The battle continued to rage amidst the disintegrating reality, which Alicia did her best to ignore aside from how it might affect her immediate environment. The sheer amount of combatants meant that nothing targeted her, while of course being unaware of how the swiftly changing situation meant that Mikayla hadn't attacked her like she had planned. What she did not know would not hurt her.

To Alicia's slight surprise the Fairy Bolt landed, though it seemed she had forgotten exactly which area was to be targeted by the enchanted weapon. Hers was not the only weapon delivered, blows falling which would take out a normal magical girl. The Queen was not an ordinary magical girl, unfortunately. Alicia's gaze rose as the Queen shifted, healing herself like she was rewriting reality rather than using simple magic.

"Hmph, this is going to be tricky," she muttered to herself as Lily and Alex went to deal with the new Mariette situation. That left the rest of them to focus on the Queen she supposed, for better and worse. Sure, she'd just killed a Horror, but they would come up with something. Probably.

Okay, so clearly they needed to get her sword, or Quill, or whatever. Barriers wouldn't help as evidenced by how she had just shredded Alex's like paper, so they just needed to move fast and not get hit. Easy. Well, after thinking about it she knew one way to get some speed going while Lily was busy.

Shifting her bow into its sword form, she made her way over to the newly arrived Ani. "Can you launch me with of your rockets?" she asked. It might not be ideal, but hopefully it would work. That'd get her the speed to close the gap, and she could do the rest from there.

Gaia was just about to begin instructing the Cheshire Cat on the basics of Pennybot command, when the feline girl began doing her best impression of a stereotypical drill sergeant, causing the verdant maiden to raise an emerald eyebrow. “Um… Pardon my saying so, but I do not believe that particular approach is exactly the most conducive one to take…”

However, no sooner had she said this, then Asengav’s mirror portals started appearing in the sky of Penrose, followed by the very fabric of reality coming apart at the seams. At first, everyone simply stared in shocked horror as the world began to unravel, but then Connie returned, joined by an incongruously cheerful MDP.

“Like, hiiii everybodywody~! (giggle!)” The whimsical girl greeted as she skipped over to the ring of control stations. “There’s, like, a super duper important wortant battle wattle thingie wingie going onsie wonsie right nowie, and, like, Magical Dream Princess thinky winkies we should allsie wallsie go downsie wownsie theresie weresie and helpy welpy outy wouty~! (giggle!)”

When the Cheshire Cat offered to help with providing passage to the battle, MDP’s cheerful smile spread even wider, and stars seemed to twinkle in her gleaming eyes. “Like, thankie wankies, super cutesy wutsey catty watty person werson~! (giggle!)” she told the feline magical girl as she bounced over to give her a big hug. “That’ll, like, helpy welpy lots and lots~!”

Gaia looked from the bubbly Princess of Dreams to Connie, her verdant visage filled with concern. “Are you sure about this, little sister?” she asked her timid best friend.

“I-I am,” Connie confirmed. “M-Magical Dream P-Princess thinks I c-can help,” the masked maiden explained. “S-So I w-want to t-try!”

“Very well,” Gaia sighed, before rising to her feet and giving her friend a warm smile. “Then the Daughter of Mother Earth shall stand beside you.”

“T-Thanks Mia,” Connie said softly as she embraced her best friend.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess knows thingie wingies are kinda winda scary wary right nowie,” MDP conceded. “But, like, she also walso thinkie winkies if everybodywody does their very wery besty westiest together wether and dreamy weamies a happy wappy ending wending, thensie wensie it’ll totally wotally happen wappen~! (giggle!) So, like, everybodywody heresie weresie should totally wotally come alongy wongy~!” the whimsical girl declared with a wink as she skipped over to the cat flap and struck a cute pose. “And you should, like, totally wotally tell allsie wallsie of your friendy wendies on this super duper biggy wiggy shippy whippy to come alongy wongy, too~! (giggle!) ‘Cause, like, everythingy wingy is better wetter with friendy wendies~!”

Whether or not any of the others chose to go along with her (or call their friends to join them), MDP would bounce through the cat flap with a happy-go-lucky giggle, Connie and Gaia following close behind. What awaited them on the other side was a scene of complete chaos as their friends struggled to oppose the seemingly invincible Queen of Hearts. Attacks of ever-increasing potency were made, magical girls were thrown off the building, only to fly or portal themselves back to the rooftop, and a futuristic armored car skidded across its slick surface, out of which emerged Ronin and Miko.

“Golly wolly~!” MDP exclaimed, her sparkling, innocent eyes wide with wonderment, rather than fright. “There’s soooo much stuffy wuffy going onsie wonsie heresie weresie~! Oooohh~!” the playful Princess of Dreams squealed in delight as she caught sight of Storm Witch Stacy. “Like, Magical Dream Princess wuvs your outfit woutfit~! It’s, like, sooo super duper cutesy wutesy~! (giggle!)”

“OMG! Like, thanks so much!” Stacy replied, the enthusiastic compliment helping her quickly forget her recent sizable screw up. “Your outfit is super adorbs, too!” the storm witch told her bubbly admirer with a wink.

“Like, thankie wankies~!” MDP replied with a wink and peace sign salute of her own. “Oh~! And the Penny Wenny Botty Wotties are hersie, too~! (giggle!) Like, Magical Dream Princess is soooo super duper happy wappy to see you, Penny Wenny Botty Wotties~!” the giggling girl told the mass produced copies of her girlfriend. “‘Cause, like, Magical Dream Princess has a super duper special wecial funsie wunsie present wesent for you~! (giggle!)” Standing on her tiptoes, she held up her glowing whimsical wand and began rapidly spinning it in a circle, trails of pink glitter and prismatic sparkles streaming from its tip. “Like, it’s timey wimey to play magical wagical girl dressup wessup~! (giggle!)” the whimsical girl declared. There was a bright flash and, when it faded, each of the Pennybots was dressed in a unique cute and frilly magical girl outfit based on those found in all of MDP’s favorite magical girl shows. “Taaa daaa~!” MDP declared with a joyful smile when her spell was finished. “Magical Dream Princess hopey wopeies you likey wikey them, Penny Wenny Botty Wotties~! (giggle!)”

