Before Alicia had even started ordering the withdraw Aurelio was already in motion. His emotional reading letting him preempt the order. Most of his clones retreated back to the original magician to retop his stores incase he needed to pull a trick or two out of his hat to get them out of the fire that this city was rapid devolving into.
One clone stayed on hand for emergency teleportation needs. Said clone ended up getting used almost immediately. With Eliana and Kiyome’s request. He would have helped them leave regardless, but keeping them away from Beacon HQ seemed to be a good idea with how Serenity seemed to react to them. Teleporting them, and the clone, to one of Penrose’s many parks.
The other clone he still had out was positioned near the beacon they had set up. Primed and ready to teleport it out as well, as no sense in letting Wonderland get a hold of Beacon tele tech.
The boy himself would be positioned mid-way between Alicia and the Teleporter, his focus entirely on defense and support. Ready to pop in a few more hims to teleport everyone nearby out incase things took an even more drastic turn for the worse. Potentially unnoticed in the chaos of the renewed Wonderland assault, Tina and Elene would go back into the shelter. And from within the building a swirling portal would open up underneath them before snapping shut the moment they were free.
.:⋮APB⋮:.
[-Ronin & Miko] “Stand by for exfiltration” Penny’s voice would crackle out from both of their gifted comms. “Gateway will be live in five. Anyone nearby will be along for the ride.” She’d inform them. Seemingly aware of their current predicament of allies not being willing to leave. Or more specifically ally as the case was.
Aurelio wanted to be surprised that his attempts at striking up conversation fell flat, but seeing as he is still in the middle of an active warzone, he isn’t really. Plus, he’s been in Penrose long enough to be used to things going suddenly pear shaped.
Without a spoke word all of his clones break off from those that they were trying to talk with and all start hauling people to the teleporter. Getting them out of here ASAP was top priority now. Because as soon as the civies were free the sooner the rest of them could also make good on getting out of dodge.
The only Aurelio not making a mad dash to scoop up sleeping people to safety was in fact the true Aurelio. He was standing right next to the teleporter platform deep in focus. His cane, planted firmly in front of him was a swirl of sickly green. He had a surplus of Panic on hand. And a plan to make better use of it.
The swirl of green would slowly transition into a bright red cloud hanging about his shoulders. “Shows almost over people, but we’ve still got time for one more act.” He would say to himself as a bright smile over took his face.
He would tap his cane sharply on the ground once and the cloud of red would condense and then silently erupt. A wave of that same cheery red would wash over everyone he knew was helping. He would poor as much as he could into it. Keeping enough to keep his clones up and running and one more low-level spell in case of emergencies.
And everyone else? They would feel a jolt of Excitement. A second wind, and an increase to their capabilities.
“Now is not time for the curtain.”
Neither Tina or Ellen did much more than they already were doing as Wonderland pressed down upon the shelter. Their magic wasn't built for this set of circumstance anymore, so the only thing they could do was ferry people to safety as quickly as they could. Some of the animals that they had enchanted earlier were assisting as much as they could as well, though the animals weren't able to carry people up the stairs they were dragging them closer to them to cut down on the time it took. It wasn't much, but at the moment seconds were worth everything.
The Clone would let out a silent sigh as soon as it noticed the illusion settle over it. The Queen of Hearts hadn’t even bothered to take notice of him trying to disrupt the illusion. His time in this fight was over, and he would admit to some annoyance over being made part of the trap against Beacon. But that was simply how it went some times.
“Give her hell for me I guess” The clone would say softly, before he popped. Because he did get it, most of the Penrose branch did. The fact that Beacon simply stood aside in regard to Wonderland was a source of vexation for all of them.
So, in a fit of pique, because the Ascendancy has never sat well with him, because he is a clone, because he will never know the outcome, because he wanted to do more. He spends the last instant of his existence lining the illusion over him with as much Confusion as he can. He hopes it will aid in some small way who ever this interloper is. Make his illusionary double stronger, or more real, or something.
Because he wants to help people, and his hands keep feeling tied by the Ascendency.
Panic, fear, shock, lack of air. There were plenty of reason that Dormouse could have fallen unconscious. And perhaps the fact that she woke up at all would come as a surprise to her, but she would. With fleeting memories of the spatial burrow that Robert used to traverse before nothing but black.
The room she would find herself in now was plain. A cubic room, twelve by twelve by twelve with seeming florescent lights embedded in the ceiling. The bed she woke up on, more of a cot than a full bed, was nestled in the corner.
Most of the room beyond was blank sterile metal, no markers or designs at all. There also didn’t seem to be a door anywhere that could be seen. Nor vents, but there was a soft flow to the air meaning that they had to be there somewhere.
The main feature dominating the room was the fact that one of the walls seemed to be entirely consumed by a screen. Though at the moment the only thing it was displaying was a single line of text ‘Voice activated’. Behind that was the bouncing DVD screen saver.
There was also a small table at the foot of her bed. It had a water bottle and a small Tupperware container holding a mixed green salad.
But that was it. She had been left in this room, by Penny presumably, alone and seemingly cut off from everyone.
“I figured that was the plan” Penny would say once Mayra had put some distance between her and the Queen of hearts. “I felt the headset when you moved closer, and you were the only one out there with me.” She would explain.
