859/Are you seeing double?

From Radiant Heart MUSH

Are you seeing double?
Date of Scene: 07 December 2023
Location: Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis: A Lost Logia is chased, but for its sealing, it's two steps backwards.
Cast of Characters: Sayaka Miki, Adalinda Blumenkrantz, Nanoha Takamachi, Lulu Adelstein, Amanda Faust, Chrono Harlaown, Usagi Tsukino


Sayaka Miki has posed:
The dark mantle of the night has already covered the city, yet it is not so late as to say the city is completely asleep. Most people are in their homes, watching TV, playing their favourite games, reading a book or otherwise engaging in their favourite activity of choice.

There isn't much movement on the streets, the only exceptions visible under the streetlights the occasional vagrants and strays wandering about.

And well, the enamel mass creeping through the streets, up streetlights, across walls. It occasionally stops as if to check its surroundings and then the mass of teeth shifts to a form much more understandable to people, a bone-white crocodile exclusively composed of teeth, its individual components still visible.

When the errant Witch's Familiar stops, something else resting in its jaw becomes visible, a scroll of papyrus easily detectable as a Lost Logia to those who have the means.

It is already getting chased, by a bluenette speeding after it and trying to harm the elusive mass with her swords. She is followed in tow by a tiny mermaid, basically glued onto her and watching their surroundings.

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    Adalinda Blumenkrantz had a teacher with a bag of tricks and one very good one. Adalinda has three claims to fame, and what she managed to learn from her senpai. She is neither as good as Teresia, nor is she as versatile. But when hunting Familiars, you don't usually have to be... And the ability to track them by scent, burn magic to move extremely fast, and a free refill upon killing the target are still some very nice tricks to have.

    Crouch on the edge of a windowsill, just the heels of her shoes making contact. She smells it. Witch magic. Moving around quickly. A Familiar. Rising to a standing position, Adalinda just lets herself fall forwards, and plummet through the air, until she almost lands face-first on the pavement below, but hardens her elegant dress into armor, with frills and folds becoming thrusters and maneuvering jets, and slows her fall to a stop centimeters away from impact.

    Swinging her weight upwards, she hovers in the air, while expelling magenta mana from her dress and shoes alike, and then orients on the target.

    The Magical Girl starts the hunt, flying after the fleeing prey.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi was helping her family ready dough for the morning so fresh bread could be baked, daily, at Midori-ya. That's when Yuuno , who's hanging out on Nanoha's shoulder feels uneasy and looks to the window. Something is out there tonight. He can sense it. Is it a Jewel Seed? Another Lost Logia? Who knows what was on the Artha when it was destroyed, too.

Things in containment now a scattered mess, right? He remembers to ask Chrono about it later. But right now, he nips Nanoha's ear and whispers...

Nanoha is in the city in moments on flier fin as she looks over to Yuuno who's riding on her shoulder. "I detect it." she says. "But Raising Heart doesn't think it's a Jewel Seed..." she says as she dips downwards, "-and it's close to another anomalous reading?" she asks curiously.

"Yuuno, what is a Lost Logia...?" she asks. Yuuno answers. "Strange, anomalous, and dangerous artifacts from a dead civilization." he explains.

Nanoha looks determined and flies down closer into the city now, she can just see it...

Is that a bone alligator or...is it a crocodile.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Lulu wasn't looking for a fight tonight. Sure, her Soul Gem is pretty muddy... Dark might be a better word. But she hasn't been spending magic on anything, so it's probably fine. She can deal with it. There are other people who are worse off after all. She is not anticipating a Familiar or a Witch or to meet up with any other Magical Girls. So when her ring starts steadily pulsing with a crimson light, marking something full of curses and despair approaching her as she stands outside a convenience store with a plastic bag full of snacks and a juice box, she just stares at the gem.

    She breathes in and then lets it out slowly. She looks back at the warm, welcoming glow of overhead lights back in the store wistfully. Then she focuses back on the dark streets, and the continued pulses in her Soul Gem, and just says, "Fine. I'm going, okay? It's FINE! I'm going, I'm going, I'm going, just shut up and I'll go, I'm going, I'm gone!" Then the takes off running, tossing her bag of goodies up onto the convenience store roof for later as she tries to get to the Familiar before it eats anyone.

    That's her purpose anyway, isn't it?

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy just... can't sit still right now, and decides to burn off some energy by starting tonight's patrol early. Hey, is that Adalinda dropping through the air?! Amy hurriedly jumps over that way and... crocotooth comes into view. Followed by Sayaka and Ula! "Another Familiar?! Are there more Witches now than a few months ago, or are they making more?" Amy calls out.

    Well, it's a nice big target for shooting, so... rockets away!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown had been, once again, on patrol. Searching for lost members of the Arthra crew. It wasn't that big a deal and, admittedly, he didn't think he'd have much success. But if there was one trait that defined him, it was being diligent. So it really wasn't that surprising that he was out and about...

