The stage was a merry-go-round. A larger, round platform rotated clockwise in the middle, and around it a series of smaller platforms rotated counterclockwise around it, while they themselves also rotated clockwise in the water. Nothing in this stage stood still.

Cheerful festival music began playing, accompanied by Dan’s voice.
“Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to be amazed and awed, as our competitors take to the spotlight on board on the Ferry-Go-Round! A challenging stage for any Keijo performance, the rotating platforms are sure to perplex and befuddle!”

A spotlight shone on the first competitor to arrive. 
“In the north corner we have the Snowflake Fighter, the Furious Frostbite, Victoria!”

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/cvXOTLu.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/8zS8DOg.png[/img][/url][/center]

Victoria was [url=https://i.imgur.com/cvXOTLu.png]dressed as usual,[/url] in her little bikini and her long purple hair flowing. She waved at the audience, ready to show what she truly amounted to. She stood on one end of the rotating platform, her arms crossed, smirking confidently.

It was an amusing little thing. She was one of the few that could actually win against Freya. More accurately, she was someone Freya just simply couldn’t beat. Mariette had said that the less powerful should surrender, but Victoria honestly believed she stood a better chance than Freya in the battles ahead. Sure, Freya was stronger and faster than Victoria, but Freya couldn’t attack the opponent with fifteen different versions of herself at once. Victoria was confident she’d be able to pull some clever tricks to beat her enemies in the future…

So she wasn’t surrendering.

So now it was just a question of her opponent…

“And in the south corner, we have the Notorious Naga, the Union Beast herself, Freya!”

… But nobody appeared. There was silence for numerous seconds, before Victoria laughed out loud.

[color=f79ceb]‘Oh? You’re just gonna give me the win? I understand! I’m a bit disappointed, but I’ll take it! In the grand scheme of things, it’s probably the wisest cause of action! Hahahaha!’[/color] Victoria celebrated her victory…

Then, a portal deposited a letter to Dan, who caught it with a look of surprise on his face; inside was a piece of paper with a simple message.

After the dolphin read it, he spoke to the microphone.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, Freya has decided to substitute another player in her stead! Please give a warm welcome to our mystery duelist!”

Then someone jumped from the stands. When her feet met the rotating platform, there was a splash as the brown-haired girl’s weight was somewhat heavier than that of a regular human. She stood up straight and looked towards Victoria on the opposite end, the rotating platform making their position relative to the audience constantly shift. The girl’s body looked human, but it was actually composed of something else. For whatever reason, she was wearing glasses.

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/9xoKZol.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/hP81dKo.png[/img][/url][/center]
[url=https://i.imgur.com/9xoKZol.jpg]Esther stood in her swimsuit, a blue and flowery bikini, standing staring blankly at her opponent.[/url]

“Introducing the Stoic Beauty, the Mysterious Madam...Esther!”

[color=f79ceb]‘You… you cheater, hahaha,’[/color] Victoria stated, laughing a bit as she looked over her apparent unflinching opponent. [color=f79ceb]‘So they put you up to facing against me. They think you can beat me. Very well. I’ll just have to prove them wrong, eh?’[/color] Victoria stated, smirking and leaning her head back a little. Esther hadn’t moved. [color=f79ceb]‘Well, guess there’s not gonna be much banter in this battle. Shall we get rolling?’[/color] she asked, and the icy witch and the mute tree faced off.

“Without further ado, let’s begin! Battle!”

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/cvXOTLu.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/8zS8DOg.png[/img][/url] VS [url=https://i.imgur.com/9xoKZol.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/hP81dKo.png[/img][/url][/center]

Victoria grinned as she just stood there, and spawns of herself started jumping out of her. One, two four, eight, Victoria viciously used her mana to create copies of herself that spewed out around her and jumped off onto varying rotating platforms. Numerous of them ran forward to confront Esther directly.

Esther calmly advanced at walking speed, her eyes not even moving to acknowledge that she was being surrounded by clones.

