A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Starring:
"The Friendliest Ghost I Know" Oliver Kyle
"Thinking With Portals" Mariette Pedersen
And "Totally Just A Regular Girl, Honest!" Kate Carson
In the evening twilight, as the last rays of the setting sun glinted upon the third story windows of Steven H. Miller Junior High, a
diminutive girl with short, dark hair rested against the side of that dilapidated edifice, head bowed as she gazed down at the display screen of the camera she held. Once a respected learning institution in the suburbs of Penrose, SHM had seen its fortunes sour of late, paradoxically in direct contrast to those of Penrose itself. When the city had been little more than a depopulated disaster area, places like SHM, located as it was on the blighted city’s distant outskirts, had continued to provide their important public services, surviving, and perhaps even thriving, in what was otherwise rightly viewed as Penrose’s darkest hour. Ironically, it would be the city’s rejuvenation that would seal SHM’s doom.
With Covington Industries taking the lead in orchestrating Penrose’s rebirth, an array of new, state of the art, and corporate funded institutions had sprung up, almost literally overnight. With the sprawling, ultra-modern campus of Cornelius B. Covington Academy opening its doors to every child, from pre-k to high school, Steven H. Miller Junior High and its contemporaries were seen as little more than aging relics of a past best left behind. Thus, the once-prestigious school now sat empty and abandoned, awaiting its demolition to make room for yet another soulless shopping center or office park, its many long decades of shaping eager young minds forgotten, swept away by the tides of time, and the passing of the seasons…
I wonder who decided to accept my offer… Kate idly mused to herself as she waited for her escorts to arrive.
Could probably be anyone, knowing how money hungry everyone in Penrose seems to be. Still, I can’t really blame ‘em, she reflected with a small chuckle.
I mean, that’s why I took this job after all. I just hope they can handle what we’re gonna be going up against…Then the cheerful head of a certain ghost popped out of the wall next to her.
"Yo!" Even if Oliver wanted to stick with Finn for
his pick of a bounty, he understood that they needed to be split up for stuff like this. Besides, he's with familiar people, so this wouldn't be awkward and junk! After the initial spook, the ghost phased out of the wall and adjusted his satchel.
"I know Big Backpacks already give you food and stuff, but I packed some extra stuff in case the weather gets fucked." He explained.
"And of course I can mix something up with my magic, just in case. So how's life been for ya?" He asked Kate.
“Gah!” Kate exclaimed, startled by the ghost’s sudden appearance.
“Oh, it’s you,” she added after taking a moment to catch her breath.
“Life’s been pretty good,” she replied.
“No complaints, at least. And it’s nice to see you’ve come prepared,” she added with an approving nod.
“Bein’ a ghost’ll probably come in handy where the environment’s concerned, too, so it looks like you’re all set.”And speaking of all set…
They could talk for a bit longer, when eventually someone approached them. Someone wrapped from head to toe in clothes. The individual walked and came to a stop in front of Kate and Oliver.
The girl levied a focused gaze at Kate. Over her upper body she had wrapped herself with a winter/rain-jacket that heated her up considerably and was several sizes too big for her, and she held her hands forward with thick gloves over them. On her lower were winter-pants of grey colour, definitely decently warm. On her head was a thick beanie hat wrapping tightly around her head and ears, except over her ears she also had a pair of fluffy earmuffs, and above that she had a hood from her jacket, and a scarf was wrapped around her neck. In her gloved hands she held an umbrella, making a very odd combo, but it was reinforced by Ronja against weather and Mayra had cursed it with a curse of repellent, hopefully meaning any heavy weather would be reflected off of it. Besides that, a portal was open to her right, and from it smoke emerged, a sign she'd lit her own transportable campfire in case they got cold.
‘I... am ready!’ Mariette confidently announced to the two individuals before her, her visible eye focused and proud of her preparedness, the other still covered by an eyepatch. Her long white hair still leaked out around her winter gear. Most certainly prepared, she believed.
“You can say that again,” Kate replied with an amused chuckle.
“Although I don’t think you’ll be needing all that, at least not right away. And you look kinda familiar…” she added, placing a finger on her chin.
“Oh, that’s right! You were that girl giving out all those plushies at the Christmas party! Mariette, right? I gotta admit, havin’ you along is gonna make things a lot easier, what with the portals and all. Speaking of, the dimensional gate is located in that classroom up there,” she explained, pointing up to a third floor window.
“Normally, we’d take the stairs, but, uh, now that you’re here, mind givin’ us a shortcut?”Oliver couldn't help but chuckle at Mariette's confidence.
"Love the enthusiasm, but that getup might be a problem in warmer climates. If you need it, I can make a few cooling agents for ya." He smiled, then looking back to the third floor window Kate pointed out.
"Huh. You guys go on ahead, I'll meet you up there!" The ghost told the other two, before flying back through the wall and up to the classroom.
‘Oh, um... Yes, that's me,’ Mariette nodded to Kate's words, beneath all those clothes.
‘I figured, with my powers, you should be able to take pictures you otherwise couldn't... and without needing to get dangerously close, too. It felt like a good fit,’ she said. It was also the highest ranked bounty on the board, and Mariette needed the funds. Oliver had a comment about warmer climates...
‘Oh. Yes, I did consider that. But, worst case, if it's too hot I can simply remove clothing... but I can't do the opposite if it's too cold and I don't bring enough clothes. Is... what I figured,’ Mariette explained herself. She'd thought quite a bit about this. Oliver floated up through the building, making Mariette give a perplexed look, before then nodding to Kate and opening a portal directly to the classroom.
‘I warn that I do have a limited amount of mana. If we're likely to encounter foes, perhaps we shouldn't use portals for everything. Battles drain mana quickly, and I might need some of that to save you in case of emergency,’ she warned, just in case. That said, she did have a Mana Font, but she also didn't want her power to be excessively abused by anyone but herself.
“Okay, I guess that’s reasonable,” Kate conceded once Mariette had explained her thought process.
“I was just a little concerned about what you’d do with all that clothing when ya don’t need it, but I suppose ya can just store the excess in a portal, huh? Oh, and on the subject of portals, I’m not really expecting to employ them for travel purposes, since you won’t be able to create one outside of your immediate area once we enter the Sovereign’s dimension,” Kate added as she and Mariette stepped through the portal and into the abandoned classroom, where Oliver awaited them. They would find it completely empty, devoid of even desks and chairs. Walking over to a closet at the back of the room, Kate placed a hand on the door, her fingers splayed wide.
“Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring,” she intoned softly.
“Of the seasons, I shall sing.” Immediately, there was an audible *Shhthoom!*, while an accompanying glow emanated from behind the wooden door.
“Welp, here we are,” Kate announced, opening the door to reveal a shimmering interdimensional gateway.
“So, who wants to go first?” The ghost shrugged.
