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star-wars-scribbles-ff · 4 years

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Where I Belong | Chapter 1 | Prologue

Story Summary: The only family she’d ever known gave her a name; back when she belonged to something. But when that family is lost, she leaves it all behind. When destiny drops her in the last place she ever wanted to be, she has to earn back the trust and respect of the Republic that left her to die. Caught between the Jedi and the Grand Army of the Republic, she'll discover where she belongs.

Fandom: Star Wars | Galaxy Far Far Away

Rating: T+

Story Genre/Warnings: action/adventure/found family | war violence, death, torture, discrimination, angst, fluff, [more]

Words: 13,623

Disclaimer: Majority of properties within this fanfic are owned by Lucasfilm/Disney. My OCs, as well as a few other things within this fanfic are of my own creation. Republic Cog header made by me :)

CHAPTER NOTE: Haha I know you’re having a hard time getting past that terrifying word count above if you haven’t already said ‘to hell with this’ and kept scrolling, but I like writing long chapters because I don’t update as frequently as other writers so I wanna provide some good stuff to keep readers busy while they wait... Hope that’s alright? (All chapters aren’t that long; usually around 5k. Don’t worry there’s just a lot to unpack in this first chapter) If you’re still here I hope you enjoy :)

Masterlist | Next Chapter | Chapter Art & Map | Echo & Trauma Squad

“We’ve entered the atmosphere, Sergeant. You boys are clear to get ready.”

Pressing the button connected to the cockpit via a control panel on the wall, CC-4811, Sergeant Mash, went to respond.

“Roger that. Drop us 3 klicks south of RV point Axe.”

“Will do, sir.”

Lowering his hand, Mash turned, gaze finding his team doing a last minute equipment check before their coming drop into hostile territory. It was helmets on at 100 klicks, they still had another minute or so.

“Alright, listen up.” Mash held up a datapad, tapping briskly on the screen, a holo of the location of interest shown up into the semi-lit shuttle bay. “Intelligence spotted a Separatist fleet five rotations ago within the Duluur sector. They lingered for one standard Coruscant rotation above Devaron before departing from this sector. It is unknown whether hostiles have taken RV point Bullseye.”

“Why couldn’t we get the debrief on Kamino?” CC-4999, or as they called him, Nines muttered. The squad member was finishing the assemblement of his Deece with a sniper attachment.

“This is a priority mission,” Mash continued. “Retaking Bullseye needs to be done quickly, quietly, and efficiently. Minimal destruction which means no rockets, detonators, or explosives of any kind, hence our silent entry - sorry Hawk.” The smidgen of sympathy in Mash’s voice for their demolition man causes CC-4998, Hawk, to give a small jut of his chin and a twitch of a smile. “The Republic seeks to turn this Temple into a staging ground for Surveillance Operations. Keeping Bullseye standing is top priority; sweep the grounds and wipe out any Separatist forces that may have taken it; preferably all in under a 12 hour window.”

“100 klicks out,” The pilot’s voice came over the shuttle’s com systems.

Shutting off the datapad, Mash tossed it to one of the shuttle seats lining the bay wall before grabbing his helmet. The rest of his squad did the same as they all put their helmets on.

“Didn’t really answer the question, Sarg.” Nines uttered while rolling his shoulders, the action causing the armored plates to clunk against one another.

“Skipper said the Jedi were touchy about it, Nines.”

The kid was a bit of a hot shot but his skill with a rifle more than made up for the snarky attitude.

“They give us confidential assignments for a reason. They want this done quickly and quietly without word getting out.”

The sniper tipped his trigger and middle finger around in a salute that would have most likely made their training sergeant fume at the lack of maturity before turning towards Hawk.

“Bit strange they revived us so quickly.” CC-4803, Corporal Razor stepped up next to Mash. “From what Skipper told me- most get a couple months before they’re pulled for assignment again.”

Like the rest of their kind, they were kept in stasis when not on assignment. Infantry weren’t because they dealt with the bulk of the war.

“Personally I don’t mind - I guess it’s gotta mean we’re doing something right if they keep pulling us for jobs,” Razor added.

Their advisor on Kamino, Skipper, acted as their go-to man during missions. He’d feed them intel on the ground and organize quick and dirty drops and extractions if the need arose.

“Trying not to think about it, ner vod (my brother/comprade).” Mash said, the mando’a slipping through his mouth with ease. It wasn’t something other clones knew… More of a perk from their branch of the GAR. If you were lucky, your training sergeant may have taught you the Mandalorian language. The clone flash training made it stick too, so they were fairly fluent.

Like the rest of their kind, they were kept in stasis when not on assignment. Infantry weren’t because they dealt with the bulk of the war.

Not long after the Battle of Geonosis, their squad, Echo squad, was formed. It was created in the wake of each of their losses. Mash had lost all his men, his brothers, and so had Razor who had been Sergeant of his own men. Nines and Hawk together lost their Corporal and Sergeant. Higher ups had pushed them all together for a follow up assignment shortly after Geonosis and they had to get to know each other on the ground the hard way.

Since then they’d done a few jobs here and there. They all had the same training sergeant so while there was a small grimmer of familiarity, they were still strangers to each other. It took some getting used to, but things had since smoothed out.

“Sounds like this assignment really is priority. For the Jedi at least. Whatever Jedi was occupying the Temple previously was recalled to Coruscant. It didn’t take long for the Separatists to get word of the outpost’s vacancy it seems.”

“I’ll say,” Razor chuckled beneath his helmet before finishing the tie on his rappelling gear. They’d be dropping into the dense jungle soon. “From what I hear, intelligence still has holes in it. Intel is leaked more often than it isn’t, gotta wonder you know?”

Checking the knot of his rappelling gear a final time, Mash hesitated to respond to Razor’s comment. Razor had always been one for the gossip regarding the Republic’s works. Sometimes that curiosity was useful, but more often than not Mash wished his brother were more discreet.

Word had gotten around, but since the Republic were officially handed control of the army, they’d begun making changes. Their branch of the GAR was getting quite the makeover, however whether the changes were doing more harm than good was still up for debate. Clone Advisors was just one change that had been temporary, but had since stuck around. Certain Clone Officers without fieldwork would act as advisors or middlemen to non-Clone Republic Officers, like the Jedi, still getting a handle on how to efficiently induct the different clones into the conflicts.

It was a surprise to the Clones when the Jedi, the legendary warriors they’d been told of all their lives, didn’t exactly meet textbook expectations.

It wasn’t their place to ponder the Jedi abilities as Military Leaders, but their corner of the GAR was quickly developing opinions, a ship Mash was hesitant to board.

“You implying its a higher ups problem?” Mash asked.

“Not necessarily,” Razor responded. “Just something to think about is all. Although, I know you prefer not to.”

He’d known Razor long before they’d been thrown together in a squad. He’d met him several times on the simulation battlefields during training, and he knew him well enough to detect the humor laced through his voice to understand when he was pulling his leg.

“Stay focused, vod.” Mash muttered, thankful he could hide his own grin as a chuckle from Razor radiated through helmet comms.

“Coming in, we’ll be over the drop zone in 30 seconds.”

The turbulence picked up in the shuttle as they approached their destination and all members of the squad made their way towards the back of the shuttle bay.

Hawk hit the button for the shuttle’s ramp on the wall control panel and soon enough the roar of the ship's engines took over, causing the sound dampeners in their helmets to kick in.

The shuttle trembled as the pilots pulled up on the controls and the ship stalled above an area of jungle which was where their assignment was to begin.

“Go go go,” Mash ushered each of his men out before going himself. One hand on the rappelling line and the other holding his Deece at the ready, Mash kept his eyes on his comrades heading down the 60 or so meter distance passed a layer of fog into the darkness of the Devaronian jungle.

Large vines as thick as the bay of the shuttle covered the planet as far as Mash could see, even through his helmet display. Data on the planet mentioned the unique flora which they would encounter; the vines breached the landscape like borrowing Rishi eels, knotted and intertwined together creating a blanket covering the terrain.

Watching as each of his squad hit the ground, Mash followed as they did in stripping themselves of their rappelling gear as it zipped back up into the shuttle.

Switching comm frequencies, Mash looked up to the hovering shuttle around 100 meters about them.

“We’re clear, pilot.”

“Roger that sir, have fun down there,” The ramp of the shuttle began to close before it headed off.

The jungle had fallen quiet once the ship was out of range, and soon enough, the chirping and rustling of native fauna began to grow in the shuttle’s absence. Looking around the terrain, Mash was quick to notice how the ground under the vine canopy was rather barren aside from sparse foliage in the form of smaller vine systems and shrub-like plants. They were going in under the impression that there would be greater amounts of foliage; it would complicate matters for reconnaissance and stealth-based action going forward.

It was the first bump in the road, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Improvisation; its what they trained for in situations like this.

In a series of blinks, Mash pulled up specs on the surrounding landscape, including humidity levels. They were high enough. Readings indicated it had rained recently.

“Start dirtying up the armor. Foliage won’t provide enough cover so we’ll need to-”

An aggravated grunt caused Mash to turn, finding Nines with his hands braced on his lower back as he craned into a stretch, his Deece in the hands of Hawk.

“They changed this di'kutla (useless/stupid) armor again, didn’t they.” He grunted.

“The Manual outlined the upgrades,” Hawk reminded his brother with a slight tilt of his helmet, only to receive a mild clock on the shoulder plate from Nines as he got his footing back.

“Who the hell has time for that, do I look like I got time for that?”

“Cut the chatter,” The statement came out firm, although the mild distraction of the hostile territory around them softened his words. “This is hostile territory, so let’s shift it,” Mash gestured forward with his Deece.

“Dirty up.” Razor shrugged, emphasizing on the Sergeant’s first order before popping off in one direction to start camouflaging his armor.

Mash watched as Nines lingered on their Corporal walking away before he audibly grumbled, going off in a somewhat similar direction with Hawk.

“I long for the day when I can put this armor to actual use.”

“And how would you go about doing that, Nines?” Hawk asked.

“By using it how it was meant to be used- urban warfare, close quarters… actual fire fights. Not writhing around on a dust ball like Geonosis or making mud angels on this heap.”

The comment caused Hawk to openly laugh, something that if Mash was being honest, wasn’t customary of his younger comprade; however he had to admit it pleased him. He’d always been less of a talker than Nines; more hesitant to accept the new squad; whether it was because of the fate of their old one, or maybe who he had ended up with, Mash wasn’t certain.

“Keep your trash talk on internal comms, Nines.” Razor reiterated the words as if he had done so multiple times already, which he most likely had.

“Trash talk… Kebbur haar haat (try the truth).” Nines grumbled, before throwing a glob of mud onto his thigh plating, coating one leg in the darkly colored mud.

The kid was all talk. As soon as a superior was around he would 180 and they’d be none the wiser.

Another minute passed before the squad’s signature white armor with red and orange accents were covered helmet to boots in Devaronian mud. The humidity would prove troublesome as they’d need to reapply the camouflage again within the hour.

Exchanging a couple of nods with the men, Mash made a final glance exchange with Razor.

“We’re ready,” The Corporal gave him a nod.

“Then let’s move out.”

A couple hours had passed, and the position of Devaron’s two moons had since shifted across the night sky; they could be seen in the distance adjacent to RV point Bullseye’s structure. The thick layer of fog had been ever present since their arrival, and while it didn’t completely inhibit their line of sight, it was keeping them on their toes.

Spotting subtle obstruction on the ground ahead, Mash held up a fist before gesturing for the men to move forward to a position of cover cautiously.

The Sergeant came to a stop at a large vine almost a meter thick. He kept his back to it as Hawk stopped behind him.

“I’ve got eyes on the South road.” Nines came to a stop a few meters to their 3 o’clock, kneeling down on one leg before resting his rifle over a low vine breaching the ground, leaning in to look through the scope.

The Temple had four roads that branched out in each direction, the primary Northern and Southern Roads drew an imaginary line through RV point Bullseye while the secondary Western and Eastern roads connected the courtyards and other smaller facilities to the overall structure.

“It’s called a promenade, not a road.” Razor muttered as he came to a stop beside the sniper, blaster raised and alert as he observed the surrounding area.

“Yeah I know, the HUD said that, but what the hell is the difference- its a road.” Nines grunted. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to hear they’ve updated the HUD’s terminology index on architecture. I can’t think of more vital information to the mission.” The cock of Nines’ helmet only enhanced the sarcasm leaking from his filtered voice as he glanced up at their Corporal. “Looks clear up ahead.”

“No droids?” Mash questioned.

“Doesn’t look like it, Sarg. Zero movement.” Nines responded, gaze back through the scope.

From his crouched position on the ground, Hawk looked up at the Sergeant for a brief moment before glancing towards Razor.

Going in they’d be simultaneously at an advantage and disadvantage. The enemy had the high ground and not to mention the location in question that needed to be retaken, but the squad had the element of surprise.

“Alright. Let’s start moving in. Stay sharp and switch to internal comms,” Mash instructed and with a couple of hand gestures, fleshed out their movements going forward.

Like the vigorously tested training exercises on Kamino, the squad began to move in on the target location quickly and quietly. Using the native flora to their cover advantage, the small group made their way up to the Temple road before branching off to the structure’s right side. They’d stay between the Eastern and Southern roads in order to get as close to RV point Bullseye as possible without leaving the cover that the Devaronian vines provided. Once close enough, they could make their way across the courtyard and to the Temple. From there execution of the mission would change. How, was something Mash didn’t know yet.

Loosely following the road’s edge closer and closer to the Temple which was growing up into the sky the further they traveled, Echo Squad finally came to the wall of the courtyard, an area that surrounded the Temple. The wall was just under two meters; a quick scale.

Stepping up to the wall, Nines lowered his rifle, resting its barrel on the wall before perusing the open and exposed ground ahead.

“No visuals. All quiet.”

“I’m not liking this,” Razor muttered, tilting his body only slightly towards the Sergeant. “Its sloppy. Even for the droids.”

“Maybe we just came at a bad time,” Nines offered, continuing to scope out the area. “Caf break or… battery recharge- quiet time. What’d droids have these days?”

“Let’s give it another minute.” Mash decided, craning to look up towards the main Temple structure which was significantly larger than its sibling tower. “We’ll move in if we don’t get-”

“Wait, I’ve got a visual.”

Mash jerked his head to the right to see where Nines’ scope was aligned, towards the smaller of the two towers. The shutter and chung of metal clanking together in a uniform manner was a sound that had since become familiar to them.

On Kamino they trained against other clone squads, training staff, and simulation targets. The droids which were now being used by the Separatists weren’t entirely unfamiliar, but it was a somewhat impersonal enemy nonetheless. The droids were designed to overwhelm, something that proved effective against the Republic at Geonosis, especially their branch of the Grand Army of the Republic.

Part of the reason missions concerning their branch of the GAR were no longer to overlap with Infantry (unless under special circumstances) was because the Jedi thankfully came to their senses on that account. Their branch lost half of their entire force at Geonosis. Their first battle and their kind were cut in half… It unsettled Mash to the point where he preferred to not think about it, but his head constantly reminded him that those nerves wouldn’t help whether he ignored them or not. The Jedi, while they may not have been what they’d expected, were warriors and leaders nonetheless and they’d been taught all their lives that they’d been created to help the Jedi. Things were seemingly off to a rocky start but they’d level out. It seemed they already were, which Mash was thankfully for. He hadn’t worked directly with a Jedi yet, but when the day came he hoped they’d be up to the task of using him and his men to the best of their ability.

The enemy force finally emerged from around the farthest tower, revealing a squad of eight B1 battle droids. The standard, not a problem. However whatever forces may wait within the Temple or around the perimeter was the standing issue. If they had more time, Mash would have ordered a sweep of the perimeter to be safe. But they didn’t have that luxury. Looks like they’d be doing a hard contact entry, sweeping room to room and floor to floor until the entire structure was clear.

“Well you wanted close quarter combat, ner vod.” Mash finally stated, watching alongside his squad as the droid squad went about their patrol of the Temple grounds. “We’ll eliminate this squad first.”

“Soft entry?” Hawk questioned.

“We’ll have to improvise on that front. Debrief mentioned a security system in the Temple. Nothing the droids can figure out, apparently its more of a force user problem, but with the cams they’ll most likely see us coming. We’ll have to hit quick enough to have the advantage inside.”

“What’d you call that, a medium entry, sir?” Nines chuckled, still zoning in on the droids.

“Call it what you want, Nines.” Mash nodded with minor amusement before giving his rifle one last check just to be safe.

“I’ve got a second droid squad coming in, 2 o’clock off the Eastern road… Looks like it might be a rotation change.”

“Watch em, Nines.”

“Roger that Sarg,”

“Razor?” Mash turned his attention to the Corporal.

They always threw ideas off of each other. While Mash was officially in charge, he preferred to keep the title as loose as possible. Razor used to be Sergeant of his old squad, and was demoted to Corporal when transferred to Echo Squad. While they had differing ways of handling situations, Mash understood the wisdom in getting a second opinion.

An audible sigh came through the Corporal's helmet as Razor looked up at the structure.

“No easy way we’re getting in there without almost immediate detection. Without the use of explosives or detonators-” The nod he gave was decisive, his voice level and collected. “Looks like we gotta do this t-”

The fading of clanking metal from the droids was quickly and suddenly overpowered by the rumble of a familiar sound.

Looking up through the vine canopy, the members of Echo Squad are met with the image of a Republic Nu-class Shuttle swooping in over RV point Bullseye.

“No,” Mash muttered. “No no no- what the hell are they doing!?”

“You get anything over comms? Change of plans?”

“No,” Mash growled through grit teeth before quickly swinging a leg up, getting over the wall before gesturing for the squad to follow.

The uninvited guest had already caught the attention of the two squads of B1s as they all began to open fire on the vessel. The fire would do little against the shuttle’s shields.

As Echo Squad members quickly finish entering the courtyard, the Attack Shuttle’s ramp lowers and four similarly dressed troopers begin rappelling down to the adjacent courtyard.

“I don’t believe this-” Mash snapped before gesturing for the squad to move out and join the fire fight on the other side of the Temple grounds around fifty meters away.

“There go our medium entry plans!” Nines laughed over the growing sound of blaster fire as they ran to join the conflict.

“Not the time, kid!” Mash barked.

As they entered the Eastern courtyard that wrapped around the structure, a couple more droid squads came into view. The other Squad of clones that had arrived were keeping a relatively loose formation as they took out the enemy force, for their kind it looked pretty sloppy; or at least not Echo Squad’s style.