Meanwhile, Gaia was struggling to take stock of the chaos swirling around them in an effort to discern some meaningful way to contribute to her allies’ efforts. Yet, the nymph-like young woman ultimately found she had no viable means of opposing a being of the Queen of Hearts’ level of reality-breaking power. Yet, even if the Daughter of Mother Earth could contribute nothing of value, perhaps the Empress of Nightmares could…

“T-T-There s-she is…” Connie whispered as she fixed her mask’s ink-black gaze on the Wonderland sovereign. Closing the eyes of her mask, she swallowed and took a deep breath in an effort to push back the terror threatening to paralyze her. Then, opening her eyes once more, she slowly raised a trembling hand towards the malevolent monarch. “M-Magical D-Dream P-Princess s-said I s-should g-give t-the q-queen a n-n-nightmare,” the masked maiden told her friend in a soft and shaky voice. “A-And b-back in W-Wonderland, I c-could f-feel h-her f-fears, s-so i-it s-should p-probably w-work…”

“In that case, I shall provide a distraction,” Gaia announced, giving her friend a smile, before conjuring her verdant staff, twirling it above her head, and then pointing its blossoming tip at the Queen of Hearts. “Nature’s Fury!” the Daughter of Mother Earth shouted as she unleashed a massive barrage of mystical life energy.

“Like, Magical Dream Princess is gonna helpy welpy, too~! (giggle!)” MDP added, firing a sparkling beam of bright pink dream magic from her whimsical wand and sending a stream of cute objects shooting towards the Wonderland sovereign. “Like, let’s allsie wallsie helpy welpy~!” she called to the Pennybots and other gathered magicals.

“Yeah!” Stacy agreed, aiming her stormy staff and shooting an arc of lightning at their frighteningly powerful foe. “This’ll be like one of those crazy cool team attack dealies! And, hopefully, it’ll work way better than the last one!”

And in the midst of this deluge of mystic might, Connie mustered all her courage, gathered all her terrible power, focused on the Queen of Hearts’ deepest fears, and sent a twisting torrent of focused nightmare magic surging towards the malevolent monarch…

Ani had no idea what the queen was going on about. The words that she was spouting out would have taken too many tokens to process properly, something she was finding to happen more and more as she spent time in Penrose. In some ways, this was not the craziest thing to have happened. Even as far off objects were rendered into words and paper, it really just felt like more of what she expected.

Though something that the super sophisticated AI had not counted on, something that truly surprised her, was Alice coming to her for help. She couldn’t remember talking to this woman ever, or what made her think rocketing somewhere was safe or even plausible. But Ani immediately cast that idea out of her head when she remembered who was talking to her. This was Alicia Hayden. If she thought that a rocket was the best way to get somewhere, then there would be no more questions.

"Okay, I typically don’t do this for people under rank 3, but given the situation…" Because Alicia wasn’t missile shaped, she would not fit in her launcher. But the biggest rocket Ani had was part of her hammer. So she lowered the head of the hammer onto the rood and held the handle like a joystick. Because the hammer was made to be retardedly big, it was possible for Alicia and Ani to stand on it. She helped Alicia stand between herself and the hammer’s handle. This meant that Ani had to reach under Alicia’s arms. She assumed Alicia was going to shoot at something, but couldn’t be sure. All she wanted to know was if she could be rocketed somewhere, so that was what Ani was setting up. "There’s no seatbelt, so grab onto something if you think you might fly off!" There wasn’t a lot of room for Ani’s feet, and after thinking about it, the thrusters would likely blow out from under her feet. So she wrapped her legs around the haft of the hammer too, which also meant her legs were crossing over Alicia’s hips. She didn’t bother commenting on how awkward the arrangement was. This was probably business as usual for seasoned Alicia Hayden.

Fortunately, Ani didn’t need to pull a trigger to activate her hammer’s oversized thrusters. With a thought, the thing took off. While Alicia’s intent was never communicated, she needed to rescue the miko twins. Getting close to the miko twins should have put Alicia in close proximity to the queen as well.

---

"Come on everyone!" Chloe called to her skeletal minions.

But off the side of the building, where Lily and Marriete were falling (along with Dave in pursuit) a Gothizzar Harvester witnessed the group falling. Despite her earlier falling out with Lily, the bony minion seemed to understand they were an important part of securing victory. So he positioned his back where the duo might fall. The heap of bones and sinew that rested on its back wouldn’t make for the safest landing, but had a great deal more give than the concrete floor of the city.

---

Hitting the queen was becoming a lot riskier, especially with Alicia and Ani rushing into close range. Maybe Su would have done a double take if this was her first day in Penrose. She was pretty sure Alicia’s bow was more effective at range, but assumed there had to be a reason for her to want to get so close.

Rather than attack the queen, Su and Mika fired off their magic in a torrent. Water and wind swirling together behind Alicia and her taxi driver. The goal was to make a barrier that could protect them from friendly fire and, if they got close enough, assist Eli and Deni’s escape. Water and wind were flexible elements, and together they made a sort of amorphous blob that would turn into what it needed to when the time came.

!!!

Despite not being an animal type wraith, a wraith construct, or even a wraith in general, that didn’t seem to be enough to save Savage from being lasso’d. The creature tried to reach for it’s new rider, but much like she implied, she’d done this a few times. In a perfect world perhaps Joy would have been in Savage’s predicament and quite enjoyed herself. But really, the monster found its current predicament agreeable. Being lassoed and shocked was a great deal less strenuous than the three way machine gun blitz that nearly took its life.

That didn’t mean Savage was going to stand for this, of course. Technically Savage could not be tamed. For as beastly and wild as they may seem. The dictionary definition of savage was wild, sure, but so was vicious and merciless action. And those last two were things that Savage participated in by choice rather than a lack of civil education.

With its mind made up, Savage ran in a straight line, swinging and scratching at its rider in futility the whole while. But where was it headed?



