#madame talon

[the-gravestone-saga]

Angel Fallen: The Chronicles of the Legion

Chapter 9: The Golden Cathedral - Part 2

Angel Fallen: The Chronicles of the Legion has been canned and will no longer be updated

First blood was drawn by Ofia, who had dove headfirst into the battle, her lance outstretched and poised to pierce whichever of Judgment’s soldiers were unlucky enough to get in her way. When she landed in the cathedral’s central courtyard, a Cherubim was lodged between her lance and the ground, his golden blood spilling onto the lush greenery. 

All around her, the Legion and Judgment’s forces were enthralled in the siege, deep in the chaotic throes of battle. Above her, angels collided in the air as Legion and Judgment angels met each other's blades. Beside her, the Legion’s leading angels had followed her to ground level. Rudra, Joriel, Noir, and Skyla had landed amidst a large swath of Judgment’s soldiers, and swiftly cleared the enemy angels from the inside out, thinning their ranks in a matter of seconds. 

Anita followed shortly after, having hitched a ride on Talon’s back before being thrown towards the cathedral’s battlements. Anita bore a mad grin on her face and brandished a bazooka-esque weapon when she landed, a hellacious grin on her face. “This is gonna be fun...”

Soon after Anita began unleashing unholy hell on the Judgment soldiers in the courtyard, Talon and Net had landed a few feet behind her, systematically taking out the smaller artillery units that the airship had failed to obliterate. 

“Anita! Focus some of that fire on the barracks!” Talon shouted. “Shadiel’s weapons are in there!”

“Can I take some?” 

“Yes! Just make sure the barracks are destroyed when you’re done!” Talon shouted. She and Net seized one of the artillery units a moment later and hurled it over the cathedral’s walls, where it splintered apart on impact with the ground. “Just make it quick!”

Anita’s face broke into a more frightening grin. She swiftly leapt down from the cathedral’s ramparts and sprinted to the other side of the courtyard, where she disappeared into the barracks. 

“Are you sure that was a good idea?” Net asked, shoving another artillery unit over the cathedral’s walls.

“No idea! If she comes out with a nuke, it ain’t on me!” 

***

The artillery units were soon taken care of, having all been hurled beyond the cathedral’s walls where they all laid in splintered heaps at the base of the fortress. With all threats of aerial attack gone, Styna could make her move. Darting through the sky with the precision of a wasp, she weaved in and out of the aerial battles between the Legion and Judgment’s army and dove towards the main palace of the cathedral. The roof was made up of a fine glass dome that ended in a golden point at its summit. Styna gauged that she could break through the glass and infiltrate the palace from above, then make her way down to the vaults below. With all of the stronghold’s guards distracted by the siege outside, it was unlikely she’d run into anyone still guarding the palace.

Landing on the glass roof, she unsheathed one of her daggers and slammed the pommel into one of the panels. The glass immediately buckled and shattered, granting her access to the upper echelons of the palace. When she slipped inside, the chaos of the siege became muffled and distant, with only the deep, resonant boom of the airship’s artillery fire reminding her of the battle raging outside.

“Alright, I’m in. Now I’ve just gotta find that vault…” Styna sheathed her dagger and began her search. Scurrying through the polished marble and granite halls of the palace, she quietly followed the wide corridors, her heels softly clacking against the granite floors as she searched for anything that might look like a clue to the whereabouts of the Great Beast egg.

However, after passing through numerous chambers that all appeared identical to her, it soon dawned on the Power that she wouldn’t be able to find the Great Beasts egg by trying to brute force it. Deciding she needed some help, she pulled out her Emitter Stone and contacted Larimar - he had Lucifer’s diagram for the cathedral, and even if the diagram was incomplete, it was better than running blind through the palace.

“Hey, Prince? You there?”

“I hear you loud and clear. What’s going on?”

“I need to borrow that brain of yours. I need to find my way to the vault, but I don’t know where to look! I need you to guide me there with that diagram you stole from Luci.”

“You called the right angel. Based on the blueprints I have, it looks like there’s a hidden passage somewhere in the West Wing of the palace. Where are you now?”

“Uh…a few rooms north of the central dome,” Styna replied, mentally mapping out where she had already been. “I’ll start heading to the West Wing now.”

“Be careful out there. The airship’s computer is picking up on some life forms inside the palace. Some of Shadiel’s goons must still be in there,” Larimar warned.

“Noted,” Styna replied. “Here’s hoping there are no traps ahead.” 

“You and me both.”

Following Larimar’s instructions, Styna made her way through the winding halls of the palace and began heading towards the West Wing. Miraculously, the way was clear - there were no guards patrolling, no traps to be tripped, and no security systems to alert Judgment’s forces of Styna’s presence. It was eerily easy for Styna to find her way around the halls, and somehow that put her on edge more than any security system could.

Passing through a final series of halls and interconnected rooms, Styna entered the central chamber of the palace, where the North, South, East, and West Wings all linked up into a single atrium. The entrance to the West Wing was just to her left, but Styna found herself unable to continue her trek. She was instead captivated by a massive, imposing terminal in the center of the chamber - the palace’s central data hub. The supercomputer.

“Uh…Prince? I think I found that computer you warned us about,” Styna stammered, gaping at the colossal machine. Control panels were oriented in a ring around the central hub, and a holographic screen was projected from its center, hovering in midair as it wrapped itself around in a circle to be viewed from all sides.

“Wait. really!? Where are you right now!?”

“Some kind of foyer? All four wings of the palace are connected here. And this thing isn’t just some subtle computer terminal,” Styna winced, tentatively stepping towards it. “This looks like something out of a movie.”

“Let me see it.”

Styna complied and turned her Emitter Stone towards the supercomputer. A mortified gasp escaped Larimars lungs, nearly making Styna drop her Stone.

“Are you kidding me!? NOT AGAIN!” Larimar cried in exhaustion.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Styna bit, tightly gripping her Emitter Stone. 

“I recognize that supercomputer! Shadiel had its blueprints all over his laboratory when he took over my position as the Head of Technology!”

“I need a bit more than that, Prince! What does this thing do?”

“Shadiel designed it to be a weapon. He didn’t make it to hack into other devices, or even to destabilize nations. He designed it to be powerful enough to affect the real world directly! It’s a metaphysical computer, capable of altering reality in ways you couldn’t even imagine!”

The color from Styna’s face drained, and she took in a sharp breath. “Uh…well, at least it's currently deactivated,” Styna stammered, trying to find some solace as her situation abruptly became significantly more dire.

“We better hope it stays that way. That thing is extremely dangerous, and we’d be stuck here if it was turned on.”

“Why don’t I just destroy it? Wouldn’t that remove it from the equation entirely?”

“You can’t just destroy it,” Larimar said. “That would activate its self-defense protocols. It’s one of the few times Shadiel has actually bothered to add self-defense protocols into any of his shitty inventions.”

“So do I just ignore it?” Styna inquired, her small wings fluttering with uncertainty.

“That’s all you can do. We’ll keep the soldiers occupied out here. Hopefully that’ll keep any of them from turning it on.”

Styna exhaled, some of the tension leaving her body. “Alright then. Back to the mission at hand…”

***

While Styna and Larimar navigated through the labyrinthian palace, the battle for the cathedral raged on outside. However, not every member of the Legion was performing well. While the rest of her fellow angels effortlessly slayed Judgment's soldiers and stained the ground gold with the ichor of their enemies, Skyla was not so lucky and found herself repeatedly failing to lay even a scratch on her enemies.

Instead, it was more common for her to charge, and then immediately be thrown into the nearest wall like a limp noodle.

Nowhere was this more paramount than when Skyla found herself staring down a heavily armored Judgment angel, noteworthy for an iron mask that concealed his face, and the two ivory spikes that jutted upward from his temples like the horns of a bull. 

Skyla met this bullish angel in the cathedral’s courtyard, standing head and shoulders above the rest of his armored comrades. Holy fire spilled from his mask's mouthpiece, and dark smoke billowed around his head like black ribbons. Skyla, thinking more with her heart than with her mind, decided that this raging angel would be the perfect target for her newfound passion. When she landed amongst Judgment’s forces, she inadvisably caught his attention by hurling a fireball at his back, which only served to enrage the raging bull.

Spinning on his heel to face Skyla, the angel let out a deep, bellowing warcry and charged her without a second thought, lowering his head to skewer her with his glistening horns. Skyla sucked in breath from between her teeth and braced herself, tightening every muscle in her body as she stuck her hands out to stop the bullish angel in his tracks. 

In what can only be described as a poorly executed game of chicken, the angel crashed into Skyla in a head-on collision that sent her flying into the air in a flurry of black feathers before she came crashing back down to the ground, wheezing as the wind was knocked out of her.

Skyla croaked and spat out grass and dirt, momentarily dazed from the impact. She fumbled for her lance and awkwardly rose to her feet, to which she was met with the bullish angel’s raucous laughter. Skyla’s wings flared at the angel’s guffawing, and her ichor boiled beneath her skin.

“What’s so funny!?” Skyla shouted in exasperation, dirt and grass still clinging to her flushed cheeks. 

The bullish angel slowly turned back to Skyla, and she could practically see the wry grin beneath his iron mask. “What were you expecting to happen? That I would just roll over?” he cackled, his voice coming out in a resonant boom. 

“That was the plan!” Skyla huffed, shaking her rustled wings. “Come on! Fight me! I’m not done with you!”

The bullish angel only laughed harder. “You!? A pipsqueak like you expects to fight me? Do you have any idea who I am!?”

“The Minotaur?” Skyla replied dryly.

Holy fire exploded from the bullish angel's mouth. “NO!” he roared, Skyla’s remark clearly having plucked a nerve. “I’m Claptrap! The first of the empowered angels-!”

“Your name is Claptrap!?” Skyla blurted, unable to stifle a boisterous cackle. “I really hope Daddy Dearest didn’t name you that! That’s just cruel - WOAH!” Skyla’s ill-advised taunting was swiftly interrupted when Claptrap charged her again. Skyla narrowly dodged his ivory horns and jumped clear over his hulking form with a few paltry wingbeats. 

Landing on the other side, she wheeled around to face him for another headlong rush. Not having learned from her mistakes, Skyla tried to stop the raging angel in his tracks once more by standing her ground as Claptrap charged. When he inevitably rammed into her, he caught her between his horns, bludgeoned her to the ground, and dragged her across the courtyard, tearing up soil and grass as he went. When he finally stopped, Skyla took the brief opening as an opportunity to counterattack - an opportunity that didn’t last long as Skyla imprudently drew back her arm and struck Claptraps face, an action that quickly led to agitated screaming as her fist met Claptrap’s metal mask. This only provoked further inane laughter from the brutish angel as puffs of smoke leapt from his mouth.

As Skyla clutched her now-bruised hand, Claptrap seized her by one of her pauldrons and hurled her into the cathedral’s alabaster walls like she was a ragdoll. The sting of the impact detonated through her wings and back, and an equally painful blow damaged her ego.

From the moment she had landed among the Legion, she was raring to go, ready for anything that Judgment’s forces could throw at her. She was fiery, passionate - and also painfully bullheaded. She had been among the first to land, and yet she was still struggling against a single soldier.

Her frustration was swiftly growing, and her movements became sloppier and less refined as the battle raged on. Why was she performing so badly? She was doing everything that Rudra did! She watched Rudra swing her crackling blade with practiced ease, and she would mimic that movement with her lance. But while Rudra could disembowel or decapitate an angel with a single deft slice, Skyla could barely put a dent into Claptrap’s plated armor. While Rudra’s precision with her sword was deadly and true, Skyla’s lance would haphazardly bounce off her enemies, or she would miss her intended target entirely.

Trying to charge Claptrap had equally humiliating results. Whenever Skyla had enough leeway to rush down the hulking angel, she would take her chance and charge him head-on, just like Rudra. But, as seemed to be a recurring pattern, her attempt at brute force would be immediately thwarted, and she was sent back to square one.

She couldn’t understand it. She was doing everything Rudra did, and Rudra was busy tearing through enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter, all while Skyla felt like there were heavy irons shackled to her ankles.

Finally, her one-on-one struggle against Claptrap came to an abrupt end. As she was thrown to the ground for the last time, the strange angel from the Evo City radio tower saved her by skewering Claptrap’s neck with a silvery rapier, swiftly killing the massive angel. 

The strange angel then turned and asked her, with a blank look and a blanker voice, “So. How’s the ground taste?”

Skyla groaned into the dirt before scrambling to her feet, grass stuck to her face and dress. “I had him!” She snapped, angrily scraping dirt off her face.

“Are you sure?” The pale angel inquired, the monotone never leaving his voice. “I’ve been watching you this whole battle, and I’ve only seen you fight this one soldier.”

“It’s nothing - I’m just trying to get the hang of things!” She said, huffing for breath. She turned and hobbled towards her lance, which was stuck in the ground a few meters away. “I’ve just gotta do what she does, and I’ll be fine!”

“Suit yourself. I’ll prepare some ice for your injuries.” 

Skyla petulantly blew a raspberry before charging back into the chaotic battle once more - only to be immediately thrown right back into the cathedral’s wall by an enemy Seraph.

Skyla groaned and peeled herself away from the stone walls, brushing off dust and bits of brick from her armor. “...Ok, I might need a little help,” she grumbled, leaning on her lance for support.

The pale angel silently nodded, his blank expression never changing as he helped Skyla stand upright. “Stay on the move. Being light on your feet is the best thing you can do.”

Skyla heaved a sigh and nodded. “Alright, alright. But what about my lance? I need to charge with it to do anything.”

“Forget the lance. Here.” The pale angel removed a second scabbard from his hip and handed it to her. “It’s a shortsword. It’s much lighter than that lance. Try using it instead.”

Skyla seemed to hesitate. The sword would have been better, but she had grown attached to her ebony lance. It seemed wrong to just abandon her weapon in the middle of battle, but…

“Ok, maybe just this once.” Skyla dropped her lance to the ground and thankfully took the shortsword. When she did, she noticed that a cool breeze had begun to pick up. For the brief moment it was there, Skyla let the wind cool her off.

“I think it’d be better if you stuck by a more experienced angel,” the pale angel said. He directed Skyla’s attention skyward, where Ofia was locked in an aerial showdown with countless enemy soldiers. 

The Ophan was like a dancer in flight, deftly controlling the rings of her body with effortless flair. Her rings achieved many feats, and Ofia could switch her battle style on the fly. Her rings could be used to batter soldiers out of the sky, they could latch onto and shackle multiple soldiers together and fling them around like a limp piñata, or - and this was Ofia’s favorite thing to do - she could enlarge the rings into colossal, sawblade-like bands of fire that spun endlessly in the air, trampling over anything and everything that got in their path. It was as beautiful as it was deadly.

“...Yeah, I think you might be right,” Skyla said, grimacing at the idea of being thrown around by enemy soldiers again.

The barest hint of a smile came across the pale angel’s face as he gave her a hearty pat on the back. “Then go. I’ve got some soldiers of my own to deal with.”

“Wait, don’t you-” When Skyla turned back to the pale angel, he was already gone. Skyla blinked at where he’d been standing, then sighed. “That relic did a number on him…” 

With her new shortsword in hand, Skyla resigned herself to a slightly different tactic: if she couldn’t fight exactly like Rudra, she could at least do something comparable. Using a similar weapon was a good place to start. It pained her to abandon the chance to prove herself to Rudra, but the pain of being tossed around like a ragdoll hurt all the more. So Skyla spread her dark wings and took to the skies after Ofia.

***

Ofia, however, was blind to Skyla’s approach. Instead, the verdant Ophan busied herself with tearing apart the onslaught of soldiers that swarmed around her and filled the air with thousands of wingbeats that sounded like thunder. 

But even a thousand enemies couldn’t stand in her way. Commanding her rings like a skilled general, Ofia cleaved through the oncoming swarm, slicing her enemies apart and leaving them to drop out of the sky like flies. She poured herself into her rings, infusing them with so much of her power that they became unstoppable wheels of destruction. Her anger fueled the fire that spurted from them, her sorrow forced them to spin ever faster, and her adrenaline drove them on, never letting the rings falter as they spun through the air and crashed into her enemies. It was exhilarating for Ofia, and she couldn’t help but break out into a fiendish grin as she reduced her enemies to bits of bone and ichor.

