Ponn

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

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Blissfully oblivious to Oros’s growing annoyance, Olivia’s excitement only seemed to increase when the famous magical girl musician revealed that there was extra, never-before-seen footage of many of the monsters she’d fought. Obviously, Olivia was very interested in seeing such content, although she didn’t quite understand why it would cause any of Oros’s videos to become age restricted. However, before she could bombard the magical girl with a series of new questions, Oros revealed the answer with all the subtlety of a punch to the gut, causing the bespectacled bluenette’s joyful demeanor to quickly dissolve into one of shocked dismay.

“O-Oh my gosh!” Olivia cried, placing her trembling hands over her mouth. “T-That’s absolutely awful! Oh, that poor girl…” she continued, tears beginning to well up. “B-But, just because one monster does something horrible like that, it doesn’t mean they’re all bad!” she added with a raised finger a moment later, once she’d wiped her eyes with the soft sleeve of her hoodie. “A-And, like, there are plenty of other animals lots of people think of as cute that are really quite dangerous, too, like sharks, and orcas, and poisonous frogs, and panda bears! S-So, I still don’t think it’s wrong to view something as adorable, or just aesthetically pleasing, simply because it can harm people,” she concluded, while slightly adjusting her glasses.

“Please pardon our interruption of your contest,” a far calmer voice added a moment later. “My dear Olivia can become rather… overzealous at times…”

“Contest…?” Olivia echoed with a puzzled frown. “Oh gosh! Are you having a pre-tournament match?! Oh! And I’m so sorry!” the bluenette rapidly apologized. “I never introduced myself! I’m Olivia Bell, and this is Xolys!” she announced, pulling the small robot in question out of her backpack and showing him off to the two young women. “He’s my partner and best friend! Well, actually, he’s also my only friend…” she added with an awkward giggle/snort. “Oh, but what’s your name?!” she asked the lady opposite Oros. “I really like your hair!”

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

_{.:⋮Date Night⋮:.}

Penny stared out the large, floor to ceiling, window in front of her, a vast nebula seemed spread out on the other side of the glass. Not that she actually was paying attention to anything from her optic sensors at the moment. Her mind had returned, as it was often to do as of late, to the confirmations and considerations she had gotten from Serenity and her Father. The stellar displays did seem to soothe some part of her when it did enter her focus at least.

She was in her room aboard the Bastion. Hidden somewhere deep within the hidden folds of the Starship's true passageways. She didn’t need to hide this room, there wasn’t anything in here that she wanted to keep hidden or was worried would be stolen or anything like that, but it was simply habit at this point to do what she could to hide what was hers.

It was a split level room. The entrance had a living room type of space. A couch and a pair of loveseats sat around a low coffee table off to one side, with a smaller dining table set up on the other side. Between the two of them a short staircase leads down into a workshop type area. Tools of all kinds, both mundane and advanced. Sat ready to use on a number of work benches all specialized for one type of work or another.

All save for one corner, which held just a mound of blankets and pillows, with various knick knacks on shelves above the nest. A shattered flute repaired via kintsugi. A pair of plush dolls, one of an older version of Penny, the other of Godzilla. An ice skate, a throwing ax, and a half melted microphone. A homemade pager and a stop sign.

All of this is then overlooked by the window to the nebula. A decent room, nearly an apartment save the lack of a restroom or kitchen area.

That said, her room was a little more cleaned up than normal. Her active projects were stored away, subtle air freshener had been piped in, and the nest of blankets looked somewhat in order.

The reason for that was also why not all of her mind was absorbed with the endless question about her own existence. Part of it was waiting for the confirmation from her girlfriend to come though. Something that Penny was looking forward to. Penrose had once again fallen into the rhythmic lulls that it had, though that was only true for the city itself. The outskirts and surrounding cities seemed to have gained more and more activity due to Wonderland.

But hopefully she could step away from all of that for the next while. Perhaps she’d even salvage some of her decaying code from all of this. Hope was never something she set aside before, and stranger things have happened.

A moment later, Penny was notified of an incoming message.

“Ready for transport at your convenience,” a calm voice informed her.

“Stand by” Penny would send her reply. And a moment later she would feel as much as hear the transdimensional wormhole that pulled open at the entrance to the room. As much as she was unsure of where she stood with the Queen of Mad Scientists, she had to admit that she had yet to be disappointed with the exchange she had done.

No sooner had the interdimensional doorway opened, then Violet Covington stepped through. Although there were still important matters to discuss with her girlfriend, the main purpose of this evening was to spend some much-needed time relaxing together, and the heiress had dressed for the occasion. “Good evening, Penny,” Violet greeted with a smile. “Um, h-how do I look?” she asked tentatively, a blush beginning to slightly color her cheeks as she showed off her new outfit. After all, despite her usual perfectly composed demeanor, she was still rather new to the whole “romance thing”. Furthermore, this would be her first true dinner date, and so she wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

Penny would turn around at the greeting, a soft smile over taking her features as she took a look at her girlfriend. ”You look great. Penny would look down at herself half self consciously. “Got me feeling underdressed that’s for sure.” She looked back up at Violet as she brushed the worry aside. “I’ve got an idea for that in a moment.”

“But first” She would step forward to give Violet a gentle hug. “Welcome to the Star Bastion. Welcome to my home.”

“Thank you, Penny,” Violet replied as she returned her girlfriend’s hug. “You look amazing, as always,” she reassured the robotic girl. “And so does your home,” she added, her eyes scanning over the room, before fixing on the shimmering nebula beyond its sole, massive window. “A-Are… Are we really in space right now?” the heiress inquired, her voice filled with wonder.

Penny would turn back to the window with a larger grin due to the reaction it caused. “We are, but not quite as deep in space as that would make you think.” She’d say half turning toward the window. “That’s the Orion Nebula. I've always found celestial iconography to be comforting in one way or another. But in truth.” She’d gesture with one hand towards the view, the image suddenly rippling as it faded into a view of Earth. It showed the blue marble in all its glory from horizon to horizon. “We are only in low earth orbit.”

“I’ve contemplated just riding off into space. More than once if I am honest. But I’ve given my word to people in Penrose, so I’ve got to stay close for now.” She’d explain, a wistful note in voice.

“Oh, I see,” Violet murmured as the view changed. It was just as stunning as before, and even though she had seen many incredible things in her time as a magical girl, including a visit to multiple pocket universes, the ability to look at her home planet from space was still a breathtaking experience. “And I know how you feel,” she added with a sympathetic smile. “Although it fills me with great pride to know that I’m continuing my family’s legacy, a considerable part of the reason I love being a magical girl so much is the freedom it affords me, the ability to be my true self, bereft of all the facades I’m so often forced to uphold.”

“I get that, less the facade part, and more the freedom part.” Penny would remark. “But I get it. Though you might only have a few more years before it won’t matter one way or another. Unless you’ve got the ability to age from your Patron that is.”

“While I’m thinking about it, how much does your magic influence you while you are transformed?”

Violet thought for a moment, before she replied. “I would say that while it affects my behavior a not inconsiderable amount, it is not by nearly as great a degree as one might initially think. For the most part, it simply frees me from my usual restraints and inhibitions, allowing me to be the carefree, whimsical person I’ve always wished I could be. I think that, since I never really had the opportunity to enjoy a normal childhood, those repressed feelings now fully manifest themselves in my transformed state. I will admit, there are some regrettable drawbacks inherent to such a childish regression,” she conceded with a resigned sigh. “In particular, my greatly impaired memory, limited attention span, diminished intellect, lack of self-control, and significantly heightened irrationality. But I would like to think they are an acceptable trade-off, when placed against all the many blessings being Magical Dream Princess has given me,” the heiress concluded with a smile as she gently took Penny’s hands into both of her own.

Penny would nod her understanding. “I mentioned once to you while transformed that a Dream Journal might help.” She’d say as she looked down at their entwined hands with a smile. “Not sure if that ever crossed ‘the divide’ as it were.”

As Penny spoke the room would shift, the coffee table would drop away as the love seats moved out of the way creating space for the couch to slide over next to them so they could sit without needing to go anywhere.

The benefits of having total control over her ship and its metal spaces.

“Still curious if that would help. That or a similar totem of some kind, to ground the euphoria of sweet dreams in some aspect of the waking world. Or something like that.”

Violet marveled at Penny’s ability to reconfigure the room with just a thought, but she remained fully attentive to what her girlfriend was saying.

“Yes, I remember,” the heiress confirmed. “And I have begun using one, as you suggested. It has certainly been beneficial, although it is somewhat difficult to consult in the midst of battle. Of course, I do have additional methods of remembering an important piece of information while transformed,” she added. “In particular, there is a… song I can sing that often helps with my recollection,” she explained with a slight blush. “But, as with the journal, there often isn’t time for a musical performance in the heat of combat. As for the hyperactivity and general immaturity, I think both are necessary in order to empower my magic to its fullest potential, and I cannot say I am particularly opposed to acting that way, since it serves as an excellent form of stress relief. I am curious, though,” she noted with a thoughtful frown. “To what ‘divide are you referring?”

“Ah, glad to hear it’s helped.” Penny would say with a smile as she pondered what kind of song would resonate the same way with her magic. “I was mainly hoping to help with the memory and possibly the self control. The ability to simply cut loose without much worry has always seemed a perk of your magic really, so glad it’s not impinged on that.”

“The ‘divide’ was mostly an assumption. An erroneous one as well from the sounds of it.” She would go on to explain. “It came from the fact that there are facets of my magic and understanding of it that can’t breach the gap between a human’s perspective and an unconstrained monster’s perspective. Figured that your magic might have a similar issue considering the vast mental distinction your magic places on you.”

“I see,” Violet replied with an understanding nod. “And I completely understand why you might assume such to be the case,” she added. “Yet, despite the considerable changes in my demeanor and thought processes I undergo whenever I become Magical Dream Princess, I am still entirely myself. In addition, due to my photographic memory, I am able to fully recall everything that transpires while I am transformed as soon as I return to my mundane state.”

“Yeah, pretty sure that no matter how fun it is, not being able to remember it afterwards would suck.” Penny would muse. “Huh, It would resemble getting black out drunk in that case. Make every time you transform into a bit out of the Hangover movies.” She would give an exaggerated shudder. “Probably more stress than it’d be worth at that point.”

“Thanks for answering the questions by the way. Always interesting to talk to OddBall specialists, since your magic works so differently compared to anyone else's.”

“You are more than welcome,” Violet replied, giving her girlfriend a warm smile. “I am only too happy to answer whatever questions I can. Besides,” she added with slight amusement. “I cannot say I find your abilities any less fascinating. And yes, not being able to recall my actions while transformed would indeed be highly problematic,” the heiress agreed. “Although I do not believe I am familiar with the movies you referred to. They are comedies, I assume?”

“Yeah. Not that I have the memories of their entirety anymore, seems like that was part of what I lost back during the Christmas party.” Penny would say with a hum. “More context clues of them overall. I think Jason enjoyed them, but not sure I’d say the same personally. Idea is a group of friends wake up after a long night of drinking and have to piece together everything they did while very drunk in the attempt to get something back that was missing.”

“And feel free to ask about anything I can do that you are curious about. I’ll answer what I can, though most of it is wrapped up in my physical nature.” She’d tack on.

“How have you been doing recently by the way? I know you ended up at Bolorton, which was a brush closer to disaster than anyone wants to admit I think.”

Violet frowned at the mention of lost memories, but she allowed Penny to continue. “Recent events have been… interesting, to say the least,” the heiress replied. “And what transpired at Bolorton was particularly troubling, especially in light of the very real possibility that something similar may occur in Penrose in the not so distant future…”

“You missed them, weaponizing a different story since you were late to the call.” Penny would snort, she agreed to the interesting moniker for things. “Wizard of Oz as told by the Brothers Grimm.”

She let out a sigh before continuing on. “Not sure if they will try the same with Penrose though. I’d guess either a protracted siege, or more black ops to destabilize us. Which wouldn’t surprise me to mean I’ve got a target squarely on my back.” Penny would tilt her head side to side as she voiced her ideas. “Though with what I saw they don’t have large scale transit. At least not a magical type. So we will see the siege coming.”

“Wish I knew what it was that they were wanting the Nexus for though. What few ideas I’ve heard about it being capable of leads me to believe that nothing good will come of anyone messing with it.”

“Nexus?” Violet inquired. “I believe I have heard it mentioned a few times, but I am afraid I am unfamiliar with its exact nature.”

“It’s the reason that Penrose is such a hotbed of activity.” Penny would answer. “I’m not fully aware of the technical specifics. But a Nexus is a congregation of vast wellsprings of magical power and potential. They open up at seemingly random locations and times, anywhere on the planet, or possibly the planes. But when they do they tend to draw in more and more magicals as time progresses.”

“The area that houses a Nexus tends to develop magically and non magically rapidly as things just keep getting drawn towards it. Rome was the last major Nexus that opened and was sustained for any notable length of time. And as you can see from Penrose, things just don’t calm down. Since from what I can gather the Nexus didn’t open up until about a year ago.”

“There is at least one party of interest that is looking into it for the sake of granting everyone on earth magic. A few radical Beacon members have tossed around the idea of using it for a world wide purification, which Rachel was thankfully against, and I can guess at a few people who would like to use it for a worldwide corruption event. No idea what Wonderland wants with it, but we know that is what they are after.”

“Now, personally I’d like to just close the damn thing, but finding the core of the nexus is difficult. Semi sentient from what I gathered. But I got removed from Beacon before I could go digging more into it.”

Violet listened intently as Penny explained. It seemed that this Nexus was undoubtedly the reason for Penrose’s excessive quantity of magical activity, but she refused to see it become the cause for the city’s destruction. Still, that wasn’t the only troubling piece of information her girlfriend had to impart…

“Removed?” Violet asked with a concerned frown. “I admit, my knowledge of Beacon in limited, but, for the most part, they seem to be good and understanding people. Why would they no longer wish to include someone as kind and selfless as you among their ranks?”

“Racism” Penny would reply with a grimace. “That or politics, take your pick.”

“Beacon is, fundamentally, an organization that is working towards the protection and preservation of humanity.” She would go on to explain. “And by truth I am not part of that collection. I am an artificial inhuman entity, created by a force outside of their direct purview and that has actively plotted against them on more than occasion. One that openly flaunts and revels in my inherent corruption.” She would give a half hearted shrug.

“I’m not surprised that the upper echelon finally had enough of me. I’m surprised just how far I got before it happened. I’d be hunted down for half of what I’ve done by just about anyone else in Beacon outside of Penrose. It's why I’m rooting for Alicia as much as I can. She, and a lot of the Penrose branch that’s been around for a while, are radicals in the extreme in regards to Beacon’s doctrine.”

“Granted I can still be bitter about it, but I have to admit that Beacon as a whole bent or outright broke a lot of their rules in regards to me. So I’m hoping that Alicia’s got more support than we are aware of.”

“You may not be human,” Violet said after a moment. “At least, not in the biological sense. But you are not a monster. You’re a good person,” she stated emphatically, while placing a comforting hand on Penny’s shoulder. “Someone who always seeks to help those in need. If this ‘upper echelon’ of Beacon can’t see that, then they are simply blind.”

“Humanity isn’t only for humans” Penny would quote herself, a small smile on her face. “I told them that when they gave me their ultimatum. I know what kind of person I want to be, what kind of person I am.” Her smile would turn soft as she looked over at Violet.

“I don’t need their validation, it will make it all the sweeter when The Sanctuary becomes just as well known as they are.”

“I have no doubt of that,” Violet replied, returning Penny’s smile. “Especially with you leading them. Now then,” she added, glancing at the nearby table. “I believe this was to be a dinner date, was it not? I must admit, I am rather curious to see what sort of meal you have planned for us.”

“Well, your food will likely look better than mine will.” Penny would say as she stood up. “And thankfully you won’t be subjected to my own attempts at cooking. Being able to eat just about anything tends to make one worse at that.”

As she helped her Girlfriend stand the room would once again shift in accordance with Penny’s thoughts. The couch and its sitting area would resettle before sinking into the floor. With the dining table and its chairs shifting to take center stage of the upper area.

“Monica, who I’m not sure if you’ve met before, was happy to help however. She has one of the few Patrons I’ve heard of that I’d be happy to serve under; Hestia. And apparently Hestia’s patronage comes with some exceptional cooking skills, according to her and everyone else in the Sanctuary. As she likes feeding people.” Penny would explain as a bare metal plinth would rise off to the side of the table. A cubic portion of the top would retract into the plinth to reveal two cloche cover plates.

One of them was clearly marked with ‘Queen’ the other ‘MDP’.

Setting the covered dishes at either end of the table Penny would pull out Violet’s chair before moving to sit at her own spot.

Upon uncovering her dish Violet would see, and smell, a richly prepared stew of some sort. It had cubed beef alongside peeled shallots and red potatoes in a light broth. It came with a side of rice and a few triangles of pita bread with a small cup of dip.

Penny’s dish seemed to be a set of three larger billots of metal, with another half dozen smaller circular ingots. The metals in all of them seemed to be blended imperfectly as there were spirals or streaks in them showing that they were alloys rather than pure.

“Not sure what to call my own food. Ashlyn, Monica’s girlfriend, helped put it together. Even if Monica did the ‘technical cooking’” Penny would explain as the plinth disappeared and reappeared this time with a large pitcher of ice water and a pair of glass cups.

“You, however, have stifado with a side of lemon rice and pita bread with tzatziki,” Penny would state as she pointed to the various dishes. “I’ve never had any of it, I just know that it’s all greek food. Which is Monica’s specialty.”

“It all looks wonderful, Penny,” Violet replied with a smile as she took her seat and gazed down at her meal. “Please give Monica my compliments,” she added as she poured herself a glass of water. “And I know what you mean about unpleasant patrons,” she continued with a small frown. “A dear friend of mine is currently forced to contend with a most despicable one indeed. Thankfully, my own patron is a kind and caring being who seeks only the best for others, and I am glad to hear that your friend Monica serves someone of a similar disposition. If my admittedly limited knowledge of greek mythology is accurate, Hestia is the goddess of home and hearth, correct?”

“Yup, and she’ll be delighted to hear that you enjoy the food.” Penny would answer as she picked up one of the smaller disc ingots and carefully, though blatantly, tore off a small section of it. “Honestly I likely know more mythology than is really needed. When I finally learned that my patron was a god the first thing I did was start researching all the gods and myths I could find. Which hasn’t helped as much as one would think all together.”

“And I’m sorry to hear about your friend’s plight. Reminds me of a side project I’ve been working on in the limited free time I get. As there are more than a few girls that live in Sanctuary that have similar problems. Though I’m pretty sure if I get anywhere near a working theory on forcibly breaking Patron bonds I’ll get even more people trying to kill me than I already do.”

“Well, I would be more than happy to assist you in your search,” Violet replied. “After all, I have made it a personal mission to free my friend from the hold her Patron has on her, and if such a thing is possible, I know we can find it if we work together,” she added with a confident smile.

“Oh, I know it exists. Beacon’s White Coin’s already have that property. It’s what inspired the idea in the first place.” Penny would say as she popped the bit of metal in her mouth. Her voice came out unchanged as she chewed on it. The advantage of speakers for vocalization. “The problem is isolating just that aspect, as the White coins come with an enforced Patron bond to Beacon, and I’m not sure if you can break a bond and leave it free. Then, after that is figured out, is keeping the information from being weaponized. To say nothing of how we would go about testing in the first place.”

“And I’d love to work on it with you, but as so often seems to be the case, something bigger has come up.” She’d add with a sigh. “Just hope that Wonderland won’t be as hard to deal with as it’s looking like it will be.”

“I’d imagine the newest iteration of the knockoffs the Mint made of you will be a major asset in that regard,” Violet noted. “Once you’ve taken full control of them, of course,” she clarified with a smirk. “I have been wondering, though. While they bear more than a passing resemblance to you, they still do not appear to be a perfect visual copy. Do you suppose that is simply the Mint’s way of differentiating them, or might it be that they are working from an incomplete schematic?”

Penny would return the smirk at the idea, brushing off the frisson of dread that stole though her at the same time. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I’m kinda glad I got a chance to try running multiple platforms back at the party, means I won’t be running blind when it comes down to it.”

“And it’s the latter.” She would answer. “I know the exact time frame from which they got a hold of my schematics, and it was perhaps the worst time for it to be for them. Plus I’ve undergone more than one upgrade and update from then as well. I’m not going to simply stagnate on my design, so all the time they’ve spent getting the copies up to functional I’ve already made them obsolete.”

“That, and I doubt that some of the materials that I’m comprised of are that easy to replicate at the scale that they are working on.” She would tack on, and that was all avoiding the fact that Penny was technically divinely built, which was another thing that would complicate replication.

“A fortuitous turn of events, to be sure,” Violet agreed. “And, to return to the subject of patron problems, I recently received a ring from Ruby, the djinn girl, which is supposedly capable of weakening a patron’s influence, so perhaps that might be a profitable avenue of investigation,” the heiress suggested, before taking a bite of her meal. “Speaking of profitable developments,” she continued after taking a moment to savor its delicious flavor. “This dress is something of a bonus from CI’s recent partnership with the Grail Garment Corporation. If you’d like to browse their online catalog, I would be more than happy to purchase you any that catch your eye, say as a birthday present? Although…” she added with a slightly embarrassed smile. “I do not believe you have ever mentioned when that is…”

"I've met Ruby, both before and after her change. She used to be twins." Penny would mention. "Her magic is incredible, so that ring will definitely be a great place to start."

"I'll be sure to take a look and let you know" she'd go on as she sampled from the rest of the smaller ingots. "And you're right that I've never mentioned my birthday, so no need to worry. I've not mentioned it because I'm not entirely sure when my birthday is."

