#I’m glad he’s got the wings instead of a jet pack type of thing

[soranatus]

HE’S GOT THE WINGS!!!

[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 147 [End: Jessica Jones: Season 1]

“-and the damage radius from these blocks out-” “-press will get a statement tomorrow-” “-we have to be careful about this-” “-I have orders, I have to go out soon, so we have to resolve-” “-what about the guy in the hospital-” 

Various voices were droning in and out. Conversation was happening around you. It was hard to make heads or tails of it. Everyone that spoke was familiar in that warm sort of way but everything they were going over left you sort of cold. In an instinctive type of way- because you really didn’t know- 

“Honey?” Tony’s voice drew your attention forward. 

As your vision cleared you took stock of the situation you found yourself in. You were in one of the smaller Avengers conference rooms. The team was there. Natasha was at the front of the room. Tony had probably been pacing around but now had a hand on your shoulder. The sun was trying to squirm its way in through the closed blinds. 

You had no idea how you’d gotten where you were. The last thing you’d remembered was passing out in the back of the quinjet. ...hadn’t you? Yet it seemed like, from the way everyone was staring, that maybe you hadn’t done that. And instead had gone from night in the jet to day in the conference room all while seemingly being aware. But you had no record of that time. Which was more than a little alarming. 

“I’m sorry- what are- um…” Feeling a swell of nervousness tighten your chest. “Did I doze off?” Hoping maybe that was the case. That you’d been caught red handed. 

But the weird exchange of glances around the room tipped you off to the fact that you shouldn’t have asked. Tony’s worry packed the rest of you almost full to bursting, but it was Steve who was looking at you. “You’ve been staring off into the distance this whole time. Did you not hear any of this?” 

Natasha leaned in, putting her palms on the table, “I’ll summarize. You deployed three Damage Control units in less than forty-eight hours. Reports are coming back in. Multiple bodies need storage. We need to know who to put where, what statements to give to who, and you have all the missing pieces.” 

Clint stood, crossing his arms. “There’s also a dead body we scooped up. Enhanced individual with a pretty purposeful hole through his chest. And the powered lady in the casual lockup keeps saying she’s responsible.”

A mess. You’d gone into a fugue state in the middle of a mess. This was all a little too much. But you sensed Tony was about to give you some sort of excuse to get you out of all this and let everyone else run cleanup. You couldn’t let that happen. So quickly you stood, gratefully finding your feet beneath you. “Jessica Jones didn’t do that. I did. Obviously.” What was Jessica thinking? It had to have been clear what kind of wound that was. “That’s Kilgrave, which I’m sure she’s said by now. -you should have gotten his picture on the network. He’s held about a thousand people hostage over the course of two months. He definitely has more victims than that. He has a long track record. All those bodies in bags belong to him. I know the reports will show I gave a DNE order- he was dangerous. We knew this already. He also boosted his powers, right before I stopped him.” 

Natasha looked up at you. “Did you even try to bring him in?” There was a reason she was asking this, and it wasn’t because she was being critical of you.

“I put him down because I had no other choice.” 

All eyes were on you as Steve asked, “You sure about that?” 

You tried to be as firm as possible. “Yes.” 

There was only a small silence that settled. Tony interrupted it. “So, as you can see, the Avengers did their job. This is our territory. You know. Doing that thing.” Turning his wrist over. “Stopping threats the military can’t- yadda yadda yadda…” 

From his spot on the other side of the table, Bruce lifted his head, giving his shoulders a gentle nudge up. “Sounds about right to me.” 

Thor, who had assumedly been taking all this in with his arms crossed gave one of those brisk smiles of his. “By all accounts, it would seem our dear Lady has become quite the hero of the people in our absence. I for one would have liked to see this man on the battlefield. Seems like he was quite savage.” He was being painfully honest. You wondered, how that would have went. Kilgrave VS Thor. And promptly were glad you hadn’t had to witness it. “However, I am glad the matter has been put to rest.” 

You understood what they were trying to do. What they’d been trying to do. It wasn’t just clean up, it was defense. Making sure they were on the right side of the story- to do right by you. And you’d been impeding the process because it seemed like you weren’t paying attention. But, now that they had your side of the story… it seemed like everyone was easily on board. 

On board with your obvious heated murder of an enhanced individual that had not only been personally menacing you, had tortured you previously, but had hurt Tony as well. And Steve. Your family. This was obviously grounds for questioning. You were too close to have been able to do a fair job. But it was over now. There was no redoing it. No going back to do it better. ...you wouldn’t have changed anything, anyway. 

Your family was trying to protect you. No matter what percentages in this equation were right or wrong. They understood what had happened. And they’d already made peace with it. Now all they needed to do was sweep the rest of it up and call it a day. 

Which is exactly what prompted Tony to continue talking. “So. We’ll release Jones. I’ll make some statement to the press. We’ll rubber stamp A’s all over our files and turn them in. Everyone on board?” 

While there was a murmur of immediate approval, Natasha had a few more things on her docket. “We have two people in our private hospital wing. Both are ready for release- but DC’s been adamant that the right person makes that call.” A little- brief- tiny flutter of annoyance touched her before she shut it down hard. She didn’t have to say it. You understood why. 

Damage Control had refused to budge until you made another call, because you’d been the one that had been calling the shots the entire short-lived investigation. ...and you were also their boss. There was a power imbalance of assets here. Almost like SHIELD access level numbers. Almost. You nodded. “Yeah- I’ll go release them. And uh… have a talk with DC.” Because the obvious contingencies weren’t there. What if you were incapacitated? They needed to be able to take orders from the rest of your team. ...although you wondered why Tony hadn’t gone down there and said something. 

It was too much to hope that was all- and even all that was still a hell of a lot to get through. Natasha passed a file down across the table your way and as you laid your hands on it she spoke. “Seems like we also have a vet in lockup. You labeled him enhanced but by all accounts he seems… just angry. Pretty normal.” 

Pulling the folder open you saw Will Simpson’s face looking back at you. A sigh escaped you, and you were extremely grateful when Bruce spoke up. “That’s the guy with the trifecta pocket pills, right?” 

Steve suddenly seemed very alert. “The combat enhancers?” Clearly they’d had a conversation about it. Which made sense. Those enhancers, Bruce’s initial research with Ross… it was all due to him. Not his fault, but just the miracle that the government had created by making him a super soldier. 

“He probably sweat it out by now.” You closed the file, sliding it Steve’s way next. “He wanted to kill Kilgrave. He attacked one of our agents. Can you go talk to him, Steve? And see if he’s fit for release?” 

His brows lifted and Steve tilted his head. “Me?” 

“I think more than anyone in this room, you’ll have his respect.” Trying to pick who would be the best to go talk to him. “If you say yes, I know where to drop him.” He was Trish’s friend. You’d ship him back that way. “We can charge him with deadly assault. Which I’m sure he’s been thinking on. But… Kilgrave twisted everyone up. I’d be willing to let it go if he stays away from the pills.” 

Natasha moved from her spot at the front of the room and gave Steve a little pat on the shoulder. “I’ll shadow you, if you want.” That was good, too. Having her opinion on the matter would really seal it all up. 

With everyone taking hold of their brief new assignments, chairs shifted on the floor as the entire room moved to get up and leave. You wanted, so much more than anything, to go to Tony. To tell him what the next few actions were right up until you needed him to take you on a jet and take you anywhere but here- but Bruce approached you just as you and Tony got in about two seconds of eye contact. 

Bruce nudged his glasses up with one hand and then held a folder around and out with the other. When you gave him a questioning glance, “This is uh… everything you need. IGH. They’re an underground research lab. They’re responsible for the pills. And a lot more.” 

Though you took hold of the folder, you didn’t open it. “Thanks for checking into that for me.” But right now you wanted nothing to do with it. It was clear they’d have to be shut down. Or assimilated. ...probably shut down. What they were doing went a little beyond the line of not-okay. Kind of reminded you a little bit of Killian… 

He just nodded. “Sure. Look… I don’t blame you if you wanna put it down right now but. I thought you should know. Jessica Jones’ name is on some of those files.” You weren’t sure if it was a blessing that you were too devoid of anything else to feel any kind of shock over this. But Bruce continued, “Not in a particularly complicit way, either.” 

Oh. ...oh. You held the folder a little tighter then. “Okay. Thanks for letting me know.” You’d have to hand those over to her, then. And absolutely no part of you wanted to look at it. Whatever was in there about her she could keep for herself and do whatever she wanted. The less involvement you had coming out of this the better. Because you really, truly, could not deal with it much longer. 

Holding the file closer to your chest, you leaned in to give him a hug. He’d done all this work for you and you hadn’t once asked. He, along with the rest of the team (probably him doing that work was what triggered the team to agree to all coming home suddenly), had just fallen in line for you. It was nice to have them home. Almost overwhelmingly so. His words were a quiet murmur. “We’re alright now. You should get some rest.” 

Probably to no one’s surprise, at the very least not your own, you were brushing back tears as you let go of him and plastering a very obvious smile across your face. “Yeah. I’ll think about it when we’re finished.” 

His nod was sad to say the least, but he then turned to Tony. The two shook hands, Tony said something you barely caught, and then Bruce left. Leaving just the two of you. He reached out to lay the hand not in the sling on your shoulder with a little tip of his head. “Bruce might be on to something, you know. Sleep might do you a lot of good. Some food, too, I’m sure.” 

“Yeah, I’m sure it would.” This dead and almost angry reply reeled you back in immediately. Tony barely reacted to it at all. If nothing else, you just felt understanding. And maybe that was harder to deal with. Taking a deep breath, holding, and then letting it out in a sigh, you reconfigured. “We’re almost done.” 

He drew you in just a little closer, and as his arm went around you, you closed your eyes, leaning your head on his shoulder. “Almost. Tell me what parts need to go where.” 

“Can you go get Jessica out? I’ll go to the hospital. Bring her with you and we’ll all meet there.” You had to release your two patients, if they were ready to go, and talk to whatever head of DC was patrolling the hallways. “After that…” 

Moving just a little, his hand brushed up the side of your neck and to your jawline, angling your gaze up his way. “After that?” 

It seemed the obvious was coming. Did you really have to say it? But as the two of you got stuck there looking at each other, you figured you should. “I can’t be here anymore. For a little while. Is that okay?” You needed to go. You couldn’t even think about being in the penthouse. This city… this city was just filling up to the brim with bad memories. Triumphant ones in the end, but bad nonetheless. 

“Understandable.” Palming your cheek, he leaned in, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I’ll have Happy fire up the jet. We can go from the hospital to the airport. Sound like a plan?” 

Thank god for Tony Stark. “Sounds like a plan.” Your body was just a little unwilling to move to get there. You wanted to just go from the Tower to the jet. To disappear for a little while. To not think about this anymore. To not wade in the aftermath… or think about him… though… you chanced a softer look up at him. “Did you and Happy get to talk?” 

He walled off immediately. “A little. Seems like you did a lot of legwork for us. So.” Giving a bare shrug. 

That was more of a no than it was a yes. It at least meant they were on speaking terms. But they deserved to have some closure on this, too. Even if you were nowhere near finding any and probably wouldn’t be for a long time. However, you knew you couldn’t force them, either. ...not until it was absolutely necessary. So you just leaned up, lips careful at the corner of his mouth. “Okay.” 

It would have to be, for now. 

                                                              --- 

Asking you to stay present and aware while you talked with your DC officers was asking almost a little too much. Your  brain felt like it was begging to just fade away. Your body was close behind. But if you didn’t put all this to rest now, if you didn’t stick to the plan, there would be no relaxing. There would be no getting on a jet and running away- as usual- because that’s what it was. But you were keen to make peace with the idea because you just couldn’t be here anymore. 

Changing the nested chain of command was ridiculously easy, although you could tell the woman you were speaking with had an air of doubt and an even bigger swell of unsure about her as you spoke. You had to cast it all aside and just make sure she’d take orders from anyone on the team. They all needed access to these agents. Because you were more sure now than you’d ever been before, big things like this were going to keep happening. And everyone needed the ability to call Damage Control if something terrible happened. 

...of course you also made sure that they knew every deployed use was to go on file. It wasn’t like you didn’t trust your team, but. You had to be in the know. Always. 

