’ll stay my bloodlust until they get violent. But then we’re gunna do something I want to do later, alright?”
”That’s a dangerous compromise, but for a dragon I’m willing to agree.” Shion replied warily.
“It won’t be anything too bad. I would like us to remain allies after this.” Oros grinned.
A few minutes later, the reason that they were here would make itself known. Distant roaring, and the ever softer flapping of wings. High in the sky, those with sharp vision could make out several dragons moving along in a staggered formation. They soon began circling and descending towards a spot nearby, where they could rest and replenish their energy. It was time to put the plan into action.
Shion watched as the majestic lizards… Lizards? Wyrms. As the majestic wyrms approached with awe visible on her face. It was literally a dream come true for her, and she didn’t want to mess this up. She began approaching them once they landed, ready to try and parley with them for what was admittedly a weird request of pieces of their bodies.
Her companion was content to just follow her lead. Or at least, she wasn’t outright protesting. Her far superior physique made keeping up with Shion easy. When they arrived at their location, Oros said nothing. She just folded her arms and stood beside her companion.
Shion took a deep breath. ”Excuse me! Could we have a moment of your time?” she shouted perhaps a little too loudly at the dragons.
The wyrms landed with loud ‘thuds’ at their chosen landing site. They had opted for a decently sized park area, with a modest flowing creek to drink from and some buildings that they could push up against for whatever reason they might have. Luckily the place was empty, since there wasn’t much reason to be out at a spot like this in the middle of winter unless you were a very particular type of person.
The wyrms had spread out. But as Shion made her presence known their gaze turned towards her. The one closest rose up slightly, regarding her with a narrowed gaze and a healthy dose of caution. Their kind survived on such caution after all. “Speak, little one,” it said after a moment. She had not attacked after all, so there was no reason to go straight to fighting.
”So first of all, this is really cool, you’re really cool, and it’s nice to meet you. I’m Shion, and this is… Oros, I believe her name was.” Shion sighed, prematurely defeated. ”We actually have a huge and kind of awkward favor to ask of you. But before that, is there anything we can help with to get off on the right foot?”
“Yea, you guys wouldn’t happen to like cheese by any chance, would you?” A confident grin crossed Oros’s face.
One of the wyrms gave Shion a bit of a side eye as she gushed, but the one who had initiated contact with the two magical girls was more reserved. “We are not our brethren, with hordes of gold and egos to match;. And your kind have not sought to speak with us in some time. There is not much we desire.”
He then looked to Oros. “I cannot say whether we would enjoy your human food. If one had sufficient amounts for us in the first place.” It was likely that they simply had not had the opportunity to try before, if it was something oros truly wished to pursue.
”Well, that’s probably good for us, all things considered. I guess I should get to the point, then? We were hired to get some samples of your species. I wanted to get you something in return beforehand to make sure that you didn’t take the request in a bad way; personally I think we can get by with things that you won’t even miss, but I still would like to make a trade for them if possible so that you get something in return.” Shion stopped for a moment as an idea struck. ”Actually, if there was something you wanted, the person who hired us might even want to meet you if they could provide it. I’d imagine that talking with one of you would be as valuable or more so than just quote-unquote ‘collecting samples.’ Then again, I don’t know if it would be safe to direct you towards a so-called ‘mad scientist,’ so maybe we should forget about that idea. Sorry, I’m rambling, I know. But basically, if you guys happen to have anything we can get for you to trade for some discomfort, that would hopefully work best for everyone.” she concluded, forcing a smile through her dislike of her own talking.
Oros was visibly reeling from Shion’s all-too-honest confession about what they needed, who they worked for, and her rambling ideas. “Y-yea, maybe we shouldn’t take them to the mad scientist. It wasn’t in the job description and like, well, he’s mad! Who knows what he’d do!” Despite her apparent wariness of the idea, the only thing Oros might enjoy more than slaying a bunch of dragons would be to watch a mad scientist fire all manner of experimental weapons at them. Probably. It was hard to tell what Oros was thinking moment to moment.
The dragons continued to look at Shion skeptically, especially as she revealed why she was here. It distracted from Oros at least, though she earned the occasional glance. But Shion was very good at drawing attention as she rambled and admitted to rambling too.