"Ladies first."Mariette nodded. So... Mariette wasn't exactly the sturdiest of individuals. That said, going after the person she was meant to protect was out of the question. Guess that meant she was going first. She opened tiny portals to look ahead in order to make sure the coast was clear, before starting to advance.
Stepping through the dimensional doorway was like stepping into an oven, the temperature easily over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. Glaring rays from a bulbous sun, which loomed large in a cloudless blue sky, illuminated a desert landscape of seemingly endless dunes, while in the far distance, several vast, serpentine forms could be seen shooting up from the sand, only to plunge back into it, before repeating the process, as if they were swimming through water. Somewhat closer at hand, a half dozen swirling cyclones of dark sand moved across the dunes, their outer edges crackling with jagged arcs of lightning. Still, whatever wind propelled them could not presently be felt, as if the very environment itself sought to deny them even the smallest respite from the oppressive, all-encompassing heat.
“Whew! Sure is a scorcher, huh?” Kate asked with a chuckle as she fanned herself.
“I know you’re covered for the cold,” the photographer added, turning to Mariette.
“But I hope you’ve got a plan for dealing with someplace like this, too. As for me,” she continued, while kneeling down before a just-materialized backpack.
“I’ve got this!” Reaching into the pack, she retrieved a canteen and took a few gulps of the liquid contained within.
“Ahhh… That should do it!” the photographer declared.
“The restorative nanites in this stuff’ll keep me cooled off and fully hydrated for the next few hours,” she explained.
“Plenty of time to get to the next seasonal ring. So, uh, any questions before we head out?”"Hah. Must be summer." Oliver noted, using his chemical magic to make something to stave off the desert heat. Just a drop of the quick potion for both him and Mariette and it'd turn into a temporary ice shield.
"Don't got any questions, just leave the monsters to me." he nodded.
Mariette came to a complete and immediate stop, and if possible would quickly step back through the door, because she had an immediate change of attire to make. So, off with the jacket, the jacket-pants, the earmuffs, the beanie, the scarf, the additional jumper that had been under the jacket that they hadn't seen, the additional pants that had been under the pair of pants that they did see, and then drop it all down into a portal next to her transportable campfire. She did, in fact, have a countermeasure against heat. But, something Kate had said was nagging at her... something she hadn't accounted for.
When Mariette had undressed basically all the extra clothes, she was back in her basic dress as a Magical Girl... but unfortunately that, too, was too hot for the environment they would be traversing. She stepped back again, and held her umbrella against the sun, at the very least placing herself in a shadow. Now, then...
‘... Here goes.’Mariette closed her eyes and reached into the sky with her powers. As high as she could handle. As high as she could get. Would it be high enough? Kate... had just said the range of her portals would be limited in here. She hadn't counted on that. Eventually, though, Mariette would reach her limit, and at the moment of truth the portal opened behind her, and what she hoped for was that the colder air of high above them would blend with her immediate surroundings... except, she now didn't know if this would work or not.
“All right,” Kate replied with a chuckle, pleased to see Oliver’s level of enthusiasm. Then there was Mariette, who, after disposing of her excessive clothing, had just opened a portal to no discernible effect.
“Uh, I thought you said ya didn’t wanna overuse your portals?” the photographer asked with a perplexed frown.
“So, uh, what’s that all about?” she added, pointing to the portal in question.
‘...’ Mariette, not noticing any difference, turned around and stuck her arm through the portal. The temperature on the other side was just as hot, despite her arm now being way above her. She retracted the arm and closed the portal.
‘I was... thinking that air up high would be colder, and I'd use a portal to bring it down here,’ she said.
‘But I guess I'm stuck with this, for now,’ she continued, simply pointing her umbrella at the sun to place herself in a shadow.
‘I did at least bring drinks.’ Currently stored in her Hammerspace Handbag.
"On the bright side, if this place goes in order, things'll start to cool down at autumn." Oliver assumed. He doubted there'd be anything
but heat in a realm revolving around summer.
“Heh, yeah,” Kate noted with a chuckle.
“This place doesn’t work like a normal planet. There’s no ‘colder air’ up there, just more of this,” she explained, gesturing to the scorching desert around them.
“Although,” she added, pulling a baseball cap out of her pack with the letters ‘FCA’ emblazoned on the front in elaborate script.
“If you’re able to make a portal without currently having a destination for it, it’d be a big help if you could leave one here, so that when we get to the Sovereign’s sanctum, we can have a quick exit handy.” Placing the cap on her head, the photographer retrieved a small pendant from under her shirt, which projected a rough holographic map of the region.
“Nice, looks like we’ll be staying well clear of the sand worms’ migration path,” she observed with an approving grin.
“That just leaves the giant scorpions and desert wraiths, but I’m sure they won’t be a problem for you two, right?”‘I am afraid I can't do that,’ Mariette said, shaking her head a little.
‘I need to... "spread out" the area of influence I have over an area before I can open portals there. More costly in mana the further away it is. I'd have to maintain that area and the whole path to it as we travel to keep it there. As the distance grew, it would eventually become too costly. We have quite a bit of travel to do, do we not? Do not worry, I still have the option to quickly put portals one after the other as we go for a quick escape,’ she explained.
‘Sand worms...’ Mariette mentioned, looking down into the sand for a bit. But, she shook her head and gave a determined look.
‘No matter what comes, you will be safe. We can handle them,’ she declared. She'd keep her Awareness on high alert, and Oliver would do the same.
“Oh, okay,” Kate replied.
“Still, doesn’t hurt to ask, and that sounds like a pretty good contingency plan,” she added.
“So, if we’re all set, I guess we can head out!”With that, the trio began their trek across the sweltering sea of dunes. After about a half an hour had elapsed without incident, the sound of a howling wind could be heard, after which
five humanoid figures, seemingly composed entirely of sand, swirled into being atop a nearby dune, before darting down upon the trio with frightening swiftness. Meanwhile, a
sixth figure remained atop the dune, its arms extended, as it conjured whirling tendrils of sand with which to bind the legs of the three travelers.
“Great, desert wraiths,” Kate muttered as she moved behind her two escorts, while also doing her best to avoid the grasping tendrils of sand.
“I’ve heard these guys can be really annoying, so keep your guard up.”Oliver immediately went on the move, sending out some duplicates to fire at each sand wraith whilst avoiding getting grabbed. Then he summoned a couple of armored spirits of his own to protect Kate, slashing at the tendrils any chance they could.
"Might wanna prioritize the one grabbing at our ankles!" He suggested, readying some chemical bombs in anticipation of the wraith's next move.
Mariette, happy to get to do something except sweat while feebly defend herself from the sun's rays with the umbrella, locked her eyes at the desert spirits hounding at them... and tendrils of darkness lashed out from under her dress at the desert tendrils trying to catch her, her own tentacles pushing them off.
‘If you're wraiths, I take it you are undead?’ Mariette asked, as she pulled forth a hand-mirror, her mystic weapon, and pointed it forward... and a blast of purifying light was sent at the sixth figure, a long-range beam imbued with the holy energy of light, wielded by an emissary of darkness. And, if it missed, Mariette was going to spread her magic to open a portal behind the wraith to catch the beam and then send it straight back at the spirit from behind, instead.
