So this one time in Los Angeles....

A white expanse stretched out for what seemed to be for infinity. In what gave the impression of being the center, was the layout of an average household's living room bleached white: a coach with a small white doily on the back, a side table with a lamp on it, a small coffee table, an old rabbit-eared television, and finally a young woman dressed in a red and black dress who sat upon a small wooden chair painted white. The stoic  woman's dress was an evening gown that skirt was long on one side but was shorter on the other exposing her long, slender legs and the top went only over her right shoulder and then folded into the shape of a desert rose.

But the most peculiar thing about the scene was was what was on the television screen: a butler riding a rigged up scooter and a girl riding behind on a fairly sized recliner on top of a hitched cart. The woman on the white chair sat there for minutes into hours, days into weeks, not moving an inch as to not miss a second of what was going on the screen. She never ate, she never slept, but she watched the couple on the screen do so. This quiet might have lasted forever if it weren't for presence of other forces.

With a deafening quiet, a woman floated gently to the ground wearing a cloak that looked like the expanse of night sky itself, the shimmering and shifting of cosmic bodies moving ever so slowly with every passing moment. She walked up coach and sat down ignoring any form of unnecessary etiquette. The young lady, despite having noticed the woman's appearance, made a point to ignore her, more out of spite then out of negligence. They sat there a moment before the woman finally spoke up. "It is a pleasure to see you again, Veronica." "I can't say the same for you, mother." The young Veronica retorted with about as much venom one feigning apathy could muster. "I had hoped you were as dead as everyone believed you to be."

---

Sebastian drove down the Interstate 405 highway in the scouter they had picked up somewhere around the border of Maryland. He finally convinced Mindy to let him use the money they had gotten from the tournament in New York to buy a vehicle. She agreed, albeit only if it was a chariot. Having finally gotten used to her usual antics, he got to work with employing a a mechanic to set up an older wide chassis moped with an 5 valve engine and replaced the tires to a broader spread. Adding a hitch to the back end of the moped he attached a small cart, he even nailed down the purple recliner Mindy begged him to put on. All in all it took about a week to set up which he finished by christening it with some fake plates he got off a guy on a street corner and giving it the name "Galahad".

Mindy, on the other hand,  let herself settle into melancholy to avoid the feelings of sadness that her journey was coming to an end and she still hadn't found any more comrades. All of the people she had met had either had tried to kill them or it simply hadn't worked out. Looking back on it, she still owed that fake magical girl a car. The only good prospect was Q7 so that's why Sebastian and her were on their way back to Los Angeles, maybe they could crash with her for a while, worse comes to worse maybe they could reopen that magic shop and take it over as "under new management". The idea of "Akasheeq's records" without Akasheeq did wonders for her mood. Looking off into the looping skyscrapers of Los Angeles on the horizon, she couldn't help but wonder what Q7 was up to.

---
On a boat just off the coast of the Los Angeles port, a girl with her neon blue hair in twin-tails suddenly perked up shocked and confused before her face turned into a face of smoldering rage. "Shes here."

Xavier sat laid back on the wooden library chair as he waited for the small robot girl code named Q7P13  to turn the corner. After pushing his orange aviators up the bridge of his nose, he straightened his suit's cuffs before taking a gander at his silver and gold Rolex watch. 10:18 AM. Reaching into his lapel pocket, he pulled out a small business card and held it out in front of him. The card was a black rectangle with engraved silver edges. Magic shimmered red and blue, radiating off the card.
"Xaviar Drax, Magical Opportunities. I am here with an offer for you, Q7P13. An opportunity of a life time." He finished with a disarming smile.

Q7 walks through the aisles, stopping every so often to look at the title of a book or even add one to the ever growing stack that was in her arms. Once she finally has what she would consider enough for some light reading, Q7 turns and starts to head back to her normal seat, intent on getting finishing all of the books she had gathered before the library closes for the day. As she turns the corner, a mere dozen or so meters from her spot, a man in a really awful looking suit gets in her way, attempting to hand her a card, ignoring the fact that she has ten or so books in her arms.

Q7 looks down at the card for a second, wondering what he did to cause it to glow like that before putting it out of her mind, figuring she can just ask Mindy about it the next time she shows up. "I am busy. You can tell me about this life time opportunity later."

"The sickness is spreading."

Q7 tilts her head to the side, now slightly curious about what he was talking about. "What do you mean by sickness?"

"Come take a seat with me, I insist. Only a moment of your time."

Q7 shakes her head, getting herself back on track with the books that she has yet to read. "No, I have things I must do. You can come back later."  She moves past them, putting her books on the table and taking her own seat.

The man takes the seat opposite her, making a hand gesture under the table. "So what's a cute girl like you doing taking on big time gangs, is it what you were programmed to do."

Frowning at the man's words, she stops reaching for one of her books, switching her gaze to the rather creepy man who would not stop bugging her. "How do you know about that?"

"The world is a small place, a single stone leaves big ripples. I think what you are doing is admirable. I would like to offer you a chance to bring even bigger change, to clean more of detritus that is plaguing the world, but we can talk about that later. But first, May I ask, do you have a wish?"

"I wish you would leave me alone so I may read."  Q7 shifts her attention back to her books again, dragging one of them closer to her and flipping it open.

"What if I could get you access to a well of knowledge found nowhere else in the world?"

