Flamelord

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

"No," Alicia replied succinctly, immediately shooting down any idea of a date with Chloe. That was definitely not happening, not after what she'd heard from Penny. And doubly so with Chloe being a Mint Broker. That was just a guarantee of misery for her. So there was little hesitation on her part to nip that in the bud.

Truth be told, she didn't hold out much hope for the deal in a long term sense. This was still the Mint they were dealing with, and 'fair' wasn't really something that could be applied to their dealings. But the terms proposed so far were decent enough, and as long as she was reasonable in turn then she'd be able to say 'I told you so' to everyone else when this inevitably went bad. Maybe that was very petty, but based on every other time this sort of thing had happened it was a reasonable prediction to make.

Of course Penny was harder to placate, though it didn't cause everything to break down immediately. Probably because Chloe teleported out and the conversation shifted to moving their planning to a more secured location. Glancing over to Aurora and Binky, Alicia shook her head. "Getting the HQ blown up once was enough for my taste." She paused for a moment as she thought, before adding to what she had said. "Beacon does have a community center that isn't really used since the city evacuation went down. I'd need to see about buffing the anti-spying magic there on short notice, but it is a possibility. Or somewhere Mariette would be comfortable with would probably work too." Mariette was the most paranoid one here after all, so if she was comfortable then it was probably a good bet that Wonderland would have trouble spying on them.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Doing her best to keep up with the main conversation, Alicia didn't react as Mariette arrived. Her eavesdropping on the meeting was basically a given, regardless of whose side she was on. At least she had some interesting information to provide. "A reality that assimilates newcomers into it? That's unique.". It would make any direct attacks difficult as well, depending on how quickly that asserted itself. Mariette's other piece of information was useful too, though it didn't really seem like the sort of thing that would let them use her as bait. But it was something to keep in mind.

She glanced over as Penny shut down any possibility of a deal, not that she was about to judge her for that. She'd already made her own lack of trust clear after all. Looking over to Lily, she shot the other girl an apologetic wince. "It's hard to give someone a chance when their entire MO is based on manipulation."

Before she could go on, an unexpected person spoke up. Alicia certainly hadn't expected to see Binky again, much less for her to be involved actively in such a way. She glanced around the meeting as Binky vented, her arms folded over her chest as the focus fell upon her for a moment. "Of course I want to save the city. But every time I've made one of these deals with shady people, they always try to take advantage of it for their own ends and do bad things later once their personal backside is out of the fire." There was a lot of stuff said afterwards involving Justine, which Alicia didn't really feel like chiming in on.

Which brought them back to where they started as the negotiations resumed. Admittedly Alicia had no problem with other patrons also signing on to the deal, and it wasn't as if she could stop them even if she wanted to. She could just do without Chloe side eying her every so often. Kayli's suggestion was a good step in the right direction at least. But to be honest, killing wasn't the main thing on her mind right now.

"I don't think you could get your bosses to agree to everything I would want from the Mint," she observed. "But with everything that's been said so far, assuming the Mint actually follows it, it wouldn't be...terrible." That said, her hopes of that being the case weren't particularly high. 'Mint' and 'Trustworthy' weren't words she'd use in the same sentence even on a good day. She just wasn't looking forward to being proven right.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

While things had progressed since Alicia had dipped out to make her wish with Kayli, not all that much had actually changed. Some people were still considering how to evacuate the civilians from Penrose, while others were discussing cutting the problem off at the source. There was plenty Alicia could have said, but reminding them of how the Ascendancy had evacuated cities before didn't seem all that productive at the moment given the attitudes towards that organization.

An eyebrow rose as Chloe went on, her claims dubious even without lie detection. She had no doubt that the Mint had some people in Wonderland, but exaggeration seemed to be in full force here. But what else was new. The trust levels were still at 'as far as a normal human could throw her' right now, as far as Alicia was concerned. The fact that the scientist was willing to vouch for her was...something. She supposed.

As it was, the gravity seemed to be moving towards herself and Penny as Chloe moved to negotiate a deal that would allow an open Mint presence in Penrose in exchange for the information that she had. Selling any deal with the Mint was going to be difficult at best, of course, to say nothing of her own personal distaste for the idea. "The Mint is a business in the loosest sense. It gives you what you want in the moment then ensures you give it what it wants from then on, until it has no more use for you. If you're lucky." she noted.

Such things should not be a surprise, yet it seemed that there were some people there being swayed by Chloe's offer. She hoped it was just fear, rather than a genuine belief that the Mint broker was dealing fairly. "We've survived crises before without the Mint swooping in to offer a solution on a silver platter for a 'modest' fee. I think we can do it again."

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Penrose Park was not too different from the last time Alicia had been here. Once more the magical girls of the city gathered to talk about a crisis, though this one was a bit more imminent and obvious than the last one. Would that be enough to ensure that things went better than the last time? Alicia chose to be hopefully, if prepared to have her opinion proven wrong.

It was still an eclectic assortment of people, that much had not changed even if the faces were different. With the contingent of other girls from Beacon who had chosen to attend, Alicia surveyed those who had chosen to visit as she stood there clad in her magical girl outfit. That much had not changed, though her stature had risen much since then.

She nodded in agreement with what Lily said. "We're here to help out against Wonderland as well," she confirmed. She didn't see a need to go through an explanation of what had happened in Bolorton and why things were different now, and would keep it that way unless pushed by someone else.

Alex went on, voicing a desire to have some way to mass evacuate the city in a hurry should Wonderland attack. Alicia couldn't judge the viability of his idea, since she wasn't that much of a technical sort. Someone else would need to figure it out. "Wonderland is a sizable organization. If we can determine where they're producing those toy soldiers and machines, or find where they're gathering their troops for their attacks, we could set back any invasion they might have planned."

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

It was another day in Penrose. Though the threat of Wonderland loomed in the distance, that did not stop the more mundane magical girl affairs that one had to deal with. Hunting monsters, studying to keep up with classwork, and such things. These would not wait, for the world still moved on even with the threat of imminent invasion.

Alicia did her best to assist in activities such as these, whether personally or through her responsibilities as a leader. She was still determined to show that the Penrose Branch could cut it without needing the Ascendancy here, even if circumstances seemed to have conspired against her once more. She would like to say that she was surprised, but she wasn't. Not really. In spite of this she continued to do the best she could to help those under her care and to keep the city safe.

Needless to say, the message from Lily was unexpected. Her mind flashed back to a similar meeting held in that same park and how that turned out, since it did feel like a bit of deja vu. Nonetheless, the decision was made already. Even if Lily did not find much of a response, Beacon would be expected to be there. That meant they would have to go.

Moving through the headquarters, Alicia soon arrived in the Ascendancy's section so she could talk to Rachel. "I suppose you've already seen the message on Glimmr from Lily?" she began. "I just figured I should let you know that I intend to attend the meeting on Beacon's behalf."

Rachel was at her desk, sifting through work on a laptop when Alicia came in, and stood up to greet her. "Ah yes, Elora did mention something about it. That girl…Lily, correct?" She gave a small smile. "Earnest, but naive. Nonetheless, her contact network is impressive. It makes sense she would attempt a rally of the locals." When Alicia announced her intent to attend, she nodded. "That is fine. Occasions such as this are best for the local branch to handle. Besides, if the Ascendancy were to appear we'd simply get glares and nothing constructive would be done."

Alicia paused, blinking in surprise. Truth be told, that had been easier than she expected. "Huh. Really?"

Though she would not throw skepticism upon the decision that had been made, her experiences so far made her desire further elaboration. After all, she had expected further resistance to the idea of cooperation at all, regardless of who it was against. "Does this mean that the decision to be neutral in Wonderland's invasion is out the window now?"

Rachel squinted at Alicia's confusion. "Yes, really. What, do you want the statement as a written notice?" She sighed, and rubbed her forehead. "Wonderland broke their agreement with Beacon, but the situation still has plenty of "red ribbon" behind it, as Lux would say. So Headquarters is willing to provide more assistance now, but can't declare war on Wonderland, even if they should." She grit her teeth. "That's just how it is around here; we're so mired and set in our ways of properly handling things to the point it's often too late and we're simply picking up the pieces." She scoffed. "Pisses me off."

Alicia was silent as she listened to Rachel explain the developing situation as well as her own frustrations. There was something uncharacteristic in it by the standards Alicia had developed when interacting with Rachel, and she couldn’t help but react a little.

”Congratulations,” she said after a moment, doing her best to hold back a smile. ”You’re starting to sound like the rest of us.”

Letting Rachel mull that one over, she turned and began moving towards the door. ”I’ll let you know how things go.”

Rachel did not like Alicia's insinuation, and grit her teeth. "And you're starting to sound too conceited, Paladin Seraph! I'm nothing like the rest of you local branchlings!" She sat back down, waving her away. "Fine, just go already."

Having already annoyed the other girl enough, Alicia did not push further as she left the room. She had a meeting to go to after all.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

_{.:⋮Late night meetings⋮:.}

It seemed almost habitual by this point that Alicia and Penny would meet after a major confrontation. They hadn't even encountered each other directly, but Alicia knew that Penny had been involved. It seemed to have affected her friend pretty heavily, if the business with the earpiece was any indication. That made a meeting all the more necessary.

And so they had arranged to take some time out from their schedules and meet. Normally it might be for food, but in this case Alicia wasn't sure that was something she wanted to delve into right now. They had grown a bit more distant with Penny being more devoted to Sanctuary now, plus her other identity changes, so Alicia didn't want to push things when her friend might no longer be comfortable with it.

Instead, she opted for the other meeting spot. A rooftop in downtown Penrose, one that gave a good view of the winter skyline to accompany them hanging out. Alicia stood patiently, waiting for Penny to arrive as the moon rose higher in the sky, peaking through the scattered clouds. She didn't expect to be kept waiting long, so hopefully Penny was doing alright. She'd know soon enough.

The atmosphere atop the roof would suddenly have a heavy feel to it as the air suddenly felt charged. A few short moments after the feeling appeared the space a few feet away from Alicia would suddenly tear open into a portal.

What lay beyond the portal was difficult to see due to the late hour and lack of light but there was a figure that the Seraph could see. She wouldn’t be left wondering for long as soon after the portal stabilized Penny would come walking out of it.

Though almost immediately it was easy for Alicia to tell something was wrong. Penny seemed wrong, everything about her was just off. Normally Penny could pass as relatively human easily, discounting her robotic accessories, but at the moment she was sitting at the bottom of the uncanny valley. The bleeding red of her eyes didn’t help either.

“Fuck” Penny would let out a curse as the portal closed behind her with a snap. Penny closed her eyes and very visibly went through the motions of taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She repeated the process a few times, each time she seemed to pull herself further and further out of the uncanny valley.

When she opened her eyes again they looked like they normally did, but there was still an edge to Penny’s presence. Some subtle thing that made it impossible to forget that Penny wasn’t human. “Sorry about that.”

Looking over as Penny emerged from the portal, Alicia was both impressed at the display of magic while also concerned by her physical appearance. Even if she put a quick stop to it, the fact that it had happened at all was indicative of her friend’s emotional state.

“That bad huh?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. Physically she looked alright, but with how quickly Penny could repair herself that wasn’t indicative of much.

“Worse” Penny would admit readily. Wasting no time in finding a place to sit down. “I’m learning the hard way just how much of a help the Spark was for maintaining a human perspective.” She’d explain. “Redlined back in Bolorton.” She ran a hand through her hair as she spoke. “And I’m still not fully back to zero from it.”

“Remote accessing the Bastion caused me to slip I think,” She’d gesture towards the air where she had walked though. “And I lost track of time trying to zero out in the first place.” Fixation wasn’t something that Penny often suffered from due to her inhuman ability to multi-task. But this current mess wasn’t something she could deal with without devoting a large amount of attention to.

Not that she had a solid explanation for what was going on at the moment.

“It’s why I wasn’t sounding all that well over the com. I had just pulled myself out of an even worse tail spin.”

