Mallside 10

[Deathkeeper]

Concourse

Feel that in the back of your head, Khannie?
That's the sensation of your dead worrying about you while psychically in contact. It seems you're going to have some trouble getting that out of him.

Has Maridia found where the hostages are going? Jace asks instead of addressing Khannie's promises.

[Rebonack]

[Concourse]

There's some mental chatter back and forth between Khannie and Maridia.

"Yeah. Some of them are just standing around in the food court and some of them are going outside the Mall into the parking lot," Khannie reports. "I bet the witch isn't ACTUALLY in the mall eating people. If she was then the Mall Kopz would throw her out, probably."

How would the kopz toss out an abstract manifestation of despair?

Well!

All they need to do is believe that they can accomplish the task and they can probably do it, right?

"So she must be outside somewhere. We should go look around and try to find her labyrinth thingy."

There's some more mental buzzing back and forth between sorcerer and familiar as Khannie heads toward the food court.

"We'll make sure the people at the food court are okay and Maridia will figure out where they're going outside," Khannie says as she sets off with a bounce in her step, her long purple scarf flapping heroically behind her.

More than a few onlookers seem to think that she looks adorable in her magical girl outfit. The collection of friends on her shoulders definitely helps the look.

[Deathkeeper]

Concouse

Okay, so we're looking for a distortion in space and time? asks Jace. He tries to open up his mind to any signals pulling people in a certain direction.
You're planning on ditching us when you get there, aren't you? asks the elder familiar.
This does pose a problem. How is Khannie going to convince her dad to let her leave him behind?

[Rebonack]

[Concourse]

"Maridia is outside looking for it," Khannie says as she sweeps down the halls dramatically. "And I think I could bring you both in with me? Anyone can go inside the witch's domain but without a magical girl to help them they can't get back out. You two are both really magical so I bet you could help me fight off the witch's dumb frog minions."

Technically they are called familiars.

But given that Khannie thinks of something very different when she thinks familiars she really would rather call them something different.

Familiars have a special bond with their partner.

These things are more like...

Well.

Like those weak dumb robot goblin things she fought down in the bunker. Maybe even WEAKER than those. They could at least fight back. The witch minions were slow and practically harmless except to regular people who can't defend themselves.

But anyway! First they must visit-!

[The Food Court]

Sure enough, a group of four dazed looking people are standing awkwardly near a table staring off into space. The people at the table seem kind of unsettled.

"Are you guys okay?"

[Deathkeeper]

The Food Court

”In that case-“
Zebes poofs into his Dragonite shape. Aqua tail should make short work of these frogs.
It does mean he can’t talk to Khannie like this, though.
Meanwhile at the food court, Jace tries to make use of Victini’s nature. He opens up his mind and tries to see if he can sever the foreign presence that’s hypnotizing these people to just stand around here.

[Rebonack]

[The Food Court]

Hopefully Zebes gets off Khannie shoulder before he gets LARGE otherwise this is going to get really awkward.

And then Jace does some cool things!

There's almost a sort of magical brand on each person, twisting up their thoughts and causing them to act strangely. It's no mach for a tiny mouse fox thing with buttwings, though! No match at all. Jace severs the psychic bond successfully, freeing the shoppers! They blink, confused, as they come back to their senses. What the heck happened?

Weren't they in a different part of the mall just a few minutes ago?

Khannie, meanwhile, perks up!

"Maridia found the witch!" Khannie says as she hurries outside! That of course takes us to-

[The Parking Lots]

Jace will likely feel it long before he sees it. Despair hangs like a heavy fog over a little concrete divider that has a few depressing, scraggly plants growing in it. More dead flowers and dry grass than anything else. Someone should really work on the landscaping here a bit. The actual entrance is more like an oily smear hanging in mid-air than anything else. But... oily like oil paint. And also motor oil? Concepts are all jumble it. It hangs there, dripping, as another bewitched person slowly reaches a hand toward the hole in reality while Maridia tugs fruitlessly at their pant leg.

