Scene #8680: Pursuing Mahou-guerite

Owner	Pose
Wonderlab Trio	@emit Unlike the headquarters, Lobotomy Corporation Branch O-5681 doesn't have direct warpgate access inside. The one warpgate in District 15, at least the one Meika's aware of, is tightly regulated, secured, a train ride away, and absolute demands Wing permission to use. Thankfully for Meika, it's also full of effortlessly suggestible people. Does it get easier to persuade the fifth suited attendant in the bland, steel warpgate facility, compared to the first? How about the dozenth passenger on the train, who curiously approaches her with questions she can't answer, not without one of the one, two, three, four, five, six, seventh security officers on the local train wrapping their hands around her upper arm before letting go. At least she knows the way. Otherwise she'd have to steal that from someone's head too, wouldn't she? The branch facility is the same as it ever was. The reception lobby is mostly empty at this time of evening, but the green-haired clerk sits up at their desk, suddenly alert by the weird visitor. In fact, they're the same clerk that was stationed here last time Meika came, and they recognize her immediately-- how could they not, with how few Outsiders ever come through. "Um-- hello? Your name was... Michael, or something, right? Did you have an appointment?" There's not a procedure for this, the stress of which shows on their face. "Is there something urgent? I could... call for my boss? Or the Manager?" The Servant of Wrath's Containment Cell is N-031. No one knows why the Safety Department's abbreviation is N, but so it is in the Manual, so it will be on the books. Beozzi is in the Servant of Wrath's cell, and when exiting the elevator into the Safety Department, Meika would see that there's not that many other agents around. One of the other Cell doors is locked, with a solid red light lit beside it to show that Work is in progress; if she looks inside, she'd see a fat, pale green caterpillar, slowly spilling smoke over the floor while a low-level black-haired agent nervously pokes at it.
Meika Kirenai	. . . . . Stop it, leave me alone, don't grab me like- Don't stare. I hate when people stare like that. It's so- Don't talk to me, just pretend I don't even exist, isn't that so much- . . .I'm sorry. I know I don't have any right to do this. . . . . . Shuffling through the front entrance to the lobby, hands white-knuckled around her sports bag's strap, elbows tucked, Meika looks absolutely harried. She's shaky all over, even how her tightened-up posture tries to hide it, and she keeps fidgeting, tugging at her sleeve cuffs, uncomfortable with their not-quite-long-enough length. The clerk's frantic shuffle of activity- worse, of recognition, immediately makes the girl flinch where she stands. What, do you think I'm scary? I'm not. You should know better. Just- Meika can't stop herself from finding out for herself. "Huh? Of course I have an appointment. Someone must have told you I was coming, right? And it's- Meika. Not Michael." It's 'easier' each time- when 'easier' means the fluidity, the lack of hesitation that she's starting to carry her magic-laced words with. It's harder, for how it feels like an ulcer burning through her throat each time she says anything, each time she reaches for that oh-so simple way to get by. With the frequency she's had to, here, it's almost harder not to let her words grab at people's minds and memories. She hates it. It's for the best. It's got to be. I'll make it be. "It's- it's really urgent. But you've already been told it'd be fine for me to go through, right?" Meika coughs into a hand, trembling. "So I'll just-" Her statement isn't finished, before she's dipping off towards where she remembers the elevator to be. There's a silent thump, as Meika presses her back to the recessed door of caterpillar abnormality's cell, having dashed over to hide from the sightlines of the scant agents in the hallways. She closes her eyes for a second, and tries to path out her way, taking deep, silent breaths, uncertain if anyone down here would raise an alarm if they spotted her, faster than she could change their minds. She only looks behind herself, through the cell's window, for a moment, before steeling herself to peel off. ...A bug? Gross. Ew. Don't poke it, it'll burst- Bootfalls don't echo off the walls, and her heart skips a beat seeing Beozzi, of all people, in Courage's room. Her first lucky break. Meika steps up to the door, knocking on its windowpane, half muffled, and pulls a crumpled old piece of paper out of her pocket, pressing it to the glass. {"I got your note."} She whispers, just for security- just because she can, a little because it's easier and she wants to. Beozzi can hear loud and clear- nothing else at all can. {"I didn't give up. Like you asked, right? Please let me in. I'm here to help."} An inhale, and Meika turns her eyes to the abnormality in the room- then a look behind her, out at the rest of the hallway, nervous about getting snuck up behind, despite her own awarenesses. She has to speak up to try and reach the other magical girl- it's hard to. ". . .Courage. I didn't forget you. Even if it's been-" No words but that come yet, before Meika's throat closes up. It's make or break now, isn't it?