Once Penny had sat down, Alicia took a seat next to her. Her hands rested on her knees as she listened to the explanation, which was admittedly not the strangest explanation for a thing Penny had ever given her. But she treated it with the seriousness that it deserved all the same.

“Oof. Sounds rough,” she agreed with a small nod. “Also sounds like there was a pretty tough customer on the field if that’s the case. We mostly had to deal with enough tanks to outfit a third world country. You’d have loved it.”

That comment cracked a smile out of Penny. “I was out in the field with them. They looked like Wizard of Oz rejects. Not sure who dealt with the Tin man or the Scarecrow but I took out the Lion and saw Dorothy getting taken care of.”

“Took a chunk out of their forces, mostly APC’s, before the Queen of Hearts showed up in person.” Penny would shake her head at that. “But I redlined before most of that. A lot of my systems were propped up by the Spark, and I more or less slipped into the morph on accident. I felt it coming on, but keeping it at bay was magnitude more difficult than I remember it being.”

“Kept me safe enough out there, but pretty sure I pissed off Iracebeth by chucking a bomb through her portal when she showed up.”

An eyebrow rose as Penny related her experience in Bolorton, with the clashing of the stories in addition to the actual fight itself. “Wizard of Oz? I wonder how many other things like that she has in her back pocket?” That was something she was curious about, even if she didn’t actually want to find out.

Penny’s ending earned an amused snort from Alicia. “That does sound like you,” she agreed. “Too bad we could never pull off that sort of trick against Mariette. It would have made a lot of things easier.”

“Mariette would likely just portal the bomb back at us if we tried.” Penny would agree with a wry smile. “But at least she seems to be against Wonderland as well. Since I saw her dragon girl ally there assisting with fighting off the invasion.”

“Honestly though, this whole thing makes me wish I knew how to shut down the Nexus.” She would go on to say. “Like I’m really well disposed towards active warfare, now more than ever, but I really don’t want to turn the Sanctuary into a fighting force. No one there deserves that, same with the people at HQ.” She’d draw her knees to her chest resting her chin on them as she did. “Punching these problems never really seems to work in the long run. But rarely are we given another option.”

"Probably, but it would have been satisfying if we pulled it off. I mean, Justine almost did." The more serious mention of her former-rival caused her smile to shift into a more serious frown. "I'm not surprised. Her patron won't be able to carry out his plans if Wonderland conquers the city."

Alicia certainly could not object to Penny's next sentiment, though she was a bit surprised with who it was coming from. "I'd like that too," she agreed. "But if there's one thing I learned here, there are just some people you can't talk down. At the end of the day, some people are just too crazy to respond to anything but force.”

“Oh trust me I get that. Hell, on my bad days I’m one of them.” Penny would reply with a soft chuckle “The problem, at least how I see our current situation, is that we are going to get swept up in Wonderland’s tempo. Few of us are prepared for open warfare. Rachel is, I am, you might be, though I sorta hope you haven’t been messed up that badly by the magical world already.”

“It's going to be the tension of after the Beach again, with an active threat bearing down on us all until we break or they break against us. It’s going to be a nightmare.” She would explain as she leaned back casting her gaze upward, to what stars could cut through the light pollution of the city. “Hope dies a lingering death in war, and I’d really rather we had some way of stopping it before it really starts. Killing Iracebeth might work, though I’ve my doubts about that seeing how Bolorton ended.”

She would let out a sigh “Which means the only other option would be removing the reason for why the war is starting. But I hadn’t been able to do much research into that before I got excommunicated.”

“Would simply be nice to have that as a goal rather than just war prep.”

“I suppose,” Alica agreed, resisting the urge to sigh as well. It was hard to argue with what Penny was saying, especially with how much of an unknown Wonderland still was at this point. Needless to say, the army present at Bolorton had been an unpleasant surprise, and a possible precursor to what could happen in Penrose.

After a few moments, she substituted the sigh for a shrug instead. “Well, we can either figure out the reason for the war or look into the Queen herself. Scrying is a wonderful thing. Or we figure out who Wonderland is worried about, and see if we can make a deal with them. I don’t have many good suggestions.”

“Same, any ideas I’ve had border on the heretical at the moment.” Penny would comment herself. “Like slipping into Wonderland with the Bastion and just dropping all the explosive ordnance I can store in it on her castle. Or dealing with the Mint” She would give an exaggerated shudder at that.

“Honestly, finding out more about the Queen might be the best idea. Know your enemy and all that.” She would say on a more serious note. “Finding out who the VIP’s she’d be targeting isn’t a bad idea either. I’d be willing to wager that I’m one of them though. She seems to be the vindictive type.”

Alicia nodded in agreement, hardly needing to say why those suggestions were a bad idea. “Yeah, I’m gonna save that for when we’re truly desperate.” She was willing to compromise to some extent, but cutting deals with the Mint was a whole other level.

“Makes sense,” she agreed. “I’ll have to see what we can do as far as scrying goes. Poking around the Overcity might be worthwhile too. A faction as big as Wonderland probably has its fair share of gossip making the rounds.” As they both knew, listening in on people was something that Penny was quite good at.

“Now that is an idea.” Penny would admit with a nod. “Curious if there are any factions out there that want to take a shot at Wonderland but just lack any actionable intel.” She would muse to herself as she contemplated the idea a bit more fully.

“An idea that is a bit more in line with your good ones is seeing if there is some way we can get open cooperation between Beacon, and by that I mean the Ascendency, and the Sanctuary.” She’d propose. “Open lines of communication beyond more than just us would go a long way when the fighting gets into Penrose proper.”

Penny’s suggestion was hardly unusual, and one that Alicia had no objection with either. “I’ll look into it,” she told her friend. “With what Rachel said earlier about needing to work together, she might even be willing to do it. Who’d have thought that a fairy tale could bring together all these factions who hate each other?”

"A fairy tale bringing people together to deal with a bigger threat sounds about right for a storybook. Fitting considering that seems to be Wonderlands shtick." Penny would say with a chuckle and shake of her head.

"I've also got some information on Wonderland as well if it'll help smooth things over with the Inquisitor." She would add. "Ended up overhearing your debrief. And though I was tempted to cut in, I didn't want to burn any bridges for you."

“Go for it,” Alicia replied quickly. She could appreciate Penny’s discretion, and she was hardly going to turn down the help. The more everyone knew, the more likely it was that they would figure out what Wonderland really wanted and how to stop them for good.

Penny would reach into her leg for a moment before pulling out a thumb drive and handing it over. “Everything I gathered is here. The entrance of Oz troops, some insights into their tanks and APC’s compositions, a decent recording of Iracbeth’s fighting style, as well as some data in relation to the mana gems they power everything with and a read on Iracbeth’s sword.” Penny would explain. “Let me know if that works to open the comms. Though fair warning it’s very obvious that I was the one who collected the data.”

Alicia nodded, whistling a little bit at the bevy of data Penny was offering up. She was more surprised that she had managed to get this much than anything else, as it was hardly the most unusual thing they had gotten up to. “Somehow I don’t think they’ll be all that surprised,” Alicia replied as she slipped the thumb drive into her pocket. “You are nothing if not distinctive.”

“That” Penny would agree with a nod and a smile “But also because the recordings are mostly from my POV.” She’d explain. “As I said, I am well dispositioned towards warfare. That is a glimpse into how my mind works in the middle of a fight, I trust you with knowing that, I’m just hoping that it will help.”

Glancing down once more at the thumb drive, Alicia looked between it and Penny. She nodded, still relatively unbothered by what she was hearing. "What, does it have your internal monologues in it?" she asked in jest. Though she could see how it would be embarrassing if it did.

“Not like that” Penny would roll her eyes and give Alicia a light shove. “But not far off either.”

After a moment Alicia let the levity pass. "Still, this is pretty helpful. Otherwise I'd say that the thing making Wonderland different is mostly a matter of scale. Their tanks went down to my arrows as well as any other bad guy." She'd like to say that this was the weirdest thing they had faced off against, though so far it had not yet claimed that valued position. "I can't imagine how things will escalate from here."

“No idea. Which is a worry, because we know what Beacon’s got in reserve, plus there are the options I’ve got that I keep locked away, to say nothing of the Mint and Cradle. If they are even planning on staying and fighting against Wonderland.” Penny’s gaze would drift upwards once more. “Whatever it is that is coming, is going to be big though. That’s what it feels like at least.”

“Well, whatever it is has another thing coming if they think they can mess with us,” Alicia proclaimed. “I mean, we beat up a manifestation of a Horror, and they were pretty powerful too. I’d say we still have decent odds of success.”

Penny would take a moment before shaking her head, a small smile gracing her lips. “I must still be out of it. You're holding my Vow better than I am at the moment.” She’d say looking over at her friend. “You are absolutely right though. We did that at the drop of a hat with no warning. Wonderland isn’t going to know what hit them when they get here. There is me and you, the girls at Beacon and the ones at Sanctuary, plus everyone else that lives here.”

“Penrose chaos is something we are all familiar with, these out of towners aren't going to show us up.”

Penny's amusement prompted Alicia to shrug, not too bothered one way or the other. "Maybe I'm just jaded, who knows?" As Penny noted, they were well used to patented 'Penrose Chaos' after all. Unexpected nonsense and evil plots were kind of in their wheelhouse.

"Still, imagine how boring it would be if Wonderland took over and made us all move somewhere else. I don't know what I would do with all that free time." There were worse fates of course, but it was hard to say that things here were not interesting. "Maybe I need to get a hobby."

Penny would poke Alicia in the side. “Hey now, I did just say you were holding on to hope better than I was. No getting self deprecating after that.”

“And we’d end up taking over any city we got moved to.” The robo girl would muse, “Not intentionally, just with free time we’d be too powerful.” She'd let one of her legs stretch out, as she let herself finally relax. “I’d probably get into model kits as a hobby, I’ve never had the time for them so far, but they look fun to put together and paint.”

“Any ideas for what hobby you’d pick up when we finally get the time?”

Alicia nodded, not doubting Penny’s observations for a second. “Yeah, that sounds like you.” She paused when the question was turned on her, tapping her chin in thought as she considered the options. “Not sure. I might need to work on that. Maybe whittling? That always seemed neat.”

“Really?” Penny would reply with a raised eyebrow. “I figured you more as a guitar kinda gal if you found the time.”

“Nah. Listen to music, yes. But playing music isn’t something that really caught my interest,” Alicia admitted. The conversation went on into the night, shifting to less serious topics as they rested in their temporary rooftop perch. It was just another night in Penrose as the temporary break between responsibility went on.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Freedom of Expression

Starring:
‘The Anti-Batman’ Connie
‘The Good One’ Emily

Having taken the unusual bounty, Emily and Connie found themselves summoned to downtown Penrose in the early morning. According to the one who had placed the bounty, that was the best time to catch the culprit in the act and make them stop their activities. Or at least limit them in a way that would prevent harm to the public.

The dark sky was streaked with purple and red as the sun began its struggle to ascend from below the horizon. Street lamps illuminated their path, and there was little in the way of people to obstruct their path. Not when it was this early and this cold out. Sadly they could not do the same as those people taking shelter, but that was the price to pay as a magical girl.

It was time for the hunt to begin. They’d have a limited window, and if they weren’t able to find the subject of the bounty then they’d need to come back tomorrow. Hopefully that could be avoided. Their first step was to find the person doing this, and it remained to be seen how they would go about that.

“T-Thanks for a-asking me to h-help you w-with this, E-Emily,” Connie told her friend as the pair walked along, the masked girl hugging her cold weather robe close to her trembling body. “I-I always l-like t-to use my p-powers to h-help people i-if I c-can, b-but, um, I-I’m s-still too n-nervous to a-accept one of t-these requests i-if I d-don’t have a f-friend to g-go with me…” she added, the mouth of her mask forming a slight frown.

"Yeah. It's so much more fun and safe to have a friend to tackle these with you. I'm glad you came, Connie," Emily exclaimed, ambling alongside Connie, clad in only her magical girl outfit despite the colder weather. With the contrast between the two, it wasn't long before she noticed Connie seemed a bit chilled. "Are you feeling warm enough? Here, I'll try to help a bit."