Mash knew his squad was on him, and he didn’t have to remind them to keep it tight. They’d cover the enemy force closer to Bullseye and leave the straggling droids to the newcomers.

B1 Battle Droids had a rather standard targeting system; as they clunked along on a relatively straight path, they’d fire their blasters off in even intervals. They were a fairly easy nuisance to deal with on assignment. When high grades of Separatist droids joined in, and their numbers increased tenfold, that’s when their years of training met their match.

As they made their way across the courtyard and towards danger, Mash got that liquid feeling in his lower body, like his legs would give out and he felt ten times heavier running towards the firefight, he knew that feeling would always disappear as quickly as it appeared. As his training Sergeant would say: It’s your forebrain shutting down; a fear reflex. He wondered if his brothers ever felt the same; that trickle of fear. He didn’t doubt it. You’d have to be a fool not to to some extent.

As soon as their presence was made known, and the droids turned their attention to the second squad of troopers approaching, the weight was lifted from Mash’s body and the noise in his head quieted. Time to get to work.

The sound of blaster bolts firing off rang loudly into the silence of the surrounding jungle. Picking off the droids one by one, Echo Squad drew further out into the courtyard, near where the newly arrived squad was.

The last couple shots came from Hawk as he took down a few straggling droids before the men exchanged a couple of quick glances. The spike of adrenaline that one got during the fight was almost euphoric; relaxing when a brief moment of silence came during the action.

That feeling was cut short when Mash and Razor turned in time to see the Sergeant of the other clone squad about to throw a detonator at another squad of droids approaching from the Eastern road, most likely coming back from another patrol.

“Hey!” Mash barked before running over.

By the time the Echo Squad leader was within fifty yards of the other squad, the small explosive had detonated; dirt, droid parts, and some rubble from the road shot up into the air.

“Haar'chak (Damn it).” Hawk muttered, exchanging a brief look with Nines before going after their Sergeant.

“Are you insane?!”

The shouting caused the members of the other squad to draw their attention back, and eventually the Sergeant turned as well.

“Who the hell are these guys-” The Sergeant muttered, patting the shoulder plate of one of his men before continuing towards Mash. “Can I help point you back in the direction of whatever mud pit you all crawled out of?” The sarcasm was strong in his voice as he looked over Echo Squad. To be fair they were all completely caked in the Devaronian mud.

“Sarg-” Razor tried to subtly stop his brother from getting physical but Mash was already close enough to shove the other Sergeant backwards a couple of steps. “Udesii, vod! (take it easy/calm down, brother!)”

“Under what authority do you think you can just waltz in here an-”

“Authority? Listen here vod,” The armored clone points towards Mash. “I’ve got orders to secure that building back there, so unless you’re here to sit back and run recon while covered in that osik (feces/dung) I suggest you back off and let us take it from here.” The other Sergeant seemed all too eager to start smack talking and it took what was left of Mash’s self control to not get any more physical. Ten years of systematic, precise, orderly training, and as soon as the Republic is given control of the military, everyone seemingly falls off the rails.

“I don’t know what kind of information you’re running on, but our orders came directly from the Jedi Temple that we were to scout this location for enemy activity and retake the building with minimal sustained damage.” Mash made clear. “It is obvious that you did not receive the debrief.”

Taking a step forward, the other Sergeant came within inches of the Echo leader’s helmet with his own.

“What are you implying?”

“Read between the lines.”

“I’m warning you now, vod. Ne shab'rud'niÖ (Don’t mess with me).”

“Bax, come on, vod.”

Razor inched his way between the two Sergeants as the other squad member that had spoken up tried to coax his Sergeant into taking a step backwards.

“Regardless of who should or shouldn't be here- the objective appears to be the same.” Razor made clear, his hand residing on the breastplate of his Sergeant, his other held out towards the other Sergeant who was being held back by who now appeared to be their squad’s Corporal. The tension could've been cut with a vibroblade in that moment.

Razor knew Mash preferred to work alone; at least he preferred their squad working alone. If it was one thing the man hated, it was the liability of variables he couldn’t control - other people potentially ruining his way of doing things. Whether it be Infantry clones, Jedi, or other squads like them, Mash preferred the assignments where it was just their squad, and their squad alone.

“Taking Bullseye is priority.”

“Taking what?” The other Sergeant muttered. His posture had since relaxed but it was clear he was ticked off and eager to get a move on.

“RV point Bullseye.” Mash said. It sounded like he spit the statement out through his teeth.

“...You mean the Tower?” The other Sergeant deadpanned.

Silence followed and Razor exchanged a small glance with the other presumed Corporal.

“I’m Corporal fifty-one-thirty-four… 34.” The Corporal stated, lowering his hand from his Sergeant’s breastplate. It was common to just use the last two numbers. Your name was almost always kept within your squad group, and maybe with your training sergeant unless you were comfortable sharing it. It wasn’t the time to exchange such personal details even if the atmosphere wasn’t so tense. “This is fifty-seven-eighty-seven and five-two-sixty.” The Corporal, 34, pointed to the other two men part of their squad.

The one identified as 87 appeared to be their tech man, while 60 appeared to be carrying the demolitions ordnance.

34 gave his Sergeant the smallest nudge with his shoulder and the man seemed to begrudgingly think over his options before his shoulders lowered a fraction.

“Sergeant five-one-eighteen.” He muttered.

“I’m Corporal four-eight-oh-three,” Razor gestured to himself. “This is forty-nine-ninety-eight and forty-nine-ninety-nine.” Pointing the two out, Razor watched as Nines gave the other squad a jut of his helmet, a sort of nod, and Hawk dipped his helmet down in acknowledgement.

Razor only had to turn a fraction towards Mash for his brother to know he would have to speak up.

“Sergeant four-eight-eleven.” His voice was tight, the remnants of his frustration still hung heavy.

“Now that that’s out of the way, would you all mind moving so we can get to work?” Sergeant 18 gestures somewhat dramatically with his blaster in one hand and a cock of his helmet, swinging the barrel of the blaster with smooth precision to the side.

The silence of the courtyard was growing increasingly harder to ignore, no doubt more droids were on their way from within the Temple walls.

“Sarg-” Corporal 34 started to speak

“We got here first, I suggest you step aside and let us take it from here.”

“I’ve been dragging my men through the mud of that jungle for five hours- We were on the ground working this mission before you dropped in on the front karking door-”

“I don't give a mott's backside if you’ve been stuck here for weeks I-!”

“Sir, I’ve got movement, south entrance,” The statement came from Nines, currently training his rifle on two squads of droids, including some SBDs (super battle droids), exiting the main doors of the Temple.

Both Sergeants having turned to see the incoming hostiles seemed to quickly come to the realization that neither of them were getting what they wanted.

Sergeant 18 shot his Corporal a look before cursing under his breath and 34 nodded before he turned more so to face Echo Squad.

“Your call. You were here first.”

Mash clenched his jaw from under his helmet. He didn’t need this but… He couldn’t have it completely his way.

“Can you manage taking the East Tower without blowing it up?” Mash questioned.

The reluctance was evident in Sergeant 18’s movement as he turned towards Mash and finally nodded.

“...We’ll clear it.”

Exchanging a glance with Razor, Mash returned the nod to the other Sergeant.

“We’ll take the main structure; meet up in the communications center after the Temple has been cleared. If you need to, use comm frequency 0374.”

“Roger that,” Sergeant 18 quickly signals to his men and they take off hastily towards the oncoming droids.

With a shake of his head, Mash turned and watched for a brief moment as the squad of newcomers ran off and began blasting away at the droid force.

Nines watched their Sergeant for a moment before exchanging a glance with Hawk before clearing his throat.

“We uh- clear to move in, sir? I’d rather not let them have all the fun.”

Breathing out through his nose, the Echo Squad Sergeant gave his brother a nod before gesturing for them to get moving.

“Keep it tight.”

“You say that like we’re gonna run off, Sarg.” Hawk chuckled, falling into a loose formation at Nines’ side with Mash and Razor behind them.

“Just don’t follow in that crack squad’s shoes, please.”

“Looks like their Sergeant is just a little…” Razor trails off, swallowing the breathy laugh he almost let loose.

“Dini'la? (insane?)” Nines tried.

He managed to earn a few chuckles with the comment.

“Let’s just focus on the task at hand, vod.” Mash responded, voice a little more at ease. Razor had a tendency to keep the atmosphere as light as he was able, especially in instances like this when tension was high. Nines had his own way of trying to do the same, which usually consisted of poking fun at someone or something. “Same rules apply; no explosives. This building needs to be standing by the time we clear it.”

“Copy that, Sarg.” The humor was laced through Hawk’s voice.

He was the most mellow one of the squad. Mash didn’t really consider himself to have a great sense of humor, but somewhere along the line, Mash subconsciously decided to always play with Hawk and pretend like he was the trigger “explosive” happy one of the bunch. Hawk played along with it.

“I call entry,” Nines called out, causing Razor to chuckle before moving up closer to the younger clone to cover his six.

Despite their mismatched squad, formulated as a result of the losses they’d each received, they were quickly becoming a working unit. If it was one thing Mash knew they all took away from their training, it was the constant snippets of advice and encouragement they’d received from their training sergeant. Traat'aliit gar besbe'trayc (The squad is your weapon). Remember that; you are nothing on your own, and everything together.

“I’ve got movement in the dining hall,” Nines muttered over comms. They were using their internal comm frequency so the droids wouldn’t overhear anything. The other squad hadn’t initiated contact with them on the channel yet, but perhaps that was a blessing in disguise.

“Tion'solet? (how many?)” Hawk spoke up.

“I said I’ve got movement not a five course meal worth of information ready for you,” Nines shot back.

Hawk just shook his head at his brother’s humor.

Leaning around the corner, Nines’ HUD marked the number of droids in the room within a beat and he quickly retreated around the corner where the squad was.

“Twelve including a B1 Sergeant and five SBDs. We can use the EMPs right?” Nines questioned quietly to Mash, despite knowing they were on internal comms.

Electromagnetic Pulse Grenades… Debrief didn’t specifically outline that they couldn’t use them.

Mash audibly sighed before lowering his rifle a fraction.

“This is the dining hall. If we end up stuck here a couple days I’d rather raid the pantry than eat ration bars.”

“That’s your argument for not going in with blasters?” Razor questioned, cocking his helmet to the side.

“.... Yes.”

“Just this one room.” Mash grunted while shaking his head. “We need to hold onto that ordnance.”

Giving a jut of his helmet, Nines lifted a hand towards Hawk who had the EMP grenades on hand.

Tossing one to his brother, Nines made his way around the corner and activated the grenade before rolling it into the large room.

A few beats passed before the shuffling and clunking of the metal droids moving about became prominent.

“What’s that?” The high pitched, animatronic voice was becoming reluctantly familiar before the grenade went off, cutting off any chatter from the hostiles.

Echo Squad swarmed into the space with deadly precision, shooting down the few remaining droids that were outside the EMPs blast radius before covering the bases of the room.

“Clear!”

“Clear,”

The room was relatively small for a dining facility. Then again, the debrief did reveal this Temple was rarely occupied by more than a few Jedi at a time.

“What’s left?” Hawk looked towards the Corporal.

“Just Communications; top floor.” Razor turned towards Mash who nodded in agreement.

“While I’m not complaining, the fact that the crack squad hasn’t made contact is a little unsettling,” Nines spoke up once more, taking a seat on one of the tables, slinging his rifle over his lap.

“Nines-” Mash muttered, waving a hand towards the younger clone. “You're covered in filth, try not to get it all over everything.”

“This building is still under Separatist control last time I checked. I think they’ve got bigger problems then my dirty shebs (backside/rear/“ass”) sitting on their dining tables. Just saying.” Nines shrugged, catching the way Razor quickly looked down and breathed out sharply.

“Don’t encourage him.” Mash didn’t skip a beat in lightly scolding Razor’s reaction to Nines’ humor.

Wearing full armor and helmets did inhibit one’s ability to read some body language, but they all grew up learning how to read it. He wasn’t completely there yet, but Mash was beginning to pick up on the little details that clued him into each new brother of his. He could almost identify each of them by their breathing in combat. Nines was the easiest to pick out because he always breathed in such an even and controlled manner; a sign of a sniper; the slightest inhale or exhale could mean the hit or miss of a shot. Hawk and Razor were a little harder to tell apart but Mash was getting there.

“Let’s head up to the top floor.” Mash gestured out of the room with his Deece. “Keep it tight.”

B1 Battle Droids littered the hallway farther down where they had come from. Every floor and room below them had been cleared. All that remained of the main structure was the top floor, the communications center. Whether the other squad had cleared the East Tower was a question Mash hated leaving up in the air. More droids could pour into the lower levels that they had already cleared if the squad didn’t hold up their end.

Making their way to the end of the hall, they came to an open spiral staircase heading up. Sure there was also a lift, but they didn’t know what they were walking into. The stairs would allow them to survey the situation better.

It didn’t take long for the squad to make their way up to the top level and to a small hall that led to the opening of the communications center. No doors. They’d just have to move in relatively quickly to get the jump.

Mash followed behind Nines on the left side of the hallway as Hawk and Razor did the same on the right side of the hall.

“Tactical Droid 12 o’clock.” Hawk said.

“I got it,” Nines had already raised his Deece.

“Pare (wait),” Mash held a hand out, Deece still trained forward, held by another hand despite the pressure it put on his wrist. “Keep it intact, if we get the jump we might be able to salvage information out of it.”

“...Fine.” Nines uttered but kept his rifle in position.

Evaluating the room for a moment, Mash’s HUD marked the hostiles in a moment. Fourteen, a mix of B1s and SBDs not including the Tactical Droid.

“Razor?” Mash questioned.

“Hawk and I got the right side, you guys take left?”

“Copy.” Gesturing forward with his pointed middle and forefinger Mash quickly grasped his Deece as they moved in.

Nines headed into the room quicker than the others, shooting down several of the droids before making a run for the Tactical droid before it could register the situation playing out.

Mash shot down what droids remained around Nines, dodging a couple of blaster bolts that came close to his body.

Razor and Hawk went about taking down droids on the other side of the room, conscious of the blaster charge they were using as they took the droids down as quickly and efficiently as possible; a head shot or correctly positioned body shot; nothing else would do.

Mash had barely caught Nines finishing off the Tactical droid as he finished ripping the droid’s head from its body before standing up with a laugh, tossing it in his hands twice before looking the intact head over.

“Vod, gaanaylir (brother, catch).” Nines tossed the droid head towards Hawk who fumbled for a moment, only one hand free as the other grasped his Deece. The droid part clattered against his armor before he secured it properly in his grasp. Hawk then handed the droid head to Razor without much thought and Echo Squad’s slicer made his way towards the command console a couple meters away.

“Nines, door.” Mash said.

“Copy that.”

Heading to the front of the room where computer stations lined the walls, Mash lightly ran his fingers over the controls of one of the stations before stepping once to the side to where the security cam screens were. Cycling through them briefly, it took Mash a while to finally find a cam that showed the other squad. By the looks they were making their way towards the communications center and they looked calm enough so they must’ve held up their end.

“Anything, Sarg?” Hawk asked.

“No droid activity. That squad’s on there way it looks like. Hawk-” Mash got the attention of his comrade and gestured to the console in front of him with a nod.

Hawk nodded and approached him.

“Refresh security systems and realign motion sensors in the building.”

“Sir,” Hawk gave a nod before getting to work.

“So what’s the plan now?” Nines looked over his shoulder back into the room towards his brothers.

Mash exchanged a glance with Razor who was standing over the command console; the hub for long range communication.

“I’ll start securing a line to Kamino,” Razor decided. “Enlighten Skipper on our progress.” He turned away and got to work on the console.

Mash’s eyes dotted over the console where Razor began working before his eyeline fell to the floor and followed the path of destruction towards the door where Nines was. From there his eyes found several moving figures coming down the hall, the other squad. Great.

“Well well,” Sergeant 18 began, the eyeline of his helmet shifting around the room for a moment before settling on Mash. “Su cuy’gar (you’re still alive).”

“Don’t act so surprised.” Mash muttered before gesturing them over.

“The East Tower is clear.” The Sergeant continued to look around the room for a brief time before his gaze landed on Mash once more, giving the littlest dip of his head. Mash was quick to reciprocate the gesture in gratitude.

“Looks like the droids were tampering with the transmitter,” Razor called over. “It’s gonna take some time to get to working.”

“Alright.” Mash’s eyes had quickly found the squad of men who had since entered the room once more. They were so familiar to him and his brothers yet so incredibly different it almost made his blood boil with just how different they were - how different they approached the mission. “In the meantime we need to secure the greater perimeter.”

“You know how long that’ll take?” The Sergeant reprimanded.

“It needs to be done,” Mash countered before turning towards Nines. Hesitating in his words for a moment, Mash evaluated the men he had present in the room.

“Let’s send three men, including a Corporal.” Mash wasted little time in subtly waving Nines over.

“If you’ve all got a slicer who can take over this, I’ll take a few men out.” Razor called over, now lying on his back with his head inside a compartment under the command console, helmet on the ground next to his legs. One of the other squad’s men, 87, had since traveled over to where Razor was. After a moment he looked up from where he was knelt down near Razor.

“I can handle this, sir, if you wanna send someone out with them.” His voice was just a hair higher in pitch and the detail, as small as it was, already told Mash that the clone was younger to some degree; maybe closer in age to Hawk and Nines.

Sergeant 18 turned towards Mash for a brief time before turning towards the two of his men still at his side. He nodded to one of them and he stepped forward.

“Alright 11… We’ll play it your way. 60 will go with’em on the scouting,” He nods to the comprade that had since stepped up.

Clenching his jaw for a brief time, Mash reluctantly thought over his next move before carefully removing his helmet. Positioning it under his arm, he relaxed his jaw before holding out a hand to the Sergeant.

The soldier was still but the slight movement of his helmet indicated he saw the outstretched hand.

“Echo Squad. They call me Mash.” It was a longshot. But it might make things easier going forward if they stepped past the formalities of numbers for names.

The Sergeant was unusually still for his seemingly gung ho attitude prior; but the man finally looked down at the hand after an uncomfortable beat of silence before raising his hands to his helmet. Removing the piece of armor, he went to tuck the helmet under his arm before returning the gesture.

Mash met the same set of eyes. “Trauma Squad... Baxter.” His hair was relatively unkempt, but part of that might have been due to helmet hair. It was not the standard military cut all clones were required to maintain on Kamino; it appeared as if he’d let it grow out a bit, his bangs were just teasing his brow.

