So, The little leaf stands outside the door to the Wand and Circlet, clothed in a blue jean dress. Golden bracelets, armlets, and anklets are clearly visible, as is her golden collar. A pack is slung over her back, and her hair has grown considerably longer since the last time you saw her. It now trails just over he backside.
She fiddles with her phone, looking like a strange blend of frustration and tiredness.
Alex leaps down from a nearby roof, in her meguca outfit. She cocks her head as she looks the little leaf over. "Hey, Haz," she says. "What's up? Your message sounded kinda urgent. ...You let your hair grow out?"
"Yeah, experimenting." She lets out a tense grin and runs her hand through it, highlighting the thin braid that runs over her left brow and past her ear. "We've got a problem with Ea."
Alex folds her arms, blowing a lock of hair out of her face. "Yeah, I got that when she started pulling her Exorcist thing in the pub. Vix able to learn anything more?"
"We've counted about a dozen distinct identities. They swap out whenever they get hit with a problem of their memory having holes. If it's really bad, she ignites. We think one of her personalities is trying to force her to transform in self defense, but they have no control."
Alex's jaw drops. "A-A dozen?! How in the--how?! Was it just, like, everyone in her apartment building got smushed into a single body?"
She shrugs. "Our big issue is figuring out which one was the one that made the contract. That's the real Ea, and the one that is actually doing the transformation."
"Well, I have to imagine that the person who killed the....the....wh-whatever Vix said is the one who made the contract. But...there're 12 personalities...?" She shakes her head. "R-Right. We have to help, if we can. What's the gameplan?"
"Ever wanted to visit San Fransisco?"
"I've always wanted to go back," she agrees.
"Though, if her world is gone, are we going to be able to glean anything from our copy?"
"Vix found an alternate timeline where the Wogni creatures didn't pop in. It's a little different, but it has the apartment building. He'd investigate it himself, but he's keeping Ea in check right now."
"Aah. That could be very helpful indeed. Hopefully it's not divergent enough where we can't learn anything." Alex cocks her head; her outfit starts glowing until it loses resolution. When the glow fades, she's wearing a pair of trainers with cargo pants and a tank top.
Hazard holds up her phone, gesturing to it. "He left me instructions on how to get there from here. Are you ready? You sure you want to do this?"
Alex fixes Hazard with a steady gaze. "Is that even a question? Why wouldn't I?"
"When he said that those things hadn't popped in, he literally said that 'they hadn't popped in yet'." She emphasizes the 'yet'. "Which suggests to me that they may be due for a visit."
Alex's body language takes on a slightly uneasy note. "...I can get us both out if something really stupid starts happening. Besides, this is a chance we have to find out how to help Ea. How can I not go?"
"Thank you." She nods in a tiny bow, then takes the older girl's hand to start walking.
Alex smiles, taking Hazard's hand. "Does Vix have an ETA on when those things are due, so we have a schedule?"
"No. It's a really secure facility they come from, and getting in would take more time than he has available."
Alex stops in her tracks. "Wait. A 'secure facility'? That implies someone was keeping them for study, and either let them go or they broke out. What are they?"
"Ever noticed how he pronounces Wogni? That sound that comes out of him like someone said it backwards, then played it in reverse to right it again??
"Yeah. It's weird, and puts a shiver in my spine whenever he does." She shudders, starting to walk forward again.
"Makes me think of the Red Room from Twin Peaks, and that was some Lovecraftian horror going on there."
She passes through a door, and the doorway glows as it forms a portal. It leads out into a hub.
"I've not seen that," Alex says, glancing around at the hub they now find themselves in.
"My theory, nobody expected these things." She checks her phone, then turns of towards another portal. "Like... The Mist or Half-Life."
"Hmm...one of Ea said that his dot-mil buddies were working on some black-site crap at one of the Army installations nearby. You think that's where they broke in from?"
"It fits the bill. Black site, very secure. We asked a few of the personalities about it, and didn't get much." She shudders. "Except one."
"Tell me," she says, her lips pressing together into a thin line.
"She said, and I quote," She steps through the portal, and out into another hub, this one slightly different in color. Five of the portals have gone dark and the bridge to it has broken away. "I see it. Late at night. It shines a light that makes me want to live again."
"It much creepier when she said it."
"Makes me want to live again...?" she repeats, looking at the darkened portals. "What...the wogni? Shines a light in the darkness...luring people in?" Alex takes a step towards the nearest darkened portal.
"No! He said to stay away from those." Her little hand yanks back on Alex's, pulling her away from the doorways. "Those are the dead ones."
Alex finds her forward progress arrested by Hazard's hand. "It might be worth a quick recon trip to Ea's origin world," she argues. "A brief peek at what we're dealing with. Or might be dealing with." She looks at the other four. "...Five worlds have been destroyed by these things...?"
She reaches for a bit of rubble, and tosses it at the darkened door.
Alex steps back, warding herself with a shallow dome of viridian aether.
A blur of tentacles, claws, mouths and... body parts that have no name launch out from the portal to consume the rock. After a couple of moments later, the biomass recedes, leaving the edges of the portal frayed and crackling.
"Nope. Nope. Nope. Not going in there."
Alex shrieks and jets herself backward, sprawling on her ass behind Hazard. "Wh-wh-wh-wh--"
"Bu-wh-what was that?!" she demands in a shaky voice.
"My guess... Wogni."
"H-Holy fuck. A-And they're right up against the portal...! A-Aren't they liable to break through into the Overcity?!"
A horrendous shreiking noise erupts from the five portals with a force that can almost be seen. It sounds like millions of voices, human and not, screaming in reverse, the playing it backwards. Screaming Wogni.
"This is bad."
A voice rises from Alex's throat, a wordless wail, the air girl covering her ears and screwing her eyes shut. "Ahhhhhh! M-Make it stop! Ma-make them shut up...!" The girl's a bit paralyzed for the moment; she was not prepared for screaming interdimensional horrors.
Hazard doesn't move, standing stock still where she was when the beastie first popped out. The voices slowly die, but their sound, their intent, echo across your nerve endings.
Alex eventually uncurls, her reflexively-summoned aetheric shell cracking and dissolving as she shakily gets to her feet, looking at Hazard. "Wh...I..." She shudders, so strongly she almost falls again.
The child is a statue.
"H....Hazard...y-you okay?" she asks, moving to position herself in front of the younger girl.
There is no color in Hazard's skin. She is deathly pale, and her irises have decided to go on vacation, leaving just frightened, darting dots of pupils shooting about her scelera. Her fingers are trembling, but her body doesn't move. Tears are welling up in her eyes. "I... Can't move..."
"It's okay. Th-they're stuck in there. The-they can't get us. As long as we stay on this side , we're safe." Alex seems to be talking to herself as much as to Hazard. "I know, Hazard. That sound..." She shudders, finding Hazard's hand with her own and squeezing. "That's a horrible sound..."
"No... I'm trying to move... I can't."
"W-Wait...y-you can't?" she asks, turning to face the girl. "Wh-What's wrong?" Alex attempts to move Hazard herself, nudging her.
There seems to be a heavy force of resistance holding the girl in place. As you nudge, the golden bands glow faintly. "I don't know."
"Your...outfit. Why is it...?" Alex nudges the girl again, more forcefully. "It's--holding you!"
With the more forceful shove, a wave of mana passes out of Alex's hand, fizzling against a golden armlet. The little girl falls backwards and flops on her own butt, her limbs suddenly free to move. "Wha-aaaaaa-Unph!"
Alex is startled by the suddent release of the girl's limbs. "Ah! Wh--shit, Hazard, I-I'm sorry!" Alex kneels down and helps the girl to her feet. "I...what? How did I do that?" she asks, looking down at her hand. "What did I do?"
"I dunno, but I don't want to stay here any longer than we have to." She rechecks her phone, then points at one of the healthy-looking portals. "That one."
"I'll...have to ask Vix what happened." She shudders again, retreating from the portal, towards the healthy one Hazard indicates.
The little one follows after. The portal opens out onto an alleyway. Broad daylight shines down the street, and it spills out into the shadowed alley. The girl heads off towards the main road.
Alex follows closely behind the little girl, shaking her head, putting the horrifying sound out of her mind. She closes on Hazard and walks beside her, a little to her rear.
The alley opens out onto the street. Across from you, a building with a lot of character is flanked all sides by soulless monstrosities easily three times its size.
The building in front of you is a bizarre sight next to the soul-less complexes that surround it. It is built from crumbling brick, colored in various shades of pale yellow and lime green. A wroght-iron fence lines the upper edge, poking up like porcupine quills. It is four floors high, with what looks to be the husk of a fifth floor on the far right. The lef
The left hand side is an old, victorian-style home, painted white and slate gray, and hanging off the main building like a colonoscopy bag. A small sign marks this as the leasing office. On top of the main roof is a neon sign that, were it lit, would shine out "Eden Arms". As it is, all you get is
E
A
Alex blows out a sigh. "Eden Arms. EA. ...Here we are. Clock's ticking and we don't know when the alarm's set. ...Right. Did Vix give us anything to go on at first? Any place to start?"
"Just the building. If we can find out which of these people in here is actually named Ea, then we know who is the rightful contract holder."
"If it's anyone in here," Alex counters. "For all we know, that guy passing by with the jury-rigged flamethrower was the contract holder." She runs her hand through her hair. "OK. So here's what we know. There's a guy in there who was in the Army and now works construction, with contacts in the intel shop at an Army base. There's an old lady on the third floor, apartment Charlie, who has lived here forever. There may or may not be someone named Ea living in this building. That about sum up what we know?"
