794/Pachyderm Panic

Pachyderm Panic
Date of Scene:	20 November 2023
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Pink elephant on parade.
Cast of Characters:	Lulu Adelstein, Amanda Faust, Madoka Kaname, Katarina Bach, Sayaka Miki, Kyouko Sakura

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Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Mitakihara at night. While Witches can appear anywhere, the greatest congregation of them seems to be here for some strange, unknowable reason. Only Kyubey might have a clue, and no one has thought to ask him. Why would they? As far as magical girls know, this is just how it is. What is not commonplace is a Familiar being on a rampage for an extended period of time without any of the plentiful magical girls/boys, Puella or otherwise, putting a stop to it.

    There have been reports of casualties. So far, just civilians as far as anyone knows. But the only thing separating a magical girl from a normal person is her henshin. Once one is dead... Who would be able to tell the difference?

    So, as a result, a group of Puella Magi (and also Madoka) have been gathered together to hunt down this proto-Witch before it can complete its transformation, and also to prevent any further deaths at its hands.

    Lulu is already transformed, and standing on top of a parked delivery truck, boxing-glove covered hands on her hips. The red Soul Gem on her belt is pulsing steadily, with increasing rapidity. The street is abandoned-looking, and measures have been taken to keep everyone indoors. As long as the Familiar isn't a Witch, they don't have to worry about any of the bystanders becoming Witch Kissed, but they can always get caught in the crossfire, thus the precautions.

    Lulu doesn't know anything about that. She just knows that while this isn't her town, that doesn't mean she isn't going to protect it.

    It's just too bad Mami isn't here.

    A steady thumping is coming from further down the street, in the darkness. The street lights aren't working for some reason in this area. It's more run-down, and a poorer neighborhood, but that doesn't mean basic utilities should be left abandoned by local government! Unacceptable! Lulu has half a mind to write a letter, another half a mind to just show up at the director of electricity's house in the night, and a final half actually focused on the mission at hand.

    *Thump-thump*. *thump-Thump.* *Thump* *Thump* *Thump-Thump*

    The footsteps of something large continue to grow more audible as the source draws closer. Right now, it's just a vaguely pale silhouette, heading right for the ambush point.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is low on magic.

    Not low enough to be *worried*, yet, but low enough that she'd really like to find a grief seed. So she's *especially* eager to come on this Witch hunt--

    What?

    It's not a Witch?

    ...Well, it still has to be stopped, but there is a little bit of disappointment in her heart, and she's not sure how to feel about that.

    She will take out those uncertain feelings on the familiar. Also any lingering rage from taking way too many tries to beat a videogame boss last night.

    Amy leaps from a building to land next to Lulu. "Is it so dark because of the Witch? err, the Familiar?"

    She looks at the distant shape. "...I'll light up the area for us when it gets close."

    She squints. "...It's not a ghost, is it?"

    Freaking ghost enemies. Freaking ghost boss. *It will pay* for their crimes.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka might not technically be a Puella Magi, but she's too deeply involved in Witch matters at this point to not run with the crowd. Hovering over her shoulders are her Chara: Brai, Medo... and surprisingly Gretchen. The X-Chara who normally avoids her Bearer when possible is now following along with her, mostly quietly.

    Of course, her reasons are plain. Certain Questions were asked, and Gretchen would like to talk to the querants. Such deep questions are put on the back burner, because right now there is a Familiar to hunt and well... if she has to be here then she may as well help out. Killing the Big One is a key part of her overall goal. Any other Witch is just a vital resource that hasn't been collected yet, and Familiars are practice targets. Practice that Madoka, admittedly, needs.

    Madoka looks over her shoulder at the Witch Chara, whispering lowly. "Gretchen-chan... do you feel it? How close is it?"

    From behind her small mask, the witch fairy puts her hands on her hips. "Well you can hear it, can't you? It's getting closer. Only..." The X-Chara pauses. She scratches her chin and mutters, "Something is wrong..." The slight tenseness in Gretchen's voice makes Madoka concerned. As is the way that Gretchen starts looking up at the skies.

    Madoka feels the tension in the air, and she looks back at her two other Chara. "How do you feel? Brai? Medo?"

    Brai shrugs. "Whatever Gretchen feels, I can't sense it. I can only just barely tell that it's a Familiar."

    Medo comments, "Hey, that one's Soul Gem is a little low!" while pointing at Amy.

    Madoka blinks, looks over at Amy, and starts fishing through her school bag. She looks down at the Grief Seed she got from the Chandelier Witch. She walks with the Grief Seed in hand, offering it to Amy while saying, "I think we're going to want to start this with full resources, so..."

Katarina Bach has posed:
    A very smol Puella with extremely long white hair leans over the edge of a roof, and calls out quietly to Amy. "Up here. Lulu is bait. You... Me... Ambush from up here." She also dangles a Grief Seed wrapped in off-pink diary paper over the edge. "Also... This is for you... I think." She always has something she is supposed to deliver to someone each day, even if she doesn't always find them or figure out who she should be looking for. A message, a trinket, a helping hand... Or, in the case of this Puella that Kat has just met, a Grief Seed.

    Look, it even says on the paper. 'For Amy Faust when low magic.'

    She doesn't need to look towards the Familiar to see it coming. She can see by looking right through things, at extraordinary distances. She can see things that she probably would rather not see too. People's dreams, for example. But she only ever remembers a few bits and pieces. She has to write down the most salient details when she wakes up, before they fade away. Those become the 'deliveries' she has to make.

