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trans_92011-06-11 11:18 pm
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Night. Or rather, whatever passed for night on the meatship. With the threat of the Melting Clock gone, the ship's crew was free to return to their normal schedules. Unbeknownst to anyone on the ship, Stacy was hiding something. Not that this is anything new, but this is a fairly recent something. Something that wasn't on the ship before the last podpop.
So in the dead of 'night' when the majority of the ship was asleep, or working, or otherwise holed up somewhere, a shadow suddenly appears in an empty sensorium. The Shadow darted about, running up the walls, on the ceiling, looking for any means of escape. After a few more minutes of scrambling around the room, the Shadow found the door, and immediately darted out and down the nearest corridor.
Mami Tomoe wasn't normally a night owl. Before she was taken on board Stacy, she was never up at the wee hours of the morning; she needed all the rest she could get, after all, having to keep up with schoolwork and witch hunting. Even now, when she had nothing to occupy her time other than staying by her injured friend's bedside, one would think she would keep up that habit.
But that was far from the truth. Between her restlessness over Madoka's current condition and her frequent nightmares, Mami hasn't been sleeping well the past few days. So here she was, in the nearly vacant Obs Deck, staring at her nearly-dim Soul Gem. The sight greatly unsettled her, even though she didn't know what would happen when it went completely dark.
And then, as if in response to her thoughts, the gem flared to life. Not the healthy golden glow of a fully restored Soul Gem, no, but a dim, sickly glow. The only reason it would glow like this was if...
Damn.
In one fluid motion, Mami jumped off her chair, pulled out her comm, and punched in seven words:
Witch. Meet me in the Obs Deck.
So in the dead of 'night' when the majority of the ship was asleep, or working, or otherwise holed up somewhere, a shadow suddenly appears in an empty sensorium. The Shadow darted about, running up the walls, on the ceiling, looking for any means of escape. After a few more minutes of scrambling around the room, the Shadow found the door, and immediately darted out and down the nearest corridor.
Mami Tomoe wasn't normally a night owl. Before she was taken on board Stacy, she was never up at the wee hours of the morning; she needed all the rest she could get, after all, having to keep up with schoolwork and witch hunting. Even now, when she had nothing to occupy her time other than staying by her injured friend's bedside, one would think she would keep up that habit.
But that was far from the truth. Between her restlessness over Madoka's current condition and her frequent nightmares, Mami hasn't been sleeping well the past few days. So here she was, in the nearly vacant Obs Deck, staring at her nearly-dim Soul Gem. The sight greatly unsettled her, even though she didn't know what would happen when it went completely dark.
And then, as if in response to her thoughts, the gem flared to life. Not the healthy golden glow of a fully restored Soul Gem, no, but a dim, sickly glow. The only reason it would glow like this was if...
Damn.
In one fluid motion, Mami jumped off her chair, pulled out her comm, and punched in seven words:
Witch. Meet me in the Obs Deck.
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But well, the omnicomm going off ruined that plan. Groaning, Sayaka picked it up, looking over at it and wondering if she was going to have to yell at whoever woke her up... until she saw that message and froze.
And then cussed.
And then bolted out of bed and started heading towards the Obs Deck as fast as she could, making it there with not that much time passing.
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After giving her friend a chance to catch her breath, Mami smiled and turned towards her. "I'm sorry for waking you, but this is definitely something that requires our immediate attention."
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But no. This wasn't sarcasm, or mockery, or anything like that. Sayaka was actually her friend, her Puella Magi partner. And it was that reminder that stopped her from saying something she'd probably regret later.
"Mm, you're right. Considering our conditions, it would be a good idea to stay together so it doesn't take one of us by surprise. It can't be too far away, anyway, so there's not much point."
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She was quiet as they walked, keeping her gaze focused on her Soul Gem as the glow grew brighter and brighter between the blackness. And all too soon, they were there; a rippling in the air on the wall of the corridor, almost like haze on a late summer day. The colors warped into bright reds and oranges before returning to normal, as if it sensed their presence.
"Here we are. Are you ready?"
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Once they made it to the barrier, Sayaka nodded. "Yeah. I'm ready. Let's get this over with."
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As grateful as she was for this, she really just wanted this fight to go as quickly as possible. It didn't show much, but her lack of sleep has been getting to her.
Stepping through the portal into the witch's maze, she barely batted an eyelash at their surroundings: the entire area was one huge, churning mass of black. Occasionally, a flash of red would lash out, like lightning in the middle of a storm. There were no familiars in sight yet, but the ground was littered with broken dolls. Some had their heads ripped off, others their arms, or their legs... there were even several nailed to the walls and floor.
All in all, it was, for some people, a horrifying place. And indeed, it was scary, but Mami's mask of calm was one she had perfected over a long time, so she showed no unease or fear when she took in the scene.
"If we see any of the witch's minions, do not engage them unless they attack you first. We need all our remaining strength to take out the witch itself."
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"It's fitting, don't you think? Not this particular... theme... but considering the strange things that seem to happen here, the witches don't seem too out of place."
