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Brainstorming sessions are great and all, but when do we kill shit?
-Nyxia Torrentia, Neon Tempest of the Ultraviolet Rainbow


Nyxia listened as her club mates gave their various suggestions. Potentially growing stronger by beating up the GEMs was appealing enough to the Neon Tempest, but she still preferred cleansing Hibusa Town of the crimes against nature that were Miseria rather than some collection of mildly annoying brats. The idea of Rei leaving town only made Nyxia roll her eyes. Even if it was true that their overwhelmingly powerful, self-appointed leader’s presence was somehow syphoning off the bulk of the energy they’d normally gain by slaying Miseria, getting Rei to take a lengthy vacation seemed like the very definition of a lost cause. Talk then turned to black holes, and the possibility of Dark Girls having some similarities with them, but none of that really mattered one way or another to the Neon Tempest. Roche’s observations were of considerably more interest, and the terrifying tealette was genuinely grateful that her partner was unwilling to do anything without her. That said…

“Well, I’m not really sure how making it a school trip would solve anything,” Nyxia noted with a doubtful frown. “I mean, I’m not even enrolled at your school to begin with. And something tells me the plan here is for a trip that lasts a little longer than just one night,” she added with a condescending sneer in response to Oros’s observation. Damn, this perverted bitch is always so dense… the Neon Tempest grumbled to herself. However shortly thereafter, Suki brought up the possibility of riding motorcycles, which forced Nyxia to concede that maybe the perverted pinkette wasn’t a complete waste of space. Wait… She meant actual bikes? As in, bicycles? Okay, yeah, I take it back, she’s just as much of a dumbass as I thought.

Somehow, I thought this might happen…

-Ashley Avenir




To Ashley’s relief, her attacks seemed to be effective in eliminating the turret she’d been aiming at, while another turret was knocked out by a shot of Iris’s webs. However, the Knight of Tomorrow also noticed that Jack’s gunfire appeared to have no effect on the remaining gelatinous weapon emplacements whatsoever, and neither, apparently did Nina’s flail, which meant…

“We need to use magic on those turrets!” Ashley called, even as Mika ran on top of the strange craft and began attacking the third remaining turret with her enchanted claws. “Physical attacks won’t harm them!”

Thankfully, the other Mavericks and Freelancers were providing enough hastily constructed cover, covering fire, or simply more immediate targets that the high-tech heroine was free to take aim on the final turret. Unfortunately, just as she locked onto her target, the entire craft began ascending…

“Damn it…!” Ashley hissed, lowering her techno-wand. A moment later she heard Book Kidd call out that they needed to get aboard the retreating ship, which was pretty obvious as far as the Knight of Tomorrow was concerned. It didn’t take long for her to notice the swirling portal nearby, its familiar appearance indicating that it was one of Gale’s creations. Did she rush off by herself again?! the high-tech heroine wondered, before casting that worry aside and running toward the swirling gateway as fast as the powerful legs of her esper form could manage. Here goes nothing… she thought with no small amount of trepidation before jumping in.

Did you idiots forget I was still here?
-Doctor Nykannis, Queen of the Mad Scientists


At the heart of the ARGO’s massive, moon-sized form resided its primary bridge, filled with glowing screens, flashing consoles, curtains of hanging wires, tangles of tetra-tachyonic tubers, crackling antenna-tipped apex antimatter apparatuses, pulsing polymorphic perception arrays, and a myriad of other biomechanical, technomantic machinery too incomprehensible to describe. It was at the center of this chamber, ringed by the titanic vessel’s half dozen hyper-tech AI cores, that Doctor Nykannis sat upon her ultra-tech command throne and watched events playing out on an arc of several holographic screens, her full attention focused on each, via a level of multitasking that rivaled the Queen of Penrose herself. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the largest was dedicated to a view of the ongoing battle between the Oros copies, Penny Prime, and the so-called “Stacy Squad” in the tangental reality layer overlay of Penrose. However, on either side of it were a pair of only slightly smaller displays. One depicted the Penrose Pack’s assault upon the roof of Covington Tower, while the other provided a view of a location significantly farther afield, namely, a certain beach in a certain City of Blood, where an enforced vacation had just concluded in a spasm of violence.

