[22:33] <@Tangent> It's a cloudy night, with the moon and stars obscured by passing clouds. Theold graveyard's alive with the croaking of frogs and the rustle of autumn leaves in the night breeze. Things stir in the darkness as the clock strikes twelve. The witching hour. Then, abruptly, the serenity that's settled over the place is broken by the sound of someone stumbling over gravestones and tripping over branches as they crash through the plots.
[22:36] <@Tangent> "Crap, crap, crap..." Cassie hisses, mostly to herself, not stopping to look back as she flees. Everything'd gone wrong. "Goddamnit, why'd it have to be a wolf?" She's not sure where Olivia is right now but she's not stopping to check. Not with that that thing on their heels. "Oliv-" She starts to snap as she vaults over a squat memorial, and cuts herself off as her...partner sends a pulse in reply. Annoyance. Agitation...and yes, more than a little fear.
[22:36] <@Tangent> Cassie feels pretty much the same way. At least Olivia could claw that thing. All she'd manage to do was piss it off.
[22:36] <@Tangent> *crash through the plots.
[22:39] <@Tangent> She risks a glance over her shoulder as she stumbles back onto the gravel pathway and keeps running. No sign of it. Then there's a blood-curdling, loud howl and she sees a pair of eyes glow in the darkness and the snapping of bushes underfoot as something barrels towards her. Her blood freezes and for one awful moment her legs refuse to answer her.
[22:41] <IWBTG> The lonely nights on patrol were the only thing Nadia didn't like about her new life. Without a real home to go back to and without friends to spend time with, the girl alone with her thoughts was forced back into that mental corner she thought she had crawled out of.
[22:41] <@Tangent> Then she recovers. "RUN FOR IT!" she yells at Olivia and puts actions to words, blindly running for her life and cursing- not for the first time- Puuchu's choice of costume for her and how it seemed to get caught on EVERYTHING.
[22:41] <@Tangent> She's not sure where she's running...except AWAY from that thing.
[22:42] <IWBTG> She wasn't really a cool hero. She wasn't really a magical girl. She was faking it. All of it. Everything she did.
[22:42] <@Tangent> Cassie didn't want to be wolf chow. She REALLY didn't want to be wolf chow. What had she been thinking?
[22:43] <@Tangent> And where'd Olivia gone? The wolf can't have gotten her. She was OLIVIA.
[22:44] <IWBTG> The howl steals her away from her thoughts, her head snapping toward the source of the noise. She could sense the mass of it, just barely, and the thing it was chasing was... Just a bit heavier than a rabbit. Shaking her head rapidly to clear her thoughts, she paints on another smirk to hide her true face. "Time to work I guess."
[22:44] <IWBTG> "Lifting the weight of darkness, my soul is light!"
[22:45] <IWBTG> A burst of light shines through the foliage before the young girl bursts through the underbrush and slams her shoulder into the wolf full force, the gravity field of the area causing her to fall horizontally rather than leap forward.
[22:47] <IWBTG> Tumbling along with the wolf, she rolls to an eventual stop before scrambling to her feet and reaching out a hand, a huge sword forming in her grip. Her eyes stay focused on the wolf. "Hungry for something a little more exotic? How about a magical girl?" She falls into an aggressive stance, waiting for the wolf to recover and make a lunge.
[22:49] <@Tangent> The wolf goes crashing with a very unintimidating yelp....but quickly recovers, scrambling onto its hind legs. Up close, it's clearly not canine...or human. There's something vaguely simian about the way it rears into a slouch, and the darkness seems to bleed from its jet-black fur like an extension of its body. It snarls at her, a glint of intelligent malice in its soulless eyes, sizing her up.
[22:50] <@Tangent> In her magical senses, it lights up like a Christmas tree.
[22:51] <@Tangent> Cassie's still running. Back near Nadia, something grey and brown swings around overhead, fluttering onto a nearby tree. A soft hoot, and a very familiar looking owl tilts its head down at Nadia.
[22:53] <@Tangent> A flap of a single wing.
[22:53] <IWBTG> Nadia blinks. "You're a little taller than a normal wolf." She grins, hostility in her eyes. "Good. I was gonna feel bad killing a real animal. Monsters are fair game."
[22:55] <IWBTG> Before she lunges forward, though, a strange movement catches her eye. She glances up to see an owl... waving at her. She cocks an eyebrow. "... Wait, the magical girl owl? Um..." She didn't really remember her name, being brutally honest. Either way, she had a job to do. She nods. "Hey. Don't worry. I've got this."