    If she misses one... She might get a second chance, but sometimes the first chance was the only one.

    The Familiar coming is, pun completely intended, familiar to her. But she hasn't said anything. Not yet. It isn't in her notes.

    She realizes that Madoka is handing over a grief seed to Amy, and pauses. Hm. Why is she supposed to give this to Amy then? Is Amy going to run out of magic during this fight? Afterwards? Well, it literally has Amy's name on it, so as far as Kat is concerned, it belongs to her.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
One day while she was out on a hunt, Sayaka had received a message from Lulu.

Apparently, there was a big pinch about a familiar murdering people with no one to stop it, and with the obvious question about whether Sayaka had contracted or not, the bluenette wasted no time in admitting she did since the last time they saw each other, and immediately affirmed she is in for dealing with this familiar.

So she is standing on a rooftop next to the other magical girls, peering at the inscrutable darkness below, a knot in her stomach as she waits for this dangerous familiar. This thing is going down.

More specifically, she is looking at Madoka, who is still not in henshin, and that's where her worry lies. Should she really be here? Should Sayaka asks her to leave it to them? She would, but the bluenette doesn't think there is much time now, and it's really not the time to start arguing either. She would just have to pay particular attention to her.

On the subject of worrying about friends, her energy reserves aren't that bad, so she doesn't mention anything when Madoka starts offering a Grief Seed. Better not to make her think the Sharpsong Puella is struggling gathering Grief Seeds.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's a Familiar. This is not normally something that Kyouko cares too much about, really. Witches are her game. Sure, she was invited. She wasn't going to come.

If you asked her, Kyouko still would say that she wasn't going to come to this fight.

Kyouko is in henshin, and loitering on a different rooftop from the others. Watching the Watchers, if you will. She's chewing on a stick of pocky, conjured out of goodness only knows where, leaning absently on her spear as she watches Katarina and Madoka both offer up grief seeds, her brow furrowing at that. "Harumph." She snorts softly.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Lulu rubs her nose. The cold air is making her have to sniff repeatedly to not have grossness dripping out of face. At least she can deal with it if she just shuts off her sense of touch. But it also slows down her reactions, and Magda isn't here to heal her if she gets seriously injured, so it's better to just deal with the chill for now. She half-turns her head without moving her red eyes from the silhouette approaching. "No. The darkness has nothing to do with Witches. It's just a lower economic class getting worse treatment. No one has bothered to fix the utilities, because the people here have less influence."

    She also shakes her head, causing the red puppy-ear-like abbreviated twintails to flop around. "Don't. I don't know how many Familiars you've hunted, but unnecessary magic expenditure can alert them, and if they feel pressured or in danger, they'll flee. We don't want it to run away. Try to stay out of sight until the signal is given, okay? It needs to be cut off from behind, above, the sides, and directly in front -- I'm the bait that will cover that last one." Lulu is shakey about being in charge. She has been taking tips from Mami, but teamwork always seems to be shoddier when Teresia isn't around. Lulu intends to change that, before they lose anyone else.

    She also looks over to Madoka and the Charamunks and says, "Like, I can't order you around or anything, but... If you all could... Not stand right next to the person standing in the open as the obvious lure?"

    Lulu sighs. She's doing a great job of coordinating the team so far. Maybe she should have explained what an ambush was before they started?

    The thumping of footsteps now shakes the ground, and rattles windows in the apartment buildings on either side of the street. Darkened windows, all the way up into the cloud-covered night sky. They should be able to see well enough thanks to their magic, and if they can't then Katarina is here to help with that. But shining a light before the target is even in range to attack would probably go poorly. "Maybe when it's really close to me," she amends for Amy, quietly, in regard to light. To surprise and blind it. If... Familiars can be blinded.

    As the Familiar continues to approach, Lulu starts to feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and anxiety twisting her insides. She isn't the thinky type. She's the punch type. So trying to be leader here might just be a big dumb decision on her part. Maybe that's what's making her feel so stressed out?

    Surely it's not a Familiar. Even a dangerous one wouldn't make her feel... Uneasy like this. So... What...?

    As the lumbering mass continues to advance, eventually Lulu feels her blood run cold upon getting a better and better picture of what they're facing. She always thought it was an expression, but nope, it literally feels like her blood just turned to ice in her veins.

    A pink elephant, decorated in the gaudy baubles and adornments of a circus animal, stomping its way up the street towards them. No more than twenty meters away now.

    It's fortunate Lulu's role is bait, because she can't make herself move.

    She has seen a Familiar like this before. On the night that her hometown was destroyed, among many other bizarre Familiars that marched in the open, without a Labyrinth. There's no way that Witch is here, right?

Amanda Faust has posed:
> That one's soul gem is a little low!
    Amy startles and turns, surprised, but smiles at Madoka's offer, gratefully reaching for the grief see--

> This is for you... I think.
    Amy blinks and looks at the package. "...Is this time travel or future sight stuff? I'd better complete the loop or prophecy, if it is. I don't want unresolved loops or prophecies hanging over our heads... But thank you too, Madoka. Hold on to that for if anyone needs it..." She unwraps the package and holds the seed up to her soul gem, which is just under 1/3 full of that bright red. Once it's recharged, she puts the partially-used seed in her pouch.

