Member
Majoraa
WardenCelestine
RPM
The World
IAmTheIsland
Pathei Mathos
Xaltwind
E R A S V R E
”It has been done, Samantha.”
Veronica and Silhouette drifted through darkness. There was no light to see by, no world to enforce gravity on the two. Time itself may have even stood still in this place. If there was something that did fill this void, it was air. It was a bit cooler than Mariette’s dimension, but Veronica didn’t seem to mind.
Unlike most, these two cradle agents had the ability to see through darkness. Samantha could see all manner of things floating around them. Weapons, artifacts, military gear, housing, an assortment of items both practical and not. The walls, ceiling, and floor had too much stuff floating in the way to be visible. Perhaps there were none.
”You may release Justine now. She will not harm anyone else ever again.”
Samantha didn’t want to hold onto the corpse any longer than she had to, so she didn’t hesitate to release it. The body seemed to float just as they did. Sam then gazed around at the multitude of objects, a bit envious at the convenience something like this place must have provided. “Do you intend to keep her here?” Sam asked. Didn’t seem like a place they’d have to worry about being compromised, at any rate.
”Of course. You know where this is, right?” Veronica looked around herself. ”This is what the inside of the cradle looks like. It could be likened to a hammerspace. Everything that goes inside it is locked into stasis until I will it to my hand or a nearby shadow.” She smiled. ”It is a powerful weapon, but that’s not really what makes it so valuable to me.” She opened her hand, and a cursed spear flew into her hand. ”When you kill a magical girl, the process of reincarnation starts. Maybe a decade or so down the line, they get to be reincarnated. Their weapons, outfit, everything fades from this world. And this process just keeps going forever and ever. You can’t really ever get rid of a magical girl permanently. They are effectively immortal… until I came around.”
Suddenly, the debris moved aside to reveal more magical girls. Hundreds of them, their faces twisted in agony or horror, frozen in stasis.
”If Justine’s dying body remains here, how long do you suppose it will be before she can return?”
It was an unnerving sight to see, but Samantha didn’t look very surprised. Veronica had weapons to loan and it only made sense something like this was what made it possible. She emotionlessly glanced at the twisted features of the girls, then answered. “There’s no mana requirement? If so, I imagine indefinitely,” Something about this piqued Sam’s curiosity. “So you take your weapons from the people you have here? Why are they imperfect?”
”Most hammer spaces can’t even take living things inside of themselves. As a dark power, there were bound to be drawbacks to leaving things here too long.” She spun the spear before letting it float out of her hand. ”Over the course of time, anything left in here will be saturated with dark magic. This is what imparts such unique properties on cradle gear. It’s not quite the same as magical girl corruption, as the effects saturate everything. Weapons and artifacts are not spared its effects.” Veronica sighed. ”Or maybe the girls themselves are reacting to me using their gear. As my eternal prisoners, their last act of defiance is tarnishing their tools. Perhaps it's done in a last ditch effort to rebel against their jailer. I am not Binky, so I don’t truly know. I have tried to keep as many eyes off of the cradle for as long as I could. You are one of the few people who has ever seen it.”
Samantha seemed happy upon Veronica mentioning it was a secret shown to few. She tried not to let it reflect on her face, however, as she felt it weird and immature to get excited over that. She wasn't some kid!
With a motion of her hand, the magical girls were hidden from sight again, ”As sinister as it is, it’s also romantic in a way, isn’t it?”
Veronica's statement prompted Sam to look around again. "Romantic?" she repeated. While she felt like that might not be the case with other people, Sam really was ignorant with these things. She just assumed she was missing something if Veronica thought so. "I wouldn't really know... but it is quiet. And I could see it being a nice retreat, kinda like those dimensional homes some girls have," this was ignoring the suffering in the background. Oh, and the fact that since she hadn't exactly adjusted to the 'low-grav' situation, Sam had to resist the urge to ‘swim’ to keep afloat. But aside from those…
”Yes, yes I think so too.” She pulled Samantha closer. ”So how are you and Trixy doing? Still holding up well?”
Samantha nodded. "I am fine. I wasn't attacked directly, nor did I expend much energy," She sounded a bit disappointed about this though. "As for Trixy, wouldn't it be better to ask her?" she closed her eyes. "I don't recall any serious damage done to her."
Veronica squinted her eyes. ”I mean your relationship.”
"O-oh..." Sam briefly recalled a few moments she had shared with Trixy. "I can't say for certain, but I believe things are going well." As far as Samantha could tell, Trixy seemed to be enjoying herself. And she couldn't say she disliked that. "Why bring this up? Did she say something?" Sam almost seemed worried.
”Well.” Veronica looked away. ”She’s been thinking some things, but it’s probably not worth bringing up.”
"What sort of things?" Sam found herself asking the question before she could think. It was an embarrassingly-impulsive reaction that made her blush a bit. "Oh, uh, that's kinda private, forget I said anything..."