Emily concentrated on increasing her own temperature enough that she began to radiate warmth. "Um," she started to look as though she was steaming, but it didn't appear uncomfortable at all. "I hope that's better. Ironically, I'm more comfortable making the area colder than I am making it warmer."

“O-Oh, wow! T-Thanks, Emily!” Connie replied with a smile after her friend had heated the air around them. “T-That f-feels a l-lot better!”

After walking a bit further, and due in no small part to the soothing warmth she was feeling, Connie finally worked up the courage to voice a question she’d been wondering about the past few weeks.

“U-Ummm, E-Emily?” she asked hesitantly, her fingers nervously playing with her hair. “I-I, uh, n-noticed you s-seemed to be k-kinda upset a-about s-something at the C-Christmas Party, a-and, um, I d-didn’t want to pry, b-but, w-well, I w-was s-still concerned a-about you, s-so, um, i-is everything o-okay?”

It wouldn't take Connie more than a second to realize she had brought up something Emily wasn't expecting. "Huh? A-ah... uh, um... yeah!" she tried putting on a more confident front but failed spectacularly. Unable to look directly at Connie, she wore a strained smile. "...It's a bit embarrassing thinking about it since there were definitely more important things to be concerned about during the Christmas party..."

It took about a dozen seconds before Emily was able to attempt to articulate the event. "...See, there was just a minor... misunderstanding that happened... and I kinda overreacted and let it get to me..." she found herself glancing at her dominant hand and frowned momentarily. "But I'm okay! Sakura is-...! Everything is okay! Or... well, when I can talk to Sakura it will be! I'm sure!"

Whether she was trying to convince Connie of this or herself was anyone's guess.

"...Um... well, how about things on your end, Connie? Are you and Mia getting by fine?" as she asked, she retrieved her special locket and tried to see if it may give her any indication on where their target may be.

“O-Oh, uh, t-that’s good,” Connie replied after Emily had (sorta) explained what had happened. “A-And Mia and I are d-doing great!” she added with a smile. “W-We got adopted b-by a v-very nice m-magical woman n-named Kayli, a-and w-we’re l-living w-with her, a-along with o-our f-friends Rose and Iris. Oh! A-And we just s-saw Miss S-Sakura the other d-day! S-She looked a b-bit different, t-though…”

Emily's expression betrayed nothing but joy for her friend's fortune. "Oh, that's wonderful! Being adopted was the best thing that ever happened to me, so I'm so happy for you!" she congratulated. "Does this mean you have a few sisters now?" Emily asked, perhaps a bit more excited than she needed to be. Sakura being brought up did draw her attention, however. "Oh?" she almost seemed hesitant to continue. "H-how so?"

“U-Um, well, s-she looked a b-bit older, a-and she h-had a d-dragon t-tail instead of l-legs,” Connie replied. “B-But it d-didn’t make her l-look l-like a m-monster, or a-anything!” she hastened to clarify. “I-I actually t-thought she l-looked very p-pretty. A-And yes,” the masked girl added with a smile. “R-Rose and Iris are n-now Mia and I’s s-sisters! I-It feels s-so nice being p-part of a f-family,” she continued. “I-I mean, M-Mia has a-always been l-like a b-big sister to me, b-but having f-family d-dinners in m-my own h-home, well, i-it’s like a d-dream come true!”

“Yeah, it’s really something else, isn’t it?”

Turning to their powers to find what they were looking for, Connie was soon rewarded by the brush of a nearby mind. It was an active one, thinking about how colors combined, proper strokes and techniques. No doubt it was the mind of their target going about their next devilish act, or something suitably dramatic.

Meanwhile, Emily was able to determine that their target was nearby thanks to her Absolute Direction artifact. It appeared to be nearby in a courtyard between buildings, connected to the street by an alleyway. With a general direction to work from and a limited range, that would make things easier too.

While she would have loved to do little more than make small talk with Connie for as long as they could, they did have some business to attend to. Ideally, the two of them would simply need to meet the person performing this aggressive graffiti and tell them to put an end to it and then they would realize their folly. Emily only wished she was naive to think this was the most likely outcome and not that the perpetrator was going to get angry and fight or scared and flee. But hey, with a friend nearby, she didn’t feel the least bit nervous! “I’d love to hear more about your new family. But for now, let's see who we’re dealing with.” Emily wasn’t exactly frontline material but unless Connie encouraged otherwise, she would start to lead the duo by a few steps as they approached the supposed location of their target.

“R-Right!” Connie agreed, trying to sound as fiercely determined as she could (which wasn’t very). Following along behind Emily, the timid girl found herself hoping that she and her friend would be able to resolve things peacefully. Still, if the vandal decided to put up a fight, Connie was prepared to do whatever she could to incapacitate them, before anyone got hurt.

Around the corner and down darker pathways they went, following the guidance of the artifact they possessed. There were no mundane obstacles in their way, not that much could have stopped a magical girl anyways. Passing by small piles of trash scattered along the side of their path, they soon arrived at their destination.

The courtyard was not all that interesting. The ground was covered in concrete with small weeds making their way up through the cracks. There were a couple benches and a table whose wood was starting to become very warped. Doors allowed access to the courtyard from the various other apartment buildings surrounding it. Because of this it was not hard to find their target.

A girl stood on the Eastern side of the courtyard about equidistant between the way they had come in and the other exit on the opposite side. She wore a green jacket which bore paint smears both old and new. In defiance of the cold weather she had a skirt on, and wore sneakers too. In one hand she had a painter brush while the other idly shook a can of spray paint. The clicking it made clashed with her humming as she eyed the half finished art in front of her. It had vibrant colors, mixing clean lines with smooth transitions from one part to the next. She hadn't noticed then yet, giving them the element of surprise for however they chose to proceed.

As they approached the girl in what Connie hoped was the most non-threatening manner possible, she greeted her with a small wave, while her mask formed the friendliest smile she could muster, “U-Um, g-good morning,” she called tentatively. “T-That’s a v-very p-pretty picture y-you’re m-making.”

Surprisingly, Connie took the lead when it came to interacting with the girl. Emily decided to wait to see how this individual would react. After confirming with the compass she had, she tucked away the locket and looked at what was apparently their culprit with anticipation for a friendly encounter.

The clicking came to an end as the artist found herself addressed. Arresting the motion of the spray can, she turned to eye both Connie and Emily before breaking into a confident grin. “Thanks. It’s not quite done yet, but I think people will get the message clearly enough.” The technicolor angel being skewered by a horned beast was pretty unsubtle.

Now that they had gotten closer, Connie finally noticed the dark beast that was… impaling the brightly colored angel she had initially seen. Needless to say, she was less than happy about this fact, and after gasping in shock, the timid girl tried to muster a reply to the artist. “Y-Y-You’re v-very w-welcome,” she stammered. “B-B-But, u-ummm, I-I’m s-sorry, b-but, u-uh, I-I d-don’t r-really u-understand…” she confessed, the mouth of her mask drooping into a frown. “W-W-Why i-is t-that b-beautiful a-angel b-being… b-being…” the poor girl felt such shock and horror at the gruesome sight that she was unable to finish, nervously playing with her hair as her whole body began to tremble.

"...completely destroyed?" Emily finished Connie's sentence with gusto. She appeared utterly entranced by the painting unlike her companion and her eyes shone with adoration. "So visceral, leaving nothing to the imagination! It always surprises me to see how detailed and vibrant people can get with a can or few of spray paint." There was no mistaking her tone -- Emily was genuinely amazed by the piece of artwork rather than repulsed. "But..." her expression became tense. "...the 'message' isn't a very kind one, is it? Um, why create such destructive pieces?"

Still grinning, the girl mostly ignored Connie and instead turned to Emily as a more appreciative viewer of her art. Even if there was some disagreement with the message, the compliments had soothed any offense that might result. “I’m protesting,” she explained simply. “Those Ascendancy guys keep ruining the city, and nothing that happens makes them go away. I figure it can’t hurt to make their stay unpleasant.”

“O-Oh, I-I s-see…” Connie said softly. She had to admit, the Ascendancy did seem to cause a lot of problems, and she had been present when they declared their intention to destroy Dan’s dimension, but still, was what this girl was doing really the best way to go about opposing them? “B-But, u-umm, w-why d-does it h-have to b-be s-so… v-violent?” she asked hesitantly.

“Um, yeah…” Emily was likewise generally against violent methods, even towards the Ascendency who had been built as nothing more than a font of misery as far as most people she asked about it were concerned. But she didn’t think their ideals would resonate with this girl considering how far she went to cause them what she more or less admitted to as being ‘minor inconveniences’. “...isn’t there another way you could try to go about this? It’s just that… well, those paintings don’t seem to discriminate. Even people who aren’t related to the Ascendancy are, well, not having a pleasant time.”

“That’s the point!” the girl declared, agitatedly waving her paintbrush towards the drawing. “We’ve got to make people feel uncomfortable, get angry, challenge the status quo! All of the big players in Penrose are just in it for themselves, so we have to do something before it’s too late. That’s what art is all about!”

“U-Um, w-well, I-I’m s-something of a-an a-artist, too,” Connie added with a slight frown as she pressed her fingers together. “A-And I-I’ve always t-thought t-that art s-should b-bring p-people t-together and m-make them h-happy. I-It s-should f-fill them with g-good f-feelings, n-not b-bad ones…”

"Um... I don't draw aside from a doodle every now and then, so I won't comment on what art is about. It would be rude of me to try," Emily placed a hand on her chest and she gave a pleading look to the girl. "But I can't stay quiet when innocent people are in danger. Could we ask you to stop?" she bluntly asked. “There must be a better method, I’m sure!”

The girl huffed, shaking her head. “Art’s what I’m good at, so art is what I’ll do. Now’s not the time for touchy feely kumbaya, it’s time for resistance!” After a few moments she turned back to face the wall. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some work to finish.”

To say that Connie was troubled would have been an understatement. She didn’t want to fight this girl. Indeed, she empathized with her. And yet, she knew what the rebellious artist was doing was wrong. As Emily had said, there had to be a better way for the girl to accomplish her goals, they just had to find it….

“B-B-But, w-what i-if y-you p-painted t-things t-to m-make p-people s-stop f-fighting a-and w-work t-together?” Connie suggested, the timid girl using all her willpower to find the courage needed to speak up in what was clearly a tense situation. “I-I d-don’t k-know m-much a-about the A-Ascendancy,” she conceded with a frown. “B-But a-aren’t t-they just h-here to s-stop a-all the v-violence? M-Maybe i-if t-they s-saw people g-getting a-along p-peacefully, t-they’d l-leave…”

“Sure, you try that,” the girl replied distractedly. She had already returned to painting, using her brush to shape the paint delivered onto the wall by the canister. She had ceased paying attention for the most part, and it seemed she would not be swayed by words alone anymore.

"So you won't stop?" Emily frowned, and then took a long, drawn-out exhale. She gave Connie a solemn shake of her head, a signal that she had realized this wasn't going to end peacefully. She almost seemed to be in pain judging by her expression.

Lucifer took a step forward and created a blue flame in the palm of her hand. She pointed it at the artist but did not fire.

"I told you that I can't ignore this. That innocent lives are in danger. Knowing this, you would still continue to place them in harm's way. I can understand strong feelings against the Ascendancy. I'm sure they are warranted. But that doesn't mean you can use such reckless, selfish means to enact your revenge," Emily now looked determined. Determined to stop the villain before them, even if... "...even if you are a sister, I can't let you continue!"

The mouth of Connie’s mask drooped into a frown, the gentle girl’s heart sinking, as she, too, realized that the artist wouldn't be swayed by their words. With a nervous gulp, Connie readied her own magic, and although she still hoped that this show of force might yet convince the artist to stand down, she knew she needed to be prepared for anything.

The sudden turn by Emily caused the artist to pause. Her head fell slightly, though the fire in her eyes did not diminish. After a moment she shook her head and turned to face both magical girls. “I thought you understood. But I guess you’re no different from the rest of them. Fine then. Try your best, but you won’t stop me!”