In fact, she was so caught up in her onslaught that she hardly even noticed Skyla coming up behind her, and she nearly jumped out of her skin when she spun around and almost crushed Skyla’s face with one of her rings.

“What - SKYLA!?” Ofia squawked, several of her golden feathers popping off in shock. “Where did you come from!?”

“That pale angel sent me up here!” Skyla squawked, flinching away from Ofia.

“Wh - that Ascended guy?”

“Is that his name?”

“Last I heard,” Ofia replied. She spun around and continued her onslaught, never breaking conversation with Skyla as the two swiftly began fighting back-to-back. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you aren’t doing too hot down there, huh?”

Skyla growled, plunging her shortsword through the exposed neck of an oncoming soldier. “I’m just rusty, that’s all!”

“Rusty!?” Ofia threw back her head and laughed. “You were getting your ass handed to you down there!”

“Alright, so I can’t exactly replicate Rudra’s results! So what? I can do something similar!” Skyla hissed, conjuring a wall of fire to protect herself from an oncoming soldier.

“Skyla, just accept it! You can’t fight like her!” Ofia shouted, raising her voice over the scream of her flaming rings. “I was willing to back you up on this before, but you’re really starting to worry me!”

“Ugh, you sound like Jori!” Skyla groaned. “And Talon!”

Ofia swung one of her rings about and caved in another soldier’s skull, dropping him out of the sky. “Well maybe you should listen to them! Talon knows what she’s talking about!”

“Or maybe I’m just not trying hard enough!” Skyla retorted with all the tired stubbornness of a mule. “Also, and I know this probably isn’t a good time to ask, but where is Talon? I haven’t seen her since we landed!”

Ofia deftly caught a ring as it spun back to her hand. “What do you mean? She and Net are on the battlements-” Ofia craned her neck down to the glimmering walls of the Golden Cathedral, and her words abruptly caught in her throat. “GAH! Where the hell did they go!?”

Much to Ofia’s surprise, the two metallic angels were nowhere to be seen. Where previously they had been dealing with the remaining artillery units on the Golden Cathedral’s battlements, Talon and Net were now out of sight. A pit swiftly formed in Ofia’s stomach as she frantically began scanning the battlefield, a shot of adrenaline cracking through her body with startling speed.

“Shit shit shit - WHERE ARE THEY!?” Ofia squawked, her rings sporadically spinning around her in an uncoordinated and confused dance, clumsily smacking into enemy angels with all the grace of a whale on roller skates. 

In an instant, Ofia’s tight focus on the enemy had broken and her mind was sent spiraling into a mire of dread. Where had they gone? She had kept a close eye on them the whole fight! Surely they couldn’t have gone far, she thought. They must have moved on from the battlements. Or maybe they’d been ambushed! The battle for the Cathedral was frenzied and brutal; it would be all too easy for an enemy to rush in and overwhelm an angel caught off-guard! If Net and Talon had been too preoccupied with the battlements, then they could have been attacked, or worse! This was all wrong, she was supposed to protect them-! 

“There they are!” Skyla abruptly shouted, locating Talon and Net atop one of the Cathedral’s watchtowers. 

Ofia managed to tear herself away from her increasingly paranoid thoughts and let out a relieved sigh. “Ok, ok, they’re ok-” she wheezed, still wide-eyed from the rush of adrenaline. She braced a hand over her chest and took a shaky breath, her heart still beating like mad as she silently tried to assure herself; Talon and Net were perfectly fine. No, even better than fine. They were sending a cascade of arrows and bolts upon the courtyard below, raining holy hell on the enemy and sending them running for cover. They were fine, Ofia thought. Now you just need to calm down…

“Come and get some!” Net whooped, firing arrows of light from the built-in bow on her arm. A toothy grin was plastered on her synthetic face and her unearthly cackling filled with air, which contrasted nicely with Talon’s cold, terrifying silence. 

“Yep, that’s them alright,” Ofia sighed, mustering a smile. Her sisters were safe and were currently out of harm's way. Good. As long as they stayed where they were, Ofia could keep an eye on them and focus on tearing through Shadiel’s soldiers. Everything was ok. Everything was gonna be ok. “Ok, they're fine, I’m fine, everything’s fine,” Ofia huffed, brushing one of her braids from her face. She clenched her fists around her rings and took a sharp breath in, pumping herself up to get back into the action.

“How are you holding up!?” Skyla asked with some effort, having never let up her elemental onslaught after Ofia’s moment of panic. 

“I’m fine!” Ofia bit, gritting her teeth. “Just got thrown off my game, but I’m good!”

“Are you sure about that? You completely froze!” 

Ofia hissed through her teeth and threw her rings out once more, watching as they burst to life and whizzed through the air like miniature stars. “I can take care of myself! I was just worried about my sisters!”

Skyla looked back at Ofia, a glimmer of doubt in her scarlet eyes. Ofia’s hands were trembling, and there was the briefest glimmer of doubt and fear on her face. In fact, her entire body was quaking even as the Ophan tried to hide it. She wasn’t just worried about her sisters. The mere thought that they could have been in danger was enough to send Ofia into a blind panic - to make her abandon her onslaught in search of them. The dread in Ofia’s face, the fear, the guilt…it had all been there, regardless of how she tried to hide it beneath her verdant helm. Skyla chewed her lip in apprehension as she absentmindedly hurled a fireball at an approaching soldier. Her gaze steadily fell solemnly upon the shortsword in her hand and the dents in her armor. She had taken a heavy beating on the battlefield, but…maybe she should be worrying less about herself and more about the Ophan beside her, because there was more rattling around in Ofia’s mind than what she had said on the airship. An internal conflict that Skyla couldn’t begin to understand.

Skyla couldn’t ponder Ofia’s worrisome behavior for long, however. A deep, droning whine came from below and the Golden Cathedral began to tremble. Ofia and Skyla swiftly turned their attention to the cathedral’s glistening walls. Beyond the battlements, the verdant valley between the Alpine mountains split open like a gaping maw, revealing the desolate vaults that had been built beneath it. From these vaults came three fearsome jets, each one armed to the teeth. Their engines roared furiously, and nightmarish amaranthine flames spurted from their thrusters. The jets rumbled and hissed, pivoting in the air to face the Golden Cathedral, leering at the Legion’s forces like a predator to prey.

“Ah, fuck,” Ofia hissed, recalling her rings. “This fight just got a bit more troublesome.”

“How the hell do we take those things down!?” Skyla squawked incredulously, her wings flaring. “I only have a sword!”

Ofia cracked her neck and focused down on the fast approaching jets, a cocksure grin coming on. “Just leave it to me.” Spreading out her hands, Ofia threw out two of her rings and coated them in brilliant fire, preparing to launch them straight at the jets. This was almost too easy, she thought.

“Net! Come on! We gotta stop those things before they reach us!” Talon’s clear voice split through Ofia’s thoughts, breaking her focus. Turning back to the watchtower, Ofia’s heart dropped as Talon and Net swiftly fled the safety of their perch and flew towards the oncoming jets, fearlessly directing their cascade of arrows onto their new targets. 

A swell of panic rose in Ofia’s throat, and an indescribable sense of urgency was enough to send her racing forward, her golden wings beating on their own, even as a bewildered Skyla shouted after her. Ofia didn’t care at that moment. All she could think about is getting Net and Talon out of harm's way. 

Was it sensible? Was it logical? Was it even a good idea to blindly rush into danger like Ofia was doing? An angel in her right mind would have thought so. An angel who could remember that Talon and Net were unnaturally durable thanks to the Cloud Steel in their bodies would understand that the two sisters were arguably the best candidates to run headfirst into the hull of these jets. They were like living bullets, after all, and they would be perfectly fine. But Ofia wasn’t in her right mind. Her thoughts were a mire of blind terror and obstinant self-sacrifice, and all she could think about was getting the two of them out of danger at any cost.

Throwing caution to the wind, Ofia dashed forward with incredible speed, her breath coming out in strained, heaving gasps. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and she could hardly keep her hands steady as she raised her rings skyward, focusing on her sisters. With a deep breath, Ofia hurled two of her rings forward, willing them to rapidly increase in size. The rings barreled towards Talon and Net and latched onto their waists, abruptly stopping them in their tracks. Net and Talon let out startled cries, the force of the rings suddenly yanking them back having knocked the wind out of them. The two metallic sisters flailed for a moment before their attention snapped to the rings locked around their waists, holding them in midair.

“Wha - What IS this!?” Net shouted, an irate hiss in her voice. She braced her hands around the enlarged ring and tried to tear it from her waist, but it was no use - the ring was firmly locked around her.

Talon stared at the ring in shock, disbelief brewing in her inky eyes. Upon hearing approaching wingbeats, Talon snapped her neck back and gasped. “Ofia? What are you doing!?” she cried.

“Trying to keep you two safe!” Ofia retorted. “You would have been turned into paste!”

“What are you talking about? We’d tear right through the hull!” Net bit back, her visor blinking furiously.

“It doesn’t matter! I’m not risking you getting hurt! I’ll handle it instead!” Ofia snapped. She pulled the rings back and returned Net and Talon to the watchtower before turning her attention back to the jets. 

“Ofia! Don’t do this!” Talon screamed, desperately twisting and kicking against the ring that kept her bound. “Don’t you realize the danger you’re putting yourself in!?”

“I’VE GOT THIS!” Ofia roared indignantly. Summoning all her strength, Ofia called forth a swarm of rings from her body, her valiant spirit igniting them with holy fire.

The roar of their engines was deafening, and the air cracked around them like lightning. The jets were so close now that Ofia could smell the acrid stench of the engine’s fuel - bitter and pungent, it reminded her of the noxious smell of napalm. Even without their weapons, the jets posed a lethal threat; moving fast enough to obliterate an angel on impact, they could effortlessly cleave through the Legion’s ranks and leave nothing but a wave of bone and ichor in their wake. 

In spite of the desperate screaming and pleading from her sisters, Ofia remained steadfast in her decision. She didn’t care about the danger to herself. All sense of self-preservation had been thrown out the window, leaving nothing behind but a grotesque willingness to immolate herself to the chaos of battle in an effort to protect the family she had failed to protect before. 

With her heart determined and her mind settled, Ofia threw her flaming rings forward and willed them to rapidly grow in size as they hurtled towards the jets in a head-on collision. 

A direct hit! The rings slammed into the jets and exploded on impact, reducing their hulls to splintered metal and charred shrapnel in a spectacular display. The sky was filled with a massive plume of choking black smoke that clung to the remains of the jets as they hurtled back down to Earth, their pilots undoubtedly having been reduced to ash. 

Unfortunately, Ofia didn’t have time to celebrate. While she had been successful in destroying two of the jets, one still remained. Roaring like a furious beast, the last jet rocketed through the smoke and fire with blinding speed like a sailfish through water. A strangled cry escaped Ofia’s lips - a spark of terror and intense dismay sliced through her thoughts in an instant, punctuated by the unimaginable pain that detonated throughout her body as the jet crashed into her. 

Her ears were filled with the indescribable roar of the jet's thrusters, and the appalling stench of fuel and napalm overwhelmed her lungs. She could feel her chestplate crunch and buckle under the force of the impact, quickly followed by the searing heat of the jet's smoke-covered wings. Her last thought before fading into oblivion was a heartbreaking plea to her sisters - a wordless apology fueled by guilt and sorrow.

And then…she was abruptly silenced. The force of the impact violently hurled her to the ground in a flailing mass of feathers and rings. Ofia crashed into the courtyard at breakneck speed, skidding across the greensward and kicking up dust and debris as she went. She must have traveled 30 paces before finally coming to a halt. 

Talon, Net, and Skyla could only look on in helpless, stunned horror, their disbelieving eyes glued to the once glorious Ophan as the dust finally dissipated to reveal what was left of Ofia. She was laying in a limp heap, her limbs and wings twisted in painful directions. The wind had been ripped from her chest, and pieces of her chestplate had been scattered everywhere. Her rings were strewn all around her, their eyes glazed over as they blankly stared into the distance. 

“OFIA!” Talon screamed, her desperation cleaving the air like a hot knife. Gritting her teeth and fueled by white hot rage, the Throne braced her claws against the ring around her waist and tore it away from her in one deft move. With her wings free, she leapt from the watchtower without a second's hesitation and sprinted towards her fallen sister. The battle that raged on around her meant nothing anymore - she just needed to get to her sister now.

Net swiftly followed suit. Shattering the ring around her with her bare hands, Net flew down to the courtyard with a panicking Skyla in tow. The three angels quickly surrounded Ofia and an air of tension soon settled over them. With silvery tears welling up in her dark eyes and her heart firmly lodged in her throat, Talon managed to roll Ofia onto her back with some difficulty. 

The extent of the damage was shocking. Ofia’s chestplate had been completely smashed to pieces, revealing the soot-covered gambeson underneath. Her wings were splintered and frayed, and feathers were scattered about at random. The brilliant golden light that had once emanated from her wings had dimmed to a faint, weary glimmer. Her white underdress was tattered and torn, charred and stained black from the fiery debris that had coated the jet. Her dark mahogany hair was singed and strewn about her head like a pool of blood. Her trusty lance was nowhere to be found, having been lost to the battle for the cathedral. Worst of all, however, was her helm. Her helmet had been severely damaged, and a massive crack had split it open along the right side of her head, partially revealing her scarred face beneath its viridescent hue.

Her eyes were shut, and a thin line of shimmering ichor ran from her temples and down her cheek. Talon held back a sob, watching as the ichor slowly trickled to the ground, staining the grass gold. Talon’s face screwed up into an anguished grimace, and she covered her head with her claws in despair. The heartbeat on Net’s visor rapidly sped up and she hung her head low, her silicon locs falling in front of her face like vines. Sharing in her sister’s grief, Net grasped one of Ofia’s hands and quietly sobbed into the back of her hand.

Skyla, for her part, couldn’t even begin to believe what she’d just witnessed. Ofia, a glorious Ophan of incredible power and indomitable will - had she really been brought to heel? Had she finally been bested in battle? Had she truly lost to a mindless machine?

No. No, not a mindless machine, Skyla thought. That hellacious jet had a pilot. Skyla’s jaw clenched, and her fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of her sword until her knuckles turned white. Impudent rage bubbled inside Skyla, and her ichor boiled beneath her skin. The pilot did this. That pilot is the one who did this to Ofia. Whoever they were, Skyla would make them pay for what they’d done.

Scanning the blue sky, Skyla located the jet as it banked around to head back to the cathedral, soot and ash still clinging to its hull. Skyla steadily spread her ebony wings and prepared to take flight, but the slightest movement from Ofia managed to stop her in her tracks.

Snapping her attention back to the ground, Skyla was astonished to see Ofia begin to stir. First it was a simple twitch of her hand or the rustling of a feather, then it was quiet mumbling from within her chest. A soft murmur between Ofia’s lips was Talon and Net’s deliverance from their anguish. The two sisters pulled back from Ofia, awash with astonishment and indescribable relief as Ofia miraculously came to. Talon and Net wordlessly pulled the still dazed Ofia into a hearty embrace, joyful tears still streaming down their faces.

“Ofia!” Net cried, squeezing her sister in a bone-crushing hug. “You’re alive! YOU’RE ALIVE!”

“Oh my Mom, we were so scared you didn’t make it!” Talon whined, her voice still breaking under the weight of her dismay. “How badly are you hurt? Can you stand? Do you have a concussion?”

Ofia’s partially revealed eye lazily flicked between Talon and Net. The force of the impact had left her in a confused stupor and a haze had settled over her mind like a fog over water, clouding her perception. The amber pools that were her eyes refused to focus on anything, instead they sluggishly meandered around from one point to the next. 

“I - wha’ happun’?” Ofia slurred as a line of ichor dripped from her mouth. “Talon? Net? Are ya safe?”

“Yes, we’re fine,” Talon replied softly, squeezing Ofia’s shoulder. “But you aren’t. You’re badly injured. You can’t fight in this state! We need to get you to safety.” Talon promptly jumped to her feet and pulled Ofia up, slinging an arm around her shoulder to help Ofia stand, even as the Ophan was dead weight against her.

“Wha? No, no, I can still fight-” Ofia wheezed, laboring for breath. She gasped and heaved, spitting up worrying amounts of ichor. 

“No, you can’t! Look at you, you can barely stand!” Net retorted harshly, the heartbeat on her visor flashing red. “We can’t risk your life out here!”

