The Heist, Part 2

Monday, 11:46 AM

Charlotte honestly couldn't remember being knocked out, but that generally was how it was supposed to work.

It was pretty easy to piece together what had happened though. When she came to, she sprawled over a framework of pipes. Directly next to her was a towering metal wall, with another several meters across from her. The length of the chasm stretched out of sight at both ends, and below her…

Charlotte looked down and felt a sinking feeling in her chest. The ground was close enough that if she reached down, her fingertips would just be able to brush it. While that was less scary than the yawning black trench it had been from the top, it meant that she was now at the bottom of that same pit. No wonder she had been knocked senseless.

She tried to ease herself up. The way her body had landed was both awkward and painful. She wouldn't be surprised if she had broken something. Fortunately, she had loaded up on med gel before setting out, so it looked like the damage was no longer crippling. Everything still hurt though, especially the back of her head.

Once she had disentangled herself from the pipes, Charlotte gingerly set one foot down on the ground. She winced as a sharp pain shot up her ankle. She tried again with the other foot. That one was still sore, but she could stand on it.

That done, she hobbled around and got as good a look at her position as she could. The light on her bracelet had been turned off in the fall, but a couple of swats got it working again.

What she saw didn't exactly fill her with hope. From down there, the height of the walls were no longer a danger to be circumnavigated but an obstacle to be scaled, and a damned intimidating one at that. There was no ladder that she could see, and while she could still had the tremendous leaping power of a Puella Magi, her pain would hamper her quite a bit. And despite the various athletic classes she had taken, she had never gotten around to mastering the trick of leaping back and forth between two walls.

She had a few things going for her though. One, she was a bit more agile than most, and a natural climber. Two, there were several pipes sticking out of the walls here and there, and while she couldn't exactly use them as a ladder, they could help her get high enough to possibly get high enough that she might be able to latch onto-

Then her shoulders slumped as she sighed when she remembered how she had cleared the chasm in the first place. Oh yeah. There was something else she could do as well. Wow, she really had to start getting used to this whole having powers thing.

Holding one hand up, Charlotte shot out wires from all five fingers as far as they would go. Which, as it turned out, was pretty damned high. They cleared the edge of the chasm and she felt them wrap around something she couldn't really see at the top. It felt solid though.

That done, she took a deep breath and started to retract the wires. As she rose up, she directed her thoughts toward the next couple of tasks ahead of her: finding those lousy, sneaky scumsuckers and tearing them apart limb from limb, and praying that she wasn't too late to save her wife and friends.

…

Sunday, 10:04 PM

"Three teams," Annabelle Lee said.

Charlotte blinked. "Teams?"

Annabelle Lee gestured toward the map on the table. In addition to Starlight Motors, two other locations had been circled, one of them a grocery store and the other indicating a maintenance hatch about a block away. "Yes. Teams. Three of them, two people each."

Charlotte took the map and scanned it. Then she looked up and turned to each individual face. Four former Void Walkers, two Tomoes. "Yeah, I'm already seeing a problem with this."

Annabelle Lee sighed. "Look, if we want those security systems down, those backup generators have to be taken down before the main power reboots. Otherwise, we have to start over, and to be quite frank, we don't have the time for that."

"No, I get that," Charlotte said, tossing the map back onto the diner table. "But the issue I have is the whole splitting up part."

"I didn't design the system," Annabelle Lee said coldly.

"But you are the one explaining it to us."

Annabelle Lee leaned back into her chair and crossed her arms. "So you think I'm lying."

"Yes," Charlotte said without hesitation.

No weapons were drawn and no threats were issued, but the tension around the table rose to a palpable level. Annabelle Lee's eyes narrowed, and almost as if an invisible signal had been given, her sister swung her legs around to crouch on her chair in one fluid movement. The Twins didn't move much, but Nie did casually slip her hands off the table and let them slide down toward her holsters while Arzt shifted her weight, syringe-hand lowered out of sight while her legs moved around to hang off the side of the booth. Seeing the change of mood, Charlotte leaned back and let her right hand fall to one of the pistols she had hidden in her jacket. Mami didn't move much at all. If it came down to it, she wouldn't need to.

Behind them, a subdued cry of dismay came from the crowd watching the news as the situation on the street took a turn for the worst. Mami gritted her teeth but didn't move.

Then Annabelle Lee growled and got up. "Fine, whatever," she said, gathering her maps together. "You've got more to gain in this than we do. Good luck."

Mami sighed and held up a hand. "Who exactly did you see being in each team?"

A little bit of the tension eased away. Not all of it, but at least Nikki lowered herself out of her crouch. Sitting back down, Annabelle Lee said, "Nie and Arzt specialize in stealth and sabotage, so they have the best chance of getting past the guards underground." She shot The Twins a brief glance. "Theoretically. I mean, assuming recent events were nothing more than flukes."

Arzt raised her syringe-hand and tapped her index needle against her chin. "Ask Lily."

"Right." Annabelle Lee motioned toward the Tomoes with her pen. "You two are the most inexperienced, so you can have the one hidden under the grocery store. That's the easiest to reach if you know where it is, and-"

"Which leaves you and your sister as the ones to infiltrate the Brothel's headquarters," Mami said, her voice cold. "Which means you'll be the ones responsible for springing our friends."

"Well, yeah," Annabelle Lee said with a shrug. "Infiltration is sort of our thing."

Mami shook her head. "I don't think so."

Annabelle Lee quirked an eyebrow. "You still think we're going to betray you," she said, her tone weary.

"I know you're going to betray us," Mami clarified. "I just wish you wouldn't be so obvious about it."

Annabelle Lee spread her hands. "And what exactly would set your mind at ease so we can get on with this already?"

"The four of you handle the generators," Mami told her. "Charlotte and I will rescue Kyoko and Oktavia."

"Ha!" Annabelle Lee barked. "No."

"What do you have to lose?" Charlotte challenged. "You're just doing this for revenge, right? So what does it matter if we're the ones actually doing the rescue?"

The look that comment earned her could only be described as "contemptuous." "Because you're a couple of inexperienced amateurs that will probably just screw everything up," Annabelle Lee said. "And while we're on the subject of revenge, what's to stop you from tipping the authorities off to where we are once you've got the goods?" She tapped the end of her pen against the circled location of Starlight Motors. "You gotta admit, we'd make for some fantastic scapegoats, especially if you're still worried about the whole back-stabby thing."

"Which we are," Mami said.

Annabelle Lee nodded. "Which you are."

Letting out a low growl, Arzt turned to Annabelle Lee and said, "This is ridiculous. I say we ditch the whiners and just handle it ourselves. Much less chance of things falling apart that way."

"We need at least two more people to make this work," Annabelle Lee responded, not taking her eyes off of Mami.

"Not if we work fast."

Annabelle Lee shook her head. "Not nearly fast enough. We're working against the Brothel here." There was a heavy pause as the others waited for her to finish thinking. Finally she sighed and said, "Okay, fine." She nodded to Mami. "You and I will handle the rescue. Your firepower and decoys would be more useful there anyway. Nikki and Nie will take the grocery store, and Arzt and Charlotte can handle the sewers."

Charlotte stared. "Are you serious?" She stuck a thumb at the smirking Arzt. "You're leaving me alone with this psycho?"

"Are you really so scared of little old me?" Arzt taunted.

"I saw what you did to Lily," Charlotte said. "And don't get me wrong, she totally deserved it, but I'm not aiming to be joining her in that pit."

