Amelia meets Iris

Iris walked through the sprawl of the Overcity, unblinking silver-white eyes surveying the environment from beneath her beaked hood. She was justifiable cautious of this place-between-places, especially since you never knew what you'd find, seeing as how it was ever-changing. Or most places were, anyway.

Speaking of which...She came to a stop and gave another look around the street she'd just turned onto. This wasn't quite right, no... Hm. It seemed as though some exploring was in order to find the correct path through this recently-changed section of the Overcity.

Iris sprang up and caught the ledge of a nearby building's window, then started to quickly haul herself up towards the roof, making handholds with her fingers when necessary.

Upon pulling herself onto the edge of the roof, she crouched and slowly turned her head, taking in the block immediately around herself. With luck, she'd fine the portal fairly quickly. If...she wasn't, then she always had her warhammer and hammerspace arsenal to deal with anything she came across.

Amelia wishes her costume had pockets so she could stuff her hands in them. Instead, her thin arms are at her sides as she grumpily picks her way down the Overcity street. There's a scowl on her angular features- that overcity hunt'd gotten nowhere fast. Eventually she and Alexa had just called it off and made their way back to the Wand and Circlet when it'd become obvious that, no, there wasn't going to be a monster to stop anywhere in the area.

Part of her'd wanted to keep going anyway- to keep going further, find something that needed to be stopped and stop it...but she didn't want a repeat of the first Overcity hunt. The time she'd nearly gotten Alexa- and her- killed.

Amelia knew Alexa was back at the Wand and Circlet. She'd told her she was just going for a quick walk- clearing her head- and that she was fine. Part of that was actually true. Pent-up irritation, old and new worries, and a generally black mood made themselves known in her gait and expression. Right now, she'd welcome a monster attack- at least then this trip wouldn't have been a waste of time. At least then she could have done something.

Iris was about to leap across the street to another building in order to find another vantage points, but paused when she spotted someone walk across the street, heading perpendicular to it about a hundred feet further down the road from where she was. The person was either moving slowly, or the street was rather wide. Or both.
[22:46] <DrEvilKitteh> Iris tilted her head as she considered her options, then figured 'What the hell'. She jogged to the edge of the building and hopped off, descending to the sidewalk below with her waist cloak-dress streaming out behind her. She landed and rolled, then popped up and made her way in the direction the other person had gone. They'd passed behind the building on the other side of the street around a corner by then, however, so she ran after them and slowed as she turned the corner. Her footsteps were soft but audible, as she didn't want the mystery person to think she was attempting to sneak up on them. Well, unless they were secretly bad or something, but again, worst case scenario.

Amelia's having second thoughts about going for a walk. She's not worried- it's just too quiet. Makes it TOO easy to think. Worry. Second guess herself and her screw-ups. She wanted to do things right, do something that mattered...but what's she even /doing/? Alexa trusts her- mostly- but if she can't even keep her safe from her own mistakes, should she?

Is this what she's supposed to do? Just go looking for problems to solve, trying to do something good for a change? This time was just a flop, but what if she messes up again? Badly enough that she can't keep Alexa from getting hurt? She'd decided she'd call herself a paladin..but right now, she's not even sure what that should mean.

She's not paying attention to much of anything. Iris goes unnoticed.

Amelia shakes her head, irritably, and comes to a stop. She's heading back, she decided. This was pointless.  She turns around, and starts.

"Huh?" Amelia blurts. Tall's the first thought to come to mind when she sees the other, followed by...pretty. In an unearthly, eerie sort of way. Yeah, probably a magical girl. She blinks up at the other...magical girl? "Who..who are you?" Her voice's shrill.

A thought strikes her. "Wait, were you following me?" She demands, putting her hands on her hips and looking the strange girl in the eyes. A bit harder than it sounds and she has to tilt her head back to do it.
[23:13] <Tangent>   For all she usually considers being meguca a chance to matter, she does miss being able to easily reach the top shelf.  She shakes her head. Never mind that. Her hand's resting on her sword hilt as she stares at the stranger.

“I am Iris,” the ice girl replied, plenty of practice allowing the words to come easily and naturally to her. The...same didn't go for the rest of her speaking, sadly. “I...was looking...for...portal back...to a world. But...I...was lost.” Her eyes, still unblinking, flicked around, glancing at the immediate environment. “Was...won-der-ring...if...you knew...where...a portal is. So...I saw you...then...followed from there.” She gestured back at the corner she'd rounded just moments earlier.

 "...Oh." Some of the fire seems to ebb from Amelia's pose. She looks a bit sheepish as she stands there, taking her hand off her sword a moment later. Iris's speech patterns come as a surprise- somehow she'd expected her to be a lot more...eloquent. "Um...I..." Amelia starts to say. "I don't know where most of the portals are..." She admits, reluctantly.

"If you're lost...I can show you where the Wand and Circlet is. I just came from there." She offers. "You've been there before, right? Someone there might know where your portal is."

“I...just came...from there, too,” Iris replied. The slight movement of her eyebrows and the way her shoulders subtly shifted gave Amelia the impression that she seemed disappointed. Still, she was relieved that the other girl had taken her hand off the hilt of her sword and appeared less confrontational. “It...should be, uhm...near, but...Over-city...moves. Un-predic-table. Also annoying.” She sighed softly through her nose and turned to cast her gaze around, again. “...And...I not think...man-y...know...where...Maya's portal is. She...on-ly take...few...people there.”

Amelia chews her lip. There's only one answer she should...can...give to that. "...Need help looking for it?"

This girl needs help. What kind of magical girl would she be not to give it?

Iris' eyes slid back down to regard Amelia. "...Yes. Are...you...go-ing to help?" she asked, seeming a bit hopeful.