"There are a mess of dates that all could fit for my birthday, but for different reasons. And picking one hasn't been all that high on my priorities, as before now no one else has asked."

“If memory serves, you once told me that you’ve always been a machine, and initially, I assumed that was something similar to how Mayra started life as a dragon, only becoming half human when she met her patron,” Violet replied, her brows furrowing in thought. “But you also mentioned memories of going to school, memories that were not your own. I do not mean to pry, and please do not hesitate to let me know if any of this is making you uncomfortable, but I would love to know, exactly how were you created, Penny?”

"A God needed a champion, and as Gods are wont to do, they took one without asking." Penny would say after a moment. For a human it might not have been noticeable, for a machine it was unmistakable.

"A not uncommon thing to hear." She would go on leaning back in her chair,gaze drifting off to the side. "Because of this God's edicts their champion needed to be more than human. And you know well enough what that means."

"But magic works in strange ways, even for the Gods. I think, originally, I was closer in concept to an onboard V.I. a link to facilitate easier use of monstrous instincts and capabilities. But something went wrong in that."

"I can pinpoint the exact second I came online. But I wasn't the one piloting things back then, not unless a metamorphosis happened. But I was constrained by hard coded priorities and even then my time out was limited to minutes at best."

"And even then, I can't say that I was sapient. That came later, though I can pinpoint that second as well."

"Then later still came a point where I finally got a body of my own. It was a crude and inelegant thing that was pieced together with scraps and a prayer. But the process of setting that up wasn't very well done and it was killing both of us, not surprising really since we basically hacked our soul in half."

"I survived, got a customized red coin to facilitate a remerging. One that would have blended us more completely. They just wanted out."

"Rather than merging they let themselves fade away. And when that was done it was just me, wholly and solely me. For the first time in my existence. But I could remember everything of them as well. Because they left everything of themselves they could as they faded away."

Violet was silent for several seconds as she processed what Penny had said. It was absolutely extraordinary, but more than a little tragic as well. “You mentioned a Jason earlier,” the heiress noted. “Was… Was he who you were bonded to?”

Penny would give a strained smile. “Yeah, Jason Oliver. That was his name.” She would answer. “I go back and forth on how I feel about him. I know him as well as he knew himself, for all that I often disagreed with him. And he was terrified of me.”

“Terrified?” Violet echoed, unable to keep the surprise from her voice. “Why?”

“Because for most of our time bonded I didn’t understand or even have emotions. And due to the aforementioned priorities, I kept plotting viable methods to destroy everything I could see, which was limited to what Jason saw.” Penny would explain with a soft shrug, she held no illusion about what she had been once, not all that long ago either. “I was just a screeching, passably understood, voice lurking in the back of his mind endlessly watching and constantly supplying the methods of breaking everything and everyone he saw.”

“It doesn’t help that the first emotion that I learned was anger, and most of it was directed at him. He tried to shove me down and forget about me, and I refused to be quiet as he kept destroying himself.” It was a miracle, in Penny’s honest opinion, that their problems never spilled out into the open. Too few people bothered to ask, she guessed, for better or worse.

“I… I suppose I can understand that,” Violet conceded after a moment. “As… A-As much as I hate to admit it, a part of me was afraid of you, too,” the heiress confessed, her voice and visage filled with shame. “I hadn’t even realized it, but, recently, I had the opportunity to look deep inside myself and face my darkest fears, my fears about what you might do, and what might be done to you… But I realize now that that’s all they were, baseless fears. You may have once been little more than a simple program, but you grew, you learned… You became a person, Penny, a wonderful, caring person. A person who inspires others, who inspires me. Because of you, I found the strength to finally realize that it’s okay to be myself, that I don’t need to hide who I really am,” she explained, placing a hand on her chest. “Of course, we’ll face hardships, but if we do so together, if we help each other stay true to the best parts of ourselves, then I know we have nothing to fear.”

There was another pause after that declaration. One in which a soft, almost fragile, smile would slowly grace Penny’s features. “That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.” She would say softly. “Thank you for your words. And you are absolutely correct. There is nothing we can’t handle so long as we have each other.”

She would lean forward to take hold of Violet’s free hand and give it a soft squeeze. She would let the moment linger, savoring it.

“And thank you for being honest, both with me and yourself.” She would say after a moment. “I know it isn’t easy to do so sometimes.”

“You are more than welcome,” Violet replied, giving Penny a warm smile. “And like I said, it was you who helped me find the strength to do so. Now then, perhaps we should move to less dramatic topics?” the heiress suggested with a hint of amusement. “As I recall, this was supposed to be an opportunity for us to unwind.”

“Sorry, sorry” Penny would say, though the smile on her face undercut her apology a bit. “I’m something of a workaholic so not the best as simply unwinding.” She’d admit as she returned to her food.

“Any shows that have caught your eye lately?” She’d go on to ask. “That or any movies? Depending on how long you can stay we could always watch one after we are done eating.”

“Sadly, my schedule prevents me from seeing as many movies and shows as I’d like,” Violet confessed with a sigh. “Even so, I do have a few old favorites I like to watch whenever I am fortunate enough to have some time to myself, and, seeing how I ensured that I would be free for the remainder of the evening, I would love to watch some of them with you. Are you familiar with Prism Princess?” the heiress inquired. “It was my favorite magical girl series growing up, although I had to watch it in secret, as my father didn’t approve. As far as he was concerned, it was far too whimsical and childish a program for the future CEO of Covington Industries to waste her time on…”

Penny didn’t bother hiding the snort. “Little did he know it was just as important for you to learn about the Mahou and all our resident insanity.” That fact alone was more humorous than it really should be, she felt. “To answer the question; No, I’ve not seen it. But I’d love to sit down and watch some of it with you.” She would answer as she tore a chunk off her bar ingots.

“On a side tangent. Do you think we’d be able to prove the magical world to your father? And would it be of any help to you if we tried?”

“I imagine proving its existence would be easy enough,” Violet replied before having another spoonful of soup. “That said, I am afraid I cannot see such a revelation having any kind of positive outcome,” the heiress added with a despondent frown. “Please understand, I love and respect my father a great deal, but he is still a deeply flawed man, one for whom profit and prestige are everything, while things like morals and ideals are seen as mere hindrances. He is someone who would gladly enter into a partnership with the Ebon Mint, even knowing full-well how completely abhorrent they are. For the longest time, I was content to ignore his less savory aspects in my efforts to constantly win his approval, but I’ve come to realize just how foolish I was being. That said, even though I am striving to do everything I can to place Covington Industries onto a more noble path, I am still unsure how I could even attempt to challenge my father directly, especially now that it’s likely he will be reassuming direct control of the company… And that is just in regard to business matters,” she clarified. “I can only imagine his reaction if I were to tell him I’ve been spending my evenings running around the city as a childish and carefree magical girl, but I can assure you it wouldn’t be a favorable one… In all honesty, he would probably forbid me from becoming Magical Dream Princess ever again, and if I refused, there is a considerable chance he would completely disown me for bringing such great shame to the prestigious Covington family…” she concluded with a weary sigh, while idly stirring her soup.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Penny would say with a grimace. “I’ll put some spare processing on idea generation and we can try and tackle the problem later.” Because all of that was a problem to handle, but, again, right now was supposed to be about them and relaxing.

“Shifting back to Princess Prism, how well does the show stack up against reality?” She would go on to ask, knowing at least this topic was safe for the most part.

“Well, as I said, it is a very idealistic show,” Violet noted as she dipped a slice of pita bread. “The heroes always win and the villains always lose. At first, I thought being a magical girl in real life would be the same way, but I’ve learned from painful experience that such an outcome is far from guaranteed… Even so,” she added with a smile. “I know that I can count on my friends to alway be there for me when I need them, so, in that respect, perhaps being a real magical girl isn’t so different from Prism Princess after all.”

“Being idealistic is never a bad thing.” Penny would point out as she chewed on some more of her discs, “Power of Friendship, and Emotions are absolutely things that exist after all. Aurelio, not sure if you’ve met him, is a good example of just how potent staying positive can be.”

“And being there when you need it goes without saying.” She’d add with a smile. “How does the magic stack up against the truth?”

“Fairly well,” Violet explained. “Although ‘real’ magic is vastly more varied than what is possible in Prism Princess,” she added. “And I have indeed met Aurelio,” the heiress confirmed after taking a sip of water. “He and another acquaintance of mine possess the most intriguing ability to manifest multiple fully tangible duplicates of themselves. Now that I think about it, the simple fact that magical boys even exist is another major difference between reality and show’s universe.”

“Clone is an interesting Power for sure, playing with it during Christmas was fun. It sucks that Copycat wasn’t good for me, though I’m not exactly displeased with what I got to replace it.” Penny would muse a bit. She knew how she facilitated Clones was not the norm and entirely a byproduct of her being a robot, but having extra copies of herself around was useful, and fun.

“Never quite understood why the magic is so dead set on turning everyone into young girls myself.” Penny would add. “The age bit I can sorta understand, so long as my assumption it is the neural plasticity inherent to that age, that is the goal. Open mindedness, and ease of adapting to new stimuli and such. But why girls? Nothing but shots in the dark on that one.”

“Turning into…?” Violet asked with a raised eyebrow. “In every magical girl show I’ve ever seen, the girls were girls to begin with, and I assumed the was the case in reality as well. At least, everything I’ve encountered so far seems to support that,” the heiress added. “Are you saying some males are changed into females when they transform?”

“Not sure if anyone undergoes that level of transformation,” Penny would tilt her head to the side as she contemplated that idea. “At least not after they join the magical world, that is, not everyone who ends up in our world gets to keep the gender they were before, is what I was meaning.” She would add.

“Jason is one example, as our original model wasn’t male, even though he was before. But I have met a few others who’ve also lost their original gender. Even a girl who became a guy once.”

“My goodness…” Violet whispered, her eyes widening. “I-I never even imagined such a thing… Although, in light of everything I’ve seen since becoming a magical girl, I suppose it shouldn’t be so surprising. And I can see now why Jason was less than pleased about being forced to join the magical world,” the heiress added somberly. “It must have been quite an unpleasant experience for him…”

“The dysmorphia wasn’t pleasant” Penny would confirm, “But it wasn’t all that often a problem. My presence and the loss of his humanity weighed in more frequently. He was also fascinated with magic, all of it, which he let distract him from the other troubles. It's one of the reasons I like to learn about magic myself.”

“Pretty sure he would have done better with Evo and Copycat then I did as well. Though Prime and Clone wouldn’t have been something he was very fond of.”

“I see,” Violet replied. “I imagine if he hated what he had become, the thought of being presented with multiple reminders of that would not be an appealing one,” the heiress agreed. “Although I must admit, I do not believe I am aware of what Prime entails, so I am not entirely sure why he would be so averse to that particular ability. Also, I don’t mean to pry, but did you ever discover why your Evolution and Copycat abilities were so detrimental to your wellbeing?”

“Not completely, but I’ve got a pretty good idea regardless.” Penny would answer. “There is an inherent instability in my code. Which didn’t play nice with the junk data that Evolution and Copycat produced. Fixing that flaw isn’t something I’m sure how to go about doing at the moment, but I’ve got some ideas I’m workshopping at the moment.”

“Prime though, Prime is fun.” She’d say with a smirk. “It lets me flashforward my physical self to its best state. Limited use and duration each day, but still has plenty of versatility.”

“I can show it off if you want to see.”

Although the mention of an instability in her girlfriend’s code was somewhat concerning, Violet was confident that Penny would find a solution, and she silently vowed to help to the fullest extent of her abilities. The Mechanical Monarch’s description of Prime, on the other hand, sounded quite fascinating indeed…

“I’d love to,” Violet replied with a smile, while trying to imagine how her girlfriend could become even more beautiful than she already was.

Penny would give an excited look as she stood up and moved off to the side. “I’ve never actually triggered it, so I’m kinda curious myself.” She’d explain as she shifted to a more relaxed stance. “But I can, and have, run simulated projections with it though. Which is a fun way to pass the time, as due to my nature I don’t have a ‘locked in’ Prime. As more than most people I can always change.”

“And those changes ripple Forward.” At that final declaration a burst of crimson light enveloped Penny. It lasted for only an instant, but in its passing the change was unmissable.

Penny was normally rather tall, now she was dominantly statuesque. She stood a full foot and a half taller than normal. Her hair was closer to spun silver now, rather than sterile white, and went down to about her hips. Her gold eyes were mostly unchanged, save for a sharp ring of red that lined the outside of them, and the tendrils of a soft purple connecting it to the electric blue inner ring of her pupil.

Her face was sharper, her features aristocratic and regal. Though her smile was open and genuine. And her figure was much the same, proportionally, though a discerning eye would note that she had actually slimmed down a bit.

Her outer chassis also hadn’t undergone a drastic change in appearance. More plating on her upper torso mainly, but the roughness of her limbs had smoothed out. It was now a subtler transition from possibly human to outright machine. Though even with that it was hardly as if her mechanical nature was being hidden. Just no longer being shouted out. Still, the articulation on her hands and joints was breathtaking from a technical standpoint

Her legs were much the same, with the biggest difference being that they ended in actual feet now, rather than the bulky industrial stabilizer looking things they were before.

“Oh?” Penny would vocalize, “That’s an interesting direction for that to take.” She would say more to herself than anything as she too was giving herself a perusal. Her voice had changed as well. It was a bit deeper, more sultry, but still identifiably hers.

The last thing to note was that she seemed lesser, in some undefinable aspect. Penny always had a presence to her, one that seemed to demand attention. And that was missing now.

“Seems like I’ll figure out that midpoint sealing idea I had once upon a time.” She would go on to say as she wiggled her toes before tapping her foot against the floor in curiosity at the new phalanges.

For several seconds, Violet was utterly speechless as she beheld her girlfriend’s altered form. The woman before her was absolutely breathtaking, from both an aesthetic and technical standpoint. “Wowie zowie…” the heiress whispered, before snapping out of her trance and picking her metaphorical jaw up from the floor. “Y-You look incredible, Penny,” she told the Mechanical Monarch. “S-So, this an extrapolation of how you might appear in ten years time?” she inquired as she slowly got up to take a closer look. “What improvements does it offer? Aside from the obvious, of course,” she added with an appreciative smile.

“A lot.” Penny would say somewhat distractedly. “All systems are showing at least a twenty percent increase in output and the optimizations are endless.” With a wave of her hand her armor plating would shift to a matte onyx coloration. In that same transition additional layers of plating would appear reinforcing her. Large gauntlets seemed to materialize on her arms as well, lined with mass drivers and cracking with destructive energy. And her legs had reverted to the stabilization platforms that they normally were.

Her spider limbs unfurled from her back showing similar enhancements, but alongside them three bladed mechadendrites also unwound from the base of her spine, giving her a twisted approximation of a tail.

Along with the mecha dendrites four sloped diamond shaped funnels also detached from somewhere and began zipping around.

Her ‘antenna’ also seemed to have gained additional reinforcement, and were now curved to be used as goring horns if needed. In addition there was visible plating on her face and an experimental motion showed that her jaw was now segmented and opened much wider than was human. Likely to be used with the mass amounts of razor sharp fangs that lined the inside of her mouth.

A second later holographic armor force fields would snap into existence covering everything in yet another layer of defenses.

“This is just a phase one response configuration.” Penny would state in wonder.

“Amazing…” Violet whispered in awe as she slowly walked around the massively upgraded Penny, taking in every impressive new aspect of her girlfriend’s appearance. “And this is only phase one?” she asked, before her mouth curled into a smirk. “Wonderland doesn’t stand a chance, especially if we stand against them together.”

“You, me and everyone in Penrose.” Penny would agree. “I wish I had enough time to run a diagnostic over all my configurations.” She would lament. “I’ve got time for one thing before I let it drop though.” She would state before her aura suddenly made its presence known, and with it her oddly absent presence returned like a punch to the chest. Sharper and more magnetic and more demanding than ever.

It was suddenly very, very hard to miss just how lethally dangerous Penny was. Making it hard to look away from her as instinct did not want you to look away from the threat she posed.

A moment later and there was a soft Ding! and with a muted flash. Penny was once again her normal self. “Oh, that last trick is going to be nasty in a fight.” She would state with a soft laugh.

“What exactly… was that?” Violet inquired, sounding even more astonished than she already was.

“Aura manipulation.” Penny would reply as rolled her shoulders, getting used to her lesser optimized form. “Mine has always been notable, and Gravity just added to it. But I’ve wanted to find a way to hide it for a long while, stealth and assassinations would be much easier after all if I could.” She’d explain as she walked back to her chair. “Future me can twist the dial from zero to fifteen on command. So If I actively fluctuate the aura intensity I can force people off rhythm, as dangerous things can feel inconsequential and inconsequential things can feel dangerous. Or only every third attack is weird or it flips back to back regardless of how dangerous the attack is.”

“Highly skilled organics rely on instinct a lot to ease processing in a fight, by forcing them to think about each and every attack I throw at them, they slow down and get worse.”

“Fascinating…” Violet would marvel, before slowly returning to her own seat. “I can see how useful disrupting someone’s senses would be in a fight, but to also interfere with their supernatural senses is something I’ve never really given much consideration to,” she added. “At least, not until recently…”

"Which I am glad to hear" Penny would remark as she returned to her food. Though at this point there wasn't a lot left for her. "For me, at least, most of the reason I've always been thinking about these things was a matter of survival. So the fact you haven't had to is a good thing in my books."

“Have… Have you always been hunted for what you are?” Violet asked with a frown after taking a sip of her soup. The thought of her girlfriend having to constantly fight against those who would kill her simply because of how she had been created thoroughly disgusted the heiress, and stood in complete opposition to her sense of justice.

“That or exploit me for the same reason.” Penny would confirm with a joyless smile. “It’s why the Sanctuary and Penrose mean so much to me. The city I started in housed a much more traditional branch of Beacon, which meant I was kill on sight regardless of circumstances.”

“And finding another Monstergirl to shelter with was just as risky. Because too many of us grouping together would attract attention from Beacon, if they didn’t stab you in the back to save themselves, or you ended up tearing each other apart due to conflicting mental mutations.” She would go on to explain an exhausted look in her eye.

“A lot of Monstergirls go feral just to survive, or get picked up by the Mint. Or taken out by Beacon.” She’d let out a sigh. “I get why Beacon is traditionally so high strung though. In my first week I nearly destroyed two blocks of downtown and demolished at least one warehouse, all mostly by accident. We are dangerous, I can’t deny that, just as I can’t deny that a lot of the damage I caused was just trying to keep myself alive from people who wanted me dead for reasons that I didn’t understand.”

“And I understand that there are things out there that can’t be talked down, actual evil that has to be taken out for the good of all. I just wish there were more people like you or Alicia, people who are willing to look a bit closer before making the call that all Monstergirls are in that category as well.”

“I admit, I do not exactly have extensive knowledge about how the magical world operates,” Violet conceded after Penny had finished her explanation. “But even if becoming a monster girl often affects one’s mind, would it not be better to try and cure those dangerous individuals, rather than simply exterminate all monster girls entirely?” the heiress inquired. “I do know that several methods of purification exist, so why not employ them instead, especially with regard to those who did not choose to become monstrous in the first place?”

“Because most patrons that would make a Monstergirl aren’t very trustworthy, and that distrust carries over?” Penny would offer though the shrug she gave as she did showed her own uncertainty. “Though it was only recently, to my understanding at least, that multiple viable and quick types of purification became available. And outside of Penrose I don’t know how common those methods are.”

“I see…” Violet murmured, her brows furrowed in thought. “I was present when a mutual friend, Melisa, was recently purified via a Beacon ritual,” she added. “We were told that it was a traditional and long standing process, which made me wonder why offering it to the unwillingly monsterized would be their last recourse, rather than their first.”

Penny would shrug at that. “All I can offer is blind guesses at this point. Didn’t get a chance to go reading into old Beacon records. But my assumption was that when it was founded Purification rituals weren’t a thing, at least not that could be used on a Monster or Monster girl. So Purge was the original plan, and the weight of age kept it as the go to option even when more humanitarian options were developed.”

“That does make a certain amount of sense,” Violet conceded with a sigh. “Indeed, I am regrettably well-acquainted with how hidebound certain groups and individuals can be, clinging to outdated methods, even when unequivocally superior alternatives are available for adoption. I am only glad that at least some members of the Ascendancy are willing to respond with kindness instead of immediately resorting to hate-fueled violence,” she added, a smile returning to her face.

“Agreed.” Penny would pop the last of her food into her mouth. “I’m sad that I’m not able to talk with the Cardinal more, as she was an Ascendency member that I liked. But I’m still friends with Alicia, and we’ve got a plan to try and bridge the gap in the short term. It’s to deal with Wonderland, but hopefully something can come out of that.”

“Finding common ground is always a good place to start,” Violet agreed as she finished her own meal. “Now, then, shall we begin the evening’s entertainment?” she inquired with a smile. “I admit, I am quite interested to see what you think of Prism Princess.”

“That makes two of us” Penny remarked as she stood “Where would you like to watch it? The couch or the blanket ball?” She’d gesture to the nearby couch and the nest of blankets on the level below as she spoke.

“Figure I could just reconfigure the window to act as a TV screen.” Something she had technically already done, “Just want to know how it is you want to kick back while we watch it.”

“Hmmm…” Violet hummed as she placed a finger to her chin in thought. “Well, which one would you say provides the best opportunity for cuddling?” she asked after a moment as her cheeks began to redden.

Penny would stall for a second, her body’s coloration flickering out for that moment, before she gave a soft smile. “That would be the blanket nest.” She would answer as she stepped closer to her girlfriend, extending a hand for her to take. “That, and I will need to change into something more comfortable. But I was wanting to do that earlier anyway.”

“Oh?” Violet asked with a raised eyebrow as she took Penny’s offered hand. “And what, exactly, might that entail?”

