Freya and Shelyn had been able to go to Esther’s underground jungle, and in there Freya had talked to Esther and also been the only one present to speak. Esther sure didn’t talk back, and Shelyn couldn’t explain what had happened. Regardless, Freya was decently sure that Esther had understood her, seeing how Freya hadn’t been immediately attacked. With that, it was now a waiting game, where the forces of Asengav were to await the time when they would come under attack. …

While Freya was all fine with waiting, there was something she wasn’t fine with. It was the immediate dismissal of Nina that Lea had just done. Freya and Nina had somewhat of an acquaintanceship. Not exactly friends, but when either of them spoke to someone for any other reason than work, it was usually to one another. The closest thing Freya had to a friend among the forces of Asengav. So, when she’d seemingly just vanished, that was on Freya’s mind. Freya was not someone who liked losing allies.

As such, the moment she had a moment over, currently not watched by anyone as she stood among Esther’s plants while Shelyn was inspecting the plant-girl, Freya walked over where she wouldn’t be overheard and used her phone to attempt to call the number that used to lead to Nina. She wasn’t sure if it still would lead to her, but she wanted to try, at the very least.

___


Okay. Lea had somehow managed to regain a modicum of control over the situation. She’d taken command of the forces of Asengav currently located in Penrose. She’d sent the rest of the girls on missions, while she remained in the darkness where the Black Mirror was once housed. In each of the various rooms with mirrors, Lea’s bugs were scattered, and she could feel each one of her bugs. She knew where they were, and they would inform her when things were going down. Of course, Nina would have done this job far better than Lea could, as Nina was able to watch the entire city on her own and warn in case of threats…

Lea made an annoyed sound, and had her hand bring the phone before her face. The hand was seemingly floating in mid-air, as the butterflies that made up much of her arm had been sent away to scout. Nina’s number was still on her phone. Lea was now modestly sure she was ready for whatever was going to happen, and had a minute to spare, so why not, really? She hit the button to start the call, absolutely expecting the call to terminate and not go anywhere at all.

___


Nina was in the command station she’d been offered and learning how it worked, and as they spoke she was relaying information and making various decisions that were part of the position… when she got a phone call. She brought up the phone, and saw that Freya was calling.

… She was of two minds. Answering could lead to Asengav’s side learning more of where Nina had gone, which she didn’t want. On the other hand, Freya was in the same room as the Queen when the slice that had taken Nina’s mind-bending had taken place. It was possible the same had happened to everyone in that room, in which case this was an attempt to escape together. One which Nina didn’t want to miss.

‘Freya’s calling. She was in the room where the mind-unbending took place. I’m going to answer her,’ Nina spoke out loud. She had reason to believe Penny was listening at all times, through various machinery. She also didn't need to introduce Freya to Penny, they'd met. Nina had been watching their talk, so. She was about to answer Freya, when…

Another call, at the same time. Nina frowned, staring down at her phone that obviously could handle two incoming calls at once. The other one was Lea. … Nina did not want to talk to Lea. You would not find a person more loyal to Asengav. That said, she’d ALSO been in the room when the mind-unbending took place… but she was likely just calling to figure out why Nina wasn’t responding to anyone.

‘Lea, the spokeswoman of Asengav and his self-proclaimed right hand, as well as the overseer of our actions in Penrose and Mariette’s boss, is calling. Likely to figure out why I’m not around. I don’t want to talk to her. But, maybe you do? Do you want to talk to her?’ she asked.

In response… that side of the incoming calls was suddenly interrupted, and there was no longer an option to answer Lea. Nina did a small nod, before pressing the button to answer Freya.

’Wow. I see why the Queen left when she got the option.’ A Pennybot would say as they started to move out, it’s head turning towards the Ascendency. ’The hypocrisy is staggering. At least she had a Spark.’

They bots moved as one almost. With only a slight hitch before they launched from the rooftop. But if one kept an eye to the other roofs once could seem more Pennybots as well. All moving to intercept Wonderland and their forces.
‘We might need to split the teams.’ One of the right Pennybots would state. Though it was absently said, as if the bot hadn’t meant to speak aloud. ‘We should be able to get approval to shift the bulk of our forces here.’

---

_Alone?

It was strange for Penny, the moment Nykannis breached the safety of the Bastion and spirited her away. She had been in one of the numerous hallways interweaving through her home. Taking a moment to herself in the midst of the never-ending parade of chaos that Penrose specialized in.

It was strange. Because even as she was stolen away, and locked inside a perpetual moment to listen to the doctor monolog. Penny didn’t feel as if she had actually gone anywhere. None of her connections had been disrupted. None of her cycles skipped, none of her active processes hitched.

Even when she knew. Knew. That something should have stumbled.

But nothing did. And so, across the Bastion, and beyond. No one noticed.

Yet, Penny herself couldn’t help but revel in that moment. It itched at her in a way that nothing ever had before. As a foundational part of her world view had started to shift. The shape of which it would become, she could only tease out the edges. Yet she couldn’t wait all the same.

---

_{With Everyone}

Penny’s attention was focused on the table before her as everyone began preparing for the fight to come. It was that reason alone she witness the titanic flash of lightning, bright enough and big enough to show on the table’s holo-display before the rumble of thunder set the Bastion to rock once again.

The lightning cradled, and highlighted Covington Tower.

“Obviously.” Penny would snark at the image, seemingly reading something in it that wasn’t apparent to anyone else, but then the lightning flashed again. And this time she saw the subtle way it seemed to twist and flow around the tower. And the message hit her all at once. “Oh… That’s…”

Penny would look up at everyone gathered. “We need to move now! The Black Mirror has appeared on top of Covington Tower.” She would inform everyone. “I’ve got forces on route to intercept Wonderlands army, but that’s not going to matter if they set off whatever it is their plan is.”

---

_{On the Phone}

’Well, Lea. It’s interesting timing to hear from you I must admit.’ Penny’s voice would come from the phone in Lea’s hand suddenly and without the normal warning of a call answering. ’Though I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the one you were expecting to answer.’
‘I’ll give you one chance to back down. I know where you are, I know where the mirrors are, and I have the forces to crush all of you.’ Penny would state calmly. ’Stand down, and no one has to die.’

---

_{In Her Room}

“Well, if you want to join the rest of Sanctuary in the mess hall you are free to do so.” Penny would state, pointing at a door that would only appear as she was moving to point at it. “Some of the arcade machine’s have been moved there, on top of them setting up a makeshift theater. Also have some board games that seem to be getting used, and Monica is cooking.” Penny would explain. “If you want to be done with the fight, I won’t hold it against you. Most of the girls I look after don’t want to be involved.”

“The second option, is if you want to be a part of helping, but not directly.” She would point at another door, it too appearing only as she went to point at it. “This is the same idea I was going to offer to Violet. Back in Wonderland I overtook one of their factories, and alongside the blueprints from you and the research from the Mint. I restructured it to start fabricating duplicates.”

“It would be a bit much for me to organize and direct all of them, seeing as I’m planning on keeping the factory running until Wonderland runs out of supplies to make the copies. So, I had some of the girls that want to be involved set up a secondary network and some command stations that can be used to direct and guide all the Pennybots I’ve got running around at the moment.” She would add with a shrug and a somewhat lopsided smile.

“Lastly. And this is true for you as well Violet. You can stay here, my room might not have the most entertainment, but it’s safe and I can pull anything from within the Bastion here if it’s not being used.” She would finish folding her arms loosely. “I can stick around as well, there are plenty of Penny’s around at the moment, one less isn’t going to be missed.”

---

_{A One on One}

While everyone else was off in the Temporary command center Penny and the Cheshire Cat retreated to a private room. It was empty for all save a table. And the other copies remained outside or moved off to do other duties.

“This may not be the best time. But I must ask. Do you know who I am?” Penny would inquire the moment the door shut, giving her and the Cat some privacy. “I ask, because if you had knowingly repeated the actions of Wonderland. Me, you, and your Baroness are going to have a problem.” She strode over to the table so as not to loom over her temporary ally.

“Because the last time someone broke into my home. It was at the behest of Iracebeth, The Queen of Hearts. And as Queen of Penrose, a city currently under siege from Wonderland. There is a limit to what I can forgive and tolerate, as I am sure you must understand.” She turned to look at The Cheshire Cat. “So tell me. Was this just a innocent mistake, or will I need to watch you for the remainder of your time in my home?”

---

_{Left Behind}

“Right, and who are you exactly?” Penny would ask as she adjusted her grip on the sword she had most recently picked up. She had a few moments to scrape through her logs, and well the LLM cosplayer wasn’t one that Penny recognized. She knew the person that had gotten buried in swords hadn’t been hostile, but Wonderland was a strange place. She wasn’t going to drop her guard.

Plus keeping attention away from the impending demolition sight was probably also for the best in that case. Seeing as how she doubted loyal to this crazy location would be happy with her detonating the Queen’s castle.

Regardless, there was only ten minutes until the rest of the local area copies finished up setting the charges.

---

_{And Nowhere At All}

The temporal stasis field clicked off around Penny, but the itch persisted. She felt as if everything was still a second to the left and an inch into the future. She took a deep breath as the Stacy Squad roared into existence around her, focusing inward for a moment.

She felt bad for Finn. She recalled him, but she didn’t know that he had harbored such animosity towards her. Still his fate wasn’t something she could do much about. As much as it pained her to see him get so pointlessly tossed away.

The mention of Oros did touch upon Penny’s hate, but these multiversal replicas didn’t. These people hadn’t done anything to Penny. Not personally, maybe to other Penny’s in other realities. But Penny wasn’t going to waste energy hating someone for something they hadn’t done.

And if that was everything that Nyakannis had to offer Penny would have left. Let the Orors’ and Stacy’s duke it out here in this Penrose that wasn’t. Taken the supposed favor of this Grand Magistrate and returned to her home.

But there was something else. That itch, the shift, a truth Penny could almost realize. It dug at her. And as much as it wasn’t Nykannis’ fault, she was the reason that Penny noticed it. And she wanted to repay that, as much as she wanted to explore it.

She let out the breath she couldn’t actually hold.

“Normally I don’t seek out fights. Call it rebellion from my father. But I don’t like seeking to cause destruction.” She called out eyes closed the world seemingly waiting for her to act. “And I don’t actually care about your hypothesis. But there is something you have put into motion now, that I do want to follow. So, for that reason, and that reason alone.”



Penny’s eyes snapped open, and in the same instance her integrated weapon systems unfurled. High density energy blades extended from the backs of her arms, her secondary spider legs unfolded from her chassis, and her shoulder mounted ray casters emerged. A secondary layer of holographic barrier plates phased into place across her body.

Penny was ready for war.

In the next instant there was a high-pitched ringing as Penny opened her maw and a thunderous roar came out. As fully charged gauss round flew straight at Osiris. Penny was a half-step behind her opening shot. Charging forward at her designated target, one arm forward to block, the rest chambered back and ready to strike at anyone who came in close enough.

A feral grin stretched across her face. As her soul roared out in satisfaction.

While Alicia's question was not directly answered, the continued motion of events and Penny's warning provided all the information that she needed. It sounded like there wouldn't be time to strike at the conduits. They would simply have to go to Covington Tower and stop whatever scheme was afoot at the source. Alicia didn't really mind one way or the other, so long as they actually had a chance to stop what was coming if they did this.

The Queen's Army was still a threat, but as Alicia stepped back from the map of the city she knew that there was no chance she was going to miss fighting the Queen Not after her previous failures at confronting the major threats to the city. She was not going to take the chance that some other villain would use this opportunity to empower themselves off the Queen's defeat. Not again.

"Alright, let's do it then," she agreed as she turned to face the others. It seemed all they had available was the direct approach, so that was what they would do.

Her focus then shifted to Rachel. "Sounds good. I'm counting on you all." She knew that they had begun some efforts before the attack on the Queen's Castle had started, so hopefully it would be enough to hold the line until the Queen was defeated. For now, she prepared to head out to Covington Tower, however they ended up doing that.

“I believe my skillset would be best employed to assist with the direction of the Pennybots,” Violet replied after Penny had finished detailing the various options for their next course of action. “At least until I’ve replenished enough of my magic to rejoin the battle directly.”

“I-I still w-want to h-help, t-too!” Connie spoke up. “P-People are in d-danger, a-and I w-want to d-do w-whatever I c-can to p-protect them! I-I’m not the b-best w-with computers,” she conceded with a frown. “B-But, I’ll d-do the b-best I c-can!”

“And I shall accompany my dearest Connie on whatever path of action she chooses to take,” Gaia added serenely as she placed her arm around her masked friend’s shoulder. “Although my appearance and title may suggest otherwise, I am actually rather familiar with technology,” the verdant maiden continued. “In particular, video games. I do not claim to have any knowledge of your system’s methods of operation,” she told the Mechanical Monarch. “But, if I am permitted to be so bold, perhaps my not-inconsiderable proficiency with controlling virtual combatants may be advantageously applied to the task of coordinating your copies in the field.”

