No worries and welcome back. Glade to hear that you're once again looking forward to the things you've got going on. The slog of not enjoying what it is you are getting up to do every day is never, Never and present one. So I'm glad to hear that isn't the case.
Also, I just realized that the last line in my most recent post is much more ominous then I meant for it too be.
“Or ducks, or the odd coyote” Slade would quip from his place at the fire. It was just edging past dawn and breakfast had just been finished. He had turned this into a mix of training and actual vacation. They were a few states over, in a beautiful forest just at the base of a small mountain range. There was a variety of small game that could be found in the area, hence the point of the mans quip, but that wasn’t the only thing in the area. Hiking and camping were another great draw for the area, but at this point in the season most people won’t bother as the temp was lowering.
The weapon of choice for this hunt was a rather basic hunting rifle, bolt action with a five round clip that fired .117. Not the lowest caliber round, but not far from it either. Would be good enough to take down any of the game that the two of there were actually here to hunt at least. Though that wasn’t to say that that was all they had. Slade had at least three more knives on him. Two for throwing one for more general use. As well as a 1911 as a side arm. He didn’t think he would need it, but paranoia wouldn’t let him leave with out it.
Jinayah was allowed to bring her knives as well if she wanted to. Not all of them, but half of her throwing knives as well as her main pair of daggers. They were hers now, and Slade had been working on getting her into the habit of always having at least one knife on her no matter where it was they were going.
“Now. You’ll be the one leading this” He would go on to say. “I’ll help point out things, tracks, or other things that might be of use. But for the most part you are the one who’s guiding things today.” Yesterday Slade had been the one in charge as he got them to this camp sight. “We have plenty of daylight so don’t worry about that, and I will be able to get us back here easily if needed. So shall we start the hunt?” He would ask knowing that there was plenty he could teach out here even while they went searching for Jinny’s first kill. Stealth and Tracking being the top things on that list.
And even if they weren’t able to find anything, Slade had slipped out last night and set up a few snares and other such traps that might have bagged something as well. One way or another, Jinny was getting a kill this trip.
"Aww..." Maribel pouted. So much for a new pet, she thought, but at least it was dealt with easily. Too easily. Her, Lauren, and their summoned creature bounded back to their third. Something didn't seem right.
"Odd. It looks like the culprits fled, but I still feel traces of illusion and psychic magic. But how...?" Lauren noticed, her third eye dimming down slightly. They then turned to address Penny.
"Are you alright, dear?" Maribel asked.
Penny didn't reply, and at first it didn't seem like she even acknowledged the witches being there in the first place. She simply wrenched her lance like appendage from the corpse of their slain foe. And only once it was freed was it that she turned her head to face these new arrivals.
She gazed at them in an almost blank manner, her face was empty of emotion. But her eyes, for all the rest of her being smooth and controlled, her eyes blazed with seething hate and venomous anger. The crimson glow they emanated flaring slightly really was the only warning they got.
Wordlessly Penny lunged at the one closest to her, the tricone drill roaring to life as she sought to tear the witches head off with it.
in the same movement she leveled her lance arm towards the creature they had summoned and with a short burst of static the lower part of her arm was fired off trailing a length of chain as she sought to harpoon her one time ally.
Lastly, and most damningly, every scrap of metal in the Sanctuary tugged in Penny's direction. The Engine was fully online and would not be denied.
Once they realized what Penny intended to do, they only had a short interval of time to act. Lauren applied barriers to herself and her sisters (and anyone else near them that wasn't a threat) before summoning a current of water to hold off every bit of metal nearing them.
The creature they didn't have to worry about. It could be resummoned later on, albeit somewhat different. But then there was the matter of the witches themselves. Regardless of who was targeted first, Rowena would silently step in to block Penny's tricone drill with her axe. If it didn't snap her weapon in two immediately, wooden roots growing from the handle would grab a hold of the arm, and she would attempt to suplex the rogue machination.
"Now, now, is that how you greet a new guest~?" Maribel asked the EoD, her tone suddenly laced with displeasure.
"I don't think she's in the right mindset for that, Mari! Something's egging her- egging it on!!" Lauren warned her, focused on keeping her spells up.
The haft of Rowena’s ax wouldn’t snap on impact, though it was a near thing, the grinding nature of Penny’s new hand quickly tore through the remainder of it and any roots that spread from that point would find themselves cleared away by the teeth of the chainsaw that wrapped around her right arm. Her strike would glance off the protective barrier, but that hardly even slowed her down as she near instantly followed up with a back hand to the same spot seeking to simply overwhelm the magical defense through brute force.