“What sort of ‘samples’?” The lead dragon asked with a rumble deep in his chest. He was not keen on meeting with any human who would perform experiments on him, regardless of how sane they were. What she wanted them to do would dictate what they asked for in response. If they were willing to give anything at all.
Shion shivered slightly. ”Man, your voice is cool. Anyway, lemme check.” She pulled out a list of the items needed. Bone, scale, claw, skin, blood, saliva, and wing tissue. This would probably be a hard sale. ”Well… The easiest ones would be saliva and scales. If you happen to have any scales on the verge of falling off, that’d be easy. Saliva is an obvious easy one, too, and I would think taking a bit of blood would be easy since it’s easy for humans to do... She paused a moment, thinking. ”The rest is a bit more intrusive. If you’ve got a tooth coming out, that would work well. I can’t think of an easy way to get skin or claw samples, and I imagine that wing tissue would be really bad, so maybe we could skip that?”
“Hmmm...” Oros scratched her chin. “Are skin and claw samples that hard? Some animals regenerate that stuff pretty easily, or just naturally shed them away over time. Even a bat’s wings can heal themselves. Though I suppose if they’re too damaged, they can’t feed. But what’s a square inch of wing to a big majestic dragon?” Then under her breath she whispered. “Ya think they’d take a damsel in trade? I’m pretty damsel like, right?”
The leader dragon listened attentively as Shion listed off what was required, letting out a deep huff as she went into more invasive forms of ‘specimens’. Oros then earned another growl as she spoke up, earning a sharp glare. Not that she was likely to care, of course.
“Perhaps I should pull off those poor excuses for claws,” he snapped, leaning towards Oros in the process. “Will those grow back rapidly?”
After a moment he shifted back to Shion, ruffling his wings. “Some of these can be agreed to without much issue. The rest will come with a cost. Do you humans possess healing magics? To fix what you have removed would be reasonable, for a first step.”
Shion looked to Oros. ”I don’t have a Healing Artifact or anything, but I’ve got some raw mana we could use to fuel it if needed.” Shion pulled out a small glowing acorn. ”I got this from a friend.”
"Afraid I don’t have any healing artifacts. My restorative magic works only on myself, as it’s based on my ability to create the tissue of mundane animals and monsters." She placed her hands on her hips and sighed. "If these guys had a healing touch, I might be able to use it. Like…" Her hand turned into a dragon claw. "I could turn my hand into one of their claws and be like, pew pew, healing." She rest the dragon claw on Shion’s shoulder. "But alas, I’ve never seen a monster or dragon use a spell like that. Most monsters I encounter only have regenerative properties."
”Could… Could we just get the samples from you?” Shion asked Oros.
Oros blinked. "I mean…" She looked at her dragon claw and wiggled her digits. "It would probably hurt. Did the request specify the size of the samples? They should be identical aside from the size. I’ve never really cut myself apart for science."
”Hmm… It’s possible that the guy who hired us will be able to tell the difference. I don’t know how, since if he needs specimens, he probably doesn’t already have any. But assuming he can... “ Shion sighed and put a hand on her head. ”There’s a way to do it, but I don’t want to if we can avoid it.”
Oros’s face scrunched up. "This is taking too long! Let me see that acorn! We’re going to go for a 1:1 scale replica!" She leaned forward and bit the acorn straight out of Shion’s hand. With the acorn clinched between her teeth, Oros hopped some distance away from Shion. With a growl, her shape started to change. She fell onto her hands and knees, and a pair of wings tore out of her back. Her outfit seemed to shrink away into nothing, but by that point the form underneath looked more reptilian than human. The transformation was slow, but Oros was trying to make the most of the mana supply she was given. She didn’t want to waste anything accelerating the speed of her transformation. Horns pushed their way out of the back of her skull, her jaw elongated, and before long there was a young green dragon in Oros’s place. "Now." Oros began. "You may not wish to court a damsel, but what about one of your own kind?"
