#how could i ever upgrade kay's design | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hollandspiderling · 5 years ago

Text

Homecoming Redemption || Prologue

Summary: After everything that has happened to Peter, all he wanted was to have some sort of normalcy for his senior year. With the new school year finally underway, so far everything seems to be going to plan. He and his friends are trying to not let the effects of recent events get the best of them and everyone is moving forward. Now with the homecoming dance quickly approaching, what will Peter do once he realizes that he needs to find a date?

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Word Count: ~3.8k

Warnings: A rom-com series with a hint of angst. Swearing and underage drinking to come. Everyone is 18yrs old in this and all of the Avengers survived the blip. His identity is still a secret after defeating Mysterio because Peter deserves a break and time to breathe after everything he’s been through LOL

Author’s Note: And here is the prologue! I’m really excited about this series and I hope you guys are too! Sorry, it took a while to get up I had a lot of school work to catch up on. But now that all of that is out of the way, I’m hoping to release each part weekly. Let me know what you think! xoxo, Astrid.

Teaser | Prologue | Chapter One

“…and that would adjourn today’s meeting. Don’t forget that homecoming is just a couple of weeks away. With that being said, I should expect the posters up during lunch period as well as after school. Any questions?”

You smiled at your council and smiled gratefully at them. These were the people that you spent most of your time with at school and was glad to have them within your orbit. Betty was seated to your left as your vice president while fraternal twins, Keila and Kai, sat to your right as your secretary and treasurer. Alex, your public relations, sat across from you as he sketched out designs for the posters you were about to make. Despite having your reputation as a Stark hang over your shoulders, the people seated around you welcomed you for who you really were. They didn’t care about who you were related to and gave you the credit that you deserved. It didn’t help that the smart gene ran throughout your family and you simply learn and soak up information a lot faster than others.

Ever since you transferred to Midtown High last year, your life had immensely changed within a blink of an eye. Your mom had passed away and the guardianship of your wellbeing was passed on to her brother, Tony Stark. You and your mom had been living in Los Angeles as part of the secondary headquarters and incognito branch for the Avengers. While your mom was in charge of keeping tabs on coordinates and past encounters throughout the world, you were honing on your technical skills. Your mom had always joked about you being the younger and wittier version of her and Tony combined. It was unfortunate that she passed away due to a drunk driver speeding through the intersection she was driving through to get home. Your dad wasn’t in the picture so Tony graciously took you in because he had promised his sister that he would look after you if anything bad happened to her.

It was a whirlwind of a change for you when you had to leave your life in Los Angeles behind and settle into the even more hectic lifestyle of New York. Sure, you had been somewhat familiar with the city whenever you visited Tony for missions or family time during the holidays, but the culture and lifestyle was something you weren’t used to. You did the best you could to get adjusted to Midtown High and kept a low profile to make new friends. Tony had warned you to stay on your guard because if people found out who you were, then some might just try to take advantage of you. True to his word, once word got around that you were related to Tony Stark, the student body unanimously voted for you as their student body president. People tried befriending you left and right, but your mom and Tony taught you better. You kept those that you constantly crossed paths at a distance and the only ones you truly trusted were your council.

“Nah, we’re good Y/N. Thanks for getting us coffee for the day too, you know you didn’t have to.” Keila said as she held up her cup and gave you a bright smile.

“It’s no problem. But with all that we’ve working on, I believe we deserve a break don’t you agree?”

Her brother nodded as he closed up his notebook and leaned against the back of his chair. “As much as I used to hate having these meetings before school started, I learned to look forward to them ever since you took over. We’re ten times more productive and effective than previous councils.”

You smirked and shrugged before passing over the rolls of color Kraft paper towards the twins. “What can I say, I like to get things done. If you need help with these posters, let me know and I’ll send a couple of other people I know your way.”

Kai nodded as he grabbed the paper with Keila’s help and they moved to an empty corner of the classroom to start working on them. Alex followed suit and saluted at you before giving you a cheeky smile. “Appreciate your hard work, Pres.”

You felt someone tap your shoulder and you looked over to see Betty smiling at you. She motioned towards what she was working on throughout the meeting and you nodded in acknowledgment.

You turned your body to face her and she slid her laptop towards you. “What do you think of this design for the fliers?”

Tapping a finger against your chin, your eyes scanned through its contents. The theme of homecoming that year was ironical ‘A Night in Paris.’ Although the trip to Europe was a rough one for everyone in your class, you wanted to everyone to be reminded of the fun times you all had together there. Cliched as it was, your council was all for it when you pitched the idea to them. Now with everything coming to life, the excitement to see your work in real life bubbled inside you whenever the student council meetings were held. After making sure that all of the important information was on the flier, you smiled at Betty as you slid the laptop back to her.

“It’s good for the most part. If it’s possible can you design another one with a day background? Kind of similar to someone sitting in front of a café by the tower. Having two designs could help eyes catch it more.”

She nodded and began to focus on her laptop. “I’ll have it done by the end of the day.”

“Awesome, thanks Betty.”

Your eyes peeped at the clock and nodded in accomplishment. All of what you wanted to touch was completed on time and there was still ten minutes before the first bell rang. Gathering the notes that were scattered in front of you, you stood up from your desk. You slung your backpack over your shoulder and began to make your way out of the classroom.

“I’ll see you guys at lunch! I’m going to make my way over to the office and drop off the request form for the amount we need for everything.”

Your friends said their goodbyes as you headed out the door and blended in with the morning crowd of students getting ready for the day. People said hi to you as you passed, and you greeted them back. Out of the corner of your eye, you noticed a familiar mop of brown curls and you smiled to yourself. It wouldn’t hurt to take a detour and so you followed your best friend towards his locker. He still hadn’t noticed your presence as you crept up behind him.

Just as you were going to jump on him from behind, he turned around and shook his head. “Not today, missy.”

You playfully huffed and rolled your eyes at him. “Damn your stupid Peter tingle.”

Peter laughed as he turned his attention back to his locker and you took your usual place with leaning against the lockers next to his.

“You just need to work on your stealth, Y/N.”

“Why don’t you just act like a normal person, Parker.”

“Says the person that upgraded her own suit within three hours, Stark.”

You opened your mouth to say something back but couldn’t because he was right. Peter smiled in victory as he stuffed his backpack and you raised an eyebrow at him.

“And what happened to the backpack you had yesterday?”

Peter looked down at the backpack in his hands before looking back at you with a sheepish smile. “It got stolen while I was out patrolling again.”

The two of you began to make your way towards your first class of the day and you punched him in the arm. He winced and exaggerated how hurt he was by pouting while rubbing the area that you hit him.

“Hey, that was mean.”

“That’s what you get for being reckless sometimes. I swear I should install a tracking device into your backpack, Pete.”

His eyes widened and hummed in thought. “Why didn’t I think about that sooner?”

You laughed and shook your head in amusement. “It’s because you immediately throw yourself into anything you care for. So, you mainly act before thinking first.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

You looked up at him as a similar haunting look came over his face and your expression softened. Shaking your head, you nudged him in the stomach, and he gave you a questioning look.

“It’s not because it’s one of your best aspects. It means you're compassionate for those you care about.”

He nodded and took your words into consideration. You noticed his eyebrows started to furrow in thought and you sighed to yourself. Pulling him to the side of the hallway, you put your hands on his shoulders and rubbed them comfortingly.

“Pete, nothing is going to come after us, not for the time being, alright? We all got out of it okay and the way you handled yourself has made you so much stronger.”

Peter looked into your eyes and saw the comforting look you were giving him. He sighed and simply hugged you tight to ground himself. There was still this heavy weight that surrounded him, and he’s been talking to Wanda and Stephen about ways to improve his wellbeing. You’ve been by his side ever since he returned from the blip and it wasn’t helpful that Beck had messed with him so much that there are times where he still believes he’s physically in his nightmares. He was slowly and surely getting better but sometimes there are triggers that he wasn’t even aware of until they happened.

You hugged him back and after a couple moments, the bell rang. Peter sighed before letting you go, and you ruffled his hair. He chuckled as you took a step back and tightened the straps of your backpack. “Feeling better, Parker?

He nodded and said, “A lot better, thanks Stark.”

“I always have your back, now go get to class so you don’t be late.”

“What about you?”

“I need to stop by the office to drop off some things and then I’m heading over.”

“So, I’ll see you after school then?”

You smiled at him and nodded, “See you then, Pete.”

- - -

The final bell of the day rang, and the voices of students filled the hallways as everyone made their way towards their lockers. Peter sighed in relief as he took his time to pack his things away for the day. It was still tough for him to get used to having things back to how they were, but he was glad that he finally got the break he’s been needing for the longest time. It would be times like this where his anxiety would spike up, feeling as if something big had to happen towards him in order to feel “normal.” He was thankful to have you and Ned in his life to help keep reality in check with him.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Peter’s head snapped towards the door to see you leaning against the door frame. A smile crept onto his face as he slung his backpack over his shoulder and shook his head in response. You playfully rolled your eyes and pushed yourself away from the door as he made his way towards you.

“C’mon Pete, I know you better by now. Your face does that little scrunched up expression whenever you get lost in your thoughts.”

Walking side by side, both of you weaved your way through the crowd as he nudged you on the arm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Y/N.”

“Stop denying it, Parker. I’ve seen that expression on your face countless times whenever we’re on missions together.” You replied.

He gave you a pointed look as he unlocked his locker before shrugging. His eyes focused on grabbing the stuff he needed for the weekend and you raised an eyebrow at him while waiting for an answer. Peter knew that he couldn’t escape you with the gaze you were giving him and let out a sigh. Pursing his lips, he zipped up his backpack and closed his locker before continuing your conversation.

“I just got lost in my thoughts about y’know…” he muttered as you guys made your way out of the school.

Your eyes softened since you knew what he was referring to. For the past year, it hasn’t been easy for you both with the battles involving Thanos and Mysterio. It was most definitely hard on Peter since he was one of the few that had the most impact throughout those dark times. You were one of the few that didn’t actually disappear and learned how to cope with the dramatic change in the world. But when it came to Peter, he was looking forward to finally being normal when your class was going to Europe. Of course, the odds still weren’t in his favor with all that had happened to Mysterio and you tried your best to be that person he could lean on. You lent him your strength when he needed the help and now it finally time for him to take the time to cope and adjust to falling back into how things were like before. Whenever he stayed over at the compound on the weekends, he would always end up knocking on your door in the middle of the night for some company because of his nightmares. If it got too bad, Wanda would help soothe him with her powers. Sometimes Stephen would give him this special concoction he learned that helped ease anxious souls. Peter’s progress has been better as the day pass by and you never forget to tell him how proud you were of him.

You linked arms with Peter, and he looked at you with a thankful gaze. Since you guys were often partnered together for missions, it was easy to mentally communicate with each other. Peter was also the one who helped you adjust to your life in New York. Tony had introduced the two of you when he started his “internship” at Stark Industries, and he took it upon himself to show you every nook and cranny he knew. You gave him a reassuring squeeze on the arm and not much was needed to be said as you guys began to make your way towards the subway.

“You guys! Guys, wait up!”

Ned quickly ran up to you guys with a paper in hand and both of you waited for him to catch his breath. ‘Oh, that’s right…’ You thought as you glanced at the paper Ned handed to you and he leaned on Peter for support.

“What’s up, Ned?” Peter asked and you wordlessly handed him the flier.

With an excited smile, Ned pointed towards the paper that Peter was now glancing over and said, “It’s homecoming season!”

Crossing your arms over your chest and shifting your weight onto one of your legs, you titled your head to the side and gave him a questioning gaze.

“So, what about it? The rest of the council and I still need to solidify some details before sending the info to the morning announcements. Was Betty the one that gave you this?”

Ned nodded and Peter looked at him before shifting his gaze towards you. You smiled at him and took the flier back to see the final draft that Betty had made. It was just as you had expected it to be and nodded in approval before folding it up.

“Yeah, she was. She wanted me to pass it to you since she had to stay back and overlook what the yearbook committee was planning. I’m excited, we’re finally all back together and I have a gut feeling that homecoming is going to be right this time around.”

You snickered as you remembered what had happened the last time homecoming happened but one look at Peter’s face made you shut up. He playfully glared at you and you simply stuck out your tongue towards him.

“It’s not my fault that you tend to fall for girls so easily, Parker,” you smirked.

He held his hands up in defense and said, “How was I supposed to know that Liz’s father was going to be the villain I was facing?”

Ned scoffed and said, “This is why you try to get to know the girl first before throwing yourself off the deep end, Pete.”

You high-fived Ned as Peter groaned and nodded in defeat. “Yeah, I know…”

“So…who are you guys asking then?” Ned asked.

You straightened up at the question and pursed your lips in thought. It hadn’t really occurred to you about going with anyone due to your busy schedule, so you shrugged.

“I’m not sure. No one’s really asked me yet and I don’t really have anyone in mind. To be honest, that really hasn’t been on my mind besides making sure this year’s dance will be the one that everyone at Midtown will always remember.”

“That’s oh so very Stark of you,” Ned commented.

You laughed and felt your phone buzz. It was one of the other council members and knowing it was probably about the dance, you excused yourself for a moment to answer the call. Once you were out of hearing sight, Ned turned to Peter with a cheeky smile. He raised an eyebrow at him, and his best friend could clearly see that Peter hadn’t caught on to what he was hinting towards.

With the wriggling of his eyebrows, Ned asked, “So what are you planning to do to ask Y/N?”

Peter’s eyes widened and said, “What do you mean- I mean I can’t- I’m not-”

“Oh, c’mon Pete, stop rambling. Everyone can see that you’ve grown a crush on her.”

“Me? Nah, Ned, you must have got it all wrong- I mean she’s- and I’m-”

Ned rolled his eyes and slung his arm over his best friend’s shoulders. “Alright Pete, no need to get all riled up there. I was just teasing you.”

Peter grumbled and crossed his arms, looking the other way before mumbling, “I don’t have a crush on her…”

“Right, keep telling yourself that bro. I was just hoping you were the one to ask her because rumor has it that Brad is trying to ask her to homecoming.”

Peter’s head whipped around to meet Ned’s gaze with his jaw dropped.

“What?!”

Ned could only shake his head in disappointment at his best friend. “Dude, you need to get your shit straight. We all know when homecoming is and people have already started doing their askings today.”

“Wait, so when is Brad trying to ask her? We can’t let that happen. I mean he doesn’t even deserve her, he’s such a dick. Remember what I told you about with what happened on our trip?”

Peter couldn’t believe that Brad was going to ask you. You’ve never talked about Brad when you guys were together, and you knew that he didn’t like him. Ned shook his shoulders and Peter snapped out of his daze.

“Calm down, we’ll call the crew together and think of a plan alright? I’ll text Betty to see what the other council members are doing and we could meet up after school tomorrow to figure something out.”

He breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded. “Yeah…yeah okay. That sounds like a good thing to do.”

Peter noticed that you ended the call you were on and slapped Ned to shut up about homecoming just in case you overheard their conversation.

You walked up to them and asked, “So, did we figure out who Peter’s asking?”

Ned shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “Not really, seems like you two haven’t really thought about this, huh?

You laughed and said, “Not really. I mean yeah I want the dance to be successful but with how things go, I’ll probably just end up stag.”

“No, you’re Y/N Stark which means you should have a bomb ass date and stunt on the rest of the student body.”

“Ned don’t worry. I do have someone in mind but I’m waiting to see if he actually does something.”

The boys looked at each other with what you said, and Peter sent him a panicked look. You raised an eyebrow at the quick-change behavior of your friends in front of you as they mentally communicated with each other. You rolled your eyes and began to tug Peter away from him.

“Alright, that’s nothing you boys need to freak out over. C’mon Parker, we gotta get moving or else Cap is gonna bust our asses if we’re not at training on time. Bye Ned!”

Peter was caught off-guard and gave Ned a pleading look to investigate the mystery guy you were waiting for. He turned back towards you and changed his position to match your pace as you quickly entered the subway. The two of you tapped your cards through the entryway and made your way into one of the carts. Sitting down, you sighed in relief and closed your eyes. You could feel Peter looking at you as he took the empty seat next to you and you laughed to yourself.

“I’m not going to tell you, Peter.”

“Why not? That’s not fair, I tell you everything.” He pouted.

Opening one of your eyes, you looked at him out of the corner of your eye. “Don’t worry about it, Parker. It’s my little secret that you’ll eventually find out.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked as he watched you plugin your earphones into your phone.

You continued to smile to yourself as you leaned your head against his shoulder and lifted the other bud for him to take. He took up your offer and you pressed shuffle.

“I’m still waiting for an answer, missy.”

You shook your head and got comfortable in your seat. It was going to be a while before your stop nearest to the compound was going to happen and all you wanted was to have a small power nap due to the lack of sleep you’ve been getting.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” You murmured as you felt your tiredness consume you.

It was times like these where you were glad Peter was more on the oblivious side. All of your actions and care towards him made it obvious. Everyone on the council knew and even MJ had caught on quite quickly. You liked Peter, a lot. You haven’t acted on it because he’s been a bit harder to read lately and with the dance coming along, you hoped that he’d catch on with the subtle hints you’ve been leaving him ever since the school year started.

Taglist:(lmk if you want to be tagged! Tagged those who asked and who I think might enjoy this fic || Crossed out means I wasn’t able to tag you!) @ithinkimightlikehim @ homecomlng @meganlikesfandoms @tomfiction4 @averyfosterthoughts @justcallmehitgirl @procrastinatingismybiggestflaw @mrhollandisart @yeahimcrying @littlebookbengal @caretheunicorn @mara-twins @jackiehollanderr @imsocial-not @ibookishqueen @itjustkindahappenedreally @ 3tothe1 @babebenhardy @kewl-r @llamazarecoolaf

209 notes · View notes

jackdaniel69nice · 4 years ago

Text

Ninjago OC’s

I don’t really make ocs unless it’s plot specific but here are a few I have because it’s oc day I guess (this got so long I’m sorry)

Side Characters

Brody Grey and the Oppenheimer gang

Description: mid 20s, tip-dyed black hair (color is subject to change but he likes red), likes to wear tie-dye and anything from the 80s, average adult male height, Gay

Personality: overdramatic but with a rational head, energetic and likes to tease, gives good advice and father figure I guess?, love of reading and writing, can be flirty and cocky at times

Backstory: Was disowned by his parents when he came out and has had to make it on his own, Theater major at the Oppenheimer and successful too, was Cole’s roomate (they didn’t get along at first)

Plot Purpose: Cole-centric backstory exploration, Brody and co. reveal a lot about Cole’s past to the other ninja (more about the emo depressed grieving version in the pilots) and helps him come to terms with it, Also tell them you’re gay Cole, yeesh. The other friends are important to expanding the other ninja like Alex (non-binary, quiet, goth, Violinist) helps Jay deal with that he’s trans and coming out of the closet, Persila (bi, short blond, actor, excitable conspericy theorist and fandom queen) Probably figures out Jay is Cliff Gordon’s son, Melissa (lesbian, singer, Mom, sweet thing but easy to anger and holds a grudge) Was the first one Cole latched onto in the group because she reminded him so much of his mom [there are other things too with Nya and Kai and Zane but I don’t feel like elaborating more now], ANYWAY Jay takes Cole to see a musical and recognizes Brody (who he hasn’t been in contact with since he left) and they talk after the show leading down the road of all Cole’s old college friends meeting the ninja

Random Facts: He’s dating Vinnie and NO ONE CAN STOP ME, he’s sorta supposed to be Cole’s foil (where Cole is blasting My Chemical Romance and AC/DC he’s blasting Boogie Box High and SOS Band), he’s a mash of all the other ninjas personality’s not gonna lie

Tony Tabloid

Description: 12-14ish, shorter side but gets a major growth spurt when older, short black/brown hair, missing tooth, classic news boy hat that’s to big for him

Personality: Bright young boy with plenty of street smarts, will talk your ear off, full of himself and would fight anyone or anything no matter their size, very energetic but with a cool attitude

Backstory: Orphan at Walker’s Home (Jay’s rich and built an orphanage cause he’s nice like that) in Ninjago city, was on the street since young age, ex-thief, turned around at Walker’s though and now is head of the Ninjago city newspaper delivery (probably knows Nelson)

Plot Purpose: All the ninja seem to have a child that gives them advice at one point or another so here’s Jay’s, Jay has the rights to the Star Fairer enterprise (unknown to the other ninja) and when Lloyd mentions they should make new movies but can’t he goes about making it happen, he makes it all seem like he’s uninvolved but somehow gets them vip passes to see the movie in action (he says it’s from his ex-acting career connections), Tony is playing the younger version of Fritz’s son (our main character) in flashbacks, Jay is the one who got him his “gig”, he ends up revealing a lot of stuff Jay would rather keep hidden and probably almost dies doing something stupid and Jay has to save him

Random facts: Tabloid obviously isn’t his real last name (not sure wheather he chose it himself or people just started calling him that) it’s obviously related to his work, speaking of work he wants to become a journalist or reporter when he grows up, Jay gave him one of his smile buttons and he put it on his hat, I like to think in the future he gets adopted by Brody and Vinnie

Fievel Schmidt

Jay’s old friend, knew him before he transitioned, I mostly only use him in movie!verse BUT..., in show his mother is a mecahnic who buys parts from Ed and Edna, boyfriend ran off so she’s a single mom, the walkers always take a weekly trip into ninjago city to trade and sell so she’s a regular, Edna takes Jay and Fieval to the arcade and does grocery shopping, unfortunately his mom got seriously injured and can’t do mechanics anymore so they lose touch, plump and short, very sweet boy

Next Master of Sound

I feel like everyone forgot Jacob died in season 4 so here’s a reminder, he never had any children so it went to a random kid, little girl, Long black hair, she accidentally killed her parents when she caused their house in her small village to collapse from crying and activating her powers, selectively mute from fear of her own voice, Cole adopts her, becomes a next gen ninja I guess?, the only time she uses her power is when she sings (which Cole taught her to do)

*Witch doctor, Percy

Male, Lives in the Departed Realm, takes care of it sorta?, knows good magic, hangs out with whisps, helps the ninja (usually Cole) get home by telling them about a portal

Old Man

Grocery market clerk from ignacia, payed off hospital bills for Kai (14) after Nya (10) had an allergic reaction to perfume, Kai had work for him moving veggies and such for several months (got to keep some food though)

Snake Fam

Venomari lesbian who lives in the woods with her wife and 3 adopted kids (one is human), she (her kids) rescue one the ninja and bring them home to heal up so they can go save the others

Tagalong

Jay’s cat he had growing up...Not gonna talk about her right now [if you know, you know]

Villains

Felicia Blake

Scientist obsessed with trying to understand magic and elemental powers, thinks she can figure out how to channel elemental power like the First Spinjitzu Master did, very confident, only concerned with progress and no concern for individual life, ends up capturing Jay and experimenting on him :(

*Ali

Referenced in the Amulet of Ali which channels pure evil/dark magic, was the first sorcerer ever and basically made magic, was banished to the realm of madness and gained power there bringing back his learnings to ninjago, he wrote the book of spells which clouse and and garmadon studied under Chen (which is how garm knew the realm would give him power), Probably killed by Libber (previous EM of lightning) who sacrificed herself to stop him [but did she really kill him?!], Clouse gets the amulet from Borg Tower which boosts his power and now him and Jay have to duke it out like their previous versions did

???

Someone had to make Mr. E, I wonder who?, Jay took Echo back to Cliff’s flat to live after skybound and fixed him up, he might of done a few to many upgrades though and someone saw this as an opportunity, he was attacked while Jay was away and barely got away hiding in the secret room, unfortunately Jays blueprints were stolen (unknown to him) and the rest destroyed, Jay took Echo to the his parents but after seeing Mr. E he’s worried, now someone is throwing out new nindroids based on his designs and they are still searching for Echo, this mystery person plans to build an even stronger nindroid army to sell, prove they are a worthy inventor, and maybe take down the ninja along the way [do partially sentient multicolored nindroids based on the ninja count as ocs?]

*subject to my whims and could change to fill similar plots

#ninjago #ninjago oc day 2020 #ninjago oc #Brody Grey #Tony Tabloid #dont worry once i figure out how to draw cats ill tell you all about Tagalong #she gets her own post #Tagalong

10 notes · View notes

royaltealovingkookiness · 5 years ago

Text

@zutaraweek Prompt: Found.

Summary: Katara is snooping around, looking for trinkets that help her solve the Zuko-Puzzle. Ember Island days, canon compliant. Read on AO3 or below.

“What do you think you’ll find up there?” Suki asks as Katara heads again to the dusty attic, laced with cobwebs.

It is a good question. Katara mutters something about pots and pans, ignoring Suki’s amused smile. Of course, the kitchen in the summer house is the best-equipped Katara has ever seen in her life, and yes, she’s been cooking for the team with nothing more than a clay rice-pot for the last couple of months. Also, it’s not her first visit to the attic. Or the second. Or the third.

The royal vacation home is full of trinkets. Some of them really useful, like the colourful paper lanterns that now adorn the patio or the parasols that come handy on the beach.

But it’s the other things that draw Katara back; objects that tell a story about Zuko. And now that they’ve become friends, Katara is eager to learn more.

-0-

The cedarwood-chest is full of Zuko-memorabilia, no doubt carefully collected by his mother. There are strands of silky hair tied together with ribbons, baby-teeth sewn into an ornate pocket, tiny handprints in clay.

Katara opens something that looks like a school-report:

Could do better in his lessons if he were less prone to daydreaming.

Shows great talent in all fields of athletics.

Great aptitude for music. Can read notes proficiently and sing clearly. His interest should be nurtured further…

Katara smiles as she imagines him as a schoolboy. She pictures a young boy with dreamy eyes.