She assumed Oliver would deal with the closer wraiths. If they got too close, she could always drop herself through a portal and suddenly end up standing on a portal in mid-air.
The rifle fire from Oliver’s ghostly clones peppered the approaching wraiths, but the bullets simply passed thought the beings’ sandy bodies, seemingly causing no harm whatsoever. In response, the wraiths struck with their bladed limbs, slicing each of the rifle clones apart. The armored melee clones faired better, succeeding in both protecting Kate and dispatching any sand tendrils that got near them. This had the added benefit of allowing the photographer time to snap a picture of the wraith standing on the dune above them. For her part, Mariette dealt with the rest of the tendrils by sending dark tentacles of her own to quite literally tie them up. The perceptive portal witch also directed a light beam attack towards the sixth wraith atop the nearby dune. However, the spectral being raised a barrier of sand to block the shot, and although it was utterly annihilated by the focused beam, the wraith itself remained untouched.
“That guy on the dune is controlling the others like puppets,” Kate called out after looking over the info provided by her camera’s display.
“If we take him out, the others should just dissolve into normal sand!”Well, there goes his duplicates. Time for Plan B!
Oliver summoned a couple more armored spirits to his side, and aiming for the dune wraith, he threw some fire bombs at it. If it heated their adversary well enough, its sandy form should turn into glass, letting him and the knights break it apart with ease. If not, well, there's always just bumrushing it and praying things won't go sideways.
Oh? A shield? Mariette let Oliver deal with that other battle. Herself, she turned towards the sixth figure once again. In her mind, she was thinking... please, do that again.
She shot another shot at the sandy wraith. However, this time, she held some power in reserve. The idea here... was that when the wraith lifted its barrier again, a portal would open that transported the beam from in front of the being to behind it, intending to bypass the sandy shield and strike it from behind.
While a pair of additional armored clones held off the melee wraiths that sought slice him into bits of ectoplasm, Oliver threw a handful of fire bombs at the dune wraith. Once again, a sand barrier was raised to block the blazing projectiles, and once again, it was destroyed upon impact, this time turning to fragile glass, which shattered completely. The ghostly chemist’s guess had been correct, it
was vulnerable to heat, something Mariette chose to take advantage of. Preparing another beam, this time the portal witch lived up to her name, using a portal to bypass the expected sand shield and allowing her blazing hot beam to strike the sand wraith in the back. An otherworldly howl could be heard, as the wraith shuddered in apparent pain, a gaping hole in the center of its spectral form, badly injured, but still intact. However, while this meant an end to the sand tendril assault, the magical duo’s focus upon the dune wraith had left them vulnerable to the neglected melee wraiths closer at hand. In particular, Mariette, bereft as she was of clone defenders, would find herself at the mercy of two of the sandy warriors, their spiked appendages primed to impale the white-haired girl like a pincushion…
"Oh shit." Once Oliver saw that the rest of the wraiths took the opportunity to attack Mariette, he sent his pair of ghostly knights to help her. He'd throw more bombs at the dune wraith, then rush up to it and strike it with his rifle.
Of course, Mariette would never allow them to actually reach her. Her tentacles lashed out at them for the singular purpose of keeping them from killing her while she took a jump back to fall through a portal and land on another portal some twenty meters into the air, the portal quickly closing after her. Under the assumption she did not fail, she turned to the wraith once more.
‘I see you need more than one. Do not worry, I have all you need,’ she stated, before directing her hand-mirror at the singular wraith again and starting to fire beams of light at it. Each would go through a portal past the wall of sand to plunge through the wraith's body, and Mariette intended to do this until the foe was felled.
Employing additional tendrils to occupy the charging melee wraiths, Mariette slipped through a portal to reappear high above the combat. Seeing how effective her previous light beam had been against the dune wraith, the portal witch fired another, then another, then
another, until the spectral creature virtually shattered apart, it’s anguished shrieks piercing the desert air. Indeed, as Oliver approached, his rifle raised like a club, he could clearly see what little remained of his foe dissolve into the dune below, the five melee wraiths swiftly following suit. For several seconds, all was quiet, all was still. Then, with the howl of a raging cyclone, a massive whirlwind of sand and glass rose up from the dune upon which the sixth wraith had seemingly been felled. Such was its power that Oliver was blown through the air like a rag doll, before slamming into the side of the opposite dune with considerable force (or, at least, considerable force for a corporeal being). He would recover from that just in time to see
an enormous figure tower over even Mariette’s elevated position, its menacing form composed of churning sand and sharp, jagged shards of glass.
“Uh, guys…?” an audibly shocked Kate asked as she snapped a quick picture of the towering monstrosity.
“I think we made it mad…” Once Oliver got a good look at what their adversary had become, his eyes widened in fear. How the hell were they supposed to fight that thing?! Even if he was able to shatter that thing before it's stupid third-phase transformation, he didn't think his rifle would make a dent now! Only one option left.
"RUN LIKE HELL!!!" He yelled to the other two as he quickly sprung back up to his feet and fired at the phantom vortex to divert its attention.
Mariette staggered a bit as the howl and whirlwind erupted, then looked up at the being. So, yes. Mariette did have a number of ways of beating this. That said, it wasn't her primary goal, and there were more battles to do in the future.
Mariette turned and walked through a portal to grab Kate's hand before walking into another portal.
‘Not worth the mana,’ she briefly said, before the next portal took her beside Oliver's position, where she made the briefest motion to follow as another portal opened, and she got to show off the chain-portals-together-for-quick-getaway spell, albeit in the opposite direction of back. She moved along.
‘Maybe I should have asked earlier, but what is this place, and what exactly is the Sovereign of Seasons?’ she asked in all haste during the walk (under the assumption they got that far) before finally stepping out of a portal at the end of what Mariette figured should be a safe distance.
As Mariette guided Kate to safety, Oliver remained behind in a valiant attempt to distract the towering sand colossus, the swirling shards of glass passing harmlessly through his intangible form. With a howl of fury, the monstrous wraith brought an enormous, clawed hand down to utterly crush the bothersome ghost. Thankfully, Oliver’s impressive agility allowed him to dodge the lumbering attack, although the shockwave of the blow’s impact still sent the spirit flying through the air… and into one of Mariette’s portals. Once he had rejoined the others, the trio continued their dash from portal to portal, in an effort to put some distance between them and the enraged cyclone wraith. As they ran, a curious Mariette decided to question Kate about the Sovereign and its realm.
“Like I said before, it’s the personal realm of the Sovereign of Seasons,” Kate replied.
“The Summer seasonal ring, to be specific. As for what the Sovereign is, I’m not really sure,” the photographer confessed.