"Construction worker had a wife. There was  a few retirees, an artist, a nurse, the landlady, three kids, the creepy chick and.... I can't remember the others."
"Wait wait. Back up. A creepy chick?" Alex looks at Hazard, cocking her head. "What do we know about her?"
"She seemed very happy to be alive. Said she was a bit of a shut-in because 'at least she was just dead inside'."
"At least she was just dead inside...? Huh. Alright, well. She's a contender, I suppose." She taps her foot, looking up at the building. "...Okay, two ways to do this. You feeling social or sneaky?"
"I've spent the vast majority of my life crippled by self-loathing and an inability to relate with others. I never feel social. But that's probably the best way to get to know these people."
"Fair enough. So, the old lady in 3C has been living here for half of forever, right? If anyone's gonna know their neighbors, it's gonna be her. Other option was to sneak past the leasing agent and access the complex's computer system."
The tyke snorts and chuckles as she looks both ways down the street.
"So, I figure we head up to 3C, pretend Ea told us to meet here, but we misheard the apartment. We're so sweet and cute that it'll trip her old lady senses, and she'll help us find Ea."
"Sounds good to me." She steps out into street. "Especially since the computer plan would have failed hard. The landlady keeps PAPER records. She doesn't HAVE a computer system."
"Oh? Vix's recon found out that much?" Alex tails Hazard. "I mean, wouldn't have been TOO hard. Just another step."
"The artist personality. He was whining about how he had to steal wifi from the building next door."
"Mmm. HUMINT, the best and worst kind of intelligence." She sighs, shaking her head and walking towards the main doors. "...This color scheme is kind of hideous, don't you think?"
"Yeah. It hurts to look at it. Who would live here?" She opens the door and steps in.
Alex tucks in right behind her. "Depending on the rent, quite a few people," she counters, looking for the stairs.
The room before you is quite large, furnished with mismatched, swap meet furniture. The wood floor was painted white some years ago, and is cracking at some points. The walls are papered with a damask pattern that gives you memories of the Haunted Mansion, despite being much cheerier. A polished cherrywood counter acts as a barricade, behind which, a tiny old Chinese lady stands. At least twenty cubby holes consume the wall behind her, which looks on to a dreary office. Each cubby has a small hook and a plaque with a number. One of these hooks still holds a ring of keys. On the wall to your right, next to the door leading on to the apartments, is a kitchenette complete with espresso machine, microwave, and vending machine. An elderly woman sits in one of the chairs, doing a sudoku.
Alex glances between the stairs and the old lady behind the counter. She leans over and whispers to Hazard: "Hey...I don't remember where Ea said to go. Y-You think we should ask...?"
"Yeah!" She looks at the sudoku-puzzler.
"Um...which one should we ask, d'you think?" Alex asks, switching her gaze from the puzzler to the receptionist, trying to enhance her appearance of uncertainty.
The little one shrugs. "My guess would be the lady behind the desk. But they may have policies against talking about the tennants."
"Yeah...that's my thought." She nods, then walks over to the elderly lady in the chair, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Um...hello."
The elderly lady looks up, letting her reading spectacles slide a bit. "Oh, hello, dearie. What can I do for you?"
Alex smiles, lacing her hands behind her back. "Um...well, our friend Ea told us to meet 'em here, in their apartment, but...didn't tell us which apartment we should head to. Um, d'you know which apartment is Ea's?" She tries to make herself look even more sheepish.
"Ea? I don't remember anyone here named Ea." She taps the plunger of her pen against her nose. Oh, sudoku in pen. That's confidence. "What does she look like?"
~Well, fuck.~ Alex glances at Hazard briefly, chewing on her cheek. "A little taller than me, little heavier. Fair face. That about right?" she asks, glancing at Hazard.
"Flame red hair, kinda curly, green eyes?" Hazard pipes up. The golden girl thinks a bit more. "You mean Ginny? Thom's girl?" She looks at Alex, "She's not taller than you, dear, and I thought she was pure muggle."
Alex tilts her head, confusedly. This just became interesting. "Hm. Thinking of Thom, then, I guess." She shoots a confused glance Hazard's way. "I-I'm sorry," she says, glancing back at the old lady. "Wh-What did you say?"
"Ginny hasn't got any magic, so she's probably not who you're looking for anyways. I mean, if she's your friend." The old lady says, without even a care. Her face tenses up for a minute, and she begins fishing around in her knitting bag.
Alex's face starts to pale, but she struggles to keep her face composed and natural. "D-Did I hear you right? Magic?" She tries to school her face into innocent confusion.
The old lady frowns, her hand rustling in the woven bag. Finally, she pulls out a metal badge. It's marked with the insignia of the Beacon. "Retired."
Alex's expression clears. "You were with the Beacon?" Alex asks, all traces of confusion dropping away. "A pleasure to meet you, ma'am." Alex offers her hand.
She reaches out her own, wrinkled hand. At the touch, a slight tickle of electricity eeps out. "Katarina Dermot. They used to call me Tesla. What bring you two out here?"
"Alexandra Ridgway. I have no other name." Alex glances at Hazard again. "Can we step outside?" Alex tilts her head, minutely, towards the woman behind the desk.
"Mako doesn't hear anything that isn't right in front of her. Stubborn broad refuses to get hearing aids." She puts the badge away in her bag again. "But, if you'd like to come back to my apartment, we could talk there."
Alex giggles. "The, um, the privacy might be a good idea," she agrees. "No telling who could walk in who isn't one of us."
With a groan, Tesla pushes herself out of the chair and starts towards the door by the kitchenette. "Uhhh. Whoever said natural aging was a perk never got this old."
Alex tucks in behind Tesla, laughing. "I can imagine not," she agrees.
Tottering side to side as she goes, she passes by door after door. Each one cheerfully painted with a unique pattern, mural or pastel tone. Numbers are far from uniform, with cursive paint, carved wood, or embossed plaques on each. One door has no marking at all. One...
Alex notes the door, of course. Were it to have a number on it, which number would it have?
While most of the doors open into their respective apartment, this one opens out. It has been boarded up and chained into place with a heavy chain. All that can be seen of the door is its hinges and peep hole.
Based off the numbering of those around it, it should be 113, except there is already a 113 just after it.
After this door, Tesla takes a right and pushes the button to summon the elevator.
"Tesla," Alex says, indicating the faux 113.. "This door is different. The hinges on it open outward, not inward. Not to mention, it's chained in place. And, it doesn't belong as far as the numbering is concerned. What's its deal?"
She doesn't answer, only shaking her head.
"Tesla?" she asks, stopping by the elevator. "What does it hide?" She suddenly looks worried.
A weak, hoarse voice comes from the other side of the door. "Hello? Someone there?"
~Oh hell no.~ Alex shakes her head slightly. She knows how that goes.
"I can hear you breathing."
"One of my many vices, you'll find," Alex calls to the door.
"You're funny. Nobody's funny with me." The voice is accompanied by a light scratching sound at the door. Hazard's eyes are wide at hearing this conversation.
Alex glances at Hazard, tilting her head, then back to the door. "Another of them," she allows.
"I like you. Do you have any magazines?"
"I used to, but nobody accepts my credit card anymore."
"Mine neither." The elevator dings, and Tesla vanishes inside.
Alex ducks into the elevator with a haste that might seem unseemly.
Hazard puts one foot in, sliding her other leg in as if she were sneaking about. The doors slide shut as the voice says "See you later, Mrs. Dermot."
Alex looks at Tesla. "...What's behind that door?" she asks, shivering.
"Patrice. I don't remember a time where we ever let her out of there." The old lady looks as if her shivers are about to knock her off her feet.
"Hey, it's okay," she says, moving to support Tesla. "Tell me a little about Patrice, while we're heading to your apartment. Who is she? Dangerous, I assume?"
"I don't honestly know. Nobody knows. It's just been management's policy for... fifty sumodd years now? Longer than I've been living here. It was even in the lease agreement."
"Strange. Well, best to leave well enough alone," Alex says, nodding. "Maybe."
That last almost as an afterthought.
"Are there other magicals living here, Granny Tesla?" Hazard asks in the voice she used to use with Japanese honorifics. "Other than you?"
"No. One of the reasons I retired here. Plenty of magic to the place, but not many magical people or creatures to gum things up with workings. Nobody that would remember."
The elevator dings, and the fifth floor button loses its light.
Alex glances at the elevator light. "Say, Tesla. Do you know who lives in 3C? One of the residents here mentioned her specifically, in connection with the name 'Ea.'"
"Um, yeah. Yeah, I know her." The elevator doors open to a large, partially finished room. Tesla waddles over to the center of the room, and pulls open a trapdoor. Stairs continue down from there. "Is this Ea a magical? I mean, I just assumed."
She continues down the stairs. "Pull the door shut after you, please."
Alex cocks her head and motions Hazard on ahead, pulling the door shut after she descends. "Ea...yes. She's a magical girl, and...well, she appears to have multiple personalities in one mind, at least some of which are residents here. The name 'Ea' is the name she calls herself, but it's also the name she calls the residents that her personalities remember." She works her way down the stairs. "That's
connected to one of the other reasons we're here."
"I see. Well, that's not the resident in 3C. And as far as I know, there's nobody named Ea in the whole complex." The stairs keep going, and Hazard shutting the door makes it plain that there is a light at the end. Two torches illuminate a very dungeon-esque stonework on the surrounding walls. The more modern brickwork is gone. The door at the end is made of heavy oak, with steel bands binding them. Tesla puts her key into the large keyhole and gives it a turn. With a clunk, the door opens, swinging aside the apartment number placard 3C with it.
