Ryoko felt her back impact the brick of the building and felt all breath being driven from her body. The deformed boy snarled inhumanely as he turned to charge the duo of Lauren and Fuminori, who were trying to find objects to throw at him. He whipped back however as a bullet slammed into his upper left shoulder.

Homura's pistol was shaking in her hands as she tried to take aim again. But then, fast as falling darkness, the boy was charging his new assailant. Sayaka, who was holding a wrench and standing slightly in front of Homura and Madoka, tried to take a swipe at him, but the mutated child simply grabbed her by the wrists and shoved her to the ground. His sharp teeth were acutely visible as he began trying to bite her.


Oriko was gritting her teeth as she sent wave after wave of glowing orbs at the slender monster. She wasn't sure how many of her misses were a result of its propensity to teleport, her fear, or whatever it was doing to mess with her perceptions. A wave of her hand and more orbs materialized and rocketed forward towards the thing. It seemed to shift to the side slightly. Many of her orbs sailed past it. Those that did not were swatted out of the air by several of the numerous black tentacles that had grown out from behind the creature.

Other tentacles meanwhile were busy stabbing out at the two girls attempting to get in close.

Their expressions both in varying states of tenseness, Kyoko and Kirika tried to charge in, stopping as several black tentacles each lashed out. Both girls used their respective weapons to cut the appendages as they came close. Even so, an occasional strike would pierce their defenses to stab into their bodies. Blood started to flow from a cut on Kyoko's shoulder and Kirika's leg as both girls once more went on the attack. Kyoko ducked in below while Kirika leapt over her head.

All the while the number of tentacles only increased.


Sayaka only managed to hold off the monstrous boy for two seconds before his jaws clamped onto her left shoulder. A cry of pain, ever intensifying, leapt from her throat as the bite dug deep into her flesh.

Then a branch, thick and swinging out of nowhere, struck the attacker directly in his spine. Pain, or perhaps, surprise, forced his jaws to release Sayaka as he flopped forward. Only for a moment though as he immediately bounded up and turned to throw himself at the one who had halted his bite. Madoka held a large tree branch up with an uncharacteristically angry look on her face.

"Leave my friends alone!"

The creature paused for the barest moment, then it snarled in mixed anger and pain as it threw itself at the girl. Black hair obscured Madoka's vision as Homura shoved herself in front of her. As a result, she was borne to the ground under the weight of the creature and found the claw like-fingernails of it scoring deep scratches on her stomach. Desperately, she tried to stop the thing from doing fatal damage, but hand to hand combat was never her strongest point, especially against something so freakishly strong.

The branch swung again and this time it hit the creature full in the face. Head snapping back, it flopped off of Homura, but its next act was to leap once again towards Madoka, who held up her improvised weapon with wide eyes.

Then, a white thread suddenly appeared from out of the woods. It wrapped itself around Madoka and she felt herself pulled back and away from the creature. Her legs came out from underneath her as she was tugged away further and further. Finding her arms and legs bound, she managed, with difficulty, to roll over on her back. A new thrill of fear surged through her as she saw five sets of abnormal eyes staring at her from the other end of the thread.

The Doll-things giggled as they drew her in.


Oriko was forced to leap to the side as several sharpened tentacles stabbed down at her location. In a flash, she had whipped around and sent more orbs at the location she'd just been at. Several missed due to her hasty shot, but one impacted one of the appendages and seemed to explode in a small flash of light. The tentacle in question flopped around in a manner that might have indicated pain and Oriko felt her spirit lift just a little bit.

Then she heard a scream, swiftly cut off, and turned back to the main battle. A shot of ice ran under her skin.

The Slender Monster had met Kirika's most recent charge with its own attack. What it had done, Oriko hadn't seen, but now it had the girl tangled up in several tentacles, immobilizing her arms and legs. It had brought Kirika close and seemed to be contemplating her. Kirika, was struggling with all her might, though the binding appendages forced her to look the thing dead on. Then she began to scream. She screamed so loudly that Oriko was certain her vocal cords would tear.

