[X] Plan The Mystical Arts... And Bears (part 1)
The website for Angelica Bears is kind enough to give you a floor plan of the museum; three floors and a basement, with the bulk of the exhibits being located on the first and second floors. It doesn't appear that anything is amiss with the floor plan;
until you notice a strange irregularity.
Similar to the Mitakihara aquarium, the basement floor is attached to a subway station, with a rear entrance serving as an additional point of entry to the subway station. On the floor plan you count four elevators, clustered into two groups of two on either end of the museum's wing exhibits; but there's a fifth elevator located near the rear entrance that doesn't appear to actually go to any other floor of the museum. As if it goes
down instead of up.
Is that access for subway workers; a blueprinting error; or is there something else at play here?
You print out a copy of the museum's floor plan, circling the location of the mystery elevator with a red marker. With the cap back on the marker, you tap it against the printout as your mind mulls over the possibilities. If the museum is open to the public, which it apparently is, then there's no way the Saints could be using it as their base of operations, not without unwanted attention noticing a gang of girls who were otherwise uninterested in the museum's offerings.
But what if it weren't? What if the museum were only a cover, and the Saints had a proper base of operations located
underneath the museum? An elevator that isn't connected to the rest of the museum would be easy for them to block off to unwanted foot traffic, giving them a perfect means of accessing their
true base of operations below.
"If that's the case, then whatever is down there is probably being heavily guarded by their servants," you say to yourself with a sigh. Amy looks at you, almost as if she were concerned, so you reach over to scratch her behind the ears. "Don't worry. I'm not stupid enough to go charging into the enemy's stronghold without a plan," you say to her. But even with a plan, you aren't sure launching an impromptu investigation of their underground base would be a good idea. You still only know roughly half of what their fourteen-strong team of masters and servants is capable of, and what you've already seen inspires middling confidence in your ability to come out on top as you are now. Unless you were willing to commit all of your team's resources to a full dive and sweep of their hideout - their home turf - then the smart move would be to postpone the investigation for later.
Still, there's no point in sitting on this information for yourself, not when you've got a man on the ground who might appreciate what you've found.
"I've got some interesting news," you say to Archer.
"I was looking at the floor plan for the museum on their website, and there's an elevator located near the rear entrance that looks like it goes down instead of up. I think that's the entrance point for the Saints' true hideout underneath the museum."
"By the rear entrance?"
"Yeah. There's a subway station connected to the basement floor, and the rear entrance leads to it. But it also leads to this elevator that isn't connected to the rest of the museum."
"That makes sense. I saw her going in through the back door." There's your confirmation.
"So what do you want me to do now? Should I go in and take a look around?"
"Don't bother. The place is likely crawling with servants. Not to mention whatever other security measures they've put in place." Now that you think of it, there might not even be a way for Archer to get in, if security is especially tight at their most public choke point.
"I think you're good to pull out now, unless you've got a reason to stick around."
"What about you? What are you going to do now that you've found this?"
"I was thinking I'd get in some practice before we all get together later for tonight's team meeting;" and so you do. Immediately after ending your conversation with Archer you get to work, but not before giving the muscles in your back a quick stretch. You've been sitting for far too long. Amy lets out a soft
"Mew" as you scratch her behind the ears one last time before getting to work.
Your skills in Projections and runic magecraft are not a natural part of your skills as a
puella magi. Barring limited applications of the three fundamentals of magecraft - two in your case, as Alteration is almost completely impossible for you - your magecraft was something you had to teach yourself. As such, without regular practice your skills will atrophy, and as you possess no other way of fighting, now that your ability to stop time has been lost, letting your skills atrophy is not something you can allow.
First, you Project your bow, your primary weapon against all manner of threats. As you run your finger along the length of the bow, you take a moment to consider its material composition. Your bow, a slightly scaled-down version of your kyūdō bow with elements lifted from your image of Madoka's rosewood bow, is primarily composed of ebony, but also features diamond-cut amethysts studding the hand guards. The weapon is unusual, being given shape by the image of it in your mind and existing nowhere else, but that suits you just fine. Without you to imagine it, your bow cannot exist; and without your bow, you cannot fight. You and it exist as two sides of the same being.
Next, your Project a handful of arrows. When you first attempted to learn Projection magecraft, arrows were a source of irritation for you; too little and they are no good for combat, but too much and they shatter in your hand. With their heads Reinforced and imbued with the
Isa rune they, like your bow, exist only as constructs of your mind and nowhere else.