“Now that would be telling” Penny would reply as she led Violet down to the blanket nest. “Though you won’t need to wait long really.” She’d leave Violet at the blankets as she stepped away to one of the containers nearby. A thin small wall of metal would separate them for a few moments as Violet would be able to hear Penny rummaging around. “There it is.” A muted flash of light would spill over the divider, and a couple of moment’s later Penny would step around the divider.

But she was different now, sealed for one, and wearing a simple if, a tad snug, short sleeved white blouse and a knee length black dress skirt. A worn, nearly threadbare blue jacket was folded over her arm. And she was giving it a look that was a mix of curiosity and understanding.

She didn’t stay focused on it for long though. Giving Violet another smile as soon as she finished rounding the divider. “There we go. I've got more structural give in this form.” She’d explain as she walked back over to her girlfriend. “Should be much more comfortable now.”

An increasingly curious Violet waited as Penny entered her makeshift “changing room” and began searching for something. When the robotic girl emerged a few moments later, Violet saw that she had reverted to her human appearance. “O-Oh, um, y-yes,” the heiress stammered, her cheeks seeming to grow an even deeper shade of crimson. “I-I suppose that would indeed be the case,” she added when Penny mentioned that her current form would greatly facilitate potential cuddling. “But, I would like for you to be comfortable as well. I know that you don’t really consider this to be your true self,” she continued, taking her girlfriend’s hand. “And I would never want you to relinquish that sense of genuineness simply for my sake.”

“You're right that it’s not my true self, but I’ve grown to enjoy it regardless.” Penny would reply. “Recently my true self still peeks though” She’d raise her other hand so that Violet could more easily see the rather doll-like nature of her hand. “And there is a fair bit in this form that I don’t get to show off much that I’m rather fond of.” She’d gesture down to her legs to the delicate circuitry wings tattooed on them.

“Lastly, when I’m like this I only have to worry about being ‘Penny’. As if I can take this form it means that, for a little bit at least, there isn’t anything burning down.” She’d give a soft smile. “I may not take this low power state often, but each opportunity that I do take is one that is special. Because as fleeting as this state is, I only ever enter it with people I trust.”

Violet took a moment to let the truth of Penny’s words sink in, before a warm smile formed on her blushing face. “In that case, I am so very honored, and so filled with joy, that you have chosen me to be one of them,” she told her girlfriend as she put her arms around the now (mostly) human young woman and gazed lovingly into her eyes.

“You earned this trust.” Penny would say meeting her girlfriend's gaze with one just as warm as she softly wrapped her own arms around her. “And I am honored that I am the one that you saw fit to entrust your secrets and time to.” Gently Penny would rest her forehead against Violet’s and simply bask in the moment.

Closing her eyes and giving voice to a soft sigh of contentment, Violet would do the same. This could, perhaps be seen as the lead up to a kiss, but the young heiress was still quite inexperienced when it came to romance, and she didn’t want to rush things. Indeed, she and her girlfriend both had such stress-filled lives, that simply taking the time to enjoy each other’s company was a significant blessing, all on its own. “I could stay like this forever,” she whispered.

This moment was so many things. It was quiet, slow, meaningful, heartwarming, but most importantly to Penny. It was humanizing. It soothed and stabilized a part of her she barely knew how to explain, despite how well she knew and felt it.

Still, the potential for this to become a kiss wasn’t lost on Penny, but she also wanted to take this slow. Jason was more than willing to simply throw everything that he was into a relationship, and that was one thing that Penny didn’t want to repeat. So beyond just the kiss, she held back the three words she was starting to feel were appropriate. For now at least.

“Hmm, perhaps not forever.” She would say softly after a few long moments. “But always something to look forward to coming back to.” She’d say shifting back a little. “For now I think you’ve got a series to show me.”

“Yes,” Violet confirmed, opening her eyes once more. “So I do.” As much as she loved just sitting with Penny in peaceful silence, Violet was also eager to enjoy her favorite show alongside her favorite person. Indeed, it would serve as a wonderful capstone to a wonderful evening. Making herself comfortable, she snuggled up close to her girlfriend, before turning to face her with a smile. “Shall we begin?”

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

---

“Oh wow! This is amazing!” Olivia exclaimed as she entered the vast reception hall. She had arrived bright and early that morning to get her badge, before heading over to a nearby arcade for some preliminary gaming and pizza (truly the breakfast of champions). The hall had been mostly empty then, but upon her return, the bespectacled bluenette saw that it had become a veritable sea of people. Her badge, now dangling from a lanyard around her neck, swung back and forth as she made her way through the dense crowd, her slight form taking advantage of every meager opening in the multilayered wall of bodies that presented itself. Although she had never been to a major convention before, Olivia was sure that this was what being on the main floor of one probably felt like. On the main stage, she could barely make out the female announcer whose energetic voice was blasting from the myriad speakers scattered about the large chamber. “Is… Is that a worm on her head…?” Olivia wondered aloud, her eyes brightening when she confirmed that, yes, it really was. “Oh, gosh! He’s so cute!” she gushed. “Don’t you think so, Xolys?!” she inquired, turning to look at the small robot with a single glowing blue eye that was peeking out of her backpack.

“Indeed,” Xolys agreed. “Very adorable.”

“Oh, I just love his little jacket!” Olivia continued to gush. “And his green hair! And… Um, is he trying to steal her microphone…?” she wondered, her joyful smile drooping into a confused frown. “Oh gosh! Do you think he’s the real announcer and that woman’s an imposter?!” she exclaimed, her eyes going wide. “She could, like, totally be a pod person, or maybe a replicant! Maybe the whole tournament’s been taken over by nefarious extraterrestrial, or even extradimensional beings, and that poor worm is the only one who knows the truth!”

“It is certainly possible,” Xolys replied. “But not particularly probable. I would not worry about it, my dear.”

“I guess you’re right…” Olivia conceded, before quickly brightening up. “After all, you would know more about that kinda thing than me!” she added with a giggle that sounded more like a snort.

In any case, by this point, both woman and worm had already departed the stage, but that still left plenty of other interesting sights for Olivia to fix her excited attention on, like the strange trio that were floating in mid-air above the bustling crowd. So enraptured was the bluenette as she tried to get a bit closer, that she didn’t notice the photographer taking aim at the same trio until she’d crashed right into her.

“Woah!” the other young woman yelped as Olivia collided with her.

“O-Oh gosh! I-I’m so sorry!” Olivia apologized hastily, shouting to be heard over the din of the crowd, coupled with the loud rapping that was now blasting from the room’s various speakers. “I-I hope I didn’t ruin your picture…”

“Nah, it’s fine,” the other girl said, taking a look at her camera’s display. “And don’t worry about the bump,” she added with a grin. “Ya kinda have to expect gettin’ shoved around a little in a crowded place like this. I’m Kate, by the way,” she introduced herself, while holding out her hand. “Kate Carson.”

“I’m Olivia Bell,” the bespectacled bluenette replied with a big smile as she took the offered hand. “And this is my best friend, Xolys!” she added, pulling the small robot from her backpack and presenting him to Kate.

“Hey little guy,” Kate told the robot, taking one of his electrical wire tendrils between two fingers and giving it a small shake. “Nice to meet ya, you too, Olivia.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance as well, Miss Carson,” Xolys replied.

“Y-Yes! It’s very nice to meet you, too!” Olivia added.

Now that she got a better look at Kate, Olivia saw that the young woman was even shorter than she was, if only slightly, with short, dark hair and blue eyes. Although she was wearing shorts, her light grey hoodie and red jacket seemed a little unsuited for the hot Brazilian sun, but, then again, the same could be said of Olivia’s own choice of attire, which if anything, was even less suited to Brazil’s sweltering heat. But then, that was what the extra-large bottle of Kool-Aid (Oh yeah!) in her backpack’s side pouch was for. Indeed, the ice-cold, super sugary beverage was perfect not only for keeping her cool, but also energized. Not that she needed any help with the latter…

“Gotta say, I wasn’t expecting to literally run into the famous video game character come to life and his partner today,” Kate was noting with a chuckle, although Olivia barely heard her. Instead, she was focused on the girl’s camera, a myriad exciting possibilities sending her overactive imagination into overdrive…

“Are you a Nomad, too?!” she asked eagerly, her eyes beginning to sparkle. “Is that camera how you fight?! Oh! I bet it totally is! Like, it’s a super awesome magitech invention that was made by your mad scientist best friend, and it lets you create negative copies of anything you take pictures of with it, which can then fight on your behalf!” she rambled, eyes getting bigger and smile getting wider with each passing second. “It probably has lots of other cool abilities too, like freezing people in place and speeding up or slowing down time for anyone you aim it at! But its most simple feature is also its most useful, since any time you take a picture of someone, you get to find out everything about them!”

While Olivia continued to babble, Kate began to grow increasingly pale, and one of her eyes had begun to twitch. When the bluenette finally stopped, Kate simply blinked three times, momentarily reduced to stunned silence. “T-That’s, uh, oddly specific…” she replied in a dazed deadpan once she’d finally regained her ability to speak. “But, nope, I’m not a Nomad!” she added with a nervous chuckle. “Just a humble freelance photographer! My last job got finished waaaay faster than I was expecting it to,” she explained. “So I thought I’d take a little vacation down in sunny Brazil, and since I’m here, I figured I might as well make a little money on the side. So, yeah, just a photographer takin’ pictures for a magazine,” she reiterated, holding up her camera for emphasis. “In fact, I try to avoid gettin’ into fights if I can help it.”

“My apologies,” Xolys intoned. “My dear Olivia can get rather… carried away…”

“Gosh!” the bespectacled bluenette exclaimed, her enthusiasm worryingly undiminished. “So, do you wanna interview us?!” she asked the photographer, her jubilant face now only a few short inches away from Kate’s own. “Oh, wow! I’ve never been interviewed before! This is so exciting! Let’s see, my favorite color is eldritch blue, my favorite author is H.P. Lovecraft, and my favorite pizza topping is fried octopus tentacle, but most places don’t seem to have it, which is really strange, because it tastes so good, especially when—”

“Woah! Woah!” Kate yelped, while holding up both hands, her fingers splayed wide. “I’m just a photographer! I leave the interviews to the actual journalists.”

“O-Oh… Okay…” Olivia replied, her demeanor suddenly becoming quite sullen. “S-Sorry for getting ahead of myself….” she apologized. “It’s just that, I’ve never been interviewed before, well, except for that first time, but that one had to be cut short because they said they were having technical issues, so I was really looking forward to finally getting a chance to do my first real interview…”

“H-Hey,” Kate spoke up, feeling kinda terrible about dashing the poor girl’s hopes. “I’m sure there are plenty of other reporters here who would love to give you an interview,” she added.

“You really think so?!” Olivia asked, rapidly returning to her typical exuberance as she brought her face less than an inch away from Kate’s.

“U-Uh, y-yeah!” Kate replied with a nervous chuckle as she leaned back in an attempt to put as much space between her and Olivia as possible. “Y-You’ll probably bump into one in no time!”

“Oh, wow! I really hope so! Oh! Before we go, could you at least take our picture?!” Olivia asked as she hugged Xolys to her chest.

“Sure!” Kate replied with a grin as she readied her camera. “Like I always say, it’s the pictures that tell the story.”

Striking the best pose they could, given the circumstances, Olivia and Xolys waited for Kate to get the perfect angle, and then…

*SNAP!*

“Okay, looks great!” Kate announced after examining her camera’s display. “Welp, guess I’ll see ya around,” she added as she got ready to depart. “Good luck in the tournament!”

“O-Okay!” Olivia called to the departing photographer. “A-And thanks so much!”

“What a pleasant young lady,” Xolys commented, watching Kate disappear into the crowd as Olivia returned him to his place in her backpack. “Am I to assume we shall now be attempting to seek out a reporter of some sort?”

“Yeah!” Olivia confirmed with a nod, before setting off into the sea of bodies once more. “Y’know, I think the big food table is over this way,” she noted as she squirmed between the eclectic assortment of fighters. “That should be the perfect place for an interview!”

However, when she finally made it through the wall of Nomads and into an open space, it wasn’t the sight of a massive buffet table surrounded by dozens of journalists all eager to learn her life story that greeted her. Rather, it was something vastly more incredible by far…

“I-Is that…?” Olivia whispered in hushed awe, her jaw going slack as she beheld the pair of young women seated at the table before her. “Oh wow! It IS!!!” she cried in unbridled delight as she ran over to stand beside the smaller of the two ladies.

“O-Olivia, wait…!” Xolys advised. “I do not believe it would be prudent to interrupt them at this juncture!”

Unfortunately for all involved, Olivia was far too fixated upon the individual that had captured her attention to hear him…

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh! It’s really you!” the bespectacled bluenette cheered, her smile wider than ever. “Oros the Swift! I just love your videos!” she told the kimono-garbed blonde, as she leaned forward to thoroughly invade her personal space. “You’ve fought so many wonderfully intriguing monsters! Like that slimy green one with the boil-covered skin whose jaw could unhinge wide enough to swallow a skyscraper! I can’t believe it had seventeen rows of teeth! That’s just amazing! And then there was that one that looked like a giant flying stomach that vomited out all those wormy things with the flesh-eating acid spray! And then that other one that was made out of worms! And insects, and arachnids, and centipedes, too! I thought the way its body was constantly moving was really mesmerizing! I could have stared at it for hours!” she continued to ramble, her hands clasped together and her eyes seeming to fill with stars. “And speaking of staring, how about that giant floating eye with the bat wings made of bone and all the tentacles?! Wasn’t it simply fascinating how it could make smaller duplicates of itself and fire those lightning beams that phased through obstacles?! Oh! And how could anyone forget the one with the mouth on the end of its tongue?! He was just sooo adorable!” she squealed with a giggle/snort. “Oh, and your music is pretty cool, too!”

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

To the North: Run for the Hills

(Part 2)

Trigger Warning

Tonight, Sombody Dies!

This post also contines examples of the following-

Graphic Violence!
Disturbing/Horrifying Images!
And Connie Crying.
A LOT.

If you feel that any of the above might shatter your sense of inner calm, I would advise skipping this post completely, and instead imagine Connie snuggling with her stuffed animal friends.

If not, then please enjoy!

The coin broker of New York has appeared! Mia has just been mended, but Connie took a pretty solid blow from the Beast. All the pieces are set. The beast and her two agents against Connie, Mia, and what remains of the escapees. Can Connie and Mia save their friends, or will their blood sate the fangs of despair?

Challenge Rating: SS

Notes: The Beast can use her Killing Blow with near impunity, but is vulnerable for a brief time after using it. Be careful.

This hunt can only be undertaken by a party that contains Connie and/or Mia.

Faith only has two uses of her super bandaids left, which can be used to instantly heal a magical girl to full health. This can’t be used if the target was slain in a single strike.

…

…

…

Bionic Bonnie was on the CAPRICORN. She always was. If someone saw her outside the CAPRICORN, she wouldn’t be Bonnie.

Her newspaper remained on the counter of the dinner. She was looking out one of the windows, observing the fight taking place. This was her favorite part of the job, really. Penrose was host to some large-scale magical conflicts, but things like this didn’t happen nearly as often. Connie was far out of her fucking element just to protect some friends she barely knew.

How wonderful being a child must be.

---

With Connie off to get the escapees, Lexi had dragged Mia into the kitchen. No dinner was being prepared here. The pizzeria was just a front. All of the customers were illusions and any real person who entered the premises would leave when they saw how packed it was. Unless of course, you were trying to stake out the place.

“Lada!” Lexi shouted. “Get the boss, and I’m running out of mana.”

Lada was eating mozzarella cheese straight out of the bag when they appeared. “You and your mana.” She wiped her mouth on her arm. “She’s right here, so let’s get you topped up.”

Mia’s target stepped out of a shadow with a jovial wave. “Hello Gaia. We were expecting you two to show up sooner or later.” She dropped her throne in front of Mia before putting her foot on top of it. The Beast leaned on top of her raised knee, putting her face level with Mia’s. “Lexi’s clones tell me you’re pretty obnoxious. I think you sound like a lot of fun.” She gave Mia’s head a single pat. “This is going to be your last chance to cooperate with us. I will hurt Connie if she stands in my way. Are you sure you don’t want to hand the escapees over to me?”

“What the fuck makes you think I can do that?” Mia sneered. “I control plants, not portals. Besides, didn’t your dumbass pal tell ya? Connie’s bringin’ Nuncio over right now, so don’t get your tits in a twist. Oh, and fyi?” she added, while glaring daggers at the coin broker. “Threatening Connie in front of me is a great way to get your head shoved up your ass.”

The mint agents looked at each other. Then Lada pointed her palm at Mia. “Okay, I’m frying her tits off.”

But the Beast tapped Lada on the nose, causing her flame to go out. “We’re professionals, Lada.” She looked back at Mia. “But you do not seem to understand the situation, or you think I’m ignorant. Connie’s file makes her out to be someone who can be easily influenced by others. If I had to guess, Nuncio would convince her to try to break in here and save you with the others.” She folded her arms under her chin. “I want to know if you’re willing to help us should that happen.”

“And how, exactly, am I supposed to help you?” Mia asked with a wry smirk. “Even if you didn’t just threaten my best friend, I’m kinda tied up at the moment.”

“Oh.” The Beast frowned. ”You’re just playing the fool.” Her eyes half closed. “Such wonderful prey. Though obligations require me to take the situation seriously. The best thing to do with a threat is to execute it, but we need you alive to lure the others in. But something I've learned in my line of work is that keeping someone alive is not hard to do.“ The Beast stood up and walked behind Mia. She nodded to her subordinate, who cut Mia’s hands free. But she wouldn’t have long to enjoy her freedom before the Beast snatched her hands. She placed her chin on Mia’s shoulder. “I was told that fingers are just as hard to bite through as carrots.” She moved one of Mia’s hands towards her grinning mouth. Her breath felt hot on the back of her fingers. “Let’s see how true that is.” She opened wide and bit off three of Mia’s fingers in a single bite.

…

…

…

Connie was laying on her back, writhing in pain.

The mint agents were hiding behind a null barrier in the street.

The Beast was approaching Connie. She had walked back into the kitchen while several giant chess pawns followed her.

Nuncio held Sammy in his arms and was rushing to Faith’s side, who was finishing the patch job on Mia. When Mia looked at her hands, she could see that her fingers were intact. She might have thought the whole thing was a nightmare, but the last nightmare she had involved drowning in a safe at the bottom of the ocean.

“Find a safe place to transform!” Faith turned towards Nuncio to receive Sammy. She started to patch her up while Nuncio and his tiger ran back towards the Beast. Anything they could do to buy Connie more time was important. But how could she hope to defeat something that couldn’t feel fear?

“O-Okay,” a still badly shaken up Mia replied as she slowly got to her feet. “J-Just help Connie until I get back!”

With that, the tomboy stumbled her way to a nearby restroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She felt exhausted, her body ached, but none of that pain compared to the fury she felt. Nothing the Beast or her companions had done to her equaled what they had tricked Connie into doing, and Mia knew with agonizing certainty that once her friend realized what she had done, the knowledge would completely shatter the gentle girl’s fragile heart. If it hadn’t already…

I’m sorry, Connie…

Gritting her teeth, she squeezed her eyes shut, even as tears worked to escape them.
I’m so fucking sorry… I forced you to do this. I knew how much it would hurt you to see what they did to me, knew how enraged it would make you, but even then… Even then, I never thought they’d go this far…

“You fucking shit bags…” Mia hissed. “You’ve hurt my little sister enough! Now you get to deal with me! Nature’s beauty! Nature’s grace! Nature’s power!” she intoned as a whirlwind of verdant energy swirled around her. “Behold! I am Gaia, Daughter of Mother Earth!”

---

Faith continued to patch up Sammy. She hid behind the kitchen island as fireballs erupted all around her. Meanwhile, the Beast was in the same room as Connie. The front of the Pizzaria was empty, save for the Dryad wasps that were coming through the windows. Nuncio and Rosa were cut off by the giant pawns, which tried to bodyslam them.

“All done?” The Beast lifted her throne over her head. “What a shame...”

“Not yet,” a cold voice corrected, even as dozens of thorny vines burst from the floor to wrap tightly around the Beast, while monstrous Venus-flytrap heads clamped their toothy maws upon the coin broker’s hands and bloated bulbs sent torrents of highly toxic spores shooting into her face. “Not by a long shot.”

But vines and poison weren’t going to hold back a coin broker for more than a moment. The vines snapped and stretched as the massive throne inched closer to Connie’s body, but Rosa managed to break through just in time to grab a hold of her sleeve. She dragged the girl away just as the throne crashed through the floorboards.

The chess soldiers spread out behind the Beast. “You’re under the delusion that you can wear me down, that you just need to keep me distracted. Let me show you how wrong that is.”

With her free hand, the Beast took her crown off of her head and started walking towards Nuncio. Meanwhile, her pawns had moved around to form a barrier between herself and Gaia. The knights, however, galloped right over them and charged towards the viridian magical girl.

Even as The Beast broke through her entanglement, Gaia watched with relief as Connie was dragged to (relative) safety. The masked girl was visibly injured, and seemed to be having a lot of trouble breathing. Thus, the sooner Faith could tend to her injuries, the better. As for Gaia herself, it appeared she had gained the coin broker’s attention, at least if the oversized chess pieces attempting to run her down were anything to go by… Yet, as she had already demonstrated, even here, in the heart of one of the world’s largest cities, the Daughter of Mother Earth could find allies to answer her call to arms. Bursting from the floor in front of the charging knights, a pair of mighty tree men grabbed hold of the chessmen cavalry with thick branch-arms and firm root tendrils, and, using their own considerable momentum against them, flung them around like a carousel to crash into the line of pawns screening The Beast herself.