“Well, that sure didn’t last long,” Nykannis snorted. “The dolphin kept the Penrose Pack out of commission for three fucking months, and this stupid shark couldn’t even manage more than a week! Still, it’s nice to see that my little Ashley’s finally settled into her role as team leader. Yesss,” the Monarch of Mad Science added with an approving smirk before taking a sip of her glowing, yellowy-green beverage. “There’s nothing quite like seeing someone live up to their potential, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Indeed, Doctor,” the polyhedral technorune-covered brain of Xozooth the Xorcerer concurred from where it hovered next to the Mad Scientist Supreme. “Guiding a promising apprentice to the poly-plenumic pinnacles of personal perfection is a most rewarding experience, to be sure, although, I am unsure if it is correct to bestow such a title upon young Miss Avenir at the present juncture.”

“Perhaps not yet,” Nykannis conceded. “But I’m certain she won’t disappoint me like certain others have. Just give it time.”

“Speaking of time, is that not your friend down there?” Xozooth inquired.

“Yeah, that’s Jen,” Nykannis confirmed. “Though she goes by Alice now, of all fucking names…”

“She seems to be performing quite capably,” the polymathemagician observed.

“Well, I’d certainly hope so,” the mad scientist replied, rolling her eyes. “If she had access to her full power, she could’ve wiped the ocean floor with those idiots in less than a second. As it is, she’s given the Pax Septimus Pack the chance they’ve been waiting for, which I’m pretty sure is the only reason she even went to that shithole in the first place,” Nykannis explained. “Y’know, get everything back to ‘normal’ so that her favorite failure can make his ‘triumphant’ return.”

“If I am not mistaken, the return of the status quo there benefits you as well,” Xozooth noted.

“It sure does,” Nykannis responded with a smirk. “And so does ‘Alice’s’ little ‘business trip’. That, coupled with Olivia’s earlier visit, should pretty much guarantee the Caustic Bovines show up in time for Kate’s impending photo shoot.”

“From what I gather, these ‘Caustic Bovines’ are powerful in the extreme, even for poly-plenumic entities. Are you not concerned for Miss Carson’s safety?”

“She’s got her new pets to protect her,” Nykannis replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. “But if for some reason they aren’t enough, well…” the mad scientist’s mouth curled into a maniacal grin. “You should know by now that I always have a contingency plan.”

“Such as for the event the copies you made of the various Oros iterations fail to overcome Miss Asimov and her allies?”

Exactly.

The pair watched as Oros the Mad appeared to leap to her own death, but this development didn’t perturb Nykannis in the slightest.

“Guess I gave them a bit too much autonomy,” she remarked. Of course there was always the chance this was some ploy to set up some form of surprise strike, but even if that wasn’t the case and The Mad truly had just decided to commit suicide, most of the other Oroses were fairing rather well, especially, and most importantly, Osiris, who was directly engaged with the preposterously powerful Penny Prime herself. “At least Oros the Overlord has yet to let me down. She’s really holding her own against the Tin Titan there, as expected of the work of my unparalleled super-scientific genius! Nyahahahaha!”

“Sadly, the same cannot be said for the brave souls opposing the Queen of Hearts,” Xozooth observed with a hint of melancholy.

“Yeah, they’re insanely outmatched and then some,” Nykannis agreed as the view on the central display focused on where the headless body of Janet/Kaylie/Whatever-she-was-called-now lay on the rain-slicked rooftop. “Even Miss ‘Keeper of the Keys, Champion of Champions, and Grand Magistrate’s own personally chosen Guardian of the Nexus’ was finished off in one stroke, though that particular development shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone with half a brain.”

“Based upon previously observed uses of her blade, it is quite probable that the Guardian was not slain by the Queen of Hearts’ attack,” Xozooth pointed out.

