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-Comfort-



The Aftermath of any conflict is always a rough time, more so when it ends with a bitter note. Regina had escaped, and gone to ground most likely. Several of their allies and friends had perished in the fighting. And several more were still missing in action.

And few could feel the full weight of the disappointment and loss as keenly as Aurelio could. The field was an ocean of suffering and bittersweet victory. It was times such as this when he was most grateful of his chosen Vow as well as most frustrated by it

‘Start small’ he reminded himself a short lived smile playing about his features at the incidental pun.

He nodded towards the cats that were venturing off while looking at one of his clones, before planting his cane in the ground. Then he took off his hat and his cape, placing them at the foot his cane, and sat down next to Sammy.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He would respond honestly placing a hand on the small girl’s back. He would glance up and return the nod that Amaryllis gave.

“We” he corrected her “We will do all that we can to help”





-Crash-


“Sorry about that…” Penny’s reply would be soft and weak, as the emotions she had shunted off to the side all came flooding back at once. Today… there were no words for Penny to try and describe today. Nothing seemed to want to go right today.

Finding out about Thalia, actually seeing Thalia, meeting Cindy, being betrayed by Veronica (no real shock there), and fighting Elroy. Today had just been one long string of bad events. And now she was trying to handle all of that emotional impact all at once. It just compounded with the pain and exhaustion that had built up due to fighting Elroy, but it was the light sensation of Chloe running her hand through Penny’s hair that led to the wounded girl breaking down.

Silently Penny curled up next to her friend, seeking desperately the comfort that was being provided, as her mind was awash with the anguish that she had been forcing away.

The world was forgotten about as she silently cried, her battered and broken body to exhausted to do anything else but weep and seek one of the few people that Penny trusted with her life.

It was only when Janet placed the enchanted breastplate on Penny that the robotic girl was broken from her spiraling torment. Instinct had her devouring the gifted metal before she could really comprehend her own actions, but the results were instantly apparent. As the regeneration ward placed upon the metal worked alongside Penny’s regeneration leading to a very rapid recovery.

Pushing herself up to a sitting position Penny surveyed the area and finally allowed herself to wonder what exactly she had walked in the middle of. “Thanks for the save back there” She would tell Chloe as she wiped away the proof of her tears, yet she stayed close to the petite spirit mage.

People could come to her if they wanted, she just wanted to stay where she felt welcomed for a bit longer.


-Eye of the Storm-



The clone of Aurelio eyed Rebecca with open worry. He could tell plainly that something was wrong, both due to her apathetic feeling and dazed look. The fact that she hadn’t noticed that the original him had already left was another point of worry as well.

Then she went and left before he could try and make sure that she was doing alright. With a sigh the clone took off as well trailing after everyone else. His attention primarily on the welfare the girl that just spoke to him, He would carry the message to Alicia if he could but that wasn’t his priority.

Further ahead at the sight of the ruined crypt the true Aurelio would be called to action by the most surprising of things, his Vow. The out pouring of emotions that flooded the area gave him a rather clear idea of what was going on in most placed, especially when wound add in his superb perceptive capabilities.

Thus when he glanced over the battle field that seemed mostly in hand, he moved to the one person that was giving off simple sorrow. A few poofs of smoke later and three normal clones would stand as look outs in case things changed.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” The magician would ask kneeling down outside the ring of cats that surrounded Sammy.





-Never ending-


Countless error messages and warnings scrolled across the engine’s HUD as it dragged its self forward. Its outer layering had been shredded, vision had been hampered, and its right primary limb was no longer functional. To make the situation worse the exchanged hits of final blows had burned its magical supply, causing a short circuiting of its regeneration.

Yet as always, it did not seem to comprehend to concept of stopping. The target was unaccounted for, this was unacceptable. Thus it crawled back towards the place that the two attacks had clashed. The one good optic sensor it had constantly surveying for any sign of Elroy.

Said sign fell directly in the Engine’s path. As Elroy’s severed arm landed not far from the wounded monster. It kept its gaze locked on the limb calculating the probability of Elroy’s survival as Regina descended in to madness.

It was on the cusp of judging Elroy’s demise within acceptable parameters, and rebooting its emotional capabilities, when the limb vanished. Elroy’s demise was no longer certain. Before it could continue its search for Elroy, a dragon appeared in front of it, a dragon that sought its demise.

The engine reached out for the nearest source of metal. Intending to consume whatever it could to try and refill its reserves and kick start its regeneration.

Once again it was interrupted, as someone else literally swooped in and removed it from the line of fire. On instinct it nearly struck out at the interfering party, but stopped when it registered who it’s savior was.

C.̢̨.̶̕͟C̷͟h͠l̵o̶̢͡.̧e̛̕? Came the heavily distorted voice of Penny “I̱͕̪̙̠͠ͅ.̝̯̣̮͇̯̻.̧̯̬͓̻͈̹̩C̱̮̫̟̙͕̻͟͡ơ̷̖̹͢ų̤̣̮͢l҉̻.̀҉̧̱̟͚̜͉͚.̴̰͖͕̱͜d͎̯̠͡ ͏̭̟̥̠͡U̘̫̳͚s̷̡͕̞͖̫̦̻̗̲̕ḙ̻̟̯̹̫ ̜̥͎̫̺͚S̟͖̘̦̼͟ó̴̯̤̯ḿ͕͍͚͎͚̗̱̥ę̼̭͍̟̞̳̯.̴̫̥̹̺͕̝͖̥͡.҉̩̟̭͉͍t҉̩̬̯̮̺̪̬h͚̟̲͙̬̗͔̗̮͠.̧̩̘͓͇̗̱͕͕̜.̖͔i̷̦̤ņ̩̟̭̤̻͟g̪̠̝̪͔̠̝̤͝.̛̛͓̯̩.̸̻͖̺̩̱͞t̮̜̫͇̞̲̼͎͠o̸̳̤̗͉͠ ̳̥̰̞̬͉͖̼E̴̺̮̗͙̘̩̞͢a̶͘҉̥͙͈̙t̢̲̺͈̼.̨̯.̤̳̤̯̳͉̳͢͞ͅ”̖͈̪͎̺̘̮̕” She forced out as color started to return to the battered Monstergirl. Her metamorphosis slowly reverting.


