There's no game going on at Easter Stadium today, but the Stadium is connected to Eclipse's network of strange space, which makes it easy to get to if you know the path. The fact that it's not currently being used also made it a great choice for a meeting on neutral ground.
The girl who's relaxing in the stands, feet up, doesn't look like she belongs much in this city. A french girl with long brown hair and a bright yellow ribbon tied in it sits, with a picture in her hands, waiting for Hannah - who's been attempting to put out feelers to the girl.
It's Cassandra Fontaine, a girl who's true nature seems to be revealed in the heart-shaped gem hanging from a small ribbon around her neck. A Soul Gem.
Really, it's mostly curiousity that draws in Hannah today. A meeting in Easter Stadium, away from prying eyes just /smells/ fishy. Whether it's some kind of trap, or an opportunity is hard to tell. But the young woman is nothing if not brave.
Not an idiot, though. She's brought along a certain loyal feathery precure along for the ride. Hannah appears through a swift teleport, straightening her tie and scanning the area just in case. What she immediately 'spots' is A. the French Girl and B. a soul gem. Definitely relevent to her interests. Already, Miss White gives a big, wide grin. "Yo! Looking for me?" She asks rather unnecessarily, walking up to Cassandra like they've known each other for years. She's already trying to steal a firm handshake and clap on the back. It leaves a good first impression she's found, and makes it easy to punch people if they need punching.
Haruna Kurosawa has come along with Hannah--- with here teleport. And she immediately grabs her stomach and ughs. Teleporting suddenly isn't good for her. She at least isn't incredibly motion sick and it subsides easily enough. She smooths out her suit and tie along with Hannah and follows along slightly behind and to the right of Hannah, letting her do the talking.
Hannah goes about introducing herself. She takes not of Casandra, eyes searching her up and down as she taps the side of her head a bit. She takes note of the soul gem.
"Oh, Hello!" she finally says.
"I'm just here to watch Miss White's back." she smiles. Smile smile.
"Er...!" then suddenly flare of embarrassment. "Not that we think you're up to no good! Just precautions!" she insists. Like she needs to explain herself.
Cassandra waves her hand at Gull, in a sort of 'don't fret' motion. When she speaks, it's in Japanese, albeit with a heavily French accent. "It's understandable given the circumstances. I was hoping the openness of the field would contribute a little bit to making it seem somewhat less like a trap. But I'm not here to hurt anyone."
The hand she was waving Gull off with is clapsed by Hannah and her eyes grow large at the woman's aggressive handshake, but then she smiles, pulling away and putting her hand against her Soul Gem. "I saw the way your eyes drifted to this." she says, quietly. "Do you know what these are? If you do then I have sought out the right person, I hope."
Haruna's presence is certainly a comfort, both in the physical protection sense, and just emotionally. Hannah does have to try a bit to not laugh at how adorably she waves off any potential insult to Cassandra though! Hannah's brow twitches, and she looks all the more comfortable with this mysterious meeting!
A nice firm handshake, and finally the french girl is let go. Miss White finds a seat, crossing her legs and leaning back in a nonchalant manner. Her gaze grows a bit more serious. "Yeah. I know a lot about that Soul Gem around your neck. More than I wish I did. So, you called me out here with a Puella Problem, I take it? Lucky you, that's my specialty. Fill me in, and maybe I can help you out." She offers.
Haruna Kurosawa is too nice for her own good!. Maybe.
She looks back to Hannah a moment and then back to Cassandra. "Yeah that's a soul gem." she says. "It means you're a Puella Magi." she says. "Yup!" she says. "WPS works with some Puella." she says.
She sort of edges closer a bit to lean on in.
"Right, fill us in. We can help." she says. "I'm sure of it." she says. "Erm. Mostly!" she says.
"We haven't let anyone down yet!" she insists.
Cassandra shakes her head. "It's not a Soul Gem." she says, pulling it off her neck. She throws it up and down. "It's like a peice of jewlery, mostly." she adds, throwing it up in the air - with a Puella's strength, meaning it goes WAY WAY up in the air - and then catching it, all without losing her consciousness.