Alex nods; this is as she assumed. "I had figured, but I didn't want to assume." Alex sighs, looking around at the decor. "Ea...is some name important to her. Eden Arms, E A. Maybe she forgot her name and latched onto the first...or last...letters she saw. Everything became Ea to her, maybe." She shakes her head, following the others insidce.
The room beyond is vast, and lit with a ceiling full of skylights that show an endless expanse of sky. Potted plants adorn various corners, and a tiered waterfall cascades down around the central pillar. She sets her bag down beside a chair, then wobbles over to the kitchen. "Tea?"
"No, thanks." Hazard puts up her hands.
Alex cocks her head. "I'm alright, thank you." She sighs. "Tesla, I'll get right to it: this world is in grave and imminent danger of being wiped out. That's half of why we're here."
The couches and chairs are Victorian in style, with various blankets and quilts thrown over them. "You don't say? What is it this time?"
"I...don't know. One of the puchuu called it a 'wogni.' There's a black facility at a nearby army base that might also be involved; one of the residents here is a construction worker with friends at the facility."
She slams the kettle down. "Bill's friends, huh? I should have known they wouldn't have given up."
Hazard begins to poke at one of the plants.
Alex cocks her head, filing away the resident's name. "You know about the facility and what they're doing?"
"I knew about the facility, and I knew about some of the people who ran it. Didn't know what they were up to their fool notions again." She sighs. "Met the back during the Persian Gulf. You know that one oil pit in Turkministan called the Doors of Hell?"
Alex tilts her head. "I...think I do. That one that's basically constantly on fire, right? I've seen videos of people tossing stuff in." She nods.
"Official story is that geologists lit it on fire to keep the gas from spreading." She shakes her head. "It was a helpful lesson on where not to fight monsters using lightning magic. Anyways, some army types were there and saw the whole thing. They realized that there was magic and... What is a Wogni?"
"Eldritch, universe-eating abomination." Her eyes lose focus, and she huddles around herself a bit. "Great at ping-pong, I'm guessing."
"I...don't know. It's all black, has too many legs, and way too many teeth, tentacles, limbs, and things I can't even identify. It's some sort of alien creature, and 'wogni' isn't its name. I can't pronounce its real name. It's omni-malevolent, and laid waste to her copy of this world when it emerged. Another of Ea's personalities destroyed the one that attacked this building with a jury-rigged flamethrower and an exposed gas main."
It doesn't like to play ping pong. We tried throwing a piece of rubble at one of the portals to a destroyed world, and it tore it apart."
"But it won the game of ping pong, didn't it?" Hazard mumbles.
"I think, technically, we won, because it didn't hit it back at us, but I'd have to check the rules," Alex says whimsically.
The old woman leans on the granite countertop. "That sounds really bad. If those come here, I won't be enough to stop them. I'm a little rusty, and none of my Beacon-issue gear fits me anymore. I don't think anyone wants to be saved by an old granny in a leotard." She chuckles. "Maybe I should go over and stop whatever PsiWolf is up to."
Alex laughs. "No offense, but I don't even want to think about that." She shakes her head. "Who's PsiWolf?"
"It's the crew that saw me fight that monster in Turkministan. They've changed membership a few times, and became a private security company under a charter from the government, but at their core, they're the same opportunistic idiots that want to use magic to fight wars. Didn't realize they actually existed until the Gulf. Had a sit down with their leaders. The moron tried interrogating me."
Alex opens her mouth, then pauses. "...I was about to suggest rolling over there and putting a stop to them, but then I had a thought. If we go over there and use magic of our own in order to get into the compound...that would probably induce them to step up whatever they were working on, and might actually bring about the end of your world." She sighs. "It's not why we're here, anyway. Not primarily.  We're here to help put our girl back together. If she's not Ea, I don't know who she is, but she wears Ginny's face."
"Yeah. You're right. Besides, even if we stopped them, some other idiot would step up to take their place. Military types are all the same." She shakes her head. "Ginny's a sweet girl. Parents both work far too much, and I'm afraid it robbed her of her childhood. Nine years old and not afraid to walk to the bodega at night alone. I try to bring her candy and toys when I can."
She nods. "She sounds like a good girl," Alex agrees, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Shame about her childhood, though. Too many kids grow up that way." She shakes her head. "I wish we knew more about what happened, but the puchuu who picked up her --" Alex blinks. "...Say, Tesla. Does the name Alstaka mean anything to you?" Her gaze grows intensely interested, her body language stiffening slightly.
The old lady smiles. "Yes, it does. Where did you hear it from?"
"From the puchuu who picked up Ea's contract." Alex's expression grows more animated, and a leashed excitement bubbles through her. "Alstaka contracted the girl we call Ea, but died before he could teach her anything. I-If you know where he is, he might be able to give us some insight!"
A voice comes out of the pillar. "I have no such contract."
"You will," Alex says, turning to face the pillar. "If this world's timeline progresses anything like her world's, the wogni will break into this world. One will attack this building; a passerby will use a jury-rigged flamethrower on an exposed gas main, killing at least the wogni and themselves. Then, the other copy of you offered that person a contract, they accepted...I assume they went to the
Overcity, and you stayed and died."
Moments later, a bolt of water shoots out of one of the fountain tiers, landing in the middle of the arranged furniture. The clear, gelatinous body reforms and solidifies, being almost like a moving glass sculpture. "Ah. I see." It says with a clear, high voice. "And where dd you get this information from?"
Alex turns to regard the creature. "Pieced-together information from a puchuu named Vix and a couple of the personalities in the girl's mind."
The creature's glass-fur bristles. "Vix? I did not know he was back in the game." It looks Alex over, then Hazard. It shakes is head. "My only contract is with Tesla. You could say I am retired as well."
Alex glances at Hazard. "Vix's return was, er. Inadvertent, as best as I understand it. I'm not one of Vix's, but he asked me to ride shotgun on this one, help determine how to get your...well, 'your' girl put back together." She air-quotes.
"I see. Well, I do not think there is anyone here I would approach to be a magical girl. Except maybe that Ginny, and only if it were an emergency. The other personalities gave you some information?"
"A little. They can't talk to each other, so it's very scattered. There are at least a dozen distinct coherent identities, and maybe more partial ones. They swap whenever one of them gets confronted with a memory gap." She pauses. Something nags at her, but she can't quite put it into words: "...memory gap...one of them switched out when I mentioned a contract...but another of them didn't."
"Which suggests she knew of the contract, but something was wrong with her memories of taking it up." Alstaka sits on its haunches. "What other time did you see her change personalities?"
Alex shakes her head. "I never witnessed any others. But I know that one personality, the construction worker, loves the military, while the personality who made the contract hates it."
"A surefire way to force her to switch is to confront her with how many people in her head are named Ea." Hazard answers. "Found out construction worker's wife is in there. She called her husband Ea, too."
"She called you Ea, too, Tesla," Alex adds.
"What?" The old lady nearly drops her cup. "Am I present among the personalities?"
"If you are, I wasn't able to bring you out," Alex says, shaking her head. "You were brought up in reference to how old the apartment complex is. She said that Eden Arms has been here since before Loma Pietra, and mentioned that not even 'old lady Ea in 3c has been around that long.'"
Hazard shakes her head no. "The landlady personality said you had left that morning for errands, and hadn't yet come back by the time the monster showed up. And it's Loma Prieta."
"Prieta," Alex amends. "Right. So...everyone who was in the building at the time of the attack was stripped from their body and incorporated into the composite identity we know as Ea. The question is, why?"
"And The composite entity of Ea is dumped into little Ginny's body." Hazard nibbles on her thumbnail.
"Could you have done that inadvertently if you were rushed, Alstaka?"
The glass-like creature flicks its tail. "Accidentally? The whole building? No. Besides, if we has monsters to deal with, Tesla should have been good enough."
"Could you have done so deliberately?" Alex asks, cocking her head. "Or maybe, dimensional interference from the wogni?"
"No. That kind of contract doesn't exist."
"Okay, so. Point: a contract was formed that shouldn't, by rights, exist, compositing over a dozen personalities, the residents of the building, into a single body. Point: the wogni. A literal unknown, so who knows what effect it might have had when it attacked. Point: only the people who were in this building at the time of the attack were subject to compositing." Alex looks faintly distressed. "I'm not seeing a 'why' popping out of this."
"The contracts" Alstaka explains, "are made with individuals. It grants us permit to alter them. So somehow, one person here has the right to sign a contract for everyone here."
"Right. Like Hazard and I were altered...but it doesn't touch the minds, at least not in that way." Alex cocks her head at Alstaka. "Either that, or whatever composited their minds did so before the contract was signed."
It nods. "Aye. That would follow as well."
"The best timeline I can piece together is that the wogni attacked, and the construction worker felt it. Mystery Person X was walking by, and somehow had the items on hand to jury-rig a flamethrower. X used that to detonate a gas main that had been revealed in the attack, destroying the wogni and perhaps killing themselves, perhaps 'only' severely wounding themselves. We don't know yet which case is true: whether the contract holder somehow has the right to sign for everyone, or the minds were composited beforehand." Alex sighs, rubbing her temple. "What sort of person would have the right to sign for everyone here? What qualities would they need?"
"Well, it wouldn't be a legal right." Tesla posits. "Magic is a law greater than law. It would have to be someone who, metaphysically, would have that right. And Alstaka and I are the only people in the building who have magic at all."
"A law greater than law," Alex murmurs. "But you're already contracted, Tesla. And that's why I asked if you could do it deliberately, Alstaka. Confronted with a literally existential threat to existence, could you see yourself casting as wide a net as you could, saving as many of the people around you as you could?"
"No. No contract has been made that would have the right language for that." It tilts its head. "Although... We may not be the only ones here with magic."