"KIRIKA, NO! FIGHT HIM!"

Oriko's scream seemed to light a fire in Kirika and she wrenched a hand free and conjured several claws. With a swing she directed them at the slender monster's head, but it caught her hand and held her tightly as the girl continued to scream.

Horror-struck, Oriko summoned a veritable swarm of orbs and, a second later, they barreled forward. Tentacles rose and contended with the onslaught as Kirika continued to scream higher and louder until, all of a sudden she went deathly quiet. Even through all the other noises though, Oriko heard the cracked and gurgling sound of a voice pushed beyond its limits. Feeling panic seize her, Oriko redoubled her efforts even as she saw Kyoko dart forward and begin hacking at the tentacles attacking Kirika in earnest.

Finally, the rate of fire seemed to become so great that the monster released Kirika. The girl in black simply slid from its grasp, falling to the ground motionless where she lay there like a puppet with its strings cut. A moment later, more tentacles erupted from the monsters back as it went on the offensive again.

Oriko prayed that they could find some way to weather its onslaught even as she tried to keep the screaming voice inside her under control.


Just as Madoka was almost within the Doll's grasp, there was a cry of exertion. Next second, a body was sailing through the air above Madoka and into the group of Dolls. It bowled them over as it impacted and Madoka found that the thread tying her up was loose enough to start pulling herself free. Even as she did so, Homura and the friendly Doll had rushed over and begun dragging Madoka back towards her group.

As she stood up, Madoka looked and realized that the person thrown in the group of kidnappers was the other monster that the Slender thing had brought with him. The White-masked person was now striking out at the Dolls, who were in turn, attempting to put it down. Distracted for the moment, the two girls and Doll-thing of their own turned back to deal with the other monster.


Kyoko snarled as she swiped left and right, trying to fend off the ever-growing amount of tentacles surrounding her. Time and again, Oriko's orbs would come in and provide her some breathing room, but she could tell the girl was having a harder and harder time of it. One appendage swiped above her head and she swung her spear. She was certain she managed to score a small cut in it and took that as a win.

This monster was unlike any Witch she'd fought before. She'd faced Witches that were unpleasant to look at, but this thing made her head pound even as she narrowed her eyes in its direction and tried for a forward swipe. The hit, which should've bisected any Witch, missed, either due to failure on her part or whatever the freak was doing to throw her off. Kyoko attempted to bring her spear back up to block several tentacles.

Too late by a fraction of a second, several of them fastened around one of her arms and began to slowly pull her forward. The Slender Monster reached out a hand and opened its fingers in a way that made its intentions clear, even as Kyoko felt icy panic beginning to set in.

She kicked and struggled, then she willed her spear to collapse from a stiff rod into multiple segments each connected by chains. She whipped the the blade on the end around and managed to forced several tentacles to release her. Further and further she whipped the sharp end, hoping to land a hit. A second later, a tentacle had slapped the blade away, and its new trajectory sent it slamming into a tree trunk.

Before Kyoko could tug it out or do anything else, snake-like limbs had wrapped around her once again and tugged her forward. Before she could even start struggling the hand of the monster closed around her throat and drew her, slowly, almost teasingly, up towards the thing's non-face.

The pounding in her head reached a point where Kyoko was sure her skull would burst, or that she would go deaf from the ringing in her ears. Terror stalked her heart as she was forced to look into the blank shadowed face of the thing.

Memories surged, the time when her father had been cut off for preaching heresy, when she had had to give up her supper so her little sister would have something to eat, the day her father found out about her wish and called her a witch, the fire that had claimed the lives of her family, leaving Mami behind . . .

Kyoko cried aloud in pain and agony, but then she heard a noise that sounded like something frying on a stove. The pressure on her mind suddenly lessened and, with as much willpower as she could muster, Kyoko looked down. Some smoke was wafting up and the vapor was rising from the chalk-white hand holding her up. A hand that was starting to shake.