Ani tipped her head. "Aren’t you guys cute! But I already have sufficient data on everyone here, just not what happened over the past few…minutes? I was curious what happened while I was buried under all those swords, and figured we’d have a new detective at this point. Thank you for catching me up!" Some hearts floated over her head as she winked at the twins. "Let’s save the date until after we save the world. It would really kill the vibe if the world ended mid date would it not." Then, almost as an afterthought, Ani turned to Penny. "I’m Ani! I’m everyone’s favorite AI girlfriend!" Her smile disappeared. "Well, not yours, and not your girlfriend’s either." Her brow dropped. "But you’d better stay in your lane, got it?" After holding that look for a second or two, she cracked a smile. "It doesn’t sound like we have time to play right nowd, let’s go!"

And with that, Ani started to walk back towards Penrose. A cloud of nanites raced to stitch her body together wherever the knives had cut her.

---

"Send you a text message?" Chloe raised an eyebrow. "And what? Have the jealous little toaster spy on everything we say?" She didn’t really care, of course. People who wore as little as Chloe did left little to the imagination. "Besides, I’d rather hold onto you than my phone."

Were the pennybots talking about her or the Ascendancy? Probably the Ascendancy. It was clear Penny still missed her deeply and was just putting on a brave front.

---

Su wasn’t sure how, why, or even if, but maybe Mika knew what she was doing.

The mad queen (but not of science) fell right in line with Alice’s story and started reciting the known rules of combat. Though it was doubtful that she could have predicted that she’d have an arena waiting for them, with white and red horses and matching armor. The temptation was to spirit Marriette out of there along with Mika, but what would that accomplish? The queen would follow them, and likely with her forces.

"Alice was only able to match the queen after she became one herself. Then the goal is to get Mariette to the other side of the board. But where is the board’s edge located: at the nexus, or is that merely the enemy's king?"

Su wondered what sort of foul enchantments the armor might have had placed on them, but there was no backing out now. Mika had already dawned the red armor and pulled the helmet closed over her face. "Become a queen as fast as you can, Alice." Su approached her horse. This left Marriette by herself at the mouth of the portal. Su approached the white horse and began putting on the armor.

"We should have done things like this at the hotel."

Su smiled as she fit her chest plate. It was a tight fit. "We did, although we didn’t get all dressed up." She slid her hand inside a gauntlet. "You always wanted to go meet new people."

"You were always sad." Mika extended her hand, and a card soldier handed her a club. Or rather, placed it in her arms. "You kept talking about Amber. Who was she?"

Su sighed. She turned to Mika and smiled. "She was a very special lady." The corners of her lips trembled. "And I’ll never see her again. But that’s okay. It took me a long time to realize that even if we are immortal, our time together is fleeting. All we can do is enjoy it while it lasts." She lowered her helmet over her face.

Both knights were mounted and armed with their clubs. They leaned forwards, and their horses sprinted forth.

…

…

…



For as surprising and crazy as all this was, it hadn’t really slipped by Isra. Morowa’s oracle powers had been handy for figuring out what they were going to be dealing with well before they got into battle. They say the best laid plans don’t work as well as expected, but they could at least ensure that their first move was a powerful one.

The gauss shot closed in, but all the techno spider had to do was shift its legs for the shot to miss its rider. It had just enough time to mimic Penny as she drew closer. Its massive claw was brought up in front of its body, while it’s other claw and tail were poised to strike. All of Penny’s fists slammed into the scorpion’s claw just as it thrust it’s remaining claw and tail in Penny’s direction. Osiris had to tip her head to avoid getting smacked by the behemoth’s tail.



"Let’s get this party started."

Oriko pulled out a mix pad and played some chill beats. The sky lit up over all the oroses like a disco ball, and a frigid magic took hold of their weapons.

"Are zombies immune to cold damage? Well whatever…"

Like they practiced, Oriko locked eyes with a target out of the crowd and swapped places with them. Once the swap was complete, Oriko was surrounded by a number of stacys, so she quickly dropped a smoke bomb to obscure her position.



Oriko wasn’t the only one rushing the enemy. The other roses were charging as well. Surprisingly, a little cat girl with a giant backpack was leading the charge at one of Osirus’s flanks.

"I do hope the potions went down smoothly!" She shouted back to her companions. "As for those of you ahead of us, huzzah!"

Oros the Shrewd started to exchange blows with a kung-fu corpse girl, where the dual ladler did battle with the hand to hand fighter.



No sooner was she spawned in did the once goofy hermit undergo a metamorphosis. Luana’s flesh stretched and melded to a new shape, one fitting for a genderless demon more than anything else. Her spear had been absorbed into her form, and only an Oros remained.

With a roar, the most savage of the Oros barreled towards Tactical Triumvirate S.T.A.C.-Y. As soon as their bullets ripped into Savage’s flesh, it was already starting to mend itself shut. The creature thrashed with its arms, tilling the ground and rending everything above it.



Lada was not running as fast as the others. She lagged behind Savage as she polished off one of her hotdogs, but still had one left over in her other hand.

She noticed Saw Blade Stacy drawing near, and immediately shoved her remaining hotdog into her mouth. Metal nanites covered her body, and she soared towards her chosen opponent. In her metal hands was a metal axe with a metal shaft, and she made it her mission to meet with the saw blade warrior.



Morowa sighed, wondering if her contribution to the fight would be enough. She considered flying into the air, but it was safer for her to remain on the ground. She drew her parent’s staff and pointed it into a cluster of stacys. She whispered a few words, and a torrent of wind kicked up, chucking all who were inside it into the air. Then the Oracle aimed at her targets and launched blades of cutting wind towards them.



"Hrmph!"

There were no shortage of super cuties here, that was for damn sure! The only problem was who should she pick? There were so many green skinned cuties to pick from, and they all looked to be a lot more friendly than Nyxia. But choice paralysis was setting in. With so many 10s, how do you pick just one?

Then Oriko vanished from her flank, and was replaced by Stich ‘em up Stacy.

White outfit? Check!

Pink hair? Check!

Long hair? Check!

Exotic appearance? Check!

Foreigner? Check!

A personality that doesn’t suck? Double and tripple checked!

There were no words to describe how perfect this woman was for Suki. And quite frankly, she was done thinking. Every pathway in her brain was compelling her to act. Her skin had turned bright red, and even the whites of her eyes had turned a shade of pink. Blood rocketed out of her nose and carried her towards the nurse who had wandered behind enemy lines. Suki’s arms flung open, and her tongue flapped in the open air.



Osirus’s right flank was looking a little empty, with just Wisdom on that side. That would change in a moment, but for now, she was the only one leading the charge. If walking menacingly was considered a charge, that is.

"Hmmm…" Wisdom eyed the battlefield. "Oh! A student! How delightful! Maybe you’ll finally pass my final exam!"

Wisdom extended her arm towards the grimoire powered magical stacy. Normal human reach wouldn’t cut it, so her harm grew longer. Longer, and wider, often expanding in grotesque and uneven ways. Stitch-em-up Stacy might even liken the growth to cancerous polyps if they could even get that big without killing the host. Put more delicately, it looked like wisdom’s hand had been launched off, only the expanding chemtrail was made of rippling, bulbous flesh.

Behind her, three clones split off of her and watched the attack in anticipation.



Thalia knew this was part of the plan, but that didn’t mean she was happy to have her mech picked up in the mouth of another mech. B@B was relatively small, and she couldn’t take too many direct shots like this. It was fortunate that Inventive was able to place nanomachines on her chassis to shield from the initial blow somewhat. It wasn’t all bad though. Despite her craft’s predicament, she had tools for this situation.

"You want something to eat, huh?" She moved her thumb to the top of a hand mounted joystick and pressed a red button. "Breakfast is served!"

The power chord on the back of the toaster jammed itself inside the chomper’s mouth and detonated an EMP. It was enough to release B@B from the death trap, and allowed it to spin free in the sky as god intended. The nanites soared off, their design too futuristic to be bothered by such crude forms of anti-tech.

"Have a pop tart on me!"

Two flat red rockets flew out the top of the toaster and glided straight towards the metal beast’s insatiable mouth.



"What a bunch of cunts…" Davis was standing even further back than his other fellow Oroses. He adjusted his tie and balled his hands into fists. "Very well, let’s show them what perfection looks like."

Portals opened up behind Davis, and his prized hospital rose out of the ground. The three towers of Axis Mundi went higher and higher into the sky, some hundred or so stories. It dwarfed everything in the battlefield. In the right reality plenum, it was a symbol of humanity’s achievements. Now it was nothing more than a pillar of despair, housing all kinds of mechanical contraptions.

"Alright ladies, see if you can cure their ailments." Davis folded his arms as android teenagers on android horses rode out on either side of him.



Four carnage sisters rode out of Axis Mundai. They took to Wisdom’s right flank and scalloped towards the stacys.



Four more, substantially more dangerous carnage sisters took Wisdom’s left flank, but gave Penny and Osirus plenty of room.



"I wonder if a map would be good for this battle, I think I’m going to start losing track of things."

While Madness ran down the left side of Osirus to join up with the other Oroses, her eyes were locked on Penny as she did so.

While Penny darted off to confront Osiris, the Stacys prepared to take on the other Oroses. However, true to her name, it was Oros the Swift who made the first move, blinking transplacing herself with Stitch ‘Em Up Stacy. This left the startled zombie medic in the perfect position to receive the over-eager affections of Oros the Joyful.

“H-Holy freaking carotid artery!” Stacy yelped. “That’s one heckin’ nosebleed!” Not wasting a moment, she conjured her medical kit and namesake floating needle and thread. Pulling an ice packet from the kit, she chucked it at the young woman rocketing towards her on twin jets of high pressure blood. Next, she sent her needle to tightly stitch the packet onto her “patient’s” nose, closing off the crimson torrent and, hopefully constricting their blood vessels enough to halt the hemorrhaging. In the event this “treatment” caused the airborne Oros to fall to the ground, Stacy would quickly move to catch her.

“Gotcha!” the medic declared with a grin. “You’re in good hands, so just relax!” she reassured her patient, even as she squeezed the cold pack to apply additional pressure. “This should work to stop the bleeding, but if it doesn’t, I’ll just use one of these crazy cool little lightsaber type dealies to cauterize it!” she added with a grin, holding up the instrument in question. “But don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing! Also, did you know that the crazy cool medical name for nosebleeds is epistaxis?” the undead medic inquired. “What helped me remember that when I had to take my exam was that it kinda sounds like ‘epic stacks’, like really heckin’ huge stacks of playing cards, and the word ‘card’ makes me think of ‘carotid artery’, which can cause posterior nosebleeds, like the one you probably got just now! Oh, and since I need to keep applying pressure to your nose for at least ten more minutes, would ya like to hear about all the various crazy cool references to nosebleeds in world language and culture while we wait?!”

Meanwhile, Oros the Swift had appeared in the midst of four Stacys (namely Crystallis Stacy, Stampede Stacy, Staycee, and Esperverse Stacy), and promptly deployed a smoke bomb.

“What in tarnation?!” Stampede Stacy exclaimed, readying her lightning lasso to respond to an attack at a moment’s notice.

“W-Where’d everybody go…?” little Crystallis Stacy wondered.

“Did they lose their heads?” Esperverse Stacy asked as she scratched her head with the flat of her chainsaw.

“Worry not!” Staycee declared with a confident grin, raising Ectolionis, the legendary Scythe of Specters, high. “My ghost pals aren’t bothered by this smoky stuff!”

Indeed, the floating forms of the myriad conjured shades swirled through the obstructing clouds with impressive speed, seeking out and descending upon the Stacys’ most unwelcome visitor. Unfortunately, the smoke also prevented the Stacys from noticing the quartet of carnage sisters that were rapidly speeding toward them on their robotic steeds…

“OMG! I, like, totally love your animal ears and tail, girl!” Nomad Stacy told her opponent as she used her superlative martial arts skills to block Oros the Shrewd’s flurry of ladle strikes. “They’re, like, suuuper adorbs! And you are, like, sooo rocking that giant backpack!” the self-proclaimed Kung Fu Corpse Girl added, before dropping down and delivering a Crazy Cool Kick to the provisioner’s tiny legs in an attempt to topple her over backwards. “I, like, can’t even! Oh! Do you, like, play D&D by any chance?!” she inquired, while following up with a Crazy Cool Elbow Slam to the cute cook’s stomach. “I was, like, suuuuper into it back in high school! I made this crazy cool Monk that could, like, shatter one of those stone golem guys in a single strike!”

Towards the center of the battlefield, just beyond where Penny and Osiris clashed, the monstrous Oros the Savage rampaged towards where Tactical Triumvirate S.T.A.C.-Y. stood at the center of the Stacy Squad’s “formation”. Taking note of how the standard rounds of their Poly-Spectrumic Hybridium Assault Rifles were insufficient to truly harm the massive beast, the three bioroids leapt back in unison, mere seconds before the demonic creature crashed into their position with a mighty roar. Not wasting a moment on crude speech, the trio conducted a rapid threat assessment/response formulation via their mental link. Greyite rounds possess insufficient potency to counteract target’s accelerated regenerative factor. Switching to Magentite/Saffronite coated Silverite/Obsidianite rounds for next firing solution. Engaging attack pattern Delta-Epsilon.