[Deathkeeper]

The Parking Lots

Jace makes another effort to break the hypnosis on the civilians.
This is a pretty twisted-up place. You’re sure you just need to go in there and take out one thing? Jace says incredulously.
He doesn’t have a lot of experience fighting things like this. Mostly demons and skeletons.

[Rebonack]

[The Parking Lots]

Witches are kind of like demons and skeletons!

They're both...

Ummm...

Bad.

They're both bad.

Totally the same.

Anyway, Jace shatters the affliction on another poor bewitched person. "Umm... what am I doing out in the parking lot? What's this creepy paint thing?"

"It's a witch and she was trying to eat you," Khannie helpfully explains, to which the poor person quickly backs away from the blot on reality. "Okay! So I've got to go into the witch's place of power and beat her up. But it is really really REALLY weird inside these things."

That is the understatement of the century.

"You two can come in and help me fight, but you've gotta stay close okay? It's easy to get lost in these even though someone gave them a dumb name."

Because you can't get lost in a labyrinth.

They have exactly one path.

[Deathkeeper]

The Parking Lot

Jace gives her a mental affirmation while Zebes nods.
As if we'd leave you anyway. You know how likely that is. We'll stick close and support you. Take Zebes' claw when you walk in so it can't separate you, just in case.
Zebes extend his big dragony paw for her.

[Rebonack]

[The Parking Lot]

She has to hold her uncle's hand?

Seriously?

Ugh.

Well, Khannie takes Zebe's paw anyway and steps forward with her free hand outstretched. The world around them melts away and-

[Labyrinth]

Diaphanous light peels away
Icy wind blows
Softly the familiars come
Smoke billowing from their backs
Over a shattered drooping sky
Lines of paint ooze and swirl
Vicious intent without thought
Enemies have breached the domain

Invisibly the witch's malice reaches
Not with strength but with weakness
Tearing into resolve and reason
Our heroes beset by sourceless despair

Tangled plains stretch before them
Ethereal billows and bricks and paint
All hope of escape e'er flees them
Rest their heads and close their eyes
Succumb to the dissolution of tears

[Deathkeeper]

Labyrinth

"Dragonite." says Zebes as he lets go of Khannie's hand.
[Wow, this place sucks.]

Zebes is certainly right about that. Let's finish this and get the hells out of here. sends Jace, flames already flaring to take care of more frogs.

[Rebonack]

[Labyrinth]

Sucks is right. Seeing one of these realms on TV versus actually being in one is a completely different experience. And not a nice one, either. This is a surreal hellscape and it is easy to see how a helpless and unaware people could get lost in here until the place devoured them.

Torching frog/factory/ships is pretty easy, honestly. So is aqua tailing them into soggy puddles. And any that get too close to Khannie find themselves getting clobbered in short order. She's pretty sure she could just pummel whole masses of them out of existence but quite frankly these dumb things are so slow and non-threatening that Khannie doesn't feel like she needs to waste the magic on it.

"We just need to get to the middle of the Labyrinth, that's where the witch'll be," Khannie says as she soldiers on through the twisting, flowing, clashing landscape. It's like trying to slog through an impressionist painting full of bricks and frogs and weirder things. One of the minions drifts toward her and she casually pulverizes it with her metal gauntlet. "I think it's probably this way, the more bad guys there are the closer we're getting. And I think I might see a bigger bad guy up ahead."