However, his head whipped up when he felt... something. It was strange. Something was off and he couldn't quite place it. He did a scan and--

And it was a good thing he wasn't drinking or eating anything. A lost logia. Jewel seed?! No. But definitely one. The magical signature was one that definitely matched their records. He'd need to run a search to properly identify it, but for now he knew it was here. He just had to--

BOOM!

WELP! Thanks to the ROCKETS in the distance he at least knew WHERE it was. He leaped off the rooftop, using his magic to propel him across to the next street, then running across the roofs rather than flying. Why?

... No reason. He just felt he needed to run more, he spent too much time flying everywhere, it couldn't be healthy.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mitakihara was a place where things happened (Tokyo was a place where things couldn't stop happening, honestly), and Usagi Tsukino didn't really need for things to be happening as much as she was looking for a distraction. Seeing a number of people taking off, including one in the air...

Well, a few minutes later, Sailor Moon is leaping across rooftops to keep up.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
The familiar literally scatters when Amy launches a rocket at it, recombining after the explosion has impacted the ground leaving a crater. It stares directly at its attacker, and emits a sound that resembles both broken glass and scraping on hard rock, the former giving the impression it's irritated, the latter it's laughing somehow.

In response, it gives up on some of its mass, 'firing' teeth back right at the explosive Puella, then resuming to flee away from its chasers. Not that it seems particularly inconvenienced, because it's already regenerating back what it lost, albeit slowly.

Sayaka meanwhile looks upwards at Adalinda, giving her a look of recognition before communicating telepathically. <<This familiar is carrying something weird with it. Do you know what is up?>> This message can also be heard by Lulu and Amy too, though she isn't particularly talking to them with this.

To Amy's question instead she replies "I don't know, I just saw one, and now I am chasing it before it does too much damage."

Ula meanwhile is distracted by Chrono's presence. Considering the last time they met, she is a bit worried about his health. If Fenyx is there with him, she greets the bird, otherwise, she just talk to Chrono. "Hello, Enforcer Chrono, have you recovered? Is this your first time dealing with witches' familiars?", remembering he had to be brought up to speed on witches last time. She is still flying after Sayaka while she speaks, though.

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    Adalinda started off in some dark side-street, on the edge of someone's window. Now she's zipping through the city streets, slowing her propulsion while overhead to conserve on energy and keep an eye on the target. <<Mummified crocodile. Looks like papyrus. A Nile Witch's spawn? Egyptian Witch? Something like that? It's hard to say what it can do, and why it wants that item. The simplest solution is to separate the two.>>

    With that said, she observes as a rocket fails to kill the thing, and it just retaliates with teeth bullets. She also notes the increasing number of pursuers, and the thing in her head is pushing her to claim the kill before anyone else can, to not let someone steal her prey from her, and she shushes it and puts it aside for now. It can be angry all it wants. It's not like it's a Witch. This is a partial refill, at most. Not even a Grief Seed as reward.

    Adalinda flies ahead as she turns on the magic propulsion of her armor-form dress, and then cuts all forwards motion, somersaults forwards in the air with one leg extended, and then comes up in an axe kick position. Then she blasts magic to propel her down at the fleeing Familiar, and her glowing heel SLAMS down with enough force to crater the street below, let alone a Familiar!

    She is aiming for the head/jaws primarily, but she won't regret a killing blow either.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown finally caught sight of the... thing. Alligator. With shooting teeth action. Okay then. He wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that but it made about as much sense as anything else in this weird world. Fenyx, oddly, wasn't with him at the moment. Just him today. She was likely searching. He started to run parallel to it on the roofs, glancing down at the mermaid and pursuing girl. "Yeah, I've run into one! A witch, I mean. Apparently they don't care much about reality!" he yelled down before glancing back and... Oh. Nanoha was on the way. He recognized Amy as well...

And then there was even more. His eyes narrowed... The girl he'd met the other day. Well, time to start a connection.

< The scroll it's carrying, be careful if you touch it. Don't read it, it's a dangerous Lost Logia. I'm still trying to identify which one to ensure proper confinement! And no matter what you do don't try to stab, shoot or blow it up, there's no telling what could happen if its magical power was released violently. >

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi frowns and stops mid flight and casts a barrier. "Raising Heart, Barrier!" she calls out, the dimensional shift happening to hopefully keep damage contained to it. Still, she gets moving again and then spins in the air as she huffs. TSAB Artillery Mage! Incoming! She can do this!

Bone teeth fly out at someone- that red magical girl from the few times she met her-- Nanoha Takamachi responds with:

< Hyperion Smasher! > chimes Raising Heart as a massive bombardment spell expells itself from Raising heart to try to encapsulate the creature in its sphere of destruction.