[22:55] <@Tangent> The creature bares its teeth...teeth that are too larger and malformed to belong to anything its size. It almost looks like it's smiling at her.
[22:55] <@Tangent> Then it vanishes.
[22:56] <@Tangent> Olivia hoots again, loudly. There's something urgent and frustrated about the noise.
[22:57] <IWBTG> She dashes forward, swinging wide and without thought. The blade arcs through the air as if it were made of foam... And connects with nothing. Nadia stumbles forward from the weight of her blow, the trunk of a tree splintering and caving in as the blade makes its mark.
[22:59] <@Tangent> The graveyard's gone very quiet all of a sudden, the frogs falling silent and even the wind dying down. Up in the tree, Olivia's looking around, searching..and wishing for her air magic for the upetenth time. If she could just get down there as herself, she could at least block its lunge if it appears...but as it is, she's trapped on overwatch and that IDIOT's run off. Again.
[23:01] <@Tangent> This girl- Agatha or something- is still too full of herself- and she can't tell her about what they're up against. Darkness monsters are never any fun.
[23:03] <@Tangent> Olivia risks taking a moment to contact her idiot. She doesn't hold back on her annoyance, urgency, or need for her to stop running and get herself back here RIGHT NOW. She sends that as a pulse over their connection.
[23:04] <@Tangent> Cassie's gotten a bit better- not that it was hard to get better at being a magical girl than running from three zombies- but she's still too flighty. And Olivia's sick of having to prod her back on track. At least she's starting to try and fight now.
[23:06] <@Tangent> A block away, Cassie skids to a stop as Olivia hits her with the pulse. Is that...that Nadia girl? The one who'd helped her out? She feels a flicker of surprise and embarassment for being caught running like that...again, skids to a stop...and starts to-somewhat relunctantly- run back towards the graveyard. Olivia's there too.
[23:07] <IWBTG> Nadia struggles to pull the blade from the trunk for a few moments before flinging an arm to her side and forcing it to fly sideways with her gravity. Cautiously, she takes a few steps forward and picks up her blade, glancing around with caution.
[23:08] <@Tangent> She's still not sure how she's going to hurt that thing...She didn't think she'd even done more than send it into a rage.
[23:08] <IWBTG> "The owl, right? Sorry, I don't quite remember your name. The wolf isn't gone, is it?" She says this without taking her eyes off of the shadows, watching for an ambush.
[23:09] <@Tangent> Two very grim hoots. Olivia's turning as well, orange eyes glinting in the darkness as she methodically searches the area.
[23:10] <@Tangent> There's a loud creak of metal from somewhere in the distance. The cemetary gate's just been pushed open again.
[23:10] <@Tangent> Cassie steps through the gate, breathing fast and bell held out in front of her like a shield. Not that she's sure it'll do anything if the wolf DOES jump her, but it makes her feel safer.
[23:10] <IWBTG> She smirks. "Good. I still need to finish it off."
[23:11] <@Tangent> The wind picks up again, tugging at hair and leaves. Olivia's grip on her branch tightens, and not just from the breeze. Where is that thing?
[23:11] <@Tangent> That's another thing she misses...magical senses. Not that the idiot seems to appreciate them very much.
[23:12] <@Tangent> If she ever gets her tongue back, she's giving Cassie an earful about the time she'd somehow missed that vampire's signature until she literally stepped on it.
[23:12] <IWBTG> "Can you see it? I'm blind in the dark. My magic sense isn't telling me much more than there's something in the area."
[23:13] <@Tangent> A brief pause. Two hoots.
[23:13] <@Tangent> It could be gone...but probably not. So where is it?
[23:15] <IWBTG> "... Right." She steps forward cautiously, keeping her blade ready. If she could just bait out the monster's approach...
[23:15] <@Tangent> Cassie's picking her way down the path when she feels hot breath on the back of her neck and /feels/ more than hears a rumbling growl.
[23:17] <IWBTG> There! Suddenly she can sense its mass again. Toward the graveyard, outside of the woods. She starts dashing, not even explaining the situation to Olivia. The moment she's out of the underbrush, she leaps into the air, scanning the cemetary with her eyes.
[23:17] <@Tangent> "ohshit." she blurts, voice coming out as a terrified and very undignified squeak, and whirls around. There's a loud CRUNCH and a muffled ding as her bell hits something that gives way under the impact..and she finds herself face and snout with the thing. And she's just broken its nose.