As she said that her hand shot out and came to rest upon the painting she had just made. Magic flowed from her to the painting, activating the dormant power therein. It responded, spikes of magical energy erupting from the brick surface to lance out at the duo from the side. Having done this she then stepped back, keeping her tools at the ready as she faced the fight that had now arrived.

Emily quickly took a vertical approach towards avoiding the impending attack the artist had thrown their way, boosting her way only a little over a dozen feet into the air. "Connie! Let's fight from different angles, that way she can't deal with both of us so easily!"

...Unless the artist terraformed the area.

That wasn't impossible with a magical girl, but hopefully the girl's hatred outweighed her experience in a fight, or so Emily wished as she flew her way to one side of the girl. Emily did not engage in a melee, but she wasn't very far out either. She conjured a blue fireball on the smaller side which she lobbed at their foe.

Sadly, the girl didn’t stand down, but rather got ready to fight, sending spikes of mystic energy shooting out of her painting. Instinctively, Connie’s tentacles manifested to shield her from the attack, while Emily used her magic to dodge the spikes completely.

“R-Right!” Connie acknowledged after her fiery friend suggested that they split the painter’s focus, moving to place herself opposite her pyromantic partner. While Emily conjured a small fireball to throw at their opponent, Connie prepared a small, focused nightmare pulse, which she’d fire just as the painter attempted to dodge her ally’s attack. With any luck, the girl would escape the flames, only to plummet headfirst into a realm of her deepest fears made manifest…

The girl’s brow furrowed as the fight began, not surprised that they had dodged her initial attack. So they had some experience at combat, but that would not be enough to stop her. She waved her paintbrush in the air, forming a fireball of her own that she launched at Emily a moment after the blue one was launched at her.

Dodging to the side, she was already lifting her spray can. A hiss filled the air as she pushed down on the trigger, emitting a green cloud into the air. In addition to obscuring vision, it would have a negative effect on Connie if she breathed it in. It threw off things enough that the girl was able to backpedal and use her magic to fend off the nightmare pulse. At least this time around. For now she simply sought to keep them from closing in, so she’d have the space to manage the two opponents.

Emily had to avoid the retaliatory fireball before she could continue their attack, which she had done by sharply increasing the thrust in her ‘boosters’ and pointing them to the side. She suddenly jolted to one direction just in time and then corrected herself before returning her focus to the hostile girl, who was now enshrouded in a green cloud, which Emily kept herself out of.

Blinking, Emily’s pupils appeared to light up as she began to focus on the heat everything was giving off. Both Connie and the hostile Esper’s heat signatures were clearly visible to Emily and she used the confidence from the vision to accurately fire another one straight at the girl, similar in size and power as the last.

Meanwhile, Connie was forced to stumble back as she shielded her masked face with the sleeve of her kimono in order to block the enchanted spray paint. This unsurprisingly caused her nightmare pulse to miss the painter, although once she’d gotten some literal breathing room, the timid girl prepared to conjure a second beam of nightmare magic, ideally timed so that it would cross the path the agile artist took to doge Emily’s second fireball. She also readied her tentacles to wrap around their adversary, and so prevent any further attempts at evasion.

Emily had no difficulty reading the heat coming off of the girl, as the cloud was more emotional than elemental. At least for now. That allowed both girls to continue their offensive as they sought to press the artist from two sides.

Just as clearly, the girl intended to remain on the offensive. SHe shook her spray can again before pressing the trigger. Unlike the cloud of mist, this time it unleashed a crackling burst of blue lightning. It struck at the incoming fireball and then wrapped around it to lick at Emly directly. Her brush also twirled, creating a barrier of Hope to try and block the second nightmare pulse, but Connie could feel that it was relatively weak. All the same the girl kept slowly backing up, edging nearer to the closest exit from the courtyard as the back and forth continued.

“Woah!”

The sudden lightning strike from the paint can was a bit too fast to evade, so Emily brought up Purgatory, her gauntlets, to defend as best as she could.

Wait, I’m airborne, how does electricity affect me? There’s nothing grounding me, is there? This is what I get for skipping school to watch War of the Worlds… Well, it’s magic so I’m just gonna assume it hurts!

“Emily!” Connie gasped as she watched the artist fire a stream of crackling lightning at her friend. However, there was little the masked girl could do to help, other than continue to press her attack and hope it was enough to draw the painter’s attention away from Emily. Although her second nightmare pulse was blocked by a mystic shield, the protective barrier shattered upon the pulse’s impact, meaning it was rather weak. Sending her dark tendrils shooting towards the retreating artist in an effort to bind her in place, Connie charged up a third, and significantly stronger, nightmare pulse. Once it was ready, she would fire the horrific beam at the painter, and, with luck, finally bring their battle to a close…

The girl did her best to dodge the tendrils as they swept in, spraying corrosive mist like a poisonous flamethrower to dissolve them. Yet she was not a fighter, and it distracted her enough that she had barely any time to react to the nightmare pulse as it came racing in.

A shield came up as before, only to be shattered like so much paper without slowing the powerful blow. The girl’s eyes widened in shock, just as she was struck head on. Illusions quickly took effect as the magic fed on her fears and phobias to craft and cast her into a nightmare. What this was quickly became apparent as she sank to her knees, spray can and paintbrush left to clatter to the ground. “M…My hands,” she whimpered, tears rolling down her cheeks as she seemed to stare at them like they weren’t there. “Now w-what good am I?”

Deeper she sank into the nightmare in her own mind, curling into a ball on the ground as her crying intensified. The fight had ended, though it was debatable as to whether the duo had solved the problem they had been sent to fix.

Emily touched down near Connie and the girl, the areas on her arm where her gauntlets did not protect would be blackened, and there was a whiff of something burning. Yet despite this and the apparent discomfort, Emily observed the pitiful wreck of a girl their target had become.

"O-oh!" she stifled her surprise and turned to Connie before offering a huge grin. "Nice job, Connie!" she congratulated through the increasing volume of the sobs. Her words lost a bit of its intensity as they went on. "That's a lot safer than having to hurt her until she can't fight back. For everyone involved."

While Connie was certainly glad that her nightmare pulse had found its target, her kind heart still ached at the sight of the sobbing artist. She always hated to see the effects of her nightmares, and even though this girl had fought against them, she didn’t feel the painter deserved the anguish they were now clearly suffering.

At the sound of Emily’s words of approval, the masked girl’s attention was brought back to her friend. “T-Thanks, Emily,” Connie replied softly, her mask forming a fragile smile. However, despite her pyromantic partner’s jubilant demeanor, her expression soon returned to a somber frown once more, while her trembling hands remained clasped over her chest. “I-I g-guess…” she conceded after Emily noted that this was better than the alternative. “B-But I-I just w-wish we d-didn’t n-need to f-fight her a-at all…” Indeed, each of the painter’s pained sobs seemed to send an equal spike of agony through Connie herself.

The fire-based girl kneeled down next to the catatonic spray painter and even brushed her hair with a hand, almost like a mother would when comforting a child. "I'm sure she has suffered a lot before becoming obsessed with the Ascendancy like this. It's not like I can't understand or sympathize. Most of Penrose has a bone to pick with them, after all. Maybe she'll be more receptive to changing her ways now. I really hope so."

“M-Me, too,” Connie agreed, kneeling down next to Emily, her masked visage filled with concern for their former opponent. She would allow the artist’s nightmare to continue for a short while longer, but if it didn’t end on its own after that, then she would bring the nightmare to a conclusion herself. “W-Why can’t p-people just s-solve t-their p-problems b-by t-talking t-things out?” the timid girl asked her friend. “W-Why d-does everyone h-have to f-fight all the t-time? A-And w-why does the A-Ascendancy have t-to be s-so cruel? I-I t-thought B-Beacon was s-supposed to h-help p-people…”

Slowly the sobbing began to dwindle as the nightmare faded. Even though reality returned for the girl, she did little to shift from the position she had ended up in. There was no attempt to fight, nor was there an effort to flee. It seemed the drive she had so recently displayed had been drained out of her by Connie’s attack.

“L-Leave me alone,” she muttered, her voice cracking as she avoided meeting their gaze. “You w-won. I’ll stop p-painting. W-what more do you w-want from me?”

Emily didn’t seem to mind and remained where she was as she answered. “Nothing at all, if you’re being honest about not painting anymore. But maybe we can do something for you? I’m not sure what yet, but your strong feelings about the Ascendancy won’t go away just because we won the fight and told you to stop. If you’re willing to accept the help, that is.”

“Y-Yes! W-We’d l-love to h-help!” Connie quickly agreed with several rapid nods.

Looking between the two of them, the painter’s eyes trembled as they offered their help. It was difficult for the girl to trust that they were being truthful. But she didn’t have much of a choice anymore. “I don’t know what to do now,” she muttered. “I just wanted to convince people to take a stand, since I couldn’t make a difference alone.”

She looked between the two of them seeking an answer to her question. “I-If you know something I don’t, I guess I’m willing to listen.”

As she had just mentioned, Emily didn't have any immediate idea of how they could help, but she was genuine in her desire to make sure her sister was happy in the end.

She looked to Connie and then back to the painter. "Is it possible that you could still paint, just without the 'flair'?" she asked. "I don't think it needs to be magical to have the effect you want, it just needs to speak the right words to people," her face loses a bit of tension and she becomes a bit sheepish. "U-um... well, I don't really have artistic talent myself so I'm not sure how much help I can be... but I'll do what I can!"

“Y-Yeah, I-I think t-that’s a g-great idea!” Connie added, her mask forming an enthusiastic smile. “I-Instead of c-causing division, y-you could m-make paintings that b-bring p-people together! A-And i-instead of v-vandalizing p-private property, y-you could p-post them on G-Glimmer!” she suggested, clasping her hands together. “L-Like I m-mentioned earlier, I-I’m p-pretty sure the A-Ascendancy’s only h-here to m-make the city more p-peaceful, s-so if y-you encourage e-everyone to w-work together p-peacefully, t-then they should l-leave, r-right? O-Oh!” she added as another idea occurred to her. “A-And if you need a place to s-stay, the n-nice lady who adopted me and m-my b-best friend has a r-really big h-house w-with lots of room! T-Then we c-could p-paint together!”

Glancing down at her hands once more, the girl bit her lip in deep thought. “I’ll…I’ll try. But sometimes it just slips in when I don’t mean to. When I get in the groove, you know? I don’t know how well I’ll do in avoiding it. Still, I’ll do my best. Both that and the Glimmr thing. I just figured this was more noticeable.”

As much as she might or might not truly believe what Connie and Emily were saying about peaceful cooperation, she did not provide any further arguments against it. “I have a place to stay already, but thanks,” she told Connie. “We can still hang out there though.” She had the feeling that neither girl would be particularly opposed to the idea.

“I-I’d r-really like that!” Connie replied, her mask forming a happy smile. “A-And if y-you have s-someone with you w-while you w-work, t-they can l-let you k-know if y-you s-start making something d-disruptive,” she added, really hoping such a solution would work out.

Emily couldn't help but smile at how positive things were looking now. If things worked out, they'd have a new (and pretty talented) sister. The mulling over the situation with Sakura was something she wasn't doing more than an hour ago, but it already felt like it'd been a year since that point.

She nodded when Connie pointed out they could keep an eye on the painter's excitement while she was drawing. "Exactly! You can count on us! I'm sure your message will reach and inspire a lot more people this way..." her sentence hangs somewhat awkwardly for a second as she realizes that no names come to mind. "Oh! I don't think we ever caught your name...or introduced ourselves..." she turned a bit red. "A-anyway, I'm Emily and I'm not super good at drawing or anything but I doodle here and there," she looked to Connie. "And this is my friend and much better artist, Connie!"

The cheeks of Connie’s mask turned a bright shade of crimson at the sound of her friend’s compliment. “T-Thanks, Emily…” she whispered, more than a little embarrassed, but also happy she had such a kind and caring friend.

Looking between the two girls, the artist seemed to reclaim some glimmer of the enthusiasm she had previously espoused as the hostilities between them faded into memory. It wasn’t as if Connie and Emily were the true focus of her ire. “I’m Adeleide. Thanks for helping me see sense. An empath swept up in her own emotions, who would have guessed?”