"H-hey. The barrier I put up will protect people and property outside it, so do what you must!" she sputters.

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    The redhead with the dual pigtails is approaching from the exact opposite direction as everyone else. She wasn't on patrol. She was just getting snacks. Girl's gotta' eat. Apparently. Kyouko said so anyway, and who would ever question the judgment of Kyouko Sakura? Not Lulu, that's who! So she is advancing more slowly than the high-flying, super-speeding, rocket-jumping Mahou, but she's also running at the Familiar from the same direction it's heading (for now, at least!), so she'll get there eventually!

    ...Unless it suddenly changes direction, which, now that she thinks about it, yeah, why the heck did she think that, now it's totally gonna' happen! Even so, Lulu is loathe to transform and start spending magic. She doesn't know why. She just...

    ...Doesn't want to be a Magical Girl anymore. Thankfully, there is one thing she did not toss away when she secured her recent purchases: A juice box! But not just any juice box, no siree!

    This is ultra sour lemon juice box, the kind of caustic awfulness that only a FOOL would purchase! Well, call her a fool, because she is one, but it might just serve a purpose this day beyond self-torture. As soon as she gets a look at the Familiar, she skids to a stop, hauls back, and throws the juice box with all the strength in her admittedly athletic arm!

    Wait, shit, she didn't open it firs--

    Then Adalinda comes crashing down like Zeus just threw a lightning bolt from Olympus, and it all seems like kind of a waste of time, honestly. Maybe whatever the hell that was will open the juice box so it spritzes the familiar's eye--Oh, it's a freaking skeleton mummy gator thing, it has no eyes! Of course! OF COURSE!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy shoots a rocket *through* it and craters the street as the familiar uses its amorphous construction defensively. "God damn it.." She switches rocket types to those fireball-rockets she discovered she could make against the spider-witch, but even airbursting them, it soon turns out that the familiar can learn to flow around the fireball. Maybe if she used a whole bunch at once? That seems like it will be magically expensive, though...

    And then suddenly she screams and stumbles and falls on the roof she was fighting from.

                            OOPS, THAT REALLY HURT!                            

    Gritting her teeth as she wipes blood away from an apparent bullet wound to one side of her abdomen, she catches a glimpse of ivory white. She lays there dulling the pain and considering the best treatment option as she realizes she heard a voice in her head.

    <<No idea. I know it just fucking shot me! So watch for that!>>

    ...It hurts like the dickens and it's bleeding a lot, but the amount of damaged flesh is small. Amy directs her magic to regenerating it.

<<'Which one'? Do you have a list or something?>>

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The chaos, sound, and noise of the moment is more than enough for Sailor Moon to find everyone, and the one she sees soonest is Amy-chan, bleeding, and everyone else fighting a - bone lizard? Absolutely not. Her heart doesn't quite stop when she sees all the blood, but boy, she's not happy. "Amy-chan, what's going on? Moon Twilight Flash!"

The words of concern are for her friend. The blazing beam of light that shines from her tiara to crash against the crocodile is for the enemy.

Sayaka Miki has posed:
<<I have been trying!>> Sayaka replies to Adalinda. <<But you can see how dodgy it is with how it reacted to that missile!>> This thing has been giving her so many problems, it has been a fruitless chase for at least 15 minutes before the rest of the newly formed squad came.

Then Nanoha put ups the barrier, which not only nullifies the damage the city takes, but now the familiar is limited to its interior. Non more running about as it pleases. The former is a good thing, because Adalinda's heel strike isn't particularly kind to the ground behind it, while the crocodile once more dodges the strike, just barely this time though. It doesn't even have time for a retialiation, it just focuses on getting away from Adalinda as fast as it can.

The Hyperion Smasher is large enough that the crocodile can't dodge all of it even after scattering, and half of what would be its tail goes away. It reforms near her and tries to go for a bite of Yuuno, but what landed right exactly under Adalinda's foot is Lulu's juice box, and the liquid does an impressive arch right into the familiar's mouth. It shudders violently and makes acute scratching sounds as it runs away again, but a bit dazed, not particularly appreciative of its taste, apparently. No attacks on innocent animal-mages today.

Ula decides Chrono seems recovered enough from his outburst of dark energy the other time. Good grief, that was so scary, but at least he is all right now. "This is just a familiar that ran away from its Witch's Labyrinth, they are still dangerous to people, and they grow back into Witches with enough victims."

"Thanks, White Destroyer!" Sayaka shouts to Nanoha. "This thing has been dodging all of my less intensive attacks." Now that there is proper protection in place, multiple swords materialise in the air, and all shoot down at the familiar. It can't dodge all of them, can it?