“Didn’t know about Finn otherwise I might have stuck around” She would add. “He doing okay?”
“Yeah, I’ve got eyes on them. Plus I know Alicia. She is good people.” Penny would reply to Kiyome. A note of warmth seeping into her voice as she mentioned Alicia.
”Once Myra and Finn are secured don’t stick around. Queen of hearts is being waylaid by unknow party, that is throwing Beacon under the bus at the same time. Could be more hostiles.” She’d advise the lithe dragon girl once she teleported to her interception point.
“Shit” Penny’s voice went soft, enough to easily be tuned out by Alicia as Wonderland’s armada continued to pour into the city pressing down on those trying to evacuate the populace.
“I’ve got ears on almost everyone here already.” She would go on to say ”If you need to know where someone is just say the name and I can update you. And if you need something taken out, I can do that as well.” Penny’s voice would crackle with static. “But try to use that as a last resort? I’ll explain once everything is done here.”
Penny was curled in a ball up against a wall. There were no lights in the room she was in, not that it mattered as her eyes were closed. She was breathing, something that she normally ignored doing while alone as she didn’t really need to. But she needed the action to ground her. Her mind felt like it was one light push from falling apart, even as it felt like it was burning down.
She left at the best time for her. Had she stayed for much longer she wasn’t sure if she’d have ever been able to recover. But that didn’t mean she was recovered. She felt fragile in a way that was impossible to put into words. Hearing Alicia’s voice helped. The fact that she was now in the middle of danger didn’t.
The fact that Penny could keep an eye on everything happening in Bolorton did help, but also didn’t. She held to keep stopping herself from doing anything else other than listening and watching the fights. Because she wasn’t sure that she’d be able to stop herself once she started. The Engine protocols were blaring in the back of her mind and there was a phantom prickling along her skin, the old itch of a destructive withdrawal.
So, she stayed sitting in her dark room, forcing herself to take deep breaths that didn’t really do anything. Ignoring the raging voices in her mind trying to get her to slag the city. All the while wishing she still had the ability to cry, because at least that could release some of this pressure that had landed on her.
Quietly praying that nothing bad happened to Alicia. She could survive losing MDP at the moment. She would be devastated for sure, but she would survive. But not Alicia. Not the first person to simply let her be herself.
Both Inei and Kiri paid close attention as Jinn gave a more complete rundown of how to check over a modern weapon. “Seems you are just full of surprises aren’t you Jin.” Ieni would state with a smile, running over the check once more to sink it in a bit better. Kiri would just give a nod of appreciation as he too gave the inspection a run though with his own gun.
Afterwards both of them would dedicate most of their time to getting a handle on the modern guns. Inei seemed to be preferring the Uzi while Kiri was proving to be a decent shot with the MP5. Even with their lack of experience with these tools the fact that they had been trained showed through, leaving them in the upper middle of the class when it came to actual firearms. Their skill with the bow was closer to the top of the class.
Because of their added focus on their new guns they missed Jin suffering from the backlash of forcing a state of hyper focus.
The world suddenly going silent however showed that someone had noticed. Though it might take a moment for her to recognize that.
The screen that had been displaying the rest of the classes range data had been replaced with a single large slider that said ‘Sound canceling control’ above it. On one end it read ‘total mute’, the other end said ‘Off’ and in the middle was ‘Normal value’ The slider was all the way to total mute.
Glancing over Jinny would see Gizmo watching her, the look on his face wasn’t quite one of concern and was closer to shared understanding. He’d tap his goggles and point at her with a raised eyebrow. Silently asking if she’d like a pair for herself.
Before she could answer she’d see Gizmo’s attention snap to the far end of the room, his and everyone else's. Who it was that grabbed everyone’s attention was Slade. But what he said was lost to her for the moment. But seeing as everyone went back to shooting shortly after and Slade approached the first stall in the line it wasn’t too hard to guess what it was that he had announced.
Testing had begun.
Stil Gizmo turned back to Jinny awaiting an answer before he went back to shooting himself.
Due to Aurelio’s familiarity with the device, his clone and even an additional pair of hand, it didn’t take all that long to get the relay beacon set up. It took even less to get it synced up with Beacon’s wider teleport network, the perks of being a living node in said network. And once that was done, he made three more basic clones and all six of them went to work.
One of the magician’s now walking around was turning back towards Connie. Which was good timing as he turned around just in time to get wrapped up in a hug, which he returned on instinct really, “Hello there Magical Dream Princess” He would greet the bubbly girl more directly. And would open his mouth to answer her questions, only to let out a sigh as she had already bounded off to talk to Ronin and Miko.
“I’m never quite sure how her and Penny got together” he would say to himself. Before turning back to the small group that had been holding the civies from doing something ill advised. “And pleased to meet you Connie.” He would say with a soft bow.
Over at the teleporter Beacon one of the Aurelio’s would turn towards Oliver. “Thanks for the help with set up by the way.” He would offer with a tip of his hat. “Once we’ve gotten all of them moved out, I can give you a lift out as well if you need it.” He would offer. It wouldn’t be to HQ with the civies, but getting people back to Penrose was just as easy for him.
With Ronin, Miko and MDP another Aurelio would stroll up. “Evening ladies, glad to see more friendly faces.”