"Huh?" She responds, although it could have just been the air wooshing from her head spinning.
"Patrice?" Alex suggests. It sounds like she's grasping at straws. "The only person who we cannot account for, behind a door that shouldn't exist, locked inside." But...this doesn't make any sense. You said you might contract Ginny in an emergency, which this qualifies as. The entity who made the contract remembers killing the wogni..."
"But Patrice would be locked inside during the whole thing, and she's in the middle of the building." Hazard notes. "She would have been crushed by the debris before any contract could be made."
"True...by the time Alstaka ran back to the apartment to contract Mystery Person X--" Alex pauses, tilting her head. "Wait a second. If that's the case, everyone in the building would have died. How would their minds be able to persist?"
"You assume," Alstaka interjects, "That the signatory is an entity as you understand it. I need to check on something." Suddenly, the creature splashes into ground, as if it spontaneously lost solidity.
Alex rubs her temples, leaning on the table. "Man, playing magical forensics expert is tough."
Tesla nods, rubbing at her shoulder. "Yeah. It's one part of the job I don't miss."
Alex chuckles. "Hey. You wanna ticket off this rock when it all comes to an end? Could set you up in the Overcity; Beacon's stretched thin as fuck, they could use someone like you, even in a noncombat role."
The senior citizen slumps down in a chair. "It's tempting to reclaim my glory days. Maybe get beat up enough that I wake up as a kid again. Or, Just train the younglings."
Alex laughs. It's a somewhat hollow sound; she's never been on borrowed time on a planet fated to die before. "Offer's open up 'til we can't stay any longer."
Tesla has no mirth in her. She looks sullenly at the door. "I was out there when they attacked. You know what this means right?"
Alex shakes her head silently.
"It means I can't fight them. All the years with the Beacon, all this time guarding this place? Meaningless."
"I think I'll take your offer, If Alstaka will come with me."
Alex nods. "Understood," she says quietly.
Hazard raises a hand. "Guarding this place? Why here?"
Alex looks at Hazard. "A fair question," she agrees.
"Eden Arms is old, but it's also very magical. It has a rogue ley line running under it, and we can't tell where the source comes from. Magicals and monsters would come fro all over to try and investigate. I'd have to show them the door when they got too rowdy."
Alex cocks her head. "Maybe the leyline had something to do with disconnecting minds from bodies," she suggests. "But...there're too many possibilities here, and I can't weld them into anything cohesive."
"Another magical, but not Tesla, Alstaka, or Patrice..." Hazard muses.
"And possibly not even human," she adds.
"Oh, Patrice isn't magical. She's... Not right. But she isn't magical at all."
"Hrrmmm...who could it be...? Who could be our mystery slayer?"
Hazard leans in. Her hands steeple in Ikari-like fashion "Tesla, in all your years of living here, have you ever had the feeling of something behind you when there wasn't?"
Alex cocks her head, glancing between Hazard and Tesla.
"Yeah, but I..." She shakes her head "That's just nerves. You get jumpy when you've seen the monsters we see."
"What're you getting at, Haz?"
"There's an old concept. Genius Locii." Her eyebrow pokes up. "Heard of it?"
Alex straightens. "A genius loci? You think Eden Arms has a genius loci, given life by the leyline running underneath it?" She tilts her head. "It's possible," she allows. "It would explain why people in the building were disconnected and stored somewhere...the last gasp of a dying entity..."
"And, it would be the only entity who would identify with the letters E-A. The last letters left of its sign."
Alex nods. "That fits...so. Revised timeline: At approximately 'get-fucked-o'clock', a wogni breaches a dimensional rift created by PsiWolf. Drawn by the leyline under the building, it comes here first and begins attacking. EA, the genius loci, flips its shit, but can't really do anything. Mystery Person X runs back, jury-rigs a flamethrower, blows the wogni and the building to hell. EA either realizes it's dying, or realizes its chosen location is in danger. In response, it copies the minds of everybody inside its walls and puts them into Mystery Person X. Alstaka comes back next and contracts X, and all the minds they carry. Sound reasonable?"
The water on the floor gathers up, mounding into the form of Alstaka. "My investigation into the contract has borne fruit. I can confirm your timeline up to a point."
Alex glances over at Alstaka. "Good to hear. What can you tell us?"
"The contract can be made with a Genius Locii, who has the authority to make magical contracts for those it has accepted as its tenants." it bounces up onto the lip of the lowest pool of the fountain. "So, Mystery Person X defeats the W͓̫̰̝͖̣̬̺̙̫̥͟͟͢o̧̨͎̞͓͈͙͟g̶̷̭͚̤̗̘̘͞͠n̴͍͎̪̟͍͓̩̺̕͜i҉̨̧̼͎͓̤̩̩͕͝, then the other me makes a contract with Eden Arms after it demonstrates its nature."
"Does it matter if X is alive or dead at this point? Or does the Loci carry with it the minds of its inhabitants?"
"The recently dead still linger briefly, and would still be under the Loci's purview."
"Okay. Revised, revised timeline. X comes back and destroys the wogni, the building, and possibly kills themselves into the bargain. That world's Alstaka contracts with the genius loci of Eden Arms directly. The motivation at this point is both unknowable and irrelevant, but let's posit that EA was desperate to save its residents, and so made a contract with you, after you came back with the other Tesla. Hypothesis: X is Ginny; that's why Ea took that body. It was the only usable one, because it was outside at the time and didn't get crushed."
"That seems most likely." Tesla says. "Ginny is a bright girl."
"So how does that help us fix the dissonance of her Tenants?" Hazard asks.
"Reading my mind," Alex says, touching her temple. "I don't see how it does, unless all we need to do is remind the genius loci of what it is, and then it can take care of the rest. Or, if we can get back to Ginny's personality and remind her what her name is."
The water creature tilts its head. "Perhaps. I would like to meet this Ea. By the way, do you know of any Psychic girls?"
Alex tilts her head. "I know of one or two, yeah."
"Then we should return to the Overcity and solicit their aid in repairing our poor Loci."
"Right. Alstaka, Tesla: if there's anything you need to wrap up here before we go, you may want to do it now. We're on borrowed time, and this world may not be here when we get back."
"We'll need about an hour to release the spells that bind my apartment here. Alstaka can help me with that. What will you do while we do so?"
The old woman says, rising to her feet.
Alex glances at Hazard. "I dunno...there's nothing we really need to do, is there? We've got our timeline, roughly, and Ea's spirit should be able to confirm it to us if we can dredge it out. There's nobody we really need to talk to in the complex, is there?"
"Shouldn't we try to find a way to save the people here?" Hazard says. "If we know the Wogni are just on a delayed timetable here, then all the people in this city are dead as soon as they appear. Can't we save anyone?"
Alex pulls a face. "The only thing that comes to mind is trying to get people through the portal into the Overcity. But I'm stuck on how to do that without inciting a panic. We might be able to save the people in this apartment building...but can we save even a three-block radius? Let alone the city as a whole?" She looks troubled.
Tesla looks to Alex. "Our biggest problem is that any mass exodus is sure to draw the attention of PsyWolf. They may step up their timetables, or worse. The only way we might be able to evacuate is to stage an assault on the base, but I wouldn't recommend that."
Alex laughs hollowly. "Two magical girls, a magical senior citizen and a puchuu against at least one army base and police force's worth of men? Sure, why not." She shakes her head, laughing. "Hell, that might even cause them to advance their timetables all on its own."
"Worse than that." Tesla spits. "PsyWolf has built defenses specifically designed to counter monsters, which gives them the firepower to take one of us down if we aren't careful. And that's without one of their Delphi Units."
"Delphi Unit? Like, Delphi, Oracle of?" Alex asks, cocking her head.
"That's what they were named after. Abominations." Ugly emotions cross her face, and Alstaka's glassy tail gets bushy. "Artificial magical girls. Early models were solid mahou, but the production models are... barely even human."
Alex shudders. "I don't know if I want to know." She runs a hand through her hair. "I think the best we can do is limit the scope of any evacuation to Eden Arms itself, though we'd have to find a place for them to relocate to."
"It shouldn't be too hard to evacuate to the Overcity, unless the Wogni in the hub give us grief again." Hazard says. "Let's get at it."
"Waaait, wait wait. What's our story? I mean, if we lay it all out, people are gonna wanna call other people they know and tell them, and it gets out of control fast."
The little girl bounces over to the door, then spins around. "Gas leak!"
Alex barks a laugh. "How fitting. That story'll get 'em through the portal, but what then? How do...where do we send them? How do we provide for them, starting out?" Alex frowns, worried.
"We'll deal with that when we get there, Neesan." The leaf pushes the door open a crack. "Push comes to shove, I can use my stipend until they get on their feet."
Alex nods, standing. "Right...right. We'll get them through the portal, then tell them the truth. They don't have to like it; at least they'll be alive to hate us." She shakes herself. "...I feel terrible saying this, but I hope Vix is right about the timetable here. I'd hate to uproot these people and then end up not having needed to."
"Do you want to wait until we know for sure?" Hazard asks, more than a little confused. "It may be too late at that point."
"I don't think we can afford to," Alex allows. "I just...no, we can't wait, but..." She shakes her head, rubbing her temple. "If we're going to save these people, we have to move now. And...they can't be allowed to return, either. That would cause PsiWolf to act once word starts getting out, and then they're dead anyway."
The leaf pushes the door open all the way.
Alex gets up and moves to the hallway. "One hour, give or take. How many units, and are we saving Patrice?"
A magical circle spreads around Tesla's feet, and Alstaka begins waling its perimeter. "I have no idea how many of the production Delphi's are around now. Patrice cannot leave that room, though. It's too dangerous."