"Well...Yeah?" Amelia nods. She seems to perk up a bit at the prospect of helping. "I mean, I'll try, not sure how much I can but yeah, of course. I'm Amelia, by the way. Flaming Ace Paladin Amelia." A smile sneaks onto her face, and she puffs herself up a bit- though it's probably a bit hard to tell.

"...Um. So what's this portal look like?" She adds a moment later, a bit sheepishly.

“E-mi-li-a.” Iris slowly nodded, then made a confused noise. “...Er. That...uhm. Name...of...some-one else, I think...?”

"Huh? Um. " Amelia blinks up at Iris. "There's someone else called Amelia? Well, it's a common name...It's not like I picked it myself..." She adds defensively and shakes her head.

“Hm.” She thought back to how Amelia had pronounced her name, and Emilia's pronunciation of hers. They were...similar, but not /quite/ the same. “...A-me-li-a,” she said after a bit. Then she pursed her lips slightly. "...I am...just...Iris. Which...I picked...for myself.” The ice girl "Hm"-d and tilted her head, wondering if just having the name 'Iris' wasn't good enough, and if she had to maybe add on a more flowery title like Amelia. Or, god forbid, /Akira/. But...she didn't really want to do that, so she figured she wouldn't. At least not anytime in the near future.

"Oh. Neat." Amelia blinks, questions coming to mind. "So...um, where're you from?" She asks, stepping closer to the taller girl.

Iris held up a hand, then looked around for a moment. “Amelia...wanted to know...what...portal looked like, first. Yes?” She then beckoned and led Amelia to the mouth of a nearby alley. "It...should be...at the end...of one of these," she said, gesturing to indicate the alley. "Um. It, uh..." She contemplated the question of how it looked for a second, then walked to the end of the alley. A small hilt appeared in her hand, and she pressed an activation button on the side. An energy blade flared to life, looking almost like an honest-to-goodness lightsaber. She stuck the tip in the wall, then slowly moved it around until it made an oval on the side of the wall about seven, eight feet wide, and ten or eleven feet tall.

The blade flickered as Iris deactivated it, then stored the item back in her hammerspace. “About...this...big,” she said, gesturing to the oval, the lines of which were red-hot and rapidly cooling. “And...um. Maybe...like...this color?” She walked back over to Amelia and produced a rather large opal that seemed to shine bright and radiant. “...Hm. Not...quite, but...this...close.” She looked the opal over again, then watched it vanish back into her hammerspace as she lowered her arm.

Amelia makes a surprised noise at the lightsaber- she has to resist the urge to fangirl for a moment- but watches Iris's...demonstration. "I...Right, got it."She nods. Where'd that gem gone? "Okay, sounds easy enough." She comments. "Let's go?"

Iris nodded. "Yes. Let's...go." She looked around, then crouched and sprang up high. Claws of ice materialized on her hands, allowing her to stab into the wall of the nearest building and quickly ascend it. "I can look...from...up here," she called down.

Amelia looks flatfooted for a moment. She's never quite managed roofhopping, not like Alexa... "Got it!" She calls. "I...I'll check the ground!"

Iris nodded, then started scanning the nearby environment once again. She trotted along the edge of the roof, then once she was done there, sprang over to the next one. She made sure to keep Amelia in sight during her journey across the roofs, however.

Amelia jogs down the street, glancing up every so often, blue eyes peeking out from under her black hair that's drawn into a long ponytail. She's casually holding her sword and twirling it in her grip as she walks along, checking every side alley. "So...What're you here in the Overcity for, anyway?" She tries to ask, calling up to the taller girl.

Iris paused for a moment as she crouched on the edge of a rooftop. Comparisons could be made between her and Batman at that time, but it'd be kinda stupid to actually do so. "...Safety," she finally came up with as an answer. "And...now? I...stay...because of...friends." She did a quick scan of the area she could see. "...What...about...A-me-lia?" she asked after a moment.

Amelia looks up. Safety? The Overcity? Safe? "Oh. Well...I guess...I guess I'm here because..." She chews her lip. "Because this is where the monsters are. It's somewhere new, and strange, and exciting, and it's where I...we..should be, if we want to make things better. And I guess it's where all the girls end up going, sooner or later..." She shrugs.

"...Make...things better," Iris mused. "I...mm. I only...try...to survive...before I came here. Not...think...there is anything...to make better...on my world." She paused for a moment, then gave a small, awkward shrug. "...But...maybe...not. Maybe...if...I can find...the Last City, then...I could...do something."

"...Your world?" Amelia looks up, her tone curious. "What's it like?" She's still not used to meeting people from other...Earths to the point where it still surprises her.

Iris jumped to another building and found a new perch before answering. "From how...I...describe it, others...say...it is called...'post-apocalyptic'. Buildings, cities...destroyed. Few...people. Many...Bad things...wander around."

Amelia winces. "Oh. Uh, sorry to hear that..." Smooth, Amelia. "And...and the Puuchu made you the offer, right? Yeah...I'd have taken it too..."

She's probably the only person she knows who actually signed up for it. She doesn't remember specifics, but she knows she'd had a life, and she must have INTENTIONALLY given it up by saying yes, even if she can't remember much about it.

Another awkward shrug. "I do...not know. I...awoke...about, uhm...three, or four, years...ago. Not...remember...anything, ex-cept...how...to survive. Amne-sia." Iris tilted her head slightly. "...I...have heard...about...'Puchuu'. They...might be...similar...to...my 'Guar-dian Spi-rit'. Or...so...Maya calls it."

"I...Sorry." Amelia blurts. "Yeah...Alexa told me that's what they're called...Mine just sort of...left after..." she babbles. She ducks into another alley. "Empty." She calls up.