“You can leave the fight to the rest of us,” Skyla assured, firmly squeezing Ofia’s arm. “Starting with that damn jet!”

“That thing must be part of the cathedral’s aerial defense system,” Net deduced. “We need to get it out of the sky before it does anymore damage!”

“Leave it to me!” Skyla boldly announced. “I’ll take care of it!”

“Wh - ARE YOU CRAZY!?” Talon squawked, the metal spines on her head standing on end.

“Did you not see what that thing just did to Ofia!?” Net snapped, clenching her jaw. 

“I’m still standing, aren’t I?” Ofia wheezed, a few drops of ichor falling from her lips. 

“You just barely survived!” Net scolded.

“Skyla, you can’t take that thing down,” Talon explained, trying to keep her voice steady. “You’re inexperienced, and you were barely able to take out a single enemy soldier! What makes you think you can take out that jet?”

Skyla grimaced in response. “You saw that?”

“Everyone saw that,” Net replied coldly. “You stay down here. Let us deal with it-”

A cacophonous clap of thunder unexpectedly cut Net off. The angels all turned their attention skyward and were amazed to see Rudra in flight, leaving a crackling trail of lightning in her wake as sparks flew from her pearly wings. Her blazing sword was drawn and ready, and she appeared to be flying straight for the fast-approaching jet.

“...Or Rudra can handle it. That works too,” Net finished, a series of exclamation points appearing on her visor. “Alright, we need to get Ofia to safety. We can’t be out in the open like this.”

“Agreed,” Talon nodded, adjusting her grip on Ofia’s arm. “Skyla, try to keep your head down out here. We don’t know what else the aerial defense system can do-” Talon craned her head back at the dark angel, but her words quickly fell into silence when she realized that Skyla was gone. “What - where’d she go!?”

“Uh…Talon?” Net tapped her sister’s shoulder and directed her attention to the sky. Talon craned her neck up, and her jaw quickly dropped.

“What the fuck is she doing!?” Talon squawked. Skyla had foolishly taken flight after Rudra, shocking Talon and Net with her sheer, unbridled recklessness. 

“She’s gonna get herself killed,” Net said with a disapproving wince.

“If Rudra doesn’t kill her first,” Talon replied dryly.

***

After seeing Ofia so brutally blasted out of the sky, Rudra had been quick to turn her rage onto the jet that had done it. Spreading her massive wings, Rudra coated herself in lightning and launched herself into the sky in a ball of electricity, the force of her takeoff filling the air with a thunderous boom. Rudra had directed her headlong rush directly at the jet, and it took but a second for her to rip through the side of the dark hull and land inside its cramped cargo bay. Colliding with the jet head-on was a no go - she was strong, but not strong enough to withstand an impact like that. So instead, she had opted to tear through the side of the jet instead and make her way to the cockpit.

Unfortunately, Rudra didn’t get far before Skyla gave her a scare. With a riotous scream, Skyla somehow managed to latch onto the opening Rudra had left in the jet's side and frantically haul herself inside, much to Rudra’s bewilderment. 

“Skyla? What the hell are you doing!?” Rudra cried, baffled by Skyla’s ungainly entrance. 

Skyla huffed and scrambled to her feet, brushing her dress off as she went. “I’m here to help!”

“Help? Skyla, you barely made it in here!” Rudra chastised. “You should be on the ground with the rest of the Legion!”

“But I’m not, am I?” Skyla replied with a clumsy grin, which soon faded upon seeing Rudra’s irate expression. 

“Skyla, do you have any idea what this thing even is?” Rudra inquired, raising her voice over the wind as the jet continued racing towards the cathedral. 

“Uh…” Skyla stammered, her hands fumbling through her hair to keep it straight as the wind blew it about. “A part of the cathedral’s aerial defense system?”

An annoyed sigh was the response. “This isn’t a jet, and this certainly isn’t just part of the cathedral’s aerial defense system. This thing is a Hunter Class Battleship! These things are designed to hunt down their targets and take them out in seconds! You saw what it did to Ofia when it crashed into her! She’s lucky she managed to take out two of these things, and even luckier to still be breathing!”

“Wh - how do you know this?” Skyla gaped, the severity of the situation becoming clear to her.

“Because I used to pilot one when I still served Judgment,” Rudra hissed through gritted teeth. “I’m too familiar with what these things can do, and we need to get this thing out of the sky before it can do anything else!”

The air around the two angels popped, and the hole Rudra had made in the battleship's hull was sealed over by an emergency blockade. Rudra scowled - she hated dealing with these battleships. They were hard to escape and even harder to destroy. Hunter Class Battleships could rapidly self-heal, as Rudra and Skyla had just seen. To destroy one for good, it would take more than just tearing through the hull or blowing off a wing. They needed to be completely obliterated in a single move, or their pilot had to be killed. With that in mind…it came as a shock to Rudra that Ofia had successfully destroyed two of them with just her rings. The amount of power and precision Ofia would have needed to blow one up was astounding, but two at once was unheard of. Either the Ophan had a sharper eye than Rudra thought, or she had gotten unfathomably lucky. 

In either case, it didn’t negate what the remaining battleship had done. Rudra had seen the whole thing, and it made her skin crawl. Her stomach churned at the thought of the agony Ofia must have experienced in the seconds she had still been conscious. The shock of the initial impact; the searing pain as the battleship effortlessly sliced through her armor; the blistering sting of flames; the appalling and acrid stench of superheated fuel searing her lungs. It made Rudra nauseous just thinking about it. She could have lost one of her closest friends in a matter of moments, and Ofia wasn’t out of the woods yet. Her life still hung in the balance, and her survival hinged on the Legion’s victory.

That’s why she was here now. Fueled by passion and rage, Rudra not only sought to destroy the battleship, but to make sure the cathedral’s aerial defense system would stay down. For the sake of the battle, for the sake of the Legion, and for the sake of Ofia. Especially Ofia. She would avenge her, no matter what it took.

“Alright, what’s the plan?” Skyla asked, yanking Rudra from her thoughts. 

“I’ll locate the core and overload it. That’s the only reliable way to destroy a Hunter Class Battleship,” Rudra replied. “And you need to get out of here!”

“What? Why!?” Skyla complained. “You could need my help!”

“I appreciate the thought, but you won’t be able to survive the blast when this thing blows up. I can!”

“What if I get in and out fast enough? Or what if I take out the pilot? Or I could-”

“I said no!” Rudra snapped, the exasperated coldness in her voice startling Skyla into silence. “For Mom’s sake, Skyla! Your stubbornness is going to get you killed one day! You’ve been acting like this all day! You’ve been reckless, impulsive, and obstinate your whole life, but this is the first time I’ve seen you be so careless in battle!”

“You saw what happened with Claptrap too-”

“EVERYONE saw what happened with that angel!” Rudra retorted, an icy fury building in her eyes. “You were sloppy, clumsy, and your attempts to kill him were haphazard at best! You weren’t even the one to land the killing blow! You fared better once you were with Ofia, but you were still careless and inattentive of your surroundings. And now you’ve just boarded a battleship with no plan of how to take it down, thereby putting yourself in incredible danger because…WHY!? Why are you even up here? Do you have any idea what’ll happen to you if this thing blows up with you in it!? Do you have even the slightest understanding of how dangerous this all is!? You may be impulsive, but you are not this shortsighted! Why are you acting like this!?”

Skyla recoiled from Rudra, her sharp words finally piercing her thick skull. Skyla’s scarlet eyes pensively darted around the cargo bay, trying to look at anything that wasn’t Rudra’s piercing eyes. Under the Seraph’s gaze, Skyla felt exposed. Her cockiness was sapped from her in an instant, allowing her to finally have a moment of self-reflection. She recalled the conversation she had with Ofia in the airship before the battle had started and the promise they made to each other. Ofia’s sacrificial oath to protect her sisters at all costs…and Skyla’s selfish vow to be like Rudra.

“I…wanted to be like you,” Skyla whispered under her breath, grimacing at how the words fell from her mouth. She hadn’t realized just how egotistical that promise had been up to that moment, but it was so obvious on reflection. It was painfully obvious.

Rudra was stunned for a moment after hearing Skyla’s feeble confession. Did Skyla really say…?

The Seraphim didn’t have time to contemplate. The battleship around her began to howl and tremble. She could hear its weapons systems firing beyond the ship's hull and the roar of battle outside. 

“Shit! I’ll deal with you later. You need to leave, NOW!” Rudra seized Skyla by the collar and tore open the battleship’s emergency blockade, ripping through the hull in the exact same spot she’d entered from. With some effort, Rudra hurled Skyla out of the battleship. 

With Skyla safely hurtling back to Earth, Rudra turned her attention to the ceiling of the cargo bay and blasted through it with a fireball, creating a path to the primary cabin. Rudra leapt through the opening and arrived in the center of the battleship. Behind her sat the masked pilot, and in front of her was the battleship’s glowing core; a crimson crystal suspended in the engine’s center. Taking no heed to the muffled screams of the pilot, Rudra approached the engine and drove her sword into it without a second thought. 

The effects were immediate. The crystal shattered on impact and the engine immediately lost power. With a droning whine, the entire battleship went into a freefall. The engine hissed and squealed, beeping incessantly as it repeatedly tried to reboot itself without a core to power it. It would overload in a matter of seconds, and Rudra would be ready to ride the explosion out of the battleship.

The pilot had a different plan. Abandoning the battleship's controls, the masked pilot jumped Rudra from behind and attempted to drive a wedge-shaped knife into her neck. Thankfully, Rudra was fast enough to avoid the blade’s edge. Reaching back, she grasped the pilot’s forearm and hurled him over her shoulder, flinging him into the overloading engine. The pilot collapsed with a wheeze, and his mask fell from his head to reveal long, white hair and the sharp, cruel face underneath. 

“Shadiel!?” Rudra gasped, a dart of rage stabbing through her heart. “You! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO TRIED TO KILL OFIA!”

“Surprised?” Shadiel coughed, ichor trickling from his lip as he flashed Rudra a wry grin. “I should’ve aimed for the head, but a crushed lung will do just as well.”

“You just can’t fucking help yourself, can you?” Rudra hissed, brands of hellfire spilling from her hands. “First Talon and Net, and now you go after Ofia for sick kicks!?”

Shadiel steadily rose to his feet, leaning on the squealing engine for support. A series of wicked giggles fell from his mouth, as did more ichor. “Oh, you know I don’t like unfinished business, Rood.”

“Then you can take it to your grave!” Rudra furiously seized Shadiel by the neck and rammed his skull into the engine where the core had previously been. An unholy scream tore through Shadiel’s throat, and the rancid stench of burning flesh and hair quickly filled the cabin. 

With the engine reaching critical mass, Rudra released her grip on Shadiel and sprinted towards the cockpit and leapt into the glass canopy with her wings spread wide. 

And not a moment too soon. The engine violently exploded as soon as she reached the canopy, and the blast was enough to launch her forward at blazing speed, safely carrying her far from the exploding battleship with nothing but a few singed feathers as recompense. Pivoting in the air, Rudra turned and watched as the battleship spiraled out of control and went down in a ball of fire, falling beyond the cathedral’s walls and landing in the green valley below. Surely, Rudra thought, not even Shadiel could survive that.

***

Deep in the bowels of the Golden Cathedral, Styna had managed to find a passageway into the tunnels beneath the chapel. The tunnels were a dark, winding maze of hallways and small interconnected rooms. The only light was a thin strip of neon light that was suspended in the tunnel walls and ran throughout the maze. 

Styna shivered as she took her first tentative steps into the desolate maze. A puff of mist escaped her lips and hovered in the air like a cloud. It was freezing, and Styna could only wonder why Shadiel would keep his testing grounds so cold. After a moment to warm her hands, Styna took out her Transmitter Stone and called Larimar once again.

“Hey, Prince? You still there?”

“Still here. Have you found the labs yet?”

“Not yet, but I think I’m on the right track,” Styna said, carefully trekking through the dark hallways. She could faintly hear the sounds of battle raging outside, but the only sound that filled these foreboding halls was the soft clicking of her heels on the polished floor. 

But the silence did not last. After taking a few strides down the halls, an explosion rocked the cathedral to its core. Styna yelped and fell forward, grabbing onto the wall to keep herself upright.

“What the hell was that!?” Styna gasped, steadying herself as the tunnels around her continued to rumble and groan. 

“Uh…looks like Rudra just blew up a Hunter Class Battleship,” Larimar replied curtly. “And a good thing, too. That thing was putting a dent in our forces. It nearly killed Ofia!”

“Wait, what happened!?” Styna gasped, the news of Ofia stunning her.

“The cathedral’s aerial defense system kicked in and three Hunter Class Battleships were deployed. Ofia took out two of them, but the third did a number on her. We’re not sure if she’ll make it.”

“Mother of Mom…”

“Rudra just took down the third, and she’s given me orders to shut down the defense system before anymore battleships can be deployed. The problem is that I can’t access the cathedral’s network from here. I need your help.”

“By doing what?”

“Find a control panel and hook your Emitter Stone up to it. I can remotely access the cathedral’s mainframe that way.”

“Where the hell am I gonna find a control panel down here - oh, nevermind,” Styna said, pursing her lips as she rounded a corner, where she found an operational panel mounted to the wall. Approaching it, Styna held her Emitter Stone up to the screen and watched as the gem in the Emitter Stone began flashing red. 

“Alright, let’s see what Shadiel’s done here…”

“Are you connected?” Styna queried, watching Larimar move about on the hologram.

“Yep. I just need a few seconds to see what I’m dealing with. If Shadiel’s cybersecurity is anything like his actual security, this should be a breeze.”

“And O.R.I.G.I.N?” Styna asked, watching as Larimar hacked into the cathedrals systems.

“What about it?”

“I mean, you made a pretty big deal out of it before the siege, but we haven’t had to worry about it for the entire battle. It’s nerve wracking - like I’m just waiting for a bomb to go off or something.”

There was a pause. “...yeah, that is suspicious. Lucifer’s plans were plastered with warnings about O.R.I.G.I.N. You’d think Shadiel would have used it by now.”

Styna bit her lip. “It doesn’t feel right…how’s everyone on the surface?”

“You already know about Ofia,” Larimar said with a wince. “But I think we’re fine. Except…”

“Except?”

“Anita. I don’t know where she is. She disappeared into the cathedral’s barracks earlier, but now I can’t find her-”

Styna felt another explosion rock the cathedral, and a loud gasp came from Larimar. “Nevermind! She just blew up the rest of their barracks!”

“By herself?” Styna asked, taken aback.

“Yep! And it looks like she stole one of their jetpacks too. Mother of Mom, this woman is insane.”

“At least that buys us some time. What’s your status on shutting down the cathedral’s aerial defense system?”

“Just shut it down!” Larimar announced triumphantly. “That should take care of the battleships. How are you doing with the Great Beast egg?”

Styna gave Larimar a defeated sigh. “No dice. I haven’t found anything yet. This place is like a maze. I-”

A deafening drone filled the underground halls of the cathedral, cutting Styna off. The dim neon lights in halls abruptly shut off soon after, plunging Styna into near complete darkness with only the light from her Emitter Stone to guide her. The young angel jumped, and her tiny wings stood on end as a creeping sense of dread crawled up her back.

“Uh…Larimar?” Styna whispered, clutching her Transmitter Stone. “What the hell just happened?”

“I don’t know,” Larimar sputtered, staring blankly at his screen. “I was just kicked out of the cathedral’s systems. It’s like the entire system just rebooted itself.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“Depends. Hang on, let me try to get back in…” 

Aside from her own breathing, a few keyboard strokes from Larimar were all Styna heard for the next few minutes. She could faintly hear the roar of battle above the underground cathedral. It sounded like things were getting dicey up there, Styna thought. 

A strangled gasp from Larimar soon drew Styna’s attention back to the inoperable panel in front of her. “What? What’s wrong?”

“My god…Styna, you said that the cathedral’s supercomputer was shut off, right?”

“It was when I saw it. Why?”

“Because it just turned on. And O.R.I.G.I.N. has just been activated,” Larimar gulped, his voice quivering at his own words. Styna blanched in response, all the color draining from her rosy face. 

“Oh shit…”

“Styna, you need to find that Great Beast egg while you still can! NOW! HURRY!” Larimar screamed, the force of his voice shaking the Transmitter Stone. Styna jumped in shock and clumsily pocketed the Transmitter Stone before booking it down the halls without another word. She didn’t have time to ask questions - the urgency in Larimar’s voice was enough to push her on!