<<I am not keeping tracks of the populations of familiars or Witches, Red! If it exists, it goes down! I don't think that's a hard concept to grasp.>> Sayaka replies back irritated. She is already frustrated this one dodges so much, now she is supposed to keep count! After a second, she adds in a less acid tone. <<Be more careful, though. You don't have my levels of regeneration.>> It's a good thing only one actually hit her.

The Moon Twilight Flash from Sailor Moon gets the rest of its tail, including the bit it had already regenerated.

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    Hm. Dodged again. It seems the sheer number of attackers is making progress on cutting down on its body, but... Again confronted by unfamiliar telepathy, like at the electronics store, Linda just... Ignores it. She sends to Sayaka and Amy only, <<If precision attacks aren't doing the job, and area-of-effect attacks need to be piled on to be effective, we should try to chase it into a corner where it can't flee easily, and then let loose with everything. Sayaka, can you and I handle the herding, while Amy handles the kill? I don't know any of these others well enough to rely on them.>>

    Raising her arm as she leaps up out of the crater, making the dust cloud flatten under the air currents, Adalinda raises her right arm, and places her left hand upon her forearm for balance. Then she begins launching small 'blobs' of magic, like laser balls or something. She's shooting rapidly, but trying to cut off the Familiar's path whenever possible, in order to box it in. With Sayaka being able to create a sort of sword prison, if they can just do that, then a missile barrage can do the rest!

    She has not actually noticed Lulu yet, she is really focused on the Familiar.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    <<That was to the TSAB agent. Which Lost Logia, not which Witch. ...I know. I didn't get to say the other day, but... your regeneration is incredible. ...Nnngh. I think that'll do, if I turn off the pain...>>

    She's stopped the bleeding pretty quickly, and winced as she dug the tooth out, but... this isn't proceeding as fast as she'd like, and they're in the middle of a fight so now is really not the time to experiment with regeneration. She experimentally shifts position a bit and OH GOD PAIN. She takes a breath and sighs as she wills the pain to dull, and then the skin over the wound heals -- her magic does THAT easily but leaves her sore underneath, and her outfit is replaced with a bloodless, unholed version. She puts the tooth in her pouch with her phone and stands, taking a few steps as she accomodates for the lag, then walks faster, takes a couple of test hops, and finally leaps to the next roof like she's Mario doing a triple jump, stumbling only a little on the landing.

    Sailor Moon is concerned! "It's another familiar! Remember the hand thing? And it's got one of those lost logia-- dangerous magical items the TSAB is worried about!"

    Amy comes into view of the Familiar. <<I'm afraid it'll use a lot of my magic if I try to just kill it with raw volume of fire. More efficient if we can get the others to time their attacks with me.>>

    "Hey everyone! Sharpsong and the puella mage are gonna corral it, time your attacks to hit with mine!" The rocket launcher reappears in her hands. "Three! Two! One! ..." And she fires another rocket, aiming a little forward of its center of mass, which when it reaches the crocodile, turns into a small fireball whether it directly hits or not. She's hoping she can melt/burn it if it can't dodge everyone's attacks at once. Even with Nanoha's barrier, she's hesitant to try warcrimes like she did with the spider witch -- some people might be melee combatants and she doesn't want to get any on them!

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
The barrier will let magical girls do what they do best without worrying about hurting people or property.

Yuuno looks like a tasty snack, being all small, cute and furry but he quickly jumps to the other shoulder, crawling over Nanoha's head in a hurry. SEE IT'S IMPORTANT THE OTHER SHOULDER IS FREE.

She's called 'White Destroyer' and she waves back. "Nanoha Takamachi!" she says brightly. "Is my name!" she says, just straight up, no secret identity, nothing. "Oh, and the ferret is Yuuno." she says as flies away from the Crocodile made of so many many teeth.

She can hear that red puella call out and she goes. "Ready!" she goes as she unleashes a barrage of shot barrets at once, turning into a display of magenta beam spam for a moment, at the one count!

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Eh? Juice box-kun actually worked?
    Lulu stops to render a salute to the fallen juice box for his brave sacrifice. She also sighs and finally decides she's going to be way more effective if she henshins. But as she looks at her ring, the red so dark it just looks brown, she feels the anxiety rising again, and a high-pitched ringing in her ears, and the edges of her vision going all black and jagged like static and consuming more and more as she breathes rapidly, until she just puts one hand over the ring, and closes her eyes.

    She takes several seconds to *breathe* and get that under control again. The sound of explosions, fire, and magic blasts brings her back to the present. Standing there, as the heroes move away from her, chasing the monster...

    Lulu just stays where she is. Turns a bit, and tries to sneak away before anyone notices her. Because then they might expect her to actually fight.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown couldn't help it. He was, admittedly, a little impressed. Nanoha had put up a barrier before unleashing her attack. Admittedly, he'd been a little concerned on what the effect of making a barrier around a familiar would do. It seemed it wasn't as space distorting as a witch, so yay!