"That pun was terrible."

As haughty as the assassin was, Swift understood she was a little outmatched here. A good deal of the Stacys were durable, but Staycee had the advantage of being both an undying zombie and wearing impressive armor. Not to mention anything she did had to happen under the watch of her many spirits. Swift could deal with them on their own, but while also dealing with a fearsome opponent? Chances were slim.

Given that undressing the ectomancer wasn’t in the cards, she’d have to find another way to deal with her. Her energy reserves were quite high with the triplet’s removal, and Staycee was an excellent candidate for one of her more powerful combos. She cut through a ghost, rolled over another, and then swooped towards. But as she zoomed towards the necromancer, her hand rested on her second blade. Only as the distance closed, it swiftly moved to one of her scrolls. And with a yank, it unraveled in front of her.

"Scroll of Beasts! Eviscerate!"

It shouldn’t matter if Staycee was going to take a swing at her or not. The tapestry was effectively a portal, so any attack would be swallowed up along with her as Swift attempted to wrap her opponent in the cursed parchment.



Wisdom sighed mid flight. As a clone of a student counselor, her skill set was more geared towards making students feel good about themselves than the other way. Her failure to emotionally ruin Cyberslime Stacy was for that reason alone. While she would take no pleasure in being successful at such a venture, it was unfortunate that the slime girl was too weak to hold herself up and needed her friend’s validation to hold together.

She’d be back in that particular fight momentarily. But since the nurse had been so kind to throw her towards her clone’s former student, might as well make the best of it. The Sharkenbear and GH Stacy seemed to be in a bit of a stalemate. The Sharkenbear was stronger, but not strong enough to do any real harm. GH Stacy was able to counter with her magic, but Wisdom and her clones were all resistant to magic. The Sharkenbear was also very durable for its size, and its undead nature allowed it to ignore any pain such an attack might have brought on, even as its insides cooked. As such, the two seemed to be in a sort of stalemate.

But Wisdom was bringing the heat. While she had numerous powerful attacks at her disposal, a student of Merrywell deserved only the best. She planned to hit GH stacy with a projectile so powerful that she herself couldn’t seem to damage it.

With her momentum carrying her towards her target, Wisdom arm spit Stacy Stitches directly at her target. The amalgamation on her arm discharged Stacy Stitches so fast that Wisdom had reversed her direction of travel and was soaring back into the sky. With a roar, and its body arching with electricity, it turned to the projectile and held GH Stacy in front of its chest. A single tear rolled down its cheek before Stacy Stitche’s nigh immortal body struck them both and buried them in a crater. Only the bear’s legs remained, which smoldered in place.



"Huh?" Thalia raised an eyebrow as she continued to flop around like a ragdoll in a dryer. "I meant to say ‘fuck you in this gravity’ or something." She hesitated. "Wait, no, I did mean it the other way, Those were two separate ideas. Fucking you and the gravity. Because, like, JANX!"

Thalia managed to get her feet under her and plant them flat on a wall she was almost thrown into. Enough time had passed that the charge in her sword was ready for another strike. She wouldn’t need the element of surprise, and she wouldn’t need to rely on any tricks. She grinned, and her teeth were still stained with the blood of her previous snack. With a kick, the genetically modified super soldier soared towards her target, ready to cleave them in half.



If shrewd had managed to survive the explosion and being redirected by a roundhouse kick, she absolutely didn’t survive being vaporized by a photon cannon. There was no scream, blood, or any indication that the beam of light had disintegrated her body. She was there, and then when she passed through the beam of light, she did not come out the other side. The laser finished its path across the sky before being trampled underfoot. Sawblade Stacy was two for two.

However, Saw Blade Stacy’s newest opponent would be a bit tougher to beat. Double trouble, the power couple, Infinite Conquest and Oblivion incarnate. Not that she was privy to that. All she saw was a mechanical head covered in tendrils and decided that some force was pushing it and that it couldn’t see her.

Folly, really.

In truth, Alice Parker’s numerous heads had a wide array of vision modes. Everything ranging from x-ray to infrared to more exotic things like spectral vision and even ultrasound. She knew exactly where Saw Blade Stacy was. Yet she did not roll any differently and continued right on her merry way. Were this a soulslike, Saw Blade Stacy’s roll (it was a roll, right?) would have been one of many important movements to let her hit the boss. But she was not in a soulslike, and her opponent had anticipated this eventuality hours ago.

When the ball of framewerk rolled past her, five of Alice Parker’s arms trained their weapons on her. A heavy barret, shotgun, rocket launcher, and a gatling gun all opened fire on Saw Blade Stacy simultaneously. The fifth arm had a dessert eagle, which fired a single scoop of vanilla ice cream at her target.

The type of tech you can waste your money on when you have unlimited funding.

While Saw Blade Stacy was busy trying to survive, the mecha head rolled straight over her pseudo erotic/interpretive sculpture. The weight of such a massive structure was enough to crack it. The concrete-like paint material cracked and shattered, which was all Lada needed to be free. Her metallic body could take the weight of such a massive object, even if it didn’t have the ability to eat its way out of dried concrete/paint.



After being frozen and place, then freed via giant boulder, Lada was a little startled to see Alice Parker charging towards her. She wasn’t sure how to describe her. It was almost as whoever had written for her had left details so vague that should look like any weird indescribable amalgamation. Maybe this was because they were written by a talented writer who understood that no description could do Alice Parker justice. Or maybe it was just a lazy one. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she didn’t want to get stuck under its things when it came charging past her. So she stood up and ran out of the way.

Though in her running, she spotted Savage and Stampede Stacy. While helping an ally was an obvious choice, Lada was a bit more motivated to do it this time. She had just been slimed into a statue, so seeing one of her own restrained in a weird BDSM way was something that needed to be corrected. With a wave of her hand, a far off cloud of nanites turned into a hail of bearing and soared towards the rodeo star with the intent of knocking her off.