Thankfully, the panic and adrenaline coursing through Styna was all the encouragement she needed to run through the cathedral’s vault in record time. Sprinting through hallway after hallway, the young Power finally crashed into a pair of double doors deep within the confines of the Golden Cathedral. When she regained her footing, she found herself standing in the middle of a lab of some sort. It vaguely reminded her of Anita’s lab back at HECU HQ, but…there was something decidedly sinister about this lab. Or maybe Styna had watched too many human movies. 

Briskly scanning the room, Styna’s one good eye landed on her target. The Great Beast egg, suspended in a large glass tube at the center of the room. The tube was connected to a large machine that was built into the foundation of the lab. Several sensors had been attached to the shell and a PDA appeared to be recording the vitals of the Great Beast contained within. Shadiel was clearly planning on using the Great Beast against the Legion, so Styna thanked her lucky stars that she’d found it just in time. 

She wordlessly shut off the PDA and deactivated the sensors, which released the glass tube from the machine and allowed Styna to safely remove the egg. The egg was heavier than she’d expected and the glass tube it was contained in was awkward to hold, but Styna had to make due. 

With the Great Beast egg safely in hand, Styna breathlessly booked it out of the lab and back the way she came. If O.R.I.G.I.N was as bad as Larimar made it sound, she really didn’t want to be around for whatever was going to happen next.

***

When Styna reached the surface, she fled the cathedral and fled into the courtyard. No sooner had her foot touched the ichor-stained grass did her Transmitter Stone go off once more.

“Larimar, talk to me! What the hell is going on?” she squawked. Although Styna couldn’t pinpoint it, something in the air felt extremely off-putting and it made her stomach inexplicably churn.

“It’s O.R.I.G.I.N! Shadiel’s remotely activated it!”

“And what exactly does it do!? You didn’t exactly debrief us on everything!” Styna bit.

“How could I? Lucifer’s notes barely mentioned what O.R.I.G.I.N is or what it does!” Larimar retorted. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary down there?”

“Uh-” 

Styna gritted her teeth as a second deafening drone filled the air, much louder this time. The battle around her came to a screeching halt, as if the drone had paralyzed the warring angels with fear. Then, like clockwork, everyone turned their gaze to the Golden Cathedral itself, and the onlookers could only watch as the glass dome atop the cathedral split open like a blossoming flower. From within the cathedral, a large crystal rose, glowing menacingly against the clear blue sky. The incessant droning was coming from the crystal itself. The air shimmered and hissed around the crystal, as though it were hot to the touch. 

“Uh, Styna?” Larimar asked quaveringly, watching the whole ordeal from the safety of The Angel of Vengeance. “Talk to me; what the hell am I looking at!?”

Styna swallowed hard, but didn’t say anything. She could only watch as the crystal glowed brighter and brighter. The light was blinding and its shimmering rays were deathly cold. Then, with a shrill shriek that could put a banshee to shame, the rays of light solidified and were jettisoned out of the crystal like rockets. It was like shooting stars had taken form from the malicious light and were now rocketing back down to earth. These cold stars weren’t a bombardment or a bombing run of any kind. They weren’t aiming for the Legion. Instead, these stars were rocketing towards Shadiel’s soldiers, deliberately picking them out of the mayhem of battle. And when those stars collided with their targets…well, it was hard to describe what happened next.

The light became infused with the enemy soldiers, empowering them beyond what their rank normally allowed. Their halos glowed brighter, their wings glistened like the sun, and their wounds were healed in an instant. It was as though a divine hand had come down and reinforced Shadiel’s forces when they were at their lowest, and the tide of battle was about to take a turn for the worst. 

“It…” Styna stammered, horror filling her heart as the enemy forces rallied around the light, stronger than ever before. “That light…it empowered them! That’s what O.R.I.G.I.N does! It empowers angels and makes them stronger than before!”

Styna could practically hear Larimar’s heart stop. “Oh my Mom, that’s what it means…‘Omniarch Radiancy Inheritance Grid for Ideality and New beginnings.’ That’s what the acronym means!”

Styna blanched, Larimar’s moment of clarity lost on her. “What does what mean?”

“That light that came from the crystal! That wasn’t just any light! That’s divine light! The kind of light Judgment and Mom have power over! That’s what ‘Omniarch Radiency’ means! ‘Inherentince Grid’ must be referring to the power being infused with the angels via the supercomputer - a grid! And ‘Ideality and New beginnings…’ that’s the empowerment process itself! Literally giving angels a new beginning and molding them into their ideal selves!”

“What the hell are you trying to say!? That Dad’s using his power to make his angels stronger!?” Styna squawked.

“Pretty much! He’s just using a supercomputer to do it remotely!”

“Ah fuck, I’m starting to see why Lucifer was so worried about it!” Styna yelped and clutched the Great Beast egg to her chest as the ground began to quake beneath her. “What the - Larimar, I thought you said you deactivated the aerial defense system!”

“I did! That wasn’t the defense system!”

“Then what-” Styna’s voice caught in her throat and a scream tore through instead. With barely a moment to think, Styna furiously beat her tiny wings and took to the air as an empowered angel charged her, the force of his stampede making the very ground quake. “Mom Almighty!” Styna squawked. “We can’t fight them like this!” Styna cried, watching helplessly as the Legion was swiftly pushed back by Shadiel’s newly empowered soldiers. 

“Forget the fighting!” Larimar shouted. “Just get the Great Beast egg back to the airship! It’s the one thing we can’t let Shadiel have!”

“On it!” Tucking the egg under her arm, Styna bolted skyward toward the airship as it idled overhead. Lumina’s shield still held around it, but the barrier was weakening and wouldn’t last much longer.

In her panicked flight, Styna suddenly became the target for Shadiel’s airborne troops. It was like all at once, they knew she was making off with the egg and they wouldn’t let her flee so easily. 

Halfway to the airship, a swarm of Shadiel’s soldiers swooped down on Styna in a frenzied horde of blades and teeth, like a whirlwind of fury. Acting quickly, Styna used her tiny wings to pivot mid-flight and dive back towards the cathedral as the horde of enemy angels relentlessly ran her aground. Landing in the cathedral’s courtyard, Styna ran for cover to avoid the onslaught of angels above and around her. Gritting her teeth, she swore under her breath and retrieved her Transmitter Stone.

“Larimar, I’ve got a problem! I can’t get to the airship like this!” Styna hissed, watching in bewilderment as the newly empowered angels swarmed the air like an angry hive of wasps.

“I see it! Just hang tight, I’m gonna give you guys some breathing room!” Larimar shouted. 

Taking the helm controls, Larimar pivoted the airship in the sky until its starboard bow faced the cathedral. The airship creaked and rumbled as several cannons opened up along the airship's hull. Larimar took aim at the empowered angels and began shelling the battlefield with Hellfire. His aim was impeccable, and several angels were blown out of the sky and sent careening back to earth in balls of fire. 

“That should give you some time! Now get up here! I have a feeling those angels aren’t gonna stay down for long!”

Styna set her jaw and nodded. Putting away her Transmitter Stone for the last time, she spread her tiny wings and got a running start into the courtyard. She barely made it five paces before an empowered angel tackled her to the ground, knocking the Great Beast egg from her hands.

A strangled gasp escaped from her throat. “NO!” she cried, her arms flailing in the direction of the egg.

Blindly reaching around her back, she deftly unsheathed her sparkling dagger and stabbed wildly at her assailant, hoping to find soft flesh. Her aim was clumsy, but true, and the dagger’s serrated blade found its mark in the angel's eye. The angel howled in pain and released his grip on her, allowing her to scramble to her feet and run for the Great Beast egg as it rolled about in the grass. Her assailant hissed furiously and tore the knife from his eye and tossed it aside. 

Leaping back to his feet and spitting mad, the angel lunged for Styna again and seized her by the ankle, yanking her back. Styna fell forward and slammed face-first into the ground. With a groan, she wiped away grass and ichor from her face before suddenly finding herself upside down, hanging by her ankle. The soldier lifted her into the air, an iron grip around her leg that was unnaturally strong, even for an angel. Styna hissed through her teeth and kicked against the angel's arm with her free leg, desperately trying to free herself. 

She must have hit something vulnerable. She smashed her heel against something soft, and a warm gush of ichor began running up her leg. The angel released his grip on her, and Styna dropped to the ground in a heap.

“I need help down here!” Styna shouted, hoping to draw the attention of a nearby Legion soldier to her plight. Thankfully, she did. Skyla had been in earshot. Although the dark angel was still reeling from Rudra’s reprimand minutes prior, she still had enough mind about her to come to Styna’s aid. 

Once again wielding her discarded lance, Skyla charged the empowered angel and drove the lance’s tip into his side. Although her previous attempts at using the lance had been met with failure, this time, she managed to find her mark. The lance pierced the angels glimmering armor and broke through layers of flesh and bone before coming out the other side, drenched in ichor. The angel squealed in agony. Clutching his side, he staggered back and fell to the ground in a heap. Retrieving her lance, Skyla helped Styna back to her feet.

“How’re you holding up?” Skyla asked.

“A little bruised, but I’ll be fine,” Styna winced. She staggered towards the egg and scooped it up into her arms. “I need to get this egg back to the airship. Once the egg is secured, Rudra will give the order to launch a final assault and take the cathedral!”

Skyla frowned at Styna’s words and glanced back at the hordes of empowered angels currently swarming the courtyard. “That was the plan before Shadiel turned that damn machine on. Look, sis, I’ve already fought one of these things! When we first landed, there was this big bull-looking guy named Claptrap. Said something about being one of the first empowered angels when we fought. He was really strong, but I didn’t think anything of it at first!”

Styna recoiled in surprise. “Wait, there were already empowered angels here before O.R.I.G.I.N was activated?”

“Apparently. And they’re no joke - I don’t know if we’ll be able to take the cathedral at this rate!” Skyla and Styna instinctively ducked as Larimar fired another Hellfire shell at the sky in an attempt to disperse the swarming angels.

Styna swore under her breath, clutching the egg close to her chest. “This egg is too important to give up now. We can come back for the cathedral later! All that’s important right now is getting this egg out of here!”

Skyla stared at her sister with wide, disbelieving eyes. “What!?” she sputtered, unsure if she’d heard her sister correctly.

“You heard me! I have my orders; get the Great Beast egg and return it to the airship! This thing is the ultimate weapon against us. Getting it away from Shadiel should be our top priority!”

“That was before we knew what O.R.I.G.I.N was!” Skyla squawked, reeling. “That’s the most dangerous weapon against us right now! We need to shut it down before things get worse, and we can only do that by taking the cathedral! We can’t just retreat now!”

“We can’t take the cathedral like this! We’ve already taken too much of a beating!” Styna retorted. “We can always come back to the cathedral, but not before we regroup!”

“That’s not your call to make!” Skyla snapped. “Rudra has to give that order!”

“Then we need to tell her! You’ve already fought one of these things head-on, you already know what an empowered angel is capable of on their own. There’s no telling what they’ll do to us if they’re all empowered!”

“Which is why we need to shut O.R.I.G.I.N down!” Skyla argued, her black feathers starting to flare up. “You can take the egg to the airship - those are your orders! But until Rudra says otherwise, I’ll be staying down here!”

“Do you have a death wish!?” Styna gasped. “We can’t just keep fighting! We have to get out of here before-”

“GET DOWN!”

With barely a second to react, Ofia came charging at Skyla and Styna and tackled them both to the ground. Unbeknownst to the two bickering sisters, the empowered angels had started sending a barrage of holy flames onto the battlefield below in a rain of fire. Ofia, who had been resting by the cathedral’s walls under Net and Talon’s supervision, had seen the onslaught coming. When she had seen Skyla and Styna in the direct line of fire and oblivious to the danger, she knew she had to do something. So, still bleeding heavily from her wounds, she’d leapt away from Net and Talon and charged down the two sisters, using her wings to push her forward. 

She’d narrowly saved them from certain death. The three angels were all sprawled on the ground, varying degrees of shaken from the impact. Ofia, through gritted teeth, picked Styna and Skyla up.

“Are you two ok?” She breathlessly asked.

“Yeah,” Styna said shakily, the acrid stench of fire all around her now. “Where did that come from!?”

“It’s a bombardment! We have to get to cover!” Ofia shouted, panic rising in her voice.

Grabbing Styna and Skyla by their pauldrons, Ofia shoved them towards the cathedral’s walls, where the battlements provided some overhang that they could hide under. Without another word, Styna and Skyla began their sprint for cover while their enemy razed the battlefield in sacred flames. The searing heat was unbearable - even just running past the flames was enough to sear Styna’s skin and singe her dress. She’d forgotten just how deadly holy fire could be, and it was a nightmare to be on the receiving end of those golden flames while carrying a giant egg.

KRAKA-BOOM!

That was all Styna could hear in the split second before she was sent hurtling to the ground. A brilliant ball of sacred fire exploded a mere meter behind her, and the blast was enough to throw her clear off her feet and into the ground, charing her white dress and singing her pink hair. When she landed, she lost her grip on the egg and could only watch as it careened into the holy fire. A strangled gasp escaped her throat and she lunged for the egg, but it was no use. Just like that, the egg was lost to the flames and Styna could do nothing but stare helplessly into the crackling inferno before being hauled off towards the battlements by Ofia.

When they reached the safety of the battlements, Ofia dropped Styna to the ground to be tended to, and the young Power could only stare blankly at the flames beyond the walls. The Legion was still putting up one hell of a fight, but the O.R.I.G.I.N program had given Shadiel’s forces an insurmountable boost to power and morale. Their assault on the battlefield was relentless. Even under heavy fire from Larimar, the bombardment of holy fire seemed borderline endless. It all happened so quickly. One moment, the Legion was on the verge of claiming the cathedral for themselves. The next, the entire tide of battle had dramatically shifted in Shadiel’s favor. Styna had never seen a battle turn so quickly, and it made her stomach churn. 

“Styna! Are you ok?” Ofia asked briskly, squeezing Styna’s shoulder to get her attention.

“I lost the egg,” Styna said blankly, her mind still reeling. She turned her gaze to her hands, mystified. “I had it in my grasp. I had it. And I dropped it. We lost the egg.”

Ofia blanched and leaned against the wall, clutching her stomach as ichor continued to spill from between the cracks in her armor. “Shit,” she swore. “Well, that’s one mission failed.”

“This is bad,” Skyla swallowed, frantically running a hand through her dark hair. “Why did we have to argue in the middle of a BOMBARDMENT!?”

“Just calm down!” Ofia assured, planting a firm hand on Skyla and Styna’s shoulders. “Look, Skyla, me and you haven’t been our best during this fight. We got our asses beat and we just lost the thing we were after in the first place. But now is not a good time to start freaking out about it!”

“This entire siege has been a disaster,” Styna gulped, recoiling as a ball of holy fire slammed into the battlements above her, sending down a waterfall of stone and debris.

“We need to regroup!” Talon barked. She came around Ofia and helped Styna back to her feet, being mindful of her wounds. “We’ve sustained too many casualties, Lumina’s shield won’t hold much longer, and we are severely outgunned! We need to think of another plan! Where’s Rudra? We need our leader for this!”

Larimar provided all the air support he could from the airship, Talon and Ofia tried to keep the angels under the battlements calm, Anita rained bullets down upon the enemy ranks, and Noir and Joriel were still holding their own against the horde of empowered angels. But even with their combined strength, the O.R.I.G.I.N program had proven to be an unexpected tipping point - a card that Shadiel had slyly kept up his sleeve as he waited for the right moment to deploy it. 

However, even as panic among the Legion began to grow in the face of a newly rallied enemy, their leader would not let them fall so easily to fear and dismay. Rudra would remind the Legion of the promise they made and of her commitment to them, and she signaled her promise with a mighty crack of thunder. 

The sky grew dark around Shadiel’s angels, and the last thing they saw was a blinding streak of lightning descending from the heavens. Without so much as a warning, Shadiel’s forces were struck out of the sky by a web of divine lightning that cast the Golden Cathedral in an ethereal blue light. The air crackled and hissed, still bristling with energy even as the lightning faded as quickly as it came. The Legion watched as their enemies fell from the sky like flies, dead before they ever hit the ground. And as the sky was cleared of Shadiel’s soldiers, the Legion looked upon their leader in mid-flight, hovering above the battlefield still cloaked in electricity. Her sword was raised heavenward, as though to pierce the sky. 