-Finish Him-


As one would expect the Engine did not take being chained down kindly. It thrashed about wildly as it tore at Elroy’s shifting form with everything it had. View ports would open across its form as it struggled to tear itself free, up until it noticed the other change starting to overcome the regal boy.

For it recognized this for what it was, as it too housed the ability to perform a killing blow.

Shortly before Elroy launched them both in to the sky the Engine had stopped trying to escape the chains that kept it bound to the runaway train. That wasn’t to say it stopped attacking, never that, it was just rather than seeking to break free it turned nearly all of its attention towards inflicting as much damage as it could possibly do, almost as if it was seeking to bury in to the train.

The assault would only get worse when the two of them broke in to the clouds that were hanging so far above the graveyard. As the lightning that was housed within the storm clouds were drawn to the metallic monsters that raced through them. Lightning would rapidly strike at them, or more accurately, at Penny. Each strike would lead to a rise in tempo for the Engine’s relentless attacks, as it fed off the natural lightning use it to further bolster its already formidable offensive capabilities. Causing bursts of electricity to spark off each limb at they stuck at their foe.

This boost, this gift from the heavens, would be received once again during the return trip back to the earth far below.

It was during the decent that the Engine would prepare its escape. For Elroy had made a very simple mistake it his assumptions about Penny and her monstrous form. Externally nearly nothing changed, it still was savagely attacking at Elroy with all available options, but near it end of the long serpentine form it held, just above the tip of its tail a hatch was forming. Within that hatch was a rail launch system, for the error that Elroy had made in regards to the Monstrous nature of the Engine and Penny herself, was that she couldn’t just abandon the metal she had taken.

Moments before they impacted with the ground, using timing only made possible by a machine’s mind, the hatch would open, and from it would come the roaring discharge of the gauss system. As the Engine ejected its core components from the worm like body it forged from the forgotten scrap and offered steel.

The discarded form would instantly cease activity, like a puppet with its strings cut; none of it would lose its connection to the Engine soon however. So for now it was just dead weight.

The core of the Engine would arc out away from the impact location, and would come to a gentle landing not far from, nor long after, Elroy did, using a mixture of its hover systems, boosted by the lighting, and magnetic telekinesis, similarly boosted, between itself and the housing it had just left behind.

Upon landing it would immediately start it way towards the wreckage of Elroy’s attack. On its way it would slam its fists together and in response all the color that was around it would be blown away and along her form countless runes would begin to glow on ominous red.



It would rip its fists away from each other and twin incandescent blades overflowing with color would sprout from her knuckles as she did. Echoes of Penny in every form she had ever taken could be seen trailing in its wake.

It was going to end this.





-Once more-



Aurelio rolled with the push when it came, which wasn’t much of a surprise as there was a sudden shift in Abigail’s emotions right before it happened.

“Glad you’re back” He would try to say shortly before an exploding monster over shadowed his attempts at cheering her up. He wasn’t willing to let a chance of getting a mana refresh go to waste though and both he and his clone drew in what they could.

He was tempted to tell Abigail to hang back, but got the feeling that such an idea wouldn’t go over too well with the recently rescued girl. So instead he just shrugged and moved to follow after her, his cane dancing with a few lights as he did so.

Later, once this was all over, he would sit down and talk with Abigail and the others. For now there was a day that needed saving, and Beacon was great when it came to saving the day.

The clone Aurelio just ran a hand down his face at his own actions before turning to face Jenna and the rest of the group, a hand on Lily’s should to help keep her steadied in case she needed it. “I Doubt too many people are going to want to head out right now, but I can give a ride if you want one. One way trip and destination is Beacon HQ. Otherwise, out best bet is to try and regroup with some of the others to either help them out or get us all patched up. Relief is great for healing people after all” He would advise but otherwise wait to see what they were planning on doing, as for a small time he really could be in two places at one since he was effectively a super clone for the moment.


-More than meets the eye-


Elroy would only get one solid hit before The Engine would react. Rather than standing firm and taking the blows it rolled with the next one, violently. Its long body would be seemingly sent flying with the second punch, whipping out in an arc of devastation, uncaring of who or what might get hit.

It would catch, however, due to the firm grip Elroy had on its head, but that grip would be used against the supposed King. With its head as the fulcrum The Engine would continue its arc, causing it to wrapping around Elroy’s body like the metallic serpent it was. The odd angel of its neck would be no issue as its internal components shifted and reoriented themselves as it began to both constrict its prey but also use its many, many limbs to start tearing in to him.

And if one looked closely they would see the chained mandibles also reforming, weaving themselves into the chains that sought to bind its mouth closed. Soon it would begin to grind away at those as well, if it didn’t just lock them in place so that the arms Elroy was using to hold it were the ones trapped instead.

