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[Sub].:⋮Late night meetings⋮:.[/Sub]


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It seemed almost habitual by this point that Alicia and Penny would meet after a major confrontation. They hadn't even encountered each other directly, but Alicia knew that Penny had been involved. It seemed to have affected her friend pretty heavily, if the business with the earpiece was any indication. That made a meeting all the more necessary.
 
And so they had arranged to take some time out from their schedules and meet. Normally it might be for food, but in this case Alicia wasn't sure that was something she wanted to delve into right now. They had grown a bit more distant with Penny being more devoted to Sanctuary now, plus her other identity changes, so Alicia didn't want to push things when her friend might no longer be comfortable with it.
 
Instead, she opted for the other meeting spot. A rooftop in downtown Penrose, one that gave a good view of the winter skyline to accompany them hanging out. Alicia stood patiently, waiting for Penny to arrive as the moon rose higher in the sky, peaking through the scattered clouds. She didn't expect to be kept waiting long, so hopefully Penny was doing alright. She'd know soon enough.

The atmosphere atop the roof would suddenly have a heavy feel to it as the air suddenly felt charged. A few short moments after the feeling appeared the space a few feet away from Alicia would suddenly tear open into a portal.

What lay beyond the portal was difficult to see due to the late hour and lack of light but there was a figure that the Seraph could see. She wouldn’t be left wondering for long as soon after the portal stabilized Penny would come walking out of it.

Though almost immediately it was easy for Alicia to tell something was wrong. Penny seemed [i]wrong[/i], everything about her was just off. Normally Penny could pass as relatively human easily, discounting her robotic accessories, but at the moment she was sitting at the bottom of the uncanny valley. The bleeding red of her eyes didn’t help either.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Fuck”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would let out a curse as the portal closed behind her with a snap. Penny closed her eyes and very visibly went through the motions of taking a deep breath before letting it out slowly. She repeated the process a few times, each time she seemed to pull herself further and further out of the uncanny valley. 

When she opened her eyes again they looked like they normally did, but there was still an edge to Penny’s presence. Some subtle thing that made it impossible to forget that Penny wasn’t human. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Sorry about that.”[/b][/u][/color]

Looking over as Penny emerged from the portal, Alicia was both impressed at the display of magic while also concerned by her physical appearance. Even if she put a quick stop to it, the fact that it had happened at all was indicative of her friend’s emotional state. 

[color=aba000]“That bad huh?”[/color] she asked with a raised eyebrow. Physically she looked alright, but with how quickly Penny could repair herself that wasn’t indicative of much.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Worse”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would admit readily. Wasting no time in finding a place to sit down. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I’m learning the hard way just how much of a help the Spark was for maintaining a human perspective.”[/b][/u][/color] She’d explain. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Redlined back in Bolorton.”[/b][/u][/color] She ran a hand through her hair as she spoke. [color=9e0039][u][b]“And I’m still not fully back to zero from it.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Remote accessing the Bastion caused me to slip I think,”[/b][/u][/color] She’d gesture towards the air where she had walked though. [color=9e0039][u][b]“And I lost track of time trying to zero out in the first place.”[/b][/u][/color] Fixation wasn’t something that Penny often suffered from due to her inhuman ability to multi-task. But this current mess wasn’t something she could deal with without devoting a large amount of attention to.

Not that she had a solid explanation for what was going on at the moment.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“It’s why I wasn’t sounding all that well over the com. I had just pulled myself out of an even worse tail spin.”[/b][/u][/color]

Once Penny had sat down, Alicia took a seat next to her. Her hands rested on her knees as she listened to the explanation, which was admittedly not the strangest explanation for a thing Penny had ever given her. But she treated it with the seriousness that it deserved all the same. 

