[center][img]https://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/b3RmLjExNi5lMTE0ZmYuUTJoc2IyVWdTWEoyYVc1bklBLCwuMA,,/btx-ornstein.ornstein.png[/img][/center] Ft. the Archive Girls Collab with [@MadManMoon] [@Shifter_Master] [hr] [color=violet]“Shh, my little Penny.”[/color] Chloe said quietly, laying the injured girl on the ground, taking a seat next to her.[color=violet]“You've done well, you just need some rest, okay?”[/color] Ah, it really tugged at her non-existent heart to see her little Penny in such a sorry state. In fact, it infuriated her. If Elroy hadn't already been dealt with, she'd make his death much more slow and painful. But it seemed as though the party crashers known as beacon had arrived. Chloe observed the two with a neutral expression. Thankfully the two had sense enough not to cause trouble. [color=violet]“Ufu, what’s this? A beacon member being friendly with a dark magical girl? My,”[/color] Chloe’s mouth slowly turned into a devious smirk. [color=violet]“Little Penny was right. Perhaps you’ve all changed a bit in my absence?”[/color] Chloe took a seat next to Penny, stretching languidly despite the obvious tenuous situation. Placing a hand on the monster girls head, Chloe gently began stroking her hair. [color=violet]“Don’t have to tell me to keep my things safe, beacon.”[/color] Chloe smirked. [color=violet]“But go be heroes. I'll keep little Penny safe as I can. Just try not to let my pet get hurt too badly, will you?”[/color] Chloe left it at that, instead focusing her attention on Penny. [color=violet]“Jeez, you had me worried!”[/color] Chloe berated Penny lightly in a mildly annoyed and exasperated manner. [color=violet]“I almost thought I wouldn’t make it in time. Of course, I did, because if anything happened to you I would be quite distressed. Heart broken, really.”[/color] Chloe quickly observed the others present. They seemed like they could handle the situation. [color=violet]“Anyone got any metal!?”[/color] Tsk, where was that annoyance Aurora when she needed him? [b]“Nhn...sorry, I’m a little out of it right now so I don’t know.”[/b] Divina stood a bit off to the side, still a bit wobbly. It seemed like she was answering a question, though. A spider made of human bone and sinew skittered across the graveyard battlefield, headed directly for Chloe. To the casual viewer, this would simply look like another one of the magical girl's reanimated creatures returning to its summoner… but if one looked closely at its back, they'd notice that there was a piece of paper bound to its back, with the Greek letter "Ξ" written on the visible portion. It came to a stop about a foot from Chloe, parking itself firmly within her field of vision. [color=violet]““...ah?”[/color] For the briefest of moments, Chloe would appear somewhat surprised before her mouth curled into a grin. [color=violet]“And what are you doing here?”[/color] Chloe held out a hand, letting the bone spider crawl into it, using her other hand to pet it. [color=violet]“Slacking off and enjoying the show?.”[/color] The bone spider took a brief moment to bask in this affection, but regrettably could not indulge in it for very long. It had a message to deliver, after all. The bone spider tugged on a specific line of webbing to open the paper, and then placed it into Chloe’s hand. It was a note written in Scribe Xi's handwriting - one that read: [quote=Scribe Xi][color=blue]"Time is short. I have a plan, but we'd need you to pull your chimera back before Regina is slain.[/color][/quote] On the back, there was a postscript. [quote=Scribe Xi][color=blue]"Also, please keep Penny from trying to eat my familiar, Beat. Elroy left plenty of scrap metal lying around."[/color][/quote] [color=violet]"Heh, I'm not going to let my Penny eat trash.”[/color] Now this was curious. What did the Archive want here? Well, far be it from her to not assist her benefactors at the moment. Had to maintain a decent relation, after all. Plus, she really didn't want for her newest pet to get gibbed so easily either, and now that she had secured Penny, there was really no need for it to keep fighting. ...except, drawing back immediately would look suspicious to the other magical girls. Well then. Letting the spider rest on her shoulder, Chloe turned towards the Chimera. A snap of her fingers, and the beast would halt its aggressive assault, and a simple hand motion later the beast had backed off from Regina – not completely disengaging, however. It took a defensive stance. It should appear to everyone else that it was simply waiting to run interference in case Regina went after another magical girl, or ready to defend itself in case it ended up on the receiving end of the barrage of attacks aimed for Regina. [color=violet]“Hey, new girl. See if you can round up some scrap metal for Penny here.”[/color] [b]“Ah! Of course. Poor dear looks so tired...”[/b] Divina fluttered her wings, a chirping noise coming from somewhere on her body. She wouldn't go to far, but she'd find a few large pieces of metal remains from their fight, bringing them back so Penny could at least try and heal herself. Just outside of Regina’s field of vision, Scribe Xi flickered into sight and... was holding a sign with the number 58.5 written on it? A strange creature - one that looked like a boombox with legs - noticed Scribe Xi and her sign very quickly. It had been playing some abysmal remix of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Thrift Shop,” but now it had abruptly fallen silent. As the creature fell still, Alicia's beams of light descended upon Regina and the chimera with the power of her love, her anger, and all of her sorrow. A crescendo of magical force that by all rights would have collided with the beasts in a spectacular fashion... ...had someone not summoned a trio of floating mirrors directly into their path, to reflect the deadly light out into the mist. And apparently that was Scribe Xi’s cue to recast her veil. [color=c9272c]"So this is it, [i]Reggi[/i]. You're going to die for nothing?"[/color] The living boombox increased the gain on the audio, making sure everyone nearby could hear it. [color=c9272c]"You seemed so willing to stop the ritual for Eyeball's sake, yet here you are, spitting on my memory. In case you didn't notice, I'm not stopping you anymore. So do you give a shit about her, or are you making your life a tragedy because you've decided you hate yourself too?"[/color] The voice paused. The boombox creature looked around. It seemed to be looking towards the signal’s origin - if Chloe remembered it right, the girls from the Archive referred to those tunnels as “entrances to the Catacombs.” It looked like it was angled so Regina couldn't look inside, except maybe for a little sliver of space. A sigh rattled out from the speakers. [color=c9272c]"I suppose you're throwing a tantrum so that someone can cry for you. But Eyeball's gonna be the only one to do it, and that's if she's still kicking. I'm not putting myself through that shit again."[/color] A very familiar arm popped out of the tunnel for a moment, about to throw the microphone at a headstone. It paused mid-swing, long enough for the dragon lady to see it. Then the arm retreated. [color=c9272c]"...actually, you know what? I'm gonna keep this. I'm not going to cap off this little benediction with more hypocrisy."[/color] The microphone picked up the sound of footsteps, retreating into the torchlit passage. It also started sending a lot of white noise. [color=c9272c]"Oh yeah. Tin Can, no clue if you can still hear me, but I'm gonna say this anyways... you suck less than most people."[/color] And that's when the signal cut out.