Tokyo City, Japan, Tuesday afternoon

[heromaniac]

Monday was a blur, really. Momoko spent a good deal of time just sitting and crying over Kuriko. And then Dinah. And then Kuriko again. And then Dinah some more, and then just for everyone. Finally she noticed that Ken hadn't been through the room even once to find out what was going on. A quick, if bleary-eyed, tour of the Lab showed he wasn't

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[glacial_witch]

Karla was really starting to dread answering her phone. There wasn't good news. Hadn't been in a while. Even if this was a friendly call from Momoko saying she was all right (and how could it be, Dinah was gone, nothing was all right), that didn't mean that she wouldn't get another call in an hour, a day, a week saying that she wasn't?

But she answered it anyway. Because this was Momoko. Because Karla wanted to talk to her one last time, no matter how many more last times (please, Darkness, let there be many more last times) there were ahead of them. Because that, no matter what, someone needed to keep score and bear witness.

For remembrance. As a reminder.

"Hello?"

[heromaniac]

There was the slight sound of wind in the background as Blossom tried to fly and talk on her phone at the same time.

"Hey Karla! Hi!" Cheery. CHEERY! "You don't happen to have a pen or something, do you?"

[glacial_witch]

Karla began to relax a little at the cheerfulness in Blossom's voice. Just a check-in then. Good. She could handle that.

...Someone was forgetting how Momoko had reacted to coming back from being a monster.

"A pen?" she asked, scrambling around to find one. "Yeah, sure, give me a minute. What's going on?"

Maybe Momoko hadn't heard about Dinah yet. That would hurt, to tell her, but Karla could do it. Maybe she could convince Momoko to come to the island afterwards...

[heromaniac]

"I need to make sure you have a few updates on this thing... whoah whoah whoa" There was some flapping noises and a few quacks in the background. "SORRY! Sorry! Ugh. Don't know where they learned to fly Ah, Karla? You still there? Karla?!"

[glacial_witch]

"I'm still here, I'm still here!" Karla said, snagging a pen and some paper and preparing to take notes. "Didn't lose me! Are you flying? Taking an aerial surveillance of...something?"

That sounded properly superheroiney! Well, minus the 'something' part.

"I'm ready! What's up!"

[heromaniac]

"Flying yes.I'm trying to get back to the dorms to get Triela's gun... Totally glad I didn't leave it at the Lab. Did I tell you the school changed into a Cooking school? The police don't exist anymore. I've been running around fighting crime instead of working on this lately. Probably why it's happening so fast."

[glacial_witch]

"You need Triela's gun?" Karla asked, trying to make heads or tails of Momoko's explanation. "To fight crime? I thought you didn't like guns? I mean, to use on humans. Didn't you say most of your monsters were gone, or something?"

What did she mean 'happening so fast'?

[heromaniac]

"No, not crime. It's my next to last idea." She rounded a corner, the Academy and Dorms finally in sight.

"Karla..." Momoko's tone hardened slightly. It was that or cry. Ah, she totally didn't want to have to be making this call. Ever. "You said you have a pen?"

[glacial_witch]

"I--" Sudden tone shift was sudden. Karla swallowed and nodded, even if Momoko couldn't see her. "I've got it. Paper, too."

Wait. Why did she have to start writing things down? Why couldn't Momoko just email her or text her? That's how they'd shared information before!

Okay, hold on. Breathe. Momoko had just said she was single-handedly taking care of Tokyo. She probably didn't have time to write everything up into a neat report and email it to Karla. So she was just multitasking. Like a smart superheroine.

"Whenever you're ready."

Why did she have a bad feeling about this?

[heromaniac]

Because it was bad.

"Okay, first, my yo-yos, so basically, hitting it, doesn't work. Neither do explosions. It doesn't bounce off or anything, it's like it just stops. No, like it ends. Whatever."

She shifted the phone against her ear as she fiddled with her Dorm room window. Climbing through, she was amused to see Maeda-san's aprons scattered all over her bed.

"Also, it totally looks like what Priestly and Warren described. Worse."

[glacial_witch]

Karla started writing that down. "No hitting or explo--"

Wait.

What?

"Momoko." She was going to be calm. See? She could be calm. "Momoko, tell me you are not going up hand to hand with--with--whatever it is. Momoko! MOMOKO! GET AWAY FROM THAT! FLY AWAY! FAR, FAR AWAY! MOMOKO!"

See? Calm!

[heromaniac]

"That's another thing." Momoko finished fastening her holster and set the Five-seveN squarely in it. Odd how it felt almost familiar. "Whatever it touches ends up gone. Well, at least as far as I can tell. It's... totally not something you want to watch."

She took a deep breath. "I'm not going hand to hand with it, Karla, but I am going to fight it. I'm not letting it just keep taking anything it wants... anyone it wants."

[glacial_witch]

Mother Night help her, Karla was still writing. Taking down everything Momoko said. It was possible that somewhere, something that Momoko saw or discovered or noticed might be it. The thing that turned the tide.

"Is it instantaneous?" she asked, pushing aside her grief and fear and worry. Duty first. Momoko's sacrifice had to count. "Or is there fading? Can you pull something back out, like only if a little bit goes in, like a car or a tree branch or something?"

In her heart, she was crying, screaming, wailing, demanding. But her eyes were dry and hands steady as she took copious notes.

"How--how close are you? To it? What's left?"

[heromaniac]

"It's... weird. One minute there, the next gone. Not a minute... not even a blink. Just gone. And everyone," her voice got a little hoarse. "Everyone just keeps on. Like nothing just happened RIGHT in front of them."

Momoko sank to sit on her bed for a moment. Just a moment, okay?

"I tried to save some of them, but even when they were right in front of it they didn't see it. They totally just kept walking."

[glacial_witch]

Karla bit her lip. "But you're seeing it," she said, voice dull. Her chin trembled and she clenched her teeth until it stopped. "You're seeing the storm. It's there, with you, right now. Isn't it."

[heromaniac]

"It's a few blocks away." Probably less now. "I'm sorry Karla. I was supposed to call you yesterday. Dinah said to and... and things happened."