_{Nowhere At All}

Penny was in a better state of equilibrium then her Mechanized opponent, but not a significant one. It’s trick with redirecting the propulsion from her hammer was an interesting one, and not one she would let work a second time if it came down to it.

Still part of her was disappointed in herself. She really should know better than trying to overpowering someone in a serious fight, it never worked out for her. She needed to shift tactics.

She turned to face Osiris as they came screaming towards her. No shock or surprise, as Snoopy was, as always, watching her back and blind spots. She threw up her arms to brace for the upcoming impact, a dense half dome of gravitic hard light rippling into existence in front of her as she did so. Her whole body seemed to light up with it.

The hammer she let go of swiftly dissolved into lightning, that snaked back into Penny. Her spider limbs being restored in tandem with the reclamation. But it wasn’t in time enough to stop the two differing shields from impacting.

There was a harsh crack as they impacted, but rather than standing firm in face of the impact Penny was launched away at speed. For she had no desire to get caught up in another battle for dominance. And instead had removed her personal gravity before impact, from there she had just needed to realign her boosters for hovering once more.

Thus her barrier would divert the brunt of impact, and what was left would send her sliding away. One of her formed spider legs lashed out and snipped the tether that connected her to Osiris so as not to render the distance gained as useless.

Osiris M.A.N.T.I.S. would snap out at air, if she deployed them at all in the face of this.

Penny would slide back until she nearly careened into a wall of a building. Her upper Limbs would reach back to catch her before she collided with it, and her lower two plunged into the side walk soon as she was stablized. Shortly after electricity would start arcing up her lower arms, and elsewhere in this fake and empty copy, a quarter of the ppwer grid would fail.



“Don’t look away now Nykannis,” Penny would state softly. As her body began glowing from the sheer volume of energy she was consuming. “This is where the Fun begins.”



The glow surrounding Penny sank into her. And then all at once it seemed like she started dissolving from the inside. The inner portion of her metallic casing burned away by a frantic surge of Lightning. Her throat, inner arms, inner forearms, ribs, inner thighs and inner calves, all faded away by a similar measure. Webbing cracks of even over took her Spider limbs but the lightning never dissipated, it only intensified.

And then the shell of Gravity around Penny grew ever so more opaque, filling in the gaps now with a swirling sapphire haze that did nothing to actually hide the bright crackling core of lightning it contained. Her hair danced about her on unseen waves and her eyes burned a brilliant orange.

There was a harsh crackle as every speaker in every car and building for blocks came alive with harsh laughter. It was Penny, letting out a laugh of the deranged.

In the next instant she blitzed Osiris. Literally, she turned into a bolt of lightning and flew at the other Machine girl. Only returning to her nominally physical form just before impact of a right hook to center mass and two Spider limbs lashing out. One at Osiris’ Head the other at her legs.

The other two legs had snagged onto more of the cars on the sides of the roads and were bringing them down onto the Scorpion of Destruction.

But instant after Impact Penny would flow away as living lightning once more, just to come back at them from a different angle or direction. Swinging cars at Osiris while she lashed out with blow rivaling runaway trains at the Scorpion of Destruction.

And yet even this was not the end of it, for there was a familiar electric whine piercing the air. Threatening an empowered gauss round the moment either of them slipped up.

---

_{Atop Covington Tower}

Penny would need a moment to kick out the door frame of her car. The impact had been viscerally satisfying, but the lack of any real damage to the Queen was disappointing.

Still it was fine with her to take a moment to watch as the collective members of Penrose unleashed devastation onto Iracebeth. Penny herself would ready herself to be a second volley, and perhaps even a third now that she knew what she did.

‘I’ll have to make sure I’ve got a good angle though, don’t want to take out my allies on accident.’ She would muse, as the sounds of breaking glass would suddenly ring out across the tower.

---

_{Outside Covington Tower}

Lily and Mariette would be the first to see the cause of the sounds. As from the depths of Covington Tower came forth an army of Penny’s. Dozens up on dozens of them breaking the glass to start crawling or running up the side of the tower.

Several of the Penny bots marked Lily and Mariette as they fell, just as many of them clocked the Monstrous landing pad that had moved to catch them below.

It wasn’t a difficult choice for some of them to anchor themselves to the side of the building and aim their left arms out. A chorus of dull thooms rung out as a number of Penny bots aimed to catch the falling girls with their chain fists.

Most of the Penny Bot’s kept climbing though. Knowing that there was every chance that Mariette could portal both herself and Lily to safety before any of the Penny bots could actually assist.

---

_{Atop Covington Tower}

The roof access door would be torn from it’s hinges as yet more Penny bots surged forth from it. Most of them moved to support the other girls on the roof top, mainly in a guarding position. But a few broke off to move and assist Alex against Lea.

She had given the Sprite like girl a warning already, she wouldn’t get another one.

If Oros the Mad were alive, she would gaze upon her endless eclipse and gleam Penny’s thoughts about her apparent inability to overpower someone. She'd promptly laugh, likely in the company of another, and tell them all about the absurdity of the most powerful magical girl’s inability to overpower someone. The friend, likely more scientifically minded than herself, would go on to explain that leverage was likely at play. But Madness would cast aside their observation, insisting it was more likely that the two patrons had envisioned the scene with the magical girls in slightly different positions. The conversation might move forward with the two discussing the combatant’s power sets. They would eventually settle on the idea that while Penny wasn’t actually the strongest magical girl (physically) but was strong enough and her reputation came from having enough utility to get out of any situation. This would be illustrated by how effortlessly Penny managed to escape being pinched between two shields and could quickly heal away any damage. They would then reflect on Isra’s far more limited, yet no less impressive kit that made her more specialized. They would then reflect that even if some ninjitsu was being conserved on her part, it only made sense that the largely powerless scorpion might be allowed to stand up to a magical girl that shared the title engine of destruction with it. Then they might go on to discuss other topics, such as the perception of power in stories such as this. Fortunately, Oros the Mad was dead, so the readers only had to be subjected to this one paragraph about her ramblings.