“Whatever the case, she’s out of action for the rest of the fight,” Nykannis replied. “Obviously she couldn’t manage to maintain enough protagonist power to be more than a one-note set piece. And speaking of set pieces, those mirror traps are quite the melodramatic little sideshow, aren't they? Well, I imagine that was the intent at least,” the mad scientist added with a derisive sneer. “Still, I’m so very pleased to see that Penny has enough genre savviness and general narrative knowledge to avoid getting stuck in one herself. After all,” she continued, her toothy grin broadening as a new screen depicting a figure floating in a glowing tube overlapped all the others. “The proverbial curtain will rise on that particular scene soon enough…”

Fuck… Another meeting?
-Nyxia Torrentia, Neon Tempest of the Ultraviolet Rainbow


As per usual, Nyxia entered the makeshift clubroom by slipping through one of the windows, its center pivoting to permit her passage. “Interesting choice for a new meeting spot…” the Neon Tempest noted as she scanned the dingy attic with narrowed eyes, while her mouth formed a disdainful scowl. Yet, it wasn’t just the lack of cleanliness that bothered the teal-haired terror. It hadn’t escaped her that this seemingly unoccupied house was practically next door to her own, and it was this fact that brought her the greatest amount of annoyance. Indeed, it seemed that despite all her efforts to retain her anonymity, every new development actively worked to undermine that goal. “And here I’d thought we’d be using an old warehouse or something…” she muttered.

Propping her beloved death ray against a support beam, Nyxia leaned back against the giant energy cannon and folded her arms under her chest as she listened to Oros’s introductory statements, followed by Evil Eye’s assessment of the whole “Giga Miseria situation”. The Neon Tempest had to admit, for a creepy and insufferably smug voyeur, the crimson-eyed young woman was actually quite competent when it came to such matters. Indeed, the level of detail present on her map provided ample proof of the effort she’d put into compiling the data needed to make it. Unfortunately, there was a not inconsiderable problem inherent to the conclusion the eye-themed girl had reached, at least as far as Nyxia was concerned.

“Nice plan, but, uh, with my… family situation being what it is, long-distance road trips aren’t really something I can do,” she told the group with a disappointed frown. If she was being honest, the Neon Tempest was all for slaying unique Miseria in distant locations, without the ever annoying GEMs showing up to be their usual bothersome selves. Yet, she also knew that there was almost zero chance of something like that being possible for someone like her. After all, it wasn’t like she even went to the same school as the rest of the club. “So, uh, have fun killing the fuckers without me, or whatever…” Nyxia added, turning her head and casting a dejected glare into the room’s darkened shadows.

Playtime’s over.

-Ashley Avenir




One moment, Ashley was being ignored by Dan, the next, Pax Septimus had returned to being its usual ugly self. The skies were gloomy, the beach was filthy, and the balmy summer breezes had become the chilly gusts typical of late November. Along with the change of scenery came the welcome return of the high-tech heroine’s standard esper outfit and instruments, as well as the far less welcome reveal of a sizable craft hovering over the water and formerly indivisible purple armored abductor. The Knight of Tomorrow paused for a moment in an attempt to get her bearings, while also listening to the heated conversation between Dan, “Tim”, and the now captive Alice.

As she’d strongly suspected, the entire “beach vacation” was too good to be true and there was indeed an ulterior motive at play. Well, at least now we know what happened to the others… However, Dan genuinely seemed to want everyone to enjoy themselves and vocally opposed his armored ally’s tactics. That said, the shark man had still enabled the abductions, and that would have to be addressed, albeit at a later time. Right now, there were more pressing problems to deal with, like the gelatinous turrets that had popped out of the apparent spacecraft and begun firing at the beach.

Raising her shield to guard against any shots directed her way, Ashley aimed her glowing, prong-tipped techno-wand at one of the turrets atop the alien craft and fired a neon green energy sphere at the weapon, promptly followed by a second, even more powerful techno-arcane projectile. “Cerberus!” the Knight of Tomorrow called to her teammate. “Help me take out these turrets!”

Then we can focus on the ones responsible for all this…


By this point, Tactical Triumvirate S.T.A.C.-Y.’s focused barrage was beginning to have a telling effect, so much so, in fact, that it had prompted the most extreme response from their foe yet. Morphing one of her mighty appendages into a massive, wickedly sharp cleaver, Oros the Savage swept it across the trio in an attempt to slice all three of them in two. Of course, the bioroids’ reflexes, coupled with the effects of Penny Prime’s gravity manipulation, meant that the deadly attack was easily avoided. The same, however, could not be said of the immediate follow up, a rapid flurry of strikes from the aptly-named Oros the Swift’s katana. The mystic blade bit deep into each of the artificial super soldiers’ various limbs even as they leapt out of the way of Savage’s own sweeping attack, in the process, placing themselves right in the path of the Nomad Magical Girl’s strikes. Normally, such attacks would be easily repelled by the bioroids’ Tealite Spectrumic Hybridium Powered Armor, but Oros the Swift’s katana was far more than a normal blade. It was a magic weapon, infused with Oriko’s ki, and wielded with superhuman speed. Thus, the strikes succeeded in throughly dismembering the three super soldiers, the vacuums left in the wake of the lightning fast blows sending armored arms and legs crashing into each other, leaving a pile of entangled limbs resting atop a trio of torsos.