And then the artillery mage lived up to her title.

... And someone threw juice at it. Welp. Okay. It wasn't... the weirdest thing he'd seen this week. However, the fact it was so EFFECTIVE was one of those things that did. "I... that... you..." he tried. And then just gave up. Walked away from it. Nope. He wasn't touching that. Juice boxes. What's next, world class dueling with frying pans? It--

SWORDS! Lots of swords. Sayaka seemed to be a pretty big fan of swords. Not that he could blame her. Swords were awesome. Still, he couldn't help but be impressed by the amount of them.

He added Sailor Moon to the call, as it were. Then the juice girl, because, frankly, she threw juice at the youma so she was... probably in the group.

Oh, right. And he added Yuuno as well. Familiars and all that. They were useful.

For now, though, he just kept up, finally giving up on running and just started flying. He wasn't skipping leg day, just delaying it.

< I don't know which Lost Logia, there's an entire database of them. I just know it's one of them. My information network is still in tatters since landing on this planet so this takes time. > Fortunately, with all of the girls working on the familiar itself, it allowed him to focus on IDing the scroll...

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
A lost what? How many magical things are out there, because honestly Sailor Moon's never even heard of a TSAB before. Familiars though? Those she knows! A scowl crosses her face at the thought of those monsters, and her hand twitches, a sparkle hinting at her temptation to summon the Moon Stick. Only her worry - that the creature wouldn't be purified - sees her grabbing at her tiara instead.

win the call for targeted attacks comes, Sailor Moon is ready. her hand pulls the golden tiara from her forehead, energy transmuting the metal to cosmic energy, the power of love and hope made physical.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

Die lizard, die!

Sayaka Miki has posed:
One of the swords that Sayaka launched now that she can act with disregard of the environment did get some of it, namely it got one of its back feet, so when it's not being fluid, it's going to be much less efficient.

<<I can totally drive it into a corner with my swords!>> Sayaka replies, using the widest net available, that of Chrono. <<Though, maybe we need to be careful about not destroying the thing it's carrying. Chrono-san suggested against it, and who knows what that lost thing is gonna do then!>>

Following the plan, she creates a ring of blades around it, and it's successfully caught, yes! The amorphous mass of teeth is back to slithering up them though, and making its way out. It's not going to be detained for long. However, that's long enough for Adalinda's blasts to take away a good chunk of it. When it reforms again, it's gonna miss the posterior part of its midsection, the other foot only hanging on by a bit.

Apparently Nanoha too is not a fan of nicknames like Chrono, with the ease she has used her real name, as well as that of her pet. She hadn't gotten that despite their last meeting. Ula also perks up by seeing someone else her size that could speak. Yuuno is the third, and she hadn't gotten a very friendly vibe from Fenyx. For now, she waves to them, but she wants to actually have a chat with Yuuno once things are calmer.

<<Uh, you can turn off the pain?>> Sayaka asks confused to Amy. <<How do you do that?>>

<<I think I can get the scroll!>> Sayaka tells Chrono. <<It's currently trapped into my ring of swords, just need to maneuver them around a bit!>>

Ula meanwhile notices Lulu trying to get far from them and catches up to her, flying in front of her face. She is clearly a magical girl, if she wasn't cast out by Nanoha's barrier. "What are you doing running away, is something wrong?" she asks, in a tone quite worried. It's clear she doesn't look good.

Nanoha's attack does wonders against the familiar, reducing it to just a head, which promptly falls back inside the ring of blades. Looks like it will have to start the climb all over. Or maybe not because the Moon Tiara Action just cuts through what is left, sending the scroll flying. <<I have it!>> shouts the Sharpsong Puella, diving to catch it, a neat landing into her hand.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The monster falls apart, and Sailor Moon sighs in relief, catching her tiara as it flies back to her hand, the sparkly energy transforming back into simple metal. "That wasn't too bad, for once!"

The creature had put up a fight, but not a terribly long one, and it didn't look like anyone had gotten hurt too badly. But having a voice in her head - even Chrono's familiar one - is enough to make her jump, and Sailor Moon nearly tumbles off the roof, pinwheeling her arms to regain control.

"Looks like this was a job well done, everyone!"

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    There's too many variables. Too many people part of the chase. A lack of direction or coordination, despite Amy's attempts to time them with the strangers'. Hunting solo would be better than this disorganized mob, she tells herself. Even though the enemy was eliminated by the efforts of that mob. Maybe she's just too accustomed to the hunting pack that is the Meisters, well-trained, well-led. Maybe she's just moody because she didn't get the kill, so her Soul Gem didn't get a refill.