“Victoria starts by duplicating herself into nine!” Dan commented. “While a powerful weapon, it can prove fatal on her part!”

[color=f79ceb]‘Haha, with your agility, you could never keep up with me!’[/color]
[color=f79ceb]‘You better give up or be launched!’[/color] Victoria duplicates taunted as they rushed in at Esther. Esther wasn’t as agile or as strong as the physical fighter with a myriad of duplicates that surrounded her, but there were two other stats which Esther thoroughly defeated Victoria in.

Two duplicates slammed their butts into Esther’s side, and another jumped to slam her (diminutive) chest into Esther’s shoulder, and they all connected. They were all aimed for the same side as to send Esther into the drink. However, while Esther recoiled, she didn’t move much at all. Under her feet, plants grew, and roots had rooted themselves inside the rotating platform making her resist the blows.

“And Esther stands her ground without breaking a sweat! What incredible durability!”

[color=f79ceb]‘Haha, that’s fine! That’s fine! I’ll just let you take a pounding until-’[/color] a duplicate said, swinging her butt towards her target… only for Esther to completely spin in place, as if her legs weren’t even connected to her feet, and Esther’s (significantly larger) chest slammed into the duplicate’s head while the hip the duplicate had been aiming for just kind of bent inhumanly out of the way. The confused duplicate broke into a million shards of ice and a dozen or so Victorias grunted at the same time.

“And Esther slams, shattering a clone into submission! It seems our enigmatic entrant is more than mere appearances suggest!”

Because when your whole body is composed of a material your magic controls, you’re not really constrained to the form of the human body. Esther had demonstrated this as her body reassembled into human form, after both her hips and her feet had deformed out of regular shape. Her expression was as blank as ever.

[color=f79ceb]‘So you do understand the rules of Keijo. I was wondering if perhaps your mind was completely gone, but I guess that proves you’re pretty aware in there!’[/color] a Victoria stated, and the duplicates started to run again, around this rotating platform. 

[color=f79ceb]‘Well, that’s fine! I just need to break your roots!’[/color] a Victoria shouted, and revealed herself to be the real deal as she slammed her hands down into the platform, and a freezing streak of magic carried itself through the platform intended for beneath Esther, intent on freezing and breaking her root-system. As she did a crowd of five duplicates descended on Esther at the same time, intent on taking full advantage of when the roots broke…!

[h2]CRACK[/h2]

The platform broke apart. Multiple Victorias suddenly stumbled, only due to great awareness didn’t any stumble into the drink. One of them had no choice but to leap straight over Esther’s position, while another was about to stumble in but was kicked at full power by another duplicate, sending its icy shards of disassembly flying.

Victoria looked down with alarmed eyes, and saw how there was a web of tree-branches inside the platform that had broken it apart, placing Esther on a tiny island and creating giant cracks across the rest of it, separating her and the Victorias. Even more alarming, there were roots growing underwater, hunting for the rotating platforms around the stage, piercing into them and taking them under Esther’s control. A single root was hunting downwards, and soon connected to the bottom of the pool and giving Esther a single wooden platform to stand on.

Dan was excited at this turn of events. “How cunning! Esther had single-handedly split the very platform she was standing and created a new one, nearly trapping Victoria’s clones in the water! ”

[color=f79ceb]‘Pah. Have you forgotten who you’re fighting?’[/color] Victoria asked, frowning. She took a step forward, looking like she was stepping right out to fall into the water, yet under her foot the water turned to ice, and then started to spread across the area of water around Esther. The real Victoria made a head-gesture, and the crowd of duplicates jumped in around her and placed their hands on her so that she could put some extra magic inside them.

[color=f79ceb]‘I’m not as magically powerful as Tullia. I can’t shoot ice-beams or bring out a blizzard to envelop everything in snow. But, I CAN freeze this water, and I can brawl the everliving heck out of you, and that’s what matters in Keijo!’[/color] Victoria declared as the platforms were being broken apart by roots around them. She pointed forward, and all the duplicates on the ice prepared themselves.