A handful of tiny red papers, rolled into cylinder shapes grab her attention. She unrolls one randomly. It’s a prayer, written in the clumsy scribbles of a child.

Agni, please give me bigger sparks. I think Father might like me more if you did.

Katara feels like she’s intruding on something entirely too private, so she rolls back up the tiny scroll and puts it back in the box.

Maybe she could just ask Zuko, but he rarely volunteers any private information. He trains Aang, does his share of the chores, hangs out with the group mostly quietly, sometimes making the effort to butcher one of his uncle’s jokes. Katara wonders if it’s painful for him to be back in this place, conspiring to bring his own father down. For the first time she admits to herself that he’s not in an enviable position.

-0-

The objects serve as conversation-starters. The first thing she brings to him is the drawing of a dragon; made in red and gold ink with bold strokes. The proportions are all wrong, but the eyes of the dragon are strangely expressive. Pain and compassion.

“Did you draw this?” she asks curiously.

A small, wistful smile forms on Zuko’s lips as he turns the paper around. “Yeah. I was trying to explain to Azula what the dragons in my dream looked like.”

“You are quite talented.”

He playfully puts his fingers on his lips. “Don’t tell Sokka, he’ll challenge me to a painting kai.”

Katara promises to keep it as their secret. It feels nice to have a secret to share.

-0-

“Did you make these?” She scatters colourful paper-animals on the steps during the training break. He picks up a badger-frog and makes it skip.

“Some of it. Mum taught Azula and me. You see? Those perfect ones are hers.” There is barely disguised bitterness in his voice. His sister’s perfection seems to be a permanent shadow he still struggles with. “I probably made all the crooked ones.”

Katara picks up a fire-hawk from the crooked pile. “Can you teach me this one?”

“Sure, it’s not that hard,” he nods.

He folds the paper in deep concentration, his tongue sticking out from the effort. It makes him look like a kid. The folds are perfectly aligned. Katara copies his movements carefully.

The others all gravitate towards them, first watching, then joining in. Even Toph insists on having a go, letting Zuko guide her hands through the motions to make a lotus.

Sokka - who else - suggests a frog-jumping competition, adding extra folds to upgrade his design. Instead of jumping, his frog spins around madly, which inspires new and even more extravagant designs. Soon, the steps are covered with mythical creatures, monsters and strange animal hybrids. Most of them crooked. Nobody really cares. Laughter echoes among the old pillars; Zuko’s chuckles melding into the group’s merriment.

-0-

“I really like this one.” She picks up one of the kites. It’s blue like the sea, decorated with a sea-lion.

His eyes turn sad. “It was Lu Ten’s.”

Katara has no idea who he’s talking about, but the heaviness of his voice implies a tragic story. She waits patiently. Zuko pulls his fingers along the reed crossbars. “My cousin, Uncle’s son. He died in the war.”

“I’m sorry. Were you close?”

“He was older than me and he knew the best games. He taught me to sneak around, to wrestle, to fly kites,” Zuko smiles, lost in good memories. “I wish he was still alive, things would be different…” ha adds quietly.

Before Katara has a chance to ask what he means, Aang interrupts with an enthusiastic yell. “These are some great kites. I haven’t flown one in a century!”

Inevitably, Sokka appears to examine them. Ten minutes later, the entire group is down by the beach flying kites. Zuko is running close to Aang to get the airbending boost. He’s holding the string of Lu Ten’s kite, the blue silk is flying impossibly high.

-0-

Katara drags out a heavy box full of instruments. The tsungi horn is on top.

“Can you play this thing?” she asks, thinking of the old school report.

“A little,” Zuko replies shortly, keeping his eye on Aang’s movements as he drills the new set.

Aang perks up immediately and stops practicing. “I love music.”

“You have firebending practice to do,” Zuko replies strictly. He’s relentless with Aang.

“Come on, Zuko. Practice, practice, practice. I never get to have any fun anymore,” Aang pouts.

Zuko looks at Katara. Positive reinforcement, her lips form the words silently. It’s an argument they have had quite a few times.

“I’ll tell you what. If you can do this set perfectly by the end of the day, we’ll do music night,” Zuko offers.

Aang restarts his practice more enthusiastically, his concentration and form are perfect. As the sun starts to disappear on the horizon, Zuko declares the set mastered.

He puts the horn to his lips and starts playing, eyes closed. The courtyard grows quiet. The music sounds both strange and beautiful to Katara’s ears. Clearly, he knows more than a little.

-0-

One early morning she drags a surf-board to the beach, where Zuko sits in quiet meditation waiting for the sunrise. The others are still sleeping in the house.

“Do you know how to use it?”

“Don’t tell me you want me to teach you,” Zuko looks at her in confusion.

“Actually, I had something else in mind.” Katara bends her own surfboard and spins around on top of the wave. “Come on, the water is delicious.”

Zuko watches her with a skeptical expression, but he picks up the surfboard and starts to paddle in deeper. Katara gives him a big boost with a wave of her arm. “That’s really neat,” laughs Zuko.

Balancing himself on the board, he starts moving with the waves. He’s not half-bad for a firebender. Every once in a while, Katara sends him on a spin. On the first two tries, he ends up under the water, but by the third attempt he figures out the rhythm of her bending and moves with it. They chase the waves in the rising sun, their laughter carried by the water.

Katara collapses in the warm sand, the dancing waves coursing inside her veins, making her feel alive. Zuko soaks in the rising sun, covering his feet in sand.

“This was fun,” Katara giggles.

“Last time I was out there, Azula set my surfboard on fire because I won some stupid game we were playing,” he notes. He doesn’t make it sound like anything out of the ordinary, but rather a regular occurrence. Just a normal day in the family. Katara’s stomach squeezes painfully at the thought of growing up like that, constantly watching your back, wondering if your family really hates you.

He shakes his head, as if to get rid of the bad memories and smiles at her. “But surfing with a water-bender is certainly an experience I never knew I needed.” There is no sarcasm in his voice. “It’s great to have you guys here. It makes this place come alive again.”

Katara nods. “We all love it here, you know. Sokka swears it’s the best place in the entire world.”

“Maybe, after...after this is all over, we could come here for a real vacation.” His voice is a bit shy and hesitant, as if he feared they would turn him down. As if he still didn’t believe that they are friends now.

Katara for one can’t think of anything better than winning the war and taking a long holiday on Ember Island. “That would be great, Zuko.”

She puts her hand on top of his. He watches it intently, like a painter trying to commit to memory every detail. After a long beat of silence he pulls away his hand.

“I’d better wake up Aang,” he says and heads back towards the house.

Katara leans back against the old, battered surf-board, enjoying the last quiet minutes of the morning.

She thinks that after breakfast, she’ll go back to the attic. These objects are part of the puzzle, through them she’s found the real Zuko. But maybe there are more layers to be found. And maybe, through all this, he’s found something too.

#atla #atla fanfic #zutara week #brusselssprout writes #ember island #zuko #katara #zutara #zutara week 2019 #katara was really snooping #gaang #momtara #dadko #canon compliant #sort of genfic #found family

317 notes · View notes

aweebwrites · 5 years ago

Text

Celestial Influence 7 pt2

Zane debated if he should bring Echo along with him to meet up with the ninja. He's been doing well these past two days. He had nightmares of loneliness Zane's been soothing with a cold kiss before they could get worse though. The first day, he would get anxious if he wasn't always in his line of sight. It took Zane leaving an ever present aura of cold for Echo to feel at ease while he was busy. He's adjusting well to his upgraded body at least. Zane had kept some of their father's handiwork but altered most of it. It also helped him realise the powers they held surpassed simple elemental and creative properties. They had the power to partially or completely alter living and non-living things. That should have been apparent with his alteration of the Falcon but it's so much more apparent with Echo.

He had wanted to keep his appearance relatively the same but make him stronger, resilient to damage and independent of upgrades. He succeeded. The material he replaced Echo's bronze exoskeleton with was far superior while remaining close in colour. His face lacked the obvious seams he had previously, making Echo resemble him more than ever. His eyes were brighter and golden in colour, to match his heart metaphorically. He was a sponge for information and curious, always willing to help.

'I am built to protect those who cannot protect themselves.' He had once said.

The words struck Zane deep. It was noble of their father, noble of him. He couldn't dally for longer. He had to meet the others. He decided then.

"Echo." Zane says as he stood, watching as he looked up at him from his place on the couch, watching Tai-D bustle around with cleaning. "Get ready. We'll be leaving shortly. I'd like for you to meet my friends." He says and that caught Echo's interest.

"Are they powerful like you, brother?" Echo asked as he looked up at him.

"Yes. But I've known them long before these powers. Now go on." Zane urged and he nods, taking off to his room to change.

_____

Unsurprisingly, they all arrived at the same time, with Lloyd, Garmadon and Wu sitting on the steps in front of the door to the inside.

"Who's that?" Jay was the first to ask, noticing that Zane wasn't alone.

"He looks a lot like you…" Lloyd pointed out and the others nodded their agreement.

"That's because he's my brother." Zane says lightly and Echo shifts with unease, not sure how to respond and react to so many new faces. "His name is Echo Zane. Our father left him behind in the tower." He explained.

"N-nice to meet you…" He says quietly, holding onto Zane's hand tightly.

"Nice to meet you too." Nya says with a smile.

"Any brother of Zane's is a brother of ours." Kai grinned.

"Well said Kai." Wu says with a nod of approval.

"We can't wait to properly meet you Echo." Lloyd says as he got up and walked over to the team, his gi appearing in his person as he did. "But right now, we have to go. There's trouble in Ninjago." He told them and they grew serious.

"Echo." Zane spoke as he looked towards his brother who looked up at him with large golden eyes. "I will be leaving for a bit. Please stay here with Sensei Wu and Garmadon. They will look after you until I get back." He says and Echo nodded, understanding without actually knowing what his brother needed to do.

He just knew it was important he let him do so without hindrance.

"Alright. I'll be here when you get back!" Echo says with a wide smile and Zane returned it with a fond one.

He then turned to his friends.

"Let's go." He told them and they nodded, taking Jay's hands then each other's.

They then vanished in a flash. Echo turned to the two he was left in the care of, not sure how to proceed.

"I hope you like Mahjong." Wu says lightly as Garmadon helped him up and Echo ran a search for the term, smiling once results showed that it was a game.

"I've never played but I would like to try." He days, walking towards the two elders.

____

"Next to New Ninjago City, Jamanakai village is always under some duress." Nya says as they watched from the cover of cloud as people panicked and ran, the bandits invading the village creating mayhem and fires that Bolobo could hardly fight against.

"Very true. Nya, some rain if you would?" Zane prompted and she grinned.

"I've got you." She says, summoning her trident.

She then gave it a whirl then struck the cloud they stood on. Immediately, the clouds began thickening and darkening, gathering together with her steady supply of moisture to prepare for heavy rainfall.

"Bolobo uses nature so I'll deal with this one." Lloyd says as he stood up.

They nodded, watching as he vanished, the rain starting up then.

"The air charge is just perfect for a bit of reaping…" Jay grinned then stood up.

They watched as he reached a hand out, lightning immediately rushing up from the ground into his palm, his body absorbing it all with ease. He did that with intent, the force of the sudden upthrust of energy as well as the deafening thunder that followed startled a bandit long enough to allow a small family to escape their clutches.

"Looks like Lloyd found the ring leader." Cole says as they like down at the village from the eye of the storm, not seeing him but sensing where he was.

"He's waiting for Bolobo to use his powers again before she makes his move." Nya commented, leaning against the hilt of her trident as she watched as well. "But his hands are a little full at the moment." She pointed out and they dashed their eyes to where Bolobo was being held down by several bandits, his staff knocked from his hand.

"I'll take care of it." Zane says, summoning his bow.

He pulled back on the string as he aimed, the ivory arrow appearing as he did. He released then with a breath out and they watched as the arrow whistled through the air, down to where Bolobo was being beat down. It struck the ground then, confusing the bandits as it vanished but then ice grew from the spot outwards, encasing all but Bolobo in its freezing grip. The elemental stood there, completely shocked as his arms were still being held by the frozen solid bandits. A scream echoed and he snapped out of it, pulling away then grabbing his staff. The moment he got used his powers was the moment nature unleashed, strange plants sprouting tron the ground, not his staff to capture every single bandit in the village, even the iced over ones. The plants coiled around them to their necks and Bolobo stares, the small plant from his staff falling off. He couldn't have done that. He can't do all this. He knew it and yet… He recalled the ice and looked back to the slowly melting bandits.

How… What happened here?

He looked up once the rain stopped then blinked at the closing hole in the clouds.

What was that? Was it divine intervention? Or…

He recalls the freeze that had happened a few months back and frowned.

The ninja?

He didn't have time to ponder further. The villagers were rushing towards him with thanks on their tongues. It made him uncomfortable. He knew he didn't do all this and he didn't want to accept thanks for what he hadn't done. Yet still… He didn't think they'd believe him otherwise… He offered the villagers tight smiles and nods. He had to report this to the others…

_____

"Work's not done yet. We have multiple breakouts across Ninjago. Can you sense them?" Lloyd asked as they continued to leave Jamanakai village behind, soaring through the clouds.

"Yes. Recognisable though negative and malicious energies. There are smaller occurrences the other elemental masters or the settlement leaders can handle but as of now, there are four major uprisings we need to attend to, one not yet in motion." Zane spoke and they nodded. "To the south has a higher negative output than the other two. Lloyd, Nya. You head there. Jay, Cole, you two head north west. Kai and I will head further north. We will all regroup at New Ninjago City." He instructed and they nodded, not quite looking forward to the city but not allowing their discomfort to stop them from giving a helping hand.

"Afterwards, we need to work on a faster means of travel. Teleporting even." Kai says, crossing his arms.

"Yeah. I mean, sure my lightning allows me to travel at the same speed of light but it's not quite the same as instantly being at the place I want to be." Jay says with a shrug and Lloyd nods.

"Fair enough. For now, let's move out." He instructed and they nodded, breaking off.

"Do you really think we can pull of something as complex as teleportation? Bending the very fabric of time and space?" Nya asked Lloyd as they headed to their location.

"We live in an age of endless evolution. The only thing that isn't possible is what we haven't thought of yet." Lloyd says quietly, having something specific in mind as he said the words.

If the words he spoke are true then… There's something he'd like to try… And he had a feeling it would require all of them.

______

"Of course it's Kryptarium Prison. When isn't it?" Jay says dryly as they approached.

"There's always some flaws to these things. It's just that whoever designed it was an architectural genius but was also clearly not sober." Cole commented as they swooped in, landing on the roof of the prison soundlessly. "They need to be given a raise. Then fired." He continues, as they walked along to find a way in without damaging the building.

"Out of a volcano." Jay agrees and Cole paused, looking back at Jay.

"Really? Volcano's the best you could come up with?" Cole asked dryly.

"Saying cannon is too lame, too common. Besides, how cool would it be to actually launch something out of a volcano?!" Jay grinned and Cole narrowed his eyes.

"Don't think about it. We aren't launching anything from a volcano. We need to be responsible now more than ever." Cole lectured as he kept a keen ear put, kneeling once he was sure he was over the area of disturbance. "The riot's just below. They've almost broken through." He told Jay who nods, summoning his nunchucks.

"And I wouldn't launch anything out of a volcano." Jay huffed, striking a signal pole with the lightning from his nunchucks, sending it down to the main cells where the riot was to render all the villains unconscious. "Nothing big anyway." He says to himself very quietly.

"I heard that." Cole says, throwing him an unimpressed look.

"Ok, ok! Jeez." Jay huffed.

They both blinked, hearing a familiar growl.

"Of course lightning doesn't work on the big guy." Jay sighed to himself. "What do we do?" He asked, looking to Cole as he frowned.

The larger male only sighed, placing his hands on his hips.

"Nothing to do but fight him head on." Cole says and Jay groaned then paused.

"Now that it crossed my mind, this is a great way to check just how much stronger you've gotten." He pointed out, walking towards the edge of the large roof, Cole following behind him.

"Huh. You're right." Cole says after a moment of consideration. "Can you run interference while I take him on?" He asked Jay who grinned.

"Leave it to me."

________

"These clowns are still around?" Kai huffed, spotting the SOGs from a distance where they were attempting to take over a small city.

"It appears so. They're damaging property at a rapid rate. The sooner we take them down, the better." Zane says, analysing the situation for the best means of how to do so.

"Here come the other elementals." Kai says, spotting them riding in, the vehicles they were driving in on looking a lot like Pixal's handy work. "Tox, Neuro, Gravis and Chamille. Do you think they can handle this?" He asked Zane as they watched from the top of a nearby skyscraper, feet hanging off the edge.

"We'll see. This is supposed to be us helping after all, not saving everyone for them." Zane reminded and Kai nodded, watching them jump right into it.

"Rookie mistake leaving your back wide open like that." Kai commented after watching Tox getting struck from behind.

"I'm sure she'll learn eventually." Zane says lightly, observing Gravis using his gravitational powers to throw the SOGs off.

"Yeah, I can see that." Kai agreed, watching her cover her back with her poison.

In fact, she was spreading it out, using just enough to weaken them instead of seriously hurting them with it. Neuro was struggling to focus long enough to be of use. It was hard to when they knew to keep him distracted. They had him cornered, weapons ready to hurt. Kai looked over to Zane.

"Hey Zane. Show me how to aim your bow." Kai says and Zane summoned his bow without question.

"Hold the riser right here. Make sure not to block the slight window. You should look there while aiming." Zane instructed, adjusting Kai's posture and hold. "Pull back the sting like so." He says, pulling back the string with him, his hand over Kai's on the raiser.

The arrow that appeared was swirled with red and white, a combination of both of their powers. They both released with Zane's order, the arrow shooting towards the group seconds away from pouncing on Neuro. It struck the ground between the two and exploded in a burst of steam, shards of ice taking down the group before melting from the lingering heat from the steam. By the time it cleared, Neuro alone was left standing, wholly confused. What was that? He looked up towards the arrows trajectory but saw no-one. He frowned deeply. He was grateful for the help but he had a feeling… He shook his head then focused on the group of SOGs swarming his friends despite their sluggish movements.

________

"This one is right up our alley." Nya says with a smirk, looking down at the ghostly infestation of a mountain village.

"Yeah. But we have to be careful. Griffin, Shade and Ash are here." Lloyd says, spotting them.

"Griffin's having a little too much fun." Nya says dryly from their place standing on a higher point on the mountain.

Said elemental was darting around and laughing up a storm as he sprayed water from his water gun, hitting only a small number of them.

"For now, we observe and let him find out on his own that there's a time and place for everything." Lloyd says, taking a seat and Nya sat with him, a hand on her cheek.

"At least their numbers are few. They must be left overs from the Cursed Realm." Nya commented, watching them attempt to corner the ghosts but they lacked deepstone and the ghosts could always dodge their water.

They're only good due to how difficult it would be to possess them. Ash just turns to smoke, Shade morphs into shadow and they can't catch Griffin.

"Some of them possessed a few villagers. They won't win this one without help." Lloyd says to himself then straightened his back. "Some Deepstone weapons should give them the upper hand." He says as green light traveled up his arms, up his neck and on his face.

Horns protruded from his forehead as Nya watched him gather his energy, felt the power radiating from him. He them thrusted his green energy downwards, the glow splitting off into three then fading to reveal shurikens very similar to what they used while defending Ninjago from the Preeminent. Each took out at least one of the green ghostly figures before lodging themselves in the hands of each elemental.

"Woah!" Griffin says, coming to a stop next to the others, following their lead to look over the weapon they now held.

"Where did they come from?" Ash asked, turning it over, a small frown on his face.

Shade was suspicious. He looked around then up the mountain but saw no-one. It must be one of them. Where did they even get the deepstone needed to make these? Did they steal it? Shade wouldn't put anything past them. Not after all they've done. A growl caught their attention and they spun around, eyes widening once they came face to face with a ghost. Or launched itself at them but instead of possessing one of them, it was harshly reflected.

"It reflects too? Now I know something's up." Shade says with a frown.

"Well figure that out after we get rid of these guys." Ash says then tossed his shuriken at a ghost, marvel once it followed after it, even after it turned a corner, only getting faster and faster.

Shade narrowed his eyes but complied. If those bastards think that he can be easily moved by something as superficial as new weapons, they best think again.

________

The giant Stone Warrior roared as it swung a punch at Cole who took it head on, not even budging from his spot standing before him, the impact ricocheting through the soldier's arm and he growled as he stepped back.

"Well. Looks like I really am stronger than I was." Cole grinned as the giant seethed.

"You better hurry. The other ems should be here any moment now." Jay says, watching from above, cross-legged mid air.

"Right." Cole nodded then summoned his scythe.

He then leapt at the giant warrior, dodging his swords then swung with a grunt. Everything stood still as Cole floated back but then there was a loud thud as one of the Stone Warrior's hands holding his sword fell from his body, leaving the warrior to bring as he held onto the stub of what was left of his arm.

"Either you stay in your cell from now on or I'll finish what the Overlord started. For good." Cole warned and the Warrior growled then retreated into his cell slowly, green eyes malicious but too fearful to attack again.

Cole nodded then lands on his feet. A tap of the base of his scythe to the ground had metallic bars shooting up, locking the giant in.

"That's that. Let's get outta here Jay." Cole's says, looking up at him and Jay nodded, floating down to hold his shoulder before they disappeared.

Just then, Karloff rushed in- only to blink at all the prisoners inside their cells unconscious, a large stone hand still clutching an even larger stone laying on the quadrangle. What happened here?...

______

The group met up on the outskirts of the vast New Ninjago City, tense and uncertain. Their last encounter with them wasn't very good after all. But there were unnatural forces stirring up havoc in the city. They had to help.

"We gather them all in one place, then take them down in a clean swoop." Kai instructed and they all nodded, taking off to different corners of the city.

Jay was the first to spot them. They looked like average Ninjagans but he could sense the change in their biology clearly. They were enhanced beings, mutated to mimic perfection he can guess. Little did whoever's behind this know that there's no such thing. They were supposed to keep out of sight but considering that he could sense over 20 in this area alone, that was out of the question.

'Where do we lead these guys?' Jay asked through thought, knowing already that Lloyd connected them all.

'To the park. It should be able to hold them all and it's away from the population.' Was Zane's response and Jay nodded, using his lightning to block them from attacking any more civilians.

"Time to see what these powers can really do." Jay says with a grin, eyes starting to glow as blue light crept up his arms, all the way to his face.

He then rocketed down to the ground, creating a large energy outburst once he touched down, careful not to damage any infrastructure or bystanders.

Kai on the other hand held both swords in hand, a slash of them creating a wall of fire to prevent them from moving any further into the city.

"Haven't you noticed by now? No-one who tries to take over the city ever succeed. At least not for long. You all think that a little experimentation that gave you all a small boost in strength and resistance makes you invincible." Kai says as the very much conscious and willing participants of the experiments glared up at him, throwing whatever they could but they never make contact with Kai's person.

He chuckled, holding his swords defensively as she hovered just above them.

"You think you all have true power? Laughable. I'll show you true power." Kai says as his skin and eyes started to glow. "Ninja go!" He yelled, starting up his Spinjitzu but it was noticeably different.

For one, it was massive, the size of a full tornado, his fire roaring and raging as the enhanced stepped back, eyes wide. A daring few tried to still charge- only to end up burned and thrown back. He began to move towards them, forcing them back into the city, flames appearing at other road routes and alleys to prevent them from breaking up. The non-enhanced civilians of Ninjago watched the spectacle with wide eyes. None of them had ever seen such a spectacle before, such raw power. The fire from his Spinjitzu looked like it could burn the sky if they wished. Such an inferno that is Kai's Spinjitzu should have burned them all up already, should have them feeling its intense heat. A few of them even ended up in its path, engulfed in flames. But they were unharmed. The flames acting as if they weren't there. There was no heat. The power and control just this former ninja had was incredible.

Soon enough, more elemental tornadoes popped up around the city, water from the waterspout lashing the enhanced, pushing them toward the park they were all converging on, the lightning vortex zapping those it chased to keep them on route. The dust devil stung its victim with sand and small rocks that struck pain into their toughened skins, keeping them on their right path as well. The largest green vortex simply pushed them along as it closed in, its path clear and uninterrupted to the park. Zane watched them all for a moment while stood against a large group of them. He nodded, taking position to also use his Spinjitzu when suddenly, he sensed something fast approaching from behind. He glanced over his shoulder then frowned, seeing the Samurai X VXL. This encounter will be interesting to say the least. He watched unphased as her vehicle vaulted over his head via the ice that appeared to protect him on its own, skidding to a stop just between him and the enhanced. He watched still as she turned the VXL towards him, no doubt glaring behind her mask.

"What are you all doing here?! We don't need you or your help! All you're doing right now is causing mass hysteria! Leave the city at once or I'll be forced to defend it!" Pixal yelled at him, gripping the steering wheel of her VXL tightly.

"There was hysteria before we arrived. We can't counteract it right now. We need to focus our energies on getting rid of the superhuman first." Zane says calmly, keeping his eyes on her while simultaneously keeping an eye on the enhanced behind her.

"The other elemental masters and I can take care of it!-"

"It doesn't seem that way." Zane says, extending his sight to Skylor, Dareth and Ronin who were being pummeled, no matter what they did by the few enhanced already in the park. "I'm sorry. I won't allow you to delay me any longer. The others have been doing their part and I must do mine." He says quietly, eyes glowing with his power.