As the rain started to pick up, lightning would also flash overhead. Yet something about it was odd, it seemed like it was aiming solely for Penny and the cracks of thunder were far to delayed to be natural.





-A Kiss Goodnight-



Everything was starting to wrap up it with this fight, but the victory was bitter sweet. Fighting against allies always was, and the loss of another ally didn’t help much either.

The main man himself didn’t fight the soft gravitational attraction pulling him towards Abigail, his borrowed disguise having been blown away with the glacier crashing to earth. His heart went out to Abigail as he neared her; the power to feel emotions was a great one, it was just that sometimes the drawbacks were great as well.

“I’ll be right here the whole time” He would promise softly to the girl as he wrapped his arms around her softly, in a gentle embrace. He would not, could not, deny her this last kindness. He would be a perfect gentleman for her. Setting aside his own churning Hate for the one who did this to not only Abigail, but to Tonya, Divina, and Shona, they would face justice later.

Meanwhile the last remaining Clone to busy working the magic he had at his disposal to make sure lily and Rebecca didn’t end up smacking in to the ground. Lily more so then Rebecca as the spunky lightning girl had drained herself dry.

All the while grumbling to himself about lucky bastards always getting the rewards and how the clones never got any credit.

-War of The Monsters-




As she trailed back from the kick the chain trailing from her launched arm would snap up and coil around the nearly severed limb on Elroy’s back. With a fearsome pull she would snap it free allowing it to fall in to her awaiting hand before recalling the appendage back to her with her new trophy.

The Engine would come to a stop much further away then would be expected from the simple kick it received, due to the hover system intentionally not being turned off causing it to glide far outside of simple reach.

It wanted to gain distance from Elroy, to gain a bit of time. It knew nearly everything about it the recovered limb, it had built the thing after all, but the properties that Elroy had added to it when he changed it were worth investigating.

The voice that called out in desperation washed over the Engine without any reaction from the monster. But it used the added lull to its advantage. One luminous orb kept tracking the primary target as its blank mask like face split and cracked open to reveal a churning maw of endlessly grinding teeth. Slowly and purposely it feed the metal limb into its maw, forcibly breaking down the metal, grinding and tearing it down to the most basic components. Analyzing everything it could about the metal in a way no organic mind could comprehend.

Across her frame the metal of its chassis took on a slightly onyx sheen. Now its weapons would never be able to be wielded against it again, a gift stolen from the enemy who used them against her.

The second the analysis was completed and integrated to its frame The Engine renewed it assault on Elroy. As it raced to meet the transformed Monster King, a rolling tide of metal reached the robotic incarnation of destruction. The metal from the cartoon train that Summer had conjured fused with it causing it to grow and change.



What emerged was a product of the Train’s memory of shape mixed with The Engine’s desire of destruction. Its serpentine body was kept aloft, and mobile, by a thunder storm of red hued lighting that arced between it and the ground. Along its length there were numerous limbs akin to centipedes’ legs or mantis’s arms. Each had a ragged razor sharp edge that could be turned in to a chain saw’s blade. The four grasping mandibles were wide open, revealing a maw of endless razor sharp churning teeth the envy of any industrial metal grind in existence.

The Engine had no qualms about meeting Elroy’s charge head on, bringing its countless limbs as it bear as it sought to envelop and tear apart the opposing titan. It also speared no remorse on any of the smaller minions that happened to be unlucky enough to get too close. As the tridents they carried were just one more source of metal for the Engine to utilize.

A high pitched whining sound would start keening from the Engine as it charged. The Gauss system was once again primed.





-Magician-




In the heart of chaos Aurelio shined. Simply because when things started to hit the fan, emotions start to flow freely from all parties involved.

His basic clones were purely on defense, harassing the cultists if they got to close ”Excuse you, I’m working here” and willingly tackling ”Time to Move!” or shoving ”Heads up!” the other girls to get them out of the way of the falling objects if needed. They were expendable and they knew it.

The solo clone was drawing as much magic as he could from the cast off Mana dust. With it he would start feeding the self-sustaining Hope loop the original had set up earlier. All of his allies would start become empowered, they would start moving faster, hitting harder, become tougher and just all around be better. “Fear the power of a Bard!”
If there was anything left after boosting the hope cycle as much as he could he would turn his magic towards cutting off Abigail from the Mana beast with whatever he had left.

Hidden as he was Aurelio worked towards getting closer to Abigail. Using his disguise and subtle magic’s to try and go unnoticed. He backed off a bit when he saw Lily’s incoming spell so as not to get caught with the back lash. He did add as much Frustration and Worry as he could pull from the air to it however, chaining the emotions together to bind Abigail and lock her in to a few moments of indecision, So that Jenna could work.

”Sorry about this”


-The end of the beginning -


A silent scream radiated from Penny as she felt her limbs being torn from their sockets. She had struggled in vain when her own limbs betrayed her but now she was still she fell silently to the ground below. The fall seemed to stretch in to eternity as Penny’s mind started to overclock. Dozens upon dozens of things were passing through the robotic girls mind as she fell.

Pain was there, those spider limbs had been fitted deep into her frame. Tearing them out had done terrible damage to her back, leaving it a gory mess and had she been human it would have likely been a fatal wound regeneration or no. In the dim light the mesh of human and machine could be seen, as blood and other fluids leaked from her back and naked arcs of electricity leapt between the gaps. It hurt, but she had suffered worse. Even now her body was pulling its self-back together, but it would take time.

