Lisa shouted, chasing after Ella with her hands outstretched.



Ella yelled back, jumping between the beds with the laptop in her arms. It was playing some anime, which Ella seemed to be trying to watch while running away from Lisa.

Saskia watched all of this from the desk chair, feeling her remaining sanity quickly slipping away. She couldn’t handle this. Lisa had been chasing Ella around for at least five minutes! But it felt like a century! Her head hurt.

"I’m going out," Saskia said, standing abruptly. "For snacks. Want anything?"

"Ooo, some sweetheart candy, and lollipops!" Ella said cheerfully, still running away from Lisa.

”... Don’t make me get out the spiders!” Lisa shouted.

"Not the spiders!" Ella screamed.

Saskia rolled their eyes. Whatever. She’d just buy a bunch of chocolate, and whatever was most pink from the vending machine, with the ten dollar bill she had in her pocket. She quietly left the room… without a keycard, but eh, they’d probably let her in. There wasn’t a vending machine on their floor, which was annoying… but meant she could be out for longer. She hummed to herself as she walked down the corridor towards the elevator- swiveling around it and going down the stairs instead.

She didn’t like feeling trapped. And it was nice and quiet here.

Down on the ground floor, it wasn’t that long of a walk to a vending machine. It had pitiful options, and absolutely nothing that would fit Ella’s cuteness criteria, but whatever. She pulled out the crumpled ten dollar note (haha British) as she thought about what to get.

A woman—a tall Caucasian lady with long brown hair—wearing jeans and a white button-up—walked up and seemingly walked by…

… However, Saskia felt what had to be a pistol press against the back of her head as the woman came to a stop. “Saskia Otten,” She said, “You are going to follow my instructions to the letter, or I will blow your head off, then your friends are next.”

She pressed the pistol harder against the back of her head, then said, “… Are we clear?”

"... Clear," Saskia said without any change in expression, slowly putting her hands up. Her gaze stayed fixed on the vending machine, and the chocolate she wasn’t going to get to eat. She felt a little sad. "I’m very obedient."

The woman stuck her hand out, “Jewelry, accessories, whatever, put them all in my hand.”

Saskia sighed, because it was an absolute pain. They took off their four rings, multiple bracelets (including their channeler), and a chain necklace. They then gestured to their four piercings. "Do you want my earrings too?"

She pressed the pistol even harder against her head. “All of it.”

"Alright," Saskia rolled her eyes, reaching up to take out the four earrings and put them in her hand. "There you go."

The mysterious lady put it all in her pocket, “… Your channeler is in there, right?”

"Yeah, it's the death note bracelet," they said as if she'd know which one that was.

The woman quickly shuffled through her pocket until she found it. However, with the bracelet around her finger, she patted Saskia down. The first thing she pulled out was Saskia’s knife, and the next thing she pulled out was Saskia’s phone. She dropped them both to the ground and kicked them under the vending machine.

“... You can get those back later,” She softly said. “Now you are going to to turn to the left, and walk down the stairs until we get to the ground level. Then we are going out through a side door, where a car will be waiting for us.”

She explained,

“That meeting you interrupted the other day… Those people want to have a talk with you.”

”Oh, how nice," was all Saskia said. It made sense. The other group, Dollhouse, was dangerous. Of course they wouldn't be happy about them interrupting.

Saskia did exactly as the woman had said, going back to the stairwell and walking down the stairs to the ground floor. She pushed through the side door and took a deep breath of the outdoor air it felt like she'd not felt in a long time. Being stuck in a room with Ella and Lisa had that effect. She then squinted, looking for the car she was going to be shoved into.

A black Cadillac Escalade pulled up, and the woman stepped in front of Saskia, keeping the pistol aimed at her, and threw the door open.

“Get in.”

”I'm not going to run, you can put the gun down," Saskia rolled their eyes. After all… this was the most fun she'd had since laying low again. Should she be scared? Definitely. Was she? Not right now.

She got in the car very calmly, immediately going to do her seatbelt. Safety was very important. ”So… what torture methods are you planning to use on me?"

“… Hopefully none,” Shayton sat in the front seat, with both hands on the wheel.

“What do we think we are?” The woman asked as she got in next to Saskia. Still aiming the gun at her. “Animals?”

The woman’s body changed, changing shape as if she was a liquid. When she finished the transformation she looked the exact same as that woman who accompanied the Dollhouse leadership in the meeting.

“We’re better than that,” Shayton said.

The woman smiled, “… Are we?”

“Boss isn’t that pissed anyway,” Shayton shrugged as he hit the gas pedal and started driving. “So that’s one thing you have in your favor.”

”Aw, I was looking forward to it," Saskia said in a tone that made it really difficult to tell if they were joking or not. They looked out the window for a moment, then back at the gun. ”Is that for intimidation? I'm already in the car. I'm not jumping out without my channeller. Do you know how hard it is to find that bracelet now?"

She paused. ”Shouldn't you blindfold me so I don't know where we're going?"

“One, you can use magic without a channeler, so we’re making sure you don’t try anything funny, and two, it doesn’t matter either way,” The woman kept her eyes on Saskia. “Now, I have a question for you, Saskia Otten…”

She narrowed her eyes and asked.

“SO GA, does that ring a bell at all?” She raised an eyebrow.

”No," Saskia tilted their head, eyes narrowing slightly. SO GA… was it some kind of code? SO were her initials, but why? ”Should it?"

“… That’s your name on their little memorial,” The woman said. “I have always been interested in the work of the Sycamore Tree Coven… I personally confirmed the deaths of every name on that memorial, including your three litle friends. So...”

She tilted her head, “... Why are you here? Are you just a shapeshifter assuming Saskia Otten’s identity?”

Oh. Of course, there was a memorial. If this woman could connect that to her specifically… she must know quite a lot. Why even bother kidnapping her?

”No shapeshifter could replicate my incredible wit," Saskia said in an incredibly dull tone. ”I’m the same Saskia on that memorial and I'm here because I really love killing shitty bastards."

They then pointed a finger at the woman, very bluntly saying, ”But who are you? I don't recognise you."

“You wouldn’t,” the woman answered. "My name is Shaquita Walker. I am a Green-Lux user just like you.”

She paused, “Green-Lux doesn't let you come back to life and the Hound gets pissy about resurrections. So how did you come back?”

"The Hound himself brought me back," Saskia shrugged. There weren't exactly any other reasons she could give or come up with, especially to another Green-Lux user. From what she remembered, even Black-Lux couldn't properly resurrect someone. ”He wouldn't get pissed at himself. That's all I know."

“Bullshit,” Shaquita said.

“... I have a feeling she’s not lying.”

“Stay out of this, Shayton,” Shaquita answered, looking to the front seat.

“Fine.” Shayton shrugged.

“... Why did the Hound bring you back?” Shaquita asked. “I did extensive research on your Coven, and there were far better options for him to revive than you.” She narrowed her eyes.

"Wow, that hurts," Saskia said, holding a hand to her chest. She didn’t look particularly upset. "You’re right, we weren’t the best. Someone called in a favour. He wouldn’t say anymore, believe me or not. Feel free to torture me to prove it."

“I might,” Shaquita said.

The car eventually, seemingly, left the bounds of Mirage Springs and drove into the Nevada desert. However, the SUV pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned gas station.

“Can you get the door, Shayton?” Shaquita asked as she pulled out her phone with her free hand. As asked, Shayton got out of the car and opened it, staring at Saskia as he said,

“... Get out.”

”Ohh, are there any vending machines here?" Saskia asked as she got out, hands stuffed into her trouser pockets. She looked around and grimaced. The desert was not for her. "I hope you’re not planning to leave me here."

“Shut up,” Shaquita said as she got out of the car and pulled out her cell phone. She lowered her pistol…

“... You’re not getting away from Shayton if you try anything funny,” Shaquita said as she put the cell phone to her ear. “We’re at the spot.”

Then hung up the phone. A few moments later, a swirling purple portal opened up in front of them. Shaquita pointed at it.

Wow, these guys were really boring. Maybe this wasn’t going to be the fun break from their two friends fighting that Saskia thought it was. They shrugged, and stepped through the portal. They were greeted to a dark room… The portal closed behind them.

The light switched on.

The first thing Saskia saw was Luis and Henrich.



Natalie screamed as she bashed Saskia in the face with the butt of an AK-47, knocking her out completely.

---

---

“... I had the situation under control,” Shaquita could be heard saying. “There was no need to do that.”

“‘Under control’?” Natalie snorted. “Bitch had free reign to do whatever she wanted to!”

“She was cooperating,” Shayton said.

“Again. She. Has. Magic.” Natalie said, “What is this? Amateur hour?”

“... Is that also why you felt the need to strip her naked?” Shayton said.

“Motherfucker you saw that other bitch!” Natalie shouted. “You know! The one that had the fire demon sealed in her panties!? I’m not taking chances.”

“... She’s waking up,” Saskia heard the cold whisper of Heinrich.

“Ooooooooooh!” Natalie laughed, as she turned towards Saskia, “Rise n’ shine, lil’ bitch!”

Saskia was, like they said, completely nude, with their hands binded by chains - which were hanging them from the ceiling. Natalie walked over to Saskia and said, “... How’s it hangin’?” She laughed.

Saskia slowly opened their eyes, squinting. Fuck, their head hurt. Didn’t seem to be bleeding. They were much more bothered by their lack of clothes than anything else- a hint of discomfort crossed their cold eyes.

”It’s just great," they intoned, twisting their wrists to check the chains. Of course, they could actually get out of them if they really wanted to by breaking their wrists… But that wasn’t worth it. ”Shame is an interesting form of torture. Effective. What else do you have planned?"

They almost seemed… excited?

“Well,” Natalie laughed, putting her hands in front of her and smiling like she was containing laughter. “For starters, we’re going to figure out why the fuck you thought it was cute to interrupt our million-dollar deal!”

“Then we’re going to figure out what you can do to make it up to us,” Luis said, leaning against a nightstand with his arms crossed.

“That too,” Natalie said, before she walked over to Saskia, grabbed her side, and gave her a little spin. “So… let’s get to know each other…”

”Righhhhhtttt," Saskia said, voice elongated with the spin. They winced slightly. It would be more fun if they got out really torture devices… ah well. ”Well, my name’s Saskia Otten. I was dead for ten years. Bled to death, really fun. I’d honestly recommend it if you want a once in a lifetime experience."

“Been there, done that,” Luis rolled his eyes.

They shrugged as best they could. ”It was less about you, more about the other side."

“Oh, you mean those Society retards?” Natalie laughed. “I mean, I don’t like them either, but they got money and resources. So we make due.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why you’re back,” Shaquita said, narrowing her eyes and putting a hand on her hip.

Luis smiled.

“... Even if she doesn’t tell us, time will tell,” He answered.

“Not important!” Natalie said as she walked up to Saskia, and squeezed her lips with her thumb and index finger. “Lemme tell you about us, sweetheart.” She laughed, raising a finger to her face.

“Dollhouse? Unlike those Society dumbasses, we don’t fuck around!” Natalie laughed. “Oh! Let me ask ya’ a question! Take a guess on how we found you so easily?”

”He," Saskia looked at Shayton, ”injected one of my friends with a tracker. Or maybe both- it’s not something that’ll kill them, is it?"

“Bingo!” Natalie laughed, then her expression went flat. “... Sort of.” She shrugged.

“... I slipped it in your two little girlfriends' pockets,” Shayton piped up. “Neither of you noticed.”

”They’re too busy fighting over a laptop," Saskia muttered. It wasn't like she'd felt up Lisa and Ella since the fight.

Luis pushed off the nightstand, and folded his arms behind his back, “But, we can forget about this… It's not like we can’t meet the Society later.” He spoke as he walked over to Saskia.

“How about we make a deal?” He said before he spun Saskia.

“... That's weirdly fun, right?!” Natalie laughed.

“Will this deal involve putting her clothes back on?” Shayton tilted his head.

“Why are you acting like you ain't seen a naked bitch?” Natalie laughed.

”I would appreciate clothes being part of the deal," Saskia said drily. ”Even a sheet. But sure, let me hear this deal."

“Maybe if you accept,” Natalie scoffed.

Luis clapped both of his hands together.

“We assist you…” Luis grinned. “... In your fight against the Society.”

”Oh?" Saskia tilted their head. That did sound like a good deal, on the surface. She was sure Ella would take it immediately if offered. ”And what do I do in return?"

They were silent.

“Eliminate Morningstar!” Natalie shouted. “It's that easy.”

”... Huh?" Saskia's eyes widened just slightly. That seemed too easy. ”What’s the catch."

“Well, how do I say there is no catch?” Natalie tilted her head. “Baaaaaaaaasically, Morningstar? He’s bad news. And while we are scumbags: at least we won’t lie to your face.”

"He is awful," Saskia agreed. She didn't really trust them - she wasn't the trusting sort. But they needed help with Morningstar, and if they didn't kill him they'd be dead again anyway. Plus this lot could've very easily killed her. "We plan to kill him anyway, so that's an easy deal to agree with- assuming there's no catches. And you keep my friends out of it."

Her lips then twisted down into an almost mournful look. "I lost the drawing of what we plan to do to Morningstar, it was very good… Maybe I can recreate it?"

“Whatever you plan on doing,” Shayton said. “Make sure it is solid.”

“We have something that can turn the tide in your little fight,” Natalie said, nodding her head at Shaquita - who walked out of the room for a moment, and then came back with a suitcase, which she opened and Natalie put on a thick leather glove, before she pulled out a orange gem wrapped in a necklace, and held it with her thumb and index finger. “This is just a random ass rock. Nothing important about it. It’s definitely not the incredibly powerful ^{and dangerous} Orange Stone.”

”Right, so normal you need a thick glove to hold it," Saskia said drily. They narrowed their eyes at it. Whatever it was, they'd take it and use it because they needed to… but they definitely wouldn't let Ella or Lisa touch it. For their safety. "Orange Stone as in orange lux, abstraction boosting? Or does it do something else?"

“It makes your abstraction sooooooo much stronger, like you might be able to topple buildings,” Natalie said. “Except… if you use it too much, you’ll become consumed by your abstraction.”

She grinned, “So, use it wisely. Lest you want to become a rampaging monster.”

”I see, sounds fun, I've always wanted to be a monster," Saskia said nonchalantly. She planned to use it very carefully, though. And she definitely wasn’t going to give it to the other two. If anyone was going to risk their sanity, it should be her. ”But of course, I’ll use it wisely… to kill Morningstar."

They then looked up at the chains still around their wrists. ”Since we’ve made a deal, can I get out of these? And get some clothes. Ah, if you want to see something fun, I can get out myself."

“We got you,” Natalie said, before turning to her bodyguard. “... Shaquita!”

The silent woman stuck her hand out, and a bladed tendril made out of flesh came out of her hand, and sliced through the chains, letting Saskia drop to the ground. Shayton walked over, holding her clothes neatly folded, and presented it to them.

“I'm sorry about that,” Shayton said. :The bosses wanted to make sure you weren’t hiding any artifacts.”

Natalie spun the Orange Stone around her finger. “Before we give this to you, two things!”

She raised one finger, “One, this conversation never happened. You never got this from us. Where would you have gotten this from? Who the fuck knows! Figure it out.”

Then she raised a second finger, “And two, when Morningstar is defeated. You return this to us… we’ll find you.” She smiled.

”You better be quick about it, the Hound might want us back right after," Saskia shrugged. They very quickly got dressed, immediately feeling more comfortable… if a bit disappointed that this talk had been more boring than they expected. The only cool thing was the bladed flesh tendril at the end. ”Agreed. Making something up is easy… ah, do I get my Channeler back too?"