[color=aba000]“Oof. Sounds rough,”[/color] she agreed with a small nod. [color=aba000]“Also sounds like there was a pretty tough customer on the field if that’s the case. We mostly had to deal with enough tanks to outfit a third world country. You’d have loved it.”[/color]

That comment cracked a smile out of Penny. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I was out in the field with them. They looked like Wizard of Oz rejects. Not sure who dealt with the Tin man or the Scarecrow but I took out the Lion and saw Dorothy getting taken care of.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Took a chunk out of their forces, mostly APC’s, before the Queen of Hearts showed up in person.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would shake her head at that. [color=9e0039][u][b]“But I redlined before most of that. A lot of my systems were propped up by the Spark, and I more or less slipped into the morph on accident. I felt it coming on, but keeping it at bay was magnitude more difficult than I remember it being.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Kept me safe enough out there, but pretty sure I pissed off Iracebeth by chucking a bomb through her portal when she showed up.”[/b][/u][/color]

An eyebrow rose as Penny related her experience in Bolorton, with the clashing of the stories in addition to the actual fight itself. [color=aba000]“Wizard of Oz? I wonder how many other things like that she has in her back pocket?”[/color] That was something she was curious about, even if she didn’t actually want to find out.

Penny’s ending earned an amused snort from Alicia. [color=aba000]“That does sound like you,”[/color] she agreed. [color=aba000]“Too bad we could never pull off that sort of trick against Mariette. It would have made a lot of things easier.”[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Mariette would likely just portal the bomb back at us if we tried.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would agree with a wry smile. [color=9e0039][u][b]“But at least she seems to be against Wonderland as well. Since I saw her dragon girl ally there assisting with fighting off the invasion.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Honestly though, this whole thing makes me wish I knew how to shut down the Nexus.”[/b][/u][/color] She would go on to say. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Like I’m really well disposed towards active warfare, now more than ever, but I really don’t want to turn the Sanctuary into a fighting force. No one there deserves that, same with the people at HQ.”[/b][/u][/color] She’d draw her knees to her chest resting her chin on them as she did. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Punching these problems never really seems to work in the long run. But rarely are we given another option.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=aba000]"Probably, but it would have been satisfying if we pulled it off. I mean, Justine almost did."[/color] The more serious mention of her former-rival caused her smile to shift into a more serious frown. [color=aba000]"I'm not surprised. Her patron won't be able to carry out his plans if Wonderland conquers the city."[/color]
 
Alicia certainly could not object to Penny's next sentiment, though she was a bit surprised with who it was coming from. [color=aba000]"I'd like that too,"[/color] she agreed. [color=aba000]"But if there's one thing I learned here, there are just some people you can't talk down. At the end of the day, some people are just too crazy to respond to anything but force.”[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Oh trust me I get that. Hell, on my bad days I’m one of them.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would reply with a soft chuckle [color=9e0039][u][b]“The problem, at least how I see our current situation, is that we are going to get swept up in Wonderland’s tempo. Few of us are prepared for open warfare. Rachel is, I am, you might be, though I sorta hope you haven’t been messed up that badly by the magical world already.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“It's going to be the tension of after the Beach again, with an active threat bearing down on us all until we break or they break against us. It’s going to be a nightmare.”[/b][/u][/color] She would explain as she leaned back casting her gaze upward, to what stars could cut through the light pollution of the city. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Hope dies a lingering death in war, and I’d really rather we had some way of stopping it before it really starts. Killing Iracebeth might work, though I’ve my doubts about that seeing how Bolorton ended.”[/b][/u][/color]

She would let out a sigh [color=9e0039][u][b]“Which means the only other option would be removing the reason for why the war is starting. But I hadn’t been able to do much research into that before I got excommunicated.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Would simply be nice to have that as a goal rather than just war prep.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=aba000]“I suppose,[/color]” Alica agreed, resisting the urge to sigh as well. It was hard to argue with what Penny was saying, especially with how much of an unknown Wonderland still was at this point. Needless to say, the army present at Bolorton had been an unpleasant surprise, and a possible precursor to what could happen in Penrose. 