Mash shook his hand once before they each pulled away from the gesture.

Looking to his left, Mash met Razor’s eyes as his brother walked over.

“This is our Corporal’n slicer.” Mash nodded towards him.

“Razor.” He responds.

“That’s ours.” Baxter nods to his right to the clone next to him.

“Ram, Corporal and sniper” The Corporal previously known as 34 chimed in with a dip of his helmet.

Mash gave a small nod in response to the clone.

“Nines, sniper.” Nines took the opportunity of silence to speak up.

“Hawk, demo.” Hawk waved a loose hand while continuing to fool around with the security system console on the other side of the room.

The man behind Baxter adjusted his stance before clearing his throat. “Char, demo.”

Mash gave the man a small nod of acknowledgement before he met the eyes of the Trauma Squad sergeant.

Baxter turned and gestured towards the last man who hadn’t been named, currently with his head inside the command console where Razor had previously been.

“The kid over there’s Jack; our slicer.”

“Razor, you alright taking Nines and Char on a perimeter sweep?”

“Just the courtyard or do we wanna start covering this in sectors?” Razor inquired, looking between the two Sergeants.

Mash glanced at Baxter momentarily and the Trauma Squad Sergeant did the same.

“I don’t think we need to start heading off into the jungle just yet,” Baxter’s voice was controlled and somewhat reluctant.

“Maybe just walk the perimeter outside of the courtyard for now. Take an hour and sweep it; check each road for damage or foot traffic and call in if you see any signs of more droid patrols.” Mash continued to eye Baxter as he spoke.

“Alright,” Razor nodded before briefly meeting the eyes of Nines and then the one identified as Char, giving them a small nod to move out.

Mash firmly gripped Razor’s shoulder plating as his brother went to walk by before leaving with the two soldiers in tow.

“How’s it coming, Jack?”

“Corporal Razor mentioned the power cell might’ve been tampered with.” Jack strained to look out from the small space he had his head in, hands up under the console inside the cylinder structure.

“Well if that’s the case then we can’t get any messages out at the moment. Not even to a nearby fleet.” Baxter muttered, kneeling down next to his comrade. “May not be the time,” Baxter raised his voice enough to catch Mash’s attention. “But what exactly did your mission debrief necessitate… In detail?”

Mash watched the Sergeant for a moment and remained silent until he got to his feet to face him fully.

“I’m not sure if we’re there yet.” Mash was calm in his statement but still firm. This could get ugly again and Razor wasn’t there to mediate. Not that he needed it… But when it came to this Sergeant, he found his fuse seemingly much shorter than normal.

“Not sure if we’re there yet.” Baxter repeats with a nod, a hand coming to the back of his head before he ran his fingers through his hair quickly. “Y’know if I didn’t know better I’d say-”

“Go on,” Mash cut him off slightly.

Baxter almost smiled before glancing around the room for a brief time. While his expression said amusement, his eyes held a certain reluctance similar to Mash’s.

“... Let’s just contact Kamino and get this mess sorted.”

“Good answer.” Mash gave a nod and crossed his arms; as well as he could in the armor at least while watching the Sergeant walk over to his man at the command console.

Shaking his head, Mash headed over to Hawk.

“Any luck?” Mash braced a hand on the station Hawk was sitting at and let his eyes graze over some of the cam screens.

“Systems should be finished with the reboot soon.” Hawk nods. “I’ve got no trips on the sensors aside from us so… I think we’re clear for now.”

Mash lifted his gaze and looked out one of the transparisteel viewports of the Tower, eyes picking up on the large vines that coated the planet surface.

“For now.”

The jungle just surrounding the Temple held an eerie silence. One that hadn’t been present when Echo Squad was on their approach from RV point Axe. The firefight had since quieted any fauna in the vicinity of the Towers.

Making their way across the courtyard and towards the East road, Nines kicked a few crippled B1s out of his path as they walked. While the sniper was content to keep his eyes forward and on the task at hand, his eyes eventually traveled over to the Trauma Squad member with them; Char.

Nines let himself look the clone up and down for a beat. He walked different; fought different; no doubt probably did everything a little different too. While your average civvy probably couldn’t comprehend that fact, for a clone, it was just part of the job - part of the job that the Kaminoans never taught them. It was something they just learned early in their lives, despite being manufactured to be the same, there was always that little bit of human that the longnecks could never fully scrub out. Nines figured every training sergeant probably instilled some sort of mindset that reinforced their tendency to individualize themselves; he’d heard rumors about other trainers.

The Trauma Squad member, like the rest of his squad, had green-like color accents on his white armor. While there was no way in hell that the other squad could tell due to the mud they were still covered in, Echo Squad’s color was red; their armor was accented in the red to orange colors.

Nines’ eyes caught the couple of stairs ahead that went down a foot before smoothing out into the road heading into the Jungle; the place where one of Trauma Squad had thrown a grenade was prominent in the blasted off pieces of stair that littered the vicinity.

“You’re demo right?” Nines gestured down to the rubble with the barrel of his Deece. “This you?” He laughed.

The Trauma Squad member came to a stop and slowly looked towards Nines, taking a beat to process the question.

“Was the Sarg,” Char finally responded. He had a somewhat deeper voice, more so than Mash or Baxter too.

“Guy’s not one for the rulebook is he?” Nines raised an eyebrow from under his helmet before maneuvering down what intact stairs were left.

“Least he didn’t have us rolling in osik,” The man chuckled and Nines felt annoyance prickle his skin.

“First off its mud. We were running recon and needed to take precautions. Second, we were following a strict outline from the Jedi… They wanted the location taken quickly and quietly to avoid making a scene; I imagine they didn’t want their meditation-force-Temple lookin like a battleground when we were done.” He gestures back to the blown up set of stairs that were getting further away as they continued down the road, checking for any droid activity.

“...Smells like osik.” Char stated.

Nines clenched his jaw and caught the way Razor gave him the littlest shake of his helmet.

Don’t.

Nines let silence fall, although it took every ounce of self control he had left not to start picking this guy apart. It was in his nature to just… Wind people up. This guy was winding him up and was looking like he wasn’t even giving it his full attention.

Glancing down at himself for the briefest second he caught the sight of the thick layer of mud still caked to his armor… It did smell terrible.... But it was mud…. Hopefully.

The soldiers continued down the quiet path that led deeper into the jungle until they reached the end of the architectural road that ended at some stairs and a small dirt path, not even a road, that continued into the wilderness.

“Well that was eventful.” Nines muttered before turning to head back in the other direction.

They still had the north and south roads to walk. They’d already swept the west road now opposite their position. “Remind me again why they needed us for this job. This is infantry level work.”

“Says the talking osik pile.” Char surmised, following the sniper with his gaze as he went to leave.

“Wayii- copaani mirshmure'cye, vod? (Good grief- are you looking for a smack in the face, mate?)” Nines had whipped around, coming relatively face to face or- helmet to helmet with the Trauma Squad member.

“Alright, easy you two!” Razor interrupted the two, putting a hand on each of their shoulders before pushing them apart. “Same team.”

Char glanced towards Razor for a brief time before bowing his head in a small nod. Turning towards Nines he eyed the sniper for a brief time before stepping past him to continue their patrol back to the Temple.

Nines muttered once more under his breath before meeting the gaze of the Corporal.

“You may know how to wind people up, but you make it relatively easy for others to do the same to you, vod.” Razor chuckled before patting his brother’s shoulder plating.

Nines rolled his eyes before walking alongside his older brother back down the road to continue their sweep.

“How about- now?” Jack grunted, half of his armored body cramped into the small compartment under the command console.

“Nothing,” Baxter responded, staring at the dark holotable.

Mash watched the two quietly while his arms crossed, trying to keep his expression as blank as possible before he exchanged the smallest glance with Hawk and Ram who was standing a meter or two from them.

A string of curses in Mando’a left the clone before the clattering of metal parts followed. The holotable flickered to life moments later.

“Wait that did it,” Baxter held a hand down to the opening where Jack was.

“You serious? The power cell isn’t even in place I’m holding it-”

“Just don’t move.” Baxter cut him off before going about the controls.

Mash took a couple of steps forward and began putting in a secure channel code.

“I’ll contact our advisor,” Mash explained, fingers working quickly along the bottoms of the console.

Baxter seemed to stall in his movements as the Echo Squad Sergeant stepped up and he retracted his hands from the console. “You do that,” The Trauma Squad Sergeant moved back slowly before crossing his own arms.

Mash slowed his actions as he processed the dramatic response from the soldier before resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Finishing the code, Mash activated the transmitter and stood up straight, watching as the holotable, now illuminated, hummed to life.

It seemed much longer, but a few seconds later a hologramic figure emerged from the table and Mash was quick to recognize him.

“Sergeant, how is your assignment going?” Skipper questioned, hands loosely on his armor belt.

It was a relief to see their Clone Advisor, but Mash found the words leaving his mouth to be far from that thought that grazed his mind.

“Temple’s been retaken, but sir, would you mind explaining to me what the hell high command is playing at?” Mash leaned forward on the console, hands on either side of the controls.

“...Excuse me, Sergeant?” Mash rarely ever talked to a superior with such an aggressive tone.

“Let me,” Baxter less than gently shoved Mash out of the way before taking his spot in front of the hologram. “What he means to ask is what high command’s been doing with their thumbs up their shebs while we trip over our own feet down here trying to recapture a Jedi timeshare.”

“Wayii.” Mash roughly rubbed a hand over his shaved head before cursing. “Show a little decorum,” Mash seethed.

“Me show decorum?” Baxter turned towards the Echo Squad leader, a hand to his armored chest.

“Alright, settle down!” Skipper almost had to yell to get the attention of the two Sergeants before they both finally directed their attention to him. “Mash, what’s the state of the Temple? Enemy activity?”

“We’ve secured the position, sir.” Mash said. “We eliminated a small Separatist force holding the location; wasn’t nearly enough to hold it indefinitely; most likely just a temporary force to hold the grounds.”

“They may send reinforcements then. Be on guard.” Skipper warned.

Mash gave a nod before glancing around at the others temporarily. “When will the Jedi be arriving?”

His question was followed by silence, and Baxter was the first to react as he adjusted his stance and took a step forward.

“Well?”

“...The Jedi don’t have a replacement lined up yet.” Not only did his reluctance to respond clue them in, but the hesitation in his voice as well.

“Excuse me?” Baxter slowly blinked in response, posture twitching.

“Meaning?” Mash questioned.

“Meaning,” Skippered sighed lightly. “You all aren’t going anywhere until they send a Jedi.”

Baxter, being the first to react again, kicked the command console, causing the hologram to flicker.

“Hey!” Jack called from under the console.

“You gotta be-” A string of curses in mando’a followed Baxter’s proclamation as he took a couple steps away from the console.

“Take it easy,” Mash put a hand up.

Returning to the console, Baxter rests both hands on the rim.

“I need to talk to our advisor. He’ll get us out of here.” Baxter made clear.

“Sergeant, your advisor has been pulled for an assignment, so Trauma is officially under my jurisdiction until he returns.”

The man was fuming, but he remained quiet, much to Mash’s surprise.

“You both are to hold the location and report back any Separatist activity or attempts to retake the Temple. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of days.” Skipper eased, holding out a hand as he spoke. “The Temple has a storage facility with foodstuffs and rations to keep you comfortable if you all are stuck longer than your dry ration packs will allow.”

“We better not be,” Baxter grumbled under his breath, glancing towards Ram.

“You don’t have to worry about a thing, sir.” Mash reassured the Advisor. “We’ll keep the Temple secure.”

“I’ll contact you when I have word on the Jedi.” Skipper gives them a final nod before the hologram disappears and it falls quiet.

“...Can I get up now?” Jack grunted, a foot kicking slightly as the man was still on his back halfway under the console.

“Alright,” Mash mumbles quietly, meeting Hawk’s eyes before glancing towards Baxter as the man had since began pacing around slowly. “Well-”

“Jetiise (Jedi; plural),” Baxter uttered under his breath before shaking his head.

“Hey,” Mash’s tone lowered in a warning manner. The man seemed quick to want to bash on any of the higher ups.

“It’ll only be for a few days.” Ram spoke up, meeting Mash’s gaze for a brief moment before looking towards his Sergeant.

Walking over to the computer stations lining the far wall, Mash stepped past Baxter to grab his helmet and put it on.

A couple careful blinks later, he activated their secure comm channel.

“Razor? How’s the patrol going?” Mash spoke up, eyeline shifting to the left as Jack crawled out from under the commander console and put a hand through his hair with a mumble.

The comms crackled briefly before he got a response.

“All qui… out here, Mash. No sign u-... oid traffic around the T… ple yet. We’re almost done ch... south road th… be heading back.”

“Transmission was fuzzy but I understand. Let me know if anything changes,” Mash responded.

“Yes sir. Any news?”

Mash clenched his jaw and thought it over for a moment before shaking his head.

“Long story short- we’re stuck here together until the Jedi can send someone. Could be a few days.”

“Did he j… ays!?”

That was Nines alright.

“I see,” Razor responded. “Brief us when w…. back.”

“Will do,” Mash finished the transmission before taking his helmet off with a sigh.

“Just great.” Nines growled under his breath, his grasp on his Deece tightening and loosening as he fidgeted. “Stuck with crack squad for-”

“Who’re you calling a crack squad, mate?” Char cut him off. “We’re not the squad looking like they just crawled out of a swamp.”

“Keep talking and I’ll make sure they find your body at the bottom a swamp, mate.” Nines barked back, having turned on his heel to stop Char in his tracks.

“Gev! Take it down!” Razor ordered, shouldering Nines to get his younger comrade to back off. “Both of you,” Razor turned a look on Char before gesturing them both forward. “Squabbling like Infantry cadets for galaxy’s sake-” He cursed before walking ahead of both of them.

Nines begrudgingly followed, but not before exchanging a small glance with Char before they began heading back to the Temple.

The walk back was quiet and by the time they’d gotten up to the communications center, the atmosphere had leveled out.

“The perimeter is clear.” Razor announced, removing his helmet as he entered the communications room.

Mash turned and met the eyes of his Corporal with a nod.

“Seppies won’t stay quiet for long,” Baxter chimed in, leaning against the command console with his armed crossed, expression almost belligerent as he looked back down at the ground with a scowl. “They’ll send reinforcements and soon.”

“We’ll be ready,” Mash agreed, hands resting on his armor belt. “First things first, we need to start organizing patrols; keep an eye on local air traffic an-”

“Who- put you in charge exactly?” Baxter questioned, his expression revealing genuine confusion but also fatigue.

Mash clenched his jaw and breathed out quietly through his nose before shooting Razor the smallest look.

“It’ll only be a couple days, I’m sure we can balance leadership.” Ram proposed, sitting at one of the chairs at the computer stations at the opposite side of the room.

Baxter’s body jolted as if he was trying to prevent a scoff before he nodded.

“Better only be a couple days.”

ONE WEEK LATER…

Nines clenched his jaw, staring down towards his hands before his gaze lifted and he met Char’s eyes. The Trauma Squad member stared back at him, expression hardly set but relatively at ease despite the fact.

Tapping his finger lightly, Nines swallowed before he finally nodded.

“I’ll raise you three Nuna jerky strips.” Nines finally stated before tossing the packaged meat into the center of the table.

“I’ll match that, vod.” Char nodded before grabbing some packaged jerky strips from the backpack next to his feet, tossing them into their pot where other small foods and rations resided.

From the other side of the communications center, Ram watched the two playing cards with a tightly knit brow.

“I don’t get it,” Ram finally muttered, giving a shake of his head.

“What?” Razor questioned while chewing on a ration stick, eyes on the SOP manual up on the datapad balanced on his propped up leg.

“They’ll be at each other's throats night and day- but as soon as the Sabacc cards come out they turn more civil than jetiise.”

Razor let a hard breath out through his nose in amusement before shrugging lightly, using a knuckle to scroll down on the datapad.

Those two were always going at each other, but over the past several days they’d each discovered their love of the card game, Sabacc. They’d started developing an awkward love/hate relationship with the game at the center.

“As long as they’re quiet,”

The week had passed by slowly. Razor and Ram were getting along alright during the time, however Mash and Baxter were still at opposite ends of a spectrum. They butted heads but a brotherly atmosphere was starting to settle in.

Turning in his chair, Ram faces the computer station and quickly goes about cycling through the comm channels, listening for any chatter that might clue them into a hostile force. Alongside that chore was looking for any Separatist activity on the air traffic scanners. So far they’d had nothing all week.

The beeping of one of the air traffic scanners causes both Ram and Razor to look up from their distractions. Ram is the first to swing around in his chair and lean over to the neighboring computer station.

Razor got up from his chair and walked over.

“Got something?” He questioned.

Ram evaluated the reading before narrowing the scanner range.

“I’ve got a ship entering the atmosphere, around 50 klicks out.” Ram responded, brow knit as he watched the screen on the station plot a hypothetical course for the ship that was approaching. “Computer's plotting its course; it looks like they’re heading for us.” Ram muttered before getting to his feet. Cycling through the channels for a moment, Ram found the only other active one and pressed one of the buttons on the panel to unmute the transmission.

“Incoming ship, you are entering restricted Republic Military airspace,”

Razor eyed the image on the screen that estimated the ship’s trajectory as Ram continued to recite one of the standard messages from the SOPs manual.

“Do you copy?” Ram waited but only static came through on the comms.

“I repeat, incoming ship, you have entered restricted Republic Military airspace-”

“They’re coming in way too fast.” Razor muttered, eyeing the readings on the computer screen built into the station. “Reads are coming through… Ships heavily damaged.”

“Specs?” Ram inquired.

“Hull integrity is at critical levels, heat spikes all over the ship, scanner’s reading engine failure. That ship’s not being piloted, it’s going down.”

“What’s the estimated crash path?” Ram asked, finger hovering over the comm button, allowing the static to come through.

Going about the controls on the station, Razor expanded the aerial map of the surrounding area and the computer AI marked an estimated crash zone.

At seeing the area, Razor leaned in further, brow knitting tightly.

“Something wrong?” Ram questions.

“That’s just near RV point Axe… Aren’t they patrolling that area?” Razor questioned, turning to the fellow Corporal.

At processing his comrade’s words, Ram quickly abandoned the comm frequency he was using to contact the unknown ship and set the frequency to their squad comm channel.

“Sergeants we’ve got a ship coming in with a projected crash zone in your area… Baxter? Sergeant Mash?”