"So... long story short, I made a deal. Not just with Kyubey, but with Kyubey and Eclipse. And... I want out. Even I'm not sure what's going on. All I know is something is wrong. I can feel it. I'm not good at rersearch, but I know this isn't how it's supposed to go."
A longer period of quiet. "I also know this isn't my body. I can feel that, too. My heart is somewhere else."
Hannah whistles, as the realization hits her. Up, up, up goes the 'Soul Gem', and no Puella passing out. Not that any Puella in their right mind would toss away such a preciuos thing! She listens, long and hard, her cheerful manner fading into serious contemplation.
"That's a pretty strange story. I'd love to believe you. But, you could just be trying to test my loyalty to Eclipse. So, have any evidence that what you're saying is true? I mean aside from a piece of jewelry." Hannah fires off, 'glancing' back to Haruna. Time to see if she can't get a good idea of just how truthful, or desperate, this girl might be!
"Because I'm not the type to betray people I work for unless they do something that betrays me first."
Haruna Kurosawa does listen as she nods matter of factly. Wait. What. Not her body? Then what is it? That makes no kinda sense. Are they like the Shitenou or something? Being used that way? It makes her nose scrunch up in contemplation aswell as she taps her chin.
"Coobs is a little jerk who tricks a lotta girls and people." she frowns.
She looks back to Hannah and then back to Cassandra.
"Yeah. This is could be a test. They did that to Hannah already once." she huffs. Stupid... egg stealing rifle, grumble grumble.
"Yup! Hannah keeps her word!" she says.
Cassandra stands up, clenching both of her fists - setting the gem back around her neck anyways. "Do you think this isn't dangerous for me, too?" she asks. "Look, I don't like it anymore than you do. I made an agreement, too. My family is..." she looks away. "Being taken care of with that money, because when I made a wish with Kyubey, I was... selfish. So I made a deal. But I know... don't ask me how... that Eclipse has taken more than their fair share of the bargain. I seem to pass in and out of consciousness..."
"I don't remember anything that happens when I'm not on a job. I don't remember anything about myself. About the true love that I wished for. I can't call my family. I don't know if they're safe."
Hannah remembers how oddly the Eclipse puella acted. She remembers what happened when one of them seemed to lose control. And in her heart of hearts, she knows that it's Eclipse's doing. She has Raging Tempest do a quick Wide Area Search, hunting for bugs, people, or magic in the area aside from the three of them.
After a long minute of silence, she finally nods. "You know what? I believe you. You don't sound like you're lying. Alright. Frankly I've got a bone to pick with a few people anyway given what they've been doing to Puella like you. And you're just more evidence. Not even giving me any data on top? Tch. No one cuts out Miss White on a deal!"
"What do you think, Haruna?"
Haruna Kurosawa hrmmms and thinks as she taps the side of her head as she listens. Does remember anything between jobs. Doesn't remember anything about themselves. Or much about her wish details. That's a big deal.
She takes note on 'selfish wish' for personal reasons. She adds, mentally, 'Don't wish for true love' to the list of things not to wish for. (Not like she has to! but it'd be good info to pass onto Naomi!)
She frowns and keeps her arms crossed.
"I think she's telling the truth." she says. "But I'm wondering how we do anything about it." she says tapping her right foot a little.
Cassandra looks down. "I wish I didn't have to ask for help. All I wanted was to have my true love. You know? I mean, sure, it was selfish, but it was my wish, right? And then..." she leans down, holding her head. "But I don't know. I think... something... bad happened?"
Hannah's search doesn't pick up any bugs, magic or otherwise. But it does help her notice before she would otherwise that the energy of Cassandra has changed distinctly.
Even still, it doesn't take long for it to start to become visible - in the form of small Witch Runes appearing in colors around her. And Cassandra herself changes tone. "Why did it have to go wrong? I don't know. I don't even know how it went wrong. But he's not here, is he? So what did I become, for what reason?" The little fake soul gem still suddenly starts to grow polluted, and her aura changes distinctly...