In the background there was an Aurelio helping ferry people up to the teleporter.
The last Aurelio would make his way over to Serenity, and place a calming hand on her shoulder. This Aurelio was quickly revealed to be the real Aurelio as the maid could literally feel her panic drain away from her. Not all of it, but enough to help her keep her calm. He said nothing, but the look on his face was clearly one of concern and questioning.
Outside of town the Pink clone was a bit surprised when the illusion turned to face him. He had been tailing it, but at a distance. Which meant the caster had a really good vantage point over the conflict. His surprise was quickly discarded as he heard the rant that the illusion was building up.
As a clone himself there wasn’t a whole lot he could do, but what he did have at his disposal he started on instantly. As ‘Suwako’ had turned back towards the Queen of Hearts, Aurelio brandished his cane in her direction “Yeah, Illusions and blaming Beacon really original. Let’s see what you look like under the glamor shall we?” He’d ask and let his own magic roll forth.
Now as a Clone his magical skill was limited, and technically not in the realm of illusions. That was an Original Aurelio exclusive. But he was a mote of Confusion and still knew about illusion magic. So, while he couldn’t break the illusion he could scramble the one that he knew was there. Causing it the begin looking and sounding like everyone and anyone all at the same time.
The Clone grit it’s teeth in focus and poured everything it had into the disruption, if he was really luck it might even destabilize and fall apart. But even if it didn’t, He was still visibly trying to take down the illusion. Perception meant a lot when it came to politics. Just a shame he’d not likely be able to escape to tell the original what was going on over here.
The Engine had to admit the fact that her opponent had stalled in her attack was a surprise. It was a display of humanity that she had assumed was out of character. Though if it was because her shield was more valuable than first expected, or actually due to the opposing queen’s morals was hard to quantify at this juncture.
Either way it was advantageous. As each moment spent doing nothing helped the Engine recover just a bit more. Or as was more accurate to the current situation kept her from falling more apart. So, stalling outright was something she was fine with. After all she only needed a little bit more time.
[Exit breach achieved] [five seconds to completed translocation]
Speak of the devil…
The Engine was glad she was already smiling, she is unsure if she would be able to stifle the urge if she wasn’t. ‘Things feel so bizarre right now…why is that?’ But now she had to find a way to guarantee she had those seconds. Shock would be a good was to ensure it. Snap the Dormouse’s neck and take her head off. That would buy her the time she needed.
Before she could start with her next set of actions however, Snoopy pinged herabout someone else coming up on the fight. The fact that it was Suwako was a more than a little confusing, The Engine could recall the small party thrown in the druidic girls honor when she got reassigned.
Her being here and now was either enemy action or very bad. Her belief of such started leaning into the enemy action category when Aurelio also made an appearance and the subsequent Gravity spell that was fired off cemented it.
But it was also brilliantly timed for her own needs.
The Engine dropped all of her currently running augments, and poured as much magic of her own into the surprise attack being launched on the Queen of Hearts. Amplifying it’s event horizon and its Importance as far as she could. At the same time, she reduced her own significance as far as she could same with her captive.
Suddenly no one could pay attention to The Engine, not next to the gravitational assault that was roaring towards the Queen of Hearts. So, whatever it was she did next no one saw.
The one fact would be, that when the dust settled, The Queen of Penrose was gone. And with her the Dormouse.
[-Myra] “You might want to go check on Mariette” Penny’s voice would softly chime in on the dragon girl’s headset. “Iracebeth did came here in one of her portals after all.”
Both Ellen and Tina would take a moment to themselves to catch their breath when all of the evacuees fell back asleep. What had caused it neither of them were immediately aware of but were thankful nonetheless.
The answers to their various questions were answered swiftly as the evacuations started actually taking place. They would assist in ferrying people up to safety for a bit, but they were obviously uncomfortable with the Beacon presence.
They would quietly murmur to each other and themselves often, but never close enough or loud enough for others to overhear. Eventually they would split off from each other, each of them seeking out someone else.
Tina would approach Alicia “You are Paladin Seraph Alicia, yes?” She would more state than ask. “The Queen of Penrose has requested that I pass along this to you.” She would state before removing the rather advanced ear piece she had on and hand it over to her. The moment that Alicia took it Tina would leave, making her way over to her sister.
Ellen on the other hand would approach Kiyome. “Hiya, sorry if I have the wrong person, but you ran into the Queen of Penrose out there right? She was the machine girl.” She would ask. “She wanted me to pass this off to you.” She would go on to say as she held out a rather sophisticated looking ear piece. Once Kiyome took it. Ellen too would take her leave.
Once the sisters met back up the went back to helping evac people.
[-Kiyome] “I hear things have gotten a bit more complicated back in the city” Penny’s voice would come out of the head set, carrying the same crisp tone it did last time they talked. “Though not all for the bad, my offer for an evac is still open if you need it. And this is going to be the easier way to stay in contact as I’m a bit occupied at the moment.”
[-Alicia] “Alicia” Penny’s voice would spill out of it, her voice sounding exhausted. “You mind if I just eavesdrop on you for a bit?” She would ask her voice shaky. “I need something to distract me.”