 You respectfully waved the agent away just as you saw Jeri coming down the hall. She looked relatively worse for wear, many bandages across random places on her face and some on her chest. As usual, she was dressed smartly, and you sensed she came here for business and business only. Once close enough to you she held a folder out. “I need your signature on a few pieces of paper for my client. Justin Boden. I’m sure you’re familiar.”

 So. Jessica had gone to Jeri to build a case for Justin. You knew exactly what she wanted. But after everything… “Why my signature?”

 She just grinned, bitterly at that. “Well. Since this seems to be a thing with you people, you can help him dodge murder charges. Considering what he’s been through.”

 “So now I’m a credible witness.” Unable to help yourself.

 “How about that.” Sounding completely unimpressed. She reached inside her jacket pocket to retrieve a pen and gave it a click. “I have other places to be, so if you’d hurry up.”

 You made sure to hold still and give off a full air of being highly unimpressed. “You can drop them at Stark Industries. My assistant will pass them through legal before I put my name on anything.” There was no telling what was on those papers, and you were too drained to read over them just now. ...you wouldn’t doubt that was something she was counting on. If you understood anything about Jeri Hogarth after all this.

 She held them out for just a little while longer before retreating. “Fine. Have it your way.” Then she seemed like she was going to turn and leave.

 But before she did, you leaned closer to her and dropped your voice. “Jessica said you had something to do with Kilgrave escaping.” Jeri had to be responsible for that in some form. So much had happened because of her. If it was true.

 The two of you stared at each other. For a long cold moment. Then another one of those angry smiles lit up her features. “Seems like we all have things we’d rather be kept quiet.”

 “Don’t threaten me. It’ll be the last mistake you ever make.” Maybe it was a poor thing to do, to lash out like that. React that way. But you would not let this woman walk all over you. Or try and hold you hostage.

 She let out a little breath of a laugh. “I have no doubt.”

 A woman exiting what should have been Luke’s room ended your conversation with Jeri. And as soon as she saw your attention go elsewhere she turned to leave. You didn’t stop her.

 The woman exiting his room was dressed in blue scrubs- lightly spattered with blood. Dark lightly wavy hair- loose, not tied up. You stepped over to her very quickly, “Excuse me-” Eyeing her- more specifically, the badge clipped to her pocket. Metro General Hospital. Not from here. But the name… Claire Temple. Your nerves quieted down. “Oh. You’re with Jessica.” 

She crossed her arms. “She said that much, huh?” Her voice was calm and careful. Although she was just a little standoffish. Which you were sure you couldn’t blame her for. 

“More than. Said something about a friend we have in common.” Not that you really wanted to care about that right now. 

Giving a curt little nod and a roll of her eyes, you felt her annoyance. “Well. You got more out of her than I think any of us did. If that’s the case.” Clearly she didn’t want to talk about it either. You could have said that Jessica offered all of that information up on her own, but. Maybe it wasn’t the best move. “That man in there.” Her gaze lifted back up and she seemed suddenly very serious. “You gonna put him on all your little superhero files? Or whatever it is you people do?” 

You felt the sink of your shoulders with a sigh you couldn’t help. “No. I’m not- we don’t tag people, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not interested in that. I don’t even want to know anything about him. The only thing I care about is that he’s okay.” The two of you shared a long look. She was sizing you up. Trying to tell if you were being honest. “...is he going to be okay?” 

Claire continued to stare at you for probably more time than was necessary. But you stood and took it. And finally were rewarded when she eased up with her own little sigh and a nod. “Yeah. He’s fine. Now. You have better tools than Jess’ apartment, anyway. Or at Metro.” She lifted her wrist. “Speaking of which- shit.” Looking at the time on her watch. 

Probably late for her actual job. By the simmer of anxiety that welled inside of her, probably very late. “Maybe it’s a little too forward but. If you want a job here-” 

“I don’t.” Quick and clipped as she held a hand up to you. “I don’t wanna be involved in any more of this.” She lowered her voice with a dip of her head. “No offense.” 

“None taken. But then why are you here?” What was the connecting thread here? 

She frowned. “He needed help. My hospital couldn’t do anything for him. And I…” She suddenly got very uncomfortable. 

“You could.” 

“Yeah. I could. But he’s fine now. So I’m gonna go to my actual job. And deal with people who have…” That discomfort was getting very heavy now. “Easier to deal with problems. Let’s put it.” 

To this you could only nod. Then, finally, you stuck out your hand. “Well. It was nice meeting you, Claire.” 

She didn’t take too long in giving you a returned shake. “You, too.” 

You stepped out of the way for her, but because it seemed like you really couldn’t help yourself… before she was too far away, you just had to ask. “Where are you from?” 

The shake of her head did a poor job of hiding the little smirk on her lips. She knew why you were asking. “Hell’s Kitchen.” Called from halfway down the hall, not stopping after saying it. 

“Place is kinda getting overcrowded, if you ask me.” Luke’s voice startled you enough to get you to jump. The warm roll of his laughter kept a wave from crashing over you and you turned back around to see him standing in front of his door with his hand up. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” 

You gave your chest a little pat. This was too much excitement after everything you’d been through. “It’s okay.” His clothes were a mess, but he looked… fine. “How are you feeling? They brought you in here considerably less…” Giving your hands a small turn over. “-okay looking than this.” 

He gave a little nod, a small press of his lips. “I’m fine. Thanks to you, so I hear.” 

Quickly you shook your head. “No. Thanks to Jessica. And Claire. And the people here. I literally had nothing to do with any of that.” 

“You let her bring me here. You gave them a safe place to help me when things weren’t looking so good. That counts for something.” He was such a sweet man, this Luke. 

“If you say so.” It was too much to ask that you accept this gratitude. You really hadn’t done anything. “And- before you ask- I didn’t ask anyone for details- I don’t wanna know. That’s your business and- Claire seems to think I’m gonna put a tracker on you or something so let me just tell you I’m not and I don’t want you to think-” 

“Hey, easy now. Alright?” The hand he laid on your shoulder was heavy, but it was gentle nonetheless. “I believe you. I wasn’t worried.” 

“You have no reason to.” Everyone seemed to question your intent constantly- and usually for completely understandable reasons. You wouldn’t have been upset had Luke taken the same route. 

His grin was light. “We met once already, if you don’t remember. And I’d like to think I’m a pretty good judge of character.” 

For one reason or another you found the courage to smile back. “Really. Because last we met I think I remember you telling me to not come back to your bar.” 

At this he made a face, hand leaving your shoulder to go up in a wave of defiance. “That is not what happened.” Seemingly offended, but only playfully so. His grin did not return, but his expression wasn’t one of annoyance. “Besides… my bar got blown up. Casualty of war. I’d at least like to know if I have to worry about anything else like that.” 

“I’m so sorry.” Really. Truly. You were. That was no doubt, in some way, Kilgrave’s doing. Maybe it was what put him here in the first place. “If you need funds or-” 

“No. Please don’t. I’m gonna take it as a sign and… like I said. Hell’s Kitchen is getting crowded. I think I’m headed back to Harlem for a while. But I appreciate the offer.” Letting that small gratefulness hang before asking seriously again as he looked at you, “Is that guy still out there?” 

The shake of your head was immediate. “No. He’s dead.” 

He breathed a noise out. It wasn’t one of relief, exactly. More a sort of muddled… acceptance. “You alright?” 

You really didn’t know this man. But knowing- sensing his honest intent there in asking you something like that- his genuineness, you couldn’t help the bitter smile. “I am not. And I think I need to go away for a while, too.” 

“No shame in that. I’d actually be more worried if you said you were.” Because if that were the truth, it meant killing may have become commonplace for you. And it hadn’t. It just… hadn’t. It took away pieces of you at a time. To make decisions like that and to carry them out. There was a familiar warm ping on your inner radar, and you turned to see Tony coming up the hallway with Jessica. Luke put his hand out. “You’re a good woman. Don’t let anyone tell you different.” 

Looking back at him you tried a smile and put your hand in his for a small shake. “Certainly not you.” 

His grin reappeared and he couldn’t seem to help a quiet chuckle. “Certainly not.” 

Tony was out of his sling (eventually you were going to have to have a talk with him about keeping medical devices on long enough for them to help him), hands in his pockets as he strolled closer. Although when he came to a stop, he reached up to take his sunglasses off, tucked them into his top pocket and half turned to Jessica. “I was serious about the offer by the way. You’re a terrible team player but that doesn’t necessarily disqualify you from being Avenger material.” 

Jessica seemed in good spirits. Which was a strange thing for her. The noise that left her was one part annoyed and one part amused. “Never in a million fucking years.” 

Tony just shrugged. “Your loss.” He then turned to stick his hand out to Luke. “Mr. Cage. Nice seeing you again.” 

Luke considered the offer and then gave him a return shake. “Mr. Stark. If we’re all lucky, this’ll be the last time.” 

You were too biased. The sudden half smirk on Tony’s lips had you smiling immediately. “You know, that doesn’t sound much like a compliment.” 

“I don’t think it was one.” Thankfully, Luke was grinning back. 

Jessica double tapped him on the arm. “Alright. Who’s-got-the-bigger-dick time is over. Can you go wait in the room?” 

“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.” Although he said this in a slightly clipped way, you could tell he wasn’t serious. Not with the way he was looking at her.

She just eyed him with a smile. “You look fine. It’s why I didn’t.” She didn’t mean this, either. And after enough staring he shook his head and went back into his hospital room, closing the door behind him. 

Tony crossed his arms. “I’m not going in there with him.” 

At this Jessica gave him quite the stare. “You’ve made it annoyingly obvious by now that you don’t do anything anyone says.” 

“That makes two of us.” 

“Just stand there and shut up for five minutes. If you can.” When he rolled his eyes and mostly turned away she put her attention back on you. “So. Seems like we’re finished, here.” 

You nodded. “Claire left for her job. Luke’s up, obviously. Hope’s asleep right now but. Aside from a really nasty scar she’ll be okay. Simpson’s probably getting discharged soon. And-” 

“And Kilgrave’s dead. Which is the important part.” 

It was hard to tell why she cut you off to say such a thing. But there was a swell of catharsis. Kilgrave was dead. It was over. It was finally over. “Yeah.” There was a weird catch in the back of your throat. It felt like you were just a couple degrees away from losing it very suddenly. Tony moved, almost imperceptibly. But you noticed. He was watching you. “Kilgrave is dead.” Beyond you somewhere you heard the crash of waves against the pier. And saw the light disappear from his eyes.

You and Jessica shared a long look. Eventually she was the one to break the silence. “So that’s it, then. We’re finished.”

“Seems that way.” 

Yet the two of you stood there just a little longer. Watching one another. Maybe the two of you should have had a talk. A long talk to decompress over this shared trauma. But… instead she just nodded. “Alright then. ...thanks. For everything.” And after that she turned away and went into Luke’s room. 

Leaving you there. Wondering what more you should have said so that you didn’t have to feel like this anymore. But you weren’t there in silence, or alone, for more than a few seconds before Tony moved over and put his arm around you. Pulled you to him. You rubbed your head against his shoulder and drew your hands up his back, holding on to him. Breathing him in. Letting him keep you stable. 

“Ready to go anywhere that’s not here?” 

Music was playing somewhere in your memory. Honey- I’ve gotta be honest. I hate it here. I can’t say that I blame you.

New York City had become a breeding ground for psychological damage that seemed beyond repair. For the both of you. A long time ago he’d tried to run away from here, too. And now… now you wanted to do the same. And he was letting you. 

You turned your head up, smiling weakly at him. “Yes. Please.” 

This was a runaway vacation but… the two of you needed to have a very real talk soon. You just didn’t think you could be in the city anymore. Not after all this. 

 Lifting a hand, he smoothed his fingertips across your forehead and then through your hair. Leaning in, he pressed a kiss to your temple. “I love you.”

 Hearing this, and feeling it from him, it was an eternal balm for your soul. “I love you, too.”

 As long as you had that… you’d be alright.

[scholar-thief]

[ RP LOG ]

Momori hunts for dodos and eggs with Njorthrbiartr “Biartr” Hjallr and Caelrin Morra.

Snippets of OOC chat in italics + blockquotes, for flavor. You can assume many actions were due to just, so many bad rolls. So many bad rolls.