"What well of knowledge?"  Q7, though annoyed by the man in front of her, was not one to pass up a chance to learn something.

"Have you ever heard of the fountain of knowledge?"

"Fountain of knowledge? What is that?"  Q7 wished he'd get to the point already.

"The world flows with a life force. Some call it mana, others soma, countless names have been given to it. As it flows, it captures a silloutte of the moments it passes. Long ago a wizard devised a way to pull out these moments and view them. This place was named the Akashic Records. All knowledge on earth can be found there."

"Really? Where is it?"  Q7 noticed that he still hadn't gotten to the point and was actually beginning to lose interest in the whole thing.

"In the chamber of Seven, that is why we would like you to join us."

"Where is the chamber? Is it close?"

"I can't tell you that unless you agree to join us"

"Oh..."  Q7 was kinda sorry that she couldn't actually go visit this place of infinite knowledge, but the man was kind of annoying, so it wasn't a complete loss. Maybe he'll finally leave. "I am sorry, but unless I know how far it is, I cannot go with you."

"Well then I am terribly sorry, we have no more business here."  The man stands up and tips his hat to Q7.

"Bye." Q7 gives him a small wave before turning back to her books and beginning to read.

"Bye."  With that final word, he heads off into the distance.

"Oh come now, spite is a terrible shade on you, dear." said the woman the young lady Veronica had called mother in an intentionally patronizing passive manner. The woman reached into thin air and pulled out a tray of tea and biscuits  and began to pour herself a cup of tea.

"Any how, why are you wasting your time watching that shameful experiment? Isabelle is long gone now, and now is the time of the House of Alda!" The woman leaned her head back and took a long drought from the small tea cup. It took considerable will power on Veronica to not roll her eyes. They both knew that the tea was only for show, neither of them needed food or drink to survive.

A moment passed before Veronica let out a slightly drawn out sigh before speaking up. "Why are you here, mother? What do you want now?"

A small smug smirk inched out from the side of the woman's mouth, despite how uncouth she believed her daughter to be, she always felt superior in comparison to her frankness. In their culture's daughters were treated more like how sisters are viewed in other cultures then progeny. "So kind of you to ask! You must come out of here! Go outside, socialize with the others, maybe find a lover or two. To be up front about it, you have become a conversation land mine! Its almost become taboo to mention your name!"

Veronica waited a moment before tearing her eyes away from the screen to look her mother in the eyes. "You still haven't said what you want me to do." she stated almost expression less. The eyes of Matilda Alda began to sparkle a little bit and her small smirk spread to the width of her face.

---

Xavier walked out of the library and walked his way into his red Telsa Model S and began driving towards the docks. He didn't need to drive when he could just open a series of dimensional gates to get back to the head quarters but he didn't want to draw unwanted attention, plus it gave him time to watch the humans living their trivial lives. As he neared the docks he spoke up into his on board operating system, "Call Aldric."

The dash stalled for a moment that was probably no shorter then ten seconds but was long enough to get Xavier to blame humanity irrationally for having not improving their voice recognition software. The call rang through the car for about two rings before a deep, raspy, russian accented voice picked up the phone. "Any luck with the robot girl, Xavier? Do we have our seventh?"

Xavier paused a moment before speaking up. "Ten to one? Probably not. The robot is too short sighted to understand our goals."

Aldric on the other hand was not to pleased about that and responded with a flabbergasted sounding voice. "Come on Xavier! We need "One Mage of the Old Text" to finish the circle and they aren't exactly growing on trees!"

Keeping his voice even Xavier continued on. "We don't need a robot only capable of C-level rune magic anyways. We'll just recruit that old geomancer from Norway."

"Well about that... He's dead now..." Xavier was so shocked, he almost drove straight into the beach. "What do you mean, he's dead!?"

"I had a feeling that this wouldn't go well. So I sent Victor and Kenneth to pick him up. Sadly, they quite literally scared him to death. We still got his apprentice though, he's not a full fledged Geomancer yet but he knows the words and runes of power."

Xavier let out another sigh and took a minute to recollect himself. "This puts us back a bit but it will have to do. Send all of the books in his study to the main chamber and send Shale and Linda to take care of the over glorified tin can. Can't leave a potential trail."

 It was Aldric's nervous laughter that unsettled him this time.

"About Linda... well..."

---

The neon blue twin-tailed girl named Linda was  flying up the coast of Los Angeles  at mach two speeds, leaving only a blue blur behind her.  The rage boiled in her gut as she sprint - jumped forward. Today was the day she get revenge on the girl who had ruined her life and destroyed her heart. The only thing that stopped the ground from bursting into flames was the  Prandtl - Glauert singularity that was around her.

To poor Sebastian, the event only lasted a second, as what seemed like a ghost rushed towards them and passed straight through him, the bike and all. After much swerving, he finally managed to straighten out Galahad and the cart. "Are you ok Mindy? What was that thing!?" But when he finally turned
around to see her, she was gone.

Distraught, he stopped the suped up scooter on the side of the road and looked around for her with no luck. That was when he felt a prickly sensation coming from the direction of the city.

"...Shit."

---

Disoriented didn't even begin to cover how Mindy was feeling. One moment she was queen of her noble and gallant chariot when it suddenly felt like she was being folded into her abdomen over and over again till finally she was on a road in the center of a urban city except now it was the middle of the night. Lights raced all around, from the streets  to the walls to the stars in the skys; everything was always moving.