The group would linger for a bit longer, discussing details and arranging another meeting in the near future to help spark this newfound friendship into bloom. The danger was at an end, and both Connie and Emily could be sure that Adeleide would not intentionally put the public in danger again. As they prepared to depart, Adeleide looked to the painting and let out a sigh. “I hope they leave some of it up.” Misguided though she might have been, she was nonetheless sincere in her hopes for the future.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

To the North: Quicksilver Knight Mare

_{That's a horrible pun doesn't even have anything to do with the hunt smh my head.}

It is not often that Beacon is attacked openly by other Patrons. Huld, one of Odin’s mistresses, has done just that. Beacon’s New York branch has had some of its magical girls come under a horrific spell. Regina, Abigail, and Tonya have all fallen into a deep slumber. Attempts to access their minds don’t work, almost as if they aren’t dreaming or thinking. The only sign of the contrary is that Regina occasionally calls Alicia’s name. Enter Huld’s layer and get her to remove her curse from the beacon girls. Losing the girls or failing to awaken at least one of them will result in failure.

This hunt can only be undertaken by Alicia, but she may bring one other magical girl with her so long as they are not a dark magical girl, a monster, patron a horror, or are otherwise an enemy of Beacon to conform with the Ascendancy’s policies. Ideally it would be another member of Beacon.

Challenge Rating: SS
Notes: Huld’s primary agents are mares, but she also employs magical girls with empathic magic.

---

Under normal circumstances, Bonnie would personally brief magical girls that accepted her hunt, but Beacon had its pride. They might use other networks to bring in reinforcements, but there was no way Beacon was going to let some monster brief Beacon agents.

Lilium Blue was the head of the New York branch. Normally she would be tending the paperwork at her desk or managing her forces. But with things spread so thin, she had to also see who Bonnie managed to summon.

Before long, Alicia and Hyun were teleported directly into Lilium’s disorganized office.

“Serraf Alicia.” She squinted her eyes a bit before looking at her companion. “And Hyun, former monster queen.”

Hyun saluted with her feet firmly in place. “Reporting for duty, ma’m.”

Neither of the agents had heard much about Lilium Blue, but what they had heard was extraordinary. Lilium was formerly inquisitor, but her title was passed to Rachel when Lilium was reappointed to her current position. It must have been humiliating to request help from the CAPRICORN.

Alicia kept her expectations open as she and Hyun arrived in the Penrose branch here. It wasn't too often that she operated outside of the city, so she didn't want to assume all the same norms applied here. Admittedly her presence here was a bit odd. She didn't think that she and Regina had been that close, but apparently the other girl differed.

Of course, any sort of psychic related incident with Beacon was enough to catch her attention. And so she had come up here to the New York branch, intent on solving this latest mystery. "Seraph Lilium," she replied with a nod. "I was given the impression that it was a serious situation, not that anything involving our branch ever isn't. What are we dealing with?"

Lilium snapped her fingers. Some white medical drones pushed three floating caskets out of a nearby room and into the office. Each was padded on the inside and held one of the afflicted magical girls. Abigail, Tonya, and Regina all looked like they were in a peaceful slumber.

“They appear to be under a powerful curse. They’re older Beacon agents, and none of them received the Shine Spark upgrade. We anticipated that Soth might have returned, but the magic clearly belongs to Huld. ” Her eyes moved towards the caskets. “I was told you were the best, so I’m sure you already know she was Odin’s mistress. She practices witchcraft, can give people nightmares horrific enough to kill, and can read the future. She’s an assassin and an all around unpleasant person. I do not know who put her up to this, and quite frankly, I don’t care.” She looked back at Alicia. “Huld must know how to reverse the curse. The two of you will take the affected Beacon girls into Huld’s lair and cure them. ” Her brow crossed. “Bribe her, threaten her, kill her and look for an antidote. I need these girls back in action ASAP. ”

"Mmph.” Regina’s head turned to one side, but she didn’t open her eyes. "Ah, Alicia…"

Lilium closed her eyes and sighed. “We don’t understand how she can speak in that state. Her mind is just as empty as the others. If I had to guess, I’d say Huld was trying to set a trap for you specifically. But that’s just a hunch.” She placed her hands on the desk before looking between the two conscious beacon girls in front of her. “We’ll be teleporting you right outside her lair, which seems to be a cave. The medical robots will be there to move the caskets around. Any questions before I send you off?”

Hyun raised her arm straight up, and once given permission asked: "Ma'm, will we receive communications assistance while on the mission?" She said, and lifted her other hand up to her ear. This caused Lilium to raise an eyebrow, if only momentarily.

“You will be able to communicate with me directly. I have no one else to run operator on such an important mission. Though I don’t I’ll be of much help.” She looked out a window. “We don’t know what her layer looks like, but she likely has a magical girl under her command and a few mares. She’s also the cunning sort so I wouldn’t expect her to fight you directly. Like most lesser forces, she’s survived as long as she has because she kept a low profile. That made getting details on her difficult.”

Alicia held back a wince, not sure who was going around calling her ‘the best’ but sorely desiring a chat with them. Now wasn’t the time for that argument though, and she listened carefully as Lilium explained the situation they were dealing with. “Oh boy, more Norse,” she grumbled. “As if the one champion we met wasn’t crazy enough.”

Lilim closed her eyes. “Huld will not be much better. In fact, she may be worse.”

She paused as Regina spoke her name, and shook her head after a moment. “I’d bet on it being a trap too,” she agreed. She wasn’t too surprised that local support would be limited, so it seemed they would just have to make the most with what they had. “So, there doesn’t seem to have been anything that would prompt this?” That made her all the more suspicious of it being a trap if it was true.

“She is an assassin.” The Beacon head folded her arms behind her back. “Our best guess is that the local monster girl gangs put together enough coin to hire her, or it was a hit put out by the mint. But it could have happened for any number of reasons.”

"Ah, Alicia…" Regina’s arm twitched.

“If you have no more questions, Bonnie will take you to Scandinavia.” As soon as Lilium said this, a giant hunk of ore fell in front of one of the windows. A portal opened on the side of it that led to a sea side cave. It was dark, and there was about a foot of water inside of it. But there were a few glowing runes etched here and there that provided some light. The medical bots took the unconscious beacon girls and carted them through the portal. Where they hovered in place outside the cave. “The bots are capable of following your commands, and will take evasive maneuvers with their cargo when necessary. Don’t lose sight of them, though it may be wise to keep them out of combat.”

Hyun nodded, and turned to Alicia. "Paladin Seraph, let's do our best for our fallen sisters of battle!" She stepped into the cave, and smashed her fists together while standing one knee. She breathed in, and performed a slow motion with her arms, like drawing a circle into the air. She then breathed out, and released a large ball of fire to drift up into the air, circled by a flame dragon. The sphere of flames cast a bright light, and illuminated the dark cave up to a decent distance.

"Paladin Seraph, allow me to take the first turn to light the way. That way we can conserve our mana better."

“I see.” All of this merely convinced Alicia further that this was probably a trap. The threads tying everything together seemed a bit too circumstantial to be otherwise. Still, this was something that they had to do regardless. As much as she might not have gotten along with Regina in the past, she wasn’t going to leave a fellow Beacon member at the mercy of a Patron’s devious intentions.

Turning to the portal, Alicia joined Hyun and the drones in moving through it. “Rest assured Seraph Lilium, I will do my best to put an end to whatever is going on here.”

“I expect nothing less.”

Having given her last words to the fellow commander, she turned to the task at hand.

She watched as Hyun generated a ball of flame to light their path. “Alright, that’s fine with me,” she agreed. Summoning Star Seraph to her grip, she directed the drones to follow them as the duo made their way into the waiting cave.

The deeper they went into the cave, the stronger Hyun’s “torch” seemed to get. Or maybe it was just the dwindling daylight that made it seem that way. The cave path was mostly straight, with a few irregular curves here or there. They must have walked a few hundred feet and were still walking in the same direction. There was no sunlight anymore, and the dull glow of the runes was washed out by the orange light of Hyun’s fireball.

The cave opened up into a massive room. Stalagmites rose up from the wet floor, and stalactites reached down from the ceiling. Hyun’s fire cast large shadows on the walls, but it was still possible to make out a few openings in the walls. Few of them were large enough for a human to fit through. Though at the far end of the room was a large opening into another cave system. They could hear a woman with a beautiful singing voice in that direction. No words, just an opera performance without an instrumental.

Alicia could feel something touch her shoulder.

"Alicia! Long time no see!" Regina was still laying in her coffin, but had propped herself up to poke Alicia in the shoulder. "What are you doing, huh? Why are we in the sewers? Who’s the dragon girl over there? Why do the sewers split up in so many different ways?"

When Regina pointed back, Alicia could see that the path that they had used to get in here was not so obvious anymore. There were twenty different openings, and it wasn’t clear which one they had come out of. Perhaps if any of the beacon girls were more aware it would have been easy to figure out. But finding a way out was not the most pressing thing on Alicia’s mind.

Hyun immediately ran over to Regina and waved at her to cut off her touch on Alicia once she noticed her presence; she had placed an enchantment on her own arm that briefly emanated intense heat without actually burning, to shock Regina quickly away without allowing herself to be touched.

"Ow!" Regina retracted her hand, which by the time Hyun had arrived, was nowhere near Alicia’s shoulder. "What was that for?"

"Paladin Seraph, this must be a trap! Regina should not have woken yet, so she could be under enemy influence! Furthermore, the passages have multiplied at alarming rate! We need to confirm her standing by asking her something only the real Regina and us would know." She then looked around, and focused her mind on her Spark. "I choose to not believe in these illusions!" She shouted, and actively disbelieved her surroundings.

Regina groaned. "If I was brainwashed, wouldn’t I still know the details of my past?" She shook the pain out of her finger.

The sudden contact caused Alicia to spring forward, her bow rising by reflex. That tension eased as she realized that it was Regina, who seemed remarkably peppy in spite of the situation that she was now in. Though she did call the place a sewer, which was a bit weird.

"Calm down Hyun," she said as she relaxed. "If she intended to hurt me she would have done it instead of grabbing my shoulder." This could be part of any trap, but she didn't think it was the trap itself.

Her eyes widened at the sight of the multiple pathways, yet all it earned was a sigh. "Somehow I'm not surprised," she mumbled. As if it would have been as simple as walking in and walking out. At least they knew trickery was in the cards beforehand. As Hyun tested the validity of their surroundings, she turned her focus to Regina. "A Lesser Force cursed you and these two-" She nodded to the other coffins "-into thoughtless slumber. Except apparently you were able to say my name. So we're here to get them to break the curse."

Glancing forward once more, she acknowledged the obvious. "I suppose the singing lady is our first stop, unless you have a convenient clue for us."

Regina placed a hand on the back of her head. "Well, let’s see-"

(this is going to be a nightmare to edit lol)

Hyun tried to disbelieve her surroundings, but nothing suggested that anything she saw was an illusion. The wet floor, the stony walls, even the small holes all felt fine. Hyun could rule out mental interference thanks to the new and improved shine spark. The only logical conclusion was that they just didn’t notice the extra pathways when they walked out from them, or that they had been hidden by an illusion that went away just now.

"...Um, yea. Last thing I remember was being on patrol with Abigail and Tonya. I want to say I remember someone doing the ‘phu phu phu’ laugh from behind us, but it’s all really hazy." She sat upright. "I do remember having a dream about you though. You were sinking into a black puddle, but then I realized I was the one sinking? It was weird. But um." She lifted a finger to her chin. "Thanks for helping me in the beach dimension. That gambler girl was impersonating me, and I think you were the only one in Beacon that didn’t treat me like a second rate citizen. B-but anyway!" She hopped out of the coffin. "What do you want me to do? I’d like to form up with you, but if you think I’m a liability I can uh-" She looked at her feet. "Wow! That’s really cold! Don’t slip anyone!"