@s-udarshana​ @vysaldhe

Momori) australia is like a high level zone irl (Momori) everythings so dangeorus!!!!! (Momori) kangaroos like, are cute on an abstract level. but then you see one in real life, and how it has an 8 pack and is JACKED and (Biartr) they are so JACKED LMAO OMG … (Momori) my mind is racing w/ thoughts of australia. who knows what I'll write I'm a loose cannon now (Biartr) oh god kalsdfhjsd

Momori - In the wild, wind-torn lands of Abalathia’s Spine, two adventurers find themselves yalms away from vicious “Gastronis” birds. These hefty, feather-covered spheres of mass prowl the lands, searching for delicacies hidden away beneath the soil, their legs powerful enough to go from 0 to 60 in a blink of the eye. As such, they made difficult prey for the local knights, not that many wanted to go toe to toe with what were basically legs attached to a ball anyway.

Momori spots a particularly JACKED one. How that looks on a goddamn sphere is...up to you. She points at it. “Shall we start?”

Biartr | When being told about the anatomy of these birds, and observing them from the sky, Biartr hadn't guessed that they'd be so...large. On all accounts, really. Most notably, she was rather concerned by the state of their legs, canting her head to the side to get a better look. "I'll admit I have my reservations," Biartr admitted, shifting from one leg to another as she squinted slightly. "I mean I can see why the wish to eat them, at the very least."

Caelrin: "--huh. Thought I saw some folks lackin' plate strollin' about here. Strangers two, but I've seen you 'round the ship before."

Biartr was glad to quit staring at the strange...muscular legs of the gastornis, brushing loose strands of hair from her features. "Ah?" Her head canted to the side once more in thought. "The same to you -- Ah, Biartr." She gestured briefly to herself.

Momori: “Each bird is enough to feed a camp for days. How many did we have to hunt again? Ten?” Momori tilted her head slightly, not looking forward to both hunting /and/ hauling back a literal mountain of birdflesh. She then looked towards the newcomer and gave a small wave. “Hello there. I’m Momori.”

Caelrin | Sure enough - the stranger is a vaguely familiar one, a Hyur seen about camp and ship - though perhaps a brute of scarred muscle was a bit more apt in description. Dull golden eyes shed themselves keen against the features of the lalafell and viera, affable and yet observing all the while - a placid, warm smile upon tarnished features all the same. "Biartr an' Momori, then. Well met. Caelrin, Caelrin Morra. Fist of Rhalgr - Monk of Ala Mhigo."

Caelrin: "...iffin I didn't know any better, I'd say it sounds as if you two plan t' hunt."

Momori simply points at the strange ballbirds over yonder. “Ten of them, and their eggs. We were given rotten cabbages by the merchants, and hope to show goodwill by helping them with some hunting.”

Biartr inclined her head before affirming his suspicions with a short but firm nod, her golden gaze looming down only briefly. "We were unfortunate enough to strike a deal with a rather," Her shoulders rolled up and down languidly. "...Demanding trader."

Caelrin: ".....demanding trader. You two look savvy an' fierce enough to set to the hunt then, that's for certain. What stalls your intent? Waitin' for folks?"

Biartr looked towards the birds gathering, and finally back to the hyur with a slight grimace. Her voice lowered, perhaps she thought the birds could hear her. "...I've heard stories of sky pirates getting gutted from the power of their legs alone. Haven't ever seen one this...low down, admittedly."

Momori looks at the dodo’s fearsome, powerful legs, then looks back at Caelrin and Biartr. “Could go in, knives out. Maybe get punted off this plane of existence. Perhaps we could lay a trap for them instead?”

Caelrin | Of all answers to be given to such a question - given the slow, gentle rise of the brow upon Caelrin's countenance, it's clear enough to see *that* wasn't what he'd been expecting. A glance to her, and then, to Momori, before looking to the Gastornis in the distance. He's thinking. "....can't be any worse than a kick from a horse, fable or otherwise. Then again - one ain't three. Trap seems a bit too much - they ain't exactly big game."

Caelrin: "How about this - i get their attention, take the hits for you, while you two skewer as you please."

Momori: “Sounds like a lovely plan!” She gives Caelrin a pat on the back. If he was willing to bear the brunt of attacks from a herd of birds, then she would be first to jump on the idea.

Momori offers a moment of silence to Caelrin.

Biartr chewed slightly on her bottom lip, leveraging her height to her tip toes to get a look at the birds just beyong Caelrin. "They do have claws. Horses don't have claws." She had a point, at least -- and her gaze finally dropped, as did her height. "I'm not sure I could just watch you get beat pathetically by a Gastornis..." She squinted at Momori's answer, before gracing him with a rather pathetically confused look. "If I am outnumbered, then so be it."

Caelrin just sort of......stares. Rather than give into the ego of a lesser man under such scrutiny - Biartr's compassion, even if confused, earns a wry, warm smile delivered to her in mixture of reassurance and knowing. "I'm planning on it. Reckon you know not of th' faith, then - best you see it practice firsthand than me chewing your ear off with our ways. Trust me - I've taken far worse."

Caelrin: "But, iffin it puts you at ease - 's take it one at a time. Best we get the eggs first; these creatures might have materal instincts. Raid their nests, some'll come calling. Two birds with.....two eggs, I reckon."

Momori: “Oh, I’m sure ole’ Cael will be alright. Look at all the scars on ‘im! Birds will be no problem.” Momori then turns to look for a couple of birds to start with, and sees a pair nested by a tree on the top of a cliff. “Shall we?”

Biartr: "I have an idea for the eggs," Biartr interjected, raising a bone horn that was affixed to her waist. "It's entirely possible that I could ride my endymion and pick up the eggs from their nests one, or two at a time. We can fly and drop them off to a safe point."

Caelrin: ".....hrm. Hit-and-run tactics. If you reckon you an' your companion can be swift an' deft enough to do so, I see no reason for you to not try. More likely to spot nests from th' air than the ground anyways. Reckon you can handle that, while Momori an' I start setting to the birds."

Biartr: "Easily enough," She affirmed with a short nod, taking a step back to press her lips to her horn. Somewhere along the mass of tents, skirting one of the sky-islands came a purple-feathered beat. A little larger than the average endymion and of course, characterised by the muscular single foot -- swooping down to just behind the trio.

Momori takes one look at the beast and chuckles. “Gods, the size of that thing...I thought the dodos were big, but this could probably hunt them without breaking a sweat. But I’m keen on seeing Caelrin in action.”

Caelrin watches the creature with a particular interest - eyes of a man who, though having seen such beasts domesticated before, didn't quite expect to see one like this. Seems he knows well enough to keep his distance - it's no pet. With a nod, he glances to the lalafell, fists rising to clash knuckles with one another in solidarity. There's an audible *thud*, as if he'd just punched a shield. "Aye, no time to waste. Burning daylight."

Momori - The closer she got, the more...hesitant she felt. She couldn’t see beyond the chest of the bird. It looked like some awful, heaving bushel of orange feathers propped up on two legs the size of a lalafell each. Momori pulled out her two daggers...and waited for Biartr and Caelrin to give some kind of signal.

Caelrin , for one, doesn't seem daunted all that much - either by truthful discourse of having seen far worse, or merely by virtue of a firm shell of bravado. Regardless - a glance is sent in Momori's way, watching her produce her daggers before eyes train upon the bird once more - studying it, as if discerning where to strike first. He had to be humane about it....right?

Biartr | It hadn't taken long for the Veena to be seen and somewhat heard overhead. The only noise being that of the thunderous clap of the endymion's wings. The first nest that would be her target would be one teetering just on the edge of the isles. For the most part, the gastornis surrounded it seemed happily nesting until she had gone near -- at least it was a welcome distraction away from the other two.

(Momori) just start.... stabbing with me toothpicks?!? (Caelrin) KEK (Caelrin) also - are we rolling to attacks these or is it just. freeform killin (Biartr) Tenderise the meat and you'll be doing them a favour at the very least (Momori) oh man. if people play pokemon (Momori) fighting type is bad against flying right? (Momori) HHA (Caelrin) do you think these things fly (Biartr) dfjghdkfg (Biartr) and i don't mind rolls or free form, it *would* be funny to add a random element to it (Momori) if doduo is flying then ????????? (Caelrin) yeah i'm cool either way, i just wanna know before i have caelrin start things off (Caelrin) cool with it* (Momori) I'll roll, because RNG is fun :D (but will just use it as a rough guide of how things go)

Caelrin: ".....ah, hells with it," grunts the monk. Fists angle down and behind to the ground, and a low stance is taken before aether, in vicious jets, erupt and clash to produce force that sends Caelrin violently into the air before the gastorinis - only for him to aim to crash down upon it with a powerful axe kick.

Biartr | The endymion takes the first swoop down towards the nest, its powerful leg aiming to grab at the egg. Unfortunately for the bird, egg and Veena at once - its leg is perhaps a little /too/ powerful and during the lifting process, it manages to crush the egg rather carelessly. From overhead, a barrage of cursing can be heard.

Momori - While the birds are distracted by Biartr and Caelrin, Momori dashes in, daggers drawn. She mounts the back of one of the birds and becomes a whirlwind of stabs, but the whole attack is more akin to a kitten desperately trying to cause damage to a much larger foe. The bird pays more attention to the chaos Caelrin is causing.

Caelrin | With the first bird having assumedly been easily dispatched - Caelrin gets into it, now that the herd has sufficiently been aggroed. The monk is deft and fluid in his motions, focusing upon the next closest bird - it's almost comically how easily he fells it, a vicious aethercharged hook to his beak, leaving neon-violet aether in its wake, puts it down as if he were knocking out a drunkard.

Biartr | For the second round, the endymion swoops in to grab the next egg within the nest. A change of tactics, it seemed, throwing the egg up towards Biartr. The Veena manages to catch it, quite perfectly before it quite literally explodes in her grasp, leaving her covered in egg-toplasm.

Momori - Meanwhile, the dodo Momori is riding squawks! Once, then twice! It then dashes off, Momori hanging for dear life on its back, her screams growing faint as it gets further and further away. The speed is eventually too much and she tumbles off, disappearing into the tall grass.

Momori: "..............................." She gets up, the whole front of her covered in mud and tuffs of grass.

(Biartr) Benny hill theme music intesifies (Biartr) intensifies** (Momori) I need the playdead emote after all this (Momori) haha benny hill theme music BLARES and destroys headphone users

Caelrin | Two birds down - and yet, despite being so focused, Caelrin is much too occupied in the witnessing of Momori tumbling down and out over the dirt that the focus drops for just a second.  Not even a chance is had for him to accost the third bird, just watching as it rears back - only to peck him in the chest! Certainly doesn't draw blood, but the force of it produces a tough grunt and a backstep.

Biartr | This time, third time lucky? Right? Wrong. Biartr and her endymion swoop down a third time, only to be met by a rather territorial gastornis. The endymion's muscular claw picks up the would-be attacker as opposed to the egg. It's at least something that could be used to a form of advantage, and Biartr directs the bird higher, where it would drop the gastornis from a great height. It plummets to the isle not far from the duo, dead upon impact.

Momori tosses a dagger at one of the Gastornis, and the blade flies straight and true. It buries itself deep in the neck of the bird, ending its life swiftly. She wipes the mud from her eyes, steps over, and wretches the dagger out from the corpse without batting a lash. That was more like it - now, who’s next?

Caelrin | Who's next? The poor gastornis that's just pecked Caelrin square in the chest. With a clashing of fists and a grunt, the aether within, a sickly, violent, violet aether stokes, swelling muscle and shading over flesh and flaring like neon within veins. With particular speed a force, he seizes the bird by the literal beak with a single hand, heaving and throwing it down into the ground like a hulk would a trickster god.

Biartr had many an excuse for this situation. Namely, the fact that she didn't half-drown her head in a vat of ceruleum. Now that her endymion was finished trashing an entire nest, she ground both of their progress to a halt and stepped off the bird in the middle of the peninsula. Both of her hands dipped into the bright blue paint in a contained on her belt - and she practically painted her entire face blue with ceruleum. The woman now smelling like an engine room, and possibly glow in the dark.

