[center][hider=Varjo]Age: 36/18 | Gender: Female/Female | Darkness/Illusion
Mystic | Focus Fire | Horror/Ebon Mint
Familiar/Sorcery/Awareness/Gifted/Incognito/Enhanced Weapon/ Intuition/Mystic Artifact | Minions/Mystic Might/Gifted Item/Transportation/Supplier/Magical Overload/Non-Exclusivity/Mana Font | Insomnia/Quick Tempered/Mind Bent/Fearsome Reputation/Debt/Betrayal/Monstrous Form
7/7/8/23/6[/hider]
[hider=Ilmarinen]Age: 26/17 | Gender: Male/Male | Time/Air
Ranged | Prime | Puchuu/Ebon Mint
Gifted/Sorcery/Incognito/Overlay/Masculinity | Well Connected/Mystic Might/Physical Prowess/Supplier/Magical Overload/Non Exclusivity/Mana Font | Debt/Betrayal/Monstrous Form/Distracted/Hostile/Clueless | Wings/Chaos Engine/Broken Reincarnation/Second Specialization
5/20/6/18/8[/hider]
[hider=Alma]Age: 30/15 | Gender: Female/Female |Beast/Reinforcement
Fist | Regeneration | Lesser Force/Ebon Mint
Healing Artifact/Martial Training/Mana Channel/Monstrous Metamorphosis/Bestial
Magical Overload/Non-exclusivity/Mana Font/Focused/Subtle/ Mystical Might/Physical Prowess | Debt/betrayal/Monstrous Form/Limited/Alien Mind/Rival Force (Gaia)/Formless | Thick Skin/Discordian/Second Specialization/Weakness (Wood)
15/7/9/20/6[/hider]
[/center]
Things shifted rapidly, as happened so often in Penrose. First was the sudden influx of magical girls from some outside source. This in itself was not an immediate problem, aside from the increased risk of them being detected. It was just more food for the monster to feast on as it moved along the second floor of the facility.

The return of Penny was another wrinkle. “What the hell is she doing here?” Alma hissed. Whatever that crazy girl had done earlier clearly had not stalled Penny for as long as they might like. If she was back, then the initial plan to undercut her leadership by solving the crisis in her absence was clearly not going to work. Again. Well, it wasn’t like they could pull the monster out now. They’d just improvise.

Where hostages might have been an option, it was quickly dashed by Mariette and her effective use of portals to evacuate those who could not reach an exit. The monster reared back as Penny unleashed a spread of gauss shots, punching holes right through the monster and giving Shane the time he needed to get out along with the others. Still, it did not do as much damage as it might have, given the lack of apparent internal organs for her to target.

Moments later the trio of witches appeared on the scene, creating their own monster to join in the fray and getting in close with melee combat. Tendrils lashed out, seeking to grab Lauren and drain her magic like it had the girls before her. For how much it could target the Witch, more effort was devoted to Penny as it surged and sought to grapple with its attacker. The damage from her initial burst reformed, though the beast was lesser for it. 

That was when the other nightmare creature joined in, stabbing and crashing against the monster. For a few brief moments there was a frenzy of action as the three fought, until suddenly a shriek filled the air. The monster that had intruded in the Sanctuary began to thrash and writhe as its skin bubbled and sizzled. It dramatically slumped, and was wiped out by the other nightmare monster that had been created by the trio of witches.

On the whole it was very anticlimactic. And there was a reason for that.

In the shadows, the Mint group watched as the monster was ‘dispatched’ courtesy of the killswitch they had put in the beast when they first found the creature down there in the sewers. In an ideal world they would have done the deed themselves, but that was not possible. So they had done the next best thing and given the official defeat to the newcomers. It would deny the prestige of the victory to Penny, and raise some questions about the power of the new arrivals.

“Looks like we’ve been noticed,” Seppa growled, already cracking her knuckles and itching for a fight. Those thoughts had not been particularly hidden, to say nothing of Penny herself. Which was unfortunate. She would have liked to have had that matchup. Perhaps another time, on a more fitting battlefield.
Alma nodded. “Varjo, get us out of here.”

Giving off a cute pout, Varjo waved her hand, wrapping them in Darkness and shifting them out of the depths of the Sanctuary. They did not travel too far, not yet anyway. There was one last matter to attend to.

As they left though, they would leave one parting gift. Twin spells directed at Penny, tinted with Illusion and Psychic magic. The first would twist the air, illusions carefully crafted to alter the appearance of the coven witches to any who would look. No longer human, instead they would appear as nightmare monsters, twisted abominations eager to rip and tear like the previously dispatched for and the new monster that had been summoned to fight it. It likely would not last once they had left the area, but it didn't have to.
 
The latter would push her to defend the Sanctuary. An insidious voice winding through her subconscious and pushing her thoughts in a specific direction that met their ends. [i]'Attack. Destroy. Eliminate All potential threats.'[/i] All of this simply by playing off her robot instincts and exaggerating the threat she was faced with. Which would, at least in theory, keep the ShineSpark from kicking their butts by merely enhancing what was already there. It was no different than how Aurelio used his emotion magic, though the Mint agents didn't know that. 

Seppa reached out to communicate with Reaver again. [i]’It’s too hot there now. Get somewhere dark, we’ll pull you out’[/i]. As much as she wouldn’t have minded Reaver getting himself pointlessly killed for breaking her stuff, the boss still wanted him alive. They had gone to all that trouble of capturing Viva after all.

Hopefully he didn’t keep them waiting too long.

[@Majoras End][@AtomicNut][@Shifter_Master][@twave]