Shaquita dug into her pocket and threw the Death Note bracelet at Saskia.

Saskia caught it and put it on. They twirled it around their wrist a couple of times. All good, still their Channeler. ”It was nice meeting you all, even if you could do with better methods of torture. If you'd been trying to get me to talk you wouldn't have gotten anywhere."

Natalie laughed as she glanced at Heinrich.

“Oh, we could have gotten you to talk, sugar,” Natalie laughed. As a swirling purple portal appeared behind Saskia, Luis scribbled something on a notepad. Then he shoved it into Saskia’s hand. Then Natalie handed her The Orange Stone.

Then Natalie shoved Saskia through the portal.

“... Hugs and kisses!” Natalie shouted. Before the portal closed, and Saskia was right outside the Holiday Inn where they took them.

Saskia sighed. She put the necklace around her neck and under her shirt, and looked at the note. An address… with a handy note that it was Morningstar's lair. Handy, but a bit of a pain to explain. She shoved it back in her pocket and headed inside. She went to the vending machine first, collecting her phone and knife. Then… she bought the chocolate bar she'd been really craving. Munching it, she went back up to her floor. Ah. She didn't have a key card.

With another sigh, Saskia loudly knocked on the door.

Lisa opened the door… the laptop in one hand. And Ella bonded and gagged with spiderwebs in the background. Lisa smiled.

”... Where were you! We were worried sick! Did you get lost?! Did you cut yourself on all that edge again?!”

Saskia looked past Lisa to the bound Ella, then back at her as if it was nothing strange, stepping into the room. "Yes, I lost so much blood that I got dizzy and fell over near the vending machine. When I came too I had this mysterious stone and handy note on me."

She pulled out the address and showed the Orange Stone.

”Oooooooooooooooh!” Lisa looked on with wonder. ”... What is it?”

"Well I feel stronger with it on, so an abstraction booster, maybe," Saskia shrugged. "Finders keepers, so it's mine."

”Well, sure!” Lisa shrugged, before she grinned, looking over her shoulder at Ella. ”Let’s watch anime alllllllllllllllll night long! But with our headphones on, so Ella can’t hear it!”

Saskia nodded with a small, evil smile. "Perfect, I know just the one… it's got loads of gore. Very fun."

Ella struggled in the background, eyes filled with despair.

A few days after that eventful night at the Devil’s Fortune (And Saskia just finding a peculiar, glowing rock on the ground), it was time for the group to plan their next move—especially now that they had information on Morningstar’s lair, where his lackeys make their evil schemes. Lisa opened the door, where Kimberly and Jordan were standing over a table with a large piece of paper with some drawings on it she couldn’t see from across the room.

The two turned towards the trio.

“Ah, you’re all just in time,” Kimberly said. “Come here! We have been tracking the movements of the Endless Seven…”

“... Up until they found the tracking devices,” Jordan rolled her eyes.

“We’re gonna scope them-”

"What do you mean by scope them?" Ella tilted her head in confusion.

“You know… Give them a look to see if it's worth our time and not go in guns blazing,” Jordan answered.

"Oh, are we drawing together?" Saskia asked, walking right up to the paper. ”Let me join."

“No! No! It's good!” Kimberly bubbly said, laying her torso over the paper.

"Shame," Saskia shrugged, looking at Lisa. "I don't think they think I'm good at art, isn't that cruel?"

Lisa smiled.

”Not everyone can comprehend art, after all!” She said to Saskia.

Kimberly got up and pointed at various locations on the paper, which turned out to be a map of Mirage Springs. Some locations were circled, and others were crossed out.

“Now, by bugging them we have tracked the members of the Endless Seven to these locations,” Kimberly explained, pointing at several different circles on the map. “After the Devil’s Fortune fiasco, each member of the Endless Seven went to a different location… one of which being Morningstar Banking.”

“… Before they noticed the bugs and they all went offline one by one.”

“One went to this restaurant, and another to a warehouse,” Kimberly explained. “We’re going to go there, and do the same thing we did at the Devil’s Fortune, bug the place and see what we can glean. No fighting this time, hopefully.”

"We could do that, Orrrrr…" Saskia walked up to the table and slapped down the piece of paper, with the address and ‘Morningstars’ lair on it. "We go bug his evil lair."

”Don't worry, it's not a drawing!" Ella piped up.

Kimberly and Jordan looked between each other.

“… What’s this?” Kimberly asked as she grabbed it and examined it.

“Yeah,” Jordan looked at Saskia, “Where did you get this from?”

"I passed out from blood loss a few days ago, and when I woke up it was just beside me," Saskia said with a completely straight face. "I suppose a good Samaritan gave it to me."

They looked between each other.

“… You really think we were born yesterday?” Jordan raised an eyebrow. “Really? Really?”

“Yeah, this is really sus,” Kimberly added.

”Look," Saskia said, holding their hands up. "I can't tell you where I got it from. You'll just have to trust me."

“Remember the other day you were complaining about us not keeping you three in the loop?” Jordan asked, raising an eyebrow at Saskia. "Now, you want us to trust a note someone just left on you? We aren’t stupid.”

“... Who gave it to you?” Kimberly asked.

”I can’t tell you," Saskia shook their head, grimacing. ”But fine, it wasn’t left on me. It was given to me, I know who gave it to me, but I can’t say who. They’ll probably shoot me if I do."

“... We’re not going to let them hurt you,” Jordan asked.

“Tell us who, because if we go here, we might be walking into a trap,” Kimberly explained.

”Fine." Saskia pinched the bridge of their nose. ”But it doesn’t leave here. It was the Dollhouse. They want Morningstar dead too.”

Both Kimberly and Jordan’s jaws dropped.

“... You know who Dollhouse are, right?” Jordan raised an eyebrow. “Shady motherfuckers. Doing shady-motherfucker things.”

”You think I’m stupid?" Saskia rolled their eyes.

“When did this happen? You know what?” Kimberly said before turning back to the map on the table, “It’s not important. So, let’s get back on track. These are the locations we are going to check out and bug today.”

”If you don’t want to use the information, fine, we’ll do your plan." Saskia held up their hands again. ”But don’t blame me if we go there later..."

"Wait, wait, but if they got rid of the bugs before, won’t they get rid of these ones too?" Ella piped up.

“They found the bugs we planted on them,” Kimberly clarified. “Unfortunately, in the fight the other bugs we planted in their dining room were destroyed. So we’ll have to bug it again later.”

Lisa quietly listened to them go back and forth… nodding her head as she absorbed all of the information. And man, Saskia should have waited just a lil bit before coming out with it! Lisa didn’t know what Dollhouse had to do with this, or if they could be trusted, but she is putting all of her love and faith in the hands of the other two magical girls. So, she turned her head towards Kimberly and said,

”I mean… we’re just checking out some places, right?” Lisa asked.

“Right,” Kimberly answered.

”Then, what’s the difference if we scope out the place Dollhouse told Saskia?” Lisa answered. ”I don’t trust Dollhouse either… but, can we just look at the place? That’s it?”

"Yeah, we should scout it out! If it's a trap then we'll have foiled it, and if the information's right then we'll have found has evil lair!" Ella grinned.

"Right,” Saskia intoned. "I said we go bug it, not raid it. I don't trust them either."

“Fine,” Jordan said. “But, if this blows up in our faces… heh, don’t say we didn’t tell you so.”

“Get ready; we’re going to head out in an hour,” Kimberly told them. “I think it’s going to work out fine, but we shouldn’t rush in there. Take things slower this time.”

Lisa fist-pumped, then grinned like an idiot. She wrapped her arms around Ella and Saskia, and said, ”See girls, I did it!” She began. ”Let’s find out where Morningstar does his evil schemes!”

"Yeah, let’s beat his ass- I mean investigate it!" Ella shouted, hugging Ella and Saskia back and practically lifting them into the air.

Saskia smiled slightly. "I can’t wait.”

---

The Morgenstern Manor was a secluded location outside of Mirage Springs. They couldn’t find it because it was placed in someone else’s name. Clever… Unfortunately, the issue was that it was on an open plain with little to no cover or concealment. It didn’t matter much since they approached under the veil of darkness, and Kimberly demanded that they dress like ninjas… and also had to buy them clothes that made them look like ninjas. Lisa was wearing a Balaclava with a hoodie and some leggings… and of course her boots. They approached on a giant spider… a massive huntsmen spider the size of an entire car! Jordan sat up as she looked through the binoculars.

“There’s not a whole lot of activity,” Jordan began, continuing to look through it.

“But, let’s not teleport inside and get caught off guard,” Kimberly said. “Remember, we’re just bugging some locations like the bedrooms, dining rooms, any place they would have a conversation over the phone….”

”You know you’re probably going to hear them having sex at least once?” Lisa said.

Both of them looked at Lisa.

“... Moving on,” Jordan said.

"There’s no way Morningstar gets any action,” Saskia muttered, narrowing their eyes at the looming mansion they were approaching. They were dressed in all black - black sweater, black jeans, black Balaclava.

”What if he has like a harem? A room of naked women? Wouldn’t that be amazi- crazy, I mean crazy!” Lisa said.

"Couldn't we wear something less… black?" Ella whined. She looked completely different from normal with an oversized black hoodie, black skirt and tights. Jangling could be heard from their arms - probably covered in bright jewelry like normal. "I hate this!”

Saskia rolled their eyes, ignoring Ella to ask, "Before we go in… what’s the plan if we’re caught again?”

“We immediately teleport out,” Kimberly answered. “If that’s not an option, we run. We’re not going to be fighting anyone.”

"That worked so well last time."

”… Can I at least put spiders in his underwear?” Lisa weakly asked.

“No,” Jordan answered, lowering her binoculars. She pointed at a room on the second floor, “Let’s go, take us up that wall.”

With a nod of her head, Lisa commanded the giant spider to scale up the wall. They climbed up to the desired window, and Jordan used her telekinesis to pop the lock. The window slid open, and Kimberly unholstered her pistol then climbed through. Then gestured for the rest, Lisa was the second one through…

It was a study, with a red carpet and fancy wooden walls. Massive bookshelves on both sides of the room held what had to be hundreds of books.

"Whoa," Ella gasped, coming right after Lisa. She looked around, hands on her hips. "I wonder if he has-"

"He does not have anime," Saskia rolled their eyes, climbing in after Ella. They went over to the bookshelves and narrowed their eyes, reading the spines but not touching anything. "I wonder if he has any interesting magic books…"

Kimberly had crawled underneath the desk, and planted the bug there with some tape… As Jordan gently pushed the door open and stuck her ear out.

Saskia was still looking at the bookshelf. They paused in front of a slightly out-of-place book, frowning, before reaching out to pull it out…. Some gears could be heard turning on the other side as a section of the bookshelf lowered, unveiling a torch-lit stone pathway that led downwards.

“... Oh, you gotta be fuckin’ kidding me,” Jordan said.

“Cliche…” Kimberly shrugged.

"Well," Saskia turned around, holding up their hands. "We have to go down there."

”... It could be where he keeps all his whores!” Lisa added.

Jordan facepalmed.

“I’ll go in first, you three are behind me,” Kimberly said, as she walked over to a torch, grabbed one, and then added, “Jordan, you’re in the back.”

With a shrug, Lisa followed behind Kimberly as they descended into the labyrinth that she was hoping wasn’t a trap. Eventually, they made it to the bottom, and there were three stone paths. This place was massive! Really raised the question of how he got this place made but magic.

“Okay let’s-” Kimberly tried to say before they were cut off by some guttural screaming. Bright red lights and a loud buzzing sound could be heard down the hall to theit right.

"... oh, I think they’re torturing someone down there," Saskia said with a hint of excitement.

"We can’t let him get away with whatever evil thing he’s doing!" Ella shouted. She pushed past Kimberley and Lisa and ran right down the hall the screaming was coming from, Channeler already out. Lisa just followed after them.

“Wait- fucking…” Jordan hissed as she chased after them.

“Assess the situation!” Kimberly said. “Aw screw it!”

As they got closer, the screaming and electricity came to a pause… Then they approached a massive chamber. Morningstar and his remaining Endless Seven gathered around a seemingly bottomless pit, in front of the wall, on the opposite side of the room. Looming over the wall was , a tall, mixed woman bound to the wall by metal restraints.

“Now Monica, you're not making it easy for us,” Morningstar said, one hand behind his back and the other drinking wine that looked suspiciously like blood.

“Fuck you, Morningstar!” Monica spat out at him.

“... Dr. Cross,” Morningstar turned to Dr. Cross, who reached out in the air, and several glowing runes appeared in front of her. Then she gave it a touch as Monica was violently electrocuted.

“Find the All-Blade! Comply!” Morningstar demanded.

Ella went to run out, but Saskia shot out an arm and pulled her back.

"We can't just rush in against that many," she whispered.

"But they're going to kill her! And there's almost as many of them as there are us!"

Saskia shook their head, turning it towards Kimberley and Jordan. "Do you think we can take them?"

Kimberly smiled.

“... No.”

“But we are not going to leave her there,” Jordan shook her head. I can teleport her out... but it will be a few minutes before I can teleport us out.”

“So get ready,” Kimberly said.

"I'm always ready," Ella brandished her channeller.

"You need to transform first," Saskia pointed out. They pulled out their knife and sliced their hand, blood pooling around it in a light armoured coating.

"Oh yeah!" Ella's eyes widened. She step back so she was at the back of the group, quietly muttering to herself about light and beating darkness as a soft glow coated her body and she spun around to transform.

Saskia, meanwhile, was forming a long blood blade. "I'm ready. Let's save her."

Well, it was Lisa’s turn as she made a wave of spiders appear… however, five of them, the limit for her Enlarge spell, were wrapped in a glowing cocoon that grew to sizes far larger than average. A few moments later, they burst out, and three of the spiders had dragonfly wings, and the last two had mandibles like ants. Lisa grinned ear to ear, as she said….

”... Let’s kick their ass!”

“Alright, get ready,” Jordan said as she stuck her hand out… a swirling coral-pink orb of energy appeared around the woman as various members of Morningstar’s inner circle made sounds of shock…

… Then she was gone.

Jordan grinned, and Lisa thought they could just walk out....



Dr. Cross shouted… as various members of the Endless Seven turned off their glamour, and converted into hellish monsters, a familiar rush of adrenaline surged down Lisa’s spine.

”We're here to end your evil plan, Morningstar- again!" Ella shouted. Her legs lit up with a rainbow light that contrasted the rest of her dark clothing. She pushed herself back in front - next to Lisa's spiders.

”Just a few minutes" Saskia said softly behind her. From the back of one hand was a blood blade, and she raised the other.

A blood bullet shot out of it, right towards Dr Cross, hitting her in the titty.

Morningstar sighed, wiping a hand across his face.

“… Can somebody tell me why they haven’t been dealt with yet!?” Morningstar complained.

When Ignatius exploded into his alternate form, he became a Dragon with the size and girth of an 18-wheeler. He slammed a claw on the ground, opened his glowing maw, turned his head to one of his allies, pointed at Kimberly and the magical girls, and shouted, “... Gomander! Sheer’Khan! Kill them!”

Before Ignatius opened his mouth and spewed a glowing molten magma up into the air at them.

"Oh shit," Saskia muttered.

Ella grabbed Saskia and shoved her to the side, throwing them both further into the room and out of the direct path of the magma. It splattered across her back, searing through the magical girl outfit that near immediately repaired itself… but the burns underneath were still there.

The magma cleaved through one of Lisa’s giant spiders and hundreds of her sedan-sized ones. She hissed as she dove out of the way.