Arzt rolled her eyes. "Then bring a gun and cover my back. I can't stick you if you're behind me."

Charlotte wasn't the only one to have problems with the new arrangement. Shooting a look of terror at Nie, Ticky Nikki whined, "No! Nikki doesn't wanna go with her!"

Sighing, Annabelle Lee closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Nikki, not now."

"But she'll keep touching Nikki!"

Mami started. "Wait, what?"

"Not like that," Annabelle Lee quickly assured her. "They like to dote on her a lot, give her hugs and whatnot. It's really annoying."

Nie leaned over the table to smile sunnily at Nikki. "Personally, I see it as providing some much-needed affection, very important in every child's life."

Mami and Charlotte both stared. They already knew that Reibey's rejects were bad news, but this was taking things to whole new levels of creepy.

"Chill out, Goldilocks," Annabelle Lee said, her finger tapping impatiently against the table. "I already told you it's not like that. Besides, Nikki's older than your mom, and the only people these two twats get that sort of touchy-feely with are each other."

"And Theresa!" Nie brightly chimed in.

Arzt nodded and moved in to snuggle against Nie's shoulder. "But just the one time. As a favor."

This bit of information actually seemed to take Annabelle Lee by surprise. "Wait, what?" she said, staring. "Who the hell is Theresa?"

"You wouldn't know her," Arzt murmured, her syringe-hand coming up to stroke Nie's hair.

"Of course, the odds of Annabelle Lee knowing anyone are astronomically small, if you know what I mean," Nie added.

"Oh, I always know what you mean," Arzt said coyly. As one they moved their faces toward one another. "I know everything about you."

Their lips met in a very un-sisterly manner. Both Mami and Charlotte gaped. This had gone beyond creepy. This had jumped off the creepy rail and plowed merrily into downtown Debauchery City.

Turning her head to stare at Annabelle Lee, who had buried her face in her hands, Charlotte summed up their thoughts as such: "What. The. Fuck?"

The flats of Annabelle Lee's palms down onto the table, making everything jump. "Stop!" she snapped. "Stop, stop, stop, enough! Goddamn you people! Can you stay focused for five fucking minutes!" She slumped forward, her hands clutching at her wild, amethyst hair. "God!"

Charlotte just kept staring. "You want I should order you some decaf?"

"Shut up, just…" Annabelle Lee composed herself, though it took a considerable amount of willpower to do so. "Okay. We're racing the clock here, so if there's no more objections, let's try to figure out how to make this trainwreck work."

…

Monday, 1:02 AM

Kyoko had to admit, sometimes she missed that dark place she had gone to after her family's death. It had been horrible, yes, and it had made her horrible. She had stood by and watched as rogue familiars hunted and killed innocent people. She had beaten down rival magical girls and left them behind without a thought to their condition. She had lied, stolen, and took whatever she wanted however she wanted. And that wasn't even getting to how her first encounter with Sayaka had turned out…

In a way, dying had been a sort of salvation, a way of clearing out the dark fog that had enveloped her mind and soul. And while she knew that she still had a way to go, she took solace in the knowledge that she was getting better.

But she still missed the simplicity of it. She missed not caring. Because if she didn't have to care, she didn't have to feel so guilty about having hurt Sayaka, even if it had been an innocent mistake.

The mermaid was still ignoring her. She lay on her side, hands and tail still bound, her back to Kyoko. Kyoko had been trying to open up some sort of dialogue ever since her slip about fifteen minutes ago, and thus far hadn't managed to get so much as a word out of her.

Sighing, she leaned her head back against the storeroom wall and tried again. "Hey."

Sayaka didn't respond, though her hands tensed up.

"Hey, c'mon," Kyoko said. "Talk to me here."

Nothing, though she did catch some smirks from the imprisoned Brothel employees.

Rolling her eyes, Kyoko went for the apology. Again. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It was an accident. It just slipped out."

Sayaka didn't seem to have even heard her, and as bad as Kyoko felt about her slip-up, Sayaka's refusal to acknowledge her was really pissing her off. She had brushed off that same mistake in the past. So why get all pissy now? "Hey, this is not the time to get all pouty, all right?" Kyoko snapped. "I already apologized, so get over it already!"

Then the bird-girl spoke. "Sayaka is her original name, is it not?"

"Mind your own fucking business!" Kyoko snapped.

The edges of Kisa's beaklike snout parted. Despite the differences in anatomy, Kyoko knew a smirk when she saw one. Which was kind of odd, seeing how her leg was still kind of flat. Wasn't she in any kind of pain at all? "In which case, I think it'll be a long while until she starts speaking to you again."

Didn't Kyoko know it. Stupid afterlife with its stupid rules. "All right, fine!" she said, shifting around to talk to her more properly. "Then you talk to me! Who the hell are you people already? What's the Brothel? Where are we? What were you going to do with us?"

More of Kisa's teeth showed. "Mind your own fucking business," she said, doing a passable imitation of Kyoko's voice.

Kyoko slumped back in frustration. Her hands, still tied behind her back, were starting to fall asleep. "All right. Keep your company secrets. What about Brooklyn? Who is she? What's her deal?"

Kisa's smile vanished. Her golden eyes flitted briefly over to one of the bound humans, a pudgy girl with short, green hair. Then she sighed and said, "A thug, as you've no doubt pieced together. Just a two-bit thug."

"Yeah?" Kyoko sneered. "Well, that two-bit thug has your balls in a vice."

The muscles in Kisa's neck flexed in a manner that conveyed a shrug. "Give her credit for striking at a moment of weakness, then. She heads one of the local gangs and keeps her throne due to her impressive physical gifts and a surprising amount of craftiness." Kisa did her little vekoo shrug again. "But beyond that? A thug, nothing more."

Kyoko cocked an eyebrow. "Really? Just a thug? Look, I'm not an idiot, okay? You guys are like the yakuza, right? Top of the organized crime food chain? And you let yourselves get taken down by an ordinary street gang?"

Kisa let out a snort. "As I said, she struck at the right time. I will give her credit, she's cunning enough, and ever the opportunist. And it does help that her gang is one of the largest in the city. Numbers do carry weight, after all." She cast a contemptuous glance over to the door. "That doesn't change the fact that she's an idiot. Oh, certainly, she may be cunning enough and quick to adapt, but does not tend to think things through."

"You don't seem really bothered about her taking over your place."

Kisa's neck rippled. Kyoko took the meaning. Judging by Brooklyn's little breakdown earlier, even she knew that things weren't going to end well for her.

Kyoko sighed. Crime politics were, in many ways, even more complicated than actual politics, and far more straightforward. She changed the subject. "Okay, tell me this. Brooklyn said something about you not giving her drops. What did that mean?"

Kisa let out a soft sigh. "Current events necessitated that we place all standing business transactions on hold until the situation could be controlled. Brooklyn, unfortunately, refused to understand our predicament."

Kyoko frowned. "What are drops?" she asked. "Are they-"

Then a memory was knocked loose. It was a very recent one, but their current predicament had pushed it to the back of her mind. However, even as Kyoko spoke her question, it was yanked forward to provide an answer. She saw Lily, the leader of the Persephone Protectorate. In the fairy's hands was an open suitcase. And in the suitcase were numerous glass vials, each one filled with-

Kyoko inhaled sharply. "Hold up, you're not talking about crazy drops, are you?"

This time, Kisa didn't answer. Her facial expression didn't even change. She just stared.