Just like that, Rudra had smited Shadiel’s aerial troops in one fell swoop.

“Hear me, Legion!” Rudra roared, her powerful voice resonating throughout the valley. “Fall back and regroup! Those of you still on the ground, take the cathedral! Those in the air, return to the airship and await my commands! This battle is far from over!”

Like clockwork, the Legion did as Rudra commanded. Withdrawing from the battle, the Legion forces in the air retreated and fled to the safety of the airship, where Lumina’s shield was still holding. Those on the ground gathered their wounded and charged their way towards the cathedral’s entrance. Without anyone guarding the inside of the cathedral, the Legion was easily able to push their way through and make their way into the central palace, even as Shadiel’s forces tried to stop their endeavors. As the last one in, Rudra dropped out of the sky like a stone and swooped over the enemy soldiers, pelting them with hellfire before bolting through the cathedral’s massive double doors, just in time to make it into the palace before the Legion closed them off. 

Rudra closed her glistening wings and skidded to a halt, her greaves scraping across the smooth tile flooring of the palace. Her breath came in short gasps, and a line of sweat dotted her brow. She didn’t remain like that for long though. In one swift movement, Rudra immediately straightened up and composed herself, stiffening her posture. That had been too close, she thought. But she couldn’t let the Legion see her exhaustion.

Indeed, the last half of the battle had been hell on everyone. Rudra could never have expected O.R.I.G.I.N to be capable of such a thing. Remotely empowering angels with Judgment’s divine strength? It was crazy to think about and Rudra barely had enough time to wrap her head around it before she was thrown into a frenzied fight for her life. She’d never fought angels like that before, and it tested her composure. Falling back was the only thing she could think of. Regroup and plan a counterattack. Minimize casualties and maximize her chances for success. And maybe deal with Skyla’s foolishness and Ofia’s concerning recklessness. 

Rudra took a breath and nonchalantly brushed some dust off her armor when Noir came up to her. Noir had sustained relatively moderate injuries, thank goodness. A few scratches and scuffs lingered on her cheeks and her shades were broken, but Rudra’s eyes were immediately drawn to her side. Noir was clutching her ribs and was bent awkwardly to the side. Whatever had hit her, it had clearly left one hell of a bruise.

“Are you alright?” Rudra asked in a soft voice, touching Noir’s arm. Noir coughed and shot Rudra a smile, though she was clearly in pain.

“Yep, all good,” she managed, wiping some blood from her mouth. “Things were getting pretty dicey out there. How’re you holding up?”

“I’m fine,” Rudra replied, wiping sweat from her brow. She lifted her head and scanned the Legion around her. They had all made it safely inside, and the strongest were holding the cathedral’s doors shut. Rudra winced at the sight; she could hear Shadiel’s soldiers banging down the doors. The Legion would be safe, but not for long. With a grimace, Rudra pulled Noir aside and out of earshot from the Legion.

“Talk to me, what’s the plan here?” Noir asked weakly, leaning against Rudra for support. 

“I’m not sure yet. I need to speak to Larimar. He’s our only lifeline right now.”

Noir chuckled and removed her glasses, frowning when they snapped in half. “Uh…not sure if this is a good time to mention it, but we lost the Great Beast egg.”

Rudra snapped her eyes toward Noir in disbelief. “What?” she spluttered.

“Yeah. I saw it all go down. Styna had it, and then she didn’t. Those damn angels started bombarding the place and the egg got lost in the flames,” Noir explained. 

Rudra swore under her breath, then sighed. “A mission failed, but at least the egg can’t be used by Shadiel now. Our priority now is shutting O.R.I.G.I.N down.”

“Agreed,” Noir nodded. 

Rudra set her jaw and produced her Transmitter Stone, contacting Larimar. She needed a plan to win the battle and take the cathedral, and fast. Larimar was her best bet. The two of them had always found their way out of trouble, and she was certain they could pull victory out of this mess as well. She just hoped they could figure something out before the cathedral doors caved. O.R.I.G.I.N loomed over the Legion like a preening dragon, and she needed something to smite it. For the Legion, for herself, for Noir.

[puppetmaster13u]

So I am rotating the batfamily, but not like, civilian or vigilante. I am slowly rotating them all having a Malone-sona of sorts that is their in to organized crime.

Like you can't tell me people wouldn't start noticing this family that the bats, the literal cryptids and monsters of Gotham, don't even touch and lets continue to operate despite taking the older crime families apart.

And to Gotham that screams power.

Alfred = Albert “Old Al” Malone I wanna say that he doesn't go out as 'Old Al' often, but gives off Godfather sort of vibes. Usually sitting there with an old cane (that definitely has a sword, they're all dramatic like that lol) half in the dark with a cup of tea or other drink. He gets to stretch his acting skills and honestly the kids definitely had a say in the persona. Old Al is something they all made together and they have fun implying so much fun shit.

Kate = Mary “Madam” Malone She definitely gives off 'snap your spine over her knee if not for the fact it would get your blood all over her clothes' vibes. Stylized nails, hair up in fishtail braids or ponytails or whatever, looks like she could tear out ones throat and they'd thank her. It's a running gag that she's in finances, even if no one in the underbelly believes it.

Bruce = “Matches” Malone I mean, it's classic Matches (though most probably assume that Matches isn't his real name) who seems rather chill until someone breaks the rules. Gives off vibes that he doesn't usually get his own hands dirty but will do so to make a point, and enjoy doing it. He sometimes uses Matches to check in on places he can't as a shadowy cryptid, and it's not like the lower income areas would fully trust Brucie Wayne.

Barbara = Madison “Maddie” Malone Now let's be honest, Barbara enjoys messing with people, she enjoys knowing every little thing as Oracle, and she definitely does that as Maddie. The thing is, no one knows how she learns about things, other criminals search for a traitor, for a leak, for anything, and get nothing. Which is utterly terrifying. Because there has to be some sort of information network, there has to be. And somehow they're so good that they're indistinguishable to any others.

Dick = Micheal “Mikey” Malone Honestly Dick uses this chance to get into a bunch of fights just for fun. Flirts a bit more freely but doesn't really have an interest in actually getting with someone. Just has funs and is known for throwing his own parties that usually end in free-for-all brawls. He absolutely loves being able to have parties that are the opposite of galas he's usually dragged into.

Cass = Molly Malone She's quiet and graceful, but she takes it to unnerving levels as Molly. Looks slim but carries guns on her at all time to better differentiate between Cassandra Wayne, Black Bat, and Molly Malone. Everyone knows if you need a weapon, guns, meelee, whatever, she's the one you go to. Gotham help you if you cross her though.

Jason = Peter “Petey” Malone Where Molly Malone goes, everyone knows Petey will be there as well. Jason absolutely adores the time he gets to do so, it's his turn to be silent and dramatic. Everyone can recognize the jagged scar over his neck, they can recognize it from corpses the Bats have gotten their talons on. Honestly he's delighted in being able to be Cass' enforcer of sorts and just have a good fight. Even if he complains about how making his Malone mute makes it where he can't quote Shakespeare like he wants to.

Steph = “Mia” Malone Ah yes, the explosive Malone. The one who has more arson charges than Firefly. Or at least she would if she was caught, but the entire Underbelly knows it was her. Steph is living her best life being able to pull all sorts of pranks and crazy shit and takes several ideas from Harley. Honestly she probably smells like gasoline or smoke all the time, and definitely put glitter in her hair. Maybe even has red hair as a Malone as well.

Tim = Alvin “Al” Malone He still goes by Alvin Draper too, which results in half the underbelly thinking that Draper is his middle name. Honestly he's having the best time, everyone knows to come to him for forgeries and less than legal identities, which he loves to create. I mean just look at how many new identities he creates for himself alone. He enjoys this type of thing, and hey, it's so easy to keep track of whose identity is fake when you're the one who made them. Plus it also lets him do good for those on the run for good reasons, a way to make sure people are safe.

Duke = Dennis “Denny” Malone Everyone knows Denny was adopted, but y'know what, I bet they don't care. And you know Duke is utterly insane, like jump off a bridge to escape the cops and create the We are Robin gang insane. And he gets to play that up as Denny. He will put forth the most batshit ideas and actually pull them off. I bet he uses his future-sight to cheat at different games and pool tables and all sorts of things, but no one can ever prove it. Because there is no proof, and the other people playing just has to deal with it.

Damian = “Mini M” Malone The little baby of the family, who everyone knows the older Malones absolutely dote over. This is his chance to act like an actual child, just with a hint of art theft. Hey, it wasn't like they got it legally either, so it's free game, especially if they weren't taking proper care of the art or a pet. He's just pleased to get to have even more pets, and that Goliath his demon dragon-bat gets to go on walkies.

Jarro = Jadan “Lil J” Malone Now Jarro is delighted to have a third mech, and is even more delighted for people to believe Damian (or technically M jr) and him are twins. Gives off someone is going to die- of fun with Mini M, and honestly enjoys being able to use his natural telepathy to be a small horror movie child that knows too much. Like will stare up at someone with wide eyes covered in blood and the others in Gotham's underbelly still aren't sure if the blood was his or someone elses. (it was neither)

================================================

Honestly I might write a oneshot or something for the Cryptid Batfam focusing on just them as the Malones family.

[bkgpackets]

thebeautyliesinitsbriefness (wc: 1.8k)

Katsuki values strength, independence. He has never given crying a mere chance of coexisting in his headspace along with other less trivial affairs because tears don’t bring people back from the Earth. He won’t admit but he values optimism: to see the bright in the dark. Even he himself knew just how bleak of a person he was, a buzzkill and a party-pooper, in Ochako’s words. He wanted his crowd to be vehemently bright, he wanted them to have the ability to force him to see, and recognize the remaining half cup of water. 

You wince again, wound sterilisation was definitely your least favourite part about being a hero, nobody cared to warn you about this side of the job. The dabs on the open cut were quite aggressive, but you paid them no mind, not expecting any less from the second hero of Japan. 

Katsuki’s least favourite part to being a hero was needing to aid his comrades in wound irrigation. Nobody mentioned anything about going on missions together, much less taking care of each other. 

‘Tch, shut up, you can behead villains while looking into their eyes but not withstand ten seconds of stinging?’ 

You laughed, once again not taking offence to his rather belligerent diction— one of the reasons why you were sent to accompany Bakugou on this mission. Madam President, in good faith, believed in your potential, who also trusted Bakugou in bringing it out. She had also heard enough people talk about the way you were able to work well, or at least, better than others, with the fellow hero, so you were quite literally the only suitable option. 

With the cotton pad holding the gauze in place, your meticulous torture finally wrapped up, your ebullient Thank you! was met with dead air, as Bakugou had long left the room since the second he was done. 

With his back towards you, you can only presume the slight shake of his head to just be collateral of some things along the grumbled lines of ‘Stupid idiot..’

And you weren’t far off either. But, in lieu of cursing you with true malicious intention, he was in fact cursing at himself, for letting you, 'Stupid Idiot', crack his seamless façade of abrasivity:

His eyes widened with panic, what kind of reckless bastard would do that?! You had egregiously jumped in front of a few civilians that were shaken up by the villain you two were facing off. Stuck with fear, they stayed, and caused even more blood to be shredded. 

The sharp talons of the villain cut through your flesh like knives to tofu. The pain was evident on your face, brows crinkled, tears from your eyes threatening to spill. Your hand still gripped the handle of your weapon, making possibly the wisest decision you have made yet, you sliced the villain’s hand right off to prevent it from corroding your bones. 

Collapsing onto the dirt ground with a harsh thud, the civilians wept even harder out of guilt at the sight of your weak and damaged body, but you did so without a breath of complaint, for protecting the lives of idiots was your job. 

The villain, who regrew his hand with the help of his quirk, sat with an arrogant smirk in front of you, shamelessly meandering over your body, practically undressing you with his eyes. He would not know the absolute terror that was about to rain down on him until it was far too late. 

Diabolical beings. 

With an irate grunt, Bakugou switched to an offensive stance. In tandem, the crackling of his palm announced that he was an explosion ticking to blow. He let out a breath, along with all the pent up worry and frustration in him, a new found determination flashes across his countenance, the corners of his lips twitched. The way he held himself was different, filled with courage you had unknowingly given him. Motivation. His smirk was belligerent as always, eyes shining with something that would have made you blush if you were cognitive. 

Katsuki was going to make him pay; that villain would not see another sunrise after this, for protecting you, the utterly most insane and idiotic woman he ever had the pleasure of meeting, was his duty. 

Looking back, even his young and angry and ignorant self had known, long, that he had fallen in love. A mosaic of everything he had ever hated, you were. Yet somehow, you turned out to be something he liked. Loved. He was too young to know what love is, but not too young to know that it’s blood that’s rushing up his cheeks. Not too young to see the curvature of your smile and your nose and your stubborn brows to feel like summer will be forever. Not too young to know that life would be worse if he hadn’t met you. When he is not with you, he’s stifled and awkward and mean and, unable to tell you all of these things.

Everything about you was intoxicating. Bakugou wasn’t the one for mead; any sort of alcohol or drugs, in his opinion, only hindered how well he could do his job. But you, you were a toxin he could not live without. Sans you, he’d rather die. 

He wanted you. He wanted you so badly. Not in a dissolute way, you were too pure of an angel to mar (at least in his eyes).

He wanted you, in the sense that only he would be looked at by you in such a revered manner. And the spot in his heart was reserved for you, and you alone, a throne if you will. He wanted you, to him only. He wanted your eyes, your touch, your stupid rambles, all of it.

He was also a violent person, he knew his rough edges drew blood when people of delicate skin came too close. Skin who has never met slaughter, seen tragedy. Softness that has never come across the unjust of the world, the villainy. 

His legs were close to collapsing. He had lost count however many laps he ran. Sweat dripped along his forehead as he continued on his umpteenth round. He ran, and ran, and the sole purpose was to collapse. Maybe fill his body up with utmost dopamine shots, like he was high or something, so the unending doubtful questions in his mind would leave him alone. ‘Fill your body up with endless endorphins’ he kept chanting, like a mantra. 

Yet, he never knew he could have such gruesome and macabre thoughts when it concerned you. His hero costume was still stained with your blood, from when you laid dying in his arms, eyes glazed over and lips slightly agape, when All for One had stabbed you in the lung with a tendril. He had just lost All Might, he never thought he’d lose you, too. You were strong, you were persistent, a determined little shit who he had never thought would have to meet her end like this. He didn’t worry for you, and frankly it was why he stuck around you, he need not take care of you. Instead of being another burden on his already filled plate, you helped clear his silver platter; he knew if anyone would survive this, it would have been you, or so he thought. 

The tendril that took you from him was the one that was going to take him from you. You selfish minx, was what he grumbled to himself as your breaths got shallower, sounds of ripping fabric growing from soft to more difficult to ignore as your lungs collapsed in on themselves. You were running out of air, and running out of air fast. 

His salty tears left his face blotchy when they rained down on you like salvation. 

He didn’t know what would have been the proper and appropriate attire to show up in. You were only an equal to him, nothing more and nothing less. Neither of you had such time for nonsense when all of you were dedicated to heroics, when your job was keeping the hearts of thousands of civilians beating, pulse alive. 

He looked at the tombstone engraved with your name, your last legacy, until time calls for the moss and fern to come and erode the delicately carved words away. He wanted to grace the piece of rock with his brutally conditioned knuckles until the iron in his dignified blood, dosed with heavy nitroglycerin, left a permanent scar on your rusting heritage, so maybe then he wouldn’t need to question whether he was there or not.

The world is unfair, he has learnt since the ripe age of fourteen. Talented children with potent quirks born within the wealthiest of families will not know the stink of brothels and peril, men are made unequal, some are fed with silver spoons, and some quirkless. He has made peace with that, he thought. But he was wrong. 

He forgave the world when it stripped him of his comrades, his friends. He thought maybe it was the consequences of his wrongdoings in a past life, a lesson to be learnt; but when he lost you, Gods will have to kneel before the man if they ever think he’d forgive them for doing such a deed. 

He was then, once again, stripped of everything. It didn’t matter whether or not it was a punishment or a piece of Karma he rightfully deserved because he knew for a fact you would never be deserving of anything but love. 