Ignatius opened his mouth and sprayed another volley of magma. However, a coral-pink sphere appeared around him, slowing down time. In contrast, Kimberly squatted down and placed the Cube down. It exploded into a square, blue, transparent barrier that protected them. Jordan raised both hands, ripped a chunk of concrete out of the ground, and launched it at Ignatius. He swiped it out of the way with a claw before spraying more molten magma that hit the barrier. It cracked…, but Kimberly hopped out of the other side, Jacob’s Gun drawn, and let lose a few rounds, one that exploded into the fire as it collided with Ignatius. Another exploded into stone shards around him… which Jordan raised into the air and slammed into Ignatius.

Meanwhile, Gomander transformed into her true form, a massive worm-light beast with dozens of mouths before he charged at them.

“... Do I have to?” Sheer’Khan groaned.

“Yes, Sheer’Khan,“ Morningstar said, pointing at them. “Eliminate them!”

“Fiiiiiiiine!” Sheer’Khan transformed into an enormous, hellish beast that was larger than all combined. He took slow but heavy steps, that shook the earth with every step

Ella glanced between the two of them, quickly deciding which one to take first… the faster one. They only had to last a couple of minutes!

One of the other Endless Seven transformed into a towering beast with several heads and faces. It slowly marched over towards the group, as Lisa and Jordan’s faces appeared on its body. Out of the ground next to it, a horde of spiders burst out, and crawled towards the group.

”Hey! That’s my thing!” Lisa complained as she mounted one of her flying, sedan-sized, spider minions. She flew closer to the ceiling, as the ground began rumbling… and spewing out the ceiling - sending stone shards flying - were three absolute geysers of spiders rained down on the quadrupedal monster’s minions. She couldn’t see it, but they clashed…, Lisa applied the Acid Burst spell on all of them, and both sides spiders were eliminated.

Lisa flipped off the copycat, and it created flying spiders in return… which flew at the flying spider that Lisa was currently mounted on. Before they exploded, Lisa quickly hopped off as she saw her minion dissolve into nothing.

As she fell back to the ground, it shook, and millions of spiders came spewing out, creating a thick blanket that softened the bow somewhat.

A rainbow coated leg shot up to kick the worm like beast. At the same time Saskia jumped in behind Ella, incredibly sharp blood blade slicing at it. Launching it into a wall.

Meanwhile, Ignatius crushed the stone shards in his hand, as he opened his mouth, and spewed more magma. Except trying to drown the Cube in it, and Kimberly quickly knelt down and picked up the Cube before it could get destroyed by the magma. They quickly ran over to the side, while Kimberly took some potshots at Ignatius with Jacob’s gun. It went dry, and Kimberly dropped the Cube again.

Ignatius spewed more magma at them, but Jordan ripped a chunk out of the ceiling with her telekinesis and blocked it out. She stuck both of her hands out, as Kimberly reached for the Magnispheres, and threw them toward Ignatius, at the ground. They bounced off the ground and hit his body, and knocked him over. Then Jordan chucked the stone at him, sending him skidding alongside the ground.

Morningstar waved his hand behind him, and a throne of brimstone appeared. He sat down on it before raising his hand into the air.

“... I don't get why you three are so obsessed with me,” He said. “... But it ends here.”

A portal of fire and brimstone appeared behind him… Before unleashing a wild volley of fireballs that exploded on contact with the first thing they hit. The first few blasts annihilated the majority of Lisa’s swarm before she had to retreat behind Kimberly and Jordan’s barrier.

"Because you're an evil bastard!" Ella yelled. She used her enhanced legs to dodge out of the way as the fireballs hit the wall behind her.

Saskia ran the other way, fireballs skimming their arm and burning down it. As they narrowly avoided getting burned to death, they raised a hand and shot an incredibly powerful blood bullet right at Morningstar. He raised his hand and created a barrier of brimstone, but the bullet shot through it. It caused the portal to close.

“Evil is subjective,” Morningstar said, raising his hand at the ceiling, putting his other behind his back.

At the same time, Ella leapt towards Sheer'Kan with a super powered kick. Kicking him in the face.., however, he didn't so much as flinch.

“... Was that supposed to hurt?” Sheer’Khan asked.

A massive fireball came out of Morningstar’s hand, it hit the ceiling above them and caused the roof to cave in.

Saskia quickly coated themselves with a tough layer of blood, pieces of roof hitting and covering them. Ella's eyes widened as she kicked through the roof pieces falling towards her, gritting her teeth through the pain of kicking through solid rock.

"Saskia, you-"

Before she finished Saskia pushed out of the rubble, seemingly unharmed. Huh? Had her abstraction been that strong before.

"Swap," was all Saskia said before all the blood coating her formed a tendril at her back, shooting it towards Sheer'Kan, aiming to penetrate his chest. He put a hand up, and it dug into his hand.

“... Huh?” Sheer’Khan said, raising an eyebrow. He looked at his hand and said. “... That’s not supposed to happen.”

Ella shook her head, swapping tactics and shooting a beam of burning light at Morningstar's eye. Gomander quickly got in the way of the blast, opening one of her maws and consuming it. She laughed as she flew into the ground and burrowed…

… Before bursting out of the ground between them, separating Kimberly, and Jordan, from Lisa Ella, and Saskia. Gormander's maws were open, ready to consume, as she remained there. While this was going out, Morningstar stuck his hands out and created another portal of fire…

In a strange burst of speed, Sheer’Khan disappeared, but seconds later reappeared behind Morningstar. Before he unleashed a seemingly neverending barrage of explosive fire balls that exploded against whatever they hit. Whatever was going Gomander’s way was consumed, but the explosions sent rock shards in all directions.

One blast landed next to Lisa, and sent her sprawling across the floor… She groaned when she came to a stop and pushed herself to her feet. As she hissed in pains severe burns were on the right side of her body as clothes and skin were burned alike. Some of her clothes were still on fire.

Rock shards slammed into Ella as she tried to avoid the fireballs, sending her flying. She landed on the ground and rolled out of the way of another fireball - fire licking against her legs and burning through the glowing light. It hurt so much, but she pushed through it, rolling over to see Lisa similarly hurt.

"Lisa!" Ella raised her Channeller and shot a beam of healing light at her friend. At the same time she forced herself to her feet, pushing through the pain. Nothing she hadn’t handled before!

Unlike the other two, Saskia managed to dodge almost everything. Her blood tendril worked overtime moving her out of the way, more blood pooling out of her hand to coat her body in any places rock shards were going for. She landed in front of Lisa and Ella, frowning. "Shit, we’re stuck."

”... We… Gotta go…” Lisa weakly said, pointing at the tunnel they came through.

"Alright, Ella, can you-"

"I’m fine! I can walk!" Ella said, far too cheerfully for someone also burnt. But this was nothing compared to when she fought without her Channeller! Totally. "I’ll protect the back."

Saskia nodded. Her blood tendril wrapped around Lisa, strong enough to lift her in the air, then she started running for the tunnel. Ella kept her body towards Morningstar, running backwards after them.

They climbed the stairs… And ended up back in the room they initially entered.

”... What about Kimberly and-”

A glowing orb came from around the doorway - flying at the group.

”... SASKIA!” Lisa shouted as she hissed in pain, shoving Saskia out of the way. The orb exploded, creating a net of electricity that shocked Lisa and Ella. She screamed as she writhed in pain. Ella let out a strangled, pained cry before falling to the ground.

Dr. Cross walked out of the tunnel - titty still bleeding - holding the pike with one hand. Gormander burst out of the ground. Sheer’Khan walked up in human form and stood by Dr. Cross.

Dr. Cross grinned.

Saskia looked at their friends, then up at the three, frowning. She stepped in front of them. "Alright, which one of you wants to die first?"

Gomander let out a loud roar, opening one of her maws… One of Morningstar’s fireballs came out directly at Saskia.

Saskia propelled herself out of the way with her blood tendril, using it to flip over the fireball. Her foot came down towards Gomander, bone spear jutting out from it and towards her flesh.

Dr. Cross quickly got in the way and used her pike to parry. Sheer’Khan slowly approached, arms outstretched.

“... Can you just die already?” He asked. “We have things to do.”

Gomander opened another maw and Ella’s beam came out at Saskia.

"Dying is overrated," Saskia replied, blood coating her body and completely blocking the beam. Her blood was practically replenishing as quickly as she was using it thanks to the Orange Stone.

She hopped back, landing on one foot and pulling back in the bone spear from her foot. She swung an arm forward, another long and incredibly hard bone spear shooting out and aiming for Dr Cross. At the same time the blood tendril shot around her and towards Gomander, and she held up her other hand to shoot a blood bullet at Sheer’Khan. The bullet hit him in the chest and he groaned in pain.

“... How can you do that?!” he whined.

The bone spear was blocked by Dr. Cross, but it launched her back. Until she hit the wall.

Gomander consumed the tendril - then flew towards Saskia with each jaw snapping at her. “Stop being lazy and kill her, Sheer’Khan!” One maw spat at Sheer’Khan.

Saskia gritted her teeth, pain shooting through her as the tendril was bitten off- but she quickly formed another one. She propelled herself to the side with it, dodging the jaws. She stabbed with the bone spear at the flesh between the jaws. She brought her knee up (using the tendril to keep herself up), another bone spear jutting out of it.

However, Gomander closed her mouth on the bone spear, catching it. Gomander tried flying off… Saskia immediately broke the bone, a loud crack echoing through the room. She pulled it back into her body, backing away for a moment as she quickly healed the broken bone. The intense pain sent another spike of adrenaline through her. She needed to change tactics and avoid those mouths. There seemed to be less on the underside… alright.

Saskia ran at Gomander, feinting with the blood tendril aiming for the upper half of Gomander’s body. As they did, they bent backwards- arms coming up with blood blades extending from their hands to try slice the underside of her… tearing her wide open. Gomander loudly screamed as she crashed through a wall, devouring much as she could. Dr. Cross quickly ran after out, pulling a glowing potion out of her pocket.

… And Sheer’Khan appeared between them in a burst of speed. He laughed.

“Nice trick,” he began. “Now… it looks like I gotta take off the kid gloves. I’m not letting another member of the Seven die on my watch…”

"Oh, finally getting serious?" Saskia asked, expression unchanging. Based on what the other two said, he must be stronger… but it was only him left. "I won't hold back then."

More blood pooled out from her hand, coating her entire body in a thin layer of hard armour. Even with the super boosted blood regeneration, having all three blood spells active caused her to feel slightly lightheaded - but she was used to that. She used the tendril to propel herself forward, bring the blades down towards Sheer'Khan.

He disappeared in a burst of pure speed…. Reappearing behind Saskia, swinging his open hand at them, hitting them back and knocking her forward. It hurt, but the armour protected her from getting badly hurt. Her blood tendril spun round to the front to catch her, pushing her back towards Sheer’Khan as two bone spears shot out of her back - piercing through his hand.

He groaned before he slammed a fist down towards Saskia. The blood tendril shot around above them, thickening and blocking the fist. Saskia snapped off the bone spears, twisting around and bringing up a knee towards Sheer’Khan - another bone spear shooting out of it.

He dodged to the side in a similar burst of speed, before punching with Saskia with everything he had. Saskia's arms shot up in front of her face to protect as she took the punch full on. It sent her flying, crashing into a wall with a sickening crunch. They fell with a groan, agony from broken bones doubling as they instantly repaired. As they stood, blood dripped off their body and coated the floor red. The blood armour had taken the brunt of the damage, and all she'd suffered were multiple broken bones. Nothing big.

"Is that all?" Saskia asked drily, raising a hand and shooting a blood bullet towards his head. His hand quickly moved in the way to block.

“Nope…” Sheer’Khan drove both of his hands int the ground, and with some grunting, he flipped the floor Saskia was standing on over.

Saskia pulled in all the blood from her tendril and blades, recreating her blood armour around her. She crashed into the ground below the floor, head curled inwards, and kicked out and right through the floor she’d been on. With a grunt she pulled herself back up. They had to give him that, it was pretty fucking impressive. More blood leaking from various wounds on her body formed a shorter tendril. It picked up a piece of debris, throwing it at Sheer’Kan. Saskia jumped at him from right behind it, aiming a fist at him, ready to shoot a bone spear out of it as soon as it hit. On impact, it stabbed him in the chest… and he groaned in pain, stumbling backward. He slammed both of his hands together in an attempt to crush Saskia. They jumped backwards, bones quickly lightening to move faster. Their outstretched arm got caught and crushed, and they hopped back further with a wince. It hung limp at their side, twisting and cracking as the bones began to heal back into place.

Meanwhile, Dr. Cross ran over to the downed Gomander and poured the potion on her. Her wounds began to heal slowly…

Saskia cursed, spotting this out of the corner of her eye. She couldn’t fight them all again… Well, she probably could if she sacrificed herself. She raised her not-healing hand, forming a blood bullet and shooting it at Dr. Cross’s back… and another immediately after. However, Sheer’Khan appeared in front of both of the shots in a burst of speed. They both hit him in the chest, as he groaned.

"That is very annoying," Saskia intoned. Sweat beaded on her forehead as her broken arm snapped back to normal with a horrendous, near 180 turn of her wrist. After this… when they got back… she was taking a shit ton of painkillers and sleeping for hours. She just had to get rid of these three. "Can’t you die already?"

She raised both hands, shooting a blood bullet from each.

“Why don’t you stop holding back, already,” Sheer’Khan said, wiping his own blood away as he took steps towards Saskia. “You’re the first person to hurt me… You can do a lot more than that.”

In a burst of speed, he appeared right in front of Saskia with his fist cocked back, then slammed it at her. She threw her arms up in front of her face and multiple bone spears shot out from nearly everywhere - her arms, her chest, her legs, creating a pointed armour in front of her. Her blood tendril shot over her head and stabbed at him. When Sheer-Khan punched Saskia, he stabbed himself - then immediately pulled his hand back, and gave it a few shakes. Which gave the blood tendril the perfect opportunity to pierce through his neck.

“Damn it!” Sheer’Khan said as he grabbed the tendril, and yanked the end, attempting to pull Saskia off their feet. They suddenly became lighter, pulled up into the air and using the tendril to flip over. The tip turned to liquid in Sheer’Khan’s hand and Saskia increased their bone weight again. The spears on their front pulled back in, leaving gaping wounds leaking blood, and multiple shot out of their thighs and feet as they aimed to crash into his head with them.

They slammed into his head, and each of them embedded. Sheer’Khan stumbled backward and crashed through a wall. Saskia winced, almost getting knocked over. The remaining tendril stabbed into his shoulder to stabilise themselves - ignoring the dizziness they felt from using so much blood. Bone spears still lodged in his head, and attached to them, they bent over and brutally sliced at his neck with a quickly formed blood blade.

Making a clean cut through his neck.

His head slid off moments later.

Saskia pulled all of her bone spears back into her body, jumping off before she also fell onto the ground. The circular wounds left behind clotted, leaving only the original one on her hand still bleeding. They looked as if they shouldn't be able to stand, covered in self inflicted sounds - but the pain only fueled them. They weren't finished yet.

They turned towards Dr Cross and Gomander, blood tendril properly reforming on their back. ”Who wants to die next?"

Dr.Cross half-grinned as Gomander let out a vicious scream. Several mouths, all screaming at once. She then dove into the ground, consuming stone, metal, and wood alike.

Dr. Cross stepped up, holding her pike in front of her with both hands.

“Slash your own throat and save me the trouble.”

"I don't like to make things easy."

Saskia reformed their blood armour, tendril kept low to the ground. They ran at Dr Cross and a bone spear shot out of their fist, stabbing towards her. Dr. Cross dove to the side and swung the pike at Saskia’s core. Which would weaken their abstraction on hit. They grabbed the pike with a hard blood coated hand, protecting her from the abstraction weakening.