“Aside from being really old, and really powerful.”Once they’d exited the final portal, Kate looked back to see that although it was now a substantial distance away, the massive wraith was still pursuing them, the whirlwind of glass shards spinning around it gleaming in the sunlight. However, to their front was a shimmering veil, perhaps only a hundred meters distant.
“That’s the gate to the next seasonal ring,” Kate announced.
“That big guy back there’ll stop chasing us, once we make it through to the other side!”Unfortunately, before they could move more than a single step, the ground began to violently shake, followed by a massive eruption of sand. The cloud cleared a moment later to reveal the menacing form of
an enormous, armored scorpion, its multiple mouths and pincers opened wide, and its wicked stinger primed to strike!
"Ah, you gotta be kiddin- Aiming for it's mouths!!" Not wasting time with a facepalm, Oliver reloaded his rifle with some acid rounds and fired at the scorpion's center mouth.
So, nothing that new from Kate, but alright. So, now there's the gate, and the giant scorpion with multiple mouths intending on striking them. But, it had something that would cripple it in a battle against Mariette. That is to say, legs.
Hopefully Oliver's shot staggered it, but even if it didn't Mariette would enact her immediate plan. She held her mirror forward, spreading her portal-range... and portals started opening beneath the legs of the scorpion, leading to several meters diagonally up and left of the creature. She moved the portals with awareness to catch the limbs, and make the creature fall and trap itself with its legs hanging through portals.
‘Let's go around,’ she said, starting to walk to go around the scorpion on the right, hopefully outside its range.
All the while, she kept herself aware. In case the stinger could extend, or if it maybe could shoot poison over range, Mariette was prepared to open a portal that would shield the target and lead to right above the scorpion, so the attack would strike down into the creature from above.
Oliver’s acid rounds succeeded in finding their mark, causing the giant scorpion to screech in pain as its central mouth began to dissolve. Meanwhile, Mariette’s portals were effective in immobilizing the creature, although its stinger-tipped tail was still long enough to reach them, which it did, striking at its ghostly tormentor. But Mariette was prepared for this eventuality, and opened a portal in front of the attacking appendage, causing it to harmlessly bounce off the scorpion’s own chitinous shell.
“Nice work!” Kate commended as she ran for the shimmering gateway.
“Now let’s get the hell outta here before it recovers!”Assuming neither Mariette nor Oliver chose to waste time trying to finish off the trapped scorpion, they would pass through the gateway to find themselves in a considerably cooler, and
darker landscape. The gnarled trees of a dense forest lined a winding path, which opened onto a large field. Leaves of gold, copper, scarlet, and bronze clung feebly to twisted limbs, while in the center of the field which lay beyond the tree line, a sizable pumpkin patch could be seen. Slate-gray clouds plowed their way across a turbulent sky, propelled by a harsh wind that swept over both field and forest, blowing the fallen leaves in colorful swirls and bringing with it a chill that pierced to the bone. The fact that even a specter like Oliver could feel the wind’s cold touch gave evidence that its source was more than a simple drop in temperature. Something else was at work here, something sinister, just beyond their perception…
“Welcome to the Fall ring!” Kate announced.
“Or Autumn, if you prefer,” she added with a grin.
“We shouldn’t get attacked by anything this close to the gateway, so if you’d like to change your attire, now’s a good time to do so.”To Mariette, this was a far preferable environment to the blazing heat of the previous ring. She took a deep breath... and then handed her umbrella over to Kate.
‘Excuse me,’ she said, as she started fishing out some of those warmer clothes to dress up in. Maybe not all of them, depending on how cold she was feeling, but a significant amount of them. Maybe not all the layers quite yet.
‘Right, I'm ready,’ she'd eventually say.
Oliver himself would pull out a heavy coat from his satchel and put it on. Whatever's causing the chill in the air wasn't normal.
"Don't you need a coat? Or at least a scarf?" He asked Kate, remaining on guard.
“I’ve got my jacket,” Kate replied as she took Mariette’s umbrella and hung it on her arm.
“Plus, those nanites I drank earlier are pretty adaptable,” she added, removing her ball cap and returning it to her backpack.
“They’ve already switched to cold weather mode, so I should be able to handle anything this ring has to offer temperature-wise.”Once Mariette had finished donning her extra layers, the trio set out once more, traveling down the winding, leaf-covered path and into the open field. The chill wind was even stronger without the trees to block it, and Kate ducked her head and shielded her face with her arm as a torrent of leaves swirled about them. Occasionally, the gusts were strong enough to nearly knock the travelers off their feet, something that became even more likely, once they reached the edge of the pumpkin patch.
“Watch your step,” Kate advised with a chuckle as they began maneuvering over and around the tangle of leafy vines.
The rising wind had another effect as well, one noticeable as the landscape around them was bathed in an ethereal glow. Looking up, the trio would find that a jagged opening had been torn in the formerly omnipresent cloud cover, allowing the light of a harvest moon, full and huge, to shine down upon them. And where there was a harvest moon, there was a harvest. And where there was a harvest, there were
reapers…With a bone-chilling cackle,
a sinister jack-o-lantern in a tattered robe and wielding a wicked scythe, rose up from the patch before them. Simultaneously,
the pumpkins around them opened their glowing eyes and mouths as they reared up on gangly vines, which now sprouted sharp thorns…
‘Right, this will at best complete this journey for us, and at worst I waste 13 words... worth a shot,’ Mariette said, taking a deep breath before stepping forward, looking at the reaper.
‘We seek an audience with the esteemed Sovereign of Seasons. May we pass?’ Mariette asked, while also prepared for immediate defensive action.
Reapers. Kinda funny considering his patron is a kind of reaper. Though the "haunted pumpkin patch" deal was pretty neat, he wasn't sure if these were the source of the unnatural wind. If so, then these things had to be spirits too. And hopefully more willing to talk than the last ones. Mariette took the initiative to find out. Oliver, waiting to see if he'd have to intervene, squatted down next to one of the minion jack-o-lanterns, curious.
Despite the menacing foes surrounding them, Mariette decided to try a diplomatic approach, Oliver seemingly content to passively wait and see what the portal witch might accomplish with this strategy. Unfortunately, if the ethereal pumpkin reaper understood the words spoken to it, the creature gave no sign. No sign, that is, except to raise its massive scythe high, only to bring it sweeping down on the white-haired magical girl wth frightening swiftness. Meanwhile, the other jack-o-lanterns sprung at Oliver and Kate, the coiled vines of their “legs” acting as springs, while the vines that composed their “arms” shot out to wrap tightly around their prey.
“Yeowch!” Kate exclaimed as the vines’ sharp thorns punctured her skin.
“Uh, g-guys?!” She called out in alarm as her diminutive form was lifted up into the air and towards the gaping maw of one of the largest jack-o-lanterns.
“A little help here?!”For a moment, Oliver looked back at the pumpkins nonplussed. Which then turned to an unamused smile.