    She nods solidly at Lulu's observation of classism. "It really sucks that this is the world earlier generations have left for you... In my defense, most of us don't have any influence either. Especially anyone who *wants* to change it. You'll... you'll do better than us one day, I hope." When it's pointed out Lulu is the bait, Amy nods and hops back up to a nearby building's roof.

    <<"Pink elephant... I'll light it up when you're ready to engage, Lulu!">> she telepathically sends.

    Man, it's convenient having that.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka notices Katarina coming to the rescue, and Amy decides to go with hers instead. She almost giggles and says, "I just can't seem to get rid of this one, but I'll keep it just in case." She then quietly, "Ohs," when told to move to a different position, and then starts tugging on Gretchen's little hand with her index finger and thumb. "Come over here, Gretchen-chan."

    Brai whispers, "We should probably be detached group, since our arrows can cut off its retreat. We will have to henshin in front of these people if we want any real combat presence."

    Madoka whispers back, "I don't really care if they know my secret ID. It's not like I don't know theirs. For now I need all three of you out and looking out for... potential problems."

    Problems, such as whatever Gretchen is watching the skies for. It's hard to really read her expression when she's wearing a mask, but she's gone oddly quiet.

    Madoka jumps down into the nearby alleyway and starts moving forward, getting around the Familiar to try and get it from behind. Her three chara float after her. Jumping from roof to roof would have been to obvious, but taking the low road here keeps her out of sight. Still, she's not in henshin. Not yet.

    This means that she's a little late, just a few moments, in returning to the scene. Just in time to end up behind the...

    ... The pink elephant...

    "Gretchen-chan!" whispers Madoka, forcefully. "Is that..."

    "It is," confirms the Witch Chara. "It's definitely one of hers. No doubt."

    The Bearer goes pale, and says more loudly. "Where's the Witch?! She's nearby, right?"

    Gretchen shakes her head. "I've been looking, and feeling, but I don't sense her anywhere. Could she be hiding? Or too far away?!"

    Panic rises in Madoka. Night after night of very similar dreams, no, memories of this same battle. This same Witch, across many timelines. Sometimes it lived and fled. Sometimes it died, but never without a cost.

    "Gretchen-chan..." asked the pinkette, quietly. "If you henshined with me, would that boost your senses? We need to find it before it does something terrible!"

    The response from the dark fairy is immediate. Gretchen crosses her arms over her chest and shakes her head. "That's a really bad idea. We don't know what will happen to you. Chara Changing with me already makes you sick. There's no telling what will happen if you do a full Chara Transform with me."

    Yet Madoka's own biteback was just as quick. "I'm not going to let my whole family die over a stomach ache! I already said I don't care if I get hurt!" She tugged once on Gretchen's tiny hand and looked at her with pleading eyes. "Please... we can sort everything out later... We can't let this Witch exist!"

    Gretchen looks at her Bearer, and then up at the sky. Worried, and in the stress and fear of the moment, the seemingly all-knowing Chara makes a mistake.

    "We might not have a choice... Okay."

    Madoka mutters, "My Heart: Unlock!" and makes a gesture with her hands. Gretchen twirls and settles down into her X-Egg. There's a glowing flash of light, mixed with darkness, as the black egg with a white X-mark sinks into Madoka's chest, Heart's Egg rejoining Heart.

    The magical girl that results from this union is unlike any henshin that anyone has seen across any timeline, but might be a vaguely familiar sight to whomever has seen what horror sometimes happens after Walpurgisnacht. It's Madoka, wearing a black spindly ribbon dress, just like Gretchen's, with a circular mask pushed up and to the side of her face.

    

    Hope Witch walks out from behind her hiding spot. Her eyes are glowing bright yellow. She's got an odd smile on her face, but she's not hiding. She's moving... almost too casually. She turns towards the elephant and calls out telepathically, <<Hey... it's okay as long as it can't leave, right?!>> One hand rises. What is she planning?!

Katarina Bach has posed:
    Katarina scuttles back away from the edge of the roof when the Familiar approaches, preparing to act but not revealing herself yet. She keeps gauging its distance and how near it is to the kill zone, and reporting it quietly with telepathy.

    <<Twenty meters...>> she sends. <<Eighteen meters... Sixteen meters... Fourteen meters... Strike at five meters. Ten meters...>> An elephant covers a lot of ground quickly, even when just walking along sedately, because of its longer stride. The moment to attack should be coming shortly.

    Katarina whispers to Amy, "Complicated. Don't know. Just know to give to you." in regard to if this is an oracle thing or a time travel thing. Probably just dream-reading. Which, yeah, that sounds exactly like an oracle thing.

    It's so bizarre for a Familiar to just be wandering openly. The only other time Katarina has witnessed such was... Well, the last time they encountered this Familiar. Or those like it.

    It's strong. More so than she would expect. But they should be able to take it down if they work together.

    <<Just one Familiar...>> she warns, seeing the change in Lulu's muscle tension and heart rate through the red-haired girl's skin and hoping to snap her out of it. <<Seven meters...>> she whispers. Then she raises a hand above her head. Waits. And brings it down quickly. <<Five...!>>

    A morning star appears in her grasp, and she moves into position to strike once the elephant is stunned or blinded or otherwise surprised.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The bluenette grips her sword tighter as she waits for when they are supposed to strike. Lulu will give them some kind of telltale sign. Or maybe she will make the first strike herself. Either way, she got to be ready. They wanted her to be in this with everyone else, so there is no room for failure.