“My Queen” Ellen would shout a reply “The civilians are up and aren’t happy!” Her shouting was not to do with panic, though there was a bit of that. It was more to be sure she could be heard over the pandemonium of the shelter.
Both her and her sister were doing what they could to hold back the tide of people. But they were not bult for this, not if they wanted to keep people unharmed. They had the advantage of being Magical girls, so by that fact alone were stronger than they looked, but that would only count for so much.
So neither of them really questioned the spirits that showed up to assist, there would be time for that later.
The Engine wasn’t concerned with a struggle for dominance against the Queen of Hearts. That was her objective here, so when they clashed The Engine simple roll up and over her opponent, it was as if Gravity had no hold on her for a moment.
That wasn’t to say she was completely out of the way when her enemy started her counter assault. The gouge on her leg was more the proof of that. But those were the only wounds that were inflicted as The Engine continued to dance away from the rest of them. Her eyes were locked with the Queen of Hearts and slowly as the one-sided attack progressed The Engine would display a large fanged grin. A mocking and taunting grin.
Internally The Engine was recalculating, behind her Snoopy gave her a clear image of the devastation that was being rained down on the artillery placements. So that objective was taken care of. Her surveillance points were keeping her updated on the mounting chaos back at the town proper. But her own presence there likely wouldn’t be a large contribution.
’Why did no else one reply?’
So, she recalculated, as she dodged and weaved and parried. All focus put towards staying just barely in reach, but not enough to gain anything more than scratches.
And then suddenly with a slight tilt of her head, The Engine vanished. The air around her warping the only clue as to the nature of how, but one that Wonderland was sure to recognize. Not that where she had gone would long be a surprise.
Door mouse would find her first, as she would feel The Engines arm wrap around her neck as she was pulled back into a choke hold. At the same time the smaller girl’s limbs would be constrained by the tendrils that the Engine still had employed.
A moment later an ear piercingly loud electronic whine would split the air, a warning of what was at the ready. One wrong move and the Doormouse would perish. The Engine watched the Queen of hearts carefully, the mocking smile still present, but partially hidden by the Doormouse herself. And above them all storm clouds began to roll in.
Landing in the town was just as stomach churning as Aurelio had expected it too be. It wasn’t because of the magical teleport, no he was far, far to used to such things for that to be it. It was more the atmosphere of war that got to him. Though it was oddly blunted he would come to realize a moment later.
“Understood.” He would reply to Alicia as he made he was towards the densest conglomeration of emotions, which was mainly Panic and Confusion at the moment. Because as far as he could tell someone had already gone around and gathered up all of the civies here, but for what reason they did that he couldn’t yet tell.
Still, A puff of smoke later and a pinkish clone would appear and take off after the illusion. “Going to try and keep some eyes on it” He would explain. “Might give us an idea as to what it was, they were trying to make us do.”
Something that would hopefully be of use. Though if it has anything to do with the twin sources of Rage on the outside of the town he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. One of the angers felt normal, but the other one was just wrong It was far to flat and static for an emotion and made his skin crawl just looking at it. The farther he could stay from that the better.
In little more time they would reach the entrance of the Shelter.
Wasting no time Aurelio would leap out of the car, two clone poofing into existence behind him as he raced over to help. His clones moved off to the side, as they were basic ones without any magical capability, and started working on getting the teleportation Beacon set up. Inside would have been better, but they could move it later if needed.
Aurelio himself planted himself in between Oliver and Connie and began syphoning as much Panic as he could out of the civilians. The confusion wasn’t as detrimental to their situation at the moment, not if they could get them calmed down at least. “Evening you two,” He would say though grit teeth “I’d do a proper introduction but I’m not sure now’s the time. Either way, name is Aurelio. Glad I could make it in time to help.”
“Yeah, I’ll admit to not really knowing what to grab other than the bow.” Inei would say with a shrug at Jinny’s statement. “Our dad taught us mostly how to handle more traditional weapons.” He’d add. Thought tat statement caused Kiri to throw a mild glare at his brother. One that Inei waved off without ever looking at it, while rolling his eyes.
“I grabbed the smaller ones because they look like they’ve got a lot of ammo and quantity has a quality all of its own.” He’d point at the uzi’s “And these” He would heft the MP5 “Because I’ve heard that our teacher uses them often.” Which wasn’t a wrong statement. Just slightly misguided, Slade used a lot of weapons often, but wasn’t partial to any one, save for his sword.
“Figured he’d be more wiling to give tips for something he favors, or seeing as he’s a harsher type, whip me into shape so as to not embarrass his preferred tools” Inei would finish as he performed a rather basic survey of the MP5. It was clear in the hesitancy of his movements that he knew very little about fire arms outside of the absolute basics.
“Always a glutton for more pain, aren’t you?” Kiri would snark at his brother, but tellingly enough still had yet to put down the bow for any length of time.
From there most talk drifted off as everyone get in to the rhythm of practice. It was hard to really gauge who was good vs who wasn’t for the most part with this range set up. Two people side by side shooting at the same range could have wildly different conditions for their shots making it near impossible to really say anything of note.
Or at least that was the case. A few minutes into the free-range practice Jinny would notice a small goggled emoji pop up on one of the more out of the way screens. Somewhere she could easily see it, but hard for others to notice if they were just walking by.