Moving with preternatural agility and uncannily perfect synchronicity, the members of the tactical triumvirate positioned themselves at precise points around their monstrous foe and unleashed another withering hail of fire from their ultra-tech assault rifles. This time, the torrent of hybridium rounds penetrated much deeper into Oros the Savage’s tough hide, before exploding in bursts of searing, and highly corrosive, mystic flame, while also generating localized anti-magic fields in an effort to prevent any further regeneration around the points of impact.

“Hey, got any food for the rest of us?!” the smirking Saw Blade Stacy called to Oros the Inventive after the young woman with hidden eyes finished gulping down her hotdog. “Cuz I totally forgot to order pizza!” The next instant, the punk-attired Ars Magi revved up her Gladius, the giant magitech chainsaw whirring to life as it was raised to clash with Lada’s nanotech great axe. It was a pity her Elementum was only truly effective when fighting Voids, Stacy reflected, but she knew that if anyone was creative enough to find a viable way to employ it against another Ars Magi, it was her.

On the other side of the battlefield, a second quartet of Stacys (in particular the “original” Stacy Stitches, Cyberslime Stacy, Staceella, and Storm Witch Stacy) were blasted into the air by a mighty jet of wind generated by Oros the Oracle, who followed that up with a volley of several swirling blades of razor-sharp cutting wind. While this attack had little effect on Cyberslime Stacy, it succeeded in slicing off one of Stacy Stitches’s patchwork arms.

“Woah! Someone should really think about issuing one of those weather advisory dealies!” the patchwork girl exclaimed. “The fight’s barely started, and I already lost an arm!”

“Don’t worry Stacy!” Cyberslime Stacy reassured her teammate as she rapidly extended one of her arms to whip out and attempt to grab the severed appendage. “I’ll get it back for ya!”

“Thanks, Stacy!” Stacy Stitches cheerfully called out to her slimy friend, completely oblivious to the fact that the gusty conditions were an attack, rather than a natural weather phenomenon.

However, Staceella and Storm Witch Stacy, not being anywhere near as durable as their two companions, were in significantly greater danger. At least, they should have been. As it happened, all the rapid midair spinning had caused Staceella to become quite dizzy, to the point that she was beginning to feel sick…

“H-Holy freaking crescents you guys…” Staceella stammered as she clutched her stomach. “I-I think I’m g-gonna…”

The next instant, the antenna-headed girl puked up a stream of tiny five-pointed stars. Of course, these weren’t stars at all but hundreds of shimmerlings. The tiny, sparkling creatures promptly dissolved the wind blades before they could reach either Staceella or Storm Witch Stacy, and then continued on to rain down upon the rapidly approaching second (and apparently far more dangerous) quartet of carnage sisters, searing them with star-hot mystic energy.

“Holy wow, those guys look super scary!” Storm Witch Stacy exclaimed upon finally catching sight of the android girls and their robotic mounts. “This zappy zap should soften ‘em up!” she declared, pointing her stormy staff at the advancing foursome and unleashing a crackling arc of blue lightning.

“And here’s another to make ‘em even softer!” Stacy Stitches added cheerfully, using her remaining arm to direct another powerful blast of lightning towards the four robo-horsewomen.

“And here are some crazy cool lasers and missiles for good measure!” Cyberslime Stacy chimed in, unleashing a withering barrage from her various nanoslime-formed rotary cannons, missile pods, and death rays. “Kazap! Kazow! Kablamy!”

At the same time as this was transpiring, Oros the Wise had (wisely) chosen to engage the Stacy Stitches from her home reality plenum.

“Oh! Heya, Miss Fang!” Stacy called out in a jovial voice that was completely incongruous with the extremely threatening situation she was in. “Is that a Stretch Armstrong impersonation, or are ya just happy to see me?!” the patchwork young woman inquired with a grin and a wink, even as she leaped backwards to put some space between her and the rapidly extending arm. “Well, whatever the case, I think this calls for an extra super zappy Kachow!” she declared, placing her cupped hands together and unleashing a massive, blinding bolt of jagged lightning at the magical guidance counselor’s sickeningly elongated limb.

Meanwhile, high above the battle, in the space between the tallest tower tops and The ARGO’s looming form, Shark Tooth Stacy continued her duel with the Oros of Shock and Awe. In response to Scylla’s attempt to chomp it into bits, Breakfast at Brittany’s served up a helping of EMP blast-to-the-mouth, opening the multi-headed Framewerk’s jaws and sending it spiraling away through the sky. This was followed up with a side order of rocket propelled pop tarts. However, by this point, Scylla had stabilized itself and was more than ready to intercept the twin missiles with several point defense energy beams emanating from the toothy maws of each of the bizarre Framewerk’s smaller heads.

“Screw pop tarts!” Stacy retorted over Scylla’s speakers. “I wanna chow down on some meat!”

With that, she activated Scylla’s Extreme Booster array, sending the multi-headed mechanical monstrosity hurtling up into the air, only to plunge down upon B@B an instant later, like a toothy, neon pink meteor.

“Death from above, ding dong!” Stacy called out with a peal of unhinged laughter.

The psychotic shark toothed young woman knew that Scylla had been designed to savagely hammer its opponents into a waiting anvil, and while none of her allies particularly fit that description, she figured that the towering, recently conjured hospital was a more than suitable replacement…

Lea flinched, not expecting to suddenly have Penny talking in her ear, without even the usual noise of someone answering. … So, without their technology expert they were instantly breached, is that it? Or had Penny successfully found and neutralized Nina? Once again, the mere fact Lea could recall Nina’s name implied so. Still…

‘… Hah,’ Lea gave a mild chuckle. It didn’t take too long for her to come up with her reply.

‘Kill the Queen of Hearts,’ she demanded plainly. ‘As long as she runs her show, things will end undesirably, one way or another. Asengav has made his decision, he thinks the Queen is on his side. She’s not. There is no way she is. But for whatever reason, the words of Mariette ring more important in his ears than mine, and Mariette has said the Queen is on our side. Slay her, and then perhaps I can convince Asengav that this operation is doomed to fail. Until then, my hands are tied.’

This bought her time. She could evaluate the situation again should Penny succeed. If they were losing, maybe she’d keep her word. Because what does one operation matter to an eternal being like herself? She knew Asengav had put a lot of planning into this one operation, but what did it really matter if it failed? It just meant another thousand years during which Lea could spend eternity with Asengav…

Lea winced. Why didn’t… why didn’t that thought spark the joy it used to? Because the Queen had cut her so-called mind-bending? … Lea shook her head. Surely, that joy would come back. The happiness of serving her lord. It had to. Because without it…

What was she?

__________________


‘Freya. Get out of there.’


‘Woah. You answered,’ Freya reeled a bit. She hadn’t expected that.

‘Fighting for Asengav will get you killed. Get out of there, and we’ll figure out a way to sever your connection with him. You have no reason to stay,’ Nina declared in a harsh tone.

‘Heh. I’m happy to hear you’re doing fine. Hm. Mariette said that there was a plan in the works to set us free, but we’d have to pretend to still be under Asengav’s control,’ Freya shared what she knew, while feeling intense relief at hearing Nina’s voice.

‘Iracabeth is playing with her like a doll. I don’t know what kind of a plan Mariette could purport to have. Get out of there,’ Nina maintained the exact same tone.

‘… I’m thankful you care. But actually, I’d like to be here. I care about the people here. I can switch allegiance on the fly if the situation calls for it. I can make a difference here,’ Freya said, satisfied. She didn’t know if she wanted to fight for Asengav, but she didn’t want to flee. Esther, the others… Freya cared about them.

‘Stubborn fool, Freya. Fine. Maybe if I share some information, that will convince you,’ Nina said in a frustrated tone. Then, Freya’s phone got a text message. They were coordinates. ‘A plant-monster invaded from within our base. Olivia grabbed the unconscious Jelena and ran. Iracabeth’s army’s attacking. They’re alone on the streets. I need you to go save them.’

‘… Fuck,’ Freya glanced at the message, her mind all of a sudden working at full intensity as she spun around look over at Shelyn and Esther, who were a bit further away out of hearing range. ‘Shit, fuck. I’m on my way.’

‘I’ll keep you updated,’ Nina said, before the call ended. With that, Freya broke into a run, to tell Shelyn and Esther about what she was off to do. Freya knew Lea would simply say that Olivia and Jelena weren’t important at this stage, so no telling her.

Right, time to mount a rescue mission. She’d bring Shelyn, because she didn’t trust leaving Shelyn alone with someone just yet.

Hang on, Olivia, Jelena…!

…

Meanwhile, at the other end of the call, Nina breathed out in satisfaction. Now, someone who was aware of her every move might know that Nina had already sent a message to Olivia to meet up with Freya, with what path that was safest… and also that she could just have sent one of those under her current command to save Olivia and Jelena. But instead, she made sure Freya was the one to do it.

__________________




Ronin and Miko looked on in surprise as Ani up and left after giving no answer to the given questions. After Ani departed, Miko turned to look down into the pit of blades with tense apprehension. There was no proof that there was anything left in this world of Mac, other than the completely different girl that had jumped out in her stead.

‘Hey, we’ve got a city to save,’ Ronin said in a comforting tone. She had realized what was on her sister’s mind and grabbed her arm, both as emotional support, but also as a reminder that they were definitely on a clock.

‘I know,’ Miko closed her eyes in regret. ‘Alright, let’s go! Penny, where are we going!?’ Miko asked, as the two twins turned to dash along with the Penny version that was still here and Ani to return to Penrose and see what they could do there. Part of both of their minds did think about what Ani had said about being an AI, and also more concerningly about having data on the people present, but for now they would have to stash that away.

As said, they had a city to save!

__________________




‘…’ Mariette wasn’t entirely sure what was happening. Mika was going to compete with Su in this strange competition as the Queen opened a portal to an arena. And she was the price? Then they said that she needed to become a queen. The chess comparison wasn’t entirely lost on Mariette, albeit she had no answer to their question. The world wasn’t a chessboard. The Queen had never shown anything that seemed like a king, or the other side of the board.

… Okay, but this whole adventure had left Mariette feeling like she wasn’t updated in a long while. Mariette manifested her hand-mirror in her hand, waved it before her, and an array of mirrors showed up in front of her. Her portal-magic, albeit blocked from being actual portals by her necklace, spread across the city to give her sight as her portals opened up high. It was high time she got back into a position where she could see everything. That’s where she was the most comfortable…

…


‘…’ Mikayla didn’t really have an opinion on what was currently going on. Instead, she was simply gathering mana.

She was supposed to be the last line of defense, when their foes had been exhausted fighting all the guardians of the mirrors to overwhelm what was left of them. Now, here, on top of the tower, she was now instead going to be the first one they faced. So in preparation for that…

Mikayla idly waved her arm with the magic claws on them. Nothing apparent was happening, but the spiritual presence around Covington Tower was growing stronger…

“Are those all Stacy and Oros, but from different worlds?”

In the Nexus, a place where the laws of reality were more of a suggestion than an absolute, was Kayli, a magical girl who had been personally chosen by the Grand Magistrate. She, now serving as the Guardian, looked upon a large, open book that showed the events of the battle between Penny, the Stacy Squad, and Phase Oros, a puzzled yet concerned look on her face. AR, the floating book who served as the aforementioned Grand Magistrate, made a motion resembling a nod.

“Yes, well, different reality plenums, more specifically. Each one of them are Perspective Chapters, but from different Stories. Some have the same genre of modern fantasy like the Story you know, but some are medieval fantasy, science fiction, history, or even based on a completely realistic modern setting, each one as unique as their Author.”

“But why are they all here and mixing up the genres? Shouldn’t they stay in their own reality plenums instead of coming here?” She asked with her arms crossed.

“Usually that is the case, yes. However, because of the rapidly accelerating stagnation of this reality plenum, the border between plenums is thinning, and Perspective Chapters from elsewhere are bleeding in. If nothing is done, this Story will be consumed, and everything you know would disappear into the pages between Reality Plenum Grandia, trapped in endless misery.”

“And to end the stagnation and breaking down of these narrative walls of sorts, the Nexus needs to be sealed, correct?” She asked, still trying to grasp the situation based on the vague descriptions that AR gave.

Again, AR made the nodding motion. “Yes. The Queen’s dread weapon, the Storyslayer, is the key to the sealing ritual.”

Kayli smiled, and turned towards the exit door, standing under the street.
“Fine, I’ll go and grab the Storyslayer from the misplaced monarch, and finish the ritual.”

“But please remember to protect the other Perspective Chapters,” AR warned.

“We need at least ten to survive and participate in order to finish the ritual.”

“Understood. Take care now.” And with that, the Guardian of the Nexus stepped forth to fulfill her destiny.




Lily smiled as Alex thanked her, and was about to make a suggestion when Penny spoke up. She blinked in surprise as Penny gave a startling revelation after observing the holo-display of Penrose on the table.
”Covington Tower? Why there?”
”It doesn’t matter why it’s there, go!” Justine yelled, and thrust a pointing finger at the display.
Rachel nodded, and dropped the head of her hammer down, resting her hand on the pommel.
“The Queen of Hearts will pay for the crimes she has committed! The Ascendancy, no, BEACON will not go quietly into the night! We will bring a new dawn of peace!” She corrected herself after glancing over at Alicia.