In addition to her hammer blows the two right side spider limbs would also lash out, one aiming to strike Rowena’s face and the other to strike her knee.
Amidst this attack Penny’s gaze would snap towards Lauren for a moment, her brow furrowing ever so slightly, and with an inhumanly deft touch she whipped the length of chain between her and her left arm lodged in the floor to try and loop around Lauren’s neck. The links in the chain suddenly became covered in serrated spines just before Penny pulled the loop tight.
Her remaining two spider limbs tracked the last of the three witches, waiting for them to react, and the instant that she moved towards Penny they would lash at center mass seeking to inflict harm however they could.
The immediate danger above seemingly dealt with the rubble that had closed off this space shifted as Shane slid down to back Penny up. He'd identified that the monster from earlier was dispatched. Now the mechanical girl had set her sights on these newcomers. Only seeing them briefly before her hadn't seen them do anything to anyone. Gut reaction was that they were a threat, Penny was attacking them after all. It wasn't that his PoF had necessarily indicated to him though. "Penny looks to already be working on it, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The rubble below him began to shift as he was ready to act.
"?!" Rowena clicked her tongue when her axe snapped in two, being forced to throw her weapon aside at the moment. Her barrier did well to defend from Penny's strikes, but it wouldn't hold out forever. Not to mention this didn't stop her from getting staggered. The strike at her knee caused Rowena to collapse with a grunt, but she quickly shot the grown vines from earlier at the cyborg to restrain her away.
Lauren wasn't so lucky. Before she could intervene, Penny had looped the chain around her neck, causing the emerald-haired witch to gag. The spikes scraped at her own barrier, taunting her to focus more on reinforcing herself over defending the other two. "Do something, goddamnit!!" She called out to the idle witch, clawing at the chain.
The aforementioned Maribel on the other hand, refused to act. Atleast, not yet. Even she could tell their unintended foe was not one to be trifled with. She pondered, what was causing such uncalled for behavior? Lauren had mentioned something about traces of psychic magic.
Wait a minute...
Before Maribel could act, a third party had entered, just as ready to attack them as Penny.
"Oh for god's sake man, we're not the threat here, SHE is! Something's provoked her somehow, and it ain't our doing!!" Lauren barked at Shane, cutting through the chain on her neck with a sharp current of water. They were just trying to defend themselves! They wanted to help with the monster, and this is how they're thanked?!
Rowena nodded almost violently, appearing scared over their situation, but their third...
Maribel chuckled.
"Blind justice? Or an attempt to play 'hero'?" Violet eyes slowly turned to look at Shane, yet she wasn't smiling. "I must say, this is one hell of a way to roll out the red carpet. Though I will admit, the monster was our only target. We never intended to play with the locals." The corner of her mouth quirked up with another chuckle. "Though if you really wish to fight...so be it."
Maribel casted a hand out, conjuring up a nightmare barrier around the battlefield. Even if it seemed like she was going all out, she had an idea. But first she had to explain to Shane her intentions.
"I've- Er, we've to believe your friend here's under the effects of a psychic spell. I can't tell what kind, but I can try and calm her down regardless. But I also can't risk her hurting my sisters. Are you with us, or against us?" She told him through a quick mental link. Didn't seem to have any ill will to the boy.
Eyes darting from Penny to the group he didn't have a hard way to confirm what was being said was 100% the case. Penny's EoD was not a good sign. It was a thing monster girls suffered that made them difficult if not impossible to reason with. After a few moments he shifted the ground under him to deflect some of Penny's attacks. "Get to the end of the hall, I can defend from there." There wasn't much down there as a dead end, but it was still a work in progress that the boy could use to tunnel.
Rowena was successful in stalling Penny the vines rapidly entangling her giving the witch time to get out from under the enraged Queen. Just in time as well, as in a burst of lightning Penny reduced the vines to little more than cinders. Her next strikes were diverted by Shane’s alteration of the battle field however, it caused her kick to go wide and her spider limbs diverted from lashing out at the witches to moving to stabilize Penny so that she wouldn’t fall due to the unexpected betrayal.
Yet once again the reprieve was short lived. Penny half spun in place, lashing out at Shane with the length of still spiked and serrated chain. Obviously treating him as much of a threat as the witches now.