Razor watched the fellow soldier quietly before glancing to the side seeing Nines and Char had since approached, similarly reflected expressions of concern.

“Haar'chak, I can’t get anything through,” Ram swore before shaking his head; meeting Razor’s eyes. “Wanna head out?”

In the past few days, they’d discovered how communications were difficult on the planet. If a party was out in the jungle, comms were always very sensitive. They knew it would complicate matters if the Separatists organized an attempt to retake the Temple.

“... Yeah, let’s go.” Razor agreed before quickly going to grab his helmet. “You two hold down here,” Razor looked to both Nines and Char.

“Let us know if you need any help.” Nines nodded before shrugging. “... Well I guess you won’t be able to so-... If it looks bad from here we’ll- consider coming to help.”

“Good to know,” Ram smirked before throwing his helmet on.

Nodding to the other Corporal, they both began running for the hall.

There had been a short rain shower earlier in the morning. The ground was soft and their armored boots sunk into the soil as they treaded through the jungle.

Baxter was walking a few yards ahead with Jack at his side, and Mash followed closely behind with Hawk.

The Trauma squad members were chatting lightly amongst themselves and Mash and Hawk chatted on and off.

They had fallen into a relatively simple routine over the past few days. They’d hit bumps now and again, but everyone usually did their best to stay out of each other’s way.

The ease of the atmosphere around them came to a screeching halt however, when the crackling of sticks sounds off to their 9 o’clock.

Baxter is the first to ready his rifle before anyone else had time to process the sound disruption. They may not have been a squad, but they knew how to make it work, and everyone worked off of each other in accordance with the developments around them.

All of them trained on an assortment of foliage several meters away, more rustling follows before small chirp-like noises emit from the bushes.

It was a familiar sound. One of the native fauna from the planet, a small reptilian species. However the familiarity didn’t stop Baxter from watching the position from which the sound radiated with a raised weapon.

Jack had his weapon raised hesitantly as well, although Sergeant Mash’s lack of reaction caused him to second guess his own. They hadn’t seen any action in weeks. It was obvious Sergeant Baxter was getting an itchy trigger finger to shoot something.

“S’nothing, brother.” Mash mumbled, rifle loosely held in front of him.

Baxter rolled his eyes from under his helmet and muttered under his breath before continuing on their patrol.

“Jedi are wasting Special Forces; as if Geonosis wasn’t enough of a wake up call for em,” Baxter said, his pace picking up.

Mash tries not to roll his shoulders in an effort to ease the prickle of uneasiness he got from Baxter’s comment. How had this clone survived this long without getting himself terminated.

“C’mon, vod,” Mash mumbled, knowing Baxter would understand his comment.

In training, they were taught that Jedi leadership was invaluable. However at the Battle of Geonosis, the clone army was in for a somewhat rude awakening at just how unprepared the Jedi seemed to be in leading the army. Special Forces lost half of their numbers, and strategically, the Battle was a mess. Many clones came out of their first battle confused, even angered, but still unwaveringly loyal to the Jedi… well most of them did. Baxter made Mash rethink that part.

“Maybe the next assignment will have us mopping floors in the Jedi Temple, who knows you gotta remain optimistic.” Baxter called over his shoulder.

Mash just shook his head and exchanged a small glance with Hawk.

Crackling over the comms caused Mash to slow his pace, a hand raising subconsciously towards his helmet.

“Razor? That you?” Mash spoke up.

“We-.... ip comi… cra… yo-...”

“Damn it,” Mash muttered before using his knuckles to knock the side of his helmet a couple of times. “Are you getting anything clear Baxter?”

“No,” The Trauma Sergeant grumbled, eyeline on the ground as he tried to listen to the gargled transmission. “Come on boys, spit it out.”

“Repe… shi… proj… crash…”

Mash shook his head lightly as he tried to listen only to start hearing a roar of a ship in the background of the transmission.

“...You hear that?” Mash turned towards Hawk who nodded.

“Hey Max,” Baxter suddenly spoke up.

The Sergeant’s expression fell from under his helmet. “It’s Mash,” He grumbled before turning around to look at the Sergeant.

He was looking up through the vine canopy.

Mash’s brow knit in response to seeing the Sergeant before he followed the man’s eyeline to the sky, eyes widening at the sight.

“Uh… That doesn’t look good.” Jack stated, also finding the ship that was hurtling down towards them in a ball of fire.

“GO GO GO!” Mash yelled, waving the men off. They began running towards the ship and managed to avoid most of the debris coming off of the craft as it crashed through the vine canopy and barreled into the mud around forty yards away.

Half of the men had dived for cover from broken pieces of the ship that had rained down.

“Everyone alright?” Mash called out, the question leaving his mouth before he could register his own state.

“Fine here sir,”

“All good.”

Mash quickly got to his feet, seeing Baxter had already done the same.

“Not what I was expecting when I hoped for some action but I won’t complain,” The Trauma Sergeant didn’t waste any time, and Mash wasn’t going to slow him down as they quickly began making their way towards the wreckage. “Wanna bet they were trying to warn us?” Baxter laughed, referring to the rest of their group at the Temple.

Mash nodded to the side in agreement, feeling Hawk come up on his right as they followed the canyoned trail the ship had left in its wake.

It was a fairly large craft, a freighter by the look of what was left.

A small explosion off of one of the dislodged engines causes the team to jump back a step.

Baxter suddenly patted Mash had on the back before going closer to the wreck.

“We’ll cover the cockpit area,” He practically threw the comment over his shoulder before jogging off with Jack close behind him.

“But- I- Erm,” Mash shook his head and quieted his objection before it could pass through his lips.

“Let’s cover the back of the ship,” Mash responded, looking towards his comrade. “Looks like the ship’s main structure is still relatively intact. We might be able to enter through the cargo bay.”

Hawk acknowledged his Sergeant with a nod before going to follow the clone. Both keep a close eye on the wreckage as they approach. Parts of the hull were missing, revealing little hints of darkness within the craft. There could still be lifeforms on board.

Hawk let his eyes run along the side of the crashed ship as they made their way closer. Most of the ship wasn’t ablaze, the engines had been, but they’d broken off the main craft when it struck the ground.

Giving the side of the ship another once over, Hawk cleared his throat. “My HUD isn’t recognizing this freighter, sir.”

“It isn’t Republic, keep your eyes open.” Mash responded, rifle raised.

They get to the back of the ship and the ramp is dislodged from the freighter. Giving the dark opening a quick once over, Mash nodded to Hawk and they began making their way inside.

Cargo boxes and cages of supplies littered the space. Despite the wreckage everywhere, Mash was quick to spot an outlying object.

“10 o’clock,” Mash nodded to the corpse off to the left as they headed further into the ship.

Hawk noted the body, as well as another farther away against the wall and followed the Sergeant. Their HUDs could pick up life signs and so far, there weren’t any.

“Hey Mack!” Baxter called out suddenly. “We’ve got some dead lizards up here!” Baxter appears from an elevated platform up the wall at the back of the cargo bay that they had been heading towards. There was most likely a door to the cockpit and a ladder somewhere.

Mash shook his head and looked up, noting the ship was relatively small now, from what was remaining intact; the ship was now clear.

“It’s Mash.” The Echo squad Sergeant responded under his breath, lowering his rifle in front of him

“Trandoshans?” Hawk inquired, craning his neck to look up to where Baxter and Jack were.

“Lizards. Did I stutter, kid?” Baxter responded.

“Yeah Hawk, Trandoshans,” The remnants of a chuckle sounded through Jack’s helmet as he softened Baxter’s sarcastic response.

Both jumped down into the cargo area and Baxter playfully knocked Hawk’s shoulder plating with his knuckles.

A sudden shudder of cargo crates in the back right corner of the ship’s cargo bay causes the soldiers to jump into action. Mash and Hawk have their weapons trained on the origin of where the sound originated and Baxter and Jack did the same. The first sign of a potential hostile in a week. It was safe to say they were anticipating a threat.

Taking a couple steps closer, Baxter kept his rifle trained at the corner of the damaged ship’s bay before hand signaling to the others.

Mash, Hawk and Jack all gave nods in response before Baxter spoke up.

“Come out!” Voice alone, Baxter’s ranged on the lower end of what was common for clones; coupled with the helmet filtering his voice, he sounded even more menacing.

When nothing followed the demand, Baxter knocked the crates with a calculated kick of his armored leg, jostling them a good bit but not moving them enough to reveal the hostile.

“NOW!”

Changing the settings on his HUD, Mash changed his helmet display to thermal and after a couple seconds, his brow knit together at the readings coming from behind the crates.

“Bax-”

“Am I speaking Huttese? Get out here you di-”

“Take it easy, Baxter!” Mash finally snapped, jabbing the other Sergeant with his armored elbow before lowering his weapon.

“Er you crazy?” Baxter growled, helmeted gaze whipping around to the other Sergeant.

“Alright you,” Mash took a couple of steps closer, “C’mon out,” Voice still significantly firm, but lower in volume to Baxter’s, Mash waited for some kind of response to the changed approach.

The silence that followed doesn’t ease Baxter’s caution as he kept his rifle trained on the crates before eyes peek over one of the boxes.

“Yeah you- out.” Mash muttered pointing to the ground in front of his feet with his forefinger, rifle still held up in one hand trained ahead.

A small being made their way out from behind the crates and Hawk slowly lowered his rifle; Jack followed the action not far behind.

Taking a moment to process the lifeform, Baxter felt his shoulders fall. “Too bad,” Baxter finally muttered. “Was looking for an excuse to unload on somethin,” Baxter’s eyes trail over the young girl now standing in front of him with slight disappointment.

“Sir,” Jack breathed out a laugh.

“Told you Jay,” Baxter glanced back towards his slicer, “I got more of that sociopathic blood in my system than the others.”

Mash looked over the being quietly. She was young, probably an early adolescent; dirty and emaciated. His HUD was picking up on an accelerated heart rate.

“Sir,”

Mash turned and looked over his shoulder to see his Corporal, Razor, along with Trauma Squad Corporal, Ram.

“We went ahead and did an extra sweep of the crash site perimeter. Any life in he- Oh,” Razor caught sight of the small being that barely met the soldiers chest plates in height.

“Affirmative,” Hawk shrugged lightly, rifle at ease in front of him before he looked back down to the girl who had taken a few steps back towards the crates she’d been hiding behind.

“So we’ve got no other survivors,” Baxter stated, processing the fact before nodding.

“The ship didn’t come up on my HU-”

“Didn’t on ours either,” Baxter cut Razor off as he looked over the torn up ship around them.

“I’ll begin scanning the haul,” Ram offered before leaving the damaged cargo bay.

Mash looked around further before turning his eyes to Baxter as he moved out of his peripheral.

“A miracle she survived this,” The Sergeant of Trauma Squad grunted while evaluating the ship’s seemingly nonexistent roof before turning his eyes to the child. “You’re lucky, kid.”

Masterlist | Next Chapter | Chapter Art & Map | Echo & Trauma Squad

CHAPTER NOTE: If you’re reading this, well first off congratulations. I’m frankly quite surprised you haven’t fallen asleep yet or given up. Second of all, I hope you enjoyed!!! One note: Mando’a is littered throughout, I apologize if I made mistakes, I’m still learning!

Support is appreciated if you had fun reading :) I hope to post the next chapter soon!

#my fic #clone wars fanfiction #star wars fanfiction #clones #jedi #grand army of the republic #star wars ocs #clone wars ocs #republic military #temple of eedit #devaron #galaxy far far away

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withthekeyisking-writer · 4 years

Note

What’s a Batman story you wish someone else would write for you instead of writing yourself??

Gotta tell you, I got super excited when I got this ask, because there are so many things!! That I would love to see happen!! That I’ll never get around to writing!! So uh, strap in because this is gonna be a big ol’ list :) I’m gonna organize these so that it starts with gen ideas and then switches to darker ones (otherwise, really in no particular order). Also, because it’s me, many of these are Dick-centric.

1. First up is a Batfam Hogwarts AU, but with the specifications that Dick is a Slytherin, Jason is a Ravenclaw, Tim is a Slytherin, and Damian is a Hufflepuff. Skalidra actually made an amazing post about this that I agree with so fucking much, and I want a fic that does this justice.

2. Batbros are actually blood bros. I know there are a couple of these already out there, but not the way I picture it in my head, so here you go: Bruce knows about Dick while the kid is growing up, visits the circus any time it’s in town, takes Dick out for ice cream & shit like that, but Dick thinks this is just some family friend his parents like him hanging out with. It’s not until Mary and John fall that Dick learns the truth about his parents. For Tim – Janet never really wanted a kid, so when she and Bruce sleep together (up to you to figure out why) and got pregnant, she was like “okay brucie as soon as this pops out you can keep it” which, once Tim was born, Bruce did. Jason can go so many ways, so up to you!

3. Transgender Dick!! Yes, these are already out there. Yes, I want so many more! Give me the struggle of coming to the realization while amongst Gotham’s high society. Give me extra supportive Bruce or a Bruce that just can’t wrap his head around the concept and absolutely fails to be in any way a good parent of a trans kid. Or take the extra step and give me a non-binary Dick!!! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one of those, and as an enby individual, I really would love to.

4. Jason as a teacher. Do whatever the fuck you want with that, but I want to see Jason teaching literature. Still in the superhero world, no alternate world where Batman isn’t a thing. I want a Jason who’s been Robin and died and come back and been Red Hood and is a teacher.

5. I had a dream about Dick being a clone, and then an idea popped up behind it: In the Young Justice cartoon world, the Light makes another clone of Superman. But this time, the human DNA they used to stabilize the Kryptonian part isn’t Lex Luthor’s DNA, but Batman’s! That Superman-Batman clone is Dick. While Conner gets rescued by the YJ team, Dick (or whatever title CADMUS gave him, like how Conner was just called “The Superboy”) isn’t found, and is trained to fight against the team of young heroes as the Light’s weapon. Dick gets captured eventually and Bruce&Clark find out about their clone baby. Throw in some Superbat if you feel like it, or just Two Bros And A Baby. Either way, I would kill for this.

6. Ok you know how at one point or another Damian, Jason, and Cass were all members of the League of Assassins? Well, what if there was overlap? I want the three of them working for the League and knowing each other. I don’t know if this even works out at all but I just think this would be kinda cool, especially if it includes Bruce finding out about Damian or about Jason being alive and gaining a daughter along the way.

7. While we’re on the subject of League of Assassins, all four of the boys work for the League!! Do with this what you will, I merely present the concept to you.

8. Secret Agents. Just…just give me them as spies. Pls.

9. Dead Robins Club that ACTUALLY INCLUDES DICK BECAUSE Y’KNOW HE DIED. It’s a pet peeve of mine, when people write these kind of fics and include Tim and Steph (neither of which actually died) but not Dick, even though he did die for at least a couple minutes. Please stop ignoring Dick’s trauma guys, I beg of you. There’s one amazing fic between Jason, Damian, and Dick, and I want so many more of stuff like that.

10. Greeks/Roman Gods AU where Dick is the God of Death and king of the Underworld instead of the springtime god. There’s a really great jaydick fic out there that has this, but it’s abandoned, and I rally really want more of a Dick like this.

11. AU in which Bruce is the youngest member of the Justice League, and is still the badass leader he is in canon. No one in the League knows the truth, but it’s not like Bruce ever said I’m in my 20s or older, he just. Never mentioned he just graduated high school and is working on his accelerated bachelor’s degree.

12. A fic that addresses the fact that Dick has, in canon, been buried alive. I might one day write this, but I have a lot of projects that I do know I’m going to write, so this is wayyyyyyyyyyyy down the line, long enough that I’d be very happy to see someone write it instead. Bonus points if it’s a fic about Dick and Jason, and the fact that Dick killed Joker also comes up.

13. Tamaranean!Dick. And I actually have a whole word/plot for something like this that I’m never gonna write so if you wanna do this hmu I have THOUGHTS

Ok boys and girls and enbys we’re about to hit the dark shit so turn back if you don’t want to have to read it. You’ve been warned.

14. Ancient Rome AU in which Bruce is a senator and owns his robins as slaves (gladiator-wise and otherwise) who try to earn their freedom but Bruce likes using them too much (both for himself and in gaining control over others, like sending one of them to seduce somebody to gain leverage or steal something or what have you) and so he keeps changing what will gain them their freedom.

15. Auction fic where Dick is drugged and kidnapped and auctioned off to a bunch of villains. Yes, fics like this exist. Yes, I would like Many More.

16. Brusladick where Bruce has some Bad Thoughts about Dick but can’t bring himself to act on them, but he wouldn’t mind letting someone else do it, and who better than Slade Wilson, who absolutely wants to fuck Dick. So Bruce sets up a camera in the room and gets off to all the hard shit being done to Dick, but Slade breaks their agreement a little and tells Dick that Bruce is watching.

17. In an ABO universe, Dick is an omega. The world is pretty modern overall, of course there will always be some level of sexism but it’s not a large issue. But there’s this far-right terroristic-type group that thinks omegas are just good for ding as they’re told and being bred and have made it their mission to “fix” omegas who think they deserve equal rights, and they get ahold of Dick, sending a video to Bruce saying they’re return Dick when he’s better. For some reason Bruce and Co can’t find Dick for a long time, and by the time they do Dick’s severely traumatized and been conditioned into obedience and submission towards alphas.

18. In the Young Justice cartoon world, while Kaldur is undercover in season 2, an interaction with Deathstroke reveals something horrible about Nightwing’s past, and Kaldur has to act like hearing these graphic, awful things about his friend. After it’s all over, he goes to Dick and mentions Deathstroke saying something and Dick kind of shuts down and says like “How many people heard what he said?” There is a twitter thread between me and a friend on this very subject if you need inspiration ;)

19. Something based on this amazing art

20. Bruce is hella abusive. Dick lets himself be Bruce’s outlet so he won’t hurt the others. This, of course, comes to light. Yes, shit like this exists. But I pose you a question – is there ever too many? And has it been done by you yet?

21. Brainwashing. Just, give me brainwashing. Turned against your family, used and mocked by your enemy, kneeling “willingly” at your enemy’s feet. Bonus points for all kinds of abuse.

Well, that’s my list!! Go off and do great things for me! Thanks for the ask!!

#anon ask #ask #writing #batman #fanfic question

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bgn846 · 4 years

Text

The Niflheim Experiment Chapter 15

Winning the fight against Ardyn was a major turning point in the brewing tensions between Lucis and Niflheim. The empire with all of its bravado and fancy tech seemed to have imploded overnight. It wasn’t until a few things had come to light regarding how magitek actually worked, did things begin to make sense. Someone in Niflheim had figured out how to use the scourge as a power source.