Hannah shakes her head. "Kid. Wishing for things gets you nowhere. The only thing that ever pans out is hard work and guts! Taking the easy way out gets you spiked." She offers almost automatically. "Especially when they come from somebody as shadey as Kyubey."
Haruna gets a thumbs up. "Yeah, that's the question. I don't even know who's heading the Puella project, though...I've got a few suspects. Maybe we can..." Starts the mage, before Raging Tempest pings her of danger! Gasping, she leaps away from Cassandra, shoving back Gull too!
"Aww, not again! Haruna, we gotta calm her down or things are going to get messy. H...Hey, Cassandra, right? It'll be okay. We'll help you out! That's why you came to us, right? So don't despair!" She tries. Nudge nudge. Heeeelp Gull! She's bad at this 'encouragement' thing.
Haruna Kurosawa has eyes and ears so can hear the change of tone and the aura that begins to form. She moves back, urged further back by Hannah. She frowns and grips her PreChan Mirror and Precards and hrmphs. < Rolling Mirror Change! >.
Cards go into the mirror--- a glowing colored cloak gets tossed away-- and!
It's Cure Gull! "The Wings of Hope, that Soar Across the Sea, Cure Gull....."
Pause. "I can't actually not say that, sorry." she says sheepishly to Hannah despite the situation.
She peers back to Cassandra and clenches her fists together. "H-hey! We all make mistakes Casandra. Once, I had a selfish wish and it made me do a lot of /really/ dumb things." she says. "And got me into a lot of trouble and hurt a lot of people along the way!" she says.
"But I came back outta it stronger than ever! Just hold on, okay?" she tries to urge. "You need to take a deep breath. Okay?" she offers.
Yeah, Cure Gull has no idea if this is going to help.
Cassandra shouts out, clutching at the gem as the polluted energy surrounds her. It's not Dark Energy, but something more vile - that strange, unholy witchy energy of pure Despair. For a moment the world swirls, becoming distinctly strange, almost turning into a witch's lair - but then it doesn't, collapsing back in on Cassandra as the energy swirls around her, with the occasional witch rune.
"WHY DID THIS HAPPEN TO ME. WHY DOES EVERYTHING HURT?!" she shouts out with a screech that pulses through souls as much as ears.
And then, suddenly, there's a different reality distortion - this one is much more Eclipse, and RT will be able to point to its origination at Sunset Tower, and Cassandra is yanked back through it - perhaps not wanting a repeat of what happened to the last Eclipse Puella to 'witch'.
Well, that didn't work. Hannah flashes a grin at Gull despite the situation. That speech grinds on her. In a frustratingly good way! Reeeach, nosepoke!
But there's a Witching puella in front of them, and just as that screech pulses out, Hannah starts a spell! But before she can finish the binding blast of wind, Cassie is ferried off on Eclipse winds of dimensional distortions. Her hand reaches out as Cassie is drawn away, sighing and leaning against a bleacher.
"R.T., did you get that?"
"Yes, Mistress. Location is confirmed as Sunset Tower."
Slowly, she turns to Haruna and grins. "Well. I think we've got our culprits. C'mon, Gull. We've got some preparing to do if we're going to storm that place and not get ourselves geeked by men in suits in the middle of the night." Time to get cracking.
Cure Gull watches as the girl yells, and then is ferried away. She frowns a bit. "Well. They're going to wonder what caused that..." she mutters. "Hopefully they can't get it out of her unwillingly." she says as she crosses her arms and sighhhhhhhs.
Nosepoke!? Nosepoke. She scrunches and huffs. She looks back over to Hannah.
"That big Tower?" she asks. "Yikes..." she says. "Yeah. We're gonna. Need help. And planning. And we need more information." she mutters.
"No way we can search that entire building the hard way. We won't get a second chance that way." she says.
She frowns and shakes her head. "Right. Let's get back." she says. "Before someone comes poking around."