Pixal gritted her teeth then slammed her hand down on the launch button on the control panel. Her eyes widened once the missiles aimed for thin air, detonating against the ice wall before her. She grunts as the force of the explosion shoved her Samurai VXL back but left the wall of ice untouched. She opened the hatch then looked around in alarm at the whistling sound, seeing the large vortex of frosty air and ice herding the enhanced towards New Ninjago City's park. She clenched her fist. They were for strong. She couldn't hope to stop them. She hopped back into her Samurai VXL then turned around, racing towards their converging point.

She could try though.

__________

Echo looked over the board with extreme focus. The Mahjong Mr Wu had suggested had tiles that were almost exact. Even he, a Nindroid had to look closely. His ears picked up low talking however and he looked behind him, at the TV that was on but turned down low.

"What are those?" Echo asked, looking at the swirling pillars in different colours.

"The Ninja." Garmadon says, grabbing the remote with his tail then taking it in hand to turn it up.

"-ports say that the former ninja are the ones inside those vortexes. You heard that right! The very same former heroes who brought Ninjago itself to its knees then disappeared." Gale reported from what looks like Borg Tower.

Not even she was brave enough to get in the middle of the ninja for a scoop.

"They speak as if they weren't the ones who demanded they disappear." Garmadon spoke with a growl of irritation, his tail thumping against the ground in irritation. "And former? They have never stopped being Ninja." He adds with a sneer, revealing thick fangs.

"Be calm brother." Wu says, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Anger will neither change not help the ninja's situation." He soothed.

Garmadon only growled, not happy about this in the slightest.

"I don't understand." Echo spoke up, looking to the elders. "They're helping them, aren't they? Zane did tell me of how their powers were the cause of the strange things I saw at the tower but they fixed it all and they're helping. Why do they hate them still?" He asked them and both elders shared a look.

"A life is a precious thing Echo. It's irreplaceable." Wu says tentatively. "... On the days the ninja took to unlock these powers deep inside them, several lives were forever lost." He told him and Echo frowned.

Zane had also told him that. But… He looked down at Tai-D that was snoozing next to him to recover energy. It never really dawned on him what that really meant until just now. He lost Tai-D once… He didn't want to lose him again. He did look back up at Mr Wu however.

"That's not true." Echo says, surprising and confusing both elders. "If they wanted to… They could bring anyone back. I'm not sure how I know that but I do." He told them and both elders looked daunted at this information.

"... Echo. You must never let anyone else know this. Keep that secret tighter than you would keep your life." Garmadon told him seriously and Echo nodded, wide eyed.

He understood why he had to however. If anyone else knew that, the ninja would never find peace. They would be constantly bombarded by threats and requests. It's just… Echo looked at the Mahjong tiles before him. Mr Garmadon was really intimidating!

_______

All six vortexes came to a stop at the outskirts of the park, the enhanced all on the offensive now that they realise that they've been cornered in. One by one, the swirling vortexes disappeared, revealing their corresponding Ninja floating mid air.

'What's next?' Cole asked as he used his scythe to split an entire tree tossed in his direction.

'Their strength comes from the experimentations they went through. If we remove whatever serum they were given, they would be normal civilians and the Ninjago police force as well as the Samurai can take over.' Zane explained through their mental link.

'How do we do that? The serum is infused with their DNA and had even altered it.' Nya pointed out, looking the enhanced over.

'Simple. We turn back time on them.' Lloyd provided, looking across the large park, his vision closing in on Zane. 'Zane, You focus on turning back time on them and I'll focus on keeping the effects on them alone. The test of you keep out everyone that isn't an enhanced.' He instructed, flying forwards, Zane doing the same.

'Pixal is determined, isn't she?' Jay says, spotting her coming his way without looking behind him.

'I'll take care of her. You guys get a barrier going.' Nya says, heading over to Jay's direction.

'Roger.' Kai nodded then focused his fire, molding and shaping it into a pyramid shaped barrier. "Out you go." He murmured as the barrier enveloped the enhanced but pushed out Ronin, Dareth and Skylor, despite Skylor dragging her feet in the grass.

Cole and Jay followed suit, their barriers meeting as they expanded, merging and covering the entire park. Nya on the other hand threw out a wall of water to stop Pixal's missiles from touching Jay. Not that they would have reached him anyway.

"Sorry Pix. Can't let you-"

"Don't call me that!" Pixal yelled from her Samurai VXL, a glare on her face beneath her helmet. "None of you have any right to be here! Not after what you've all done! Not after all the pain you've put all of Ninjago through! None of you should have ever came back! We were all fine without the world ending threat you all pose! Go back to wherever the hell you disappeared to!" She yelled angrily, blasting multiple missiles and lasers at Nya who looked sad, watching her.

A wall of water erected her from the blow, the liquid wrapping around the attacks and dissolving the impact completely. Nya sighed softly then reopened her now glowing eyes, before reaching a hand out to Pixal's VXL. Pixal startles as her vehicle groaned before it lifted off the ground completely. She gritted her teeth then reached out to activate the mech update but she found herself unable to do so. The VXL opened suddenly and she found herself floating out, despite how much she tried to fight it.

"We aren't oblivious to the damage we've caused before. In fact, we're more aware of that than ever. We would have never come here or anywhere if we weren't positive we wouldn't cause damage." Nya spoke quietly as the water that protected her orbited her like a ring on a planet, an endless stream of water. "The past May be the past but we use it to influence our future. We can never give back the lives lost but we can preserve the ones still here. You may not trust us, especially after almost losing your father so many times because of us, but we cannot let you stop us from protecting Ninjago. Whether any of you like it or not, Ninjago's our home too. We'll do our best for it." She says quietly as Pixal watched her with narrowed eyes behind her helmet.

"... Even if it means losing the friends we've come to know." Nya spoke, expression morphing from sad and hurt to cool.

Light from behind her caught Pixal's attention. She watched with wide eyes from the high altitude as Zane stood in the middle of the park, his hands glowing amber as he utilized the power of time reversal. Lloyd closed his eyes from above him then reopened them in gold, the green glow of his skin morphing to gold, the energy traveling up to his horns- then shattering them both. His golden glow was blinding, forcing Pixal to look away, missing as the gold seeped into Nya as well as all of the other ninja, all of them united as one. It was over as soon as it started, the light and the barrier fading as the ninja's original colours bled back into them. Zane held his head, blinking as the golden energy retreated back into Lloyd before looking up at him, ignoring the confused groans of the former enhanced around him.

Reversing their effects wasn't all that they just did. He floated up towards Lloyd as his golden hair paled back to its blonde colour, the others joining him.

"Lloyd…" Kai began and the blonde shook his head.

"We couldn't have done it if any of us disagreed. You all know that." Cole pointed out to them.

"The why and how doesn't concern me at all." Jay says, crossing his arms as he gained a serious look. "Question is… Did it work? Will it work?" He asked and they all looked uncertain.

"... Only time will tell." Zane says solemnly and they all floated there in silence…

Before they all burst out snickering.

"You couldn't help yourself, could you?" Nya chuckled and Zane shrugged with a small smile.

"I just thought it was time to lighten up the mood." Zane joked and they all began laughing.

"Are we really doing the pun thing again?" Cole says, amused.

"We stopped? Shocker." Jay says with a grin and Kai snorted.

"That sucked Jay. Talk about a total burnout." Kai says, nudging Lloyd.

"You're all dorks." Lloyd huffed at his friends, despite the smile on his face.

Sirens getting closer to their current location broke their happy spell.

"Right. We should probably get out of here." Cole pointed out.

"Yeah." Nya agrees.

"Let's hold hands. The power of friendship will bring us home." Jay says with a grin and they all groaned.

"Jay, you watch way too much TV." Kai says as they all held hands.

"Agreed." Zane says dryly and Jay sick a tongue out at them before they all vanished in a large bolt of lightning.

Pixal watched as they did, saw as they joked and laughed. She didn't know how to take it. On one hand, hope filled her at the chance that maybe things weren't so different, that they were better, that there was a chance they weren't the monsters her dreams made them out to be. But she wasn't foolish enough to put her faith in one measly act of goodwill. If they truly wished to gain Ninjago's forgiveness, they had a lot of work to do. With that, she began rounding up the formerly enhanced, the police soon joining her.

___________

"Hey Lloyd. Why'd your horns break back there?" Jay asked once they arrived back at the Monastery.

"They were only temporary so they would have broken off eventually." Lloyd says as they walked inside, his fading back to their casual clothes.

"Huh? Really?" Cole asked, intrigued.

"How so?" Zane asked, curious.

"They were conductors. Or better yet, training wheels." Lloyd explained, surprising them further.

"Training wheels?! You mean-"

"That my powers were too intense from the beginning fore to handle right away? Yes." Lloyd finished for Nya as they walked in on an intense game of Mahjong.

"Good work today, ninja." Wu praised as he took up two tiles.

"I'll have their new mechs and vehicles out in a day or two so there's that." Nya says as she also picked up two tiles.

"I could get started on weapons for them too. Traditional of course. Cole can get me some decent ore and I'll set up a smithy at the fire temple." Kai offers, picking up four tiles.

"I haven't checked if I can make ore but it'll be good exercise, power wise." Cole hummed, taking up two tiles.

"I'll help Nya out with equipment." Jay offers, taking up eight tiles.

"I'll help out wherever I can, I guess." Lloyd shrugged, taking up two tiles as well.

"Good. The other elemental masters will eventually grow used to the routine and adapt. With your help, they will be able to do so sooner." Wu says, pecking up six tiles since the original game was thrown out the window.

"I wonder if they've figured out we helped them before…" Jay says thoughtfully, tapping a tile to his chin.

_______

"I knew it had to be them." Shade says, crossing his arms as all the other elemental masters met with Pixal who basically led then, giving them assignments and locations. "If they think anyone will forgive, they have another thing coming to them." He growled, hatred filling him from just speaking about them.

Knowing they helped them, knowing that they needed their help made him absolutely bitter. He didn't want anything to do with those monsters.

"I'm not happy about it either but we did need their help. How else would we have taken everyone on? All on the same day? No-one died today because of them." Neuro pointed out.

"You're just saying that because they saved your ass." Ash sneered and they all began to argue across the table, Pixal sitting at the head of it with her hands laced at her mouth.

"Enough!" She finally snapped and they all quieted down immediately. "It doesn't matter if we're happy about it or not. Nothing we do can stop them. They're too powerful. They're…" She frowned deeper

"They're unstoppable…" She whispered and there was silence all around.

"That can't be true yo!" Griffin spoke up as he stood, hands planted firmly on the table, his posture brimming with defiance. "Nobody is unstoppable! We just gotta think outside of the box!" He proposed.

"There's no box to think outside of." Pixal argued back, annoyed now. "They single handedly brought Ninjago to its knees in what totals in 5 minutes. 5 minutes! And they've only gotten stronger for what I've estimated." She says, turning around to bring up analytics and video playback of their stunts in New Ninjago City.

"People are starting to call them gods. Vengeful gods but deities nonetheless." She continued, turning back to them. "It isn't hard to see why. Their powers are like nothing we've ever encountered."

"So what? You just want us to give up?!" Shade yelled, getting to his feet. "After everything they've done?! After all the lives they've taken?! After they murdered my family?!" He snarled at her and Pixal remained calm in the face of his anger.

"I never said that." Pixal says after s moment. "They're unbeatable but that doesn't mean that we give up or that we stop fighting. The people of Ninjago are depending on us. The best we can do is to get them out of harm's way if it comes to it." She told them and while none of them liked those facts, they nodded, knowing they had to.

They were the new hope of Ninjago. It's up to them to defend it until the end if it comes to it.

_________

"I don't know, this seems more up your alley Zane." Kai says as they all stood in the training yard.

"This isn't a small feat we're about to do Kai. Creating a means of reporting, moving instantly from one place to another is bound to be difficult, despite our power." Zane reminded him, Echo watching them from the steps along with Wu and Garmadon.

"Zane is correct." Wu says, tilting his rice hat back so he could see them properly. "Which is why it is best for you all to take things slowly. Much like Jay has access to Speed thanks to the awakening of your powers, lightning is truly his means of travel. Perhaps it isn't so impossible for you all to utilise your elements as travel." He suggests.

"I like the idea of that." Cole says with a smirk.

"So how do we do it Sensei Jay?" Nya asked and Jay blinked, caught off guard for a moment.

"Oh, uh. I just… Think of where I want to go and the route I'd take and I just… Go." Jay shrugged.

The others looked at him for a while.

"That's it?" Zane asked, realising Jay wasn't going to say more.

"Well, yeah. That's it." Jay confirmed.

"No way." Kai immediately denied.

"Yeah I'm with Kai on this one." Cole agrees, crossing his large, muscled arms over his chest. "It can't be that easy." He says, narrowing his eyes at Jay suspiciously.

"I'm serious! That's exactly how I do it!" Jay huffs in his own defense.

"He's right guys." Lloyd spoke up and they all looked to him. "I've traveled like Jay before. That's all it takes. Though, maybe focusing on your element too would help." He suggests.

"... Alright. If Lloyd says that's how then that's how." Nya says, crossing her arms as well.

"Huh?! How come you guys believe Lloyd and not me?!" Jay whined and Cole snorts.

"The chances of Lloyd telling us a lie like you would to prank us is significantly lower." Zane explained and Jay pouts.

"Who wants to try it first?" Nya says and they all looked at each other.

"Guess I will." Kai says with a smirk then cracked his neck.

He then closed his eyes, breathing through his nose slowly. He pictured the Fire Temple, visualized the path there, thinking of his burning fire. He didn't feel any different. He sighed, opening his eyes in preparation to ask for some other tips- only to realise it had worked and he was at the fire temple.

Flare and Solaris blinked at him from their place playing on the bridge, surprised to see their creator appear in a burst of flames. They rushed over after the initial shock and Kai laughed once they tackled him, looking at his face as Spark bolted over from inside as well. Heath walked out moment after, tail swishing as he walked towards where his siblings were eagerly nuzzling their creator, purring happily.

"Go easy with the clothes yeah?" Kai laughed, pushing their snouts away. "I'm not home just yet. I'm sure I'll be back by tomorrow. I was just testing my powers out." He explained, stroking their snouts as they sat around him.

They gave disappointed whines but they understood that he had responsibilities aside from them.

"Heath, you'll keep taking care of them, right?" Kai asked him as they let him stand.

Heath only nodded once and Kai grinned, reaching out to pet him. Heath only opened his mouth and bit his hand.

"Ow! You jerk!" Kai hissed, rubbing his hand.

Heath just gave him a cheeky look and gave sounds that equaled to him telling Kai he'll heal. Kai shot him a glare then bid his dragons goodbye before vanishing again, reappearing at the Monastery in a flare of fire.

__________

Part 2 Of This Chapter

14 notes · View notes

vegetacide · 5 years ago

Text

Cloak and Dagger

Chapter 2: Nothing Ventured

Vegetable Notes: I spewed out another chapter. Thanks for @gumnut-logic for letting me chew on her ear some- she rocks!

Soundtrack for this chapter - Thornley, Tea Party, Jeff Martin and Never Ending White Lights.

Previous chapter can be found here

Enjoy!

8-8-8

Pulling the door closed, Kayo turned and ran smack into a familiar blue, twill weave. Scott grunted at the sudden impact, his hands coming to brace her at the near miss with the floor “Kay, whoa!”

Righting herself, Kayo took a step back. “Sorry, about that. I…”

“No, it was my fault.”

“Let’s agree to disagree then.”

Putting some distance between them Kayo watched as Scott forced himself into a casual posture, hands into his pant pockets, shoulders down and seemingly relaxed. To anyone else the pose would look just what it was expected to look like. To her, it screamed the opposite. The fine lines of tension around his eyes and the muscles working along his strong jaw as he clenched and unclenched his jaw told her another story completely.

Rocking back on his heels, his eyes strayed from her to the door and back again as if he was expecting someone else to come through the thing.

“He’s already up and about.” She took mercy on him, knowing he was struggling with his need to mother-hen. Pulling her loose hair up and off her neck she quickly twirled it into a bun and fasten it into place with the a black hair band that was every present at her wrist.

Scott watched her well practiced movements a moment and she registered exactly when her words sunk in. Virgil was by no means a morning person. It was barely past 7 am and the man was renowned for his love of sleep.

“Oh…” Kayo blinked, not the reaction she had expected. Scott was off his game this morning but by the looks of him, he hadn’t faired much better than Virgil had last night. She’d seen the same look on Virgil’s face this morning as he had stumbled about in the pre-dawn light - as graceless as ever before his coffee fix.

She could read the brothers like a book and Scott was no different. For all his military training and commanding attitude the worry for his sibling was obvious. “He mumbled something about running diagnostics, post flight checks and cataloguing inventory losses but you know what he is like before caffeine.”

“Damn…” An expletive from Scott this early in the day didn’t bode well. “The call out was a bad one and the mission debrief didn’t go so well.”

“I assumed it hadn’t,” She’d observed quite a bit since she’d returned, “Considering everyone has either run for the mainland, ghosted the island like it might explode, turned into uber professionals or has just up and disappeared.

“Disappeared…?”

“When did you see Brain’s last?” She countered, not expecting a reply and carried on as if she hadn’t been interrupted. Brow raised, her green stare scanning with little remorse over Scott. “Oh, and you and Virgil look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks” Kayo shrugged with nonchalance.

“I call it like I see it”

“Love you too” There, an uptick close to a smile flashing into existence. It was the reaction she was looking for from the straight backed, slightly too contained shell he was putting on. She could work with this now.

Stepping away from the entry to Virgil’s sanctum sanctorum, Kayo put a hand on Scott’s shoulder and gave a gentle squeeze in support. “Go talk to him. I’ll be in the coms room when your ready.”

8-8-8

Scott stepped out of the elevator onto the catwalk overlooking Two and sighed at the music that greeted his ears. Rock blasted with the heavy beat of drums through the massive space. Ricocheting down off the ceiling and reverberating in the grating beneath his feet.

Dropping his head, he rubbed at his stiff neck. Audible proof that things were in the shitter with Virgil via Thornley, circa 2002. His brother’s music choice was usually a good barometer to his mood and Scott was about to walk in on it.

“Have fun with that.” Scott, looked over at Gordon as he limped up the stairs..

“Thanks.”

“He’s in a real mood today if he’s broken out the oldies. You may be taking your life in your own hands if you go in there. “

“Noted, “ Scott looked down to the open blast door some 200 ft down that separated the main hanger from the module storage bay and subsequently where Virgil could be found in his workshop.

“I’m off,” Gordon turned, looking with appreciation and longing at his craft floating in its aquatic launch. “I promised Alan I would call him and distract him from the boredom of shopping with Grandma.”

“No physio this morning?” Scott asked with a look of concern as his brother rolled and re-rolled his left shoulder

“Nah, taking a break today.” Gordon looked abashed at this and failed to meet Scott’s eyes. “I may or may not have over done it yesterday...a bit…”

Scott look skyward and prayed for strength, this family was going to make him fully grey in no time. “And you’re worried about me going down there?” He pointed down below and snorted. “If Virgil or for that matter, Lady P finds out you know what will happen, right?”

The shudder that went through Gordon said he was well aware of it. “Please don’t. The images I have in my head about what Kayo is going to do to me is disturbing enough. Don’t add to it.”

“Kayo knows?”

“Busted me last night.”

“Sucks to be you.” Scott winced in sympathy

“No shit”

Shaking his head, Scott ruffled the fish’s hair as he passed by. The scowl that was returned for his efforts ignored as he set off down the stairs.

“If you don’t make it back, I’ll make sure to ask John to erase your browser history. Can’t have Grandma finding out about your disturbing extracurriculars and your hamster fetish…” Scott stopped in his tracks at that but Gordon was already safely stowed away in the lift on his way back up to the main house.

“Brat..”

Hands tucked in his pockets, Scott strolled across the hanger and made his way around the massive supports of Two. The great, hulking beast was up on her struts. One of her nesting modules parked below on the heavy tracks built specifically for trundling the huge cargo crates across the expanse of chemical resistant substrate topped flooring.

Stepping across the embedded components of the pod conveyor system and through the reinforced bay door into the orderly storage area beyond, Scott marveled at the deceptiveness of the place their home was built around. To say the hanger was big was one thing but add in the hidden 1300 foot length of the storage area and the place was massive.

The area, though only the width of about 500 ft at its widest, housed all of the modules, pods, grappling lines, fire suppression gear and spare parts needed for the large, green ‘bird. All of it stored away in specific, tidy, very well maintained numbered bays and lockers.

It was a running gag between the Brothers that if you moved anything a millimeter in any one direction that Virgil would know instantly and without thought; like some OCD zombie, move said item back into its rightful space. Gordon had even tried it a few times for shits and giggles with varying degrees of success.

The aquanaut had learned quickly not to do this though when he found himself locked in his owner bathroom, covered in biodegradable glitter and spray cheese… how and when Virgil had rigged the shower, was anyone’s guess.. Gordon though hadn’t tried to ‘adjusted’ the placement of anything down in storage since. Never mess with an engineer.

To this day, Scott knew that Gordon was still finding flecks of glitter stuck to his person or in random other places. Scott was pretty sure though that Virgil was the culprit there with those instances, placing little, glimmering pieces here and there around the island where he knew his younger sibling would find it. A little subconscious reminder for good measure.

Mentally slapping himself with a silent curse Scott closed his eyes. He was procrastinating. Letting his mind wonder about as his body did so he didn’t have to confront the disagreement from the night before. This was the epitome of going against the grain of his character.

Sucking it up, he peered around module 2. The door to the crate was down, the light from within casting shadows on the alcove that clever mechanic had claimed as his space.

Virgil was sitting at one of the work stations. The chair was tipped back on its hind legs, his steel toed clad feet up on the utility bench, teetering the wooden chair back and forth. In his lap, Scott could make out the pale blue glow of a computer interface his brother was flicking through. Adjusting levels and tweaking air intake ratios with the expertise of a conducted with an orchestra. The music, though not something Scott considered enjoyable, played through the large concussion fire suppression system and from this distance the interference caused by the echo of the hanger was negligible. The module padding and design itself helping to insulate the reverb caused by the massive speakers.

Max was wheeling about in the limited confines of the module, seeming to dance along with the music. Mechanized arms pin wheeling around as if he was directing the course of the notes.

“Max, switch tracks please.” Polite as ever, even to an automaton. The song quickly flipped over to another tune and the melody shifted to something with a bit more pep. “Ugh.. next”

“I think this would be classified as a misappropriation of resources.” His brother barely glanced up at that, dark brows dropping down as some readings flashed across the interface that he didn’t like.

“The sound system I originally installed in here is distorting the lower octaves at higher volume. The sub woofer needs to be upgraded.” An off hand remark, “So I improvised.. Dual purpose, I can check the frequency output at the same time."

Scott plucked the display from his brother’s lap, looking over the present data on thrust to air intake ratios. “Multitasking I see”

“Passes the time. ”

They sat in relative silence for a while, neither one willing to break the stalemate they seemed to have found themselves in. As one song ended and another started up, Scott bit the bullet.

“How are the ribs?”

“Sore”

Scott looked his brother over, he’d pulled his overall down and looped the arms around his waist, the thin muscle shirt underneath dampened with sweat in a few places but relatively clean. “Adhesive bindings?” Scott questioned as he noticed the medical tape under the thin material up his left side.

Virgil shrugged, “The discomfort is more manageable this way.” At Scott’s sigh he quickly added, “Not tight enough to restrict respiration. I know what I’m doing, so leave it alone, Scott”

“OK, OK,” Scott put his hands up in surrender. His brother did not want to be coddled. Scott resisted the urge to say more on it. Last thing they needed with Gordon being out of action still was Virgil being bed ridden with a chest infection.

Virgil dropped his feet to the floor, the heavy soles thunking on the raised metal sheeting that covered this section of the work space. Grimacing he got up and straightened his spine by sheer will power alone against the obvious physical ache. Once accomplished he stalked over to a tool chest “What do you want, Scott?”

“Nothing, just checking in.”

A roughly opened drawer was equally thrust closed again. Small blister pack of pills in hand, Vigil broke the seal on two of the tablets and dry swallowed the lot. “Bullshit.”

Anger simmering, Scott resisted raising to the bait and took a calming breath. Maybe coming down here wasn’t such a wise idea.

‘Fine, I came to apologize for yesterday. I was out of line and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you or the useless forestry service supervisors.”

“Apology accepted, now if you will excuse me..”

“Come on, V. You were almost killed yesterday. I was and still am worried about you.”

“I’m fine, Scott.” Virgil tossed the blister pack on the bench and grabbed a socket wrench. “Ribs will heal, this is nothing. I have had worse.”

“I’m not talking about your ribs and you know it.” Facing off with his brother when he was in this sort of head space was never a good plan.

Virgil was known as the calm and collected one in the house and due to such was usually the sounding board the others went to when needed. But under the calm surface and rock steady nature was a man that felt deeply, more so than any of them could ascertain. And Scott as close as he was to his stalwart sibling, could see that the impact of yesterday was sending ripples out ever widening circles of self doubt and blame.

Scott counted on his brother and he wanted to provide that same support back. Their almost preternatural bond forged by a tragic, shared history had solidified them into what they were today and Scott would do whatever he could to protect it.

“I said ‘I’m fine.’ ” The slight hitch said otherside as the wrench was slammed down on the work surface.” Head down between tight shoulder, arms braced. “Just leave it, Scott.”

The pleading in Virgil’s voice had Scott backing off. “It wasn’t your fault, Virgil.”

“Scott, please..”

Coming up behind the second eldest Scott placed a hand on the back of his neck, “OK, I hear you 5 by 5, little brother.” And gave the tight muscles a reassuring squeeze, instincts screaming at him. He knew though that pushing would get him nowhere.

“When your ready to talk, come find me.”