"Holy shit," Kyoko breathed. Suddenly things were making a lot more sense. "You were selling her that shit from Etherdale, the stuff those leechers were making out of those crazy girls and-"

And then something else was slammed to the forefront of her thoughts, a realization this time. Actually, it had been something that she had already figured out, but had been trying very hard not to think about. There was no avoiding it now though.

"Wait," Kyoko said, staring. "Wait, wait, wait, the Persephone Protectorate gave us to you. The Persephone Protectorate were the leechers. They were selling you what they made, and you were the ones selling it to everyone else."

Kisa did another one of those alien shrugs. "Maintaining an operation of our size is expensive. They needed distributers. It was a mutually beneficial relationship."

"You sack of shit," Kyoko growled. Her hands weren't clean by any stretch of the imagination, but goddamn!

For her part, Kisa didn't seem at all bothered by Kyoko's anger. She just smirked again and said, "You're brand new, aren't you, little girl?"

And then finally Sayaka decided to speak up. Turning around the best she could, she focused on Kisa and said, "Lily. How'd she convince us like that?"

"Lily…" Kisa made a face. "…was a very persuasive speaker."

Well, that confirmed the mind-control theory. Kyoko felt a little better about that. At least she hadn't roomed with leechers and given herself up out of her own free will. But it also left her feeling nauseated. Again she remembered her father's congregation. So, this was what it felt like.

However, Kisa's answer had included a very important distinction, one she had caught. "Was?"

"So it would seem," Kisa said. Something about her tone sent chills down Kyoko's spine.

Sayaka had caught it too. "Yeah, but won't she just come back?" she asked.

Kisa smiled, and not in a happy sort of way. "If she does, then she'd better hope it's in a maximum security penal facility."

"Why?" Kyoko whispered, though she had already guessed the answer.

"Because all of this is due to her incompetence," Kisa said calmly. "My organization is unhappy with the current state of affairs, and once we're finished cleaning up this mess, the majority of the blame will most likely fall in her lap."

And with that, Broolyn's actions when she realized exactly who she had decided to mess with became all the more understandable. Apparently, the Brothel did not fuck around. Kyoko was still a little curious though. "What about Brooklyn?"

"Like I said." Kisa leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes. "She's an idiot, one that doesn't think things through. A temporary inconvenience."

…

Monday, 2:56 AM

"Wow," Charlotte said, staring. "That's, uh. That's a lot of angry people."

It was indeed. In the short time that it took them to travel from the diner to Starlight Motors, the crowd that they had seen holovids had grown exponentially. Now the entire surrounding neighborhood was drowning in a sea of bodies, all of them furious. Fists were waved, signs were held high, and everywhere the magical weapons of the Puella Magi were brandished. The air was filled with shouts and curses, almost drowning out the amplified pleas from the marshals to disperse. Overhead, the Militia's ships hovered, their spotlights dancing over the multitude. And they were still three blocks away.

It had been like this the whole way in. Protests were everywhere, though of course they were growing thicker the further their little party went in. In some places the protests had unfortunately already blossomed into violence. Mami had counted at least three ongoing battles between marshals and rioters, and that was just in the places that the marshals had managed to gather in force strong enough to fight back. Fires were burning and many places were under siege.

Adding to it, in the chaos caused by the protestors' anger, there were also the opportunistic. The greedy and the vengeful had been drawn out, and now old scores were being settled in disproportionate manner while stores and homes were being looted of everything valuable.

Of course, from above it all looked the same. The battle against the recently exposed corruption and the race for personal gratification was happening right on top of each other, and it was difficult to distinguish between the two. It was a godawful mess, and Mami had no idea how it was going to be cleaned up. The Militia was dirty, so they couldn't be trusted to fix things. And even if the local politicians had clean hands (which Mami severely doubted), this had gone so far out of their control that any attempt to regain some measure of sanity beyond their power.

Marsters had sinned. And now, Marsters was going to pay its debts.

In response to Charlotte's words, Nie nodded and smirked. "Yeah, it is," she said. "That's what happens when all of your dirty laundry gets dumped on the street. It catches fire."

Mami couldn't disagree with that. Then she turned to look at Annabelle Lee and her brow furrowed. If the former Void Walker had looked bad back in the diner, now she was even worse. She was sweating heavily, her wild hair now plastered to her head in greasy strands. Her breathing was becoming progressively more labored the further they went in, and she looked like she was holding back vomit. Furthermore, Mami noted that every time they encountered a particularly large crowd, Annabelle Lee would immediately change course, opting to take a route with a lesser density of people. At first Mami thought it was to avoid trouble, but as the number of bodies increased and the opportunity to detour disappeared, Annabelle Lee looked worse and worse. Now they were on the sidewalk, practically pressing themselves to the sides of the buildings while madness churned all around them, and their so-called "leader" seemed to be fighting off a panic attack.

Mami stared at her. "Ah, are you…"

Annabelle Lee growled and swiped a hand in her direction.

"Annabelle Lee this thing about tight spaces," Arzt said calmly. In contrast to Annabelle Lee, both she and her sister seemed to be utterly at ease with the turmoil going on all around them. In fact, they seemed to find it mildly amusing, as if they were just watching a fight between two combatants that they didn't particularly care about on pay-per-view. "And crowds. Never really was much of a people person, where you, Annabelly?"

"Go jump in a river and drown," Annabelle Lee growled.

"She's claustrophobic?" Charlotte asked.

Nie rolled her eyes. "Leave it to you to have to have it spelled out to you. Yes. She spends most of her time flying with no one but her sister for company. You ever try to stick a bird into a gopher hole? Same-"

One of the vandals suddenly rushed right toward them, hollering the whole way. From the look of things, she wasn't out to stand up to corruption or even fill her pockets. She had just had too much to drink and knew a good time when she saw it, and apparently had picked out their small party as a potential source for further amusement.

Apparently The Twins disagreed. The drunk got as far as jostling Arzt's shoulder before Arzt seized her by the wrist and shoved her forearm into the crux of the drunk's elbow, twisting her arm around painfully as she did so. Then, with one casual movement, she swung her leg up and over the drunk's arm and brought it down on her shoulder, forcing her to the ground. Nie drew a pistol and calmly put two shots in her head, and she was done for the night.

"-basic principle," Nie finished, holstering her weapon. The whole thing had taken about three seconds.

Mami stared at the dead girl's face. True, she would be right as rain by tomorrow, but if her sightless eyes and the holes in her head didn't paint a fitting picture of what the Brothel's influence had done to this city, then she didn't know what did.

"Off the street," Annabelle Lee growled. "Alley."

They were still a few blocks away from Startlight Motors, but they had never planned on going through the front door. Annabelle Lee hastily led them down a side alley, thankfully away from the bulk of the crowd, and into the dark.

Unfortunately, they weren't the first ones there.

Two shadows moved, and Mami heard one of them say, "Well. Well, well, well. You guys lost?"

"Beat it," Annabelle Lee said.

"Yeah, no," said the other. Then she lifted something that even in the dark was quite obviously a gun. "We were here first, so unless you guys want-"

"Nikki," Annabelle Lee said.

Another, much smaller shadow dropped from above, and the two others fell lifelessly to the ground, a knife in each one of their heads. Chortling, Ticky Nikki crawled away from them on all fours and settled down on her haunches near the wall. Her mad eyes glowed eerily in the darkness.

"Good job," Annabelle Lee said. "Any more?"

Nikki shook her head. "Nuh-uh. All clear now, ticky-ticky."

Nodding her thanks to her sister, Annabelle Lee bent over to examine Nikki's victims. On one finger she wore a small plastic ring with a light built into it. Turning it in, she shone it over their faces and frowned. "Huh," she said.