"Fuck you." He let himself turn intangible, moving through the thorny vines of the jack-o-lanterns, and quickly towards Kate. Before she'd get eaten by the biggest fucker in the pumpkin patch, the phantom turned back to normal and leaped forward with the intent to catch the girl soon as she was released.
"I'll see about healing you later but for noooow," Since he'd be busying himself protecting Kate from getting punctured further like a pin cushion, a couple of his clones were summoned to attack in his stead. Moving with the original, they fired acid rounds at the pumpkin army.
It wasn't an unexpected outcome. Mariette was more than ready, and as he sliced a portal broke open between her and the fiend's weapon. If he kept going he'd pierce the back of his own head with his massive scythe. Regardless, Mariette stepped back, her tentacles ready to defend her.
‘I tried,’ she shrugged, and then blasted a beam of light at the offending jack-o-lantern reaper, and as it usually is when Mariette fires a portal would redirect it to the creature's back if it was dodged.
This is under the assumption Oliver's looking successful in protecting Kate, or the beam would be aimed to help him.
While his clones bombarded the attacking pumpkins with acidic bullets, Oliver leapt towards the massive jack-o-lantern that held Kate, his intangible form easily phasing through whatever vines sought to ensnare him. Just as the bloated pumpkin dropped its prey into its gaping maw, Oliver solidified himself enough to catch the falling photographer. The pair landed in a relatively safe patch of ground, but it was clear that would not remain the case for long. Even with many of the pumpkins turning to melted slush under the hail of acidic projectiles, there were more than enough to inexorably overwhelm the rifle clones. However, just before they could descend upon Oliver and Kate, Mariette made
her move. By the clever use of a portal, she caused the pumpkin reaper to slice off its own head, before following that up with several light beams to its ethereal body. Despite the creature’s intangible nature, the magical attack was still able to harm it, and its decapitated head screeched in pain as its cloaked body was rapidly incinerated. The crippling of the pumpkin reaper seemed to stagger the rest of the jack-o-lantern army, and they halted their attack for several precious seconds.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Kate noticed something in the distance.
“Hey! I think I see the gate to the next ring!” she announced, while pointing to a faint shimmer atop a nearby hill.
“Up there, on that hill!” "Winter, here we come! Man my dupes can't catch a break can they?" Taking advantage of the seconds of respite, Oliver hurried to the hill, making sure the other two were close by. He also took the moment to make a quick healing agent for Kate.
Mariette was a bit surprised. Her portal had been more effective than she'd thought it'd be. She wasn't complaining.
She stepped through a portal to get ahead of Oliver and Kate, then turned and held her mirror out in case she had to cover for them should the monsters start moving again. Should it otherwise be safe, she'd head to the next zone with her companions.
If they kept going at this rate... then her mana
should last the entire adventure. Hopefully.
As Kate and Oliver made their way up the hill, Mariette’s light beams cleared a path through the thorny vines and dispatched any pumpkin monsters that got too close. With the pumpkin army hard on their heels, the three travelers ran through the shimmering gateway and into yet another seasonal ring. As soon as they stepped through the other side, they would find themselves buffeted by a freezing wind, the temperature having plummeted drastically. Indeed, they seemed to have stumbled head first into a blinding blizzard, and Kate shouted to be heard over the howling wind.
“M-Might w-wanna p-put o-on t-those e-extra l-layers n-now,” the photographer suggested to Mariette, her teeth chattering from the cold. Kneeling down, she conjured her backpack and withdrew a large thermos. Unsealing the cap, she gulped down its steaming contents.
“Ahhh… That’s better,” she sighed contentedly, before applying the healing agent Oliver had made for her.
“Thanks,” she told the ghost with an appreciative smile.
“Those chemistry abilities of yours really come in handy!” "It's kind of an oddball within itself!" Oliver explained, quickly pulling out a scarf from his satchel now that they were in the Winter Ring.
"Had to study up on different chemical reactions, both mundane and magical for it. If I wanna mimic the power of a Third Eye, or the healing aspect of Reinforcement Magic, just have to get the right one. The extra vials I can make help too!" He chuckled through the howling winds, wrapping the scarf around his neck.
Mariette eventually reappeared, now wearing the mountain of clothes that they'd seen her in when she first appeared. She brandished her umbrella against the storm and looked to the other two with a glimmer inside her eyes.
‘I'm ready! Let's go!’Setting out into the blinding blizzard, the trio slowly made their way through the dense snowdrifts, using Kate’s holomap as a guide. They traveled without incident, until the wind died down enough to allow a clearer view of what lay before them.
“Well, this should be fun,” Kate snarked. Directly ahead, the mounds of snow gave way to a vast, sheer-sided chasm, spanned by a perilously thin and frighteningly fragile-looking ice bridge.
“So, who wants to go across the totally safe bridge first?” "Hah. No enemies, but now we have the cliche rickety old bridge over a cliff." Oliver let out a dry chuckle, staring at the bridge.
”At least I can fly across. But I'll stay nearby in case something cracks." He told the other two, going first to float next to the bridge.
So, Mariette regularly stands on portals in the sky. There was no incentive for her to actually try walking that bridge. The issue was, she usually stood on portals connected to a flat surface. If the chasm was far enough, the only thing she could connect her portal to for footing would be the bridge, and that was unacceptable.
Mariette opened a portal to the side of the cliff, with the assumption this was composed of rock. She shot a blast of light at the loosest-looking piece of giant rock with a flat enough surface, intending it to dislodge and fall. The next step was opening a portal under its fall, making it enter it and then be launched straight into the air by a portal facing up instead. As gravity slowed it down, Mariette opened a new portal just under it, too small for it to fall through, to cup the rock and keep it airborne, with the flat enough part up. She then moved the portal closer to them to step up on it.
‘Let's go, Kate,’ she said, opening a couple small portals simply as handles to hold onto by the sides of the rock, and then, if Kate got up on it, started moving the portal under the rock to ferry them across the chasm.
While Oliver simply floated above the chasm, an impressed Kate watched as Mariette employed her portals to create a make-shift platform for the two of them to stand on. The portal witch had even taken the buffeting winds into account, by creating two smaller portals to use as hand holds.
“Wow,” Kate marveled.
“That’s pretty clever.” Stepping onto the portal platform with Mariette’s help, the photographer allowed the portal witch to guide her across the vast divide.
“I don’t blame ya for not taking the bridge,” she added with a chuckle.
“That thing’d probably start to collapse as soon as we got to the middle of it.” And speaking of the middle, just as they reached the midpoint of their crossing, the outlines of three figures could be seen on the far side of the chasm. Two were humanoid, and looked about twice the size of a man, while the third was crouched down on all fours, its head seeming to glow with a bluish light.
“Uh, something tells me those guys aren’t too pleased to see us…”No sooner had Kate said this, then the bluish glow shot forth as a swirling cryo beam, which threatened to freeze solid anything in its path…
Glowing heads were an excellent indication to Mariette to open a portal in front of them, leading to another portal next to it so that the beam would pass through the portal and back at sender. One could question how damaging an ice-beam would be against ice-foes, but taking an enemy beam and sending it back was fighting with portals 101.