Angela	Beozzi hasn't had an incident lately. Letting them work on the Servant of Wrath again is a sign that they have slowly built up on trust they have lost--an Agent losing their mind now and then is normal after all and these facilities don't tend to hold long memories about that sort of thing--an event too common to hold a grudge, it seems. The Magical Girl of Courage and Beozzi are in the cell together, therefore, when Meika arrives. Beozzi is brushing Courage's hair with a brush as part of an Instinct work. Beozzi has been more resolved to not rely on taking their personal value on others and that has changed the flavor of their conversations, allowed in some distance that Beozzi didn't intentionally provide--they certainly aren't giving them the same EGO as before, they're now wearing Tangle's EGO Gear--that might explain the fanciness of the comb they're using. Courage is the first to look up towards Meika, her eyes look at the note. Beozzi swallows. The fact that Meika is here without escort communicates volumes. Meika hardly even needd the note. They remember ... what they wanted a true friendship with Wrath--no Courage--and they can't have that so long as a cell is between them. But they know if it happens again, they definitely won't be welcome back here, they'll never be able to stop running like Tiffany. They stand up and make teir way to the door. They smile at Meika and presses their hand to a control panel inside, allowing it to slide open. "You're here to help? I don't know how you got this far without being spotted, but ... are you sure? They won't let something like this go with a wag of the finger..." Courage shifts into a standing position. "Where are your sisters, Knight of Vermillion?" The Servant of Wrath asks. "You are alone." Beozzi realizes at this moment that it IS a little unusual Kayoko isn't here either. "I...She must be helping distract the guards right?" They ask. "R--right?" The Servant of Wrath walks slowly after Beozzi, approaching them from behind. "Why have you come alone, Knight of Vermillion?"
Meika Kirenai	Meika heaves out a sigh of relief, when the door swings open. Her heart twists in a strange way, watching Beozzi's tending of the Magical Girl of Courage, but she doesn't have to think about it for long. "Oh, t-thank you. Thanks. I'm glad it's you, here, that makes it so much simpler. . ." 'They won't let something like this go with a wag of the finger,' "I know. That's okay. It- it doesn't have to be let go of, I just want to help, okay? To get Courage out, and back with her sisters. That's- that's all. I don't mind them hating me." As she slips into the containment cell, her breathing and her voice are both obviously frantic, desperate. 'R--right?' "N-no, I- I came alone. Of course I did, who else would- There's- Nobody even wants to- nobody even wants me to-" She takes an expensive second to settle herself. "It's just me. But that's okay, I promise." Meika's expression falters, when Courage presses the topic. "Courage, what's- if you want to see the others, I'll get you out. They're at home. I'll take you there. Love, Justice, Cobalt. . ." Her stomach leaps up to her throat. "There's no problem with that, right?" Quietly, silently, Meika holds out a shaky hand to Courage. "Come on. I don't know how long there'll be, so- so let's get you home." She can't hide the pleading tone, as her eyes try and lock with the cloth covering Courage's. If taken, her fingers wrap tight- quelling her own trembling with the contact and pressure. She tries to smile, and only mostly succeeds. "The hard part's already done."
Wonderlab Trio	One set of ears listens to Meika's reassurance and nods. The clerk sits back in their chair, more relaxed, hand slipping off of the emergency button under their desk, that they were a second away from pressing. "Oh, yeah. Meika. I just forgot to write it down, since you were here last time." Meika's presence being fine for the facility doesn't make it fine for the clerk. There's still an undercurrent of distress in their mind, partly at having apparently failed in their bookkeeping badly enough to miss an appointment with an Outsider, partly at Meika's frantic, disheveled look, their attention on every flaw made sharper by the fact that they know Meika isn't from here at all. Anything out of place is out of place by that much more. "It's the Servant of Wrath again, right? Are you sure you don't want Flower--? Or--? No? Okay." Another set listens with her head slightly tilted, eyes shut. Manual is in the exact same position on the desk in the underground Manager's office as always as always as always, both her and the corpse by her feet identical to how they've always been. Despite having her eyes shut, she lowers her chin with a slight smile at the sight of Meika rushing in through the massive glass doors of the lobby. "Dearest Manager... eternity with you passes as if condensed into a single day. Across these screens plays an endlessly repeating theatre of puppets severed at the wrists; glistening red stumps blossoming in a field meant for you and I, would you bend down and smell them for me, love? You'll have to describe to me the scent." "Does one not tire of only one flower? I would drape this hell in bouquets for you, dear Manager, as I know you would for me, but red on red on red on red dulls the eyes, eventually. You and I are as a withered sapling, wilted in place, suspended through the seasons to watch the same flowers bloom and die, the air lifeless and still, so that no new seeds blow in. But sometimes, dear Manager, it may have slipped your mind after so long buried with me, but seeds may be carried in by hosts as well." Despite watching the clerk be coaxed into not pressing the alarm, seeing Meika hurry deeper into the facility, Manual does nothing to stop her. Her form flickers, and she leans forwards to whisper to the corpse on the ground, a low digital rasp in her voice. "I would love to watch this one grow together." Catt, their EGO swishing back and forth as they stroll through the hallways of Disciplinary, stops with a curious expression at a tiny motion in the corner of their vision. A security camera quirks, disjointing from its smooth back-and-forth arc; something that would be utterly unremarkable to any other agent, but catches Catt's attention immediately. They smile at the camera, then take the cue to look down at their tablet and smile wider.