In the same instant Penny pushed off the floor with her spider limbs before inverting in mid-air and landing on the ceiling as if it was the floor, yet it was hardly a moment before she launching off, flying towards Lauren spinning into an ax kick aimed at the witch’s head, a cocoon of lightning wreathed around her leg sparking to life as she neared.
Maribel's grin returned when Shane decided to help them. "Glad to work with you, dear~!"
Rowena and Lauren took the opportunity to regroup with the other two, the latter having to form a barrier around Shane before Penny attacked him as well. Though it seemed to only turn the cyborg's attention back to her. Lauren was ready to counter attack with light magic when another nightmare creature honed in on Penny, with the intent of knocking her down. If not, it would hopefully stall her enough for the witch of order to escape.
More nightmares then turned their sights on the Engine of Destruction, commanded by Maribel like a conductor to an orchestra. She was trying to tire Penny out by providing her opponents.
"Are you sure you want to be controlled like this? By forces that only wish to do harm?" She tried to get through to her. To reassure her. "We don't want to hurt you. The threat is gone, can't you tell?? Everything's okay, but you need to calm down. Please..."
The strike against him blocked, Shane jumped between Penny and the witches. For what it was worth he would try and lend his PoF to calm the monster girl down. "You need to stop Penny. They were here to help." Some of the rubble moved in behind him to bar the path to the others. He was ready to use it to push them back if need be as well. This whole fiasco was making a mess of the Sanctuary and what it stood for.
The first summoned nightmare was able to intercept Penny but it did little more than absorb the blow for Lauren as the electrified ax kick split it in half, but along with the other monsters summoned to mob Penny it was enough for the apparent primary target of Penny's ire to retreat from the front line.
From there the creatures that swarmed her were mowed through with ruthless efficiency, as Penny weaved around them landing devastating blows seemingly at her whim while her gravitic barrier and holographic armor invalidated any strikes that were lucky enough to land. And rather than slowing down it seemed as if she was slowly speeding up. Hitting harder and more precisely the longer the fight went on.
And oddly enough each strike Penny landed seemed to splatter water everywhere slowly covering the floor in it.
Her rampage would bring her ever closer to the witches, and when Shane planted himself between Penny and them, she did not show him much mercy. A low sweep along with one of her spider limbs lashing to drag him to the floor before an ax kick slamming into his ribs. Notable in the fact that while painful, it wasn’t Penny’s full force. She wasn’t trying to kill him, just incapacitate.
Maribel would connect with Penny and before she could really speak, she would be assaulted by a deluge of thoughts as Penny’s inhumanity was plainly obvious in the speed of her thoughts. Penny was keeping track of each witch individually along with Shane. A short tally of what types of magic she had witnessed from them, and the assumption that Shane was the one being controlled by Maribel. But the overwhelming thoughts that seemed to spur her anger was the heartache and pain she was facing.
This was her home, defiled, and defaced. For reasons she wasn’t sure of, but knew was very much intentional.
And hidden under all of that was the lingering trace of someone else’s presence, the psychic equivalent of poured gasoline on the bonfire that was Penny’s mental state. In addition to She could see that something was going on that made it so that Penny did not see the witches as humans. Rather she saw them as more advanced nightmare creatures, thus yet more things that were destroying her home.
Suddenly The witch’s connection was violently severed as the ShineSpark surged to life. Just in time to see Penny throwing one of the nightmare spawn at Maribel, before once again launching herself at the witches. No longer targeting Lauren as her first priority, now it was Maribel herself.
The nightmare witch flinched before her connection was even severed. In honesty, she felt guilty being forced to fight Penny, after what she gathered. But there was no time to dawdle, she had her sights set on her. She caught the spawn with one hand, and readied her parasol for another counter attack. "Lauren! The illusion magic's affecting US!"
"Oh now you can tell?!" Lauren grunted. Since Penny turned her attention away from her, it seemed like the right time to do something. While Maribel had her turn to distract, she rushed over to remove the curse on both ends, propelling herself with water.
Crushed under foot from the strike, a stunned Shane lay on the floor for a moment. He wasn't as durable as he used to be. His outfit and regen allowed him to recover fast enough to stay awake. He spotted Lauren making a move. Illusion? He didn't quite make out what was said and he didn't have all of the context. Really though that didn't matter a whole lot at the moment. Penny was not acting herself and had attacked him a couple times now. It seemed like if anyone tried to get in the way that she would attack them. He was suddenly getting a feeling of deja vu.