Gladio assumed that was why he’d been so heavily tested upon when he’d been captured. They were trying to turn him into one of their own weapons. That experience still gave him nightmares from time to time, but he always managed. His family and friends plus his therapist were instrumental in moving forward.

The liberation of Tenebrae and the other provinces Niflheim had subdued hadn’t been easy, but after a few weeks of fevered fighting, the empire’s forces withdrew. It was clear the tides had turned. The empire had lost its might. No longer able to wield the power of the scourge they were nothing more than a nuisance run by a lunatic dictator. Gladio assumed they’d face their own internal revolution soon; the citizens couldn’t have been happy living under that kind of ruler.

Luna and Ravus had surprised everyone and stayed in Insomnia after Tenebrae had been officially freed. Ignis so aptly pointed out one night that Ravus probably had too many bad memories to contend with there, and Luna wanted to be near Noct.

Aranea was working for the citadel as a consultant. She didn’t exactly stay behind a desk though, she preferred going out in the field. She liked being in the thick of it when the glaives went to help push back the few remaining Niflheim forces. Loqi usually went with her and had commented several times about being interested in becoming an ambassador for Niflheim. His family was high up in the military so he had lots of connections. One's he could still use even standing against the current emperor.

The strangest bit of intel he'd received after Ardyn’s demise was regarding his friend Prompto. A large fire had erupted in one of Niflheim's science facilities right after the last of their forces had been pushed back. Turns out the building was the one where Gladio had been held. The one where he’d sworn he’d seen Prompto in a glass tube.

After the fire, Lucis sent a team to investigate the burnt-out shell. They were after evidence of war crimes even though the chances were slim. However, what they did uncover added some weight to what Gladio thought he’d seen when he’d been captured. It was obvious that some sort of cloning operation had been taking place. One piece of damning evidence had been a series of coded numbers left on some equipment.

Equipment meant to hold people.

Wondering what Prompto knew of his own existence Gladio decided he’d have to wait and let the blond tell them in his own time. Gladio had never mentioned his vivid memories featuring his friend to anyone. Gladio knew Prompto wasn’t any kind of threat, and he preferred to help keep his friends secret. Whatever it was.

Staring out the window Gladio sighed softly. He was tired but he also wanted to go out, it was a weird feeling. He must have lingered longer than he intended because Ignis was by his side a moment later looking concerned.

“Is everything alright? I can call and cancel if you’d like.”

“Nah, don’t do that,” Gladio replied. “I’m tired is all, but I still want to see them.”

Smiling Ignis nodded in agreement. “I know the feeling, but we'll have fun. I believe Noct may try and pop the question this evening.”

“No way!” Gladio spluttered. “Doesn’t he want to wait until he’s alone?”

“I think in his own way, he’s attempting to include Ravus so the man doesn’t feel left out.”

“Noct figured this out on his own?” Gladio questioned with a raised eyebrow. “You didn’t help him?”

“Heaven’s no, he arrived on that decision by himself.”

“He’s growing up, that’s nuts.”

“Well, a lot has happened over the past six months. Niflheim has fallen, the wall has been dissolved, the oracle is free, and our prince has been saved from certain death.”

“I still can’t believe we did that.”

“We couldn’t have done it without you, don’t forget that,” Ignis supplied.

“I’m thinking Luna was the big player in that battle, not me.”

“Without your immunity to the scourge, Luna would never have been given the chance to get close enough to heal Ardyn. We were at the apex of the perfect storm.”

“True, though she did heal me in the first place when I was being rescued. So she still gets all the credit in my book,” Gladio announced truthfully.

“Fair enough, but don’t sell yourself short either.”

“I won’t, we made history and I’m sorta still shocked we survived it all.”

“Well then, I suggest we get a move on so we can see another moment in history in the making. Care to wager a bet on whether he’ll cry or not?”

“Who, Noct or Ravus?” Gladio spit out with a laugh.

“Oh, I’d not considered that! Let’s get going so I can find out,” Ignis huffed, but he was smiling.

Gladio felt better and went to grab his coat. They’d started a little tradition of getting together every few weeks for dinner. It was a nice private affair that let them all relax and grow as friends, some more than others in the case of Noct and Luna. Ravus was still adjusting but he was getting more comfortable with everything as the weeks went by. Ignis was even convinced the former commander was trying to find a girlfriend.

Maybe their quiet little dinners would gain another plus one soon. Who knew? Smiling at the thought of life going on as normal, Gladio pulled Ignis over to give him a quick kiss. “Love you,” he offered kindly. “I still can’t believe we won.”

Ignis melted into his embrace and kissed him back, “Believe it, dear, now we only have to make sure Noct grows up to be a great king.”

“I think I can handle that.”

“Good I can’t keep an eye on him all by myself,” Ignis laughed.

“Come on, let’s go. I wanna see Noct cry.”

“Oh, so you think he’ll get teary-eyed huh?”

“Sure, once Luna starts bawling he won’t be able to hold it back. Ravus I’m not so sure about, I’m thinking at most his eyes will water.”

Ignis snorted and shook his head. Opting to shove him towards the door they made their way over to the royal suites where Luna and Ravus were living now. Gladio was proud of Noct and knew he’d take the throne someday as a kind and good king. With a calming breath, Gladio grabbed Ignis’ hand as they walked together. There were so many new adventures to look forward to; Gladio could hardly wait to share them all with his friends and family.

EPILOGUE:

Gladio heard Ravus shout first before his figure appeared stomping down the hallway with Noct tucked under his arm. Well, Noct��s dummy at least.

“Does he think it’s funny to leave this thing around when he doesn’t want to attend a meeting?” Ravus huffed when he saw Gladio and walked over.

“My guess is he’s hanging out with Luna instead.”

Ravus was about to say more when he sighed and adjusted the dummy in his hold, “Well, he shouldn’t be surprised when he starts getting more work done, with this thing taking his place.”

Gladio couldn’t help but bark out a laugh. Ravus had calmed down significantly since he’d come to Insomnia. With the threat to his sisters’ life gone, he was now relaxing into his new role as Luna’s political advisor and bodyguard. Though Loqi still kept trying to get that position, neither Ravus nor Noct would ever agree to it. Both men seemed to understand that Loqi would simply flirt non-stop with the oracle and that would be a very big distraction.

“Where you gonna leave it now?” Gladio asked smiling.

“I’m thinking either his training locker or in his shower, but that would require Ignis’ help. I’m not sure how he feels about that kind of thing.”

“What? Scaring the living daylights out of his prince and best friend? I’m not sure, but it’s worth asking,” Gladio laughed. “I do think the locker idea is a good one. I think he’d freak out and probably yell.”

Ravus’ eyes lit up at that admission, “I may have to do that then. I know the little punk will try and prank me back.”

“I have a feeling you’ll get it figured out,” Gladio offered as they parted ways. Ravus simply scoffed and continued on his way. That damn dummy had taken on a life of its own ever since they’d returned from fighting Ardyn. So far it’d been left in the king’s office, Cor’s car, the garden fountain, the window cleaner rig for the citadel, and now Ravus’ office. Apparently, that thing had a lot of life for a mannequin.

Chuckling to himself at where it would end up next, Gladio continued on his way to meet Ignis for lunch. Life was finally starting to feel normal again. They’d vanquished the threat from Niflheim and won out over a two-thousand-year-old prophecy. Against all odds, they’d made it out unscathed. Now their only task was to ensure Noct would make a good king when he took over.

How hard could that be? They had the backup dummy after all.

THE END

←Previous Chapter

#ffxv #fanfic #gladio

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langsty-langst-lance · 7 years

Text

Say When- Klangst fanfic part 2

Keith placed a steady hand on Lances shaky one. “Lance, that’s not true. You’re the best leader the universe has ever seen. You were meant to be the black Paladin.”

Lance shook his head. “Shiro was better. You were better.”

“Lance, I was terrible,” Keith admitted. “The only reason I ever became the leader was because Shiro wanted me too and you weren’t ready for it yet. You still had a lot to learn, a lot to grow into and overcome. That’s why I left the team, you deserved to be in red and be next in line more than I did. You were a better leader than me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lance mumbled sadly. “They want war. They want to strike now. They won’t listen to me. They’re insistent on it. It’s not a good idea, we’re not ready!”

“Then don’t let them,” Keith stated back firmly. “They want to fight but you know it’s not a good idea. Don’t let them. Stand up to them and tell them no. They’re going to keep pushing until you give in or say when to stop. So tell them to stop. Tell them no.”

Lance looked up at Keith, his eyes still as blue as the first day he had seen him. “Do you think it’ll work?” He asked desperately.

“You have to try,” Keith reassured with a smile.

They didn’t have time to say anything else. A loud bang came from the outside. Lance quickly rushed to his feet to check out the window that was across the hall. Just like that Lance seemed to forget about his own problems. Something else was happening and now he had to focus on that. Keith had always been amazed at his selfless attitude.

Lance peered out the window, trying to figure out what had happened. Outside the wind was blowing harder than Keith had ever seen. Rain came pouring down as thunder made the ground rumble. It looked like a hurricane.

They both jumped as another bang came from the outside. Something was being blown at them. A gust of wind appeared and blew a large piece of metal at the window causing it to crack and shatter open. Lance raised his arms in front of his face just in time to block the glass from hitting his face.

The wind which was now blowing harder than ever before, continued to throw the broken glass in his direction. Lance tried to step back but the wind pushed him down and he slid across the floor with the shattered glass.

Keith quickly ran up to Lance, using his arm to block himself from the wind and debris. “Lance!” He shouted as he pulled Lance away from the window as much as possible.

Lance stood up, cuts spreading across his body, his arms bloody and his clothes ripped. Lance didn’t speak. He just grabbed Keith’s hand and ran towards the main room.

“Get down!” He yelled as he entered the room. Everyone stopped to stare at him. They seemed unaware of the storm outside. “There’s a huge storm coming, we need to prepare as quick as possible.”

Everyone quickly scrambled around, shouting and frantically trying to find their friends and loved ones. Their voices melded together causing a large clump of noise in the room.

Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “Everyone stop!” He shouted. Everyone fell dead in their tracks and turned to look at him. “We have to stay calm. I need windows borded up, doors locked, and I need someone to contact the rest of the citizens on this planet to let them know that they need to do the same,” he ordered as he assigned jobs to everyone.

No one seemed to have a problem except for one, the large alien who was king of this planet. “Who are you to tell me what to do with my planet? You don’t boss my people around!” He shouted angrily at Lance.

Lance’s mouth twisted into a thin light. “I am the Black Paladin, Leader of Voltron. I am helping you and your planet and all that live on it. If you wanted to take control then you should have but you did not so now I am here to aid everyone in staying safe. I would advise you to listen to my orders as quickly as possible rather then questioning me. This is for the safety of your people,” he said firmly. The alien stared at Lance with wide eyes before nodding and heading off to tell his citizens of the storm.

Keith smiled at Lance. “See? Natural born leader.”

Lance smiled and shook his head. They didn’t have much time to relax before Pidge came running up to them.

“It’s not a storm!” She shouted. “I mean it is but, it’s the Galra! They started this! They used this weather device to stir up the atmosphere and create this disasterous storm-”

“Pidge,” Lance said cutting her off. “How do we stop it?”

“We have to take down the control panel. They have it in one of the ships up there. I can create a device that will help us track it down. If we don’t do it quick then this whole planet will be destroyed!” She shouted.

“Grab the others. Tell them to go to their Lions. We’re going up,” Lance ordered. Pidge nodded and ran off to find Hunk and Allura.

Keith and Lance turned on their heels and sprinted towards their lions. By the time they had gotten into their lions the other three were sprinting in through the door. They quickly scrambled into their lions and took off into the storm.

The lions are big and heavy but the wind was strong. Pidge and Keith, having the smallest lions, kept getting knocked off course as they struggled to fight against the wind. The higher they went the harder it got to control their lions.

“C’mon, c’mon,” Keith grumbled as he fought with the controls to keep his lion from being blown away. They finally broke through the atmosphere and into space where they found a large purple ship sending out signals to the planet.

“There! It’s that one!” Pidge shouted.

“The whole ship?” Hunk asked. He had apparently been expecting something a little smaller and Keith couldn’t blame him, he had too.

“Attack the ship, we need to take it down,” Lance ordered.

As they neared, fighter pilots began to pour out to attack them. They all blasted down as many as possible. Keith cursed. Zarkon. It was always Zarkon. Every war, they all begin with a man who wants more, who has one country or planet but wants to rule more. They’re never satisfied with what they have.

Zarkons plan had been going for over 10,000 years and it would turn another century if they didn’t try to stop him. They were working it out but it took time. Slowly another one of their nations and bases would fall and the coalition would hold more power but every once in a while one of their own nations would fall and severely damage the coalition. That was the worst, when they lost one of their own.

After a couple minutes of fighting they were finally able to shoot down the control system and the weather on the planet siezed. They all flew back down and landed their lions. As they got out everyone cheered, they always did. They all smiled and waved back, happy to save another planet but annoyed that this kept happening. They were tired of fighting in the war. They just wanted to go home to their families.

Lance did a round of ‘thank you’s’ from the others before grabbing Keith and slipping away. Keith let Lance drag him down a hallway. Shattered glass littered the floor along with various debris.

“You did great today,” Keith said with a smile. “I told you you were meant to be leader.”

Lance smiled but it didn’t seem sincere. He opened his mouth to say something but then stopped a second, thinking, before going. “How come some of us never get it so good?” He asked looking at Keith confused.

Keith thought for a second. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just not meant to be,” he shrugged.

Lance’s shoulders fell. “I- I just wanna go home, Keith. I wanna see my mamá and my siblings and my abuela. I just wanna go back to Earth. I want everything to be alright. I want this war to end.”

Keith lowered his head sadly. He wanted the same thing. Granted, he had no family to go back to but this war took a toll on everyone. Seeing Lance so broken up, Keith wanted to fix it for him.

“I don’t know when it will end, if ever,” Keith admitted. “Some of this was here before us and all of it will go after us. Maybe it’ll never stop.”

Lance’s face fell. “But... Earth...”

“We’ll see it again, I promise.”

Lance’s hands shook again as tears started to form in his eyes. “When will it stop?”

Keith shrugged. “When you give in. Or when you say when. On your word we attack. All of the coalition, all of our forces attack Zarkons main ship. It’s on your command.”

Lance let out a strangled cry. “I don’t wanna be the one to make that decision,” he cried desperately.

“Then we’ll make it together,” Keith said, laying a hand on Lances back. “We’ll decide the right time together, as a team.”

Lance smiled brightly but the tears continued to roll down his face. Something else was wrong and Keith was pretty sure he knew what. Lance had been dealing with his own internal battles. The struggle of being good enough and being what the universe needed. Leading the universe into victory was hard enough, doing it with low self-esteem and feeling alone made it even harder.

Lance wasn’t alone. He had Keith and the rest of the team. But it was hard for Lance to wrap his mind around that. He had always felt like the worst, like he could be better. His start of team Voltron didn’t help. Everyone was always getting on his case, telling him to shut up, to be serious, to stop joking around, to be better. It took a toll on him they never meant.

Clone Shiro had made it even worse. He had torn Lance apart inside. He yelled at him, tried to brake him before he could become leader. Lance was strong, though. Even through all his emotions and sadness he had managed to realize that something was wrong with Shiro. Managed to set aside his own feelings to deal with the others. He had shoved his away and locked them up until he thought he had the time to address them.

But the war had lasted longer than he had anticipated and now, with the other leaders pushing him to make this fatal decision on when to fight Zarkon, it had all become too much. And now he was standing here in front of Keith, eyes tearing up as he broke down.

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hopeymchope · 6 years

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Random thoughts about bad/dumb/good things that happen in the back nine episodes of ‘Darling in the Franxx’

This post is long, and it’s mostly me griping about how Darling in the Franxx failed to stick its landing. I’ve got a lot of bullet points about what annoyed me, as well as some points about what I still liked in the back half, and eventually I’m just like “yeah, fuck this.”

That’s the short version: You had a lot going for you but ultimately blew it really bad for me, so like... fuck this.

Damn right Mitsu-WAIT, I forgot when Mitsuru had this much emotion! WHO DIS?!

The long version is more complicated, though, and I feel like rambling/ranting on, so here it goes.

There is no way to stress enough that Zero-Two literally transforms into a giant part-human part-mech creature that Hiro literally rides inside of. She becomes a skyscraper-sized girl that you can climb inside the skull of, and EVERYBODY IS OKAY WITH THIS AND DELIGHTED BY IT. There is NOT a moment where Zorome cries “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUUUUUUUUCK?!?” when she appears, flying in space, at a mass so large she could easily swallow the whole team in one gulp. Nothing like that.

This is not adequately set up, but it IS understandable with some thought: I mean, we are told in a previous ep that the franxx are essentially just recreated, retrofitted klaxosaurs. We also have seen how klaxosaurs are part-organic, part-mechanical beings, and we are told by the Klaxo Princess they are, in fact, the new version of the organic klaxosapiens, now retrofitted for war. In addition, we know that Zero-Two is part Klaxosaur - a clone of the last klaxosapien. So you see how the idea that Zero-Two could somehow “retrofit” or “transition” into a giant cybernetic war mode similar to how the klaxosapiens somehow did the same thing... you could justify that! Once I thought it all through, it kinda worked. But none of this is laid out for you, and it comes off as laugh-out-loud ridiculous in the moment that it happens. Only later, when my brain was piecing the evidence together, did I get somewhere that made sense out of it.

The Nines remained bitterly loyal to Papa when we last see them in Episode 20, snapping at Squad 13 for not showing due respect. When they return in Episode 23, Nine Alpha is suddenly on the side of Squad 13. Because Papa turned out to be an alien, you see. But like... you’ve been fighting klaxosaurs and feeling extreme loyalty to Papa your entire lives up until like, yesterday, so seeing you suddenly join the pro-klaxo side of the war is perhaps too hard a turn. Granted, a lot of time passes off-screen during this period, but still it’s sort of “Hey it’s me, Alpha. Remember how I was never anything but a total asshole to you guys? Remember how I hated emotions and shit? Yeah I wanna help Hiro reunite with Zero Two now.” Um. Okay?