Saskia jumped back, blood spear shooting out of that hand to repel it against the pike, trying to push it out of the way and lung in for a strike with the other hand's spear. Dr. Cross let go of the pike, and dove out of the way again… Then she pulled a Luger Pistol out of her suit jacket.

Gomander flew into the air, diving Saskia, and spewing concrete and wood at them.

Saskia pushed themselves out of the way of Gomander, rolling to the side towards Dr Cross. The concrete and wood hit them - harmlessly crashing into the strong blood armour. Their blood tendril shot out, aiming to grab Dr. Cross' pistol. It latched on, but Dr. Cross pulled the trigger a few times and let off a few rounds. The bullets hit Saskia's shoulder, breaking through the blood armour. They used their blood to forcefully push them out, instantly clotting the wounds, and yanking the pistol out of Dr. Cross' hand.

Gomander then charged Saskia, intending to consume them.. They dropped down, multiple bone spears shooting out of their back, aiming to pierce Gomander. They immediately snapped them off, rolling to the side. Their blood tendril split in two, grabbing a piece of concrete and slamming it into Gomander.

Dr. Cross went for her pike while Gomander consumed what bone spikes she could. However, several pierced her body, and blood poured. She spat out the bone fragments at Saskia at high speeds. . At first they bounced off the blood armour before cracking it, embedding themselves in Saskia's abdomen. They yanked them out of their flesh with a grunt, blood from the wounds reforming the armour. Their tendril merged back into one, shooting towards Dr. Cross, which pierced through her back.

Gomander made another dive, mouths snapping at Saskia. They didn't dodge, an insatiable bloodlust beginning to thrum beneath their skin. They took one step back, all the blood forming their armour pushing into the tendril to strengthen and thicken it. It twisted in Dr. Cross' back, hooking, and violently yanked her into the air, slamming her in between them and at Gomander… who consumed Dr. Cross without a second thought. Another mouth sprayed her remains back at Saskia.

Saskia covered her body in blood armour as the body parts splattered against it, coating her in another gorey layer. Completely unbothered, Saskia shook out one hand, pieces of flesh splattering across the floor. ”Aw, I wanted to play with her more."

Their blood tendril split into six, more blood pooling from various wounds on their body to expand it. One slammed into the table, cracking it down the middle, before picking up the two pieces with multiple and throwing it at Gomander. They jumped forward, multiple tendrils shooting towards Gomander from all directions, flailing around them without care for how they smashed holes in the wall and destroyed chairs- no, they were enjoying the destruction. Gomander retreated, she devoured what tendril she could and tanked the hits of whatever she couldn’t.

“... How are you so strong?!” Multiple voices spoke at once. “Why won’t you die?!”

Gomander quickly dove into the ground, eating her way through it, and Saskia could hear the rumbling. Then she burst out of the ground, before diving back in. She did this to random locations, and would likely swallow Saskia. They tried to dodge, following along the rumbling with tendrils slamming into the ground and making large dents. But the need to destroy, to kill, was outweighing the need to survive.

So intent on destruction that they didn’t even move when Gomander swallowed them whole. She flew into the air, and her several mouths laughed. Each laughed at a different pitch, and out of sync so it was a discordant mess of deranged laughter.

“Glory to the Society!”

A low, tearing sound joined the discordant laughter. A dark red point pushed through Gomander’s flesh. Then another. And another. They physically started to rip flesh apart, tearing long, bloody holes through muscle and skin. At the same time, sharp bones mercilessly stabbed into Gomander’s internal organs. It wasn’t quick - a random stabbing of whatever was closest, over and over again. There was a cruel precision to it, avoiding the ones that would lead to an instant death. It was like they were playing with her insides, brutally destroying them while forcing her to live through it. Only when they were satisfied with their butchery did they shoved a spear through her heart, multiple blood tendrils tearing her apart.

Saskia emerged from the remains of Gomander, four thick blood tendrils pulling her out and landing on the floor. They acted as legs, holding them up as they wiped a scarlet hand across a blood covered forehead. Their blonde hair was painted red, pieces of guts and sticky, brutalised tissue all over it. Chunks of mangled flesh covered them, sticking to the viscous blood that coated them from head to toe. They lifted up a piece of what must’ve been the heart, bone stabbing out of their palm and through the no longer beating organ with a loud squelch.

But it wasn’t as satisfying as destroying something living. They weren’t satiated at all.

”Glory to the Agents of Death."

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!

Lisa writhed in pain, as whatever Dr. Cross threw at them, electrocuted the living daylights out of her. Or it was something like that. It didn’t feel hot at all. It just hurt. Eventually, Lisa fell to the ground, as she looked over to Ella. She couldn’t help but feel compelled to reach her hand out towards her friend before she lost consciousness…

… Then it stopped.

She felt relief.

Yet disappointment.

”... Let’s do it again another time, okay?” Lisa chuckled.

"No way!" Ella had ended up curled up on the floor, her magical girl outfit dispelled so she was back in the jarringly black hoodie and skirt. She was closer to Lisa than she had been when hit, as if she'd been trying to move towards her. "That hurt so much! Why do you want to do it again?"

”Oh! You’re such a crybaby! Who isn’t into a little electro-torture?!” lisa laughed, as she climbed to her feet.

Ella shook her head, pushing herself up into a sitting position and looking around. "Wait, where's Saskia?!"

Lisa dusted herself off.

That was a good question.

”Maybe-”

There was a boom not too far away. Normally Lisa would have been all for running away but with Saskia missing… Lisa grabbed Ella’s hand.

”Let’s go find them!”

"Yes, let's go, they might be in danger!" Ella gripped Lisa's hand tight and dragged her towards the booming sound - through the completely destroyed wall. They didn't have to go far to find Saskia.

Ella ground to a halt as soon as she saw them. "Saskia!"

Saskia was in the middle of the dining room, destroyed table and chairs scattered around them. Three blood tendrils held them up above the floor. They were covered in mutilated flesh and blood, bone spears sticking out from random parts of their body. Painful, dark red clotted wounds were visible beneath the gore coating them. Another blood tendril was brutally picking through mangled remains, stabbing or squeezing anything that might still resemble a body part.

They paused upon hearing Ella, head slowly turning towards the two of them. Their bloodstained lips pulled up into a half smile, eyes devoid of any emotion. The tendril stopped rummaging through the remains and lifted, pointing at them both. "Oh, you're late. I already killed them. Let's kill the rest."

Yikes. Lisa thought to herself as she stared at the scene. Her eyes darted from left to right, she twiddled her thumbs. Something was off here. Saskia wasn’t… Saskia.

”Um… no,” Lisa awkwardly laughed. ”Let’s find Kimberly and Jordan and get out of here.” She shot both of her thumbs towards the exit… or one of the holes in the wall.

They could hear the sounds of the chaotic fight underground… which let Lisa know that they were still alive. ”Cool!” she said with a smile. ”Let’s help our friends!”

"Yeah let's go help them!" Ella nodded.

"What do you mean no?" Saskia tilted their head. "Help them kill, or help them escape?"

The tendril that wasn't supporting them shot out, wrapping around a destroyed half of the table. They threw it towards the hole Lisa had pointed to, haphazardly blocking it. "I won't let you trick me out of tearing this entire place down."

To punctuate their point, a tendril shot past the two of them and slammed into the wall with a bang, punching a crater into it as debris fell to the ground.

Lisa looked over her shoulder at the hole in the wall… Her jaw dropped. There was something wrong with Saskia, but what? What changed? Wait… could it have been that weird rock she found on the side o- No, the one Dollhouse gave her. Lisa smiled, awkwardly, extending a hand…

”Saaaaaaaaaaakia! Can you show me that cool rock you found the other day!?”

"You’re just stalling for time." Another blood tendril shot past them, slamming into the wall again, as if caging them in. At the same time more blood leaked from wounds on their body, forming a thin layer of armour, and two blood blades came from her arms.

Ella let out a gasp. "Normally she can’t use that much blood!"

"I don’t want to hurt you." A struggle appeared in Saskia’s eyes for a moment, before going back to a deep blankness. The tendrils drop from the walls, smashing into the ground and hooking into it. They pulled themselves forward, towards Ella and Lisa.

Contrary to their words, they swung their arms to the side, a blood blade slicing at both Ella and Lisa. Lisa screamed as she fell to her back - blade missing her by inches. By reflex, Lisa summoned a horde of spiders which pooled at her feet.

”Saskia, stop! What’s gotten into you?!”

"Saskia, no!" Ella shouted, jumping back and just avoiding being sliced. She shook her head, pulling out her channeler. "I think she’s been corrupted by darkness, Lisa! We need to snap her out of it like in all the anime I watch!"

"What’s gotten into me?" Saskia intoned, blood tendrils pooling inwards and swirling around her - trying to clear out the spiders. She raised a foot to try stomp on Lisa’s leg, bone spear shooting out from it. "Nothing. I’m just destroying everything like we should- you’re the ones standing in my way."

Lisa immediately backpedaled, as it seemed like they were doing this the hard way now. Her mouth opened up and she spewed spiders at Saskia. They seemed completely unbothered as the spiders bounced off their armour, a couple getting stuck in thick blood.

"Ahhhhh- I’m the shining light in the darkness, prism power protect me!" Ella yelled, jumping back and spinning around as she started to go through her magical girl transformation.

Saskia rolled their eyes, blood tendril stabbing out and spearing Ella’s shoulder. She grimaced but kept going, awkwardly twisting as prismatic light coated her and changed her outfit.

They then turned back to Lisa, another tendril shooting towards her chest. Spider legs sprouted from Lisa’s back, and launched herself into the air. Attaching herself to the ceiling, she then applied the Acid-Burst spell to the spiders in her armor.

”... This isn’t you, fight it!”

"There’s nothing to fight." Saskia raised her hand and shot a blood bullet at Lisa, which hit her directly in the titty.

"There is! You’re not normally like this! Where’s the Saskia that would do anything for her friends?!" Ella shouted. She’d finished her transformation, legs lighting up in a myriad of colours. She jumped forward as Saskia raised another tentacle to go after Lisa, blocking it with her leg.

”... Ow, my titty!” Lisa grabbed her own titty as it began to bleed. She grit her teeth… now it is time to get serious. The floor ruptured in front of Saskia and a barrage of spiders came spewing out - only to immediately have the acid burst spell applied to them. All the while, Lisa had pulled some spiders aside and cocooned them, and they grew larger and larger… she had five so far. The plan was not for all five of them to reach full size.

The plan was to stall Saskia out to get one of them.

The acid burned through Saskia's blood armour, eating away at the flesh of her arms and legs as she reinforced the vulnerable areas. They pulled back in their blood blades and reinforced the armour, blood crawling across dissolved skin.

A tendril wrapped around Ella's leg, lifting her up and slamming her into the ground. At the same time Saskia ran towards one of the cocooned spiders. She forcefully slammed into it, bone spears shooting out all across the front of her body as she tore into it.

Ella twisted around, shooting a burning light from her Channeler which cut through the tendril holding her. She rolled over, past it, and leapt at Saskia with a glowing foot, which Saskia blocked with another tendril.

One down. Lisa thought to herself as she crawled further away… her range was impressive enough to work. Unlike Ella, Lisa was not an up-front fighter, and she would get clobbered by Saskia if she wasn’t careful. They needed a plan… Where the hell was that stone? It sucked, but they had to disable Saskia. She sighed as a wave of spiders came from the unseen corners of the room, from underneath the tables, the chairs, the furniture that nobody was paying attention to. They quickly flooded the floor underneath Saskia’s feet… and Lisa applied the Acid-Burst spell to them all.

They could, at the very least, heal Saskia after this.

Saskia barely reacted as acid splashed across her feet, splattering up her legs. It ate through the blood armour again and right to the bone of her thighs and feet. The blood tendril split back into four, three dropping to push her off the ground in place of destroyed feet. The other smacked at Ella, stopping her from getting close enough to actually attack.

They moved forward, a spear covered fist punching into another cocoon. At the same time, they raised their free hand and shot off another blood bullet at Lisa… which hit her in the other titty.

”... OH GOD DAMN IT!” Lisa screamed, grabbing her other titty. Both of them were oozing blood… Saskia was going through the cocoons, but that wasn’t a problem as she created two more glowing cocoons around the room. They had to do something a bit more drastic… Lisa summoned two spiders from out of the vents and they crawled above Saskia… and they slowly descended, aiming for her eyes.

Again, they could heal them.

As the spiders lowered, Saskia’s head snapped up. The blood tendril fighting Ella shot up, spearing through the two spiders.

But it gave Ella an opening. She jumped in, aiming a shining foot at Saskia’s waist. At the same time colour spilled from her bracelets to her arms. The foot connected, knocking Saskia back even as multiple bone spears pierced through it. Ella then grabbed Saskia with her strengthened arms.

"Lisa! Get them now!" Ella held on for dear life as Saskia’s blood tendril spun around and pierced her shoulder, multiple bone spears shooting out into her.

They had to play dirty to get Saskia to stop… Spiders came out of the hidden corners of the room. Flooding the room, but also exhausting Lisa further - they covered the tendrils that Saskia were standing on, then they crawled up to their eyes. Then she applied the Acid-Burst spell again.

The acid exploded across Saskia's face, completely penetrating their armour. Their eyes dissolved and skin dripped off their skull, like wax from a burning candle. Muscle was eaten away to reveal the bones inside. Their free blood tendrils flailed about madly, piercing Ella's side and back. Ella gritted her teeth and kept hold of Saskia, face and upper body also peeled off by the acid.

Then, finally, Saskia stopped struggling and went limp against Ella. The tendrils melted, dark blood splashing across the floor. The bone spears slowly pulled back into her body.

"Can I have some healing spiders?" Ella groaned, hooking one arm under Saskia's destroyed legs while the other supported her back, properly carrying her.

The healing spiders came out the pores in Lisa’s hands, and she immediately flicked them into Ella’s face without a second thought. She immediately came down from the ceiling - using her spider legs to brace her impact - and then lingered above Saskia. She quickly dug her hand into Saskia’s shirt from their collar (getting a titty grab in), looking for that damned st- Found it! Without a second thought, Lisa tried to pull it off, only to find out that it was fused to Saskia’s chest.

... Of course.

”... I-it’s stuck!” Lisa shouted. ”Ella, give me a hand!”

Ella also stuck her hand down Saskia's shirt, hand curling around the stone (and Lisa's hand) and trying to pull it out with still colour enhanced strength. "It ain't budging! Maybe… maybe I can burn it out?"

”... That’s not going to work,” Lisa shook her head, as tiny spiders came from the insides of her sleeves. They quickly traveled from her hands to Saskia’s body, and wrapped themselves around the Orange stone. ”This is going to hurt….”

She applied the Acid-Burst spell, and Saskia’s flesh around the Orange Stone was dissolved, Lisa tried pulling at it, she managed to pull it - but it was still stuck to their skin. ”God damn it!” Lisa shouted.

The phone in her back pocket began ringing…

”Ella, get that for me,”

"Alright!" Ella shoved her hand in Lisa’s pocket, accidentally touching her butt in the process. She leaned forward to awkwardly pick up the call with one hand, still holding Saskia in her arms. "Hello, Ella speaking!"

“... Get the fuck out of there, mami!” Lupe shouted over the phone. “I don’t care what you’re doing! Get the fuck out of there, right now!”

"Shit how do you know- ahhh, Society spies- okay!" Ella turned to Lisa, looking a bit panicked. "It’s Lupe, she says we’ve gotta ‘get the fuck out of here.’ I can carry Saskia- lets deal with the stone later!"
“Please, Dios mios, get out of there, mami!” Lupe said over the phone. “Everyone is heading there. Trust me mami, hang up the phone and get out of there.”