As for Osiris, it didn’t really matter. She knew Penny was a strong opponent, and the fact that any of her other opponents would be dead right now did cross her mind. She had heard legends of Penny’s power, how she was favored by the gods, and the rumors were starting to seem true. She pulled back her extra claws and looked at her opponent. She couldn’t even be mad at them. Osiris was only here because Nykannis had upgraded her so extensively, and somehow Penny was able to go toe to toe with her without getting put out of action instantly. Everything that Osiris had done, all the heart stones she had collected and monsters she had slain. All the simulated battles she ran through with the other Oros, what sort of story did Penny weave to become as mighty as she was. Stirred with a strange sense of determination, perhaps the first time in her entire life, she decided to show her respect to her opponent with a few well spoken words.

"Huh, cool."

But that was about the extent she would honor her opponent. In the end, she was just a task Nykannis had put her on. And with Penny’s voice booming out of speakers like a creepy villain, Osiris hunkered down and put up her nanite shield. She didn’t know what was coming, but it wasn’t often opponents dissolved into pure lightning to do anything other than an attack. And attack she did. Before she felt the blow, her nose caught a whiff of ozone and sulfur. While Penny didn’t hit any of her targets directly, hitting Osiris’s shield at speeds comparable to light in several points was more than enough to throw her shield into her, and then her into the scorpion of destruction. Then she scrambled to get out of the way of the flying cars, while the SoD was forced to just sort of Block Penny’s blows as they came. One smashed i’s poor tail, which did only some damage but the greywash nanites from earlier would ensure it didn’t recover. This prompted more admiration out of Osiris.

"Wow."

This might have been it. Osiris and Penny had been almost equally matched up until now, and Penny had quite the ace to play. Turning into lightning? You’d have to be able to turn into energy yourself just to avoid the attacks. Not that Osiris stayed in school long enough to know that. But she wasn’t really done either. She knew anyone this revered couldn’t have been fighting at full power. That, and the simulated battles that Nykannis had prepared for her, paired with Oracle’s view of the future, let her see exactly what she was going to go up against. Though Penny’s uncharacteristically showy introduction to her next form had caught her off guard. Part of Osiris wondered if Penny’s personality was breaking down as her destructive tendencies surfaced. Another part of Osiris was just relieved that the tag team session was over, and she could move onto her own next form.

The next thing to hit the SoD wasn’t Penny, but Osiris herself. She hopped backwards at it, shoving her tail down it’s throat. It’s body suddenly blew apart like an exploded engineering picture. Its pieces hovered in the air, arcing with all the same elements that made up Penny’s magic. Then those pieces changed. Quickly, it had to be quick. Penny was as fast as lightning, and this was going to beat her to her next punch. The metal grew darker, shapes grew more intricate and dangerous, and then they closed around Osiris. Ruined cars were pulled into the mess too, their metals intricately restructured at the atomic level by billions of nanites. Plates shifted around, changed shape, and even grew. Damaged parts were replaced, perfect parts were upgraded. The grey wash that remained on the scorpion had dissolved in the transformation. Osiris was ready to resume combat with Penny, now an engine of destruction herself.



The next time Penny threw a punch at Osiris, her entire body flared up. While it wasn’t visible to most, she could see that her new form was drawing in electricity. The current that still ran through the houses beside her, and even from Penny’s electric form. It wasn’t enough to rip her body apart, but it was clear that if she got too close, Osiris could drink up the energy she had turned into. Though it didn’t seem like she had become much faster, as she was still able to land a punch on Osiris’s massive form. Though she was getting better at blocking them, and anything metal she was smashed over the head with was simply absorbed. Imperfections were stripped away until some brand new type of metal was added to her form.

Then Penny had an opening to fire a gauss shot, but it was only because Osiris had decided to fire her own modified version of the attack. Her mouth glowed blue, and then a long tongue with a glowing tip shot out at Penny as she rushed in as a bolt of lightning. Was now the time to fire back?

it might not have been how Alicia envisioned it, but in light of the circumstances she recognized that she likely wasn't going to get many better options. She watched as Ani pulled out her rocket hammer, and upon being directed to do so she positioned herself atop the weapon between the handle and its user. The whole thing did end up being a bit awkward as Ani wrapped her legs around Alicia's waist to keep her balance, but really she was just glad that they were spared any cheap innuendos.

She braced herself both with a firm hold, as well as some light projections acting as rope. The rocket then ignited, casting the pair skywards. Alicia kept her eyes on their opponent to make sure that their flight was unobstructed while also preparing herself. There wouldn't be a very large window of opportunity here.

As Anja had assumed, upon drawing near to the Queen of Hearts in their flight Alicia fired a barrage of arrows from her bow. She then glanced back to Ani. "This is my stop," she said, giving her driver a couple moments to swing to the side before Alicia threw herself off the hammer rocket. Glowing wings spread and caught the air, carrying her as she re-shifted her bow back into blades. She followed on the heels of her arrows and came in for a series of quick slashes at the Queen of Hearts.

That probing attack would not last long, and after a few strikes she pushed herself away, fired more arrows, and then dove in to resume her attack. While there was so much chaos going on around Covington Tower, she was going to do her best to keep the Queen from using her blade to take out anyone else while they were distracted.

Despite the barrage of vicious ghosts assailing her, Oros the Swift was easily able to fend the specters off, before doing her best impression of Penny and darting towards Staycee like a lighting bolt. The ectomancer readied her scythe for a mighty swing, but before the wicked blade could even move an inch, Oriko unraveled one of her mystic scrolls. At first, Staycee was more surprised than worried, figuring her enchanted weapon would slice through the old parchment like a giant scythe through, well, old parchment. However, no sooner had the blade touched the scroll then it and its wielder were sucked into the parchment. The next instant, the ectomancer found herself in a pocket realm filled with ferocious beasts of every conceivable shape and size. “Huh, I guess this is like that cursed menu thing Stacy was telling me about where the food tries to eat you,” Staycee mused as she looked over the ring of hungry creatures surrounding her. “Well, bring it on! I almost defeated the Elder Beast of the Field of Ghosts, so fighting you guys should be a piece of cake!”