Regardless of your past sins, he was sure you would have redeemed yourself with the way you introduced light into his life. You were good. Plainly, simply, and so utterly good. 

His fingertips grasp onto thin air as he cries, his fist cave on his own calloused palm instead of your tombstone. He finally lets his heart rip as he seemingly, for the first time in two months, recognizes that you are dead. 

His wailing won’t bring your battered bones back together from six feet under. His tears of grief will only water your tomb and foster whatever plant that wants to take home on your resting place. 

He lets out a few heartless laughs, at himself mostly— he has yet again ignored the wisdom God tried to bestow him with, such a rookie mistake has costed him you. Loving aloud never came easy to him as it did after death. The goodbyes, the ‘I’m sorry’s and the ‘I love you’ that stayed stuck in his pharynx never got to see the light of day before it was too late. Izuku. And now you as well; but what could he do? He’ll hold hands tighter, look at their faces longer, so he doesn't lose yet another person in his life from his stubborn, stubborn decisions. 

At first, he wanted to rage at you. At last somebody who had their naivety and innocence stolen and robbed away like he had been was allowed to hold his heart; intricate hands that have seen bloodshed, your breath heavy and warm from maroon responsibility. 

But he couldn’t. How could he?

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt 1: Along with forming a golden core most cultivators gain the ability to shapeshift. What they shift into depends on the cultivator, but there are certain tendencies in bloodlines. Jiang Cheng has shifted exactly once in absolute privacy. He didn't stay shifted after finding scales and claws instead of feathers and wings, some sort of reptile from the Yu bloodline. He's since been pretending not to be able to shift at all, but you can only deny your nature for so long.

ao3

The children of Jiang sect were supposed to be birds.

It was part and parcel of everything they were, everything they stood for, the history of their sect reaching back for generations. Their ancestors had bid their descendants to attempt the impossible, and their filial descendants lived up to their command – they spread their wings and flew freely in the air, unstoppable. They lived as freely as they flew, living according to their own inclinations and wishes, and in so doing thrived in all respects.

Naturally, living so close to the water, the most common type of bird for a Jiang sect disciple to shift into once they were old enough to form their golden cores was a duck. It was so common so as to be a joke in the cultivation world: how are the Jiang temperaments so good? It’s because they treat everything like water off a duck’s back!

But you didn’t have to be a duck, of course; there were plenty of other types of bird. You could be a falcon with sharp talons, like Wei Wuxian – who wasn’t even a real Jiang! – or a beautiful songbird, like Jiang Yanli, or any type of bird from the many that were Jiang Cheng’s shidi, from the humble pigeon to the brilliant parrot and back. You could even be a peacock, if you just so happened to have some Jin sect blood in you – there was a reason Jiang Yanli’s match with the Jin sect heir was so popular with everyone in the sect, even putting aside the political benefits of it. All the old women were sighing all day over what beautiful children they’d have one day, with such lovely plumage.

No, in the Jiang sect, you could be anything…as long as it could fly.

The Yu sect weren’t birds.

That was how Jiang Cheng’s father had been able to resist marriage with his mother for so long – the Yu sect were grounds-people, powerful and admirable in all respects but not quite to the taste of the Jiang sect. They were snakes and scorpions, spiders and serpents. The Violent Spider lived up to her name, turning into a small creature that was both flashy and deadly, filled with venom, beautiful in its own way…but that way was not the Jiang sect’s way.

It wasn’t a complete rule, of course, or else Jiang Cheng’s parents wouldn’t have gotten married at all. Plenty of people in the Jiang sect, following their hearts freely, married people who weren’t birds, choosing to carry their loved ones with them in their hearts as they flew – after all, weren’t they all cultivators? Even if you couldn’t fly in your shifted form, you could soar on a sword.

But it was better to be able to fly naturally.

If you could fly on your own, shifted, then that meant you had the Jiang sect heart. It meant you didn’t need to rely on anyone else to fly for you…it meant you didn’t have to be in anyone’s heart to reach the sky.

(Jiang Cheng’s mother was called Madame Yu, even when she ought to be Madame Jiang. Wasn’t that because everyone, including her, knew that she didn’t live in the heart of her husband the sect leader whenever he took to the air?)

Jiang Cheng had dreamt of flight ever since he was a child. He didn’t care what type of bird he’d be, whether sharp or soft, big or small, as long as he could get into the air. When he first learned how to fly on his sword, he barely spent any time on the ground, always wasting his spiritual energy puttering around enthusiastically.

And then he’d gotten old enough to hear the whispers.

His temperament is like his mother’s. Always sharp and scolding! Always thinking too much! How can he fly free like a Jiang? He has too many cares, tying him down to the ground. It’s good to be responsible, but not to the point where you no longer follow the sect’s path. He’s just too much.

I bet he’s not even a bird at all.

Wei Wuxian had never paid any mind to any of them and told Jiang Cheng to do the same, but it was easy for him to say, the genius that understood the Jiang sect motto down to his bones. The very same day he formed his golden core he turned himself into a falcon and dashed into the air, free and proud, faster than all the rest of them. Not like Jiang Cheng.

Not at all like Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng, who waited until he was all alone to try to shift, not telling anyone, and who recoiled in horror when he saw the flash of scale instead of feather that appeared on his skin – he didn’t even bother completing the full shift, fleeing back to the safety of human flesh. There wasn’t any point in finishing the shift. After all, if he wasn’t able to fly, could he even call himself a Jiang?

He pretended instead that he was just indifferent to the shift. Who needed it, anyway? It was so frivolous! He could fly just as well on a sword, and work on his cultivation in the meantime. Shifting was just a waste of time. If his father was disappointed, or more disappointed than usual, he didn’t say it; his mother, who had previously expressed some interest in his shift, dropped the subject so gracefully that he didn’t even realize it for months and months. Only Wei Wuxian still pestered him, and him Jiang Cheng already knew how to refute.

He didn’t shift. He didn’t see the point.

He didn’t shift at the Cloud Recesses.

He didn’t shift when he came home.

He didn’t –

“You’ll have to go in your animal forms,” his mother said as the Lotus Pier burned behind them. Her face was stern as anything, looking down at the two of them in that horrible boat she’d forced them on, Zidian binding and compelling them. “It’s the only way for you to escape notice.”

“No – no –” Jiang Cheng cried, resisting, even as Wei Wuxian’s resistance collapsed and he turned into that falcon again, unwillingly soaring into the sky with a collar of purple lightning around his neck dragging him as if by a chain. “Mother…!”

“Go!”

Jiang Cheng shifted.

Just like the first time, the scales came first, and he lowered his head, not wanting to see his mother’s disappointed expression – he knew, and she knew, and he knew that she knew, but knowing was one thing and seeing was another. He didn’t want to see her expression when it was confirmed that he was her son in truth, and in so being, was no true Jiang.

After the scales came, his body began to lengthen, his arms shrinking, and he assumed he would fall to the ground and shrink the way Wei Wuxian did – except he didn’t.

He got bigger.

His arms got smaller, but they didn’t disappear. His mouth spread across his face, but his teeth grew larger, curling out from his jaw, and from his brow he could feel horns appearing.

What in the world…?

“Oh, my son,” his mother whispered, and when Jiang Cheng looked up at her in surprise, he found that her always-steely eyes were suddenly wet. “Thank you for letting me see you fly.”

Jiang Cheng felt his body uncurl, Zidian compelling him, and he leapt into the sky, body flowing behind him like a ribbon in the breeze – he was his mother’s son, scales and all, but he was a Jiang, too.

The Jiang sect were supposed to be birds.

Jiang Cheng had been disappointed in himself when he wasn’t, but he’d forgotten that he’d never much cared about being a bird.

He’d only wanted to fly.

The dragon in the air above the Jiang sect, purple lightning dragging him away, threw his head back and roared, promising vengeance when he returned.

[talonabraxas]

“Apollo is Helios (the Sun). Phoebus-Apollo ("the light of life and of the World") who arises out of the golden-winged cup (the sun); hence he is the sun-god par excellence. At the moment of his birth he asks for his bow to kill Python, the Demon Dragon, who attacked his mother before his birth, and whom he is divinely commissioned to destroy — like Karttikeya, who is born for the purpose of killing Taraka, the too holy and wise demon. Apollo is born on a sidereal island called Asteria — "the golden star island," the "earth which floats in the air, (better said, in the ‘space’) which is the Hindu golden Hiranyapura; "he is called the pure, a;gno;ß , Agnus Dei (the Indian Agni....), and in the primal myth he is exempt "from all sensual love" ("Book of God," p. 88). He is, therefore, a Kumâra, like Karttikeya, and as Indra was in his earlier life and biographies. Python, moreover, the "red Dragon," connects Apollo with Michael, who fights the Apocalyptic Dragon, who wants to attack the woman in child-birth (See Revelation 12), as Python attacks Apollo's mother. Can any one fail to see the identity? For the way to understand the Bible lies through Hermes, Bel, and Homer, as the way to these is through the Hindu and Chaldean religious symbols.” – Madame Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine

Apollo Vanquishing the Serpent Python Talon Abraxas

[shybunny]

18+ ONLY 💗 MINORS DNI

weird furry scifi shit, spacefaring dragon searches the galaxy for a warm willing spaceship to lay her eggs inside 🛸

Stelmander was a type of dragon who could travel between the stars. Like most of her kind, she spent most of her time circling star systems, soaking up solar rays through the cells in her outstretched wings, and visiting planets to perform benevolent deeds. During her travels she met many beings, mostly smaller folk, but she occasionally came across another dragon too, and she wasn’t above a little daliance when she did.

Soon after one of these encounters, Stelmander felt that her egg-laying time was drawing near. She began to fly through the galaxy at top speeds, searching for a spaceship to lay her eggs inside. The living spaceships that small folk used to travel between the stars all came equipped with a warm, moist chamber designed to incubate dragon eggs. Stelmander used her psychic perception to follow a trail of warped space left in the wake of such a ship, and soon she was hailing the crew via microwave radio.

The ship was called Ahajas. Its sailors all greeted Stelmander excitedly, because it was considered good luck to encounter a dragon in deep space. The spaceship also signaled its own interest to her on a specialized subspace channel. But when she asked the captain for permission to dock, he was forced to deny her.

“I beg your pardon, madame,” he said. “It would have been an honor to accept you, but we’re carrying a cargo of life-saving medicines and cannot be delayed.”

Stelmander accepted this answer, and thanked the captain and went on her way, even though she could feel herself swelling with eggs. She would have to find another spaceship fast. She picked up another fresh warptrail and hurried after it, following it like a scent, and as she flew she could feel her ovipositor beginning to swell, to push through the swollen lips of the opening between her legs.

The second ship was called Perelandra, and it was even more voluptuous than the last. Stelmander was desperate to mount the soft warm hull, to insert herself into the soft wet heat of the incubation chamber, to lay egg after egg deep inside…

She was so distracted by her fantasies that she almost ignored the warnings that both the spaceship and its crew were urgently sending her. It turned out that Perelandra was temporarily infected with the Lormot virus—harmless to spaceships, but deadly to spacefaring dragons. Stelmander was forced to leave the voluptuous spaceship behind and look for another.

By now her ovipositor was fully extended and aching. She was getting really desperate—she had to find somewhere to lay her eggs. She followed another trail and met a third ship called Mima. She urgently asked the captain for permission to dock, but again she was refused.

“I’m afraid it’s not possible,” said the captain, “it’s simply not possible. The Mima is a pedigree ship, madame, we’re due to accept another dragon’s clutch in less than a week. Simply not possible.”

But Stelmander was barely listening. The spaceship was already in heat—its incubation chamber was in peak condition to accept a clutch of eggs—and it was signaling to her pathetically on its subspace channel, desperately begging for her eggs. The invitation was impossible to resist. Stelmander felt the pulsing contractions inside her, squeezing the eggs into her ovipositor. It was out of the hands of the small folk now. Mima needed her eggs, and she had to lay them right now.

Stelmander ignored the captain’s spluttered protests as she mounted the spaceship. She gripped the hull in her enormous talons to hold it in place, pressed her aching ovipositor deep into the moist heat of Mima’s incubation chamber, and laid egg after egg into the grateful spaceship’s pulsing inner cavities.

[companion-showdown]

Almost/Could have been Companion: Nominations

It's nomination time: Who is the Best Almost Companion

Who would you like to have seen become a companion?

Rules:

Must have met the Doctor

I know Jago and Litefoot are popular but I am not including anyone from Talons as a matter of principle

Not someone you could already call a companion (some exceptions may be made on a case by case basis) (if they are TV characters who are companions only in the EU that will be allowed)

Not necessary, but ideally someone who would have said yes in the right circumstances

There's no other restrictions on the kinds of characters to include, just anyone you wanted to come on further adventures in the TARDIS

Nominations will close in 24 hours (17:15 BST (UTC+1), 13/10)

Current list under the cut because it is already very long and only going to get longer

60s

Cameca (The Aztecs)

Jenny (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

Bret Vyon (The Daleks Master Plan)

Anne (The Massacre)

Sam Briggs (The Faceless Ones)

Isobel (The Invasion)

Fariah (Enemy of the World)

Astrid Ferrier (Enemy of the World)

Ping-Cho (Marco Polo)

70s

Miss Hawthorne (The Daemons)

Bellal (Death to the Daleks)

Lish Toos (The Robots of Death)

D84 (Robots of Death)

Rodan (The Invasion of Time)

Duggan (City of Death)

80s

Todd (Kinda)

Richard Mace (The Visitation)

Will Chandler (The Awakening)

Chela (Snakedance)

Norna (Frontis)

Janet (Terror of the Vervoids)

The DJ (Revelation of the Daleks)

Ray (Delta and the Bannermen)

Mags (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)

Shou Yuing (Battlefield)

Sabalom Glitz (Various)

Rachel (Remembrance of the Daleks)

Allison (Remembrance of the Daleks)

Gustave Lytton (Resurrection of the Daleks, Attack of the Cybermen)

EU

Ruby Duvall

Cousin Justine (Met the Doctor in Alien Bodies)

The Duke of Wellington (multiple encounters)

Irving Braxiatel (the Doctor’s Brother, and a Jerk)

Koschie (Academy era Master)

Millennia and Rallon

Narvin

Alan Turing

Hal Bishop

Abslom Dakk

Carolyn McConnell (Vampire Science)

Alex Campbell (the dead one not the alternate version who travels with the doctor)

Bounce (Year of Intelligent Tigers)

Karl Sadeghi (Year if Intelligent Tigers)

Scarlette (Adventures of Henrietta Street)

Leonardo da Vinci (Various)

Jason Kane

Jack Springheel

Peter Summerfield

RTD

Jabe (The End of the World)

Harriet Jones (Aliens of London / World War Three

Lynda (Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)

Mrs Moore (Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)

Jake (Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel & Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)

Sally Sparrow (Blink)

Timothy (Human Nature / The Family of Blood (could have his name wrong))

Joan Redfern (Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

Professor Yana (Utopia)

Chan Tho (Utopia)

Tom (The Last of the Time Lords / The Sound of Drums)

Astrid Peth (Voyage of the Damned)

Alonzo (Voyage of the Damned)

Ross (The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)

Jenny (The Doctor’s Daughter)

Hath Peck (The Doctor’s Daughter)

Rosita (The Next Doctor)

Lady Christina de Souza (Planet of the Dead)

Adelaide Brooke (The Waters of Mars)

Elton Pope (Love and Monsters)

Simm!Master

Agatha Christie (The Unicorn and the Wasp)

Jethro (Midnight)

Jacobi!Master

Dee Dee (Midnight)

Moffat

Nasreen Chaudry (The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood)

Craig Owens (The Lodger & Closing Time)

Kazran (A Christmas Carol)

Abigail (A Christmas Carol)

Canton Everette Deleware III (Day of the Moon)

Rita (The God Complex)

Lorna (A Good Man Goes to War)

Madge Arwell (The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe)

Brian Williams (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

John Riddell (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

Nefertiti

Petronella Osgood (Various)

Kate Stewart (Various)

Madame Vastra (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Jenny (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Strax (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Journey Blue (Into the Dalek)

Psi (Time Heist)

Saibra (Time Heist)

Perkins (Mummy on the Orient Express)

Courtney Woods (Kill the Moon)

Rigsy (Flatline & Face the Raven)

Maebh (In the Forest of the Night)

Shona (Last Christmas)

Cass (Under the Lake / Before the Flood)

Me (The Girl Who Died / The Woman Who Lived & various)

Missy (Various)

Heather (Pilot & The Doctor Falls)

Erica (Pyramid at the End of the World)

Danny Pink

Ada Gillyflower (The Crimson Horror)

Shona (Last Christmas)

Chibnall

Bel (Flux)

Vinder (Flux)

Claire (Flux)

Jericho (Flux)

Ada Lovelace (Spyfall)

Ronan (The Tsuranga Conundrum)

Nikola Tesla (Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror)

Spinoffs

Luke Smith (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Clyde Langer (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Rani Chandra (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Tosh Sato (Torchwood)

[preservationofnormalcy]

Baltharax here once more. Greetings, Norm of the Office! I went through all the proper protocols with ETCetRA and have all my paperwork in order. I have checked in with dragon customs. Now, you simply must tell me if there is a human glamour I could purchase somewhere. While I am rather proud of my stature, I understand that many of your more ignorant kin will react quite strangely to the sight of a dragon. Money is no object, of course.