Situation analysis: current tactical capabilities at 1.75 percent effectiveness. Response: engage restorative nanites. Complication: insufficient resources for nanite reconstruction. Revised response: await battlefield support or combat zone extraction.

Nearby, Nomad Stacy was still locked in fierce combat with Oros the Shrewd.

“Like, OMG! So that’s, like, not your natural voice?!” Stacy marveled when Amber revealed she did, indeed, do character voices. “I, like, never would have guessed!” the Kung Fu Corpse Girl added, right before a charred steak slammed into her face, knocking her over backwards. “Holy freaking crap! Like, that must be some really tough meat if my crazy cool lightning didn’t, like, totally kerplode it!” Stacy remarked as she sat back up, the horribly burnt piece of meat having fallen to the ground beside her. “Like, nothing that tough could, like, ever not taste, like, suuuper garbo!” she noted. “Well, unless it’s, like, gum or something that you’re just meant to chew, but not actually, like, eat or whatever.”

Jumping to her feet, she began blocking each additional culinary projectile sent her way with a flurry of crazy cool martial arts moves, at least until the gravity wave knocked her off her feet again. That same massive manipulation of gravitational forces also sent Oros the Shrewd flying towards her, with the pint-sized provisioner’s recently concocted all-natural stew-smoothie shooting even further forward to rain down over the undead Nomad.

“Ewww! Like, super gross! Stacy cried in a mixture of disgust and horror as she saw how the thick amalgamation now coated her entire small form. “Your disgusting slop just, like, totally ruined my super cool outfit! Okay, now I’m, like, super pissed off!” Charging up a massive concentration of lightning in both of her clenched fists as she got on one knee, Stacy pressed her two crackling fists together and thrust them toward her rapidly approaching opponent. “CRAZY COOL SUPER MEGA ULTRA ZAPPY ZAP!!!”

Elsewhere, Saw Blade Stacy’s duel with Oros the Inventive continued. Although Stacy had tried a tactic she’d hoped would come as a surprise to Lada, the false Ars Magi simply used her nanites to shield her from the blast of paint. Then the gravity pulse hit, sending the pair lurching one way, then the next in quick succession. This left Stacy sitting on top of Lada, but this wasn’t as much of an advantage as it might seem. The fake Ars Magi was now completely coated in nano armor, making her impervious to any harm a point blank attack might normally inflict. The same could not be said for Stacy, who quickly moved to pin down her opponent’s axe arm with the blade of her chainsaw.

“Every color of the rainbow,” she replied to her foe’s question. “As long as that rainbow’s neon pink!” she added, firing an even bigger torrent of magic paint from her free hand. Stacy knew this was a terrible matchup for her, but she was determined to make the most of it. While her paint’s usual damaging properties wouldn’t have any effect on a non-Void, she was still able to alter its physical state. By coating Lada with paint, and then hardening it, she just might be able to paralyze the technopath.

But probably not.

While other intense combats were occurring around her, Stitch ‘Em Up Stacy was still tending to her very friendly patient. Things were getting ever so slightly uncomfortable, until one of Stacy’s innocent comments sent Oros the Joyful’s nosebleed into overdrive. One moment, the zombie medic was holding Suki, while continuing to apply pressure to the ice pack on the girl’s nose, the next, and she was hurtling through the air, propelled by a torrent of high-pressure blood. “WOAH!!!” she cried as she flew across the battlefield and back towards the other Stacys. “Was it something I said?!” she wondered as the blood blast, coupled with the suddenly reduced gravity, continued to keep her airborne.