"What is it?" Mami said, kneeling down next to her. There didn't seem to be anything especially remarkable about them. Judging by their clothing, they were delinquents of some kind, a common enough sight in back alleys. And both of them carried factory-produced weapons.

"These guys," Annabelle Lee said, "are not supposed to be here."

"How do you figure?"

"Look at this." Annabelle Lee pulled the sleeves away from the downed girls' arms. On both of their right shoulders there was a tattoo of a hammer super-imposed over three skulls. "Gang tats. Every gang in Marsters has these."

"So? This seems exactly the sort of place one would find gangmembers."

Yeah, but look at those guns. Those look like the sort of thing you can pick up at your local quickie mart?"

They did not. Quite the contrary, they were sleek and black and very dangerous looking. Mami didn't have much experience in such matters, but even to her these were obviously military grade.

"Brothel make," Annabelle Lee confirmed.

"Now, why would a couple of lowlifes be packing hardware like that?" Charlotte said, leaning over Mami's shoulder to see.

"And more to the point, why are they hanging out here instead of using them out there?" Annabelle Lee nodded back toward the street. "This whole city is ripe for plucking. It's like an all-you-can-eat buffet. So why were they hiding out in here?"

"Guards," Nie said.

"Correct," Annabelle Lee nodded.

Mami frowned. "The Brothel?"

Annabelle Lee shot her a look of disdain. "If they were, do you really think we would have seen them? Or that there would just be two of them? No, something's up. Those are Brothel guns all right, but those ain't Brothel goons holding them."

"Wonderful," Arzt hissed. "So, what exactly do we do about it?"

"What can we do?" Annabelle Lee shrugged. "Keep to the plan, and improvise if necessary." She nodded to Nie. "You and Nikki have your job. Go do it."

Nie bowed at the waist. "As you wish, oh fearless leader." Turning to Nikki, she sat in a syrupy tone, "Come now, darling Nikki. Let's go grocery shopping."

"Annabelly," Nikki whined.

"Do it, Nikki," Annabelle Lee told her. To Nie, she added, "And keep your hands to yourself. Got it?"

"Aye, aye, oh captain my captain." Then, turning to her sister, she raised a hand to gently caress Arzt's cheek. "And you take care of yourself," she said, leaning forward to rest their foreheads together. "Remember that I am always with you."

Arzt smiled, covering Nie's hand with her syringes. "A kiss to send us off then," she murmured, and their lips met. Drawing back, she said, "I need only the memory of your lips, and it's like you're looking over my shoulder, protecting me."

"Hey!" Annabelle Lee snapped. "Move it along, okay?"

Ignoring her protests, Nie said, "Be safe," and they parted, their fingers lingering on each other for a moment before Nie headed off into the shadows at the far end of the alley. After a moment of hesitation, Ticky Nikki growled and sauntered off after her. The darkness swallowed them up and they were gone.

Mami stared after them. Then she turned to exchange an uncomfortable look with Charlotte. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. There really was no possible way she could react to that.

Oddly enough, Annabelle Lee seemed to be in agreement with them. "Freaking goddamned incest-loving narcissistic skanks," she muttered as she hauled a dumpster away from the wall. Then, shooting a glare to Charlotte, she snapped, "Hey! You two have a job too! Get to it!"

Charlotte turned to glance at Arzt, who seemed to be enjoying the discomfort she had caused. "Right," she said. She nodded toward the street. "You first."

Arzt smirked, but complied, hips swaying in an exaggerated manner. She didn't get far before Mami slapped a hand down on her shoulder.

Arzt paused. "Yes?"

Taking a deep breath, Mami said, "I suppose this goes without saying, but if you lay one finger on her, one needle, then I-"

"Got it," Arzt said, yanking her shoulder away. "Shot through full of a holes, etcetera. I understand." She glanced to Arzt. "Well? Are you coming?"

Charlotte glowered at her. Then she turned to Mami. "Hey, watch yourself." She said, slipping her arms around Mami's waist and holding her close. "And keep an eye on that creep."

"I will," Mami said, pecking her lips. "You as well."

"Both eyes, even though I really don't want to. God, those two are messed up."

Mami had to nod in agreement. "I love you," she said.

"Same." Charlotte sighed. "Wow. How did we end up here?"

Mami smiled. "The hard way." There was a short pause, and she said, "I'll bring Kyoko and Oktavia back safely. I promise."

"Better." They parted, and Charlotte said, "See you on the other side."

"Oh, for the love of-" Annabelle Lee groused. "Wrap it up already! The first one was painful enough!"

Mami shot her look. "We are married and unrelated. It's not the same."

"Does it look like I care? You're still wasting time!"

Charlotte shrugged. "Well, she's not wrong. Okay."

Mami watched as Charlotte went to follow Arzt. She felt a lump in her throat and found herself praying silently that this wasn't the last time she would see her wife.

"Hey!" Annabelle Lee called. "We're on a clock here!"

Taking a deep breath, Mami turned to face her. "All right," she said, keeping her voice neutral. "Let's go."

"About friggin' time." Annabelle Lee leaned over and picked up a length of chain that had been hidden under the dumpster. She pulled, and a section of the ground lifted up, revealing a round hole, barely wide enough for a single person. There was no light inside.

Annabelle Lee paused. She stared down into the hole, eyes scared. She licked her lips, and her hands trembled.

Mami frowned. "Are you going to be okay with this?"

Annabelle Lee shivered. "Not much of a choice, is there? You first."

"What?"

"I said, you first," Annabelle Lee said stonily. "You're the one with the firepower, right? That makes you the heavy."

Actually, Mami was fairly certain it had more to do with Annabelle Lee not wanting a body between her and the exit, but she decided not to make an issue of it. "Should I disguise us now?" she said.

A wave of nausea passed over Annabelle Lee's face, but she gave a curt nod. "Do it."

Mami nodded. She waved her hand, and a cocoon of ribbons appeared around each of them. They constricted and changed their appearances. When they were done, neither Mami nor Annabelle Lee looked like themselves. Instead, they looked like a couple of non-descript human girls wearing the black uniforms of the Brothel. Their faces had been changed to match two of the employees that they had found in Lily's files.

Annabelle Lee shivered again, but then composed herself. "I really hope we don't meet ourselves," she said.

Mami nodded. "What about those gangmembers though? If they're the ones out here guarding things-"

"If the Brothel's not in charge anymore, you change us to these losers," Annabelle Lee said, gesturing to the two downed guards. "Now, get in there already!"

Well, nothing for it then. Steadying herself the best she could, Mami gingerly lowered herself into the hole. Her feet found the rungs of a ladder, and she started to climb down. After a long moment of hesitation, Annabelle Lee moved to follow.

Hang on, guys, Mami thought as they descended deeper into the dark. We're coming.

…

Monday, 12:26 AM

The door to the storeroom burst open, and a few of Brooklyn's goons stormed their way in.

Surprised by the sudden intrusion, Kyoko stiffened and said, "Wait, what the-"

"Take 'em," said one of the goons, and the others immediately seized her and Sayaka. They also grabbed Kisa the bird alien from the wall and hauled them from the room.

Even though Kyoko knew that it probably wouldn't end well, she tried to fight back. Kicking and struggling didn't do any good, so she went for biting. She tried throwing shield-plates in her captor's way and sending tiny spears flying from the walls.

This got her a fist to the gut. "Quit it, or I take an eye," warned the goon carrying her.