Lost among the swirling paint an edifice of brick wanders
Overcome by grief smoke pours from its eyes into the sky
Ornaments of splintered frame sway listlessly
Mounting hopelessness swells around it
In an instant its pain radiates, fogging the mind
Neglect and rage feed it
Growing fat and swollen with grief

An instant passes

Seeing our heroes its strides toward them
Enervating emotional static roiling about it like a cloud
Rending itself open frogs pour from the holes
Vast clouds of billowing sails and brick
Another threat rises
Noxious paint flowing
This is not the witch

A servant and nothing more
Prodigious arms of steel and smoke swing down to crush
Ponderous steps of brick trample underfoot
Earnest is its thirst for our annihilation
A servant and nothing more
Rend this foe to open the path forward
Send it crashing down to find the way

[Deathkeeper]

Labyrinth

Zebes steps dramatically in the path of the larger minion. Humming something unintelligible to Khannie he steps forward, reaching out with his MIGHTY DRACONIC MUSCLES (and honestly kind of stubby arms) to catch the minion's smashing limbs. He can't do much besides hold them but that's his entire plan anyway.
Khannie! Go over!
Jace shoots forward and rolls under Zebes' legs until he's directly under the minion. His massive brow ignites into an enormous V-shaped plume of flames. Khannie probably knows that Jace's magic attacks are normally precise, almost surgical. The only thing precise about Victini's fire is that it's almost always V-shaped.
In this case though this means that there is a convenient safe spot directly above the familiar's head if someone were to oh, I don't know, try to punch it really hard.

[Rebonack]

[Labyrinth]

There's a resounding BOOM as Zebes blocks the descending smoke-stack, chips of concrete and steel shattering from the impact with his claws. And yet, he holds firm!

Mostly because dragonite is OP as heck.

And Khannie?

Khannie launches one fist straight at the huge minion's... faaaaace? Like there are some windows that you might imagine are eyes but the weird factory golem thing really doesn't have much in the way of features. Regardless, her gauntlet grasps hold, the grabs the trailing scarf, and goes whizzing off toward the top of the huge foe!

And as she gets closer?

Her other gauntlet gets big.

Really, really big.

Like incoming tractor-trailer truck big.

There's a resounding boom as the minion gets clobbered and blasted all at once, shattering into a cloud of bricks-

-and just sort of freezing in mid-air. Because this place is weird as heck. Khannie makes her way back down to the ground, hopping from brick to brick.

"Come on I think we're getting close!" she says as she heads deeper into the Labyrenth.

With swirling oil and paint and brick hemming on all sides the heroes descend
Intricate patterns of color and despair flash about them
The way forward grows thick with frogs
Crude and cobbled a mass of factory parts and frog paintings and shattered ships with sails billowing awaits them at the center
Human once but no longer the monument of hopelessness rains stone and steel and wood and oil upon our heroes

[Deathkeeper]

[Labyrinth

And Khannie comes in from above!
[ROADA ROLLAH DA!]

Ignore him Khannie you can't understand pokemon anymore anyway.
Then they advance, casually torching a few more frogs.
With a flick of his tiny hands, Jace projects a Barrier of psychic energy over their heads to protect them from debris.
Wow this place sucks.

[Rebonack]

[Labyrinth]

Even if Khannie COULD understand pokemon she probably wouldn't get whatever it is that Zebes is referencing. She would just assume it's from one of his weird cartoons. That's usually a safe bet.

And it really does suck, doesn't it?

Everything about this place is disorienting. The motion, the color, the sensations, everything! It doesn't help that the whole place is trying to kill you, albeit not that WELL if you can actually fight back. No doubt the witch's attack would be quickly lethal against a normal foe, but Jace's psychic barrier proves more than a match for the storm of debris that batters against them.

Khannie isn't about to just stand around and let them take the beating, either.

Oh no.

See, Khannie knew how to fight long before she became a Magical Girl. She knows a thing or two about magic. She has something of an intuitive feel for it. That makes it easier for her to imagine how she might leverage that power at her disposal. One thing she can tell for sure is that this witch is weak. She doesn't know why, nor does she really care. And if there's one thing she's learned it's that in a real battle it's dumb to lead with weaker attacks to show off when you can finish your foe decisively with a single blow.

She clasps her gauntlets together as if praying.

"Might of the Hecatoncheires: One hundred hands."

Khannie's eyes snap open as she hauls back her fist, her scarf forming a swirling purple rift in front of her-

-even as one hundred similar, much larger portals flap into view around the witch.