"Mine...is...ap-pa-rently...on...my back," Iris said. At the call of 'Empty', she nodded and relocated.

Amelia would likely hear it first, though Iris would catch it a few seconds later. Heavy footsteps, many of them. Rapid clicking, whirring, and grinding, though it was muffled by distance and what the gears were inside of.

"Hey, wait!" Amelia calls. "I think I hear...something..." She grips her sword tighter. "Who's there!" She yells, raising her sword slightly. Not a fan of ambush tactics then...

Iris trotted to the edge of her building and looked down at Amelia, then listened to the sound. Whatever it was--or whatever /they/ were--nothing seemed to change about the footsteps. They remained steady, and were slowly drawing closer. The sound of multiple somethings being wheeled along now added to the combined noise, like wheelbarrows or trolleys being pushed down the street.

Iris hopped off the building and landed next to Amelia, then held a finger up to her own mouth in a 'Shush' gesture. She pointed to a fire escape in the nearest alley, leading up to the roof of a building. "...Get...a better look," she explained her plan in a whisper.

Amelia considers this...then nods. "...Got it." she whispers back, darting over to the fire escape. Despite her best efforts, she's not entirely silent as she clambers her way up- even if she's less noisy than before.

Iris led the way up the fire escape, then paused and sighed slightly. She motioned for Amelia to stay still, then gently and carefully picked the Fire Paladin up so as to not overly startle the smaller girl. "Stay...quiet." She bent her knees, then sprang up high and landed on the roof in a crouch.

"E-eh? What..." Amelia blurts, then falls silent as she clues in. Her pale skin's suddenly flushed from embarassment at being carried like...a parcel, but she doesn't wriggle...much. The wind blows around them and her stomach seems to plummet like a rock as Iris leaps.

"Two...more...jumps," Iris informed Amelia in a whisper. She repositioned the smaller girl so that she was holding her in a bridal or princess carry, then sprinted towards the street below the building and jumped. It looked like it would be a dicey landing...until a ramp made out of ice formed, neatly curving up and allowing Iris to land on it and slide down it, then up a little arch on the back in order to bleed off some momentum. She easily landed on the roof, then looked down at Amelia. "Are...you okay?" she inquired.

"I...F-fine." Amelia blurts, looking up at the other girl. Iris's very close. "Um...Yeah. I'm fine...Just...didn't expect you to...um, do that." She hastily changes the subject. "You...Um, you can...can let go now, right?" She suggests.

"One more," Iris reminded Amelia. She broke into a sprint again, then lept up high so she could reach the top of the next building, higher than the one they were currently on. The ice girl wobbled slightly after landing on the edge, then regained her balance and took a step forward. That done, the finally obliged Amelia by setting her down. "Now...we can..watch." She hunkered down and slunk to the opposite side of the roof. About ten feet away, she went down on her stomach and stealthily crawled the rest of the way, then peered over the edge.

Their current building was on the corner of an intersection, with the street they'd just jumped across running perpendicular to the street the “convoy” was moving down. Iris was staring to her left, to whatever it was making the noise. It or they hadn't reached the intersection yet, but it was definitely close.

There's a clunk from behind Iris. For whatever reason, Amelia's just stomped on her own foot. Rather hard, actually. And she seems very interested in a blank patch of rooftop from the way she's staring at it. She seems to get her head together again from whatever it was and looks back to Iris. "Um. Yeah...Sorry." She whispers. "...See anything?"

Iris turned at the sound and looked completely and utterly bemused. She shook her consfusion away and beckoned to Amelia, bidding the girl to join Iris in her spying. "Many...of them," she whispered over her shoulder at Amelia.

"Monsters?" Amelia sneaks up to the roof's edge and kneels next to the taller girl, her brief distraction burned away by a sudden air of anticipation.

It was indeed a convoy. About...thirty people (give or take) of various ethnicity, age, and gender, marched down the street, and several pushed a few large carts along. A few things were readily apparent: 1) They all moved in a twitchy, jerky, mechanical way; 2) They were all pale and in some cases sickly-looking; 3) That whirring, clicking, and grinding, so similar to larger clockwork contraptions, seemed to come from the people whenever they moved.

Oh, and the carts had ore, tools, cement, caulk, and other useful materials in them. And corpses, don't forget the corpses. At least fifteen bodies between the carts, lying atop the other things like they'd just been tossed in there with little regard. They were recently-killed too by the looks of it. And by blunt force, like, say, if someone happened to punch them really hard in the skull or chest.

Amelia swallows. "What...What's wrong with them?" She hisses, torn between revulsion and a need to do...something. She looks nauseous...especially when she gets a better look at the...bodies. Dead people. Not the first she's seen since...becoming meguca, but still... "Whatever they..they're doing, it cant be good..." She mutters, fingers white-knuckled around her sword.

A large rifle with a futuristic--almost alien--design appeared in Iris' hands, which she aimed down at one of the "people" in the back. She didn't say anything to Amelia, but she didn't really need to. She took in a deep breath, exhaled...and squeezed the trigger. A bolt of harsh blue shot out from the rifle's barrel with a buzz-whump discharge. It hit one of the "people" in the back of the convoy, a tanned woman with straggly straw-colored hair, and tore through her right shoulder. The bolt continued on unimpeded and sunk into the asphalt of the street, making a small crater.

The woman staggered and almost fell, and the others came to what looked like a confused stop. She righted herself after a minute, and if Amelia looked closely (Iris had a magnification scope atop her rifle, so she was already good in that respect), she could see melted gears inside the woman's torso. There were still several whirring and spinning, but...she didn't seem to be wholly made of clockwork. It was as if someone had taken someone's body and hollowed out their corpse, then shoved a bunch of clockwork mechanisms in there and somehow used it to make a weird...zombie of some kind.