Madoka is spending some time talking with with her Chara and Gretchen as she waits for the familiar. What stands out to her though, is the fact Brai is talking like she has an actual transformation. "What's that about, Madoka-chan?", she asks, checking if she has missed something. "You can transform now? What happened?" That would be just a bit less worrisome if she knows the pinkette is at least as protected as she is.

When Madoka jumps down, Sayaka is quick to follow. Henshin problems aside, has she mentioned she doesn't like the prospect of her best friend being alone with Gretchen? Because she doesn't. At all. "Madoka, be careful", she tells after her. Not like she would specify what she is telling her to be careful from.

Madoka and Gretchen start talking about something when the familiar arrives, its presence loudly heralded by those thumps that can be heard all over, the bluenette noticing the frantic tone her best friend is using.

"What's wrong, Madoka-chan? "One of hers?" Which Witch are we talking about here? Is it something Gretchen has revealed to you?" she curls her lips as she asks that. What have Madoka and Gretchen been talking about? What is making her so scared?

"Hey, it's alright, Madoka", Sayaka starts trying to calm her down, when the notion that Madoka wants to transform with Gretchen hits her like a sledgehammer. "Absolutely not, that's a terrible idea!" she exclaims really unsettled by Madoka's intentions. She doesn't need to know much more about Gretchen to understand as it is, nevermind the fact she is finding herself agreeing with the X-Chara here.

"Madoka-chan, there are all of us here, you don't need to resort to transforming with her, we can deal with this", she tries to dissuade her when Sayaka understand how serious Madoka is about this. What kind of Witch has she seen, exactly?

She is considering grabbing the X-Chara and make a run for it, but her decision comes too late and Gretchen agrees. Before she can so much as raise her sword, her blood chills when the result of Madoka's transformation comes to light, the smile and the presence of Gretchen's mask on her head creeping her out. "Madoka-chan, undo this now! This isn't right!", she yells as she follows. What has Gretchen done to her this time?

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
Whelp. That's Kyouko's cue. She straightens up from her crouch, crunching on the last bit of pocky as she watches the elephant lumber its way towards the group. She sighs softly. It's most certainly a Familiar. An odd one, but a Familiar none the less. There's not going to be a grief seed out of this.

<< So what's the plan here? Get it? Is that the plan? >> Kyouko's lazy drawl comes over various puella's thoughts as she checks in. She's back to learning on her spear, standing at least, but watching how things are panning out. So far, it looks like a pretty typical day in the neighbourhood to her.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Lulu is shaken out of her freeze-up, hopefully without anyone else noticing. The unfamiliar voice of Kyouka on the brainwaves doesn't startle her as much as the Familiar looming larger and larger in her vision did. She just relates to the newcomer, Madoka, and anyone else listening, <<We should kill it. It needs to die. I don't want her to somehow follow it to us.>> She doesn't even know if that's a thing, but she's taking no chances. The Super Witch is coming here someday.

    She isn't in a hurry to speed up the process. Especially without everyone they can get their hands on assembled and ready.

    When Katarina gives the signal for the elephant being in attack range, Puella Lulu calls out, "Oh-hohoho! Poor little elephant! You've strayed from the rest of your parade!" She laughs loudly with her arms crossed, making herself an obvious target.

    As soon as it gets within five meters, Lulu sends out, <<HIT IT NOW!>>

    The strange henshin that Madoka underwent was not directly witnessed by Lulu, so she panics a bit at the sight of her when she emerges into the semi-open behind the Familiar. Based off of what Mami told her, Sayaka is pretty strong. She'll trust in Sayaka's rapid attacks to harry the elephant, Katarina to pin it down by striking at the exact right moment, Amy's rockets to deal heavy damage, whoever that is (probably Madoka. She doesn't see Madoka or Charas anywhere, but Madoka disappeared at the same time, and she'd prefer to think that's Madoka instead of the alternatives, such as having already been gobbled up) to keep it from retreating, the mystery Puella to do whatever she does, and the finishing blow to come from Lulu herself! ...Probably! She legitimately has no idea what she's doing, but that has never stopped her before!!

    The Familiar stops when it becomes aware of a magical girl in its path, eyes roughly on the same level as Lulu thanks to her vantage point on top of the truck. Hopefully it keeps focusing on her until it's too late...!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is not aware of a new chara transformation, and now isn't the time to explain whatever time/fate shenanigans led to the grief seed in her belt pouch. She IS aware that the plan was to light up the target when it got close enough.

    HIT IT NOW, Lulu commands.
    Amy fires a rocket that bursts into a bunch of flares that drop around the Familiar. Also some land on its back because it IS big.

    She didn't mean for that to be an *attack*, per se, but the burning metal in the flares is REALLY HOT. Like thousands of degrees hot. So there's that!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Sayaka's efforts to stop the forbidden henshin are wise, but in vain. Madoka has already made her choice, and it's not something that she can undo.