Wonderlab Trio	"Someone's breaking in?! Captain, you said that right, didn't you? In?!" "Meika isn't... I'm sure we can just talk to her, right? There's not going to be a fight, she's an ally!" Catt, sprinting through the halls ahead of both of their slower subordinates, responds evenly as if they weren't running at all, with their EGO weapon brandished dangerously at their side. "Wrong. Allies fight. The little slug was too scorched by the light, fleeing into the slime with us. A desperate Outsider is a dangerous one, mmm?" "You," Catt stops on a dime, at the end of the hallway, their footsteps not audible even to Meika before they flourish with the wind of their momentum fluttering the ribbons on their EGO. They grin tauntingly, knowing what that'll do to both of the friends-of-Courage colluding in the cell. "And you. Even if Catt said it would happen from the very start, it doesn't make Catt happy at all to be right." "Captain--!" Rose quickly follows, taking a few steps ahead of Catt with a resolute look towards Beozzi and Meika. "Beozzi, you know what happens when you cross this line with Abnormalities. Last time you nearly died; please don't risk this again. Abnormalities aren't your friends. You're not leading a friend out of prison, that's only what it wants you to think. You're letting a monster out of its cage." "Ah, but what if the Outsider thinks a monster and a friend are one and the same?" "Then we still have to help her." Taii, meanwhile, continues past both of them, lagging behind. Their face flushes red from running, and they get all the way up to nearly arms' reach of Meika before stopping and leaning on their knees to pant. "Meika... could you tell us what you're doing here? What you're really, really doing, before anything gets too dangerous? We can talk about it, you don't have to be in trouble." Only one direction leads directly to the elevator without looping around the floor, and it's blocked by three agents. One sole clerk awkwardly wheels an Enkephalin cart to the cell with the smoking caterpillar inside, fidgeting with the screen while trying their hardest to ignore the confrontation.
Angela	The Servant's gaze goes distant for a moment, as if trying to recall something half remembered. "It was the world full of Noise, the golem pointed a cannon and my champion's eyes became my eyes, we forgot who was we and who was them and I filled in the open space. I was so much larger. Her corneas burned as she wept my tears." The Servant seems hesitant to leave the cell despite Meika's reassurances, though she doesn't seem inclined to battle her either. Instead she sees this as having a conversation, one as casual as any--as if she felt the three of them had all the time in the world--for one who lives and dies on repeat, perhaps she feels she does have all the time in the world, views it differently than anyone in a hurry. The act that makes Courage consider Meika's offer is her pointing out that Love and Justice (and Cobalt) are waiting for her. They are dear friends too, of course, comrades in arms. Lending them a hand is something she'd just love to do. But she can't compromise on her ideals either. The Servant extends a hand to Meika's and holds it, but she doesn't move towards the exit. "Reconsider my friends. You have come alone, without Love, Justice, or Cobalt. You betray your comrades by coming to seek me. You must have Courage, Vermillion, Courage to not fight alone." Beozzi hesitates too. They have Meika's inclination, but the escape plan feels off to them however desperately they wish to be a true friend to both Meika and the Servnat. "Your Kingdom remains. Tis not too late." Rose tries to appeal to....well the basic facts of what happened to them last time. "It's...it's different now, they have... they have a way to save them, really save them. Isn't it?" They look to Meika as if for confirmation. Beozzi doesn't seem willing to strike at their fellow Agents--at least not yet, not this time. Beozzi might be more under Meika's thumb right now than the Servant's. "I'm...I'm not the same, I swear. I'm going to be brave, really brave, now..."