As for the others, as soon as they realized they were under attack, several pulled out a few different kinds of compact guns, while fewer took out melee weapons. SMG's, pistols, revolvers, knives, machetes, hammers, and one even had a four-by-four. Dead, glassy eyes scanned the environment, and within a few seconds, one had spotted them. It pointed up and opened its mouth, then let out a grinding metallic shriek from its gullet.

...And then its head was promptly blown off by another blue bolts, thanks to Iris. “Kill them all,” the ice girl said in a calm, level voice that nonetheless was cold and steely.

"What the hell-" Amelia starts to protest, far too late to do anything...then abruptly trails off. "Oh god. They're..." She swallows. They're not people. Not anymore. "R-right. Yeah. On it!" Time to do her job. What she's here for. They're monsters. She can kill monsters.

And without further ado- or so much as a battlecry, she vaults over the rooftop and plummets onto the ground below with a yell. She's drawn her sword as she drops, the blade flaring to intense, clean blue-white light.

Her landing's heralded by a blast of flame- perhaps less damaging than it might have been, but still searing anything directly below her as she lands heavily, sword in hand. "Come on then!" She yells at the zombies, hoping that Iris has her back. She almost misses Alexa's constant presence...but it's better if her younger friend doesn't see something as horrible as this. "Who wants to go first?" She taunts.

Amelia's landing burned the flesh off at least three of the clockwork zombies immediately nearby, and the heat didn't seem to be doing anything for their gears, which would make them easy pickings.

“Stay still!” Iris called from above.

Then, Amelia heard something big moving through the air above her head, and a shadow fell over her for a split-second. An expensive sports car slammed into a concentration of the creatures bumper-first several meters in front of her, its frame buckling from the multiple-story impact against the pavement. It rolled once, clipped a zombie, and pinned another one beneath it. The result of the car's sudden impact was a nice, open path into the midst of the creatures' ranks for Amelia.

Then several spears of ice started raining down, aimed mainly at the gun-wielding zombies. Covering fire, it seemed.

Amelia seems about to dash forward anyway for a moment...then skids to a stop. Just before the car comes crashing down. She yelps in surrpise...but takes full advantage of it. Her blood pounding in her ears, she dashes forwards- onto, over the junked car's hood and roof, and leaps into the midst in a gust of flame! If Iris is looking at the intense, blue-white swirls of fire that follow the other girl's slashes and lunges, there's something almost feathery about the gusts of fire that sweep through the horde- though there's nothing light about the inferno that sears away the dead flesh.

"They just don't quit!" Amelia complains. She doesn't want to think about just what it means that there are so many of these things...or where they came from. "Just die, damnit!"

She feels clammy flesh wrap around her neck and spins with a noise between a yell and a scream. The zombie's not scorched so much as vaporized by her vindictive, close-quarters burst of heat and flame. Her flame bursts are perhaps a bit less bright now- she's going through her magical energy without a thought to conversation or moderation...even if it's putting a dent in their numbers.

Seeing that while ranged was fine against them, Amelia was swiftly getting overwhelmed by herself. Iris had good aim, but she could only do so much when Amelia was practically getting buried in the clockwork monstrosities. She stood, summoned a set of ice armor that sheathed most of her body, then vaulted off the top of the roof.

A bright warhammer, silver and shining in what light there was, appeared in her hand. She brought it down on one of the creatures coming up on Amelia as she landed. Hard. It crumpled and spasmed beneath the blow, still partially active but irreparably damaged. Iris crouched down and set her free hand on the street, then sent a surge of magic through it and onto the ground. The temperature dropped--well, as much as it could with Amelia nearby--and froze the lower legs of several of the nearby clockwork zombies, holding them in place.

She readied her warhammer, then swung it in a backhand at a zombie that was marching at her. The hook on the back crunched into its skull, and the impact staggered it. “Amelia, here!” Iris tugged, tearing the hook out of the creature's head and sending it towards Amelia for her to impale, bisect, incinerate, or whatever she wanted to do with it.

Amelia slams her sword into the thing- her weapon slides through its torso like a hot knife through butter and it falls into piece. "I can handle it!" She shouts back, then dashes for the gun-wielding crowd, ignoring the rain of bullets. She feels an impact- graze, then another, but ignores the pain and lunges. She's starting to get used to getting hurt- especially since it doesn't stick.

She swings her sword in her grip as she reaches the gunline...then brings it crashing down. Not at the zombies...but the ground itself! A pillar of flame shoots up, searing everything around her...including Amelia herself.

The hungry flames spread from zombie to zombie, eating away at anything remotely flammable around the wannabe paladin.

Iris, meanwhile, had gone in the opposite direction. She moved with uncanny speed and a graceful sort of lethality, moving from enemy to enemy and focusing purely on offense. Her ice armor and natural Outfit shielding meant that she was more or less completely protected from the zombies' strikes, as one found out after it broke its knuckles against her face and the transparent ice covering it. She retaliated with a punch of her own, crumpling its chest cavity and sending the creature flying away.

After dodging another one's swing, Iris swung her warhammer in a vicious arc that tore its leg off at the knee and sent the zombie to its back. She'd already brought the weapon back up and started swinging it down before it had even hit the ground, and she crushed the spot where its heart would be. After that, she swung her hand around, freezing the fronts of the zombies immediately around her. Following that, small boulders covered in ice appeared from before her hand and smashed into them, as well as a short hail of gold bars and diamonds that did a surprisingly good job at battering the monsters.

The numbers of the clockwork zombies were swiftly dwindling, and it wouldn't take them long now to mop up the rest.

