Chapter 141 - What Is There To Do?
You straighten your posture and gesture for the children to step aside. They do as instructed almost subconsciously, clearing a path for you to stand while still staring at Madoka's collapsed form. You lean down and glare at the symbol glowing on her back with the same cold, austere disdain one might view a particularly large insect with.
"Homura, give us some time to work. Ten times acceleration should be sufficient." you command. She follows, a mechanical click heralding the world being cast into a sluggish monotone. Only you and the children remain in full color.
"The rest of you will be heading to the Library immediately. Tell Angela what's happening; there's a chance she might be able to do something about it." you say. If Madoka was attacked, there's no reason to believe nobody else is similarly vulnerable. If they are, it will be safer for them to hide in the Library until you know what's happening.
Mami and Kyoko exchange a look, then them and Sayaka, the. Hitomi, then Yuma. Some silent agreement is reached, and Mami steps forward.
"We can't just leave Madoka alone right now. As her friends, we have a responsibility to stay by her when she's in trouble."
"Think about this logically." you explain, not taking your eyes off the strange rune. Lamp flashes into existence beside you, scouring the bizarre symbol for any details you can find. "Right now, what Madoka needs is help. You can do more for her by keeping yourselves safe and keeping in contact with our outside support right now. You don't need to stay here."
Speaking of outside support, where is Argalia? This is the sort of time you'd need him present, considering the depth of experience with unnatural phenomena the former Color Fixer has.
"But what if we can help?" Sayaka counters, confidence failing to disguise the strain and uncertainty in her voice. You at least consider the proposition. Healing magic might be useful, but on the other hand you have access to similar effects. It would still be safe-
"Yuma can go."
Your youngest daughter's voice breaks off that train of thought. You turn your eyes away from Madoka's collapsed body to see Yuma now standing at the front, resolute determination filling every inc of her tiny body.
"If Yuma goes and tells Aunt Angela, then everyone else can stay, right?" Yuma repeats. Even steeled as she can manage, she sounds so hopeful. More than that, it's a fair argument. Objectively, this is the best, the safest course of action for her. You'd rather the other children follow, but…
"That's acceptable." you relent, handing Yuma the Invitation and a pen. She hastily scribbles her name and then vanishes, dissolved into a flash of light.
"If that matter's settled," you announce, "then we can progress. Kyubey?"
The room turns a degree or two colder when the alien mascot steps out from nowhere and onto your shoulder to examine the Adult's mark. Metaphorically, that is, as the actual temperature rises about that much when Kyoko fixes her gaze on the creature. She and Sayaka stare at it with open contempt, contrasting Mami's almost-unbelieving look of betrayal. Kyubey ignores all of them.
"What do you need?"
"Madoka's been attacked. Tell us what's wrong." you order flatly. Without a moment of waiting, Kyubey hops dow the length of your arm and cocks its head to the side while staring at the symbol. A few seconds later, it rights its body and turns to address the kids.
"The mark is a conduit for a continuously-applied energy draining spell. While the fundamentals are totally foreign, there were enough shared principles between-"
"Get to the point already! How do we fix it?" Sayaka demands, shifting back and forth anxiously.
"Madoka Kaname will not awaken so long as the connection remains. The simples solution would be to remove the top three centimeters of her back and in doing so disconnect the symbol. This would need to be done quickly, before the spell can adapt itself." The reactions to that proposal range from winces to barely restraining themself from putting a hole in Kyubey's head. Homura is unnervingly still and silent.
"Let's leave that as a last resort. What else?" you ask.
"The mark shares enough functional similarities to a Witch's Kiss that it could be removed in a similar manner. An experienced Magical Girl with speciality in enchantments and connections like Mami Tomoe would be perfect for removing it."
Mami steps forward and kneels beside Madoka, a gentle golden light embracing her as she transforms into her Magical Girl uniform. Smiling faintly, she stares at Madoka and asks "What should I do?"
"Wait," you interrupt. "Perfect? That's too much of a coincidence. Check again, be on the lookout for traps."
Kyubey does as they're told, spending another second staring at the mark on Madoka's back before deliver their report.
"A corrosive element that would spread to anyone who interacts with the connection has been detected. Its effects can be neutralized, though. There's also-"
And suddenly, Kyubey is silent. A static crackle sounds in the back of your head as the telepathy network goes completely quiet.