    The elegant, gothic Puella Magi lands delicately on a lamp post as she observes Sayaka grabbing the scroll. Just to Sayaka, she asks, <<Are you sure we can trust them with that thing? Weren't they trying to steal that Grief Seed last time?>>

    She looks at Sailor Moon as the headwear-throwing blonde declares victory. Adalinda's dress, at least, has reverted from a cross between power armor and ball gown to just pretty clothing. No point in maintaining a state that is going to gobble up her remaining magic for no benefit. "So... Do Familiars often find themselves in possession of these... Items in this city?" she asks. She doesn't want to talk, but someone will probably address her if she doesn't, and this way she can gather information while keeping an eye on Sayaka.

    Who knows if these unfamiliar Mahou will turn on the Puella in order to keep their secrets now that the immediate threat is dealt with.

    No, Adalinda is not in a great mental state either, why do you ask?

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Lulu pauses mid-flee, one foot in the air, back hunched over in a cringe at having been spotted. And slowly turns her head to look back at Ula. "Eh... I left my snacks on the roof of a convenience store, and it seems like you all have this handled, so..." Wait, is that thing a Familiar too? Usually they aren't so... Cutesy.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown let out a sigh of relief. They'd done it, good. Not that he was surprised. They were far more effective than most of the TSAB forces.

Huh. Finally, a signature. Okay. Scroll of Ka. He had only a split second to see the trigger, and the smile to fade from his face. Alarm! He leaped off the roof, racing towards Sayaka!

His eyes locked on the scroll flying through the air.

            <<Stinger Blade!>>

< Don't touch the scroll! > His voice rang out, the alarm clear in it. The single blue sword appeared overhead and spun once before launching itself, trying, desperately, to knock the scroll away before it could touch her.

But he wasn't fast enough. The sword of magic embedded itself just a few centimeters above the scroll, failing to stop its drop straight into Sayaka's hand.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi can listen in on the telepathy. She sighs and says. << The creature seems dead. But I picked up a Lost Logia. Is that scroll it? >> she asks as approaches, but then Chrono does something when Sayaka tries to reach for it. Don't touch it. Right.

These things, they need to get sealed before they're safe, right?

It..it isn't sealed, is it?

"Oh no!" goes Nanoha Takamachi.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    How to turn off the pain? <<Uhh, it happened a couple of times before on its own, so since Kyubey mentioned we could do that, now I'm just sort of... leaning into that feeling? Although, doing it on purpose is making me feel a bit more like I'm controlling an avatar. Maybe it's because I'm kind of thinking like it's a videogame to counter the slight lag... Uhh, maybe the rest of you should avoid having to do this, especially with how you feel about recent revelations...>>

    The gator is attacked six ways from Sunday and at last purified. <<We got it! Nice!>> She leaps down with a bit of a stumble and approaches the others, dismissing the launcher and holding a hand to the side of her head at the disorientation. Turning off the pain on purpose... is she doing it clumsily? Too 'hard'? It probably takes practice, like anything else.

    Do familiars often take magic items? "I've never sssss--" Amy starts to respond, then cuts herself off when she ralizes the last time she saw one it took a (fake) silver crystal. "...I don't know."

    She turns and looks at Lulu in surprise. "Lulu! Are you okay?! You didn't transf--" and she cuts herself off again when she realizes that might maybe reveal things. Although like. The heck else can she pretend she was going to say?

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Ula doesn't buy what Lulu is saying for one second. "Clearly something is bothering you, you don't look good at all! Either you come back with me to the other magic users over there, or I will tell them everything about you being here."

<<I know Chrono, he is a good person, helped me a lot before I knew the truth. I at least owe it to him.>> Though fate has other plans, because as soon as it lands, the scroll seems jostled awake by the fall, because all of a sudden it open itself into Sayaka's hand and starts speaking.

Soul Instability Detected...

It then disappears into a purple mist, but its voice is still audible. Soul Binding Executed.

Proceeding with Analysis...

Analysis Complete. Soul Instability Ascertained.

"Eh, what is going on? Why shouldn’t I have touched it?" Sayaka asks panicked, looking mainly at Chrono.

Split Function in Process...

Please hold...

13...

38...

53...

76...

89...

100.

The higher the percentage goes the more Sayaka starts shining of a bright blue, and as soon as it reaches the max, her whole being becomes energy, before splitting itself into two spheres, which then expand again into human forms, resulting into two Sayaka in civilian forms sitting on the ground, clutching their heads. Those who take a second to observe will clearly notice the Puella Magi ring on both of their hands. "Ugh, I don't ever want to repeat that", says one. "Me neither", replies the other, before they look at each other with surprise. "Eeeeehhhh!?" comes their shout.

The two of them look at Chrono, the left one saying "What's going on here? Please, tell me!", the right one "Why has this thing of yours done this!?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Soul Binding Executed.

    "NO!"

    Amy's hand, now holding a gyrojet pistol, points too late at the purple mist.