8-8-8

Kayo hit the volume controls on the holo-vid and crossed her arms as the Kat Cavanaugh's sat up primly with the introduction to her segment.

"Thank you, Albany." Kat nodded in gratitude, her voice confident. Cavanaugh had upped her game since her rescue out by the Gran Roca Ranch. Her show having gained much popularity with her first hand account. The world at large was crazed for any information on the clandestine organization and she had quickly shot up in the reporting ranks.

So much so that the international community at large was now listening. With an added co-anchor, Albany Crenshaw the sphere of her world had changed from basic rag gossip to world wide events. Set changes, advertising, content and even personal appearance had been buffed to a high sheen. Success in every angle.

Her once, rather laid back appearance giving way to a well groomed, professionalism. A slick bob set off the features of her face adding a maturity that the barrettes of the past had lacked. Dressed up in a wool jacket and a fine print, split-neck blouse she radiated respectability all topped off with a dusting of make-up in neutral tones. Nothing out of place, everything poised and polished. A far cry from her previous casualness.

Angling herself just right in the studio lighting, her lips turned up in a competent smile. “Good evening, I'm Kat Cavanaugh. Tensions in Kazakhstan are on the rise tonight amidst continued civil unrest as protests and riots break out across the country."

Since October’s Military back coup by Socialist party leader, Mikhalev Lukyan Grigorievich there has been an outcry to the world nations for his removal.

Grigorievich, who took control from interim leaders after the sudden death of President Alexandra Danilovna, seized power in an overnight raid in the country’s capital of Nur-Sultan.”

In recent years the country has fallen on civil and economic hardships with the depletion of its hydrocarbon production and the forced closure of the counties mineral mines due to civil rights violations. International amnesty groups have reported that this along with the abysmal work conditions and the country’s strict policies against assembly are major contributors to the continued upheaval.

Additionally, unsubstantiated reports of clashes between the Kazakh Renewal and Reformation Coalition and military personnel has lead to a media blackout in Almaty. Rumours supplied by asylum seekers at the Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan borders speak of an increased Military presence within the city limits and a steep escalation of violence.

The GDF and the World Union has been surprisingly quiet on the topic. Issuing only that the area has been declared a ‘No Fly’ zone and that all non-Kazakhstan citizens should avoid the area or head to the nearest embassy for evacuation.”

Several notes of interest followed relating to food shortages and power interruptions but the gist of the news coverage was that the region was in complete chaos and it was not likely to end amicably any time soon. The big question, Kayo pondered as she adjusted the volume to a near whisper with Scotts arrival, was the GDF going to do anything about the situation? Could they even do anything about it without crossing into territory that could divide the world at large. And if so, did they even have a right to? She found the lack of an easy and clean cut response disturbing.

International incidents were avoided these days with great effort but something told her in this case something was going to have to give to bring this conflict to a head. It was either that or watch a country with a population of some 23 million people either starve to death or completely self destruct. The stability in that part of the world would be shattered in the power vacuum.

Nodding her head towards the moving 3D holographic image above the table, Kayo uncrossed her arms and walked over to the desk where Scott had just parked with a grunt. “This is going to get messy before it gets any better.”

He made a vocal note of assent and took a sip of the coffee he’d brought in. Smelt like Virgil’s Sumatran blend she noticed offhandedly. “Looks like it, been playing on repeat all morning. With the GDF evacuation in effect more and more information is leaking out across the borders. I am expecting the GDF will make a formal request of us eventually but as of yet, they have been quiet on that front”

“Formal request?” Kayo cocked a brow, “You think they are going to bar us access to the area if there is a call?”

Scott shrugged, setting his cup down on the report ridden desk. “I have no idea, Aunt Val hasn’t said anything yet but she’s been a bit tied up.” He waved his hand towards the holo cast, encompassing everything going on in that area of the world.

“For the time being we will just have to play it by ear.” Rubbing at his eyes, he changed his focus and glanced at the time. “Lady P is supposed to be calling in shortly, if you don’t mind the wait.”

Kayo shook her head and leaned against the end of the desk. The morning sun was starting to heat things up again outside, and it was threatening to be a record setting high.

“How is he?” Came the inevitable question.

Kayo glanced back over her shoulder, assessing. It was unsettling for the brothers to be at odds. “You went and saw him, what do you think?”

“Fuck.”

“That sounds accurate.” Last night had been rough and Kayo wasn’t known for sugar coating. One of the reasons her and Scott worked well together for the most part. He appreciated her blunt and direct nature. Softening as she saw the matched set to the bags under Virgil’s eyes on Scotts face she tact on, “Give him time. He need to process things on his own. You know as well as I do that forcing things with him before he is ready isn’t a viable options. He’ll be fine given enough space and when he is ready he will come to you.”

“Ya, I guess you’re right. I’m just …” His words were cut off as a signal from their London agent come through. Mouthing an apology to Kayo, Scott opened the channel. “Lady Penelope, right on time.”

“Scott, darling. You look dreadful.”

Lips drawing into his trademark Scott Tracy one-sided smirk, he tilted his head to the side. “Good to see you too.”

8-8-8

Head still down, Virgil stayed silent at his brother’s parting words. The gently supportive squeeze a physical reminder that no matter what there was someone there for him if and when he wanted it.

After a moment he gave his head a shake. Enough of this crap. Time to get back to work. He had system analyses running on Two that needed to be monitored and an intake manifold for the rear, right VTOL had to be tweaked as the mixture ratio was off somehow - he suspected carbon deposits from back washing exhaust through a main intake to be the cause but he couldn’t be sure without removing the cowling and several other components. Hours of work ahead.

This could of course all be done automatically but Virgil like to be hands on with maintenance, tweaking and adjusting where needed to get the most of of his craft. He knew his ‘bird intimately,having crawling over and under every part of it. He enjoyed losing himself in the work, seeing what he accomplished at the end of the day like rebuilding an engine, overhauling a control panel or relay. It was good, honest work that left him feeling satisfied.

Yes, there were some days that things didn’t work out as planned. Some frustration caused by an answer eluding him, the challenge presented keeping him up sometime well into the early hours. But when the solution finally presented itself, the sense of achievement was phenomenal.

And finally, there was the pod drive sprockets.

He needed to know how he’d missed the damage. Their procedures dictated that visual scans be conducted after every mission so that any broken or damaged parts could either be repaired or outright replaced. In addition to that, during the decontamination and cleansing process, scanners in the washer bays would look for possible stress points. Virgil had looked over all of those scans personally as he did every time and he hadn’t seen anything.

He’d looked over the scans again this morning and still there was nothing there. So what had he missed? He’d thought that maybe complacency had come to the fore. Having done the process so many times, human errors could easily account for it but one thing Virgil prided himself on was his attention to detail. It’s what made him a good engineer.

Looking at the interface, he let his brain zone out with the hopes that the answer would jump out at him. If the procedure wasn’t the issue, maybe there was another angle he wasn’t seeing.

They could micro-scan the metallurgy, test for stress points and density but they had too much equipment for that. It would take weeks of fine tooth comb’ing it to go over all of it, There had to be another option available to them.

Turning, he took in all that was parked, stored and at the ready for whenever they got a call out again. Clean, orderly and poised for use at the drop of a hat. Geared up to be shunted into modules with a couple flicks of a finger and off into the air in a matter of minutes but what the hell was he missing..

A thought came to mind that had Virgil toggling his coms. “Hey, Brains?”

“Virgil, w-what can I do for you?” The genus’s 3D holographic image suspended above the receiver built into work desk flared to life. Brains was the other side of the hanger by One but it was just easier to call then haul his ass all the way over there and back.

“The wash-bay scanners been calibrated lately?”

Framed glasses slipped down a narrow nose as the relevant information was pulled up. “Uh, three w-weeks ago. Why? Is th-there something wrong with them?”

“Just a hunch. Can you run it again and do a system analysis?”

“That will t-take some time. I have the bulk of the island servers dedicated t-to the zero-x build.”

Virgil dragged a hand down his face. He didn’t have any other options right now. “Do what you have to and let me know if anything comes up.”

Brains’ image nodded. “R.A.D”

Virgil only rolled his eyes a little as he closed down the connection.

TBC

NEXT CHAPTER

#thunderbirds fanfiction #thunderbirds 2015 #thunderbirds are go #Virgil Tracy #kayo kyrano #virgil/kayo #scott tracy #Gordon Tracy #international rescue

10 notes · View notes

a7xlizardqueen · 6 years ago

Text

Title: Your Knight in a Sweater Vest

Overall Rating: NC-17

Overall Warnings: Parental bullying, mentions of bulimia, nudity(?), drinking, partying, cursing, very slight mention of war and trauma, smut

Pairing: Reader x Steve Rogers

Summary: When you need help dealing with your rude and overbearing family, your best friend Steve Rogers comes to the rescue. Modern!AU - For @barnesrogersvstheworld Writing Challenge Shot Through the Heart

Chapter: 1/10

Word Count: 1,638 words

Chapter Warnings: None

-X-X-X-

The bar was packed as you squeezed yourself through the crowd, searching for a group of familiar faces. It was Friday, which meant only one thing: meeting up with the guys at your favourite spot for beer and wings. Afterward you’d probably play pool and keep your eyes out for someone to hook up with.

“Yo, Y/N, over here!”

Sam is peering over the crowd, waving his hand in the air. He, Bucky, and Steve are already packed into a booth, a pitcher of Bud half empty.

“What, you guys start without me?” you ask, sliding on to the bench next to Steve.

“That’s what happens when you’re late,” Bucky scolds, sliding over a fresh glass.

“Dude, not even five minutes.”

“Five minutes is still late, Y/N.”

“I’ll remember that next time you’re late, James.”

“Now, now, children, settle down,” Steve smirks. "You're both late as often as the other."

You and Bucky smirk and he winks. Steve is always the peacekeeper between you two. Not that you don’t like each other, just the opposite, but you have kind of a love-hate relationship, as if you’re each other’s annoying sibling.

The waitress comes around, blonde girl with big tits. She smiles at all the guys, and ignores you. You’re used to it. Downside to being the only woman in a group of men. You order five-dozen wings, another pitcher, and a round of shots of Honey Jack.

“Kay, so, game at my place Sunday?” Sam asks.

“You got it, man,” Steve says and Bucky nods.

The shots come and before anything else is said you clink your glasses and shoot back the sweet, amber liquid.

“What ‘bout you, Y/N?”

You shake your head, “Sorry boys, no can do. Prior engagement.”

“Hot date?” Steve smirks.

“I wish,” you pause and take a large gulp of your beer to stall for a moment. The guys’ questioning faces don��t relent. “I’ve got a barbecue at my mother's house to go to.”

Their immediate reaction is to look concerned, quickly followed by angry.

“What the hell are you doing even talking to her?” Bucky’s brow furrows, “She treats you like shit.”

“She's my mother, Buck. Besides, it’s not so bad anymore.”

“I don’t believe you for one damn second, doll. You always make excuses for that family.”

You swallow the lump in your throat. Sam, Steve, and Bucky are quiet, unhappy with you.

“There’s something more isn’t there?” Steve asks.

You nod and whisper, “He’s back.”

“Who’s back, Percy’s back?!” Bucky’s fist hits the table with a thud.

“You mean that asshole that had you starving yourself?” Sam asks.

“That asshole who had you working out so hard you passed out and had to be rushed to the hospital?”

“He doesn’t want to get back together, does he?” Steve asks.

You shake your head and call the waitress over for another round of shots, doubles this time.

“No, he just wants to show off his new girlfriend and tell me how much better she is then me. And how much more successful he is then me.”

“Want us to come beat his ass?” Sam offers.

The wings arrive and you all dig in. You laugh and shake your head.

“No, that would be a seriously unfair fight.”

Bucky laughs, “Dude still skinny as shit?”

“You know it.”

“Never skip leg day!” Sam yells.

The tension of the previous minutes has lifted and your plight is ignored for a while as you watch a random soccer game on the TV and continue to stuff yourselves with beer and wings and whiskey. After another round you head over to an empty pool table, you and Steve against Bucky and Sam. As Bucky and Sam rack up the balls Steve hands you a cue and says quietly.

“Seriously, Y/N, if you want some back up, I’m there.”

You sigh, of course he would offer. Steve was one of those seriously good guys that always tried to do the right thing.

“And how would you help?”

He shrugs, “I dunno. But I could at least stick up for you. Be there to let everyone know how great you’re doing with your life.”

“Really, Steve, I don’t need a cheerleader.”

Steve smirks, “Damn, now what am I gonna do with my pom poms?”

“Y/N, your break!”

-X-X-X-

Friday night ended rather uneventfully. You drank more. You played pool. Did a bit of dancing. Went home. No one got lucky that night.

Sunday rolled around. It was a hot day so shorts were a must. You still had a hard time showing off your legs, especially around your family, but if you tried to cover up with pants you’d regret it. Besides, Sam was always telling you to show off the body you’d worked so hard for. He’d kill you if you told him you hid it away. You paired it with a thin white button up, rolling up the sleeves to your elbows. You knew your outfit wasn’t nearly as fancy or feminine as your mother’s or your sister’s surely would be, but you’d mostly abandoned the need for their approval by now, anyway. Mostly.

The look of utter disappointment was exactly what you’d expected, followed by the obligatory scolding for your tardiness. The tardiness was completely intentional, of course, the less time you spent with them the better.

Your mother and sister were visions of perfect beauty. Hair shiny, bouncy, not a flyaway in sight; and they were both wearing long flowing maxi dresses. It made your $5 bargain store shorts and shirt seem frumpy.

Then there was the ex, Percy. He wasn’t typically good looking. His face held too much expression, almost goofy, his eyes and lips large on his narrow face and his dark hair was unruly, sticking up in every direction. He wasn’t particularly tall, and had a thin body with just enough muscle to counteract any fat. But he had a certain charisma in the way he carried himself and the way he spoke that captivated people. It had certainly captivated you once.

His girlfriend was beautiful. Like a movie star from the 1950’s. She dressed like one too. And she was so damn nice that it was hard not to like her. Even though you tried, very hard.

You milled around the barbecue mostly, sipping your beer and trying to avoid conversation. You don’t often get what you want, though.

“Long time no see, Y/N, how ya been?” Your stepdad’s work associate asks as you try to slip quietly by to get yourself another beer.

“I’m fine, Geoff, how are you?” You answer politely, looking down at your empty bottle.

“Oh, just fantastic. Did your stepdad tell you we made a killing this year? Yeah, Jan and I are gonna take a trip to Hawaii to celebrate.”

And thus began the extremely exciting and titillating conversation of the world of insurance. Somehow the man was able to talk about the most boring subject in the world for an entire half hour. You zoned out after about five minutes and only came to when he finally asked you a question.

“What is it that you do again?”

Great, the question. Everyone always asks that question. Normally you wouldn’t care, you enjoy telling people what you do for a living. Just not this crowd.

“I’m a woodworker.”

“Oh. So what does that mean, exactly?”

“I build things out of wood. Furniture, sculptures, you name it. Some of what I make is my own design, whenever I get inspiration; a lot is custom building stuff. I also do antique restoration. And I teach yoga and self-defence at my buddy’s gym.”

“How interesting. And is there a lot of money in the woodworking business?”

“Probably not as much as in the insurance business,” you shrug and back away, “if you’ll excuse me, I’ve been empty for far too long.”

All these people ever talk about is money. They base their ideas of success on how much money can be made, not how happy something can make you, or someone else. Your favourite thing in the world is seeing the amazed looks on a client’s face when you bring their ideas to fruition, sometimes better than they could have imagined. But conveying that feeling to these vultures was impossible.

“Good to see you again, Y/N,” his voice interrupts you before you can even take five steps and you once again look down at your empty beer and sigh; you’re gonna have to upgrade to whiskey.

“Wish I could say the same for you, Percy,” you turn and paste a fake smile onto your face.

You don’t know why, but he still makes your stomach tie into knots every time you look at him. He broke your heart, and you got over it. You did. There isn’t a bone in your body that wants to revisit the lack of a relationship you had with this man for one year. And yet when you look at him, especially with her on his arm, you think about how long it’s been since a man has touched you. You think about how long it’s been since a man looked at you with desire in his eyes. You look at him and your body yearns, and aches for what could have been.

“You’re breaking my heart, babe,” he feigns pain with a hand over his heart.

“Oh, if only I could.”

“No date again?”

“Well, I didn’t want to make you jealous.”

“How kind of you.”

“Y/N, why didn’t you tell me you had a guest coming?” Your mother rushes over.

“What are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry, there’s plenty of food and beverages, but really Y/N, it’s quite rude. Please tell me next time so I can be prepared.”

“Mother, what are you talking about?”

“Hey, honey, sorry I’m late.”

#shotthroughtheheart3k #steve rogers #fanfiction #modern!au

4 notes · View notes

justaramblingromantic · 6 years ago

Text

Thriller Night

Characters/Pairing: Kobayashi Rindou, Tsukasa Eishi, Tsukasa Hi’en (OC), Tsukasa Chouko (OC)/EiRin

Type: Canon-divergent AU, Post-series, Peerless-verse, Freestyle

Word Count: 4022

A/N #01: Tsukasa!Family shenanigans: Halloween Special! It’s the spookiest time of the year and the whole family gets ready for a frightful night out!

“Rindou, I need help-”

The redhead lifted her head by the dresser where she had been putting on the final touches for her makeup, just in time to see Eishi wander into their bedroom, fussing over the rather unusual design of his bowtie. Like her, he had already changed into his costume for the evening, and in his case, he was dressed smartly in a black pinstriped suit with a snowy white dress shirt, that which subtly emphasized his long, graceful limbs, his masculine, whipcord lean build.

He was fiddling distractedly with the black, bat shaped cravat with the long, elaborate, spindly wings as he wandered over to her, bewilderedly trying to figure out how to wear the elaborate accessory, hopefully without poking someone’s eye out in the process. Rindou set down her makeup brush after filling in the last of the details on her face…her blue face. Eishi paused briefly and did a double take once he glimpsed of her amused, impish features…that beloved, familiar expression presented in a way he had never seen before.

She stood up and did a quick, prancing pirouette for him, preening mischievously and showing off the full effect of her cheery patchwork dress and the intricate detail of her costume makeup.

“How do I look~?”

He gazed at the black needlepoint ‘stitches’ that she had penciled and shaded in along the seams of her rose tinted lips across half her cheeks as well as down one side of her face, from forehead to jaw. There were even lines of the faux amateur sutures circling the circumference of her slender neck and stretching across her slender clavicles, before disappearing down the modest neckline of her charmingly simple ragdoll dress. Dramatic black eyeshadow smudged her twinkling gold eyes and made them glow in a mesmerizing, near preternatural shade, and a coat of dark mascara over her dense lashes further accentuated that dramatic doll-like effect. Her long crimson hair fell in lustrous waves down her back. She was also powder blue from head to toe, in the spirit of keeping as true to the character that she had chosen to portray this year. More haphazard lines of needlework drawn over her arms and legs with black body paint completed the rest of her appearance, further adding to the illusion of a true ragdoll.

“…Very spooky,” he solemnly gave his verdict at last.

She grinned at his stamp of approval.

“Good! ‘Coz I’m done, so now’s your turn. Ah, don’t bother with the bow tie yet, Tsukasa! I gotta put on your face paint first~”

He mentally resigned himself for what was to come ahead. But Halloween was a once a year event, so they usually went all out and in the process he was always roped into joining the festivities. Nobody actually asked him if he wanted to be in it or not; he was just automatically included, for a very obvious, redheaded reason. He didn’t dislike all the fuss, though. Rindou always made it fun or at the very least quite entertaining. There was always something different to look forward to every year…and this time was no different.

She pulled him to sit down on the edge of the bed, and then she turned briefly back to the dresser to prepare her concoction of paints from all her little colorful pots and palettes that a visual makeup artist friend had recommended, and he got ready to become her living canvas. His only consolation was that he wasn’t the only one. The other two had turned out decently enough…though they probably wouldn’t mind too much even if she doodled prolifically all over their little faces.

“I leave myself in your capable hands.”

She snickered with a maniacal glee that wasn’t really very confidence inspiring. “Yes, please do~” She turned back to him brandishing a small tub of white paint and a clean brush.

“Now, close your eyes and be still!”

Fifteen minutes later, she finally set down her brush, took a step back, and surveyed her handiwork with satisfaction. She sighed happily.

“I’ve got the most handsome husband in the world.”

He opened his eyes cautiously and gazed upon her pleased expression. Even now, after all these years together, her easygoing, random praises still had the ability to make his heart beat a little faster.

“Why are you saying that after you painted all over my face, though.”

She smirked at his mildly exasperated query.

“’Coz you’re still the most handsome even after I’ve drawn a giant wiener on your forehead~! I’ll gladly look at this gorgeous mug for the rest of my life even if the ink never rubs away-”

“…What.”

Dawning horror quickly replaced vague bemusement, and then he moved so quickly to the mirror to verify the authenticity of her statement, he practically teleported. She burst into laughter at that priceless expression on his face. She also hadn’t seen him move that fast ever since that time Chouko suddenly professed the urge to potty when they were at the beach and the nearest restroom was a good half a kilometer away.

There were no wieners to be found, however.

She peeped over from his shoulder, appearing in the mirror innocuously beside his reflection, mirth reflected in her bright gaze. “Trick or treat!” she chirped, laughter still evident in the lilt of her voice. He met her eyes through the mirror with chagrin.

“Rindou…”

There were no penile-shaped anything drawn on his bone white face… No, literally – his lean, angular face was now bone white. Eishi blinked. He paused again to study himself. His new eerily alabaster complexion extended all the way down past the neckline of his equally white shirt. The only other contrasting color on his pallid appearance were the black face paint that were carefully smudged over the hollows of his lavender eyes. A grotesque, jagged line of black also ran across the seam of his pale lips and over half the length of his cheeks, painting a faint, ghostly smile on his face.

He looked grimly…dashing…in a ghoulish, macabre sort of way. Even his hair seemed to compliment his entire appearance.

She poked his shoulder with one finger to regain his attention, grinning faintly. “Now we fix your bow tie and then we’re ready to get this party started.”

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

“Adorable offspring, time to go~!”

Rindou stood with her arms akimbo and hollered cheerily down the hallway. It didn’t take long before she heard the muffled response from the two youngest ones in the family.

“Coming!!”

“‘Kay-”

She turned back to the living room where Eishi was just tugging on a pair of gloves to complete his costume. The articles in question made his graceful, adroit hands look downright skeletal – the back of the black gloves were embedded with pieces of faux finger bones for a creepily authentic 3D effect.

Pitter pattering footsteps thumped down the hallway not too long after.

“Chou, please don’t run,” the little girl’s father rebuked absently just as she popped into view. Chouko skidded comically to a stop when she saw her male parent, her lavender eyes wide, her mouth falling open with amazement at his cool, debonair appearance.

“Papa…?”

The seven year old still looked visibly surprised by her stunning discovery, as if she had just learned something new and bewilderingly unexpected. “…Papa is…handsome?”

Rindou snickered at her daughter’s innocent proclamation, whereas Eishi was trying not to sigh. Next time anyone remarked upon his ‘astonishingly modest and down-to-earth’ character, he would be sure to give due credit to his family, namely his wife and daughter in particular for their exceptional ego-deflating ability.

His only other ally in this family plodded into view then, as usual looking like he had just been disturbed from a nap, even when Eishi knew that was not the case. Like his sister, he, too, paused briefly when he saw his father. Slit pupiled gold eyes gleamed with interest and appreciation.

“Awesome costume, tou-chan,” the younger redhead remarked. The nine year old was at the age where things like the undead, zombies and skeletons were extremely exciting subjects to explore and think about.

Meanwhile, Chouko had wandered up to him and was tugging at his pants. When Eishi looked down, she raised her arms expectantly, wanting to be picked up. She was starting to become a bit too big to be carried around, but no one seemed to have shared that memo with her doting papa, who unhesitatingly lifted her and held her in his arms readily enough. If anything, Eishi was acutely aware that it would not be too long now before Chouko herself would no longer want to be coddled like that ever again, so he might as well make the most of it until that time inevitable crept upon them.

Small hands patted his cheeks affectionately, and lavender eyes the exact shade as his own peered at him. “Papa is sooo cool,” Chouko declared with a firm nod after a solemn inspection of his newly upgraded features. It was amazing what a bit of (costume) makeup could do, isn’t it. Eishi could not help but feel his chest puff up a little at his mini lookalike’s heartfelt praise. In a few years’ time, Chouko might likely revise her opinion when it came to her parent’s level of ‘coolness,’ but for now her father was more than happy to take that compliment.

“Thank you, Chou.”

“Is Chou-chan not afraid of papa when he looks like this?” Rindou asked, grinning. Chouko shook her head loyally.

“Papa is papa! Chouko’s not scared at all! Papa’s only scary at work; Izumi-nii says so!”

…What was his sous chef telling his daughter now, Eishi wondered exasperatedly. Rindou was less reserved; she burst into laughter again.

“That Kenjiru always was a funny one, huh,” she chortled merrily. “No wonder you like him so much, Tsukasa.”

“…I never said that.”

“No, of course you didn’t~” But she could tell all the same, when he found people he genuinely enjoyed working with. He was more reserved now when it came to letting people in too close, compared to back when they were still in Tootsuki, in the sobering aftermath of all that went down with Central and Nakiri Azami. There was a distinct line between professional respect and friendship, and Eishi was careful never to mistake one for the other again.

As such, anyone in the same field who could exasperate Eishi to the point of breaking that glass wall by sheer personality alone was perfectly alright in her books. Heaven knew that Eishi certainly needed more interesting characters to spice up his daily life.