“Huh. Ya don’t don’t see that everyday,” Grimoiric Hearts Stacy noted as she watched the zombie medic fly overhead. Her attention was quickly brought back to her immediate vicinity when she heard the threefold roar of an exceptionally bizarre creature, a giant bear with shark head tipped arms. “Wow, you’re all kinds of crazy!” she told the sharkenbear with an amused laugh as she rolled out of the way of its lunge. “Y’know, you look really hungry,” she added, getting to her feet and charging twin balls of crackling energy. “Here, have some lightning sandwiches on me!” she called, before shooting off the twin orbs of ball lightning into each of the shark heads’ toothy maws.

As that was taking place, Storm Witch Stacy and her companions were puzzled at why their crazy cool combo attack hadn’t seemed to effect their tooth-covered targets in the slightest. Their confusion wouldn’t last long, however, as the toothy masses darted forward with staggering speed and swallowed OG Stacy Stitches and Storm Witch Stacy in a single gulp before they, Staceella, or Cyberslime Stacy could even blink.

“W-What the half moon?!” Staceella cried, her eyes widening in horror as she watched her allies get gobbled up.

“Holy freaking crap, those toothy guys are fast!” Cyberslime Stacy marveled.

OG Stacy, having just used her Killing Blow, wasn’t really in any position to defend herself, but also wasn’t in any danger of coming to serious harm. Storm Witch Stacy’s predicament was far more dire, and in her frightened panic, she opened a portal and fell through it. Even under normal circumstances, her portals’ destinations were highly random, but now, without a destination in mind and cast on sheer reflex, her current portal was a bit more bizarre than usual. Thus, even as she fell out of the teeth mass’s mouth, one of the many Pennybots defending Penrose fell into it.

“W-Whew… T-That was crazy close!” Storm Witch Stacy stammered as she caught her breath. Looking around, she saw that she was still in the midst of a fierce battle, just not the one she’d been in moments before. “Wow, you guys look kinda like that Penny girl!” Stacy told the group of Pennybots she’d found herself in the midst of. “Are you fighting those crazy playing card guys?!” she inquired as a gauss cannon obliterated a Wonderland combat vehicle. “Well, we Stacys were supposed to help ya, so I’ll, like, give you guys some backup until I figure out how to get back to that other battle!” she informed them cheerfully, before blasting a flying trooper out of the air with an arc of lightning. “I mean, we magical girls are all about teamwork, right?!”

Meanwhile, back at the other battle, Oros the Wise had begun a verbal assault on Staceella and Cyberslime Stacy designed to break their spirits.

“T-That’s, like, super mean!” Staceella shouted as she clenched her fists together, her voice and visage filled with indignation. “A-And, like, you’re totally lying! N-None of that stuff is even remotely true!”

However, while Staceella seemed able to resist the harsh words, their effect on Cyberslime Stacy was considerably greater…

“T-That can’t be t-true… C-Can it…?” she wondered, her body frozen and her eyes wide as horrifying possibilities manifested in her mind. “R-Ramona doesn’t r-really hate me… D-Does she…?”

“H-Hang in there, Stacy!” Staceella called. “I’m gonna put this meanie to sleep! Then she’ll stop saying such horrible things!” Retrieving her student’s moonstone wand from the folds of her shimmering robe, she began reciting a basic lunar magic spell designed to induce swift and peaceful slumber. “Shining stars, glowing moon, restful times are coming soon. Soft pillow, fluffy sheep, now I’ll… send you… off to… *Yaaawn*… sleeeeeeeeeeeeee… Staceella’s voice trailed off as her wobbling body crumpled into a contented ball. Yes, it seemed that, due to her profound ineptitude, she had cast the spell on herself instead of Miss Fang, and the antenna-headed girl began to snore loudly as she drifted off to dreamland.

Back in the ruins of Axis Mundai, the now once again corporeal Scylla lay unmoving as its anti-viral systems struggled to dislodge MONIKA. Ironically, they would receive some help with that task in the form of B@B’s next attack, which thoroughly fried Scylla’s electronics, obliterating the so-called “infinite hacker’s virus” in the process. This was followed up by the largest outpouring of destructive force B@B had yet displayed, a veritable smorgasbord of culinary-themed attacks. Bereft of nearly all its defenses, Scylla’s hull was savagely pounded until it was little more than a lump of punctured, scorched, mangled, and partially melted metal. And, as if this wasn’t enough, B@B went on to prepare its true finishing move, although Shark Tooth Stacy couldn’t see it from her darkened cockpit.