"Kyoko, don't," Sayaka panted. The mermaid was thrown over another goon's shoulder. Despite her awkward position, she still managed to twist around enough to shoot Kyoko a pleading look. Though it galled her to do so, Kyoko knew she was right. Now was not the time.

The three of them were carried into what appeared to be some kind of control room, albeit a very stark one. There were a lot of goons working on what Kyoko guessed were futuristic computers, or at least they would be if most of them hadn't been taken apart. A large screen took up one wall, displaying a montage of nonsense. More goons hunched at the controls in front of it, scowling as they tried to…find whatever they were looking for. Apparently the nonsense wasn't it.

That giant of a girl, Brooklyn, was there. She paced back and forth in the center of the room, holding her warhammer in one hand and thumping it against the opposite palm as easily as if it were a baseball bat. Her face was contorted with anxiety, and she kept twitching and muttering under her breath. She looked ten shades of crazy, not a comforting look on someone so physically capable.

Oh crap, Kyoko thought when she realized what Broolyn's problem was. Kyoko had spent a great deal of time in the nastier parts of various towns, and she knew withdrawal signs when she saw them. Brooklyn was a junkie. A gigantic, overly-muscled junkie who had gone too long without a fix. And she had a very large hammer. There really was no way this played out that went well for any of them.

As soon as she saw that her goons had returned with captives in tow, Brooklyn wasted no time in asking questions. "You," she growled, stomping up to Kisa. Kyoko could swear that she felt the ground shake beneath those mega-sized boots. "Bird. Where's the drops?"

Kisa's only answer was a cold stare.

Brooklyn's lip curled. She turned to her goons and snapped, "Show me some leg." She rolled her wrist around impatiently. "Some leg now. C'mon."

At first Kyoko thought that they were being ordered to strip, which made no sense to her at all. After all, was this really the time or place for cheesecake?

But then Brooklyn's goons pushed Kisa down to the floor and two of them yanked one of her legs out to its full length, and Kyoko understood.

Brooklyn raised her hammer high, and Kyoko quickly turned her head away and closed her eyes. She heard a crunch and short, pain-filled inhalation.

Opening her eyes, Kyoko saw Brooklyn kneeling down, one meaty hand gripping Kisa's snout. One of the vekoo's knees was now considerably flatter than the other. "Did you hear me?" Brooklyn demanded. "I just asked you a very simple question. Where's the drops?"

Despite the obvious pain she was in, Kisa still managed a harsh sounding snicker.

Her face turning white, Brooklyn shoved the wounded alien aside and stood up. "Okay. Okay, okay, okay." She motioned toward Kyoko and Oktavia. "How about these guys? These guys are important, right? They didn't have no fancy uniforms, so I figure they must be like important visitors. Clients. VIP's." She hefted her hammer up. "How good will your business be after I get done smashing their faces in?"

"What?" Kyoko sputtered. "The hell we are! They were holding us prisoner!"

"Really?" Brooklyn looked over to her in curiosity. "For what?"

Mentally kicking herself for letting herself slip, Kyoko clamped her jaw shut.

Predictably, this only made Brooklyn angrier. "C'mon, little girl," she hissed. She knelt down in front of Kyoko with far more fluidity than someone of her size should have been capable of. "You got a big mouth, I can tell. What you know about these guys?"

Kyoko tried very hard to keep from glowering defiantly, but despite Brooklyn's size and her own helpless state, the ugly brute was pissing her off. "Less than you," she said.

Brooklyn snorted. "I've been buying from these assholes for months, they never let me down once, never broke a date," she said, motioning over to Kisa with her hammer. "Then all of a fucking sudden, they go and decide to cancel on me last minute, just like that. I got some real issues with that, you know? Totally unprofessional!"

Wait, something wasn't adding up. "And you never knew who they were?" Kyoko said, hoping that asking questions wasn't considered an act of defiance.

It wasn't, fortunately enough. Shrugging, Brooklyn said, "Never bothered to ask. They say be there with the money, I was there with the money. Someone shows up, gives me a few vials, I give them the cash, everyone's happy! Who cares who they were?"

"You, apparently," Sayaka said.

Kyoko winced. Given Brooklyn's earlier attitude toward her, she seriously doubted that Brooklyn would tolerate any sort of cheek from the mermaid.

She was right. Brooklyn barely glanced at Sayaka before saying, "Hit her."

One of the goons standing over Sayaka grinned and balled up her fist. Then she picked the blunette up by the collar of her shirt and drove it into her stomach. Sayaka gasped in pain.

This really set Kyoko's teeth on edge. "Hey!" she snapped, struggling to push herself into Brooklyn's face. "Keep your filthy hands off-"

Then the cold metal head of Brooklyn's warhammer was pressed to her lips, shoving them painfully against her teeth. "You stop talking, little girl," Brooklyn said, standing up. "And tell your crippled friend that if she opens her mouth again, teeth get broke."

Okay, that did. Yanking her mouth away, Kyoko shouted, "She's not a cripple, you idiot! She's a mer-"

Brooklyn smacked the back of her hand against Kyoko's temple.

Kyoko had taken some hard hits in her time. She had been beat up, burned, knocked around, electrocuted, stabbed, and, in one memorable occurrence, just about skinned alive. Pain had become something of a constant in her life, and she had grown accustomed to it. The magic helped block part of it out, and the rest was rendered insignificant through sheer toughness. Compared to all that, that blow really didn't rank all that high on her personal list of worst injuries taken.

But even so, she had to admit that Brooklyn had a mean backhand.

As she blinked away stars and struggled clear away the cobwebs from her thoughts, she heard Brooklyn say, "That's for the sass. Next time, I take an arm. Whole arm, right off."

Kyoko believed her.

Turning back to Kisa, the big asshole said, "You got some real smartasses working here, birdie. So why don't you come clean and tell the Big Boss who you really-"

"Uh, Brooklyn?"

Brooklyn whirled around, irritation flashing in her eyes and nostrils flaring. Clearly she did not appreciate being interrupted.

It was one of her goons, one of the ones that had been trying to crack into the computers. Despite the layer of grease she was wearing, the girl had still gone visibly white. "I think you might want to take a look at this," she said.

She tapped a few keys, and an image appeared on the big screen. Shaking her head, Kyoko sat up the best she could. She blinked a few times and squinted, trying to figure out what the big deal was.

It was a picture of a bleeding heart sitting over a pair of crossed assault rifles. Kyoko frowned. She had never seen that symbol before, though that wasn't surprising. However, it was obviously known to just about everyone else. Brooklyn's goons lost their cockiness at once, and a wave of nervous murmuring and whispered curses spread through the room. Though she knew that anything that made this gang so scared was probably really bad news to her as well, she couldn't help but enjoy the sight of them nearly pissing themselves.

Wonderfully enough, the most affected so happened to be Brooklyn herself. The anger left her face, and her skin went as white as salt. "No," she whispered, taking a step back. "No, no, no, no. Not this. No way."

Then she slowly turned to Kisa, who was observing the display with just a hint of smugness. "You g-guys are the Brothel?" Brooklyn stammered. "Like, the Brothel?"

Kisa closed her eyes and said in a serene murmur, "Everyone's got to be something."

Kyoko still had no idea what was being talked about, but she allowed herself a perverse amount of enjoyment in just how much the revelation was freaking Brooklyn out. The big girl was actually shaking. She clutched at the pole of her hammer like it was a teddy bear while she muttered under her breath, "Oh shit. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Even though it was probably a bad idea, Kyoko couldn't help but say, "Sounds like you gone and goofed things up, didn't'cha?"