It would blink a few times before that screen would be over taken by a simple spread sheet of data. Listing the statistics of all the shooting stalls. Accuracy rating, average shot difficulty, primary weapon usage, average time between shots. Everything.
It would update every few seconds. A comment or two appearing beside some of them on occasion. Such as ‘The hell is this moron thinking?’ next to a shot layout where someone was apparently trying to use a shotgun in place of a sniper for a long-distance precision shot.
Or a ‘Okay, that’s impressive’ showcasing the accuracy rating of someone using twin uzi’s at full auto. Scoring a respectable eighty nine percent.
At first who the hell was feeding this information to Jinny was a mystery.
At least until she looked around and saw Gizmo wearing a pair of rather familir looking goggles. His tension was gone, and a smirk could be seen on his lips as he went through the motions of lining up his targets and taking them out. Seems that the pint sized genius found something rather relaxing in firearms practice.
It was also something that he seemed to be rather good at. His owns stall’s stats reading to be one of the better over all shots in the class. Though it wasn’t without some aid. He had rigged up some kind of clamp system for his revolver and rifle, since he was shorter than even Jinny was, he was obviously using such a system to compensate for the recoil as otherwise he’d lose the guns each shot. It might have done more than just that, but his accuracy wasn’t perfect, so it wasn’t all the machine doing the work.
Still, how Slade would take it was hard to tell. But Jinny would find out before she herself had to be tested, as Gizmo was before her in that line.
Speaking of Slade, that man himself was lurking in the background. Watching as everyone practiced, softly pacing the stalls back and forth. No one lit the stalls for assistance, but weather that was because no one needed the help, or they were a bit too afraid to ask was hard to say for sure.
Still it was one of the more peaceful times that had befallen this class so far.
The Engine felt a brief spark of satisfaction as she finished tearing the Lion to shreds. The fact that it continued to pursue her was a mixed blessing. The damage it inflicted on her was wide spread and significant. Some of that was because she had refused to face it, but their last exchanged told well enough that standing to face the beast wouldn’t have helped her get off lightly.
Still, she directed seething cloud of nanites she had slaved inwards. Her physical stability was in the yellow, and her mana reserves were nearing the red. A moment or two to repair and refuel was all she would need before she resumed her task of stopping the artillery that was still pounding away at the city. And for the moment it was safe enough, as there was nothing save the remnants of the devastated APC and soldiers were nearby for the moment.
A surge of magic, strong enough that even with her deadened senses she could sense it. Put an end to the though of catching a quick moment. She recognized the work of the portal witch on sight, but that did nothing to relax her. If anything, it was more reason to be on edge.
A belief that was proven to be correct not event a moment later. Even before the portal fully opened The Engine could recognize who it was that was planning on stepping on to the battle field.
That changed things; not significantly, at least not as far as the Engine was concerned. She was only out here to inflict as much damage as she reasonably could to the forces of Wonderland before the evacuation was complete after all. Something that sounded like it was more or less finished, if the intel coming in from her surveillance points were accurate, but she would wait until a more directed update before acting on that information.
Which mean that she now had a very small window of opportunity to launch an attack on Wonderland’s HQ.
The reintegration of the nanites was rushed, expedience now taking priority over efficiency. Her refueling, and sudden retooling, was complete just before the Queen of Hearts began speaking. As the enemy queen opened her mouth to speak The Engine lashed out. A metal ball twice the size of a bowling ball rushed past the Red Queens head with the force of a cannon shot. Seeming to simply be a missed attack, but only if one assumed that the Red Queen had been the target.
She hadn’t been.
No, the Engine had aimed at the closing portal behind the Wonderland’s leader. And there was just enough time to see her bomb punch into the wall on the far side of the portal before it closed. She had no idea how effective it would be, but she infused it with as much Importance as she could before she threw it. That and it had twenty of those augmenting crystals settled into it as well.
Shifting her attention away from where the portal had been The Engine spoke up, cutting off the Red Queen again. I ͟ha̵̷v͟ȩ̕ ̀n̨͡o͘͘͞ r̵̛ȩ͟͠aş͢o͡͏n̴͡ ̧t̛͠͏o̸ l҉̀͝i̡̕s̨t̴̀͢en̸ t̕͏o ͟͡òr ̴b͞e̡͜͢l҉i̕͡è̸v́͜͏e͡ ̧҉͜a͏n̷y̸t̴h͞i̷̴n̨g̶̢͞ ́͢y͟͡o̷̵͜u̸͢ s͠a̧͡ỳ͘.҉
Normally she might have been willing to at least humor her enemy. Normally she would use the time spent in conversation to regain her energy more fully. But this wasn’t normal, here and now it was The Engine unconstrained, not Penny. And that changed things.
Unwilling to let the momentum betaken from her The Engine blitzed forward. Though the rush was more feint than actual assault. The artillery still needed to be rendered inoperational after all and that was something she could still accomplish. A flat out fight with the Red Queen would serve only to get The Engine destroyed at this point. And if things turned for the worse The Engine knew she had at least one ally near by.
[External damage: 43%. Primary damage located at primary limb joints and lower chassis core. Secondary damage located along upper spinal struts.
[Internal damage: 26% and holding.