Khannie THRUSTS her fist forward and a storm of violence descends upon the witch.

Battered fragmented shattered
Ruined fracture splintered
Obliterated and scattered to the winds
Knowing no longer the witch fades into ten thousand pieces
Enduring no more she perishes
Nothingness washes over the Labyrinth

And then our heroes are standing in the parking lot again. A small black gem surrounded by an elaborate silver setting ending in a long spike drops to the ground. Khannie dismisses her transformation, stoops down with soul gem in hand, and picks it up. She gingerly touches the spike to egg-shaped gem, siphoning away the small amount of murkiness swirling around in it, restoring it to a pure bright amethyst purple.

"There, see?" she says brightly, smiling to Jace and Zebes. "That wasn't so tough, right?"

She pockets the seed and touches the gem to her ear stud, causing it to vanish.

"Now we can get some clothes at the mall, right?"

[Deathkeeper]

Parking Lot

Jace and Zebes poof back into their usual shapes.
"Yeah, sure Sweetie." Jace says shakily. But from his face, and even Zebes' it's pretty clear that they didn't like any of that.
Soooo what's the deal with the earring? comes the nonverbal question. Zebes clearly wants to have a conversation away from Jace's ears.

[Rebonack]

[Parking Lot]

C'mon Jace.

Everything is fine.

Your daughter is just diving into abstract hellscapes to fight manifestations of despair.

It's no big deal.

Khannie begins tromping off toward the mall again, pausing to look both ways at the street since that is very important. Triumphing over witches just to get hit by a car would suck.

"What did you think of my big finisher attack?" Khannie asks Jace, bouncing excitedly. "I named it myself wasn't it cool?"

She thinks it was extremely cool.

And then mind-questions!

Khannie thinks back, It's my magical girl egg gem thingy. I think it holds all my magic; it's what lets me transform. When I beat a witch I can recharge the magic I used up. It's just like managing power points for pokemon moves.

Khannie thinks that recovering PP from winning fights is WAY less of a hassle than having to use ethers or going to a PokeStop.

[Deathkeeper]

Parking Lot

"It was nice, Khannie. I'm glad you've already gotten into the more obscure bestiaries." Either that or she's been reading Percy Jackson.
Meanwhile Zebes is peering at the gem earring with his intense DRAGON GEMSTONE SENSES which may or may not be real.
Hm. Well we should have someone take a look at that. Maybe if it's where your Magical Girl magic comes from we could separate it from you and Kyubey wouldn't have a claim on you but you'd still be human. Have someone take a look if you run into someone who knows about that sort of thing on one of your Unscheduled Outings.

He's talking about the five times a week (on average) she sneaks out. The only reason Jace hasn't put a tracking chip in her is because he's sure she'd find a way to break it within days.

[Rebonack]

[Parking Lot]

Khannie proudly proclaims, "They've got a copy of Titanomachy at Inari's library that I've been reading! In that story the Hecatoncheires fight AGAINST the Olympians instead of FOR them."

She's not actually super into novels?

Reading about real things is more her speed. Science, history, and the like.

What an absolute little nerd she is.

Either way, she beams at the praise as they head back into-

[Concourse]

Now without any weird frogs!

As it should be.

I was thinking that too, Khannie thinks back. I would probably lose my magical girl powers but I don't care about those. If I only cared about being strong I wouldn't have stopped being a pokemon.

Pokemon are WAY stronger than little girls.

Maybe I can ask the priests at Inari's? I think they know about soul stuff.

[Deathkeeper]

Concourse

"Certainly seems like another of the many conflicting books on such subjects. Most of my experience with giants is not terribly pleasant." It mostly involves horrific injuries.
And fighters not being in range of melee.
Yeah, that's one of the safer options. You could also find Exar's boss in Riverside. He's a demon but Exar insists he'd never give a bad deal to a child.
And yes, I know, but don't complain if someone is giving you good stuff for your age.
Zebes is very much aware of Khannie's own berserk button.