"I am calm!" Hyun shouted as she squinted for a while at a wall, but then gave up once she realized her efforts were for naught. She then addressed Regina. "My apologies for the red-handed approach. I acted on reflex there. However, if the Paladin Seraph deems you a risk, I will take all necessary measures. In any case, we should decide on where to go next."
She looked at the floor after Regina's remark, and casually dropped a tiny fireball, just to see if there was something unnatural about the moist terrain. If successful, she would have the fireball scorch the floor and leave marking. "Now we will know we have already come here if the way forward doubles back here."

The flame turned into steam once it was lowered into the water. Given that it was fed by the ocean, there was no noticeable difference in the water level inside the room. But Hyun would have little difficulty scorching any of the stonework in the cave should she desire a path marker.

Despite some initial tension, things soon began to smooth out as Hyun apologized to Regina. The girl herself didn't have too much of note to add, though the dream was interesting in a 'therapist analysis' sense. For now, they would just have to keep moving forward.

"Nice thinking," she said to Hyun as she used her powers to make visible markings for them, in case the cave decided it wanted to change its appearance again. it wasn't a foolproof method if magic was involved, but it was better than nothing at all.

Turning to Regina, she shook her head. "It's fine. We Beacon members have to look out for each other, especially these days." But she was quick to move on from that, as they had more pressing concerns at hand. "I've got no objection to you helping. Our first stop should probably be whoever is singing, so let's get going." With that she began moving forward once more, now more prepared than before for any weird things that would likely occur as they got further into the cave system.

The next tunnel was not that long. It couldn’t have been fifty feet of wading through knee deep water.

The tunnel led the Beacon girls into the center of a single round room. It was comparable to an auditorium, only the lavish seats were replaced with stone benches, and the floor between the seating area and the stage was covered in water. The floor sloped upwards behind the beacon girls, which allowed all of the seats a view of the stage. They were filled with strange ape-like creatures. Short, naked, genderless apes with squashed faces, banana-like noses, and horn-like protrusions coming out of their head. Most of them were looking at the stage, but many found it hard to ignore the giant ball of flame Hyun was carrying around.

Despite this distraction, the show had to go on. The subject on stage was being lit both from Hyun’s flame, but also from sunlight that poured out of the ceiling. She didn’t just have a great singing voice, she was plenty beautiful to boot. Her blond hair seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, as did the robes that clung to her body. Her curves were voluptuous, her skin was as white as marble. There were a lot of bad things you could say about Huld, but you couldn’t call her ugly.

After one last crescendo, she opened one of her eyes and gazed in the direction of the not-so-subtle ball of fire burning in her theater. Without Huld’s singing, the cave was eerily quiet. ”Ah, it looks like some children have decided to explore my castle.“ She drew a crown of flowers from her robe and placed them on her head. ”I don’t mind entertaining guests, but do remember the proper etiquette when entering someone else’s home. In particular, you should only handle fire with adult supervision.“ She folded her hands behind her back and approached the edge of the stage. ”Oh well. What brings so many children into my home?”

Hyun did not falter even as Huld commented on her pyromancy, and kept a stoic look on her face, only occasionally glancing at the other creatures present. When it became clear that the goddess would not meet them with hostility, she returned the favor and shrunk the fireball, letting it illuminate only in their immediate vicinity. However, this didn't mean she would lower her guard; she knew their adversary would be devious, and prepared for conflict by subtly enchanting Alicia's arrows with explosive payload.

Entering the large room, Alicia’s gaze swept the seats and the stage beyond. It was impressive but also a bit odd, though she supposed that as a Lesser Force in seclusion one needed to make their own fun. Her gaze was then drawn to the person on stage, with a singing voice that was as beautiful as any she had heard, and an appearance to match.

Soon the song came to an end, and the singer acknowledged their presence. Stepping forward, Alicia did not falter in approaching the Lesser Force. “Hello. My name is Alicia, and I am a member of Beacon. You put a curse upon my comrades here, and I have come to negotiate for its removal.” She gestured to the sleeping girls, just in case there was any doubt.

She folded her arms and gave Alicia a stern glare. ”Really now?” She looked at the sleeping girls, then turned to look into the darkness behind her. ”Come here, girl. I need you to identify your playmates.” A moth girl flew into the sunlight and landed beside Huld. Her green fur, the shape of her face…

"Divina?" Regina took a step forward.

The moth girl did not react to Regina’s words, and instead looked over the sleeping magical girls. ”Yes, those are the ones I poisoned. But I also got that one.” She pointed at Regina. ”I’m sorry, she was towards the back and she must not have inhaled as much.”

”It’s alright dear, I’m not mad.” Huld continued to hold her chin as she looked over everyone again. ”Well Alicia, it is as my apprentice says. She did attack those girls with poison that I made. Our client paid extra for that attack, and I don’t think it would be in my best interest to just reverse it. I have my reputation to uphold. So! Tell you what?” Divina’s eyes lit up, as did hundreds of runes buried under her fur. Tonya and Abigail rose from their caskets like zombies and started to shuffle towards the stage. ”How about I just keep these two, and I’ll let you keep the one that woke up? In addition to that, I’ll let the three of you leave in one piece. Deal?” She took Divina’s hand in her own.

Hyun blinked upon seeing Divina, surprised at her presence here. She then grimaced at the offer, her fists clenched as her comrades shuffled like the undead away from them. She looked at the stage, and then glanced at Alicia. "She is mocking us, but we mustn't let anger control us, Paladin Seraph," she whispered to her. "We would be at a disadvantage were we to force the issue. But I also loathe having to bow down to a blackguard like her…I trust your judgement on this."

Alicia waited patiently, watching as Huld produced the subordinate Lilium had mentioned to make sure that she was telling the truth. It was quickly confirmed, and she seemed surprisingly open about it. It might not have been intended as a trap after all, though it did not remove the danger Huld served as.

Her eyes widened as Tonya and Abigail arose and began making their way over to Huld’s side. Her feet shifted, moving into a stance that was visibly less relaxed, whilst the Lesser Force made her ‘offer’. Listening to what Hyun had to say, she nodded in return. Yet in the end there was little choice. “No deal. We don’t abandon our own.” If that meant a fight, then so be it.

Huld’s eyes widened with mock surprise. ”Unbelievable! I thought for sure you would accept!” She slid behind Divina and placed her hands on her shoulders. ”Looks like you have some more playmates, darling. Finish up quickly and we can have lunch together.”

Divina was not a powerful magical girl, or at least she wasn’t. Her powers were much better suited to utility, such as her third eye or supportive use of her beast powers. But now that she was a monster girl, her magic had gained empathic properties. And even if the hundreds of runes on her flesh were just for show, the mares seated above them were a great source of emotion. Hundreds of disgruntled mares had their performance interrupted by Beacon’s intervention, and that annoyance fed Divina with power.

The moth woman cast her hands into the air, and a veil of hatred erupted from the edge of the stage. The red veil occasionally twisted into the annoyed visages of the mares, who only wished to be entertained.

Tonya and Abigail had just gotten on stage when the veil went up, and they commenced their attack immediately. Tonya stuck her umbrella through the veil and bombarded everyone with trash. Soup cans, rubber boots, and other refuse piled out of Tonya’s hammerspace and into the cave. Meanwhile, Abigail used her impressive magic to bring down a giant stalactite. Once it broke free, she turned it sideways before thrusting it into the ground, threatening to crush the three of them.

That wouldn’t be the end of their troubles, either. Back the way they had come, they could hear splashing. something was coming out of the walls, and it was headed straight for them.

And Huld only grinned at the display.

"Lunch is canceled; all you're having now is barbeque!" When Alicia announced their defiant decision, Hyun grabbed the fireball floating above them and threw it like a professional baseball pitcher. As she did so, she infused it with a delayed spell, and sent it hurtling up towards the stalactite, blowing it up in an explosion and scattering the tiny pieces of gravel.
Once she was done, she turned her head upon hearing the splashing sounds rushing in, and had an inkling of what it could mean.
"Shoot the passage behind us with your explosive arrows! We need to block off the exit before the water reaches us!"
She was hit in the back of the head with a rubber boot that amusingly landed opening first on her head and flopped around before it fell off.
Annoyed, she then started running in the direction of the stage where Divina was, her fists at the ready to deflect incoming trash shot her way. "For Beacon!"

To little surprise, it seemed that a fight would be necessary. What was more alarming was how the other two began sleepwalking over to where Huld was. Images of a mind controlled girl with a blazing sword through her chest flashed through Alicia's mind before she tried to dispel those thoughts with a shake of her head. She was better than she had once been. Things would be different here.

Things quickly escalated, with Divina utilizing empathy magic to cast a red veil across the stage. It was probably some sort of shield, from behind which the two girls attacked. A literal barrage of junk was unleashed, though this was more distracting than harmful. The stalactite was more dangerous, though it seemed Hyun had that danger in hand as she employed her own magic to blow it up.

“I think we have a bit more to worry about than water,” she replied, though that did not stop her from quickly turning and firing at the entrance they had come through. Some part of her did not expect that to solve the issue, but at least it bought them some time. Returning to the fight, she fired a couple of additional arrows to test the barrier. These were not aimed directly at Tonya or Abigail though, to minimize the possibility of accidental injury. She wouldn’t put it past Huld to do something like that.

The arrows pelted against the veil. It rippled and flexed like a plastic sheet, but the arrows failed to penetrate. Perhaps a larger projectile was needed. It was a theory that Hyun put to the test as she crashed through the veil. It opened its mouth to scream, and Hyun tumbled inside. But the hole didn’t remain. It closed behind her, trapping her inside with the other controlled Beacon girls.

"There’s a lot of them back here!" Regina fired down the corridor the way they came, but the mares were a tough lot. They weren’t simple minions to be dispatched in a single blow. They were creatures that armies feared to contend with. Regina used her own empath magic to create a grenade of pure hatred and lobbed it down the path. The explosion parted the hoard like the red tide, but they were still coming. It didn’t look like they had killed any of them.

Huld pointed at Alicia. ”Attack their back line.” Tonya and Abigail immediately ran through the veil, which did nothing to stop them. Once they had departed, she turned her gaze back to Hyun. ”As for this one, why don’t you show her why that was a very bad idea?”

The mares in the tunnel were quite mad, but the mare spectators were starting to enjoy the show. This excitement was an energy Divina began to draw into her own body. Every muscle on her body expanded and twisted. Her slender form was now covered in grotesque muscle. Even her fingers looked closer to sausage links, but somehow her runes kept their shape. She pounced on Hyun and closed her fingers around her head. She wasn’t just strong, but fast too.

On the other side of the barrier, Tonya didn’t stop blowing trash everywhere, but Abigail was using her gravity magic to lift up the broken stalactite. The stone fragments swirled like a dynamo, and they honed in on Alicia’s position.

Hyun recovered from her tumble with a handstand-launched cartwheel, and looked behind her, surprised by how easily she passed the veil. She realized too late that it was purposefully opened to trap her inside as Divina hulked out and clamped her cranium.

"Rrgh! Snap out of it, Divina!" She screamed, and accelerated her foot with a burst of ignition into a high-velocity kick at her ribs, breaking her hold on her. "This isn't you! You've gotta fight it!"
Knowing mere words wouldn't be enough to beat sense into her, she took up a kung-fu pose, her flaming fists ready to unleash fury.

Alicia frowned as her arrows made no impact on the barrier, while Hyun tumbled right through it. That separated their party, something Huld took advantage of as she had the two controlled girls come out from the barrier to confront her directly. At least that made facing off with them a bit easier.

Her bow rose as Alicia tapped deeper into her magic. To the incoming stone shards she unleashed a barrage of arrows, meeting the hail with one of her own that would, ideally, smash the rocks down to nothing at all. With the last arrow fired she darted forward, and lifting her free hand she unleashed a blinding burst of light upon the duo. Hopefully it would jog their Sparks and remove the control they were under, a tactic she had used successfully in the past.

A different mood fell over the auditorium. Hyun disengaged with Divina, Alicia intercepted projectiles with some of her own. Excitement and anger died down as anticipation took hold. The spectators weren’t afraid, but the nail biting tension caused many to lean in their seats. Some might even say they were afraid.