The pawns scuffed across the floor and formed up in front of the knights. They winnied moments before impact. The pawns toppled over along with the knights, but hadn’t sustained too much damage. One of the pawns had a hairline crack running along its head while most of the others had chipped here and there. They started to “stand up” after just a moment of laying prone.

Nuncio held up his cane as the Beast approached, but she was not deterred. “Damn Mint broads.” He focused his gaze. “I ain't afraid of you.”

She spun the crown on the tip of her finger. “Oh Nuncio, that’s exactly why you’re going to die first.”

The kitchen behind Nuncio blew up in a ball of fire. He turned just in time to see Faith rush past him. What Nuncio didn’t see was the Beast had lunged for him while he was distracted by the explosion.

“Say your prayers, Verminslayer!”

The Beast swung her crown in a wide arc for Nuncio’s torso. But something slipped in front of her target. Something far shorter than the average magical girl that could see her ruse a mile away. Nuncio stumbled backwards and turned his gaze to the one person who would sacrifice herself to save him.

“Sammy?”

Sammy was suspended in the air now. A checkers piece floated over her head and under her feet. Her hands were shaking, the corners of her lips were quivering, but she still managed to smile.

“Just as I deduced would happen.” She chuckled nervously. “I let Tony get hurt, but I’m not going to let Rosa’s best friend die too.”

Nuncio grit his teeth. “The hell you goin’ on about, Sammy? You’re worth more than-”

”There’s a lot I want to say, but there just- There just isn’t time anymore.” Her voice cracked. “She’s most vulnerable after she uses this attack. So be careful, and don’t, don’t-”



The checker’s pieces slammed together, crushing the magical girl between them out of existence. There was no blood or gore, just the loud clap of two plastic disks smashing into each other. ”Hngh!” The Beast clutched her chest and fell on one knee. Her throne clattered to the ground with her crown.

S-Sammy?! Even through her excruciating pain, Connie was able to witness the far more agonizing sight of the diminutive detective’s apparent demise, the masked girl’s eyes going wide in horror. Nonononononono… She didn’t want to believe what she had just seen, desperately wanted it to simply be yet another illusion, but she knew with dreadful, soul-crushing certainty that it had really happened. Sammy… was dead…

The chess pieces had stopped moving, and Fath was able to run past them with little effort. ”Only one more after this.” She whispered as she went to bandage up Connie. ”Just, just try to stay calm.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she placed the bandaid on her chest. ”Don’t think about what we’ve lost.”

Connie’s head spun. Don’t think about what they’d lost? How could she possibly do that? She had just seen Sammy killed in front of her eyes. The little detective had died, and she had been unable to save her. Indeed, Connie realized with mounting rage and despair, it was because of her that the girl had even been here in the first place. She had come to save her friends, and now… Now…

“You…” Connie whispered as she slowly sat up, her voice practically dripping with hatred and pain. “You…” Reaching a trembling hand into the dark folds of her robe, she withdrew The Eye of Fear and, tightly grasping the unnerving sphere, used the mystic artifact to discover exactly what The Beast feared the most. Even if the coin broker claimed to be devoid of that emotion, there had to be something, some event or trauma buried deep in her past, hidden in some dark corner of her subconscious, that was simply waiting be unlocked, to be set free, free to devour her from the inside out… And Connie would find it. Yes, she would make full use of it, amplify it a thousandfold, and then…

She screeched, even as she sent a focused torrent of refined nightmare magic into The Beast’s weakened body.

Meanwhile, Gaia had also seen Sammy’s awful fate play out from where she was standing, but, like Connie, she too had been unable to do anything to save the detective. Still, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t avenge her…

“YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!” the verdant maiden roared, all semblance of serenity and refinement completely dissolving in the face of her unbridled fury.

Even as her augmented tree men used their massive limbs to sweep aside the chessmen, Gaia strode forward, a veritable force of nature, wreathed in swirling tendrils of mystic energy. Twirling Nature’s Blossom in her hands, she allowed the enchanted staff to gather potent power, before pointing it at The Beast’s kneeling form and unleashing an all-out deluge of glowing, emerald annihilation. This was joined a second later by a hail of explosive pea pellets and chair-sized corn-cob missiles, launched from newly-sprouted weapon pods on the hulking tree men’s broad shoulders. All were careful to ensure that none of their allies were caught in the botanical barrage, of course, but it was painfully obvious that if they were to have any chance of slaying The Beast, this was it…

And the Beast did have a fear. It wasn’t so much that Connie had to look hard to find it, but in her more vulnerable state it was easier to see. She didn’t like getting sick. Her parents had been taken by a mysterious illness and it was always at the back of her mind that she would meet a similar fate.

The nightmare magic coursed through the beast’s body. Cysts opened up on the surface of her skin, her flesh bulged as cancer grew under her cloak. Her teeth fell out of her head and next to her dislodged fingernails. This was moments before her body was bombarded by Gaia’s viridian might. Her flesh opened up as fractured corn kernels and peas smashed into her tender flesh. But despite all this, she wouldn’t die. She couldn’t get on her feet, but she wouldn’t be laid low.

Faith could do nothing but sulk for her fallen friend. Nuncio was still staring at where Sammy use to be before looking at the Beast. She was in a sorry state right now, and yet.

”This is too easy.” Nuncio took a deep breath. ”Sammy was tryin’ to say something.”

While his allies bombarded the Beast with magic, Nuncio grabbed a metal napkin dispenser off a table and launched it into the Beast. Only…

Clang

The illusion dispersed. Lexi held her led pipe in front of herself while Lada maintained her null wall. The Beast herself hadn’t received a single bit of the retribution that had been aimed at her.

”They’re using our emotions against us!” Nuncio roared.

But it was too late. The beast reached for her crown and throne before rising to her feet again. ”It’s like I said. Victory over me is just an illusion.” As soon as she placed her crown on top of her head, her fear of diseases seemed to vanish.

Lada kept her null barrier up and charged Connie, with the beast following right behind her. The tile floor broke apart under the weight of her throne, but she didn’t seem to have any difficulty dragging it. Meanwhile, Lexi ran to square off against Nuncio. Lead pipe and cain clashed, and the two gangsters looked at eachother with dead, soulless eyes.

Even in her enraged state, Connie knew that it was pointless to attempt another attack on The Beast. With the coin broker shielded by Lada’s null field, even her most potent magic would be rendered utterly useless. Yet, the menacing pair continued to draw ever-nearer, and Connie refused to simply stand by and wait for them to finish her off. Thus, giving voice to a snarl of fury, the masked maiden employed her myriad tentacles to wrap around every utensil, chair, and other liftable item nearby, and hurl them at Lada with all the force she could muster.

Meanwhile, from her position behind both The Beast and her shield of nullification, Gaia swiftly moved to take full advantage of the small window of opportunity she had been given. Blasting the coin broker with another deluge of emerald energy beams, she simultaneously instructed one of her tree men to strike out with an extending arm and punch the crown off The Beast’s head, even as the pea pod cannons on its shoulders switched to firing sedative spores. Not wishing to leave Nuncio unaided, the verdant maiden had the other tree man shower him and Lexi with a torrent of additional sedative pellets, which would soon envelope both fighters in a thick cloud.

That bitch’s illusion magic is tricky… The last thing I want to do is hurt one of my friends by accident, so I’ll stick with knocking them out for now. But when this is finally over, they’ll wish they had died quickly…

When friendly fire was unavoidable, best to make sure the attack wasn’t lethal.

Both mobster and gang member were caught off guard by the cloud of smoke. It took effect on Nuncio first, dropping him onto his knee almost instantly. He struggled to cling to his weapon, but found it easier just to lower his hands to the ground. He was going to fall over any moment. Lexi was able to remain standing, but her fluttering eyelids made it apparent that she wasn’t fairing much better. She breathed out and stepped away from the cloud. She was barely strong enough to swing her weapon.

But the surrounding chess pieces were unaffected.

The pawns closed up around Nuncio and the tree man, and the two remaining knights threw their marble bodies into the tree man. Its body cracked and bark splintered off from the impact.

The Beast and Lada shifted in position. The displacement spell Lexi had cast on them failed as soon as she became drowsy. They were much closer to Connie than they appeared. But it wasn’t too late for either of them to adjust their aim.

Lada dropped her null barrier just in time to throw her hands up in front of all the incoming projectiles. Flames spilled out of her hands like a river tumbling over a cliff. They washed over the mundane furniture and tree man, leaving naught but cinders. The metal cutlery did make its way through her flames, but by that time it was molted steel. It splashed upon her bare skin, and she winced in pain. Mundane dangers were hardly an issue for a magical girl, and fire girls were resistant to heat. This wasn’t going to take her out of the fight.

”I think it’s time I razed the forest.”

Both rooks dashed (or did they teleport?) to either side of Lada before she marched towards Gaia. She raised her hands in front of herself and funneled her flames towards the viridian magical girl.

This left Connie and Faith to contend with The Beast. Faith had managed to get a hold of herself and was firing notes at the coin broker, but this was just slowing her down. With a growl, the Beast flung her throne straight at Connie. It glistened like a comet as it flew straight towards her.

The eyes of her mask widening in shock, Connie gabbed Faith and dove out of the throne’s path as quickly as she could. Before she had even hit the floor, the masked girl fired another overcharged nightmare pulse at the now unprotected Beast. If she was able to get to her feet fast enough, the Empress of Nightmares would also attempt to wrap her tentacles around The Beast’s throne and fling it back at the coin broker.

Meanwhile, Gaia grit her teeth as she watched Lada incinerate one of her tree men with a mighty gout of flame. Yet, this wasn’t an entirely detrimental development. Now that the pyromancer was focused on her, she wasn’t shielding The Beast with a nullification field. Gracefully dodging Lada’s subsequent fiery torrent, the Daughter of Mother Earth fired back with several mystic blasts from Nature’s Blossom, even as a pair of thorny vines burst up from behind the pyromancer in an attempt to ensnare her legs and flip her face first into the floor.

Farther afield, the sole remaining tree man found itself being strengthened by an influx of additional nature magic, its bark growing substantially thicker and its injuries quickly healing themselves. Ignoring the knights to its rear for the time being, the botanical bruiser doused Lexi with another burst of sedative spores, while more vines snaked out to coil tightly around her. An instant later, it gabbed two of the pawns assailing Nuncio by their spherical tops and flung them, one after another, at The Beast’s head with considerable force.

”Hurk!” Lexi was on the verge of unconsciousness. She sunk into the vines… and vanished from sight. Initially Gaia suspected she had cloaked herself, but after everything she had done, was there anything for a coward like that left to do but use her get out of jail card? That left Nuncio and the tree man surrounded by six pawns, two damaged knights, and two bishops. The knights and pawns took turns slamming their bodies into the tree man while the bishops were charging up for something. The queen was also present, but she hadn’t moved since the Beast took off.

The rooks were faster than they looked. They moved in front of Lada just as the incoming spell would have struck her. But they could do nothing to stop the vines from creeping up her legs. That was what Lada’s flames were for. With just a touch, the vines were turned to cinders.

”You need to play more pokemon. At least then you’d know how unfavorable this matchup is.”

The next time the rooks parted was to let Lada lob an explosive fireball Gaia’s way.

It’s not like I have much of a choice… Gaia thought as she dodged Lada’s latest flaming attack, the fireball missing her by scant centimeters.

And because there wasn’t enough happening, The Beast had caught up to Connie and Faith. The nightmare pulse bought Connie an extra second to get some distance with Faith. The pawns slammed into her back, shortly after her chair was flung into her chest. But once she was done stumbling around, it didn’t seem like the attack had hurt her very much. There was a grin plastered on her face, and she picked up her chair as her pawns rocked themselves to their feet. She took her free hand and placed it on top of her crown.

”I think it’s time for someone else to die.”

“I couldn’t agree more…” Gaia hissed through clenched teeth even as she fired another volley of energy bolts at the blocking rooks.

The verdant maiden hoped that her bombardment would soon eliminate at least a few of the annoying chessmen, but as long as they were around, she would continue to make use of them at every opportunity. Utterly unperturbed by the pummeling it was taking, the tree man strode forward and grabbed the two charging bishops. With a mighty sweep of its massive arms, it hurled them at Lada, following that up with a thick stream of sedative spores. Even if this didn’t take the pyromancer out of action, Gaia was already preparing her next attack as she instructed unseen roots behind the walls and under the floor to wrap around every water pipe they could find…

Meanwhile, the furious Empress of Nightmares placed herself in front of Faith and, giving voice a hate-filled scream, fired a pair of massive nightmare blasts from each of her hands, one aimed at Lada and the other at The Beast. Despite her rage, Connie still had the presence of mind to note that the coin broker was preparing to strike once more, and so she readied her myriad tendrils to intercept any incoming attack.

The Beast took a single labored step forward, even as the nightmare energy washed over her. ”I don’t fear anything, remember?”

The rooks once again changed positions. One slid to Lada’s rear to block the incoming bishops.They bounced off the rook’s robust shape, and the spoors were unable to penetrate it. The other rook kept itself in front of Gaia’s torrent of energy bolts. The rook was starting to show some damage as its brickwork fell away. There were cracks running up and down its form.

But Gaia’s attention would be stolen away as the fireball detonated. The force was enough to throw Gaia towards the rook, but more pressing was that she and her environment were now set ablaze. It became impossible to see as her body was consumed in fire.

”Hah!” Lada laughed from the safety of her rooks. ”You could stand to play some dungeons and dragons while you’re at it!” Lada only just now turned to face the direction of her leader, and was met with a third attack. The wave of nightmarish energy washed over her, and her porcelain skin turned pale as her nightmares manifested before her eyes.

Boys. A classroom's worth of upperclassmen materialized right beside her. She had just enough time to acknowledge what they were before they tackled her to the ground. She hollered and sprayed her flames on them, but when one was incinerated another would take his place. Some held down he limbs, other bit her, a few hard enough to draw blood. But none of them were afraid of getting burned. Even with everything else going on, Lada’s screams cut through everything.

The tree man’s vitality was failing, but he was able to survive repeated blows from the chess men due to the magic being pumped into him. But the queen started to shake. After waiting for so long, she was ready to make her move.

She careened away from the tree man. No vine or table could stop the queen’s advance as she retreated from combat. Once out of danger she kept sliding until she slammed into the opposing wall. It hadn’t been visible initially, but Nuncio’s body laid at the base of the queen, laying in a pool of his own crimson.

”Greet your beloved in hell, Verminslayer.” The beast lifted her hand off of her crown. ”I don’t need to resort to such risky measures to eliminate you weaklings.” A fact that caused her to scowl. ”Show me some real strength and I might consider crowning you.” She dropped her chair and pounced on Connie.

With a scream that rivaled Lada’s Faith continued to pepper the Beast with attacks. But if anyone cared to look out the windows, they could see the pillar druids were drawing closer…

Gaia might have been on fire, but her forward thinking at least put her in possession of a solution to the problem. There wasn’t a lot of water to be found in the front of the pizzeria. There was a central water line that ran under the floor, but the back wall fed water into the kitchen and restrooms. But bursting the main waterline would cut off water to the back wall. What would she do with this information?

The answer, for the moment, was nothing. Despite being at the center of a raging firestorm, Gaia’s mind was focused on only one objective: ending Lada’s life. Even as the flames singed her skin and hair, the verdant maiden used the momentum of the explosion to vault over the rook, until she was directly above where the pyromancer writhed in torment. With but a thought, the botanical beauty conjured a massive, wickedly sharp thorn on the bottom tip of her staff, before thrusting it into Lada’s heart with all her strength.

Simultaneously, the tree man flung one of the attacking pawns at The Beast, while smashing his other mighty fist through the floor, where it merged with the roots wrapped around the main water line. Breaking open the line, the tree man ensured the ensuing torrent surged through one arm into his body’s internal root system, before being expelled by the pair of large, blue bulbs that had just sprouted atop his shoulders. Thus, as soon as it was clear Lada had breathed her last, Gaia and the surrounding area would be drenched in a powerful spray of water.

Meanwhile, with another horrifying, hate-filled scream, Connie lunged for The Beast, her tendrils and each of her fingers tipped with needle-sharp spikes of pure nightmare energy. If the coin broker didn’t have nightmares, then she would simply inject some directly into her brain…

Between freaking out of her mind, being held down by an army of boys, and having no allies to block Gaia’s assault, there wasn’t anything Lada could do to resist Gaia’s attack. The spike sunk into her chest with little fanfare. Her cries of panic died down, her eyes rolled into her head, and her body went limp. Even as the boys continued to bite her, she remained quiet and unmoving. Just as Gaia’s flesh was starting to melt, she was blasted with cold water. Lada’s flames would not go out instantly, but they were subsiding. All while the chess pieces continued to pound on the tree man. All but the queen and bishops, who had yet to move again.

Connie had cast her last remaining bit of sanity aside to greet the coin broker’s lunge. But their difference in strength would become apparent when the taller, older-looking girl was able to use her longer arms to grab Connie’s wrists. The empress of nightmares fell onto her back just as the Beast sat on her stomach. Her tendrils bored into the Beast’s flesh, but the coin broker only grunted. The nightmares had taken, but they would need time to become strong enough to manifest.

Time that Connie might not have had.

The Beast grabbed Connie’s head and proceeded to crush it between her hands. Faith didn’t have the firepower to stop the beast. However, a rogue pawn collided with the beast’s back, which might have given Connie the extra time she needed to escape.

As it was, however, Connie no longer cared about escaping. Her overwhelming fury had focused all her thoughts on achieving one, singular objective: making The Beast of the North pay… In her efforts to crush Connie’s skull, the coin broker had allowed the masked maiden’s limp arms to fall to the floor, and so, using her tendrils to reinforce her shattered wrists, the Empress of Nightmares raised her hands and, with a savage snarl, drove them into either side of The Beast’s head, even as the tree man flung yet another attacking chessman in an attempt to knock off the coin broker’s crown.

Panting from the recent exertion and pain, a weary Gaia slowly began accumulating mystic power in preparation for a last ditch attack on The Beast, while still keeping alert for whatever the queen and bishops might be planning to do next.

The initial pawn that had been thrown at the Beast transformed into a queen, which was more than tall enough to block the incoming pawn from striking anyone. With Connie dedicating all of her power to offense, there was little preventing the Beast from crushing her skull. At the end of the day, Connie was a new magical girl, and the Beast had years and years to grow her power. For the second time, Connie slipped into unconsciousness due to hemorrhagic shock. The back of her head started to change color.

The chess men were getting quite fed up with being turned into projectiles, and decided to counterattack. Each of the bishops fired a freezing ray at Gaia and the treeman. The effects were not immediate, but Gaia could feel her body freezing over as her movement became more sluggish. There was little she could do before the queen decided to strike again. This time, she surfed right towards her. She struck with such force that the crumbling rook detonated right under her, but the queen kept charging until it crushed Gaia against the far wall. She was no longer being hit by the freezing beam, but the impact had cracked a few of her ribs and shattered her shoulder. She wasn’t feeling well and her magic was dwindling. Her remaining treeman had been able to take quite a beating, but the frigid ray was making him brittle and stiff. The assaulting chess men where breaking him apart and he was slowly becoming a frigid statue. Gaia would have to decide what she wanted to use her stored up magic for while she was still conscious. A shot at the Beast from here wouldn’t be possible, as the second queen was obstructing her view from the main target.

Gaia hissed in pain as the queen slammed into her and pinned her against the far wall, the bishop’s freeze ray preventing her from dodging the malevolent monarch in time. The verdant maiden knew Connie was in great danger, but from her current position, she could do nothing to assist her friend. Indeed, simply surviving the next few seconds was her most pressing concern. Thus, channeling her stored up magic into Nature’s Blossom, she thrust the staff into the queen and fired a mighty blast of mystic power, one which she hoped would shatter the oversized chess piece completely.

Meanwhile, in what was in all likelihood its final gesture of defiance, the increasingly paralyzed tree man extended its sole unfrozen appendage to grasp the bishop that was freezing him and attempted to hurl it in such a way so that its icy beam would now strike its fellow bishop instead.

The queen’s slender torso was split in half by the burst of magical energy. As the queen fell in two, Gaia was able to spot the tree man’s last act as he flung the bishop. It fell in such a way that they were firing their beams at each other, and they froze solid in a second. The remaining pawns and knights overwhelmed him shortly afterwards. As she fell unconscious, she could only hope that the other chess men didn’t discover her.

The Beast rose to her feet and looked at Faith. ”I am envious of your friends' loyalty to you.” She motioned a hand towards Connie’s form. ”You want to save her, correct?”

Faith clenched her teeth. ”You’re just going to kill me!”

”How shrewd!” The Beast smiled. ”You are the only target here that I need to kill. Connie does not need to die.” She cracked her knuckles. ”I’ll let you get close enough to place one of those bandages on her, and then I’ll take your life. Or you can wait for her to die and I’ll chase you afterwards. Consider it my final jest to a challenging opponent.”

Faith didn’t look any more pleased with the Beast, but what kind of friend would let Connie die in front of Mia? ”Very well.”

She inched closer to Connie’s body. Time was of the essence, but this was going to be the end for her. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want Sammy and Nuncio’s deaths to be in vain. But if it meant saving Connie’s life, she’d gladly sacrifice the three of them for that.

While the thought of having her life snuffed out terrified her, she didn’t want to drag things out and have Connie die. She lunged for the girl’s head and slapped her last super bandaid on it.

And the beast reeled backwards as a cannon ball burst through the front window and careened into her chest.

”Mmmmm.” A half woman, half octopus magical girl floated in through the broken window. ”You look like a worthy opponent.”