It wasn't an illusion but it wasn't real either. This was a place of magic that existed on a plane all of its own. Other then that Mindy had no clue about whats going on.

It was the sirens that got her to notice the strange throne on top of one of the smaller buildings nearby. Its back was a radio tower that turned and zigzagged in an erratic fashion and its arm rests were television sets. Behind the throne were two larger screens that were zoomed in on the face of the girl who was sitting on the throne. The features on her face were flawless, carrying the softness of flower petals and the smoothness of fresh set porcelain. That is when she finally spoke up.

"Today is the day that Justice will be served."

"On a Tuesday?" Mindy replied, clearly more shocked about that fact then the weight of her current predicament.

---

From the ship that was off shore, eight pillers or rock were silently launched out of a magic cannon. They sailed through the sky flying straight towards the library, speeding up as they got closer and closer to their target. Just before the impact, the earth in a mile diameter around the library curved up into a ball of six-feet  thick walls. The library crumbled on the impact. Seven of the pilars formed a circle around the outer ring of library's debris and at the very center was a large obsidian rock golem.

Out of the rubble came out small white bubbles that flowed straight into the black golem. It began to cackle. "YES! YES! FEED ME!"

Just then a person broke out of the rubble, as the woman was about to pray her good fortune, the golem swiped its arm and surpizing fast speed and launched a piece of rubble at the woman smashing her against the rocks. out of her crushed corpse came out another bubble came out and went into the golem.

The golem began to punching the ground, bringing powerful tremors that shook the ground causing more spirits to fly out of the rubble.

"You dead yet, scrap metal!? I guess you have miss the chance to bow before the mighty Shale!"  He exclaimed with a series of guffaws.

Q7 was still just reading her massive pile of books, attempting to learn everything she can. Basically catching up with the knowledge that had been learned by humanity throughout all of their existence. Which was why she totally wasn't expecting for the library to explode around her. Implode? It doesn't really matter, what does matter is that some jackass just decided to take out the building that she was using to learn, which was terribly rude if she says so herself.

The building collapsing around her didn't really phase Q7 much, but the fact that she was now weighed down by a lot of shit did, trapping her in place. She tries to shift around, only for it not to work very well. Figuring that someone was going to find her sooner or later, she just stops her useless attempts to get out, starting to power down to save energy when someone ripped through the rubble, grabs her leg and yanks her out, leaving her hanging upside down and staring at this black colored stone man thing. The Thing is that you?

Tilting her head to one side, Q7 questions the man who had just freed her. "Hello. Were you the who blew up the library?"

"...No."

Still being held up by her leg, Q7 nods once. "I see, can you please point out the person who did so? I need to feed them their own eyes, since clearly they lack the ability to see." The man wordlessly points behind Q7, causing her to twist in place to check behind her, only to see nobody there. Before she could say anything, a fist slams into her back, putting her through a wall that was somehow still standing. Q7 stands up and dusts herself off, looking at the man who was rude and hit her while she wasn't looking. "What did you do that for?"

"That wasn't me there seems to be some sort of invisable master of gravity here!" With Shale's words, pillars of rock form out of the ground and start to float around her dramatically before flying at her. Q7 just vanishes from her spot, crossing the distance to stand right in front of Shale, staring at him. "Why are you lying? I can sense you using magic."

"Oh, okay. Then we we can stop playing around." The ground around Q7 splits, lifting up slowly and dramatically again, like he was parting water. The ability to control the rocks like that was interesting to Q7, causing her to question it. "How are you controlling the rocks like that? It is very interesting." It was then that the two rocks slam together. Q7 had already moved, now sitting on the golem's shoulder without a care in the world. "You are rather slow, are you sure you want to continue?"

Q7 hops off of Shale's shoulder as he makes the rocks and shit he was controlling turn into dust, finally deciding it was time to take out the trash and tries to put a couple bullets into the golem's chest. Watching them bounce off, Q7 thinks for a second, then decides it was time to go, having learned that sometimes you just can't win the battle you are forced into. Appearing at the edge of the arena that was so helpfully constructed for them, Q7 tries to break through the earth wall, only to find that it was way too hard for her to break through quickly. The sand storm starts to pick up, doing some damage to her false skin. "Oh dear..."

After what seemed like an eternity listening and agreeing to her mother, the timeless Veronica watched the woman disappear into thin air. With a gesture, a cup of tea appeared into her hands from which she sipped the contents slowly. Earl grey with two lemon squeezes, it was simply divine. The thought brought a small ironic smile to her lips. The smile didn't stay long.

The small porcelain tea cup from her hand, disappearing before it hits the ground. The television screen had suddenly jumped into black, and that could only mean that the girl on screen was somewhere the scrying spell couldn't follow. But the last scene had her on the road, nowhere near a place of thick magic, and that could only mean one thing.

Veronica felt rage build inside of her. Someone was going to pay.

---

The neon-haired Linda was almost taken back by Mindy's flippant comment. She shook herself, this was no time to let the girl confuse her. She took another couple moments before she spoke up again.

"Mindy Ashford, you are hereby charged with the murder of our mother, Isabelle Ashford. You will be killed as penance as decreed by the council fo the nine houses

Mindy stood there with an open mouthed, wide eyed look on her face.  Linda was feeling a sense of satisfaction before it turned into complete horror when she realized that the look on Mindy's face was one of awe and happiness.