Divina’s body deflated, the veil of hatred vanished, but the runes on her body glowed a bright green. Hyun would have just enough time to see Huld brandish a dagger before the stage was filled with green smoke. She could see nothing but the faces of terrified specters, and her ears were filled with the cries of the damned. Could she remain vigilant with her opponents poised to strike?

When the flash went off, Tonya hid her face behind her open umbrella. Abigail stumbled backwards through the air, blinking as her eyes readjusted to the dark conditions of the room. Light magic could purify almost any corruption, but it would take more than a single purifying flash to bring Abigail to her senses. She needed stronger medicine.

Abigail was stunned for only a moment, and when she came to she held Alicia in place with her gravity magic. Tonya closed her umbrella and charged towards Alicia’s exposed back, preparing to run her through.

Regina was still dealing with the incoming mare hoard. She launched a fear grenade down the tunnel that detonated with a shriek. Some of the mares went skittering back into the darkness, but many of them pressed forward. "They’re breaking through! Any ideas, Alicia?"

"Hit them, and hit them hard!" Hyun yelled over the shriekers, and with a clap of her hands caused an explosion, burning the green smoke out of the air. With visibility restored, she then drew her fist back, took aim, and with a mighty blow launched forth a sinewy, serpentine dragon made of red flames. The searing summon roared as it lunged for Huld, attempting to snatch the dagger in it's jaws and disarm the goddess.

Sadly her effort did not result in the corruption being immediately undone, though Alicia was not entirely surprised given the foe they were up against. Maybe if she had had the opportunity to set up a Purification Field, but that sort of time investment had never been in the cards.

Things were growing ever more desperate, with Regina struggling to hold back the horde of oncoming minions, and Hyun struggling in her own fight. Gritting her teeth, Alicia found herself suddenly seized by a gravity spell that rooted her in place. Lifting her bow upwards, she unleashed another barrage of arrows above her head, so as to arc down in the space Tonya was moving into for her own attack. Little explosions rippled along the ground, making the approach even more daunting.

Now was the time for more desperate measures. Her eyes glowed as she activated her Third Eye, seeing through the fog regardless of whether Hyun dispelled it or not. She sighted in on her target, strung a real arrow, and fired. She wanted to save Tonya and Abigail, but she held no such compunction for Divina as she unleashed a long saved Arrow of Temporal Displacement upon her. “Give me one second and we can trade off,” she called to Regina.

As Alicia had predicted, Hyun’s attempts to burn away the smoke were in vain. While she could give herself a brief amount of clarity, it only took an instant for Divina to fill that space with smoke again. Not only that, but Alicia’s eye was almost overwhelmed by the amount of empathic and rune magic in the air. The runes on the walls prevented divination magic that wasn’t Huld’s from working, and the runes on Divina’s flesh were designed to increase her reception to certain kinds of magic. Even Huld’s dagger had a sort of enchantment that made it emit a massive shockwave on penetration, rupturing whatever it entered.

Despite her lack of sight, Hyun attempted to snatch the dagger away from Huld. But she not only had to contend with poor visibility, but Divina herself. She was able to block the blow with one of her wings, and Huld moved in to strike. Her own divination magic was running, which let her see a few seconds into the future. She wasn’t going to get hit by any stray attacks.

Decisive action was necessary.

Alicia had managed to stop Tonya long enough to fire her special arrow at Divina.. It flew fast and true, and struck its target. Her eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of her head before she vanished, taking the cloud with her.

Alicia may have wondered why Huld did nothing to prevent the attack, but that would become evident shortly. When Hyun’s vision returned, Huld’s dagger scraped the crest of her shoulder. Initially it seemed like a shallow cut, but then Hyun could feel an immense pressure as something forced itself inside the cut. Water, air, it was so great it caused her shoulder to rupture and burst out of its socket. Huld pulled away from Hyun, the side of her face bathed in crimson. She caught Hyun’s arm as it flew through the air and tossed it into the crowd of mares.

”Your move, brat.”

The mare audience was going wild, equal part excitement and confusion. There was blood! But where had the lead actress gone?

Tonya may have been momentarily deterred, but nothing was stopping Abigail from ramping up her gravity magic. Alicia could feel the wind leave her lungs as invisible forces worked on all sides of her. But then one of Regina’s grenades collided with the gravity specialist’s head and detonated in a mist of confusion. Alicia fell to the floor as Abigail wobbled around in a daze.

"They’re getting pretty upset, I don’t think we can hold them back forever!.” Regina fired a few more rounds before stepping beside Alicia.

But the hail of arrows had ended, and Tonya was charging forward once again. She was close now, and likely wise to Alicia’s last trick.

Hyun screamed as her arm was ripped and tossed away, splattering the goddess as well as a crowd of her servants in her blood. Any normal Mahou would have surrendered at that moment, or otherwise dropped to their knees and faltered. Nobody could have blamed her, opposed as she was against a goddess. But not Hyun.

She clutched her bloody stump at first with her other arm, her teeth bared as she let out a growl.
"I've tempered my heart with Beacon's gentle light, but…I haven't forgotten."
Slowly, the blood started to boil and sizzle, like water heated over a fire.
"The hunger that eternally gnawed within me…the voracious appetite, unmatched by any other desire." Soon, the blood caught fire, searing Huld's body and face. But even if she tried to put out the flames, they wouldn't quench; they were living flames, like tiny serpentine dragons that burrowed under her skin
.
Huld then saw Hyun’s torn arm violently explod, blowing up most of the mares and setting the horde on fire, unable to end the flames.
"I was purified, but my heart remembers the hunger! And you will suffer it's deepless abyss!"
Huld saw as Hyun transformed; she was enwreathed in red scales of fire, and from her stump grew three long tentacles of purest fire, each topped with a draconic head and fangs that could melt any matter. This was no normal Monstrous Metamorphosis, for Hyun was fully cognizant. She was purified, yet wielded power only the corrupted could dream of, having mastered both. It was a Titanic Transformation.

"I am Jormungand, former monster queen, and the hidden Sinner of Gluttony!" She roared, and her tentacles, guided by her burning blood, bit on to Huld with unbreakable power.

"I AM YOUR RAGNAROK!"

And then, she unleashed her final fireworks, and poured all of her mana and life energy into a mighty spell; the fiery dragons in her body began to consume her blood and mana, multiplying with each drop, until she had turned into a draconic serpent of fire.

Having turned herself into an Ouroboros, a serpent of endless hunger, the flames consumed her body. But even in the end, Hyun smiled towards Alicia. "I'm leaving the rest to you, Alicia. Hold Beacon's banner high, no matter what happens…" And so, Hyun conflagrated into an explosion directed at Huld.

Any satisfaction Alicia had over taking Divina out of the equation for a few moments was quickly undercut by what happened next. Both the violence inflicted upon Hyun, and then the dramatic move she made, sacrificing herself so as to deal a hopefully grievous blow to the Lesser Force. As much as she might feel responsible, there was no time to mourn. Not with enemies still around them.

As for their part of the fight, Abigail was dazed by Regina as Tonya came in for another strike. What she forgot in doing so was that Alicia’s bow was also a sword, and now that Abigail’s gravity magic had lapsed the Seraph was free to use it. Her blade struck the spear to knock it aside before moving closer to Tonya. That way she would not be able to use her spear as effectively with its longer range. “Well then we’d better wrap this up fast. Make sure Abigail stays down for the count.”

She followed it with another flash of light aimed at Tonya. That was merely intended to blind or serve as a distraction, since she had little expectation of it working a second time around. That was what the flat of her blade aimed at Tonya’s head for a knockout blow was for.

Tonya’s umbrella wasn’t quite a spear. Its length made it more comparable to a sword, in fact. But it didn’t really matter because at the end of the day, Tonya was still a joke regardless if she had been brainwashed or not.

It wouldn’t cure her, but at least a deft blow from her weapon would knock her out for a moment. Regina followed up by mirroring Alicia’s tactic, only using the butt of her gun to knock down Abigail. She was one of those min-max sorts, so striking her in the face with the butt of her magical weapon was an effective way to knock her out.

"Sorry!"

And just like that, the front of the stage area had been cleared out.

…

…

…

Or at least, it had been.

But between no one tending to the tunnel, and Hyun doing what beacon girls do best (that would be sacrificing themselves for the greater good) the crowd was thrown into a frenzy. Many of their brothers and sisters had died, and it looked like the same fate had befallen their mistress. Even if someone had tended the tunnel, the mares on the upper balcony were diving into the area below. Hundreds upon hundreds of mares, the greatest assassins in Scandinavia, would soon be upon the remaining beacon girls. Their only choice was to flee to the stage area.

The medical caskets flew up beside them, allowing Alicia and Regina to deposit the now recently unconscious magical girls to their caskets. The mares, frenzied as they were, did not advance onto the stage. In fact, they became quiet and stood at attention.

Hyun’s final sacrifice had created a lot of heat and flames, but also a lot of smoke. Smoke in a dark cave with a small opening overhead to let light in. It was hard to see much of anything at first, but Hyun’s remains started to clear out. Alicia could see the pile of ash that may have been Huld. But as more of the smoke cleared, she saw something else.

Standing at the back of the stage was a tall woman brandishing Huld’s knife. Unlike Huld, she was the opposite of beautiful. Her body had burn scars over half of her face and her flesh was covered in blisters. One of her shoulders ended in a charred stump, and her white dress had adhered to her flesh, and she was nearly bald.

It didn’t take Alicia long to realize that probably was Huld.

It shouldn’t have been a surprise. Huld had divination magic and likely saw the attack coming. A two millenia old assassin came across a lot of different targets, and she survived all of them. Though one had to wonder how many of them left their mark on her like Hyun had.

”You know, this probably looks like it hurts.” Huld raised her dagger. ”But I’m feeling refreshed now that she’s stopped shouting your rhetoric. Gods she was annoying.”

Regina groaned. "You’re mean!"

Huld grinned. ”I was once commissioned to convince a king to return home, and to kill him if I failed. I skipped trying to seduce him and sent a mare to crush his head. You really shouldn’t be surprised.” Her one good eye turned to Alicia. ”Well? Are you going to re-negotiate? Now that there’s fewer of you I might be able to work something out.”

Regina answered for Alicia by opening fire.

Of course, not a single bullet would hit its mark. Damaged as Huld was, her divination magic and speed were still functioning. But if there was something that Hyun’s sacrifice told Alicia, it was that her powers weren’t perfect. She could be harmed.

But while Huld charged the two girls, the mares climbed onto the stage. Something needed to be done {i]very[/i] soon.

A lot happened at once. On the positive side, Tionya and Abigail were dealt with. THey were returned to their pods, where hopefully they would not provide any trouble in the short term. In a more distressing turn of events, Hyun dramatically sacrificed herself to try and take out Huld. Alicia felt a pang of guilt, but the situation was still desperate enough that she knew there was no time to really process it. They would mourn later.

That point was made all the more clear as mares swarmed them from all directions, with a casual disregard for their own safety. “On to the stage, quick!” Alicia’s bow fired as she moved, practically on a swivel as she fired at the nearest mass of mares.

Clambering on to the stage, surrounded by smoke and lingering fires, Alicia only shot a few more arrows before realizing that the mares were not following them up here. “That’s probably not a good sign,” she said aloud to herself, and as she turned to survey her surroundings she witnessed Huld’s emergence from the ash. She winced at the sight and could not escape a moment of sympathy for the harm that had been inflicted.

Then Huld spoke, and reminded her why they were fighting in the first place. She might have considered negotiating now with how battered their foe was, but Regina answered that question in a fairly succinct manner. Even as injured as Huld was, was it possible for them to even kill a Lesser Force? But fleeing was just as unlikely an option, so it seemed there was no other choice but to fight.

Forming glyphs in the air, Alicia unleashed another storm of light upon the mares that were seeking to climb the stage. That would buy them a couple of moments from the swarm of minions. Turning to Huld, one hand held her bow whilst the other grasped a sword made of light. She waited for a break in Regina’s firing to move in, focusing on keeping Huld out of easy stabbing range whilst her dual blade sought to remove the knife from the Lesser Force’s control. They would see just how much her Divination could keep up with that.