The
Isa rune was the first rune you mastered. A line of frozen water vapour follows your finger as you invoke the rune;
Isa is the rune of ice, and imbued with its power your arrows can splash ice over large swathes. When invoked as its own power, you can use
Isa to create walls of ice, platforms of frozen vapour which float in place, or freeze liquid water to walk on its frozen surface;
not that you would ever flaunt that last ability in front of Oriko.
Last is the
Inguz rune.
Inguz is a rune which, by using yourself as the conduit to invoke the rune's power, either transfer energy into and away from you, or through you from one person to another. It is the rune which Lancer uses, in conjunction with one of Archer's Projected short swords, to draw Grief out of your spent Grief Seeds, replenishing them at no additional cost and leaving you and the others free to use them again without needing to turn them over to the Incubator.
Not that you could even if you wanted to; the little white bastard has been missing ever since Walpurgisnacht was defeated. Inguz allows you to take the mana of your allies into yourself, fueling powerful finishing moves like the
Quintett Fuoco you used to finally defeat
Walpurgisnacht, and it allows you to expel in short bursts the corruption which forms inside your Soul Gem, spitting it out in the form of a bullet of dark energy.
"Do you want a snack?" Your practice has taken you quite some time, and you must have been so engrossed in what you were doing that you didn't notice Archer returning home. "I brought cookies." You take one of the offered cookies from the plate Archer has, and he asks "You been working hard?"
"Yeah."
Your dad makes a really good chocolate chip cookie. "What time is it?"
"A little before eight, actually. Minako should be home soon, if you want to stick around to say goodbye."
Usually a basic practice session only takes you about an hour, maybe a little more if Amy causes you to get sidetracked; as you munch on another one of Archer's cookies, you check the time on your phone, wondering what could have stolen the time away from you this time. "Yeah, I can stick around to say goodbye to mom." You finish your second cookie, as Archer leaves the plate on your desk beside your laptop. "So, we know the Saints have a base of operations now, and I was thinking we should go about putting up one of our own. That way, if they attack and level our base, it's not someone's residence they're leveling."
"That's not a bad idea."
"I figure we can get Oriko and Caster to plot out a good location, one that's not too far from any one of our residences, and then have Caster and Lancer do the actual construction and magical reinforcement." You reach for a third cookie, but instead have to swat Amy away as she leans in. "Assassin is also knowledgeable in the runes, so I was thinking she might be able to help us as well; except she's, well..."
"A bitch?"
"I was going to say that she has an attitude problem, but I suppose yours gets the point across too." You have to move the plate of cookies to the other side of your laptop, as you pick Amy up and set her down on the floor. "Either way, I was wondering if you had something you could give her that, I don't know, bribe her into helping us, but I don't know enough about her to suggest something she might be interested in."
Archer ponders your request for a moment, before settling on "How about one of these?" as he Projects one of his short swords, the same kind as the one he and Lancer use to eliminate the Grief from your refreshed Grief Seeds. "She's angry at being shoved into a class she doesn't belong to, right? If we hand over one of these bad boys, it'll help seriously beef up her magic and give her a decent weapon to fight with. It's not a perfect solution, but it'll help alleviate some of the problems she's having as an Assassin."
Archer gives the sword to you, and you set it down on your desk as you hear the front door unlocking. The sound causes Amy gives up her pursuit of cookies in order to investigate. "That'll be Minako now," Archer says, as you follow him to the front door.
She didn't give birth to you, but as soon as Minako is done embracing Archer as he welcomes her home, she leans down and gives you a kiss on your forehead. "You're not going out to see the others tonight?" she asks, remaining at your height for a little while longer as she takes her shoes off at the door.
"Actually, I was just about to head out," you reply. "I was just waiting for you to come home so I could say goodbye."
"Aw, that's so sweet of you," Minako says, giving you another kiss, this time on the cheek. "Be safe out there, okay? I worry about you girls when you're out late at night."
"Don't worry, mom, I've got my big sis to keep me safe."
"That's my girl." Minako smiles, taking her first - and unexpectedly pained - steps on her way to the living room. "Stupid heels..." you hear her mutter to herself. "Hey Archer, do you think you can give me a foot massage when you and Homura get back? Those heels are killing my feet." With a smile and a seductive wink, Minako adds "I'll make it worth your while if you do."
You need to get out of here before things get really awkward.