Momori - Some dodos surround Caelrin, pecking and dodging. Others run around in dumb circles, kicking up dust and adding to the overall chaotic ENTROPY of the whole ordeal. Under the cover of mud and grass, Momori leaps deftly into the air and lands on the top of another bird, blades sinking down on where she stands. Another one down. The sight of something purple catches her eye, and she witnesses Caelrin go hulk on a Gastornis. Weird? Something to ask about later? Yes.

Caelrin | With the poor bird left in a small, feather-lined crater - now it was time to adapt and fight against one's surroundings. Peck and dodge as they may, combat aqgainst beasts was a specialty of Caelrin's, and pecks are weaved through or land uselessly against powerful arms or iron-like muscle. Another bird bites the dust with retaliation, as a streaking overhead fist hammers down firmly upon its cranium - followed with an audible *crunch*.

Biartr | The somewhat lost-looking Viera had now a certain fierceness about her, if you could see her once more in the sky. She had stood herself on the back of the endymion, who had swooped towards the second nest, grabbing the egg neatly within its clutches. It leant towards the side with its swoop, allowing the Veena to pick up an egg within her grasp too. The two flying briefly off to deposit the eggs within Cloudtop.

Momori slides under a bird, dragging her blade through as she moves between its legs. As it collapses, she quickly turns back and gives it another good stab near the neck, as to end its suffering quickly. How many was that now? Seven?

(Momori) cromch (Momori) god that sound. I'm thinking of that video where someone bites a banana horizontally and it makes just, the worst sound (Biartr) N O (Caelrin) HELLO? (Momori) IS. IS THAT THE SOUND?? (Caelrin) IDK WHAT YOU MEAN (Momori) here I will show you (Biartr) im trying to find the video dkfgdf (Caelrin) wow i REALLY HATE THIS (Caelrin) but no not quite the sound (Momori) that cronch sound is burned in my memory (Biartr) perhaps just speed it up a bit to 2x (Biartr) and that's the sound (Biartr) anyway im going to eat my keyboard (Momori) ahaha PLS

Biartr | Its perhaps not the sun for Biartr and her endymion. The purple-feathered 'friend' comes into contact with the third nest and only a horrid 'squelch' can be heard as the two overzealously destroy all of the eggs and the single inhabitant within it into a mushed pulp.

Caelrin | Seven, eight - frankly, Caelrin stopped counting after the second. His focus remains firmly upon seeing the herd cleared and brought to rest, even that which was eternal. Despite this, the assault continues from the last few present, and Caelrin endures with the same defense and speed he had at first - though the birds are starting to pelt a little more fiercly. Maybe avenging their fallen brethren - or all those eggs. He's handling it well, though.

(Momori) so. so many eggs exploded (Momori) f (Biartr) Biartr out here looking like boo boo the fool (Caelrin) should've put on clown makeup (Biartr) peels off her flesh to reveal a full clown suit with make up (Momori) dfjsldjfkls jfSDJFSDKJ

Momori hears something behind her, and she whips her head around. The motion is too fast though, and her hair slaps right onto her eyes. Momentarily blinded, something hits her on the back and sends her flying through the air, right towards Caelrin.

Caelrin | Momori may have despaired - but rest assured, with a monk on the team, she's in good hands. Literally; she's been *caught*, a reactionary movement made to preserve himself and her. With a huff, he promptly tosses her like a football to the nearest bird to continue the attack, while he occupies himself with another satisfying crunch of a gastornis cranium.

Momori - The bird catches Momori.

Biartr | Despite being out of practice for the traditional 'hunt' that Biartr was accustomed too, perhaps she was getting back into the hang of it. Somewhat, at least. Once more, the Veena and her mount swoop down into a nest and carry off two eggs back towards the Camp. There is an air of chaos to it, as the gastornis attempt to trample (read: follow) the egg-snatchers.

Momori - Lalafell under wing, the bird sprints to its nest and slam dunks Momori into it. Touchdown! Momori is just, done. She lets it happen. Dead inside eyes gaze to the sky.

Caelrin | Nevermind. She *isn't* in good hands, for she is now in a nest. Unfortunately, the said bird finds itself sideways and slackened as a vicious dropkick is loosed into its flank - seeing it skid along and through dirt and rock to its death in retaliation. Not quite a slam dunk, but - it's a goal. Goal. Goal. GOOOOOOALASSOOOOOOOOO

Biartr | It's not a great time. It's an awful time. The next set of nests Biartr and her endymion race for are the ones precariously teetering on the edge. Except, now they're not on the edge and are dropping into the clouds below. Ooft.

(Biartr) Roblox oof. (Caelrin) do the eggs also explode mid-fall (Momori) HAHHA (Biartr) :pensiveclown: (Biartr) we'll go with no and see if we can salvage it with a /good/ roll. (Caelrin) also actually how many birds have we killed (Caelrin) is it like....8 or 9 (Momori) I think 10?? or 9. But we can round up (Caelrin) 9.7 birds > Biartr literally rolls a 1  (Momori) OH My god!!!! (Biartr) BYE (Momori) this is MOMENTUOUS (Biartr) im laughing so hard rn (Caelrin) : ) (Caelrin) the endymion releases an egg - it explodes as soon as it's out (Biartr) ????

Momori sits up in the nest, in time to see a bird crash into a rock. Absolute chaos. She looks up, eyes searching for Biartr and her companion. Something in her gut tells her that she better be watching.

Biartr | Biartr's concern for Calerin getting gutted by a muscle-leg flightless bird was misplaced. Especially now that she was somewhat over-hulked on the mix of ceruleum and paint on her face. Her endymion flies off, for now, but Biartr appeared to have been dropped amongst the piles of birds. Or moreso, thrown - her body skidding through the mud in a dirty, yolky, blue-faced mess. Nice job.

(Biartr) ah I also don't have /playdeadon this character (Momori) splot (Caelrin) roblox death sound (Caelrin) also who's Calerin (Biartr) hello darkness my old friend (Momori) long lost twin (Momori) evil dark twin (Caelrin) Calerin Moarr (Biartr) his more attractive sister (Biartr) biartr: overjuiced on paint. me: overjuiced on coffee (Caelrin) LMAO (Caelrin) aight one last roll since i think this bird be the last yeah? (Momori) sounds good!! (Biartr) :) (Biartr) biartr is gonna have to just end up being "Look guys I am actually really cool okay please beliEvE ME"

Momori silently stares at Biartr, gaze flat and serious. But seconds later, she bursts into a laughter so powerful she topples over on the floor. A bird comes over and sits on top of her as if she were an egg, and the sound of laughter is muffled by several layers of feather.

Caelrin | Biartr's concern for Caelrin getting gutted by a muscle-leg flightless bird may have been misplaced, certainly; after all, given all the carnage on the ground, as well as the beaten and slain birds with crushed heads and perforated necks, it's clear the two are handling themselves well. One bird left - and that is all it takes for Caelrin to lose focus long enough to watch Biartr faceplant into the dirt and mud. Nice job. Instinct has him rushing to move to her - but he takes his eyes off his prey long enough for the very same bird that sits on Momori to kick the monk squarely in the stomach, raking as well. A flash of red and a few ilms driven back. Okay, yeah - it's got a kick.

Biartr merely stares flat-out, looking at the sky - the only movement is the heavy rise and fall of her chest. For a moment she moves the spear off her back, throwing it towards the duo in a hope she'd at least skewer a bird, only for the spear to fall short and plant into the ground shy of the target near Cael.

(Caelrin) ......does the tail of the spear have a sharp end too (Biartr) it does! just shorter than the usual (Caelrin) e x e c u t i o n t i m e.

Momori can’t hear what’s happening. What’s going on? In the warm darkness she’s trapped under, she fumbles about, hands searching for her daggers..which she doesn’t find. No, the bird seems to tell her. It is egg time. Time to be egg.

Caelrin | Momori will not be egg. Not today - not this time. Like being birthed from the womb for a second time, the lalafell is thrown into the world of light and air as the bird is quite *literally* pulled off of her and lifted into the air with bared teeth and a low snarl. He's clearly fed up with all of this - and tempers his frustrations accordingly with due justice. Biartr's spear is just nearby, waiting like a pole - and just like that, the monk slams the bird upon its tail-end with force.

Caelrin | Skewered - unfortunately, not a good kebob. Still raw and feathered.

Biartr continues to lie deathly still amongst the grass and bird corpses. There is likely a thought process of if she lays there still and long enough, she'll be forgotten about. The Veena is hoping, at least.

Caelrin: "--Biartr!" calls the monk, who's patting down his front with gauntlets as that peculiar violet aura begins to fade, drifting away with particles bleeding into the wind. Sorry - you're still here. "You alright over there?"

Momori doesn’t say. A word. She picks up her daggers.Then, a bird. Wordlessly starts making a pile of their bodies. She additionally steps over to Biartr, and waves a hand over her eyes. “...Shall we carry you back as well?”

Biartr continues to stare at the clouds overhead. She is plain-faced and taking a deep breath. "You can leave me here." There's a half-smile, though her brows are in knots and speak an otherwise rather frustrating story.

Momori cracks a mud-caked smile at Biartr. “This was certainly.......exciting.....Let us not speak of this in detail.”

Caelrin: "........I'll keep me lips locked an' shut real tight," the monk remarks, having moved over to join the two - considerably less dirt-coated as the two of them.

Caelrin: "Did good work either way, methinks. 's ten birds, and.....however many eggs you got before you...took your fall."

Biartr continues to lay flat-out, though her gaze at least lifts to dead-stare at the two of them. "Four eggs." She paused, gesturing to herself. "Five if I'm put over the campfire."

Caelrin: "Be a real cruel merchant indeed if he decided to accept scrambled Viera on top of all we're to recover."

Momori nods. “At least the merchants will be pleased. And no one is injured, though our egos find themselves devastated. Nothing a little merry-making can’t fix.”

Biartr: "I've had more flattering moments, admittedly." She sighed, pushing herself to her feet, a hand wiping away the mixture of egg and paint near her eyes.

Momori: “I’ll go carry over all the birds, and wash off. See you back at camp?” She gives a small wave, and busies herself with bird delivery.

Biartr: "Of course, thanks for keeping up the bargain."

Caelrin | "....merry-making to be had indeed, after all of this chaos," the monk chuckles, canting his head all the while as a glance is sent back over the shoulder to observe the handwork. With Momori's bidding, he offers a nod and parting wave. "--aye, be safe. See you back at camp."

[cordonianchoicesqueen]

Rewritten: The Royal Romance: Hello Cordonia (Part Four)

A/N: We are in Cordonia! Drake and Riley have their first fight and finally Hana, the true unsung talented queen of the TRR series makes an entrance. Also, on second reading of TRR, there’s a lot of really sexist chatter by the male characters about how awful all the women are to each other/ gold digging... They make you so worried about the women in court but they are all fabulous in their own ways... Definitely will have to come back to that at some point!

Summary: Riley drops her life in NYC and boards a plane to Cordonia with Drake and Maxwell. Arriving at the palace she feels very overwhelmed but manages to make a new friend in the process.

Choices Chapter: Book One, Chapter Two, First Half

Disclaimer: Characters and main storyline from Pixelberry’s Choices.

Word Count: 2570

Warnings: none

Hello Cordonia

The next hour or so was a whirlwind. I walked into Elliot’s with my head high. My manager turned around to shout at me for coming in the wrong entrance and being a couple minutes late but when he saw my carefree expression, he paled. I told him exactly what he could do with his sexist rants and disregard for his employees and then rushed home. I had no idea what to pack but I didn’t have time to worry about it, throwing random outfits into my bag. I grabbed anything sparkly or fancy I could find… I mean I was going to a Palace! My wardrobe nor I was truly prepared for this major life change. Just before the car sent for me pulled up outside, I left my key to my apartment on the table and texted my landlord, glad that I had decided to take out periodic tenancy. With that, I felt my ties to New York fall away and I felt free… if not just a bit petrified. 