Amelia's sword flashes, and another limb goes flying. This feels vaguely wrong- they look far too much like people, even if they're clearly not. They don't bleed. They don't scream. They just keep attacking her in that horrible, jerky way with that clicking.

Amelia grits her teeth and keeps chopping.

Iris heard the satisfying crunch of gears and old, brittle bone benath her warhammer's head, time and time again. Occasionally, blasts of cold would partially freeze a couple of the clockwork zombies, making them easy pickings. She brought her weapon down on one of the creature's heads, then quickly glanced about. Only...about eight--seven, now--left. With a grinding sound of ice on pavement, she lept into the air and descended onto one of the monsters. It crumpled beneath her weight, and she was already swinging to catch the next twitching and clicking zombie right next to her. Five left.

Amelia's a step behind her, blade arcing out to catch a woman in what had once been a nice business suit across the neck. She topples, headless. "Urgh..." she chokes out, swallowing the bile that's suddenly in her throat. She's REALLY glad Alexa wasn't here for this. This is just wrong. Whatever's happened to these people...she resolves to make sure it never happens again right then and there.

A quick glance to Iris as she keeps her sword raised. "You...You okay?" She asks quickly, not looking away from the handful of zombies for more than a moment.

"Yes." Iris dashed at the nearest, a young boy with some kind of video game shirt on, and brought her warhammer in an upswing. Its hook caught the zombie beneath the chin and tore its head apart. The weapon spun, then smashed into the thigh of another zombie, tearing its leg off. The zombie pitched into the air, then was hurled away by a kick to the sternum, courtesy of Iris and her ice-shod boot.

"Shit, shit, shit..." Amelia dashes in with a scream, hacking wildly. She doesn't get a good look at the last few- just an impression of blank, lifeless eyes and grasping hands- that're seared away to charred bones and ash a moment later.

She stands there for a moment, feeling a stinging on her arms and legs- as well as an inner ache from magic overuse. That was the last of thm. Her breathing's fast and shallow. She looks around to Iris, slightly wild-eyed.
[23:15] <Tangent> There's a odor of scorched metal- and faintly of meat in the air. Her mouth opens and closes once, twice. Then she drops to her knees and throws up on the pavement.

Iris readied her warhammer again and looked around, scanning the area. But...nothing else moved, aside from herself, Amelia, and some fire flickering around in some areas. She lowered her weapon and dismissed it in a brief swirl of glittering silver. The ice armor started to melt and dissipate off of her body.

"...I...think...they are...all dead." Her voice was calm and level, and if she was disturbed by the scene of carnage, she showed none of it in her expression. Well, her expression became one of worry and bewilderment when she saw Amelia start throwing up. "A-Amelia? W-What...is wrong?" She stepped over to the other girl and hovered near her, unsure of what to do.

"N-nothing." Amelia gasps. "It...It's nothing." She sounds a lot more shaken than her words let on. She wipes her mouth with a hand. She still looks faintly sick. "That...that's..all of..."She looks at the cart, and her stomach churns again. She shakes her head, a violent jerk of a gesture. She notices Iris and tries to smile at her, but doesn't quite manage it. "It's just...How are you so calm? Those...those used to be..." She winces. "People."

She forces herself to look at the bodies. The ones on the cart. "What happened to them?"

Iris pulled Amelia into a tight hug, heedless of any vomit or ash or whatever getting on her person. She wasn't fooled by Amelia's attempt at shaking things off. "...I...am used to...this," she said after a moment in her soft voice. "Fighting. Killing. Death. It...is...not new. But...it...is never...mm...plea-sant." A hand moved up to gently stroke Amelia's hair, trying to calm and soothe her in the same manner that she could calm Maya down. She wasn't sure if it'd work, but it was worth a shot. As for the last question... "I...am not sure. But...there are...things...like that...on...my world."

"H-huh?" Amelia goes very still...but doesn't move away. Iris being there...It's comforting. She lets herself shake. Slowly her breathing slows down- she's still paler than usual, her small frame still trembling slightly...but eventually she goes still, pressed to Iris. "...A-and you want to go back to it?" she asks quietly. There's a strange note in her voice- not quite surprise, not quite admiration or even...shame, but something between that.

Iris gave a small, awkward shrug. She sat on the pavement and gently pulled Amelia onto her lap so she could continue holding the small fire girl in a tight embrace. "...Maybe. I...feel...I...have to. Not...sure...why. May-be, if...the...last city...is not real, then...I...would leave." She continued stroking Amelia's hair, and Iris started humming a gentle, soft tune. Surprisingly, her voice then was clear, and almost beautiful, even.

"You do, huh? That...that's brave..." Braver than she is. She just ran away from her problems. This girl...she's still trying to make things better. She falls silent as Iris hums, quietly listening. Her heartbeat- hummingbird fast slows, and her breathing returns to normal. The small girl sits there, looking up at Iris. She's warm.

Iris' eyes are closed as she hums, just holding Amelia in her arms as she starts to gently rock back and forth. The ice girl feels...not cold, not chilly like winter air, but...cool. Refreshingly, revitalizingly so. Like if it were a blisteringly hot summer day, and a cool breeze blew in that calmed and soothed... That was a good analogy, almost.

Finally, Amelia gets herself back under control. Iris's presence...It's like a breath of fresh air after being stifled. It's been weeks at least now. She's had to fight. To keep going- to get hurt and to kill. To worry about Alexa. That /void/ where her memories should be- and the half-formed, sneaking worries about the life she'd chosen to throw away. She hadn't even realized just how much all those things had been getting to her...Her breathing slows to normal.

"...Sorry." She says quietly, eyes half closed. She blinks, once, twice, again and again. Must be the ash in the air.

Eyes lidded, she lowers her head. "I'm...I'm better now. Thanks..."