[Regen protocols: Initiated. Total damage threshold above acceptable parameters. External damage sites prioritized due to combat circumstances. Internal systems compromised. Affected systems shut down to prevent further destabilizations.
[Mana capacity: 43% and holding. Situation Temporary; Nanite overflow currently buffering Mana loss. Capacity will begin falling shortly.
[Gauss system: Limited. Core launch system damaged. Single round ready, but reloading systems offline. Loadout: mid-range, Full Spectrum.
[Weapon configuration: custom. [CQC armaments- Primary: Default loadout. Secondary: 1-4 Set into twin mechadendrite positions.
[Near field defensive barriers: Online, point to point interception pattern initiated.
[Long range Las-casters: Retracted. Mana reserves to low for optimal use.
[E-G Core: Online. Maintaining S.O. Mana recovery hampered. Stored E-G discharges remaining: 1 Time until full stock recharged: Undf. Recharging suspended until Mana recovery improves.
[S.A systems- G.G. Nanites: 5% capacity. Refueling system offline to conserve Mana reserves. Auto-deflect subroutines: Offline. Actuators damaged. A.W. Shot: Offline.
[Snoopy: Third Eye Overwatch Protocol in effect.
[Surveillance points: One through eight still active and receiving.
[Response level: Phase four: Demon Calibration: Version 2.
[Humanity.Exe: Compromised. [E.o.D: Engaged.
“All units be advised” Penny’s crisp voice would call out from all of the headset she had passed out earlier. “The Queen of Hearts has joined the fight. I repeat, The Queen of Hearts has joined the fight.”
“What’s the status on the civilian evac? Because we might need to leave and soon.”
It was times like this where it was all to apparent that Tina and Ellen weren’t frontliners, as the moment Tina was hit Ellen was shouting out her name.
Before she could anything Alex was already on the job of patching up her sister, assuaging her rising panic before it could make her things even worse. She was no more a doctor then he was, but she did know a fair amount about animals, both of them did, so she knew it was bad.
“Thank you!” Ellen would say emphatically, Tina nodding a shaky agreement. It was a closer breath with death then either of them was comfortable with.
Before Alex was able to fully take off, he would feel further Beast magics, further augmenting him. A pale shadow of what he himself was capable of, but more help would always be appreciated. At least that is what Tina and Ellen thought.
As he raced off the sisters fell back into the shelter, neither willing to risk the open air anymore. Still one could hear the start of a more light hearted conversation as they descended below. “Why is it the good ones are always taken?
“I get what you mean.” Aurelio would say with a rare grimace. ”This is the first time that I’ve heard about Beacon stepping aside in regards to a situation like this.” It was strange and perplexing to the young man. Even if he was one of the more vocal advocates for peaceful and non-violent interactions with non-Beacon members, he knew that there were situations that called for it sadly enough.
“Only thing I can think of is that Wonderland isn’t lead by a dark magical girl, but that feels like a stretch to me.”.” He would offer up his best guess.
Before that conversation could continue a rather unique individual would make their presence known. Being the gentleman that he was, Aurelio politely rolled down his window in time for them to hear Magical Dream Princess’ offer. One which the emotion mage was fully willing to go along with. He even started prepping some of his own magic to help everyone hit the right state of mind.
But he didn’t trigger that spell, instead he turned towards Alicia with a raised eyebrow. She was given the lead on this mission, and he wasn’t one to try and gainsay her. She was a good friend after all.
That wasn’t to say he wasn’t tempted though. The closer to Bolorton they got, the worse the atmosphere felt. Unsurprising for a battlefield really, but it hurt him nevertheless to feel.
“Yeah, I know how that can be.” Inei would sympathize with a grimace. “Me and Kiri ran into that as well in our first year here. There are others here that get it like you and I do, but not as many as we were expecting.” He’d explain picking up another bow and slinging it over his shoulder as well.
“The Teachers are all good about it though, thankfully, so at least there is that.” He’d add before tossing a quick appraisal around the room. “My guess is the main reason you freaked so many people out is…” He stalled for a moment contemplating how to finish his though. “Well, no offence, but you’re still a kid.” He would say at last with a shrug and an apologetic smile.
“Like I get that doesn’t mean all that much, but it still came out of nowhere.” Inei was quick to reassure Jinny. “It’s like how you don’t expect anyone here to already be blooded, but if you go looking you can learn who is. To be faced with the fact that the person someone next to you has already taken a life, it’s just unexpected really. Same thing here. Those that are going to be worth anything will shake it off soon enough I'd wager though.”
After Jinny collected her weapons of choice Inei would excuse himself “I’m going to go grab Kiri, and catch back up with you at the stalls.” Though from the look of it might be a bit still. Seeing as Kiri had yet to actually make any choices.
The stalls of the firing range were rather simplistic at first glance. Seemingly bare steel, with the only thing of note being the pair of ear bud sitting in the center of each stall
But any amount of poking around would uncover the fact that there were touch screens on most of the surfaces. Most of the screens held records of recent shots, along side other bits of useful information about those shots. But a pair of screens on the table top held the controls for setting up your targets, allowing for various different shooting environments or circumstances. High wind settings, low visibility settings, distance for the target, and things like that.