That, and Mariette's makeshift vehicle was incapable of dodging. Moving fast was not something portals were designed for.
"Oh, there's the enemies." Finally, something he can burn and
not unintentionally make stronger. Once Mariette was done returning the attack to sender, Oliver followed up with a volley of fire bombs in the intent to catch all three in a blaze.
As Mariette suspected, a frost beam would do little to harm a creature composed of ice itself, although the redirected attack
did succeed in removing the frost golem from action for a few precious seconds. As the beam spewing golem began to merge with the additional ice encasing it, the two humanoid golems found themselves bombarded by Oliver’s firebombs. Or, rather, they would have, had the blazing bombs actually reached them. As it happened, the fierce wind was so strong that the ghostly chemist’s projectiles were blown away long before they could strike their intended targets. The three travelers would clearly need to get closer before such a strategy would be viable. Meanwhile, the pair of humanoid golems raised their arms and unleashed a hail of jagged ice bolts upon the trio, the speed of the frozen projectiles negating the wind’s effects.
... So Mariette just opened a portal to redirect the bombs so they did not fall off the side and instead ended up right among the bad guys, instead.
If needed she can open a large portal in front of her vehicle to just make their attacks have no way forward while she allowed Oliver to throw bombs through more portals directly at their foes.
For a moment, the poor ghost could only watch his attack get carried off by the wind.
...Are you pulling my leg here what the fu- Oh!" Then Mariette redirected his almost-waste-of-mana back to it's intended target.
"Thanks!" Oliver grinned at the portal witch, then continued his assault on the golems. He'd create and throw more fire bombs through the portals, some to counter the adversaries' own projectiles, then reloading his rifle with incendiary bullets.
Just as Oliver’s firebombs seemed to be lost to the winds, a portal opened, sending them crashing against their intended targets. Simultaneously, another portal intercepted the hail of ice shards, causing
them to pummel the three ice golems as well. While the frosty constructs shattered and melted under that assault, Oliver readied his rifle and fired off several incendiary rounds for good measure. Even the enlarged ice beam golem could not withstand such a concentrated bombardment, and it wasn’t long before it dissolved into mounds of slush, its two companions quickly joining it. By this point, the three travelers had nearly reached the far side of the chasm, and a wall of jagged mountain peaks could be discerned through the driving snow.
“Nice work you guys!” Kate commended.
“There’s a path through the mountains just up ahead,” she added after taking a look at her holomap.
“We should find the gate to the next ring at the end of it.”‘Phew,’ Mariette breathed out as it seemed like the actually really fragile vehicle they were on was going to survive. Now seemed like as good a time as any...
‘Have the two of you met before?’ Mariette asked, slightly curious as what previous adventures they may have shared as they advanced.
"Christmas party." Oliver answered first.
"Met while the bumper-butts competition was ongoing."“Yeah, he and his totally-not-boyfriend, Finn, were eating at the same table as me, so we had a little chat,” Kate added.
“Mostly about how screwed up Penrose is.” "My WHAT???"‘Huh. That's the extent of it? Just casual talk? Not becoming friends in a different hunt or something? Alright, then,’ Mariette concluded, nodding a bit.
‘How long have the two of you been in Penrose? How have you experienced the city?’“Well, this is actually my first time taking a job in Penrose,” Kate replied.
“At least, in your version of Penrose,” she added with a chuckle.
“I’m basically a traveler, doing freelance work across the various multiverses, although I do like to check in on my old pal Nykannis every now and then. As for what I think of Penrose, well, I mostly just know its reputation.”"S'okay." Oliver shrugged.
"Only been here for like, two weeks? Place is kinda dead. ...Wait, multiverses??" He turned his attention to what Kate had mentioned.
‘Hm,’ Mariette made a noise of acknowledgement. She's one of those kinds, huh. Oliver, on the other hand, was a more unique one that was somehow both still a Magical Boy
and an undead spectre, not a common combo.
‘Yeah... those are a thing,’ Mariette said to the multiverse thing. She kind of could portal to them, but she'd rather not. Instead, she faced forward to head on, for she was satisfied for now.
Setting out once more, the trio made their way along the passage though the mountains. At first, their journey was uneventful, but that all changed as soon as they came in sight of the shimmering gateway to the next ring. From hidden openings in the frozen cliff faces emerged several
frost golems, which descended upon the travelers with jagged blades of ice. Meanwhile, four of the
frost beam golems also appeared, two on each side, their maws glowing with a harsh blue light as they prepared to fire…
"More of 'em!" Gritting his teeth, Oliver summoned enough armored spirits and another wave of duplicates to fend them off. Him and his clones would fire more incendiary rounds at the golems, though they didn't plan on staying to fight.
"Let's hope the Spring Ring is where this sovereign resides! Get moving!!" The original called out to the two.
Mariette looked up at the golems curiously and didn't immediately register that they were enemies because they were basically identical to the monster allies of Tullia, meaning Mariette had to realize they were, in fact, not allied. She ducked forward to make her way past them with Kate, opening portals to redirect the attacks into their neighbors. Also, with the beamers preparing to fire, Mariette would send at least one blast of light at the eye of one of them while preparing to open a portal for the other.
Working in tandem, Oliver and Mariette were able to obstruct or redirect the ice golems’ attacks enough to proceed closer to the shimmering gateway, with one of the beam golems even bursting into a spray of heated water, after being struck by a lance of glowing light.
“We’re almost there, guys!” Kate called out.
“Just a little…” her voice trailed off, as a mighty rumbling heralded the emergence of a
towering ice titan, its imposing form standing directly in front of the dimensional doorway.
“Well crap…” the photographer muttered, before taking a quick snapshot of the massive creature.
“I guess we probably shoulda seen that coming, huh?” she observed with a nervous chuckle as the enormous titan prepared to bring its equally enormous weapon down upon them…
Again?? AGAIN????
"Hah. Nope." Oliver and his small army of ghosts lined up next to one another for one more all-out attack. Cause frankly? He wasn't up to running away again.
"Ready?! Aim! GET HIM!!" Oliver and his duplicates would aim to melt the titan golem at the legs with...literally anything flammable at this point. Bombs, bullet rounds, and vials filled with a combustable substance. Whilst the rest were split between protecting Kate and Mariette, and blocking the golem's attacks.
‘... That weapon is too big to portal,’ Mariette commented, meaning that if that thing attacked she would be unable to stop it. Meaning, maybe Oliver's strategy was the best they had. Mariette held her hand-mirror forward and supplemented a beam of light at the same leg Oliver was attacking. Meanwhile, she prepared herself to open a portal directly to their exit, while grabbing hold of Kate to quickly pull them through if the goliath's club did come crashing down at them.