Iris ceased her slight, gentle rocking, and her humming died out. She opened her eyes and looked down at Amelia. "...You...are...welcome." She gave the fire girl a small smile, a genuine one filled with sincerity and...kindness. It was even warm, ironically enough. Iris gathered her feet below herself and held onto Amelia, then stood so she could set her down on her feet. Silver-white eyes surveyed the scene. "I...will...clean up. To...examine things...la-ter."

"I...Yeah." Amelia swallows, looking up at Iris. Some of the color's back in her cheeks as she returns the smile- a bit shakily, and with none of her usual bluster but she does it. She feels herself tugged to her feet- she should protest, feel annoyed at being treated like a kid...or parcel...but she can't. "Do you...um...need a hand?" Her voice's steady again. A twist of embarassment- and something else- in her stomach after the scene...But she seems resolved to help.

"I...do not...think so," Iris replied. "Amelia...can...rest, for now." She stepped over to the nearest intact clockwork zombie corpse and leaned down to touch it. After a second, it vanished with a slight flicker in the air as she stored it in her hammerspace. She'd proceed to do that to the rest of the bodies, the carts, the supplies, the weapons...anything and everything she could. But that would take a while, so there was plenty of time for conversation if Amelia so wished.

"I...I want to..." Amelia starts, then pauses as she sees Iris make the body vanish. "Oh. That...that's your magic, right? Making things vanish...and appear?" She adds, guessing.

"Have...heard it...called...ha-mmer-space," Iris explained, popping the two-by-four into her limitless interdimensional storage space. "I...can...store things, then...take them...out, later. Useful. Very...useful."

"...Neat." Amelia looks at the cart, wheels turning in her head. "...Do you think they...they came from your world?" She asks. She overcomes her distaste. She's uneasy at seeing bodies treated like that, but Iris's going to give them a proper burial, right?

What's bothering her is the cart. The zombies seemed...mindless. Like clockwork toys. But that cart...that seemed planned. Mediated. And the BODIES on the cart...

Her mind's painting a picture, and it's not pretty.

"No." Iris paused and tilted her head, then ammended her previous statement. "...I...do not...think so. I...see...similar, but...not...the same as these."

"...What...what are they? Because I think...they were...going somewhere with...with the bodies." She swallows. "If something's...making them...they have to be stopped." She says firmly.

Iris stepped over to one of the carts and hopped inside. She knelt and inspected the human bodies within. "...Maybe...to make...more?" she hypothesized, gesturing vaguely to the clockwork zombie corpses. "Or...for...something else."

Either as Amelia was looking at the clockwork creatures, or perhaps just an idle glance out of the corner of her eye, she'd notice something glowing; she was at /just/ the right angle to see it, too. Pulsing, sporadically. It was in the torso of one of the more intact zombies, a slightly-sputtering light of some kind.

"Iris!" Amelia calls urgently. "This one's glowing!" She stalks over to it, sword in hand.

Iris hammerspaced a couple of the regular bodies away, then hopped out of the cart and hurried over. The warhammer appeared in her grasp as well, and she circled around the clockwork creature's corpse. But...it didn't seem active. There was just a light, dimly shining out from a small gap in its sternum.

Amelia hovers nearby. For a moment she seems about to...pry at the body. But she doesn't. Staring at it, she can't get one thought out of her head- this was a person. Something evil did this to her. It was one of the smaller zombies. A dirty teenager wearing rags...with most of her head missing. Nauseatingly, its jaw is intact and agape, showing strangely white teeth.

Amelia swallows, but doesn't retch again.

As opposed to Amelia, Iris had no qualms with such. She knelt and reached out to tear the rags away, then poke her fingers into the gap and slowly, steadily pry it apart further. After a moment, she stuck the fingers of one hand deeper inside the wider gap, reaching for the light and what it was attached to.

Amelia watches- torn between nausea and feeling guilty for not even managing to be useful for this because of her squeamishness. She watches and tells herself she's standing guard over Iris.

Smoothly, with a steady hand and practiced grace, Iris pulled her hand out. held between her middle three fingers was a...curious mechanism, about an inch and a half long. It had several gears attached around a dodecahedron-shaped core. The latter of which is what was emitting the light. Its entire surface pulsed, changing colors as it flickered and sputtered. From what both of them could sense, it was definitely magical of some kind. The best thing it could be likened to was probably a... "Heart," Iris surmised. "Or...core."

Amelia looks at it with fascinated distaste. "...Should we destroy it?" she suggests. "Or can you...do something with it? Find where it came from or something?"

"...I...am not...sure." Iris examined it with a curious eye. "I...do not...really...track. My...magic...is not, mm...suited...for it. Maybe...someone else...can? At...pub?"

"...Good idea." Amelia nods. "We can ask around." She chews her lip. Alexa's probably wondering where she is.

A phone popped into existence in Iris' other hand. "Do...you have...a num-ber?" she asked, looking up at Amelia. Well, 'up'. She didn't have to tilt her head very far back, even while crouching.

"Um..." She blushes, looking sheepish then shakes her head. "I...just kind of head there with Alexa, usually..." She feels stupid- it's an obvious thing to do in hindsight in case something like this happens.

"Oh." Iris blinked. The phone vanished, and she semed stumped. "...You...take this." A small box appeared in her hand, in place of the cellphone. It had an open lid, which allowed her to put the core inside. She shut it and pressed a button, causing a brief hum and two brief purple flashes as confirmation. "This...open." She pointed at one of two buttons. "This...lock." She pointed at the second, which she'd just pressed. Iris held the box out to Amelia, offering it to her.

Amelia blinks. She's trusting her with this...Then she reaches out and takes it, nodding- her face almost comically serious. "Got it. I'll find someone to tell us more." She promises.