"I meant..sorry, how many units are in the apartment?" She shakes her head. "I'm tempted to leave her there, too, since we have literally no idea who or what she is and she might do something to make the event worse. I hate saying that, but..."
"Other than me and Patrice, there are ten people who live in this building. There's 24 units, but we aren't the most popular place."
"Oh." Alex relaxes. "Not even an issue. We'll head down, get a manifest of which units are occupied from Mako, then start knocking on doors. City inspector told Mako there was a gas leak; we were in the lobby, so we were deputized. We'll tell them the truth once we get through the portal. That make sense to you?"
Tesla nods as Hazard slips through the door.
Alex nods back at Tesla, then follows Hazard.
As Alex and Hazard wrangles the last group of evacuees down the ground floor hall, the bound door rattles. "Hey! Hey! You two!"
Alex had been passing the door, and her head twists to look at the door as she passes. She glances back at Hazard, but doesn't say anything. She does pause briefly, though.
Hazard presses a bit closer to Alex, a guilty shade passing over her eyes.
"You two are special, too, aren't you? Like Katarina?"
Alex bites her lip, her expression growing worried. She turns her head towards the door, chasing the worry out of her voice. "What do you mean?"
Hazard motions that she is continuing the evacuation, pushing the last tenant out of earshot. The voice behind the door continues. "You're the real deal. You're magical."
Alex nods at Hazard, indicating assent. "Depends how you mean," Alex shoots back, folding her arms.
"You know what I mean. You're magical like Katarina is magical. She used to ride the lightning and smite with thunder."
"Well, I can't do that," Alex says. "My specialties lie more in the air."
"But you have real magic. You know other magical girls, right?"
"One or two," she allows.
"Have you ever seen a girl, about four foot eight, platinum blonde... eyepatch?"
"Doesn't sound familiar, no. Friend of yours?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Sorry," Alex responds. "I'd remember the eyepatch."
"Look... I'm not getting out of here. I know that. But if you could do me a favor. If you ever see that girl... tell her I'm sorry. Tell her... Tell her I love her? But... tell her to..."
"I have some time," Alex says quietly. "I don't know how much, but I have some. Tell me a little about yourself, Patrice."
"There isn't much to tell. I'm a prisoner. Far from those I love. Farther from doing what I was meant to do."
"And what are you meant to do?" she asks, folding her arms behind her back.
"What you do."
Alex nods. "I see...and why are you imprisoned?"
"Because of what I am."
"And what's that?" she asks, tilting her head.
There comes a long pause.
"Dead. More dead than you could possibly imagine."
Realization strikes her. "You're a production-model Delphi."
"No. One of the early models, just before they started the mass productions. My powers... They've gone wrong."
Alex chews her lip. "Wrong in what way?"
"Are you familiar with the Schrödinger's cat thought experiment?"
Alex nods. "Yeah. Superposition of quantum-mechanical states such that both exist at the same time until the system is observed."
"I am that cat."
"You're both alive and dead until I open your door, and then you're one or the other?"
"But, you and about a dozen or so other people have interacted with me since I went wrong. If I become one or the other...It forms a time paradox."
"Mm. The universe's resolution to those tends to be...messy."
"So, I am dead."
"...As much as I'd love to talk philosophy and how quantum mechanics pertains to magic," and Alex really does sound like she'd love to talk about it, "I had some questions about PsiWolf that you might actually be able to speak to. How...much do you know, exactly?"
"Kill them. Kill them all. Kill them all. Kill them all."
"..." Alex glances aside, closing her eyes. "That's the idea," she murmurs. ~They're gonna take care of that all by themselves,~ she adds silently.
"Those production Delphis... They're wrong. They shouldn't have been made."
Alex's footsteps draw closer to the door, and she lifts the thick chain, letting it rattle. "No, they shouldn't have." Her voice is closer, now. "They're an affront to nature. ...Patrice, can PsiWolf be stopped?"
"I don't know. We barely managed to escape, the two of us."
Alex nods. "This girl...she's in the wind, I assume? Made her escape?"
"I hope. Maybe that creature got her to safety. But the Productions were after us, and I lost eyes on them when..."
"What's her name?" Alex asks gently.
"Brie Langstrom."
Alex nods. "Brie Langstrom," she repeats. "Four foot eight. Platinum-blonde hair, with an eyepatch. Is there anything else that might help me identify her?"
"A big fucking sword."
Alex laughs softly. "Got it. She's a Delphi too, then?"
"The first of us. Probably the best."
Alex nods. "They always put more TLC into the first ones. No matter what it is." Alex sighs. "What do you want me to tell her to do?"
There is a long silence, followed by a sniffle.
"Forget me and be happy."
Alex presses her hand flat against the door. "Nobody is made richer by forgetting those they love, Patrice," she says softly. "Nobody. I will tell her that you love her, and to honor you in all of her endeavors."
"But even fewer are made healthy by holding on to the past. She's the type to do that. Just... I want her to move on."
~I know what'll free her,~ she thinks darkly. "I understand. I'll relay that to her, if I ever run into her."
"Thank you."
"What is your name?"
Alex pauses, her mouth opening to speak. "I'm Alex. Alexandra Ridgway."
"May whatever god you believe in bless you, Alexandra Ridgeway. May you have all the joy I was denied."
Alex leans forward, pressing her forehead against the door, her palm flat against it. "I...thank you, Patrice." She shifts, preparing to push her body back, but she doesn't. "Patrice...may I ask you a question?"
"Yeah."
"Do you believe that the truth sets you free? That even a terrible truth is superior to a comforting lie, that the truth lets you move forward?"
"Yes."
Alex sighs, her eyes misting. "Then, in service of truth, I have to tell you..." The words, even before the revelation, come slow and deliberate, the measured cadence of a headsman's axe, "that you are living on borrowed time. I don't know when, but I believe this world is doomed to fall. Five other copies of this world have gone dark so far, and my benefactor doesn't think this one's any different."
Silence.
A gasp, sudden and piercing.
A whimper.
"T-Thank you."
Alex's head shoots up, and she looks at the door as if she can look through it. "I'm sorry, Patrice," she says softly. "But you deserve to know."
"I'm going to be free. I'm going to be... o-one or the other. I've been wanting this forever."
Alex nods. "I understand. I'm...I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You've done nothing but kindness. You've also talked to me longer than anyone since I got this way."
Alex blinks, shocked. "I...wow. I'm sorry for that, too. I'm sorry that you can't spend what might be your last day doing...something other than being cooped up here. I'm sorry PsiWolf did this to you. I'm not sorry you're alive but rather that this is the state of it. I'm sorry you had to be separated from Brie."
"Stop being sorry. Do what you came to do. I'm fine."
Alex straightens, levering herself off the wall. "Patrice...d'you have a last name?"
"Legally? Clark. But if you're planning on a gravestone, make it Langstrom."
Alex nods. "I think Brie would appreciate that," she says. Then she sniffles, her eyes threatening to spill over. "Patrice Clark-Langstrom, I absolve you of your sins. May you find solace in the arms of whatever higher powers you believe in."
The elevator dings and Tesla steps out. It takes her a moment to process that you are even standing there. "What are you doing? Nevermind. I'm done. We've got to go. Something's happening at the base, and it doesn't look good."
Alex glances at Tesla, then at Patrice's door, then between the two. "I...that's for me. I have to go, Patrice. PsiWolf is making their move...it likely won't be long now. I'll remember you, okay? I have to go now."
"Go. Be happy."
Alex presses her hand against the door. "I-I will." With sudden tears standing in her eyes, Alex turns away and flees towards Tesla and the lobby.
Tesla calls up her magic as she hobbles, her skin glowing softly as her dress vanishes and a leotard wraps itself around her. Each step she takes, she grows faster and faster. A sarong of glittering fabric drapes itself off one hip. "Head to the portal. I'll take up the rear."
"Y-Yes ma'am," Alex responds numbly. "What's going on at the base?"
"From the looks of things, it's under some form of attack. Explosions, energy beams, missing parts of walls."
"External, I'm guessing? This is probably why they tore open the rift..."
"Problem is, I didn't see an attacking force."
Alex cocks her head. "That is curious...I might take a look once you're all safely through." Alex is keeping pace with Tesla. "If I've time."
Suddenly, a shape falls from the air, landing between the two magical girls and the portal home. The impact shatters the brick road, throwing a thick cloud of fine dust into the air.
Alex yelps, throwing her arm in front of her face to shield herself from the dust. A shallow dome of viridian aether springs into existence ahead of her upthrown arm, cutting it further. In a mere moment, she's dressed in her meguca outfit, skirt and mantle ruffling as they wrap around her.
The dust begins to clear, a form rising from the rubble. An aura of subtle... wrongness permeates the air like a static ozone. "Oh, boy." Tesla exhales, readying her rail gun.
Alex reaches into nothingness and draws her sword with a leathery rasp, the blade glowing green. "We fighting or running, Tesla? If everyone else is already across the portal, I can get us both out of here."
The form walks forward, stiffly but in precise motions, like a sensuous mannequin with jiggle physics. She's wearing a body suit that is less skin-tight and more painted-on, with tougher, thicker pads over the joints. Her eyes are dead.
Tesla steps back. "If it's only this one, we have a solid shot of taking her. But, they're never alone."
Alex withdraws as well, bringing her blade up in a guard. "And you said everyone's waiting for us in the nexus, right?" she asks, her eyes carefully watching this strange, foreign girl. "And does it matter if we take this one? Unless we can pull off a miracle, this world's a graveyard."
