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[color=a699ad]‘You’re right! I’m her friend!’[/color] Jelena answered with a happy grin to the question if she was “Alice”’s friend, and Mariette was relieved Jelena followed along with the “Mariette is apparently Alice” thread.

Mariette’s question of what was next was not properly answered. Setting up an outpost before moving to Penrose. Though, then there was the report about the failure of Dormouse and the OZ Unit. The portal girl was a bit startled when the table went flying, it was such a complete switch in personality from the queen. Then again, on a second thought, it was perhaps not entirely unexpected. Mariette looked at the device on the queen’s arm, it looked important. Of course, Jelena was here to look at it with a Third Eye.

Then… the Queen somehow replicated Mariette’s portal magic using one of her hairs. What was with people somehow reproducing the one thing that made her unique recently?

Then, as the Queen vanished… the pocketbook was left behind.

Jelena was already on it, starting to wander over to look at one of the cleaning servants that were acting. [color=a699ad]‘Heeey, what’s the pay around here? Do you do a lot of work? How many hours of free-time do you get?’[/color] Jelena asked as she wandered, and just, you know, [i]coincidentally[/i] walked so she blocked the line of sight to the pocket book.

That’s when Mariette dropped it through a portal into her own secure little magical handbag that she has in her perks. With one eye behind her eyepatch, she could portal her sight in that eye to look at the notebook, and then reach to turn the pages with her tentacles inside said hammerspace handbag.

Mariette had to read quickly; she had to place it back as soon as possible. It also occurred to her that this could be a test to see if she was honest or not, and as such she was mentally preparing for a quick escape because if so she had handedly failed the test.

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Mayra sliced apart those specific soldiers… but noted that she hadn’t succeeded in dodging the bullets. She spat out the bullet in her mouth and looked down at her lightly bleeding body.

[color=fc6828]‘Huh,’[/color] Mayra made a curious noise. So, it wasn’t like it was bothering her a lot, 16 vitality and all that, but the fact of the matter was that her leg was hurt and she wasn’t as fast as she thought she was. Though, it did serve as a reminder that maybe she wasn’t as invulnerable as she previously thought. … Mayra shrugged and grinned. [color=fc6828]‘Oh, well!’[/color] 

… … … Way over there… Penny was being confronted with the enemy leader. Mayra was intrigued, and as any curious person that happens to also have no sense of consequences, wanted to get closer. Maybe she could help save Penny’s life. That’d be cool.

Mayra applied her OTHER specialization, Darkness, and hid her presence. It is perhaps easy to forget among all the fireworks, but Mayra also has an assassin’s specialization. With that, she rapidly snook through the battlefield, using pieces of debris and cover to get closer. She just wanted to get closer to where Penny and the Queen was, to be able to launch into the fray as a dramatic unexpected backup.

Yes. That would be really cool, Mayra thought, as she left the defense of the town to the rest.

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[color=DC9495]‘Huh? Ah!’[/color] Miko made an alarmed sound at suddenly being hit by a piece of burning debris.

[color=55B7AA]‘E- Miko!’[/color] Ronin immediately jumped and along with Miko instinctively healing herself, she also had Ronin on her healing her to the best of her ability.

[color=DC9495]‘I’m fine. Let’s do something about the bombs,’[/color] Miko told with a stern expression. 

[color=55B7AA]‘A, yeah, we can do that!’[/color] Ronin replied, smirking.

Both sisters now turned and looked upwards. Now, the shields the twins could make with their small amount of magic were not enough to hold nor cover everyone, but they had a different use. Ronin and Miko together materialized shields in the shape of discs. Then, as a pair, they spun and

[color=55B7AA]‘Homing barrier discs!’[/color]

[color=DC9495]‘Seek out and destroy the bombs!’[/color] 

The two of them flung their discs. Supported with a light Air-specialization enchantment, the shields sought out and blew apart the bombs that were being dropped upon their allies. Of course, the shields themselves also broke by the force of the bombs, but that’s why Ronin and Miko didn’t settle for just two. They manifested disc after disc, throwing them out quickly making another to throw that one as well! They didn’t need to make a giant barrier that covered everyone if they just surgically blew out every threat out of the sky!

Now, if everyone else was getting away, then they’d join in but keep covering the sky as best they could!