Hi’en pressed into Rindou’s side, content to be silent and let his family’s conversation flow over him like a warm, fuzzy blanket. Sometimes, it seemed like he wasn’t paying attention to anything at all, but his gaze was clear and alert as he eyed his parents and sister, and he observed all of their interactions with an astuteness and a level of comprehension that was uncannily mature for his age. Rindou rested her hand on the top of her son’s crimson hair and affectionately combed through the tousled strands. Predictably, he leaned into her touch more, and she gently ruffled his hair some more.

“Don’t fall asleep yet, puppy,” she remarked fondly. “We still need your cute face to go trick or treatin’.”

Chouko gasped loudly at the highly likely possibility of her nii-chan drooping off. She swiveled in Eishi’s arms to frown down at the older boy.

“Nii-chan, you promised no nappy until we finished trick or treatin’!” she reminded him with as much fierceness as her current gaptoothed appearance could let her. Her front center teeth had recently fallen out, making way for the adult set to grow in. She was a bit self-conscious after being teased about her missing two front teeth in class, but it was her parents’ completely unbiased opinion that her shy, lopsided smile was cute as all heck. “We’re goin’ home wit’a mountain of candy this time!”

Rindou cheered at Chouko’s ambitious agenda. “Yep, we’re gonna conquer the neighborhood and come back with the largest bounty ever!! Awesome House of Tsukasa, let’s do our best!”

“Yeahh!!!” Chouko rallied enthusiastically, wiggling to be let back down now. Her amused papa obliged. His youngest child scooched off to her brother’s side and bounced antsily on the back of her heels, eager to start.

“Let’s do the roll call before we head off!” Rindou declared. “Tsukasa family, who are we this year?”

Chouko’s hand shot up. “Me, me!! I wanna go first!” the white haired girl was more than eager to introduce her character and show off her costume.

Like her papa, her cherubic face was painted to look like a skull. Unlike Eishi, her design was less austerely gothic and more sweet and colorful, like a sugar skull. The bone white background were interspersed with bursts of flowery lavenders and dark pinks that complemented her big eyes. Cheerful, stylistic lines and curves bordered her forehead and danced across the bridge of her button nose in graceful inked outlines that randomly bloomed into florets and ferns, and tiny little black butterflies fluttered across her cheeks whimsically. A pretty ring of flowers sat upon the crown of her fluffy white hair, and she wore black tights with prints of a skeleton’s legs underneath her pastel lavender tulle princess dress with a poofy chiffon skirt.

Despite that cute cotton candy appearance, she made a comically aggressive pose. It was coincidentally the same pose that their sensei in Aikido class had taught her for throwing people.

“I’m the Pumpkin Princess, defender of Halloween! Hyahh! I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!! Whoever tries to take Halloween away, I, the Pumpkin Princess, will beat up with no mercy!”

Rindou had whipped out her phone and was happily snapping photos every which way. Chouko was also more than willing to oblige her mama, gleefully making various poses to show off her costume, pleased that her attire was being thoroughly appreciated.

“Way to go, Pumpkin Princess!!” she cheered. “Beat ‘em all up!”

Eishi gazed at his beaming wife and daughter. Usually, ‘beat ‘em all up’ was the last thing he wanted to hear when it came to his daughter’s upbringing, but in this case, it seemed appropriate. Questionably appropriate.

“Do your best tonight, Pumpkin Princess,” he added, and Chouko was so happy she was practically glowing.

“Haiii, Chouko will~!”

“You’re up next, favorite firstborn!” Rindou called.

“I’m your only firstborn, kaa-chan,” Hi’en pointed out.

“Yeah, but you’re also my most favorite firstborn~” Rindou insisted with cheeky smile.

Hi’en wanted to sigh at his mother’s noisy boisterousness, but his lips was twitching upwards on their own somehow. As per the Halloween tradition of the Tsukasa family, he started to introduce his character.

“I’m the Pumpkin Prince. I like candy and people with common sense. I dislike trouble. If you give me a treat, I’ll let you keep your brains,” he uttered calmly.

“Nii-chan, you’re so boring. You gotta be more exciting than that!” Chouko rebuked, poking her sibling in the side. Hi’en poked her back immediately, eliciting an indignant squeal of laughter from the younger girl as she danced away out of his reach.

“I’m a zombie. Have you seen energetic zombies?” he retorted. His sister stuck her tongue out at him.

The nine year old wore a black leather jacket unzipped over a tattered white shirt that had been stained with fake blood. His blue jeans were ripped and dusted with chalk at some places to give it a dirtier look. His face was pale from the white face paint and there were even darkening purplish blue bruises on there to emulate stages of decomposition. Red were smudged liberally on his chin and pallid lips to imitate blood, and there were even bits of material that had been soaked in dark crimson dye stuck to his cheek and around his mouth that looked startlingly like flecks of raw human flesh.

Hi’en had made all the costume modifications himself after searching for all the related information online, and had even insisted on carefully applying the visual makeup on his own. He was rather pleased with the overall grisly effect. Next year, he would like to try an even more challenging style.

Kaa-chan was always very encouraging and enthusiastic when it came to helping him with his exploratory projects. He had been interested in the topic of death and decomposition lately so his cool kaa-chan had brought home an actual flying fox skeleton when she came back from one of her travels the other day, and they had learned to identify the anatomy of all the parts together. That skeleton was currently mounted on his wall inside a special frame, and it was his most treasured possession at the moment. All the boys in his class were envious of his luck – they would never be allowed to bring this sort of macabre things into their houses.

When he mentioned to his parents in passing that he thought that it was interesting to study dead things, tou-chan had taken him and Chou to the natural history museum to view all the amazing exhibits and fossils displayed there one day after school. Kaa-chan had wanted to go too but she had work, and besides, random strangers sometimes liked to stop them to talk to kaa-chan and take photos with her when they all went out together, so maybe it was just as well she wasn’t able to tag along. The three of them had spent the entire afternoon wandering through the halls of the museum until closing time, exploring all the treasures and secret knowledge that the building guarded, telling of stories and factoids derived from the remains of beings that had once lived a very long, long time ago. Even Chouko who tended not to find old, dead things fascinating (unless she could eat them), had been captivated and had made tou-chan read every exhibit signage they came across aloud and explain what each meant.

His friends were wrong. He wasn’t just lucky. He also had the best parents in the world.

“I’m so proud; my ‘lil brain muncher is growing up so fast,” Rindou was saying. “I remember just not too long ago when you wouldn’t go to bed without your favorite stinky pillow and cried up a storm when your tou-chan could not take it anymore and snuck it away to wash-”

“Kaa-chan. Stop.”

Chouko was giggling so hard at her nii-chan’s quietly aghast expression that she was snorting like a little piglet. Nii-chan was usually always so laidback so it was funny to see mama ruffling his feathers so easily.

“Kaa-chan, are you recording?”

“But of course! I’ve got all the videos of you and Chou-chan in your Halloween costumes from the years you were born till present,” Rindou chirped, beaming from behind her phone and looking very proud of herself for this achievement, considering how busy both Eishi and her work schedules were. “Do you know; you were ‘bout six months old when you attended your first Halloween party? We swaddled you up real nice and snug and placed the cutest little sunflower beanie on your little head. Your tou-chan carried you around against his chest in a baby carrier. You were such a huge hit at the party – most popular baby ever…and you slept through the whole thing!”

Hi’en silently eyed his father with weary accusation at the embarrassing recollection which he had absolutely no memory of, but Eishi only shrugged. “Your mother’s idea.”

“It’s ‘coz you’re our precious little sun, En-chan!”

Hi’en could not help but feel his cheeks flushing at his mother’s happy words. He had never met anyone more openly loving than kaa-chan, and could only admit defeat before her boundless affection.

“…”

Eishi rested his hand on Hi’en’s shoulder, and squeezed subtly. He recognized that flustered expression – it showed on his own face often enough, after all.

“Mama, what ‘bout Chouko?” the seven year old demanded to know next, not to be outdone when it came to being loved by their parents. “If nii-chan is the sun, then is Chouko mama and papa’s precious little moon?”

“Yes, Chou-chan. You’re our sweet little moon~ The cutest one!”

Hi’en took his mother’s phone from her and directed the camera right back at her. It was a little embarrassing to be fussed over so much by their parents. “It’s tou-chan and your turn to do the introductions.”

His parents glanced at each other. Rindou’s lips lifted. Eishi’s head tipped to the side. It was as if the two of them were having an entire conversation even without having to speak.

Then, Eishi moved first. He sketched a slow, elegant bow before the beautiful ragdoll.

“Good evening. Jack Skellington, at your service.”

Rindou was trying not to smile at his solemnness. She lifted the skirt of her patchwork dress to her knees and returned his greeting with a proper curtsey.

“Good evening to you too, Pumpkin King.”

He straighten from his bow and met her eyes. He lifted one gloved hand towards her, quietly seeking her favor.

“…My dearest friend… my dearest Sally, if you don't mind... I'd like to join you by your side. Where we can gaze into the stars...”

A delighted grin grew on her face at his recital of a very familiar quote. She stepped towards him and took his hand, allowing him to draw her close. Their fingers entwined, and he cradled her palm against his chest. Eyes shining, she joined him to finish the rest of those words.

“…And sit together, now and forever. For it is plain, as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.”

Chouko clapped her hands to her mouth, her shoulders quivering as she tried to contain her giggles at her parents’ acting.

“Whaddya think, kiddos? Think we can win the ‘Papa and Mama Best Couple Costume’ competition like that?” Rindou asked, still grinning, cuddled up happily against their father. The siblings exchanged a glance.

“Papa should also princess dip mama at the end!”

Eishi broke character and looked briefly dubious. “…Dip your mother? Did that happen in the movie?”

Rindou concurred. “No, I don’t think so. ‘Sides, I’m not too sure ‘bout your papa’s dipping skills…”

Eishi was vaguely offended by that. “My dipping skills are not that bad…”

“The only thing you’ve been dippin’ a lot all this time is meat in marinate, I reckon,” Rindou teased back, which of course naturally incited his competitive nature. His arm tightened around her waist.

“I’ll show you a great dip-” Without warning, he tipped her right over, as low as he could go, much to her startled shriek of laughter. She of course ended up grabbing at him for dear life, and she pulled at him so hard they ended up overcompensating-

Eishi’s eyes widened. “Rindou, stop-”

They went down in a messy tangle of limbs; Eishi barely had time to cup his palm over the back of Rindou’s head before they hit the ground. Not that she seemed to have registered his efforts to save her from a concussion; she was so amused by his spontaneity that she was still cackling her head off.

“You really suck at this dipping thing,” she was telling him in between chortles. “You need to dip me more often.”

Chouko’s cherubic face popped up on the corner of the phone screen amidst the chaos. “Nii-chan, still filming?”

“Yes…”

The graphics on the phone blurred briefly as Hi’en shifted and turned the camera around until the entire family could be seen; he and Chouko in the foreground, their parents still halfheartedly untangling themselves at the back. The youngest Tsukasa immediately made peace signs and grinned a friendly gaptoothed grin at the camera while her brother was a picture of bland placidness.

“Tou-chan, kaa-chan look over here-”

Eishi and Rindou lifted their heads just in time for Chouko to start off the countdown, their startled expressions plain as day once they realized what was going on.

“What-”

“Wait, wait-”

“One, two, three!”

“Happy Halloween!!”

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

A/N #02: Soooo hard to think up another canon otp with EiRin’s coloring, but I settled on Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas in the end because if you think about it, their story is very similar to EiRin’s! The Pumpkin King who’s weary of doing the same thing over and over again and wants to experience a ‘new world,’ as well as the sweet, brave ragdoll who’s worried about her dear friend and wants to save him from his unhappiness - he recognizes her efforts and her feelings in the end, and they grow even closer together...it’s a perfect choice!! <33

Hi’en and Chouko are growing up so fast too - I feel like a nostalgic grandma all over again, lol.

#Food Wars: Shokugeki no Souma #Shokugeki no Soma #Tsukasa Eishi #Kobayashi Rindou #eirin #EiRin: Peerless AU #my fics #freestyle

38 notes · View notes

lillaxtrigger · 4 years ago

Text

Young Hope: Chapter 32

Somewhere underneath the shallow soil of New Mexico stood a moist, dank cavern, several dripping echoes sound off through the rocky tunnels as droplet of water descend down from the bottom of its stalactite and drop towards the bottom.

Along the very top of these caverns be dozens of holes leading out to the surface above, letting the afternoon sunlight shine down through the rough stone caverns; a growing screech soon joining the symphony of dripping water.

Through one of these holes could something be seen gliding high above the surface of these caverns; a plane made from tin, wood, aluminum, and plastic soaring through the skies housing three figures within the open cockpit.

Once over the holes of these caverns, the trio drop out from their seat and begin their descent down towards the earth as the plane they came in drifts off on autopilot; one of these figures strangely plummeting down while strapped to what seemed to be a wheelchair.

The bright sunlight starts to withdraw from one of these falling people to unveil them to be the orange skater herself; her and the other two figures pulling the strings out from their backpacks to let unfurl parachutes made from sown kitchen rags and shoestrings, these crudely made parachutes assuring their safe descent down through the holes leading down into the caverns.

“Gotta hand it to ya, Hank. I didn’t imagine that plane you built holding out for even 10 minutes, much less the hour it took to get here. Sorry for doubting ya.” the orange lass admits.

As the shadows withdraw from the chair bound figure, the red capped wiz kid responds back with:

“It’s alright there, Mally. Everyone pretty much gets that impression.”

Eventually do all three of them land upon the crag surface of the damp cavern floors, the young skater glancing over to her chair bound bud to find his wheels struggling to move along the uneven rocky floor.

“You sure you’re still up for this whole spelunking trip? Doubt you’d get pretty far in that.”

“Mally, come on. You’ve known me longer than that. Ya gotta know by now that I wouldn’t go rolling straight into a dark damp cave without coming prepared.” the inventor reminds her while reaching down for a button set along the bottom of his seat.

As soon as the boy presses this button does the entire chair suddenly pop right up; countless suctions cups and small spikes protruding out from every inch of the wheels rims.

“Tada! Been wanting to test this out for a while now. Fully upgraded off road wheelchair rims designs to roll through the toughest of terrain for off road exploration.

That ain’t the only modification I stashed in this chair of mine, but what would be the point in ruining the surprise now?”

“That’s just fan-fucking-tastic.” the third of the trio aggressively claims.

Both of them glancing over to the direction of the voice and witness a young man in a blue jumpsuit step out from the cave’s shadows, his hands coated in a strange pure black substance.

“The hell you didn’t show any of that fancy shit to yo momma for? Wouldn’t have to bitch at me and force me to going along with you two.”

“Melvin, do you really think that would have changed her mind? All it would have wound up getting out of it would be having to stuff all the gadgets back in.”

“Fuckin whatev. Lets just get this shit over with.” the young man harshly suggest, stomping off further down into the darkness of the caverns.

“So, whats up with him? He seems a bit grouchier than usual. Think he might be mad at us?” Mally can’t help but wonder.

“Eh, it ain’t that. He’s just still mad that his girlfriend broke up with him.”

“Ow, that’s gotta be rough on him. Can’t begin to imagine what its like to excuse me, say that again?”

“Yeah, ever since Chloe broke out of Circe’s possession, Melvin’s done all he could to comfort and help her through all the haunting memories. Then just out of nowhere, the two of them just split apart.

He hasn’t really been that keen on going into detail about it either, refusing to go into about what happened or why it happened. All he ever says to anybody about it is that some shit went down…

Maybe we should catch up to him so he doesn’t wind up getting himself lost.”

Suggesting this do the two of them head out in the same tunnel that Melvin had stormed straight into; all while Mally processes this little tidbit of news.

They broke up. Chloe and Melvin actually broke up. This-this is so…There could actually be a chance now for- No! No! That can’t happen. Can’t think of stuff like that. Melvin is a good friend, and darting straight for Chloe after he went through all that with her would be cruel and horrible; it’d mess him up even more.

He needs a friend right now. Someone to talk to in this difficult and rough time…

But what about Chloe…She’s probably a wreck too...No...Gotta focus on whats happening now; and right now, Melvin needs help, he needs to know that his friends have his back.

Soon enough do the two eventually catch right up behind the third of their trio, the huffing young man continuing through the depths of the caves as Mally starts to approach from behind; the skater attempting to start with:

“Hey Melvin. Just to let you know, we’re here for you, kay buddy? You can talk to us about what happened between y-”

“So you know what exactly we’re supposed to be lookin for down here?”

“I-oh...Th-the book I got from under the library didn’t really give me much on what exactly.”

“You mind telling us what it did tell you about these caves.” Hank pops in with.

“Well, all I managed to get out of it was that a bunch of people from a hell of a long time ago used to send their kids down through these cave to go through the trails set up by the Kybr. Only when passing these test will they be able to “Ascend” with them. Not much detail other than that, I’m afraid,”

“So what you tellin us is that you ain’t got a damn clue what we’re searchin for.” Melvin concludes with.

“That’s what we’re here to find out, Mel. Gathering whatever clues and leads we can find to figure how where exactly my brother wound up getting dragged to.”

“And what do you think it all might entail?” Hank asks.

“Eh, something about angels, I don’t know. Point is that we’ll keep going along through the tunnels of this cave til we find something that stands out. Something like-”

Just before the young lady could finish answering her chair bound friends question, Mally suddenly bumps right against Melvin’s own backside; backing away a tad to discover the young man having stopped dead in his tracks.

“Mel?...Why’d you stop?”

Moving over to his side, the skater discovers the young man aiming quite the shocked glare at what lies before them; Mally directing her own gaze over in the same direction, her pupils tremble and shrink when finding the site that had shaken her friend so.

Coming out from right behind the two of them, Hank wheels himself over to their side as he wonders aloud:

“What’s going on? Why did both of you suddenly stop in the middle of Oh my god!”

Sharing in the horrible site, all three of them stare upon the horrifying site of several skeletal remains littering the rocky tunnel ahead; all of them left astonished to find some of them being smaller than their own.

“Uh-un-um...I-I guess this might be the right way.” the skater utters out.

“What...the...fuck kind of fucked up shit did you drag us into!?” Melvin exclaims, aiming his accusing glare over to the young girl.

“I-I-I don’t really know exactly. I knew we’d run into something like this, but-”

“Fucking!...Fuck this, I sure as hell ain’t gonna let ya drag me and My cuz down this kind of hell hole. Come on Hank, we leaving.” he proclaims, soon heading out in the direction they came in.

Remaining by the skaters side, Hank turns over to his retreating cousin and bluntly answers with:

“No!”

Halting right in his tracks, the young man turns back towards the two of them and tell his cousin:

“Ya kidding here, right? You’re smarter than this, Hank. You really gonna let her drag us through this sort of grim bullshit and risk our lives for shits and giggles.”

“It ain’t about that and you know it, Melvin. Mally came to me for help in looking for her brother and I sure as heck ain’t gonna spur her now.

You can go and leave if you want to, but I sure ain’t gonna turn my back on any friend that needs me.”

Tightly shutting his eyes, the young man lets out a rather upset growl while sliding his hands against his face; soon walking back to the two as he claims that:

“Fine! Yo mom will kill me if I let you wind up dying anyway. Rather die here than having to deal with that shit.”

Coming to this conclusion, all of them continue down the depths of the rocky caverns side by side; descending deeper into its thickening darkness together.

Soon do their little spelunking expedition comes to its first roadblock, the trio left to face a vast and stretching chasm that gradually descends deeper down the rest of the cave.

Along the lengthy walls of this seemingly unending chasm, odd and swirling markings are left etched along the side; the swirling carvings taking the shape of bizarrely crafted arrows that point out deeper into the cave.

Taking the moment to see what awaits below the abyss, the three of them discover several more skeletal remains left littering the sharp and pointed stalagmites that decorate the bottom; some of their skulls having been pierced through the pointed stone.

“Huh, if I were a gambling girl, I’d bet this here is one of the trails mentioned in the book.” Mally mentions.

“They serious sent kids down here expecting them to cross this shit with their bare hands and feet back then? The fuck was wrong with all them?” Melvin questions.

“That’s partially what were here to find out. You think you can fly us across all this Hank?” the young skater answers while glancing to the wiz kid.

“Eh, not sure. I only calculated the fuel usage and distance measurements based on my own weight; I’m not sure how long the thrusters might last with both of you piggybacking me. I’d imagine my chair would collapse in just under five minutes, and that’s not even accounting what we might run into while crossing.”

“Doesn’t matter to me. The two of you can come up with something while I move ahead.”

“Wait, what do you-”

Before the young girl could press on for an explanation, Melvin suddenly leaps out to the side of the chasm; catching both her and Hank off guard.

Watching as they young man jumps through the air, the two of them are relieved to see him make it along the side of the dangerous chasm; the sharp ends of his fingers digging right through the tough cavern rock.

“Meet you two up ahead.” Melvin states while springing up on ahead to the other side, his two friends witnessing him jump from wall to wall as he heads deeper down.

“Huh...Well, guess that just leaves me to figure out how to cross all this.” the skater comes to.

Gazing up to the set of stalactites hanging off the roof of the chasm, Mally thinks aloud as she ponders on:

“I could use my hockey stick to spin across the stalactites, but they look to far apart to cross. I doubt that I could run fast enough to reach just the first one. Wish these cave floors were smoother to use skates on.”

“Well, I was waiting for this to be a surprise, but I think I got something here that might help ya out? Something that I’ve been working on for quite a while now.”

Claiming this, the wiz kid reaches right behind his chair and opens up the pouch stitched along the back; digging through as he mutters to himself with:

“Come on, I know I brought it. I did bring it, right?...Ah ha!”

Pulling his arm out from the depths of his chair’s pouch, Hank drags out what seemed to be a shining metallic cylinder with a string wrapped right in the middle; a glistening crystal coating both ends of the tool.

Mally’s eyes glisten upon seeing the gadget presented to her; her finger trembling as it points to the device.

“It-I-I-It-Is that what I t-think it is?”

“Sure is Mal. Say Hello to the fully upgraded grapple yo. The mechanism made to be durable to even the greatest of impacts, guarded by a thick metallic shell equip with a crystal coating, the wire string strengthened with polymer material; all of it to make up a yo yo left far significantly enhanced than its older counterpart.

A gadget that I made just as you requested.”

Swiping the device right from the inventors palm, Mally can’t help but rapidly hop as an excited squeeze leaks out from her smile; a site which brings a proud smile between Hanks own face.

“I can’t thank you enough for this, Hank. This is just what I needed after the last one broke. Hopefully, this one will last longer than the old one did.”

“Actually, I’m kinda shocked how long the old one held up.”

Breaking her ecstatic gaze, the young skater glances over to the inventor to ask him:

“Wha-what do you mean by that?”

“Mally, I originally designed the grapple yo to be just a sort of utility tool in mind. It really wasn’t expected to be a sort of weapon.

From the ways that you’ve reported what you used it for, it’s honestly baffling how it didn’t break way sooner than that.”

“Oh, I didn’t think of that. But this one won’t break as easily, will it?”

“Heh heh heh, not with the way I designed it. The materials you brought me to make it were honestly some of the hardest and most unique that I’ve ever worked with. Even fitted with that crystal you got from under the volcano.”

“Don’t you usually work with wood, plastic and tin?”

“Y-yeah, but that’s besides the point.

The point is that due to the kind of metal that you brought me, this version of the grapple yo is significantly heavier than the last model.”

“Really?”

With but one hand, the skater lifts the gadget up and down to feel its overall weight, claiming that:

“It don’t feel that much different to me.”

“Uhh...”

Claiming this does the orange skater move over to the very end of the cliff; her eyes aimed to the stalactites that hang above the abyss with her new grapple yo clutched in the palm of her hand.

With the wire string wrapped around her finger, Mally casts her gadget out towards the descending pointed rocks overhead; the shell of the device encircling the rock and enveloping it with its wire string.

The lass takes a daring leap forth down the chasm, feeling her yoyo’s reinforced string effortlessly carry her weight as she swings over the countless pointed stalagmites below; the stale cavern air blowing in her face bringing out a big smile out of her.

At the very peek of her swing, Mally retraces her newfound device in a similar manner like the previous model; the shell revolving around the stalactite above until its string withdraws from the stone surface.

Once withdrawn back into her hand, the airborne girl tosses her metal gadget out to the next awaiting rock that hangs up ahead; the gadget wrapping itself around the rock and hugging its wire string around it.

Repeating this process, the skater keeps swinging on through the rest of the stalagmite riddled chasm in hopes of catching up to her friend that went ahead.

Soon joining her side, the chair bound inventor jets through the widened stone tunnels and over the littered spikes beneath his chair; the fire from his thrusters lighting through the encompassing darkness that surrounds them both.

“So, how’s it working so far?” Hank first questions.

“Beautifully. I can toss it and swing around just like the old one, and it barely feels any different. I don’t know what you were going on about it being heavier. It barely weighs any different.”

“Yeah, I didn’t expect you to adjust so quickly to it to be honest. It really doesn’t feel any different to you?”

“Not really. Of course, I’m not calling you out as a liar or anything; its just that training with two super powered brothers for years now can curb that kind of downside. I imagine it should pack more of a punch now that its much harder. Bet I can fling it in somebody’s face and crack their skull open with it.”

“You think you can really do that?”

“Hank, you’re talkin to the same girl who wacked away a runaway mini van with just a hockey stick a week ago. What do you think?”

“Eh, yeah.”

After this little conversation do the two of them manage to catch up to the third of the expedition trio; Melvin continuing through the depths of the chasm by leaping off the sides.

“Hey Mel. You run into anything so far.” Hank asks him.

“Not yet. Been pretty quiet. I imagine it won’t be for long.”

“What do you think we should expect, Mal?” the inventor then asks.