    <<Just so we're clear, since you may not have seen me transform...>> transmits Hope Witch, apparently having no trouble whatsoever with Puella telepathy, <<... I'm Madoka Kaname.>>

    To Sayaka, Madoka turns to face her, still smiling oddly, <<I'm sorry. I know this seems extreme. I'll explain it later. It's too long of a story for now. I have to look for the Witch this came from, and of my Chara only Gretchen understands Witches enough to sense them at a distance. I need to borrow her power.>>

    Brai and Medo have gone silent. Actually, they seem to be missing. Gretchen is merged with Madoka now, so she's technically accounted for, but the other two... well, they're probably fine, right? They're probably just staying out of the way.

    <<I always thought it was unfair how Witches get to trap us in their own little worlds. Turnabout is fair play!>>

    The world suddenly... changes around them. It's similar to a device user's Time-space Barrier or Zero Time. It's also not unlike a Labyrinth. Welcome to Madoka's world.

    The sky is the biggest change, turning from night to something otherworldly. Cloudy skies that seem to glow in bright gold, visible despite being completely overcast. A godray falls down from the clouds and onto the pink Elephant, acting like a spotlight. There are still shadows between the buildings for those who want to hide, but the lighting situation exists purely to give the elephant a difficult time.

    Everything else starts getting softer. A nearby door seems to be covered in fleece. A fire hydrant now has a seam on it. The ground, oddly, seems stable and solid when you walk on it, despite looking like it was made with soft fabric, but the ground beneath the pink elephant acts a little bit differently. It starts to cave and sink, as if it were standing on the largest, softest pillow in the world. Good luck stomping around or even standing upright when the ground beneath you is soft comfy mush, jerk.

    <<I still can't sense it... It's hiding very well for a Witch that doesn't hide at all.>> Which is, naturally, her way of saying that Walpurgisnacht probably isn't here. <<The sooner we finish here the sooner I can focus on finding it.>>

    As Madoka notices Katarina's and Lulu's fighting style, she frowns thoughtfully at them. Something seems odd about that, but she doesn't really have time to think about it either.

    Maybe she has seen them in other timelines.

Katarina Bach has posed:
    Katarina pauses as she prepares to leap. Suddenly they are... In a Labyrinth? Sort of? She has never quite seen anything like this before, with or without her natural eyes. She turns her head this way and that, scanning with vision that is not bound by normal dimensions. Madoka introducing herself is enough for Kat, it seems. <<Katarina Bach. If not introduced. That is me.>> Being blind, the bright light of Amy's flares and the spotlight shining down on the elephant have no affect on the albino Puella's accuracy. The only one affected is the enemy! Excellent teamwork!

    Katarina drops into an alleyway alongside the elephant, swings her morningstar around, and then hurls it outwards. The chain extends quickly and continues to extend and extend to the target. Also, the spiked ball on the end grows in size at the same time thanks to the application of magic. So it is, that the elephant is going to be hit in the side by a spiked ball roughly the same size as it. Hopefully it's enough to pin it against a building while it sinks into the ground!

    The buildings on either side of the street were unoccupied at this corresponding spot in normal-world, but not if they had fought further up or down the street. Thus the range-finding. It might no longer be necessary, unless there's patchwork people in here, but it was a good thought to avoid hurting anyone.

    <<She isn't here. Just a Familiar for now. It must have gotten lost.>> she clarifies for Madoka and Gretchen. It still means that the Super Witch is close enough for a Familiar to get lost and wind up here, but that's a Future Kat problem.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka is divided between insisting that Madoka undo whatever is going on with her and taking care of the familiar as per the plan. Really, her priority is on Madoka, but on the other she started doing this when the familiar made its appearance, so maybe getting rid of it will be enough to convince Madoka to go back as she was.

But then she talks about wanting to follow that Witch that this familiar is apparently a sign of and even says getting rid of it will only speed things up.

This actually leaves Sayaka at an impasse. That thing is harming people. It needs to be removed posthaste. But just as much as anything else, her best friend is also important to her and she can't allow her to go on her own facing off who knows what Witch.

What should she do here? She looks intently between her friend and the familiar as a decision needs to be taken now. She falters a second when she hears Katarina talk about what she presumes is that Witch too. It's is the only one who isn't here, and this is her familiar. <<What is going on with Madoka? What is the Witch she is going on about!?>> she asks frantically to Katarina.

As for now her decision is to stop Madoka, no matter what it takes. Accessing the reserves of her magic, she begins the process of materialising 40 swords up in the changed sky of Madoka's Labyrinth (really if all else doesn't show something is wrong, the Labyrinth does it for her, so Madoka needs to absolutely stay here).

Sayaka is kind of worried about whether she has enough magic for it, she has really been running herself ragged, hasn't she, between fighting Witches, familiars and youma of all kinds. Even if it was taking over her life, still she was doing the right thing, and Madoka needs this, so if she doesn't have enough magic she will make do.

She is about to take than step when words resurface in her memory: "There is more to life than always fighting. Even the strongest sword shatters if it's not oiled and allowed a moment to breathe. Even the strongest of us need help, relief and things for us to keep fighting for." Right, what is she accomplishing here? She needs to keep fighting on. But what is her answer then?

Something like the Grief Seed dangling off of Madoka's hand. "Sorry, Madoka-chan, I will take that", she says, snatching it and jumping back before her double set of Eternal Fantasia rains down all around Madoka, closing around her as a maze of swords.

Wow, that's a really dark Soul Gem.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"What the.." Kyouko mutters as what she was /expecting/ to be a basic fight against a familiar that she really was just going to supervise from over here becomes..