[Rebonack]

[Concourse => Arcane Threads]

"I haven't ever met a giant," Khannie muses as the family heads into the completely mundane clothing store that has a really ill-fitting name. "What are they like, daddy? Aside from big, I guess."

REALLY big.

Just, wow!

The biggest.

Meanwhile, plotting goes on behind the scene!

Is making deals about souls with demons really a good idea? Khannie questions. That catfox thing said that HIS wishes wouldn't be bad, too. But now my soul is stuck in a crystal egg thingy and if I'm not careful I turn into a witch. I'm smart and I know how to fight, though. And I know what causes bewitching. So I think I should be okay until we can figure something out. I just think maybe asking a DEMON for help should probably be the last thing on the list. I know the people at Inari's they're nice.

She has, after all, been going to school there for six years now. Half her life!

While conversations, mental and otherwise, are going on Khannie examines clothing!

At the moment she's skeptically inspecting a girl's graphic tee with Power Girl emblazoned on the front.

"This lady's costume is kind of... umm..."

It is definitely kind of umm.

[5a Violista]

[North Entrance]

Obsidian, a dragon, looks like a normal human teenager. She has black hair, purple-and-gold eyes, and a black dragonscale leather jacket with its jacket-hood down.

She's accompanied by two very well-behaved zombies, who clearly want to feast on the flesh of the living but instead of doing that, are obediently following her like a girl going shopping with her besties.

She came here, of course, to celebrate her 18th birthday (she doesn't actually know what day her birthday is, but she figures it was probably sometime earlier this year because she's starting to feel a little sick and she remembers when she was a child her mother complaining about that every so often and that means it's probably a sign of being an adult now, probably).

[Ironsmith]

[North Entrance]

Owena, a strigoi, looks something like a normal human teenager. She has raven-black hair, brown eyes, and a midnight-blue robe with a softly-glowing gold pendant.

Normally, she'd be accompanied by her two reasonably well-behaved younger siblings, but today she was on her own. She was out here in anticipation of her eighteenth birthday, you see. When she reaches adulthood, she'll be expected to swear allegiance to a Maesdan Lord or Lady, but in their absence, she decided to keep the tradition alive by finding a job, instead. She didn't have long; a few weeks, maybe. She couldn't properly remember when her birthday was, but she knew it was soon, as she vaguely remembers celebrating it during this season and it won't last too much longer.

She's yanked out of her reverie when she passes herself in the street; or at least, a similarly-aged teenage girl who looks remarkably like her.

Well, this was a bit of a faux pas. One of them was going to have to go home to change.

[5a Violista]

[North Entrance]

Obsidian doesn't particularly notice Owena.
She claims most humans look pretty much the same, anyway. Little point in trying to figure out the differences between them, so she doesn't even notice the similarities between her and Owena. Besides, Owena looks like the type of person who would have friends, which automatically disqualifies her as food.

Obsidian notices something interesting in a window, and runs off towards it to get a better look!

...
The two zombies are much slower, and follow, stumbling within touching distance of Owena...possibly even bumping into her, depending on how much she's paying attention.

[Ironsmith]

[North Entrance]

Obsidian doesn't particularly notice Owena.
She claims most humans look pretty much the same, anyway. Little point in trying to figure out the differences between them, so she doesn't even notice the similarities between her and Owena. Besides, Owena looks like the type of person who would have friends, which automatically disqualifies her as food.

Obsidian notices something interesting in a window, and runs off towards it to get a better look!

...
The two zombies are much slower, and follow, stumbling within touching distance of Owena...possibly even bumping into her, depending on how much she's paying attention.

[North Entrance]

Admittedly, Owena is paying plenty of attention, and would definitely be able to avoid the zombies if she were so inclined...

But she's not so inclined. Until today, necromancy was just something she'd read about in books. She was curious to see how it applied up close. Even if it was totally gross. And if the zombie got too handsy, she could still defend herself.