"I have a sister? This is wonderful! We can paint our nails and try out clothes and talk about cute boys! Whats your name? What's your favorite color? Is it blue? I think its blue!-" On and on Mindy went about one thing or another, leaving Linda dumbfounded. Did she miss the whole going to get killed for her crimes bit? Maybe the murder of their mother did not weigh on her mind. This thought rekindled the inferno inside of Linda.

Pulling out a giant pair of scissors, Linda dove at Mindy. "I, Linda Ashford, sentence you to death!" Opening the giant maw of the scissor, she aimed to cleave Mindy's torso in half.

"Oh, so your name is Linda! Well Linda, its very bad to run at your older sister with scissors. It looks like we have to practice scissor safety."  just as the scissors closed down on her, Mindy leaned back with a grace that she never really seemed to possess before, and with a single finger shot out a blast of light magic straight at Linda. Sensing the threat to her life, Linda broke out of the dive with one of her feet touchign the ground and darting at lightning fast speeds to the side. The single innocent beam of light magic  burst into a raging torrent of energy. Any doubts in Linda's mind were cleared, Mindy was a killer.

"You are no sister of mine! You have been cast out from House Ashford. Also... Younger!? I'm 600 years older then you!"

Mindy was still trying to process all of what was happening. A city with moving lights, her body moving in ways she didn't even know it could move in and younger sisters who were actually older then she was. There was only one real explanation.

"So this is a dream." Mindy said while hitting one of her hands in a fist onto her the palm of the other, almost like a judge hitting a gavel.

That dream went into nightmare really fast when Linda suddenly separated into 6 more copies of herself.

---

Sebastian was lost. Both on what do about the whole missing Mindy thing, and the whole "none the of the streets in this god damn city make any sense" thing. His best bet was to follow the source of eerie feeling he had before. If the last year had taught him anything, Mindy was normally in the thick of things.

As he got closer and closer to what looked like a giant dirt ball, he suddenly felt another presence. As he turned to face his left, looking towards a small park he saw what looked like a really furry butler. the dog-ish features gave away the fact that it was a werewolf. Sebastian didn't know if that was abnormal for Los Angeles or if really weird was just the norm here. With magic stores on the side of bars, magic user gangs and giant demons from one could only guess was hell, Sebastian couldn't tell if his experience was the exception or the rule of thumb. All the same, he decided to press on.

"I was sent by my lady to take you out." The werewolf butler shouted out to Sebastian. Seb on the other head just nodded his head and said.

"I'm flattered but I'm not gay. Do not worry common mistake... for some reason..." The weight of that last statement hit him harder then he thought it would.

"I am here to end you in the name of house Ashford." Ashford? As in Mindy's  last name? She had a second butler? Unlikely. Did she have any other alive relatives. She talked about her father once, and she had said that her mother was dead, so who was his "Lady".

"Now come, you terrible excuse for a butler. Let me put an end to your pitiful existence."

...

Sebastian pulled the bike over and reached into his pockets for his gloves. Time to put a mangy dog in his place.

In an attempt to at least show some resistance to the fact that she was pretty much about to get broken, Q7 summons a shotgun and pumps six or so shells at Shale, watching all of them do no damage at all. Sighing once again at the fact that she keeps getting into these bullshit fights where they are above her pay-grade, she just leans up against the earth wall and protects her chest, fleeing the sand starting to weigh her down and making moving a little harder with every passing second. It was about then that what looked like a semi made out of rock flying straight at her.

The rocks slam into Q7, crushing her against the earth behind her for a second before it finally gave way, sending her flying into the middle of the street, which had a bunch of people standing there and staring at the giant ball of earth like a bunch of retards. Q7 was free though, so she had that going for her. Regaining her feet, she gives herself a pat down, making sure everything was still working correctly before looking up and seeing the giant ball of earth rising into the air. "...Well, this does not look good."

Not having a way to dodge the huge ass ball of earth, Q7 just ducks and covers as it flies through the air, slamming down pretty much directly on where she was, crushing everything around her and rolling down the street, breaking whatever was in the way. However, the hole that Q7 was punched through landed exactly where she was, leaving her completely unharmed. Once again standing up, she looks at the flattened area around her before calling out to the rock head. "You missed!" Shale, pissed off at the fact that the giant ball of rock didn't do a thing to Q7, fires off a bunch of obsidian spears, which hit nothing but air seeing as how Q7 quickly got the hell out of there, rapidly moving to one side. She was just about to mock the rock head again when the spears exploded, sending her flying into what was left of a building.

Q7 was mostly alright, but one of her already damaged arms gave out with the explosion, leaving her one arm down and not feeling too good about herself. Rolling to her feet, she barely manages to get out of the way of another set of spears before starting a full on run down the road, heading directly back to the lab, connecting to her three tanks in case she had to quickly make a backup of herself, not sure if she could outrun the rock head and knowing full well that she can't beat him with her current strength.

The Linda silhouettes left Mindy unfazed, dreams had a tendency to be a tad bit ridiculous she thought.  Pulling the magic from her center, ready to move it to defend herself, Mindy realized something that made her heart drop. A feeling she hadn't felt in months, magic wasn't flowing into her.  

