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[sub]-Early morning-[/sub]
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It was early, very early, first light had only just broken over the horizon, but in a small hidden nook of the industrial zone Penny was waking up. Her lair was filled with the sound of thunder as her phone's alarm went off rousing the cyborg from her rest. With a small groan of annoyance Penny pushed herself up to a sitting position and silenced her alarm before looking around the single room of her Lair.

The lone table and its chairs had been pushed up against one of the walls, and all of the supply boxes had been placed on top of it so that there was enough room for Penny to lie down without bumping in to something as she slept as the mechanical girl had set Eliza down on the nest of blankets that normally served as a bed. Reaching out with her magic she started the electric motor, and thus turned on the lights.

It was stupidly early but Penny had things she needed to get done before checking in with Beacon today, and with luck her guest wouldn’t mind the early wake up.

"Ugh..." With a drowsy groan, Eliza turned over to where she was laying on her stomach, and hid her face in the blankets. "F-Five more minutes, Mum..." she grumbled mindlessly, then finally raised her head up and looked around. "Okay, how did I get here?" The witch asked herself, a bit concerned.

[color=9e0039][u][b]"That would have been me"[/b][/u][/color] Penny would reply from her position over at the table. She had cleared off most of the boxes from it and set them off to the side and was currently digging around in the parts boxes occasionally pulling out computer parts and setting them off to the side. [color=9e0039][u][b]"Found you passed out in a wrecked alleyway"[/b][/u][/color] She explained as she looked over her shoulder at Eliza [color=9e0039][u][b]"Figured It would be safer for you here then out on the streets"[/b][/u][/color]  

"Oh. Right, I nearly got killed." The witch scratch the back of her head. "Well, thanks...Penny, right? Last I saw you, you turned into a war machine. Sooo, what happened after that?" She asked.

[color=9e0039][u][b]"The chick I was fighting went nuclear and tackled me in to the lake, I survived the explosion through sheer luck, then reinforcements arrived and after we got patched up I tore down the castle."[/b][/u][/color] Penny shrugged [color=9e0039][u][b]"Nothing all that interesting if you ask me.But I take it something must have happened on your end if your sporting wings now, as I'm pretty sure you didn't have those last time I saw you."[/b][/u][/color] she added pointing at the new appendages for emphasis before returning to looking over her supply of spare parts.

[color=9e0039][u][b]"Oh and I've got some food if you're hungry, not all that filling but better than nothing"[/b][/u][/color] Penny slid the cardboard box labeled food over to the bed. Inside the box was dozens of protein, cereal and granola bars. [color=9e0039][u][b]"Help yourself"[/b][/u][/color] 

"By yourself? That's pretty cool." Eliza said, grabbing a couple of cereal bars. "After we got teleported away from the castle. Me, Alex, Sue and Shade were the only ones left fighting Justine. In the middle of the battle, I got pinned down by a spear to the foot and couldn't free myself. So I used my black coin to become a monster girl. Starting to regret that choice now, heheh.." she explained with a sad chuckle. "Turns out though, the ritual wouldn't have worked after all. Justine still loved her sister, so it was null and void. And now here I am, nearly getting murdered by a lizard girl, getting some of my feathers plucked out, and now probably going to get my ass kicked for not completing my mission."

Penny snorted when she learn that the reason for the assault was nearly pointless [color=9e0039][u][b]“We did rescue Janet and Lily, plus that’s one less evil lair in the Overcity, so it wasn’t a waste in the long run. And I know the feeling of having a target painted on you back for no good reason. Ran in to a beast girl the other day who wants me dead for no other reason than who my patron is”[/b][/u][/color] Penny sighed at that bit, she still needed to call Laat and verify that assumption plus possibly call Veronica to see if she knew who Mika’s Patron was. Her list of enemies was growing and she was still undecided how to deal with it.

Shaking away those thoughts Penny continued [color=9e0039][u][b]“And If you really regret the Corruption I know Beacon has ways of purifying it. I’ve been looking in to it in my spare time and it should be an easy process for you as you just ended up with some wings. Can’t say anything about the mission failing bit though, I try and keep the Mint at arm’s length so no idea on that front”[/b][/u][/color]

There was another crack of thunder from Penny as she received a text. Pulling it up on her eye piece she saw that it was from Chloe smiling she sent off a quick reply

[quote=Penny][color=9e0039][i]"Sure I should be free tonight, got some plans this afternoon myself so if nothing else I’ll see you tonight "[/i][/color][/quote]

[color=9e0039][u][b]"As that reminded me, you got any plans today Eliza? As I've got a couple and it's something of a nightmare to get in or out of here if you don't know how and I've got a bit more time before I have to head out"[/b][/u][/color] Not that Penny was trying to get rid of Eliza, but she really did need to make a few calls, she had some parts but she needed more if she was going to build a decent computer and she needed to get some answers from Laat if no one else.