When I got to the airport, my bags were taken for me and I was escorted through the airport. I skipped line after line and before I knew it I was standing on the runway beside a magnificent private jet. As I walked up the stairs, I let my hand run across the cold railing trying to take in everything. Yesterday, all I had to look forward to was a day off from a job I hated so I could sleep and do nothing. Today, I was boarding a private jet to travel into the unknown. It was terrifying. Yet, my overly anxious self finally let the excitement take over instead of fear. The cabin was stylish and like no airplane I had ever been on before. The chairs were the size of three economy style seats and large tables so clean you could see yourself in them were dotted around. Maxwell and Drake sat across from each other, sipping glasses of champagne. “Wow,” I said, not managing to contain my inner monologue. Maxwell jumped up, handing me a glass, “say goodbye to New York and helloooo to Cordonia!” I took the glass, feeling underdressed even for an airplane journey, “I can’t believe this is happening.” “Believe it,” Drake chimed in, downing his glass, “we’ll be there before you know it, ready or not. And if you’re not ready, those ladies at court are going to eat you alive.” “Don’t scare her Drake!” Maxwell scolding, gesturing for me to sit down with them. “You okay, Riley?” “Honestly… I’m terrified,” I said exhaling. “I knew it. She’s not gonna last a week. It’s a waste of time bringing her,” Drake bristled. Drake had obviously taken a strange dislike to me from the get go. He wasn’t happy that I was out with them the night before and he definitely wasn’t happy I was there with them now. I tried to brush aside his feelings about me… but for some reason I really wanted this grumpy, asshole to like me. He was obviously close with Liam. It wasn’t just the women I would need to win over in court. “I don’t get why you’re being so grim about this…” I said neutrally. “Look, no offense,” he said, his words dripping with offense, “but I’ve seen girls like you come and go. It never ends well. Not for you, not for Liam, not for the royal family.” “Riley’s not some crown-chaser, Drake” Maxwell fired back. I’d yet to see Maxwell look upset or angry about anything. He, so far, had always seemed so bubbly. It was nice to have him in my corner. It was time to fight my own battles and it seemed the only way to fight Drake was with a fire of my own. “Drake, to be fair you’re more my usual type. Down and out bad boy who have a strange superiority complex and like making other people feel bad,” I chided him. “Hah,” Drake rolled his eyes sarcastically. “I’m serious. I don’t usually mess around with rich boys, much less royalty. So you can keep your opinions to yourself until you actually know me,” I said never breaking his stare. Maxwell let out a low whistle, “well I think that’s enough for our pre-flight entertainment. How about we get this plane in the air and play some card games to pass the time!”

A while later, the pilot announced the plane’s descent. “Look,” Maxwell said to me pointing out the window. “You can see Cordonia out the window. You won’t want to miss this, Riley.” I peered out the window and saw one of the most beautiful costal cities I had ever seen. Small buildings scattered the landscape down to docks where extravagant yachts and ships were moored. The sea was a fantastic blue, so clear I felt like I could see all the way to the depths into the sand where the fish hide. So used to cities with unapologetic concrete structures stealing as much of the landscape as they could and the New York grids, I instead could make out the winding roads of this city leading to so many unexpected parks, plazas and market stalls. A maze I couldn’t wait to be inside. The lights of the city were soft and seemed to be united into one pattern instead of different obtrusive flashes fighting one another demanding my attention On the top of a hill overlooking the whole city was a gleaming palace with a garden so splendid in colour I could almost smell the flowers from my seat on the plane. “This is Cordonia?” I smiled despite myself. “It’s like something out of a fairy tale… The sparking ocean, the swaying trees…” “If you burst into song, I’m jumping out the plane,” Drake said behind me but I felt like I could hear an almost smile in his voice. “I’m just saying it’s beautiful,” I shook my head not being able to believe my luck. “It is, isn’t it… Are you ready?” Maxwell gave me a reassuring smile. “Ready as I will ever be!” I exclaimed.

We rode in a black car with tinted windows up the long pathway through the grounds of the palace. Fountains sprayed water high into the clear blue sky and flowers of all colours burst from ground to meet us. “Welcome to your home for the next few months, Riley,” Maxwell said. The castle itself was extravagant with gold trims and ancient carvings built into the exterior. “This is where I’m staying? I didn’t realise I’d be living in the palace,” I said, suddenly feeling very overwhelmed. My apartment was probably half the size of a singular room in this spectacular building. I had done nothing to deserve this type of, literally, royal treatment. “Most of the nobility live here while the social season is underway, including all the ladies vying for Liam’s hand,” Maxwell explained. “Yeah, living under one roof just makes it easier to attend the rose ceremony later,” Drake joked, giving away a little too much about his reality TV watching habits. Maxwell rolled his eyes as the car stopped outside the grand doors, “Drake’s just kidding… at least about the roses. Anyway, I’ll show you to your room!” Maxwell hopped out the car and held the door for me. Palace staff appeared out of nowhere to take my bags and bowed to me before heading inside. “This is my cue to take off,” Drake said getting out of the car and looking at me once more. “See you around… if you’re lucky.” I watched him as he walked away. I scrunched up my nose as I tried to figure out what his game was. I was so convinced he just had a natural dislike for me but as the plane journey had gone on, it seemed that he was almost testing me, trying to see how far he could push me before I snapped. I wondered if I was only a social experiment to him, a play thing that I was sure he would get bored of quickly. Through the doors to the castle, I was immediately greeted by more splendour and a staircase with a blushing red carpet that would rival any images of castles or mansions I had seen. The baluster was a dark wood elegantly carved. The walls were covered in portraits of the royal family and landscapes of the Cordonian countryside. I followed Maxwell slowly up the stairs. “So what’s the deal with Drake,” I asked Maxwell, wanting to enjoy my incredible surroundings but not being able to get Drake’s behaviour out of my head. “Why is he so… angry?” “Oh don’t mind him. Drake’s never really… fit in,” Maxwell said carefully. “Not used to courtly life?” I asked. “Definitely not,” he said in a matter of fact tone. “He’s a commoner. He’s always been an outsider here. Even if he is Liam’s best friend…” I wanted to know more but knew better than to pry. I let the conversation drop as Maxwell led me down corridor after corridor. There was no way I was ever going to find my way around this place with it’s suit of armour lined, high ceilinged halls. “Your room is here in the west wing. In case you need anything from me or my brother, our rooms are just a couple doors away,” he said reassuring me yet again. “I didn’t know you had a brother?” “Yeah, an older brother. His official title is Duke Bertrand Beaumont. As the eldest son, he’s the heir and I’m the spare. You’ll see him tonight. He’ll be excited to meet you,” Maxwell smiled elbowing me. I couldn’t imagine another Maxwell! So bubbly and supportive even with people he barely knew. This was a case of two had to be even better than just the one! “I’m really looking forward to meet him,” I said with full honesty. Maxwell stops short in front of an ornate door, “this is it! Here’s your room!” As we entered, I realised I needed to learn to stop my jaw automatically dropping open when I saw the splendour that was presented before me. The lavish guest room had one of the largest beds I’d ever seen, with huge detailed throws and filled with fluffy pillows. There were full length paintings, gilded ceilings and mirrors that made me feel like Alice lived here and could fall into the looking glasses. “Wow.” “As a guest, you are spared no luxury,” Maxwell smiled looking at my face. I must have looked like a young child in their first candy shop, “so there’s nothing stopping me from jumping on the bed? From raiding the mini bar?” “There’s no mini bar, but the staff here,” Maxwell gestured to the man placing my very small suitcase in the room, “will get you anything you’d like.” “Sweeeet!” I yelled, letting myself go and throwing myself backwards onto the bed. I felt my body sink into the sheets. They were soft as silk and I immediately felt like I could have drifted off into the best sleep I had ever had. Maxwell laughed, “I’ll let you settle in before your big debut tonight…” I sat up abruptly, “my what?” “I’m sorry, I keep forgetting that you’re not used to this. The first event of the social season is tonight, The Masquerade,” Maxwell made jazz hands. “It’s the ball where all the suitors will be presented to the Prince, as well as to the King. Not everyone dresses in costume… but you might need to have a think about it…” Maxwell glances doubtfully at my modest suitcase. “I’m guessing it’s unlikely you’ve got a costume or a fancy ball gown in there.” I gulped, “nope not gonna have that.” “There’s a seamstress who frequents the palace before social events to aid the ladies with any last-minute fixes to dresses. She’ll be downstairs, you should find her and ask if she has any spare dresses in your size,” Maxwell said. “Thank you, Maxwell. This is all very overwhelming but you are being so helpful,” I half smiled. “Remember. Tonight is very important. It’s your chance to make a first impression on all the influential people at court and to stand apart from everyone else!” he stated. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this,” I said more confidently, standing up and straightening my posture.

It took me a while, but I finally managed to follow Maxwell’s directions down through the castle to the room that was temporarily being used as the women’s make-up and wardrobe space for the social season. As I stepped inside I heard a gasp. The gasp came from a gorgeous woman in the back corner of the room, dressed only in her bra and knickers. I immediately went beetroot as she moved the dress she was holding to cover herself. “Sorry! So sorry,” I said. Damn it, Riley! What did Maxwell just say about making a good impression?! “I didn’t realise someone was already here…” I continued rambling. The woman laughed, her laughter was the type that was infectious and I felt a cool relief wash over my embarrassment, “No problem. I should have put up a sign or something!” Still holding the dress to her near-naked body, she approached me, each step as dainty as the next, extending her hand, “I’m Hana. I suppose you’re also here to prepare for the Masquerade.” I shook her hand. “You’re just like me… searching desperately at last minute for something to wear!” I had been warned of vicious women who took no prisoners. Hana seemed competent and caring, rather than someone who would shiv me with a stiletto. “More or less,” I replied, not wanting to give away too much in case I was reading her wrong. “Just let me slip my dress on and I can show you around. The seamstress has already left for the day,” Hana said. I turned around so that she could dress. I could hear her struggling with the zipper. “Do you need a hand?” I asked, still staring at the door. “That would be amazing,” she giggled. I helped slide the zipper up her dress, that suited her petit and slim body shape perfectly. She picked up a matching mask, securing it in pace and then tossed herself a daring look in the mirror. She turned to me, grinning, “Thank you. Not many people in court are like you...” “Helpful?” I asked. “Nice,” she said, a steady smile on her face. “Ah this dress is perfect!” Hana spins, showing off her skirt in full twirl for me. “Now, what about you? Let’s find you a dress!” It only took Hana a moment to find me a stunning, long, white ball gown with cold shoulder sleeves and sexy slit up the side of my leg. It was everything I needed to look at myself and feel transformed into the princess I wanted to be. It covered all those bumps I did not like, was the perfect length and showed off all the parts of my body I loved. Hana secured a stunning silver masquerade mask to my face and I truly looked the part of pauper become princess. “You look wonderful,” she smiled admiring her handy work. “You did a wonderful job!” I responded, glad I had somehow already made a friend in this strange place.

[alexboehm55144]

Alex Final Wars 2: Dark Alex, Chapter 38 - Extraction

Jack, Skye, Haida, and Retsuko monitored the battle from the combat information room of the Typhoon. The whole room was dark, only illuminated by blinking lights and information display screens.

“Jack, there’s a report here of a high-value target in the form of a Chinese ace pilot,” Retsuko said. “He’s already taken out 2 escort craft and 5 US jets.”

“Roger, I’ll assign those Canadian fighters to hunt him down and eliminate him,” Jack said, starting to send electronic messages to US and CA fighter jets in the skies.

“Hey, I’m also getting a request for a missile strike on an enemy ship out there,” Haida said.

“I’m on it!” Skye responded. “Marking targets and firing missiles.”

“Jack, do you read?” Captain Boehm’s voice came through the radio.

“Affirmative.” The rabbit responded.

“We’ve got the intelligence and are moving to exfil location.”

“Got it. I’m dispatching the extraction party now and pushing the extraction location to your heads-up display. Remember you are to deliver the intelligence to the USS Iwo Jima waiting offshore, and then, return to the Typhoon.”

“Roger that, see you back at the ship.”

“Direct hit!” Skye said, watching on a computer screen as the missile impacted the Chinese warship and blew it apart in a fireball and shower of debris.

“Jack, this is Toothdee and JayJay, enemy supplies destroyed.”

“Glad to hear it. Move back to the hovercraft on the shore and prepare to leave.”

“Roger that.”

“Haida, Retsuko, any new priority reports coming in?”

“Nothing that’s high priority now,” Retsuko said.

“Alright, then let’s just keep doing what we’re doing. Monitoring communications, directing troops, and providing support. Keep up the jamming and electronic warfare operations.”