Meanwhile, GH Stacy’s battle with the sharkenbear continued, the strange creature seemingly unbothered by getting half of its head blown off and its insides fried to a crisp. “Dang, you’re sure a tough one, huh?!” Stacy marveled wth a chuckle. “At this rate, you’re gonna make me have to bust out my crazy cool ultimate moves!” However, before any such moves could be busted out, OG Stacy was spit out of the nearby mass of teeth’s mouth and fired at the two combatants with the force of a meteor on steroids. Neither Stacy was even cognizant of what was going on until they found themselves lying in a pile of scorched and smoldering limbs at the bottom of a crater, atop what little remained of the sharkenbear.

“S-Stacy?” the pair asked each other groggily, their dislocated eyeballs rolling around in an attempt to get a better grasp of the situation. A moment later they wondered in unison, “What the heckin’ heck just happened?!”

Things were just as chaotic inside Scylla’s battered, misshapen head. Thalia and Shark Tooth Stacy continued to be wildly thrown about the cockpit, but the former had finally managed to find her footing. The fox girl pushed herself off a wall to fly at Stacy, her Carbonox blade primed to strike. However, Thalia wasn’t the only one with genetically augmented reflexes, and Stacy managed to reorient herself so that she was facing her foe head-first. With a wild grin, she opened her mouth wide and clamped down on Thalia’s blade with her namesake gold-plated Zinethonium alloy shark teeth. With a mighty chomp, she snapped the blade in two as if it were nothing more than a toothpick. “Nice try, ding dong!” Stacy taunted. “But these teeth ain’t just for show!”

As this transpired, Scylla’s head continued to be rolled forward. The Ars Magi in its path had been feeling pretty pleased with herself for vanquishing not one but two Oroses, and even with Scylla’s giant, neon pink head rolling towards her, she figured she was more than agile enough to get out of its way before it hit her. As it turned out, she was right. However, she was wrong if she thought that would put her out of harm’s way. As the misshapen wreck of a Framewerk rolled passed her, the psychotic machine pushing it opened fire on the Ars Magi with a fearsome array of weaponry.

“Crap!”

Her eyes going wide behind her glasses, Saw Blade Stacy quickly raised her bulky chainsaw to block as much of the fire as she could. Yet, as big as her gladius was, she knew it wouldn’t be capable of shielding her completely. Thus, she also leaped backwards in a series of evasive maneuvers, even as she fired a stream of paint balls at the ground in front of her. Upon striking, they burst into a fine pink mist, which would hopefully provide at least a small measure of concealment.

So preoccupied with fighting for her life was the delinquent Ars Magi that she failed to notice that Scylla’s head had been rolled over Oros the Inventive, the Framewerk’s weight freeing the false Ars Magi from her paint prison.

But Nomad Stacy noticed…

Even as Lada ordered a cloud of nanites to assail Stampede Stacy (who was still riding atop, and attempting to tame, Oros the Savage), the self-proclaimed Kung Fu Corpse Girl used her super awesome martial arts-type reflexes to race toward the distracted young woman and deliver a Crazy Cool Flying Kick to the center of her back.

‘... What?’ Mariette looked on in brief confusion at the Queen suddenly started saying Mariette was an impostor and not the real Alice, as she hadn’t really made her intentions known. It was true that Mariette wasn’t on her side, and it was also true that Mariette had long walked around with the idea that “if she can read the ‘story’, she should know I’m going to betray her” in her head, but since that hadn’t happened yet, Mariette had momentarily assumed that the Queen couldn’t read like that. But, well. She was very much unsure why this of all moments was when she decided to realize Mariette was going to discard her. … But, ultimately, the Queen did not look very sane at the moment, and perhaps Mariette shouldn’t try to see reason in her actions.

Not to mention, before she could properly react there was the whole matter of Lea trying to murder her.

Lily slammed into Mariette, and through Lily’s speed they were both thrown off the building, falling. Being slammed like that hurt a bit, but not as much as Lea’s venomous punch would have. So, for now, the two of them fell from the rooftop…

Oh, and Dave came, too.

__________________



So, a lot of heavy firepower was being launched at the Queen.

Between Gaia, that Stacy, MDP, Alicia coming flying, Su and Mika, there was simply a LOT being shot at the target. So, right now, it felt like a bad time to get close. Ronin and Miko looked at one another.

‘Restrain her movements,’ Miko said.

‘Prevent her shenanigans!’ Ronin replied.

The two nodded, and dashed to get close… but not too close. And there, they reached their hands forward.

They didn’t know if any one of them had the power to actually defeat the Queen. However, they had to count on it, and they would do what they could.

Their mid-air barriers. Instead of manifesting them as defense, they tried to gather their power to manifest it around the Queen’s arm. That is to say, should she try to swing the Storyslayer, she’d find it locked in a barrier that wouldn’t move, unable to defend against the incoming onslaught… or so they hoped. Together, the twins’ power was tiny compared to that of many of the powerhouses around here.

But perhaps just the smallest influence at the right place could be what changes everything.

__________________


...

Mikayla isn’t exactly doing a lot, but she’s technically still here, floating in mid-air, unconcerned with the battle going on.

It looked like Ronja had saved her children before that dark dimension they were held in collapsed. She’d have to recover them later. But, what to do now…?

__________________


‘... Tsk!’ Lea grunted in annoyance as equally fast Lily blasted past, having prevented her punch from killing Mariette. No more than a moment had passed after that, until Alexander came close. She immediately flew up into the air, her reaction speed more than fast enough to dodge a sword-swing. In retaliation, she swung a hand at him. The hand dissolved into wasps, and a small scattering of these wasps from her Insect specialization launched and buzzed down at great speed to attempt to sting him anywhere with exposed skin or thin clothing, each of their stingers coated with her poison. But, despite that, it was a half-hearted attack.

She cared naught for Alexander, she didn’t want to fight him. It was Mariette she wanted…!

And then a whole bunch of Penny’s appeared.