<< Madoka? Did you become a baby witch or something? What the.. >> Kyouko asks as all of them are drawn into a labyrinth. That isn't quite, but is entirely too much alike for comfort.

And then Sayaka is pinning Madoka into place with swords and there's a flash of red as Kyouko jumps down into the fray. "If we're killing a thing, shouldnt we be getting to the killing the thing part?" She clearly has had enough of overthinking things.. it's been moments here people! And there's a pink elephant to stab.

There's quite a bit of stabbing, in a death from above sort of movement, streaking red of Kyouko and her spear towards the elephant.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Blinded, irritated by burning on its back, sucked into a semi-labyrinth that casts it in a tracking spotlight so it can't escape easily, and then sucking its legs into the ground so it can't escape easily, and then *WHAM* in the side so that it stumbles and slams into one of the quilted buildings, and then Kyouko delivers what might be the final blow with a descending impaling stab right through its back! The Familiar is not having a good night! But don't feel sympathy for it!

    It has killed multiple people so far, and will kill many more if it escapes!

    To make sure that doesn't happen, Puella Lulu leaps up off the truck she has been perched on all this time, pulls back one arm and curls her fist in her boxing glove. "ORAAA~!" she calls out as she throws her fist forwards. A line of duplicated boxing gloves flies out, pummeling the elephant over and over, before Lulu lands, turns, and roundhouse-punches the Familiar right in its stupid face!

    For a single Familiar, this many magical girls hitting it at once has got to be enough to finish it off. Even for a strong one!

    As the shockwave and visible impact that concaves the elephant show the strength that Lulu possesses, while she's in her post-striking stance, looking cool as hell, she grins. "Heh!"

    The back of the Familiar cracks open. Lulu looks up, her smile fading a bit.

    A black silhouette of a humanoid shape, glittering with stars and giggling with the voice of a young girl, emerges from the Familiar, her two pigtails flapping like wings to keep her in the air.

    Lulu is so distracted by this development that she doesn't notice the Familiar's trunk lash out, wrapping around her, squeezing her tightly with her arms pinned at her sides, and before she can even yell out...

    *SNAP*

    Lulu's body goes limp. Her head dangles. Her mouth, at least, works open and closed, but she's too stunned to speak.

Amanda Faust has posed:
> ...of my Chara only Gretchen understands Witches enough to sense them at a distance.
    <<"What?? No, not now, explain later...">> And then *Madoka* puts them in a Labyrinth. *what*. Explain later, indeed.

    Also, she sees Sayaka, behind the elephant, grab the grief seed from Madoka. <<"See? You had to give me that seed so that Sayaka would get a full one instead of a one-third-full one. Time shenanigans complete!">> Although, as she's talking, Sayaka is... trapping Madoka? <<"What are you doing?! We can't fight *eachother* right now! Also, she just summoned a pocket dimension, what do you think surrounding her in swords is gonna do?!">>

    While she's arguing with Sayaka, though... the familiar isn't dying, it's transforming!

    And it cracks Lulu. That looks *bad*. But at worst it's a problem for two-minutes-from-now everyone. Whatever's happened, they have at least that long to magically fix it as long as *someone gets the body*.

    <<"Is anyone better-suited to go get her?!">> Amy asks, and Madoka confirms. <<"Roger that. Distracting it in three, two, one, NOW!">>

    She fires a large guided missile from the rube sudenly strapped to her arm, which arcs around to come at the elephant from the front, narrowly flying past Lulu and then exploding into a bunch of anti-tank warheads that all try to pierce through the elephant's body, more like lances of high-energy physics than archetypical 'explosions'.

    She follows this up with a regular rocket to its face right after Madoka's attack. Teamwork!

    <<"Does anyone have healing magic? Lulu, are you conscious?">>

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Suddenly, Madoka is surrounded by swords. Her reaction is... kind of spacey, actually. Her attention is divided between trying to manipulate the Labyrinth, trying to look 'outside' to see if Walpy shows up, and trying to keep the Elephant here. She's only sparing attention for attacks pointed directly at her, not at swords surrounding her like a maze.

    Each blade rips into the ground, sticking solidly. A tiny bit of tan stuffing is pushed out of the ground with each sword impact. What is that material? It's not cotton. Maybe it's not... actually anything.

    Madoka looks up at Sayaka and whines, <<Sharp-chan, that's wasteful! The Familiar is over there!>> It doesn't occur to her that Sayaka is trying to control or restrict her movement, despite the fact that the pinkette would be using those same tactics with her arrows.

    There is, also, no contest when Sayaka goes for the Grief Seed. Madoka looks down at her hand where it was, spacing out and not fully understanding why Sayaka is acting this way. It's just chaos and noise to her, and her mind is clearly elsewhere.

    Kyouko asks her a question, and Madoka has to think about it. <<I'm not really sure. I know I'm not a real Witch, but one of my Chara copies Witch magic. She never explained how she knows that.>> After a pause, she adds, <<Sharpsong-chan, you didn't have to beat me to get a Grief Seed. I would've just given it to you...>> because in her mind that statement makes sense right now.

    After considering Katarina's words, Hope considers. Maybe the Familiar knows where the Witch is, or was? She picks up one of Sharpsong's swords, moves a couple more out of the way, and then leaps on top of one, balancing on the end of the hilt with one foot as if it were a pole.