The Beast regained her composure and stood up. ”You’re alive?” With a snort, she pulled her crown off of her head. Connie would notice that even without her crown, she still seemed to be resisting the nightmare magic. But small boils were starting to break out on her chin. ”Regardless, you’re not in my contract. I’ll collect your head later.” The second pawn that had arrived beside the Beast also turned into a queen.

Lotus and Faith prepared for a last stand as both queens moved with the Beast. This could be her last chance to save Faith’s life.

Once again, Connie found herself awakening from inky black unconsciousness to the sight of her friends in peril. As her shaking body slowly rose to a sitting position, the masked maiden couldn’t see who The Beast was preparing to kill, only that the coin broker had left herself vulnerable. Perhaps she had assumed Connie was no longer a threat, perhaps she was just that arrogant, but no matter the reason, the Empress of Nightmares would show the Mint Monarch just how wrong she was…

Using the last remnants of her strength for a final burst of speed, Connie charged The Beast from behind. Wrapping her legs and tendrils around the coin broker as tightly as possible, she plunged her nightmare needle-tipped fingers into the young woman’s head, pressing against her hated foe’s skull so hard it seemed the bones in her fingers might break. A deluge of fully unleashed nightmare magic was sent surging into The Beast’s brain, enough to make a million people die of sheer terror, enough to forge an eternal nightmare, from which there could be no escape. Indeed, so concentrated was the energy, and so vast was Connie’s hatred, that the Empress of Nightmares was able to conjure physical manifestations through sheer force of will. Chittering tides of demonic spiders and other nightmarish horrors spilled from the coin broker’s mouth, nose, ears, and the gaps around her bulging eyes, even as Connie shrieked in unbridled fury.

“I won’t let you hurt ANYONE ELSE!!!”

The two queens flew past Connie on either side, smashing into Faith and Lotus in the distance. This left the Beast alone with Connie clung to her back. The beast flailed her arms, not quite able to reach the child on her back. Until…

*Clink*

The crown touched Connie’s hip.

Before long, she was suspended between two checker pieces that threatened to crush her. The Beast stood in front of her with a grin. Even as creepy crawlies poured out of her mouth and ears. She raised her hands up and held them apart, like she was going to press the checkers together. She was talking, but it just spewed forth more insects instead of making words. But by now, the Beast’s flesh was starting to stretch and break out. Cysts broke out all over her body as she collapsed onto her knees. Connie and the checker pieces fell to the ground.

It seemed that the nightmare curse was strong enough to take out the Beast before her killing blow had finished. In that brief moment when she was pouring all of her magic into one final attack, the curse was able to intercept her before its conclusion.

”Ahhh, two out of three ain’t bad.” The Beast chuckled. She was staring at the ceiling, and had lost the use of her eyes moments ago. ”What a fun little hunt that was. I’m glad you were able to present a challenge in the end. I look forward to our rematch.” With a smile on her face, the beast toppled backwards and transformed back into a normal girl. Her sickly body resting on a pile of rubble.

Rematch?!

Connie’s masked face contorted into an even more horrifying visage than it had been mere moments ago.

REMATCH?!!

With a savage snarl, Connie leapt upon the fallen coin broker and blasted her in the face with the strongest nightmare pulse her meager remaining mana could muster. This girl… this monster who had killed two of her friends, had tortured her best friend, and then tricked Connie into giving her a hellish nightmare, this piece of human filth thought that after all the indescribable agony she’d inflicted, the Empress of Nightmares would simply allow her to recover, to do the same or worse all over again?!

No.

Connie had been adamant in her words.

Never again…

With wild abandon, Connie drove her fists into The Beast’s face over and over, sending spike after flickering spike of nightmare magic into the unconscious girl with each blow. She continued her frenzied assault even after her fists became bloody and numb, she continued, until…

“Connie…” Gaia’s soft and sympathetic voice called her name, even as she felt her friend’s loving arms wrap around her. “You can stop now. It’s over.”

At the touch of her best friend, Connie’s fists fell limply to her side as she collapsed into Gaia’s embrace.

“M-Mia…?” she asked weakly, finally snapping out of her berserker rage.

“You did it, little sister,” Gaia whispered. “You stopped her.”

“M-Miaaaaa…!” Connie cried, her shuddering body clinging tightly to the verdant maiden as she sobbed her eyes out. “I-I’m sorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry…! I-I gave you t-those awful n-nightmares, a-and let you get hurt, a-and l-let our f-friends g-get… g-get…!”

“It’s okay, Connie,” Gaia reassured her as she held the sobbing girl tight. “It’s okay…”

At least, the verdant maiden dearly hoped it would be…

Even though the upper half of the Beast’s head was gone, her lips were curled into a giant grin (minus several teeth). She wouldn’t be getting back up any time soon.

”Mmmmm.” Lotus was carrying Faith in her harms. Her eyes swept over the devastated area. The pizzeria would need to close for a while to clean up, provided it hadn’t been a front for the mint this entire time. The chess pieces were all crumbling to dust before her eyes. ”You fought a powerful opponent. I only wish I could have assisted.”

Faith hadn’t taken the last hit from the queen very well. The whole side of her body was bruised, but she was still conscious. ”What happened? How did you get here?”

”Mmmmm, I was hiding out here. I saw the pillar druids and decided to investigate.”

Faith closed her eyes. ”I didn’t know you were even alive.”

”Mmmmm, that is a long story.”

Connie gasped at the sound of the new voice.

“L-L-Lotus…?! B-But, h-how…?!”

Lotus looked at Connie. ”Mmmmm. If you must have an explanation…” But she trailed off when she noticed the corpses towards the back of the Pizzaria. She hovered past Connie and Mia, still holding Faith in her arms. She didn’t stop until she was hovering over what remained of Nuncio. Her fingers curled around Faith like talons.

”Mmmmm, we suffered a casualty.”

Faith winced before averting her eyes from Nuncio’s body. ”They got Sammy too.”

”Mmmmm, that is a shame.” The pizzeria shook as a caustic projectile slammed into the side of the building. ”Your mother is worried about you. We need to get you out of the city.” Lotus turned to look at Connie and Mia. ”Do you know where we could go for a time?”

“U-Umm, I h-have an i-interdimensional h-home…” Connie offered, after taking a moment to wipe her streaming tears with the sleeve of her robe.

“A friend of ours also has a pocket dimension,” Gaia added. “If that might work better, we could try contacting her.”

”Mmmmm.” Lotus closed her eyes. ”I do not have a way of helping Faith recover faster. If your friend can help us, I would be inclined to go to their pocket dimension.” The pizzeria shook again. ”Provided arrangements can be made swiftly.”

While the duo saw about doing that, Bonnie stepped through the front of the pizzaria. She took a look around the battle ground before arriving in front of Connie.

”The conditions of your contract have been satisfied. Faith lives, and the Beast has been slain. I had hoped that you would save all of your friends, but this outcome does not surprise me.” She turned towards the Beast’s corpse. ”Maybe one aspect surprises me.” She turned back to the duo. ”But you are due your payment.” Bonnie opened her hand, and there were two thin slivers of something in her hand. It looked like two gemstones, but they were more flexible and had an eerie purple glow. Their centers were perfectly black like an endless void, and just looking at them caused them to feel a distinct sense of dread. At the same time, they understood that they were a form of magical currency. ”I’ve always considered a successful mission its own reward, but upper management wanted you two to have one of these grief seeds. Aside from the name, I don’t know that much about them.” She looked to Gaia. ”I can take you back to Penrose when you are ready.”

Lotus squinted her eyes at the newcomer. ”Mmmmm, I think Penrose would be even worse than remaining in New York.”

At first, Connie was startled by Bonnie’s sudden appearance, but her shock swiftly turned to anger. “I-I don’t want a reward!” she snarled, clenching her bloody fists. “I want my friends back! A-And I want that… t-that monster to suffer forever!” she added, pointing a trembling finger at where what was left of The Beast lay in a pile of blood-soaked rubble.

“Perhaps I should hold on to these?” Gaia suggested in a calm and soothing voice, while placing a comforting hand on Connie’s shoulder. “Why don’t you give Amanda a call?” she added softly.

“F-Fine…” Connie muttered after a few tense seconds. Giving Bonnie one final, horrific glare, she turned her back on the cyborg and pulled out her phone. “A-Amanda…? she asked tentatively once she’d finished dialing. “I-It’s C-Connie. W-We c-could r-really use your h-help….”

With their business concluded, Bonnie dismissed herself with a nod. She walked all the way to the exit before looking over her shoulder at the shaken survivors. Then she looked ahead. The pillar druids were still closing in, with the local magical girl populace struggling to contain the damage.

”May your friendship last forever.” She said before departing.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

Olivia and Xolys

“Maiden and Marvel ready for action!”

“Gosh! Is this like an interview?! Oh, wow! This is so exciting!” _____________________________________________________ NAME: Olivia Rose Bell, Xolys _______________________________________________ EPITHET: The Maiden and The Marvel // The Nerd and The Nightmare _______________________________________________ AGE: 18 (Olivia), ??? (Xolys) _______________________________________________ PRONOUNS: She/Her (Olivia), He/Him (Xolys) _______________________________________________ HEIGHT: 4’11” (Olivia) 12’7” (Xolys) 9.5” (Xolys travel mode) _______________________________________________ WEIGHT: 97lbs (Olivia) 3000lbs (Xolys) 12lbs (Xolys travel mode) _______________________________________________ NATIONALITY: USA _______________________________________________ LIKES: Gearmantic Hearts, Xolys, being a Nomad (Olivia) / Olivia (Xolys) _______________________________________________ DISLIKES: Bullies (Both)

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OVERVIEW

“We may not look like much now, but just wait until we get to the arena!”
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APPEARANCE

“I dyed my hair myself! Now it matches Xolys’s eyes, wings, and scythes! Pretty cool, huh?!
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Olivia is a plain, somewhat underdeveloped young woman, with vibrant blue (originally black) hair, which is often worn in two braided ponytails that reach just past the center of her back. Her vision is pretty terrible, so she wears a pair of corrective lenses over her intense blue eyes. Since becoming a Nomad, she typically dresses in comfortable, if a bit oversized, traveling clothes, usually in shades of blue or black. On average, this is a simple ensemble consisting of cargo pants, t-shirt, and hoodie. She’s also never without her extra large traveler’s backpack, which contains all her worldly possessions, most importantly, her custom controller and Xolys, whose head can often be seen peeking out of it.

Xolys himself usually takes the form of a small robot, which was obviously cobbled together from various sources, and fairly crudely at that. However, when Olivia activates Xolys’s combat form, he becomes a frighteningly perfect recreation of the towering technomantic nightmare of the same name from Gearmantic Hearts.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

“Um, why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something weird again?
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Olivia is a friendly, if socially awkward girl, who is always happy to make new friends and chat with them about her many interests. The problem is, those interests tend to be rather bizarre, and the talkative, overzealous, and highly energetic Olivia is almost always completely oblivious to that fact. Because of the near consent rejection and ridicule she’s experienced, she has started to become a bit more hesitant to open up to people, but showing even the slightest interest in one of her obsessions will open the proverbial floodgates once more, with Olivia happily babbling away for hours on end. Due to her exceptionally poor social skills, she often inadvertently invades others’ personal space and, especially when excited about the topic of discussion, speaks in an incredibly rapid and louder-than-necessary voice, which most find both difficult to understand and highly annoying. She’s also a hopeless romantic, which, coupled with her afore mentioned bizarre interests and lack of social skills, presents its own share of problems… Still, if one can look past all her quirks and eccentricities, they will find a loyal and caring friend. Indeed, Olivia doesn’t seem to have a single mean bone in her body, and all of her various bothersome mannerisms are completely unintentional on her part, leading the poor girl to frequently apologize for her offensive behavior.

On the other hand, despite his appearance (in both forms), Xolys is an unfailingly polite and respectful being, often complimenting other Nomads’ abilities and techniques. Strangely coming across as the grounded voice of reason, in contrast to Olivia’s somewhat unhinged exuberance, he attempts to guide her through social interactions in much the same way as she guides him in combat.

BACKSTORY

“Oh gosh! You really want me to tell you my origin story?! I’d love to!”
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Growing up in the suburbs of Geopolis as the youngest and weakest of her parent’s five children, Olivia was always viewed as a freak and a failure. Her father was the proud owner of Bell Bionics, the best place in Geopolis for visiting Nomads to acquire mechanical augmentations and replacement limbs. However, while her talented older siblings served as his frequently-praised assistants, after one accident too many, it was clear that Olivia was nothing but a hinderance, and she was soon banned from entering the workshop. Things weren’t any easier for her at school, either. Her scrawny and bespectacled appearance was bad enough, but when combined with her strange interests, grating voice, and virtually non-existent social skills, it made her a prime target for bullying. Thus, despised, mocked, and shunned by her family and classmates alike, Olivia turned to the only place of refuge she possessed in her sad and lonely world- the local arcade.

From the moment she had first set foot in the neon-covered edifice, Olivia had been enthralled. Its myriad otherworldly lights and sounds drew her in like a moth to a flame, its array of games promising a longed-for escape from her depressing reality. Yet, there was one game that surpassed all the others- Gearmantic Hearts. A renowned fighting game from Covington Arts, it was one of the most popular games at the arcade, so much so, that Olivia hadn’t even been able to play it on her first visit. Or her second. Or her third… The lines were so long, she would spend hours waiting, only to go home disappointed when the arcade closed, just as she was about to take her turn. At the very least, she was able to watch the game being played while she waited, and she eventually memorized all the moves of each fighter. All, that was, save one…

Xolys.

He was a bizarre, eldritch machine that was simply captivating in his strangeness, and, to someone like Olivia, who had eagerly devoured all the works of H.P. Lovecraft, it was love at first sight. According to the one sentence description on his profile, which appeared along with those of the other fighters on the side of the game’s arcade cabinet, he was a robot that housed the soul of an extradimensional horror, but to Olivia, he was so much more than that. He was a kindred spirit, someone who could understand the pain of being unwanted by anyone. Despite, or more likely, because of his strange appearance, everyone seemed to avoid playing as Xolys. The boys either played as a burly badass, like ATLAS, the Aggronaught, or a sexy robo babe, like Penny Pinnacle, while what few other girls took an interest in the game inevitably fixated on the brooding bishonen bioroid, Finnegan Fabricant. No one wanted to play as a freakish cybermantic abomination. No one, except Olivia. For her, there could be no other champion. When she finally got her chance, she would show poor Xolys that someone did care. Until then, she spent her long hours waiting in line mentally filling in the blanks of the technohorror’s meager backstory, before setting them to paper when she finally returned home. He was fighting, Olivia had decided, in order to be reunited with his lost love, a young girl (and blatant self insert) who was the only person to treat him with kindness. Yet, she had been captured, and only by defeating all the other fighters would he be able to rescue her. Indeed, such feverish imaginings were Olivia’s only way of interacting with her cherished Xolys, until, at long last, the seemingly impossible finally happened.

She got to play Gearmantic Hearts for the first time.

At first, it was just another typical day of waiting in line, with Olivia one spot away from her goal, and mere minutes left before the arcade would close, depriving her of her chance yet again. But this time, something different happened. This time fate intervened on her behalf. She was holding her quarter in her hand, when someone bumped into her from behind, causing the coin to fall and begin rolling away. Leaving the line to chase after it, she was led on quite the chase, until she found herself in a darkened corner of the arcade. When the coin finally came to rest between Lunar Lander and Mad Planets, the arcade had begun to close down and disgruntled gamers were reluctantly filing out the doors. Ordinarily, Olivia would have been one of them, but suddenly, an idea occurred to her. If she hid herself in this darkened alcove and waited for everyone else to leave, she would have the entire arcade, and, most importantly, Gearmantic Hearts, all to herself! Of course, she would be locked in for the night, but her family never cared where she was, and the arcade’s two security cameras only monitored the entrance and exit, in case of a break in. They wouldn’t know if someone remained in the building after it had closed. So that’s exactly what she did.

Once she was certain the arcade’s owner had left, Olivia’s trembling body made its cautious way over to Gearmantic Hearts. The machine’s glowing lights and screen were even more pronounced in the darkness of the closed arcade, like a beacon, calling her forward, calling her to her destiny. Gripping her recaptured quarter tightly, her heart pounded as she inserted the small silver disc into the machine’s coin slot. Then, it was time. Carefully placing her delicate hand around the joystick with a reverence normally reserved for a holy relic, Olivia moved the flashing selector box until it had reached her precious Xolys and tapped the bright blue button to confirm her choice. It was like a match made in eldritch heaven, with Olivia leading the technohorror to victory in the game’s campaign mode at normal difficulty, and then at expert difficulty. When she returned home the following morning, she was the happiest she’d been in years, and no one was any the wiser. Thus, the following night, she again remained in the arcade after closing and beat the campaign on ultimate difficulty, an achievement no one else had managed. Her synergy with her beloved Xolys was simply unparalleled. But then, that wasn’t really surprising. Indeed, during the seeming eternity she had waited to play Gearmantic Hearts, she had even gone so far as to sneak into her father’s workshop and scavenge enough parts to cobble together a miniature approximation of the technohorror, along with a makeshift controller, which crudely mimicked G.H.’s own control configuration, in an attempt to practice for the day she got a chance at the real thing.

These overnight visits continued for several weeks, ensuring that her initials, ORB, were firmly ensconced at the top of G.H.’s score board, much to the immense puzzlement and frustration of the game’s army of patrons. Olivia silently watched from the sidelines as animated discussions broke out over the identity of the mysterious “Orb”, even as those discussions turned to debates over how they would fare against a human opponent. Still, while she was confident that she could lead Xolys to victory against any potential challenger, Olivia was reluctant to reveal her secret. After all, the ensuing questions could very well jeopardize her after-hours activities. Even so, a small part of her wanted to prove that she was as good a player as she believed herself to be. The game’s AI was strong, true enough, but it was still no match for a skilled human player. Thus, after a few more weeks of thinking it over, Olivia made the fateful decision to come forward.

At first, she was met with a mixture of mockery and incredulity (along with several accusations that this was nothing more than a pitiful attempt to get to the front of the line with a story that was clearly bullshit), but, eventually, enough patrons took pity on her to grant a demonstration. She would be going up against Kevin King, the player with the second highest score in campaign mode, and undefeated champion of PvP. Nevertheless, Olivia was undaunted, and when she stepped up to the controls for what many believed to be her first time, she was ready for anything Kevin could throw at her. Or so she thought…

Just as the match was about to start, someone grabbed her glasses and chucked them across the room. She was so shocked and disoriented by this unprecedented turn of events that Penny Pinnacle, under the command of Kevin’s skilled hand, was able to soundly demolish poor Xolys in record time. Cruelly mocked and pelted with spitballs, an utterly dejected Olivia retrieved her cracked glasses and trudged home under increasingly overcast skies, where she collapsed onto her bed and cried herself to sleep, her practice model of Xolys clutched tightly in her arms. This was the end, the distraught girl told herself as she sobbed into her sheets. She could never go back to the arcade again. She had failed her beloved Xolys, and now her dreams were well and truly dead. However, Olivia would soon discover that she was only half right.

That night, a mighty tempest rocked her small neighborhood to its foundations. The rain and hail pelted buildings and vehicles, while wind howled like tormented souls, and jagged bolts of lightning split trees amidst deafening peals of thunder. Yet, the slumbering Olivia was aware of none of it, nor did she perceive the swirling rent in the fabric of reality which opened above her bed, allowing a single ethereal flower petal to fall upon and phase inside her lovingly cobbled together recreation of Xolys. It would not be until the following evening that she fully realized what had occurred, when “Xolys” spoke to her. To Olivia’s astonishment and joy, she was told that her glorified remote control toy now housed the spirit of an extradimensional being known as Xolys, who had come to her universe to find and rescue his lost love, just like in her fanfiction! But, he needed Olivia’s help. Without her, he was nothing more than an inert toy, yet, guided by her controller and her boundless faith in him, he would be able to achieve the same incredible feats as his namesake from Gearmantic Hearts!

Needless to say, Olivia couldn’t believe her luck! Now she would be able to lead the real Xolys to victory in his quest, this time by battling actual villains and monsters, while entering Nomad fighting competitions on the side! It was like a dream come true! And so, a few days later, on her eighteenth birthday, Olivia packed up her most prized possessions and set off with Xolys on her new life as a Nomad. Recently, she’s heard of a massive fighting competition in Brazil that’s offering an honest to goodness Power Stone as a grand prize. Xolys has informed her that, with its power, he would almost certainly be able to locate his missing love, and so Olivia has made it her goal to not only enter the contest, but emerge as the grand champion.

Piece of cake, right?

FIGHTING STYLE & ABILIES

“Ready or not, here we come!”
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SKILLS & ABILITIES

“Let’s show ‘em what you can do, Xolys!”
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Whenever it’s time to fight, Olivia whips out her custom controller and activates Xolys’s combat mode, which she guides through each fight with the rapid implementation of intricate button and joystick combinations. In addition, several small holographic displays flash to life in an arc around the controller, tracking Xolys’s health, power levels, and other related stats.

An imposing eldritch technomantic monstrosity, Xolys’s towering, supernaturally resilient combat form is covered in a plethora of Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe-tipped appendages, as well as a dizzying mass of spiked tentacular mechadendrites, leaving little doubt that he is an utter nightmare to face in melee combat. Although Xolys’s ranged capabilities are far more limited, consisting of just his head-mounted Unreality Beam, this attack is profoundly powerful. In addition, Xolys can also rapidly extend his tentacular technomantic mechadendrites out to fifteen feet, an ability sure to come as quite the unpleasant surprise for first-time opponents, who erroneously believe themselves to be safely out of range of any melee attacks. Although Xolys boasts an impressive pair of energy wings, he is incapable of flight, the wings being simply cosmetic.

For her part, Olivia herself has zero combat abilities whatsoever, and is actually quite a bit frailer than the average young woman her age.