000

“Ahhh!”

“Hang on, Laval!”

“I’m hanging on, Eris!”

The eagle swooped and spun her jet to avoid incoming missiles while releasing flares. She dove down and strafed a Chinese SAM site on top of the fortress, hitting multiple PLA troops and destroying the missile battery.

The eagle cheered and climbed back up into the sky before turned around in her seat to check out Laval. His eyes were wide, and he was gripping the sides of the cockpit.

“Calm down, fur boy.” She teased. “Aren’t you a brave lion warrior?”

“Yeah, warrior! Not pilot!”

“Alright, let’s do something a bit more your speed.”

The eagle pitched the aircraft down so the pair inside could see the ships in the sea below.

“How about that small blue and gray vessel right there?” Laval said, pointing to a type 22 missile boat. A pontoon craft with a pair of missile pods built into the vessel and a blue and gray disruptive camouflage scheme.

“You got it, Laval!”

The eagle jet pulled down towards the missile boat, aiming at its forward cannons and peppering them with gunfire. The shots disabled the weapons, and a well-placed missile destroyed the boat’s central antenna.

Eris pulled in above the vessel, making it difficult for the missile pods to hit the jet, as they did not face directly forward. If they did fire upon the plane, it would crash onto the missile boat.

Eris put her jet in automatic hover, and the pair jumped out of the cockpit, Eris grabbing Laval and using her wings to break his fall. Upon landing, the lion covered her by using his sword to deflect incoming shots from naval troops. At the same time, Eris drew her ax and blaster.

The pair charged forward, cutting and gunning down naval troopers before making it into the vessel’s bridge and eliminating the commanding officers inside.

One of the doors into the bridge opened as a PLAN sailor tried to assist, but Eris cut him down, and Laval threw a Chi grenade through the door before kicking it shut. The explosion killed more responding sailors while Laval and Eris went to work slashing the ship’s controls with their sword and ax.

Once the controls were thoroughly rendered inoperable, the pair left the bridge and proceeded towards the back of the boat. Eris flying over the bridge structure while Laval skillfully jumped towards the stern, cutting down another naval trooper.

The missile pods were located on the back of the boat, and Eris used her chi blaster to destroy the starboard pod. Laval pulled out a grenade that appeared to contain two glowing blue orbs of chi attached together, with a long golden handle to throw the weapon.

The lion prince tossed the grenade into the other missile pod, detonating and destroying the missile system.

All the while, the boat had been moving forward. This meant Eris’s eagle jet was now behind the boat instead of in front of it.

Laval raced towards the stern, jumped off the boat into the air before Eris grabbed him, and carried the lion back into the jet’s cockpit.

The pair laughed and gave each other a high five as Eris piloted back into the sky.

“That was great, Eris!”

“You can say that again! I can tell your loving those new chi grenades you’ve been trying out lately.”

“Yeah, they are pretty useful. I might have to add those grenades to my gear. Change it up a bit from the sword.”

“Join the club and get a blaster or firearm.”

“Eh, I am more of a swordsmammal. You know I’m always worried your not going to catch me whenever we do something like that.”

“Are you still scared of the water? I taught you how to swim.”

“I’m not scared! I’m just... uh.....”

“Haha! Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll always catch you.”

The lion leaned forward and planted a kiss on the eagle’s cheek, making her blush. But she did enjoy it.

“What’s next?” Eris asked, pitching the jet down again so they could see the battlefield.

The pair scanned the ships in the area. Determining where they should strike next.

000

Nick and Judy burst through a door that was sized for small mammals. At the same time, the commandos went through a medium mammal sized door, both leading down another hallway in the fortress.

Kion and Alex moved through the medium-sized door, the captain emptying a whole magazine on the pursuing PLA soldiers. Once he ran dry, Kion pushed some supply crates in front of the door as a barrier.

“Keep going!” Judy yelled, “we’re almost out of here! Sweet cheese and crackers!”

The group came to a vehicle bay that leads outside to a flat grassy area.

Chinese troops were busy engaging US troops near a landed helicopter, allowing Heroes to drop on the enemy soldiers and gun them down.

“Friendlies!” The captain yelled as they approached the extraction team.

“Hold fire!” One of the US soldiers yelled.

“We’re ready to get you out of here, sir.” A human trooper with an M249 LMG said, approaching Alex.

“Yes, let’s not waste any time.”

Suddenly more gunfire rang out, and the trooper with the LMG went down as more enemies emerged from the fortress.

“Return fire!” One of the commandos yelled as captain Boehm grabbed the injured trooper and brought him to one of the extraction helicopters.

Other warriors fired back, as did the side-mounted guns on the helicopters.

Kion grabbed the fallen trooper’s LMG and sprayed the incoming enemies, taking down three in just a few seconds.

“Oh, I like this thing!” Kion said, looking over the LMG.

The incoming troops were dead, and Heroes piled into one of the black hawk helicopters while the commandos got into another.

The choppers lifted off and headed out to sea as US ships and fighters opened up on the fortress with a massive final salvo. Aircraft launched missiles that streaked through the air while warships opened up with their main cannons.

Shells and missiles impacted the fortress, causing cracks to form throughout the building’s superstructure. The entire area was blanketed with smoke and debris as the Chinese citadel was reduced to a broken husk.

The helicopters moved away from the battered fortress and towards the USS Iwo Jima. An amphibious assault ship, reminiscent of an aircraft carrier, but smaller in size, possessing only one lengthwise facing runway along with space for helicopters.

The black hawks set down on the deck. Heroes pilled out of the aircraft, linking back up with the commandos as a commanding officer and other troopers ran over to them.

“Heroes! JTF-2!” The rabbit commander said, “we’ve been tasked with securing the intelligence from you. Thank you for getting it to us.”

One of the Canadians handed the bag of maps and documents to one of the troopers.

“Our ships are withdrawing from the area and heading back out to sea. However, it’s likely the Chinese may attempt to pursue.”

Seconds later, missiles impacted the ship, causing the vessel to shake and throwing mammals off their feet.

“INCOMING!” A sailor yelled. “People’s Liberation Army boats and aircraft!”

Small rubber dinghies packed with soldiers and helicopters neared the USS Iwo Jima.

“We’ll get the intelligence out of here, but we could use your help defending the ship.” The rabbit commander said.

“We’re on it! Refill your ammo!” Captain Boehm ordered, moving over to some supply crates and retrieving the necessary ammunition for his gear. He noticed some magazines for Judy’s pistol and handed them to the rabbit.

“Thanks, Alex.” The rabbit said, putting a fresh clip into her pistol.

Kion found a sharpening stone used for sharpening bayonets and combat knives. He quickly gave his blade a once over to sharpen it before retrieving more magazines for the LMG he picked up.

“Do you have any arrows?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, that crate over there.” The rabbit commander said, pointing to a rounded container with the symbol of an arrow on one side.

“Oh wow, you guys are well stocked!” The fox said.

The personnel with the bag of documents scurried away as the Chinese reached the vessel.

Helicopters opened fire on US troops on the deck before depositing their personnel.

Grappling hooks shot up from the water below and attached to the ship’s side as hostile troopers boarded the vessel.

Alarms blared as an announcement came over the ship’s loudspeakers.

“All hands! We are being boarded! I repeat we are being boarded!”

“Defensive positions!” Captain Boehm yelled, the team taking up positions behind some aircraft on the deck. One of the Canadians even got on a side-mounted gun on the side of a landed helicopter.

The first PLA troops to emerge onto the deck of the Iwo Jima were red pandas, who could easily climb the ascent cabled up onto the ship. However, they were instantly gunned down by defending forces.

Other US sailors and marines also opened fire on incoming hostiles all over the vessel.

“We have a problem!” Nick said. He pointed to a pair of Z-9 Haitun helicopters approaching the ship, covered by a Z-10W attack chopper.

Heroes and JTF-2 immediately turned their attention to the approaching transport helicopters and gunship.

One commando opened up on a Z-9 with the side-mounted gun, causing the vehicle to burst into flames and explode.

Nick took cover to avoid a burst of machine-gun fire from the attack helicopter before quickly firing back with arrows tipped with explosives.

The other transport helicopter managed to land and deploy troops, who instantly engaged with defending troops.

Kion aimed at the wounded attack helicopter and emptied a whole magazine into the aircraft, trying to hit the cockpit.

The fox pilot inside spammed as he was hit by bullets before slumping forward on his control stick, causing the chopper to crash into the Iwo Jima.

“This thing is awesome!” Kion said, looking over his LMG.

“Cut their lines!” The captain said, him and Kion drawing swords and charging towards the enemy grappling hooks.

A tiger trooper reached the top deck and tried to raise his LMG, but the captain slashed him across the chest and kicked him off the ship.

The pair of swordsmen then slashed at the grappling cables and pried at the actual hooks attached to parts of the USS Iwo Jima itself.

Enemy troops opened fire at the pair of Heroes. Still, they could not prevent the cables from severed, the climbing mammals falling into the sea, or landing hard on the boat below.

“Topdeck is clear!” A sailor yelled.

“There’s still Chinese in the hanger deck below!” Another sailor said, this one being an otter and armed with an SMG.

“Heroes will move to reinforce!” Captain Boehm said. “Let’s get down to the hangar deck!”

“Roger, we’ll stay up here and defend the top deck!” The JTF team leader said.

“This way, Heroes!” The otter sailor yelled before leading the four mammals into the ship and down to the deck below. “The ship has been disabled! We’re sitting ducks!”

“We can fix our engines once we’re safe!” Judy said, hopping down a staircase to the hanger deck.

The sound of gunfire grew closer as Heroes entered the hanger.

Friendly and hostile troops engaged each other, fighting around helicopters and fighter jets in the hanger.

Heroes immediately engaged the enemy forces, taking down 5 hostiles using the element of surprise. The other Chinese troopers fired back at the incoming reinforcements while attacking the other US soldiers.

One of the enemy troopers tossed a grenade. The explosion destroying the landing gear of the jet Kion was taking cover behind. The lion rolled out of the way of the plane as its fuselage hit the floor.

More PLA soldiers entered the hanger via the massive side door that led to the elevator up to the main deck.

“There’s too many of them!”

Judy targeted a cluster of supplies containing fuel and ammunition.

The rabbit opened fire on the supplies. They detonated in an explosion that enveloped a fighter jet and caused the plane’s fuel tank to explode. Both the aircraft and the nearby enemies were reduced to burned husks.

Suddenly, the Iwo Jima rocked again as it was struck, causing everyone in the hanger to fall down as the ship shook.

“What the hell was that?” Captain Boehm asked, scrambling to his feet.

“Are they bombarding the ship while their own forces are inside?!” Judy said, hopping back to her feet and landing in a combat-ready position.

The ship creaked and moaned from the damage that had been caused by the incoming Chinese attacks. It was too much, and an announcement came over the vessel’s loudspeakers.

“All hands abandon ship!”

“That’s our cue to get out of here,” Nick noted.

“This way, Heroes!” The otter sailor said, “there’s a RHIB boat nearby!”

“Well, lead the way then.”

Kion and Alex fired a hail of bullets as covering fire before the group left the hanger and moved through the ship’s hallways.

“JTF-2, I’m sure you heard the announcement. Abandon ship.” Captain Boehm said into his radio.

“Affirmative, sir! Friendly forces are spinning up a helicopter on the upper deck.” The Canadian team leader said.

“Roger that, see you back home.”

The team arrived at the RHIB boat, suspended off the side of the ship above the water. Heroes and the sailor piled in, along with three marines who were also fleeing the ship.

“What about the bag of documents and maps?” Judy said as the marines lowered the boat off the ship into the sea. “Don’t tell me we did all that just for those things to get soaked.”

“That rabbit commander probably has it covered. They aren’t going to let something that vital go down with the ship!” Kion said as the boat reached the water, and Alex began to pilot away from the Iwo Jima towards other US naval ships.

“It looks like the ship is still floating.” The otter noted. “But she does appear to be smoking badly, and I see lots of damage.”

“It’s also swarming with Chinese.” One of the marines said.

Suddenly enemy troops on board the ship fired at the fleeing troopers, forcing the mammals in the boat to fire back as they fled.