"Yeah. Let's get out of here before her sisters show up. What's the plan?"
"Is there any more information we can gain from staying here, or should we get out while the getting's good?" Alex stares at this girl, this Delphi.
"And Alstaka and Hazard are with the residents, right?"
As the girls speak, the Delphi in front of them lets her arm go slack. As the hand drops, it continues to fall far past where the hand would normally hang. The arm lengthens, stretching out until it slops to the ground. Bony thorns and slobbering tongues perforate the limb, which now ends in a human face locked in a silent scream.
"Yeah. We need to get out of here."
"Oh dear god in heaven," Alex says softly, staring, horrified, at the abomination's arm. Snapped out of it by Tesla's words, she transfers her sword to her left hand, searching for Tesla's hand with her right. "Take my hand," she instructs, her body charging.
An electric tingle rockets up Alex's arm as wrinkled, leathery skin takes hold. She holds up her gun and fires a shot directly into the creature's chest. Its breast warps in on itself, becoming a blasted hole. The hole grows teeth and horns, a demonic face replacing the breast as the creature staggers. "GO!"
Alex shrieks as she sees the result of Tesla's shot, her pupils disappearing into pinpricks. She screams, and convulsively discharges her magic. [Interdimensional Home, 12->4 MP, Combat End.] There's a long moment where there is no sight or sound, but then with a kaleidoscopic spray, the two of them end up in a decently appointed one-bedroom apartment: couch and TV in the living room, sleeping space  in the bedroom. When they appear, Alex stumbles away from Tesla, coughing and retching.
"Oh." The old woman drops to the floor, her rifle clattering. "Oh, that was as terrifying as ever."
A buzzing and tone sounds from Alex's pocket.
"That was horrifying," Alex moans, pulling herself to her feet. "Ugh. Ugh. I'd almost prefer the wogni. At least they have the decency to just--" Alex slaps at her pocket, fishing out her phone. She checks the incoming number, then swipes to answer the call. "H-Hello?"
"Neesan? We have a situation..."
"You mean another one?" she says. "Send it. Tesla and I jumped back to my place, so we'll be a few minutes. What happened?"
"That thing that attacked you? It isn't alone. And it just saw the porta---" There is the sound of a loud clattering, and magical blasts sound. She talks again, this time through a hushed whisper. "I've got the civilians to safety, but those things are headed this way. I'm under cover for now."
"W-Wait. They saw the -- aw, hell. Are you through to the Overcity, or are you trapped in that world?"
"I'm in the hub with the dead worlds." The little voice begins muttering something vaguely arcane, and a crackling sound comes through the phone. "I've put up a barricade, but I don't know how long it will hold." [Lumber wall, 12->9 MP.]
"Right. We'll be right there, and find a way to collapse the portal. Or the wogni will do it for us. Either way, we'll be right there. Hold tight, okay?" [Recharging MP, will be at full by the time they get to the hub.] Alex glances at Tesla. "No time to rest, we have to move."
Tesla rolls up to her feet again, taking up her rifle. "No rest for the wicked."
"Until we close our eyes for good," Alex agrees. "Hold tight, Hazard. We'll be there soon." Alex disconnects the call and starts heading out.
Tesla is hot on her heels.
Alex quickly makes her way back to the hub zone, observing before striding in.
Arriving in the hub, the scene is dire. The stump of a tree blocks the portal, but tendrils and demonic faces slither around it. They mutter "W̛̭̹͔̣̻͙͔̥͙̦͕̖̰͇ͣͧ̒ͧ̾ͪ̀͞͝o̧̢̺̗̯̦̹̦̼̭͖̯̟̖͓̘̟͖ͪ͛̉ͭ͂̽̈͊̑̒g̡͚̖̤͓̫̤̯̯͕̲ͩ̋ͧͥ͐͗ͭ̽ͩ̑̉̊̈̀̚͝͠ͅn̷͎̤̲͈̰͇̲͚̜̦͇̖͈͉͇̖̞͐̿ͯ̌̅̅͝ͅi͆͐̊ͭ͏̶̨̛̬̪͉̫͎̝̼̬̻̜̕ͅ" in between bites into the wood. Other tendrils and bizarre body parts lash out from the dead world portals, echoing the cry of W̛̭̹͔̣̻͙͔̥͙̦͕̖̰͇ͣͧ̒ͧ̾ͪ̀͞͝o̧̢̺̗̯̦̹̦̼̭͖̯̟̖͓̘̟͖ͪ͛̉ͭ͂̽̈͊̑̒g̡͚̖̤͓̫̤̯̯͕̲ͩ̋ͧͥ͐͗ͭ̽ͩ̑̉̊̈̀̚͝͠ͅn̷͎̤̲͈̰͇̲͚̜̦͇̖͈͉͇̖̞͐̿ͯ̌̅̅͝ͅi͆͐̊ͭ͏̶̨̛̬̪͉̫͎̝̼̬̻̜̕ͅ.
Hazard stands behind a second stump, frozen in place. "Al-ex?"
"Right here, imouto!" Alex cries, leaping forward. "Tesla! See if you can knock this portal down!" she calls, laying her hand on Hazard's shoulder and jolting her again.
The leaf crumples to her knees, then gets back up. A frightened tear takes flight as she snaps back into action, fear and rage mixing in a volatile solution. "How can we shut the portal? Do we have some sort of spacetime mahou?"
"I don't know of any, no," Alex says. "But...those other portals...the wogni aren't breaching them. Why this one?"
Tesla begins firing at the various bits and bobbles wrapped around the barricade. "Because this isn't the wogni things! This is the Delphi!"
"So why do they sound like the wogni?!" Alex yells, wind whipping around her as she thrusts her hands out, a punishing windstorm lashing out and seeking to hold the creatures fast. [Storm Shred, 12->9MP, inflict Pin Down and strip Soak]
The rogue biomatter shreds off the wood, spraying the area around it in gore. "I don't know." Tesla continues. "That's what they always sounded like since the production models came out."
"The only thing I can think of is to collapse the portal!" Alex says, maintaining her effect. "These things are gonna keep comin' 'til we're overwhelmed, and then it's sayonara! What do we do?!"
"Of all the times we could use a puchuu... Vix, if only you were here now." Hazard takes up a stance close to Alex, readying her wooden rifle. "If the barricade goes down, we need to fight them off. I'll give you fire support and get the barrier back up."
"Wait, where's Alstaka?" Alex says, readying her blade. "He was with you, right?"
"He was escorting them to safety. I stayed behind to make sure you made it through."
"Thanks," Alex says, giving the girl a heartfelt smile. "Hopefully he or Vix comes back soon to help seal the portal...o-or can it be sealed like the others...?"
A sudden crunch. Wood sprays out over the room. A warm, wet splatter strikes Alex's cheek.
Alex doesn't react for a moment, her hand rising to wipe away whatever hit her cheek and get a look at it. After that, she pivots slowly to look at where the barricade was.
A small, eyeless face filled with piranha teeth pokes out from Tesla's back, a thick, writhing tendril shot straight through the barricade. And her. With a twist and a shudder, it shatters the remaining stump and slaps the old woman to the ground.
"No! Tesla!" Alex cries, slashing her sword at the offending face tendril, whatever connecting it to the mass of flesh. Alex takes up a guard position before the senior mahou's fallen body, her face a mask of rage.
Behind the portal, three vaguely female forms twist and undulate, their bodies warping into new abominations every moment.
Electricity crackles over the fallen warrior's gun. Its edges begin to glow with a vicious amethyst light. "A-A-Alex! Fire in the.... HOLE!"
"GET DOWN!" Alex yells, leaping towards Hazard, grabbing her, and hurling her to the ground. Alex takes a knee and raises her left arm across her body, the action generating a viridian dome of magic surrounding them.
The energy discharges from her gun, letting off three flechettes, each glowing like a miniature sun as their power crackles, lashing at the ground and portal edges as they fly. They impact each of the Delphi. One is missing an arm, and nearly flops over onto her back. Another is flat on her face, the remains of her leg flying up into the air behind her. The
Third took the hit directly between the eyes. Spattered brains fly everywhere, riding bits of shattered skull.
Tesla's gun tears free from her hands, the recoil too much for her to handle. The stock smashes her in the face on the way past her, but she barely seems to notice.
Alex's shield drops, and she rises to her feet, her sword glowing a poisonous green as she leaps towards the downed Delphi, performing a coup de grace on the two not quite dead yet.
The first one is offed quite cleanly.
The second...
The blade sticks into the creature's body. Tendrils of foul abomination begin to crawl up the blade, holding it fast.
Alex lets out a panicked shout, planting her boot on the thing's corpse and wrenching back with both hands.
Razor sharp leaves slash and hack at the gibbering thing, pulling away hunks of flesh from where the blade is held. The sword pulls free with great force.
Alex stumbles back from the corpse, her blade's glow flickering before sputtering out. "Th-Thanks, Hazard!" she says, breathless. If there's nothing else actively threatening to eat her face, she goes to check on Tesla.
The mass of tatters, gore, and wrinkles that is Tesla lay on the ground. With each breath, more blood pours out onto the ground.
"T-T-Tesla...!" Tears spring to Alex's eyes as she hits her knees next to the woman's mangled not-quite-corpse, breath stolen from her by the sheer violence of it. Her hands shake as she reaches for her, settling at the last for taking the woman's nearer hand in both of hers.
"It's...Okay..." She says, sanguine wine coughing up with the words. "Believe it... or not... I've been here... before..."
"Wh--!" Alex's jaw drops. "S-So w-we can come back from the dead...?" Her voice is weak, barely there, her frightened eyes scanning over Tesla's ruined body.