[color=f79ceb]‘Victorias! Advance!’[/color] she shouted, and as the real one was freezing the water beneath their feet as they ran at Esther. 

“Victoria is freezing the water, just like Tullia did back in round one!” Dan added. “And she has gone on an all-out offensive! How will Esther respond?”

Esther gazed at them blankly, perhaps coldly, and…

[color=f79ceb]‘KAH!’[/color] a Victoria clone shouted out in alarm, as Esther’s roots started breaking through the ice in front of her from underwater. Victoria grunted and just applied more magic. Not her strongest suit, but she started trying to freeze the roots trying to break their footing from underneath. A magical battle took place at the water’s surface…

“Esther has launched roots through the ice, like a hungry kraken grasping at vikings!”

While above the water the Victoria duplicates launched at Esther! Esther wasn’t as agile as them, but her body moved to try to counter and bent out of the way of some attacks. That said, she wasn’t quite as physically competent as Victoria, and there were a lot of Victorias. Esther’s swinging of her chest and rear in unnatural angles managed to take one or two off guard and shattered them into ice, but on the whole the Victorias were now far more wary of Esther’s unnatural movement and scored far more hits back; hits that Esther definitely felt but didn’t send her flying because she was rooted to the wooden platform she was standing on. Yet, it was definitely clear. In this battle, Esther was losing, and being unable to actually strike Victoria with her superior magic it meant Victoria was winning. The duplicates just needed to land enough blows to tear her from her roots, and they sure were, hitting durable Esther with chest-slams and rear-butts over and over…!

[color=f79ceb]‘Hahaha, you scared me there, but controlling the terrain isn’t enough when you can’t fight back with it…!’[/color] Victoria announced…!

Then she felt herself descend a bit. 

[color=f79ceb]‘… What the-’[/color] Real Victoria looked down in shock as her duplicates kept attacking Esther. What was that? She was definitely lower than she was before. Yeah, the battlefield level had gone down a bit, and Esther’s platform had risen a little. What was?

[color=f79ceb]‘Oh, you gotta be-’[/color] Victoria suddenly realized. It wasn’t that the stage was going down. It was the amount of water in the pool. The water-level in the pool was descending because someone was drinking it. All Esther’s roots underwater were absorbing water…!

Esther shot a blank look back at the attacking Victoria’s, suddenly filled with more power. A powerful vine grabbed around her legs and shot into the air, forcing the duplicate Victorias to leap backwards! Esther suddenly towered above them, a wooden vine holding her high… before suddenly descending rapidly!

“I can’t believe it!” Dan shouted. “Esther is draining the pool itself of water with her roots! At this rate, if she drains the entire pool...there won’t be any Keijo! Oh, the humanity!”

[color=f79ceb]‘Eeep!’[/color] Victoria duplicates started crying out as the giant wooden vine [i]swung[/i] Esther at them at high speeds, butt-first, and then swung her back chest-first, impacting a duplicate each time and sending the shards of ice flying. It was basically impossible to hit Esther as she was being swung around by her own magic, but…

[color=f79ceb]‘Haha, you just created a massive weak spot…!’[/color] Real Victoria grinned as she dashed off at [i]massive[/i] speed towards the place where the vine was sticking out of the water, a sword of ice manifesting in Victoria’s hands. Dodging the giant vine would be [i]easy[/i] for someone with her agility, and since the vine wasn’t part of Esther’s real body Victoria could slice it through with a weapon, and then Esther would come crashing down into the water due to having broken all the platforms…! Her roots took some time to manifest, she wouldn’t be able to make a new one to save her from splashing into the water! Her fate would be sealed…!