“I don’t know. The book I read didn’t exactly give out any hints. It could practically be anything for all I know. Something could come flying at us at any-”

“Look out!” both of them hear Melvin warn.

Hearing this does Mally gaze on ahead to witness what seemed to her as a pair of silver wings streak by just inches from her head; snippets of her hair cut from her head by their sharp blades along the edges.

“What the hell was that?” she wonders aloud.

“I don’t know, but there’s more of them coming.” the wiz kid warns.

Upon his warning do the other two gaze ahead and discover an entire flock of small silver angel wings all soaring in their direction; with next to no cover, the three of them prepared to face the salvo of sharp silver head on.

The first to combat the whole flock of disembodied wings, Melvin springs right off one of the cave walls and towards one of them at break neck speeds; using the sharp ends of his fingers to swipe them right out of the air.

None of their silver stands a chance against his demon like claws; the torn shards of silver scattering down towards the bottom of the abyss below.

One of these wings however does manage to sneak in a cut along the side of his shoulder, the unexpected slash making him flinch and lose his momentum; Melvin beginning to plummet towards the sharp stalagmites.

Moments before the rock could pierce through his flesh, the young man feels something grasp hold of his ankle and whisk him away to safety; the boy peering up his own leg to find Mally clutching at his ankle as she swings through the air.

The chair bound inventor beside them rockets ahead of them and towards an oncoming horde of sharp silver wings; a smile stretching across Hank’s cheeks as he presses one of the buttons set along his armchair.

Suddenly do the sides of the young wiz kids chair spring out to unveil a bevy of missiles seemingly made from tin and wood, launching all of them out towards the approaching swarm of silver.

Despite their shoddy appearance, Hanks barrage of missile explode upon contact with the flock in a puff of smoke; the evidence of their shards raining down proving just how effective they were.

Taking in a side view of the entire scene, both Melvin and Mally witness one of these wings slip out from underneath the remains of its silver siblings; the pair of wings delving down before rising up towards the bottom of the inventor.

“Mally!” Melvin exclaims.

“On it.” she replies.

Upon hearing her name does she swing over along the opposite side of where the wiz kid flies, using the momentum of her swing to toss Melvin out towards the bottom of his rocketing cousin.

Moments before the twin wings could slash right through the wiz kid from the bottom up, Melvin zips right underneath Hanks chair and swipes at the pair of sharp silver and reduces them to mere shards that scatter down into the shadows below; the young man landing right along the side of the chasm.

Seeing a ton of silver wings flock her way, the swinging skater brandishes her trusty hockey stick as she faces the horde head on; the orange lass lashing out to one of these pair of wings and breaking them in half.

Her simple wooden weapon proves to be surprisingly effective in combating the wings sharp edges, the fragile silver standing little chance against Mally’s blunt strikes.

Her chairbound friend glances back and watches as the swinging skater fights off the armada of silver wings, noticing one of the wings that she had smacked in half reassemble itself and glide back towards his orange pals backside.

Hank quickly reaches underneath his armrest and presses another button planted along the bottom; one of the spokes from his wheels detaching right off the frame and spinning through the air, the thin piece of metal boomeranging out towards the silver wings that were ready to strike the skater down.

Moments before the pair of sharp wings could impale themselves within Mally’s backside, the spinning spoke flies around just in time and deflects the twin piece of silver before they could even touch her; the orange girl noticing the resulting spark behind her and glances back to witness the wings that nearly had slashed her plummet down into the abyss.

She comes to see the spoke that had save her ass glide right past her side and soon return to the wiz kids wheel frame; the inventor giving the skater a little salute as he looks back to her.

“Thanks for the save, Hank!”

Having successfully overcome the flock of sharp silver wings, all three of them finally come to the very end of the long and grueling chasm; the trio each landing onto the accompanying cliff leading deeper into the rocky caverns.

Right upon the very moment that they all land, the three of them soon hear sharp beeping sounding off from nearby; Hank glancing down to one of the gauges along his armrest and claims that:

“And that’s the last of the rocket fuel.”

“The hell was all that?” Melvin questions.

“My guess is that it was one of the trials set up in these caves. But more importantly...”

After stating this, the young skater turns her attention over to the young man who asked her; finishing her thoughts with:

“The kind of stuff you did back there was just nuts, Melvin. How’d you learn to do all that?”

Hearing his orange haired friend question him with this, Melvin’s mind is left to picture images of tall, snake like young man holding the hand of his once dearly beloved Chloe; the memory alone being enough to lite sparks of fury from deep within.

Almost instantly does he race over to the two with a trembling fist ready to lash out, aiming his furious punch out to the taller young man.

Rather than the strangers face, Melvins fist instead hits what felt to him like a rock solid wall of skin and muscle; gazing to what he had punch to discover it to be the abdomen of a bulking giant.

The site alone is enough to make him reel back, where upon he comes to discover not just one, but three whole familiar figures looking down upon him with their sinister glowing eyes.

Along the sides stood twin giants of red and green; all with a blue young lady hovering between the both of them.

All three of them lunge and envelope the young man; their shadows swiftly retreating to unveil Melvin’s bruised and beaten body lying on the floor; droplets of his blood staining the concrete he lies upon.

Another figure soon overshadow the battered and thrashed young man, Melvin using what strength he had left to muster to find it being an orange haired kid boasting horns on the side of his head; the boy’s shadow taking the form of a great demon that envelopes his body.

Simply picturing all this once more makes the young man’s pitch black hands slightly twitch, Melvin taking a deep breath before turning away and claims that:

“I don’t wanna talk about it. Let’s keep moving.”

“Oh...o-okay.”

Witnessing Melvin continue further down into the darkness of the cavern, Mally leans over to the chairbound wiz kid and whispers to him:

“You think this might have something to do with his big break up with Chloe?”

“Don’t know, all of it did kind happen around the same time. But I can’t be too sure about what happened then.

But maybe we shouldn’t talk about it literally behind his back; the scars are still to fresh to bring all that up now.”

“Ah...Yeah, guess you’re right. Let’s just catch up to him, make sure he doesn’t get lost.”

Deciding this do the two of them take off deeper into the dark tunnels after the young man; the young lass between them requesting their third to:

“Wait up, Mel!”

As the three of them continue further down the stone caverns, the tunnels they traverse begin to thicken with darkess the further all of them descend; Melvin peering through the void while asking his cousin:

“Yo, Hank. You got a light?”

“Uh, flashlight? Eh, there wasn’t really enough room to install one in my chair; got it pretty packed with all kinds of weapons and gadgets as is.”

“Ain’t that great. You tweak yo chair to fit all this shody gizmo’s and gadgets, but you didn’t have enough foresight to tape a flashlight to it. Fuckin incredible.”

“Here, I got one.” Mally then speaks up with as she digs through her backpack, pulling out a flashlight from its depths.

Pressing the button along its neck, a bright light pierces through the pitch black darkness of the rocky tunnel; the young girl aiming the light towards Melvin while requesting that:

“There, perfect. Now you can quit acting so hostile.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?” the young man barks back.

“Melvin, listen. I know you’ve went through some pretty rough shit recently, I get that. But that sure as hell doesn’t give you the excuse to act like a dick to us. We’re just trying to help.”

“The hell you to think I should do to blow off all this steam then?” Melvin then furiously exclaims.

“You could just talk to us. You got friends and family, ya know. Gave you time to work through it, but now you’re just taking your anger out on us. It ain’t fair.” the chairbound boy suggests.

“How the hell you two planning on talking all this shit out, huh? Ain’t like either of you had anything like I had with Chloe.”

Upon hearing his cousin bark this at him, Hank begins to withdraw from the young man; the boy left clearly hurt by this rash and striking statement.

But despite the outrage, Mally refuses to yield to her friends rage and states:

“That doesn’t mean we’re not here for you. You’re just mad cause Chloe didn’t feel the same way.”

“Yeah. Pretty sure you know all about that, don’t you?” the young man counters with.

This swift statement catches the orange skater off guard, reeling back while uttering:

“Wha-what do you-”

“Don’t gimme that clueless shit like you don’t know what I’m talking about! The way you looked at her, the way you looked at us together; you wanted her too, didn’t you? Ya felt your heart ripped out just lookin at us!

Keep spouting shit about being my homegirl. Bet you felt pretty fuckin happy hearing that we broke up, didn’t you, ya backstabbing bitch!?”

“Melvin, I didn’t. I don’t feel that way.”

“Fuckin say it then! Say you don’t feel the same way I do when lookin at her!”

This sudden demand leaves the young lady utterly silent before her friends accusations; failing to say even a word to him as he harshly ordered.

Melvin contemptuous glare grows further as he witnesses the girl respond only with drops of tears streaking down through her cheeks; his fists trembling as he turns and darts away deeper into the caverns.

“Melvin!” Hank shouts as he starts to wheel after his retreating cousin.

Before the chair bound wiz kid could race after the young man, he glances back to witness Mally dropping to her knee’s; Hank wheeling himself back to her side as he utters:

“Mally?”

“Dammit...”

“Uh-”

Thrust her fist down upon the earth below, the upset young lass punches the ground hard enough to leave craters on the stone as she curses out:

“God dammit! Why couldn’t I say anything!? I couldn’t even spit out a single lie”

“Mally, is what Hank said true? Did you really want them to break up?”

A resentful sigh escapes her as the orange skater curls up on the floor, responding to her concerned friend with:

“I’m not even sure how to feel about it all anymore. Your cousin’s a good guy, Hank. He didn’t deserve to get hurt the way he did. But every time I looked at both Chloe and him together, a part of myself just felt horrible and guilty inside. I hated it.

And when I heard that they had broken up, I could feel this saddening burden suddenly be lifted deep inside me. And it all came at the expense at one of my own friends. Am I just...Wha-what kind of heartless monster am I?...”

Before the poor girl could drown in her own conflicting turmoil, her wiz kid pal rolls up to her side and reaches his hand out for her; attempting to comfort her with:

“Hey, quit talking like that. You’re not some heartless girl jealous of your friends relationships, your an incredibly caring person that wants the best for everyone around her. Heck, if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be worrying about it all as much as you have been.”

Hearing all this come from the boy urges her to uncurl from the floor and rise back on her knee’s; all while Hank continues on with:

“I might be more of an engineer than a relationships expert, but even I can see how you’re practically tiptoeing through a whole field of land mine; just preying that you don’t trip one and cause the whole acre to explode on you.”

These words cause the orange skater to rise further off her knees and back on to her feet, all the while Hank further claims how:

“I’m sure that you don’t mean any contempt by it; you’re just trying to keep your feelings from hurting the people close to you.

But...you shouldn’t have to strain yourself too hard with all this sort of relationship drama; else your gonna tear yourself apart trying to keep it all together. You know what I’m saying?”

Wiping away the dribbles of snot and tears off her face, Mally turns to her chairbound friend and answers with:

“I think...I-I just don’t know how to get through all this.”

“How bout we start by finding Melvin before he winds up getting himself lost.”

“He he, yeah probably.”

Having been pulled right out from her curling turmoil, Mally sets off with her wiz kid as they both continue through the tunnels that their third had hastily raced down; the orange lass aiming her flashlights glow through the darkness ahead of them.

Left utterly struck by the skaters lack of a response, Melvin darts blindly down the cavern tunnels as far from her as she can; his eyes shut tight as his mind continues to race.

Though he feels the ground he treads upon flatten out, the young man fails to realize himself speeding straight through a much more constructed and ancient hallway; the rocky and jagged walls that made up the caverns now chiseled and smoothed to more stable and solid walls.

Eventually does Melvin start to slow down and open his eyes, his site adjusting to the darkness and discovering himself within a four way intersecting hall; the young man leans against one of the corners to catch his breath.

Resting on the chiseled stone, the shadowy darkness behind begins to take the form of a figure; the shadow approaching the young man as it echoes:

“Your pretty easy to set off, aren’t you? Just one press of the button and you go apeshit.”

This pestering voice reaching his ears, Melvin quickly jumps right off the corner and turns back ready for a fight; his guard waning when finding not a soul waiting at his backside.

“That kind of hotheaded bullshit is the reason that she left you.” he continues to hear.

“Who the hell you think your bitch ass is, thinking you know what shit I’m going through?”

“Who I am is the furthest thing from your mind right, isn’t it. Even I can tell that isn’t what’s going through that head of yours.

Oh no, you’d rather think about how one of your own friends could feel the way she does about your big breakup; and all when hearing that kind of shit so soon too.

It hurts, doesn’t it. The broad fact that you’ve poured your whole body for this person and she just left you on a whim; and to top it all off, your friends wait beside you pretending to care. But on the inside, they’ve been waiting for the two of you to split so she can take her and leave you alone and hollow inside.

It just makes you wanna tear them all apart, doesn’t it?”

“Fucking shut up!” the young man shouts while turning back to the source of the mysterious voice, again failing to find a single sound behind him.

“Like seriously, when has all that blind fury ever done anything but distance yourself from those around you; those that bothered to even care at this point?

How long will you think it’ll take them to finally stop caring and leave you just to die alone?”

“Fuck you!”

Screaming out with maddening rage, Melvin blindly punches the stone wall nearest to him; his pitch black fist striking hard enough to send cracks through out the stone.

After the initial quake settles, a part of the stone underneath his knuckles begins to give way and withdraw into the wall; a much more violent tremor passing through and rocking the entire hallway.

Standing back from the wall he had just struck, Melvin keeps himself steady against the spinning quake; gazing over down one of the hallway to witness part of it turning and shutting into another wall.

“The hell is going on!?”

As the young engineer shouts this, he holds onto the wheels of his chair while the smooth hallway that he Mally stand within start to tremble; the orange skater keeping her footing steady as the halls continue to tremble.

Turning back to where both Mally and Hank had came from, the young girl witnesses the way they entered start to close in; the constant quaking proving too strong to let them race back before it closes.

Once their only way out finally shuts, the odd tremors finally cease, letting Mally regain her balance as Hank keeps his chair steady.

“What the heck happened there?” the chair bound boy wonders aloud.

“Might be another one of the trails. Think Melvin might’ve done something to trigger it.”

“If that’s true, then we should find him before it has the chance to throw anything else at us.”

In saying such do the two of them take off deeper through the chiseled stone hallway, their racing footsteps echoing through the tunnels as they proceed forth.

While the duo continue to dart through the underground stone hall, Mally reaches over into her backpack and rummages through its insides and pulls out her signature pink helmet; the young skater stating:

“Glad to be on flat ground again. Now we can get this short really rolling.”

“If we’re kicking this show into fifth gear, then let’s rocket straight through!” Hank proclaims.

“Wait, I thought you said you were out of rocket fuel.” Mally reminds him while pulling out her skate.

“Which is why it always pays to have a back up.”

Stating this does the wiz kid reach underneath one of his armrests to press another button set along the very end; the box between the wheels and the chair flapping open to reveal a set of fire extinguishers, their hoses curving out to the sides of his chair.

As the orange lass finally dons her light blue flame skates, the canisters underneath her friend expels out a white foam with enough force for him to speed off; Hank letting out a gleeful laugh as he rolls on ahead.

“Eat my extinguisher foam, Mal!”

“Oh no you don’t!” the skater denies as she takes off after the young inventor, a big smile cracking between her cheeks as she races after.

The rollerblading girl quickly catches up to her chair bound buddy, both of them peering ahead to discover the halls ahead curling upwards; Mally glance over to Hank and advising him to:

“Keep your momentum up and don’t break.”

“It’s not like I can anyway.”

Once hitting the very start of the rising spiral, the duo keep themselves turning along the inner side of the hall; using the speed they have gathered to ascend up towards the very top.

Once making it to the very top of the swirling spiral, Mally and Hank’s eyes widen as they find themselves beginning to drop down a steep incline; the two continuing to grin as they drop down the descending cylinder tunnel.

Reaching the very bottom of the incline, the wiz kids smile diminishes as he finds a batch of sharp silver spikes lying ahead; Hank turning over to his skating partner and uttering:

“Uh, Mal.”

“Just follow my lead!” she responds with while rolling on ahead.

Approaching the cluster of silver pikes, Mally skates over to the side of the tunnel and starts to roll along the side; Hank doing the same as he keeps up the pace with his rollerblading friend.

Noticing another mess of deadly spikes up ahead, the orange lass finds a narrow passing in between the pair of spike pits and rolls right on through to the other side of the hallway; the wiz kid rolling not far behind as he follows after and rolls along the other side of the tunnel.

After swerving around the pair of spike pits, the rolling duo suddenly climb up a steep rising incline; Hanks fire extinguishers continuing to carry him up while Mally starts gradually loosing speed.

The ramping incline proves to long for the skater to rise up with her momentum alone and begins to fall back towards the bottom of the ramp.

Before she could begin to plummet down, a reaching hand grasps her wrist before she could descend; Hank taking a tight hold of the young lass as he rockets up towards the top of the incline.

“Gotcha!”

“Thanks Hank!”

“Don’t thank me yet!” the wiz kid warns as he gazes up towards the stop.

Glancing up in Hanks direction, the skater discovers the meaning behind his warning and finds the way ahead proving too narrow to simply speed through; threatening to crash straight up into the hard stone roof above.

“I got this one.” the skater declares as the pulls out her new gadget once again.

Mally casts her fresh grapple yo downwards as both of them begin to near the top of the incline; the metal shell of the device sticking along the face that they had just ridden up.

“Brace yourself!” she warns as they start to reach the top.

Once finally coming to the very top of the incline, the grapple yo jerks both of them back before they could crash straight into the roof; the duo instead landing wheels first onto the top edge of the cliff as Mally withdraws her tool back to her hand.

Having made safely to the top of the steep incline, the two of them continue bolting through the rest of the underground labyrinth; the chair bound wiz kid throwing his skating friend right to his side for her to land back on her own two skates.

Racing away from the cliff side that they had climbed, the duo are suddenly alarmed to notice themselves speeding right towards a huge wall of impaling spikes decorated with skeletal remains; Hank warning her that:

“We’re too fast! There’s no way we can stop in time!”

Staring up to the top of the spike wall, Mally finds a hole on the top of the hallway; the ceiling opening seemingly big enough for both of them zip right up through.

“We won’t have to!”

Upon declaring this does the young skater toss her yoyo up to the roof over their heads; the gadget sticking right onto the stone right above them.

While running the string along behind them, Mally clutches one of the handles along the back of his friends chair and warns him to:

“Get ready!”

“Wait, ready for what!?”

Just moments before the two of them crashed straight into the barricade of lethal silver set before them, the wire string that ran behind them suddenly jerks back; Mally taking the moment to leap up towards the hole in the ceiling with Hank in her hand.

The unexpected jerk back causes the two of them to suddenly flip away from the spike trap and towards the hole in the ceiling; the extinguishers attached to the inventor’s chair gliding them both away from the death wall and propelling them right through the hole.

Mally detaches her grapple yo from the tunnel roof and back into her hand as her and Hank continue up through the upside down passage they race into.

Continuing to roll right along the hallway ceiling, both of them gaze up to see a wide pit of silver blades all pointing up towards them from the floor; Mally hanging on to the back of Hank’s chair for dear life as they speed right along the roof overlooking the bloody pit.

“Aaaaaaa-” Hank screams.

“Yeaaaaa-” Mally cheers.

Coming to the very end of the pit of bloody knives, both of them witness the hall narrowing back to the tunnels flat stone bottom; Mally warning the inventor she rides on with:

“Hang on tight!”

Hank holds on to the arm rests of his chair like his orange friend told him to, keeping a tight grip as Mally herself stomps on the ceiling they roll through and kicks them back down towards the floor; twisting herself through the air to tilt her friends wheels back towards the ground.

The two of them land right along the very edge of the silver bladed pit, continuing further through the chiseled stone tunnels on ahead.

“Oh, oh wow. Think that might be the last of it all?” Hank questions to his skating partner as she hops right off the back of her chair.

“I doubt it.” she answers as she rolls along to the wiz kids side.

Up ahead could both of them make out what seemed to be an eight way intersection up ahead; the octagonal hall constantly spinning in place and constantly shifting direction.

“Its all up to the luck of the draw now.”

Left to wander deeper through this interchanging maze of smooth stone, Melvin continues through the encompassing void that plagues the tunnels ahead; his eyes failing to adjust to the ever thickening darkness before him.

An irritated growl escapes from between the young man’s teeth, the familiar voice from before pushing his nerves as it asks:

“So, you regretting ditching those two yet?”

Rather than answering the unknown voice, Melvin simply continues through the darkness, flat out refusing to give any sort of answers.

“Yeah, probably ain’t much of a stretch to think that they made it out of this hole by now, all while leaving you to wander forever in the abyss.”

Continuing to ignore the pestering voice, he hears it continue to pry at him with:

“Just face it. You’re borderline lost without other people with you. Its why you grew attached to Chloe, ain’t it; she actually gave you a couple of direction in life.

Without anybody around, all that’s life for you know is just piss in the wind; left to flail through the void of life like an angry kid throwing a bitch fit. And all because you too afraid to face the pain those broken bonds had left.”

Finally does Melvin stop dead in his tracks, turning back to face the figure drenched in shadows that stands before him; responding to its jeering with:

“Your bitch ass said yourself that Mally left some pretty bad marks.”

Staring to the figure in question, the shadow starts to gain some semblance of shape; some of them being rather familiar to the young man.

“True, but your hands are obviously far from stainless in that whole shitshow. You just couldn’t help but let your fury boil over and scald those who just wanted to help, could you?

Like a geyser constantly spewing the worst kind of bile, nobody wants to stay around you for very long. It’s just pathetic, really?”

Hearing all this causes the young man’s fists to tremble with anger, roaring back to the figure:

“Yeah, who the fuck you think your sorry ass is say this shit to me, like you got a hell of a clue that I’m like!?”

From this outcry, all that Melvin could draw out from the shadow was nothing but a contentious laugh; the figure gaining more of a familiar shape as it jeers with:

“Your bitch ass can’t be this fuckin brain dead, can it? Thought that shit would’ve been obvious by now.

Really, how would I know all this stuff about you; how I know that you bitched at your friends and fucked off with a sour taste in your mouth?”

Pondering on what all this odd figure of darkness pesters him with, Melvin’s pupils shrink as it finally dawns on him what this mysterious being is; the figure staring to show some features as it announces:

“Ding ding! Looks like our boy here finally figured out what sort of overused cliché shit he’s dealin with here.”

Standing before the young man, the figure that surrounds the darkness start to take the form of several of Melvin’s own features; his eyes shaking as he stares right at his own sinister gleeful smile.

Those very same mirroring features suddenly disperse from a shinning light, the figure fully disappearing as the glow rapidly draws near; the light approaching too fast for Melvin to dodge out of the way of in time.

Whatever shines this bright light suddenly runs right through him and knocks the young man right up in the air; left to carelessly careen through the dimly lit air, where he then feels something wrap around his leg.

Before he could even land back on the solid stone, whatever has enveloped his leg suddenly jerks him in the same direction the light races; feeling the back of his jumpsuit scrap against the floor as he’s quite literally dragged through the hallway.

“Got em!” he hears a familiar voice shout.

“Fuckin- Mally!? Hank!?” the young man shouts out.

“Hey Melvin, glad to have ya back on the team!” the wiz kid responds with.

“The hell you two doin!?”

“We up and figured to take a more rapid approach through this trail and race through it like a half and hour...what did Micah call it, a speedrun?”

“Stop this god damn freight ride fuckin now before I get over there and whoop yo ass’s!” Melvin demands out of them.

“Can’t, haven’t installed strong enough breaks yet.” Hank points out.

Aiming her site out to what lies ahead of them, Mally’s smile suddenly shatters when discovering the sort of deathtrap that awaits; the lass claiming that:

“Then we might have’ta make our own set of breaks soon.”

“What does that mea- Oh god!” the inventor questions as he turns back forward and finds what’s ahead.

Their eyes gaze further down the hall they speed down through to discover themselves head straight for a set of chomping silver teeth; each hard bite it makes loudly echoing through the hallway.

“Guess we might’ve biten off more than he can chew here, did we?” Hank remarks.

The orange skater leaps right over the chair bound inventor and lands right in front of him, breaking with her blades and pushing against the fire extinguisher propelling his wheelchair forth: screaming out in her struggle on how:

“We need to break harder!”

Her outcry reaches the young man being dragged along in the back, this being his queue to thrust the sharp ends of his pitch black fingers straight into the ancient stone floor beneath him; chunks of smooth rock scattering all over the place as he keeps his hands shoved into the earth.

Despite both of their struggling efforts, neither of them proves strong enough to stop the wheelchair completely; still set on a crash course towards the silver pair of chompers.

Seeing their efforts only buying them time, Hank decides to use that time by climbing over to the back of his chair and reaching to the valve of one of the fire extinguishers; his seat belt straining his stomach as he stretches further out.

Yet despite reaching out as far as he could, his arms seems just a tad short to reach the canisters valve; his fingers just an inch from its steel.

Desperate to stop himself before he and his friend race to their utter demise, Hank swipes his bright red cap right off his head and uses the strap to snag the valve; pulling on the fire extinguisher as hard as he can.

When just only several feet of the set of silver biters, Hank successfully uproots one of the canisters from the bottom of his seat; his gleeful smile swiftly disappearing as the foam from the extinguisher launches him away from the silver teeth and sent careening through the air.

As the wiz kid sends himself flying through the hallway air, Mally is left to flop down the stone ramp towards the deadly chomping teeth; finally stopping with her head mere inches away from the silver guillotine.

Moving herself away from the pair of biting chompers, both her and Melvin’s eyes remain glued to the chair bound inventor as he uncontrollably tumble through the air in a mess of extinguisher foam; watching as he crashes upon the hard chiseled stone floor.