Mitsuru’s speech to Kokoro about how “I want to be with you not because I love you, but because I believe that I did love you once, and I don’t remember that feeling anymore, but I still believe it existed, and I want to respect it!” is literally the worst, least-romantic declaration of non-love I’ve ever heard in my life. The music swells romantically and Kokoro seemingly weeps out of joy over it. I prefer to think she’s crying because it’s so fucking awful. It is actively offensive to real emotions and logic

Remember when Mitsuru talked about he always wished he and Hiro could co-pilot a franxx together? Remember his debilitating rage at Hiro for forgetting their promise to become soldiers together? It really feels like we had a gay or bi character here, and that maybe we were setting something up for his character. but the entire fixation on Hiro is utterly ignored once he gets reduced to “Kokoro’s sperm donor.” I mean, jeez, “my homosexual fixation on Hiro has filled me with an incoherent rage” just gave me flashbacks to Juzo from Danganronpa 3, and that’s not good, but at least it was more personality than he ultimately got.

WHY are we left with the strong sense that Ikuno is dying of the accelerated aging (she is the only one who loses ALL color in her hair and the only one we last see in a hospital bed on an IV drip, so it’s pretty blatant) even though literally no one else in the squad is suffering from it anymore, supposedly thanks to HER research?!... I assume because she’s gay. After all, the extremely gay Nines were all killed off by a mysterious ailment due to a lack of “maintenance” so we might as well kill off Ikuno too, right?! BURY YOUR GAYS. And FUCK YOU.

Goro somehow gets together with Ichigo. We do not get to see how/whether he won he over. Given that the final episode includes multiple scenes of her really missing Hiro along with a scene of her not caring much that Goro is going to travel the world without her (repeatedly), it comes off as though Itchy settled for Goro because he was the best available penis. I AM NOT ENDEARED.

We are also told that Goro has “really changed’ since the beginning of the series. There is no evidence to back this statement up. In fact, he is acting exactly the same in this scene as he always has. Granted, he had a moment in the previous episode where he got pissed and punched Hiro, and that was a big change... but he apologized and it’s not discussed again, so um. Huh. The thing that seems to be a sign of his “change” is his desire to go out alone into the world in an act of self-sacrifice for the good of everyone. Which is LITERALLY THE GORO WE’VE ALWAYS KNOWN. File his change under “informed attributes.”

By the end of the series, Hiro is full-on turning more into a Klaxosapien than a human because... honestly, I’m not sure. It’s possible it’s because he’s been “plugged into” Zero-Two, but it seems like the process is mostly done by then, because he’s immediately able to live without food or water or sleep once he plugs in, and he already had his horns glow with rage in the ep previous to this. So I think he transformed due to the fact that one time, as a kid, he licked Zero-Two’s blood, and as a teen, he’s kissed her a bunch of times. Which is... pretty goddamn extreme. I mean, I know fluid transfer can be a powerful experience — just ask Sandra Bullock — but this is some real next-level shit.

We waited all series for shit to “get real” and someone in Squad 13 to die. It takes until the very last episode for it to happen, and — in a desperate bid to make us care about what’s happening — it’s the two characters who got the most development and who most people care about. The two leads. Which comes off as too little, too late for me to even feel it, seeing as how they’re only vaguely human or relatable by this point. But I AM weirdly bitter that they kept alive everyone else, even the many people we didn’t give much of a shit about (Zorome? Miku?), so that none of the battles in the series EVER had to have real consequences for our heroes. I hate to sound bloodthirsty, and yet....

Hey, speaking of Zorome, remember how him being exposed to the “adult” in the first half of the show made her get sick? Remember how she was also immediately fascinated by and kind to him and it made you wonder how that would affect the other adults? None of this goes anywhere, because the adults all get spirited away as souls to be part of the VIRM hive-mind, so whatever, they’re gone now.

Why are these people all standing around a statue and screaming at the sky and praying? Most of them don’t even know who this girl was. This doesn’t come off as “moving” so much as a terrifying parable about religious fanaticism in cult groups. You see a group of people screaming and praying at idols you don’t understand, and gradually, more and more people just copy the behavior without understanding it. *shiver*

Was there EVER a hint that the adults watching over the squad were friggin’ IMMORTAL?! Because I don’t think there was. I’d need to go way back into earlier episodes to be sure, though.

It’s not that the ENTIRE back half of the show is awful, really. There are some legitimately excellent moments.

Good Stuff

Right when we first come back after episode 15′s big midway point in the story, the subtle way that Zero-Two discovering the gray hair on Miku’s head was handled - during a warm, lighthearted scene to boot - really made it hit home.

The overt anger and defiance of Hiro in the face of “Papa” and APE really made me like him even more. He had some great moments there, including possibly the greatest episode-ending dialogue when he declared just how fucking DONE they all are with their so-called “Papa.”

Zorome’s inability to fully embrace the idea that “Papa” could be so wrong and bad was another good touch.

The big “backstory” episode served to make me really care for Dr. Franxx in a surprise late-game twist. He goes from being a shadowy sinister presence to becoming one of the more sympathetic characters... right before getting killed shortly thereafter.

The big promise scene between Zero-Two and Hiro, where they swear to always come for each other... that one really pulled at my heart.

Also, Hiro’s dedication to caring for the ailing, zombie-like Zero-Two was both devastating and touching. It’s one of the final bits that actually hits any kind of emotion for me in the series.

I actually didn’t mind the alien twist with the VIRM very much like so damn many people did. APE was long portrayed as this unknowable higher power that was clearly hiding something while simultaneously enforcing a 1984-esque obedience and loyalty... and there’s only so many places to go with such a setup, honestly. Much more shocking, to me, is how little is done to build up to/justify the true origin of the klaxosaurs.

But, well, yeah. Like most, I wound up feeling like DitF had a couple of really excellent characters in the lead, and then proceeded to go nowhere worthwhile once it got them to finally be together. Ultimately, they didn’t even get to grow up or have real sex or face the new world. They just get shuffled off into weirdness and death so we can have a bigger cycle of disappointment.

This one has a lot of themes that feel unexplored, and maybe further analysis would make it all gel together more comprehensibly. There is definitely a lot of effort put into thematic hints and worldbuilding in the first half, some of it done in a subtle background way that recalls my favorite aspects of The Future Diary — a favorite anime of mine that ALSO admittedly fails to adequately explain some parts of the world it builds, but it keeps most of its logic intact and is so emotionally engaging that I ultimately went along for the ride and was willing to explore the background justifications and themes later in order to fully grasp that world.

In comparison, I don’t really want to put in the effort to glean the underlying details of DitF. It didn’t leave me feeling like the writers put in the work to keep me invested, so why would I?

#ditf spoilers #darling in the franxx #darling in the franxx spoilers #ditf #griping

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omggiogiothings · 7 years

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Helmet Hair

Just a short something inspired by btweencande’s art. <-- Here And my need for a break agh.

More under the cut. A reunion fic based on the Shiro Clone theory as well.

“I just wanna say,” Lance starts, already making Keith frown. “We are blessed on this holy day for not letting helmet hair be a thing.”

Keith had to stop himself from groaning when he turns a corner, keeping to the wall with the black Bayard in his hand. It hadn’t been easy adjusting to the switches in armor and weapons but they managed to pull through (Keith had to lose Shiro a third time before he finally shed the red paladin armor and stepped into the black one). But they were on a stealth mission, scouting out the area for the hooded people Pidge said had taken her brother.

It was a high energy mission and Lance responded accordingly to help Pidge keep her emotions in check.

“Focus guys, we’re running close.” Keith stopped in an alleyway, eyes looking around the deserted streets for the building Pidge said the informant had given her. He had just pulled up the hologram into his visor when he heard Hunk and Allura whisper “Oh no.”

The explosion rocked the alleyway, startling a few species of aliens that had been attempting to get home safely. Keith snapped his attention to the side where the visor quickly highlighted the paladin’s status in the mini map. Pidge was closer to him, hiding on the rooftops with Lance while Hunk and Allura were directly across from him, a block or so out. And currently engaged with an enemy.

“Who is it?” He said, looking at the building and quickly rushing towards it. “Lance, scope out for Hunk and Allura. Pidge, let’s go inside.”

“Galra!” Allura shouted, a grunt before Hunk gave a yelp. Keith didn’t know what was going on but he could see Lance jumping over the rooftop, taking in his direct command. “We’re fine here! I think they were chasing after the same rebellion faction we were! Hunk, to your left!”

“Go and get your brother Pidge! We’ll be there in a sec!” Hunk encouraged, even when she grappled down to Keith’s side. The place was bare, the door showing no signs of entry until Pidge plugged in her device and set to work.

It was quick to hack and when it slid open Keith took a moment to address the team. “Keep your coms open, if something changes, let me know immediately and pull back if you have to.”

“Got it.” They chimed before he quickly followed Pidge.

The place was dark, the only illumination came from their armor and Bayard’s. They were a rebellion faction but even then, they weren’t sure if they would be a friend or an enemy. She walked over to another access panel, clicking away until the lights flickered on.

And then the ground went out from under them.

He screamed, catching Pidge’s own scream as he attempted to slide down whatever he was dropped into. He flew out, ramming into something hard that made him wheeze. He coughed, shaking his head. “Fuck, Pidge you good?”

“Peachy!” She croaked before gasping. “I got company!”

He didn’t have time to ask when he saw the spear going straight for his head. He rolled to the side, scrambling to his feet and feeling the Bayard activate in his hand. He blocked the next hit, redirecting it to punch the attacker away and give him some space.

He was ready to attack, scream in his throat when he saw narrowed brown eyes and shaggy hair, almost bordering on orange.

“Matt?”

He didn’t talk to Matt often, barely remembering him from his Garrison days as one of Shiro’s friends. But he recognized him enough to make the Bayard deactivate and get a staff to the face.

He stumbled, blindsided before there was a gasp from Matt’s end.

“Oh, what the fuck, Kogane?”

He blinked away the stars in his vision before pulling his helmet free. Matt’s eyes widened, and Keith felt himself being hugged. It was awkward, making him freeze up. “Holy shit! He wasn’t kidding! It’s so good to see someone familiar.”

Matt pulled back as Keith frowned in confusion. “Oh, uh, sorry about the hit. We’re short staffed and you never know who will come crawling in.”

Matt squinted, letting go of Keith. He was taller then Keith which was still annoying. He was shorter then everyone except for Pidge. “That’s new, though.”

Matt pointed to the own spot under his eye, making Keith stare before touching the fresh scar on his own face. It was just under his right eye, stretching down to his jaw line. It had been from the last fight he had as the red paladin (He remember Kuron, eyes in pain as Keith couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see past the sword disappearing straight through his chest and it hurt-).

Keith pointed to his check on the opposite end, feeling a smirk on his lips. “You too.”

Matt laughed, before there was a beep signaling a transmission. He turned, raising his wrist guard to open up the image.

Keith felt his breath catch at who was on the other end. It was Shiro, in the black paladin armor. His hair was a mess and he was outside where Allura and Hunk had been, different people around him.

“Matt! Was it a false alarm? We need back up.”

“You’re gonna get it big guy. Come on, we gotta get out there.” Matt grabbed Keith’s wrist and dragged him towards a set of stairs hidden in the large training like room. He didn’t bother taking in details, more focused on the man he had searching for. Shiro frowned in the transmission.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Bye Shiro!”

“Wait, wait.” He put the helmet back on in time to hear a grunt from Pidge. “Fuck, call off your guys, go get Pidge! I’ll back up the others.”

Matt looked confused before understanding and quickly punching in a few words. Keith gave a small smile, grabbing his shoulder. “Take care of her, alright? She’s been looking for you.”

There was a flash in his eyes before he took off running, not even letting Keith figure out the way out. But he didn’t care as he ran up the stairs. He could hear the immediate sobbing of Pidge and smiled to himself.

This wasn’t going to be their only reunion.

He ran, breath loud in his ears. He could hear the others speaking and that the Galra were withdrawing with their help. But he ran until he saw the familiar white armor in the sea of robes. Lance was making some quips about not needing Keith but he didn’t care. He ripped his helmet off, heart in his throat.

Shiro was there, in his armor with the familiar hair and undercut (though it had started to grow out just a bit). When their eyes met he could see Shiro, see him for who he was and not who Kuron tried to be. Maybe his emotions were a mess and maybe he was falling into another trap but he didn’t give a shit.

“Shiro!”

Shiro smiled, opening his arms for an embrace but Keith had other ideas. “Keith, Keith you’re-ACK!”

Keith hit him in the chest, angling his leg to trip him backwards. Shiro fell, letting out a yell of surprise before Keith caught him. While he was dipped he kissed him.

It was aggressive and probably not romantic at all. But he refused to let the chance pass (Kuron had whispered those words to him, if only you could understand the way he looked at you) him once again. There teeth hit, Shiro gasping against his mouth. But Keith savored it, trying to get Shiro to understand.

He couldn’t lose him a fourth time.

And then Shiro raised a hand, wrapping it around Keith and hanging onto him as they kissed.

The world and his worries melted away, even when his lower lip trembled (I had to bury you a third time).

When he pulled away Shiro opened his eyes slowly. He was flushed, surprised but eyes filled with a gentle love Keith couldn’t get enough of.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, hand lowering to cup Keith’s face. His eyes drifted to the scar under his eye. There were questions in his eyes but Keith couldn’t answer it, not right now. “I… I don’t know what happened, I promise, I didn’t mean to leave you.”

Keith stared at Shiro fumbling for words before he released him, letting him fall onto the ground with a heavy thud. He felt the hot rush of hurt from Shiro constantly leaving and disappearing, even if he couldn’t help it. The look of betrayal as he fell was worth it to Keith. He loved the man too much to ever give up on him. On any version of him.

“We have a lot to talk about.” He said instead, seeing Shiro groan on the floor. He extended a hand for him. “But… it’s good to have you back.”

There was a flicker of recognition on his face and Shiro smiled, taking the hand. “It’s good to be back.”

#Sheith #Keith Kogane #Shirogane Takashi #Vld #Voltron Legendary Defender #My work #writing #my stuff #omggiogiothings #Keith x Shiro #Ay my babes #best babes #reunion fic #kissing #voltron

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aquajolt · 7 years

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Tuning up my EDH decks

Short prologue this time, I woke up early for once for work. After not getting a healthy serving of sleep that night. Worked long, drove far, then napped at a bad time.

SO I HAD A CHUNK OF TIME TO DO WHATEVER I WANTED! And What I ended up doing was fixing up some of my EDH decks for FNM tonight.

Really I think I’ve had my fill of Ixalan draft. Gonna look forward to Iconic masters and Unstable when they come out. So for the time being i’ll commander it up and cross my fingers that the games go to at least turn 10 and no one combos out like a douchemuffiin.

Additionally, I always get to the store and i’ve been playing league and I’ve been wanting to play some casual commander to change things up a bit! And then additionally-additionally, a couple weeks back I talked about how I wanna nuke the board for millions of damage with Coal Hauler Swine and Shivan Meteor (or other red damage effect). And the friend who I spoke with asked if the deck was ready. SO OF COURSE I gotta fix it up and test out the list!

So EDH/Commander! I ended up swapping into my Braids list the new compass that searches for lands and then turns into a Maze of Ith. When I don’t do big early with Braids, I get straved on lands and I NEED lands. Makes Caged Sun better, allows me to play ANYTHING that costs 6+ on turns 6-8. =p And maze of ith is nothing to sneeze at either. =p

Main event! Numot with Coal Hauler, Boros Reckoner, Stuffy Doll and Spitemare. Those are the 4 ‘lead singers’. Main goal of the deck is to plop any of them out. And then starstorm for a lot or Blasphemous Act. Got my double damage enablers in there. Got Intervention Pact so when I nuke players I can live/not get destroyed. Got Sunforger because, cmon. I’m playing RW. And because with Stoneforge Mystic, I’m gonna be searching for either Darksteel Plate to keep the Pig alive after the nuke or Pariah’s Shield to equip to Stuffy Doll and friends. Sunforger is a nice backup if I wanna search for something more fun instead of following the game plan for a casual game. Plus I can sunforger out an Insult//Injury, Path, other 7 instants I can’t remember off the top of my head. Obviously I’ll get the list memorized but when you play Braids and you have to remember what your Fabricate/Treasure Mage/Tezzert the Seeker can search for and you only play Commander quarterly, it becomes hard to remember what 99 cards you slapped in the deck. Easy solution! Don’t run tutors! =D

I had selected Numot because I wanted to run Soulfire Grandmaster for that sweet instant/sorcery lifelinking spells shenanigans. 5 other blue cards existed, but it didn’t seem worth it (FoF, Supreme Verdict, Isperia, Dovin Baan, Dack’s Duplicate). PLOT TWIST! I decided to cut the blue and make it straight RW. And swapping into the commander slot from the 99 Gisela! Might turn some heads and bring some aggro my way, but having the 2x / .5 damage effect on her is really the plan. I’ll swap her if things don’t go well. We’ll see.

I probably won’t play FNM with Gisela though. I’ll definitely play her before the event to see how it performs, draws, and pulls out.

What I plan on piloting is Riku! My Riku list is probably close to other main ones, but i lost the whole deck a while back, so I had to rebuild it from scratch. After going through the cards and categorizing them, it was really awesome to see what I prioritized back then when I built the deck. My Riku list plays more like a control deck in that I have

Cheap ramp spells to get my to the mid/late game faster

I have a plethora of artifact/enchantment removal. Gonna going down to Mana Reflection today!

And I have very few top-end creatures. I do mana sinks and things that grow over time. I like Ant Queen, Jade Mage and Dragon Broodmother. I run Avenger+Craterhoof to close things out.

And I run a few overrun effects when I have a big enough token army. Overwhelming Stampede, Savage Beating, and (recently cut) Biomass Mutation)

So what did I add to the list last night. Well, since I’ll be piloting it in FNM and my opponents could be a tame as precon-from-the-box or Scion of the Ur-Dragon stupid/Kruphix lots o mana/Zur “I swear I’m not gonna be mean this game” the Enchanter, I gotta run some ‘strong’ cards myself. So I’ll be packing Tooth and Nail so I can at least close a game if I have all the mana. Now that I remember I should really playing Urabrask for the haste. X_x “What in Temur gives haste outside of Anger?” Thought eluded me last night. BOO!

Snagged Dack’s Duplicate from once-blue Gisela deck. A great hasty, dethrone clone that Riku can copy. yes please! And because it combos well with Riku, Conjurer’s Closet is back in there (blinking my creatures so I can copy with Riku again.