There was also hurt and betrayal. The revelation about Thalia earlier had been brought back to the forefront, as was her running away from Penny. All of it was mixing with this latest betrayal from Veronica. It wasn’t a betrayal in the truest sense, Penny doubted that Veronica meant for this to happen, but still the ex-coin broker had given her a poisoned gift, just like so many others had. She doubted she would trust the vampire again.

Fear lingered here and there. She feared for Alicia, about the harm that might be coming her way. Feared that her friendship might have been tainted by what Elroy had said. She was keeping so many secrets from the Alicia, and she feared that she would hurt her friend with them.

A part of her just raged at everything, at the unfairness of the world, at her Patron, and her own naivety and weakness. Mostly, however, there was exhaustion. She was tired. Tired of hiding things from the people she called friends. Tired of being betrayed, tired of being angry, of being depressed, of being spineless, tired of Laat and all his schemes.

She hit the ground with a dull thud and, for a moment, just laid there. Drowning in her own emotions.
When she stood it was in one smooth, silent, motion. Her eyes were a bloody red, nearly devoid of emotion and the dark blues of her body had faded to flat grays.

"Red A̴̺͑l̵̖̒ë̶́ͅr̶͚͂t̴̙́. Critical M̵̫̀ë̶̦́ḽ̶̅t̶̫̂ḍ̴̍o̶̫͒w̸̳͋n̸̂ͅ ̴̺̓Ĭ̴̲m̷̝͂m̵̮̓í̵̩n̴͈̽ë̵̲́n̵̟͆t̵̮̓.̶̦̄ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ a̵̋ͅt 100%. Evacuate ṫ̵͉h̴͍̊ę̸͑ ̶͖͝a̴̱͗ř̷̡e̵̙͑a̴̟̎ ̴̝͌i̴̹͛m̸̳̕m̶̥̈́e̷͇͘d̵̋ͅị̸͂ately.




Twin orbs of baleful light tracked Elroy as he rushed towards Alicia. The Engine waited only a second before Jetting off towards the monster boys open back.

As it crossed the distance, metal throughout the graveyard would twitch, The Engine was calling out. Calling to all the metal that would listen, drawing everything that it could to itself, but the call was not a loud one. Most Metal users would never notice the quiet and unending call the engine gave out, but it resonated with all metal, regardless if it headed the call or not. The first scraps to heed the call would start grafting to its back, sealing up the open wound and starting to rebuild the limbs that had been stolen.

Twenty feet out The Engine would begin its assault. Thrusting its left arm out there would a hiss of static before the forelimb was launched at high velocity towards Elroy’s wounded leg a length of chain trailed the limb ready to be retracted the moment the boy was within grasp. Its right arm stood poised to lash out with a vicious knife hand. Preferred targets were any of the limbs that Elroy had as his disposal, as the serrated chainsaw band that ran the length of the Engine’s limb would make short work of most of them if a clean hit was scored, and even a glancing blow would rip and tear.





-The show must go on -


“One step forwards..” Aurelio sighed to himself as he and himselves dodged out of the way of the chain lightning as best they could. The loss of Rage was a disappointment, but not an unexpected one. The red garbed clone tended to get taken out rather quickly due to its relentless nature. He could try and make another on, but with his reserves as they were that wasn’t a good idea.

Then Lily’s hope shone forth like a beacon. The Sky garbed clone would lap up the Excitement like a sponge the emotions being close enough for the clone to get a restock. The main man himself wove the Hope around himself and Janet and Jenna before imparting just a bit of his magic to it and feeding it back to Lily. A simple spell as far as cost went; a self-reinforcing loop of hope was powerful even without magic effect added in to it.

“Alright gents! Let’s go!” He would shout pointing his cane at the emerged warlock. Six of his basic clones started rushing to mob the new foe before it could gain too much momentum. They were without spells, and by their nature fragile, but they knew each other as well as possible and had perfect teamwork.

Joy would stick to Jenna working to assist the Knight as much as he could on the plan they had hashed out in the quick meeting of the minds they had.

The last basic clone was off towards the powder that Rage has caused to spill out, he was off to find out if they would need to be wary of the stuff, thus was only aiming to touch the smallest amount he could find.

The true Aurelio would, in a sense, vanish. As while his clones were busy making a ruckus with the warlock, Lily and Janet were fending off the cultists, and Jenna aiming to get up close and personal with Abigail. Aurelio would pick up and put on one of the Cultist cloaks that lay litter around the battle field.

He was planning on staying hidden and assisting from the shadows with well-timed spells. Unless he ended up close to Abigail without being noticed, if that was the case he had a technique he could use to stop her in her tracks. He just massively disliked using it, and it would take him out of the fight as well. As it was rather hard to do anything when all you felt was apathay.

.:Now you see me:.


Aurelio cursed under his breath at Abigails’s reaction. It sounded like she had misinterpreted what Lily was saying and was dead set on keeping her feelings the way they are. It was situations like this that affirmed his hate of brainwashing, because he could feel the warped emotions flowing from the turned Beacon member.

Then things started to get hard to follow. As he and his clones started to lag out for lack of a better description. He would be unable to stop the massive grin that broke out on his face. Leaning in to the temporal magical oddity He and his clones would start blinking around the battle field.