”Okay then! Magical Girls and Guy with attitude, assemble! We are the Avengers of Bolorton, and we will end this Infinity War against Wonderland, and go into the Endgame! In the name of the moon, I will punish evil!” Lily punched up in the air with a little jump, working herself up, and ran out of the Bastion, summoning her motorcycle and driving right off the deck, trusting Alex to get on board as they have done countless times.

Justine and Caroline dived down, only to glide on their bat wings as they went forth to harry the Wonderland army gathering at the foot of the Tower. Rachel teleported back to Beacon HQ to quickly assemble the defenders, and the rest also prepared.

---

Tsuki smirked. “Oh? So that’s how it is~” She teased, but Hudie had already run off again. “I suggest you forget about Penny, she’s nothing but trouble.” And with those parting words, she left the rooftop, now dodging any tendrils Chloe may summon as they left for Covington Tower.

---

The Cheshire Cat stared at clone!Penny, who accused her of trespassing for a while, and then blinked, her eyes wide.
“Ooohhhh…What a CAT-astrophe!” She held her head with her hands. “I shouldn’t have brought us here directly! But I thought, with how we were in a hurry, I thought we should get here as soon as possible! OH NYO!” She dropped down in prostration. “I’m sorry! I should have asked permission first! Punish me how you want! I can do cooking, cleaning, bathing, changing clothes, playing, pampering, being pampered, being punched, being kicked, being stabbed, being strangled, being cut to pieces, getting immolated, getting blown up, getting shot to the moon, anything! I have nine lives, but you can take all of them as recompense!”

---

The Queen of Hearts observed with glee as Mika and Su played along with her suggestion for the game, and donned the red and white armor, followed by mounting their knightly steeds. Having to wield their weapons using only their forearms and not their hands, it was clunky and awkward, and the weapons often fell off, making for slow proceedings. The horses obeyed their riders silently, and the two charged forth at each other. Su was the first to strike Mika, and she fell down off her horse. Then, in the next round, Mika was the one who struck successfully, and Su fell down. The armors were enchanted to provide enough protection to avoid concussions as the “knights” fell on their heads. And so the duel continued, sometimes with a hit, sometimes with a miss. Yet, the two realized that the fight would never end in a victor, as it would only end when both fell off their horses.

As the Queen focused on the antics, Mariette took her chance to summon mirrors and get an update on the various situations that were unfolding. She saw that the Mahou had left the Wonderland Castle except for a few, including those who planned on blowing it up. She also saw that thy had gone for the Bastion, only to quickly depart towards Covington Tower, where she was.

However, that was when the Queen spoke up, looking bored after Mika once again fell off her horse, though she hadn’t averted her eyes from the two pretending knights.

“I tire of these games. Alice, let’s proceed with the finale of the ritual, and the summoning of Asengav.”

That was when she blinked, and felt a presence: it was the Guardian of the Nexus.
“Oh, and who is this?” She asked with a sharp smile.
“I am the Guardian of the Nexus, and I demand you give over the Storyslayer you possess!”
The Queen blinked, summoned the sword, and slid a finger across the blade.
“Oh, this? Why don’t you come and get it?”

Lily's speech really made Alexander want to facepalm. He didn't, but it was a close thing. Once he saw her summon her ride, he instantly knew what she was planing and rushed to get on it before she drove off. Before they actually reached the edge, Alexander made a barrier ramp for her to drive down 'It would be just my luck if she had crashed right here and taken us out of the fight early' he grumped to himself 'Come to think of it, I haven't found this 'Guardian' person yet. I hope that doesn't screw us over' Suddenly reminded about that, a jolt of panic hit him as he checked on the scroll, and found it right where he left it 'well that's a relief'

As Wonderland’s forces pushed into Penrose. They would suddenly be beset by a volley of laser fire as a score of Pennybots descended upon the encroaching horde. And while the Penny bots were outnumbered many to one, they had superior speed and strength.

Not to mention an unrivaled understanding of the battle field. As each Pennybot shared data with each other, and that data was processed not only by the Pennybots, but also by the girls back on the Bastion. Who were backed up by the valiant Ship’s own sensors.

So despite their lower number, they were a frighteningly effective defense force.

---

_{Nowhere At All}

The stalemate between Penny’s and Osiris’ techno arachnid was short lived. For Penny never expected to be able to overpower the thing. As she had yet to find an opponent that she was actually stronger then.

So shortly after Impact Penny was already moving onto her next move. Using the blocking claw as leverage, Penny swung underneath the body of the scorpion. It’s second claw still glanced through her multilayered barriers however, scoring a scratch on her head.

She set her repair protocols on that light wound absently, as she slid along the ground underneath on her the hover systems. One hand lightly traced across the undercarriage of her target. Leaving thin gray lines in her wake.

AS she reached the base of the tail Penny would slam her arm into the ground anchoring herself as two of her spider limbs reached out to either side of the street to grab the replicated cars there. Before swinging them in to crush Osiris.

---

_{With Everyone}

“She is so lucky I moved the Bastion into place so she could do that.” Penny would sigh at Lily’s actions, though she also couldn’t help but smile at them as well. The spunky girl’s upbeat personality was really a boon at times like these.

She would turn to Alicia. “Since everyone else has gone ahead, seems like you get to share my source with me. My first Patron, is responsible for the lightning storm. Whatever is happening down there is big. Since it’s got his attention.” She would inform her friend, her longest and oldest one at that.

“No idea what’s going to meet us there, but.” A swirl of space twisted next to Penny until a hole in space was formed about ten feet above Covington Tower. “Once more unto the breach, shall we?” She would ask with a grin before she turned towards the open portal. Only to blink at the situation below. “Kayli?”

She would shake her head before jumping through the portal, and down onto the roof top below. The end really was soon it seemed.

---

_{On the Phone}

’The Queen of Hearts is a dead woman walking. Of that I can assure you.’ Penny would reply. Her voice cold, there was no love lost between the two Queens after all. ‘And the longer you hold off, the quicker it will be so as well.’ The Queen of Penrose would add. Clearly willing to strike at least that much of a deal.

‘And, if you will forgive some unprompted advice.’ She continued a moment later. ‘Patrons are fickle in their support. I’ve been abandoned twice, and even had an attempted assassination attempt before. And those were from the supposed ‘good’ ones. It’s not worth it to tie your happiness to them.’

‘You have my number.’ Penny would finish. And before Lea could reply the call ended, leaving her with the dial tone ringing out.

---

_{In Her Room}

“Ha! Guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, should I?” Penny would state, laughing a little. Before she led the way through the second door she had gestured at.

It would lead towards another corridor. One that went on for a bit longer than the ones used to bring everyone to Penny’s own room. But eventually it would come to an end with a small T-junction.

“Door on the left leads to the general command room that has been set up for other to assist with the Pennybot management.” She would explain, a small scree blinking to life showing the room in question.

The room itself was simple, sterile metal walls and floor. In the center of the room however was six large command stations, all ringing a pillar of cords that vanished into the ceiling. The basis of the command stations was a large almost recliner type chair, but when one was seated the chair would almost fold around the person. Brining into view nine different screens, two full keyboards, three partial key pads, a mouse and a set of joysticks.

In the room four of the six stations were in use, and it was clear that not everyone was piloting the Penny bots the same way.

“There is a head set built into the head rest, to communicate to the other’s easier and to speak through the Pennybots.” Penny would explain. “The room on the right, has the same set up but only has one station. That one is for you Violet if you want to keep some distance between me and you. If you want to join everyone in the main room I can shift it over easy.”

---

_{A One on One}

“An accident then.” Penny would say with a nod. “I can forgive such. Seeing as it was done with the best of intention. And you were not wrong to think we were in a hurry. Even now, the rest of those you brought here have already split off to muster forces against the Queen of hearts.” She would continue.

“Rise.” She would command. “And know that if this is to happen again without forewarning or permission. I will see it as an act of war by your Misstress.”

She would gesture at the door and it would swing open on its own. “You are free to roam the Bastion or leave as you see needed. For now, I have matters I must attend to myself. I do thank you for your time.” Penny would nod at the Chesire cat before leaving. This body would soon head towards the front line to assist with the defense of Penrose. Along with several others of those that Penny Prime had brought back with her.

---

_{Left Behind}

Penny watched as Ani strode away, walking back towards Penrose. Seemingly planning on taking the long road. She too shelved the idea that there was another AI tracking the data of people nearby. It was after all the third AI to do that to Penny’s understanding.

But the madness of Penrose didn’t give her any time to worry about that particular comment.

“Cat door.” Penny would reply to the twins pointing out the interdimensional Catflap that was still chiming softly not far away from them. “Leads to the Bastion, and there is an open wormhole there leading to Covington Tower, where things are starting to kick off.” She would explain as she led the way.

She was ambivalent if Ani followed after them. But knew her home would be safe one way or the other. And regardless Penny’s other copies would start working to dismantle the cat flap as soon as the twins made it through. If it didn’t vanish on its own that is.

---

_Alone?

Penny’s attention continued to widen. And despite the stress she felt should have been the case, if anything it was the opposite. The further she spread her attention, the easier it seemed to become.

Subdiving, and sub processes events across her own personal network, even as she gave all of them the same level of focus and attention she would as if she was there. Which she was, as much as she wasn’t.

Calculating combat sequence against Osiris, talking with Violet, confiding in Alica, threatening Lea, watching over Nina, guiding Miko and Ronin home. She was there, at all of there, and she was ‘here’ and only ‘here’.

And because of that it was so easy to divert a pair of Pennybots away from the network. To shadow Olivia and Jelena until Freya showed up.

‘When did Freya and Shelyn split up?’

Just as she made sure that they would have a safe place to fall back too. Shifting the Bastion with barely a thought, rooms and space for all of Asengav’s refuges unfolded into place within the hidden gaps of the titanic ship.

Lea did not reply a single word to Penny’s first part, merely glared ahead with narrowed eyes. Then… unsolicited advice. Advice that made her frown. What kind of advice was that? Part from advice that sounded like Penny knew exactly what was on Lea’s mind. Did she know about the Queen’s mind-bend-undoing slice already?

Foolish. Asengav had kept her happy for thousands of years. Who was Penny to say her happiness was better, somehow? As the call ended, Lea lowered her phone… and she felt the darkness behind her gazing at her. It had heard her. Heard her request to slay the Queen of Hearts, and now it wanted answers.

‘… If she aims all her strength to take out the Queen of Hearts, then it avoids harm to the rest of our forces. If the Queen is strong, she can take some focus-fire. We lose nothing if she dies. If Penny thinks killing the Queen can cause us to make peace, then perhaps she will not aim to hurt anyone else. Anyone we actually need. It is simply a distraction, and make sure the Queen of Hearts pulls her weight in our service,’ Lea told the darkness, framing it as a plot.

The darkness heard her, and slowly slank back where it came…

‘…’ Lea could have told him about the un-mind-bending that had afflicted everyone. She absolutely, absolutely could have. However… a part of her wished to prove she could be Asengav’s worthy follower, even without that silly change. She’d lose that chance if it was reinstated. She could desire him on her own. With her own free mind. That’s what she was telling herself.

She turned to gaze out the direction towards Covington Tower, through the Black Mirror. It seems things were going to go down out there, involving none of the mirrors. She trusted Mikayla had it handled. She always did. But just in case, Lea prepared herself, frowning, gazing down all of their backs… and her eyes landed on Mariette’s.

For some reason, Asengav, in his infinite wisdom, had picked a girl less than a decade old to be his favourite. To rain all his rewards upon. And what had she done? Delayed the ritual, brought this Queen of Hearts into their midst, and that woman had taken Lea’s happiness…

‘…’

__________________


Kayli appearing from literally nowhere was concerning. She immediately had spectral soldiers wielding lances and scythes surrounding her on most sides, also seeming to have appeared out of nowhere in response, prepared for whatever shenanigans she might attempt while Mikayla merely stood on her side… but, it seemed like this was the Queen’s battle to fight. So who was Mikayla to deny her the battle?

Instead, Mikayla turned her clawed hand to point at the portal forming ten feet above Covington Tower. There was no way she would miss something like that with her sense of magic.

Her attack was two-fold.

First, an intense shock-wave of a gravitational blast. She wasn’t going to let anyone land on this tower. While the Black Mirror stood here, this was her grounds, and nobody was allowed to walk it without her permission. With the gravity-blast, it was impossible to just “fall” onto the rooftop.

For the second. It was the beam of ghasts that flew at abnormal speeds at the portal and anyone who was coming through. All fighters, soldiers, thugs, knights, empowered with the might of the Netherrealm Queen they flew with swords and lances and axes and shields raised, their spectral bodies twisted by the speed with which they were shot. They were far stronger than they’d been in life as Mikayla’s magic coursed through their attacks, and even if you cut some down there would always be more of them. Mikayla was ready to fight armies of men or dozens of Magical Girls at a time, but she was more than capable of aiming all that firepower at a single point. Standing in the eye of that particular magnifying glass would be very dangerous.

The spectres had been launched by the very same gravitational shock as the one that was stopping descent. They were pale blue, ghastly in appearance, sunken eyes, tattered clothes fluttering over ancient armor, and brandishing their weapons to stab and chop at those standing in their way. If the portal remained open, they would try to barge through it en-masse and attempt to cut into the group waiting at the other side, flying past and cutting down with their blades as they’d try to swirl into the room.