    She gasps when she sees what happens to Lulu. "Medo!" she calls out, but the flossie-wearing Chara still seems to be missing. Perplexed, and not having time to think about it, Hope Witch leaps off of her perch and leaps again, holding her friend's sword in hand, skipping closer to the pink elephant with an unnatural speed. When Amy asks, she responds, <<I'll be right there!!>>

    With an unsteady, inexperienced hand, she plunges the sword directly into the elephant's trunk. She's holding the sword not like a weapon, but a very large kitchen knife, and pressing her hand on the dull edge of the blade as if she's carefully trying to cut through a carrot. A pink, fleshy carrot, but those details are irrelephant.

    She looks up at the New Challenger and warns, <<Careful, everyone! That one fights like a Puella, and she's really dangerous!>> Then, as soon as she can get Lulu free, she tries to uses space-distortion magic to pull her into the relative safety of a side alley.

Katarina Bach has posed:
    <<Unsure. Long story.>> is Kat's reply to Sayaka. She can't be sure which Witch is which, but she can make a guess. However, this isn't the time. She just adds on, <<Corruption in Madoka-san's transformation.>

    Does Katarina have Concerns about Hope's transformation and the Dark Energy she can see in it? Sure. Does she have time to argue about it with lives on the line? Nope! So she aids in a different way. She focuses on the Familiar flapping its pigtails above the elephant. It's bad news. She has to agree with Hope's assessment of it. It might not be a Puella, but it's based off of one, clearly... Maybe... It's very Familiar, either way.

    So she rapid-bounces between buildings to try to get into a position to trap the Puella Mimic. No escape from Amy's missiles for you! She swings her morningstar and sends a message to Kyouko. <<AoE incoming. Please clear the kill zone.>> Kyouko may have been vital in exposing the true weak point of the Familiar, the thing that allows it to travel so far without its creator, but that thing is Death In Pigtails (henceforth referred to as DIP-chan), and Amy's heavy firepower needs to land now while still trapped on top of the elephant!

    In mid-air, Kat hurls her morningstar downwards, and it duplicates as it flies. Dozens of spiked balls on near-infinitely extending chains fly down, trying to tie up the faux Puella or at least restrict her movements, so she can't escape the explosions. Kat must have taken inspiration from Sayaka's maneuver with the sword rain!

    <<No escape.>> she warns regarding DIP-chan.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
<<Alright, but I need to hear this long story later if it's enough to make Madoka react this way!>> she sends back to Katarina, worry really evident in her mental tone. She quickly applies her Madoka continues acting all weird, and she districates herself out of her planted rain of swords with effortless movements and even leaps onto one of her swords.

Impurity gets sucked out of Sayaka's Soul Gem quickly as the Puella puts the Grief Seed close to it. Phew, the weight that leaves her as the darkness disappear is very relieving. Though, a complete purifaction probably made the Seed useless. She will have to give it to Kyubey afterwards.

"Madoka-chan, enough! Wake up from whatever is going on with you, you should realise this is odd." But nothing she is saying is getting through to her. At least she has helped save Lulu from whatever that thing is.

Now, she better do her part too, as much as she regrets leaving Madoka like that. She doesn't know what to do at this point. The Sharpsong Puella extracts a sword from the cottonlike ground and in a blue flash goes to attack the Puella-like familiar with twin swords.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
<< Gotcha. >> Kyouko confirms for Katarina as she pushes off with her spear to bounce her way out of the incoming AoE.

There's all sorts of nuance and undercurrent that Kyouko is either missing or blatently ignoring in favour of taking care of the fight at hand.

She might have arrived with the plan to lolligag about and watch the 'kids' take down a familiar, but now she seems to have decided to take a more active hand in taking this thing out. Even if it is 'only' a Familiar. It's now a Familiar pain in her tuckus, and well.. she's here already. She might as /well/. Anything that took out Lulu with quite that much ease, she probably should at least provide some firepower too.

Or at least so she will tell herself later. She's not /helping/ per se, she's .. just.. soemthing something, more stabbing.

While Katarina's morning stars are raining down upon the Puella Mimic, Kyouko is launching herself up high to be able to snap out her spear into a long multi part staff, connected by chains, to wrap around the mimic, attempting to pin her into that rain of morningstars.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    The Puella Mimic pirouettes through the air to avoid the morningstars, a pair of pistol-like shapes in her hands shooting out pink laser beams or something to detonate most of Amy's missiles before they can get close to enough to do damage. However, the sword thrown by Sayaka stabs through the madly giggling mimic, making the laugh abruptly shift to a high, pained yell!

    The elephant's trunk is severed, and Lulu is pulled over to Hopedoka through her mysterious powers. DIP-chan turns to shoot at Sayaka, but is pinned by Kyouka's spear to the wounded elephant's back, right in the hole she emerged from originally.

    There's no dodging the handful of anti-tank warheads that strike, knocking the pink elephant to its knees. And there's no defending against the rocket that flies into the hole left behind when its pink trunk was severed, directly to its insides, and then explodes.

    It's an explosion worthy of an action move, flames roaring upwards and outwards as Familiar-flesh splatters like some kind of ooze, along with bits of stuffing, some balloons, and confetti. There's no sign of the Puella mimic, but she sure did shriek in pain and fear when she died.