"I c-" She turns her head off to the side, and vomits up about... what is that, a cup? Cup and a quarter of blood. "I can. At least, I have once... when I was younger."
"R-Right..." The girl's expression is still faintly horrorstruck. "U-Um..." She squeezes Tesla's hand, unsure of the niceties involved in mahou death. "Thank you, Tesla. For...your service to the Beacon, and your help to me."
"Thank you... For getting me up off m-" A stifled cough. "Off my ass."
Alex laughs. It sounds forced. "Transdimensional kicks in the ass, that's what I'm here for!" She grins. She glances behind her to look at how the portal's doing, then back to Tesla. "I'll keep you in my memories, Tesla."
"Remember nothing..." She grins, though her eyes slowly close. "You haven't seen... the last of me... ye-"
Silence.
A cacophany sounds through the portal. Bass drums of impact. Tenor clatters of brick skittering against brick. A xylophone of flying plumbing pipes striking other buildings. There is a second crashing, as if the full orchestra launched into a frenzy. As the dust settles, leaving you with the feeling of tense violins, you can see the front of Eden Arms is comp
Eden Arms is completely shorn off. The sign has fallen into the rubble of the street, and the cables of the elevator lay strew an wriggling like angry eels. Five girls, identical in shape and beauty, stand in the crater. They each wear identical uniforms so tight, they may as well be naked.
Alex stands, drawing her blade. She stares these five girls down, across the dimensional divide separating them. She steps back across to Hazard, keeping her eyes locked on them, helping the girl to her feet. "Here we go, Hazard."
The subtle wrongness that creeps through the air intensifies, tingling across your skin and up your spine. The hairs on your neck stand out and scream in terror. The center Delphi warps and distorts, bulging in place one should not- could not bulge. As if someone quickly filled a balloon, a mass of vile biomatter spills out of her suit, becoming a huge mass of tentacles, claws, and other body parts for which human language has no name. It screams in sounds that rend the ego, and steps forward towards the portal.
"Oh, NO!" Comes a familiar voice from behind the creatures. It is strained and hoarse. "NO YOU DON'T!"
"Not one step across this divide!" Alex cries, her sword glowing. She's rattled, but she doesn't back down. Not here. Not now. She cannot afford to. She can't succumb. "Alstaka! Vix!" she cries out.
"Patrice?!" she says, dumbfounded. She averts her gaze, closing her eyes.
Beyond the horrors, a girl stands. Her body is distended from malnutrition, lacking in muscle but puffed out at the stomach. Her suit, once skin tight, hangs loosely off her bones. Her white hair trails like tangled and matted seaweed across her body. and onto the ground. Mana screams across her skin, crackling against any surface that grows close to her. With great effort, she steps forward, her white skin seeing the sun for the first time in decades. "Well, ladies? Ever wanted to see what happens when you cause a temporal paradox?"
...She spotted Patrice and she didn't end. So she should be safe, right? She opens her eyes and looks back at Patrice, determined to bear witness to her at the last. "Patrice!" she calls again, her voice happier.
A beautiful smile crosses Patrice's face. The fierce glow dies, and the spell holding back the paradox ends. You can see her mouth two words.
The portal turns black.
Alex stiffens, clenching her eyes shut, ready to feel the universe's full, existential wrath descend on her for--
She's fine. Oh, okay.
Alex takes a hesitant step backward, observing the portal.
The blackened portal begins to stutter, sputter, shudder. Mana of every element bursts out, then sucks back in. It changes shape and size wildly: oval, square, octagonal, a tesseract. Hazard backs up towards the exit portal, then returns, pulling Tesla's body with her. "This doesn't look good..."
Alex yelps and stumbles back. "T-The world...that world...is being rent apart. Patrice was holding something back, some terrible force, a-and--" She shudders visibly. "W-We shouldn't be here. We're too close!" Alex begins urging Hazard and Tesla's body back, away, away, but still watching, observing. She owes it to Patrice.
Light builds up inside the darkness. A candlelight growing to a search light. A searchlight to sunlight. Sunlight to the light of creation itself. A final shudder.
With a pop, the portal splits in half. One is blackened, while the other...
Looks normal.
"...What was one, is now two?" Alex asks, curiously. "The superposition of states has decomposed--" She glances from one portal to the other, then to the other five.
Alex seizes a piece of rubble in her magical grip, lobbing it at the blackened half.
It hits the event horizon, and sticks there as if the portal were made of jello.
Alex reflexively shudders. "That portal leads to a nullified world. The darkness beyond time...the other one...what is its timeline like...?" She hesitantly steps forward, peering back across.
An alleyway, darkened by tall buildings. Straight ahead, a gaudy brick building with a run-down neon sign atop it.
E
A
"...But we saw..." Alex objects. "Is this...the fate of this world? Doomed to infinitely replicate under the force of paradox?" She rubs her shoulder, suddenly feeling a chill.
"What point in time has it returned to...?"
"Alex..." Hazard says, weakly, but solemnly.
"Y-Yeah, Hazard," she replies, blindly reaching back for Hazard's hand. "I-I'm here."
The tiny hand doesn't come. "Alex."
"Yeah?" she asks, turning to face the little girl, taking her eyes away from the twinned portals and their accusing gaze.
The girl is huddled over the body of the Beacon crone. It is white and ashen with blood loss, and the breathing has completely stopped. Despite this, an amethyst light glows from within the leotard. It grows brighter, and more condensed.
Alex takes a sharp breath, kneeling down by the body. "What's this...?"
The light gathers into the center of her chest, flowing through the nerves and blood vessels. It surges out, a shining ball, hissing with steam from pure soul striking the air. The body crumbles, like burned out logs on a fire, and turns to a fine, gray dust that swirls around the fox fire soul.
"This could be.... a regeneration?" The leaf posits.
Alex flinches back at the hissing, and then cries out when Tesla's body crumbles. She reaches out to the ball, but doesn't touch it, her hand drawing back. "M-Maybe...this...is this her spirit? It's gathered her body around it..."
The dust begins to disperse, settling from its sudden motion. The spirit floats in the air, shining with violet brilliance. "So, what do we do with it?" Hazard asks.
"We take it with us," Alex says immediately. "Like fuck we're leaving it here. Maybe we need to...carry it like a pokemon egg until...it...hatches?" Alex blushes. "Okay, that got a little away from me. Um...Tesla was a resident of Eden Arms, so maybe Ea will know what to do when we get her put back together?"
"She was the only resident of Eden Arms that wasn't there for when Ea was formed. Maybe she's a piece of the puzzle?"
Alex makes a face. "Yeah, but...if Ea...absorbs her, wouldn't that be kinda weird? ...Could that even happen?"
The leaf shrugs. "I don't know. I'm making this up as I go along!"
"So am I." Alex reaches out for the violet ball, still not sure if she should be touching it.
As if magnetic, the ball snaps towards her hand, floating barest inches from the skin. Happy little tingles of electricity tickle up and down the palm.
Alex yelps, barely repressing the urge to yank her hand back. "...This feels weird. I think it likes me. Which...makes sense, given this is Tesla. I think." She cradles it to her chest.
Hazard opens her phone, tapping at the screen with her right hand. "Okay, I've got the directions to Ea's place. This way." She steps through the exit portal. Not hurredly, but with purpose.
Alex follows behind, her sword tucked back into whatever hammerspace it lives in. "Right...y-you want me to get in touch with the psyker, or are we not ready for that yet?"
"Let's get back to Vix and Ea, get them caught up. If this doesn't spark something, call up your psyker." She takes a sudden left, then through another corridor of portals.
"Right." Alex nods, tucking in behind Hazard. "God...w-we have to tell Alstaka, too."
"Are you alright? Who was that girl on the other side of the portal? The one screaming about a paradox?"
"That...you remember the sealed door we passed? Inside Eden Arms?"
"Yeah. You talked to her. What was her deal... That was her?"
"Yeah. She was a mid-model Delphi unit, before they spun up the assembly line. Still human, but I warrant the infusion of additional wogni material caused her powers to....go wrong. The way she put it to me, she was a superposition of quantum states. When she decomposed...one half was alive, and one half was dead, at the same time. But the world can't handle that, so...beyond that half is the Darkness Beyond Time."
"So, she used her 'magic' to temporarily solve the paradox until it was the right time to let it happen? Schrodenger's cat's got teeth."
"Maybe not solve it, but to hold it steady, refuse to let it decompose. I...shudder to think of what happened at the instant of the paradox's resolution.
"It reset the timeline to one state or the other? Technically both."
"Well, I mean...I don't know if it can be known what's across the dead portal. The rock I threw at it was held out. Pushed back by some sort of terrible internal pressure. I hate to think what it was like for anyone unlucky enough to be on that side of the cosmic coin toss."
"Like a Carrot Top/Pauly Shore movie that never ends." She smirks behind her, trying to bring a bit of levity to the situation.
Alex snorts. Seems like it worked, a little. "I wonder what point in time the other world reset to. When I looked through, everything looked...normal."
"My guess? About a week ago." She takes another sudden turn, then steps back and slides to the next portal over. "It's been about a week since the incident destroyed Ea's world, and it got reset so that we only now saw the incident again."
"So...that place is doomed to repeat the same stretch of time, over and over, for literally the rest of eternity?"
"And Bill Murray thought Groundhog Day was bad."
Alex shudders. "At least Bill Murray's loop didn't end with-- wait a second. It can't. If Patrice manages to get killed by the collapsing building, there's no chance to invoke paradox. So what happens then?"
"But, the seal on the room is broken, and her superimposed quantum states can now interact with the world. Paradox doesn't need her to be alive to do something."