Thankfully for the girls, the giant spiders that Lisa had created were ready. Unfortunately, they were not equipped for flight, as they were armed with raptorial limbs, and Lisa facepalmed as she wished that she could make a spell that reverted them back to normal. However, they would have to improvise, as she ordered one of them—a Hobo spider with the raptorial limbs of a praying mantis—to come over.

There was hesitance, Lisa turned towards Ella…

”... We should get the stone off of them, first.”

"Yeah, it’ll be worse if they wake up and go on another rampage!" Ella agreed, shifting Saskia in her arms so that she could pull out her channeler. She cast a burning ray of light on the skin still attached to the orange stone, trying to burn it off. "Then we run, cause Lupe says everyone is coming!"

It was still attached, would they need to use surgery? That was when Lisa grabbed it, and yanked at it hard as she could before a spider leg burst out of her back, and it swung around to slice it out.

At the same time, Ella continued to burn away the skin around it. It… seemed to work in combination with Lisa’s slice as the skin attaching it got thinner and thinner, until it finally came out.

Leaving a horrible gaping hole in Saskia’s chest, skin covered in all sorts of burns. It looked horrible.

"Let’s go!"

Lisa grabbed it and tossed it across the room - it fell into one of the holes in the ground that Gomander created, and that was the last of it. She knew that Saskia shouldn’t have trusted those Dollhouse weirdos. They were nothing but trouble!

”Help me get them on top!” Lisa shouted, as she knelt down and tried to lift Saskia up. ”We can at-”

“... Leaving so soon?” Morningstar’s voice could be heard, as a giant portal opened on the other side of the room. He stepped through, and various horrific monsters stepped through with him.

”... Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck,” Lisa moaned, as she rolled her eyes.

“Your friends are still fighting Ignatius and A’lon,” Morningstar noted. “However, you three are so obsessed with my defeat, so….”

He put his hands out.

“Here I am, all of me.”

"Morningstar!" Ella shouted. She carefully put Saskia down, stepping in front of her and Lisa. Quieter, she whispered, "Lisa, heal Saskia, quick!"

Lisa knelt down, and her healing spiders came from her hands then crawled over to Saskia and dug into their flesh and flesh them.

Then, yelling again, she pointed at Morningstar. "You’ve finally decided to stop being a coward! Finally, your reign of tyranny is going to come to an end. I will vanquish you, for everything that is right and beautiful in this world!"

“Well…” Morningstar narrowed his eyes. “... Here I am. Come and face me! And let’s bring this circus to an end already!”

Ella didn't say anything else. Instead her legs just lit up with prismatic light, and she launched herself forward with a flying kick towards him. However, he opened his hand and created a portal in her trajectory… and she flew inside, and came out aimed towards Lisa’s spider.

”.... ELLA, YOU SMOOTHBRAIN!” Lisa shouted as Ella literally let herself get goaded into a fight. What didn’t concern her was Morningstar himself, but the minions he had at his side. The spider she had was killed and-

The ceiling burst open, and Lisa covered her eyes. Rapel lines came down, as she heard,



... Wait, Lisa thought to herself as she heard boots hit the ground. Was that Clem?

---

---

Boots hit the floor. All of them were covered in thick body armor and helmets—the armor they wore was reminiscent of a swat team. There were a good amount of them, each brandishing carbines… and one of them floated down, hovering a few feet above them

“I knew you three would get into a mess!” Clementine shouted, her voice muffled by the helmet.

”... How did you find us!?” Lisa shouted.

“Don’t worry about it!” Clementine ran over to the trio and raised her hand in the air. A blue bubble of wavy energy appeared above them all. Before she shouted at the floating man. “... Maximilian! Take him out!”

“On it!” Maximilian flew directly towards Morningstar, who raised a hand in the air and created a wall of brimstone. However, he broke through it and slammed into Morningstar, sending him sprawling across the floor. However, he came to a stop and landed on his feet. He barred teeth, and the skin on his face peeled off to reveal some type of creature with blueish-grey skin. He raised his hand at Maximilian and created a massive portal, and massive explosive fireballs came flying out of it. However, Maximilian intercepted each and every one of them, flying with blinding speeds.

”... He’s kind of hot,” Lisa awkwardly said, playing with her fingers. ”Could I get his number later…?”

“... He’s wearing a helmet, you don’t even know what- you know what? We need to get you three the hell out of here.” Clementine shouted.

"We’re fine! I had it!" Ella shouted. She jumped back, looking at the agent Lisa thought was ‘hot’ with a mixture of admiration and jealousy. It was cool that he could intercept all of those… but he was stealing their thunder! And Lisa’s eyes!

"I’m not fine," Saskia groaned. They were still lying on the floor, most of their skin back, their eyes mostly focusing but… they looked incredibly pale.

"We’ll just heal you more- oh! Some of our friends are down there too!" Ella pointed towards the corridor leading to the super secret sacrifice room that Kimberley and Jordan were still stuck in.

“We’ll secure the area, then we’ll push down there,” Clementine answered.

"Alllriiighhht," Ella groaned, looking around. "Can we help? Morningstar's ours to kill!"

"No thank you," Saskia mumbled, closing their eyes. Ella was tempted to kick them awake, especially after earlier… but no! She would be nice!

”... Stop being a baby! You’re embarrassing me in front of my future boyfriend!” Lisa shouted as she knelt down over Saskia. Tiny spiders came out of her pores, and they burrowed into their skin. Healing them in the process.

"You literally melted my eyes off," Saskia muttered.

“No can do!” Clementine said. “We need to get you three out of here.

”B-but my boyfriend!” Lisa whined.

"You don't need him!" Ella shouted. She then bent down to help Saskia up, getting bored of waiting and just straight up picking her up. "Fine, we'll leave… but don't you dare kill Morningstar!"

"Or torture him before us," Saskia added quietly.

"Or torture him before us!"

Morningstar opened a massive portal, and a gigantic, demonic, claw came out and grabbed Maximilian. It yanked him towards it, before he cracked a grin, and flew backward out of its grip - grabbed its hand, and pulled it off completely. It let out a defeated roar as the leftovers of its arm flew back inside, and the portal closed. Maximilian flew at Morningstar and they kept clashing.

“Look,” Clementine rolled her eyes, the backside of the barrier disappeared. “Just get out of here!”

"Alrighhhttt," Ella pouted. She threw Saskia over her shoulder like a limp bag and grabbed Lisa's hand. "We're getting out of here!"

She forcefully dragged Lisa out the backside of the barrier… away from the fight towards Morningstar. Honestly, she didn't know the actual way out, since they'd come in through a window! But that wasn't her aim anyway. Instead, she led (well dragged and carried) them towards the top secret corridor in the completely destroyed office.

"I can walk, Lisa healed me," Saskia complained. Ella nodded and awkwardly put her down while still holding Lisa's hand… and grabbed Saskia's as soon as their feet touched the ground.

"We're going to save Kimberley and Jordan," Ella whispered. ”I'm not running away when they're still in danger!"

”... Neither am I!” Lisa valiantly shouted, before she looked around. There was that giant hole in the ground, it would probably lead back into the basement. Lisa called one of the giant spiders over to them - still with the raptorial limbs of a praying mantis. ”Hop on!”

Saskia clambered on first, yawning as they did. Ella hopped right up after them, brandishing her Channeller forward. She still… didn’t like riding spiders that much, but they had to! To save their friends!

"Let’s go beat the rest of the evil bastards and save them!"

”... Let’s g-” Lisa raised both

“... Going somewhere?” Maximilian said, floating above them with his arms crossed.

”... Boyfriend!” Lisa excitedly said, before scratching the side of her head. ”... Weren’t you just fighting Morningstar?”

“He ran,” Maximilian answered. “And Clementine said to get out of here, why are you going deeper into the complex?”

”... To get your attention,” Lisa sheepishly said.

"That's not what we were doing!" Ella shouted, glaring at Lisa. "I don't want your attention at all! Or any man's attention! Ew."

"We got lost," Saskia said.

"Yeah! Wait, no, screw that! It's because we're not cowards who run away when our friends are in danger! We're going to beat the rest of Morningstars minions - we already defeated five!"

“Look…” Maximilian said, floating down to the floor, before taking a few steps towards them. “I understand you’re confident - I’m actually proud you are. However, Agent Washington wants you three safe above all else, and she wants you out of the area because this could get ugly. Or you could ruin our only shot at getting Morningstar.”

"Your only shot? That we set up?!" Ella was surprisingly agitated in response to what he was saying. They’d done all the hard work! And here was this man coming here, stealing their thunder and Lisa’s heart! "You think just cause you’re big and strong and can float that you can boss us around?!"

"Mm, for once I agree with Ella," Saskia said with a yawn - even though she really didn’t look all that tired or pale anymore. "Where were you when I had to kill three of his Endless Seven alone ^{and nearly lost my mind}? We cleared the path for you."

"Yeah!” Ella swung her legs around, hopping off the spider. Her body language was tense, but she didn’t make any moves. "We need to kill him or we won’t be safe anyway!"

Maximilian raised both hands. “Look, I’m not trying to boss anyone around…”

”... You can boss me around anytime, big boy!” Lisa said with a toothy grin.

“... Disregarding that, I understand that you all were fighting for your lives here, if we had information we would have been here sooner,” Maximilian said. “However, we will have everything under control from here on. And we can’t have three civilians running around getting in the way, and possibly being taken hostage.”

"Civilians? We’re not civilians, we’re-” Ella dramatically paused, thrusting her sailor moon up towards the sky (well, ceiling) and putting a fist on her hip. At the same time, her legs turning back to a glowing prismatic colour. "The Magical Girls- and the Agents of Death!”

"They never try take us hostage, anyway," Saskia sighed, rotating her wrist as she slid down the spider and onto the floor. They pulled out their knife and ran it across their hand, blood pooling across their skin and up their arm. "That would be exciting. Nobody’s into torture anymore these days."

"Stop with the torture!” Ella shouted, before pointing a finger at Maximilian. "If you continue to stand in our way, we’ll have to take you out!”

”Wait, wait, wait, Ella!” Lisa put her hands up. ”We can’t kill him! He’s hot!”

Maximilian facepalmed, before pressing his earpiece. “... Senior Agent Washington, they’re not complying. Uh-huh? Okay.”

He sighed.

“... Senior Agent Washington said that she will take you all to Dairy Queen if you just leave peacefully.”

Ella’s nose scrunched up, conflicted expression in her dark eyes. She did like Dairy Queen, and she hadn’t had it in… technically over ten years! But no way. She wouldn’t get distracted! She couldn’t trust these PRA- Clem and Nessa aside- to actually do anything! "I see what you’re doing! You can’t fool me! I won’t let you tempt us away from dishing out justice!”

She then turned to Lisa, saying, "don’t worry, we’ll leave his face alone!”

"No promises here," Saskia said, blood armour completely covering them and a short tendril coming out her back.

"Sasskiiaaa, c’mon- Alright, this is your last warning,” Ella once again pointed a finger at Maximilian. "Get out of our way.”

Maximilian sighed again, before pressing his earpiece, “They are still refusing to go? Okay. I promise I’ll hold back. I won’t hurt them.”

He moved his finger and said, “... Agent Washington said you three are under arrest. Get on your knees and-”

”... Ooooh!” Lisa moaned.

Maximilian blushed, “What is wrong with your friend - know what? Nevermind. Come peacefully, nobody has to get hurt.”

"Yeah, what is wrong with you Lisa, he’s not even that hot?!” Ella shouted. But there was no way she was getting arrested… again. This was unfair! They were wasting precious time when Kimberley and Jordan were in danger because this man was on a power trip… maybe he was like Stauber?! Oh god, did he just want to flirt with them?!

"Ella, maybe we should-"

Before Saskia could finish their sentence, Ella launched herself forward with a jump kick towards Maximilian’s abdomen. However, Maximilian caught it with a burst of speed.

“... Come on, let’s talk about this!” He asked, floating in mid-air holding Ella’s leg.

"You're trying to arrest us!" Ella shouted, swinging around with her other leg towards Maximilian's head. Which whacked him, knocking his helmet off… but he didn’t so much as flinch.

"... Should we help her?" Saskia asked, tilting their head towards Lisa.

Lisa clenched both sides of her own face.

”... I don’t know what to do!” She shouted. ”On one hand, he’s hot! On the other, Ella is one of the homies!”

She looked to the left and right, before she sighed, ”... Adora wouldn’t want me to turn my back on my homegirl]” She opened her mouth wide as she could, then spewed a current of spiders that hit Maximilian directly in the face and covered his face.

“... WHAT THE HELL?!” Maximilian shouted, as he dropped Ella, wiping the spiders off his face.

”... Forgive me booooooooooyfriend!”

"He’s not your boyfriend!"

”Not yet!” Lisa raised both of her hands in the air and summoned a wave of spiders that pooled at her feet. Five of them were wrapped in a glowing cocoon as they grew in size...

Ella twisted in the air so she didn’t fall on her ass, awkwardly landing on her feet and hopping backwards. Saskia sighed, blood tendril shooting forward towards Maximilian’s shoulder. At the same time Ella spun around with a kick towards his side. Both attacks hit, but did no visible damage, except knocking off Lisa’s spiders.

“Fine…” Maximilian rolled his eyes, as he flew into the ground faster than the girls could even perceive and caused a shockwave that rolled towards them. It threatened to knock them off their feet.

Ella straight up jumped over the shockwave. She grabbed a nearby, bright red book and pulled the colour out of it - it coated her fists scarlet. Then she swung a hard as steel punch at him…

Saskia took the shockwave, getting knocked back a bit as it hit against their blood armour. Their blood tendril pulled back, pushing them to the side as they attempted to get behind him.

The shockwave wiped out a majority of Lisa’s spider swarm, and she couldn’t take it as she was knocked over and sent rolling. Lisa looked back over her shoulder, to see her spider horde dead, and she bared teeth. ”... Don’t hurt my babies!”

Maximilian caught the fist like it was nothing. " Can you stop, please? You can’t win; this is a waste of everyone’s time!” he asked.

"You're wasting our time by getting in the way!" Ella shouted. She brought up a glowing knee right towards his crotch. Which he tanked like it was nothing, and flew backwards.

Saskia had gotten behind him, blood tendril lengthening and wrapping around his neck, applying pressure in the hopes of choking him enough to knock him out.

“Alright, I’ll go easy on you three for Agent Washington!” Maximilian reached behind himself and grabbed the tendril, before swinging it around towards Ella with Saskia still attached.

Meanwhile, Lisa’s remaining cocoon exploded, revealing a huntsman spider with dragonfly wings. She quickly ran over to it, spider legs erupting from her back as she launched herself through the air onto its back.

Ella threw her arms in front of her to catch Saskia, who cut off their tendril - but it threw them both backwards. Ella threw Saskia to the side and jumped back to her feet.

"Don't go easy on us, coward!" Ella shouted. She swung a leg at Maximilian, aiming to hit him then spin around with a punch.

Saskia rolled across the ground with a groan, raising a hand and shooting a blood bullet at him.

Maximilian shook his head, as he dodged both attacks in a burst of speed. “Fine, then. Here I come!” He shouted as he stuck a hand out and fired a golden beam out of his hand at Saskia that launched them across the room, smacking into a wall with a groan. Then he quickly flew over to Ella, and swung at her with a punch. Ella threw up her hands to block the punch, but it still knocked her back a couple of steps and almost made her fall over.

Lisa’s flying spider took flight as Lisa stood on top of it as it flew circles around Maximilian.

”Booooooooooyfriend!” Lisa shouted, turning around and giving her (very small) booty a few twirls at him. ”Looooooooooooooooooook at meeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Maximilian rolled his eyes.

