Working With Phantoms

A Running Start

April 1

About a week had passed since The Bodacious Babes had saved Philemon from himself, and about a week had passed since Madran had last entered the Metaverse. She told herself that this was for the better, because Philemon had been incredibly tired after overcoming his shadow and accepting him, but inside, she wanted to explore again. This got her to randomly enter the Metaverse and try to find Kamoshida's palace, which Suga had given the address to, but found that even after momentous scans, she was still unable to find it. This caused her to get annoyed quickly, because the subways didn't work, the passive shadows all were very grumpy with the repeat visitor, and Elia had found out and was annoyed, but not at the palace. After Elia had found out about the impromptu ventures into the Metaverse, she had placed a ban on Madran's cognitive house hunting until after Philemon was well and ready to join Madran's team permanently. However, on the very first of April, Madran arrived back home from school after a very entertaining chat with Rosana about some of her traditions, and set her bags down.

"Hello? I'm home!"

Chicory came blasting around the corner and instantly demanded pets, with which Madran happily obliged. Then, Elia walked over to her and embraced Madran.

"How's my favorite daughter today?"

"Oh, I'm doing great. School was actually not shit!"

"Yay! Work was, well, alright, and my clients, I feel, are on some sort of crack."

"Wasn't the new term molly...?"

"What? What's that?"

"I dunno, something everyone's talking about. I think it's a drug."

Elia laughed.

"Well, let's not worry about that."

"Ooh, did Margaret give you an update on Philemon?"

"I don't know, I told both of them to not talk to me at work."

"Oh. Well, I'll be right back!"

Madran went off to the Velvet Room and looked around. It was completely empty, aside from Jack Frost sitting on a table.

"Hey-ho! How's it hee?"

"I'm fine, how about you?"

"Hee-great! Hee-oh, everyone went to the Mementos-ho."

"Gotcha! Bye bye."

Madran waved to the adorable ice imp and went through the door to Mementos. Already as she walked in, she saw several char marks on the walls and floor.

"Now, persona!"

Madran summoned Nightingale and began to scan.

"Ok, let's see... mmm hmm..."

Madran followed the a path of charred everything, and eventually found Pixie lying face-down on the floor.

"Uh, Pixie? Hello?"

"I'm ok, I just need a slight rest. They went over there."

Pixie lifted her arm and pointed further down the halls and broken subway tracks, which Madran went along.

"Helloooooo? Is anyone there?"

Madran suddenly anticipated an attack and dodged it, seeing a Ziodyne take effect where she last stood.

"Hey, woah! It's Madran!"

Philemon, Elizabeth, Margaret, and Yudhishthira came from the shadows, with Madran giving everyone a confused look.