Far away, the girl who prayed for all suddenly lifted her head. Few to no thoughts entered her head besides her prayers, but there was one thing that could intrude. It had around a week or more ago, but now it was back and in an insanely stronger way.

The girl did not speak, she did not even know if she could anymore. But if she had a face, she would've frowned. Then it would've transformed to panic as more and more information was revealed. Finally, her eyes would've narrowed as she came to a drastic decision. With all the willpower afforded to her because of the circumstances, she raised her hands and made a pushing motion. Instantly the chamber she was in began to rumble. It shook so badly that one might suspect it was about to collapse. But the girl paid it no mind as she set to fulfilling her wish.


Sasa Yuuki was in a foul mood. She wondered if she should've given Oriko orders to bring that weird Kyubey-thing directly to her. It would've made things much simpler. But then again, the more she forced one her plaything's to act contrary to their own will, the more likely it was they or someone else would notice they were acting weird.

Still, it might've been preferable to losing them all. She'd tried to contact Oriko with telepathy three times in the last hour and the girl had not responded. Was she dead? Had she figured out what was going on and was now avoiding her? Had she simply decided that Sasa wasn't worth her time like everyone else?

Sasa's face clenched up as she grit her teeth. Whatever the reason, Oriko had better have a good reason for keeping her waiting, because she was getting into the mood for some sport. Perhaps pitting her against one of her worthless friends might be worth a laugh. Maybe-

Sasa froze as she suddenly felt her sixth sense ping. A Witch was moving its labyrinth. For a moment she contemplated the pros and cons of trying to take it out, either for its grief seed or for a new servant. But then, as the hidden Labyrinth moved closer, she noticed something strange.

The labyrinth was moving fast, and it was in a straight line. When she'd observed them before, most Labyrinths moved in a nigh-aimless fashion, seeming attracted to places of tragedy if they had any sort of destination, and none of them moved in a hurried manner.

This labyrinth she could sense now, it was moving so quickly it had already passed her by and was moving away from her towards the edge of the city. Sasa marveled as the labyrinth passed out of her sense range. She'd never seen one move so quickly. After a moment though, she shook herself and began walking again. It probably wasn't anything important.

She returned to her musings on what she would do to Oriko and company.


As Madoka turned back to the rest of the fight, her vision was overtaken by the desiccated body of the creature that had bitten Sayaka. The thing tackled her, smashing her body to the ground. Her head hit the soil and stars leapt into her vision. All she saw was the thing raising its hands to strike. In an instant, a bullet slammed into its back. A second after that, a thread had been thrown around its neck and it was tugged backwards off of her.

Struggling and snarling, the monster was dragged back as the friendly doll pulled using the thread connected to its weapon. Homura rushed to stand in front of Madoka, aiming her gun at the monster. She didn't fire however, and, as Madoka saw her raising the gun and closing an eye, she wondered if Homura was trying to conserve ammo for a kill-shot.

The creature snarled again and suddenly threw its body back. Its bulk missed the dark-haired doll, but it managed to throw it off balance and the thread came loose from around its neck. A second later, the thing had lashed out in a swipe that was only barely driven away by the Doll twirling its needle-spear. More strikes followed and the doll and the monster danced back and forth, each trying to outmaneuver the other.

Madoka suddenly heard what she swore were shouts and footsteps coming out of the woods.


Kyoko was still contemplating the fact that simply touching her seemed to be hurting the tentacled monstrosity when she heard a familiar young voice.

"ONEE-CHAN!"

A second later, a weapon resembling a staff with a ball on the end of it, not unlike a tootsie pop, had slammed into the face of the monster. A flash of light occurred and for the first time that night, the slender thing was forced back, its head and torso bent as it nearly toppled over. In doing so, Kyoko felt its fingers and tentacles release her.

Kyoko fell to the ground, coughing and trying to regain her strength. As she got on her hands and knees, she felt a pair of small hands hitch around her shoulder, trying to pull her up.