    "Dammit, no!" She runs over to Sayaka, looking over her. "Chrono, what do we do?!" There's no time for dealing with Lulu now.

    And then there were two. Amy glances between them, and quickly determines the most important piece of information she can give: "You're both the original. You're both real. You're both Sayaka Miki and have equal right to her-- to *your* life. We will figure this out." Yes, she's already considered this impossibility too."

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    Great. Extortion. Or is this blackmail? She's never been sure what the difference is. "Listen, I'm... Not able to fight right now. I ran towards the danger out of habit, like an idiot, and I expended my one and only weapon, and now I'm just... Really thirsty, okay? That was my only juice! You look like you have more than enough people over there, so... You all can handle it."

    Lulu is still covering her Soul Gem with her opposite hand, as she backs away like the little Chara is going to physically drag her if she lets it get too close. "So... Please..."

    She closes her eyes as she hears the voices of others in her head. It's not the telepathy she's accustomed to. They sound upset. Worried. Scared. She didn't ask to be included in this! "I need to go." she says insistently, with panic in her voice.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi moves to fly closer to the going ons with Sayaka when...

Now there's two of them. Two of that blue girl. She blinks a little, and then, with a little tone goes. "That's so cool...imagine if there we're two of me." she says. "I could do so much." she then shakes out of it.

"Maybe this isn't so cool in this case though.." she tells Yuuno as she moves closer to Chrono. "Can it be undone?"

"Or is there now an ethical concern about. Undoing someone." she asks lightly.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Uh," says Sailor Moon, staring with wide eyes as one girl becomes two. Unsure of what else she can possibly do, she heads closer to the action - totally missing the other girl in the distance.

"Is there a way to put her back together? I mean, they're both her, but she's not supposed to be two girls, right?"

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    Adalinda is still standing on a lamp post. Observing. She hasn't seen anything like this before. But it's clearly a trick of some kind. She looks down at her chest, and the Soul Gem nestled there. Is there a reaction? Is this some Witch's nonsense? An attack by the Familiar? Lingering poison, or a hallucinogenic gas, or a curse of some kind that needs to be lifted? An aspect of these... Lost thingies? The strangers appear to be just as surprised, so this probably hasn't happened before. In front of them at least...

    Finally, the mysterious magical girl speaks. "Sayaka." she calls out. Then she waits for a reaction, gathering data from it. Then she asks, "Do you think we Puella Magi deserve love?"

    Poking and prodding. Testing. She has learned well from her teacher.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown just skidded to a stop in front of the girl. Well. Girls. And stared at the two of them. And... "I'm sorry," he said to the pair of them. "It's a lost Logia. The scroll of Ka. As far as we could tell, it splits people into two halves of... varying... personalities. Unfortunately, I'll need to try and dig through our logs to see if we can uncover how to return you to one person. And uhhhh... yes." He glanced to Amy. "You are correct. They are both the same person. And not. But no, neither of them is fake."

He then glanced towards Nanoha. "Not so much undone as... recombining them. On... the upside... I don't think it, on its own, is dangerous. The biggest concern is if something happens to one of the halves. Uhhhh... and you may... want to be careful about using your magic like this. Considering the strange nature of Puella Magi magic, I think it is best that you conserve it as best you can. Having... two... linker cores split like that can't be good if you over exert yourself. Especially considering you'd share one and..." He then trailed off before sighing.

"Data corruption, sorry. I'm trying to recover what I can about the scroll. But so long as nobody else touches it, everyone else should be safe. Uhhhhh... Sayaka..." He, slowly, reached out a hand to both of them. "For now... please... try to avoid doing anything rash. And of course they do, why would being a Puella Magi mean you don't deserve love?"

Sayaka Miki has posed:
"I'm telling you for your own good, I don't know what is going on, but you either march back there, or I am gonna get you chased by the others", Ula says, staring at her straight in her eyes. "Seriously, Sayaka alone is enough work... There is no need of another. Why don't you act reasonably and follow me? Please." Ula tries a friendly smile towards Lulu.

"We can't both be called Sayaka", the right one tells Amy. "I know we both are, but using the same name is too complicated. You take the name Sayaka", she tells at the other.

"Ok, sure", the newly appointed Sayaka nods. "What about you?" The other one just goes "I think I will go by Klarissa. That sounds good for a replacement. At least until you can get your life back."

Sayaka immediately starts to protest. "Hey, we both agreed we are still Sayaka, even if we use different names. There is no getting my life back, or getting yours back. It's not fair."

Klarissa clearly wants to protests, but then Adalinda asks them a question. Sayaka says "What is that supposed to mean? A Puella is a magical girl, no? We are supposed to do right and protect people from danger, I don't why that should call love into question."