It's only thanks to the slowing of time that you react quickly enough. The spark unfolds, blooming into fractalline shapes that scatter across the room like snow carried by the wind, brushing against walls and furniture and coating everything in a thin frost of murky green crystal. Under the swiftly-growing layer, wood rots and fabric withers. Homura is already on the move, carrying Madoka's unconscious body over her shoulder to the opposite end of the room with a shotgun in her free hand. Sayaka, who was standing fully within the danger zone, is pulled to safety by a golden ribbon just in time to avoid the tiny crystal flakes brushing up against her. Kyubey good out of sight and vanishes, intent on not wasting resources by sticking around. You just wish he could've taken everyone with him.
You've already drawn your weapons, swords being the most effective for combat in such a small room. Three of your soldiers spring into existence behind you and take position around Hitomi, who is shaking and staring in fearful confusion at the vortex of emerald forming just a few meters away. The fiery lime green glow that illuminates their sleek black metal chassis looks warm compared to the cold, sharp viridian light. With Madoka protected by your Blessing and prioritized by Homura, Hitomi is more in need of your protection than any others here. Your fourth available soldier remains absent, in case you need them to be somewhere quickly. Homura lays Madoka against a wall and draws a second gun, fixing her gaze on the point of disruption. To one side of her, Mami conjures two rifles of her own. To the other, Sayaka forces down her surprise and transforms. A soft cyan light envelops the room, fighting against the encroaching gloom. The glow fades as soon as it arrives, but the reassurance and support behind it remains. Just behind you, heat erupts from Kyoko's body. There is no transformation, no sudden burst of power, but a ash-stained spear appears in her hands.
The swirling particles fold inward, converging into a towering human shape that swells to tear through the building's roof. In mere moments, the bone-white skin of the Adult Who Tells Lies is visible. The Aleph-class Abnormality towers over you, still seated in a throne bristling with jagged blades of crystal. Her head rests casually in one clawed hand, half-hiding a predatory grin. Her other hand lies open on one arm of the throne, toying with a writhing mass of darkness tinged green. Just sitting there, her presence is overwhelming. All light in the room is extinguished in an instant, leaving only the glowing emerald illuminating the newborn darkness. The air feels thick and alive, pressing against you with hungry anticipation and scraping against your skin.
You don't wait for her to make the first move. You can't afford to. You charge, and the others charge with you.
You know sparingly little about the Adult Who Tells Lies. In the broad strokes, she's an Abnormality of human-like sapience with a vicious sadistic streak, a penchant for manipulation, and the capacity for an esoteric form of magic specializing in "curses". That's not a lot to go off of, but you can still plan around what you know. Between the Adult's class and her sheer size assuming she's vulnerable physically would be an error, but you can at least bet that she'll be worse in close-range that long-range. Not just because sitting down doesn't offer a large range of motion, but because of what it represents. Distance isn't just a physical thing, it's a comparison between two individuals. The Adult Who Tells Lies relishes in superiority over others, so by the logic of an Abnormality she'll be most in her element when set apart from her opponents. Hopefully, you can close the gap and tie her down long enough for a quick escape.
Of course, the Abnormality isn't just going to let you do as you please. A flick of her wrist sends a shotgun blast of grinning jeweled skulls flying forward in erratic, curving trajectories. Mimicry flickers out to cut them out of the air, filling the space with bursts of emerald light. The glow hangs in the air, creating a hazy barricade that blocks your sight. Or would, were it not for Lamp's gloomy radiance swallowing it up. With your sight unobstructed, you duck past Mami and Homura's volley of projectiles and watch the Adult counter with her own. Purple and gold meet green in a series of explosions that send shrapnel scattering through the room. It's not enough to hurt any of the combatants here, but the building's walls are less lucky. Early morning light streams in through the gaping wounds in the room's sides, reflecting off the crystalline dust filling the air. In the same motion, the Adult releases a tiny spark of light. It explodes just as you continue your advance, and the already-abused building can take no more. The walls become naught but splinters, and in the wake of the blast there is nothing but emerald light. Kyoko charges forward with a grim expression and the disguising barrier Angela had created for her melts away. The molten glass that makes up the flesh of her half-equine form glows as brightly as the sunlight, and though her face is featureless there is no mistaking the determination in her march. Kyoko's brass hooves shatter the earth beneath her as she thrusts her spear forward to meet the eruption head-on, bright golden-red flames fed by a faint blue glow pushing against the tide of green. The air burns, and you draw Mimicry forward and step through the flame to her side. Spear and sword together, you carve a path through the hungry light.