‘What…’ Lea flew higher into the air, glaring at the duplicates. Those weren’t hers to fight. There were others that were supposed to fight her. Freya. Mayra. Not… not Lea.

‘Drat…!’ Once again, she blasted off, intending to fly off over the edge and pursue Mariette…

__________________


‘Look who we have here…’ Nina said, leaning forward as she was directing the Pennybots, and saw Lea through their eyes. Nina, usually neutral, looked with contempt at her former boss. ‘She’s a former fairy. She has a crippling weakness to both fire and iron. Get her!’

__________________


So. The item that she was going to use in her seal against Asengav. The Black Mirror. It was gone.

Mariette had no means of securing another item quite as powerful in such a short amount of time.

However. What was it that Laat had told her, once, so long ago? In their meeting where they talked about this?

Ideas hold sway. Names hold sway.

That’s when it hit her.

A portal opened, and an item fell into her hand.

It was the remains of the Queen’s necklace, the one who had locked her into a cage without her freedom. A symbol of her captivity.

Withered to destruction by the power of her friend.

Mariette gripped it tightly.

Her other hand opened a portal and the coin fell into her hand. The magnum opus of Olivia Giles, coin crafter, and the very reason Mariette had made her in the first place. The Grey Coin.

All she needed now was the pick. Penny had the pick.

Also, she had to…

‘Lily. I must come into contact with her. With my "Mother",’ she said, looking at Lily as they both fell down the building towards the awaiting, probably not that soft embrace of the Gothizzar Harvester, and also had Dave coming with them and would likely catch them first, and potentially also Lea charging over the corner at them if nobody was able to stop her. ‘I’m not fast enough. Can you help me?’ she asked, earnestly.

Magical Dream Princess, Gaia and Connie escaped through the enchanted cat flap, and saw behind them as Cheshire Cat waved goodbye, a bittersweet expression on her face. It was immediately apparent why, as they saw the wall behind her rapidly turn into white paper, the word “wall” written endlessly over it: the end of the world had reached the Bastion.

“Don’t worry about me,” She spoke to them, as the ominous flood of words crept up her legs, turning them into paper as well. She looked at Connie in particular as her torso was now turning to paper, and placed a hand over her chest.

“Remember: Some obstacles are overcome with the mind, some, with our heart.”

And then, as the virulent whiteness had reached her neck and took away her sad smile, the cat flap closed.

Lily resisted the urge to scream as she was plummeting towards the streets of Penrose together with Mariette, and not just because she was trying to put on a brave face at what first seemed like certain death for a frail girl of Mahou standards, as she saw Dave swooping down, clearly going to catch them. More importantly, she didn’t want Mariette to feel even worse than she already was, after having been attacked by someone like Lea, a girl that Lily thought was like a friend to Mariette, and then shoved by Lily.

“I’m sooorrryyy…” Lily finally apologized through the sound of gravity-accelerated wind, though to her relief Mariette wasn’t upset: in fact, she seemed occupied with thinking up a plan of some sorts, tiny portals conjuring what seemed like random junk to Lily. Lily then turned her eyes, and shrieked: Pennybots burst throughout the sides of Covington Tower, their extended hands flailing to grasp them in a way the green-haired girl saw as threatening, as if from some bizarre robot apocalypse movie.

Lily then saw as Lea, still furious, swiftly pursued them down the building, having avoided Alex’ attack by diving off the rooftop as well, leaving behind a trail of butterflies.
However, before she reached them, Dave had swooped under the two, carrying them aloft on his magnificent wings. In the process, the wall of the Covington Tower cracked from the pressure of the Pennybots climbing on it, causing an extending one to fall and be caught by Chloe’s Gothizzar Harvester.

“Whoaah!” Lily exclaimed as Dave flapped his wings, ascending up the tower in a spiral. She pet the bird with a glad smile.
“Thank you Dave! Well, it seems we weren’t in too much trouble…”

She mumbled as she saw the numerous Pennybots swarming up the tower and destroying most of the windows on the way. They also confronted Lea: their attacks stalled her enough for the two of them to escape, causing Lily to frown a bit. However, she then remembered that the stakes were much higher now as she heard Mariette speak: Lily blinked at the shocking contents of her plan. However, as much as she wanted to protest and say it was too dangerous, she knew that Mariette was one of the smartest people she had ever seen in the magical community, and she was dead serious. Finally, she decided to hold out her hand to Mariette: the eyepatched girl would see that a magic symbol of a spinning sundial could be seen on the palm, glowing a gentle mix of green and yellow, accompanied by a smile from Lily herself.

“Ok…I trust you, Mariette. After all, friends need to trust in each other…right?”

---

Meanwhile, the Queen of Hearts raised her sword, a sickly aura of mismatching colors now emanating from her ink-stained wounds as she raised the Storyslayer, her eyes now set on the Ronin and Miko, the twins having been closest to her. She no longer made an effort to dodge or avoid attacks as she ominously descended down stairs made of conjured portals towards the two in a slow but inevitable walk: the Pennybots’ curtain of fire did little to stop her, and even Gaia’s burst of energy, in the shape of cutting leaves and piercing roots, only slowed her slightly. Any Pennybots that charged at her were swiftly decommissioned, their parts scattered like macabre confetti at the Queen’s grim arrival. Magical Dream Princess’s Toybox Ray was the only attack to elicit a proper reaction in the form of a raised hand blocking the various silly objects. She also slowed as she walked through the combined wind and water spell Mika and Su cooked up, undeterred by the prospect of drowning or slicing air.

However, just as she got within striking range, Alicia, with Ani’s assistance, burst forth, the Paladin Seraph bravely shooting at the Queen with a volley of arrows before swiftly diving into slashing distance with a rocket-like propulsion. The Queen let the arrows pierce her body, and instead changed the direction of the Storyslayer: she was about to counter, when she was thrown off-balance. The twins had, for the briefest moment, immobilized the Queen’s arm with a clever barrier, allowing Alicia to perform a clean series of slashes…decapitating the Queen.

The Queen’s head fell to the rain-slicked ceiling of the tower with a thud. Was this the end?