Despite using stores of magic that were deep inside of her, she could always feel mana  slowly growing back in her reserves. The sensation chilled her to the bone, slowing suffocating her with fear. The idea of losing her magic filled her with a sense of vulnerability she hadn't felt for the entire last year.

The Lindas began to laugh in unison. "This is my space, I choose the flow of mana here. A Magus gains mana from the world around them. If it wasn't for that accursed body of yours, you would have none left. Oh well. Nothing we can't fix." Like clockwork the Lindas began jumping past Mindy at sonic speeds, cutting shallowly to prolong the pain. With each cut, more then just leaving a blood trail, Mindy could feel the pain into what she could only describe as her soul, as if it were a physical thing.

With each passing, the Linda's jumped faster and faster. Through the pain Mindy couldn't tell if the laughter was from Linda or if it was just in her head. Her hands began to shake and her body was on fire. She was mad. Furious.

With a stomp of her foot and a scream of anger, a shock wave of pure arcane energy rippled around Mindy, catching the nearest Linda off guard, knocking her back only a couple feet away. With swipe from her hand, palm turned into a fist almost as if holding a sword, Mindy cleaved the off balanced Linda in half. The clone disappeared with a look of anguish on it face.

Linda began to laugh again. "One phantasm means nothing." With a wave of her hand, more Linda's appeared on the rooftops, now easily  more then one hundred spread out across the skyline. "-In the face of an army. Justice will be served today."

The loss of blood was slowly getting to Mindy, even with the wounds oozing less blood the before, the blades had left another kind of damage that she was still not sure of. She knew that she wasn't going to win this fight, she had to get out of this nightmare, before it killed her.

Just as the Linda were about to pounce, probably for the final blow, Mindy used as much of her reserves as she could to let out a blinding light and a made a break for it into the nearest building.  Linda's eyes burned as mini sunbursts danced around her eyes. How could she use light magic? Was the project nor a failure? With each passing question, Linda became more and more sure that Mindy had been their mothers killer. As soon as her eyesight returned to her, she was going to hunt down that miserable bitch and put an end to her.

Mindy was disorientated to say the least, her head was foggy, and all she saw was blurs. The hallways seemed endless, at first it felt like she was  going nowhere, but before she realized it, felt like she had been here before. Letting instinct take over, she wandererd through the maze of hallways. A left here, a right there, but before she knew it, she was standing before one door that was different. a single white door in a hallway of mahogany painted wood. She turned the handle and was welcomed by a small living room with a small crib in the back.

She limped through the room trying to find a way out when she was swarmed by a torrent of images in her head that made no sense to her. Nausea hit her like a wall and she threw up. the contents vanished before they hit the floor. Mindy pushed on before opening a door in the back of the room that opened into what looked like a black abyss. Without a second thought, Mindy threw herself through, letting the darkness swallow her in its black maw.

Linda who had managed to follow the blood trail stood outside the door of the room. She slammed her fist into the frame of the door. That demon, why did it have to be THIS room. Linda broke into tears and fell to her knees and laid there with her head resting on the wall, letting her anguish overcome her.

---

The anthropomorphic dog butler was not just talk, in terms of skill he was evenly matched with Sebastian. Time and time again, they exchanged blows, and each time they came out in a deadly stalemate where one false move would mean their end.

In the recess of his mind, Sebastian knew that one of his previous iterations had a move that would be perfect for this situation, but he disliked asking that version of himself for help, mainly because hes kind of a dick. As much as he didn't like to admit, despite his vast endurance and physical strength, the wolf mans speed and reflexes were quickly gaining him ground in the fight.

With a Thunk! Mindy landed back into the cart, passed out. As Sebastian was thrown off by the sudden appearance of his, his opponent was not. The shaggy butler made a bee line straight towards the girl in the cart. With no more hesitation, Sebastian crossed his arms in front of him, hands balled into a fists. He jumped at the large mutt and striked at him with a speed that was only possible through muscle memory of years of training or in this case the muscle memory of years of training of a past life.

The Dog butler keeled over, and the skin on Sebastian's arms split open into hundreds of small cuts.  it wasn't terrible, since the blood coagulation would stop it in a couple minutes, but it hurt like a mofo all the same. Asura Strike, The strike that defeated hundred men, a move that named after a race of ancient demigods that allowed the user to strike numerous times by allowing them to let go of their hesitancy and use their battle experience to strike their opponent in one hundred places, of hitting them in a weak spot eventually. The version of him that had learned it was so full of himself, probably was never going to let this time go.

Sebastian got back to the cart to see Mindy in her banged up state, they needed to get to a hospital as quickly as possible. As he started up his bike, he saw the large ball of earth he had seen earlier, rolling off in the distance, crushing what looked like the closest hospital. Shit.

That was when he remembered the little girl they had met before, maybe she had something at her lab that could help. There were probably more logical choices but he wasn't thinking all that well at the time. he gunned the engine and road straight to the location of Dr. Riley's lab.

He carried Mindy into the building like he would a small child. he got to the first door, and saw a hand print scanner. He placed his hand on the scanner and watched it illuminate and come back in big red letters ACCESS DENIED and swore. Maybe Q7 had never put them into the access log? Maybe there was a doorbell? He needed to think fast.

That was when Mindy, by sheer power of will, slammed her hand down on the scanner.  A couple of moments later ACCESS GRANTED came across the screen. Sebastian knew deep down he should have been atleast a little upset about that, but he was just glad that the door opened.