“WHAT THE HECKIN’ HECK ARE YA DOIN’ TO MY FRAMEWERK, YA FRIGGIN’ JERK FACE?!!!” Stacy roared as she was rattled around by the force of the bombardment, even knowing full-well that her foe wasn’t able to hear her, despite her volume.

However, B@B’s unseen final course was never served, thanks to Penny Prime’s planetary-scale gravity pulse knocking the toaster-esque framewerk wildly off course. Right into what little of Axis Mundai remained standing. Rather than remaining on board to crash into the ruined spires, whose interiors were already in the process of being kerploded (a technical term) by two other ultimate attacks, Thalia chose to dramatically eject from her doomed framewerk and plummet down upon the wrecked Scylla Carbonox blade tip-first. Such was the multi-headed machine’s lack of hull integrity, that it took only a single swing to penetrate it, granting Thalia access to the cockpit, where Stacy wouldn’t be expecting her.

“W-What the…?!” the golden toothed girl exclaimed when the front casing of her cockpit was suddenly torn open.

However, the Oros of Shock and Awe had slightly miscalculated, so instead of charging into her surprised foe head on, she shot past her before slamming into the cockpit’s rear wall, prompting Stacy to give voice to an amused cackle.

“Hahahaha! Nice landing, ding dong!” she told her uninvited guest as she turned to give Thalia a big shark-toothed grin. “Yeah, well, ya know what they say,” she replied when the fox girl commented on her appearance. “A pair of eyes’re worth a thousand ears, or whatever.” Rising to her feet, she gave her knuckles a crack. “Speakin’ of, after ya finish your little snack there, how about we start round two?!”

Meanwhile, the second (or was it the first?) quartet of Stacys had just finished off three of the Carnage Sisters assaulting them. However, the fourth used the distraction her compatriots had provided to transform her robotic steed into a giant energy cannon, which seemed to be charging up a shot that promised to be devastating in the extreme.

“Jumpin’ jackrabbits!” Stampede Stacy exclaimed. “That there’s one mighty powerful lookin’ peashooter!”

An instant later, it fired off a massive beam of incandescent annihilation, and the undead cowgirl knew she had less than a second to act. An instant before the blinding lance of energy struck, she gave her lighting lasso a sharp crack, and suddenly, the beam was struck by a thundering herd of giant, spectral cattle. An instant after that, and the ghost herd began forcing the torrent of destruction back towards its source with all the inexorability of death itself.

“Don’t ya worry yer pretty lil’ heads, darlin’s,” Stacy reassured her allies with a wink. “Mah signature Ghost Herd Stampede’ll take care o’ that there nasty ol’ cannon fine as a fiddle!”

Well, that sure was effective…

-Ashley Avenir




It became apparent as soon as Ashley’s hard light beach towel struck its target that they were indeed dealing with an invisible would-be abductor. Unfortunately, said would-be abductor (or “alien monster”, as Jack called them) proved more than capable of extricating themself from the Knight of Tomorrow’s emerald ensnarement. Not only that, but they’d been so quick about it that the others hadn’t even had time to catch up to their briefly captured foe before he was off again. Ashley sighed in annoyance as she watched her invisible adversary leave splashes in the surf as they raced out to sea. There really wasn’t much more she could do here. Restraining him was provenly ineffective, and direct combat wasn’t an option. That only left…

“Dan!” the high-tech heroine called as she raced to join the shark man, who was even now running towards the waves. “Do you have any idea what’s going on here?!” The fact that he apparently knew the invisible kidnapper's name pointed to that very much being the case, and Ashley only hoped that the shark man was capable of sorting things out in a way that wouldn't cause even more problems.

(But mostly just Connie)



As Connie did her best to coordinate the various Pennybots under Gaia’s control, the nervous girl couldn’t help but overhear the comments being made by some of the other girls present about their mysterious seventh “teammate” and whether or not said individual was Penny’s girlfriend. She tried her best to tune the conversation out and focus on the task at hand, just as Gaia was doing, but even so, it still caused her mask to form a frown of worry. The timid girl really hoped the chatty duo wouldn’t decide to start asking her questions about the subject. Connie knew just how much Violet valued her secrecy, and she didn’t want her own social anxiety to inadvertently cause her to reveal something to these girls that her wealthy friend wished to keep hidden.