Meika Kirenai	"I'm not- I'm not betraying anyone. Love wanted me to do this, Justice- Cobalt disagreed, but she'll be happy when I- when we get back, and we get you help. Everything will be fine. I- I know it will be." Reassurances come cheaper than making good on promises- Meika flinches at the tone in Courage's voice, fearful she won't change her mind. 'Your Kingdom remains. Tis not too late.' "No. No, it is too late. I'm sorry. B-but this is our one shot, okay? I need to make this count. I need to. Please, it's-" 'You,' Meika's blood runs cold. Immediately, she's shoving a hand into the side pocket of her shouldered sports bag, coming out with a crumpled-up sketchbook page. Don't make me use this. Don't try and stop me. Please. Her unspoken plea can't struggle past the hammering of her heart. "She's- she's not a monster. Y-you know she isn't, just look at her!" Meika squeezes Courage's hand again, hoping so much that she doesn't let go. Helplessly, Meika tries to tug her closer to the door, gently- guiding more than pulling. Rose's words float through the air around the magical girl, and she grits her teeth, grinding enough to hurt. "W-what right do you have to keep her caged, even if she was? I'm- I'm going to get her help. Like we did with her sisters." Catt's words, though, draw an angry, bitter scowl. "I- I know the difference, okay? I know who is a-and isn't really one. So shut up. Please. This doesn't-" 'We can talk about it, you don't have to be in trouble.' Taii's words echo wrong in Meika's ears, laced with every countless instance of 'Just tell us what's really going on, and we can forgive you,' and its aching permutations. It's instant, how Meika's eyes tear up. Yes I do. Of course I do. There's nothing I can say. Nothing I can ever say. No matter what you think you're doing. The magical girl backs up, slightly, when Taii gets the closest of all of them. Carefully, cautiously, she raises up her arm- defensive, and then to wipe away a streaming teardrop. "N-no, stay back. I know you're not here to help me. You never are. Y-you won't get it, so don't say you'll try to!" Meika only spares a second to glance back at Courage, before pressing the ripped page to her own chest, eyes shut tight. {"Trust me."} The flash that emenates isn't the exact same, clean one as always- it f-f-flickers and smears weird, for half a second, but- Hand in hand with Courage, Chevalier Vermillion still finds it in herself to stand steadfast in the doorway. "P-please. Let us leave, stand down. I don't want to hurt you. I- I really, really don't want to." She takes a hesitant click-cracking step forwards on her skates, their presence alone trying to chip damage into the containment unit doorway's flooring. She properly tugs Courage, this time, to keep in step with her- real force, unavoidable. Vermillion is strong enough to force the issue. "B-but you know I can."
Wonderlab Trio	Both Taii and Rose look distressed at Beozzi's continued reluctance, for different reasons. Taii with a tinge of sofer sympathy to their face, while Rose looks almost a little afraid. "Beozzi! Abnormalities can't be saved! They're not people, their natures are unchangeable, since they aren't anything besides their natures!" "You... you remember your training, right? I learned some of the phrases, those Temperance-steadying ones they had you practice. 'Professionalism first', remember? If you're not sure you can trust yourself, then trust your superior, and that's--" "Catt, isn't it?" Without any of the rapidly-approaching-insurrectionists noticing, Catt swayed their way closer, standing on their tip-toes to... still be considerably shorter, but through presence alone they still manage to 'loom'. "Catt is the head of Multiversal Outreach. In a state of emergency, Catt holds authority over everyone besides our Manager, and as Catt has been informed," They hold up their tablet, gesturing at it with the dripping tip of their spoon. "Now is one." Flipping the haft of Bitter Medicine around, Catt swipes the base of the spoon handle up into the air, then lays it down on Beozzi's head with just enough pressure to feel like it's slightly forcing them to kneel down. "Catt thinks it's a little funny. After all this, Catt is the one who owns you, now." It presses down further, emphasizing their point while they grin. "So return the Servant of Wrath to its cell, or else Catt will enjoy breaking a worthless possession like you." "She's- she's not a monster. Y-you know she isn't, just look at her!" Rose shakes their head vehemently. They're still not in a threatening stance, and neither is Taii, but Meika can sense that they're both rapidly shutting down her arguments in their minds. "You remember Nothing There, don't you? It's one of the most dangerous Abnormalities we know of, and it can be totally indistinguishable from a person. It doesn't matter what they look like; they're not like us." Taii instinctively raises their hands up and pulls back, spooked almost as much by Meika recoiling as Meika is by them approaching. They slowly lower their hands back down, like they're trying to soothe a skittish animal. "Right, right, okay, I won't get close, but we can-- woah--!" Taii flinches backwards now, drawing out their golden rapier EGO in the same motion as if expecting an attack to parry. Rose isn't as passive, uncoiling her fleshy whip from her hip and bringing it up, with the leech-mouth on the end snapping at Meika of its own accord. "Stop! You don't know what you're doing! You're not making this decision for you and her, you're making it for the people who will end up dead because of this! Abnormalities are dangerous. They have to be controlled, and used, and that would be despicable if they were people, but they're not. Last time she breached, over a dozen people died! If I have to defend people from you, then I will!" Rather than make a speech, Catt swings the blunt bowl of Bitter Medicine into Beozzi's head the moment Meika transforms, assuming Beozzi doesn't stand down like they were asked. When hit, black thorns crackle around their head, uncoordinating their actions and making their thoughts pour out of their mouth unfiltered.