After a few moments, she substituted the sigh for a shrug instead. [color=aba000]“Well, we can either figure out the reason for the war or look into the Queen herself. Scrying is a wonderful thing. Or we figure out who Wonderland is worried about, and see if we can make a deal with them. I don’t have many good suggestions.”[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Same, any ideas I’ve had border on the heretical at the moment.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would comment herself. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Like slipping into Wonderland with the Bastion and just dropping all the explosive ordnance I can store in it on her castle. Or dealing with the Mint”[/b][/u][/color] She would give an exaggerated shudder at that.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Honestly, finding out more about the Queen might be the best idea. Know your enemy and all that.”[/b][/u][/color] She would say on a more serious note. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Finding out who the VIP’s she’d be targeting isn’t a bad idea either. I’d be willing to wager that I’m one of them though. She seems to be the vindictive type.”[/b][/u][/color]

Alicia nodded in agreement, hardly needing to say why those suggestions were a bad idea. [color=aba000]“Yeah, I’m gonna save that for when we’re truly desperate.[/color]” She was willing to compromise to some extent, but cutting deals with the Mint was a whole other level.

[color=aba000]“Makes sense,[/color]” she agreed. [color=aba000]“I’ll have to see what we can do as far as scrying goes. Poking around the Overcity might be worthwhile too. A faction as big as Wonderland probably has its fair share of gossip making the rounds.”[/color] As they both knew, listening in on people was something that Penny was quite good at. 

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Now that is an idea.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would admit with a nod. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Curious if there are any factions out there that want to take a shot at Wonderland but just lack any actionable intel.”[/b][/u][/color] She would muse to herself as she contemplated the idea a bit more fully.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“An idea that is a bit more in line with your good ones is seeing if there is some way we can get open cooperation between Beacon, and by that I mean the Ascendency, and the Sanctuary.”[/b][/u][/color] She’d propose. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Open lines of communication beyond more than just us would go a long way when the fighting gets into Penrose proper.”[/b][/u][/color]

Penny’s suggestion was hardly unusual, and one that Alicia had no objection with either. [color=aba000]“I’ll look into it,”[/color] she told her friend. [color=aba000]“With what Rachel said earlier about needing to work together, she might even be willing to do it. Who’d have thought that a fairy tale could bring together all these factions who hate each other?”[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]"A fairy tale bringing people together to deal with a bigger threat sounds about right for a storybook. Fitting considering that seems to be Wonderlands shtick."[/b][/u][/color] Penny would say with a chuckle and shake of her head.

[color=9e0039][u][b]"I've also got some information on Wonderland as well if it'll help smooth things over with the Inquisitor."[/b][/u][/color] She would add. [color=9e0039][u][b]"Ended up overhearing your debrief. And though I was tempted to cut in, I didn't want to burn any bridges for you."[/b][/u][/color]

[color=aba000]“Go for it,”[/color] Alicia replied quickly. She could appreciate Penny’s discretion, and she was hardly going to turn down the help. The more everyone knew, the more likely it was that they would figure out what Wonderland really wanted and how to stop them for good. 

Penny would reach into her leg for a moment before pulling out a thumb drive and handing it over. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Everything I gathered is here. The entrance of Oz troops, some insights into their tanks and APC’s compositions, a decent recording of Iracbeth’s fighting style, as well as some data in relation to the mana gems they power everything with and a read on Iracbeth’s sword.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would explain. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Let me know if that works to open the comms. Though fair warning it’s very obvious that I was the one who collected the data.”[/b][/u][/color]

Alicia nodded, whistling a little bit at the bevy of data Penny was offering up. She was more surprised that she had managed to get this much than anything else, as it was hardly the most unusual thing they had gotten up to. [color=aba000]“Somehow I don’t think they’ll be all that surprised,”[/color] Alicia replied as she slipped the thumb drive into her pocket. [color=aba000]“You are nothing if not distinctive.”[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“That”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would agree with a nod and a smile [color=9e0039][u][b]“But also because the recordings are mostly from my POV.”[/b][/u][/color] She’d explain. [color=9e0039][u][b]“As I said, I am well dispositioned towards warfare. That is a glimpse into how my mind works in the middle of a fight, I trust you with knowing that, I’m just hoping that it will help.”[/b][/u][/color]

Glancing down once more at the thumb drive, Alicia looked between it and Penny. She nodded, still relatively unbothered by what she was hearing. [color=aba000]"What, does it have your internal monologues in it?"[/color] she asked in jest. Though she could see how it would be embarrassing if it did.