So when one of the zombies nearly stumbles over her, she steps into its path, tripping them both up so it would land on her.

"Well, hello, stranger." She quips dryly, looking up at the zombie.

[Deathkeeper]

Arcane Threads

"Well, a pair of them killed one of my friends once, and then an immortal one from the plane of shadows tried to create a portal for a demon prince to launch an invasion of the known world. So suffice to say, the ones from my homeworld aren't very nice.
Except the sky giants! They're very nice. Very jolly folks. They made Zebes' harmonica. And can't quite drink a dwarf under the table when he wants to." Jace seems to cheer up at that memory at least.
Apparently in his world, 'demon' is a label for any non-angel, non-devil, non-fairy that's still immortal and from another plane. So he and his boss are basically knowledge spirits who happen to live next door to Hell. But trust me, they're only Plan D because Exar has been my First Tenor for five years and I know him pretty well. Otherwise yes, don't trust demons. Go to Inari's first.

"Khannie if nothing else please promise me you'll never give yourself an outfit like that." Jace whispers.

[Rebonack]

[Arcane Threads]

"They sound like jerks," Khannie succinctly concludes. "You and your friends stopped the bad guys, right? Did your friend who got squashed get resurrected or did they decide to stay in whatever place they went to?"

That sure is odd, isn't it?

Just knowing in general about how the afterlife works?

Fantasy worlds sure do have lots of profound questions answered up front, don't they?

That still sounds super sketchy to me. I would rather find a few more not-Inari's ideas first just to put daemonology a little further on the list. That Kyuby thing thought it was helping, too. What are some other options, do you think? Who else would be able to get my soul out of a soul jar and stick it back in my body where it goes? I... I guess if I messed up really bad and turned into a witch you guys could blow me up and the Inari priests could resurrect me. But I don't think daddy would be very happy about having to explode me. Probably put THAT plan a rung or two below daemons.

There are a fair number of terrible plans.

They could use a few not-bad ones.

Oh! Speaking of witches. I'm going to hang onto these grief seeds and show them to the priests at the temple. Maybe they'll find a way to restore the girls back to life? That way we'll know if that works just in case it happens to me.

And on the subject of Power Girl's outfit?

"No way her outfit is dumb." Khannie says, sticking her tongue out distastefully. "All the Super-Dorks have dumb costumes. Captain Marvel's is a zillion times cooler."

If Jace has listened to his daughter talk about super heroes at all he should know that she's talking about SHAZAM! here. Billy Bastion is her absolute favorite super hero. A kid who can turn into the greatest hero ever? No wonder Khannie likes that story so much.

She sets the shirt back on the rack and begins thumbing through them again until-!

"Heck yeah!"

She pulls out a red shirt with a big gold lightning bolt emblazoned on it.

[5a Violista]

[North Entrance]

Unfortunately(?) the zombie does not get handsy. Which is a good thing, because the mall cops are pretty quick to respond against violence.

The zombie is tripped, and falls on Owena. But, instead of saying something to her, it just groans.
It tries to get off of her but isn't really...dexterous. Not really good at getting off someone and getting up.

Obsidian, meanwhile, notices that one of her zombies didn't catch up. She turns, and finds the zombie...
She runs over.
And crouches down, at which point the downed zombie reaches at Obsidian, trying to grab her.
"Oh, sorry about my friend. She doesn't pay attention to where she's going," she tells Owena.

[Ironsmith]

[North Entrance]

Interesting. The zombie seemed to be able to tell that Owena wasn't exactly edible, being a vampire and all. That was handy to know.

"Interesting friends you have." Owena replies with a small smile, getting up herself and doing what she could to help the zombie to her feet. She was confident this was perfectly safe; the zombie probably wouldn't bite her, and even if it did, what sort of damage could it do?

"Would I be correct in assuming you've used the marionette method?" Owena asks, looking over the zombie. "The muscle tissues seem to be too decayed to operate on their own."