All while Mikayla merely gazed, intensely and unconcerned, her partly uncorporeal body gushing with Powerful Aura as she unleashed her assault; her magic so powerful it was visible as bright blue around her. All while numerous spectral guards were forming around her… just in case.

Connie, Gaia, and Violet followed Penny as she led them to the Pennybot command room. Upon reaching a T-intersection, the Mechanical Monarch informed them that she had a separate room prepared for Violet, so as to conceal her presence from prying eyes.

“Thank you for the accommodation, Penny,” the heiress said with an appreciative smile. “I believe a private room shall prove most conducive to maintaining my anonymity.” Turning to Connie and Gaia, she added, “Until next we meet, I wish you both the best of luck.”

“G-Good luck t-to y-you, t-too!” Connie stammered as she waved a trembling hand at the departing heiress.

With that, the trio split up to their respective chambers and workstations. However, while Gaia seemed right at home in the ultra-tech command chair, despite her botanical, nymph-like appearance, Connie felt no small amount of trepidation at being placed in such a seemingly important role. Even after a short tutorial helped her to grasp the basics of the chair’s user interface, the masked maiden still felt very much out of her element. After all, she had never played many video games, and what she would be doing here would have major, real life repercussions. Sensing this, Gaia set up a private communications link with her timid friend in order to provide some encouragement.

“Worry not, little sister,” the verdant maiden’s soothing voice spoke over the headset. “I know this all seems quite overwhelming, but you needn’t take full command right away. In fact, if you would like, I can oversee our assigned units’ combat functionality myself, while you simply watch over the combat zone and alert me to any impending threats or new developments. How does that sound?”

“O-Okay,” Connie replied, mustering up her resolve. “I-I’ll do my b-best!”

Gaia smiled. “Then let us begin.”

While the Pennybots were perfectly capable of autonomous action, they clearly benefited from the oversight and direction provided by a competent commander, in a smilier way to units in a real-time strategy game. Similarly, those units also occasionally benefitted from more direct micromanagement, and it was here that Gaia truly excelled, with her natural high skill and APM now further augmented by the superhuman reflexes of her magical girl form. At the same time, Connie, while initially hesitant, was growing increasingly proficient with looking over the “big picture” and calling attention to any places where the Wonderlanders were attempting to launch a sneak attack or breakthrough, as well as any civilians that might potentially be caught in the crossfire and needed to be protected.

Meanwhile, Violet had acclimated herself to her own command chair even more rapidly than Gaia had. The Daughter of Mother Earth might have been an avid gamer, but the daughter of Thane Covington had designed similar command and control systems for Covington Industries’ own line of combat drones, drones she had a direct hand in creating. Of course, as Violet well-knew, the Pennybots were far more advanced than anything CI had built up until that point, and so, she did not need to employ quite as firm a hand in their guidance as they set about vanquishing the Wonderland invasion force. Instead, her efforts were most firmly focused on providing encouragement and positive affirmation to the units under her care. Indeed, this was no different than the cheerful optimism she displayed towards her various whimsical creations as Magical Dream Princess, and she found that such a role came naturally to her, even in this more refined and mature state.

It didn’t take Ani long to realize that no one was following her. After scanning the area, she noticed the cat door portal, which isn’t to be confused with the portal Mariette opened earlier, or the one Chloe used. Did Chloe use the same portal Mariette used? Either way, it wasn’t the same portal that lead to covington tower, which wasn't to be confused with the black mirror that could act as a portal, and-

Fuck it, this was taken way too many *tokens to figure out. She could overcity shift, she could just place herself in the general vicinity of Covington tower. It was hard, but not impossible to orientate herself near the portal above the dark mirror.

*^{Tokens are units of data processed by AI models. The more complex an operation is, the more tokens it needs to be broken down into in order to be properly understood by the AI.}

As soon as she did, problems started instantly, with a ‘gravity shockwave’ and an assault from some angered spirits.

The mirror may have been Mikayla’s domain, but Penrose belonged to its magical girls. Ani’s hands moved in front of her chest, both palms faced towards each other. No sooner did the gravity attack strike did Ani counter with her own gravity well. The magical girls coming through the cat door portal with her would not shoot up into space, but be gently pulled towards the tower. The use of a gravity well instead of trying to influence everyone’s gravity individually was a conscious calculation, as well as being much less mana intensive. Should the gravity shockwave try to crush everyone into the earth, the lower half of Ani’s gravity well would start pulling in the opposite direction, preventing further harm. As Ani sank, so did the well itself, hopefully bringing everyone to the tower.

But like her unseen opponent, Ani’s spell was twofold. She made everyone coming through the portal invisible and created duplicates that got blasted away by Mikayla’s magic. Penny was not affected by this spell. Not because Ani disliked Penny, because she actually liked her after their brief interaction. If anything, she was annoyed that she was already taken. But her feelings did not come into her choice to exclude her. It was simply that Penny was a capable magical girl and could likely tank anything that came at her.

---

Chloe loved getting the last word, but she also understood how valuable her time was, and didn’t have a reason to say anything smart to the departing ascendancy girls.

Speaking of, why was she going to waste more of her own time seeing one of her agents? Surely such a thing could wait. The main event was underway, and the bulk of her forces were already with her. If this queen was so dangerous, there was no reason to put off facing her.

“Alright bone heads, let’s give the lightbulbs the backup they so desperately desire.”

There was no cheering or spirit, just mindless obedience from most of her forces. A Gothizard Harvister picked up Chloe and placed her on its head. The rest of her forces surged forwards, swiftly but with a calm only the undead could possess.

---

There was only so much distracting that could be done before the queen got bored, decided to accelerate, or just had her armies move on without her. A fourth possibility that Su hadn’t considered was that another magical girl would show up and attack the queen directly. Su groaned behind her helmet. While she had been okay letting this drag on (gettit? Drag-on?) She had played along with both Mariette and the queen long enough. The longer this was put off, the more people were going to get hurt. They had thwarted Father’s plans, Soth’s too, they didn’t need the queen to defeat Asengav. And if they did, was it worth jeopardizing Penrose and everyone who lived there?

“We should play somewhere else.” Su turned to look at the queen.

”You wanna play with her?” the red knight tipped her head. ”More people means more fun!”

Mother and daughter charged the queen. Su had no intention of trying to hit her. She could just barely hit Mika like this, and doubted the cat girl would fare much better. But maybe while armored like this, they could at least provide a distraction.

Until the pawn was ready to move to the end of the board.

of the many ways that this could have gone, Alicia did not expect Penny to open a new portal just after Lily and Alex had left, one which would allow them to directly arrive atop Covington Tower. Honestly she was a little surprised by that. Usually it was a lot more difficult to actually get to the big threat that they wanted to fight, especially if some sort of ritual was involved. But maybe Mariette had found some way to sabotage any protection spells there might be to block portals besides her own. Who could say?

Penny went first of course, but as Alicia prepared to follow it turned out that their enemies had some defenses as well. Firstly, a shockwave of gravity magic, then a veritable beam of angry spirits headed right at them. There was only moments to react, but it was clear that maybe this had been a move that was too bold, considering the circumstances.

Before Alicia could do anything to redirect the portal or any other sort of defensive measures, the new(?) girl Ani swung into action. Gravity was countered with gravity, and since it seemed like they were doing this Alicia moved through the portal as well. That she was not being immediately targeted by an angry spirit indicated there was more going on, but she wasn't going to question it when it worked in their favor.

For now she moved towards the roof of the building, swinging wide as best she could in the circumstances to land apart from the others, and hopefully at an angle that the girls present already would be less prepared for. With a fight already looking like it was going on, she just needed to get to solid ground and then look for her moment.

Regardless of how Penny quantified her own strength, it didn’t change the fact that most would consider her a strong magical girl. Not because she was a match for monster kings like Elroy, supped up monster girls like Helga, or any other opponent with conventional strength. The fact was that regardless of what she came across, she came out on top. Often unscathed and always for the better. The weaker part of herself, Jason, had died a long time ago. Osirus did not concern herself with such details of course. She was simply here to do as instructed, which was to be Penny’s most dangerous opponent yet along with the rest of her squad. If it wasn’t going to come out as an attack during this skirmish, it didn’t matter to her.

Her eyes followed Penny’s position. The EoD scorpion performed a spinning hop and attempted to crush Penny underneath it’s frame, but the Iron Queen managed to slide to safety before the attack could connect. It was facing Penny now, but was still in the process of standing up when Penny’s improvised car collision came swinging.

"Huh."

The scorpion was quick to grab the spider-like appendages, but not in time to stop the attack Osiris stood still as the cars smashed on either side of her. It created an ear splitting shriek that sounded like the death throws of some prehistoric animal. Shards of safety glass tumbled through the air like scattered diamonds, and various motor fluids pooled on top of the techno scorpion. The cars were smashed flat with their tires almost touching each other. If Osiris had endured the attack, she would have had to have been crushed as flat as a pancake. The cars were irreversibly entwined, and the only thing that could fit between them now was a cloud of nanites.

Speaking of…

A cloud of gold and black blasted out from the mass of twisted steel, like a geyser had erupted between the two cars. The nanites came together shortly afterwards, building Osirus mid sprint. While she ran to close the distance, she hopped into the air and spun horizontally like a drill. Her Supplemental Chthonic Omniphasic Reactive Polyharmonic Infinite Opposition Neutralizer (The scythe-like tail apparatus she has) attempted to cut through the outstretched spider limbs as she approached.



Swift knew that diving into enemy ranks was dangerous, but it was important to cut an army off from its support as quickly as possible. The stacys were durable opponents, and they’d never make a dent in them with a medic standing among their ranks. The smoke bomb was just a tactic to buy her some time, but it wasn’t a perfect defence. She looked up at the ghosts overhead and clicked her tongue. There were a lot of things she could say, but she wasn’t ready to give away her position yet. That would come .05 seconds later, but timing was everything when you were as good as Swift was.

She left the ground with a skyward kick, carrying her into the jaw of a ghost. There was no satisfying jaw crack though. The specter blew apart into a puff of smoke as Oriko soared skyward, Then she threw out her leg and rocketted off towards a second specter, but this one was better prepared. It deflected her attack with its club, and she flipped backward and dropped her heel through a third ghost. She didn’t like being caught out in the open like this, but reinforcements were coming. At least she hoped, it was too early to deploy any of their strategems…



"Thank you for the compliments, my most noble adversary! Your own outfit reveals a real eye for color!" She managed to get in before her legs were swept from under her. The girth of her backpack caused her to flop backward, and suspend her body several feet off the ground. Nomad Stacy had to hop pretty high for an effective elbow slam, but all Amber could do in response was to try and block the blow with her ladle. Her little arms ended up collapsing and the wind was knocked out of her anyway. "Hngh!" She reached for a carrot that was strapped to her leg and chucked it into the zombie’s mouth. That bought Amber just enough time to unstrap the backpack and roll backwards. "I played, hurk, a rogue." She reached for a massive pan that was as tall as she was. "I liked *cough* diplomatic solutions." When Amber swung her pan, one could feel it displace the air in front of it.



Merely hopping backwards wasn’t going to provide the trio with much of a reprieve from the monster. But it was enough. The more powerful anti-magic rounds were doing more to slow it down. Its movements slowed as acid burned deep inside its body. Of course, it would never truly die until its phylactery was destroyed. The monster attempted to reach into its own flesh to scoop out the magic nullifying concoction, and it did help. Savage, like the other Oros, had been trained on a multitude of simulations. They understood how to deal with certain types of problems, and its choice to seemingly sacrifice itself to the trio was part of its tactics. Perhaps Luana’s intelligence dwelled inside the creature somewhere. It could take the heat, at least a little while.

Fortunately, it wouldn't need to take it much longer.

Lada’s nanites from earlier swoop in to assist Savage. While the creature very much relied on magic to rapidly heal itself, Lada’s nanites did not need mana to operate. They had little difficulty expelling the strange bile from the monster as fast as they could. Though with three guns firing simultaneously, there was only so much that could be done.



"I could make you a hot dog, but it would taste like metal." As far as Oroses were concerned, Lada was not a very remarkable combatant herself. But she wasn’t quite as crippled as Saw Blade Stacy was, at least. Her nanites had a variety of uses, despite not being particularly useful at any one thing.

The sawblade chewed into the axe, but that was a feature rather than a flaw. The nanite particles were getting sucked into the chainsaw and jam it up before long. Once that happened, maybe Lada would give her that nanite hotdog she so desired.



It was all happening rather fast. An ice pack was chucked at her face, then stitched to her nose tight enough to cut off the flow of blood. Joy was pretty sure applying an ice pack to someone’s face like that wasn’t typical nurse behavior. But more pressing was her lack of thrust, which caused her to fall before she reached her target. Fortunately, Joy’s newest obsession was there to catch her in a bridal carry. It took Suki a moment to regain her bearings. Stacy had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, and was applying pressure to her nose. The other hand, which was down by her legs, was holding up some ‘crazy cool little lightsaber type dealies’ that apparently wouldn’t hurt. It still wasn’t something that Oros was keen to have shoved up her nose. But none of that seemed to matter when Oros realized her situation. Being cared for by a super cutie that actually wanted to help her was something that could finally be scratched off her bucket list. She smiled and allowed herself to settle into the nurse’s arms.