The former cradle mother snorted. ”Sam, I didn’t tell you why I left. It’s true it was to have Binky perform a surgery on me. Viridian simply took my place temporarily. But there was another reason why I decided it was necessary to split myself into two different people.” She looked into Sil’s eyes. ”I didn’t think I could be an effective leader if I got to know you all so intimately. So we traded memories to make sure things didn’t get too personal. One of us would be equipped with the important memories of the agents. Things like your abilities and what you do best. The other would have all the useless ones. Your daily lives, what you ate the other day, the last time you saw Trixy, that sort of thing. What do you think about that?”
Sam kept eye contact with Veronica, but she didn't know what to think. "I don't know what to think." It honestly confused her. "I'm honestly a bit confused. You did all of this and just gave away the Cradle, after all..."
”Under the circumstances, it was the only way I could claim Justine while protecting the rest of you.” She narrowed her eyes. ”Sam, what I was saying was that Viridian was the one who was set up to lead. She had all of your combat data while I held onto the memories of each of you. I was overcome with emotion and acted irrationally in the situation. I’m not sure what I am to you, but you are more than an agent to me. All of you are. Your deaths might only last a decade or so, but the Cradle was worth it. Even if it wasn’t necessary, and even if it was futile, my ambitions were not worth more than your lives.” Veronica lowered her head. ”I failed you all, and I am sorry.”
Sam rested a hand on Veronica's shoulder. "We're not the Mint, so the expectation is NOT to treat us as expendable," she stated. "I was sure that's part of the reason you started the Cradle in the first place. Why we have a damned Glimmr page you made me keep tabs on." Sam was somewhat irritated at Veronica from the tone of her voice. "Not even I want..." Sam's eyes widened when she realized what she was about to say. "...I don't want any of us to die," She didn't even have a particularly good relationship with the other Cradle agents, either. "...It's nothing to apologize for. And, uh... well, I can't say I think of you as just an employer... but, like I've said, these I'm terrible with things..."
”It’s less that anyone was expendable and that Viridian wouldn’t have been as impulsive as me. Or at least she shouldn’t have been, but while she has only the memories I gave her, she is still her own person with her own personality. Perhaps she felt I would make the right choice in the end, hence why I was summoned.” Veronica lifted her head and pulled Samatha into a hug. ”Regardless, Maura treats her girls very well. I doubt she will handle the cradle any differently. We also share in our hate for Mint and Beacon, she only chooses to describe these feelings as ‘those who upset the balance.’ I do need to have a conversation with her at some point.” Veronica and Samantha’s faces were inches apart. ”We can talk about that later. Right now while we’re alone, while you can still hear my voice outside of your head, I’d like to tell you something else.” Veronica leaned closer. ”Our future.”
That was when a hole opened in this cold, dark space, and light poured in. The cradle agent and her former employer were drawn towards the hole and shot out of the cradle. Samantha landed on her back and the two slid a few feet through the sand, causing a sand pillow to form behind her head. Veronica was just as close as before but something else had changed beside their surroundings.
They were both wearing swimsuits.
”Howdy y’all!” Viridian waved to them, dressed in a swimsuit herself. ”We all made it out, safe and sound!”
”Waaaaaah~~~<3” Trixy was also in a swimsuit while making… a very strange face. She had her hands pressed together and practically bounding to her position. Veronica was about to get off of Samantha when Trixy’s hand stopped her from rising all the way. ”Were you guys doing something? Don’t let me interrupt!”
”Hm?” Veronica blinked. ”Yes, I was talking to Sam, and I wanted to be really close to make sure she heard and understood me.”
The Cradle's idol went to push Veronica up so she could move out from under her, but accidentally groped her instead so she abandoned the idea. "!" Samantha was embarrassed by this, her face flushed a deep red. "S-sorry." It didn't help that being in a swimsuit was clearly a weakness of sorts for her, and being so close to Veronica in one, particularly in front of Trixy, made retaining composure difficult. "Y-yeah..." she looked away to hide her shame. "...a-as you were saying...?"
”Waaaaaah~~~<3 Sam! You just, took hold of Veronica, and, and…!”
”Sam!” Veronica’s eyes were wide open. ”J-just let me get off of you! There’s no reason to assist!”
Trixy’s eyes rolled into her head, and she fell backwards. This caused the three girls to collapse into a big dog pile.
Viridian turned from the spectacle to address Jenna. ”Don’t worry yourself about Justine, buttercup. She’s as done as toast with an egg sunny side up, ya hear? Biscuits and gravy straight off the stove top is what she is!”
No swimsuit pics because you fuckers are way too horny.
”Yuck! Extra clothes!”
— Tonya “Mac” Murphy
And that was it.
She fled with the other cradle agents without getting enough time to throw a single punch. It was unfortunate. All that work into capping off Justine and she's done in by some joe blow who was suppose to be on her side. It was whatever though. What mattered was that everyone that she wanted to live, lived, and Beacon got taught a lesson they wouldn't soon forget.
MAN spanking beacon girls was exhilarating. Kinda sucked that Alicia was one, as she was one of the few that seemed to have half a brain, but far be it for Mac to feel sympathy for her enemy. Just ditch Beacon and work for the good of the people. It wasn't like Mint was getting anywhere without Veronica, Beacon would probably be done without Alicia and Penny.
She used a few of her coins to push her luck to the next level. That was probably all she really cared to do. Though she'd be getting out of this hell hole as soon as she was able.
Well, at least there wasn't a null field active here.