"He's not your boyfriend!" Ella yelled, strange anger at that fueling her through the pain of what had been a very hard punch. She ran back a few steps, the brightest colours from nearby books being pulled towards her hands and forming a heavy, hard orb that she shot right at his face. Hopefully it would make him uglier! Maximilian pimp-slapped the orb away, before he marched towards Ella.

”Um, he seems a little bit stronger than all the other guys…” Lisa noted as she brought her behind to a freeze. ”Let’s see how tough he is against some acid!”

She opened her mouth, before she noted, ”... Take cover!”

Then she spewed another collum of spiders out of her mouth up towards the ceiling and they flew in all directions like a geyser. Once they passed her, she applied the acid-bust spell and it rained acid on everything below her. It hit Maximilian… only to harmlessly drop off his body. He shook his head in disgust as he wiped it off his clothes with his hand.

Lisa tilted her head, her eyes shot open.

Ella gaped as he just tanked the acid, popping up from the desk she’d used as shelter. The acid. "We should’ve kept the stone!"

"You don’t want that," Saskia muttered, pushing themselves back to their feet.

"Fine- Girls, do you remember the spell we developed?! The mech spider- let’s use it to beat his ass!"

Lisa flew down, and hopped off the spider, landing right next to Ella. She shot both of her hands up, ”Let’s do it! Maybe he’ll think it’s cool!”

"I don’t want him to… Fine! We’ll show him that we’re super strong! C’mon, Saskia!"

Saskia groaned, but dragged themselves over. "What do we do again?"

Ella grabbed both Lisa and Saskia’s hands… though she wasn’t sure if that was necessary. "Summon the spiders, Lisa!"

Lisa laughed like a maniac, metal spiders came out of the unseen crevices of the room.

”... LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET’S DO IT!”

Maximilian simply pulled out his cell phone and began playing some kind of phone game as Lisa created it… The Magical Mecha Spider. This colossal beast was made out of metal and coated in a thick layer of blood armor. It broke through the ceiling into the next floor. The three of them sat in a cockpit in the mecha’s head, each with their own seat.

Maximilian stared up at it, seemingly in awe, but probably actually out of confusion.

“... I don’t get paid enough for this shit,”



Ella pointed a finger forward as she yelled, and the spider shot a powerful beam of light at Maximilian. He raised a hand in the air and seemingly blocked it as the beam went around him. The giant spider approached him as it fired the beam.

“... You three are crazy,” Maximilian groaned as he flew upwards out of the way of the beam.

"You’re telling me," Saskia muttered, as they adjusted the blood armour to be stronger wherever Maximilian went. A series of explosive blood missiles were shot at him while the light beam continued to try and burn him.

Maximilian flew around at speeds that looked like a blur, punching the blood missiles, as they didn’t seem to phase him to begin with.

“... Two can play at this game!” Maximilian shouted as he stuck both of his hands out, firing a golden beam of energy that clashed with their beam.

Maximilian’s beam of energy pushed back theirs further and further until it hit into the blood armour. It started tearing through it. Saskia swore, moving all of the blood from other parts of the mech to cover the section the beam was hitting. "He’s too strong."

"A magical girl never runs away!" Ella shouted, sweat dripping down her forehead. She channeled all of her orange and red lux to strengthen the mecha, and shot out another powerful beam of light! Which Maximilian flew out of the way of, before aiming his hands back at the mecha and firing another powerful beam. Saskia grimaced as they poured more blood into it, visibly paling.

Lisa bared teeth as she gave Saskia a sympathetic look, before turning to Ella.

”... Um, you know like how in some anime the main character fights someone they can’t beat?” Lisa began. ”Then they do a cool training arc and then come back and beat them later?”

Ella furrowed their brow, looking at Lisa. She was right… they weren’t even damaging him, and that’s what made this so frustrating! Ella felt she had to prove that she was the best- because she was a magical girl, not because Lisa thought he was hot or anything. But Lisa was right… this was the boss they couldn’t beat until they trained.

"You’re right, that always happens! And we’ve beaten everyone so far- of course, it’s always near the end of episode three that it happens!" Ella nodded, as Lisa finally got through to her in a language she understood. "... okay, then we need to get away and train! Then we’ll beat him!"

”Here’s what we’re going to do,” Lisa looked out, to see her flying spider just standing there on the sideline being derpy. ”I’m going to send this at him, and then we’re going to get on the flying spider then haul ass!”

"Alright, you got it! We can make it, easy!" Ella gave a thumbs up. Saskia just nodded.

With a mental command, the flying spider proceeded towards the mecha spider, and Lisa said, ”Everyone, hit him with everything you got! Just enough to keep him in the dark about our next move!”

"Yes- SUPER MECHA PRISMATIC BEAM!" Ella yelled, purposefully attention drawing as she tried to hit Maximillian with her strongest beam of light. At the same time, Saskia reduced the defences to shoot off a series of blood bullets at him. Lisa sent the spider careening towards Maximilian while opening a hatch for them all to jump out of.

The flying spider was right there, and Lisa landed right on top of it, with the other two following behind her. Without a second thought, Lisa commanded the spider to fly out of a broken window and they escaped into the night. She let out a sigh as they flew over the desert. Then her eyes shot open, and she looked over her shoulder.

”... We forgot about Kimberly and Jordan,”

"Well we weren’t going to get through him to them, were we?" Saskia said with a shrug. "Jordan can teleport."

"Noooo…" Ella moaned, holding her head, before dramatically shouting, "Don’t worry, Kimberley and Jordan, we’ll come back to rescue you from that horrible man when we’ve become stronger! I promise!"

”... Horribly hot, you mean!” Lisa laughed. ”I hope I didn’t gross him out with the spider vomit, y’know.” She smiled at Ella.

"I think the acid disturbed him more," Saskia said drily, rubbing their eyes and yawning.

"I wouldn't be grossed out by the spider vomit!" Ella shouted, scrunching up her nose just at the thought of it. "You don't need him, you have us!"

"Not the same thing, Ella," Saskia snorted. "You- yknow what, I can't be bothered. Can we go back to the hostel? I lost too much blood."

”Yeah, will you be able to satisfy my needs?!” Lisa shouted, throwing a hand in the air. Before smiling at Saskia. ”Don’t worry, friend! We’ll be back at the hotel in-”

Maximilian flew in front of them in a burst of speed with his arms crossed.

”... No time,” Lisa awkwardly laughed at him. ”Heeeeeeeey! Boyfriend! Sorry we had to go, you know! We got magical girl things to do!”

He was quiet.

”We’ll just be, uh, going around you…” Lisa commanded the spider to fly around Maximilian, only for him to appear in their way again.

“... Land. The. Spider.” He commanded.

"... No way!" Ella shouted, turning to Lisa. "Lisa, go a different way!!"

"... That's not going to work," Saskia sighed.

"It will!" Ella, very precariously, stood up slightly on the spider and pointed a finger at Maximilian. "You're not meant to come back until we have our training arc! This isn't very anime villain of you!"

Maximilian just floated there for a moment, before he placed a finger on the top of the flying Spiders head and descended - forcing it to land. Once it hit the ground, they heard a familiar voice.

“Alright, everyone! Off the spider!” Clementine shouted as she walked over. “Right now!”

"Noooooooooo!" Ella wailed, lying forward and clinging to the spider with all her might.

Saskia rolled their eyes at her, and slid off the spider, hands in the air. "Can you torture us this time?"

”Will we have enough room to cuddle in the jail cell?” Lisa asked, before pointing at Maximilian. ”Oh! Can he join us?!”

“No, no, and no,” Clementine said, before she said, “Channelers on the floor, now!”

Saskia sighed, pulling off her bracelet and placing it on the floor.
"Nooo, I don’t want to be stuck in a jail cell again, I need to watch tonight’s anime episode- I can’t bear ittttt!" Ella practically screamed, still clinging to the spider.

"Stop being so dramatic, it’s not like they’re torturing us," Saskia said, reaching up to grab Ella’s wrist and try drag her off.

"That is torture, Saskia! The Milky Holmes were just got expelled from school and I need to know what happens next!"

Clementine sighed, as she turned to Lisa…

“Shrink the spider,” She clenched the bridge of her nose.

Complying, the spider shrunk back to normal size and scurried off.

"Nooooo," Ella cried as she landed on the floor with a thud, face first. It hurt more than she expected… and that just made her more stubborn! "You won't take me-"

"Stop being a big baby," Saskia rolled their eyes, going over and kicking Ella in the side. She grunted and pouted in response. Saskia bent over and snatched her Channeler, shoving it a bit further away before looking at Clementine. "Happy?"

"I'm not!"

"I wasn't asking you."

“Yes…” Clementine then pointed at a nearby SUV - all black with the windows tinted. “Get in.”

"Nooooo…" Ella stayed lying facedown on the ground, arms and legs splayed out.

Saskia, on the other hand, got into the SUV without an arguments, murmuring "ooo, kidnapped again, how fun…"

“This isn’t kidnapping, this is arrest.” Clementine said as she collected everyone’s channelers.

”... Can he put cuffs on?” Lisa looked up at Maximilian. Who reached down, picked Ella up, and threw her over his shoulder.

“... He’s occupied,” Clementine said.

"I'll walk, I'll walk, put me down!" Ella shouted as soon as Maximilian picked her up, wriggling to try and get away. This was worse than missing her anime's new episode! She was… getting… held by a man! Ew! Ewwwww! "I'll get in the creepy van!"

“... Too late!” Clementine shouted, then Maximilian chucked Ella into the van.

Lida scoffed as she climbed in herself.

Ella landed on top of Saskia, who grunted and immediately shoved her off. With a pout Ella clambered as far away from the door as she could, curling into a ball, rocking backwards and forwards.

"This is why I hate-"

"Ella, stop being so dramatic, he threw you over his shoulder…" Saskia groaned, and looked at Lisa. "Help me out here…"

”... How did it feel? Was he strong? Did you notice any chest chair?!” Lisa asked.

The car started moving.

"Horrible," Ella sobbed, though there weren't actually any tears… "It was like being held by a hunk of meat- how would I see chest hair through the armour?!"

"X-ray vision," Saskia suggested.

”Maybe you felt it!” Lisa laughed. ”I don't know about you but being held by a big strong hunk of meat sounds like a dream…”

She paused, ”... It reminded you of your uncle, didn't it?”

”It did…" Ella said mournfully. Saskia reached over and patted her shoulder, though Ella didn't feel much sympathy from the motion.

"It's alright, just refuse to get out and I'm sure he'll carry you, Lisa," Saskia nodded.

”... Where is he?” Lisa looked at the front seat, and saw Vanessa was driving.

"Probably scared away by your spiders," Saskia shrugged.

"... But Lisa's spiders are cute!" Ella piped up, wanting to defend anything that that man might not like.

”They were cool!” Lisa protested. ”It was your blood, Saskia!”

"Wouldn't be a bit of a useless agent if he can't handle a little blood?" Saskia tilted their head.

”Same if he can’t handle a spider!” Lisa threw her hands into the air. ”Or my sexiness!”

"Yeah, I think he needs a career change…" Saskia nodded.

"He should get fired!" Ella shouted.

”Nooooooo!” Lisa shouted. ”Then how will he support our future Spider-children?!”

”He's not good enough for you!" Ella shouted back.

"I bet he'd make a good criminal…" Saskia mused.

”Nooooooooo, he’s like Superman! When has Superman been a criminal!? Also, I think he’s perfect for me!” Lisa answered.

"Criminals are way hotter, Lisa," Saskia replied expressionessly. "Supermen are boring."

”Speak for yourself!” Lisa shouted, shaking her head. ”You know what?! I made up my mind! It's my destiny to get plowed against the starry night sky!”

"Nooooo!" Ella screamed, slamming her hands over her ears. "I don't want to hear it!"

"I do," Saskia said, lips quirking up into the slightest smirk. "Hmm, if you get him… I wonder if Morningstar would let me have a go before we kill him?"

”You have no choice but to hear it, Ella!” Lisa screamed back. ”It’s my deeeeeeeeeeeeeeepest desire! And as my friend you should love and support me in all my endeavors! No matter how gross or frea-”

The car came to a screeching haul.

“You know what? Fuck this,” Vanessa said, before she pointed to the side. “All of you get the hell out! I can’t take this anymore!”

"... I thought we were under arrest?" Saskia tilted their head.

^{”... Shut up and get out,”} Lisa whispered as she pulled on Saskia’s arm.

Ella, on the other hand, didn't need to be told twice. She pulled open the door and jumped out, running away, screaming, "Nooooo I don't want to hear about your sexual desires Lisaaaaa ^{unless they're about women}!"

“Look, Clem was going to just hold you in the cell for a couple of days then let you out!“ Vanessa shouted as she reached forward and grabbed the rear, “But, you three… you three are so goddamn annoying!”

Vanessa slammed it, and then sped off.

”...Great, annoying my way out of jail was on my bucket list," Saskia said.

Lisa just shrugged. A spider appeared wrapped in a glowing cocoon before growing to immense size. Then a jumping spider with wings came, and Lisa gestured towards it.

”... All aboard?”

"Let's go, I want to sleep," Saskia nodded, climbing on.

Ella hesitantly made her way back over to them, from where she'd gotten a whole few steps away. She really didn't want to hear more about Lisa's interest in that guy but… she also wanted to watch the latest episode of her anime! "Let's go… but I get the laptop when we're back!"

Lisa turned her head towards Ella. A massive smile on her face.

”... Then you must want to walk, then!?”

Ella smiled back, considering for just a moment beating Lisa up… then deciding against it because she was her friend and Ella loved her too much to do that. "Fine… I'll watch it on my phone…"

Grumbling, she climbed on the spider behind Saskia.

Lisa then hopped on, and then thrusted a fist into the air.

”... AAAAAAAAAAWAY WE GO!]”

The spider took flight and went back to the hotel.

When the spider arrived at the Holiday Inn… it shrunk back to its original size. Then the three just walked back into their hotel room. Lisa beelined for the laptop and made sure to hold it with both arms in a death grip.

”... What do we do now?” Lisa asked. ”Jordan and Kim might be dead! Dead! How are we going to pay for the room other than that little trick I pulled… that very illegal trick...” She tugged at her collar before her hand wrapped around the laptop.

"I'm sure your boyfriend made sure they were safe, since he's so great!" Ella grumbled, letting out a very loud huff and flopping into her bed.

Saskia yawned, lying down on their own bed and rolling over to look at them both. "I'm sure they'll be fine… we can always turn to a life of crime. Maybe pick up some hot criminals."

”Oh! Speaking of hot!” Lisa said. ”How about we call Lupe?!”

"Ohhh good idea, just what we need after that," Saskia agreed. They held out their hand. "Ella, your phone."

"You have your own!" Ella grumbled, even as she handed her phone over to Saskia… who easily unlocked it. The password was Sailor Moon's birthday, obviously.

"It's in my pocket, too much effort," Saskia shrugged as they found Lupe's number (which Ella had saved, thankfully) and called her.

After a few rings, Lupe answered.

“... Hello, Mami, what the fuck?!” Lupe asked. “Going to the Morningstar mansion?! All those motherfuckers were heading there… are you three okay?”

"We're fine," Saskia said, switching the call to speaker mode so everyone could hear. "I killed three of the Endless Seven, so it was nothing…"

"Yeah, we had Morningstar! We were gonna kill him!" Ella shouted. "Then Mr Heart Stealer appeared and stole our thunder! And arrested us!!"

”... Ah, yes, he was so big and hunky! I could just give him a smooch!” Lisa swooned, grasping both sides of her cheeks (while keeping the laptop clutched against her chest).

There was an audible silence on Lupe’s end. Before she asked.

“... Are ya’ll in jail right now?”