While Oliver and his clones unleashed a barrage of various incendiaries at the frost titan’s legs, Mariette fired a beam of superheated light at the same target. Combined, the attacks succeeded in toppling their towering foe, but now, instead of just its weapon, the titan’s entire
body was falling on them! Thankfully, and as usual, Mariette was one step ahead, opening a portal directly adjacent to the shimmering gateway and pulling Kate though, with Oliver following close behind.
Upon exiting the gateway, the trio would find themselves in vastly different surroundings. Instead of a harsh frostscape, they were now in the midst of a lush garden, the temperature mild and the weather fair. The chirping of birds and the bubbling of a gently flowing stream created an exceedingly tranquil atmosphere, while all around them, verdant plants bloomed in an array of vibrant colors and produced a pleasing fragrance.
“Huh, this is a nice change of pace,” Kate noted with an appreciative smile.
A moment later, there was a rustling of the nearby foliage, but the only creature to emerge was an innocuous bunny, soon joined by a dozen more. They hopped over to greet the new arrivals, nuzzling their fluffy bodies against them. Everything seemed so friendly, so peaceful, and it wasn’t long before the three travelers began to feel a sense of drowsy contentment, an overwhelming desire to simply lie down on the soft grass and take a well deserved nap. After all they had been through, they were due a short break, right?
In all honesty, if Oliver wasn't feeling fatigued at this point, he was now. Yet, something didn't feel right. Maybe he was still tense from all the fighting he had to do, but it felt like something was
coercing them to fall asleep.
"Come on, Let's keep moving...!" Oliver fought against the urge to pass out, stifling a yawn as he attempted to walk on ahead. He really didn't want to kick a bunny today, but if his suspicions were true, then the little guys were more than meets the eye.
Mariette breathed out in relief, at the nice warmth that went through her here. She took a moment to remove most of her heavy layers of clothing, so that she could more properly enjoy the temperate climate. It did, in fact, feel quite relaxing. Then, with rustling in the nearby foliage, Mariette prepared to fire another beam of light... when one, then a dozen bunnies showed up.
Now, it may come as a surprise, but the girl frequently carrying a large stuffed bunny named "Bunny" and whose head has a hair-ornament with two big bunny-ear-like extensions... really likes bunnies.
‘Bunnies,’ Mariette said, her voice cracking in high-pitch as she said the word. With them coming closer, all impulses of caution left her mind and she went down on her knees to pet them, and they came to her, she just wanted to hug all of them, and she was so happy, she may just close her eyes-
“Sure are friendly little guys, huh?” Kate asked with a drowsy yawn, before plopping down on the ground.
“Y’know, I’m feelin’ kinda tired,” she added, lying back on the grass, while a mound of bunnies served as a makeshift pillow.
“I think I’m gonna take a quick nap...”Before Oliver could even voice his concern, Kate had already fallen into a deep slumber, and with Mariette seemingly content to bask in the bunnies’ affections, it appeared that it was up to the ghostly magical boy to do something about this little situation…
And probably before he followed suite.
"G-Goddamn Wizard of Oz references..." Oliver lightly slapped himself awake. Was he the only one fighting this shit off?? The spirit called back a pair of clones to carry the two girls on their backs, while he worked on mixing something up to wake them up, at least Kate. AND to keep him awake, no less! The three copies continued the trek.
Stay awake. Stay awake.
Stay awake. A mantra that repeated in his head. Maybe if he kept his mind occupied, he wouldn't succumb to the
quite-possibly tainted tranquility. He's had sleepless nights before, working till past midnight on stuff even before he became a monster boy. He didn't need sleep. Not that much, no sir! And his mental mutation definitely isn't trying to claw it's way up to his brain right now! Just think about anything else, anyone else, BESIDES SLEEP.
‘I am... the Princess of Bunnies...’ Mariette mumbled unhelpfully.
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, as Oliver and his clones carried their two companions they met with no resistance, the bunnies happily following along behind them. No resistance, that is, except for the ever-increasing desire to fall asleep where he stood. Clearly, he’d have to do something about that if he intended to reach the next gateway, but would he do so in time…?
As his will to resist began to dwindle, Oliver's movements started to turn sluggish and slow. Damnit all, just a bit more to get the serum into the right consistency! He couldn't sleep, he had to protect Mariette and Kate! Just a bit more...just keep thinking about other things. At least the bunnies haven't turned into bloodthirsty monsters yet. That's good. Great. Fantastic. Finn probably would know how to deal with that hypothetical if he was able to join.
The spirit let out a dry chuckle as his mind wandered. The name of his partner's weapon was derived from the folktale Little Briar Rose, commonly known as Sleeping Beauty. A young princess gets cursed into an almost eternal slumber until a prince wakes her up. It's a bit ironic, don'tcha think?
...He silently hoped that wasn't the case now.
"FUCKING DONE-!" Quick as he could, Oliver took a swing of the awakening potion, then passed it to his clones to use on the other two. A bit of caffeine, and some psychic reinforcement mimicry should do the trick. If not, he hoped it could last until they arrived at the last ring.
‘... KAH!?’ Mariette sounded out in shock as she woke with a start, and in pure instinct a portal opened right beneath the ghost that held her, leading to either A: the two of them fell through a portal and landed on a portal in mid-air and a stunned Mariette quickly reached with tentacles to catch the bunnies that no doubt fell with them and down towards the ground, or B: the Oliver ghost floated over the opened portal and a bunch of bunnies fell through it and it'll be raining bunnies a couple meters to their left in a couple seconds.
‘What happened!?’ Mariette asked, regardless, suddenly agitated.
Caught off guard, the duplicate spirit fell through the portal with her, setting Mariette down before she scrambled to catch the bunnies that fell with them.
"Something about this place was trying to force us to fall asleep." Oliver shook his head in distain.
"Luckily I caught wind of it and resisted long enough to whip up a remedy." He explained, visibly stressed from the close call.
“Morning already…?” Kate asked groggily, giving voice to a tired yawn. Quickly becoming fully awake, the photographer blinked a few times and looked around, at which point she realized she was being carried.
“Okay, that was weird,” she noted with a chuckle.
“And thanks for help,” she added, while giving Oliver a big grin.
“If you hadn’t whipped up that antidote we’d probably be spending the rest of our lives here.”By this point, the trio had reached the shimmering gateway, which led to the final stage of their journey.
“Okay, guys,” Kate announced.
“The Sovereign should be waiting just beyond this portal. I don’t really know what to expect from it, but considering what we’ve dealt with so far, I’m willing to bet it won’t be particularly happy to see us. So, uh, if ya wanna make any special preparations, now’s the time.”Oliver went ahead and stuffed his jacket and scarf back into his Big Backpack, having forgot about the articles in his bout of stress.
"Y'know. I sometimes understand why Finn's irritated so much." He joked. Or at least, he tried to play it off as a joke.
"Well, I still got a bit of mana left, but I'll have to stick with my rifle if we have to fight."‘Using bunnies as weapons to put people to sleep... Despicable,’ Mariette said, with a certain amount of anger in her voice as she kept depositing bunnies in her portals to transport to a safer location.