The main Aurelio was handing out spells to his few remaining standard clones that would wait a moment before casting them. Towards the cultists a few lancing rays of red and orange light were fired. The red would explode on contact with anything while the orange should start to erode what it hit. Every now and again a normal clone would pop up with a Yellow glow on its cane which would soon fire off yellow chains that would seek to wraparound and bind whatever they were near. All the while they would be chatting like they were in a gaming chat room with each other. Handing out praise and playful taunts to each other in equal measure.

The Sky Aurelio would turn his attention towards Lily and would quickly find himself at her side, fully aware that its chance of getting out of the gravity well would be small. “Hey, don’t worry I’m here to help” Sky Aurelio would say as it started to weave its magic, which would have a bubbly joyousness to it. It didn’t want to dispel all of the gravity magic that were affecting Lily. Just the compounding pressure that was making it hard to breath and the well that was dragging everything in, because if it could remove or tweak those, then a simple spell would give Lily the temporary ability to fly. After all who didn’t want to be able to fly? To this end it was willing to spend everything it had.

Rage was keeping its focus on the larger abomination, peppering it with angry bolts of red magic. Occasionally he would fire off a larger spell, when he felt its guard was down. Overall he was the one in the least danger of running out of gas as the moment. As Abigail’s anger was flooding the area keeping him fueled up, thus he just keep casting.

“Never!” one of the Aurelio’s would call out to Janet when she popped up; saving said one from getting a face full of magic fire. “You’re just in time” Another would add as it lagged by, leaving a magician’s mark on Janet as it did.

With the appearance of reinforcement’s the white garbed group of Aurelio’s would change tactics a little. Two would stick to Janet, providing what support they could with an occasional spell would grace their cane’s proving that they were in fact only clones.

The Core Aurelio would take the other clone and move to assist Jenna. After all Abigail’s safe return was top priority.





-Round two-


Penny’s walk to the grave had been, for the most part, a silent one. She was almost singularly focused on her destination, and very little penetrated that focus. Small parts of her went back and forth on wither or nor they wanted to find something when they got there. As she could tell she was more unstable than normal, but that didn’t stop her from putting one foot in front of the other.

The only thing of note that happened along the way was of an alert prompt that would pop-up on Penny’s HUD. “Critical Integrity flaw identified” it would read, there was a small graphic of Penny’s outline behind the text with flashing red line indicating the problem areas “Initiate Repair protocol?” it would query after Penny and enough time to read over the data in front of her. With little more than a mental nod, Penny would activate the repairs. “Acknowledged”

It would take a few minutes before “Platinum resource used. Faulty systems shut down. Integrity once again reading optimal.” Another screen of text would pop up; listing a more detailed breakdown of what exactly had been done to her systems. She skimmed over it while she was walking through the thick fog that covered the graveyard. The only key thing that stood out to her at the moment was her energy blades had been deemed the root cause for the flaw and had been shut down to prevent a re-occurrence. It was a testament to her focus that she didn’t really feel much about the loss of her Platinum coin at the moment.

At last she finally broke through the smoke wall and could once again see. The sight that greeted her was of Alicia spring boarding off of what looked to be… Elroy? Putting aside the outfit change for later discussion The mechanical warrior wasted no more time and started to rush towards the boy. Small spikes would grow from her knuckles along with small blades at her elbows, her energy weaponry was off line but her body was still her weapon.

It was due to Penny’s eagerness to join the fray once she found it that allowed her to hear Alicia. It took less than a second for Penny to make a decision before she would release a Gauss round at Elroy in reply. Her goal was now the Crypt; if Elroy wanted to be the tool she used to break it to pieces he was welcome to it, but was currently between her and her goal. So she would go through him or over him, but for the moment he was irrelevant.

Lost in the sounds of combat there was a sound of a metal latch being thrown shortly before Penny’s legs start to glow as she kick started the hover system, causing her speed to spike as she sought to bulldoze past Elroy.

-Splintered Bonds -


The condensed blast of flames accomplished their job of buying time, Penny dodge on reflex, her mind still reeling from running into Thalia unexpectedly. Her following reaction had her blitzing across the roof top, desperate to try and catch up to the fleeing fox girl. She had seen the shift in Thalia’s gaze, the subtle hints in her stance, which spoke to the fact that it was her mental derangements holding the reigns and Penny desperately wanted to help her friend.

She would only make it half way there. Cindy had moved to stand in Penny’s way, stalling out the robotic girl’s frantic rush. Penny figured she could overpower the other monster girl, it would take only a handful of seconds at best, but that would take too long. She had gone on enough hunts to know, played enough games of tag, to know that she had lost her chance to catch her friend, because Cindy had stopped her for only a few moments.

Her eyes nearly turned completely crimson as she glared at Cindy, her entire body tensed ready to unleash havoc on the living bug zapper, for making her lose this chance at getting Thalia back. Her anger barely held for a second before she just slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut. Her eyes cast longingly at the last place she had seen Thalia. Venting her anger wouldn’t help, not if this other girl was going to actually try and help Thalia.

“She’s my friend, or at least she used to be” Her voice was tired and filled with hurt “We used to hunt together, shared a lair. We would spend our free time playing tag across the roofs.”Her voice was starting to grow shaky as she did her best to summarize her and Thalia’s time together. “But a few weeks ago, there was an encounter that I got injured in. She Redlined and got us out of there and when she woke up afterwards, she just… Ran” Penny was on the verge of tears at this point. Veronica’s taunting words were replying in her mind from seeing Thalia run away from her. Again. At the one who still held part of her heart not trusting her. Again.