They made their way inside.

Q7 springs up and over a car, spears thudding into it as she passes, exploding a moment later. It was only the fifth attack that she had dodged since she had started running, though the golem was starting to get tired of this game. It was clear since his next move was to throw the spears upwards and make it rain. She gets out of the way by changing direction and going through a building, tossing herself through a window facing the alley and continuing on, hoping to at least gain some distance before he figures out which way she went.

Of course it seems that luck wasn't with her, seeing as how her exit suddenly became a wall. Q7 didn't even hesitate, using a dumpster as a step-stool and managing to make it over the wall before it became too tall. Landing on the other side, she barely dodges another spear, but wasn't fast enough to avoid getting caught in the explosion, tossed out into the middle of the road and hit by a passing car.

After bouncing a couple of times, Q7 is back on her feet, moving yet again. It was about then that the military, having been called to assist in Los Angeles's time of need, finally arrives at the battlefield and opens fire on Shale, distracting him just long enough for Q7 to slip away into another alley. Good thing the library wasn't far from her home, or she may have been in trouble.

She arrives at the front door, quickly opening it and heading in, letting the door close itself as it was designed to do now, since she changed it. Of course, right before it could finish closing a spear slipped through, Shale having caught up to her a little faster then she thought he would. She looks down at the object that had gone through her chest. "Well, this is unfortunate." With that, it explodes, removing the top of her body with the bottom half.

Q7 reaches out and touches the wall with the last of her energy, smiling like she won, before the crystals in her head suddenly fried themselves. It was about then that the shaking started, followed by what felt like the whole laboratory dropping straight down. Everything hit the ground and caused a huge mess as they went from just below ground level to ending up who knows how deep. Of course, the power only flickers slightly, seeing as how they were never on the normal power grid to start with.

In another room, behind a series of locked doors to keep people from just entering at will, a girl opens her eyes and looks around the dark room. Seeing as how the pod she was in wasn't exactly designed to be open from the inside she was trapped. Fear of being left him for the rest of her life twists her expression and she starts to pound on the glass, ignoring the fact that she has no idea if anyone could even hear her.

The interior of the lab was white and tiled and almost just screamed sterile. At the end of the hall way seemed like a pair of stairs that led god knows where. Sebastian carried the barely conscious Mindy through the first door on the right. The metal blast doors open up into a small carpeted office. After a quick glance to see if the tiny robot was there, he proceed through the door on the other side to find himself in the center of the lab space. There were a lot of machines with a lot of uses but none of them seemed geared towards something organic. With a huff, he pressed on through another set of doors to the right.

The doors opened back into the hallway, and without skipping a beat, Sebastian took off straight ahead into the hallway that intersected perpendicularly from the hallway that he had started on. He knew that there was chance of there being no sort of medical station but he had hoped that that scientist that Q7 had been talking about had made some supplies to take care of himself.

After running through two more rooms, a bedroom (presumably for the old doctor) and a pretty well stocked kitchen, Sebastian finally found the med bay.  He laid Mindy on to the medical bed, and was answered by a small robotic voice "Scanning... Scanning... Scanning..." It went on for a couple minutes before finally starting treatment. With a sigh of relief, Sebastian made his way towards the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

He sat there a couple of minutes on munching on a sandwich he had made, letting his mind wonder to where their small robot friend had wondered off to. Outside was getting more and more hectic. He thought of going out and searching for her, before deciding that it would be best to wait for Mindy to heal and then set off together to find their absent yet hospitable host. That was when He heard the front door open.

Getting up to go greet the newcomer, that is when he heard the familiar voice of Q7 ""Well, this is unfortunate." followed by a loud BLAM!. Sebastian ran into the hall way to see the robotic corpse of Q7 lying on the ground split in two. There was a smile on her face but Sebastian was in too much anguish to really care. Who had done this! "MISTRESS Q7!!!!!!!" Standing up to run out the door to get seek vengeance despite his still injured arms.  That was when the floor gave out.

The shaking and falling sensation had only lasted a couple moments but it was enough to knock Sebastian off his feet. Reaching up and trying the panel for the door before remembering that his hand print was not valid for the door. He sighed and rested against the wall as he mourned for the tiny robot. They hadn't known each other for very long, but she was one of the few he had considered a friend in his life of mostly solitude. She was also about the only one on their trip that seemed even remotely normal even despite the whole robot thing. At least she wasn't a drunkard, bar brawling reincarnation of the monkey king, or a transforming puella magi latino boy, or a self-proclaimed alien god of destruction or even a large woman dress like a panda channeling to three powerful spirits the universe. She was just a girl, a robot girl.

Time became meaningless as seconds felt like hours and hours felt like minutes. He didn't know if Mindy had finished healing or not or if he had to flip her like you do on a grill. It probably was more sophisticated then that, but it brought up when thought he had been avoiding. "What am I going to tell Mindy..." This day was going horribly, from Mindy disappearing, poser butlers, Miss Q7, and now this endless knocking.

...Knocking? When had the knocking started? Some time after the shaking seemed to be the best guess he could muster. Sebastian walked back to the kitchen and pulled out a large knife. With quick glance, he saw that Mindy had finally stabilized, and he continued on his way to follow the knocking.  His many past lives agreed that the sound of the knocking was probably something living, it was too irregular to be otherwise.