As the explosion fades away, the first thing you see is the Adult's prideful smile. She's barely moved, but Sayaka's house and the neighborhood beyond is nearly unrecognizable. Everything, from the floor to the battered walls, has been rendered into a dusk-shaded crystal. The house looks less like somewhere a person could live in and more some bizarre geological formation. With the way the sunlight reflects off the pristine emeralds, it could almost be beautiful. The razor-sharp edges, however, draw attention away from the beauty of the scenery. A wedge of ruined wood and tiling extends from you and Kyoko back to where Mami, Homura, Sayaka, Madoka, and Hitomi are standing, a slice of safety carved from the Wizard's will.
Not a moment has passed since the blast has faded and another spell is flashing into existence in the Adult's open hand. She won't be able to finish it, though. Behind you, you can hear the last mechanical click of Homura's time stop finally activating. This fight is over. Homura's powers are terrifying offensively, but they're even stronger when it comes to avoiding confrontation. And this is one fight you want to avoid. There are too many people nearby, too much you have to worry about alongside the battle. The kids might balk at abandoning the battle, but there's nothing to be gained by staying.
Time clicks to a halt just as you see a second spell flash in the Adult's free hand. The world stutters, and when it resumes neither the Abnormality nor Homura are where they were before. The Adult is standing, not sitting, but standing in the street in the middle of a crater frosted with minuscule crystals. The bright green encrusting is contrasted by the dark purple sand spilling out from under the Adult's heel like a puddle of blood. At its center is Homura Akemi, staring expressionless up at the Abnormality even as she stands with one foot through the time-traveler's chest.
Homura's body is in pieces. Her legs are both missing, roughly severed just above the knee to reveal crushed and broken machinery under the fake ceramic skin. Her right arm lies a few meters away, still clutching a grenade with the pin not yet removed. Her left, still attached to her body, is repeatedly firing at the figure looming over her with a shotgun to no avail.
In the first second, there is confusion. The next, screaming. You're not sure from who. The feelings blend together, fear and anger and grief all at once as loud as the screams themselves. You silence the echo in your mind, tamping down the frustration you feel to let focus reign. Mimicry cries out in your stead, screaming through the air with all the force of a falling star.
You weave through walls of emerald springing from the earth before you, careful not to so much as brush against one. Each step you take is shrouded by a faint blue glow, the space beneath your feet warping and folding to neutralize the dust covering the ground. Your oversized blade crashes into the Adult's body in an uprising slash that strikes less like a sword and more like a hammer, impacting with the force to turn mountains to dust. You feel something give way under the fleshy weapon, but it's not the Adult's body. Some sort of multi-layered shield to neutralize attacks, seemingly. Too much force was lost against it to deal real damage, but that was never your aim.
Even with all its physics-defying glory, EGO gear still has weight. Mimicry in particular is known for the immense strain it can put on a user. As such, only agents who could handle the massive backlash were ever permitted to use it. Even if you can't hurt the Wizard, Abnormalities still generally pretend to follow the laws of physics. And when something is hit very, very hard and not bracing for it, they will feel that force.
The Adult's smile doesn't waver. She doesn't fall, doesn't get thrown back. But she does stumble. And that's enough.
A ribbon whips out and wraps around Homura's waist, dragging her back to safety. For her part, the mechanized Distortion remains expressionless and continues firing on the Adult even as she's dragged through the air. The first ribbon is sliced in half by a bladed black tendril emerging from the ground, but a second follows fast enough to pull Homura away from the thrashing appendage's reach. She lands beside Sayaka, who stares frozen at the other girl's wounds for a beat before reaching down and frantically trying to heal them. You feel some of the empowerment that had been backing you pull away, returning to Sayaka so she can use it herself.
In the middle of the street, the Adult gestures upward, and the world turns upside-down. You fall upward, barely managing to reorient yourself with a carefully-angled burst of energy and then anchor yourself to a nearby tree. Mami recovers even faster, ribbons locking first her and then the rest of the group back to the ground. She reaches further, grabbing pedestrians and passing cars that were caught in the spell's radius and tying them down to whatever's nearby before moving in to the next. The Wizard's gaze fixes on her, and a trace of something other than cruel amusement passes onto her face.
Intrigue.
A growl escapes your lips, more monster than human. The Adult's attention snaps back to you just in time for a searing green bullet to hit her in the eye. The projectile slashes off her body ineffectively, but once again the attack serves its purpose. Specifically, keeping the spellcaster's focus away from the new arrival.