So Alicia waited, and Regina kept firing. What made Huld hard to hit wasn’t her speed, but just how erratically she could move. She moved with a bumbling motion, jerking her limbs in erratic ways. Even when Regina fanned the bullets at her, they never hit anything vital. With all the burns she had sustained, she had moved past being fazed by stray bullets. It wasn’t long before Regina emptied her clip. She stepped backwards as she struggled to reload as fast as possible. But Huld was already there. She was fortunate that Alicia was as well.

Alicia’s attack was a gambit. She had no idea if this was going to work or not. The mares were relentless, as was their leader. The only one who knew the outcome was Huld, and she was already scowling.

Even with a shorter blade, Huld’s foresight enabled her to parry the first incoming weapon. Alicia’s blade of light was shoved off to the side by Huld’s swing. But as swift as Huld was, she had no way of escaping Alicia’s second blade. Alicia’s swing came right over the top of her light blade and knocked the dagger out of her hand. It tumbled through the air before embedding itself in her calf. The blade activated, and the burst severed her leg above the knee. With only half of her limbs, Huld fell to the ground. She didn’t even have time to reach for her blade before Regina kicked it away with her foot. The mares were about close in when Huld raised her hand.

”Stop, you imbeciles!” Huld shot a glare at Alicia. ”If you back them into a corner, they’ll just detonate like the last one!” The mares stopped in their tracks as Huld turned her attention to Alicia. A wry smile crossed her face as she laid in her own blood. ”So, about renegotiating. I assume that’s still on the table? Your friend hasn’t put a bullet in my head yet.”

Regina pressed the barrel of her gun into Huld’s neck. "She’s thinking about it."

Huld groaned. ”In light of recent events, I have decided that going against Beacon is not a worthwhile business proposition. I’d like to extend an olive branch and undo the mental interference on Tonya and Abigail. Not only will you have safe passage out of my lair, but it will be forbidden for a mare to attack a Beacon magical girl ever again. Do you find these terms acceptable?”

Truth be told, even Alicia was a bit surprised by the sudden turn of events. She certainly had not expected things to work out so…succinctly. That was practically Sally levels of luck right there as Huld’s dagger fell and cut through her own leg, destroying the limb as it had done to Hyun’s arm.

Stepping over to Huld as the mares advanced, Alicia did nothing to disabuse her of the idea that she would blow herself as Hyun had. “I’m listening,” she replied as Huld opted to talk things out. With the mares no longer advancing, they could think clearly.

The terms seemed as good as she could hope for, and Alicia did not see a reason to overreach. Still, she was also on the lookout for any loopholes that might be abused by the Lesser Force. “If it’s forbidden for Divina or any other magical girls you end up recruiting too, then yes we have a deal.” She’d probably reappear in a minute or two, and Alicia didn’t want the tables being suddenly turned for a second time.

Huld chuckled, even as her blood pooled around her body. ”Very well, then-” Huld was cut off when Regina shoved the muzzle of her gun deeper into her neck.

"And Divina isn’t going to attack us because you’re sending her back with us!"

Huld growled. ”Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

"Do you?" Regina’s hair and flesh started to lose their color as her metamorphosis was starting to take over. "Are we supposed to forget that you killed one of our own and are keeping another captive? Divina is a member of Beacon, one of my friends, and you will surrender her at once! Five of us came here and I’ll be damned if some disgusting corpse like you thinks she can hold onto even one of us!"

Huld growled louder and louder until she was screaming.

---

Lilium looked over the medical caskets. Each one was filled by one of the former “Beacon Buddies.” Tonya and Abigail were awake, and they were having a conversation with Divina.

“Hmph.” She turned to look at Regina and Alicia, who had just concluded their debriefing. “I suppose congratulations are in order. The mission was a success in no small part thanks to you, Alicia.” Lilium sighed. ”It is unfortunate Hyun had to sacrifice herself, but it was for a worthy cause. Her life has brought four of our own back to us.”

Alicia nodded in agreement, her arms folded as she watched the gathered trio of reunited magical girls. “It was her choice, and I won’t forget it. I’m just glad it worked out in the end.”

"You seem a little down, chief." Regina tried to put her hand on her captain’s shoulder, but she brushed it aside.

“I’m not, I assure you.” She folded her arms. “I’m just surprised that two former monster queens ended up helping Alicia complete her mission. It’s just an interesting observation.” She prepared to walk down the hall. ”Medical is going to look them over, but I need to show you something, Alicia, so I hope you’ll wait.” The caskets followed Lilium out of the room, leaving just Regina and Alicia together.

Alicia wasn’t sure what it was that Lilium wanted her to see, but she was in no rush to return home just yet. “I’ll be here,” she assured her counterpart.

"So that’s it then, all the Beacon Buddies are safe again." Regina smiled. "Kinda weird, knowing that I’ve fought both to enslave and free them."

With the caskets departing, that left Regina and Alicia to talk and wait for Lilium’s return. “You did good out there,” Alicia assured her companion. There might have been issues in the past after Regina’s conversion to Beacon, but there was no point in holding on to those grudges. She then shrugged. “Sometimes things just work out like that. Clearly it’s all because of your naming sense.” What was intended to be mockery at first had circled around to become truth, after all.

"Yea, hah! The name was Elroy’s idea, but I guess we’re both the same person now." Regina’s eyes trailed into the distance before returning back to Alicia. "I had been envious of you guys ever since I learned about you. Beacon was this giant organization of magical girls that wanted to work together towards a common goal. I understood that much, but I didn’t understand the hate Elroy and I were getting. I’m not saying my actions in the past were ideal. But, um..." She folded her arms behind her back and grinned. "I’m glad I did good! I always wanted to fight alongside you at least once. At least since I joined Beacon."

Regina’s words were unfortunately true, though it was hard for Alicia to claim that one side had come out looking particularly well from the previous clashes with the Bates Twins. “That’s why I’ve stuck with it. For as much as it might frustrate me, this sort of organization, this community, it’s unique in our world.”

" I just wish we could have done something for poor Hyun. You guys weren’t close, were you?"

With the conversation turning to Hyun, Alicia found herself frowning. “Not close, no. But she was one of us. At least we made her choice count.”

" Yes we did!"

Lilium returned with what appeared to be a crystal shard inside a vial. But it was flexible, as her footsteps were enough to make it bend and bounce inside its glass prison. “Even though this was a Beacon sanctioned mission, we did go through the C.A.P.R.I.C.O.R.N .to make the request.” She offered the vile to Alicia. “Bonnie wanted to pass along this strange token. It appears to be a magical coin of some kind, but none of us have any idea what it does. I was going to dispose of it, given it was gift from a filthy monster, but Bonnie did well by us. Between her and what Penrose Beacon was able to accomplish with Penny, I’ve decided that you should ultimately decide what happens to it.”

Alicia turned to Lilium as she returned, bearing a strange crystal. Her brow furrowed in thought as she considered the object, wondering what it did and what it might mean. "I'll look into it. It wouldn't be the first time we had to investigate weird new Coins," she replied. Sure, it might not be as easy as it was at one time, but they were hardly helpless.

“So long as I don’t have to look at it anymore, you may do as you wish.” Lilium turned to Regina. “At present, you’re my only active agent. No rush, but do see me when you’re done speaking with Alicia.” She turned on her heel and left.

"Um…" Regina turned to look at Alicia. "She’s not nearly as uptight as she seems, heh!"

Carefully placing the vial with the rest of her stuff, Alicia nodded as Lilium departed. "It's fine," she assured Regina. "It sounds like she's under a lot of pressure.” Alicia was not so thin skinned as to take a curt attitude too personally.

With a sigh, Regina held her chin. "But you know, something doesn’t feel right about this." She shook her finger. "Huld attacked Abigail, Tonya, and me, but then where did she get Divina from? Last reported sighting of her was in the vacation dimension. I thought Chloe had her?"

Regina's observation was certainly intriguing. "Maybe that was her price for the job," she speculated. "Unless Divina remembers, we may never know."

"I wouldn’t put it past Chloe to do something like that." Regina twiddled her thumbs. "Um, I’d be up for talking with you longer, but I don’t think now is the best time." She patted Alicia on the shoulder. "I have your number, so I can let you know if there are any new developments with my buddies."

“Sounds good. I’ll keep in touch. Let me know if Huld finds a loophole in our deal and comes after you guys again too.” Alicia assured Regina. If she needed to come back and handle things a second time, she was more than willing. For now, she headed for the teleporter to return to Penrose.

"Will do! Take care, socks!" Regina coughed. "Erm, Alicia!"

As the group started to head out, Alicia faintly smelled something burning, and noticed that the back of her hand had been stained by grey ash. As she wiped it, she saw that a mark had been left behind, as if burnt into her skin: a circle lined with fangs in a jagged pattern. Was this one last memento from Hyun? Or was it just a coincidental scar? Whatever it was, Alicia couldn't help but suspect that she felt traces of magic emanating from it.

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Alicia was one of the last to depart, keeping up a spirited defense to make sure that the others had time to exit through the teleporter or to find some other means of escape. She could not fend off all of their troops singlehandedly, but her task was accomplished all the same. Her gaze swept over the area before she moved for the teleporter, jumping into it just before it was destroyed by a tank. Overall, she would consider the mission to be a respectable success. Bolorton had been lost, but the civilians were safe.

In the blink of an eye she found herself at their destination. It was a soft landing, as that was what the place had been designed for it seemed. Which made sense, given the hurried nature of the evacuation. More magical girls soon arrived to provide medical care for the injured, and it was soon apparent that the civilians had made it through safely as well.

There was little time to rest for her though as Rachel arrived in the room. She seemed to be in her usual bad mood as she approached them and addressed the girls who had arrived here. "Yes Ma'am," she agreed with a nod. Without having much to say to the comment about having to work together, she nodded to her companions and departed to go find the Cardinal as requested.
_{@Ariamis@Shifter_Master@Crusader Lord}

March of the White Rabbit: A Roll-Your-Own Magical Girl Roleplay

Alicia's focus remained unmoved, turning and firing one arrow of light after another. Quick steps kept her mobile, so she did not provide an easy target for their foes. Glancing to the side, a light smile appeared as she saw the others rallying to defend. Plenty of Penrose girls were willing to fight for a good cause, but the level of coordination that had spontaneously appeared was touching to see. At the very least there didn't seem to be too many hard feelings about the delayed arrival.

And so the evacuation went on while the fighting raged. With everyone working together things progressed much quicker, even as the pressure rose on them from Wonderland forces. Having made her point, Alicia left Violette to figure out what was going on. She had a job to do, and would not let herself be distracted.

...Too much, as Penny's voice appeared in her ear once more. "No worries," she replied with a shake of her head. "I'm not sure how many people are still running around the city rather than being here anyways." For now they were holding and that would have to be enough. Certainly Wonderland didn't seem like they were stopping.

At last the evacuation came to an end. The civilians had been removed from the combat zone, leaving this a successful mission. But there was no time to sleep easy as even more troops came pouring into the city, and the fighting just outside town seemed to intensify with massive blasts of energy. Alicia was glad she wasn't over there, but she didn't feel particularly comfortable here either.

Slowly stepping back, she looked to the others as the new situation became apparent. "Alright, that's it. Everyone back through the teleporter!" Not that she would stop someone if they were crazy enough to stay here, but as far as she was concerned there wasn't really a reason to linger.

Tracing a glyph in the sky, Alicia unleashed a barrage of arrows upon the Wonderland troops to cover anyone who wanted to make a break for the teleporter. She herself slowly backed in that direction, but at the very least she was going to make sure the rest of her team made it out before she departed Bolorton. Being addressed by Angel of Hope, she didn't let herself be distracted from the surge of Wonderland troops for long. "We're not out of this yet," she noted. Hopefully getting out would be as easy as arriving in Bolorton had been.
_{@Ariamis@Shifter_Master@Crusader Lord@Ponn@Majoras End@Card Captor}