"Don't have anything else to do besides update Maura and Veronica on what happened." Eliza shrugged. "...Do you really think the beacon could help me? What if they try to kill me too?"

[color=9e0039][u][b] "So long as you had the right introduction I'm sure they would help out. I can even ask about it and let you know, as I'll be checking in with them later. You'll just want to keep the Mint thing secret. That is unless you want to join up with the Beacon."[/b][/u][/color] The cyborg replied as she gave all the parts she had pulled out another look to make sure they were useable and putting any that didn't pass her second inspection off to in a pile [color=9e0039][u][b] "And I'll make sure they don't try and kill you but I doubt that will happen. They're going through some reforms at the moment and have started to cut back on the monster hate"[/b][/u][/color]

"Really?" Eliza tilted her head in confusion. If the beacon was going to start trusting certain monsters, then what was with the girls with the Bates? Something didn't seem right with them. "Okay, yeah! I'll ask them for help. As for joining, I'll keep that in mind for when my debt's cleared. But I don't wanna part with Maura yet. Not till I help her out with her curse problem."

[color=9e0039][u][b]"Fair enough, and yeah they have, though at that moment it's just me and a cat girl named Kimble. But they pardoned Janet for being messed up by Justine."[/b][/u][/color] Penny explained turning to face Eliza as she absently munched on the parts she had deemed unusable [color=9e0039][u][b] "Can't help with the curse issue, not very magic myself, but if Maura's been stuck with it an especially long time Laat might be able to help. He tends to dislike things staying the same for too long"[/b][/u][/color]  

"According to her, she's been stuck that way for as long as she's been a patron to magical kids. A demon, possibly a horror, wearing a strange mask was the one behind it. She's been trying to hunt it down so she can convince it to change her back, but it's not easy for her." Eliza explained. "I'll let her know about Laat and see if they could meet up."

[color=9e0039][u][b]"Ouch, that’s got to suck, only been under a small curse myself, one that was weak enough to fade after a few minutes, can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck with one for that long."[/b][/u][/color] Penny sympathized while shuddering slightly [color=9e0039][u][b]"Hopefully it's not a horror, they tend to be trickier to deal with from what I've gathered"[/b][/u][/color] Checking the time Penny stood up [color=9e0039][u][b]"Well I've got to head out things to do, people to call, Laat among them. So how about I help you out of the maze that is my front lawn?"[/b][/u][/color] Penny asked moving towards the entrance of her Lair as she did.

"Oh, sure!" The witch nodded, walking up besides the cyborg.

Crouching down Penny helped Eliza up on to her back and waited for her to get situated before opening the entrance in the massive scrap yards that was the inside of the warehouse she hid her home in, and a few moments later both Penny and Eliza were standing atop one of the other dozen or so buildings that lay abandoned in this part of Penrose. [color=9e0039][u][b]"I would say feel free to come back, but as you can tell it's not the easiest place to get in too without help. So instead I'll just give you my number"[/b][/u][/color] Penny said as she crouched down to let the little witch off her back [color=9e0039][u][b]"That way you can reach me if you need to"[/b][/u][/color]

"I'm surprised you can get through this place easily." The witch said, climbing off Penny's back. "But thanks! Again!"

[color=9e0039][u][b]"Eh I've got the advantage of having set the place up and no worries"[/b][/u][/color] Penny replied with a smile before the sounds of Cymbals emitted from her eye piece as an alert popped up in her field of view
 [quote=Beacon Updates]
[i]Two monster attacks have been detected. You have been assigned under Sally's command, report to HQ ASAP[/i]
[/quote]
[color=9e0039][u][b]"Seems Beacon's got trouble so I'll have to catch ya later"[/b][/u][/color] she added before taking off at a run towards Beacon HQ while firing off a reply to the Beacon
 [quote=Penny]
[color=9e0039][i]En route to HQ, ETA 45 min. Give me my target local and I'll redirect and meet with Sally there[/i][/color]
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