Sebastian gingerly took the stairs down as he kept theknife at the ready, in case anything decided to jump out at him. A small sour look twisted his face as he realized he was doing more or less the same thing he yelled at the charactors in those horror movies Mindy loved watching. Shaking his head he moved closer and closer towards the sound, he went room to storage room, turning on the lights as he went. The lights flickered but they were better then nothing. Each room he went to, the machines became stranger and stranger, aimed at doing things that he couldn't even imagine. In the end all he could do was to continue to swear under his breath.

When he got to the fourth room, the room was cast in an orange light from a giant chamber of fluid in the center. Inside the chamber, there looked to be something human-like thrashing around. The perfectly logical thing would be to let it out. Right? "Ha nope!" Sebastian thought to himself. That was the part of the movie where the monster or the demon, or the machine, or, god forbid, clown comes out and kills everyone.

As Sebastion made his move towards the door, he thought, Q7 probably had this down here for a reason. If it wasn't meant to be let out, she would have hid it better. He sighed.  In respect to the dearly departed he decided to open the tube, and if what came out was some sort of gothic horror, he would just have to slay it.  Walking over to the console, he fiddled around with it till he finally found the release protocol and ran through it.

As the chamber opened and smoke filled the room, Sebastian hoped that this day didn't end on an even worse note.

The girl stopped hitting the glass the moment she saw motion in the room with her, but she couldn't be sure on who, or even what, was in the room. It stopped by the controls and fiddled around with them somewhat before pressing the release button, starting to drain process, forcing her to start coughing, seeing as how water and air doesn't mix well. Her throat burns from the sudden fit, making it harder to talk then it was before. As the water finishes going down the drain, the girl drops down and just leans against the glass, feeling far heavier then she was used to. A hiss was all that was heard as the glass opens upwards, somehow releasing a bunch of smoke that clears out quickly. No idea where that came from, it wasn't something that she put in.

The girl stares at Sebastion, trying to work up words to speak, but kept stumbling over the fact that she was used to her normally automatic process of speaking, instead of having to form the words herself, making it so that all she does is move her mouth randomly. While she was trying to figure out how to form words correctly, Sebastion, in all of his glory, just kinda stood there with a face that quickly showed relief at it not being some weird monster of doom. He was a bit hesitant to get involved with the girl. "Hello? Heellooo? Are you okay miss?" Seeing as how the girl couldn't respond, he quit trying.

The girl, figuring that any more attempts at speech was useless, attempts to stand, only for her sense of balance to fail her and cause her to drop back down. She flails as she falls, before finally managing to actually speak a word. "Min...dy." Sebastion, upon hearing his mistresses name, decides to bring the girl to see Mindy, for reasons. He pulls off his jacket and wraps the girl in her before easily picking her up with a low alley-oop. Now with the girl in Sebastion's arms, they move through the storage rooms and back up the stairs, the girl fidgeting a lot with the new sensations that she was experiencing. They got to the medical bay, the girl pointing at a chair, which was helpfully pulled over and put next to Mindy by Sebastion. Now sitting next to her, The girl holds one of her hands, shuddering a little from how weird the sense of touch is, but refuses to let go of her friend's hand.

All that Mindy could feel was pain. It flooded all of her senses and burned away thoughts of anything else. Her body sweated and spazzed as the wounds that Linda had inflicted continued to eat away at her essence, a part of Mindy could feel, but could not see. The fits and sweats pushed her consciousness further and further away until Mindy was in the middle of a white expanse.

She couldn't remember how long it had been since she had passed out or even how long she had been in the white expanse. She began walking forward, scanning the horizon looking for something. It could have been minutes, hours, even days before a young woman in a gothic lolita appeared in front of Mindy. She opened her mouth and began to speak
" My name is Ver-"
"Shhhhhh!" Mindy shushed her new mysterious visitor.
""Excuse me?" Veronica asked clearly taken back. This wasn't going the way she had expected it too.
"I finally found the sound, just give me a moment" Mindy said distractedly while looking around excitedly. Veronica took a second and then began talking as if they're little exchange had never happened
"Malinda's blade cut deep into your spirit body. It wont heal inside your body as it is, you'll need to-"
"Fo-un-d it!" Mindy chimed. The air around them began to hum. Lightly at first but slowly crescendoing into a song that seemed to capture the colors of life, each singing their voices into an ecstatic harmony. The mana around Mindy began to dance around her, washing colors on to the sterile white background, before finally flowing into her. She gave our a small giggle of happiness, she felt whole again.

The woman Veronica raised an eyebrow before taking her leave. It was clear that she wasn't needed here. So with a small curtsy, she vanished. She was confused at what emotions she was feeling; shouldn't she be feeling sad or dejected? There was definitely a feeling bubbling inside of her, but even she didn't know what it was. As she returned to her own sterile white, living room she found that her mother was there again.

"I was under the impression that you had gotten what you had come for, Mother." Veronica suddenly remembered that she was was angry after her mother had left, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where that rage had gone.
"Just came to see if your conversation with the failed experiement had given you any satisfaction." Her mother's eyes danced with a mocking glee.  The emotions inside of Veronica rose to the top and made her do something she didn't even think she was capable of.

For the first time, Veronica laughed.