It's neither metaphor nor hyperbole to say that Argalia's blade sings through the air as he approaches, a flickering blue shape carving the shadows away in elegant circuitous paths. Each flourish and seemingly unnecessary motion turns aside a spell or cuts down a wall of crystal. Circuitous as it is, his intended destination is clear to both you and the Wizard. The floor of the Miki house begins to melt into bubbling black sludge just as Argalia touches down in the building's husk. The shattered remains of the furniture begin to sink, dragged down faster by half-formed limbs emerging from the sudden mire. Most importantly, the shelf where Leonie has been resting is sinking. You spare a moment's focus to call up the fourth soldier, spared for a moment just like this, to raise her up and toss her to Argalia before the darkness can swallow them both. The former Fixer intercepts the throw perfectly, weaving effortlessly through bolts of emerald light, and catches her in his open hand. Argalia whispers something to the Distorted girl, and abruptly the scene shifts.
The open street and scarred city are gone, replaced by an endless expanse of blocky planetoids floating in nothing. A faint blue light permeates the empty air, matched by the pastel color of the countless satellites. Their surface is soft and slightly spongy, but solid enough not to be unsteady. The blocks are set up with a slight offset, ensuring that you'll run into one if you move far enough in any direction. Unusual as it is, this makes for a favorable staging area. Access to vertical and horizontal mobility, lots of ways to break line of sight, and separated land masses to limit the spread of crystallization.
Hitomi is taking the sudden change rather well, all things considered. She's staring over the edge with wide eyes and breathing shallow, frantic breaths, but panic is an expected response to being trapped in a warzone with next to no warning.
A faint hum in the back of your head alerts you to the telepathy network reawakening. It seems not even an Aleph-class Abnormality can outdo the Incubators' technology forever. It'll make coordinating easier, for as long as it stays up.
The Adult returns to her seated position, the planetoids she was sitting in rapidly calcifying into a new throne. Meanwhile, Argalia takes a position next to you opposite Kyoko and Mami. His fog-like hair curls protectively around his body as he twirls his scythe.
"My sincerest apologies for the delay, friends. There were some interlopers that needed to be removed from the equation before I could arrive. Though if it meant not having to experience that eyesore again, I could've waited a little longer." Argalia intones, gesturing dismissively at the Adult with a clawed, leathery hand.
"And I'm surprised to see you at all." the Adult says, sounding not at all surprised. "After you spent so long trying to run from me, I had expected you to keep your distance. And I'm even more surprised that the Daughter chose to allow your aid. I knew she was accepting, but I had expected her to draw the line at raving madmen like yourself."
"What can I say? He's been in good behavior recently, and we have some shared goals. It was just the most logical course of action." you interject, stepping forward to try and pull more of the Adult's attention to you.
"When I give the signal, we have to run. Argalia, where's the exit?" you project mentally, hoping that your next course of action isn't as obvious to the Adult as it is to you.
"Just keep heading away from the starting point and you'll eventually reach the finish. You won't see it until you get there." Argalia answers, his voice just as harmonious over the network as it is out loud. He stares at the Adult, his lone stormy eye fixed forward.
"Sayaka, how's Homura?" you ask further, not needing to glance back to know that the rookie Magical Girl is still frantically working over the former veteran. Her hands shake as she presses them to Homura's wounds, growing more and more unsteady as time passes and nothing happens.
"I'm trying, it's just no working! No matter what I do, she won't-"
"Just leave her for now. We can worry about what to do later. Mami, if you take carry Hitomi, Kyoko can take both Madoka and Homura." you order, cutting off Sayaka's increasingly frantic transmission. It is worrying that Homura can neither be healed no repair herself, but you don't hav the time to focus on anything but the moment. "On my signal. Ready?"
The Wizard won't be holding any of their trials today. You can make sure of that.
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Escape
[] Full Retreat
[] Covered Retreat
-[] Who Will Stall?
[] Write-in
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Der Freischütz's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Porccubus' Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
Schadenfreude's Sapling - Observation Level 2/3
CENSORED's Sapling - Observation Level EXPUNGED/REDACTED
I had hoped to release this on the dead of midnight, but alas. Poor internet undoes us all in the end. I'm sure this could be an allegory for the failure to create strong and enduring connections, but I can't be bothered. Happy Halloween, and woe be upon ye.
: A problem from the moment she was dragged out of the well. Too versatile as a threat.
: Moving onto the group, I may not have A or Geburah's expertise in handling things, but I do know that getting the kid to safety is a priority.