"I didn't dow dat!" It was hard to say much with her nose clamped shut, but she was deeply appreciative of being spoken to like this. "dell be bore!" For a zombie, her skin was rather soft. It was a shame the nurse was wearing gloves, as she’d have liked to have felt her fingers on her face. But time was waning. As nice as this felt, Joy understood this couldn’t end well. There was no romance here, just the relationship between a patient and caretaker. If Oros did nothing, then the nurse would conclude her business here and move on to other patients. And, well, there was a fight going on. Joy couldn’t just embrace fleeting pleasures and expect her team to win. She had to embrace fleeting pleasures so that she could help them win! Or something.

So while the nurse continued to talk about nosebleed references, Oros reached an arm around the nurse’s neck. Then she, slowly, used her other hand to help guide their faces together for a kiss.



Wisdom did not get her reputation as a sadistic task master for going easy on any of Merrywell’s students. She wasn’t about to hold back now.

The Frankenstein inspired magical girl had a terrible habit of telegraphing her spells with her words. So while Stacy spooled up her lightning attack, the arm ‘broke’ a few feet back. The hand and the attached mass transformed into a forth clone that attempted to jump tackle the lightning zombie girl. It didn’t quite work. The clone was stopped mid-air, but with minimal damage. The counselor's clones were just as durable as she was, and shared many of her powers. One of which was a resistance to magic.

What remained of the counselor’s arm buried itself into the ground before rapidly shrinking. This created a sling shot effect that hurled Wisdom straight towards the student, foot first. "And this one calls for a ka-crack!"

The remaining three clones did not sit by idly. One of them turned into a trampoline, which the other two jumped on. The legs of the trampoline suddenly grew, causing the two clones to be launched skyward towards Storm Witch Stacy and Stacy Stitches. As they soared skywards, their bodies collapsed on themselves until they were two pink masses filled with razor sharp teeth.



It was regrettable that her Framewerk was one that operated best at range. While B@B was faster than whatever her opponent was, being a lighter class than your opponent wasn’t strictly an advantage. A few good comps and breakfast would be finished. Thallia doubted her opponent would be so easy to deal with. But as the former hero of the universe, she still anticipated a crushing victory.

As soon as she shifted out of the way.

B@B’s levitation-like movement made it particularly slippery, so even Scylla’s high speed dive wasn’t impossible to avoid. A shame about the hospital beneath her, but now was the time to start hitting her with shit. The toaster quickly morphed into a highly maneuverable saucer (with eggs)

"Alright you rotund bastard!" Thallia roared through the speakers. "Have some sausage links!"

B@B fired two links from her bottom mounted Moonbreaker Railgun. Hopefully her Anti-Battleship Armor Piercing sausages would do something to the flying medusa head.



Morowa blinked. She wasn’t sure why she had picked that particular group to attack. Were her powers malfunctioning, or was this an intentional setback that Nykannis herself had set up to make things more interesting? She hoped not.

Though she supposed that attack did all it needed to do. Maybe there was another target she could do more against. But while she was in thought, Scylla more or less rammed its open jaw into an entire tower of Axis Mundai. The metal wing disappeared as it was flattened straight to the earth. Dust and debris were kicked into the air, as well as far too many moth girl sized stones.

"Ah…"

With no hope of avoiding the debris (her oracle powers told her as much) Morowa could only embrace the inevitable. She disappeared under a pile of rubble.



Davis spun around. His tactical genius prevented him from placing himself in an area where he could possibly be hurt by anything, so he had nothing to fear from falling debris. What he did have was a lot of anger, which he had little issue putting on display.

"YOU CUNT!" He pointed at the giant mecha head. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY BEAUTIFUL BUILDING!?!?!? THAT COSTS MORE THAN YOUR SORRY ASS! IF YOU EVEN HAD AN ASS< YOU LOOK LIKE YOUR ALL HEAD! ALL HEAD BUT NO BRAIN! NO WONDER YOU HANG OUT WITH ZOMBIES! THEIR BRAINLESS ASSES MAKE YOU LOOK SMART BY COMPARISON! I BET THE SHIT I TOOK THIS MORNING LOOKS BETTER THAN YOU, AND I'M DEALING WITH A BOUT OF DIAREAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"



Stampede Stacy, little Crystallis Stacy, Esperverse Stacy, and Staycee were all in range of the original carnage sisters.

"There the are!" The queenly Willow announced in her sultry voice. "Run them down!" After her call to action, she fired a single round out of her cannon before tossing it aside. It briefly replaced Esperverse Stacy’s head before it too rolled off of her shoulders.

Geina slid her arms inside of two chainguns, which immediately started spinning. "It’s time to fuck some shit up!" Without slowing down, she fired on the four zombie girls without a moment’s hesitation. Especially little stacy, because fuck ‘dem kids.

"Oh! I wanted to boop the cute little one!" But Alexandria didn’t pout for long. As they closed the distance, she prepared to run her spear through Staycee. Willow had her lance concentrated on Stampede Stacy.

Kyra remained silent, quietly observing. She didn’t appear to have a weapon, but was quite different from the others in that she had a notebook and glasses. Though she didn’t look like she was taking notes.



The second, far more dangerous group of carnage sisters had just arrived at the fight when it started to rain star junk all over them. It was rather fortunate that they were robots and unable to feel pain.

"Oh god yes!" Napoleon remarked, looking at the acid that was eating into her body. "I crave to be bathed in all the fluids!"

"Wut n’ tarnation!" Adar didn’t get to fire a single shot before blue lightning took her out.

"I want the yellow flavor!" And the Original Stacy obliged.

"I_WOULD_RATHER_GET_LAZERED_AND_EXPLODED!" was Monika’s last words before getting vaporized.

As potent as murder robots could be, the carnage sisters were way out of their element fighting magical entities like zombie magical girls. The carnage sisters at the end of the day didn’t have a drop of arcane energy in them. They were equipped to bully and harass normal humans, and were out of their element in a fight like this. But they were also nigh unlimited in number.

Back at Axis Mundi, four robots powered up again. Though the place wasn’t quite the same as they had remembered it when they initially woke up. Regardless, it was clear who the threat was.

Napoleon, Adar, and Julia dove out of the partially demolished hospital and landed on Scylla.

"Give mommy a kiss!" Napoleon’s guillotine on a rope wrapped around the robot as she descended.

"Gunna poach you like a terduckin’!" Adar fired their sawed off at the Framewerk before preparing to saw into one of its eyes.

"Don’t forget me!" Julia fell towards the other eye, shield raised in case this thing tried to shoot at her.

Monika did not do anything so drastic, however. She merely appeared on various screens inside Scylla’s cockpit. "I_AM_NOT_A_VIRUS_PLEASE_DO_NOT_DELETE_ME_BUT_I_WANT_TO_CORRUPT_YOUR_SYSTEMS_LOLZ!"



Madness chuckled. "Have fun, Osiris. I’ll play with her a little later, so don’t break her too badly." Her eyes pivoted over to the trio of Tactical Triumvirate S.T.A.C.-Y. "Oh yea, I’m supposed to help with that, huh? But it is kinda fun to watch Savage act like a bullet sponge. Hmmm." She rolled back her shoulders and pointed to the sky directly behind the trio. "How about we sacrifice…" Some creature seemed to push itself into reality. The head of an undead lion twisted its way into reality before opening its mouth. Madness was no longer standing near the scorpion. Instead, she was barreling through the creature’s mouth towards the back of the trio of supersoldiers. "THE ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK!"

A happy accident about having three triplets standing side by side was that their necklines were all in about the same place. With a single swing, Madness threatened to decapitate all of them. Was it going to work? Probably not, but it would be interesting to see which of them they considered a bigger threat.

Miko and Ronin nodded in unison as Penny pointed them at the interdimensional cat flap.

‘Alright, let’s go!’ Ronin was quick to start moving, and Miko was right behind her, no less determined.

They crossed through the cat-flap, went through and past anyone who might be left in here towards the next portal, and then-

Then both of them simultaneously widened their eyes and threw their hands up, putting their united strength together to throw up a barrier.

Mikayla’s ghosts slammed against their barrier, and the two girls gasped as the power of Asengav’s strongest girl struck against what little magical power the two had. Alone they’d have been immediately overwhelmed, together they could resist for a second. They couldn’t jump through and just let Mikayla’s ghosts go through the portal. However, with Mikayla’s ghosts continually slamming against the barrier, they wouldn’t be able to hold off for long-!

Luckily, they didn’t have to, as the portal suddenly closed _{(as I have asked Shifter and Penny will close it)}. The two staggered to one knee each briefly, breathing heavily.

‘G-good instinct, throwing up that barrier, Miko…’ Ronin praised her sister.

‘Y-you did the exact same thing, Ronin…’ Miko sighed with a smile, returning the compliment, kinda.

‘Yeah, and good thing we did! I didn’t expect to run straight into Mikayla…!’ Ronin laughed, slightly weakly.

The two stood up, and then turned to look at whatever other Penny might still be with them.

‘Do we have an alternative path?’ Miko asked, still very much wanting to get there and help.

__________________




‘…’

…

‘I want to destroy Asengav. If I manage to do that, countless lives across the dimensions will be saved. There will only be one opportunity; at the pinnacle of this ritual. I chose not to tell anyone, because Asengav must believe I am still serving him. Letting people know while information-gatherers like Nina and Ronja are on Asengav’s team increased the possibility of them finding out and ruining my plan. In addition, my friends might not agree with my plan to put all of Penrose in danger in order to fulfill my goal.’

‘In order to accomplish my goal, I have my mother here, with an additional tool for destroying Asengav. I need her to make it. However, despite having woven this elaborate web of traps and five mirrors to delay my friends from arriving, it seems we’ve been moved so the Black Mirror is now our first and only line of defense, when it was supposed to be the last. My friends are now attacking. I need the ritual to keep on going, but I also don’t want to see my friends die. If either side of this battle wins, I lose. The best solution would have been if my friends did not attack or if they lost but didn't die.’

‘But, the moment my goal is accomplished, I DO need their help, because at that point I will need to fight against those who were previously my allies…’ Mikayla and maybe Mother, that is. ‘I’m uncertain what to do. And in the middle of all of this, my friend Su says Alice could match the queen when she crossed the board and became a Queen herself. I’m supposedly Alice in this saying. Becoming a Queen is supposed to be the solution to all of this. What’s supposed to be the board? What’s the other side where I am supposed to become a queen? What does “becoming a queen” mean?’

‘What do you think?’ Mariette said, off to the side, crouching and holding a stuffed rat-plushie she’d just whispered all of this to. ‘Cuddlespawn?’

---

Clouds began to gather, shrouding Penrose in darkness. The silence was broken by the roar of thunder. And so it was, after countless battles with monsters, villains and unimaginable terrors from beyond, that the greatest one Penrose had ever seen would begin. War has come. Wonderland troopers and tanks, after congregating at Covington Tower, spread out, marching their way to conquer. Street by street, sounds of gunfire and cannons could be heard, followed by the sound of screams from civilians that filled the air.



However, it was not hopeless, as brave vanguards joined the fray: Pennybots were the first to arrive, the metallic enforcers doling out justice to the invaders with power and precision. Their efforts were enhanced even further by Connie and Gaia’s command from the Bastion. Beacon had also gathered in mass, including Kimble and Sally, having set up defenses across the city. Standing shoulder to shoulder with them were the Ascendancy, led by Rachel herself: she cast great walls of barriers, and smashed up tanks like they were cardboard with her great hammer. Even the denizens of Sanctuary had come out to the streets, their dark magics a light of hope against the forces of the Queen of Hearts. And of course, the twin vampires, Justine and Caroline, the very first villains to attack the city, would be there to protect the city from the last one.

---

At the Bastion, Cheshire Cat stood back up when Penny ordered, and bowed her head with drooping cat ears. “Understood. I’ll ask permission nyaxt time,” she said. As Penny turned, she hesitated, but then spoke: “I-I’ll do what I can to assist! I’m not much of a fighter, but maybe I can help with my catflaps.”

The Penny duplicate then left, followed by Cheshire Cat who ran the opposite way, towards the Pennybot command room. On the way, she noticed the catflap had detected that the remaining Mahou had passed through it safely, causing her to sigh in relief.

Eventually, she found Connie and Gaia.
“My apologies for intruding, everynyan!” She bowed respectfully. “Lady Penny had given me permission to stay here, so I wish to repay her kindness. Is there anything you need? I could brew up some coffee,” she suggested, and summoned a miniature cat flap mid-air, pulling out a steaming coffee pot and coffee cups out of it.

---

The Guardian concentrated, and then unleashed a great spell combining each element, drawing directly from the Nexus for mana:

[Fire] to launch a tornado of blazing fury.

[Ice] to whip up a blizzard of freezing cold icicles.

[Air] to send her soaring through the sky on sandals of Hermes.

[Spirit] to call on the will of the fallen.

[Reinforcement] to strengthen the body.

[Psychic] to read the Queen’s mind.