The dragons listened quietly as the two magical girls debated what to do, sharing awkward glances as Oros proceeded to transform herself and then Proposition them. That was fairly unusual by anyones standards, though it was likely that way for the dragons themselves due to how long it had been since they had experienced this sort of thing.
“Calm yourself,” the lead dragon said to Oros with a hint of amusement in his tone. “You humans are very impulsive.”
Luckily for the both of them, what they did not possess did not prove to be a major deterrent. Perhaps it had been a test of some sort to judge their character. Who knew why dragons did anything that they did? After a moment, he lowered himself. “Take your samples and accept what we are willing to give. I shall provide saliva and blood, Leonitarus shall provide a scale I believe.” One of the other dragons off to the right nodded and then crouched, allowing them access. It was not all they had hoped for, but it was something.
”Thank you very much!” Shion said as she readied a few vials and a syringe for the two liquids.
Dragon-Oros reached for the offering dragon’s scale, and plucked it. "These dragons are more courageous than other dragons I’ve encountered." She turned the scale over in her green claw before addressing Shion. "How did you want to acquire the other samples?"
Shion drew the blood from the dragon and injected it into a vial before holding another vial out for saliva. ”Well, without that acorn, I don’t think I can just… well. I’m not sure. If we had some way to tell if getting them from you would be the same thing, we could do that and you could heal, right? As it is… I don’t actually know.”
The impostor dragon huffed. "Suppose it’s worth a shot."
”Well, we need bone, skin, claw, and wing tissue. I suppose the easiest way would be to take part of the wing and a small bone from it at the same time, then get one of your claws and the skin near it? Does that sound possible, Oros?” Shion asked the girl-turned-dragon.
"I can regrow my limbs if you hack them off, if that’s what you’re asking." Oros’s body trembled. "You’d better not rebuff our deal later."
”Didn’t want to go that far, but that means it should work. And don’t worry, I keep my promises.” Shion pulled out a small but sharp knife. ”Do you need a moment to brace yourself or…?”
Before they could get to the limb hacking and what have you, their draconic liaison spoke up. He’d had his attention drawn away by something else momentarily, and now was about when it had returned. “Not to interrupt,” he interjected. “It seems some of your kind are approaching. We have our own ways of dealing with such problems to remain unseen, but perhaps you would prefer your own solution.”
”Oh, uh… I mean, I think it’s okay for you to leave if that’s what you mean. If you mean something else, well… I dunno. We can draw them away if you want.”
"Just get it over with before the magic wears off." she growled. "Then I can draw them away. We’ll run round and round and round before I revert back into a beautiful pink haired princess. Then they will fight each other for a kiss, castle crasher style!"
”Got it.” Shion went to cut off the bottom section of Oros’ wing, then the area around one of her claws for the skin and to be able to pull the claw off. After she finished, she safely put the samples away in small bags and double-checked the list. ”Looks like we’re good to go.”
“We would like some time to rest from our flight,” the leader told Shion and oros, amidst their operation and exercise in deception. It was a bit odd, but again, perhaps not that unusual as far as strange things they had seen. For now he would indicate the direction the humans were approaching from, and let the magical girls get to work.
”On it.” Shion began jogging towards the other humans, her knife hidden from view with how she was holding it.
"It burns, it BURRRRRNS!" Oros curled what was left of her claw, but that did little to stem the bleeding. "Pain, my only weakness!" Oros took to the sky, breathing whatever type of breath weapon these particular dragons were armed with before flying over the incoming people. "Shit on a shingle! That feels like a ripped cuticle times ten!"
You said to do it quickly! Shion thought to herself, lamenting that Oros was now giving away their position.
Oros would see them first, owing to her enhanced vision as both groups neared each other. However, Shion might find that the knife was a bit much, as the humans were approaching in a minivan, all bundled up for a day out in nature or something like that. As normal people they didn’t know there were dragons there after all. But at least it would make getting rid of them easier.
Then again, Oros could probably do that on her own with how she was yelling and breathing some green mist that was probably poison. They just needed to notice what was going on above them.