SIGNATURE MOVES

“Check this out!”
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■ Technomantic Tentacle Whip

Olivia instructs Xolys to lash out with one of his techno-tentacles at lighting speed. This attack can be chained for several strikes in quick succession.

■ Technomantic Tentacle Whirlwind

Using only a handful of tendrils for support, all of Xolys’s other techno-tentacles splay out and begin rapidly spinning around his towering form like an eldritch buzzsaw.

■ Eldritch Ensnarement

Olivia instructs Xolys to shoot one of his techno-tentacles out to wrap around his opponent and then reel the unfortunate fighter into close range.

■ Eldritch Electro-Constriction

After tightly coiling a techno-tendril around an opponent, Xolys energizes the eldritch appendage, causing arcs of actinic lightning to shoot into his helpless foe.

■ Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe Power Sweep

Charging up one of his Trans-Phasic Energy Scythes with greatly increased technomystic power, Xolys sweeps it in a large arc, smashing against an opponent with considerable force, and likely sending them hurtling backwards. This move is often used in conjunction with his unreality beam.

■ Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe Barrage

Olivia instructs Xolys to attack an opponent at close range with a rapid-fire barrage of strikes from his myriad Trans-Phasic Energy Scythes.

■ Unreality Beam Blast

Xolys employs his only true ranged weapon, firing a concentrated beam of unreality from his head’s central eye at an opponent.

SUPER MOVES

“Wanna see something really awesome?!”
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■ APEX Unreality Beam Blast

A vastly more powerful version of his normal Unreality Beam attack. It takes significantly more time (about five seconds) to charge up.

■ Regenerative Restoration Mode

Raising an energy shield around himself, Xolys curls up into an armored ball, while a swarm of restorative nanites repair his injuries. This process takes about two minutes to complete. However, while the energy shield is quite strong, it can still be worn down by repeated attacks, and pierced completely by a single Super Move-level strike. In addition, as soon as the shield is breached, the repair process is immediately halted.

■ Tesseractic Teleportation

Xolys’s most energy-intensive move, this allows him to somewhat mitigate his lack of speed and mobility, by teleporting himself to any point on the battlefield. However, it takes about five seconds to charge up, and after arriving at his new location, he is limited to using only basic attacks for a full ten seconds, while his technomystic power is replenished.

WEAKNESSES & LIMITS

“Xolys may not be good at everything, but I’m gonna do my best to make sure his strengths always outweigh his weaknesses!”
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Despite boasting impressive strength and toughness, Xolys is quite slow, preferring to remain in a single position and draw his opponent into the range of his multiple melee weapons. This, coupled with the fact that he possesses only a single ranged attack (albeit at two power levels), means that he seriously struggles against fast moving opponents with considerable long-ranged firepower. In addition, all his Signature and Super Moves have an obvious tell, in the form of the increasingly brilliant glow of his energy wings, which grows even more pronounced when he’s preparing to employ a Super Move. In fact, before each Super Move, the various wing segments split apart and begin spinning around in a different configuration, unique to each move. Thus, a perceptive opponent can easily foresee what’s about to happen and take appropriate action, at least, if they’re fast enough. Finally, incapacitating Olivia renders Xolys completely harmless, something a truly unscrupulous foe can easily capitalize upon.

OTHER

“Oh! Do do you wanna read my fanfiction?!”
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Trust me, you really don’t.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

@Punished GN Okay, I revised the Super Move in question to reflect the requested changes.

Let me know if it checks out now.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

I don't mind lengthening the time. How long do you think it should take?

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

@Punished GN Well, the shield isn't actually impenetrable. A powerful attack/offensive Super Move would punch right through it, but if you still think it's too much, I'll happily remove it from the move's description.

Nomadic Odyssey: Find Your Heart

For your consideration-

Olivia and Xolys

“Maiden and Marvel ready for action!”

“Gosh! Is this like an interview?! Oh, wow! This is so exciting!” _____________________________________________________ NAME: Olivia Rose Bell, Xolys _______________________________________________ EPITHET: The Maiden and The Marvel // The Nerd and The Nightmare _______________________________________________ AGE: 18 (Olivia), ??? (Xolys) _______________________________________________ PRONOUNS: She/Her (Olivia), He/Him (Xolys) _______________________________________________ HEIGHT: 4’11” (Olivia) 12’7” (Xolys) 9.5” (Xolys travel mode) _______________________________________________ WEIGHT: 97lbs (Olivia) 3000lbs (Xolys) 12lbs (Xolys travel mode) _______________________________________________ NATIONALITY: USA _______________________________________________ LIKES: Gearmantic Hearts, Xolys, being a Nomad (Olivia) / Olivia (Xolys) _______________________________________________ DISLIKES: Bullies (Both)

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OVERVIEW

“We may not look like much now, but just wait until we get to the arena!”
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APPEARANCE

“I dyed my hair myself! Now it matches Xolys’s eyes, wings, and scythes! Pretty cool, huh?!
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Olivia is a plain, somewhat underdeveloped young woman, with vibrant blue (originally black) hair, which is often worn in two braided ponytails that reach just past the center of her back. Her vision is pretty terrible, so she wears a pair of corrective lenses over her intense blue eyes. Since becoming a Nomad, she typically dresses in comfortable, if a bit oversized, traveling clothes, usually in shades of blue or black. On average, this is a simple ensemble consisting of cargo pants, t-shirt, and hoodie. She’s also never without her extra large traveler’s backpack, which contains all her worldly possessions, most importantly, her custom controller and Xolys, whose head can often be seen peeking out of it.

Xolys himself usually takes the form of a small robot, which was obviously cobbled together from various sources, and fairly crudely at that. However, when Olivia activates Xolys’s combat form, he becomes a frighteningly perfect recreation of the towering technomantic nightmare of the same name from Gearmantic Hearts.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

“Um, why are you looking at me like that? Did I say something weird again?
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Olivia is a friendly, if socially awkward girl, who is always happy to make new friends and chat with them about her many interests. The problem is, those interests tend to be rather bizarre, and the talkative, overzealous, and highly energetic Olivia is almost always completely oblivious to that fact. Because of the near consent rejection and ridicule she’s experienced, she has started to become a bit more hesitant to open up to people, but showing even the slightest interest in one of her obsessions will open the proverbial floodgates once more, with Olivia happily babbling away for hours on end. Due to her exceptionally poor social skills, she often inadvertently invades others’ personal space and, especially when excited about the topic of discussion, speaks in an incredibly rapid and louder-than-necessary voice, which most find both difficult to understand and highly annoying. She’s also a hopeless romantic, which, coupled with her afore mentioned bizarre interests and lack of social skills, presents its own share of problems… Still, if one can look past all her quirks and eccentricities, they will find a loyal and caring friend. Indeed, Olivia doesn’t seem to have a single mean bone in her body, and all of her various bothersome mannerisms are completely unintentional on her part, leading the poor girl to frequently apologize for her offensive behavior.

On the other hand, despite his appearance (in both forms), Xolys is an unfailingly polite and respectful being, often complimenting other Nomads’ abilities and techniques. Strangely coming across as the grounded voice of reason, in contrast to Olivia’s somewhat unhinged exuberance, he attempts to guide her through social interactions in much the same way as she guides him in combat.

BACKSTORY

“Oh gosh! You really want me to tell you my origin story?! I’d love to!”
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Growing up in the suburbs of Geopolis as the youngest and weakest of her parent’s five children, Olivia was always viewed as a freak and a failure. Her father was the proud owner of Bell Bionics, the best place in Geopolis for visiting Nomads to acquire mechanical augmentations and replacement limbs. However, while her talented older siblings served as his frequently-praised assistants, after one accident too many, it was clear that Olivia was nothing but a hinderance, and she was soon banned from entering the workshop. Things weren’t any easier for her at school, either. Her scrawny and bespectacled appearance was bad enough, but when combined with her strange interests, grating voice, and virtually non-existent social skills, it made her a prime target for bullying. Thus, despised, mocked, and shunned by her family and classmates alike, Olivia turned to the only place of refuge she possessed in her sad and lonely world- the local arcade.

From the moment she had first set foot in the neon-covered edifice, Olivia had been enthralled. Its myriad otherworldly lights and sounds drew her in like a moth to a flame, its array of games promising a longed-for escape from her depressing reality. Yet, there was one game that surpassed all the others- Gearmantic Hearts. A renowned fighting game from Covington Arts, it was one of the most popular games at the arcade, so much so, that Olivia hadn’t even been able to play it on her first visit. Or her second. Or her third… The lines were so long, she would spend hours waiting, only to go home disappointed when the arcade closed, just as she was about to take her turn. At the very least, she was able to watch the game being played while she waited, and she eventually memorized all the moves of each fighter. All, that was, save one…

Xolys.

He was a bizarre, eldritch machine that was simply captivating in his strangeness, and, to someone like Olivia, who had eagerly devoured all the works of H.P. Lovecraft, it was love at first sight. According to the one sentence description on his profile, which appeared along with those of the other fighters on the side of the game’s arcade cabinet, he was a robot that housed the soul of an extradimensional horror, but to Olivia, he was so much more than that. He was a kindred spirit, someone who could understand the pain of being unwanted by anyone. Despite, or more likely, because of his strange appearance, everyone seemed to avoid playing as Xolys. The boys either played as a burly badass, like ATLAS, the Aggronaught, or a sexy robo babe, like Penny Pinnacle, while what few other girls took an interest in the game inevitably fixated on the brooding bishonen bioroid, Finnegan Fabricant. No one wanted to play as a freakish cybermantic abomination. No one, except Olivia. For her, there could be no other champion. When she finally got her chance, she would show poor Xolys that someone did care. Until then, she spent her long hours waiting in line mentally filling in the blanks of the technohorror’s meager backstory, before setting them to paper when she finally returned home. He was fighting, Olivia had decided, in order to be reunited with his lost love, a young girl (and blatant self insert) who was the only person to treat him with kindness. Yet, she had been captured, and only by defeating all the other fighters would he be able to rescue her. Indeed, such feverish imaginings were Olivia’s only way of interacting with her cherished Xolys, until, at long last, the seemingly impossible finally happened.

She got to play Gearmantic Hearts for the first time.

At first, it was just another typical day of waiting in line, with Olivia one spot away from her goal, and mere minutes left before the arcade would close, depriving her of her chance yet again. But this time, something different happened. This time fate intervened on her behalf. She was holding her quarter in her hand, when someone bumped into her from behind, causing the coin to fall and begin rolling away. Leaving the line to chase after it, she was led on quite the chase, until she found herself in a darkened corner of the arcade. When the coin finally came to rest between Lunar Lander and Mad Planets, the arcade had begun to close down and disgruntled gamers were reluctantly filing out the doors. Ordinarily, Olivia would have been one of them, but suddenly, an idea occurred to her. If she hid herself in this darkened alcove and waited for everyone else to leave, she would have the entire arcade, and, most importantly, Gearmantic Hearts, all to herself! Of course, she would be locked in for the night, but her family never cared where she was, and the arcade’s two security cameras only monitored the entrance and exit, in case of a break in. They wouldn’t know if someone remained in the building after it had closed. So that’s exactly what she did.

Once she was certain the arcade’s owner had left, Olivia’s trembling body made its cautious way over to Gearmantic Hearts. The machine’s glowing lights and screen were even more pronounced in the darkness of the closed arcade, like a beacon, calling her forward, calling her to her destiny. Gripping her recaptured quarter tightly, her heart pounded as she inserted the small silver disc into the machine’s coin slot. Then, it was time. Carefully placing her delicate hand around the joystick with a reverence normally reserved for a holy relic, Olivia moved the flashing selector box until it had reached her precious Xolys and tapped the bright blue button to confirm her choice. It was like a match made in eldritch heaven, with Olivia leading the technohorror to victory in the game’s campaign mode at normal difficulty, and then at expert difficulty. When she returned home the following morning, she was the happiest she’d been in years, and no one was any the wiser. Thus, the following night, she again remained in the arcade after closing and beat the campaign on ultimate difficulty, an achievement no one else had managed. Her synergy with her beloved Xolys was simply unparalleled. But then, that wasn’t really surprising. Indeed, during the seeming eternity she had waited to play Gearmantic Hearts, she had even gone so far as to sneak into her father’s workshop and scavenge enough parts to cobble together a miniature approximation of the technohorror, along with a makeshift controller, which crudely mimicked G.H.’s own control configuration, in an attempt to practice for the day she got a chance at the real thing.

These overnight visits continued for several weeks, ensuring that her initials, ORB, were firmly ensconced at the top of G.H.’s score board, much to the immense puzzlement and frustration of the game’s army of patrons. Olivia silently watched from the sidelines as animated discussions broke out over the identity of the mysterious “Orb”, even as those discussions turned to debates over how they would fare against a human opponent. Still, while she was confident that she could lead Xolys to victory against any potential challenger, Olivia was reluctant to reveal her secret. After all, the ensuing questions could very well jeopardize her after-hours activities. Even so, a small part of her wanted to prove that she was as good a player as she believed herself to be. The game’s AI was strong, true enough, but it was still no match for a skilled human player. Thus, after a few more weeks of thinking it over, Olivia made the fateful decision to come forward.

At first, she was met with a mixture of mockery and incredulity (along with several accusations that this was nothing more than a pitiful attempt to get to the front of the line with a story that was clearly bullshit), but, eventually, enough patrons took pity on her to grant a demonstration. She would be going up against Kevin King, the player with the second highest score in campaign mode, and undefeated champion of PvP. Nevertheless, Olivia was undaunted, and when she stepped up to the controls for what many believed to be her first time, she was ready for anything Kevin could throw at her. Or so she thought…

Just as the match was about to start, someone grabbed her glasses and chucked them across the room. She was so shocked and disoriented by this unprecedented turn of events that Penny Pinnacle, under the command of Kevin’s skilled hand, was able to soundly demolish poor Xolys in record time. Cruelly mocked and pelted with spitballs, an utterly dejected Olivia retrieved her cracked glasses and trudged home under increasingly overcast skies, where she collapsed onto her bed and cried herself to sleep, her practice model of Xolys clutched tightly in her arms. This was the end, the distraught girl told herself as she sobbed into her sheets. She could never go back to the arcade again. She had failed her beloved Xolys, and now her dreams were well and truly dead. However, Olivia would soon discover that she was only half right.

That night, a mighty tempest rocked her small neighborhood to its foundations. The rain and hail pelted buildings and vehicles, while wind howled like tormented souls, and jagged bolts of lightning split trees amidst deafening peals of thunder. Yet, the slumbering Olivia was aware of none of it, nor did she perceive the swirling rent in the fabric of reality which opened above her bed, allowing a single ethereal flower petal to fall upon and phase inside her lovingly cobbled together recreation of Xolys. It would not be until the following evening that she fully realized what had occurred, when “Xolys” spoke to her. To Olivia’s astonishment and joy, she was told that her glorified remote control toy now housed the spirit of an extradimensional being known as Xolys, who had come to her universe to find and rescue his lost love, just like in her fanfiction! But, he needed Olivia’s help. Without her, he was nothing more than an inert toy, yet, guided by her controller and her boundless faith in him, he would be able to achieve the same incredible feats as his namesake from Gearmantic Hearts!

Needless to say, Olivia couldn’t believe her luck! Now she would be able to lead the real Xolys to victory in his quest, this time by battling actual villains and monsters, while entering Nomad fighting competitions on the side! It was like a dream come true! And so, a few days later, on her eighteenth birthday, Olivia packed up her most prized possessions and set off with Xolys on her new life as a Nomad. Recently, she’s heard of a massive fighting competition in Brazil that’s offering an honest to goodness Power Stone as a grand prize. Xolys has informed her that, with its power, he would almost certainly be able to locate his missing love, and so Olivia has made it her goal to not only enter the contest, but emerge as the grand champion.

Piece of cake, right?

FIGHTING STYLE & ABILIES

“Ready or not, here we come!”
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SKILLS & ABILITIES

“Let’s show ‘em what you can do, Xolys!”
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Whenever it’s time to fight, Olivia whips out her custom controller and activates Xolys’s combat mode, which she guides through each fight with the rapid implementation of intricate button and joystick combinations. In addition, several small holographic displays flash to life in an arc around the controller, tracking Xolys’s health, power levels, and other related stats.

An imposing eldritch technomantic monstrosity, Xolys’s towering, supernaturally resilient combat form is covered in a plethora of Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe-tipped appendages, as well as a dizzying mass of spiked tentacular mechadendrites, leaving little doubt that he is an utter nightmare to face in melee combat. Although Xolys’s ranged capabilities are far more limited, consisting of just his head-mounted Unreality Beam, this attack is profoundly powerful. In addition, Xolys can also rapidly extend his tentacular technomantic mechadendrites out to fifteen feet, an ability sure to come as quite the unpleasant surprise for first-time opponents, who erroneously believe themselves to be safely out of range of any melee attacks. Although Xolys boasts an impressive pair of energy wings, he is incapable of flight, the wings being simply cosmetic.

For her part, Olivia herself has zero combat abilities whatsoever, and is actually quite a bit frailer than the average young woman her age.

SIGNATURE MOVES

“Check this out!”
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■ Technomantic Tentacle Whip

Olivia instructs Xolys to lash out with one of his techno-tentacles at lighting speed. This attack can be chained for several strikes in quick succession.

■ Technomantic Tentacle Whirlwind

Using only a handful of tendrils for support, all of Xolys’s other techno-tentacles splay out and begin rapidly spinning around his towering form like an eldritch buzzsaw.

■ Eldritch Ensnarement

Olivia instructs Xolys to shoot one of his techno-tentacles out to wrap around his opponent and then reel the unfortunate fighter into close range.

■ Eldritch Electro-Constriction

After tightly coiling a techno-tendril around an opponent, Xolys energizes the eldritch appendage, causing arcs of actinic lightning to shoot into his helpless foe.

■ Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe Power Sweep

Charging up one of his Trans-Phasic Energy Scythes with greatly increased technomystic power, Xolys sweeps it in a large arc, smashing against an opponent with considerable force, and likely sending them hurtling backwards. This move is often used in conjunction with his unreality beam.

■ Trans-Phasic Energy Scythe Barrage

Olivia instructs Xolys to attack an opponent at close range with a rapid-fire barrage of strikes from his myriad Trans-Phasic Energy Scythes.

■ Unreality Beam Blast

Xolys employs his only true ranged weapon, firing a concentrated beam of unreality from his head’s central eye at an opponent.

SUPER MOVES

“Wanna see something really awesome?!”
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■ APEX Unreality Beam Blast

A vastly more powerful version of his normal Unreality Beam attack. It takes significantly more time (about five seconds) to charge up.

■ Regenerative Restoration Mode

Raising an energy shield around himself, Xolys curls up into an armored ball, while a swarm of restorative nanites repair his injuries. This process takes about two minutes to complete. However, while the energy shield is quite strong, it can still be worn down by repeated attacks, and pierced completely by a single Super Move-level strike. In addition, as soon as the shield is breached, the repair process is immediately halted.

■ Tesseractic Teleportation

Xolys’s most energy-intensive move, this allows him to somewhat mitigate his lack of speed and mobility, by teleporting himself to any point on the battlefield. However, it takes about five seconds to charge up, and after arriving at his new location, he is limited to using only basic attacks for a full ten seconds, while his technomystic power is replenished.

WEAKNESSES & LIMITS

“Xolys may not be good at everything, but I’m gonna do my best to make sure his strengths always outweigh his weaknesses!”
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Despite boasting impressive strength and toughness, Xolys is quite slow, preferring to remain in a single position and draw his opponent into the range of his multiple melee weapons. This, coupled with the fact that he possesses only a single ranged attack (albeit at two power levels), means that he seriously struggles against fast moving opponents with considerable long-ranged firepower. In addition, all his Signature and Super Moves have an obvious tell, in the form of the increasingly brilliant glow of his energy wings, which grows even more pronounced when he’s preparing to employ a Super Move. In fact, before each Super Move, the various wing segments split apart and begin spinning around in a different configuration, unique to each move. Thus, a perceptive opponent can easily foresee what’s about to happen and take appropriate action, at least, if they’re fast enough. Finally, incapacitating Olivia renders Xolys completely harmless, something a truly unscrupulous foe can easily capitalize upon.

OTHER

“Oh! Do do you wanna read my fanfiction?!”
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Trust me, you really don’t.

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

To the North: Run for the Hills

(part 1)

It's not often the coin broker of New York comes out of hiding, but she always has time to punish defectors. And not only is Nuncio former Mint, but he's traveling with two people of interest. That's just too irresistible for the "Beast of the north" to ignore. Slay the Beast and her vanguard or drive them out of New York. She will go back into hiding if she captures/kills all of her prey.

Challenge Rating: SS
Notes: The Beast can use her Killing Blow with near impunity, but is vulnerable for a brief time after using it. Be careful.
This hunt can only be undertaken by a party that contains Connie and/or Mia.

…

…

…

Bionic Bonnie was on the CAPRICORN. She always was. If someone saw her outside the CAPRICORN, she wouldn’t be Bonnie.

She was sitting in a lobby reading a newspaper. Her surroundings were mundane even by non-magical standards. It looked like an american dinner, only smaller and devoid of people. The windows also looked out at different areas. Some showed bustling cities while others arid countrysides. Perhaps this place wasn’t as normal as one might think at first glance.

But Bonnie wasn’t here to read the paper or enjoy the view. She had invited some mercenaries to come aboard for one of her jobs. Any moment now, they should have followed her instructions and located a portal to board her “ship.”

…

…

…

This is bad… Mia thought to herself as she looked over the glimmer post displayed on her phone, a nervous Connie peeking over her shoulder. It was the details of a new hunt, one personally addressed to the two of them. That alone would be concerning enough, but then there were the details themselves…

“N-Nuncio’s o-one of F-Faith’s friends!” Connie gasped in horrified realization. “T-T-That m-means F-Faith’s in d-danger, t-too!”