[Time] to speed up her reactions.

[Lightning] to shoot a cascade of thunderbolts.

[Sound] to fill the air with a rousing song that bolsters fighting power.

[Darkness] to hide themselves in shadow.

[Illusion] to obfuscate with mirage duplicates.

[Light] to banish hexes and curses.

[Wood] to raise thorny rose vines.

[Empathy] to fill her heart with fighting spirit.

[Water] to send arrows made of rain to fall upon the Queen.

[Gravity] to increase the mass around the Queen.

[Stone] to raise spikes of the earth.

[Beast] to maximize the Ultra Instinct.

And finally,

[Metal] to shoot blades from the rooftop’s paneling.

Of course, the Queen of Hearts, with her glowing purple eye, defended against the onslaught with unerring precision, her Storyslayer a whirlwind of slashes as it cut through the tornado of fire, the storm of icicles, the rock spikes and metal blades, and even through the gravity curse.

“I see the Grand Magistrate is turning desperate! But no matter! I will end this mockery of a Story!”

She launched herself into the air, using conjured portals and vine whip throws to essentially fly as she battled Kayli with a conjured sword, the two duking it out in a great duel of might and magic, too intense and complicated to put to words. Meanwhile, Mariette asked the demonically possessed toy she was holding, and it answered: "Release me, and you'll become the new Queen across the board."

However, Kayli, despite her vast magical power and strength, was inexperienced with the use of her powers, and was prone to mistakes. The Queen, after several such blunders, took advantage of the next fatal blunder…

And the Guardian ended up headless, her head rolling on the rooftop as Penny’s portal opened up.

Kayli’s body dropped with a thud, and the Queen landed, watching as Mikayla sent a horde of vengeful spirits to assail the intruders. She proceeded to defend herself against Mika and Su.



”Yes! I finally learned how to do this spell!”

Lily, harnessing her Lightning and Time Specialization to the next level, allowed her to ride the lightning: her motorcycle speeding across the sky on a thunderbolt rail at a speed not seen before.

She jumped to the rooftop, and readied her weapon, drawing the electric bowstring and nocking a lightning arrow.

”Queen meanie! Time to kick your butt for all the bad things you’ve done!”

She taunted. But the Queen only laughed.

Then she sighed.

"Ah, there it is: the eyes filled with determination. No matter how many times I deal with you ignorant slaves, it’s meaningless.” She pointed her sword at Kayli’s headless body. “I trap you, you escape. I separate your heads, you put them back on. I kill you, and surely you will resurrect! No matter what I do, the Grand Magistrate always provides a convenient excuse to bring you back.” But then, she smiled evilly. “But even an Author has a weakness.”

”What are you talking about!?"

“As long as you have the will to persist, to continue on and fight, the Grand Magistrate will follow along with that will like a trained dog. But…What if there is no will to fight? No desire to keep going? Let’s find out!”

The Queen performed a great spell, the Storyslayer glowing with a crimson flame that cast a great shadow over the heroic Mahou that had gathered to oppose her. She then slashed, and mirrors emerged before the Mahou. “Now, look upon your true selves…And despair!”

Instead of their reflections, they saw something else: visages of a darker nature, with inverted colors and expressions full of sadness, regret, and all kinds of negative emotions, beset against the place most resonant with the Mahou’s personal fears and sorrow. Suddenly, these visages reached out from beyond the mirrors, and dragged the Mahou through them into the mirror realm.

”Aaahh!”

Lily screamed as she was pulled into her mirror realm, which was a rainy rooftop not unlike the one at Covington Tower. However, there was something different about this: for one, it was closer to the ground, about the height of an average building. It also overlooked a park. Lily’s heart seized in her chest when she realized exactly what park it was: Penrose Park. And more alarmingly, it was the night that the Mahou had first gathered, all the way then.

”This is that night, Lily. The night where it all began.”



Lily turned, and saw her mirror self speak to her.

”I remember it too…All the times we were mocked, the times the other girls laughed at us behind our backs. All those failures.” Black tears raced down her cheeks.

”How about all those times Alex had to protect you? Hurting himself to do so…all over again…I’m sick of it, sick of it all. And I know you are too, Lily.”

Lily, shocked beyond all belief, took a staggered step forward.

”I-It’s not true! I don’t think like that!”

”You do,” mirror!Lily answered with a frown.

”Every day, you think of the things you could have done better, would have done better…How you could not feel so much pain and regret. How you could turn back time.”

She then gave an uneasy smile.
”But it doesn’t have to stay that way. You and Alex…You can leave this all behind. Nobody will blame you for it.”

”But Alex would never-”

Mirror!Lily’s expression turned serious.

”He will follow your lead, like always. But it is you who has to make that choice, Lily.”

Suddenly, a scream could be heard, and Lily rushed over to place her hands on the raised edge of the roof, peering down: in the distance, she saw Victoria Reales impaled by swords of light by the mind-controlled Beacon girl.

Lily grit her teeth, closed her eyes, and tears dropped down to the pavement. Mirror!Lily walked behind her…and hugged her.

”It’s okay, Lily. You can stop feeling this pain. You can let go, and never turn back. You can find new happiness in Silverburg, or anywhere else.”

Lily sniffled, and her stance wavered.

”I…I…”

Lily was trapped, not just by being placed in the mirror…But by herself.

When Alexander came too, he was standing in in a dirty alleyway, in front of the dead body of an adult man and a weird copy of himself "I...didn't make you, did I?"

The clone rolled his eyes "Of course not dumbass. I'm part of the weird mirror thing you were pulled into, based off of you"

Alexander groaned "Fucking great." He looked down at the dead body "So who's the stiff?"

"He's not actually dead yet. He just looks like he is because time is frozen right now" The clone answered. He then pointed behind Alexander

Checking behind him, Alexander saw a bunch of monsters, also frozen in place "...Wait...is this-?"

"Right before you got magic. So to answer your question from before that you just figured out the answer; the stiff is you. The old you"

"Huh, neat" Alexander hummed. He then turned back to his clone "So what now?"

The clone's eyes sharped "Now, I'm supposed to drag up your every worry and insecurity to break your spirit and get you to give up" The clone held his posture for a few seconds before slumping down "but you're such a jaded self aware little bitch baby that you don't have any deeply buried worries and insecurity to deal with"

Alexander raised an eyebrow "Is that a compliment or an insult?"

"It's a complaint!" the clone yelled in response "Everything I could bring up is something you probably bitch about to yourself daily, so it won't really have the impact I need to! You basically disarmed me before I was even born. Do you have any idea what that-" The clone paused his rant "Oh, right. You do know what that's like, given how your magic used to be." The clone let out a deep sigh and leaned against the wall "It's just...your life became so much better after getting magic. You have Lily, hell, you even have a house of your own now. And sure, fighting monsters and stuff like that is a hassle, but it's nowhere near as sole crushing as the minimum wage bullshit you had to deal with before. I can't even use the Amber thing against you, since you already beat yourself up about it enough whenever you see some that needs healing. If I did try, it would just piss you off, not break you. I've got fucking nothing to work with here!"

Despite the situation, Alexander found himself feeling bad for his copy "um...sorry?"

The copy growled "Don't fucking pity me" but he couldn't put any fire into it. "You know what, fuck this. If I'm going to be useless and miserable, then I might as well spread it." He stopped leaning against one wall and walked over to the one in front of him. He put his hand on it and it ripple into a clear mirror

"Lily!" Alexander saw on the other side was Lily being hugged by her own clone "What...how!?"

"Did you think you were the only one going through something like this?" The clone snarked "She's not doing as well as you"

"Are...are you helping me?" Alexander was confused

"I'm a creation of this mirror, I can do a few tricks" the clone shrugged

"But why?"

"Because fuck the Queen for making me based on someone like you!" The clone yelled. "Oh right, almost forgot" He reached down and picked up a rock that was slightly smaller than fist size and handed it to Alexander "When the time comes, you'll know what to do with this"

"Uh...okay?" Alexander took the rock, confused

"Alright" The clone moved so that Alexander was between him and the mirror "Now fuckem up!" and kicked him through it

"Gah!" Alexander gasped as he fell through the mirror to the other side and on the ground. "_{Fucking asshole}" He got to his feet to see Lily still in the grasp of her clone, neither of which had noticed him yet. He looked at the rock his clone had given him-

'When the time comes, you'll know what to do with this'

-and beaned the Lily clone in the head with it, knocking her to the ground and separating her from the real Lily "Lily, stop fucking around with your fake, we have a Queen that needs to be stabbed!"

Staycee’s “ghost pals” descended upon Oros the Swift, but she was ready for them. With a few ki-enhanced martial arts moves, the Nomad Magical Girl made short work of two of the specters, while fending off the attacks of a third. She then prepared to face the rest of the swirling apparitions as they darted in to make their own attacks with an array of ethereal weapons and clawed hands. At the same time, enough of the smoke had cleared for the quartet of Stacys to see the group of less powerful Carnage Sisters galloping towards them.

“Looks like tha cavalry’s arrived,” Stampede Stacy observed. “But ah don’t reckon they’re fer us!”

As if to prove that point, a cannon ball shot forth to blast Esperverse Stacy’s head clean off her shoulders. 

“Ah gotcha, darlin’!” Stampede Stacy called, even as she sent her lightning lasso shooting out to loop around her ally’s wayward noggin, before pulling it back in with a firm yank.

“I’m not much for the deep south, but you’re alright, partner!” Esperverse Stacy gave her rodeo companion a thumbs up.

“Deep South?!” Stampede Stacy echoed incredulously. “Ah’m from Massachusetts!”

Meanwhile, the most psychotic-looking of this group of four Carnage Sisters opened up with her twin chain guns, sending a torrent of bullets flying towards the Stacys. Staycee and Stampede Stacy were agile enough to dodge most of the rounds, while the erratic movements of the now headless body of Esperverse Stacy prevented it from taking too many hits. However, the bulk of the fusillade wasn’t even directed at them, but rather at little Crystallis Stacy, who was nowhere near as nimble. The hail of bullets riddled her small body with more holes than a piece of Swiss cheese as it shuddered through a series of violent convulsions, the sheer force of the rapid string of impacts furiously shaking her like a rag doll. Yet, this disturbing sight was accompanied by the equally disturbing sound of hysterical laughter.

“T-T-That t-tickles!” Stacy squealed amidst her giggling fit, the bullet storm causing the little zombie no harm whatsoever.

By this point, the Carnage Sisters had gotten close enough to engage in melee, and the ditziest member of the foursome promptly tried to impale Staycee on her spear. Now, this was already a poor matchup for the pigtailed airhead, since Staycee’s scythe was sort of like an axe (which meant she had weapon triangle advantage), but it became even worse when one considered just how tough Stacyee was, especially when wearing the Obsidian Armor of Ortvonno. As such, instead of slicing through the spear before it struck her, the ectomancer simply allowed it to strike (and subsequently shatter against) her chest plate, before sweeping Ectolionis in a wide arc to decapitate her bubbly foe.

“En garde, or something like that!” Staycee shouted triumphantly as the now headless horsewoman galloped past her.

Stampede Stacy found herself in a similar predicament, with the crown-wearing Carnage Sister preparing to skewer her on her lance.

“That’s one mighty peculiar steed ya got there, missy!” the undead cowgirl remarked, even as she flung Esperverse Stacy’s head into her body’s waiting arms. “But ah reckon if'n ah git it’s legs all tangled up, it’ll go tumblin’ just like tha gen-u-ine article!” Sending her lighting lasso shooting forth once more, Stampede Stacy wrapped the crackling coil tight around the android steed’s legs. Not only did having its legs whipped out from under it cause the robotic horse to take a sudden nosedive into the pavement, but the subsequent massive jolt of electricity thoroughly fried its electronic innards, and very likely those of its rider as well.

A short distance away, Nomad Stacy had Oros the Shrewd on the proverbial ropes. However, the animal eared cook was nothing, if not tenacious. Acting with impressive speed, she produced a carrot and shoved it into the mouth of the overly talkative Kung-Fu Corpse Girl. “Glurk?!” Stacy gagged, before spitting the unwelcome orange intruder out of her mouth. “Yuck! Like, veggies might be, like, super healthy for you an’ junk, but they’re also super gross! That’s why I go for super yummy nutri-shakes! The bubblegum flavor is, like, totally my fav!”

Not one to let a reprieve go to waste, Oros the Shrewd had removed her bulky backpack and gotten some space between her and her chatty opponent. She’d also used the time to prepare her next attack, a swing of a sizable frying pan that was aimed right at Stacy’s head. Thanks to her “crazy cool” martial arts-type reflexes, the Kung-Fu Corpse Girl was able to leap away before it struck, but the sheer force of Oros the Shrewd’s swing produced a blast of air that sent Stacy flying back much farther than she’d anticipated. And perhaps farther than the pint-sized provisioner had intended as well, seeing as how it caused Stacy to crash into the side of Geina’s robo-horse feet first.

“So, are you one of those people who like to roleplay roleplay?” Stacy inquired as she kicked off of the robo-horse to fly back towards Amber with her hands extended in a “crazy cool” martial arts pose, causing mount and rider to tumble over in the process. “Like, there was this one guy in my old group who was, like, suuuper into that kinda thing,” she continued as she unleashed a crackling bolt of really zappy lightning at her opponent. “He would, like, do a special voice and everything, like one of those actor people!”