Tensing up the rest of the rubble moved to block more of Penny's strikes, which was more than just batting a few chunks of concrete or earth out of the way as he was pulling more material from the hole he'd made evacuating others earlier. It would also get her off of him and he rolled out of view behind the material. "Queens need to come off my list of leaders." He coughed somewhat sarcastically. This was the second one to go off the deep end and strike him for trying to help.
Midair Penny poised her left arm for a strike, and as she did so the chain could be seen retracting but rather then simply tucking into her arm and vanishing it seems that she had reconnected the two lengths of chain at some point so rather than a flat surface she was ready to strike with the tip of a vicious spike. One that she lent all of her weight into as she sought to crash straight through the parasol that Maribel readied in defense.
The stones Shane had arranged to defend would flow out of the way at the last moment as well, something he could tell was from another Stone user. At the same time they would notice a red sheen flickering across Penny.
Lauren would notice as she rushed closer that Penny seemed to be leaking water, and that all the water she had conjured was pooling closer as she neared.
A cyborg? Leaking water? The stone defenses moving without either Shane or Rowena's interference? It didn't take her third eye to realize what that meant.
"I'm fighting with a goddamn mimic!?" Lauren screeched, but shook her head to refocus. She could put an end to the fight if the other three could stall for a bit longer...
Maribel had to draw her parasol back against the weight of the EoD, and Rowena had to step back in to help push the cybernetic queen away. Their defense could only take so much before it wears out.
This kind of magic certainly weren't ones that Shane had ever seen Penny use. The mechanical girl had a way of constantly changing and adding things each time they met though. Using Stone magic was nothing to sneeze at though. When you really wanted to start moving the earth you better be ready to exert your mana. He would rather try and not tear the place apart though. Having more mana to spend he opposed the movement of the stones and tried to collapse them around Penny to hold her back.
"Everyone else is out Penny! Mariette evacuated them and Paree has brought in reinforcements. You're being manipulated just like Cindy." The boy didn't stay back like the others. He didn't know what the cyborg was planning but he didn't intend to let her use it on the witches. Maybe nothing would happen, but he would try and tackle the girl. "We need to find everyone and leave."
Taking control of the stone back from Penny was an easy affair for Shane. Her grip on the stone was nearly identical to his, but she lacked the same mystical strength so overpowering her was simple. It didn't stop her from simply rendering them to dust when he tried to contain her with them however.
And at first it seemed like his attempt to leap onto Penny was going to be met with a forceful reintroduction to the floor if the two spider limbs that had lashed out at him were any indication, but just before they slapped him out of the air they instead grabbed him and more or less strapped him to Penny's back.
'Wh̴a͠t̡ ͠do҉ they loǫk̶ ͡l͝ik̸e̡? Shane would hear Penny's voice suddenly cut into his thoughts, the sudden telepathic connection rough and parts of Penny's underlying feelings were bleeding through.
Penny kept fighting, but there was a notable change to it. she wasn't trying to batter though the witches' defenses anymore, she was simply trying to keep them occupied as she rained down blows.
"They're just magical girls. I saw them come in and they ignored everyone else. White dress, blonde hair, has a parasol. Green hair, blue vest, has like a crown on her head... He would quickly explain the three. Getting a dose of how Penny felt was a little distracting, but he'd had worse dumped into his brain.
While it looked like Shane was distracting Penny, Lauren got close enough stealthily to remove both the psychic influence on the latter, then the illusion affecting her and her sisters. Safe to say, they looked a bit worn out.
Stealth failed the instant that Lauren's magic touched Penny who turned and lashed out at her instantly. But for the first time in this conflict she canceled her own attack. At the moment just before impact Penny came to a complete standstill. Her crimson eyes bored into Lauren's examining the witch as if she had seen her for the first time.
As one moment turned into two, so long as no one else continued the fight Penny would at last disengage. Carefully turning to look at the other two witches as she did so. Another moment longer and her limbs would return to normal hands and the holo-armor would fade away.
"Woul̷d͠ ̴an̕ ͏apolog̕y͢ be s͘u͢f̢f̡ic͘i͘e̴n̢t?͏" She would ask, her voice cracking and distorting as the water stopped leaking from her and dried.
Now that she was finally calm, the witches could relax. Lauren undid the defenses around everyone and unsummoned the water left over. Maribel's nightmare barrier dissipated as well. "Heheh, no need for apologies, dear~ Though I do need to repair my parasol..." The nightmare witch reassured Penny.