Alicia had no time to ponder, as she then felt great pain coming from her stomach: the headless body of the Queen had driven the Storyslayer through her, piercing her Enhanced Uniform, and causing her to cough blood, as her vision was slowly dimming.
She could hear the Queen’s mad laughter.

“HAHAHAHAHAAAA!”

The headless body of the Queen shambled back a few steps after pulling the Storyslayer out, and the Queen’s head turned upwards.
“The brave White Knight knight forgot to bring anklets to guard her horse against shark bites…And a shield to protect against blades!”
The head then seemingly jumped, landing right back on her shoulders, the neckline now rimmed with a sickly stain of ink, like a black collar.

“Now, time to end your suffering…!”

She raised the Storyslayer again…But by then, she had noticed a certain Mahou creeping closer in the chaos.

She swiftly turned, delivering a diagonal slash. Connie then fell over: her white mask had been cut in two, revealing a wound that crossed from forehead to chin, the shock of the attack having left her unconscious, and she untransformed.



However, it was too late: the Empress of Nightmares, as she had earlier correctly surmised, had recognized a weakness in the seemingly invincible Queen, and managed to get close enough to land her nightmare spell.

At that moment, the Queen blinked, and her vision changed. It was a sunny day in Kensington Gardens, back in 1800s London. She had arrived at the park holding Alice’s hand, about to read her a story from her favorite book. She placed the picnic basket filled with delicious little treats, and sat down at the base of the tree. She opened the book…But something terrible had happened to it: the pictures were all replaced by scenes of Alice’s death. She recognized every single one of them: they were all deaths she had witnessed over the centuries, caused by her or some unfortunate circumstance.

Then, the pictures became animated, and Alice’s corpses turned their dead eyes to her.

“It’s your fault, Mommy…You killed me…All those times…”

The Queen shook her head, and tossed the book away.

“No…It wasn’t me! I tried to save you, Alice!”

But wherever she looked, she saw Alice upon Alice upon Alice: all dead, with scars and wounds and deathly pale skin. They all reached out for her…



The others saw how she had dropped the Storyslayer with a clang, and held her head as she wailed and cried her lungs out, kneeling low with her eyes trickling with inky tears.

It was about this moment when Lily and Mariette were brought back to roof level by Dave, where Mariette now saw the state the Queen had been brought to. And Connie had paid the price.

Lily then saw as Ronin and Miko were reaching for the Storyslayer, having gotten their chance to enact their plan to steal the reality-breaking blade away from the Queen. But..Lily felt a lurch in her stomach, like something awful was going to happen.

“Mariette, whatever it is you’re planning, you need to do it now!”

The swarm of insects weren't any real threat to Alexander. While they were smart enough to go after exposed skin, they didn't have enough penetrating power to break through his force field "Gah!" he grunted in frustration as he swatted them all to death with a bunch of tails. Unfortunately, that bought the crazy bug girl the time she needed to go over the edge...pursued by a bunch of Pennys. Once more, he had to struggle with his gut instinct to jump after her. 'Lily would probably have an easier time hitting that bitch than I would. Also, Penny is also chasing after her and has a head start. Although I didn't know she could makes clones, so that's a bit of a surprise'

With that settled, Alexander turned back to the fight with the queen bitch...and saw history repeating itself. The familiar masked girl got hit so bad, that she crumpled to the ground transformed, and for a brief moment that felt like it stretched out for far too long Alexander wasn't on top of a building he was in a familiar castle, and the girl on the ground looked very different. Alexander didn't even think, he simply made a mad dash over to her, pushing his Reinforcement and Beast magic as much as he could, scooped her up in his tails, and carried her over to the side of the battlefield where he started using healing magic on her "Come on come on come on-" he desperately chanted over and over again. He was so distracted, that he didn't even notice the queen scream in agony. Bob and Tim, noticing their master's distress, fell back to cover him

Meanwhile, Alexander's clones had just reached the door and ran through it. They weren't completely sure what was on the other side or even what they were supposed to do when they found it, but they all decided that was the original's problem.

Connie had never liked her magic. The idea of giving people nightmares had always been deeply upsetting to the timid and kind-hearted girl. Even if they were clearly evil monsters, it still pained her to do it. Except for that one time. The time when her friends had been brutally murdered. When she had been cruelly tricked into hurting her best friend. In her unfathomable rage, she hadn’t felt even the slightest reluctance at subjecting the sources of all that pain to horrors beyond imagining. Indeed, she had very much wanted them to suffer. And that knowledge scared her most of all. Even now, with the very fabric of reality being unmade all around her, even with the distressing erasure of Cheshire Cat so fresh in her memory, she couldn’t bring herself to feel that same anger. If anything, she felt a gnawing sense of uncertainty. Was this really the best course of action? Might there not be a better way, a less painful way? And what did Cheshire Cat’s cryptic last words truly mean?

As it happened, no sooner did Connie launch her nightmare attack on the Queen of Hearts, then the Sovereign of Wonderland (in contemptuous disregard for the massive mystical deluge intended to distract her) launched an attack of her own on the unsuspecting masked maiden. Connie hardly had time to voice a frightened cry, before she was struck with enough force to knock her unconscious.

“CONNIE!!!” Gaia screamed in horror as she raced over to catch her fallen friend. Tears streamed down the verdant maiden’s face as she cradled Connie’s untransformed body and desperately checked for a pulse. Despite wanting to unleash every last ounce of nature’s fury upon the Queen of Hearts, the nymph-like maiden knew that her precious little sister needed her more.

“Connie Wonnie!” MDP cried in alarm as she also bounced over to her unconscious friend’s side. “I-Is… Is she gonna be okie dokie…?” the Princess of Dreams asked, her tearful voice filled with concern.

However, before Gaia could reply, Alexander had darted over, scooped Connie up and brought her to a (relatively) secluded part of the rooftop, where he began treating her with his reinforcement magic.

A moment later, Gaia and MDP had joined him, both desperately hoping the magical boy’s attempt to heal their friend would be successful…