Before she could breakdown, however, Penny forced herself to breath. Using the needless action to just set aside the sadness and hurt, same as she had done earlier in the day when she had learned the truth about Thalia. Same as she learned long ago to keep some semblance of control on her emotions. As she did her coloration would pale and gray drastically, pushing her appearance into the uncanny valley.

A monotone voice would chime out from Penny as she forced herself to be calm “Orange alḙ̷͒r̴̩̽t̴̝̂. C̸̰͛ȏ̴̬g̴̥̿ǹ̸̩à̷̧t̶̻͋ḯ̷͎v̴̯̿e̷̝̔ safeguards have M̴̛͙a̵̜̕l̶̯̅f̷͙͋u̴̢͋n̷̰̈́c̶̘̊t̸̠̕i̷͖͌ö̴͖́ǹ̴͍e̷͎̔d̴͕̀ D̷͞҉͏̡è̛͘҉̕s҉̶̛̛҉t́̀͘͢͜r̡ứ̧ć̸t̶̡̨͟į̛ơ̶͜͡͝n͏̡̛ ̴̵̛͞E͏̨ņ͏ģ́̕͠҉i̡͞͏̸͠n̴̢͠͝e͏̧̀ ̶̵̨̛ has reached 75%. Heightened Ḋ̸̯i̷̢͐ş̸̽c̶̗͒ṛ̴͝e̶̝̕t̸͈̍i̸͇̿ő̷̼n̸̹̓ required”

“I’ve been looking for her since. As I wanted to make sure she was okay” She would finish her entire demeanor uncomfortably calm compared to just a few moments earlier. Standing up she would return her gaze to Cindy. “Satisfied?” she would ask tonelessly before turning away from the supposed ruler to survey the storm clouds above the Graveyard.

Shaking her head she started to walk away, her destination obviously the Graveyard in the distance.





.:Smoke and Mirrors:.


Aurelio had originally volunteered to be part of the diplomatic detachment that was going to head to talk with Cindy Ford, and had been mostly relaxing and chatting with a few of the other members of Beacon while the tech crew worked to set the Teleportation coordinates.

Then a storm blew in from nowhere, and started setting off alarms all across HQ. Dozens of horror signatures were popping up at a local graveyard, and just like that the diplomatic mission was put on hold. The only upside of the horrors popping up was that it took only seconds to lock on to the Graveyard.

Without any further delay Aurelio warped out of Beacon HQ, along with a couple more girls from Beacon.

When he finally rematerialized he knew several something’s had gone wrong. The overpowering smog that was drowning out everything was his first clue really. That none of the others had landed with him was his second.

Hoping the others were okay He took stock of the surrounding, only barely able to peer through the black smog. He was able to make out another person not far from him and strove towards them. He was waving the smog out of his face when he heard them speak

"You...You're not Alex. Wait, are you...Tuxedo Mask? Without the mask?"

Causing him to break out in a wide grin “Glad to see someone else who can appreciate the classics, but no. The Great Aurelio at your service” He would introduce himself to Lily, just in time to hear Abigail’s crazed laughter.

“Hey! Me and Sally spent weeks looking for you Abi, but we couldn’t find any of you.” He would say in response as he started to stride towards spinning his cane in his hand as he did so. With a snap of his fingers a half dozen clones sprung to existence with a Red and Sky Blue copies in the middle of them “An address would have gone a long way to me having visited ya know!”

As Aurelio spoke his cane started to pulse with light and his clone scattered with most of the normal clones heading to harass the cult members with hit and run tactics mixed with perfect teamwork.

Red and Sky rushed at the large Horror, using the base copies as spring boards. Their cane’s glowing their respective colors.

The last clone tapped his cane to the originals, the glow transferring as he did so, before sprinting towards Lily “Don’t worry Boss, knows about the hypnotism” it would say before pointing his glowing cane at Lily “Have a boost” it would add as it discharged the stored spell. It was a mix of magician’s mark and an all-round stat booster.

“And lastly we didn’t run off, you guys did” The real Aurelio would start up again as he bounced on his feet as he did, his staff starting to glow a frightful Yellow. “After Elroy got smacked for getting handsy with Sally” It was the first step of Aurelio’s combat style, never stop talking and force the opponent to focus on him.

“I mean what kind of jerk does that to his friends?” He was eyeing Abigail closely as he knew he was egging her on. So he was prepared to defend himself for when she went on the offensive.


-Contact-

Across the city scape, unawares of the issues she was causing Alicia by passing out her number, Penny was finally in sight of the roof top meeting. She was late by the looks of things, if the group of people she could see where any indication, but seeing as she had started from one of the furthest places she could have started from she felt she had made good time.

When she got closer to the town hall she scaled it with one great leap, the hover modules flaring to life moments before she landed giving her a relatively soft touch down. Her arrival would go mostly unnoticed as in the same instant the clouds would start to darken rapidly, and just as quickly as Penny had arrived many of the people who had arrived would start to depart.

“Gods damn it all” Penny would sigh as she looked in the direction of the graveyard, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was part of the grand Chaos that Laat was talking about. “I just want to talk with someone and…” her rant would trail off as she turned to look back at remaining girls that were still on the roof top. For she recognized on of the other girls up here, she was a mess but Penny would be able to recognize her anywhere.

“Thalia?” She would ask aloud too stunned to do anything else in the moment.

@Ariamis@Vocab

&


-It Begins -


Penny let out a sigh as she looked across the open cave again. She was out of her depths when it came to tracking someone and she knew it, the fact she was hunting after a Beast spec just made it all the worse. But she needed to keep trying, for as long as she was in Penrose at least.