Brooklyn's eyes blazed. "You. You shut up right now, or-"

She stumbled a bit, trying to come up with a suitable threat, but apparently the shock had robbed her of that. She didn't even try to hit Kyoko. Instead, she just let it go, and went back to her breakdown.

"No. I can't…" she muttered as she started to pace.

Then one of the goons said, "What do we do, Broo-"

This proved to be a mistake, as Brooklyn immediately swung her around and sent the girl sprawling.

"Shut up, idiot!" Brooklyn shouted at her cowering henchwoman. "I'm trying to think!

Yeah, Kyoko thought woozily. Good luck with that. First time's always a bitch. She scowled as shook her head back and forth in an attempt to clear away the last bits of bitchslap-induced grogginess.

True enough, Brooklyn seemed to be having a hard time with it. She stomped back and forth, one hand grabbing at her forehead while her mouth kept muttering at breakneck speeds. Kyoko couldn't hear what was being said, but if she had to guess, it was probably something nonsensical.

This was proven when Brooklyn suddenly raised her voice without even bothering to finish the sentence she was in the middle of. "…or they can all just fuck off like the bunch of-Hey!" she hollered to everyone in the room. "I said shut up! I can't think when everyone's being all loud!"

Everyone stared. As no one except her had been talking at that point, no one was exactly sure how to react. Kyoko twisted her head around to look at Kisa. When she saw that she had the alien's attention, she mouthed, what the hell?

Kisa sighed.

"Okay. Okay, okay, okay, too loud," Brooklyn muttered, though whether it was to herself or to her gang couldn't be judged. "They're being too loud. Hey!" she snapped at the goons that had dragged her captives into the room. "Get these whores out of here, all right? I need room to think, and can't do that with them still here! Put them back already!"

As the punks hurried to obey, Kyoko's eyes flitted from Brooklyn, who, despite her size and the fact that her gang had essentially seized control of…whatever this place was, was having quite the spectacular breakdown.

Then she looked over to Kisa, who, despite having been taken captive and her leg crushed, seemed to be entirely unconcerned with her current predicament. Which led Kyoko to come to a troubling conclusion about the creeps that had them locked up and the creeps they were locked up with, and which ones she should be worried about.

…

Monday, 2:39 PM

Her hands shaking, Mami pulled out a syringe full of SolBlanc. She yanked the rubber cap off with her teeth and plunged it into her arm.

She barely felt the needle's bite, but the wave of warm sickness nearly made her vomit. That had already struck her as a strange design flaw. SolBlanc was supposed to help those in combat situations continue using their magic to fight without succumbing to the exhaustion caused by vapor drain. How were they supposed to do that while trying to hold their stomach in at the same time, Mami couldn't understand.

However, her tank was running low, and she needed all the juice she could get if she wanted a prayer of getting through the next few moments. Forget Annabelle Lee and whatever gangsters that were still prowling around, that girl with the minigun was a Grade-A nightmare. Mami knew she didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of defeating her. She just needed to survive her long enough for an opportunity to rescue Kyoko and Oktavia to open up, assuming one did.

Though that still left the girl's boss. Mami didn't have a clue how she was going to handle her.

Well, her problems weren't going to solve themselves. Taking a deep breath and fighting back the fever as best she could, Mami started to crawl through the ventilation shaft.

Outside, the mystery girl's oversized weapon was still spewing forth a symphony of bullets. Over it, Mami could hear Charlotte yelling and screaming, though her cries just a little too loud for it to be truly genuine. She was doing her job of drawing the mystery girl's fire, giving Mami a chance of getting the drop on her. Of course, the fact that she was actually terrified probably helped her play the part. Mami vowed not to waste it.

There! Peeking through a grate, Mami saw the mystery girl walking down the corridor directly below her. Again she was struck by just how small she was. The girl looked like she wasn't much more than a meter and a half tall, and had to weigh about ninety pounds at most. That gun she was carrying was probably taller than her when stood up on one end, and had to weigh far more than she did. Even with the enhanced strength all Puella Magi had, the ease with which she carried it around was still disconcerting, as was the blank expression on her face as she fired it off. If the bloated thing was giving off any sort of recoil at all, she certainly wasn't showing it.

Not even daring to breathe, Mami waited until she had passed completely beneath her before springing her trap. She stealthily lowered one end of a ribbon down into the hallway. Normally that would lead into her opponent suddenly finding them wrapped up like a mummy or under attack from numerous firearms that hadn't been there a second earlier, but Mami was taking no chances. This girl was good; the Matriarch wouldn't have summoned her if she wasn't. And Mami couldn't count on her regular tricks to do the job.

So instead, Mami was going to rely on herself. By proxy.

The end of the ribbon bulged out, becoming dozens of ribbons that swirled around each other before constricting into a human shape. And then Mami Tomoe crouched in the hallway behind the mystery girl, a musket in hand. She took aim at her opponent's head and fired.

As predicted, the mystery girl's reflexes were nothing short of sublime, and the shot never hit. The minigun was whipped around so quickly that a case could be made for teleportation and the onslaught continued. Mami rolled out of the way, firing off muskets in quick succession.

As her duplicate kept the mystery girl busy, the real Mami scampered as quickly as she could through the ducts, praying that her memory of the layout was accurate, praying that she had not gone the wrong way.

She hadn't. A moment later she was peering through another grate at an awful sight.

Kyoko and Oktavia were still bound, with the Matriarch hovering over them. The blind Void Walker was holding out her hand, and the floor beneath Mami's friends was starting to twist. Mami's breathe caught in her throat. The Matriarch clearly wasn't going to wait until she had the whole set. She was sending Kyoko and Oktavia over right that second.

"No!" Mami cried as she burst through the grate, guns blazing. The Matriarch paused, and turned to see multiple shots already coming her way.

The Matriarch didn't even flinch. She raised her hand, and all of Mami's bullets stopped in midair.

Then the Matriarch smiled, just a little bit, and all of Mami's shots came back the other way.

Thankfully Mami's reflexes had not been dulled by years of inactivity, and she managed to bring herself to the floor into a combat crouch, mind already racing on how to get past the Matriarch's defenses.

Then something wrapped around her throat.

Gasping, Mami was yanked off the ground and hauled backward. Turning in midair, she saw that she had been snared by one of her own ribbons, the other end of which was in the hands of the mystery girl. Apparently, her decoy trick had not worked as well as she hope.

Now, using the very ribbon that Mami had employed against her, the mystery girl had lassoed her into the air, sending her tumbling head-over heels. Mami quickly banished the ribbon, but her momentum was already set. She tried to send another ribbon to the ceiling to grapple with, but a vicious boot to the midsection deprived her the opportunity, along with the ability to breathe.

The mystery girl jumped up and caught Mami's neck between her thighs. She twisted her upper body back, flipping Mami up and over to bellyflop onto the floor. Then, still sitting on the back of Mami's neck, she seized one of Mami's arm and twisted it back in a very painful manner. At the same time, her legs squeezed together, cutting off Mami's oxygen.

As her vision became clouded by spots and tears, Mami had a brief glimpse of Kyoko and Oktavia. Even with the pain she was in, the look of despair in their eyes broke her heart. Mami had been their last hope, and she had failed them. Now, all was lost.

The Matriarch tilted her head to one side. Despite the blindfold she was wearing, her blind gaze seemed to penetrate right through Mami, making her feel naked and exposed. Then the Matriarch smiled again and turned back to Kyoko and Oktavia.