Thankfully(?), her mind was distracted from these unpleasant possibilities by a new arrival. Sparing a startled glance towards the direction of the new voice, Connie saw that it was the strange cat maid from the Queen of Heart’s castle, the one who claimed to be an ally. Apparently, she had gained enough of Penny’s trust to be allowed access to this control center and was now chattering on about providing coffee, or anything else the Pennybot operators might require.

“U-Umm…” Connie spoke up hesitantly, while raising a quivering hand. “I-I have a r-request, i-if it’s n-not t-too much t-trouble...” If and when Cheshire Cat moved over to her, the masked maiden would inquire in a soft whisper, “S-So, u-umm, d-do you h-have anything t-that could, uh, m-maybe r-restore m-mana…?”





Meanwhile, in her private chamber, Violet was guiding her assigned Pennybots with a skill surpassing even Gaia’s. Indeed, such was her ability to multitask that her focus was able to rapidly shift to view each of the other squads as well, taking their situations into account while choosing how to direct her own. She was also able to cast her gaze further afield, which brought to her attention the combat occurring atop Covington Tower. At first, she felt a spike of panic at the sight. This was not just the headquarters for her family’s company, it was her home, and her father’s as well. Yet, despite her instinctive desire to mobilize all the defensive drones present in the mighty structure, while simultaneously pulling back her squad of Pennybots to aid in its defense, a closer look revealed that none of the fighting was actually occurring inside the massive building, but rather, was confined to its rooftop. As long as that remained the case, the young heiress knew that there was no cause for alarm. Even whatever incomprehensible ritual was preparing to be enacted was not enough to give Violet pause, for she knew her friends were already quite literally leaping into action to oppose it, and she had full faith in their abilities, Penny’s most of all. Still, despite that, and the importance of her current task, she couldn’t help but wish that she was able to join them…

Now we might actually be getting somewhere…

-Ashley Avenir




Ashley couldn’t help but frown as she listened to Iris’s answer. Not only were the missing Mavericks not all last seen at the Golden Trove, that revelation also reminded her that some of her missing GEMINI associates had also last been seen leaving the beach to explore the city. That meant the potential captors could have abducted them anywhere, making any possible rescue attempt far more difficult, to say the least. She was just about to suggest possibly enlisting Dan’s aid with the search, when she noticed a commotion over by the beach ball container. At first, the high-tech heroine simply assumed that it was just more of the Freelancers’ carefree idiocy, but it soon became apparent that something more was at play when the horned young woman (Rika, was it?) levitated off the ground and began moving with some speed towards the ocean.

“What the…?” Ashley breathed, her eyes narrowing to focus in on the strange sight. The Knight of Tomorrow doubted this was in any way Rika’s own doing, and her initial thought was that the freelancer was caught in some form of tractor beam. However, the odds of that possibility being the case swiftly diminished as Alice, the mysterious, raven-haired lady whose clock-themed attire bore an uncanny resemblance to that of a certain former agent’s, transplaced herself with Rika. Now, had the horned young woman actually been caught in a tractor beam, then it stood to reason that Alice would now be in a similar situation, speeding through the air out to sea. Yet, that was not the case, with the would-be rescuer simply standing in the knee-deep water. Furthermore, a glance at the area near the picnic table revealed that the seemingly dazed Rika had again begun levitating and was once more moving toward the ocean. So, either the tractor beam reestablished a lock, Ashley reflected. Or something invisible is carrying her…

With the odds of the later being somewhat higher than the former, and with Alice issuing some very reasonable orders, the Knight of Tomorrow snapped a quick instruction to her new ally, “Iris! Try and lock down the area around the picnic table! I’ll rescue Rika!” Aiming her techno-wand turned squirt wand, she fired a small sphere of bright green energy at the space directly below the horned freelancer. As soon as it hit the suspected mystery abductor, it would expand to form a full body manacle composed of that same emerald energy. At least, that’s what would normally happen. Now, the restraint would take the form of a large, green beach towel, which would constrict around the hidden kidnapper. While the high-tech heroine would have liked to have employed a spy ray to ascertain just what they were dealing with, the immediacy of the situation meant that such intelligence gathering would have to wait. That said, this was the first real clue as to what had befallen the others, and Ashley wasn’t about to let such a potentially critical piece of the puzzle slip away.


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…
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