    Lulu is still unable to move. Her telepathy is broken up when she tries to message. <<something. wrong. spine. gem.>>

    If Hope inspects her, she will find that not only is Lulu's spine snapped like a twig, but there's a crack in her Soul Gem.

    Blood is smeared around Lulu's mouth from where it was forced up out of her body when she was nearly pulped. She can't move her head. She can barely even blink. This is... Bad.

    They absolutely should have had Magda here.

    At least the Familiar(s) are dead. But the cost... Was quite high. And this was just one of That Witch's servants. What could an entire parade of them do?

    Worries for another nightmare. The nightmare of seeing Lulu limp as a ragdoll is ongoing.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Wow, the finishing shots went better than Amy could have hoped! She grins at that... But she's not so naive as to assume it's over. <<"Kyouko! You and me keep the star-girl busy!">> She runs to the nearest corner of building as the smoke fades...

    And the Familiars are gone. <<"Are they really gone...?">> Once that's confirmed as best as they briefly can, she dismisses her launcher and hurries over to Hope and Lulu. <<"Okay. I've continued with fatal injuries before... but I was healed by Nezha's power. Are there any limits to our regeneration? ...I've still got a third of a seed if she needs it. In the mean time, try not to move her too much so it doesn't get worse, the nerves might not be completely severed.">>

    When the crack is pointed out, she's... concerned, but also has no idea what that means. Chrono said it was sort of like a vital organ... <<"Kyubey! We have a cracked soul gem. What does that mean? How do we fix it?">>

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    <<Sharp-chan, of course it's weird,>> says Hope Witch, <<but I wouldn't have asked Gretchen for this if it wasn't important.>> Granted, at this point it seems like she did this for no reason, because Bach-san is probably right and Walpurgisnacht is nowhere near here. On the other hand, there's merit into making sure that neither of these things leave here alive. <<I'm sorry for not explaining, but this thing is too dangerous to leave alone.>>

    As soon as she can look over Lulu, Madoka's eyes go directly to her Soul Gem, because past timeline experience has at least told her to look there first when it comes to Puella Magi. The moment she sees the crack, her eyes go wide.

    A broken spine could be fixed. Brain damage could be fixed. Madoka's almost sure that Sayaka could cut off her own hand and still fix it. A broken Soul Gem is another story.

    <<It... it's just a crack... it's just a crack... we can fix it if it's just a crack, right?!>> Do the others even know about Soul Gems? About... what happens if it gets destroyed? Madoka digs her fingers into the ground and rips out a piece of it as fabric, and tries wrapping it around the cracked gem, but... that's probably futile.

    What should Madoka do? Brai and Medo wont answer her. Even Gretchen has gone silent.

    The Familiars are dead, so Madoka's Labyrinth starts to wave away. Gretchen's X-Egg emerges from Madoka's chest, and she reverts back to her base form. There are two brightly colored pink and frilly-white eggs right next to her feet, one each for Brai and Medo.

    For some reason, the Soul Gem bandage made out of fake Labyrinth stuff is still there. Blame Chara magic.

    Madoka is trembling. Her eyes are wide. She reaches out to pick up her Chara Eggs, one by one, and places them in a protective case inside her school bag.

    Madoka then takes Lulu's Soul Gem and, carefully, wraps it in a soft (real) handkerchief.

    Kyubey then speaks up. <<Be careful! That Soul Gem is very important. Make sure it doesn't break, or she'll lose her magic.>> Where is he? He's nearby, sitting on a park bench.

    Madoka suddenly frowns, but doesn't say anything more. This situation is chaotic enough as it is. No point in adding to the confusion.

Katarina Bach has posed:
    Katarina feels a bit helpless now. One of her best friends is severely injured, and in danger of losing her magic according to Kyubey. Sure, the Familiars are dead, and the damage to the environment has reverted thanks to Madoka's Labyrinth going away, so no one will even know this fight happened. But... She can't heal. She can, however, tell exactly where Magda is, and the fact that the medical magi is still awake. She looks around and builds a sort of stretcher out of loose material. Plywood left in an alleyway, a dirty pillow someone threw out, some twine to tie Lulu's head and body in place... Makeshift though it is, her magic lets her find the exact things needed to improvise.

    They can load Lulu onto this.

    Katarina is more concerned about the Soul Gem than the physical damage, but there's no telling what sort of connection there is between the two. "Thank you, Kyubey-san." she murmurs. Then she pulls out her phone and calls Magda. The healer of the group should probably come to them, rather than the other way around. It's safer and faster. If needed, one of them can meet half way.

    She just really hope she doesn't lose any more of the people precious to her.

    "I will tell the story... Sayaka-san..." she promises.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Sayaka is horrified when she sees Lulu like that, the swords she is holding fading away as she looks around still refusing to understand what she is looking at. She doesn't know what to do there. Katarina has something to transport her with, but what will they do once there?

She does a small nod towards Katarina, saying "Alright, I will take you up on that."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's that inevitable paranoid pause when things finally settle, expecting something else to potentially jump out and eat their faces. When it doesnt, Kyouko pulls her staff back, flicking it into one solid piece and then jumping down to where everyone is gathering around Lulu.

There's a sharp whistle as she catches a glimpse of the cracked soul gem, and the state of the girl. "Well fuck. That aint good."

Hardly the voice of calm reassurance there, Kyouko.

As others who are clearly better at healing and helping and calm bundle Lulu up carefully, she watches with a frown.