Then an enraged roar filled the room and the wall was smashed in. Everyone froze. Even the mystery girl seemed caught off-guard.

A giant charged in, a mighty warhammer clutched in her hands. Zeroing in on the Matriarch, she bellowed again and charged.

…

Monday, 12:46 AM

Again the door to the storeroom slammed shut, leaving Kyoko and Sayaka locked up with their former captors. Through it, Kyoko could hear their guards having a hushed conversation. From the sound of it, they were as scared as their bloated boss.

"Well," Kyoko said. She turned her head toward Kisa. "What the hell is this?"

Wincing, Kisa stretched out her crushed leg as far as she could. Even through the pant leg of her uniform, it still looked pretty mangled. Still, her face and tone conveyed no worry whatsoever. "A temporary inconvenience," she said.

Kyoko scowled. "You know, you're being way too calm for someone with a flat leg."

"Again," Kisa said without a hint of concern. "Temporary inconvenience."

And that Kyoko just found scary. People in Kisa's position or condition should not be that calm. They were all tied up and at the mercy of a hammer-wielding junkie that had literally just gotten done smashing her leg like a watermelon, and she was treating it like a trip to the Driver's License Office. Something was on its way, something bad.

And in a way, Kyoko found that knowledge comforting. Oh sure, whatever Kisa's people had in store for Brooklyn would probably change the situation into something much worse, but so long as the transition involved a lot of fighting and chaos, Kyoko could use it. Violence always held plenty of opportunity to shift things in her favor, and so long as those Brothel guys were focused on Brooklyn and the rest of her ilk, that might leave Kyoko what she needed to get the two of them out of there.

That is, assuming that there even was a fight and the Brothel didn't just fill the place with gas or something.

Which they probably would.

Damn it.

Sighing, Kyoko turned to look at Sayaka, who was again on the floor and having difficulty drawing breath. "What about you, Blue Tuna? You okay?"

Sayaka panted a few more times but managed a shaky smile. "Me? I'm fine. That was the weakest punch I've ever felt. What about you though? You got hit by the Neanderthal."

Kyoko refrained from pointing out the vanishingly small number of times Sayaka had been punched since their arrival in the afterlife. "Yeah, she's got a real mean backhand," Kyoko grumbled. Her head was still throbbing. "Doesn't look like it'll do her much good though." She looked back to Kisa. "What was that heart thing, and why did it freak her out so much?"

To this she received no answer. Which, in itself, was sort of an answer.

"That was your logo, right?" Kyoko guessed. "Obviously it meant something to her. Who are you guys, really? "

Sayaka chimed in. "She called them the Brothel."

"Yeah, she did," Kyoko said, nodding. "What's the Brothel?"

Sayaka stared. "Uh, you don't know what a brothel is?" She took a deep breath. "Well, that's sort of-"

Kyoko found herself wishing that her hands were untied. Not to be used to escape, but because Sayaka needed a smack upside the head. "I know what a brothel is, obviously," she snapped. "I'm talking about the the. I mean, obviously you guys are big time to scare her so much."

Again Kisa said nothing. She didn't need to. The smugness emanating from her told the tale.

"Shit," Kyoko muttered. Then she asked, "Okay, tell me this: after your people come and rescue you, what's going to happen to us?"

"That's up to them," Kisa said neutrally.

Kyoko scowled. "So you're still going to hand me and Sayaka here over to the-"

"Excuse me?"

Blinking in surprise, Kyoko looked over to Sayaka. The blue-haired mermaid was staring directly at her, eyes wide open and cheeks flushed with anger. She was breathing in and out through her nose in short, forceful bursts.

For a moment Kyoko was completely bewildered. Obviously she had offended Sayaka somehow, but at a loss as to what it was. "What?" she said. And then she rewound her last sentence and realized her slip. "Oh crap," she breathed. "Okay, look. Sorry about that, it just slipped, and-"

"It just slipped?" Sayaka demanded. "So you mean you didn't edit yourself in time?"

Kyoko blinked again. Wow, she was a lot angrier than she was the last time Kyoko had made that mistake. "Hey…"

"So, I guess that means that despite Charlotte telling you what my name means to me, despite Mami telling you what my name means to me, and despite me telling you what my name means to me, you still think of me as Sayaka, right?" the mermaid demanded. "Every time you look at me, you see her, right? It doesn't matter what I say and do, you won't let me be me. I'm the girl you gotta destroy to get her back!"

Kyoko had to admit, she was more than a little taken back. Maybe it was the nerves or exhaustion, but Sayaka was taking the slip a hell of a lot more personally than she should be. "Whoa, hold on there-"

"I'm not Sayaka Miki, Kyoko!" Sayaka yelled. Kyoko gaped. Good Lord, where those tears? "That name means nothing to me! I'm Oktavia von freaking Seckendorff, okay? Say it with me! Ock. Tay. Vee. Uh."

Now Kyoko felt herself heating up a little as well. "Look, just relax, okay? It's not-"

"See, you're still doing it!" Sayaka cried. "I don't think I ever once heard you use my real name! It's all pronouns and nicknames with you! What's the problem, huh? I've got a name, so use it already!"

Kyoko growled. That wasn't something that was going to happen anytime soon. "Will you get a fucking grip?" she said, her voice raising. "We're locked up in a tiny closet with what I guess is the fucking afterlife crime lords surrounded by psychopaths and you're losing your shit because I used the wrong name? Get over it, already!"

Sayaka's eyes narrowed. "Hey. Kyoko?"

"WHAT!" Kyoko shouted.

"Go to hell," Sayaka said flatly. Then she turned away.

…

Monday, 12:13 PM

There was a small puff of golden smoke, and Annabelle Lee's blades slid smoothly out of the blonde's neck. Her unlucky victim clutched at her wounds, trying to stifle the vaporflow, but it was no use. Her terrified honey eyes lost focus and went dark.

Sighing, the former Void Walker let her target's body fall next to that of the dead girl's pink-haired companion. "That," she said, popping her claws back into their sheaths. "Was bloody disappointing." She glanced over her shoulder to her partner. "Y'know, I'm starting to wonder how in the hell these jokers managed to take down the Brothel. Because just judging by the quality of their guards, well, they're kind of pathetic."

Mami swallowed as she walked forward. She tried to keep her eyes from wandering to the two fallen gangsters. "Surprise attack, maybe?" she said. "Superior numbers?"

Annabelle Lee grunted. "Could be. Doesn't matter though, and it makes our job easier. C'mon."

The two of them made their way through the hallways of the Brothel's Marsters headquarters. With the main power successfully cut, everything was bathed in the ominous read glow of the auxiliary power while the emergency klaxon continued to pollute the air.

Despite the opposition they had encountered coming in, their path was surprisingly free. They ran into no other defenders, neither Brothel personnel nor any more of those gangsters. That was a relief. Mami wanted done with this business.

As they pressed on, Mami took careful note of Annabelle Lee's face. What she saw was troubling. Their conversation from earlier had been more upsetting than she had been expecting. Granted, the question she had asked had been deeply personal, and she had expected Annabelle Lee's answer to be hostile. And to be fair, she had gotten just that. However, she had gotten something a little extra, something she hadn't really been expecting.

Honesty.

Whatever her current intentions were, Mami truly felt that Annabelle Lee had been honest with her, even if it was for that brief moment. And that bothered her, because as much as she hated to admit it, a lot of what Annabelle Lee had said made sense. Mami didn't agree with her, of course. She hoped that she would never fall to that level. But she could definitely see her point, and that was extremely bothersome. Mami was going to have a lot to think about for a while, assuming that they made it out of there.