The ear buds were far from simple as well. Tiny, but vastly effective, noise canceling headphones. Would allow everyone to keep their ears safe but also able to communicate easily despite all the gunfire that would be soon to fill the air.
Shortly after choosing her stall, Jinny would see Gizmo setting in the stall to her right. Going so far as to evict the person who had been getting set up there before him. Doing so with a black glare that was miles more threatening than anything he had shot Jinny’s way so far.
He remained silent, but judging by the tension in his jaw it wasn’t an easy accomplishment for him.
Still, it didn’t take Gizmo long to go about familiarizing himself with how the stall was set up. He kept an eye out for what Jinny was doing as he did, but rather then waiting like he had earlier he was quick to move on and set up his targeting range and start getting a feel for the weapons he had brought with him.
Gizmo wasn’t the only student to already be setting up, but in total those that were comfortable enough to start practicing with the guns less than those that weren’t.
Still, it wasn’t all bad, or awkward as it might be, as not long after Gizmo had gotten underway Inei and Kiri would finally make their way over to the Stalls. Setting up in the two stalls to Jinny’s Left. Their weapons of choice being a Compound bow, An Uzi, and a MP5 for each of them.
A few minutes later Slade’s voice cut though the din of those already practicing, and would have done so even without the ear buds possibly. “I do not care.” He wasn’t shouting, that required more effort than what he was putting forth, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t loud. “You have ten seconds to pick or you will be failed on the spot” He was… Towering wasn’t the right word, as once again that implied more effort that what Slade was actually seeming to give. But he was standing close to a student who still had yet to choose what weapons they wanted to take to the firing range. A student that Slade happened to be over a foot taller than.
“Ten” Nothing happened for a moment. “Nine. Eight. Seven.”
The poor student was then quick to grab what ever was closest and book it over to the last open stall.
Slade simply let out a sigh before shifting his attention to the class as a whole. “In ten minutes, I’m going to go down the row.” He would explain pointing at the far end of the class room from Jinny. “When I get to your stall, I’m going to set up a prearranged set of targets, based on what firearms you choose. Each set will have a timer and I’ll be judging speed and accuracy. Once everyone has been evaluated, we will move onto the final portion of class. Until I get to you, and even after, I expect you all to be practicing.”
“If you have questions for me in the mean time turn on the stall light, and I’ll get to you one at a time.”
“Guess that answer what kind of Teacher he will be.” Inei would say after. “Harsh”
“But probably all the more effective for it.” Kiri would pipe in, already into the swing of things with the bow. Showing more than just a bit of passing skill with the weapon. Though he had also yet to even touch the other weapons.
“Yeah, sad that we likely won’t be able to see any of his skills in action today from the looks of things though.”
The damage to her shoulder was extensive, but also overall irrelevant. Its status as a primary limb meant that at this threshold of injury it had yet to lose more than twenty percent functionality, though the loss of the outer casing was a problem. As it left her internal mechanisms exposed to further damage.
Her best course of action was to set her auto-repair function to fix the issue from the external side inwards.
That done her attention flit towards the limited damage delt by the hails storm of bullets she had ran though. Her shields were restored with a flex of thought sealing up those gaps, the damage itself was assessed and then ignored.
The guns fired magically charged projectiles. The Engine knew this, she had torn more then one apart already and knew just about everything about the capabilities of the guns. This was actually to the Engine’s benefit at the moment, covered in nanites as she was, the bullets that dug into her had to pass though those nanites. Damage was inflicted yes, but more nanites were created as well. Cost ratio was not in her favor, but the limited damage was still worth the increased nanites for the moment.
Overall, all parameters were within tolerances.
Then she crested the hill and was overcome by a wall of static. Her awareness was constricted down to such a limited bandwidth of information as audio, radar, and other senses ran into a fast amount of interference. Even her sight was compromised.
It was to the point that she came to a halt. Part of it was shock, few entries could simply ignore their senses becoming this distorted. But the larger part of it was that this was a brand-new sensation. Something that she had never experienced, nor had any record of. And for all of her advancements, and evolutions she was still a machine. Machines do not react well to things they have no information on.
So, she stalled out, her systems poking and prodding at this strange disruption, cataloguing and pulling apart the cause and effects of it.
It was possible that the Engine would have stayed stalled out for the rest of the conflict, even with her inhuman ability to analyze, this chaff had been tailor made to disrupt her after all. But that was not to be the case. Because she was a machine and one of her highest priorities, hard coded into her very being, was combat.
And when she registered the Lion’s blade pierce her back, her system reprioritized, she reacted, and the stall was gone.
The Lion’s blade only got about half an inch in before the Engine’s torso came alive, it bucked and writhed around the blade diverting its momentum off to the side. This left a large gash on the Engine, but nothing more than surface damage. It was her luck that the beast aimed high, after all, she still needed the casing she cradled. In all that the flare along her spine that left a strip of bluish chrome in its wake was almost unseen.
That stirp of blue chrome, was vital however, just as it was an extensive drain on her mana. Caging her main systems in cold iron had two immediate effects. The disrupting effects of the chaff couldn’t affect her anymore but by that same metric, nearly all of her magical senses were rendered unusable as well. It was a quick and dirty fix, but would hold for now.