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Not like that”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would roll her eyes and give Alicia a light shove. [color=9e0039][u][b]“But not far off either.”[/b][/u][/color]
 
After a moment Alicia let the levity pass. [color=aba000]"Still, this is pretty helpful. Otherwise I'd say that the thing making Wonderland different is mostly a matter of scale. Their tanks went down to my arrows as well as any other bad guy."[/color] She'd like to say that this was the weirdest thing they had faced off against, though so far it had not yet claimed that valued position. [color=aba000]"I can't imagine how things will escalate from here."[/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“No idea. Which is a worry, because we know what Beacon’s got in reserve, plus there are the options I’ve got that I keep locked away, to say nothing of the Mint and Cradle. If they are even planning on staying and fighting against Wonderland.”[/b][/u][/color] Penny’s gaze would drift upwards once more. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Whatever it is that is coming, is going to be big though. That’s what it feels like at least.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=aba000]“Well, whatever it is has another thing coming if they think they can mess with us,”[/color] Alicia proclaimed. [color=aba000]“I mean, we beat up a manifestation of a Horror, and they were pretty powerful too. I’d say we still have decent odds of success.” [/color]

Penny would take a moment before shaking her head, a small smile gracing her lips. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I must still be out of it. You're holding my Vow better than I am at the moment.”[/b][/u][/color] She’d say looking over at her friend. [color=9e0039][u][b]“You are absolutely right though. We did that at the drop of a hat with no warning. Wonderland isn’t going to know what hit them when they get here. There is me and you, the girls at Beacon and the ones at Sanctuary, plus everyone else that lives here.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Penrose chaos is something we are all familiar with, these out of towners aren't going to show us up.”[/b][/u][/color]

Penny's amusement prompted Alicia to shrug, not too bothered one way or the other. [color=aba000]"Maybe I'm just jaded, who knows?"[/color] As Penny noted, they were well used to patented 'Penrose Chaos' after all. Unexpected nonsense and evil plots were kind of in their wheelhouse.
 
[color=aba000]"Still, imagine how boring it would be if Wonderland took over and made us all move somewhere else. I don't know what I would do with all that free time."[/color] There were worse fates of course, but it was hard to say that things here were not interesting. [color=aba000]"Maybe I need to get a hobby."[/color]

Penny would poke Alicia in the side. [color=9e0039][u][b]“Hey now, I did just say you were holding on to hope better than I was. No getting self deprecating after that.”[/b][/u][/color] 

[color=9e0039][u][b]“And we’d end up taking over any city we got moved to.”[/b][/u][/color] The robo girl would muse, [color=9e0039][u][b]“Not intentionally, just with free time we’d be too powerful.”[/b][/u][/color] She'd let one of her legs stretch out, as she let herself finally relax. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I’d probably get into model kits as a hobby, I’ve never had the time for them so far, but they look fun to put together and paint.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Any ideas for what hobby you’d pick up when we finally get the time?”[/b][/u][/color]

Alicia nodded, not doubting Penny’s observations for a second. [color=aba000]“Yeah, that sounds like you.”[/color] She paused when the question was turned on her, tapping her chin in thought as she considered the options. [color=aba000]“Not sure. I might need to work on that. Maybe whittling? That always seemed neat.” [/color]

[color=9e0039][u][b]“Really?”[/b][/u][/color] Penny would reply with a raised eyebrow. [color=9e0039][u][b]“I figured you more as a guitar kinda gal if you found the time.”[/b][/u][/color]

[color=aba000]“Nah. Listen to music, yes. But playing music isn’t something that really caught my interest,”[/color] Alicia admitted. The conversation went on into the night, shifting to less serious topics as they rested in their temporary rooftop perch. It was just another night in Penrose as the temporary break between responsibility went on.