Shaking away those thoughts Penny walked the cave again, it was the most recent lair that ‘Vixen’ had abandoned, if Penny was reading the signs right. After all what she got from the Independent didn’t point directly to this lair, but she found it after searching around the last area the monster had been reported being sighted. The Vixen tackled an unknown magical girl and tumbled into the ocean with her. There was little evidence to go on, but searching around did bring her to this cave opening. There wasn’t anything that pointed towards where the murderous monster girl would go next. Nor was there much to point towards the girl that used to live here before Vixen removed them. Dried blood stains and piles of ash told a dark story of what had likely happened to poor girl and Penny couldn't help the fresh spike of anger at that, for as desperately as she wish that Vixen wasn’t Thalia she had a hard time separating the two in her head.

There was also the fact that she was running out of time, if what Laat had told her last night was true.

“Penny.” Veronica's voice startled her out of her thoughts again. “How are you making out with the lead I sent you? Did Mika tell you anything interesting?”

“Told you already” The robotic monster girl would reply once she was sure her surprise wouldn’t bleed over into her voice, she had forgotten that Veronica could open a channel whenever she wanted with the comms device she had been given. “Only got a name from Mika, lead me to a reporter from the Penrose Independent. Got more information from her, but nothing that points towards Thalia directly. Hell I’m not even sure if Vixen is Thalia yet.”

With an audible sigh Penny would move to sit near the mouth of the cave looking out towards the water “All I’ve got are lists of where Vixen was seen, and I’m not sure how to use that to find out where she will be, so not great over all to answer you first question.” Despite her frustrations Penny was somewhat glad to hear from the Coin Broker, as Veronica did offer to help find Thalia, and Penny did need the help if she was going to succeed.

Penny could hear the sound of footsteps coming towards her. Sure enough, Veronica was there in the flesh. She had her hand to the side of her head. “Right, I forgot you told me that part already.” She folded her arms behind her back before walking deeper into the cave. “It's been a busy morning.” Veronica approached the bloodied wall and placed her hand on it. “Seems like you're making headway though.” she turned around to face Penny. “If they handed you a dosser, I wouldn't mind looking at it with you.”

“Doubt the days are going to get any easier” Penny would reply fishing out the folded papers she had gotten from Olympia “This is all I got from the PI” she would explain before tossing it to the more experienced magical, not bothering to stand up “Not much of a dossier, just a list of info and names of who reported it.” Veronica caught the papers with one hand and folded them open in front of herself.

“Mind if I ask what has you busy?” Penny would ask as Veronica looked over the papers. Partially out of curiosity, but mostly to try and take a break, mentally, from hunting down her old friend.

“The mint decided to let me go.” Veronica didn't look up from the pages as she responded.

Penny just blinked at that admission, and when she finally wrapped her head around it she couldn’t help the laugh that escaped. “That sonva bitch” she would say shaking her head “That explains part of why Laat told me not to care about the Mint any more”

“Follow up question if I may, what did you do that ticked off the Mint?” She would ask as she stood up rather curious as to what might have happened.

“Long story. Let’s focus on this first.” Veronica folded the pages in half and passed them back to Penny. “So they witnessed the Vixen chase someone off a cliff and into the water? I remember reading about that.” She extended her hands out and laptop appeared in her hands. It took her just a moment to brush the black tar off of it before running a search on it. “There's an article about it on the Independent's old server. Yes, apparently a magical girl was chased into the sea. The witnesses remained on the scene for hours to catch the vixen when she resurfaced, but she and her victim never did. Interesting.” Veronica gave Penny a sideways glance.. “So if she never came back to shore, then the victim couldn't have been killed in this room. But we have an unexplained blood stain that we need to demystify.” Veronica opened the lap top again. “Also,I'm not in a place to critique the independent, but doesn't a cave with a bloodstain in it seem like a strange thing to miss? There's no mention of the cave anywhere in this article. Though perhaps even more interesting, they have a picture of the cliff side, and the cave isn't in the picture.” She shut her laptop. “So how did the Vixin manage to take her prey into the water, and surface in a cave that didn't exist at the time?”

When Penny looked around the cave, she could see claw marks all along the walls. It could have been a mad creature flailing against the walls, but it could have also been.. “She dug it out” Penny would mutter quietly as she ran her fingers across one of the claw marks on the wall.

Turning sharply she surveyed the cave again but this time she called forth her divinely gifted knowledge as she started to mentally rewind the cave. A theory was starting to form in the cyborgs mind, but she was missing pieces “Vixen dug the cave out, possibly from the inside” She said again louder as she started analyzing the stone walls of the cave before narrowing her eyes at the sandy floor.

There was a soft metallic click as her hidden metallic limbs unfurled from her back and in the same moment started to probe deeper into the sand. She was looking for a tunnel or something like it, it would explain how Vixen got from the water to inside the cliffside

Veronica nodded. “We also don't know anything about the victim. It's possible they had a specialization that helped them dig this cave to escape the Vixen. Regardless of what theory you go with, we're standing inside someone's grave right now. And if they didn't enter from that entrance...”

Penny had dug pretty deep, but managed to hit the true floor of the cave. With a bit of searching, she found a hole that lead deeper into the earth. What made this hole interesting though was that it looked like it was filled with rocks. As soon as Penny moved a few rocks out of the way, she could see the remains of an ornate wooden flute. It appeared to have been smashed under the rocks.