Biggest weakness my deck has is dealing with LARGE threats. I run maybe 2 counterspells. Any voltron deck will destroy me. I could chump block for days but can’t be blocked and trample say hi. Getting wrathed if I overextend could cripple me too. Hence why I’m fine sticking 1 Ant Queen on the board and just building from there and then support the queen from backlines. And the solution to Voltron fro the time being is to race! I got ramp. I got naturalizes for their artifacts/auras/enchantments. Gotta build up, deploy my dudes, don’t overextend and draw well (always luck involved! ^_^)

Can’t wait to play some matches tonight! Wish me luck!

#mtg #edh #commander #deck discussion #yesh

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twinkiekinesis · 8 years

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Box & Spirit: ~Chapter 6~ Annoyances

Thump, Thump, Thump. The streets of Takanata City city were booming with vibrations going through the ground from the large stereos that played the digital, raving chiptunes. The sky above the stage that had been set in the middle of round, circular street was darkened, but only to shine an unexplained spotlight down onto the hula dancing Sunshine, who proceeded to tango with an identical clone of himself on top of his turntables. After slowly but crazily dancing, backing up into each other until their bottoms finally connected, the colors that were gently hugged by the shadows of the spotlight's focus became restored by a sudden, timely burst of trumpets played by marching squids with unibrows and zebra stripes that would stomp to the beat of the music being played. As confetti fell from the sky like snowflakes, the Blackgrass Beetles and Dalkittens stood upright, the females donning top hats and suits with the males wearing dresses and bows in their furry hair. The two Sunshines continued dancing to their rambunctious party, doing a front flip simultaneously and landing on their bellies, sliding on the floor like the Mohawk-groomed penguins next to them. The two penguins that slid beside them would grow rockets from their backs, and the flames bursting from the nozzles would send them flying in the air. Donning their butterfly wings, the twin Sunshines would follow the penguins' path, spiraling around each other as they easily passed the flightless yet flying birds. They flew closer and closer to each other until they made contact once again, causing them to shine a bright, giant light in the sky.

Out of the fading light would be Sunshine sitting on a large, flying box of crayons while he waved at the crowd of party animals below before he jumped off of the box, gently gliding down to the surface as the music began to slow down on tempo. Sunshine smiled widely. The boy was partying since the moment he stepped into this part of town. He had the civilians of Takanata Town, especially the ones he had covered in condiments, try to force him out of the luxurious town, but they ended up being too scared of the wild animals on the loose, if not of Sunshine's zany antics, and were forced to flee instead. One unlucky soul was caught by one of the well-dressed Dalkittens. The upright beast didn't attack the poor man, though---instead, she gave him an annoyingly long lectures on theories of quantum physics that began melting the man's brain. A police officer that wore the Takanata Town's uniform---a gray shirt with matching pants, shoes, and deputy hat---tried to knock out Sunshine from behind, but had accidentally stepped on a jack-in-a-box unintentionally placed by the partying Sunshine, and was launched into the sky by the head of a cute kitty attached to a spring. Sunshine wasn't out to fight anyone, despite the trap activated underneath the endlessly soaring officer. In fact, as far as he was concerned, this trip was one, huge chance to throw a giant bash in a brand new land. He had hoped that Tobi had gotten the Song of Bonding by now, but until it looked like he needed help or until he called out for it, Sunshine was throwing this party solo.

He gently fell onto a giant, blooming sunflower, the music still playing and spreading the essence of funk into the air. All of the standing beasts would happily dance to the tunes playing from the giant speakers, and Sunshine wouldn't have it any other way. He moved his hand into his skirt and took out his banana. "Hey, everyone!" he said into the banana, which acted as a megaphone that made his voice louder. It ringed so loudly that everyone would turn around to see the shirtless boy that was calling for their attention, wagging their tails and perking their ears up to listen to what he had to say. "This party's super-duper fun! It makes me wish I was a kitty, too! Or a puppy!" The crowd cheered to Sunshine's words before the boy continued. "So let's keep partying like animals! I mean, that's what you guys are, right?!" They cheered and roared louder in excitement, putting a smile on Sunshine's already grinning face. He then put his hand underneath his ear, sticking it out toward the crowd. "Can I get a bow-wow?"

"Bow-Wow!!" yelled all the glowing, feminine Blackgrass Beatles.

The satisfied Sunshine turned his head and put his hand underneath his other ear. "Can I get a meow-nya?"

"Meow-Nya!!" repeated the masculine-sounding Dalkittens.

"That's the stuff!!" Sunshine said, tossing the banana and balancing it on his nose. "Now, let's swing around like a merry-go-round and dance until the sun sets, then dance even more!!" With those words, the music played louder and faster than it had before, influencing the animals to dance the day away once more. Everyone had a smile on their face, and joyful laughs and cheers would be heard from the dancing animals. A dance floor where everyone smiled. Nothing could describe Sunshine's happiness whenever he saw this.

"How annoying," said a voice in the shadows. A silhouetted figure stood on a building far from where the party was being thrown. The figure was muscular and was wearing an orange fox skin hat on top of his head. He raised a hand that carried what seemed to be a dagger but was actually a sharp, thick whale tooth strapped to a handle over his head. "Why is it so hard..." He tossed the dagger in his hand before throwing it in the direction of the party. "...To get some sleep around here...!?"

Sunshine was breakdancing happily on the bloomed flower, along with the Dalkittens and Blackgrass Beatles dancing around him, when the dagger of the silhouetted figure, spinning like a buzzsaw, sliced through both speakers, cutting them in half and abruptly ending the dance music. Immediately noticing this, Sunshine stood on his feet and saw the speakers split in half. "Hey! Who cut the music off?" he whined.

"I did!" Said the once silhouetted figure. When Sunshine turned around to the voice, he saw a muscular, tall man with broad arms and a well-toned chest standing on the roof behind him. He wore a pair of dark green pants made of cloth, the ankle portions of the pants being torn off. On his feet were a pair of brown snow boots, brown fur covering the entrance of the footwear. "Quite frankly, I find that music to be quite annoying!"

After a series of boos and displeased comments from the crowd of animals, Sunshine raised his hand and blinked. "Then why don't you go somewhere else, then?" he asked. "Or maybe....You wanna come, too?" Before the the man could respond, he saw a figure that looked like Sunshine standing next to him, holding a tray of candy. "You toats can!" The Sunshine copy said. "We have candy!" The man stepped back, only to bump into another clone of Sunshine; this one was wearing black sunglasses and holding glow sticks. "And music and dancing! And these super yummy glow sticks, too!" The male's eyes begin to narrow in irritation from the strangeness when he was caught off guard by sticky, crummy substance. He reached his hand behind his head and felt the substance, pulling his fingers to his face. It was pie. "And we have lots of pies, too!" Said a Sunshine from behind.

"...Annoying." A single word grunted from the man's mouth as he caught the returning whale tooth dagger in his hand. "How annoying!!" He yelled out in anger before turning around and throwing the dagger again. The clone behind the man squealed before leaping off the roof moments before the dagger flew in its range. The other two Sunshines scurried away from the spinning tooth that would once again be caught in his hand. "I can't even get a good afternoon's meditation in!"

"Maybe 'chu need cake?" Asked the original Sunshine, still standing on the ground.

"Shut up!" The angry man said before leaping off of the roof and landed on the ground with a loud, crashing thud. "When in the wilderness, a hunter needs the utmost concentration and concrete focus!" He spun the dagger around in his hand before putting it back in his holster. "I don't know what you're doing here, but it's interrupting my focus. Cease it now."

"Well, if you don't wanna party," Sunshine responded, laying on his belly while holding his cheeks, "Why don't you go somewhere else?"

"I can't." He looked up past Sunshine and far beyond the buildings of the town, staring at the distant but huge mountain. "When I meditate, I connect with the spirits of the animals to guide me. When I'm at the highest point where I can touch the heavens, such as the mountains, they speak to me more freely, touch me more vividly, and give me all the power I need. However, they cannot do that when my focus is drifted away by, let's say, noise." He then glared back at Sunshine. "So I will not move from a location I already deem mine. So you must leave at once, or suffer the consequences."

"But I like it here!" Sunshine whined. "And everyone here likes my party, so I'm going to keep going!" The Dalkittens and Blackgrass Beatles all cheered against the odd stranger, comments such as 'Yeah!' and 'Get lost!' being directed towards him.

"Huh...kind of a shame, really. Was really planning on letting you all live," the stranger said while pinching both of his index fingers and thumbs together. "But since you're all so disobedient to my request, I now must ask you to die quickly."

"Huh?" Sunshine was confused by the man's words, but the animals immediately took it as a bad sign. Those who didn't feel the ominous, dreadful aurora coming from the man unleashed their animal instincts and broke from the fancy clothes they gained and rushed toward the man at full speed, baring their fangs and claws at them while charging at them at all fours like the actual animals they were.

"Winds Of The Wild: Gale Gorilla!" A series of gusts of green wind would suddenly surround the man and manifest into the shape of a giant, angry gorilla. Even though it was simply made of wind, the gusts were sharp enough to cut through metal and fast enough to qualify for race cars. The wind Gorilla curled its gusty fists and slammed them both on the ground. The wind blew through the concrete floor, burrowing through it like a mole in the dirt and blasted away the attacking animals while breaking through the ground.

"Whoa!" Sunshine gasped as the felines and canines were launched into the air. "They flew! They really flew!" With their eyes rolled all they way into the back of their head, along with the new cuts that resembled that of knife and sword wounds, those who attacked plummeted onto the ground, unconscious and on the brink of death. Sunshine turned his sights back to the man. "Hey, mister! That wasn't really nice, you know? You should probably say sorry when they wake up!"

"They started it. You started it," The man said behind his summoned manifestation. "This could have all been avoided if you'd just end your stupid festivities."

"Party pooper," Sunshine booed. "I bet that monkey thing would have liked it!"

"Monkey thing..? You mean the Gale Gorilla?" The odd man spat on the floor before looking at Sunshine. "Foolish child. My Gale Gorilla comes from the spirits of the gorillas, whose strength flows through me like the wind in a hurricane. It'll take more than mere party favors to sway them, especially when I, BuBu of the forest, have called them to aid me---"

The man called BuBu's explanation would be suddenly interrupted by Sunshine's failed attempt to mute his laughter. Not even a second later, the boy exploded in laughter. "B-Boo-Boo? That's your name? An owie?"

"Is that funny?"

"It sounds like you're always getting hurt!" Sunshine wiped a tear of laughter from his eye, the only kinds of tears he ever sheds. "Does Mr. Boo-Boo need a bandage?" Wrapping his arms around his waist, he collapsed on his back and continued his laughing fit.

"That's not what the name means."

Sunshine's eyes darted open when he realized something else, sitting on his knees in front of the attacker. "So are you a ghost?"

"Pardon?" BuBu asked, the irritation in his voice becoming notable.

"Well, if Boo-Boo doesn't mean boo-boo, then does that mean ghost? Like, do you hunt ghosts? Or are you a ghost?"

"What, no---"

"Do ghosts really like toasts?"

"For the last time, I'm not--" The hunter was interrupted by a piece of burnt toast smothered with jam being flung into his face, the burnt bread slowly sliding down to his chin before dropping to the floor.

"Toast!" Sunshine chirped happily. "Now me and Boo-Boo the ghost can have a nice breakfast party!"

"First of all, it's the afternoon!" BuBu finally snapped. "And secondly, you're insolence has given you an invitation to an early grave!"

"So a ghost party, then?" Sunshine answered with lit up eyes.

"Yes! Wait, I mean no," BuBu corrected himself. "Technically---"

"Will there be toast?"

"No! There is no toast in hell!"

"What about heaven?"

"You're not going to heaven!"

"But heaven likes me! And so does hell!"

"How do you know? You're still alive!"

"But I've still been there before!"

The rather pointless conversation between the two stopped when Sunshine said that. "...Such a weird child," BuBu mummered to himself. Finally, the wind that formed the shape of the gorilla started to disappear, the gusts finally deforming before blowing away from eeach other. "And I was going to waste time with you..." He turned around and began to walk away from Sunshine, stepping over a fallen dalkitten that was still twitching unconsciously. He made a right down a path that followed the mountain. He scolded himself. Why did I waste so much time in that state? Now I must wait to recover my strength, but no matter. A hunter walks the walk, then lunges for his prey--

"Boo-Boo!"

BuBu hopped back once again, letting out a rather yelp when he saw the elegant and happy Sunshine in front of him. The boy didn't seem mad at all that he ended his party, judging from the wide smile smacked across his face. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to scare a ghost," replied the cheeky Sunshine. "Did it work?"

BuBu's eye throbbed slightly, but it was clear he was growing tired and annoyed of Sunshine's antics. "No, now get out of my sights Or I'll change my mind about letting you live," he threatened when a white bed sheet slowly and elegantly fell on top of the man's head, draping itself over his body.

"Boooooo-Boooooo!!!" Sunshine stuck his head underneath the sheet, sticking out his tongue at the hunter. "Now let's go have some toast!"

BuBu, whose pulsating vein was gradually growing, roared and grabbed the sheet, pulling it off of him while he stared daggers at Sunshine. "You've crossed the line, Child! It's about time I tuck you in, the hard way!" He curled up his fist and prepared to throw a punch, only to hear not one, not two, but multiple giggles. He looked at the sheet he had just tossed and found multiple copies of Sunshine wearing military uniforms and holding semi-automatic rifles. "Toast guns ready!!" said one of the copies.

"W-What? Guns...!?" BuBu tried to dash to the side, even as he thought to himself, No use! They're too close to dodge! ...Wait, did he just say...

"Fire!!" They all laughed loudly as the totally normal looking guns blasted rounds of fresh, hot toast at the easy target. For a split second, before they hit, BuBu's eyes were shadowed out to hide the disbelief in them. Toast, far too big to fit through the barrel of a gun, was being shot at him in barrages. He had remembered seeing antics like this when he was young on television. He remembered seeing these tactics in cartoons. The days when his father would pick him up from the academy and take him home to watch the famous Buzzy Bear, a show that boomed thirty years ago and is even still popular with children today.

What...the heck is this...? That was the only thought going through his head as the floods of toast hit him rapidly. It was hot as if they came fresh out of a toaster. But more than that; It was as if the toaster came from a volcano on the sun in the middle of the Earth's core inside another sun. Simply put, the toast was hot enough to cause damage. Not that Sunshine was aware. It was just another silly prank to him.

After a long howl of pain being interrupted by the hot bread covering his entire body from head to toe, the sheet that the clones of Sunshine were in fell onto the ground flat. It was as if those clones weren't there to begin with. "There! Ghosts like their toasts extra hot, so I made them extra hot for you, Boo-Boo!"

After a moment of silence, BuBu had concluded underneath the heated wheat that he had reached his boiling point. Whether intentional or not, the hot toasted bread almost killed him, he thought. With curled fists, he punched his arms out and thrust his head from the pile of toast with a roar. "That is it!" Doing a single backflip out of the messed up pile of toast, he landed on his feet while facing Sunshine, taking out his dagger and growling. "I, BuBu the Hunter, have finally had it with you! You're just so troublesome to put up with! Then you insist on continuing to pester me when I decide to let you live!"

"Boo-Boo!"

"And stop calling me that!" With a single grunt, he licked the tip of the whale tooth. "I usually hate hurting children, but If I let you go, you'll end up throwing ridiculously loud bashes, even if I do return! For that, I must end your partying ways...for good!"

"But that's not good!" Sunshine huffed. "I like to party, and parties like to I!"

"Tell me, child that makes no sense," BuBu demanded. "What is your name? You will go down in my memory as the most annoying child I have ever met."

"It's Sunshine! But I think people called me Jason, too..." Sunshine cheerfully hummed while thinking, his grin not leaving his young face even for a second. "Well, you can call me Jason or Sunshine, but my friends call me Sunshine!"

"...Wait." BuBu's eyes narrowed. "Jason....Sunshine...Is your last name Stewart?"

"Uh-Hum!" Sunshine confidingly nodded.

"I see...I know who you are, then." It had been years since BuBu had left the city life to get in touch with his wild side. A man of nature and a former soldier of war, He wanted to escape the hardships and painful memories that he had experienced in the city. He had since lived his life in the forest and even in the mountain Tobi and Sunshine flew past on the way to Takanata Town, the one separating it from the Panda Valley. Through his days of training, praying, and of course, hunting, he wasn't totally out of touch with the world. He had a small but well-working radio that was able to pick up signals from the small, tiny cabin he lived in. That radio would broadcast comedy skits, narrative readings, and the news. These news broadcasts had reported all kinds of events from sports to celebrity lives. But, naturally, there were also reports of crime, too. And people who committed the crimes--Criminals. Or maybe heroes every now and then. And, even more rarely, ones that fall in between, such as the Taku Residence. "The Overly Optimistic DJ, Jason 'Sunshine' Stewart, owner of the Sunshine Radio Station with broadcasts of the same name, member of the Taku Residence, a heroic and problematic gang of heroes and villains, plus some who lie just in between. Praised for saving the world from supernatural beings, throwing parties that last for months, sometimes over a year, spreading joy across the world and beyond, and hula dancing, yet wanted for multiple accounts of being a nuisance to the public, colossal damage, assault, harassment, and even war crimes." Pinching his finger on his thumb again while holding the dagger in his other hand, he stared at Sunshine with his sights more decisive on what to do with him. "I see. So you're the boy who plays those annoying tunes that keep me up at night. How annoying..."

"You don't like them?" Sunshine questioned while wrapping the sheet around himself. "A lot of people do! So that's why I play them, so everyone in the world can dance and have a good time! That's what radio places like mine do, right?" He swayed his body a little as he snuggled himself into the sheet.

"That may be why a lot of people like you," BuBu said to the boy, "But you're still annoying. So, for everyone to literally rest in peace..." A white, flaming aurora would suddenly flow from his entire body as the whale tooth that acted like his blade slowly extended. "I must make sure you never party again."

"Wow, that's a little mean, Boo-Boo." Sunshine pouted.

"With this, I will grow stronger! I call upon the soul of the waking whale! Lend me your strength to take down my pray!" With those words, the slowly extending whale tooth dagger suddenly erected to the length of a samurai's katana.

"Whoa! That sword got longer! Really longer!" Sunshine cheered, impressed.

"Do you not realize that your demise awaits just seconds away?" BuBu asked, clutching both of his hands onto the handle of his sword.

"What's a... 'demise?' "

"It means, child, that you ill taste fury of flames!"

"But Fury went off to go do something else!" corrected the confused Sunshine. "He wanted to wrestle lava squids!"

"No, I mean you'll get plunged into the afterlife!"