"And my talking to her wasn't interaction? Patrice dying in that room shouldn't invoke paradox, as that would be a classical resolution. It's okay for her to die in that room, because then she wouldn't have needed to be dead all along."
She makes another turn. You hear a whoosh and a 'BONG'. The little one backs up. "Ow."
"Wh!" Alex backs off.
A red welt has appeared on Hazard's forehead. "Watch out for the rake. Harold doesn't clean the shed."
"The hell?" Alex looks around. Is there actually a rake, and just where have they ended up?
Inside the portal is a darkened, wooden shell. Tools and wooden bits line the shelves.
"Where...are we?" Alex asks, probing forward with her hand, trying to avoid any unfortunate encounters of her own.
"Harold's Shed. Ea's 'dad'."
"Aah, that's right, Ea has...oh. Um. Are her parents aware of magic, or are we about to drop a serious bombshell?"
"When your daughter starts spewing fire, and the only thing that can stop her is her pet that has an uncountable number of tails, magic is somewhat easier to take."
"...Point well taken."
Hazard pushes the shed open from the inside, revealing a precisely sculptured back yard to a white-painted house. Hazard continues up to the door to the deck.
Alex follows behind, still cradling the violet soulball.
The two cross through the living room and into the garage, which has lined its walls with tarps. Vix and Alstaka stand beside a little girl, who sits indian style in the middle of a circle.
"Did you bring good news?" Vix asks.
"I'm not sure," Alex admits. "We know what happened to Ea's origin world. We know who Ea actually is, and the nature of the personalities she switches between. We recovered the final soul, the one Ea is missing." She gestures to the soulball she's carrying.
Alstaka steps forward, regarding the ball. Its body is made up of milk and breakfast cereal. "Is that... Katarina?"
Alex nods. "I'm sorry, Alstaka," Alex responds. "She...gave her life to keep the Delphi units from breaching the hub and overrunning the Overcity." Alex pauses. "Why are you made of milk now?"
"It's what I had on hand." It pokes at the ball, and it follows along behind him. "And you think that bringing Katarina in contact with Ea, she may balance them all out? Fix the problem?"
Alex shrugs. "Flying blind here, Alstaka. It could, it could not. If this doesn't work, I have a friend who's a psychic who might be willing to take a look."
"Plus...I'd be worried about Ea simply...absorbing Katarina."
"It may be worth a shot." Vix says. "Tesla has experience in transformation, and may be all they need to figure out how to do it right. Even if she were absorbed, she would still be alive, and her consciousness intact."
Alex nods. "That's true." She doesn't seem entirely on board, but she looks to Ea, kneeling down. "How's she been?"
"I'm a twenty year old man whose a schizophrenic voice in a little girl's body. How do you think I've been?" A frustrated, vaguely Bronx-ish accent trails out of her mouth. "At least I'm not a liiving flamethrower right now."
"She's stable."
"I'm a he, furball."
Alex nods. "I'm sorry for misgendering you," she says, looking at Ea. "I understand how stressful this has to be for you. Hopefully, with what I've learned, we can make it better, though." She smiles. "What's your name?"
"Ea. But apparently, that isn't true either, now is it?"
"One second." Alex turns to Hazard. "Which resident was this again? Twenty years old, maybe from New York?"
"The artist."
"Shit, what was his name...where did you guys lead the residents to when we evacuated them?"
Alstaka holds up Tesla on te tip of his fluffy tail. "A safehouse I know of in the Overcity."
Alex nods. "Did you happen to get their names?" Alex asks, tilting her head.
"I think this one was Leon Ceasare." The milk soggy responds.
"Leon Caesare," Alex repeats. She looks at the little girl body. "Does that...sound right to you, or just like someone else's name?"
"Sounds like someone else to me, but what do I know?"
"Not sure," Alex admits. "I'm kinda flying by the seat of my pants here, I'm sorry to say." She glances at Alstaka. "Guess we just...expose Ea to Katarina's soul?"
The creature steps forward to the girl. "I have no idea how this will feel. Prepare yourself."
Alex reaches out and rests her hands on Ea's shoulders to steady her.
The creature slams the soul ball into the tiny girl's chest. Flame flickers across the edges of the magic circle.
Alex tenses her arms, ready for...almost anything that might happen.
Suddenly, She begins belching up ball of flame after ball of flame. Rather than flying up to burn away the ceiling, or falling down to singe the concrete, each wavering, green ball floats down gently to come into an orbit around her.
Alex grits her teeth as the fire----doesn't hurt her at all.
She opens her eyes and looks at the floating green fireballs.
When you first look at them, they remind you of the neon E and A letters of the sign. Upon closer inspection, each one is of a slightly different hue of green. One of them begins to turn blue, then indigo, then finally violet, as it comes to rest on Alstaka's tail. The Ginny body sits there, gaping at the ceiling and completely vegetative as a dozen soulfire balls float around her.
Alex reaches her hand up to the nearest soul ball. "These are the residents..."
"So, they were all being stored inside her, seprately." Hazard lets her disguise drop, returning her outfit to its normal skimpy swimsuit. "That's why she kept switching, they were getting more or less dominant based off the mental states of the others."
Alex nods. "Probably a protective measure. If the dominant personality gets too distressed to act, another switches in. Clever defense mechanism." She looks at the body. "...But where's Ea herself? The genius loci?"
There comes a rustle, and a clatter. Ea's backpack slides around the room a bit before a simple, steel lighter pops out to float among the flames. It clicks open, and each flame jumps inside it, one by one. The final flame, a small but brightly glowing light, hovers over the lighter, then shoots back down Ea's throat. Emerald light pours out of her mouth and eyes. She blinks.
Alex watches the flames shoot back into the lighter, then blinks as the final one burrows back into Ea's body. "...Ea? Is this finally you? The real you?"
"We... We are Ea... I... I guess this me is Ginny. We decided that she was best to speak for us for now."
"Katarina described this body as Ginny's, yes." Alex wraps her arms around Ea[Ginny]. "I'm glad you're whole, now!"
"We are!" She hugs back, chubby little fingers grasping at your back. "Katarina helped us pull it all together. To understand each other. And now..." She reaches out and takes hold of the floating lighter. "I know how to use the power Alstaka gave me."
Alex looks at the floating ball. "Even in death," Alex says, "she still helps us out." Alex laughs, ruffling the girl's hair. "That's great to hear...!" She trails off. "Um. Should I refer to all of you as Ea, or by each of your names?"
"We are Ea, it is probably best to call us by that name. It will get confusing otherwise."
Alex nods. "Ea it is." Alex lets her go, looks at her, then hugs her again. "I was so worried about you all."
Vix and Alstaka step off into the doorway, as Hazard draws closer to join in with a group hug. "In a way, we got to meet you all! Your original selves were all saved!"
Alex nods excitedly. "We headed to one of the copies of your world. We know why it died, and we were able to evacuate all of your residents."
"...We couldn't do anything about the rest of the people there. Even if we had all week, we couldn't make a dent. I don't even think we could stop it."
"So, then... My world is truly gone?" A sadness crosses her face. "Don't get me wrong, Harold and Morgan are great people, but... My real parents were back there. All of our real families."
"What about Patrice? How did you save her?"
"We...didn't." Alex sighs, looking regretful. "I had to leave her. She told me to; she's a living paradox. When the building collapsed, she escaped. She held her paradox in check...long enough to thank me. Then...she split the world in two. One half is deader than dead. It's been nullified. The other...its timeline has been reset." Her voice sounds a little hopeful. "Given time and manpower, we might actually be able to stop PsiWolf in some iteration."
The lighter clicks open, shooting one flame out and another in. "So, you mean... You let me die back there?"
Alex blinks. Her jaw drops. "P-P-Patrice? How are--what?!" Alex wraps her arms back around the girl. "I had no choice, you told me to! Or--not you, but the you I met! You said your powers would more than destroy the world, and you were right!"
The girl grabs hard to Alex and pulls her close. Her eyelashes brush against the air maid's cheek. "You dear, sweet girl." Little, soft lips kiss Alex just beside the ear. "Thank you."
Alex does not know how to react to that. She flushes and looks at the little girl currently playing host to a proto-horror. "Wh-What? That's what...the other you said to me, right before she sacrificed herself. Wh-Why?"
"I'm free."
"W-Well...y-you are now, a-and I'm glad you're not going to destroy anything else." She smiles broadly.
The tyke yawns, her mouth stretched wide enough to eat a Dagwood. "Maybe some monsters..."
"Maybe some monsters," Alex agrees. "Oh, hey. The other you...told me about Brie. Would you like me to introduce you, or just...tell her you died?"
Oh, her eyes light on a whole new kind of fire. "Do you know her? Is she here?"
Alex shakes her head. "Sadly, I haven't met her yet. I...sorry. I meant, if and when I meet her."
"If you ever see my Brie, tell me. Nothing will keep us apart again." An ear-to-ear smile dominates her face.
Alex nods. "You're technically from different worlds, or...different iterations of the same world, I really don't know how that works. But you have my word." Alex grins just as broadly. "I'll bring Brie to meet you the first thing I do when I meet her."
"Thank you. Now, this little body needs sleep. And I bet you two could use a rest. Come on upstairs, I'll set you up some sleeping bags."
Alex nods. "I...I really could. I'm probably going to have nightmares after that."
"You?" Hazard retorts. "I breathed Tesla in. I probably have Tesla ashes in my lungs right now!"
"I didn't say I had a monopoly on them!" Alex objects, laughing.
The three girls dissolve into a mound of laughter, as the two puchuu walk off to the shed, a soul in tow. [Thank you for playing "Patrice's Revenge", have a good night.]