“You found something?”

Penny didn’t reply, she barely heard the question, her eyes were riveted to the broken flute she had uncovered. Slowly she knelt down and gently picked up the shattered fragments of wood, hoping she was wrong, praying it wasn't the flute she thought it was, wishing that it was just a trick of the light.

But she wasn’t, she knew this flute, could recognize it anywhere. After all it was Thalia’s healing flute. An artifact she had used a few time to help her friend and a hunt. Now broken and buried in a cave that Vixen had dug.

That would mean Thalia was… That she had become… her friend was… Thalia was… Vixen.

There was a soft crash as Penny fell against the wall of the hole she had dug. She was holding two of the larger parts of the broken flute in her hands, staring at them hopelessly.
She stayed that way for quite some time, unresponsive as she tried to come to grips with the revelation about… about Vixen. That she had proof now that they were…

Forcing out a breath Penny simply set aside her emotions, she couldn’t deal with them, not here not now. Not without tearing the cliff face apart. So she set them aside, she wouldn’t forget, she would just ignore them for now. So she could either break down in peace or rage and vent in solitude. But that would come later, when she got home.

“Yeah, I found something” Penny would call out in answer, her voice wavering as she did. She would slip the mouthpiece of the flute in to one of her storage compartments as she did, so she would still have proof later. She held the other piece up so that Veronica could see.

Veronica had moved to the edge of the hole Penny had dug. “I see.” She jumped into the hole with her. “Well, if you found something that belonged to the killer, it's just a matter of time before you find the Vixen. Otherwise, it might point to their mysterious victim.” Veronica adjusted her collar before putting her hands behind her back. “Say Penny, do you remember that story I told you while you were building the Earth Bastion?”

Penny would push herself to standing as she nodded her agreement of what Veronica had said in regards to it being a matter of time till she found her quarry. “I know whose it was” She would admit before turning to face the ex-coin broker “And yeah I remember” she would add narrowing her eyes is suspicion at the sudden change of topic. “Why do you bring it up?”

*For you kids who weren't around for the last RP, Veronica visited Penny and told her a story about being a former Beacon girl who went on to have a forbidden romantic relationship with a monster girl. The monster girl had a debt placed on her head by mint, so Veronica left Beacon and joined the Mint, offering to pay the debt that was owed. The monster girl left her afterwards, never to be seen again.

Veronica Paced around penny. “I told you that story was a farce, didn't I?” She waved her hand. “I wanted to instill in you a lesson, that you were gullible and needed to be more careful. I think it's fair to say you've grown a bit since then.” Veronica spun on her heel so that she was facing the cyborg. “But that was a lie. That story was true all along.”

Penny turned to keep her eyes on Veronica as the older girl paced, unsure of what was going to be said. To hear that the story she had been told was, in fact true, had to monster girl rock back on her heels for a moment.

Then came the doubt and the anger. Because it was so easy to believe that Veronica was once again messing with Penny, trying to teach the girl another lesson. So Penny stayed still as she searched Veronica’s face, searched for something that would help her identify what was truth, the only sounds that came from here was an odd metallic latching and unlatching.

“And why should I belive you now?” She asked softly, nearly pleading, because she wanted the story to be true. Wanted to be able to trust that Veronica understood the pain. Wanted to know she wasn’t alone, and to have proof that life still goes on, but Veronica had taught her first lesson well, and Penny couldn't just blindly accept such a turn around anymore.

”Look on the bright side. Regardless which is the truth, you know I've been honest with you at least once.” Veronica tucked her hand behind her back. ”Even though I'm not affiliated with mint anymore, I will still grant you aid in chasing the Vixen. Perhaps I’d like to see one of us get closure?” She shrugged her shoulders. ”Regardless, it's important that you know the Mint still has you in their clutches. I'm not sure if they will pursue you for being one of my former agents or not, but this is something you should be aware of.” Veronica spun on her heel again. When she stopped, she was looking over her shoulder at Penny. ”Maybe they'll even send you to kill me.” She looked ahead and walked out of the pit. ”Turning against one's own patron isn't for everyone, but I feel liberated not working in their shadow anymore.” Veronica seeped into a shadow and disappeared, but not without a few parting words. ”You might want to try it sometime.”

As with their last meeting Penny would stay very still, not bothering to respond to the girls parting words, until she was sure that Veronica had left. Sighing she ran a hand down her face, the silver lining in all of this was that she could finally tell the Mint to piss off if they came looking for her. She had no intention of working for them ever again. She also longed for the very freedom that her… acquaintance had just gained. Slowly an Idea was starting to form in the robotic girls head about how she might be able to go about fulfilling that desire.

Before she could get too lost in the forming plan an enchanted voice would echo across the city jarring her from her thoughts. Sighing again while shaking her head Penny would turn to look out of the cave again. “You weren’t kidding when you said everyone would hear the start.” She muttered to herself.

With a shrug Penny started to move out, intending to head to town hall to at least talk with this ‘Cindy Ford’ but would stop and cast another glance back at the various fragments of wood that were scattered about in the hole. Quickly and silently she would pick up every single piece of it she could find and place all of them in their own compartment. She would figure out what she was going to do with them later, it just didn’t feel right to her to leave them abandoned here.

With that task completed she would set off towards town hall. She could use the distraction form everything she learned here. As she left, one of her spider legs would lash out causing the cave to collapse in on its self, before slipping back into hiding.

On her way to Town hall, her thoughts would drift back to the conversation she had last night with her Patron.






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