”Hmm…” Shion paused when the minivan came into her sight. She carefully put her knife away and continued forward, thinking on how to best handle the group. By the time the vehicle got close enough to possibly see that Oros was something other than a large bird, the people inside would find that their wheels had locked up from Shion’s magic magnetizing and manipulating various parts of the minivan’s workings. Meanwhile, Oros continued to scream over head, but the damaged parts of her body were starting to regenerate. As her wounds became less severe, so too did her screaming.
‘Hm? What’s going on?” The car slowed to a halt as a result of Shion’s magic. Not noticing Oros yet, the driver got out and walked around the vehicle, observing and kicking the tires to see if something was wrong. With no visible sign, he’d proceed to the engine, popping open the hood and taking a look inside. Perhaps he was just very oblivious, but that would not last forever if Shion had a next step from this point.
Shion simply kept things as they were. She planned to delay them as long as the dragons needed, or until they called a tow-truck to take them back where they came from, unless something unexpected happened.
Meanwhile, Oros touched down in the distance, her wounds having fully healed. With all the necessary samples gathered, Oros reverted back to her original form. "Hah! Another one for the bestiary!" She thrust her finger into the air. Shortly after her outburst, she sank to the ground and hugged her knees. "Now I’ve got phantom pains running up and down my back, good gawd!"
Grumbling, the driver soon gave up in frustration at not being able to figure out what was going on. One phone call later, and a tow truck was on the way. None of them were happy about it, but when your car suddenly died what could you do?
It would be about twenty minutes or so before the danger passed. The tow truck picked up the car, the civilians headed squarely in the opposite direction, and the duo were free to return to the dragons.
Shion sighed and went back. ”Now hopefully they won’t come back for a while.”
Twenty minutes was about what it took for Oros to stop rolling around and complaining about her pains. "Aren’t we suppose to drop off these samples? One of us should probably do that."
Glancing in the direction that the car had departed, the wyrm seemed pleased that things had been resolved without too much difficulty, and definitely without drawing further attention to this area. “Thank you for your assistance, magical humans. Your solution was much simpler than what we would need to have done. Now we can prepare for the next step of our journey without difficulty.”
He then stepped back, noting that things seemed to be drawing to a close. “If you must depart, then we shall not keep you here.”
”Will do! Thank you again!” Shion checked to make sure the samples were still in their containers, then started towards their drop-off point.
Oros walked away from the dragons without even doing as much as looking over her shoulder. "I’m going to be really disappointed if this doesn’t work." With a huff, Oros pulled up one of the Christmas tickets that Emily had given her. "Anyway, I guess people are doing Christmas stuff at a party. This doesn’t have anything to do with the favor, but you probably wanna come anyway." She poked Shion with the spare ticket. "Just make sure to wear something interesting, okay? Nobody wants to see you in an ugly sweater ‘cept your grandma."
Shion took the ticket. ”Maybe.”
Making their way back into town, the girls would head back to the lab that they had begun the bounty at. It was a simple enough trip, with no danger and no threats along the way from girls potentially seeking to steal from them. Just a nice walk.
Soon they were back at the lab, where they were left in the lobby. The same familiar would emerge, arms extended as it moved to take Shion and Oros’ samples from them. “My assistant will take your work. I will confirm that they are what I sent you to collect, and then you will receive your payment,” the voice said over the intercom, just like the first time they had met.
The hooded girl looked smug and confident on the outside, but she was squeezing Shion`s hand pretty hard. "I hope we did good. I'd like to get paid. Though having to fight my way out of a mad scientist's containment bay might actually be more fun than slaughtering dragons." she chuckled. "Might get to see some of those sweet moves of yours, less he busts out some kind of mecha dragon to seduce you with."
”A mechanical dragon would be much easier for me to fight than a real one, for various reasons.” Shion replied.
After several moments the familiar returned, passing Shion and Oros two silver coins each. “You may leave,” the voice over the intercom told them, with barely a ‘thank you’ to accompany it. Stil, it seemed their deception had worked. All’s well that ended well.
Oros accepted her payment with a nod. "Thank you Mr scientist sir! Anytime you need something, just ask me!" On her way out the door, Oros patted Shion on the shoulder. "I’ll fill you in on the details of our deal later." She departed the room with a chuckle.
Shion stood for a moment, watching Oros leave before leaving as well.