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It honestly made her kind of sick. Sure, the people here were much better suited for fighting than the people of Mitakihara, but still... the thought that the ship would be releasing these horrible creatures because of them was not a nice one.
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Not that there was really that many people besides Mami and Madoka on the ship that she cared about, but that was besides the point. She didn't take these powers just for the wish after all. She did it to protect innocent people from the witches. She frowned.
"Hey Mami? Did you ever find out where the witches come from anyway. I mean, I know that Kyuubey mentioned something about them coming from curses, but I never really understood that..."
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"I guess we'll never find out, now."
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"I guess it really doesn't matter. They're still here, on the ship."
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They had been making good time through the witch's maze. Several times they needed to stop to avoid being detected by the witch's minions; strange four-legged monsters, whose bodies mostly consisted of large mouths filled with razor-sharp teeth. They appeared more and more frequently as the duo moved on, sometimes appearing in packs. They couldn't avoid the minions forever, so unless they found the heart of the maze soon, they'll have a battle on their hands. And while small fry like these were no match for them, with their energy almost drained, that was probably a Bad Thing.
"We're close, I think. There should be a door around here..."
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She needed to be strong, they needed to be strong and take this thing out...
And Sayaka finally noticed the door, pointing over to it with her blade. "Found it."
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The room that housed the witch was different than the rest of the maze. It was still made of the flowing, churning who-knows-what, but instead of inky black, it was a dark, angry red, like freshly-spilled blood. The strange runes that adorned most witch mazes were present here as well. Whatever they said, the phrase was repeated over and over, the neat designs becoming more and more scrawly the more they were repeated.
And then there was the witch itself.
It had he vague form of a human girl, but only the torso, covered in tattered clothing, was even remotely normal. It had several pairs of long, spidery arms, each clawing at the ground. Where a normal girl's head would be, there was only the head of a hammer, looking as if it was sewn onto the body's neck.
Another gruesome sight. And Mami didn't seem affected at all.
"Ready?"
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Well, that was actually understandable. She had fought a few witches since that first one she had encountered, after all.
Sayaka formed a few more swords around her body. "Ready."
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"When I fire, go. I'll back you up from here!"
A simple order. So, without hesitating, Mami pulled the trigger, a loud BANG sounding throughout the room as the bullet slammed straight into the neck of the witch, just under the metal hammerhead. The surprise attack would only stun the witch for a second or two, so Sayaka had to get moving fast.
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So as soon as Mami fired the first shot, Sayaka was already flying up, two swords clutched in her hands... and somehow the other blades magically flying around her body, spinning in the air.
She flew as fast as she could towards the witch, slashing over at it's hammer-shaped head.
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There was one problem with Sayaka's attack, though: sword vs. giant hammer rarely ever works. Even with Sayaka's enhanced strength, the attack only manages to nick the steel of the witch's head. And now that the element of surprise was gone, so was their advantage.
With a screeching roar, one of the witches arms lashed out, swatting at Sayaka like she was nothing more than a pesky mosquito.
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And there Sayaka went flying, slamming into the nearby wall of the witches lair. "Owww..." she mumbled out as she freed herself from the wall and started flying towards the witch again, readying to slash at those arms.
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Fortunately for the witch, its multiple arms made it easy to do both at the same time. Mami was able to dive out of the way just in time, with only one of the creature's clawed nails grazing her arm.
It wasn't so luck with Sayaka. The witch's attack missed completely, and with the sickening sound of blade slicing through bone and flesh, the arm was cleanly severed by Sayaka's blade.
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"Miki-san, move!"
As she said this, Mami reached up, tugging at the ribbon around her neck. Instead of using it to bind the witch like she did in the fight with Signum, the ribbon twisted and changed, forming a large, cannon-like gun.
Yup, it's Finishing Move time.
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"Tiro Finale!"
A massive burst of energy tore through the witch, effectively incinerating it. The attack was a classic finishing move, so there was no fear of the witch reforming.
The dimension around them flickered and faded, and they were once again in one of the many halls of the ship. sticking straight up in the floor in front of them was their prize: a single Grief Seed. Taking a shaky step forward, Mami picked it up, and held it out to Sayaka.
"You first?"
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She held out her gem to the grief seed, watching as the black darkness from the gem moved over into the seed.
When she was finished, she pulled her Soul Gem away, looking over at Mami.
"We need to find a better way of practicing, hopefully one that won't use our Soul Gem's energy."
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Which wasn't entirely true. There was that incident in the Sensoriums with Charlotte, but that... was more of a way to put her mind at ease. She wanted to defeat that witch with her own power, to get rid of the horrid nightmares that had bee plaguing her, not train.
And speaking of witch...
"I suppose we should inform those in charge about this little incident."
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She may not have meant to sound cruel, but it was still pretty harsh. "The whole reason this ship saved us is because we're fighters. We're useful pawns for our saviors to throw at their enemy. I doubt they're going to be saving normal, mundane people that have no place in an interdimensional war."
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"But people like our teachers, acquaintances..." Friends, family. Mami, while having no friends outside of Madoka and Sayaka to speak of, and no living parents, was kind enough not to say that bit out loud. "I doubt they were saved."
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