Klarissa then says "I don't Sayaka would have been wrong, but with my soul as it is..." she gazes at the ring. "Especially since I am not half of myself." She says no more, but her answer is clearly a no.

"So, we are stuck like this", Klarissa says after Chrono's explanation. "Shouldn't be a surprise, if it's from some old civilisation you know nothing about. You really are from space. It's not like I didn't believe you when you told me, but..." She waves at the air with a gesture of sufficiency. "You should try to recover that data, though."

Sayaka tells Chrono "We will both go fighting witches, so avoiding doing rash things is sort of useless. I won't try to get hit on purpose though."

"That's a waste of your regeneration", intervenes Klarissa.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The scroll of Ka. What's that mean? Spirit? Soul? Something?

    A part of Amy feels... praised? to learn that the TSAB agrees with her on Duplicate Protocol.

    Adalinda asks a question. Amy holds out a hand in a 'stop' gesture as Chrono speaks up, but too late. Still, she looks expectantly at the Sayakas for an answer.

    Hhhhhuh. They answered differently?!

    "You do." Amy affirms. "Both of you deserve love. It doesn't matter what your soul is attached to." She steps forward to hug Klarissa, first.

    And looks to Chrono. "Are they stuck, to the best of your knowledge? Do you know anything about recombining them?"

    She looks back to Sayakas. 'Sayaka' can have a hug too, once Klarissa seems done with hers. "In the meantime... I guess introducing a long-lost twin like a soap opera at school might not be a good idea... maybe you can alternate days at school? Shit, that gets complicated though since you won't remember the interactions the other had with people, *or* the material from class. Uhh..." Amy looks thoughtful as she tries to come up with a plan.

Adalinda Blumenkrantz has posed:
    Linda looks at the one still calling herself 'Sayaka', fixing her in memory. "That's all I needed to hear." she replies. The Puella would have taken action right here, but there's too many people around who might intervene. She'll fall back for now. She is a huntress, not a berserker. There will be a proper time to confront the fake Sayaka for Klarissa... And, if necessary, end her.

    Leaping into the air, Adalinda quickly bounces from building to building, until she is out of sight over a rooftop, and makes her escape.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The question from the other girl - who Sailor Moon isn't familiar with, and who Sailor Moon would like to know, were things not so... strange, at the moment - is absolutely confounding.

"Everyone deserves love!"

And yet, one of the two girls says otherwise, and the strange girl - clearly agrees, because once the words are said, she runs off. "Um... well, I don't know anything about turning twins back into a single person, but, you might want to figure out a way to hide this from your parents... or your roommate?"

Or your girlfriend, she thinks silently, abruptly realizing that Hinoiri would definitely want to know if Sharpsong suddenly was two people!

Lulu Adelstein has posed:
    "I'm sorry." Lulu just says hoarsely, to Ula, her voice breaking on the last syllable. "I can't. I just can't." Then she, too, makes her escape. She runs through cold, dark streets, as if going somewhere there is light and heat will make her problems stop following her.

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. So much yelling. This was why there were support networks. One person was NOT an army. He then glanced to Amy. "For now, they are stuck. Getting them to recombine should be possible, but I'm going to have to see what information I can access. As for the 'long lost twin' thing? Why not? Magic is weird, people will accept anything. Just say it's her cousin from across country or something, anybody who's not magic won't ask and anyone who is will understand once it's explained." Yes, he was a bit flippant about 'Hide magic from people', but wellllll...

... There was nothing else to this. He was just flippant to it. He was born to old to give a fudge. "Right then. Sayaka and... Klarissa. We're going to figure out a way to recombine you. For now? Just remain calm. Try to limit your risk. If one of you gets hurt, the other might. Worse, if your magic is split, you'll likely be incredibly weaker or... well. Who knows? If you encounter issues, fall back and call for aid. As for fighting witches... Try to avoid that. I know you likely won't, but if not for your own sake, do consider if you run in, when weakened too much, other people will likely get hurt trying to protect you. Or worse. Self care is to benefit the whole unit, not just one person."

"... But for now, we should get you... home. Or.... somewhere. Safe. You have a roommate, right? I'll... come with you and help explain this..."

"... You're likely going to want to have a good sleep tonight, though, because I suspect tomorrow is going to be filled with headaches."

Sayaka Miki has posed:
Amy is considering many ramifications of this, and to be fair, they don't have an answer either. "We will try to come up with something", is all Sayaka can say on the matter. Both of them accept the alternate hug, though.

"We will need to think on it", Sayaka comments to Sailor Moon. "But we don't even see our roommate anymore, so that's 1 less problem."

"Thank you, Chrono", both girls say at the same time.

Ula comes back just then and is shocked at seeing the two Sayakas. "What have you been doing?"

Klarissa is the one explaining the situation, or at least announce they will explain things. "We will tell you everything, just come to the dorms, please."