Wonderlab Trio	Now a speech. "Magical Girls are drawn to each other, so Catt heard. Have you heard what happens when four join together? Is the darkness in your heart hidden enough that it'll surprise you when it comes out?" Bringing the tip of the spoon down on the joined hands between Courage and Vermillion, Catt tries to break the two up. Their tone flattens, from sadistically gleeful to numb. "Hate Catt if you want. But Catt knows the kind of bottom feeder that can't keep away from this sort of place. Catt's job is to keep everyone safe from you, and you as safe as Catt can, before--" Catt cuts off with a shocked expression, dodging away from Meika entirely to grab Taii and Rose by each of their collars. The Containment Cell where Hookah Caterpillar was slowly building up smoke slid open, the black-haired agent inside slumped out, dead, with black slime pouring from their eyes and mouth. Teal smoke languidly floods into the hallway, and the clerk succumbs to the same fate before they can make it to the elevator. The fat caterpillar Abnormality worms its way out, the size of a large dog and bulbously fleshy, but slow and not metamorphasized. A note of fear enters Catt's voice, hands tight on Taii and Rose as they rant in monotone. "Hookah Caterpillar's breach is on a strict schedule based on work cycling. This is ahead of schedule. It shouldn't be out, but it isn't fully fed up on others to grow. Did the Manager decide to push for extra energy now? During an emergency?" The smoke isn't immediately lethal, not to the agents and Elites. It almost doesn't even hurt at first, instead feeling stingingly dreamlike, sort of like windless frigid temperatures, but leaking deep into your mind. What it draws out, subtly at first and then overwhelming, is memories of self-loathing, that replay in your mind as long as the Caterpillar can feed on them.
Angela	Beozzi is feeling weak-kneed. They feel a tremendous amount of guilt towards Catt in particular because they (Beozzi) sought their friendship before in such a heartless way. Maybe, they think, they really are hopeless. No, they're worse than hopeless. They're still a coward. Even now, they can't pick a side between Courage and Meika and their fellow Agents. Catt barely has to puss. They sink to their knees. Are they merely afraid of making the wrong decision? Their hands are shaking. It's easy to guide--and later tug--Courage. She's like twenty pounds soaking wet and are easily the smallest of the magical girls--almost the smallest of all Abnormalities and their tendency to flit about in the air (when they are not punishing EMBODIMENTS OF EVIL) is a sign. She hasn't transformed into Wrath yet though as they look towards Meika, there is a sizzling across the blindfold but the acid hasn't burnt through just yet. And it doesn't get to. The Servant is distracted suddenly by an Abnormality Breach. Her gaze settles on the Caterpillar instead. Her grip tightens on the hammer. The good news for 'Wonderlab' is that she's still in her Helpful state rather than in the state where she will cause a major breach herself--not any larger than the one Meika is unleashing. It isn't uncommon for berserk magical girls to be battled by magical girls who haven't reached their berserk state. Indeed, it's more common than them breaching at the same time--hench why their original escape was so unprecidented. Trust me, Trust me, Trust me Catt swings Bitter Medicine into Beozzi. TETH gear doesn't stand a chance. Black thorns ripple around their head and they say, "This is a fate that a coward like me deserves..." It's also the last thought they have before their mind goes dark and they fall over (they aren't dead!). Will this make them less or more resilient to Hookah Caterpillar's smoke? Is this the sort of place where happy accidents happen? This means it's Meika against the world. The Magical Girl of Courage looks towards Taii, Rose, and Catt. She makes no hostile action. The Servant is still a Magical Girl. They pull forward, rushing towards Hookah Caterpillar, the hammer growing in her hands as she brings it down against the Abnormality--it is her nature to help defend the facility against other Abnormalities--until they go berserk anyway. She doesn't seem affected by the smoke yet. "Vermillion..." She sounds...strained? "We must defeat this Abnormality before it harms the innocent people of this kingdom." Acidic green fluid erupts from the hammer with each strike and she strikes quickly and brutally like she has a personal grudge against this one. She doesn't, but well--she's not called the Servant of Proportional Violence.