"I...will look...for a-no-ther." She thought again, then perked up. "...You...could leave...a message...on...the, uhm...boun-ty board, for me. In...the pub. When...you find...some-thing out, put...a...mes-sage up, and...I...will...pro-bab-ly read it."

Amelia nods again. "Will do. I promise. I'll start as soon as I get back." A pause. "You...you're not coming back?" She asks, knowing the answer- but still feeling slightly disappointed as she looks up at Iris.

"...Was...wan-ting...to go back...to Maya's house," Iris replied. "But...I...still have...to find the por-tal."

"I...I can still help?" Amelia offers, arm still outstretched as she holds the box. "There might be more of those things out here."

Maya? Must be one of her friends...

"I would...like...that." Iris nodded. "...Af-ter...I...store the rest." She looked around. A substantial part of everything had been stored in her hammerspace, but there was still a lot left. Including the gold bars and gems that she'd used to batter a few of the zombies into submission with, about...ten, fifteen feet away.

"Right." Amelia blinks, looking between the gold bars and...the car. "Where'd you get all this...stuff, anyway?" She asks. Wait, gold? "Is that...wait, are those real?"
"Sca-ven-ging," Iris replied. She blinked and quirked her head quizzically, then walked over and picked up a gold bar. Her arm extended fully out to her side, above a clockwork zombie's head, and she let go. The bar fell and cracked against the skull with a dull, heavy thud, and snapping and of vertebrae and gears. "...They...seem real...to me," she said to Amelia, still with a questioning head tilt.

"Right." Amelia blinks, looking between the gold bars and...the car. "Where'd you get all this...stuff, anyway?" She asks. Wait, gold? "Is that...wait, are those real?"

"Sca-ven-ging," Iris replied. She blinked and quirked her head quizzically, then walked over and picked up a gold bar. Her arm extended fully out to her side, above a clockwork zombie's head, and she let go. The bar fell and cracked against the skull with a dull, heavy thud and snapping of vertebrae and gears. "...They...seem real...to me," she said to Amelia, still with a questioning head tilt.

"B-but...gold?" Amelia blinks owlishly at her. "Do they have...bank vaults or something on your world?" She snickers incredulously. "You...you're using gold bars as weaponry..."

"Found...these...in-side pub," Iris said, nudging the gold bar. "...And...some of them...out-side...the pub. Along...with...cars like it." She pointed at the crumpled and completely totaled car. "...Lots of them..." she added. "And...gold bars...are...heavy. Heavy things...u-su-ally...hurt...when they...hit an enemy."

"In...Wait, you found all that in the Wand and Circlet?"

"...and yeah, but they're worth a lot, right? I mean...using them to...kill stuff...Well, it works..." Amelia's not sure what she's getting at beyond "gold bars"?!

Iris nodded again. "In...mm. Not...re-mem-ber...what it...called..." She mimed the rough shape of the piano in a niche in the pub. "But...it was...big-ger...on...the inside." When Amelia asked about their worth, Iris blinked and tilted her head. "...They are?" She nudged the gold bar with her foot again. "...Hm. If...they are that...ef-fec-tive, then...I...might...see why."

Amelia blinks. "Bigger...on the inside?" For a moment her mind flashes to police boxes and time travel before she stops being silly. "...Yeah, they...they are...You didn't know...Oh. Oh..." Amelia trails off as she puts the pieces together. "Um, yeah, they're kind of worth a lot. In the normal world anyway, I guess they might not be in Overcity if they're just...lying around like that..." She shakes her head. "So, um...Do you live in your world, or around here?"

"Maya's world," Iris replied. She started hammerspacing things again. "She...has...a house. Which is...nice. Safe. I...had a room...in...pub, be-fore. After I...came here. To...Overcity, and...pub."

"Oh...Maya's your friend?" She asks, keeping pace with Iris but staying just out of the way.

"Yes," Iris confirmed. "We...are...'bes-ties'. Maya is my...best friend, so...I...love her." She paused and tilted her head thoughtfully. "...Not...love her...roman-tic-ally, though. Maybe." Another awkward shrug, and she went back to hammerspacing.

"Oh..." She's not quite sure why she'd felt vaguely disappointed for a moment at Iris's first reply before she clarified, but shrugs it off. "That...That's sweet. Besties, huh?" She can definitely empathize there. "Did you guys meet on a hunt or something?" She guesses. "Sorry if I'm being nosy." She adds quickly.

"Uhm..." Iris thought back as she worked on storing the car in her hammerspace. "...No. We...met in pub. She...was...one of the...first to try...help-ing me." Her silver-white eyes flicked to stare at Amelia. "...And...what does...'no-sy' mean?"

Amelia nods as she listens, then looks embarrassed, breaking eye contact. "Um...It means..."You know...asking questions about stuff that isn't any of your business...when you shouldn't..." She shrinks in on herself a bit, suddenly stuttering a bit. A nervous laugh.

"Hm." Iris slowly nodded. "...So...if you...mm." Amelia could almost see the gears whirring in Iris' head as she put the sentence together. "If...you asked...about...my, uhm, 'sex life', then...that...would be nosy, right? Since...it's sup-posed to be...pri-vate...and...not...talked about in...pub-lic."

Amelia's head abruptly snaps up, guiltily and she makes a noise somewhere between a squeak and a tea kettle boiling over. "I-Y-yes! Yes, i-it...it would be! I wasn't! I mean..y-you're r-really p-pretty but I didn't mean to ask about t-that if that's what you w-were thinking!"

Her words are stumbling over each other and her face's flushed with embarassment as her gaze darts around like a startled goldfish. She realizes what she's said, and puts her free hand over her mouth.

