On the whole, Sergeant Olivia Cutter would place the status of her day somewhere in the realm of 'fucking shit'.
The call they'd received when deploying out here hadn't exactly conveyed the gravity of the situation. A 'significant incident' was something like a cult kidnapping a few virgins for sacrifice; an entire mall in a major metropolitan city and transport hub suffering an outbreak of transformative, infective magic was more 'get your brown pants'. They'd barely been able to get up a barrier in time to prevent anyone from escaping the quarantine, but that wasn't exactly a permanent solution - and the enormous media coverage wasn't exactly raising any spirits.
Her team's own duties had consisted of patrols along the perimeter - and the sole upside was that it had led them to discover the prisoner now being carried off to a containment tent for purging and interrogation. If she could be purged. A few of the civvies had been able to be cured after light exposure to whatever was causing this, but so far, their success with those who'd seen full infection was limited. Even the soldiers who'd been hit with changes before they sealed things up, despite all their warding and their enchanted uniforms, weren't looking too great.
"CUTTER!" She winced at hearing her name screamed from across the foward operating base, glancing over to the source. Commander Regan was never a terribly happy woman - but right now, she looked about two seconds away from popping a blood vessel. "How the hell did one get loose?! Why didn't you report a breach?!"
"Because there was no breach, ma'am!" She nodded her head towards Taylor; the nerdy-looking blonde currently marching over to the lab with a glass jar containing the amulet they'd found. "Think she used an artifact to get out, said it was important!" She ran a hand through her dark hair, already soaked with sweat from all the running around today. "Thing's loaded to fuck with lust magic - might be our culprit, maybe even a solution if we can purge it!"
It was the first good news Regan had heard all day, not that improved her mood. "Then haul your fat ass to the lab, Taylor!" She screeched, giving the blonde an impetus to move like the goddamn whirlwind. "You and rest of your team, double-time it to the entrance! We've got a containment failure, they need backup ASAP!"
Of course they did. God, she needed to get that vacation approved when this shit was over. "Alright ladies, you heard her, let's move!" She took a deep breath before taking off into a run, the rest of the women on her squad right behind her. Even from here, they could see that the barrier around the front of the mall was starting to shift in color, becoming first violet and then an outright pink in a growing section. She could tell why things were starting to fail with one look at the front of the pack, and who was standing there, adorned with a bright pink headband that seemed to glow with magical potential.
Ordinarily, it was those fucking teeangers, the little german snot and her best friend, causing these sorts of disasters. Seeing that her aunt was the one responsible was a refreshing change.
But she could focus on her salt over certain previous pandemics, and the resulting roller coaster of changes her cup size still hadn't settled out of, at a later time. Just as her squad was getting to the entrance, the center of the pink-shifted barrier began to open, one of the bimbos sticking a hand through to claw her way out. Almost instantly, SALEM soldiers were unolstering their sidearms, firing off green bolts of decidedly non-magical energy meant to stun the bimbos - and having absolutely no effect.
Terrific. Weapons were useless. Just outstanding. "Backup shield, now!" she barked, commanding the troops around her to lift their hands and rattle off a series of quick chants in various dead languages. Their hands collectively glowed as a new bubble of a force field appeared around the breached area, temporarily patching the hole - but ever so slowly, the gap was widening. And in the brief moment when the hole had been completely open, a bit of pink gas had slipped through, floating freely at first before darting right for three of the soldiers.
The effects began showing immediately after the gas was inhaled. All three collapsed over, suddenly thrust into the throes of orgasm, as their hairdos lengthened into cascades of blonde, breasts and hips rapidly growing and straining agaisnt their uniform. A medical officer rushed over, throwing up a barrier around them mostly for the benefit of the other soldiers; the trio would have to be stuffed away, left to begin groping at and kissing each other for the time being. Too much else was going on, too many other points of this incident threatening to become a disaster.
And just because the universe fucking hated her right now, Olivia could see her squad's own shield was starting to turn purple, the comparatively lighter patch doing even worse against the magical gas that had built up inside the mall. Too much pressure - they had to relieve it if any barrier was going to hold. Not into the air, that could infect the entire city, but there had to be somewhere else they could safely dump all that bimbofying fog without having to worry about it infecting somebody. Just a big old bag they could vacuum it up into and leave it at for the moment.
...vacuum.
"Kowalski!" She shouted over her shoulder to a young corporal next to her. "Get back to Regan, tell her I'm doing something stupid!" That was all she would offer as explanation before sprinting ahead, towards the failing barrier. Lucky for them, it was much easier to punch inside from an area not crowded with bimbos than it was to try and get out of the quarantined zone. Most of the squad would have thought Olivia insane as she entered, and to be fair, she was a little insane.
But sometimes you had to be in this line of work. Quickly climbing up the side of the mall's exterior wall, out of immediate reach of the horde of bimbos now swarming towards her, she tried to hold her breath amidst the pink cloud. Protective spells wouldn't keep her safe for long - had to be very quick about this. One hand kept a death grip on an outcropping as the other danced in the air, casting a portal spell, the barrier allowing her as a SALEM operative to create the kind of exit it would’ve normally blocked. One little hole right here, about a foot wide and in midair, and the other end... out in the middle of the void between the Earth and the Sun.
Immediately the pressure differential started sucking the gas away, dumping it out into space to disperse - and maybe bimbofy a few microbes, but that was a problem for future Olivia. Instantly girls were clambering over themselves to latch onto something, holding onto each other by the boobs to try and keep their bimbo sisters from being sucked up into the portal. Very quickly, the air began to clear, the pink mist almost completely sucked away by the time that the portal collapsed in on itself. For the moment, that problem would be dealt with - it would build up again, but they'd bought some time.
Now... now Olivia just had to worry about trying to get out as the barrier started to reassert itself, the hole sealing up. She could make a run for it, but she'd risk getting grabbed and transformed. Alternatively... she glanced over to the soldiers by the entrance. They could still throw her a protective artifact, give her something to keep her head on straight if she was up for plunging into the depths of the mall to explore and gather intel. Probably the most dangerous thing she could, aside of falling right into the horde of bimbos below... but maybe a bit of recon could prove vital.