Back on board the ship, a US marine carrying the bag of Chinese intelligence ran down a hallway to the vessel’s stern. He was accompanied by several other marines and sailors, all trying to escape the stricken vessel.

Reaching a door, one of the troopers tried to open it but could only get it partway open. It was jammed, and none of the marines or sailors were able to squeeze through the opening. However, other naval troopers on the other side of the door attempted to pry it open.

The ship’s metal around them creaked from stress, and the hallway went dark as the power went out, the only light coming from the door’s porthole. Sounds emanating from the dark end of the hallway. Footsteps and the sounds made by a soldier’s kit jingling and moving slightly as they walked. US naval troopers took up combat positions, weapons at the ready. The soldiers still had no visual of the source.

Then the dark end of the hallway lit up a bright red. The red glow emanating from Dark Alex’s blade and its wielder gazing down upon the naval troopers.

“CONTACT! CONTACT! ENGAGE! ENGAGE!” A US sailor yelled. Bullets flew forward, but to no avail. Alex’s counterpart either deflected them with his sword or evaded them altogether.

As he got closer to the naval troopers, he slashed through them, inflicting fatal wounds. He sliced a tiger in half, cut down a pair of humans, and slammed a fox into the wall with brutal strength.

“Get the package out of here!” The trooper carrying the intelligence said, stuffing the bag through the gap and handing it to a sailor.

He tried to draw his sidearm but was sliced in half by Dark Alex, who then used his sword like a lever to pry open the jammed door using immense strength.

The trooper who now had the intelligence bag ran into the ship’s stern well deck, used to hold amphibious vehicles.

Other naval troopers attempted to engage the incoming Dark Alex, but he sliced through them with ease.

The trooper shut the metal door to the well deck and ran for the landing craft that was docked, full of supplies and equipment.

“LAUNCH! Get us out of here!”

The trooper jumped on the landing craft, along with other naval personnel. The vessel sped out of the well deck, just narrowly avoiding Dark Alex’s fury.

The evil swordsman watched the craft flee and was filled with rage.

The US now had ahold of vital intelligence, and they had all but obliterated a mighty Chinese fortress.

Things were looking bleak for him and his allies. But no matter how dark it got, no matter how much the US beat them back, he would see their armies crushed and all members of Heroes gutted for what they had done.

[entergamingxp]

We played Cyberpunk 2077 for four hours, here’s what we think • Eurogamer.net

It’s frustrating that the first chance to play Cyberpunk 2077 is not in the flesh but remotely, streamed from somebody else’s PC. But there’s a pandemic so a press event can’t happen, and this is what we’ve got. And you know what? The tech’s not bad. The video image is compressed but it’s still a stunning game, and while there’s a bit of input lag, it’s negligible. It’s surprisingly playable, and so I play for four hours from the very beginning of the game.

You’ve seen some of what I play in the gameplay video already released, but I also do things and meet characters you haven’t seen. More importantly, I get a chance to just be in the world and feel what it’s like to be there. I nose around, talking to people. I look through my inventory and pore over my character development screens, fantasising about the kind of Cyberpunk hero I’ll be. I get a sense of what it’s going to be like spending hours and hours here.

And I tell you this: there’s a lot more going on in Cyberpunk 2077 than The Witcher 3. Night City is an overwhelming place. There are no quaint little villages like White Orchard with gentle rolling hills on the horizon to ease you in. There’s one big city stuffed with huge buildings, and the labyrinthine alleyways and the dirty streets beneath them.

Quite how Cyberpunk manages to pack so many people in I don’t know. They crowd the streets and alleyways as well as the clubs and hallways inside. Even by my apartment there are people banging on vending machines and shouting things. I frequently barge past people to get to places, and it makes my day to hear a boy say, “You’ve got a big dumb face. Hahaha!” because I know the cheeky personality I loved in The Witcher 3 is here.

People come in all shapes and sizes (I’m so glad there are bigger body types) and colours, and are tattooed, body-modified and punked. The hair is some of the best I’ve seen. It can be wooden in games like these but here it has body and bounce. Consider there are more than 30 haircuts to choose from, not to mention implants (metal balls under the skin), zany eye-types (I opted for swirly black and white hypno eyes) and all kinds of futuristic metal facial adornments, and you begin to imagine what an exotic spectacle the people can be.

Night City needs it. These people inject life and energy into an otherwise still concrete world. But though it is concrete, Night City isn’t drab. Every effort has been made to decorate the city to reinforce an 80s vision of the future. Walls are not bare but plastered with posters and graffiti. Lewd advertising boards blink at you as you climb litter-strewn stairways, garish TVs pump ads at you even as you ride elevators. And though the underbelly alleys of the city are gloomy, they glow in a kaleidoscope of colours emitted by neon signs. Accompanying it all is the hubbub and chorus of a city full of people, stylish synth sounds, and a stack of radio stations of music. This is a touchable city, a metropolis of substance and depth. It feels alive.

Will it look like this on PS4 and Xbox One?

The demo I play is running on a PC on “the high-end of the spectrum”, quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz tells me. In other words, I’m seeing the top-end of what’s possible.

The question is, what – if anything – will be sacrificed to get it running on PS4 and Xbox One? Could we see thinner crowds for instance? “It’s possible but right now the game is not ready for such claims,” he says.

“In terms of how it will look on consoles, we are still working on optimisation. It’s one of our top priorities right now. As always, we’re trying to make it run as well, and look as good, as possible – to put it to the maximum so to speak.”

But Night City is impenetrably big to begin with. It’s only with the help of the breadcrumb-trail mini-map I find my way around. Almost immediately, I meet Jackie, the friend you’ve seen in the gameplay videos, who begins to guide me around. Depending on which background story you choose for your character – Nomad, Street Kid or Corporate – Jackie can be introduced in various ways. I’m a Street Kid so I meet Jackie while trying to steal a car because he wants to steal it too, then the cops turn up and things start to go wrong. Pretty soon, he’s driving while I’m leaning out of the window shooting and we’re firm friends.

Jackie, like the other characters you’ll meet, is well drawn. A lot of effort has gone into how they look, how they move and how they sound. I particularly like how Cyberpunk 2077 moves characters around in dialogue so they’re not stuck in one place. It gives the sense character performance has progressed a level. You’re also free to move around in dialogue; you’re not locked into a dialogue camera angle. Dialogue occurs fluidly (apart from in set scripted moments). Walk up to someone and dialogue choices appear, walk away and they disappear. Think of how much time this will save in the long run, especially when you’re whizzing around trying to get things done.

It’s CD Projekt Red showing its open-world experience. The mobile phone is a feature along the same lines. You don’t always need to visit people in person because you can video call them instead. Press the d-pad to answer or, and I love this, send them a quick text. Video calls have dialogue options like face-to-face conversations, and you can use the phone to send data and files to complete quests. It’s very handy.

Then there’s the car, which you’re given early on. You don’t need to remember where you parked it because you can call it to you, like Roach in The Witcher 3. Press the d-pad and the car magically appears, like Kit from Knight Rider. Driving, though, feels a little bland. The car looks nice, with a pointy front and winged doors, and pumps little jets of fire from the exhaust pipes when you go up a gear, but it – I don’t know – lacks detail. It feels a bit thin, a bit lacking in substance. Bombing around doesn’t have quite the same thrill as in a game like GTA.

Like GTA, you can ‘take over’ other people’s cars, but I didn’t meet the requirement for this and I’m not quite sure what it was. Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to do it easily. You can also earn yourself a police wanted status, triggering them to come after you, their determination and strength rising depending on the severity of your crimes. You can help stop crimes too. This is one of the new ways of populating the open world. You’ll come across crimes in progress and be able to help in return for a reward from the police.

Combat, like the city you arrive in, is also a lot to take in. Really, it’s three games in one: shooting, stealth and hacking.

Shooting doesn’t need much explanation because it works the same as in most other games, albeit with a cover system which doesn’t stick you to cover but allows you to crouch-shuffle around. Generally, it feels good – there’s clearly a lot of gun geekery going on – with lovely damage numbers popping out of people’s heads.

Stealth is also familiar. You crouch-walk behind people to take them down, lethally or non-lethally, it’s up to you. You can hide bodies in nearby containers, or if your enemy is standing next to a container to begin with, you can take-down-n-stash in one nifty move. A slight differentiation comes in with the tech you can employ (and implant). This allows you to scan environments and mark enemies, allowing you to keep track of where they are, even behind objects, and which way they’re facing. If they spot you, an alertness gauge begins to fill so you have a bit of time to try and hide again.

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Then there’s melee. It’s almost identical to The Witcher 3, especially when boxing, albeit in first-person view. You can strike (right trigger), block (left trigger) and dodge (B), either striking in quick succession or charging a big hit to break an enemy’s guard. But watch your stamina because if it depletes, your guard will drop. You can also time a block perfectly to launch a counter-attack.

There’s one annoying quirk: dodging. Given how central it was to The Witcher 3, I expected the same here, but it’s awkward. It requires a double button press, and the button required is also bound to crouch. Not only does it make dodging tricky pull-off in the heat of battle, it also leaves you crouching when you least want to be. I saw no option to remap buttons but I hope it’s there in the full game.

Finally there’s the quintessentially Cyberpunk ability to hack and quickhack. Quickhacking seems to be what you do at a distance whereas hacking requires plugging into a terminal. (There’s a mini-game for hacking by the way. It’s based around matching number-letter pairings. You select them from a grid but not freely. You can only choose from what’s highlighted, and each time you choose, the highlighted area changes. The puzzle becomes planning your route around the grid.)

To quickhack you scan an area (left bumper) to reveal interactable objects then press quickhack (right bumper) on them. You can hack cameras, TVs, ceiling fans, turrets – many things. What you can do to them depends on what programs you’ve uploaded to your Cyberdeck and how much Memory (a kind of mana resource) you have to spend.

At the beginning, the most I can do is quickhack a security camera and then use that viewpoint to quickhack two security guards. I quickhack one to create a distraction to pull the other guard over, then overload that guard’s cyberware to blow them both up. It’s very satisfying. But doing this exhausts a lot of Memory so it’s not a tactic I can use often. Most of the time, all I can do is quickhack to create a stealth-helping distraction.

Underpinning all of this is a character customisation system to salivate over. You have your clothes and equipment but you also have a separate Cyberware loadout screen. This has 11 separate body parts to upgrade, some with multiple slots. You can upgrade your brain, your eyes, your internal systems (immune, nervous, etc.) and your limbs. Some will be passive upgrades but others will be active, such as blades in your arms, or new legs to give you a double-jump or silent running. It’s here you’ll find your Cyberdek too, in the Operating System slot.

The only experience I get of upgrading is visiting a Ripperdoc, who changes my faulty eye. It was chucking up a load of glitches on my HUD and my new eye seems much clearer. It can also better scan my environment and enemies, telling me more about them.

Underneath is a deep and broad perk system, grouped into trees associated with each of the game’s main attribute types: Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence, and Cool. The perk trees have cool names like Annihilation and Street Brawler, and affect all areas of the game from combat to hacking to crafting. There are easily over a hundred perks and you’re free to pump points into any of them. My current favourite is Cold Blood, a Cool attribute tree. It’s a kind of berserk, activating when you reach roughly half health and triggering buffs depending on what you’ve unlocked in the tree. You can become quite the beast.

Consider all of the combat approaches and related abilities, and all of the Cyberware upgrades and perks, and you begin to see what I’m getting at: it’s both a lot to take in and a giddying amount of potential.

Incidentally, there are signs of intelligent enemy life. I only face early encounters which aren’t designed to be hard, so some enemies politely stand facing the other way, but others blindfire from behind pillars (I jumped when an arm shot out from the side of one) and shoot away the cover I’m crouching behind, making combat feel active and intense. I hope CD Projekt Red can manage to balance all encounters for all approaches.

But Cyberpunk isn’t all about combat. Your attribute scores (and your background) also contribute to unlocking special dialogue options, which appear with little icons next to them. One appears for me while talking to a lady called Judy Alvarez, who’s about to introduce me to Braindances (which I talk about below). I have a high Technical Ability so I’m able to ask her about the tech she’s running in her computer den. We hit it off and she warms to me, and says come visit her again.