"Yes, it's awful, they chained us up and are-"

"No! We got away using our smarts and strength!" Ella shouted.

“Aw, cooooooooool, mami! Sounds intense…” Lupe said, before pausing for a moment. “... Wanna hang out?”

"Yes please, I need another sane person around," Saskia said.

”Oh! Why don't you come to our place!! Then we can watch anime if-" Ella looked at Lisa with a wide grin. "Lisa stops hogging the laptop!"

”Never!” Lisa shouted.

“... Why don’t you bitches just buy another one?!” Lupe asked, confused. “Ya’ll flashed some serious cash at Shadynasty’s! Just buy a cheap one! Or two!”

Lupe laughed, “Send me the addy, and I’ll be there.”

"Oh, why didn't we think about that… Lisa, later let's go acquire some cash and buy new laptops!" Ella shouted.

"And headphones," Saskia muttered. "I'll text you that and the room number… see you soon."

Saskia hung up, and texted Lupe with what Holiday Inn they were at along with the exact room. They then flopped back on the bed with a yawn. Why did they feel so tired? Their blood should be replenishing just now-

Saskia shot up, in a speed shocking Ella enough she almost fell off the bed. ”Clem still has our Channelers!"

Lisa reached into her shirt, dropped the laptop, and grabbed her own tiddy in the process, and then put her hands on the side of her face in shock. ”OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Ella leapt forward, snatched up the laptop and did a barrel roll with it off the bed. "It's fine! We can just go get them back! We'll kick down Clem's door-"

”With what magic?"

"... I almost killed a guy without mine," Ella muttered, clutching the laptop close to her chest.

”... And where is Clem’s door again?” Lisa asked, scratching the side of her head. ”Actually, how did they find Morningstar’s lair? Ain’t it weird that they found it conveniently after we got there…?”

"Huh… that is convenient… oh Sailor Moon!" Ella shouted, suddenly dropping down and looking under the bed. "You don't think one of them is spying on us?! That's creepy."

Saskia frowned, looking at Ella being weird and stupid like normal, to Lisa. "... Maybe they snuck a tracking device on us when we slept at theirs."

Lisa shrugged.

”Maybe it’s just a coincidence!” She laughed. ”Saskia! How long before sexy gets here?!”

”Dunno, I'm not tracking her," Saskia shrugged, not even bothering to check Ella's phone… she just threw it onto the other bed. ”How long did it take us to get here from her place last time…"

"It wasn't that long!" Ella said cheerfully. She clambered back onto the bed, holding onto the laptop like her life depended on it. "I hope she brings more alcohol this time!"

Lisa shrugged.

”Who knows? Maybe we should use the laptop to pass time…” Lisa walked towards Ella with her hands out.

"Yeah, we can watch it to watch the latest episode of my anime," Ella said, backing away from Lisa.

”If you two start fighting I’m going to get kidnapped again…" Saskia sighed.

”... I need to, uh, ‘send an email,’” Lisa smiled, approaching Ella. ”Wait… actually, let me see the laptop! We gotta do something.”

"What do we gotta do?" Ella asked suspiciously, grip on the laptop loosening slightly.

Lisa grinned ear to ear.

”... You’ll see,”

There was a visible war across Ella’s face as she made her decision, before hesitantly handing over the laptop. Saskia roused from her lounging state to move onto their bed… they didn’t want to miss this, whatever it was.

"Alright, show us, it better be good!" Ella said.

Lisa hopped on the bed, and immediately googled Facebook, and opened the first page. She went through the process of making a Facebook account, and when she was finished, she turned to the two and said.

”... So, let’s play a game,” Lisa began. ”Give me a full name, and we’ll look ‘im up!”

"Oh, that’s easy! Kari Wil-" Ella caught herself, eyes widening and lower lip trembling. "Wait, Kari’s… Kari’s…"

”Alright, there, there," Saskia said monotonously, slinging an arm over Ella’s shoulders and patting her in an attempt at comforting. They ignored the pang they felt at that too. ”Look up…"

"Jade! I want to know how she’s doing!!" Ella interrupted before Saskia could even finish, bouncing back just like that.

Lisa raised an eyebrow.

”... Clem said that Jade got… you know….” She sighed. ”A shame. She was gorgeous.”

"... Oh yeah," Ella's expression fell. "I was too… distracted by Kari's…"

"Look up Drake then, I bet he's posting edgy memes about it," Saskia said.

"Saskia, that's not nice!"

"What? He got me killed."

”Drake it is, then!” Lisa shouted as she typed in Drake Blackmore’s name. ”You know his sister Amanda was pretty cute! So was Nikki! Victoria was…”

She awkwardly laughed before she hit enter. She found Drake’s Facebook page, and his icon was a picture of him and Jade hugging. The banner showed Jade posing like a model on the shore. Drake seemed just to post photos of Jade, or him and Jade, over and over again….

”Hmmmm…” Lisa scrolled through it all. ”He’s a cop in St. Portwell? Drake Blackmore?” She laughed.

"I bet he'd shoot us if he saw us again!" Ella said, shaking her head. "He was super trigger happy…"

”Maybe if we dig deeper we can gather some incriminating evidence and make him lose his job…" Saskia suggested ominously.

”Or we can put spiders in his boxers!” Lisa laughed.

"I like that plan," Saskia rubbed their hands together with a small, evil smile. "How easily can you do that?"

”Noooo, guys, the poor guy's lost his wife!" Ella shouted. "You know I dislike people like him but as long as he isn't actually shooting people! Let's look up someone more interesting!"

"Oh, look up Sloane…"

"I said someone interesting!"

”Oh! Sloane-y!” Lisa shouted, jumping in her chair as she looked up Sloane Faris… only for the results to turn out empty. ”Aw.”

"See, boring!" Ella shouted, before hitting Lisa's shoulder a couple of times. "Ooo, ooo, look up Luca! I want to know how the little guy is!"

Luca's Facebook page was quite… plain. His banner was a picture of St Portwell harbour at night, and his icon was a slightly blurry, further away photo of him laughing over something taken by someone else. He didn't actually seem to post - most of the posts were Olivia tagging him in things. There were pictures of both of them, always a distance away from each other, or what appeared to be their apartment a couple of years back. There was one weird post about destruction, but otherwise there wasn't much.

Upon seeing Olivia’s name, Lisa squinted.

”... Olivia,” She dramatically said. She quickly clicked her name, then DM’d her a picture of a spider. Nothing else.

A near immediate response came back, reading, ‘who are you?!’

Lisa didn't respond.

”... So who else can we look up?!” Lisa asked.

"Let's look up Britney and send her hate mail," Saskia said. "For what she did to Luca and the others…"

"Or- orrrrrr~" Ella sang, leaning towards Lisa with a grin. "We look up your future wife, Adora!"

Lisa dramatically gasped, holding both sides of her face.

”... Why didn't I think of that?!”

Lisa immediately typed in Adora’s name, middle name and everything… Only to find nothing.

”Huh? Weird…”

"Maybe you spelt her name wrong?!" Ella shouted, leaning in towards the laptop.

”She’s the love of my life!” Lisa shouted back. ”How could I get her name wrong?!”

"I bet if we look hard enough… we can still find something about her…" Saskia said, with a shrug. "Oh, maybe if we look through Vanessa or Clementine…"

Complying, Lisa looked up Clementine Washington. Though several names popped up, a few of the profiles were blank. Others were obviously not Clementine. Same with Vanessa.

”Drats…” Lisa said.

"I guess we'll have to get creative…" Saskia tilted their head, thinking about it. Someone who Adora had been close to… well, aside from Lisa, who had she been close to? Maybe they should just try someone smart. "Try Greta, she always knew everything."

"Oh yeah, I want to know how Greta's doing!"

”... Gretchen, you mean,” Lisa smugly said. ”Her name is Gretchen.”

Lisa immediately typed in Gretchen Faust… only to not find her and have to type in “Greta Faust.” Then, after some digging, because there are a lot of old ladies named Greta Faust, they found their Greta, and she looked different. She dyed her hair red and started rocking the punk aesthetic. There weren’t a lot of pictures of Greta, though, and some very awkward selfies. There was a period where Greta spammed a bunch of weird sex stuff, though (especially a sex tips for nerds), and incoherent rambling about how she loved potions.

”... Awwwwwww, she’s so cute!” Lisa moaned. ”I wonder if her butt’s still big as I remember it being… eh, I’ll have to find out after we get through this, right, gals?”

"She is super cute! I love the new hair colour!" Ella grinned.

"... I'm interested in the sex tips…" Saskia reached over to scroll back up to them, quickly reading them. Very interesting… "You know, we don't have to wait. Message her now and ask for a picture of her butt."

”Okay!” Lisa ecstatically said, before doing it. No remorse. No thought. Just asking for a booty pic off rip.

A few minutes passed, and Greta responded witha succinct: “who the hell is this?”

Lisa was silent.

”... What do I tell her?”

"I've got this, move aside!" Ella leaned right into Lisa so she could reach the laptop keyboard. Her tongue poked out slightly as she wrote.

'This is Ella! Do you remember me? ╰(⸝⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝⸝)╯ it's been a while!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧’

It took her so long because she was painstakingly typing out the emojis… Saskia watched and rolled her eyes. "That won't work."

They also pushed into Lisa's personal space and took control of the keyboard.

'Hello Greta. This is Saskia Otten, of Sycamore Tree. I'm here with Ella Brooks and Lisa Turner. We were wondering if your butt is as big as Lisa remembers. Please confirm. Thanks.’

There was a silence on Greta’s end.

A few moments later, she sent a request for a video call. Lisa looked to Saskia, then Ella, before hitting accept and the view on Greta’s end was a dimly lit desk. She was sitting in front of the camera with a white lab coat on. Greta stared at them for a moment.

“... I had to see it for myself,” Greta spoke in her usual nasally voice. “Now that I see your faces, there is no doubt about it….”

She paused for a moment, “But… Why? Why did you three come back now…?”

"Everyone keeps asking us that!" Ella said, slamming her hands on her thighs in exasperation. "We don’t know!"

"Someone called in a favour," Saskia explained. "We don’t know who or why, just that we get a second chance if we do a few things for the Hound."

“I mean…” Greta trailed off, “I do appreciate having you three back… And no one is as weird as you three, by the way.” Greta pushed her glasses up her nose.

Lisa was bouncing up and down in her seat. Ella grinned.

“What does the Hound want you to do?” Greta asked.

"He wants us to kill Morningstar!" Ella shouted.

"We’re in Mirage Springs right now to do that… We almost had him twice," Saskia’s voice lowered, and her hands twitched with the overwhelming urge to draw Morningstar dying. "We’ve killed most of his evil minions."

“Now… I have no clue about who Morningstar is,” Greta said. “But, I-”

Lisa loudly screeched, interrupting the conversation.

”How are you doing friend?! How’s life?! You look sooooooooooo cute! It’s so great to see you!”
“Lisa…” Greta said, a tear running down her eye, before she quickly tried to wipe it away before they noticed. “I am… so glad to have you back… I…” She couldn’t hold it anymore, and began crying profusely.

“... I missed you so much, Lisa!” Greta shouted. “I… I can’t put it into words!”

Lisa placed her hand against the laptop scene.

”I’m sorry I was away. I… I am glad to be back,” Lisa laughed. ”I think we all are! Right girls!?”

"Yeah! I’ve never been happier to be alive- do you have any idea how much anime’s been made in the last ten years?!" Ella grinned, before forming a heart with her hands towards the camera. "I missed you Greta!"

"It certainly beats dying… that sucked…" Saskia intoned, before looking straight on at the camera. "So, show us your ass, Greta. We need to judge if its improved."

Greta gave them a blank face. The tears stopped flowing.

She pressed a key and disconnected the call.

”... Aw, man.”

"Damn, I was getting excited," Saskia sighed, flopping back.

”Horny!” Lisa said.

Saskia discreetly turned her head to try and look at Ella’s ass instead.

It was made easier when Ella jumped up, yelling, "When’s Lupe getting here?! It’s been ages!"

”Oh, come on Ella, she's probably putting makeup on or-” Lisa said with a shrug before she was interrupted by an explosion of pink light and smoke.

“... Ya’ll ready to party, mami?!”

Lupe screamed as she held two large brown bags full of booze.

Ella screamed too, launching herself at Lupe with a foot outstretched. Midway through the jump kick she realised who it was and awkwardly twisted, falling on the bed.

"I’m always ready to party," Saskia said, very much sounding and looking like she was never ready to party.

"Lupe!" Ella shouted excitedly, jumping up off the bed and towards Lupe in a hug rather than an attack. "I’m so happy to see you! Oh, what drinks did you bring this time?!"

“You know, basic shit, mami!” Lupe said as she put the bags down on the counter. She dug through the bag as she said, “Vodka, rum, tequila…” She said with a purr, as she gave them a flirtatious look.

Lupe kept going through the bags until she grabbed a bottle, before she dramatically said, “... But it's time for you gals to enter the big leagues.”

"What’s that?" Ella gasped dramatically, getting in real close to the bottle.

Saskia narrowed their eyes. "... but Lisa almost died last time."

“That just means she gotta build a tolerance, mami!” Lupe said before she whipped a bottle of Everclear and presented it to the group. “I’m going to put a little bit of this in all your drinks! Just a little bit!” Lupe pinched her fingers together.

"I’m down! I want to get properly drunk this time!" Ella shouted, skipping away to pull out the little glasses they had in their room. "Let’s get started!"

“Oooh, you’re gonna get drunk alright, mami!” Lupe deviously laughed.

"Can we play spin the bottle again?" Saskia asked. "This time I’ll master kissing."

“Unfortunately, mami,” Lupe sympathetically said with a shrug as she prepared some drinks. “I didn't bring any empty bottles. So you know what that means, right, mami…?”

"We gotta drink a whole bottle!" Ella shouted, throwing her arms in the air.

"Ohh, perfect, I need you all drunk enough that you don't notice the biting…" Saskia said in a low voice.

A few moments later, Lupe had finished the first round of drinks. Which were sprite, vodka, and just a teeny bit of Everclear. She put them on the desk.

“Mami! Ya’ll got any speakers in here?!” Lupe curled a finger through her hair and put her weight on one hip. “How are we gonna party without some music?! Dios mios!”

"We can sing! Me and Lisa are great at it!" Ella shouted, grabbing a cup and taking a big gulp of it.

"Or we just play it out a phone…" Saskia said, more sensibly sipping the drink she'd picked up.

Lisa silently took a sip of her drink.

“Jesus, Mami!” Lupe said to Ella. Before she looked at the laptop. “Hand that to me, mami,”

Ella looked at the laptop, then at Lisa, then at Lupe again. She reluctantly handed it over.

"I need to ask…" Saskia said, drinking more… and it already started going to their head. Everything was slightly fuzzy. "Lupe, if a friend asked, would you show them your ass."

“I mean…” Lupe said as she prepared her own drink. “... Back in the day; no. But now, who gives a shit, mami? If it makes someone’s day, why not?”

"See," Saskia sighed, taking a long drink. "Greta was just being a bad friend… I would if anyone here asked…"

”Maybe she’s saving it for when we get back!" Ella shouted, finishing her first drink already, and holding it out to Lupe. "More, please!"

“Mami…” Lupe rolled her eyes. “If she don't want to show her ladybits, that don't make her a bad friend…”

"Oh," Saskia tilted their head, thinking about it. They guessed Lupe was right about that…

Lupe then shrugged as she quickly made another drink for Ella. Once it was done, she handed it to Ella and said, “... Slow down, mami! It’ll creep up on ya’!” Lupe stuck her tongue out, sat on the sofa with the laptop, and played with it for a moment.