In near the same instant the Engine rotated its upper half to face the Lion, her left elbow leading said turn as she drove it into the beast’s jaw with as much of her considerable might she could bring to bear. Giving no real room to mount a proper response to this, the Engines unoccupied limbs lashed out at the Lion seeking to rip and tear into it for the insult of attacking her.
In the midst of the onslaught, she let out another roar. And like before her element’s responded, but this time it wasn’t electricity she was calling. Each bit of metal in the vicinity would feel a harsh jerk in her direction. Not strong enough to tear the guns from the hands of the soldiers, but impossible to miss as well.
This did lead to her suffering from another half dozen bullet wounds, but that was acceptable, because her primary target also answered her call. A wave of gray sludge came rushing from behind the Lion. But it wasn’t targeting the beast. It slipped around, over and under, all seeking to reach the Engine. Until she was subsumed in it.
The remnants of the APC, now melted into more nanites, covered the Engine. And unseen by all, a jagged, broken, grin torn open on the Engine’s face as the nanites swarmed over her. The gray sludge quickly took on a glossy black color, and red electricity could be seen arcing under the squirming mass as it shifted.
There was a central point coated in hardened crystal shapes with light arcing between them, where the engine presumably resided, but from that central point was several large tendrils that acted as limbs. One of these tendrils spooled out, lashing at the Lion, as it skittered away.
It was large, but only about half the total size of the APC that had been destroyed earlier. That didn’t stop it from being fast however, nor erratic, as it didn’t stick to a straight line. It jittered back and forth as it raced towards the nearest vehicle it could.
And neither was it passive, smaller tendrils would tear away from the larger mass and strike out at anything that it came near, the flowing nature of the nanites allowing the tendrils to carve though what they hit like blades.
And anything metal struck by those whips became more sludge that was called into the greater mass feeding it further.
Aurelio would nod his understanding at Alicia’s orders. Made sense to him as well, if for a different reason perhaps. Gabriel didn’t seem like she was interested in working along side the local branch, which if this was going to be anything like normal for Penrose responders that would be trouble.
“We’ll let you know what you missed.” The magician would say as he waved a goodbye to the Ascendency agent.
”And now that we’ve settled. How about I make the next leg a bit quicker?” He would ask rhetorically as he raised a hand dramatically, held the pose for a moment and then snapped. With that snap the party they had would find themselves enveloped in the teleportation that was prime for their next stop.
It was time like this he enjoyed the benefits of being a showman. So much easier to have dramatic timing when one could control the timing. Plus, it gave him time to link up with the teleportation network to let them know he was taking over their primed jump.
Honestly, being approved as one of their living teleportation nodes was always worth it for times like this if he was being honest.
”How long is the drive going to be you think?” He would ask once they all touched down. “Because if this is anything like normal, things are likely pretty hectic over there already.” He would continue on to say as he started packing up the mobile gate. After all, he was given the official training for dealing with this tech due to his status as living node.
Seeing as there was only two more houses left to evacuate Tina and Ellen had decided to leave that to those more capable of such and regroup. Just in time to see Annabell take off and Lily still trying to catch her breath. “You okay?” Tina would ask as she stepped closer to the girl in case she fell over. Having seen the magical network spread over the town she wouldn’t think it uncalled for.
Ellen on the other hand answered the question that was posed, even if it was too late to also tell Annabell. “The Queen said she was going to be able to get us out of here. I would assume that would also include the evacuees. We just need to clear the last of the houses and hold the line until she gets back. Then we should be able to simply leave.”
Dina’s sharp gaze would snap to Sakura the moment she started speaking. “Simple paint won’t solve this issue.” The now vampiric girl would say as she turned her gaze towards the walls once more. Stray streaks of black had begun fade in and out of the gray walls.
“Her Majesty is the source of this I believe.” She would say after a moment. As of all the girls now in the Sanctuary, only Dina had ever pushed Penny far enough to feel the edges of the machine girl’s ire. Recently too, as it was back at the dexterous charismas party. And this felt much like that, even if it wasn’t directed at anyone here.
“Something is happening over in Bolorton. But that is not our concern for the moment.” Dina would go on to say, her voice projected out so that everyone could hear her. The magic inherent in her making it impossible to miss when she chose to speak like this.
“Ashlyn, Beatrice” Dina would call out “I am aware that the Scouts are currently abroad with Her Majesty. I need you two to set up a perimeter. I want to know if anything starts coming towards our home. I don’t know if this” she would gesture at the building at large “Has been noted by anyone else yet, but unless it stops soon it will become a problem.”
“Goblina I need you to start digging into those maps. We might need to abandon the Sanctuary earlier then expected. With her Majesty absent for the moment we will need to head elsewhere, but fret not I do know of a few locations we can stay at until she returns.” Dina would continue to issue order. But outside those named few most of it was for people to prepare to leave.
Eventually however “Sakura. We are likely to be moving though the sewers I’ll be placing you on the vanguard. In the mean time if you wish to test your idea there should be some cans of paint in the storage room. If I’m correct however, you’ll want to start from the outside. As I’m sure our home is quite apparent at the moment.”
“If anyone attacks, taken them down. If they live, bring them to me.”
Light the Dark
Mistress Dizzy
Majoraa
Izurich
LG
twave