Meika Kirenai	'It doesn't matter what they look like; they're not like us.' "That's not- that's not the same. It's not." She can't hide the flinch at the wording. "She's like us. So I'm bringing her home." A different 'us', a different team. "Her 'nature'. That's something we can. . ." How much of it can be fixed? How much is locked in stone? Vermillion swallows at nothing, and f-f-flickers where she stands. It matters what they look like. It matters what they're trying. What we're trying. It's got to, it's not fair if it doesn't. That's what's different than Nothing There, we're really, truly trying. So we'll get somwehere. Even if it's hard. Even if- Quietly, she stares Rose's way, and mutters a cutting "N-no. Fuck you. Y-you just don't know what you're talking about." '. . .you're making it for the people who will end up dead because of this!' "No, no- I'm not going to let that happen. I have this handled, I- I know someone who helped her sisters, helped them be safe, how they wanted. I'm not stupid, okay? Even if you think she's not a person now, we'll fix that. You'll see." Vermillion's breathing is notably frantic, with each rise and fall of her shoulders and chest. "They deserve lives, r-right?" The blow that connects with Beozzi shocks Vermillion, and she in turn grabs one of the baseball bats she's carted in with her. She sidesteps from where the turncoat-ish agent crumples, and holds the bat out like a sword, enforcing distance. The perfect stance to take to listen to a monologue. "W-what, what happens? There's four of us back home, already, I-" As Rose's parasitic whip attacks, Vermillion twists, growing a shard of her roaring magic out of the aura surrounding her bat, and pinning its snapping head to the bulkhead wall like a hammered nail. "S-screw you, okay? My heart isn't-" She can't finish the statement. Stumbling out of the way of the spoon's blow, Vermillion's eerie-red eyes shoot wide to see Catt grab their coworkers and bolt. Still, she takes the opportunity to step out, in the space that's been freed. Her hand grip with Courage broken, she just looks back for a precious, wasted second to becon her forwards. She freezes up, at the echoing sound of the two bodies hitting the floor. Oh, Lord. . . "Why? Why is it out?" Panicked, pointless questioning. Catt's confusion and worry is amplified in the already stressed and defensive magical girl. "He- she- they're. . . both dead." 'We must defeat this Abnormality before it harms the innocent people of this kingdom.' A small, shaky nod is all the confirmation Chevalier Vermillion can give her allied magical girl. As the smoke starts to wash over, she shuts her mouth tight, and tries to hold her breath. Hitting them works. I'll hit it. Maybe we can help them all, here, maybe it's good we came, a good timing, maybe nobody else will get hurt. . .
Meika Kirenai	It doesn't seem to matter, though, that she isn't inhaling. Silently, she shivers. Each skate-sliding step she pushes her closer towards the eerily-meager sized abnormality, and the haze more into the recesses of her mind. 'Self loathing'. By golly, is the Hookah Caterpillar in for a feast. Memories as fresh as minutes and hours ago crash and careen over Vermillion's mind, each tiny little lie she's woven here is a morsel, each lingered moment an amuse-bouche. It's the reason that she's here at all, though, that is the overflowing cornucopia on the table. The bitter shame and ankle-weight of all things wrong and wretched she can hold about herself in her mind, the pages of names and their guilt that looms endlessly just out of reach, no matter her efforts to pay back at it. It's crushing. Standing in the fog, Vermillion's actions lag- but are not stopped. She doesn't need the caterpillar's influence to feel shamefully wrong for still breathing. The smoke draws eddies with her inhalation. The smoke swirls and follows the swing of her bat. The smoke craters, in the pipe-trembling impact of her implement and the caterpillar, trying to pair with Courage, trying to do what she says. Choking through smoke-teary eyes and coughs, Vermillion calls out to Courage, trying to reach a hand out to find her. "C-come on, we can- we can go, if we're fast. We can do it, the elevator's just. . ." Using a breach that's killed two as an escape distraction feels utterly, truly miserable. But watching this happen, and risking coming back with nothing at all to show for it, again, like it always is, feels so much worse. God, please let this be nearly over. I'm trying. I really, really am. You'll believe me, right?
Wonderlab Trio	"Do you wonder why I haven't yet sounded the First Trumpet, dearest?" The glowing wall of screens behind Manual backlights her against the rest of the room, but she doesn't have a shadow to cast across the corpse on the floor. On the screen, the Disciplinary Team is confronting Beozzi and the two Magical Girls, still at a tense standoff. "Surely, we have enough agents in the facility to suppress one Magical Girl. Perhaps the Disciplinary Captain and their team, alone, could manage it. But, now, what good is a book whose first conflict resolves the story?" Manual flickers in her coquettish grin, abruptly resetting to sitting up rather than leaning, tone neutral with a undercurrent of digital rasp. "'Hookah Caterpillar' is a particularly dangerous WAW-Class Abnormality. It feasts on the self-loathing of agents that do work with it, up to the point where it is sated and breaches. Management of Hookah Caterpillar involves careful scheduling of Repression work, which generates little energy but keeps the Abnormality stable, switching to far more efficient Insight work when casualties can be afforded. It was this Abnormality that wiped out Disciplinary Team some months ago, so please keep that danger in mind, Manager." As abruptly as it shifted first, Manual's tone returns to normal, insofar as her circuitous lilting rambles can be normal. "And on and on. Quotas are paid for in blood, dearest. Such a grim reality is familiar to us withered and scorned, but for one with such a pure heart that even monsters stir it, it would make them duty-bound to oppose us, wouldn't it?" Another one of the screens, depicting an active Containment Cell partially filled with teal smoke, flashes red, and the black-haired agent looks up at the condemning alarm in the ceiling in shock. Moments later, they're pounding at the door while the smoke corrodes through their skin and leaks ichor out of their eyes, while the Caterpillar inches up behind them.