"Y'gave us one hell of a welcome, but I gotta say, you're impressive. Hang on." Lauren reached out again to continue healing the cyborg, both physically and mentally. "The same bastards that unleashed the monster were causing you to attack us too. That's why we kept on the defensive side." She explained. Though even I couldn't tell why at first. A spell that carefully crafted is dangerous."
Meanwhile Rowena went to fix her axe, ever the quiet one.
With the fighting stopped, Shane grabbed the arms holding onto him and jerked them off of him. Back on his own feet he adjusted his coat. "I can't leave you people alone for a minute before..." He cut himself off before completing the thought. "Remind me never to take the title of king. I'm pretty sure it's cursed." He was very clearly frustrated and stepped away but didn't leave, you know, in case things started going crazy again. He crossed his arms and waited.
"҉C̵ircưm͘st͡a̶nce̴, not̡ the ̸spel͠l"̸ Penny would correct "̕J́ust́ r͡e̵tu͡r̢n͠eḑ f̵r҉o͠m a ̧Hor̴ro͜r's͜ ͡re͡al̡m w̨h͡ère̶ ̶I coul͞d ̢fee͠l͟ thi͟s attac̛k͟ ̸t̛aking pl͝ace̷"̡ She would explain as Snoopy floated down from where he was hiding. He would let out a low beep before displaying an image of Aighorost. then added how Penny saw the witches right next to it.
She would turn towards Shane as she let the witches examine the images "I a̷gr̷e͝e. I̴t ͝is w͟hy ̶I͘ ̸t̕ook ̸it́ ͡up mysel̡f. Tha̸nk ̶you ҉a̶ņd͟ ̕my̨ áp͡ol̷og͏ìes̀"̷ She would nod her head in Shane's direction, the second display of emotion she had given so far. "͘D͞o yóu ̸know͘ w̡h͡èr̸e D́ina i͜s̵ l͢oc͠at̕ed͏?" She would ask "̸I͢f M͜ar̨i̡e̷t̀t́e w̴as c͠ąpab͘l̴e͝ ̢òf͜ ͢as̴sįsting̸ ̶t̡h̢ę ̀Rège͜nt ͝s̷h͟ould h͡a̛ve͢ re͡t̴u̴r̶n̵ed ͜as we̵l͟l̀"͡
"Not sure. I think she was fighting someone above. Haven't heard from her after that. I'd go and look but I have to keep an eye on you." He said dryly. He didn't know what Penny was referring to with the Regent.
The trio of lesser forces looked between the two images, then grimaced in unison. "Eugh, no wonder. But the only one closest to a horror here is Maribel," Lauren motioned a hand to the blonde. "I'm Lauren," Then to herself. "And the quiet one's Rowena." Then to the aforementioned, who politely waved.
"Hm~? Why don't we go check together then~?" Maribel suggested to Shane, ready to portal everyone to the first floor.
Penny would hold up a hand for a moment as she closed her eyes and seemed to take in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. As she did her natural color slowly bleed back in. Red replaced with gold, gray returned to white and so on.
"Probably Oros" She would reply to Shane. It would make sense considering what she knew of the crazed girl. "And lets go"
Sounds good, and again just my interpretation of things at the moment feel free to disregard if you so choose. I'm just tossing out ideas and at the end of it Jinny's your toon, not mine.
Once again just my own interpretation of how these systems would work. Take with grain of salt.
Surface level and at low power. There isn't a notable difference between Telekinesis and Gravity manipulation. As both involve moving things around, just the how is different. TK grab things or alter Gravity in the area around a thing. The floaty nature of how Jinny is moving things/lifting herself could be a result of Gravity manip rather then TK usage. As the need for bubbles of effect rather then direct targeting reads slightly more Gravity then TK. As TK is like having invisible hands that reach out and grab/move things for you. Rather then causing things to fall in a direction of your choosing.
The floaty nature of her flight, the delayed effect on the dart, the need to calculate the forces involved. It can easily be seen as Gravity manip. By that same token it can also be seen as a TK who is using a wider grip then is needed.
Rereading things I also realized that there is potential for Jinny not to be a telekinetic at all and instead be a gravity manipulator. Lot of the same capabilities and low power out puts but scaled up things get different.
Also I'm fine with either a bit more training stuff or a jump to them arriving at the academy.
Light the Dark,
Mistress Dizzy,
Majoraa,
Izurich,
LG,
twave,
pollo