[23:17] <@Tangent> *face to snout
[23:18] <@Tangent> Olivia's in the air a second later. A pulse of intent to Cassie as she feels the other girl's terror. Stop standing there and FIGHT BACK, damnit!
[23:21] <IWBTG> She dives from the air like a hawk, her blade cocked back and poised to strike. It was one thing to drag out fights for fun when she was on her own, but the sooner this thing was dead, the sooner this other person was safe.
[23:21] <@Tangent> Cassie swings again, blindly. It catches the wolf in the eye just as it's starting to snarl angrily, snapping its head back. She feels a jolt of pain in her hand as one jagged tooth grazes her hand just under the sleeve...but it's still dazed and she's not dead yet and oh god that's a lot of teeth.
[23:21] <@Tangent> Then something swoops down and crashes into the wolf like a ton of bricks.
[23:23] <IWBTG> The blade makes contact, the girl-turned-meteor crashing into the ground and shattering a shoulder as a sacrifice to deal the amount of damage she needs. Her sword passes straight through the thing, bisecting it, Cassie's attacking stunning it long enough for Nadia to land the critical hit she needed.
[23:24] <IWBTG> She tumbles along the ground for a few meters before connecting violently with a memorial. Even still, bloody and bruised, she's better off than the newly diced monster.
[23:26] <@Tangent> The creature struggles, mouth opening and closing and clawed fingers spasming. It lets out a piteous whine...then dissolves away into nothing but a few dried, yellowed bones and teeth surrounded by shattered marble. Cassie stares as this happens, shaking slightly.
[23:27] <@Tangent> There's a fluttering noise, and Olivia's familiar weight settles onto her shoulder. Cassie doesn't seem to notice, still staring at the body. A annoyed hoot, and a wing cuffs her on the head. Cassie jumps, snapping out of it. "O-Olivia...You're okay."
[23:28] <IWBTG> Nadia groans, her joints creaking as she forces herself to stand from the impact. A shoulder is visibly mangled from her high-speed impact with the ground, but she somehow forces a smirk onto her face. "Yo. I was, uh... In the neighborhood. You okay?"
[23:28] <IWBTG> She walks casually toward her, pulling the cloth of her cloak around to form a makeshift sling for her left arm.
[23:30] <@Tangent> A single hoot. Even without their bond, Cassie can hear the exasperation. "R-right." She nods, looking around the scene as the adrenaline wears off. If Nadia hadn't...Wait, Nadia! Her head snaps around as the other girl rises. "Yeah, I'm...I'm fine. You...You killed...Wait, your arm." Cassie blurts as she notices. It's all she can do not to visibly wince at the angle the other girl's arm is at.
[23:32] <IWBTG> She waves her off with her good arm. "It's fine, it's fine. It was calculated. If I took the time to get down safely I couldn't have taken advantage of the thing being stunned. Good swing, by the way." She smiles and scratches her nose.
[23:37] <@Tangent> "I..." She's not going to admit it was luck. Nadia's still the same way she was last time...actually good at killing monsters and helping people. And sure of what she's doing. Right then and there, Cassie's not sure what she's even doing there. But she can't bring herself to admit it was an accident. "Um...thanks..." An appreciative, if slightly regretful hoot from Olivia.
[23:38] <@Tangent> "And...thanks for the help..." The rescue. After she'd messed up again. Cassie's shifting from foot to foot awkwardly, not able to take her eyes off Nadia's arm. "That...are you sure you're okay? I guess I owe you for that...again..."
[23:42] <IWBTG> She nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. And don't sweat it. My other magic power is that I'm basically Wolverine, so even something this serious should be better in like an hour."
[23:43] <IWBTG> As she reaches Cassie she reaches out her good hand to help the girl up. "I'm just lucky I caught its mass signature when I did. I figured it was a normal wolf attacking a normal person, you know?"
[23:47] <@Tangent> Cassie stares for a minute, then remembers to look away. A nod. "Oh. Alright..." She looks at Nadia's hand for a moment, then scrambles to take it, getting back to her feet. "Yeah...I know. I...kind of screwed up..." Again. "I just panicked..." She admits, shamefaced. On her shoulder Olivia's expressionless, keeping her thoughts to herself. Now that the fight's over...she's not sure if she blames the newbie for that.
[23:51] <IWBTG> The smile on her face falters as she can see Cassie's guilt. "Hey, don't worry about it, okay?" She places a hand on Cassie's shoulder. "You said you were forced into this, right? Even the fact that you're trying at all is more than anyone could expect from you. Don't feel guilty for that."