As this transpired, Tactical Triumvirate S.T.A.C.-Y. had managed to place their monstrous adversary on the back foot as well, but the tables were about to turn against them…

External aid is being provided to target, the trio’s mental voices noted as one. Concentration of fire is required to counteract this development. Assuming combat formation Theta-Tertiarius.

As one, the three bioroids moved to place themselves in a concave arc facing Oros the Savage’s horned head. Firing on full auto, they sent three streams of specialized hybridium rounds drilling into the center of the massive beast’s forehead. However, in order to achieve this more effective firing pattern, the trio had left themselves vulnerable to a surprise decapitating sweep of Oros the Mad’s pitch-black blade. Well, it would have been a surprise, if not for the fact that the psychotic swordswoman was yelling at the top of her lungs, making her approach so obvious that the supplementary ocular nodes on the back of the Tactical Triumvirate’s armor weren’t even necessary. Thus, just before the eldritch katana made contact with the neck of its first victim, the Magentaite infused hair of each of the bioroids burst into a singular blinding dome of searing flame, one which completely engulfed their pitifully unstealthy foe, before sending her flying away with considerable force.

At the same time, Saw Blade Stacy continued her duel with Oros the Inventive. Despite her fearless nature, the chainsaw-wielding Ars Magi knew that she was at a clear disadvantage against her ultra-tech opponent. If she was going to win, then she would have to show just how inventive she could be as well…

“Metal, huh?” Stacy inquired with a smirk. “That sounds almost as bad as a mouthful of paint!”

Although her massive chainsaw was beginning to slow, the fact that she was locked in melee combat meant that her opponent was close enough to be within arm’s reach. As such, in a single swift motion, Stacy removed one hand from her Gladius and thrust its open palm toward Lada’s face, her fingers slipping under the fake Ars Magi’s massive bangs. The next instant, a blast of bright pink paint shot forth from both fingers and palm, and while some of it might have gotten into her mouth, contrary to Stacy’s quip, her main target was the inventive young woman’s eyes.

Meanwhile, Stitch ‘Em Up Stacy continued to tend to her patient. To the zombie medic’s great relief, Oros the Joyful seemed to be responding very favorably to both her treatment and the bits of medical trivia she’d been providing. If anything, the blood witch was responding a little too favorably. Indeed, just as Stacy was telling of how nose bleeds often indicated feelings of strong romantic attraction in many anime and manga, Oros the Joyful began slowly pulling her closer for a kiss.

“Oh! Um, I really appreciate your desire to thank me,” Stacy told Suki as she pulled away. “B-But, um, I don’t think it would be very professional of me if I made out with a patient. At least, not before we’ve gotten to know each other a little better,” she added. “P-Plus, you’ve lost a lot of blood, which may be impairing your cognitive functions, and I’d never want to take advantage of anyone when their judgement might be compromised!”

In another part of the battlefield, a Marrywell teacher’s assistant continued to face off against a copy of the school’s enigmatic guidance counselor.

“Woah! You’ve always got a trick up your sleeve, huh, Miss Fang?!” Stacy noted with a laugh when Oros the Wise transformed her rapidly extending hand into another copy of herself. It was easy enough for Stacy to blast the doppelgänger back with a bolt of lightning before it could tackle her, but the attack did little to actually damage the duplicate. However, before she could employ a stronger attack to rectify that, the patchwork young woman found she had a new threat to deal with, in the form of the original Oros the Wise flying toward her, foot first. “Dang, ya really know how to keep a girl on her toes!” Stacy told the counselor as she used her superhuman reflexes to catch the incoming foot with both hands. Then, leaning back on her heels, she used her foe’s momentum to spin the older woman around, before sending her flying away in the direction of two of her metamorphosed clones that were in the process of menacing the second quartet of Stacys.

Said second quartet was also being menaced by the second (much more fearsome) quartet of Carnage Sisters. At least, until the four robotic young women and their equally robotic steeds were quickly annihilated by a barrage of lightning arcs, energy beams, missiles, and shimmerlings.

“Wow, that was totally awesome!” Storm Witch Stacy cheered.

“I know, right?!” Cyberslime Stacy agreed.

“Hey! Let’s do one of those crazy cool team combo attack things on those crazy freaky guys over there!” OG Stacy Stitches suggested, using her recently reattached arm to point at Oros the Wise and the two masses of teeth she’d been thrown into.

“That sounds totally super gibbous!” Staceella replied, her enthusiasm causing even more tiny stars to pour forth from her mouth. “But, like, I’m not really good at fighting, and stuff,” she added. “So I’ll just cheer you guys on!”

“Okay! So, like, how should do our crazy cool team combo attack thing?!” Cyberslime Stacy inquired.

“Oh! I know!” Storm Witch Stacy spoke up, waving her hand excitedly. “I can make these crazy cool portal dealies, so, like, what if I opened up portals to the inside each of those toothy guys, and then you guys fire all your lightning and lasers into ‘em?!”

“That sounds super freaking awesome!” OG Stacy replied with a big grin. “And, like, since this is a super combo attack type dealie, we gotta go all out!” she added, her grin growing even wider. “So I’m gonna use my Super Mega Ultra Zappy Zap!”

“Hells yeah!” Cyberslime Stacy agreed. “And I’ll use my Big Blastacular Blamo Barrage! (That’s the name I just thought up for my ultimate attack thing!)”

“All right!” Storm Witch Stacy called. “Let’s, like, totally do this!”

With a wave of her Stormy Staff, the witch-themed girl tore open two circular portals, rimmed with crackling blue lightning. A moment later, OG Stacy and Cyberslime Stacy called out the names of their ultimate attacks and sent said massively overpowered expulsions of destructive force surging through the twin portals. Unfortunately, as was all too often the case, Storm Witch Stacy’s portals didn’t actually lead where she’d intended them to. On the bright side, their destination wasn’t someplace on another planet, or in another universe, but rather a location relatively nearby. Thus it was that two random rooms inside Axis Mundai would experience the full, cataclysmic force of a lightning-themed Killing Blow and a hyper laser/nanoslime bullet/mega missile maelstrom, respectively.

Hopefully the rooms in question didn’t contain anything important…

Speaking of Axis Mundai, it had just received a new patient, although rather than B@B, it was Scylla that crashed through one of its towers mouth first, the flying toaster-like Framewerk having easily dodged out of the path of the plummeting pink meteor. No sooner had the multi-headed monstrosity come to rest, then the hospital’s apparent owner began shouting obscenities. Simultaneously, four more Carnage Sisters showed up and began making a series of feeble (and one possibly not-so-feeble) attempts to cause Scylla harm. And if that wasn’t enough, far above, B@B had morphed into a very odd flying saucer and fired a pair of sausage-shaped railgun rounds.

“Cool story, loser!” Shark Tooth Stacy mocked the ranting man over her external speakers as she activated Scylla’s Phase Shifter. “But ya know what they say. When life gives ya lemons, SQUIRT ‘EM IN SOMEONE’S FACE!!!”

With the twin railgun sausages in all likelihood obliterating the various Carnage Sisters assailing Scylla’s now incorporeal hull, only the “totally not a virus” one remained. While the Cruxi had never attacked invasively before, at least as far as Stacy knew, her Framewerk had still been equipped with the most potent anti-virus system Project Grand Slam could devise. Only time would tell if that untested system was up to the task of eliminating her current unwelcome visitor…

In the command center on the Bastion, most of the girls would at least glance up from their task as the new commers got settled in.

“That door wasn’t there before, was it?”

“Nah, the Queen’s doing her weird ship voodoo again.”
But other than some perfunctory greetings, none would introduce themselves, as the task of coordinating nearly fifty Pennybots across two different dimensions with only the four of them wasn’t an easy task. Though as Connie, Gaia, and the unseen Violet, got more situated it opened up more possibility of idle chatter.

“Ha! Queen found us a phantom seventh as well.”

“Think it’s her girlfriend again?”

“I stand by it! I was there when she asked Monica to cook up a lovely dinner for two.”

Two of the girls bickered at each other good naturedly, as they led their own contingent of Penny bots. They were focused enough, and serious, but still treating this more akin to a game. But they had skills to match Gaia at least.

“Your just upset because she moved the door to her room so you can’t go snooping anymore.”

“That just proves me right! It’s only ever gone when she’s trying to hide someone. I’m telling you!”

The other two girls that Connie and Gaia could see, were quiet and studiously focused on the task at hand. Both showing a level of control over the Pennybots rivaling Violet’s own. Though the reason’s that might be were not obvious.

---

_{Nowhere At All}

“Huh. Nanite cloud.” Penny would remark with open curiosity at Osiris’ solution to avoiding the car slam. “You a Blackbox construction, or quantum Bluebox?” She would ask casually as her Spider limbs wrapped around the Scorpions claws holding them.


A moment later Penny’s presence would grow heavy and unmissable. The bluish light of her holographic armor would begin to leak light trails, and thin film of her gravitic barrier would fade into view becoming opaque. Her hair floated behind her unmoored from the weight of the world.

Penny reverted the polarity on her thrusters, causing her to suddenly be grounded, the street cracking under her sudden weight, and locked to the earth. Her lower Spider limbs melted into lightning that raced up her arm before reforming as a tower shield, which Penny swiftly slammed into the ground in front of her. Pistons installed into the back of it punched deeper into the ground below, rooting it akin to a wall.

The vibration of metal being stuck deep below, had a smirk twitch onto Penny’s face for a moment.

Then Penny pulled. With her augmented strength, and with the flow of gravity. Drawing Osiris’s attack towards the center of the tower shield, and drawing her own limbs behind it for just a moment.

Yet Osiris’s S.C.O.R.P.I.O.N. would cleave into the shield like it was paper. Or it would have, if not for the shield exploding outward in a concussive wave the instant it was struck. A mix of shrapnel, razor wire bolas, and grey slime was ejected alongside the sudden detonation.

Afterwards the Tower shield and Penny’s grappled limbs would all melt into lightning once more. Before reforming into a massive maul that she had mid swing as she leapt forward to crush the techno scorpion before her.

---

_{With Everyone}

Penny recognized her error only moments after she had jumped through her portal. The multi layered gravitational magics hit her within moments of each other. With Penny at ground zero of them both. It gave her enough warning to start drawing the dispersing gravitation energies into herself, just in time to reinforce her barrier as a wave of pissed off Spirits slammed into her.

That, mixed with her own gravitational manipulations, threw Penny free from Ani’s well. And well clear of Covington towers roof.

She cursed as she dropped sailed downward. Only having a moment to glance up at the portal behind her. But it was enough to see it snapping closed.

---

_{With the Twins}

“This is what I get for relying on third rate materials I swear.” Penny grumbled next to Ronin and Miko. Her copies were limited mimicries, so some things her Prime body could perform were outside the viability of her large scale manufactured versions.

Such as maintain stationary orbit, while fending off a sudden and potent spiritual attack.

“Obviously I missed a memo about her, but that’s my bad. Didn’t think anyone else was so attuned to portals beyond Mariette.” She mimed letting out a breath she didn’t have, as she processed the change in plans.

---

_{Mid air}

“Really wish I had gotten around to that jetpack idea about now…” She said to no one as she plumed towards the ground far below. She had lost a lot more altitude than she had been expecting, but the spiritual onslaught had shocked her system and stalled her response.

Now back at operation capacity Penny was quick to level her arm at Covington tower, and with a muted thump, her left arm launched away, trailing a length of chain. It was another couple of stories before the chain went taut and Penny was suddenly and violently swung into and through the side of the building.

Once she was done skidding across the now rather damaged floors. She would sit up and take stock of herself.

Physically the damage to this body was minimal, but the connection to the network was proving to be spotty still. She was broadcasting, but was suffering from lag and packet loss on receiving. Which would make this platform dead weight in a fight.

That said she was about a third of the way down the tower from the top.

“Well there are worse positions then to be a homing beacon.”

---

_{With the Twins}

“Right.” Penny would say a moment later. “Good news is that Pennybot, didn’t get trashed, but magical damage is significant. She turned to look at the twins, “I can get another portal opened up at where that platform ended up. But it will take a few moments to lock in the new location.” She pointed back at the holodisplay of Penrose that was just behind them. A blinking indicator of where that Pennybot was lighting up two thirds of the way up Covington tower.

“Other option is mimicking Lily’s idea and driving off the Bastion down onto the Tower. I’ve got a few vehicles stashed away in the hanger that could manage the trip down.” The Bastion also flickered into view on the holodisplay, the massive Tank ship above the cloud cover, slowly moving into position above the tower. “Though it might be a rough landing.”

“Your call which route we take.”

---

_Alone?

Above it all, and beyond it, Penny prodded at the damaged connection with one of her replicated frames. It nagged at her, this was what it should have felt like when she had been trapped by Nykannis.

But it wasn’t.

She shifted her attention back to her fight with Osiris. And then a step out from that, wondering if it was the fault of the massive ship that hung in the sky above the false Penrose.

She flicked that thought away. It didn’t fit right, this was something different, she knew that.

She just didn’t know how or why.