Wonderlab Trio	In the hallway, Catt skitters back away from the breached Caterpillar, dragging Taii and Rose with them. The Caterpillar raises up its pale face with closed eyes, smoke leaking out of a hole in its forehead, and looks directly at Meika-- and through Meika, at Catt. With a swing of each of their arms, the much smaller Captain throws both of the other agents down the hall away from the fight. "Captain--?!" "Catt!!" Gripping Bitter Medicine near the neck of the haft, Catt strides away from Rose and Taii without looking back. "Won't help. No point. Weaklings will just die. And Catt's paperwork would get funny if Catt lost two teams to the same Abno right after each other." Prematurely released, the hideous Caterpillar doesn't have any ability to counterattack. Almost mindlessly oblivious to the Servant of Wrath's acid even as its flesh bubbles and smokes, all it does is inch towards Meika across the ground, crawling its way around the bodies it's already left in the hallway. When Meika goes to swing her bat, her arm locks up around a golden rod that's slipped across her elbow and back, as Bitter Medicine and its wielder appear behind her. "Isn't that funny? An early breach, right as you're breaking in, little slug? Do you think it's a co-in-ci-dence?" Catt's own eyes are wide and dialated, black veins creeping out around them from the smoke. They have EGO gear, and training, but it's clearly getting to them, too. That might be why, rather than sadistically cheerful, their hissing at Meika actually feels earnest, and that much rougher for it. "That disgusting creature could smell you the moment you came in here. Reeking of pitiful penitence. Only the desperate of the desperate would think there's anything of value down here. Only the filthiest of the filthy manage to make it worse by touching it." Catt takes advantage of Meika's attempts to wrench free by twisting Bitter Medicine with her motion, so that when she suddenly forces herself out, her momentum pushes her forwards into the butt of the spoon so that it slams into her gut, crackling with black thorns that assault her psyche even further than the fog. With Meika dazed and babbling anything that comes to mind, Catt kicks her in the back of the knee to knock her down, slamming her shoe into her shoulder to pin her on her knees. Black tears leak from their eyes spilling onto Meika's head while Catt leans over them. "You're alone, aren't you, little slug? That's why you're here. That's why you're desperate to come back. You hate yourself so much that it's unbearable to imagine that there might not be any point to it all, and you don't have anything to hold on to besides the monsters, do you? Pathetic, abandoned, rotten, worthless, failure, slug." Pushing off from Meika, Catt crushes the head of Hookah Caterpillar with the bowl of their spoon, in tandem with the Servant of Wrath's hammer. "Servant of Wrath! Catt thanks you for your assistance with returning the worm to its cell. This aid will balance the scales of your own breach, as long as you return to your cell now."
Angela	The Magical Girl of Courage doesn't seem affected by the smoke yet. She battles the Caterpillar like any other Agent--but Abnormalities aren't necessarily immune to each other. Indeed, they can resonate with one another--even ones that aren't strictly related. As Wrath is striking with her hammer, she strikes harder and fiercer and more brutally with each strike. She doesn't scream but one of her eyes burns through the blindfold. Red and glaring at her target. Each little bit of bubbling flesh, its acidic pop only encourages her. When Catt arrives to destroy the Hookah Caterpillar, she doesn't get in the way. She keeps smashing the Caterpillar, spooling lime green fluid all around her until the Caterpillar's corpse transforms into an Egg. The Magical Girl of Courage recognizes that she too has her own Egg. The sudden shift of flesh into a new form pushes the Magical Girl of Courage back, causing her to spin around up and through the air--doing about three full rotations before she is able to stop herself, touching down near Meika. She takes a long look at the magical girl who came to save her. She takes a long long look and she knows that Vermillion would not abandon her, that she intends to be a true friend. She remembers, now, what the book of law says about friends. ''Friend'' is not a book that exists in the book of law. ''This aid will balance the scales of your own breach, as long as you return to your cell now.'' Her gaze settles on Beozzi, there, on the floor. "A friend. A being more special than any other. Calling and greeting each other by name..." "I must treat everyone equally, with balance..." "...Again....Again and again I did the same..." "...As before and thwarted everything just for the sake of her..." Courage punches herself in the face, once. Then she turns her gaze back to Meika. "We are both magical girls..." She extends a hand and a familiar (to the Wonderlab Agnets) hair accessories, already vermillion attach themselves to her hair. A spike of enkephalin is produced in an instant as cloth(?), veiny-red cloth erupts out of the hair accessories, rapidly wrapping itself around Meika to form a cloak. Is she trying to protect Meika? Or simply repeat an old story? Or to visit the Yellow King who yet remains? "Thank you... It is time to rebalance the scales..." The force of the Abnormality's will, the Enkpehalin spiking around Meika seeks to drown out her thoughts, replace her thoughts so that they become one with the story of the Servant of Wrath, rewrite her history so that it truly becomes one with the Servant. .... ... .. But even this can't take the child's memories away. She won't forget, not today. She is not replaced. The child is simply... Distorted.
