Vitcity

Nora giggles again, then grins. "Yes, ma'am."

Leia

"Uh.  Bit late for that," Jimmy says.  "If they don't already know I slipped up with her future sight nonsense, they'll figure it out sooner or later.  But I mean they're probably more likely to break my kneecaps instead of disappear me into the river.  Probably.  So, uh... damage is done, you want the number or not?"


Nora

"OK, first question.  First proper question, anyway.  Did you think working with Mercia was a way to be helpful?"


Dewey

Mareena smiles, then runs off a bit.  You, Mareena, and Pimpernel spread out start to search the dump.  It's a slow, unpleasant process.  It takes what feels like hours marching through weird-feeling ground surrounded by an awful smell.  Pimerpernel doesn't go too far, but Mareena acts like a dog let off its leash, occasionally disappearing for minutes at a time before suddenly reappearing somewhere else.  Just when you're ready to give up and call it a day, Mareena waves down from atop a small garbage hill.  "He-e-e-e-y, I found a- whoa!"

What looks like a blob of sentient jelly appears at the bottom of the pile, slurping from between some trash and reforming on the other side.  It forms into a lance and shoots itself up at Mareena, who goes tumbling off the pile.

Leia fiddles her thumbs, while looking at the ground, ashamed.

"Yes... I want the number..."

Leia

Jimmy takes out his phone, scrolls through it for a bit, then reads off the number for you.  Then he joins you staring at the ground.  "So...  Uh...  Yeah.  So.  Now what?"


Nora

"...Ma'am," Alice completes, with a few strokes.  "Yes, fine.  Not working with directly.  Funded by, inspired by.  However you want to phrase it.  Anyway, That's enough of an answer.  Next question.  Am I... the cutest?  Excluding yourself, of course."


Dewey

You analyze the slime.

Base
Element: Machine
Weapon: Pseudopod
Weakness: Electricity, Soul, Light, Dark, Plant
Resistance: Water, Earth, Machine, Poison, Neutral, Physical

While you scan the slime, Pimpernel chases after Mareena to help her up, interrupted by a small bird delivering a scrap of paper to him.  He readies his bolas as the slime starts to advance, only for the creature to suddenly stretch out a pair of lance-like psuedopods, firing past him to stab Mareena as she reactivates her soul key at the last second.  Mareena rolls back and springs to her feet, readying her chakrams.

"Should hum... Should we go look at your photos to see if you missed anything?"

Nora

"Someone's not following the rules," Alice says.  "Hm, hm, hm...  Let's see.  Do you remember the first thing we played together?"


Leia

"Uh...  Yeah.  I guess..." Jimmy says.

You head back to his place, making your way to sit at a cluttered kitchen table with only two open seats.  Jimmy takes out the photo album, opening it to show a few other pictures he'd been hiding before.  "So...  Anyway.  I saw a few monsters.  Nothing really interesting there.  The weird thing were a few people I saw working with the cops.  I mean, I saw the cops were kinda handling the monsters without much trouble, like, coordinating to take them out and stuff.  Like they were expecting them almost?  Anyway, there were also some soul key users with them.  Like... adults?  I dunno if they were cops.  I saw a few.  Let's see...  Here."  He points to a photo showing a large, spiky ball crashing through the fog and hitting a monster.  "I couldn't get a photo of the user, but he was wearing some weird gladiator get-up and swinging a ball on a chain.  And another I couldn't get a shot of looked like a cowboy?  Uh...  Oh, here.  See this photo?  This smudge is some lady riding by on a skateboard.  Um...  And this one's hard to see in the fog, but you see the black-and-white pattern?  It looked like some kind of, I dunno, maid outfit?  But like the witchy kind.  It's hard to see but she was riding around on a broom shooting stuff.  And I heard a fifth one, too, but I couldn't get a look at them in the fog..."


Dewey

Dewey shines a bright light at the slime.  It glows for a moment, letting out a hissing noise as some of its mass evaporates.

"Oh, Light!  I'm good at that."  Mareena takes out her chakrams and twirls on top of a discarded washing machine.  Balls of light fly from her and go twirling into the slime as more of it bursts off and evaporates in the air.

The slime jiggles for a moment, then erupts.  Splatters of acid go raining down on everyone, leaving acid Burns on the armor that hiss and sputter as it melts through.

Pimpernel shifts back into a defensive position, taking out a laser pointer.  A box materializes out of nowhere, falling from the open sky and crushing the slime.  It slides out from the box, reforming itself on top and jiggling aggressively at you.

"Yes, ma'am."