But Mami had a fair amount to say back, and Annabelle Lee had heard her. It had been a two way street, and Mami knew that some of her words had to have gotten through. That's what Mami was searching Annabelle Lee's face for: some sign of doubt, of internal conflict. Mami had given her something to think about, and she wanted to see if Annabelle Lee was thinking about them.

Except that's not what she saw. If there was any kind of internal struggle going on, any attack of conscience, Annabelle Lee's face wasn't showing it. Rather, her eyes were beaming, her thin lips kept twitching up as if she were fighting a smile, and she was breathing entirely too fast. She was excited about something, and it wasn't just due to the exhilaration of the fight. Mami got the impression that Annabelle Lee wasn't really that sort. During their short time together, Mami had learned a fair amount about what sort of person the former Void Walker was, and she wasn't exactly someone who lived for the thrill of the fight. Maybe she took pleasure from hurting something she disliked, but not just violence for violence's sake. She was the sort to focus on the endgame, and saw everything in her way as obstacles to be overcome and then forgotten instead of challenges to be enjoyed and fondly remembered.

Maybe it was their success. Maybe it was because she was so close to getting her revenge on those who had wronged her. But even so, Mami couldn't help but feel that Annabelle Lee was looking just a little too happy.

Trying to hide her unease, Mami said, "So, who do you think those people are?"

"What, those punks at the door?" Annabelle Lee shrugged. "Not a clue. But I've got a theory."

"What is it?"

They came to a corner. Annabelle Lee checked the map, glanced around the edge, and they continued on. "Marsters is a big city," she said. "Big city means big crime, enough for the Brothel to set up a local franchise. But that also means a lot of smaller crime as well, full of hungry jackasses known for their ambition but not their brains."

Mami frowned. "So, they're just a simple gang?"

"Maybe. I don't know. But judging by what the ones at the door were talking about, I'd say that's the case." Annabelle Lee's teeth flashed as she grinned. "I'd say they saw all those documents that Protectorate techie dumped on the world. Probably had these same maps and everything. So they thought they'd take advantage and loot whatever they could before everything gets pulled apart. Idiots."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I don't know how they didn't know this, but even if they managed to take a branch of the Brothel off guard, the rest of it isn't going to take this insult sitting down." Annabelle Lee glanced over her shoulder. "The ones that clear out now and disappear will be the smart ones. The ones that don't…well, they'll disappear anyway."

Mami felt a chill. Keeping her voice level, she said, "When will the Brothel respond?"

"I have no idea. Soon though. They work fast."

"And what happens if they find us here?"

Annabelle Lee grinned some more. "Well. Let's just hope we'd have disappeared before then too."

Mami swallowed.

The two of them made their way deeper into the Brothel's innards. Mami tried hard not to think of Charlotte and what she might be experiencing. She just had to focus on finishing what they came for and pray that her wife made it.

"Here we go!" Annabelle Lee said brightly. "The prison's right down this hallway."

Mami peeked. "No guards?"

"No guards." Annabelle Lee's claws popped out. "Still, better safe than sorry. Watch my back."

As Annabelle Lee proceeded down the hallway, Mami pulled out a musket and held it at the ready. But instead of searching for signs of trouble like she had been instructed, she instead stared at her partner. Annabelle Lee's attention was directed forward, and she had no way of seeing what Mami was doing.

Mami looked down at the weapon in her hands. It gleamed the same way all the others did, with one single shot sitting inside, waiting to be fire. She grimaced. Doing this went against everything she preached, violated just about every principle she had. Even thinking about it was tearing her up inside.

But dear God, what choice did she have?"

I'm sorry, she thought. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Then she took the musket and pointed the barrel at the back of Annabelle Lee's head.

…

Insert obligatory Taratino joke here.

So hey, yeah, here's this year's birthday update. Guess who's 29 today?

…

Guess who is one year away from being middle-aged today?

…

May my midlife crisis be as inexpensive as possible.

Though hey, can I get some props? Because the Imperfect Metamorphosis chapter ended up being way longer than I expected and didn't end up finishing until last Tuesday, and as a result, on Wednesday the only part of this chapter that I had done was the opening scene with Charlotte. So I had to write the rest in literally four days. Come on, it's impressive!

Well, at least I didn't screw myself up and end up with chronic insomnia again.

But anyway, to business. If you'll recall, last update I made mention of a big announcement to be made today, concerning the future of both this story and that of Imperfect Metamorphosis. And since I'm currently racing the clock, I'd better just cut to the chase. So here goes.

My whole life I've wanted to be a writer. I've been fascinated by stories since I was in elementary school, and naturally wanted to make some of my own. Fortunately, I had one in mind, one that has been stirring in the back of my thoughts since I was about seven years old.

My first attempt to get it down on paper happened when I was in eighth grade. That one lasted about fourteen pages before I ran out of steam and decided to let it simmer for a little while longer. My second attempt happened during my first couple of semesters of college. That one lasted a bit longer and I had one of my writing professors helping me, but again it just fizzled out, partially because I realized that I was creating something that sucked and needed to be scrapped. So again, I put it back on the backburner, hoping that the problems would sort themselves out.

Since then, I've tried my hand at various other projects. I started, stopped, and restrarted at least three other novels, only to abandon each one in turn. I tried to write a huge-ass Firefly fanfic and actually got about a hundred and twenty pages done before giving up. All of those stories remain unfinished in my hard drive and have never seen the light of day. And if I have my way, they never will. But anyway, it was pretty frustrating, and I started to wonder just what I had to do to manage to see a big project to the end.

And then, one day, I threw together the first chapter of a Touhou Project fic and put it up on the internet, pretty much on a whim, and the rest is history.

Suffice to say, Imperfect Metamorphosis has succeeded beyond my wildest expectations, and Resonance Days quickly blew up as well. Between them, I have had more fun, experimented with more ideas, made more mistakes, and learned more about writing than from any of those classes I took. The last five years of my life have been some of the best, and those two stories are a huge part of it.

However, the sad truth of the matter is that you can't make a living off of fanfiction, and my original idea has remained in the back of my mind this whole time. And now, I think I've learned enough and am ready to give it another shot.

Unfortunately, age and experience has taught me that I am a terrible multitasker, and can only really focus on one project at a time. So, here's what I'm going to do: I will continue writing Imperfect Metamorphosis up through the end of the current arc, and continue writing Resonance Days up through the end of the episode after this. Once I have reached those points, both stories are going on a very lengthy hiatus until I can get the rough draft done. I don't know how long it'll take: maybe a few months, maybe over a year, but it's something I do have to do.

However, once it's done and I've started shopping around for publishers, both stories will pick up immediately where they left off and continue on the same as before. And if I do manage to get publish and there's any sort of demand for more books, then well, I'll figure something out. But I have promised time and time again that, barring death or some serious maiming, I do intend to see both stories through to the end. I know it's sort of a cliché for a fanfic writer to make that same promise and then never be heard from again, but the difference between them and me is that they quite often run out of ideas and motivation, whereas I still have plenty of both, and I have to admit that I am more than a little obsessed with all of my stories. Hey, they're like my kids, man.

So yeah, that's the current plan. Currently considering some possible outlets to keep me on track with the book, like posting snippets on tumblr or making use of fictionpress. In the meantime, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, you know where to find me.

Until next time, everyone!