I don’t get much of a sense of the overarching story while I play. Sadly I don’t meet Keanu Reeves and I don’t find out anything about the mysterious chip V gets implanted in her (or his) brain. That hasn’t happened yet, as far as I can tell. At the moment I’m running missions to get in with the big players and earn street cred (a kind of experience point) and they’re already asking me to do things behind the others’ backs. The phone rings and people tell you to do things, then you do them. You don’t have to look hard. I’m sure much more choice comes into it later on.

Game length

Cyberpunk 2077 will have a shorter main story than The Witcher 3, which was around 50 hours long.

“In general, I would say the main storyline is a bit shorter than the Witcher, and we did that on purpose because we felt we wanted to put more effort into the side content of the game,” Tomaszkiewicz says. “At the same time, we felt we wanted a story that doesn’t overstay its welcome. I still feel it’s substantial.”

The wider world is populated with various events I barely have time to try. The one I try is called a Cyberpsycho event. It’s basically a mini-boss in the world somewhere with a bit of narrative padding around it. These are people pushed over the edge by having too many implants and enhancements. It’s your job to investigate what happened to them and then deal with them, either lethally or non-lethally, it’s up to you.

There are gang outposts to take down, which I bet is tough, and there are also something called Street Stories. These are contracts given to you by people called Fixers, and they ask of you a variety of things. One might ask for someone to be extracted from a gang area whereas another might be a simpler find-and-eliminate task. But again, how you do it is up to you – you don’t have to kill people.

There are also hidden stashes (hidden treasure) in the world you’ll find by uncovering various clues.

But a big thing I hadn’t seen before – and which is getting attention at the moment – is Braindances. These are recordings beamed into your brain which put you in the body of a character within them. Usually, then, they’re used for porn. But they’re also used by people to record memories of situations, and you soon get the ability to manipulate them. You can float out of the person’s body and look around the scene, seeing things they couldn’t. You can also isolate noises, scan the environments and play with thermal imaging to uncover more things.

After a brief introduction to playing around with Braindances, I get a lady’s memory of visiting a crime lord to investigate. Combing over it takes me a while, rewinding and forwarding, applying different filters, until I find the hidden chip we’re looking for. It really reminds me of reconstructing crime scenes in Detroit: Become Human. It’s a refreshing change of pace.

Four hours, then: it sounds like a lot but it’s nothing in a game like this. Cyberpunk 2077 is a game about being in a world and gradually colouring it in, populating a map with people you meet and the places as you meet them. It’s a playground rife with opportunity and a playground I can’t wait to get back to in November. It’s a game about deciding who you want to be. It’s not written, it’s open. Who will your V be?

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/we-played-cyberpunk-2077-for-four-hours-heres-what-we-think-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=we-played-cyberpunk-2077-for-four-hours-heres-what-we-think-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

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What We Learned: Fixing one of NHL’s biggest disappointments

(Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it.)

Another year come and gone of NHL hockey without a postseason for the Winnipeg Jets.

On the surface, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Look at the talent on that roster and explain how that team ended up seven points out of the playoffs — again. It’s not easy to do.

Mark Scheifele finished at more than a point a game. Blake Wheeler was close. Patrik Laine and Nik Ehlers are future stars in this league. Dustin Byfuglien is still a great defenseman. Bryan Little, hurt for much of the year, is a low-key great No. 2 center. Mathieu Perrault is one of the best pure middle-six two-way forwards in the league. Jacob Trouba’s a high-level young defender. Connor Hellebuyck has the profile of one of the best goaltenders in the world.

That’s nine players who can all play, all at different positions, and usually even if you’re getting half-decent performances from almost half the guys on your roster, you’re going to be a lot closer to a playoff spot than “seven points out.”

The obvious answer to this problem is one outlined by Perreault in the wake of the Jets’ season coming to an end:

  #NHLJets Mathieu Perreault:"There’s no team making the playoffs that isn’t getting saves so we are going to definitely need some saves too."

— Ted Wyman (@Ted_Wyman) April 9, 2017

He’s not wrong.

The Jets had a .904 save percentage as a team this season, and Hellebuyck was the only guy above that number (.907) in 56 appearances. Now, .907 is bad, let’s not make any mistake there. The league average this season was .913, and if Hellebuyck delivered that number instead, it would have — generally speaking — saved the Jets nine goals, giving them an extra three points in the standings. Not enough to bridge the gap, even if all three of those points came against the two teams directly ahead of them.

If all four of their goalies were collectively league-average, that adds 24 goals to the total, and that’s eight points. Now we’re getting somewhere.

But let’s be honest: First of all, if the Jets are still barely squeaking into the playoffs with league-average goaltending, yeah the quality of their division is part of it, but so too is the fact that a team with this much talent is still pretty damn weak.

Second, can we really blame Jets goalies for being this bad? Here’s a breakdown of their GSAA, a good illustration of what an average NHL goalie “would have” stopped versus what they did based on the actual workload they received:

As you can see, the big deficiency for the Jets mostly comes at 4-on-5, meaning their penalty kill was on the ice too much, giving up more good looks than it should, or both.

It will not surprise you to learn that the answer for this team is indeed “both.” The Jets gave up the third-most power plays in the league this season and had the sixth-worst PK. It’s a lethal combination that’s going to cost you a hell of a lot of goals over the course of 82 games. Let’s put it this way: If the Jets had a league-average PK, even while still taking too many damn penalties in the first place, they cut their season-long goals against by 10. That’s a huge swing.

They say your goalie is your best penalty killer, and that’s true when he’s actually killing penalties. But the issue, obviously, is that he has minimal influence over the type or quality of shot he faces. If there’s one thing over which a team’s coaching staff has the most control, it’s special teams play.

Is there a reason why the Jets have the third-lowest 4-on-5 save percentage in the league this year? Maybe not a particularly good one. But over time, you see a pattern develop. It was below-average in Carolina, and it was among the worst in the league in Toronto. So maybe there’s a reason bad PK save percentages seem to follow this guy around.

After all, over the past four years, the Jets have the fourth-most expected goals against on the penalty kill in the entire league, behind only teams that spent much of that time actively tanking (Buffalo, Arizona, and Edmonton). In general, the Jets do a good job of blocking the shot attempts they face, but those that do get through tend to get on goal far more often than the league average.

The real issue as far as I’m concerned is that more than 27 percent of the shot attempts the Jets concede are from high- and medium-danger areas. That’s the second-highest number in the league over a four-year stretch, behind only the Rangers. Where the Jets take far more penalties than they draw — they have, in fact, spent more time killing penalties than any team in the league over since 2013 — the Rangers do the opposite, drawing more than they commit.

And wouldn’t you know it, this was also a problem in Carolina: The Hurricanes’ share of shot attempts from dangerous areas was fifth-lowest in the league during Maurice’s tenure. No one noticed, though, because Carolina had the best penalty differential in the league over those four years.

Is it a systems thing? I’m inclined to say that it is.

But it’s also a personnel thing, and that too is directly under Maurice’s purview. While the bottom of the Jets roster hasn’t been anything to write home about under Kevin Cheveldayoff, it doesn’t explain the list of Winnipeg’s most-used PK guys. Mark Stuart has and 24 percent more PK minutes over the last four years than Dustin Byfuglien and Toby Enstrom, which it won’t surprise you to learn leads to the Jets eating a lot more goals against. Bryan Little doesn’t seem to be particularly good at killing penalties, nor did Andrew Ladd, but they rank first and third among penalty-killing forwards over the last four seasons.

When you account for the fact that Ladd hasn’t been on the Jets for about 100 games or so, that puts him ahead of Blake Wheeler, who’s a demonstrably more successful shutdown guy. Now, you can argue Maurice is saving the better offensive guys for higher-leverage minutes like Winnipeg’s power plays.

And none of this, by the way, is meant to totally absolve the goalies. They absolutely need to be better. But when so much of your problem comes when you’re down a man, that’s telling. As such, fixing the PK should be the top priority, organizationally.

I’m not sure Maurice is the man to address it.

What We Learned

Anaheim Ducks: A team with this many dirty players being upset about a borderline play not resulting in suspension is pretty funny.

Arizona Coyotes: Of course Shane Doan thinks Hamilton is good. The musical’s point of view really reaffirms how the hockey media has treated a dirty player for the past decade-plus.

Boston Bruins: For a team that already has an uninspiring blue line, this seems bad.

Buffalo Sabres: Knives are out for a guy who was given an AHL defense to work with in the NHL.

Calgary Flames: The team is good, gang. Don’t know how else to tell you this.

Carolina Hurricanes: Glad Bickell got those last few games, but this is a major bummer.

Chicago: Strap in for this series, folks. It’s gonna rule.

Colorado Avalanche: Now this is headline-writing.

Columbus Blue Jackets: If only some handsome genius had seen this coming. If only some wonderful nice man who knows so much had warned everyone this team was mostly smoke and mirrors with an elite goaltender. If only…

Dallas Stars: Get a new coach, get a new goalie, make a playoff run. Not hard.

Detroit Red Wings: In my opinion the thing the Red Wings should do in this rebuild is draft the second-best defenseman of all time, then get two Hall of Famers in the sixth or seventh rounds. Hey, it worked once!

Edmonton Oilers: The physical strength Milan Lucic showed off to make this play is amazing.

Florida Panthers: Guarantee you this: Shawn Thornton is coming soon to a NESN broadcast near you. Finally, an insufferable enforcer gets a media platform.

Los Angeles Kings: Bob Miller called almost 3,400 Kings games. When he started his career in 1973, Jaromir Jagr was only nine months old. Come on!

Minnesota Wild: Not looking forward to this dull series but the storylines will be good, I guess. It’s the Roman Reigns of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Montreal Canadiens: Dude scores the OT game-winner and his coach calls him out. That’s good button-pushing from Julien ahead of the playoffs.

Nashville Predators: Hilarious that losing to the Jets on a bad shorthanded goal is what kept the Preds from playing someone that was not Chicago. Hockey’s fun.

New Jersey Devils: Seems like the team is bad and people don’t like it. Did their Cup run delay a proper rebuild? Yes. Was it worth it anyway? I bet no.

New York Islanders: I really don’t know whether this team is going to be any good next year. They started 6-10-4 and still hung around the playoff picture longer than they had any right to after being trash for the first quarter of the year. You gotta make Weight the Guy, though, right?

New York Rangers: Honestly tough to figure out if the Rangers or Habs should be the favorites in their series. It could honestly go either way and no one would be allowed to be surprised or disappointed.

Ottawa Senators: Making the playoffs is Eugene Melnyk’s Stanley Cup. Gate receipts, baby! Beer sales!!

Philadelphia Flyers: So Mason’s gone. Wonder who takes a flyer on him. Ha ha ha.

Pittsburgh Penguins: Wow, as many as seven home games for the Penguins in the first round. Oh I mean, uhh, Columbus fans will pack their building. That’s what we’re supposed to say.

San Jose Sharks: Scratching Pavelski is obviously understandable but he was five games away from a 500-game iron-man streak, so that’s kinda funny.

St. Louis Blues: I don’t like to get too excited about shootout goals as a general rule, but this Tarasenko shot, man. Damn.

Tampa Bay Lightning: I still can’t believe this happened, but when you have a bunch of top-level players missing dozens of games I guess it happens.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Here’s a definitive list of teenagers who scored 40 goals in their rookie seasons: Wayne Gretzky, Dale Hawerchuk, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, and Sylvain Turgeon. That’s a lot of great players, and Sylvain Turgeon.

Vancouver Canucks: Vancouver people seem to be really grappling with the whole “how does tanking work?” issue. Getting bigger isn’t the damn problem, bud.

Vegas Golden Knights: Oh hell yeah.

Washington Capitals: Now is the time for all your existential crises.

Winnipeg Jets: The “end season on seven-game win streak” part of this is what should worry Jets fans. “They’re finally on the right track!” is a very real position the front office could make.

Play of the Weekend

Most important save of the Leafs season, and damn it’s a good one.

Gold Star Award

Playoffs, folks. Here we go.

Minus of the Weekend

College hockey being over is insanely bad.

Perfect HFBoards Trade Proposal of the Year

User “Carolinas Identity” is on top of things.

To Carolina:

MacKinnon

To Colorado:

Hanifin

2017 1st

Signoff

Take your best shot! I’m wearing 17 layers!

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All stats via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)

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