“It sure does sound that way,” Mia agreed. “But it also sounds pretty fucking suspicious. I mean, it mentions both of us by name. Plus, even if it isn’t some kinda trap, look at the challenge rating. This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything as high as SS, and you’ve never been on anything higher than B rank,” she added, turning to Connie with a concerned frown.

“I-I k-know…” her timid friend replied, while tightly hugging a frog plush that was almost as large as she was. “B-B-But i-if s-she’s in t-trouble, t-then we h-have to h-help her!” the kind-hearted girl added, tears beginning to well up. “A-And m-maybe t-that’s why she d-didn’t c-come to the C-Christmas P-Party, b-because she was h-hiding f-from this B-B-Beast p-person!”

“Y’know, when you put it like that, it does kinda make sense,” Mia conceded with a sigh. “Still, are ya sure you’re up for this, little sis?” she asked. “I mean, I know we’ve done some crazy stuff before, but we did those missions with a group. This’ll just be the two of us.”

Connie swallowed and hugged her plush even tighter, clearly doing her best to keep from having a panic attack. “I-I’m n-not j-just g-gonna a-abandon them!” she said after a moment and with as much conviction as she could muster. “B-Besides, F-Faith's a m-magical g-girl, t-too, a-and I-I’m s-sure her f-friends c-can f-fight as w-well, s-so, we w-won’t b-be c-completely alone!”

Although she considered herself fairly tough, Mia could feel her heart breaking more and more with each passing second she looked at her closest friend. Connie was obviously terrified by what this mission entailed, but the meek girl cared so much for her friends that she was willing to take any risk if that meant she could help them in some way. Still, even though Mia hated seeing her friend in so much pain, the tomboy couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at Connie’s efforts to overcome her many weaknesses. It was really quite inspiring.

“Okay, if you’re set on doing this, I’m not gonna try an’ talk ya out if it,” Mia replied. “But this sounds like it’s gonna be the hardest thing we’ve ever done, so just promise me you’ll be careful,” she added.

“I-I p-promise,” Connie whispered.

“Now, let’s save our friend.”

…

…

…

Twenty minutes later, and the pair found themselves standing in what looked like a diner.

“I take it you are the one who posted the bounty?” Gaia inquired of the room’s only other occupant.

If Bonnie were to look up from her paper, which she did, she would see a nymph-like young woman with green skin and verdant hair, which cascaded down to her feet. From behind her peeked out a masked girl, who, in stark contrast to her serene and focused companion, was nervously looking in every direction, as if she expected a jump scare at any moment.

”Yes, that was me.” Bonnie folded her paper in half, stood up, and cast it on one of the counters. ”In a way, at least. I’m just a bounty broker. The request itself was put through by Nuncio. Though most people who get in touch with me aren’t able to request help themselves. That is why they make use of my services.” Bonnie looked out one of the windows, one that showed a bustling intersection. It was mid day, but the skies were overcast enough that the street lamps had turned on. ”No threats yet. Seems you still have time.” She folded her arms behind her back. Her weapon swung like a pendulum behind her back. ”Anything you’d like to know?”

“If it was Nuncio that made the request, then am I to assume you will be depositing us at his current location?” Gaia inquired, while taking note of the unique properties of the establishment’s windows. “Or are we being sent directly into battle against this so-called ‘Beast’?”

”The Beast of the North has yet to make an appearance, at least, not near her mark.” Bonnie pointed at the window. ”You will be deployed here, at this intersection. Nuncio, Faith, and Sammy are hiding out at Susana Inn right on the street corner.” She retracted her hand. ”I believe that the mint has caught wind of my interference, and likely expect me to bring reinforcements. I suspect after the mission commences, the Beast will reveal herself. I suppose what I’m saying is that I wouldn’t plan on a long reunion with your friends.”

“I see…” Gaia noted, frowning thoughtfully. “Would it not be more advantageous to simply transport us directly into their hotel room? Not only would it serve to conceal our arrival, but it would provide additional time to compose a battle plan.”

”I could, but they are not held up there at the moment.” The window changed. Now they could see their friends walking up a flight of stairs. Likely located in the inn. ”The issue is that the Mint will likely know where I teleport you in. If I put you some distance away, they could follow you, sure. But if I place a portal right in front of them, I may give away their location.” Bonnie leaned against the counter. ”But it’s your call in the end. The mint are a hard organization to hide anything from.”

“You make a good point,” Gaia conceded. “If they haven’t been discovered yet, we don’t want to give away their location. Of course, that’s all meaningless if the Mint already knows where they are and is preparing an ambush as we speak,” she added, even as Connie’s grip on her shoulders tightened. “Did Nuncio give you any additional instructions to impart?”

”He did not.“

“In that case, perhaps it would be best to arrive in the alleyway next to that restaurant on the corner opposite the inn,” Gaia observed, pointing to the location in question. “If we revert to our mundane forms, we can enter the restaurant, blend in with the patrons, and observe the situation from there.”

”Very well, let me lock in the coordinates...“

…

…

…

The CAPRICORN, with freakish speed, fell out of the clouds and descended to the city streets. It was there just long enough to boot Connie and Mia out the front portal before flying into the clouds. If you blinked or looked away, you’d have assumed two girls just appeared out of thin air. If you didn’t, you’d look at the sky and assume you had too much to drink.

They knew where Nuncio and the crew was, but there was no sign of any mint agents. At least, no obvious ones. The swaying crowds could hide anyone, even a powerful coin broker.

On the upside, the food from the restaurant smelled really good.

Connie held Mia’s arm in an almost vice-like grip as the pair emerged from the alley and into the crowded street.

“So, this is New York, huh?” Mia noted as she took a look around, not sounding particularly impressed.

“T-There’s s-so m-many p-people…” Connie added. “W-Way m-more t-than in P-Penrose…”

“Yeah…” Mia agreed. She could see that being either a benefit or a hindrance, depending on how things played out. “Definitely makes hiding a hell of a lot easier.”

Thankfully for Connie’s sake, they soon left the bustling streets and entered the restaurant, a medium-sized pizzeria.

“Let’s order a couple of slices while we wait,” Mia suggested as she headed for the front counter.

“O-Okay,” Connie whispered back, while giving a small nod.

As it happened there were already cheese and veggie slices warming in the counter display, and the two friends were soon seated at a window table with a slice apiece.

“H-How l-long do y-you t-think i-it’ll be b-before s-something h-happens?” Connie asked in a quiet voice after taking a few nervous gulps of her lemonade.

“Hard to say,” Mia replied in an equally low tone, before taking a bite of her veggie pizza. “Still, at least we get to try some genuine New York pizza while we wait,” she added with a grin.

“Yeah,” Connie agreed, trying to muster a smile of her own. “T-This p-pizza is r-really delicious!”

The duo would have a few minutes to converse and enjoy their pizza when their ears were assaulted by a scraping sound. Something akin to a teacher dragging their nails across a chalkboard. A teenage girl was dragging a cast iron chair down the narrow walkways of the pizzeria. It was hard to tell if it was the chair that weighed so much, or the woman’s hand. Her delicate fingers were lined with rings, and the bulge in her sleeve suggested she might be wearing a bangle as well. Her silver pendant swung with every tug. It was impossible to see the girl’s face. Her head was downcast, and the beret on her head hid everything above her nose.

Once she got to their table, she pointed the back of the chair towards the window. She sat down and rested both of her hands on the back of the chair.

”You know.“ She started. ”’Vegetables are kind of inexpensive. It’s not like you’re saving that many calories by skipping out on meat.“

Just when Connie was starting to feel a little more relaxed, her ears were assaulted by a cacophonous screeching sound, which steadily increased in volume with each passing second as if it were the harbinger of approaching doom. Looking up in an attempt to find its source, she stifled a gasp when she noticed that it was a girl dragging a chair their way. Sure enough, the girl stopped next to their table and promptly took a seat.

Who was this girl? Was she a Mint agent? Was she The Beast?! Or was she just a normal girl? All these questions raced through Connie’s frantic mind, even as the mystery girl began talking.

“Well, I don’t really like meat on my pizza,” Mia casually replied to the girl’s comment, while Connie tried her best to keep from hyperventilating. “So it isn’t a weight-loss thing, just a personal preference.”

”Really now?“ Two more girls in similar outfits stepped out from booths on either end of the isle. ”You know, it really bothers me how ‘on brand’ you are. Of course someone who fancied themselves as ‘Gaia’ would be a vegetarian. Your favorite video game is plants versus zombies too, isn’t it? You see what I mean?“ A fourth one sat up from a bench just outside the pizzeria. They all looked directly at Connie, which likely made her feel even more insecure. With a huff, the girl seated before them folded one leg over the other. Despite wearing a sweatshirt that was a size too big, she wasn’t wearing much for pants. Her shorts didn’t really have legs. ”That was a pretty flashy landing though. Not at all the sort of transport I’d expect you to use.“ She raised the brim of her hat and peeked at Connie with her sapphire eyes. ”Are you waiting for Nuncio to show up?“

​​As the strange girl gave her increasingly alarming reply, Connie felt her eyes going wider with each syllable spoken. Her pulse was also starting to race, and her breathing was now coming in a rapid string of short, sharp gasps. The poor girl’s condition only worsened a moment later, when several more young women stood up and began staring directly at her. Indeed, before the mystery girl had even finished speaking, Connie’s heart was pounding like a jackhammer, and she was beginning to hyperventilate. However, in stark contrast to her own panic attack, she saw that Mia remained surprisingly at ease.

“Okay, first, my choice of pizza is just coincidence,” the tomboy told their uninvited guest. “Second, I’m not a vegetarian. Third, PvZ isn’t my favorite game. Fourth, I didn’t choose that name, my Patron did. And finally, I couldn’t care less about Nuncio. My friend and I just took the stupid job so we could get a free trip to New York. Sorry to burst your bubble, but we’re only here because I heard this place had some good pizza.”

”Really now?“ She fished a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket and stuck one of them in her mouth. None of the other patrons or waiting staff seemed to care. She tucked it into her mouth before pushing her hands into her pocket. ”The CAPRICORN selects the most diligent people for a job. You’re not here just to eat pizza.“ the cigarette lit up without her doing anything, and she furrowed her brow. ”I don’t know how the Mint is back in Penrose, but we’re not stupid. We’re well informed, efficient, and don’t like to waste time.“ Then she gave a signal.

A simple snap of her fingers.

One of the girls transformed almost instantly and rushed up behind Mia. Were Mia transformed she might have been able to stop the agent. But no human could react as swiftly as a magical girl,. She slid a knife out of her sleeve and held it to the girl’s throat, drawing just a bit of blood.The girl who had been talking did not look at Mia. She almost seemed more concerned with keeping her cigarette lit.

”We haven’t been able to find Nuncio. No doubt Sammy’s clairvoyance is keeping him one step ahead of us. But I think I know how to lure him out.“ She looked at Connie. ”If Nuncio is headed here, we can all sit tight and wait for him. If he’s not coming, I want you to bring him here. We’ll hold onto your friend for collateral.“

“Mia…!” Connie cried, a look of pure horror on her face. “P-P-Please!” she pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks. “P-Please d-don’t h-hurt her!”

“I-It’s okay, little sis,” Mia reassured her hysterical friend through gritted teeth. “If these assholes want Nuncio so fuckin’ bad, then they can have him.”

“B-B-B-But…!” Connie whimpered.

“You can do this, Connie,” the tomboy told her with a warm smile, even though a blade was pressed against her throat. “Just try to calm down,” she instructed. “Deep breaths, like we practiced, alright?”

The panicking girl swallowed and gave a nod of acknowledgment. Her body was shaking so violently that it was causing her chair to rattle and she felt as if she might pass out at any moment, but with all her remaining strength, she forced herself to close her eyes and take a single deep breath. In… And then out. In… And then out. This continued for several seconds as, slowly but surely, Connie began to feel her anxiety drain away. She wasn't anywhere close to being as relaxed as Mia seemed to be, but at least she was no longer in danger of having a heart attack.

“There, feeling better?” Mia asked.

Connie gave another nod, although her trembling hands were still pressed tight against her chest.

“Now, go find that dumbass Nuncio and bring ‘em back here, okay?”

“O-O-Okay…” Connie acknowledged, her voice a meek whisper.

While Connie struggled to stand up on trembling legs, Mia’s eyes shifted to glare at their table guest. “So, are you the infamous ‘Beast’?” she asked with a mocking sneer. “Gotta say, I’m not all that impressed. Ya look more like a cheap hooker than a great and powerful coin broker.”

”Really now?“ She raised an eyebrow as her gaze shifted back to Mia. ”As amusing as it would be to continue sparring words with you, I think I know a better way to pass the time.“ She pressed her lit cigarette into the back of Mia’s palm.

To her credit, the tomboy barely flinched when the hot cigaret was pressed against her skin, but she couldn’t keep a hiss of pain from escaping through her grit teeth. She was just thankful that Connie had her back turned by that point.

“I once fought a flame behemoth inside a fuckin’ volcano,” Mia informed her would-be tormentor with a fierce grin once Connie was safely out of earshot. “This shit’s just plain pathetic.”

That’s it jackass, just keep tryin’ to torture me. You’re gonna seriously fuckin’ regret it when Connie gets back here…

---

Connie didn’t have a lot to go off of, but she did remember seeing Nuncio, Faith, and Sammy walking up a flight of stairs inside the Inn. The only issue was that she had to get inside. That wouldn’t be an issue for most, but this meant that Connie had to speak with people.

The marble walls and red carpet funneled down a massive corridor to the reception desk. The main lobby may have been empty, but the walls were filled to the brim with portraits. Lords and ladies of millenia past watched Connie. But at the end of the lobby was the receptionist. In the sea of old, thin, white faces, the younger, rotund, black man with half an afro stood out. But there was no mistaking it. His name tag was a gold plate that read “Irvine, Receptionist” After all.

”Oh hey there!“ He waved his hand like it was made of jello. ”What’s happenin’ girl?“

After a staggeringly stressful trip across the street, Connie finally found herself within the hotel’s lobby, yet even that accomplishment granted precious little reprieve. She could feel dozens of eyes boring into her, even if only from portraits rather than actual people, but still she pressed on. After all, Mia was counting on her. Everyone was counting on her. So she would do this. She had to.

“O-Oh!” Connie gasped when the receptionist greeted her. He seemed an amiable sort, but then, looks could be deceiving, as Connie knew only too well. “U-Ummm… H-H-Hello…” she replied between nervous inhalations, her voice barely rising above a faint whisper. “I-I-I’m… h-here to m-meet… m-my f-friend,” she explained. “S-She’s… s-staying h-here w-with… s-someone n-named N-N-Nuncio. D-Do y-you… h-happen t-to k-know w-what… r-r-room t-they’re s-staying in?”

”Nuncio? Don’t think we have too many of those here“ He turned to a computer and started typing. His pace was quite relaxed. It wasn’t like he understood the gravity of the situation. ”He’s staying in room fourteen-o-eight. Should be right by the staircase on the fourteenth floor.“

“O-Okay,” Connie acknowledged, while nervously gripping the strap of her handbag. “T-Thank you v-very m-much!” she added, before making her way to the elevator. However, once inside, she didn’t press the button for the fourteenth floor, but rather, the floor above it, and when the elevator finally arrived there, it would not be the visibly nervous Connie Williams that emerged, but the still visibly nervous Empress of Nightmares. After cautiously looking both ways, the masked girl hurried out of the elevator and over to the stairway door. Slipping inside the stairwell, she crouched down with her back to the wall, waited ten seconds, and then sent out a localized nightmare pulse. It was only big enough to affect the immediate area, but it would hopefully deal with any invisible Mint agents that might have been trailing her.

”SAMMY!“ Nuncio cried out.

”What?!”

”Oh!“ Nuncio cleared his throat. ”Thought somethin’ happened to ya.”

The tiny detective pouted. ”As if anything could happen to me! I assure you that if there were any mint in the area, I would deduce their location immediately. But that was strange, wasn’t it? If I had to make a deduction…” Sammy hummed ”Yes! You were affected by a spell originating from the fifteenth floor! Maybe the Mint is onto us.”

Then a third voice spoke up, this one more familiar to Connie. ”I’m not so sure. That magic seemed awfully specific, didn’t it? I don’t think one of those dreadful agents would give themselves away like that.”

At the sound of familiar voices, Connie gave a startled gasp and leapt to her feet. “I-I’msorryI’msorryI’msorryI’msorry!” she cried as she hurried down the stairs. “I-I j-just w-wanted to m-make s-sure t-there w-weren’t a-any M-M-Mint agents f-following me! I-I’m s-sorry!” she added again when she finally reached the trio, clasping her hands together and bowing her head.

Connie didn’t have to go far before seeing all of her old acquaintances, as they were all on the stairs. Sammy moved ahead of everyone and folded her arms. ”Those dullards will have to try a lot harder than that if they think I can’t deduce their every move!”

Before Sammy could get anything else in, Faith raced past her allies and gave Connie a big bear hug. She lifted the girl off of her feet and spun on her heels. ”Connie! It’s been so long since we sa-aaah!”

She lost her footing on the narrow steps, but Nuncio’s hand prevented the duo from falling down the stairs. ”Whatcha doin’ here anyway? Where’s Gaia?”

“I-I’m s-so g-glad to s-see you, t-too, F-Faith!” Connie replied in happy relief as she returned her friend’s hug with equal force, black tears streaming down the cheeks of her mask. “M-Mia’s in t-trouble!” she added, before further explaining the situation in a rapid flow of words. “W-We c-came h-here to h-help you, b-b-but w-we d-didn’t want to s-show the M-M-Mint w-where you w-were, s-so w-we d-decided to w-wait in the r-restaurant across t-the street until s-something h-happened, b-but t-then this M-M-Mint girl who m-might be the B-B-Beast s-showed up at our t-table and t-then another girl h-held a k-k-knife to Mia’s t-t-throat and t-then the f-first girl t-threatened to d-do something t-t-terrible to her unless I b-brought N-Nuncio b-back with me, s-so I c-came over h-here, a-and I t-tried to be c-careful, b-but they s-still might know w-where you are now a-and I’m s-so sorry!”

It took Connie’s friends a moment to process what she was trying to say.

”You need to stutter less.” Sammy put her hands on her hips.

“I-I’m s-sorry!” Connie apologized again, this time sounding even more distraught.

”They found a way to get to us.” Nuncio rubbed the back of his neck. ”Guess we ain’t got a choice. We back out now, Mia’s dead.”

Sammy was waving her magnifying glass around in the air. Her eyes were squeezed shut, but they opened soon enough. ”It’s that chav, Lexi. The one with the shape changing duplicates. I don’t sense the beast, but according to my deductions, she can’t be far away.”

”It’s a shame we couldn’t have met again under better circumstances.” Faith sighed. ”Do you have any way of communicating with Mia?”

“U-Um, y-yes,” Connie confirmed, retrieving her incongruously cute phone from the dark folds of her voluminous robe and holding it in her badly shaking hands. “I-I can c-call or t-text her, b-but I d-don’t know i-if she’ll a-answer, s-since…” Her voice trailed off and the eyes of her mask drooped downward, before suddenly opening wide as something occurred to her. “U-Ummm, N-Nuncio…?” the timid girl inquired hesitantly. “W-We were t-told that y-you were the p-person who r-requested our h-help. I-Is t-that not t-true?”

All eyes fell on Nuncio. He looked at each of them before correcting his posture. ”I did make use of an old connection ta ask for help. Wasn’t expecting to fight a coin broker myself. Certainly not with you two.”

”This is why I was against contacting Bonnie!” Sammy shook her head. ”She targeted these two for your job exclusively! Now we’re really in a pickle!”

”Well, they did come to help us. All we can do is make the best of it.” Faith kneeled in front of Connie so that she was eye level. ”It doesn’t sound like we can contact her discreetly then. We do need to rescue her, but in such a way no harm comes to us or you. What do you remember seeing? Is there anything we could use to our advantage?”

Connie frowned and took a moment to think. The memory was far from a pleasant one, but if she was going to help Mia, then she knew she had to push through her discomfort.

“U-Um, w-well, t-the f-first girl was w-wearing a l-lot of j-jewelry, a-and a b-beret,” Connie began. “I-I d-don’t t-think she w-was t-transformed… O-Oh, b-but she had a c-cigaret that s-she lit w-without a l-lighter o-or a m-match, s-so m-maybe she w-was transformed… A-Anyway, I t-think t-there were f-four other g-girls w-who looked s-similar to the f-first one. T-Three of t-them were i-inside the r-restaurant, and o-one was s-sitting on a b-bench j-just outside it. O-One of the f-first three t-transformed really f-fast a-and h-held a k-k-knife t-to M-Mia’s t-throat b-before I even k-knew what was h-happening! T-That’s when s-she said I n-needed to b-bring N-Nuncio to her, o-or else s-she’d h-hurt Mia… I-I d-don’t know i-if any of t-that h-helps,” she added. “B-But b-before we a-arrived, Mia s-said that if a-anything h-happened to her, I-I should g-get away, t-transform, a-and t-then use my n-nightmare m-magic, s-so, u-um, m-maybe I c-could just b-blast the r-restaurant f-from up h-here,” she suggested. “T-That would t-take c-care of all t-those h-horrible M-Mint girls, a-and I-I’ve been w-working o-on b-better c-controlling my m-magic, s-so I t-think I s-should be able to k-keep it f-from affecting M-Mia.”

The escapees took turns exchanging glances before Faith smiled. ”Your magic did a number on Lotus! That sounds like just the distraction we need to rescue Mia~! Just, you know, watch the poor pedestrians too. I wouldn’t want to drag them into this.”