‘Remember. We are only here for the picture. After that, we are free to leave. I will provide you a bunch of angles with my portals,’ Mariette declared, before preparing to advance.
Stepping through the shimmering gateway, the three travelers would find themselves in a featureless, circular chamber with dark grey walls. This was the Sanctum of the Sovereign of the Seasons, and at its center, was the imposing form of the
Sovereign itself…“Holy crap…” Kate marveled.
“That sure is somethin’, huh?” Readying her camera, she attached a special lens, took careful aim, and…
*Snap!*
“Okay, got it!” Kate declared with a grin.
“Now let’s get the heck outta…”The photographer’s voice trailed off as the sound of a rising hum began to ring out, like the resonant chiming of mystic crystals as they filled with power. Indeed, power
was building, and just one look at the Sovereign revealed that its still-motionless form was now glowing with greatly increased vibrancy. Its eyes, in particular, shone with a blinding radiance. Then, it spoke…
“Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring,” it intoned, its otherworldly voice echoing throughout the chamber.
“Of the seasons, I will… SING!!!”
With the reverberations of the Sovereign’s deafening voice still assaulting their eardrums, four streams of mystic power shot forth from the massive being, sending potent sedative spores, shards of ice, razor sharp autumn leaves, and rays of heat hot enough to melt steel to crash against the intruders in rapid succession.
Now that the necessary picture had been taken, the three travelers merely needed to escape, but would they survive long enough to do so…?
Mariette stopped short as she raised her gaze to the Sovereign of Seasons. It was an imposing figure, no doubt. She idly wondered how this being came to be. Regardless, it didn't seem it was going to be very friendly. As she'd predicted this, Mariette had already prepared the magic. This is what she'd saved her mana for.
Mariette swung forth her hand-mirror, and great portals opened to send direct the various attacks at each other. She made spores face the heat, she sent the shards of ice into the autumn leaves. She was the natural choice for who to block the attacks.
Right. First things first. Let's try Overcity Shifting. If that works, then they're already out of here, wooo. If it doesn't, well, then things are a bit trickier. Mariette CAN break dimensional barriers with her portals, the issue is that it requires focus and time, two things she has very little of, while the Sovereign is sending attacks her way. So the easiest option would be going back where they came. That or if Oliver could give her the necessary time to break dimensions. She probably told the others this at some point while walking.
So unless they could shift into the Overcity easy-peasy, that left Oliver to stall the Sovereign. Summoning as much duplicates and armored spirits as the rest of his mana allowed, the ghost maneuvered around each one to throw the Sovereign off as each of them attacked.
As Mariette opened several portals to redirect the Sovereign’s various attacks into one another, Oliver conjured a veritable spectral army, in the event their gargantuan opponent tried a more direct approach. However, before that could happen, a bright flash consumed the world around them, and when it faded, the three travelers (and assorted clones and spirits) found themselves in the heart of a mind boggling cityscape.
“Nice thinking!” Kate commended with an impressed chuckle. Taking a look around, the photographer’s grin widened when she saw that they were standing in front of a quaint, two story structure, upon which the name Taste of Heaven Tea Shoppe was written in fanciful letters.
“Sweet! I know this place!” Kate declared.
“If you guys don’t already have ways of getting back to Penrose, they’ve got interdimensional portal generators you can make use of. For a small fee, of course. Oh, and speaking of fees,” she added, reaching into a jacket pocket and retrieving a pair of gold coins.
“Payment for a job well done! Seriously, I couldn’t have done that without you guys, so thanks a lot!” "Hah, thanks...I'm just gonna..." Oliver called off most his summons and grabbed his part of the reward,
*THUD!*
Then fell backwards onto the ground, his energy spent. Maybe he'll just call Finn when he's ready to leave. A couple of the clones stuck around, one poking the tired Oliver on the cheek.
Mariette took a few steps aside and prepared herself, mirror held high. Because, she knew Overcity Shifting left a trace and that trace could be used by some enemies to pursue. Now, if the Sovereign of Seasons followed them into the Overcity he'd soon be facing more opposition than just them, but that didn't mean Mariette would count on them being out of danger...
‘... Can I have my payment as four silvers instead?’ Mariette gently asked. One gold was the equivalent of four silvers, as far as Mariette had heard, anyway.
“Oh, well, I just have the two gold,” Kate confessed.
“But I’m pretty sure they can make change for you in there,” she added, pointing her thumb at the tea shop behind them. The photographer then turned her attention to Oliver.
“Uh, are you gonna be okay?” she asked with a slight frown.
"We'll be fine!" One of the two clones spoke up.
"Just gotta rest for a bit."‘... Alright,’ Mariette nodded, and since it seemed nothing was coming through she started stepping away from the site a bit more.
‘Who would want a picture of the Sovereign of Seasons, and why?’ she also figured she'd ask. Just because.
“Okay, well, I’m gonna head inside now,” Kate told the exhausted ghost and his collection of clones.
“See ya later!” However, before she could do so, Mariette asked a seemingly innocent question, one which the photographer was sure was anything but.
“Sorry,” she told the portal witch with an open palmed shrug.
“But that’s kinda confidential. Don’t wanna get a reputation for bein’ untrustworthy, y’know?.”‘Hm, very well,’ Mariette concluded, accepting her gold coin and intending to go exchange it somewhere.
With that taken care of, Kate entered the tea shop.
“Hey, Vanessa!” she called to the
blue-haired girl behind the counter.
“Is the back room free? I’ve got a call to make and I’d prefer to have some privacy.”“Yep!” Vanessa replied cheerfully.
“Go right ahead!”“Thanks!”Once she’d reached the room in question, the photographer closed the door and pulled out her phone.
“Hiya Pops! Got that picture you wanted. I’ll send it just as soon as I get the other half of my payment.”With a grin, Kate held the phone above the room’s sole table. A moment later, a small portal opened on its screen, and out fell an ornate whistle.
“Sweet! I know I’m gonna get a lotta milage outta this thing,” she said with a chuckle.
“And it’ll sure be a nice change of pace to actually be able to protect myself without havin’ to transform. Oh?” she added as she opened her camera’s display and tapped the “send” button.
“Your daughter moved out, huh? Yeah, that’s rough, pal. But y’know what they say, eventually every little bird’s gotta spread their wings and leave the—”Before she could finish, the sound of horrific screeching blasted from the phone, and the photographer cringed as she held the device as far away as possible.
“Yeesh…” she muttered.
“Must’ve struck a nerve…”Once the screaming had subsided, Kate cautiously brought the phone back to her ear.
“Actually, it just so happens I might have run into her a short while back,” the photographer noted, her mouth curling into an amused smirk as she examined the whistle, taking particular note of the demonic lion engraved on the side.
“I might have even managed to snap a picture of her, and her new boss… Is that something you’d be interested in? Yeah, I can do that,” Kate confirmed.
“But it’s gonna cost extra…”
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