Meika Kirenai	There's no time to be put at ease, that Taii and Rose are thrown to safety- just guilty relief from them being quiet -as the smoke fizzles and burns at Vermillion's armor, as if somehow it could corrode. Her breathing speeds up- bad, given the intoxicant in the air, at the Catt's callous comment on what this caterpillar already cost them. Frantic words still carry the abnormality's self-loathing taint to them. "Y-you won't lose more, we'll- we'll stop it. If anyone, it's best it's me... Huh?" The instant warning of Catt's motion in her periphery only gives Chevalier Vermillion time to turn her gaze towards them, piercing red glare a mix of surprise and bitter anger. At contact, she can't fully stifle a tiny fragment of her emanating sound magic from thundering its way down Bitter Medicine, crackling and trembling like an oncoming train in miniature. "H-hey, get back, I don't want to hurt- I'm- I'm trying to help!" 'Do you think it's a co-in-ci-dence?' Vermillion tries to tug their arm free, skates shrieking with nails-on-chalkboard scrapes across the floor, leaving curled little sliced shavings of concrete wisping with the same red glow as her magic in each scrambling motion's wake. "I- I don't know! Is it? T-that's... I only stepped near its door, I didn't go in, I didn't do anything, it's not..." Her breath hitches, and breaks into a cough, sucking in more of that burning teal smoke- greyer, smudging with flared-up f-f-flickering campfire sparks. Her eyes are teary, from irritation and far, far too much else. "S-shut up, you don't know me, that's not fair, not for you to say..." The whimpering noise that comes out of her mouth gives away her own relenting to the Captain's words. "I- I didn't mean to-" Struck in the gut, the blow echoes sharper than it should against the metal of the magical girl's cuirasse. Lancing ephemeral thorns encircle her as she falls to her knees, concrete trembling and cracking at the resonance transfer from her gauntlets and knees impacting it. Her eyes blur from tears, and her mind blurs at the distinction of thinking and talking- it's so easy for things to slip out wrong, isn't it? Between hacking coughs, between the silenced shout at getting her knee kicked at, her torso knocked flatter against the ground, the bat clattering out of her hands, her voice wavers, slipping for a second into a hint of triplicated distortion. "I-I-I know, o-okay? T-twenty pages, that's how many there are, I can count it on my fingers and toes, a-and there's only a few months left, anyways. It's- it's lonely. But everyone says dying is lonely, so t-that's okay, maybe, I'm doing that part right, a-and if I have so little chance t-to make up for the rest, then that's just..." Teary, gasping breaths and exclamations of pain are all that interrupt the stream of her pathetic babbling. "Rotten and worthless, yeah. Uh-huh. That's- I w-want to hold onto what I can. If that's j-just monsters, that's okay. That fits. It c-can't make me worse than I am, and- and I can't make them filthier. Maybe I can make them better by comparison. Isn't- isn't that the best I could even hope for?" Her babbling cuts out into straight-up bawling. Ugly, pathetic, and trying to curl up on the ground. She flinches, when Courage and Catt crush the caterpillar abnormality's head. She curls up- nearly into fetal position, f-f-flickering and trembling as her hands squeeze tight against her upper arms, metal-clad fingers tight enough to bruise skin beneath the pristine white fabric up past her elbows. How come she gets thanks? How come you didn't let me help? How come she's the one you'll call a monster?
Meika Kirenai	She doesn't move from the spot, surrounded by the hazy remnants of the smoke, when the Magical Girl of Courage approaches her. Each tiny footstep- and the hesitation, the moment she stops. '...As before and thwarted everything just for the sake of her...' "W-what..?" Vermillion's voice crackles, strained. her eyes open wide, then squeeze shut tight, as the other magical girl punches herself in the face. "N-no, h-hey, Courage, don't- w-what's wrong, what's going on? Nothing was thwarted. we can still..." When Courage reaches down, Vermillion tries to take her hand, before flinching back. She turns her head away from the other girl, a slight tremble, waiting for something expected- when the ornament gets tucked near her ear, in her stark-white hair. It's almost comforting, for the magical girl laying on the floor to be wrapped up in that horrid, wretched cloak, the vestements of a role she never asked for and has no choice now but to play. Trembling fingers coil the fabric edges around themselves, and hug close, skin tingles and f-f-flickers. Like touching ripples and hearing the skipped stone that caused them, the Hermit of the Vermillion Forest blinks her eyes back open, and tries once more to stand on trembling legs. You were right not to trust me, weren't you, Courage? I'm sorry that the scales won't ever be balanced. There's no end but ruin, for us. Make way. Let's find it together, friend. . . . . . . . . . Beozzi's blood stains the baseball bat that click-clack-clicks across the floor, a makeshift cane. Drops trace the trail back to the third lifeless body slumped in the corridor, the star bashed in by the understudy, the unwanted, unsought role stolen regardless. Hand in trembling hand, the Hermit and the Servant of Wrath waltz their way from the opening act, to the next page of this endless story.