Hey, good! Bet it feels good to get that sorted.

From what I understand, dragons that visit will often work with an illusionist to make something bespoke, but there’s no shame in getting something “off the shelf”, as it were.

If money is truly no object, most people will tell you to go through Illusionaerie, out of New York City, run by one Madame Calena. She’s got her talons on many of the most skilled illusionists in the world, and the prices in her studio reflect that. There’s a rumor she has a Zetan working for her, which I don’t think is true - but I don’t think I’d be surprised if it was. She’s a powerful woman.

However, I usually answer this question by suggesting Fairweather & Sons, in downtown Richmond, VA. It’s a smaller shop, but they’ve always been hands on with clients in a way that beats other shops, no question. My…my wife would need to get her glamor maintained, and we…we used to go there. I recommend them.

Now, I can’t really discourage you from visiting any place in particular, but I can tell you about the many calls, fines, levies, and class action lawsuits filed by the Office against Drezzik’s Discount Gremlin Glamours. They constantly put their brochures under our windshield wipers at the DC Office location, and I’m quoting here that they have “sixteen locations across this great country of ours”, with a photo of Mr Drezzik himself saluting in front of an American flag. With a smaller photo of him in a Mountie hat in front of a Canadian flag with the caption “and two locations in Canada!”. I don’t know who in RCOE gave him authorization to do business up there, but they shouldn’t have. 

[tlozypaka-tina]

Rejuv v13.5 teaser observations and theories! (Before public release)

First of all, I want to put out there I was not a Beta tester so I don't know how right or wrong I am about any observation made here. I could be overthinking things! But that's half the fun in theorizing!

Second of all, I implore every single one of my followers who happen to see this post but haven't played Rejuvenation: This huge post will contain HEAVY SPOILERS for v13!! I don't want to ruin your experience of the game so please try it out once 13.5 releases!!

Anyway time to word vomit an essay:

Prelude: Abbreviations and concepts to be used later on.

OA: Original Aevium. Before the reset (Revealed as of v13)

(to be added)

Part 1: Trailer themes and iconography.

Archetype symbol: The center of it all.

Core symbol/Interceptor: Appears at the end. The colors associated with the Core are Blue (Active) and Orange (Inactive)...which can be seen when the butterfly flies away at the midpoint. Something to keep in mind.

EDIT: The butterfly in question! Could be attributed to "Butterfly effect".

Karma (?): 1st image is the Karma indicator in game, 2nd and 3rd are trailer images with different details added and removed. 3rd one is speculation and could have different meaning.

Alright, now that I've established the most prevalent images that constantly come up in the trailer, I can start discussing the contents themselves and what the overall theme seems to be.

A big point in the trailer is the diagram depicting a pathway and connections, which all seem to be connected to an entity. The first 4 characters we saw are our core friend group: Ren, Aelita, Venam and Melia. There are 2 types of dots present in this first instance alone: A simple black dot, and a dot with extra layers. The simple ones are assigned to Aelita and Melia, while the other ones to Venam and Ren. Is this coincidental or is foreshadowing something??

I can only conclude, aided with the name of the update being .karma files, that the Main theme of this trailer is Karma and Connections. Are the consequences of our choices and actions going to finally unravel?

Part 2: Characters present, points in common.

The Theolia family (except Maria/Marianette)

Amber, Kenneth, Kreiss, Talon, Venam, Alice* and Allen* (Gym leaders)

Tesla (Elite 8)

Spacea and Tiempa + Kanon, Melia and Jenner (Stormchasers)

Hazuki is the only Protector of Aevium present of Nymieras' time.

Ren (Outlier 1 in these subgroups)

??? (Outlier 2)

Mr. Luck (Outlier 3)

Part 3: Missing faces and inconsistencies.

Ren's positioning in the trailer makes it so he is the only character in the trailer without a title on the upper right corner.

Mr. Luck. What does he have to do with all of this? All of them?

No team Xen admins...at all. Not even Madame X.

Gym leaders missing: Martin, Crawli, Valarie, Adam, Saki, Lavander, Texen, Flora/Florin, Spector, Narcissa, Souta, Ryland, Erick.

Damian and Alexandra.

Nymiera.

Elite 8 + champion missing (except Tesla).

No interceptor hosts or Ana.

Nim absent.

No signs of Nancy.

Garufa inc. is supposed to be defunct at this point in time, yet the interface we access to see all these files is from garufa inc...

Of course, the characters omitted could be simply because of space and the briefness of the teaser, but then the question would turn into: what do the characters that were included have all in common?

Part 4: Elephants in the room - Jenner, Melia and Corrupted File.

We got 3 hidden details as sneak peaks for 13.5! Seems to be 1 new character and 2 new looks for existing ones: those being Melia and Jenner who look....quite different.

Looking at all official art of Melia as of v13 (redesign of second iteration omitted but the hair is the same), it seems her new look could fit in after her 3rd iteration (going to the past arc, or the stormchasers arc, whatever we wish to call it) but before her awakening and current attire (4th pic) although the way the sidebang is positioned and her clothes are....off.

It doesn't quite feel like the Melia we know- the only time she has shown her shoulders has been in her 1st iteration, when we met her, afterwards her outfits are more conservative and white is the dominant color. This time, it's black.

Of course, this is a sneak peak of the outfit so we don't know anything else, but it's curious to see such a drastic change...also, it seems to be longer than her stormchasers fit, but shorter than her current version.

EDIT: This doesn't take in account the fact that Zumi's artstyle and way of drawing Melia's bangs may have evolved, but as an artist myself, I do find the choice veeeeeeeeery curious.

My friend Vance pointed out that she both looks a bit like Amber and that her expression resembles Melanie's VS battle sprite. Hm...

EDIT: The comparison!

Also! @spar-kie has pointed out that Melia is wearing eye-shadow in this image! That's definitely out of character for her!

As for Jenner, a recent ask answered by Zumi threw into question the possibility of this being a Past!Jenner...so is this an alternate version of him, or a change in appearance after he was trapped in Nim's pocket dimension??

As for the mystery character...I can't say anything about them because the name tag is glitchy, has an error and there is no picture to give us and inkling of who they are. Regardless, they seem to be very important this version for it to be teased this early.

Part 5: Crack theories and conclusions

The trailer is from the perspective of the Interceptor accessing the information from Zeight as it was teased at the end of V13. Would fall in line with the way the characters are shown as Data and Files. They are also the center piece that connects all these characters together and fits the theme of Karma and Connections.

Related to above...but different. The information shown is from OA, not current Aevium, which is why the trailer is Glitchy and has a corrupted file...maybe a character that shouldn't exist persists in Zeight's data despite the reset? Would also explain why Melia and Jenner look different as they may have had different fates in the OA. (Observation made by my friend Vance!!)

These are all my current observations after analyzing the trailer like a normal person!! After one day!! There are things I haven't quite touched but I'll edit this post after I get home because there is a lot of things I want to improve and I need to let this thoughts into the world before I forget and this week passes by-

Feel free to discuss in the tags, by rebloging and adding into the post or replies!!!

I'm so excited for v13.5!!!

[jadelotusflower]

Lois Lane costume appreciation (Part II, seasons 6-7)

Part I (seasons 4-5)

Part II of my Smallville retrospective, focusing on the Superman colour scheme as it relates to Clark and Lois, and in particular how Clark often wears red and blue (and the blue shirt/red jacket basically becomes his costume in these seasons), while Lois is often wearing or associated with the missing piece of the Superman puzzle - yellow.

I've identified three main instances where Lois seems to be costumed in yellow - the first is when she's in investigator/journalist mode, the second when she has a non-Clark love interest (which symbolises her future destiny with Clark, as all of these prior relationships help her discover what's not right so she knows when it is right), and third when she and Clark take a step forward in their relationship (even if it's often followed by two steps back).

In season 6 we start spending a lot more time at the Daily Planet with its iconic gold globe, and interior decorated in blue and yellow/gold:

Now, gold isn't exactly yellow, but I do think gold is adjacent thematically - especially as we get into the later seasons where the show doesn't rely as heavily on the primary colour palette. We're out of high school and the pseudo-college year, on our way to the more mature later seasons. Gold is a metallic form of yellow, and while Smallville High and the Talon both heavily featured sunshine yellow, given the Art Deco style of the Daily Planet we move to a burnished gold for the more adult world Clark is moving into.

Gold kryptonite also shows up in season 10 (and I'll go into what I think the meaning of that may be when we get there).

In 6x02 Sneeze, we not only see Clark make a significant step towards becoming Superman by developing his super breath, but Lois make a significant step towards her destiny as a reporter. Clark’s sneeze blows the barn door hallways across town, where it lands by Lois and ignites her journalistic intrigue, and by the end of the episode she’s had the story published and decided it’s the career she wants to pursue.

In 6x03 Wither, Lois meets Oliver Queen for the first time, and there's no yellow but she does wear a gold headpiece as part of her Maid Marian costume (your face, madam!), and we get the blue gown and that helpful Talon decor in the background to remind us that this will be temporary. Oliver is an important relationship for Lois - arguably the only other man we see Lois genuinely fall for in the series, and we'll get hints of yellow throughout.

In 6x04 Arrow, Lois once again wears yellow as she's on the trail of Green Arrow and gets the front page of the Inquisitor coining his name (also check out the binders on the right and the desk items below her). At the end of the episode Clark is very protective over Lois once he finds out that Green Arrow is Oliver, so continuing our tradition of Lois wearing yellow in an episode when she has a new love interest that Clark isn't happy about.

She wears this outfit again in 6x05, Reunion, as she and Clark work together again to track down a murderous former classmate of Lex and Oliver's, and where the window placement is on point.

We once again get Lois and Clark in complementary t-shit/jacket combinations, with Lois's yellow as the missing piece to Clark's red-blue. There's also some excellent blocking in this walk and talk, as Lois and Clark each move from the foreground to background as they go down the hall, one taking the lead then falling back, and then switching again. They're a team, even when they're arguing.

6x10 Hydro is iconic as Clark and Lois's first kiss, but Lois also starts off the episode in red and blue with yellow on her bag (over Tom Welling's directing credit no less). Funnily enough Jimmy is also wearing yellow in this scene (a mustard shirt he wears a few times this season) as he and Lois plot to expose Green Arrow's identity.

Lois also wears a red top with what looks like yellow piping during her attempt to catch Oliver in the act as Green Arrow (although it's under a white jacket during the actual kiss scene).

Then at the end of the episode, when Lois tells Clark how much she enjoyed the kiss with "Green Arrow" she's back in block yellow, with a red mug to boot (and blue couch/wall). This episode is a significant step forward, as it's clear Clark enjoyed that kiss too (thank you Tom Welling for your direction in that scene!).

A small one, but in 6x11 Justice, we see Lois's jeans have yellow crown decals on the rear (oh, the mid-2000s!). Lois will wear these jeans several times this season.

The next big Clois moment is 6x13 Crimson i.e. when Lois and Clark get dosed with red Kryptonite and make out. The interior of the box the red-k lipstick comes in is yellow, and the cover of the mix cd Lois makes is red yellow and blue. Was it heavy handed? Yes. Did I appreciate it? Absolutely.

In the aftermath Lois wears a yellow jacket (and the jeans with the yellow decals). At this point Clark knows that without inhibitions he wants to - ahem - "kiss Lois" - and we get the sense that she is starting to develop genuine feelings for him - or at least becoming more aware of them. Also note the yellow in Clark's blue plaid in this scene.

In 6x21 Prototype, Lois wears yet another blue shirt-yellow jacket combo (seriously, how many yellow clothes does she own?!?), tracking down a childhood friend whose been turned into a weapon by Lex. Now, Wes isn't exactly a love interest, but we do learn that he was Lois's first kiss, so I'd say it counts in the tally of Lois wearing yellow to show her future with Clark even when there's romantic tension with someone else, and also her destiny as an investigative reporter (in the first image she's about to expose a corrupt senator, in the second she's intent on finding the truth about Wes.) Clark's concern for her in the latter scene is also very sweet.

In 6x22 Phantom and 7x01 Bizarro, we get the opposite in a yellow shirt blue jacket, including of course a scene with Clark in his red and blue. In these episodes Lois is determined to expose Lex's crimes, so definitely fits into the pattern of Lois the reporter in yellow.

We also get some nice interaction between Lois and Clark at the hospital, where Clark chooses not to tell her about Lana's (apparent) death because it might be too much given Chloe's condition.

7x01 also features Bizarro Clark hitting on Lois - he has all of Clark's memories and actually makes some astute observations ("I know you're looking for a guy who doesn't play by the rules.")

Of course Lois thinks this is actually Clark, and the kindness he showed her at the beginning of the episode is reciprocated as she forgives him for manhandling her, chalking it up to grief over Lana. As much as Lois likes to bust his balls, she also shows enormous grace over his oft-times strange behaviour (proof of "other [times] I think you know me better than anyone" from season 5). She may not know the circumstances or his secret, but most of the time Lois understands Clark at his core in a way I'm not sure any other character does.

In 7x02 Kara they are back in parallel costuming - I mean, look at these two!

This episode is also a major step forward in Lois's journalistic career, and also closer to Clark's secret even if she doesn't realise it - she finds Kara's spaceship and is pretty cool with the idea of aliens, even if she's intent on uncovering the truth.

At the end of the episode when she's offered a job at the Daily Planet, she's in this coat which is yellow-gold, and from this point we start seeing Lois move away from the more casual jeans-tshirt-jacket combo to more professional attire (Clark will catch up to her in season 8), and from light and/or bright yellows to metallics/golds.

As seen in 7x05 Action, where Lois is once again on Lex's trail even when her boss tells her not to follow the lead. That boss is Grant Gabriel, and the two also engage in some unfortunately flirting later in the episode. In the first part I said I didn't mind Lois with AC or Oliver (I enjoy Lois/Oliver in particular, and their continued friendship) and think it makes sense she would be attracted to both of them, but I HATE her relationship with Grant and don't think it makes any sense at all. It's a relationship devoid of reason, chemistry, and purpose.

In 7x07 Wrath, we're briefly back in bold yellow under her business jacket as she and Grant flirt some more. I usually don't care for criticism of Smallville Lois that she's not enough like the iconic Lois because she can be a bit messy and makes mistakes - because that's the point, she's isn't the iconic Lois Lane yet, she's unformed, she's a work in progress just like Smallville Clark is. But I just think she's savvier than to get into a relationship with her boss, and honestly I think she would peg (heh) Grant as kind of shady? He's so clearly shady! There is precedent I guess - she went out with serial killer/hitman Graham, but that seemed like an aberration, not a pattern (and it was one date). Lois stringing him along but never actually giving in to his overtures in order to find out what he's hiding would have been a much better subplot imo.

The hotdog is also a nice touch though (Superman II reference?).

Other than challenging her, Grant also doesn't fit the pattern of men Lois is attracted to - he's not a particularly good person, their banter is painful rather than stimulating, and while he is in a position of power, he exercises it in a way that usually annoys Lois rather than impresses her. Honestly, they should have nixed Grant's character altogether and put Lex in as editor of the Planet much earlier, giving Lois a better entry point in hiring her to keep his enemies close, and her subplot of the season could have been investigating him from the inside.

