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[img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/180513/5ef5b8f32a843a2a76c1b0aa903ab393.png[/img]
[sub]-Splintered Bonds -[/sub]
[/center] [right][@Ariamis][/right]


The condensed blast of flames accomplished their job of buying time, Penny dodge on reflex, her mind still reeling from running into Thalia unexpectedly.  Her following reaction had her blitzing across the roof top, desperate to try and catch up to the fleeing fox girl. She had seen the shift in Thalia’s gaze, the subtle hints in her stance, which spoke to the fact that it was her mental derangements holding the reigns and Penny desperately wanted to help her friend. 

She would only make it half way there. Cindy had moved to stand in Penny’s way, stalling out the robotic girl’s frantic rush. Penny figured she could overpower the other monster girl, it would take only a handful of seconds at best, but that would take too long. She had gone on enough hunts to know, played enough games of tag, to know that she had lost her chance to catch her friend, because Cindy had stopped her for only a few moments.

Her eyes nearly turned completely crimson as she glared at Cindy, her entire body tensed ready to unleash havoc on the living bug zapper, for making her lose this chance at getting Thalia back. Her anger barely held for a second before she just slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut. Her eyes cast longingly at the last place she had seen Thalia. Venting her anger wouldn’t help, not if this other girl was going to actually try and help Thalia.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“She’s my friend, or at least she used to be”[/b][/u][/color] Her voice was tired and filled with hurt [color=9e0039][u][b]“We used to hunt together, shared a lair. We would spend our free time playing tag across the roofs.”[/b][/u][/color]Her voice was starting to grow shaky as she did her best to summarize her and Thalia’s time together. [color=9e0039][u][b]“But a few weeks ago, there was an encounter that I got injured in. She Redlined and got us out of there and when she woke up afterwards, she just… Ran”[/b][/u][/color] Penny was on the verge of tears at this point. Veronica’s taunting words were replying in her mind from seeing Thalia run away from her. Again. At the one who still held part of her heart not trusting her. Again. 

Before she could breakdown, however, Penny forced herself to breath. Using the needless action to just set aside the sadness and hurt, same as she had done earlier in the day when she had learned the truth about Thalia. Same as she learned long ago to keep some semblance of control on her emotions. As she did her coloration would pale and gray drastically, pushing her appearance into the uncanny valley.

 A monotone voice would chime out from Penny as she forced herself to be calm [color=00aeef]“Orange alḙ̷͒r̴̩̽t̴̝̂. C̸̰͛ȏ̴̬g̴̥̿ǹ̸̩à̷̧t̶̻͋ḯ̷͎v̴̯̿e̷̝̔ safeguards have M̴̛͙a̵̜̕l̶̯̅f̷͙͋u̴̢͋n̷̰̈́c̶̘̊t̸̠̕i̷͖͌ö̴͖́ǹ̴͍e̷͎̔d̴͕̀ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ ̶̵̨̛ has reached 75%. Heightened Ḋ̸̯i̷̢͐ş̸̽c̶̗͒ṛ̴͝e̶̝̕t̸͈̍i̸͇̿ő̷̼n̸̹̓ required”[/color]

 [color=9e0039][u][b]“I’ve been looking for her since. As I wanted to make sure she was okay”[/b][/u][/color] She would finish her entire demeanor uncomfortably calm compared to just a few moments earlier.  Standing up she would return her gaze to Cindy. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Satisfied?”[/b][/u][/color] she would ask tonelessly before turning away from the supposed ruler to survey the storm clouds above the Graveyard.  

Shaking her head she started to walk away, her destination obviously the Graveyard in the distance.

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[sub].:Smoke and Mirrors:.[/sub]
[/center] [right][@Ariamis][@BrokenPromise][/right]

Aurelio had originally volunteered to be part of the diplomatic detachment that was going to head to talk with Cindy Ford, and had been mostly relaxing and chatting with a few of the other members of Beacon while the tech crew worked to set the Teleportation coordinates.

Then a storm blew in from nowhere, and started setting off alarms all across HQ. Dozens of horror signatures were popping up at a local graveyard, and just like that the diplomatic mission was put on hold. The only upside of the horrors popping up was that it took only seconds to lock on to the Graveyard.

Without any further delay Aurelio warped out of Beacon HQ, along with a couple more girls from Beacon.

When he finally rematerialized he knew several something’s had gone wrong. The overpowering smog that was drowning out everything was his first clue really. That none of the others had landed with him was his second.

Hoping the others were okay He took stock of the surrounding, only barely able to peer through the black smog. He was able to make out another person not far from him and strove towards them. He was waving the smog out of his face when he heard them speak

[color=fff200]"You...You're not Alex. Wait, are you...Tuxedo Mask? Without the mask?"[/color]

Causing him to break out in a wide grin [color=fff79a]“Glad to see someone else who can appreciate the classics, but no. The Great Aurelio at your service”[/color] He would introduce himself to Lily, just in time to hear Abigail’s crazed laughter.

[color=fff79a]“Hey! Me and Sally spent weeks looking for you Abi, but we couldn’t find any of you.”[/color] He would say in response as he started to stride towards spinning his cane in his hand as he did so. With a snap of his fingers a half dozen clones sprung to existence with a [color=Red]Red[/color] and [color=SkyBlue]Sky Blue[/color] copies in the middle of them [color=fff79a]“An address would have gone a long way to me having visited ya know!”[/color]

As Aurelio spoke his cane started to pulse with light and his clone scattered with most of the normal clones heading to harass the cult members with hit and run tactics mixed with perfect teamwork.

Red and Sky rushed at the large Horror, using the base copies as spring boards. Their cane’s glowing their respective colors.

The last clone tapped his cane to the originals, the glow transferring as he did so, before sprinting towards Lily [color=fff79a]“Don’t worry Boss, knows about the hypnotism”[/color] it would say before pointing his glowing cane at Lily [color=fff79a]“Have a boost”[/color] it would add as it discharged the stored spell. It was a mix of magician’s mark and an all-round stat booster.

[color=fff79a]“And lastly we didn’t run off, you guys did”[/color] The real Aurelio would start up again as he bounced on his feet as he did, his staff starting to glow a frightful [color=Yellow]Yellow[/color]. [color=fff79a]“After Elroy got smacked for getting handsy with Sally”[/color] It was the first step of Aurelio’s combat style, never stop talking and force the opponent to focus on him.

[color=fff79a]“I mean what kind of jerk does that to his friends?”[/color] He was eyeing Abigail closely as he knew he was egging her on. So he was prepared to defend himself for when she went on the offensive.