Iris stared at Amelia for a long moment, expression impassive. Then a small smile appeared on her face. Amelia really reminded her of Maya at that time, so...naturally... She stepped close to Amelia, practically looming over the Fire girl, raised her hand...and set it down atop her head. The hand gently rubbed and massaged, and seemed decently experienced in the art of headpats. Of course, Iris did this because she knew it helped calm Maya down, even when she was at her most flustered. So she hoped it was the same for Amelia.

Amelia looks embarassed and confused, but looks up at Iris. She lets out a surprised eep at her hand's contact with her hair. "W-what are you..." She starts, then falls silent. Normally she'd squawk, protest, shout about she's not a kid, but...it's Iris, and she's distracted and it feels...nice. So she just stands there, blushing furiously as she's headpatted.

"You...do not...have to feel...bad, or...flus-tered," Iris said in a soft, reassuring voice as she continued with the headpats. She refrained from hugging Amelia, since she was pretty sure the Fire girl's face was directly in line with her bust (more or less), and she vividly recalled what Maya's reaction had been to being hugged like that--she didn't really need Amelia to get even /more/ flustered, or possibly even faint, as a result of it.

"I'm not...flustered..." Amelia protests weakly, the vivid blush on her face suggesting otherwise. Her eyes flutter-half closed as Iris's headpats register, and she lets out a quiet, involuntary sigh, any thoughts of dignity vanishing. It feels so nice...Iris is really good at this.

Iris didn't bother replying to that. She just kept up with the headpats for another minute or two, then gently ceased. "There. Now...Amelia...is fine." Another small smile was given to the Fire girl before Iris went back to storing stuff in her hammerspace.

Amelia's cheeks are still pink as she opens her eyes. "T-thanks..." she mutters quietly, smiling back like an idiot. "For...you know..." She trails off, scuffing one boot in the dirt.

"You are welcome," Iris said, the phrase fairly familiar to her muscle memory by now. She worked on storing the last cart in her hammerspace, then looked around again. Not much was left of the battle by that point. There were a few scattered pieces, like limbs, a gold bar or gem, or a weapon thrown far away, but otherwise it was back to a more or less normal street. ...Disregarding the melted asphalt and scorched remains that Iris hadn't bothered to store, along with a few tiny scraps that were just useless to her. "We...can go looking...for the por-tal, soon," she declared after a moment.

...Iris's stutter is kind of cute. Amelia thinks absently, then catches herself. "Yeah..." She nods, distractedly, seemingly not in much of a hurry. Bad Amelia. You're supposed to be helping her, not...whatever. She nearly trips over a crater she'd made with a stray fire attack.

Iris had gone over to collect the last of the remnants of the battle, so she didn't see Amelia almost trip. When she was done, she rose and gracefully strode down the street, one waving hand bidding Amelia to follow along. She stayed on the ground this time during the search, and...felt like they were actually drawing near, finally.

Amelia's not paying quite as much attention, as she walks near Iris. She thinks she might feel something, though she's not sure...

Amelia was looking one direction, and Iris another. Thus, Iris spotted the portal first. "There!" Her tone is that of relief and joy. That was the portal to Maya's world; she knew it on sight. She turned to smile down at Amelia. "Thank you, A-me-lia. For...helping me."

Amelia spins around. "Oh...No problem! It's the least I could do..." She beams back, smile sincere. A longer pause. "Well...I guess this is it, then...Nice meeting you, Iris..."  She looks up, meeting the taller girl's gaze. "I'm glad I could help..."

"It...was nice...to meet you, too." Iris bent her knees and reached forward to give Amelia a tentative hug. She made sure that there was no danger of face-smooshing in busts anytime soon. "...May-be...we can meet...a-gain, soon."

Amelia returns the hug, this time- nowhere near as tightly as Iris's earlier hug, but not holding back. "Sounds like a plan." She grins once the hug's done. "I'll do my best to find someone for...that thing. And...hey, good luck with...finding that city and stuff..."

Iris straightened and nodded. "Thank you." She paused for a second, then lifted the cellphone that had suddenly appeared in her hand. Her free hand's fingers swiped across it, and she lifted it to take a picture of Amelia. "...To...show Maya," she said in explanation.

"Eh? Oh...Sure!" She's never been good with photos, she remembers. Then she realizes that she knows that. She remembers something, and that shows in the smile that suddenly spreads across her face. She remembers something, and if she knows that then maybe...

Another picture is taken after Amelia smiles, but without a flash or the shutter sound. Iris sidled over and hesitantly put an arm around Amelia's shoulders, then lifted the phone to take a selfie of the two of them. That done, she released the fire girl and lowered the phone. She smiled down at Amelia, then started to walk back over to the portal.

Amelia watches Iris go, still smiling like an idiot. A thought strikes her. "H-hey..." Amelia calls out once Iris is just a few steps away, not quite sure how she's going to finish that sentence. "Iris? Do you...um, want to...hang out sometime? After...after all this is over, I mean?"

Iris paused and glanced over her shoulder. She thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes. That...sounds fun. I...do not think...I...would mind...try-ing to make...a-no-ther friend."

"...Cool." Amelia blurts. There's a moment of awkward silence.

Iris stepped back over to Amelia, gave her one last headpat, then turned and strode through the portal. "See...you soon, hope-ful-ly," she said over her shoulder before vanishing into another world.

"B-bye!" Amelia calls after her. She shakes her head. What's with her...She's stuttering, and now she feels awkward about it. Still...meeting Iris...stopping zombies...She feels much better, even if the hunt with Alexa hadn't...

Wait.

Alexa.

Oh crap, what if she's worried?

A last glance back at the portal, and Amelia takes off at a dash.

The Overcity street falls silent once more.