As it was, this episode is where Lana gets Clark's abilities and immediately goes insane with them, including blasting into Grant's office and injuring Lois in the process. We see her brown and yellow bag again in the hospital scene.

In 7x09 Gemini, Lois's supply of yellow clothes has seemingly been exhausted, because she's back in the metallic gold top from 7x05. This is the episode where she's forced to write an expose on Lex (again, this could have worked if he was the editor! We didn't need Grant!). Lois is now fully enmeshed in the Daily Planet, so this ticks both the boxes of journalism and other relationships for the presence of yellow/gold.

However it's the last we see of this top on Lois (I think Chloe does wear it or a similar one in a later season).

This is the end of her relationship with Grant, who we learn is actually a clone of Lex's brother Julian, but he's dead an episode later and this entire subplot was pointless. We don't even know if Lois finds out about Grant's death, and other than a throwaway line in 7x11 she never mentions him again, so I don't think she ever really loved him or that he can be counted among her serious relationships.

Speaking of 7x11 Siren, Oliver returns wanting to rekindle his relationship with Lois, but when she discovers he's Green Arrow she ends it for good. This is one of thew few times we see Lois in a print rather than a block colour, and looking closely yellow is incorporated into the pattern as she tearfully tells Oliver she can't handle the dual-identity life and "share [him] with the rest of the world". Dramatic irony in that's exactly what she will do with Clark, but at this point in her life, with Oliver, it's not a choice she can make.

Later, Clark comforts her about her fears - "Just because someone's life has great responsibility, doesn't mean your life has to take second place" but Lois doubles down on her fears that "[she] will always be left behind".

They are both talking about Lana and Oliver respectively, but foreshadowing their future together, when Lois will be ready to accept and live that double life because they will share a destiny, and she'll trust that her relationship with Clark won't end in heartbreak like she's sure her relationship with Oliver would have.

In season 10, when these fears resurface, Clark tells her "you're not in my way, Lois. You're by my side."

The last one is 7x16 Descent, where Lois and Jimmy are working together to uncover the truth about Lionel's death and she is back in a yellow top for this milestone of the show. She wears this the entire episode, including being shot and locked in a freezer by Lex's minion, and then saved by Clark.

That's it for these two seasons, and actually the last time Lois wears yellow for a quite while as we more into the later seasons which are darker both tonally and in the visual storytelling.

[the-gravestone-saga]

As AF continues, I've decided to take it upon myself to draw the major characters in the story, starting with Madame Talon and Net, a character who will be introduced into the story at a later date.

My Deviantart!

[insomniac-jay]

DC OC Reading Lists

Billie Sunday | Faerie

Titania Knights: Faith, Trust, & Fairy Dust: The debut of DC's newest all girl team, the Titania Knights, and their newest heroes: Faerie, Hermia, Emerald, and Witchbane. Released around the same time as the first Blue Beetle comic.

Faerie - Billie's solo comic. It's an overall character study and exploration into her life as a Metahuman, relationships, and her future as she prepares to head off to Miami for college. It is confirmed that her and Jaime are in a long distance relationship.

Faerie: Miami Vices - Billie starts her journey as a nursing student, but not before she gets a message from Zatanna Zatara about malevolent magical forces in the city.

Fatale: Bloody Paradise - Billie makes a cameo as the nurse helping Jahzara recover from a car accident

Faerie & Blue Beetle - Billie and Jaime, now at a comfortable point in their lives, get married and settle down into a domestic life with each other in El Paso...or as domestic as one can be when they're a superhero

Faerie: All Haill the Queen - An Elseworlds comic where Titania names Billie as her successor to the throne of Fairyland

Jahzara Nwadike | Fatale

The Watchers: Public Enemies - The debut of Jahzara, daughter of a Nigerian business mogul, as the elusive Watcher Fatale in her quest to eliminate Bruce Wayne.

The Watchers: Watchers vs Owls - Jahzara joins the Watchers in the fight against the Court of Owls after Duchess (Serilda von Meier-Berger) is attacked in her home after refusing to join them

Fatale: Sins of Star City - After being framed for a crime she didn't commit, Jahzara flees from Gotham and hides in Star City

Fatale: Black Paradise - Now a successful lawyer living in Florida, Jahzara's work as Fatale isn't done when enemies from her past come back and new ones emerge

The Watchers: Future is Ours - Jahzara, now in her late 30s, trains the next generation of Watchers alongside Vicia

The Watchers: Who Watches the Watchers? - Jahzara's backstory and how she came to join the Watchers

Fatale: Corporate Espionage - An Elseworlds story where Jahzara and Duke meet later in life as adults

Vicia Lopez | Crimson

The Watchers: Honor Among Rogues - Vicia's debut alongside the rest of the Watchers. She has a few volumes dedicated to her character development

The Watchers: Public Enemies - Major supporting character since this series is mainly about Jahzara

Crimson & Pantheress - Duo series of Crimson and Pantheress (Imani Javiera) as they fight crime in Gotham's underground to keep their communities safe

The Watchers: Watchers vs Owls - Vicia joins the war after the attack on Duchess. A major moment is when she kills Talon

The Watchers: Future is Ours - An older Vicia helps Jahzara train the new Watchers, which includes her daughter Sanai Sheila Todd

The Watchers: Who Watches the Watchers - Exploration into Vicia's life before joining the vigilante organization, her relationship with Madame Nightshade, and how she joined

Blood Mary & the Final Girls - Elseworld story where Vicia never joins the Watchers; instead escaping juvie and becoming Bloody Mary, a murderous antiheroine

Crimson: Deadly Venom - Another Elseworlds where Vicia stayed with the Black Widows as an assassin

Greynasha Wiley | Crypt

Crypt: Back From the Dead - Greynasha's debut series. Based off the Static Shock cartoon, a major theme of the series is Greynasha learning how to live with her powers and the remorse that comes with being a survivor of the Big Bang

Midwest Titans (@punkeropercyjackson) - Greynasha is a member of the Midwestern branch of the Teen Titans alongside Blue Beetle, Miss Martian, and Static, Greynasha's love interest

@floof-ghostie @calciumcryptid @peachyblkdemonslayer @theautisticcentre @moonage-gaydream

[notanemployeeatbellereve]

Suicide Squad Members both Past and Present (Minus both Captain Boomerangs)

Amanda Waller

Rick Flag Jr

Rick Flag Sr

Deadshot

Bronze Tiger

Enchantress

Blockbuster

Briscoe

Karin Grace 

Mindboggler

Nemesis

Nightshade

Plastique

Black Orchid

Penguin

Killer Frost (Louise Lincoln)

Multiplex

Slipknot

Parasite (Rudy Jones)

Manhunter/Privateer

Duchess

Speedy

Vixen

Mr. 104

Weasel

Psi

Javelin

Captain Cold

Shade the Changing Man

Oracle

Count Vertigo

Dr. Light

Punch

Jewelee

Shrike

Ravan

Lady Liberty

Silent Majority

Major Victory

Poison Ivy

Atom

Thinker

Schrek

Stalnoivolk

Black Adam

Catalyst

Enforcer

Firehawk

Maser

Karma

Outlaw

Silver Swan

Sportsmaster

The Writer

King Shark

Knockout

Sam Makoa

Sidearm

Quartzite

Shrapnel

Thermal

Flex

Bolt

Cameron Chase

Copperhead

Sledge

Plasmus

Manchester Black

Chemo

Steel

Mongul

Sgt. Frank Rock

Big Sir

Bulldozer

Clock King

Cluemaster

Major Disaster

Multi-Man

Havana

Modem

Larvanaut

Eliza

Putty

Blackstarr

Reactron

Solomon Grundy

Hawkman

Power Girl

Star-Spangled Kid

Wildcat

Double Down

Atom Smasher

Persuader

Electrocutioner

Icicle

Mirror Master (Evan McCulloch)

Tattooed Man

Bane

The General

King Faraday

Marauder

Thinker II

White Dragon

Twister

Blackguard

Windfall

Virtuoso

Yasemin Soze

Black Spider

El Diablo

Harley Quinn 

Savant

Voltaic

Yo-Yo

Crowbar

Iceberg

Lime

Light

The Unknown Soldier

James Gordon Jr.

Cheetah

Power Girl

Warrant

Steel

Black Manta

Deathstroke

Joker's Daughter

Reverse Flash (Daniel West)

Parasite (Joshua Michael Allen)

The Hunky Punk

Katana

Killer Croc

Mad Dog

Killer Frost (Caitlin Snow)

General Zod

Juan Soria

Lord Satanis

Master Jailer

Merlyn

Rag Doll

Scream Queen

Shimmer

Tao Jones

Skorpio

Baby Boom

Zoomax

Lawman

Snakebite

Lok

Cavalier

Magpie

The Shark (totally different guy from King Shark)

Zebra-Man

The Aerie

Chaos Kitten

Deadly Six

Fin

Jog

Osita

Thylacine

Wink

Black Mask

Film Freak

Peacemaker

Shrike (Boone)

Culebra

Exit

Mindwarp

Nocturna

Match

Talon

Branch

Keymaster

Warp

Bloodsport

Ambush Bug

Black Siren

Nightmare Nurse

Heat Wave

Major Force

KGBeast

Victor Zsasz

Madame Crow

Black Hand

Etrigan the Brainiac 666

Gunbunny

Gunhawk

Gentleman Ghost

Juniper

Klarion the Witch Boy

Snargoyle (deceased)

Wither

Aladdin

Alchemaster (deceased)

Doctor Thaumaturge 

Etrigan

Azucar

Black Bison

Pigeon

Johnny Sorrow

Rustam

Doctor Polaris

Emerald Empress

Lobo

Cyclotron

Behemoth

Leviathan

Zizz

Bloodletter

Akando

Giganta

Brainwave

Doctor Destiny

Doctor Psycho

Dubbilex

Hector Hammond

Jemm

Looker

Manchester Black

Maxwell Lord

Mento

Psimon

Acero

Dulce

El Dorado

El Gaucho

Monstruo

Silbón

Zachary Zatara

Mirror Master (Sam Scudder)

Parademon

Fisherman

Lor-Zod

Clayface

Polkadot Man

Gotham/Bane (idk some dude named Henry Clover Jr.?)

Man-Bat

Arkham Knight

Sundowner

Mr. Bloom

Two-Face

Mr. Freeze

Deadbolt

Lashina

Luke Fox

The Verdict

T.D.K.

Ratcatcher II

Killer Frost (Crystal Frost)

Ten Eyed Man

@ednygmaaskme I'm sorry it's long as hell. I also want to apologize in advance if this list has duplicates. It's hard to keep track.

[7-planks-of-rosewood]

The party was worse than I anticipated, despite the red flags. I expected snobbery and a bit of rudeness to Madam Bloodstone's servants. I received some kindness, yes, but ultimately I overestimated the goodwill of the attendees.

[More under cut]

Even upon entering the estate her servants were rather distant. One of them actually made a mistake and apologized far more than a dropped cup should be getting. This became a running theme throughout the party.

Something that I think saved me was the attendees assuming I was another one of the upperclass dragons and treating me as such. I couldn't really correct them since that put me in a spot where I'm just another punching bag to them. I could also see about four instances of them verbally berating the servants. As mentioned in the previous post one of them had a very visible bruise along his flank. Was about the size of the average talon.

The food was actually very good, something I wasn't expecting given how outlandish most nobility food is. I'm assuming they found someone out of kingdom to provide the food. Nothing I'd expect from, say, the Queen's palace, but good nonetheless.

Despite the dozens of war advocating dragons there was very few mudwings- could probably count them on your talons. It was likely about only one of two sib groups of them. I'd like to think there wasn't racism involved, but I wouldn't put it past them. Should probably note that the same went for sandwings.

Despite the typical rich class duchebage-ry present there were a few good people. Lady Daybreaker (a dragon who previously was known for donating a decent chunk of her wealth to that village by the bay after a hurricane) called me handsome, something I wasn't expecting from someone so well known. Cute old lady- I love her.

I sadly never figured out whoever gave me the tip before I left. It'd be nice to meet them again.

[talonabraxas]

“Blood is the first incarnation of the universal fluid; it is the materialized vital light. Its birth is the most marvellous of all nature’s marvels; it lives only by perpetually transforming itself, for it is the universal Proteus. The blood issues from principles where there was none of it before, and it becomes flesh, bones, hair, nails . . . tears, and perspiration. It can be allied neither to corruption nor death; when life is gone, it begins decomposing; if you know how to reanimate it, to infuse into it life by a new magnetization of its globules, life will return to it again. The universal substance, with its double motion, is the great arcanum of being; blood is the great arcanum of life.” --Eliphas Levi, quoted by Madame Blavatsky in “Isis Unveiled” Blood Lotus🩸 Talon Abraxas

[companion-showdown-dot-org]

Almost/Could have been Contestant List

Who would you like to have seen become a companion?

Rules for further suggestions:

Must have met the Doctor

I know Jago and Litefoot are popular but I am not including anyone from Talons as a matter of principle

Not someone you could already call a companion (some exceptions may be made on a case by case basis)

Not necessary, but ideally someone who would have said yes in the right circumstances

There's no other restrictions on the kinds of characters to include, just anyone you wanted to come on further adventures in the TARDIS

Current List under the cut (there will be a group stage if necessary to bring this down to an appropriate number ie a power of 2, so do not worry about suggesting more)

60s

Jenny (The Dalek Invasion of Earth)

Bret Vyon (The Daleks Master Plan)

Anne (The Massacre)

Sam Briggs (The Faceless Ones)

Isobel (The Invasion)

Astrid Ferrier (Enemy of the World)

70s

Miss Hawthorne (The Daemons)

Bellal (Death to the Daleks)

Lish Toos (The Robots of Death)

D84 (Robots of Death)

Rodan (The Invasion of Time)

Duggan (City of Death)

80s

Todd (Kinda)

Richard Mace (The Visitation)

Will Chandler (The Awakening)

Chela (Snakedance)

Norna (Frontis)

Janet (Terror of the Vervoids)

The DJ (Revelation of the Daleks)

Ray (Delta and the Bannermen)

Mags (The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)

Shou Yuing (Battlefield)

Sabalom Glitz (Various)

EU

Ruby Duvall

RTD

Jabe (The End of the World)

Harriet Jones (Aliens of London / World War Three

Lynda (Bad Wolf / The Parting of the Ways)

Mrs Moore (Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel)

Jake (Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel & Army of Ghosts / Doomsday)

Sally Sparrow (Blink)

Timothy (Human Nature / The Family of Blood (could have his name wrong))

Joan Redfern (Human Nature / The Family of Blood)

Professor Yana (Utopia)

Chan Tho (Utopia)

Tom (The Last of the Time Lords / The Sound of Drums)

Astrid Peth (Voyage of the Damned)

Alonzo (Voyage of the Damned)

Ross (The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky)

Jenny (The Doctor’s Daughter)

Hath Peck (The Doctor’s Daughter)

Rosita (The Next Doctor)

Lady Christina de Souza (Planet of the Dead)

Adelaide Brooke (The Waters of Mars)

Moffat

Nasreen Chaudry (The Hungry Earth / Cold Blood)

Craig Owens (The Lodger & Closing Time)

Kazran (A Christmas Carol)

Abigail (A Christmas Carol)

Canton Everette Deleware III (Day of the Moon)

Rita (The God Complex)

Lorna (A Good Man Goes to War)

Madge Arwell (The Doctor the Widow and the Wardrobe)

Brian Williams (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

John Riddell (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)

Nefertiti

Petronella Osgood (Various)

Kate Stewart (Various)

Madame Vastra (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Jenny (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Strax (Various – The Paternoster Gang)

Journey Blue (Into the Dalek)

Psi (Time Heist)

Saibra (Time Heist)

Perkins (Mummy on the Orient Express)

Courtney Woods (Kill the Moon)

Rigsy (Flatline & Face the Raven)

Maebh (In the Forest of the Night)

Shona (Last Christmas)

Cass (Under the Lake / Before the Flood)

Me (The Girl Who Died / The Woman Who Lived & various)

Missy (Various)

Heather (Pilot & The Doctor Falls)

Erica (Pyramid at the End of the World)

Danny Pink

Chibnall

Bel (Flux)

Vinder (Flux)

Claire (Flux)

Jericho (Flux)

Spinoffs

Luke Smith (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Clyde Langer (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Rani Chandra (The Sarah-Jane Adventures)

Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)

Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

Tosh Sato (Torchwood)