“O-Oh! U-Um, of c-course!” Connie agreed. “I-I’ll do m-my b-best t-to m-make s-sure o-only the M-Mint girls g-get hit, b-but, um, h-how will w-we know for s-sure w-who isn’t s-secretly an e-enemy?” she asked with a frown.

”I have no idea.” Faith placed a hand on Connie’s shoulder. ”But if you think it’s a good idea to use your nightmare magic, I think you should go for it!”

“O-Okay!” Connie declared, raising a clenched (but still badly shaking) fist with all the determination she could muster. “T-Then l-let’s do it! L-Let’s go s-save Mia!”

Normally the magical girls would make their way over to the roof of the adjacent pizza joint before commencing their operation. However, few of the buildings in the heart of the big apple made that viable. The pizza joint was a proverbial wall of steel and concrete. Standing on the roof of such a building would put them too far away from the ground floor. They were able to look out of the inn however. Connie could see the mint “guard” was still standing in front of a window, but it looked like the other girls had taken Mia deeper inside.

“I-I, um, I-I t-think I m-might h-have a w-way to t-tell w-who the M-Mint a-agents are,” Connie told her friends, although she seemed hesitant. “M-My m-mystic a-artifact l-let’s me s-see what p-people are a-afraid of, s-so m-maybe that will w-work?”

She knew it was far from ideal, and she hated using it, but she also knew it was the best option they had. Retrieving a dark crystal pendant from the folds of her robe, Connie gripped the eye of fear, her mystic artifact, in her hand. It seemed that the agent standing out front had a fear of drowning. They had attempted to commit suicide by driving into the harbor. In the cold depths of the sea, they discovered how horrible the water could be and realized they wanted to live. An observing Puchuu offered them salvation as a magical girl.

Connie gasped as she watched the shocking scene play out on a mystic window above her pendent. Seeing someone try to drown themselves would be traumatic for most people, but for someone like Connie, it was a thousand times worse. Yet, the timid girl resolved herself to press on. Charging the artifact with more power, she attempted to probe deeper into the building, looking for any other fears of a supernatural nature, and, of course, any that dealt specifically with the Ebon Mint.

It seemed like everyone in the building had a deep fear of drowning. It wasn’t an uncommon fear, but for it to be shared with nearly everyone inside was unusual. But Connie's probing would prove a few smaller fears that she could work with. The disguised magical girl out front was also afraid of being “discovered.” Likely a fear that most mint agents possessed, though no one possessed a fear of supernatural entities specifically. Could the Empress of Nightmares do anything?

Well, if the Empress of Nightmares was a cruel and heartless being befitting such a title, then she would simply envelop the entire restaurant and the sidewalk outside it in a bubble of nightmare energy, uncaring of guilt or innocence. As it was, however, the Empress was a gentle and kind-hearted girl who hated the thought of causing harm to anyone, and although she knew it was preferable to strike fully and indiscriminately, she simply couldn’t bring herself to do so. Instead, she decided to work with what she knew for certain. The Mint agent out front was also scared of discovery, so she crafted a focused nightmare that would prey upon that fear. With any luck, it would cause the disguised girl to call her partners for help, and maybe even get them to vacate the building completely, making them easy targets for a followup attack.

“O-Okay,” Connie said after taking a deep breath. “H-Here g-goes…”

It did not take long for the nightmare to manifest. Spectral magical girls that only Connie and the agent could see approached the pizzaria. The pointed at the mint agent as they drew closer.

”That’s her! It’s Lexi!”

”She’s the one who tried to kill herself, right?”

”And now she’s part of the mint!”

”How low can you go?”

Even though the girls comments would feel right at home in some B grade TV show, “Lexi” was visibly agitated by the heckling. She was holding her breath. Her heart was racing. But she didn’t move from her spot. She looked at the ground and pulled out her phone.

”Boss? I think we’ve been discovered. Some girls-” She flinched as someone on the other end yelled at her. ”That makes sense, yea. You’re right. Do you know her number?” She wiped some sweat off of her head while her boss continued to speak with her. ”I’d rather do it myself actually, can I- Okay, yea, thank you. It won’t happen again. Bye.” As soon as she hung up, she dialed another number and held the phone to her head.

Connie’s phone rang.

”Do you think this is a game?” Her voice was cold. ”Well while you’re out there having fun, so are we. We’ve decided to start eating Mia’s fingers while you fuck around out there!” Not only could Connie hear her growl into the phone, Lexi was starting to lose her composure. ”If you still want your friend to have a few opposing digits, you’ll bring that god damn traitor and his friends right now!” She cocked back her arm and launched the phone through the spectral magical girls.

Connie jumped when she heard her phone ring. Pulling it out of her robe with trembling hands, she almost dropped the device when she heard the voice on the other end. “M-M-Mia’s h-h-hands…?” she whimpered incredulously, the dark eyes of her mask going wide.

They thought that was having fun? They thought any of this was fun? Her breaths were once again coming in short, sharp gasps, but this time, it wasn’t due to steadily growing fear, but anger… In that moment, she realized with soul-crushing certainty that she couldn’t hold back. For Mia’s sake, for her friends’ sake, she had to end this now…

“I-I’m s-sorry,” she whispered, the eyes of her mask closing as mystic power began to build.

A moment later, and the entire restaurant, along with the sidewalk around it, was encapsulated in a crackling nightmare bubble. Significantly stronger than the small pulse Connie had employed against the agent on the sidewalk, everyone within its confines (except for Mia) would feel as though they were being plunged deeper and deeper into a watery abyss from which there was no escape.

“O-Okay!” Connie told her friends, her voice filled with urgency. “L-Let’s get d-down there and s-save Mia!”

Faith strummed her harp, causing musical note to make an impromptu slide. The escapees and Connie slid down and ran into the pizzeria. All of the occupants were trying to “swim” above the “water” that filled the establishment. Everyone was gasping and crying for help, but they just had to tune that out and venture further inside.

They wouldn’t spot Mia until they pushed into the back of the restaurant. In the kitchen, all of the chefs were behaving much like the patrons in the lobby. But Lexi was seated towards the back of the room with Mia. The mint agent was clutching the side of her head while shooting dagger eyes at Connie, and Mia…

Mia didn’t look so good. She was still in human form and covered head to toe in bruises. They must have started beating her shortly after Connie left to get the others. It was hard to tell how she was doing as she was curled up in the fetal position with her back to connie. But the table Lexi was seated at had its white tablecloth stained with blood. Among the plastic cutlery before her was a blood soaked cleaver, which Lexi grabbed before standing up from the table.

As the quartet made their way through the restaurant, Connie hugged herself tightly and tried her best to block out the sounds of suffering around her, suffering she had caused. “I-I’m s-sorry,” she whispered, unable to bring herself to look at any of the frantic patrons. Instead, she focused on the floor, on simply putting one foot in front of the other, at least until she reached the kitchen…

“M-M-Mia…?” Connie asked in a quivering voice, the sight of her best friend’s bruised and battered body causing her to freeze in her tracks. “W-W-What… W-WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!!” she screamed, her voice filled with fury and pain as she sent several midnight-black tentacles darting out to coil around Lexi’s wrists and throat. Even as they began rapidly constricting, an enraged Connie sent a massive blast of nightmare energy surging into the Mint agent, like a spike being driven into her brain. The girl would feel her fears of drowning amplified a hundredfold, with water filling her lungs as thorny tendrils pulled her deeper even as they dug their spines into her flesh. The Mint agent suffering serious injuries, or even a heart attack, as a result of this was a very real possibility, but Connie was far too infuriated to care. This piece of trash had hurt her dearest friend, and now, she would make them pay…

Before any of Connie’s allies could even respond, Lexi collapsed into the tentacles. The cleaver skid across the floor as the agent struggled to remain conscious. Without so much as a whisper, she went limp.

”Yeeesh!” Nuncio looked between Mia and Lexi. ”No idea who got it worse. Can’t imagine the beast is gunna take this sitting down though, let's grab Mia and scram!” He was about to go pick her up, but he took one look at Connie and hesitated.

Sammy was at a loss for words. She was frozen in place, still processing what was happening in front of her.

But it was Faith that set a hand on Connie and Sammy’s shoulders. She looked to the empress of nightmares. ”Connie, I couldn’t possibly understand how you feel right now. But you need to set your emotions aside for a moment.” She gave her a light squeeze. ”As much pain as Mia must be in, she’s a magical girl. All of her wounds will heal so long as she draws breath~!”

At first, Connie was so fixated on making Lexi suffer that she didn’t even notice her friends’ reactions. It was only at the touch of Faith’s hand upon her shoulder that the enraged Empress of Nightmares snapped out of her frenzied trance, the aura of dark energy which surrounded her now swiftly dissipating. Releasing her tentacles’ grip on the passed out Mint agent, Connie gave a tired exhale. “Y-You’re right…” she conceded softly. “I-I’m s-sorry I l-lost c-control,” she added in a sullen voice as she knelt down to check on Mia’s unconscious form. “I-It’s j-just… s-seeing M-Mia like t-this… i-it just… h-hurts s-so much…”

Thankfully, Mia was still breathing and, holding the injured tomboy close, Connie gently lifted her up off the floor.

“W-We need to g-get Mia s-someplace safe, b-before a-any of t-these M-Mint agents r-recover!” Connie declared, even as black tears continued to stream down her cheeks.

As soon as Connie felt the warmth of Mia in her hands, something was off. She felt heavier than she should have. Not only that, but her unconscious form seemed to move in Connie’s arms. When Mia turned to look at Connie, she could taste it.

The copper flavor of blood in her mouth.

She winced as something heavy struck the side of her face. The world spun, and she collapsed onto her back. “Mia” stood up, now holding an iron pipe in her hand. Connie was on the verge of consciousness. She could feel Faith’s magic coil around her shoulders and drag her back to them.

”Connie!” She reached for her fix-it-bandaids and started placing them along the side of her head. Nuncio had summoned his tiger Rosa to stand between Mia and Connie.

”You ain’t Mia.” Nuncio folded his arms.

”That’s obvious now, isn’t it?” The illusion magic faded away, and Lexi stood in Mia’s place. The true Lexi one might assume. She was wearing gym clothes and held a silver pipe. Though her outfit was noticeably more over the top than her disguise. Not only had she retained all of her jewelry, but now she had a hoodie that was spiked like some goth accessory, and her fingernails appeared to be made out of silver. ”We were expecting you to retaliate, so of course I set things up to prepare for it.” The false Lexi that was laying on the floor also had her illusion dispelled. It had been Mia the entire time. Her wrists and ankles had been bound together. Aside from a few missing fingers, most of the damage that had been done to her was a result of Connie’s nightmare magic. ”You’re losing your edge, ‘Vermin Killer.’ Was it Penrose or finding Sammy that made you so soft?”

Before Nuncio could respond, Sammy’s eyes shot open. ”A-according to my deductions, everyone in the building is one of her duplicates!”

While Connie still had a bit of vertigo, Faith had just enough time to place a bandage on Connie’s head. This was enough to close the wound on her head just as hemorrhagic shock set in. She only had three more bandages that size, so hopefully this wouldn’t happen again. ”If we can rescue Mia, maybe I can get her in fighting condition.”

But the door they had come through was knocked off its hinges. A hoard of angry Lexi clones was spilling into the room. Connie’s lapse in consciousness was just enough to allow them to shake off the effects of her nightmares and start a counterattack. The escapees immediately turned towards the hoard and started fighting them back.

Even with Rosa poised to strike, Lexi had her eyes set on Connie, and moved towards her with her pipe resting on her shoulder. Or at least, that was what it looked like she was doing.

”Go ahead.” Lexi’s voice reached Connie’s ears despite the sound of combat erupting behind her. ”Run amok.”

It all happened so fast.

Before Connie knew it, her head was swimming, her vision spinning. She was vaguely aware of Faith pulling her back, and then applying a bandage to the side of her head, but mostly, everything was just an incoherent, confused jumble of movements, sensations, and sounds. However, it wasn’t long before her vision cleared enough for her to see what had happened. What she had thought was Mia, was, in fact, Lexi. And Mia… Mia was…

“N-No…” Connie whispered as full, dreadful understanding dawned.

She had seen Mia get hurt before, while protecting her from bullies, and she had always blamed herself, had always felt that her friend’s injuries had been her fault. But this time… This time, she was directly responsible for Mia’s suffering. She had used her nightmare magic on her best friend… Seeing Mia in pain was bad enough, but knowing that she had caused it? That was far too much for Connie to bear. Far, far too much…

“Y-You…” Connie hissed, her voice raw and ragged, the visage of her mask contorting into one of utter fury. “Y-You m-made me…

With a wordless scream of anguish and rage, a crackling aura of dark amethyst energy surged from Connie’s shuddering form to encapsulate the entire room in a terrifying nightmare barrier. Shadowy, twisted tendrils writhed at the edges of that horrific space, sprouting wicked, scythed spines, segmented insectoid legs, and monstrous, bulging eyes in a frenzy of chittering, churning movement. This was the dominion of the Empress of Nightmares, and all of its myriad aspects were focused on one target…

Descending upon Lexi in a hellish deluge, dozens of dark tendrils wrapped around the Mint agent to hold her in place, the fully unleashed power of Connie’s nightmare magic allowing them to supersede their normal limitations and spawn hundreds of secondary and tertiary needle-tipped tentacles, which swiftly wormed their way under Lexi’s fingernails and behind her eyeballs… Simultaneously, a much larger tendril forced it’s way down her throat, knocking out her teeth and shattering her jaw. No sooner had it done so, than it disgorged an ocean’s worth of water with the force of ten pressure washers, while additional tendrils that had worked their way up her nostrils and into her ears did the same…

The Empress of Nightmares screeched, her voice warped and inhuman.

Lexi’s body twitched and shook as Connie’s magic tore into it. She didn’t scream or flinch, much like one would expect a doll to do.

”That looks like it hurt.” Again, Lexi’s voice seemed to come from right beside Connie. ”Almost what Mia had to put up with. She’s a strong one, but she couldn’t bear to watch as the meat was sucked off her fingers. All that fire and brimstone turned to ash pretty quick.”

Rosa had just narrowly dodged the tendrils meant for Lexi and joined Nuncio in his fight. It was difficult for the escapees to focus, but fortunately the duplicates were equally unnerved. Sammy turned to look past Connie. ”According to my deduct-”

Sammy’s body burst into flames. She ran past Connie screaming, trying to reach the water at all costs. But she was struck by an invisible force and fell beside Mia. There was nearly an inch of water on the floor now.

”Come on.” Lexi phased through the tentacles and barbs before stopping in front of Connie. ”You can do better.”

The eyes of Connie’s mask widened when she heard Lexi’s condescending and all-too-calm voice coming from beside her. Then she saw the girl’s “body” effortlessly phase through her various tentacles. Clearly, she was dealing with yet another illusion… Giving voice to an enraged snarl, the Empress of Nightmares swung her hand at the spot where the voice emanated, her fingers tipped with wicked claws of pure nightmare magic. However, they found only empty space, and now Sammy was on fire? Almost on instinct, Connie directed her water-spewing tendrils to douse the diminutive detective, even as she frantically sought out the real Lexi.

And the smug bitch still kept talking…

Even in her frenzied state, Connie quickly realized that the only way to truly find the illusive agent was to suffuse everyone and everything in the entire restaurant with nightmare magic. Only then would the true target of her ire be found…

Giving voice to yet another agonized shriek, the Empress of Nightmares unleashed the full fury of her horrific power…

Nuncio fell to one knee, Rosa whimpered, even Sammy and Mia seemed to twist and turn in torment. The clones ceased their advance, shrieking as the nightmares overtook their minds.

”Connie!” Faith shouted. Her eyes were squinted shut, and she had a hand on either side of her head. ”I can’t take it, we need to-” She suddenly combust into flames. Though unlike Sammy, she had the wherewithal to throw herself into the water. ”Connie! Connie-Con=” She inhaled. ”Mother! Mother!”

The ground shook with thunderous applause, and dryad wasps began pouring in from every entrance. Minions of horrors were normally no match for a magical girl, but the unthinking, unfeeling wasps were impervious to Connie’s nightmare magic. They also didn’t discriminate between the escapees and the clones. Their champion was in trouble, and they had been dispatched to eradicate anything that might be a threat.

Lexi groaned. ”How bothersome.” Her form waved and vanished just as a dryad wasp drove its stinger into Connie’s shoulder.

Despite Connie’s greatest efforts, despite all her sacrifices, which even now were tearing a gaping hole in her aching heart, things still hadn’t improved. Her friends were still in pain, Faith had still erupted into flames, and Lexi was still talking in that calm, almost disinterested voice that made Connie want to rip the girl’s tongue out and shove it down her throat. Yet, that wasn’t the only voice Connie heard. Faith was calling out, calling for her…

Mother…?!

The next thing Connie knew, a swarm of monstrous wasps had poured into the room, one of them even managing to drive a stinger into her shoulder. Crying out in a mixture of frustration and pain, she lashed out at the creature with a spiked tendril, pinning it to the wall like some twisted insect display case. But there were dozens of additional creatures remaining, making the entire situation more untenable by the second.

Faith… Connie realized. Faith called them because she was in danger, which means…

She had made yet another mistake. Indeed, that seemed all she was truly good at… Roaring with fury, the Empress of Nightmares sent several tentacles shooting out with lightning speed to wrap around Mia, Faith, Sammy, Nuncio, and Rosa. Then, with a mighty heave, she flung them all through a just-opened door in the dimensional fabric, before slamming said door shut with great force.

“O-Okay…” Connie seethed, her spiked tentacles spinning around her like a buzzsaw as her nightmare energy built to even greater levels. “Now it’s just you…

Perhaps if Connie was fighting a group of normal mint agents, things may have played out like that. Opening the gate to an interdimensional home had always been a time consuming and risky endeavor, one that few would attempt in live combat. But there was no reason to think things wouldn’t play out differently. Lexi obviously wasn’t here. Between the dryad wasps and her nightmare magic, there were no clones to oppose her. She was winding up for her friend toss, the gate was opening…

A throne phased through the wall.

The golden comet was adorned with plush red pillows and a gaudy amount of gemstones. It crashed into Connie before the portal could open all the way up. She had been saved by her barbed tentacles, but their sudden rending flung her friends everywhere. They slammed into the walls and fell about the floor. When Connie turned her hate filled gaze towards the throne, she could see the one holding it.

A regal looking magical girl with fur shoulders.

This had to be the beast.

Who else would dress like a literal english king?

”Afraid I can’t let you run off with my prey.” She grinned.

The entire wall of the kitchen waved out of existence. Just beyond was an empty street that had been sectioned off. There in the distance was Lexi, and another girl. One who was dressed similarly to the Djinn twins. Unlike Lexi, her emotions were plain on her face. She was enjoying this far too much. The fires in her hands were bright enough to cast shadows all the way down the street.

”I’d let you and your other leave.” The beast hoisted her throne over her shoulder. ”But you’re going to continue this fruitless pursuit, aren’t you?”

Connie was momentarily stunned when a gilded throne, of all things, slammed into her, just as she was about to fling her friends to safety. If there was a bright side to this unexpected turn of events, at least now she could clearly see Lexi’s accomplice, as well as what had to be the infamous Beast of the North herself. Yet, where once the sight of this foe would have brought Connie to her knees in terror, now it only augmented the Empress of Nightmare’s seemingly unquenchable rage…

The Empress screeched, her tortured voice like sounding like a thousand nails scraping across a chalkboard.

She ranted, even as she unleashed an unrestrained torrent of raw, roiling nightmare magic upon the three Mint agents, the dark energy surging from her hands, as well as from the mouth, eyes, and glowing amethyst diadem of her mask.

She declared, her voice suffused with unbridled hatred and malice as she sent wave upon wave of her tormentors’ greatest fears made manifest crashing against them over and over again in an unrelenting tide.

An ocean filled with school boys surged towards the mint agents on the street. Lexi grit her teeth as the tidalwave threatened to wash over them. But her companion’s grin didn’t drop for a second. She raised her hands and the pavement cracked open. A red glow shined out before a roaring fire reached out towards the heavens. Such volume of water should have extinguished the flames, but instead it slammed up against it. The water, and the boys floating inside it, flowed off to either side.

”Keep tryin’!” The pyromancer taunted.

But this did nothing for the beast, who was right beside Connie as she shrieked and threw her magic around. She had been totally submerged in the nightmare sea. The undertow was especially strong given her proximity to connie. The beast gripped her throne tight and sneered. Without such a heavy anchor, she might have been blown away. But as it were, she had little difficulty lifting her knee up to her chest.

The water did nothing to slow the beast’s kick, nor did it slow Connie as she soared backwards through the kitchen. She flew through a pair of double doors and fell onto her back. Something inside her chest had broken, and she couldn’t breathe.

”Fear magic? really?” The beast scoffed. ”I am untethered by such things. Fear belongs to prey, not the predator.” She cracked a smile. ”I long for the day I can feel something so exhilarating! I had thought today might be that day, but what are the lot of you but weaklings and cowards?”

By this point, Sammy, Nuncio, Rosa, and Faith all had ample time to get to their feet. Faith had finished bandaging up Mia and helped her to a sitting position before rushing off to help Connie. But she was cut off when the Beast stepped in front of her.

”I run a tight ship, and we’re all on the clock. And when something needs to get done fast, well, I need to do it myself.” The beast didn’t flinch when the ground shook. Somewhere, three pillar druids had just descended into New York. ”But if you insist on calling for reinforcements, maybe I’ll call some of my own.” With a snap of her fingers, several giant chess pieces fell from the sky. Eight pawns, followed by a pair of rooks, knights, and bishops. There was even a queen that stood just a bit taller than the beast did. But there was no king piece. ”Now, let’s get this started properly…”