Instead of swinging at her, though, the wooden vine suddenly rose straight as an arrow, becoming a straight tower sticking out of the water, Esther at the top. Victoria was mid-flying at the tower to slice it through, but she did think this was odd, what was Esther doing up there-

[color=f79ceb]‘AH-!’[/color] Victoria made a horrified noise of realization.

The tower was no longer connected to the bottom of the pool. Over time, Esther had made other connections that were more diagonal underwater, and then removed the main pillar that held up her root-system. Meaning…

Esther did a small jump, then KICKED her tower with all her might. Like a rod of kinetic bombardment, the tree lost all support and rushed with massive force down into the water. As it did, the rod was connected by roots to Victoria’s icy platform, as the icy girl had so kindly frozen the roots and incorporated said roots into the ice, so they were fundamentally interlinked with the wooden tower. This, of course, meant that when the tower went underwater, so too did the ice all the Victorias were standing on, pulled along by the massive force of the tower and the roots connected to it.

Dan screamed: “And Esther kicks the tower, sending the Victoria’s plummeting!”

[color=f79ceb]‘GAH-!’[/color] [color=f79ceb]‘NO-!’[/color] [color=f79ceb]‘WHA-!’[/color] [color=f79ceb]‘ACK-!’[/color]

There were varying screams from duplicate Victorias as the very ice they stood on was pulled underwater. Real Victoria was magical enough that she could jump and establish a new frozen island to stand on, but her duplicates were not so fortunate. Not all of them managed to react in time, and those who did didn’t all have the magic to establish a new frozen platform so quickly, and Real Victoria didn’t have the magic to freeze that big an area for them all. In the end, numerous duplicates splashed into the water as the tower dragged their ice down underneath them, and Real Victoria landed on an icy platform but could but gaze in stunned shock at her duplicates splashing angrily in the water.

[color=f79ceb]‘OH, MOTHER-’[/color] Victoria then abandoned English to curse loudly and explicitly in Russian, [sub]a language her player isn’t brave enough to try to curse in[/sub]. A second later Esther, as expressionlessly as always, fell into the water with a big splash. Nope, she no longer had anywhere to land after sending her tower underwater, she just knew she’d have won already at that stage.

“What an incredible match, ladies and gentlemen!” Dan popped out floating over the water.
“This one is going for the records. Esther wins!”


________________________

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/Hzh37Gf.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/jlgg4mv.png[/img][/url][/center]

[color=b0817b]‘There was something weird with that coin Sally dropped! Try to obtain it!’[/color] Jelena called before being taken away by Lea into the Overcity.

Then there was that part of it appearing in the Overcity.

[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/QJth3oI.png[/img][/center]
[color=7ab6f5]‘The signal reappeared. It’s in the Overcity,’[/color] the girl said, as she received the signal through Lea’s hole in reality. [color=7ab6f5]‘Lea, do you copy? It was in the Overcity, at coordinates <given coordinates>.’[/color]

Mariette immediately opened a couple portals to take the Overcity team as close as reasonably possible. Maybe Overcity had rules against portalling in, if not, basically right above the coordinates.

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/N53ToUw.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/5TcL6Af.png[/img][/url]
[url=https://i.imgur.com/ad92PvD.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/u1b416E.png[/img][/url] [url=https://i.imgur.com/5o9ObXJ.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/Ih8oH7W.png[/img][/url][/center]
[color=b7c775]‘Hmpf. They dare flee through the Overcity? The Overcity is my home. I will find whatever trace they left behind! Tullia, Freya, let’s go!’[/color] she announced, and departed at once, with the fastest and possibly one of the strongest teams that Mariette could gather, backed by Lea’s speed, Freya’s strength and Tullia’s magical prowess.

________________________


[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/9tdS6Xs.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/OHT6W9q.png[/img][/url] [/center]
[hider=current appearance][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/P6plsRx.png[/img][/center][/hider]

[color=ffd230]‘Good~’[/color] Suzette-illusioned-into-sexy-dolphin said, and was going to start taking sultry steps towards Guardsman Dan… when prime teleported in and flipped the box and it seemed the game was up. Whelp, time to bail. Sexy dolphin Suzette gave Guardsman Dan a wink and then ran for it.