“Hank!” Melvin exclaims, uprooting his fingers from the stone and racing over to where his cousin had crashed.

After climbing out from the downward ramp with her grapple yo’s string, the orange skater swiftly rolls over to the crash site as the young man lifts the inventor back on his wheels.

“You okay there, Hank? That was one hell of a spill.” she asks.

“Eh, ain’t the worst crash I’ve ever been in. Just only got myself a couple of scrapes and bruises.”

His cousin having confirmed himself to be alright, his worrying expression drains away as he stands back on his own two feet; the young man beginning to walk away without so much as a word.

“Melvin, wait!” the skater calls out.

Stopping right in his tracks, Melvin takes the moment to amuse her request and only listens as she claims that:

“I didn’t mean to hurt you back there. I never wanted to.

It’s just...You know the mysterious ways love works, right? It just blossoms suddenly whenever it wants to without so much as a care in the world. I so desperately wanted not to feel the way I felt about Chloe when she was with you, but it just wouldn’t go away. And I hated the way that it all made me feel.

I hated the fact that one of my own friends was dating the girl I had eyes on made me feel so painful, sad, and angry. The way that I felt about it made me disgusted with myself.

I didn’t want to hurt you or Chloe with all that I’ve felt. That’s why I just stood back and bared it all for so long. I should’ve known that you would’ve figured out sooner or later.

But no matter how I feel or what happens between the two of us. I’m hoping that all this grief won’t strain what we got set up here.”

From this open moment of regret that a brief moment of silence passes between the three of them; Melvin glancing back to break the silence with:

“You still feel that way about Chloe?”

Simply hearing the young man ask her this leaves the skater disappointed with herself, unable to lie to him as she simply answers with:

“Yeah, I do. I can’t blame you if you hate me cause of it.”

Listening to the young lady admit this, Melvin simply turns back and continues to walk down the dark tunnels; seeing his back turned leaving Mally utterly saddened until she hears him ask in turn:

“You still wanting to figure out where your bro went, right?”

Hearing Melvin ask this almost instantly perks the young skater right up both her and Hank following the young man deeper into the tunneling labyrinth.

The three of them together once more, the trio continue through the winding maze of smooth chiseled stone, the orange girl shinning her flashlight down the path that lies before them.

Suddenly out of the blue do all three of them feel the hall they stand in fiercely tremble all around them, the unexpected quake causing Mally to slip on her skates and fall face first onto the hard stone floor.

Before she could start to stand back up, the walls between her start to close in; that section of the hallway slowly spinning and threatening to pinch the lass between the stone walls.

“Mally!” Hank calls out, wheeling out to her.

Before the pair of walls could clamp down upon the lying young girl, a pair of pitch black hands suddenly force the spinning hall to stop right in its tracks; Mally herself gazing up to discover Melvin keeping them from pinching her whole body.

“Hurry and get up!” the young man demands while struggling to keep the walls at bay.

While arising off the hard stone floor, Mally tosses her new gadgets out towards the inventor and wraps its wire string around his wheelchair; pulling back to jerk the young boy in both her and his cousins direction.

“Wait, the hell are you doing!?” the young man exclaims.

The young lady tugs the wiz kids chair hard enough to send him rolling right through both her and Melvin; all three of them tumbling through the hall far enough for them to be spared from being caught among the closing hallways.

Once all three of them stop tumbling through the tunnel, Mally helps Hank off the floor as she apologizes with:

“Sorry about that Hank. Kind of a quick second decision there.”

“Nah, I get it. Pulled a couple of those in the past too.”

“But really, I got you to thank Mel for holding the-”

Glancing over to the young man who had saved her skin, the skaters thankful smile deflates when witnessing the young man simply walking through the hall and telling them to:

“Come on. The end can’t be too far.”

“Oh...right.”

Geez, he’s uh…he’s still acting pretty cold. Guess he isn’t as forgiving as first impressions might’ve gave. Still, at least he’s actually talking to us. Would’ve thought it take at least a week before any of us could get a word through to him.

Let’s hope he feels like staying like that.

Heading deeper down through the chiseled stone labyrinth, all three of them eventually come to the very end of the hall; a stretching round chamber decorated with numerous carvings all along the wall. Right in the very middle of this chamber be a large stone button surrounded by carvings of what look to be disembodied angel wings.

“Ain’t seeing any way through here. Guess we should go backtrack.” Melvin concludes as he turns back towards the way they came.

Before he could get really far, he stops right before the corridor when hearing his cousin say:

“Hey, look at all this.”

Turning back towards the wiz kid, the young man sees both him and Mally staring at some of the engravings along the wall; Melvin waltzing over to their side and taking in the etched markings.

Along the very bottom of the wall stood what seemed to be humanoid figures gathering by the masses, some of them fluttering with angel wings and rising from the crowd. High above all of them however are what seemed to be numerous evangelical creatures that all sport different and numerous forms.

“So, what you think this all might be about.” Hank questions them both.

“The hell makes you think either of us knows?” his cousin responds with.

Closely staring to the dozens of almost eldritch beings that hang above the crowds, Mally takes note of how each and every one of them possess angelic wings in some form or another; no matter what sort of inhuman twisted or otherworldly form they may take.

“The better question is what all of them might be.” she adds.

Its in scanning through these numerous angelic beings that her eyes stop upon a particular one of these etchings; the young girls pupils shrinking upon glaring at the image of a neigh beastly severed head with dozens of angelic wings piercing right out from the base of the neck, all with its gaping maw holding the top half of a human on the tip of its tongue.

The very site of the image is enough to frighten the young girl to the very core of her soul, her body refusing to cease trembling as horrible memories that she had buried start to pierce through the surface.

No...No...This-this can’t really be-

“Hey Mal, over here.” she hears Hank state.

The calling voice of her wiz kid friend is all it takes to break the girl out from her fearing paralysis; Mally rapidly shaking her head about and glancing over to where the chair bound inventor had called.

“Found something over here.”

As both Melvin and her wander over to Hanks side, Mally asks the big inventor:

“Watcha find?”

Gazing in the same direction that the wiz kid does, the two direct their attention over to a particular piece that depicts another human figure with larger wings standing atop a tall jagged stone; the lines emanating from the rock suggest it glowing a bright light.

“So, what you think it means?” Melvin sarcastically asks.

“If I were a betting boy, I’d say that this is how the kids that were sent down here might have “ascended”

and became angels.”

“All cause of some glowing rock? The fuck kind of mineral did they pull out from the ass crack of the cosmo’s that let them do that?”

“Whelp, only one way to find out.” Mally states as she causally waltz’s over towards the button on the end of the chamber wall.

Moments before the skater girl could lay a single finger on the stone plate, Melvin grabs hold of her shoulder and stops her just in time to go:

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! The fuck you think you’re doing?”

“Uh, pressing this plate here? Not really much else we can do in here.”

“You sure as hell thinkin that punchin some strange button in the middle of a death maze is the smartest idea?”

“Well what else you think were supposed to do?”

“Yeah, Mel. Not to mention that this is the only part of the maze with these kind of carvings all over the wall, maybe pressing it is the only way we can move on.” Hank then adds.

“Neither of you seriously think that this just another trap set up to fuck us all over, or did the fucked up number of skeletons not give ya a big enough hint?”

“Melvin, we haven’t seen a single bone on the way through this part of maze. Don’t you think it might be cause it’s the way forward?” the skater counters with.

“Bullshit. Your just guessin now!”

“Well so are you!”

Rolling right in the middle of the two, Hank cleanly divides both his friends up and answers their quarrels with:

“Guys, guys, relax. This don’t have to turn ugly again. Why don’t we just do a coin flip to pick.”

“Fine.” Mally gives.

“Sound good to me.”

From just his pants pocket, the lovable wiz kid pulls out a shiny silver quarter with an eagle etched in the back with Washington facing the front; soon snapping the 25 cent’s right in the air as he tells both his friends to:

“Call it.”

“Heads!” Mally chooses.

“Tails.” Melvin picks.

Catching the coin right in the middle of the air, Hank slaps the quarter right into the back of his hand; slowly uncovering the piece as his friends closely watch.

The result of the flip revealing to be tails, the young man cheers his win with:

“Hell yeah.”

All while Mally viciously stamps the ground while cursing out:

“God dammit!...Fine, just lead the way Mel.”

As the two of them start to head back towards the corridor they came in from, Hank starts hearing a soft hiss constantly leak out from behind; taking a little glance underneath his wheelchair to the remaining fire extinguisher still attached to find the valve askew.

“Oh boy, better fix that before it winds up screwing us.”

Unbuckling himself from his chair, the inventor stretches himself over to the very back and reaches over to the loose valve; grasping the base with both hands attempting to tighten the lid back on.

Unfortunately, he miscalculates how much extra room unbuckling himself actually gave him and accidentally falls right out of his own chair; accidentally uprooting the canister and slamming it right on the floor, the valve unintentionally pulled right off the lid.

Melvin and Mally swiftly turns back to their paralyzed pal to witness Hank taking cover as his own extinguisher as it sporadically flails all over the dead end; constantly spewing extinguisher foam as flies.

When witnessing the hard iron canister aiming out towards the wiz kid, Melvin dashes out towards his cousin and scoops him away before the extinguisher could hammer down upon him.

The two cousins tumbling over to the very edge of the chamber as the extinguisher continues to sputter about, Hank watching as the canister starts rocketing towards his orange haired friends head.

“Mally, hit the deck!”

Like her partially paralyzed pal urges, the young skater drops down to the stone floor just before the steel canister could fly straight into her head; the lass looking over to the two boys and shouting:

“How do we stop this damn can!?”

“We don’t have to! It should run out of foam at any moment now!”

Just as the wiz kid predicted, thinner strands of extinguisher foam start to expel out from the open lid; the iron can gradually slowing down as it bounces off the carved stone walls.

Right before the canister could fully empty itself of leftover foam, the bottom of the extinguisher punches itself straight against the stone plate placed right in the middle of the chamber wall; the button withdrawing into the wall with an audible click.

Witnessing the only exit out from the small chamber suddenly close off to the three, Melvin can’t help but let loose an irritated sigh; cursing their luck with:

“Of fucking cours-”

All three of them then suddenly begin to feel the entire chamber start to quake beneath their crouching bodies; the room soon spinning in place with such an incredible force, one strong enough to fling the trio straight out to the etched walls behind them.

Try as all of them might to fight against the overwhelming centrifugal force, the trio remained forcefully glued to the etched chamber walls.

Turning his head over to the side, Melvin finds himself barely able to even lift a single finger as the room remains rapidly revolving; the young man screaming out to his friends how:

“This shit shows gotta stop before we turn into blood red pancakes!”

“Something in my chair might help. But I can barely move a muscle to reach for it!” Hank screams.

“I can...I can fix that!” Mally then claims, crawling her hand over to her overall’s pocket.

Reaching into the depths of her denim overall’s, the orange skater pulls out for her new metal yoyo and starts to raise the gadget up, straining every muscle in her arm fighting against the insane gravitational pull.

“Just a little more...”

When finally heaving the metal gadget as high as she could, Mally tosses the yoyo out towards the downed inventor over on the other side of the chamber; the gizmo flung just hard enough to reach the center of the chamber and go careening down right next to Hank.

When seeing his freshly gifted gadget crash right onto the part of the wall before him, Hank then hears the girl he gave the grapple yo to advise that he:

“Climb the string!”

Tracing the string left behind by the tossed gizmo, the wiz kid finds the metal wire overlapping his own wheelchair left stuck along the wall; Hank grasping the reinforced string and start slowly dragging himself across the wall.

“Right!”

Despite feeling the ridged and carved engravings that decorate the wall scrape against his skin, Hank nonetheless fights through the constant pain as he climbs up the wire and inches closer and closer back to his wondrous wheelchair.

Soon enough however does the partially paralyzed wiz kid finally crawl back to his knocked down chair; using what strength he has left to spare to inch his arms out towards one of the chairs armrest.

The inventor’s hand agonizingly inches along the layer of buttons set along the bottom of the plastic armrest, feeling the centrifugal force strain his arm as he inches the tip of his finger reaches out for the button he intends to press.

Against all odds does Hank finally press the button along the close end of the armrest, a plastic flap opening up at the very end of the handles at the back of the chair; a single tiny missile of wood and tin firing straight out from the hole and through the fiercely twirling chamber.

The overwhelming outward force causes the rocket to curve from its straight trajectory and redirected right into the pressed in stone plate, the missile exploding in a mess of rocky fragments upon impact.

As the smoke from the erupting boom start to dissolve, the room at last gradually loses speed and begins coming to a relieving crawl; the three kids and the wheelchair that remained pinned to the wall finally falling to the floor.

“Ah...Fuckin shit man. Thought it’d never end.” Melvin groans out.

“I could feel my intestines ready to spew out.” Mally moan.

While the two lift themselves off the smooth stone floor, their eyes drift over to notice the inventor left motionless on the floor; the scrunched remains of his wheelchair left lying on top of him.

“Hank!” both of them cry out, racing over to their paralyzed pals side.

While Mally takes the chair right off his body, Melvin flips his cousin right on his back and finds light bloody scrapes all over his skin; the young man attempts to shake him awake as he exclaims:

“Hank! Come on, cuz, wake up! Please be alright!”

His incessant rattling swiftly brings his cousin’s consciousness back to the forefront, Hank cracking his eyes open with a weak smile as he hears the boy claim that:

“Hey. Guess we made it, didn’t we?”

An insanely relieved breath escapes from Melvin��s mouth, answering him with:

“Yep, we passed this bitch.”

“Not sure if the same thing can be said about your chair though.” both of them hear their skating companion insist; looking over to see Mally holding what remains of the kid’s wheelchair; the metal left bent and scrunched inward.

“Shit. The hell happened to it?” Melvin questions.

“My guess is all the centrifugal force we endure was too much for the poor thing to take. All the pressure bent and scrunched the frame to the brink of collapse.” Hank implores.

“Think you can still use it.” the skater asks.

“I doubt any of the gadgets installed in it survived the trip, the inner mechanism looks too far gone. Ah, just got finished decking it out too.”

“What about as just a wheelchair?”

“Huh…not to sure. Can’t hurt to try though.”

“Don’t think so. You should just let me carry you.” Melvin then suggests.

“What, no way in hell, cuz.” he harshly denies.

“But-”

“Mel- Let’s be real here. You know I’ve bounced back from way worse.”

“...Fine, whatev.”

Complying with his paralyzed cousins request, Melvin stands up holding Hank on his shoulders; the young inventor legs dragging across the smooth stone as his cousin walks him over towards the wreck that was his supped up chair.

As soon as Melvin gently sits Hank onto the cushion of the nearly broken chair, its entire frame starts to tremble and quake beneath the boy; seemingly on the verge of collapsing at any moment.

With both of his hands, the boy takes a tight grip to the pair of rims attached to the sides, making the chair instantly cease shaking altogether.

A soft chuckle escapes from the young wiz kid’s teeth as his chair proves stable; Mally letting go of the handles along the back and stating out:

“Wow, holding itself together better than I thought.”

“Yep, that’s what custom made junkyard steel is for ya.”

Its in this brief moment of calm that they all feel the room begin to quake once again; all of them frantically gazing around the room and preparing themselves for what else it may decide to throw at them.

Their eyes are directed over to the other end of the chamber as they see the once shut exit open up once more; revealing a corridor different to the one that they had came in from.

“Hey, that might be the way ahead. Come on!” the chair bound boy eagerly suggests as he wheels himself over to the exit, keeping his tattering chair steady as he rolls forth.

While Hank merely rolls along out from the chamber, both of his friends waltz casually behind him; the two hanging back as the skater between them mentions how:

“Ya know. Your really luckier than you think having a cousin like him. Always willing to pull himself back up whenever life pushes him down.”

“Ya think I can’t get up from that shit?” Melvin questions.

“Oh believe me, you don’t stay down for long either, but I doubt you do it with a smile like his. That kind of friendly and helpful drive is gonna take that kid places someday. Places that we can only imagine.

Plus, it sure as hell explains how he can put up with you as a cousin.” Mally remarks with a jesting grin.

“Th-the hell does that mean!?”

His overblown reaction is enough to draw out a little laugh from the young girl as she skips ahead to her other friends side, Melvin’s anger broken instantly with a soft, small grin as he shakes his head as he himself catches up as well.

Coming to the very end of the corridor side by side, all three of them behold the site of what lies at the other end; a small golden hall lined with what looked to be several sculptures of twisted shapes and symbols hovering alongside strange wooden vines baring bizarre fruit.

The golden walls depicted more of these angelical creatures and beings sharing next to no apropos of any comprehensive reference, with nothing but angel wings shared among them.

Left to stand within the very middle of this chamber of art pieces and twisted trees be a golden pillar that towers them all, its glimmering surface depicting winged figures standing atop a glowing rock.

“Whoa...To think something like this was hidden with these caves all along. H-how did no one else find this place, especially in our modern age?” Hank babbles.

“Probably died tryin to find a way out.” his cousin remarks.

Rolling closer to the cylinder resting in the middle, the wheels of his chair suddenly lean into something beneath him, gazing down to find himself getting caught in a strangely shaped hole.

“Huh?”

Backing himself up, the inventor returns his gaze down once more and grabs his friends attention with:

“Hey guys, think I found something here.”

Waltzing over to their paralyzed pal’s side, the other two share in the boy’s site to gaze down to a pair of pressure plates sculpted in the shape of human feet; Melvin wondering aloud:

“The hell’s so important about this?”

“I think it might be what uncovers what’s inside that big pillar there. One of us has to step up.” Mally answers.

“How bout I give it a go?” both of them hear Hank suggest.

The two give the gleefully smiling lad a pair of strange glares, Hank failing to keep himself from busting out laughing, giggling out:

“Gotcha!”

“See what this shit does?” Melvin questions as she steps his two feet between the golden plates; both his friend and cousin stepping aside as the twin buttons sink down.

As the pair of plates continue to sink down through the floor, a brilliant light starts to leak out from between the cracks; the glow swiftly covering the surface of the twin panels.

When the light reaches underneath the young man’s feet, he starts to feel a searing pain sizzle his very souls’; the burning sensation urging him to jump right off and away from the pair of feet plates, watching as they rise back up and the glow withdraw back underneath.

“Fuckin bitch!”

“What happened?” Hank questions.

“Damn plate burnt right through my shoes.” he answers as he lifts his feet up, strangely finding next to no burn marks on the bottom of his kicks.

“They don’t look burnt through. Wonder what happened?”

“Swear man. Burnt like hell.”

Left curious of what she had just witness, Mally decides to step up and stand upon the twin plates; Melvin and Hank glaring cautiously as the light that emerged from underneath the plates return.

“I ain’t feeling any burning...Kinda tingles actually.”

In claiming this does the light glowing from underneath the plates start to crawl up from beneath the girls feet and up through her legs; Mally’s entire body is soon enveloped with in this thin layer of bright luminescence.

As the light remains over the young skater, its bright surface starts to take on a thick shade of blood red; the scarlet glow suddenly leaping right off the lass’s skin and out to the golden cylinder standing before her.

All of them stand and watch as the blood red light seeps its way through the engravings along the pillars glistening surface; soon growing out from the carvings to the rest of the surface until fully consuming the cylinder in red.

Once fully cloaked in the scarlet light, the entire pillar starts to dissolve before their eyes; the last of the glow vanishing to reveal what waits within it.

Above the trio does a hole in the ceiling open up all the way up to the outside, letting the twilight glow sun down and beat down upon their flabbergasted gaze.

“What-”

“The-”

“Fuck?”

All three of are left utterly shocked when left to simply stare at a whole lot of nothing presented to them beneath the pillar; with nothing but some pebbles scatter atop a sizable stand.

“The hell was that shit about? All that build up just to uncover fuck all.” Melvin exclaims.

“I-I don’t-I-I don’t understand. Why would anybody go through the trouble of setting up all these trails and mazes, send literal children down this death pit just for nothing to wait for them in the end?” Hank frantically ponders.

Approaching the stand that hid within the golden pillar, Mally picks up the bits of rock that remain upon it; taking a closer look and concluding that:

“Something definitely was waiting down here. But whoever found it last didn’t want anyone else having it.”

“Either way, we wasted our time for nothing.”

Feeling her frustration coming to a boil, Mally tosses away the pebble in a spout of fury; turning back to the two boys and disappointingly suggesting that:

“Lets just go home...”

Standing right above the hole, Mally takes her grapple yo out and readies to toss it up towards the sunlight; moments away from flinging it up before she hears Hank claim that:

“Maybe it wasn’t after all.”

Lowering her gadget, the skater glances over to her chair bound friend and utters:

“Huh.”

“Look.” he tell her, pointing out over to the far end of the chamber.

Turning over in that very direction, the orange girl withdraws from the light of the sun and starts walking away to the other end of the room.

All three of them approach the wall, their jaws left agap when watching the same blood red glow from before trail itself throughout the engravings; the scarlet light drawing out letter that soon form into complete sentence.

Mally reads the glowing script aloud:

“With your ascension now complete, take to the skies and soar to the highest peak.

Grant those who attempt to stop you a swift fin, for at the top, you shall rise to the side of your fellow kin.”

“Soar to the highest peak? Like a mountain top?” Hank ponders.

“Fellow kin? The hell does it mean by that?” Melvin wonders.

“I don’t know. But whatever all this says, it means one thing. My search for my brother is far from over.”

----------------------------------------------------

The very first step of Mally's journey to find where her brother is. It seems that this little venture will not only test her body and skill; but her relationships to the people around her as well.

#lillaxtrigger #younghope #writing

0 notes

awellboiledicicle · 7 years ago

Text

I wonder how Sebastian feels about being in a relationship with the most wealthy nerd ass fuck in Stardew Valley.

Like I purposly bought materials for a barn, fully upgraded it, and then filled it with pigs entirely to burn money because i was upset about having made too much from mining the.. mines.. while i was doing a lot of monster slayer missions in a row and making artisan goods ok. So like that plus my auto watering/animal care mod, i have much money. Many, many monies.

But i imagine Farmer Moe acts like they don’t have many monies, perhaps some moneys, but not many monies. Because they came from a very modest life and a dead end job in the city where they lived on ramen and joja cola. Money went to utilities and temple. They are simple person.

So I just imagine Seb’s computer breaking and him freaking out and them being like “ok calm down-- use mine to look one up on Jojazon.” “Thanks, babe.” So they’re looking and Seb looks at bare minimum ones that will work because he’s thinking of what he’s got in the bank. They start at like 300g and he’s sweating bullets, he has like 450g total and he still has to think about tax and shipping and oh Yoba... “Don’t you... need like, a super fast fancy thing?” “Well, like, i can get by till i make more and i can upgrade..” “Lemme see.” Moe clicks on the sort for highest rated. “Would that be better?” “... That is a 9,000g computer, Moe.” “Yeah. But would it be better for your coding and design things?” “I could do so many things with that.” He paused. “That is so fucking expensive though. I don’t think i’ve ever seen that much money, let alone thought about spending that much.” Moe shrugged and added it to the cart. “Kay.” “WHAT” “I make that in literally a day.” He had to take a few breathes and blink a few times. “What?” “Do you know how much rich motherfuckers will pay for truffle infused mayonnaise. A fucking lot.” They shrugged. “Just put what you need into the cart and get your code on, hun. I know your job’s important to you, you’re an independent guy and i get that but i wanna help. So, i’m helping.” ”Thank you, but i think i need to lay down.” Moe patted his shoulder. “Same.” Sebastian was face down on their couch while they typed in payment info for the computer, a work tablet to manage emails so he could keep his computer sterile re: computer to computer interaction aside of thumb drives, a back up computer, and a pack of stick drives. He was processing the fact they were spending the equivalent of like, 5 years of his family’s income on him.

The fact Moe flopped on the rug by Seb and held his hand in mutual ‘omfg that was so much money’ is not the point.

Because helping is good but holy shit money anxiety is there no matter how much you have

#Mok the Farmer #stardew valley #stardew sebastian

401 notes · View notes

reversemoon255 · 5 years ago

Photo

I don’t have anything to review this week. I had plans to do a few BeastBoxes, and held out until the end for them to get here, but Customs has been a right pain with slower shipping over the past few months. Instead, I thought it might be fun to go over the past years worth of builds I did and see which ones I enjoyed the most, whether it be because the build itself was fun, I put a lot of work into it, or the end result was just neat.

RX-零/覚醒 RX-Zeromaru Shinki Kessho

These aren’t in any particular order, but we’ll start with the updated Zeromaru. While this wasn’t a particularly interesting kit from a build perspective, it did have a fun gimmick. It’s mostly on here because this was the first time I recolored every part in order to color match. I’ve done it a few times since then (mostly with gold pieces), but this one was particularly interesting since I’d done the kit before without doing so, so seeing the two of them next to each other was really cool and felt like I was really stepping up as a builder.

GN-0000DVR/S/HWS Gundam 00 Sky HWS

While this build had a couple issues, I had a lot of fun with the 00 Sky; I tried some different panel lining techniques, experimented with paint to emphasize details, and the HWS was the last kit I added to my first series display. While the overall plot may not be the best, I stand by that Build Divers is a very good series if you’re looking to find some Gunpla Builder inspiration.

OZ-08MS-SP-K Leo Kanabo

This was the last custom Leo I built, and ended up being one of the ones I’m most happy with. It doesn’t deviate very far from the original Leo’s design, but the ways that it does are very simple and effectively get the design intent across. Still wish I could have gotten that hip skirt to look a little better, though.

XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1

RGs aren’t very fun to build. They look great on a shelf, and can be fun at times to pose (if you’re not building a rickety one), but are typically something you build for the end result. While the Crossbone is no exception, it gets some bonus points for effectively using its parts and being one of the cheapest RGs to date. It also has a ton of accessories, gimmicks, and effect parts for its price, and is probably my favorite RG I’ve built.

Matchless Raijin-Oh

Now we start getting into some non-Gundam stuff, with the only kit that’s not made by Bandai. Coming from Good Smile’s Moderoid line, Raijin-Oh feels like toy art. While not necessarily the most interesting build, the end result is fantastic, finding interesting ways to cheat anime proportions into both the combined form as well as the three separate mecha that make it up. Also, behind the scenes, totally forgot to attach Hou-Oh’s tail in every picture. Oops.

eEXM-17SOS Alto Sub-Orbital Sniper Kai III

The only other custom on this list is, again, not from Gundam. The 30MM line is made for making custom units, and this was my first attempt with an idea I’d had in the back of my head for a long time: a sniper that attacks earth-bound enemies from orbit. I used four different upgrade kits to pull off the transformation from basic Alto to its third iteration, and it turned out great other than the very thick white paint. (I am my own biggest critic.) I know I say this every time, but you should totally look into 30MM if you haven’t; it’s a great way to create custom units with almost no barrier to entry.

PFF-X7 Core Gundam + PFF-X7/V2 Veetwo Gundam + PFF-X7/E3 Earthree Gundam + PFF-X7/M4 Marsfour Gundam

This is the coolest gimmick I think I’ve ever seen on a Gundam. While building Core Gundams has gotten a bit monotonous (and I may have to build a ton more of its new upgrade, at least one Core Gundam Rise, and maybe more than one Enemy Gundam Core), the end result is always fantastic from a meta perspective. While a lot of their parts are shared, the minor variations you can do to not only modify a Gunpla’s performance, but also its appearance is really cool. I’ll give extra praise to the Marsfour since it also inspired me to try doing some dry brushing techniques for the first time in a while.

ZGMF-X19AK Gundam Justice Knight

Now this was a fun build. All kinds of added joints, special gimmicks, and good use of parts. This was also another time I did gold color matching if only because I painted the chest vulcans and wanted everything to match. But to be fair, I probably wouldn’t be as fond of it if I didn’t. It’s a poser’s Gunpla built to pose, and it can outlandishly do so. They did also announce a standard Infinite Justice release, if that’s more your thing.

WarGreymon (Amplified)

I’m a big Digimon fan, and I’ve talked before how I was disappointed that the Digimon Reboot model kit line went under after only one kit. WarGreymon was a Grey(t) reinvigoration of that old idea. He has amazing use of plastic at bizarre angles to create a very involved and interesting sculpt while still maintaining all of his recognizable elements. His main issue is he’s a brick, having joints but not the strength or sometimes clearance to move them. Still looks great, and is cheaper than most of your other options.

神竜合士 Valkylander

I’ve been giving a lot of love to Re:Rise, but they just keep producing solid kits (of their hero characters). The Valkylander is an SD Gundam with two separate combined modes, one of which is a dragon. This was also another case where I went ham on the paint to great effect. I believe the Avalanche Rex Buster parts release next month, and I’ll be excited to put those together. Y’know, before Par builds something else in season two that replaces them...

Overall, I built 27 model kits over the course of 2019, and I can’t help but feel I’ll end up building even more throughout 2020. I’ve got a few P-Bandai kits on the way, a massive 30MM custom project I’ve been collecting kits for, I’m going to be starting work on a Build Divers Sidestory Display, and the second season of Re:Rise is releasing in April. I’ve already got 16 model kits on the way or on preorder, and that’s just through April. If all goes well, hopefully this will be the last week I don’t have anything to review for a while.

#Gundam #Gunpla #30MM #Matchless Raijin-Oh #Raijin-Oh #Digimon #WarGreymon #Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise

5 notes · View notes

cloudybs · 7 years ago

Text

Another Day Another Trip 4 : Bandung by Gojek

Yeup, it is good day to write something while I have a story to tell about my indoor trip in Bandung City. Yes literally the city, because I only visit places near the city.

A day before my trip, I had prepared and planned where I wanna go. Actually, I wanted something close to the nature which mean it would be further from my bro’s house, however I didn’t have many times so I decided to not to go there. Maybe, another day.

I searched and made a list of museums in Bandung, and then I looked for them on the gMaps. By looking them on the gMaps, I knew one place was close to others or it was far. Again, made a list and determained the paces I wanted to visit. So here they were : Nuart Sculpture Museum, Barli Museum, Babakan Siliwangi, Graha Prahyangan Railway Museum, and Bandung Zoo.

I went to one place to the other by Gojek, if only the distance would make me gempor if I took a walk. Why gojek not the other public transportation like angkot or something? Yeup, actually this trip would be more fun if I went by other public transportation which could make me met Sunda people, had a conversation with them and other unexpected moments. But, heuu again I didn’t have long time to spend.

Don’t be upset, because I still have interesting story about places I visit and about my gojek partners. Joke.

1. NuArt Sculpture

Seriously, it is a really recommended museum to be visited! In this museum visitor could look to incredible sculpture by Nu Artha. Do you know him? He’s a big artist who designed and made Garuda Wisnu Kencana sculpture in Bali, one of his famous work I think. Im sure you know about GWK.

They greet the visitors

One of sclupture in front of the galery, cool huh?

I really loved this place, because the galery room and the street galery were very amusement. I felt so much calm while I was enjoying the sculptures. I dont know about sculpture, anymore. But I could enjoy them, everytime I saw them I wanted to see the deets. Hah, most of time it made me whispered to my self “damn it’s so cool, beautiful” and felt stop breathing.

Some of the collections

My favorite among all of the sculptures, named WTC

I still have many more photos, but I want you to come and see by your own eyes to enjoy them. So just visit, and feel the peacefulness here.

2. Barli Museum

The building of the museum has 3 floors, 1st floor is cafe, and the rest is the galery rooms. There are two kinds of collections : old toys and paintings by Mr. Barli. The old toys display in the 2nd floor and there are some paintings by children who has paint class here, while the Mr. Barli’s paintings placed in the 3rd floor.

You’ll see this in front of the building

Some collections in 2nd floor

The old toys remind us our happy childhood when we’re playing the toys. A good reminder. Here, we also study about the history of kinds of toys. In the 3rd floor we can enjoy many paintings with their own story and we were educated about types of painting and the meaning of them.

Old toys, ever played with them, huh?

Some of Barli’s painting, from left to right : Mr. Affandi, Mr. Barli and Mr. Sudarso, Painters.

However, honestly many repairements must be done to make the visitors feel comfortable. It needs some air conditioners so visitors won’t be sultry, and also the collection setup needs to be changed because it is too tight and make the visitors can’t enjoy them freely.

I hope, it will be upgraded soon!

3. Babakan Siliwangi

This is one of park in the Bandung city. This place good for people who are exhauted of work and need some refresment but near from the city. Some couples do the pre-wed photos here too. There are some snack sellers here, so you can enjoy the ‘oxygen’ and snacks peacefully.

Such a pleasure, huh?

4. Graha Parahyangan Railway Museum

I tell about this museum, sadly. I hope the organizer will manage this museum well and well for next time.

I was about confused when I arrived, because there was no sign that showed it was a museum, it looked like an usual building or house. Then when I talked to the security ...

M : Permisi, ini Graha Parahyangan?

S : Iya, mau berkunjung teh?

M : Iya, buka a’?

S : Iya teh, silahkan tulis dulu. (deliver the visitor book)

M : Oh iya. (write my name, and feel very sad when I see the condition of the book, it is ripped and the last date writen is October, hello this is december)

S : Tapi di dalam cuma ada galeri-galeri foto teh, nggak papa?

M : Iya, enggak papa. (a bit confused, I mean some other museums only have photos to display, so what? but.. hmm)

S : Oh, ya. Sebentar ya teh, saya bukakan dari belakang.

I really sad everytime I remember this.. Why? :(((

Front part of the building

The building of the museum actually is Mr. Oscar Kelling’s House, an European enterpreneur but then it’s owned by PT. KAI. So, in the beginning You’ll see the story about this house and how Mr. Oscar used it as his living place. And the next collections, we see about history of railway and railway station in Bandung, and in the next room people can see the photos’ of the Director of the Indonesia’s Railway Company.

Some collections

Bandung Railway Station, 1930

Director of the Indonesia’s Railway Company, upper left is Mr. Djuanda, find out about him if you curious

Upgrade, please!

5. Bandung Zoo

This place just pleasing. I don’t know what to tell, I just happy to be here to see some beautiful animals, which I forget or haven’t known some of them. Maybe some people will say “I am sad to see animals to be in the cage, can’t be free”. But yeah just accept, the aim of the zoo is to educate children, and agree or not it is needed.

orang utan

Sitatunga, I never knew this before

So, that’s it about my short trip. I was so glad, although my footh is gempor.

1 note · View note

weaponsgrademouth · 8 years ago

Text

Top 16 TOYS of 2016

For this one, I just decided to make one long list post, as I’m not taking new photos for this. Really this is going to be my top 16 out of the bots/figures I made in the last couple of days. And honestly the numbering might be weird when you consider the other lists, but whatever. List after the break.~

16. Animated Shockwave

I love him cause he’s Shockwave, but he’s pretty limited in what he can do. 15. Animated Magnus

Dudes big and beefy, and again; not very poseable. But that damn bot and alt mode. 14. TAV Thunderhoof

The alt mode, vehicle, and character just do it for me. 13. Marvel Legends Taskmaster

Very poseable, great sculpt, just wish it had more things that came with it. 12. SH Figuarts Beerus n Whis

They just belong together, I don’t see how you couldn’t buy one without the other. They take spot 12 for being my favorite antagonists, second only to Cell. 11. Generations Optimus Prime Legend Scale

Baby Prime is just so nice. I wish the chest locked open, but that’s my only gripe. 10. Masterpiece Ironhide

Great figure. Great everything. But a majority of the MP Bots released so far seem to be 90% “The red guys”, granted that’s a lot of em, but that’s also kinda my point. He rated higher on my bot list, but I have more of an attachment to some of the other things on this list. SorryNotSorry. 9. Generations Jetfire

After spending a lot of the last year reading ALL of IDW that I missed because I came in so late, I fell in love with Jetfire at one point and just HAD to have him and Unite Warriors Computron... And of course this was after Jetfire had been off the shelf for a year or more, and was going for stupid amounts on ebay... Luckily BBTS had him and had a sale. 8. Play Arts KAI Cloud Strife Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

I said everything I could have said about this guy on my Figures list. The PAK figures are kinda pricey though, and pretty damn big which makes me wary about buying too many... otherwise I’d have the main four from FFXV... 7. SH Figuarts Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta and Goku

Much like Beerus n Whis, these guys HAVE to go together. Great sculpts. Love these updated outfits. Wish Vegeta had a normal head. 6. SND Primo Vitalis Upgraded Combiner Wars Prime

I love this upgrade kit for this figure. But, the process of getting it on there, and just the looseness of the figure (Not SND/the kit’s fault) just make me a little “meh”. 5. Star Wars Rogue One Black Series Deathtrooper

I loved these guys in the trailer. I got really excited because I thought the black outfit jyn wore in the trailer was her DISGUISED as a Deathtrooper. And I loved these guys in the film. Plus they’re troopers.~ 4. SH Figuarts First Order Stormtrooper

I just love the sleek design of this outfit. And the SH Figuarts version with all the damn joints just makes me gush. If they weren’t so expensive, my entire troop would be this figure.

3. Star Wars Rogue One Black Series Scarif Stormtrooper/Shoretrooper

Again; the design of these guys just kills me. Plus they’re troopers. Plus I work at the place they’re exclusive too, and there’s easily 5+ Walmarts within like an hour drive of me. I am not done yet.

2. Sentinel Mega Man 4Inch-NEL - Megaman.EXE

I love this figure. I love this character. And I know it’s weird to not have this and Primo be at spots 1 and 2 on this list considering my other lists, but I don’t make sense. 1. Star Wars Rogue One Black Series K2-SO

The months leading up to Rogue One I had no interest in K2-SO. It just looked odd to me compared to the other three droids we’d seen in “leading rolls” in the films. But when I saw that movie, I had to go out and get a K2-SO. And he has sat next to my keyboard ever since, because I love him. I love everything about him. Everything.

Alternative Number 1: Star Wars Black Series Kylo Ren

I currently own FOUR of the black series Kylo Rens alone. (Not counting my figuarts, POPS, or the tsum tsum). I have two more in the mail right now, and the MAFEX one on order, and will probably get the unmasked Ren by Figuarts. Just like K2-SO, I love everything about Ren. Difference being, when I saw him in the trailer I had an interest in him almost instantly.

7 notes · View notes

murasaki-murasame · 5 years ago

Text

I was planning to make a whole post anyway about my hopes and predictions for Gala Leif if he ends up happening next month, but there’s also a whole lotta other stuff to talk about now with the FEH rerun, the Ciella fight teaser, and our first gala dragon, so I guess I’ll take the chance to just talk about everything all at once, lol.

I feel like I went through every possible human emotion in the span of like ten seconds when I saw the gala banner announcement a day or two ago and then saw what it was actually about. That sure was a roller-coaster.

I honestly don’t really care about Mars that much [mainly because I’m always just more interested in adventurers than dragons], but I’m really curious about the precedent this is setting, with this being our first gala dragon, and this also happening only one month after the last gala banner.

They’ll probably talk about it in the next This Month post in a week or so, but I’m gonna just assume for now that we’re gonna get gala banners on a monthly basis from now on, rather than every two months. Which is a little bit scary to think about since it gives us less time between each gala to save up for each one, but we’ll just see how it goes.

Everyone’s predicting that we’re gonna alternate between gala dragons and gala adventurers, but I’m not sure it’ll be strictly scheduled out like that. I feel like we’re just switching to a monthly schedule and we just happened to get a gala dragon as the start of the schedule shift. I think it’s more likely that we’re going to start seeing reruns of old gala units between entirely new gala characters. I mean, it’s pretty obvious how much revenue it’d get them if they ever decided to rerun Gala Cleo or Gala Alex, lol.

Mostly I just can’t even think of that many options for what they could release in terms of gala dragon alts. We might get some of the other dragons that the royal siblings have pacts with, but we only know of like two other ones.

Mars’ introduction is bringing up the whole hot button issue of powercreep in the fandom, but honestly I don’t think Mars being really powerful is that big of a deal. He’s not exactly essential for any content, and tbh at the end of the day I just think it’d be weird if our first gala dragon WASN’T notably powerful. People already complain about dragon banners as it is because they have such low value. I can only imagine how many complaints there’d be if we got our first gala dragon and it only ended up being a sidegrade to the existing options. From what I’ve seen of how Mars changes up things on the DPS sim, I think they struck a good balance of making him powerful without him being super gamebreaking. I honestly think that Marth’s mana spiral is a much more blatant example of powercreep, and has had more of an impact on the flame meta than Mars alone.

Anyway, on the note of Marth and co, the FEH rerun has finally begun, and I kinda have to agree with everyone that the defense gamemode just doesn’t really feel good to play at all when it’s locked to solo, lol. It’s so obviously designed for co-op instead. It’s not really that big of a deal, but it does feel like more of a slog than it should, especially since you have to do it like 45 times for the event endeavors, and since there’s so many valor rewards. I’m curious to see how it pans out when this becomes a regular gamemode for future events, though. Hopefully they get better at balancing it and making it fun to play.

Even though I still don’t have any interest in pulling on any of the FEH banners since I just want to save for Gala Leif, I did decide to 70MC Alfonse, because haha bad decision machine go brr :) But I honestly do like him a lot, and I’m excited to get Sharena from the upcoming event. I hope she’s a light lance since I don’t have H-Elly or H-Vanessa, but we’ll see how it goes.

We also got some more teasers of the new FEH event and how it’ll play out. It looks like it’ll be a wave-based arena mode of sorts where you fight lots of enemies, which apparently include boss versions of different gacha characters. I think they mentioned a while ago that they’ll be introducing a new event type to the event rotation along with defense battles, and I assume this’ll be the first example of it. If they do, I hope they keep the part with you fighting boss versions of gacha characters, since that’s a neat idea that makes them feel different from the other events we get and the bosses we fight.

They haven’t really said anything about what the new FEH units will be like aside from Sharena, and I can’t really make any guesses since I’m not a Fire Emblem fan to begin with, but I’m already bracing myself for the inevitability of us getting a two-part banner for the new units, lol.

We’re also getting Ciella’s fight at around the start of next week, and they posted a preview video of the standard difficulty version of it. It seems like she inflicts a unique debuff called Vulnerability, so I’m really curious to see if I end up being correct with my previous theory about certain wind units getting debuff cleanse mechanics added via mana spiral upgrades. I think there’s at least one part in the video where Lowen heals the team and it doesn’t cleanse Vulnerability like it does with Plague, and it’d be a bit weird if you’re just meant to deal with having the debuff until it eventually wears off, so it’d be neat if they do introduce a new debuff cleanse mechanic.

Though tbh I can’t actually tell exactly what Vulnerability is meant to even do, since I don’t think it seemed to have a big impact on how much damage characters took, even though it definitely sounds like it’s meant to be a defense debuff or something. Either way, it’s probably going to be the central mechanic of Ciella’s fight, so hopefully we get tools to deal with it.

They only showed off the standard version of her fight so things will probably get more complex in expert, but it looks like her fight’s going to be built around making you move around a lot to dodge attacks. She seems to have various purple attacks, as well as homing attacks, and one move that seems to fire projectiles that bounce around the map. I don’t know how much this will really impact things, but it at least seems different to how relatively little you have to move around in Kai Yan.

It also looks like she might have unavoidable freeze-inflicting attacks, which might be interesting. They probably want you to use at least one freeze-res character. Which might not really diversify the meta much from where it is now, since Hawk has freeze res, but we’ll see how it goes.

We haven’t heard anything about us getting more wind mana spirals, but I’d be kinda surprised if we don’t get any more for this. In general wind is in a bit of an awkward spot, and if we don’t get more mana spirals for it soon, I feel like the Ciella meta is just going to be Tobias + Hawk [and maybe Lin You] again, if only just due to a lack of good options.

I’m also still really interested to see what the wind Agito weapon buffs end up being, and how much they might benefit certain characters. I think that a crit rate buff might be pretty nice, at least for characters like Ku Hai, but that sort of a buff probably wouldn’t help people like Lin You or DY-Xainfried much since they have crit rate buffs in their kits already. A crit damage buff could be interesting, but unless you’re playing as Lin You or have a DY-Xainfried on the team, it might not be as good as a crit rate buff.

Either way, I’m slowly getting a 0UB wind CT2 of each type just so I have all my options available to me, but I feel like the first wind Agito weapon I get will probably be a blade or wand, since I’ll probably end up using either Tobias, Noelle, or DY-Xainfried against Ciella most of the time. I do have a 70MC Lin You, though, so I might get an axe too.

We’ll see how it goes when the fight comes out, but I’m gonna assume that Ciella will probably be about as difficult as Kai Yan. Though since she doesn’t seem to have the same ‘you deal twice as much damage to the boss as you normally would for some reason’ mechanic as Kai Yan, and since wind is way less broken as an element than shadow as a whole, it’ll probably take a bit longer to clear. Though tbh I’m still like 100% expecting people to be able to clear it notably faster with full shadow teams than wind teams, so there’s that to consider, lol.

Anyway the main thing I’ve been thinking about recently is Gala Leif, who I’m still hoping against hope will come out at the end of next month.

It’s not like we know for sure he’s gonna ever be released at all, but with chapter 13 he’s officially joined Euden full-time, and he got a whole new redesign and 3D model to commemorate it, which really seems like blatant set-up for him getting a gala alt. Like how Sarisse has her NPC design, and a 3D model based on it for Melsa’s event, but then she got a new outfit and 3D model for her gala alt. Even Mym technically got her design tweaked a bit for her gala alt compared to her regular NPC artwork.

I wasn’t even sure at first if Leif got a new outfit for chapter 13 or if it was just a different pose, but it’s definitely a different outfit. Or, more accurately, it’s basically his old outfit but tweaked and redesigned to be more ornate and fancy and detailed, which is pretty telling. And I’m pretty sure his 3D model from the Void Poseidon fight was a new one based on his new outfit, which is also just even more additional design work to put into someone who’s currently just an NPC.

I heard that in chapter 9 he was basically given the same sort of internal coding as Albert [like how NPC Zethia in chapter 1 was apparently based on Hildegarde’s data], but I don’t really think he’s going to be a light unit, at least if he does end up as a gala unit. We already have Gala Euden as a gala light sword adventurer, and I don’t think they want to double up on that. I also feel like one way or another Leif is going to be fairly support-based, which would make him overlap with Gala Euden even more if he were a light sword. So I’m just hoping that doesn’t happen.

In the long run I think that his role in combat will be more relevant to the question of which units he’d overlap with, rather than his element/weapon combo. I mean, we could have a purely offensive gala light sword and they wouldn’t actually conflict too much with Gala Euden because they’d do different things. The various changes we’ve gotten to how co-abilities work, and the introduction of unique co-abilities, means it’s not really a big deal to have two units with the same weapon type in a team together so long as they do different things.

Which is also why I don’t want him to be a wind or water element sword unit, either. Gala Ranzal is [kind of] defense-oriented already, and also he just doesn’t deserve to get directly overshadowed by a hypothetical new gala wind sword, lol. And even though Gala Elly is a different weapon type, Leif would definitely conflict with her in practice if he was a support-oriented water unit.

Funnily enough I think him being a shadow element gala sword built around team buffs could work fine, and he wouldn’t really overlap with anyone aside from maybe Patia, but realistically I doubt we’ll get another gala shadow sword so soon after Gala Alex, no matter how different they might be in practice, lol.

So basically due to process of elimination I think I’d want him to be a gala flame sword. On the one hand the idea of a gala flame sword doesn’t really interest me at all, but honestly I think he could be surprisingly interesting and really shake things up if he’s support-oriented. Nearly all of the flame swords we have are pretty much entirely offensive, and nobody uses Karl even though he can technically be used as a support-based flame sword with the right set-up. So I honestly think that Leif could have his own relatively unique niche in the flame meta even if he ends up with such a common element/weapon combo.

There’s also the fact that Volk seems like it’s going to end up being the hardest Agito fight by a substantial degree, so I think it’d make sense to start introducing more flame units designed to let people break into that fight. And from what I know of the Volk meta [from having never actually played eVolk myself, lol], it seems pretty obvious that the big hole in the flame meta at the moment is how H-Lowen is basically the only accepted support unit, and he’s an entirely support-focused unit who does next to nothing to contribute to the team’s DPS. If eVolk and HMS didn’t have unavoidable damage and high difficulty in general, he’d probably lose his place in the meta, which I feel like is kinda already happening as a result of Hawk and Marth’s mana spirals. So I feel like what flame really needs right now, rather than more good DPS units or more good healers, is a support unit who can also contribute to team DPS.

So basically what I want is for Gala Leif to be like a mix of Tobias, Gala Elly, and T-Hope. If he wants to be an alternative/replacement to H-Lowen, he’s going to need at least SOME healing, on top of offensive/defensive buffs. I wouldn’t actually want him to have enough healing to straight up replace H-Lowen as a healer, but if he wants to be an alternative to him then he at least needs enough to deal with stuff like cleansing plague.

In general my basic idea of how I think his kit could work in order to fulfill that role is that he could have an S1 that has a big strength boost and a smaller defense boost [so like a reverse of Patia’s S1], and an ability/chain co-ability that gives Team Healing Doublebuff. Preferably on the level of 5% HP per tick instead of 1% HP per tick like with T-Hope. I think that’d basically be all that he needs to be able to work as a team support unit who can contribute to team DPS while also providing enough healing to deal with plague and recover people from unavoidable damage, even though he wouldn’t be as good of a generalist healer as H-Lowen.

For both Volk and HMS there’s also the issue of interfering with melee baiters, and needing to do ranged baiting for certain moves, so in spite of him being a sword unit, maybe they could give Gala Leif an S2 that gives him a ranged attack stance like Tobias, so he can let the melee units do their thing.

This is all just more or less baseless speculation, but this is just what I’m thinking they could do to address the fact that Volk is the hardest Agito fight, that the support role is the most exclusive and difficult role in that fight, that H-Lowen is basically dead weight DPS-wise who seems to slowly be losing his relevance in the face of 4DPS team comps, and that Emma has basically never been meta for Volk and has become way less important for HMS with how co-abilities work now. So introducing a new gala unit who provides fairly substantial team DPS buffs along with adequate healing seems like it’s exactly what the flame element needs right now. And considering that Gala Alex has poison and buff dispel it’s not exactly impossible that we could get a gala unit designed to work against Volk. It might make more sense for us to get a wind gala unit next to go against Ciella, but I still think that Ciella won’t be as hard as Volk, and wind also already has more in the way of viable support units than flame does at the moment.

The fact that our first gala dragon is also a flame one designed for DPS units, along with Marth getting a super powerful mana spiral, also just makes me think that they’re still trying to address the Volk meta and give people more options for it, so I think it’s reasonable to assume our next gala unit might be designed to address the support/defense part of the flame meta.

It’s worth noting, though, that I’m pretty sure Leif had some sort of team defense buff when he showed up in chapter 9, which is basically the main reason why I’m assuming he’d be a support/defense-based unit rather than an offensive one. Patia also ended up being a team support unit so it’d just make sense if he ended up being kinda similar, lol.

Anyway this was way too many words to just say that I want my boi to finally come home :v

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #TL;DR: please just let Gala Leif exist and be worth getting :( I've been waiting like eight months for this bastard to be playable

0 notes