”I want it to, last time the other two got wayyyy more drunk than me," Ella grinned. She then skipped over to Lisa, leaning in and whispering, ”do you still want to look at her tiddies?!"

”Of course!” Lisa estatically (and loudly) said.

Ella nodded in understanding. "Remember what she said… if you want something you gotta ask for it. You can do it!"

Saskia rolled their eyes at them both, sitting down on the sofa next to Lupe and leaning over to watch whatever she was doing on the laptop.

”I mean, I do want it!” Lisa shouted. ”But, what if she thinks I’m weird?!”

“... I already think you’re weird, mami!” Lupe noted as she typed away… scrolling through YouTube looking for music. “What’s a good song for your nerd asses… Ah-hah!” Lupe shouted as the laptop played some music at max volume. It wasn’t too loud, but sufficient.

---

---

"Weird is good, embrace it, Lisaaaa!" Ella shouted, after another big swig of her drink.

Saskia closed her eyes for a moment, tilting her head to listen to the music. Not… her kind of music at all. Part style rarely was but the lyrics were apt. She could appreciate it. Thinking about the song made her miss writing her own. She hadn’t had time or the peace to do it. Maybe once this was all over.

"OHH I GET IT- Coming back to life!" Ella half sang, catching onto the chorus quickly. "It does feel good coming back to life!"

”Yes! We all get a second chance to live,” Lisa shouted.

“Now you get it, mami!” Lupe raised her drink in the air. “Let’s toast! Hopefully ya’ll keep slappin’ that bitch ass motherfucker Morningstar around!”

"Yeah, he’ll be regretting his evil once we’re done with him!" Ella shouted, raising her drink and splashing a little.

"Oh, he will," Saskia smirked, lazily raising their drink. "To murdering Morningstar, Lisa getting a hunky boyfriend, and Ella finding someone real."

”... That’s not her uncle!” Lisa shrieked, raising her drink.

Lupe tapped her drink with the others.

---

Some time later.

”WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Lisa shouted as she hung from the ceiling by her foot.

“Come down, mami!” Lupe shouted, as she danced, the music blaring. “You can’t dance on the ceiling... crazy.”

"Noooo, Lisa, you’ll hurt yourself!" Ella shouted, standing in the middle of the room waving her arms at Lisa… in just her bra and underwear. She’d said she was going to change out of the boring, black outfit she had on but seemed to forget halfway through. Saskia didn’t remind her. "Youuu’re too sexyyyyy to get huuurrttt!"

"She’s on the floor for me," Saskia said, giggling. She lay on the bed with her head upside down.

”I’m fine, watc-” Lisa disconnected from the ceiling, and loudly screamed as she fell from the ceiling and hit the floor. ”... Ouch.”

"LISA!!" Ella screamed, running over to Lisa and falling to her knees with a dramatic wail.

“Dios, mios, mami!” Lupe shouted as she ran over to Lisa. She put her hands on Lisa, and a wave of pink light overcame her. It began healing her, but Lupe noticed something on her feet. “... Oh, mami, you got burns!”

”... I was casting without mah’ channeler!” Lisa shouted.

“... Why would you go and do that, mami?” Lupe asked.

”... I wanted to look cool in front of my friends. That’s all…” Lisa moaned.

"You always look cool to me, Lisaaaa!" Ella sobbed, tears suddenly streaming down her cheeks as she grabbed Lisa’s hand. "You’re gonna make it through this!"

"Oh," Saskia sat up suddenly, falling off the bed with an off as their head suddenly spun. They had a brilliant idea. An idea so brilliant they deserved a… fancy smart person reward for it. "Let’s go get our channelers back."

“Hahaha! In the morning, you mean?” Lupe laughed, as she kept both hands on Lisa. “Ya’ll drunk as hell!”

Lisa raised a finger in the air.

”... I just want to see some titties,”

"Are mine not enough?!" Ella shouted, gesturing to her chest.

”... I need more!”

"Enough about titties," Saskia’s head popped back up over the bed. "We should do it tonight otherwise… Morningstar might get us…"

“If he was going to get ya’ll, he would have done so by now!” Lupe shouted. “C’mon, mami, I know ya’ll drunk. Do ya’ll even know where they are?”

"Yeah, our friends in the PRA have them!" Ella said, dramatically gesturing towards the window.

“One, mami,” Lupe raised a finger. “The feds ain’t your friends.”

Then she raised another finger, “Do you know where they are?”

”... Titty?” Lisa said.

"Yes," Saskia agreed, nodding with a look of sage wisdom they definitely didn’t have. "They are… at the… titty…"

Saskia completely lost their train of thought, trailing off while looking like they’d just given some kind of nobel peace prize worthy speech.

"They’re probably at their police headquarters! I bet that horrible man has them now," Ella ground her teeth. "He put his hands all over me! They’re all the same! Stauber, him- they just want to touch me!”

”... Something they have in common with your uncle!” Lisa shouted as Lupe took her hands off her.

“Mami, slow down,” Lupe got up, and she made another drink for the three. “Ya’ll fucked up right now! You’re only going to get in trouble!”

"Maybe I want to get in trouble," Saskia said, eyes narrowing. "Maybe I want to… be… tortured… why isn’t torture cool anymore…"

"Torture was never cool!” Ella shouted, grabbing the new drink Lupe had made them and knocking it back. "But you know what is cool?”

"Here we go again."

"The latest anime I’m watching, it’s about-”

“Look, mami,” Lupe said, interrupting Ella. “You don’t want to be tortured! Sounds like you want to get down with some freaky BDSM shit! Whips and chains and all that!”

"Yes, I want BDSM torture."

She finished the drinks… which had a lot more Everclear than before.

“Well, before you get tortured or something: come get your drinks!” Lupe announced. “Another toast!”

”... Yay!” Lisa shouted as she ran over and began drinking without a second thought - though she stopped to cough for a moment.

“Yeah, drink it up, mami!” Lupe shouted.

Saskia took hers and drank it a little slower than Lisa. The burning taste didn’t bother them, with a heavy haze over her mind stopping her from feeling much at all. It tasted pretty nice. Oh, yeah, the burn really added to it.. Saskia tilted her head back and finished the whole thing. "Let’s get… fucked!"

"Yeahhh!” Ella shouted, grimacing as she drank. ”Oh! Oh! We should play a game! A different game! Lupe, know any other games?”

“Mami! Stop acting like you don’t just want to make out with each other!” Lupe laughed, as she made them even more to drink (with more Everclear than ever before). “We’re going to be playing the drinking game! Where we keep drinking until one of us passes out! Last woman standing wins; you in?!”

”You know I am!” Lisa shouted.

"I'm going to win!" Ella shouted, finishing her current drink. "A magical girl never backs downnnnnnn!"

"Pass," Saskia mumbled. The drinks were too nice to stop but… they were so sleepy already. Maybe they could keep going if they replenished their blood… ooo… that was a good idea… They winced as a burn wound up their wrist and the rate at which their blood replenished sped up. Which didn't make them any less drunk, but they'd lost a lot earlier.

“You mean pass-out?” Lupe laughed as she walked over to Saskia with a drink in hand and a smile on her face… then she saw the burns on her arms. “Dios mios, can you three keep it in ya’ pants for a bit? You’re hurting yourselves.” She placed a gentle hand on the side of Saskia’s face as a pink light pulsed over their skin.

"I lost a lotta blood," Saskia mumbled, leaning her face into Lupe’s hand. "Gotta get it back with magic… so I don’t lose…"

"Oh yeah! Saskia went crazyyy today! Like, she killed three people alone then fought us. It was insane! Like- boom! Kapow!" Ella started acting out ‘the fight’ though it really just looked like flailing about… in her underwear. "Lisa had to melt her face off!"

”Yeah, I threw acid in Saskia’s face like I was an incel!” Lisa laughed.

“Jesus, mami,” Lupe laughed. “Yeah, and Morningstar sent everybody to his mansion… actually, how the fuck did you three find their lair?”

"Torture," Saskia said helpfully… which was almost true. Sort of. Not that they’d properly tortured her but she had been spun around a bunch.

"Saskia got kidnapped by these weirdos and they gave her the location!" Ella said, stopping her weird movements to explain. "The… something house. I don’t remember!"

“... Dollhouse, mami?” Lupe tilted her head as she kept her hand against Saskia’s face. “Um, shit, I wouldn’t trust them if I were you… They’re shady. The shadiest of the shady. Like everyone was scared of them back in Florida, mami. Everyone. They gotta be playin’ an angle here. You know, an ulterior motive?”

"Of course we don’t trust them, they gave Saskia a stone that made her go insane! And they kidnapped her!" Ella shouted indignantly.

"I was so powerful with it," Saskia said wistfully. It had been nice… the slight insanity aside. Really, wasn’t everyone a little insane? Didn’t everyone punch holes in walls every now and then and try to kill their friends? "Why did you throw it awayyyyyyyy?!"

”... Because it was dangerous and made you crazy!” Lisa shouted.

“... They’re gonna want it back, y’know, mami?” Lupe sighed. “They might torture you. They like the Cartels in Mexico!” Lupe awkwardly laughed.

“I heard a story about them, mami, through the Society. They had this business partner, and he tried to scam them, like uh… I’m not sure about the details, but they didn’t go after him,” After Saskia was fully healed, Lupe released their face. “Oh, no, mami, they went after his family. His wife and two kids? They went missing. Then like a month later, these little giftboxes appeared around his house, job, and places he frequented. And take a guess what was inside of them…?”
"Oh no," Ella gasped, eyes widening and a hand slapping over her mouth. "They didn’t-"

"How many pieces did his family come back in?" Saskia asked calmly.

“Liiiiiiiike, um, who knows,” Lupe shrugged. “They’d open the boxes and there would be a finger or a toe - or a hand without any fingers or toes - sometimes an ear or a nose. But, nothing like definite, you know. Nothing that’d make papi go ‘Yep, they’re dead’...”

"Noooooo I don’t want my family sent to me in little pieces!" Ella screamed, holding her face and collapsing to her knees.

"We’re more likely to be the ones sent in pieces," Saskia pointed out. "They kidnapped me real easily."

“Well,” Lupe shrugged. “After you take care of Morningstar, what are ya’ll going to do next? Skip town?”

I wish, I think we gotta go back to the Hound! He said he had two tasks for us… even after killing that bastard we’ll have more to do!" Ella wailed.

”I mean..” Lisa shrugged. ”We’re back to life, right? You can’t complain about that..”

“Hopefully, it’s somewhere else,” Lupe said, “Don’t fuck with Dollhouse, Mami. They built different!”

"Yeah, especially that shapeshifter," Saskia agreed. "She pointed a gun at me the whole time."

”Don’t worry, Lupe! After we’re done with Morningstar and our other task, we’ll go straight home to St Portwell, right, girls?!"

“... That’s where they’re located.” Lupe facepalmed.

”Whhhhatttt no way!" Ella shouted, looking very panicked. ”Then where do we go?! We gotta save our coven from a murderer- but we can’t if we’re chopped into pieces- ahhhhh!"

“Good grief, mami,” Lupe continued facepalming. “You know what? All of ya’ll are thoroughly fucked up - no position to think. So, let’s just keep drinking!” Lupe grabbed her drink and downed all of it.

"Ella’s never in a position to think," Saskia mumbled, finishing off her drink and leaning back against a bed. She was so sleepy, but she couldn’t sleep… then she’d lose.

”You guys just don’t understand meeee!" Ella wailed. She held out her empty cup to Lupe. ”Another! I need to drink to cope with how mean everyone is to me!!"

“That’s not what I meant- know what?” Lupe said as she went and made Ella another drink… same as before, but with a little less Everclear. Then she made the other two more drinks, too. “Drink up! We got a whole ass night ahead of us!” She laughed.

“Another toast! To whatever this time!” Lupe shouted as she raised her drinks, silent momentarily before saying. “Grab your drinks!”

---

Later on…

Vomiting.

Lisa was on her hands and knees, throwing up on the floor, literally expelling everything, including spiders. She huffed twice, ”... Ooooooooh my God! What… did you do to us!?”

“Mami, the fuck?!” Lupe shouted - now topless - before adding on, “Throw up in the toilet! Ya’ll gotta clean this up, hehehe!” She laughed.

”Saskia won't budge from the toilet!" Ella wailed. She lay in the door in between their room and the bathroom.

Saskia was slumped over the toilet, throwing up everything she had inside of her - mostly alcohol and bile, along with a little bit of blood. The more alcohol she threw up the more with it she felt, still seeing the others out of the corner of her eye… but she overall just felt fucking awful. "You can come… join me…"

“The fuck, mami!?” Lupe laughed, shouting out loud. “You tryna’ get freaky in the toilet?! Ya’ll got two beds! Two! Have some dignity!”

"No, I just mean we can both- blergh," Saskia was interrupted by another round of vomiting, shoving their head right in the toilet bowl. Once they were done they sat back up, swaying. "Puke together. Friends that puke together stay together…"

”No, Saskia, that’s gross!"

”I’m-” Lisa tried to say before she projectile vomited across the room. ”-in!” She shouted as she ran into the bathroom without a second thought.

“Dios mios!” Lupe shouted, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have given you all that damn Everclear! I just didn’t want you crazy bitches to be a menace out in the streets! That’s all!”

”I’ll be a menace if I want to be a menace!" Ella shouted, flailing her arms and legs all over the place. She was like a child having some kind of weird temper tantrum. Unlike the other two she’d thrown up a couple of times and seemed to be ‘fine.’

“Look, we had a deal: if you three stay in, I would take my chichotas out!” Lupe pointed at her breasts.

"You’re hurting my head, Ella," Saskia groaned, shuffling over so there was room for Lisa beside them. They weren’t sure they had anymore to throw- oh, they did, there it went, right into the toilet, more vomit. "When will this end…"

“In the morning… maybe later, mami!” Lupe laughed. “I should have brought some water! Just drink some water out the si-”

The door clicked.

It opened.

Kimberly and Jordan walked in wearing an entirely new set of clothes (matching black leggings and T-shirts). Jordan’s jaw dropped as Kimberly put on an overdramatic expression of shock and horror.

“... The hell going on in here?!” Jordan shouted.

”Kimmmmmmm, Jordannnnnnnn!" Ella wailed, turning around and… flopping over to them on her stomach. ”We thought you were dead!!"

"Oh no," Saskia muttered, leaning back with a groan. "Mom and dad are here."

”I missed you!" Ella sobbed, having reached them and suddenly clinging to Kimberley’s legs.

“Awwwwwww… I missed you, too,” Kimberly smiled as she embraced Ella. “... But you’re crushing my foot!”

”Kim… Jordan…” Lisa tried to say before she spewed up more.

“Good grief!” Jordan shouted as she raised a hand in the air. The room was wrapped in a coral-pink hue, and time was reversed until it was spotless. The trio were still inebriated.“Well…” Jordan shrugged as she walked over to the rum, grabbed one of the plastic cups and poured herself some rum. Straight. No mixers.

“... Mom and dad need a fuckin’ drink.” She said as she took a sip.

“Well, help yourselves!” Lupe laughed.

”Oh, this is Lupe!" Ella shouted, moving off Kimberley’s foot but still clinging to her. She somehow seemed the… most sober of the three. Which wasn’t saying much. ”We told you about her!"

"She warned us that Morningstar's minions were coming for us," Saskia said, slumped against the bathroom wall. Finally she didn’t feel like throwing up anymore.

“Thanks,” Kimberly laughed, before extending a hand. “It’s great to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you, too, mami!” Lupe shook her hand. “We’re just partying to blow off some steam....”

Kimberly and Jordan looked at each other.

“... You know what?” Kimberly laughed.

“Let’s cut loose!” Jordan shouted, throwing a hand into the air.