---

Hours had passed since the city had finally began to calm down. Sebastian and Mindy and the strange girl were still trapped in the base underground.  For the most part Mindy had stabilized all while the girl stayed by his side. Sebastian kept himself busy mending his clothes while stitching up a rudimentary poncho for the girl, and all exploring the base as far as he dared and the as far as the base would let him. He had fixed himself a tripple decker sandwich in the kitchen. For being the base of a robot, it seemed strange to have such a well stocked pantry. Though what was even more strange was the sheer amount of french fries in their freezer. Sebastion shrugged it off; that couldn't possibly be relevant, right?

---

Mindy woke up with her senses dancing. The steel table felt like a sheet of ice and the air was thick with an earthy musk. At first it seemed likeit was from the sheer amount of dirt but after a while Mindy realized that it was earth magic she was senseing. They were on a leyline, a major one at that.

Shifting her weight forward, Mindy tried to get up when she noticed that there was a hand in hers. Turning over, she saw a small naked girl in Sebastian's overcoat looking at her through eyes that struggled to stay open. The eyes opened wider and were suddenly filled with relief and joy at seeing Mindy finally moving.

Reviewing her memories, Mindy could bring up no recollection of the girl. Looking at her, she noticed that she had magic aura; one that she had never seen before. She slid her legs towards the side that the girl was on before drawing the smaller girl into an embrace into her bosom. Mindy had no idea who she was, but those were the eyes of love. In a lot of ways, she hadn't seen eyes like that in a long time.

The tiny girl spasmed a little in Mindy's embrace before letting out a small moan and going limp. Mindy tilted her head and noticed that girl had passed out. Sebastian she called out in her mind. Moments passed and no response came. He was mental linked with her, not surprising  since she had probably been out for a while. Taking a moment to make sure that she could walk, she carried the girl out of the room in her arms drawing on the extra mana around them to avoid getting tired. The weight wasn't a problem but extended physical labor wasn't her forte.

Making her way out of the room she saw the kitchen room to her right and Sebastian sitting on next to the counter with an half-finished eight decker sandwich. A face horror  washed over Sebastian. "This isn't what it looks like, Milady!" Cocking one eyebrow, Mindy let a small coy smile find it s way on to her lips. "Can you give me a hand with something, or are you two busy?" Sebastian felt his face change ten shades redder as he got up to walk after his ward who had already left the doorway and began on her way.

It took a little while before Mindy found a place where she found a big enough pocket of ley line mana; it was small service elevator to carry materials into the lab. Going up was out of the question, it would have been impossible for them to climb up with out any form of rope. So with Sebastian's help to focus a beam of pure mana , they drilled a way out at a forty-five degree angle. By the time they had made it outside, the sky was just beginning to turn orange. The newly created exit had lead to the side of a cliff on the beach. It was surrounded by rocks and and crashing waves. I took a while of hugging the shore and cliff before they made it back to a beach that lead into the city again.

The city had finally calmed down as different heroes and relief groups began reducing the destruction and assisting the people. The coast had been evacuated, and looked more like a ghost town the a populated city-scape. They laid the slumbering girl who had began to shift awake. On the trip there, Sebastian had filled Mindy in on the his small adventure with the glass tube and the girl who had emerged.

As the girl woke up, she seemed slightly startled as she tried to process where she was before just settling on Mindy; Sebastian was  a little less then an afterthought. "I know you are probably still confused, but we have a few questions. There was a robot who was supposed to be in that lab. Her name is Q7. Do you know her?" The tiny girl seemed to ignore him as she situated her self closer to Mindy before trying to make a sound that came out as unintelligible sounds.  Giving up, she nodded her head.

"Where is she?" The girl's expression turned slightly into one of annoyance, almost as if to say "My voice doesn't work, Jackass." Mindy put her arm around the girl and sat next to her.
"Is she in the lab?" The girl shook her head. "Is she ok?" This gave the girl a little more of of a pause before shaking her head. Sebastian cursed. The crazy demon-slaying super soldier-robot was about their only friend they had made on their world touring adventure, there was that one crazy panda and that strange cross dressing magical girl but they had vanished by the time they had gone to visit them again.

"Do you have a name?" The girl thought pensively before shaking her head for another time. Mindy's eyes seemed to glaze over as she shifted hair off a couple of unruly strands of hair away from the nameless girl's face.
"Let us get her some real clothes. Those makeshift wont last very long" Mindy said referring to crude poncho.

They searched building to building till they found an abandoned mall and began searching clothes that fit the girl. Before long they had a nice sizable set of clothes that the girl could wear.  Mindy was twirling a small hat in her hands as she shot small blasts of magic at it, altering it slowly by slowly till she could felt that it looked perfect.

They had finally cleared the evacuated area by the time the sun was beginning to set. The turned to stare at the shore line as their long day was finally coming to an end. Mindy turned to the small girl and eased the hat onto her head. "Happy Birthday, Quinn" Mindy said with a kind smile splitting her face. The girl now named Quinn blinked repeatedly for a few moments processing what was happening before a pink tinge colored her face, from her cheeks to her ears.

Sebastian looked like he was hit with a pillow case of bricks. When had any of these things had been decided? What was even going on? A couple moments passed and the confused butler just gave up on trying to keep up with the pace of his ward.

Mindy offered her hand to Quinn, who after a moment, took it in her still overly sensitive hand, and they interlocked fingers as they began to walk forward. It didn't matter what tomorrow held, they at least they had each other.