A familiar voice sounded in her ear.

"Onee-Chan! Are you alright?! Did the monster hurt you?!"

"I'm f-fine" Kyoko coughed as she put one foot in front of her. Then she looked to her side.

Kyoko felt her stomach plummet as she beheld Yuma, clearly in Magical Girl regalia. Cold sweat broke on her forehead as she took in the green costume, the staff-mace weapon, and the glowing Soul Gem adorning the young girl.

"What did you do?" Kyoko's voice was faint as felt sick.

Whether Yuma would've answered or not went unknown as one of Oriko's orbs suddenly sailed past, slamming into a tentacle that had been moving towards Kyoko.

Snarling and pushing down her horror, Kyoko grabbed Yuma and threw the small girl behind her back.

"Stay back and don't get hurt!" she said through gritted teeth as she turned to face the new mass of tentacles.

This time, the presence of the Slender Monster had definitely grown more malevolent. Almost as though it had had enough of playing around with its food and now wished to end things.

Kyoko attempted to smirk, but only managed to make her mouth into a flat line.

"Heh, if that's how it is, let's finish this."

Spears erupted from the ground beside her. Blade and orb met tentacle once again as the two sides continued to clash.


Mami, Key, and Nagisa, finally cresting the hill, halted as they beheld the scene before them. The combat in front framed against the radio tower building in the back, the emergency lights illuminating all.

It was time to fight.


Author's note: Only thing really to say here is the fight itself will likely be split up into smaller increments as this chapter was. I am trying to juggle a bunch a viewpoints in this chaotic scene. Just about everyone's arrive, or have they? -lightning crash in the background-

Also am cocking another Checkov's Gun (to use Tv Tropes speak) I've had in waiting since the earliest parts of the fic, though the payoff won't come quite immediately. And you all will probably guess it before it comes. Ah well, I never claimed to be an utterly brilliant author. lol

Mailbag:

Shadow8Phantom

Just stumbled around and found that the story had a new update. Nice. And the chapter title is very fitting. Kyoko and Sayaka have come face to face and were able to properly talk. And of course they immediatly start trashtalking one another. Now is not the time girls.
They also have reunited with the others and are facing of against Slender and his minions. And Homura has regained a semblance of focus and immediatly tries to mask everything that is going on inside of her. Ryoko seems to be suspicous and knows that something is wrong but the situation right now requires eyerones focus to fight. Lets hope the missing group, including the two new Magical Girls, can make it in time. Speaking of: Your note about Saya is interesting. So she is permanetly human now. The Doctor who had taken her in, considering his goals at the beginning, is probably turning so fast in his grave it look like he is breakdancing.

Thanks, hope you enjoy this one! Haha, yeah Sayaka and Kyoko always seem to have strained relationship at first before they realize that they can be good friends.

Homura's good at shoving her emotions and problems down. But of course, that makes the boiling over point all the worse, and she's just about there. I've been trying to drop hints that Ryoko (and to be fair, a lot of the other characters) aren't too fooled about Homura keeping secrets and can tell that something's off about her. But yes, the current situation needs their laser focus. And the other group made it, but Kirika's been downed in the meantime. I did try to introduce the element in Dr Ogai's diary that he was growing fond of Saya in the way a parent was and getting around (unwillingly) to rethinking some of his former positions. I imagine he would've eventually gotten to a "I hate that this destroys my research project and invalidates my views, but I love you and am glad you can finally make friends, so I'll live with it."

Guest

Please, continue the Avartar one.

Which one? I am sad to say that few of my older fics will probably be continued, realistically speaking. The Avatar one that I think could stand the most chance would be "A Choice's Change" which I think had the most potential, though I'd probably reboot it. I do like the concept of the 'sides' of the war being reversed and the amount of different characterization you could bring to the table in that scenario, especially with Aang still being the hero and main character. The others were either one-shots or setups that, in retrospect, feel a bit amateurish. Thanks for commenting regardless.