________________________

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[url=https://i.imgur.com/wYcB1yb.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/lo9nct4.png[/img][/url][url=https://i.imgur.com/kCbjCky.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/y0zzSBD.png[/img][/url][/center]

There’s something to be said about the ridiculous amount of luck this girl was carrying, that apparently not even Josefin’s presence was giving them any boons. That said, the instant she saw that Mayra cloaked herself and Josefin with a stealth-darkness spell, leaving Ronja to take the blame.

Ronja tilted her head at the bound Lily in her arms pressed up against her chest.

[color=977acc]‘My, my. How do you keep ending up in these situations, Lily?’[/color] Ronja asked, then looked up at the immediate issue. There was Sally, Rachel and Alexander all way too intent on making her release the poor girl. Not that she had any intentions of holding onto her. Still, there was something she could do with this. She leaned down to whisper to Lily.

[color=977acc]‘You’re a believer in justice, aren’t you? … Sally has a magic coin she used to steal the Black Mirror with. Mariette would be very happy if you could help us find out how she did it,’[/color] she whispered, and then smirked, before looking up towards the incoming threats.

[color=977acc]‘Ops, my mistake,’[/color] Ronja said, letting the webs unravel from Lily and then gently lobbing her over towards Alexander. [color=977acc]‘I do wonder, however. Was all of Beacon complicit with the theft of the Black Mirror… or was this a rogue action by one Shamrock Sally who may have stolen it for a different faction altogether?’[/color] Ronja said, and figured that if Rachel was not complicit with this, she may be furious.

[color=977acc]‘If you were not complicit with the crime of stealing the Black Mirror, then allow me to read her mind. We shall find out both where the Mirror was taken, and if Sally has a more sinister side she has yet to reveal to you. Feel free to summon Alicia, and she will know I speak the truth.’[/color] So Ronja said.

Meanwhile, in the darkness.

[color=fc6828]‘Hahahaha, did you see that insane timing!? The briefings weren’t lying about her luck…!’[/color] Mayra laughed quietly, holding onto Josefin.

[color=fcedae]‘G-geesh… That is ridiculous… I’m not used to seeing that happen to anyone but me…’[/color] Josefin said, but shook her head. [color=fcedae]‘Don’t worry! I believe in my luck! If we just wait, the opportunity will present itself…!’[/color] she asserted, and they’d wait in the darkness, and/or follow Sally if she tried to depart. Worst case scenario, Mayra would totally throw Josefin at Sally. To see who’s really the luckiest.

________________________

Then, left at the scene of the crime… was Mariette, Jelena and Taihei. 

[center][url=https://i.imgur.com/Jn7vOgv.png][img]https://i.imgur.com/EpXJFMo.png[/img][/url]
[url=https://i.imgur.com/Hzh37Gf.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/jlgg4mv.png[/img][/url] [url=https://i.imgur.com/L5hmJYW.jpg][img]https://i.imgur.com/QOnZmhb.png[/img][/url][/center]

[color=4e5478]‘… Right, I think I’m just gonna leave so I don’t make things worse…’[/color] Taihei said, turning and walking away.

Correction, there was Mariette and Jelena!

Jelena scanned for more magical somethings, while Mariette stood inspecting the two round puddles. Two round, tiny puddles that for some reason seemed familiar. Her player currently has no idea if Mariette is supposed to recognize these two puddles. [s]Is this someone’s breasts? Someone’s butt? It definitely would make sense if it had something to do with Sonia, but, meh. Water? Does that mean whoever came here did so from somewhere with water? There’s not a lot of water-girls. Eh, I don’t frickin’ know.[/s]

Anyway, that’s just a setup, because now a couple people appeared and it’s time for a collab at the crime-scene.