Sunshine put his finger on his chin, confused by the man's words still. "Uh...."

With a sigh, BuBu firmly raised the sword over his head. "In basic terms, you're going to die."

"Oh! So I get to be a ghost like you?" Sunshine hoped with twinkling eyes.

Not wanting to hear anymore of the boy's nonsense, BuBu swiftly dashed to Sunshine, swinging his sword down on the boy. "You're the only ghost here!" As his powerful sword struck the floor, he had realized that he hadn't hit Sunshine at all. It was strange; He was just there. A mirage?

"Peek-a-boo!" Sunshine chuckled a little, clinging to BuBu's back. With a grunt, the man turned his head to see the boy on him. "Ghost man is really, really scruffy!"

"What the---get off of me, you pest!" BuBu growled, reaching his hands over to Sunshine, who sat on top of his head, wearing a pirate hat and holding a paper towel roll. "I said get off!"

"Argh!" Sunshine said, constantly smacking the top of BuBu's head with a paper towel roll. "Scruffy pirate! You cannot sink Captain Sunshine, the greatest pirate in the world!" He said playfully, as if he weren't aware at all that this man was actually trying to do harm to him, let alone kill him.

"You little..." BuBu held his sword in front of him, aiming it just above his head, then thrust the tip of the blade towards Sunshine, who skillfully blocked the blade with his paper tower roll before bouncing off of the man's head and behind him. BuBu turned around and stepped towards Sunshine, swearing under his breath while he released a series of sword swings at the boy, who blocked each one with the fragile, normal paper towel roll. Oddly enough, the sound of the roll and the sword were like that of two actual blades clashing with each other.

"Yargh!" Sunshine teasingly yelled while blocking the sword strikes. "Shiver me timbers, scallywag! I'll make 'chu walk the plank!"

"Do you ever take anything seriously?!" BuBu, after one final swing, lunged the sword forward at Sunshine, who crouched and went towards his leg.

"Is 'chu ticklish, Boo-Boo?" Sunshine looked up, his pirate hat gone as he wiggled his fingers conspiringly.

"Don't you dare---!" Before he could finish his sentence, BuBu began to chuckle, spitting out a laugh here and there before finally laughing crazily. Feeling the crazy fingers dance on the bottom of his thigh, the surprisingly ticklish man of nature fell on his back as the fingers danced all over his legs. Somehow, Sunshine's hands even grew underneath BuBu's armpits and began tickling them, too. After nearly losing his breath from all of the tickling, the foxskin cap bearing man regained control of himself, then leaped up, swinging his sword around his body so fast that the blade looked like the gust of wind he had summoned earlier. "This isn't some game!" He scolded, disregarding his own small fits of giggles that lingered inside him.

"It isn't? Then, can we play a game, then?" Sunshine asked, floating upside down with the assistance of his butterfly wings. "I know, how about hide 'n seek?! I'm really, really good at that game!" Before BuBu could respond, Sunshine bopped his nose with his finger. "You're it!" Doing a single shuttle loop off the ground, he took off into the air and dived down behind one of the buildings.

BuBu was angrily grinding his teeth together as he watched him leap into the sky. "What the hell is that child...Hmph. No matter," He spat. "Hide and seek? Very well. No matter how hard this pest hides from it, death will seek him out no matter what." The blade began to retract to its normal, whale-tooth sized shape. Then, BuBu moved his pinched thumbs towards each other. "I call upon the mighty sky of the eagle! Lend me your power! Winds of the Wild: Radiant Eagle!!" After reciting that chant, a golden aurora appeared around the man before it shaped into the form of a majestic golden eagle. Its wings spread wide, the eagle flew from off the ground and spiraled into the sky before diving down. After a couple of seconds, it stopped, staying just above the town. Hovering over the apartments, buildings, and houses, BuBu scanned the streets from above, searching for the hyper boy. No sign of him...His combat style is so strange. No...it's not a combat style...it's not combat at all.. After a couple more seconds of searching, he would turn his sights to a trash can that was placed on the middle of the street. That's odd, he thought. Why is there a trash can... "Hmph!" As he was thinking, a pair of feet and legs grew from the can, scurrying around and guiding it straight to a light post. The moment the can connected with it, a loud clanging noise rang from it as it vibrated from the impact of its unintended collision.

I've Found you! The manifestation of the Eagle dived down with its wings to its sides. It aimed its decent at the trash can with human limbs, which was vulnerable since it was recovering from its crash against the light post. The eagle spiraled in a drilling corkscrew motion, charging at the can when the tin trash container shook a little and skipped out of the line of the eagle's attack. The gust of wind that followed was strong, though, and was blown away as the drilling eagle ripped through the light post, tearing it in two before it disappeared, the spinning BuBu landing on his feet perfectly. He looked over at the can with the arms and legs poking from the bottom of it, then grabbed the whale tooth dagger. "Awaken, Wakening Whale!" Pulling the dagger from the holster, BuBu pulled extending weapon across his chest before going in to strike the can.

"Hey! What's the big idea, eh?!

A voice? But that's not his voice... The hesitating BuBu would watch the trash can slowly turn around until a face was seen. There was a living, authentic face on the trash can with human dog eyes and a sharp, angry growl. The shocked BuBu's jaw immediately dropped as his pupils shrunk. "...What?" The sight was so shocking, even eyes of the foxskin cap darted open in sheer disbelief.

"What, you acting like you never saw a trash can before, you jerk!" The can growled. "What, you think just because you're taller and bigger and throw your trash in me that I'm just some garbage disposal?"

That's kind of the point...

"That's not the point!" It snapped, almost as if it read BuBu's mind.

"What..?! How did you..!?" Confused, BuBu shook his head out of the madness he was witnessing, or at least he tried. "Look, I'm sorry, but you're not my target, so forget this happened or--"

"Or what?! First you knock me into a light post with---what the heck is that, some sort of jumbo-sized toothpick?!" It took a step closer, then continued to yell at BuBu. "And then you just knock me aside like I'm a football! Didn't anyone teach you some manners!? Well guess what, pal?" The legs and arms of the trash can retracted into the bottom while it fell. From where they once stood would be a huge, giant cannon. "I'm about to teach you some!"

"Where the hell did you grow a cannon from!?" Swore the dumbfounded BuBu, whose eyes bulged from his sockets.

"I'm a trash can, remember?! The can you enjoy smacking around so much!?" The disposal yelled at the hairy man.

"It was your own fault for being so damn clumsy!" BuBu had tried to ready his blade as quickly as he could, but it was already too late.

"I'll blow your stinkin' brains out!!" The cannon shot a cannonball at point blank range at the confused BuBu, causing a powerful but quick explosion that would send the man flying across town with a loud, pained yell of agony. With smoke flying from the trail he flew from, BuBu would fly into a parked truck, crashing onto the roof of it. The force of the fall impacted the truck and wedged the man into it only slightly. Letting an annoyed grunt go past his lips, he stood up, his body covered in patches of gunpowder, and hopped off of the truck.

"That was...far from ordinary. Was it that boy's doing?" He wondered out loud. He would walk forward, but he barely managed to take his first step when he heard a loaded gun aimed towards him. He turned around and saw a man in a gray animal control uniform aim an old-fashioned rifle at him.

"You're not from around here, are you?" the marksman said. "Probably with those boys, Tobi K. Yukio and Sunshine." With a confidently smug smirk, he kept his weapon aimed at BuBu. "Don't know who the hell you are, but you're definitely not dressed like you live here. Easy to tell outsiders from the rest of us, you know?" with sly grin, he gave out his order. "Get in the truck. I'm sure Boss Ricky would love to choke the life out of a tag along like you, bushy boy."

BuBu had been robbed of his peace of mind, bested by a child, and blown away by a quick-witted trash can. He was in no mood to calmly deal with anything else today, let alone this man. Without warning, he dropped his sword, which retracted to the size of a dagger once more, then kicked his heel hard enough on the dagger to send the tooth of it flying into the man's left ankle. The man, with a piercing scream, dropped to his knee before BuBu turned around, grabbed the man's gun by the nozzle, and swung the base of the weapon into the animal control patroller's jaw, shattering the entire half of the man's face. The once cocky male then fell unconscious with his pupils rolled back into his head. His mouth hung open as the side of his head hit the concrete, showing a couple of his teeth falling out from the force of the blow.

"Arrogance..." After beating the man senseless with two blows, BuBu crouched down and grabbed his dagger before looking at the truck. "...A car? No, a truck? What is this?" He turned around and saw another truck zoom pass him. He then saw a man wearing the same outfit as the one he had just beaten chase after one of the Dalkittens with a net. He saw another one pursue a a Blackgrass Beatle that dashed underneath the table. With skillful aim, that man aimed his rifle at the dog, shooting it with a tranquilizer bullet that hit the beetle's neck, causing it to pass out on the spot. "Those are the animals the boy was dancing with earlier...How come they're on all fours when a moment ago, they..." He shook his head, then turned around. "No, that doesn't matter. I need to find that child and finish him. They said his name, so I'm not the only one pursuing him."

"Hey! Scruffy!"

BuBu sighed at the insult flung at him by a group of voices in a harmony. With an angry glare, he turned around to see three other men. One was muscular, about as muscular as he was, and armed with a stun rod. Another one was skinnier, but wore a pair of sunglasses. His uniform was also different; Instead of gray, he was wearing a red outfit similar to all the other catchers. And then there was the last one, a familiar, bubbly blonde-haired boy with playful brown eyes holding a net. Is he mocking me?!

"Wanna explain to us," growled the muscular man, "Why our buddy's on the ground with his teeth knocked out?"

The man in red raised an eyebrow. "We don't take too kindly to people who come in here, thinking they're hot stuff and go knocking us off, y'know!"

"Yeah! Scruffy Boo-Boo is so mean!" Said the poorly-disguised Sunshine, who somehow blended in with the other workers, closing his eyes cluelessly whilst raising his net.

"The boy you're looking for is literally standing right next to you!" BuBu squawked. "How are you not seeing this?!"

"Oh no, don't go trying to change the subject now," the man in red spat. "We're going to make sure you understand who we're messing with, you nutjob."

"Yeah, the boss is gonna give us a pretty good pay when we turn you into him for beating on our guys," the bigger one chimed in.

"Yeah! You big 'ol meanie!" Added Sunshine, smiling wide while sticking out his tongue playfully,

"Unbelievable! Look! To your right! He's literally right there!" BuBu pointed his whale tooth sword at Sunshine, who was springing his torso up and down while smiling happily. "Does he look like someone anyone would work with?"

"Scruffy sounds really, really grouchy!" Sunshine giggled. "Cheer up, Scruffy! We'll treat you to some toast later, right guys?" Following his happy tone were the two's nods and comments of approval, which baffled BuBu even further.

"Idiots! All of you!" he scolded while positioning the blade across his chest. "Fine. I'll just cut all three of you in two!" He spun the sword around before positioning it over his head, the blade facing the three while he tightly clung onto the handle. "Winds of The Wild..."

"I dare 'ya!" Said the muscular one, raising the stun rod over his head while stomping to BuBu.

"Go ahead and try!" Challenged the one in red, aiming his gun with precision at BuBu's body.

"Toast, Toast, Toast, Toast..." Sunshine chanted to himself, dancing with his hands behind his head and a piece of toast in his mouth.

"...Lion Predator Claw!!" With a flow of orange aurora bursting from him, BuBu, in a single move, as if he never even took a step, blew straight past the three while plunging his blade forward, forming a streak of light colored in a light shade of brown that would disappear a second after it was formed. In that move, the stun rod of the beefy man split in two, and a tear on his shirt would form, a red, deep cut on his chest exposed as he simply stood in the same position he was in to attack BuBu. The marksman's gun was also split in half, and the red shirt he wore had also grown a tear. Underneath the ripped fabric was a gashing, large cut on his stomach. After BuBu swung his blade to his side and stood up fully, the two men dropped onto the ground without a sound. "And that should also take care of you..." He turned around, expecting to see fallen Sunshine. Instead, his eyes gazed upon a cardboard cutout of the boy that was cut in half. "Are you kidding me!? I could have sworn I hit him!" With an angry growl, he turned to the nearest Blackgrass Beatle and swung his foot underneath its belly, kicking it away from him as if it were a football. He then knelt down and pressed his palm onto his face.

"Bumpity!" Ratted Sunshine as he gently crashed into BuBu's back. The boy seemed to be caught in his own net, his arms tightly bounded together to his body by it. The only free limbs he was able to move were his legs. "Beep Beep! Silly spider coming through!"

Out of reflex and sheer frustration, BuBu turned around and, with an annoyed, tired yell, swung his sword at Sunshine. "This time! This time I have you!" His eyes, which were filled with confusion and a million questions just a second ago, were now calm and confident again. Such was the case until the net was cut in small, broken up pieces from the single slash. Looking down at his hands, Sunshine gasped happily as he grew his butterfly wings again.

"I'm a free bug! I'm gonna fly free like a butterfly again!" Sunshine backflipped into the air before flapping his wings and hovering in the sky above BuBu. "Thanks, BuBu! This time, I'll make sure to put extra jam on your toast! You've earned it!"

Standing on his feet exhaustedly, BuBu would look up at Sunshine with an unamused, unhappy stare. "Just...what are you..."

He had taken it a step too far, she thought. He could beat her, and he could humiliate her. But what he had just done to her now was unforgivable. He messed with and stolen the only good memory she cherished. No matter how many times he had tried to play it off, no matter how many times he told her he loved her after this, she would not forgive him. After looking up at the falling rain, she felt her love, which was already dying down, suddenly extinguish. Her love for him, her love for the man who claimed to give her a better life, was now a memory she wished she had never experienced. She got up, her eyes which were once filled with love for the local thug that planned on expanding his territory now filled with hate for such a person. She now saw no reason to hold back on what she would now call a low life.

Lucy hated Sparky.

After standing for a moment, her wet hair floating over her eyes, she dashed at what seemed like a superhuman speed. She leaped off of the convenience store's roof and into the rain, her feet splashing in the wet puddles formed by the rain. She moved her hands behind her back and, as if out of nowhere, withdrew her metal pole, spinning it in her hand as she marched down the street with a searing look of rage in her eyes. Her tail danced in a slow but predatory rhythm, like a python stalking its pray from the grass. Her feline ears pointed downward as she made her way down the sidewalk and onto the wet, black street. When she touched the street's ground, a beam of light would shine on her as if an angel of death had rested its eyes on her. When she turned around to see where the light had originated from, he saw a car approach her. It seemed like the man behind the wheel, who was panicking because he couldn't stop his brakes, had lost control of his rather ancient ride. With one more hard push of the brake while constantly steering his wheel in an attempt to get the car to stop, the wheels had stopped moving by his command. But only to skid the car towards the angry Lucy, who was blinded by rage. The driver had closed eyes while screaming in a panic, beeping the horn in hopes she'd get out of the way despite coming in too fast to avoid.

With a loud noise and a shake of his car, the man had bit his lips as he opened his eyes. With a shocked gasp with eyes to match, he had witnessed the feline hybrid grab the front of his car while she continued facing away from him. Her eyes were the windows to a broken, tired heart. A tired heart that had grown weary of being abused, toy with, and underestimated. A heart that wanted to be truly appreciated, only to get stomped on like a worm into the dirt. Like a withering flower fading in a burning sun, the trust she had built for her, and the potential trust she had for anyone had turned into dust and faded away. She was now a walking, distrusting widow that no longer felt compassion or love for the man he once called her boyfriend. The only connection she wanted with him now was her fists being smashed deep into his face. Moving her hand away from the man's car, Lucy turned to the right and made her way down the street through the cold, wet weather. When she raised her head, she saw a couple laughing together underneath an umbrella. Pissed off at the sight, she would bump into the girl with her shoulder, a silent gasp escaping the lover's mouth while she watched her hike away in the rain, the couple giving her a rather concerned look. Passing the wet buildings underneath the stormy clouds, she would keep going until she stopped at a large, abandoned recreational center. Compared to the rest of the town, this building seemed run down, as if it belonged in the poorer portion of town. But Sparky took over the once empty building, and no cop, real estate agent or mayor could force him out, not with the strength he had.

Lucy, soaked from the rain that fell on her purple shirt that once belonged to her father's, walked to the door of the establishment and clenched her fist, smashing it into the door with one punch. The door broke off its hinges and flew into the building. It reeked of the smoke of cigarettes that lingered through the hangout, along with the laughs and voices of various hoodlums until they turned back, pausing their conversations to look at the enraged Lucy. As one would expect, it was spacious on the inside; Pool tables, an arcade game, a large Television that sat across from a couch accompanied by a couple of sweaty fat guys, and even a vending machine and a kitchen made this the ideal chill spot for Sparky and his fellow criminals.

"Hey, isn't that the cat bitch always kissing Sparky's ass?" called out a girl by one of the pool tables, looking at Lucy as if she were above the cat girl. "What's she punching the doors in for? Didn't Ricky put her on a leash or something?"

After a wave of laughter went through the room, another comment would come from one of the guys on the couch, looking back at Lucy with an arrogant smirk. "You look angry. Why don't you go blow some steam...Or maybe you should blow the boss instead!" Another rise of laughter coming from the various members in the hangout.

"Why don't we make her suck us all off?" commented another voice, this time a man leaning on the vending machine. "If we tell the boss what happened, maybe he'll understand!"

"Yeah, you had the man!" another voice chimed in. "You get on your knees and prepare for the time of your life. Maybe we'll forgive you after that!"

After standing around, listening to the vulgar comments and insults of what would now be considered her former partners, probably even less than that, Lucy spun her pole over her head, then slammed the bottom of it onto the ground next to her. "Where's Sparky?" After a couple of sarcastic noises were made from the gang, she growled in an intimidating, threatening tone, "I said where is he!?"

The outburst made the room go silent. Finally, one of the girls would come from the kitchen, her hand keeping a grip on a small, sharp kitchen knife. "Listen, you garbage cat," she said, "We don't appreciate that tone of voice coming from a stupid, moody bitch like you. You have a lot of nerve coming here without Sparky's permission and stirring up trouble like this." She walked to Lucy, pointing the blade of the knife to her throat. "You want to see Sparky? Really? A piece of garbage like you?" Grinding her teeth, she let out a brief laugh. "See, it's lame pieces of shit like you that piss me off the most."

Lucy stared at the knife-wielding girl without an ounce of fear in her eyes. In a sudden movement, the hybrid's tail lunged up at the blade, knocking it out of her hand and into the ceiling. Right before the trash talker could retaliate, Lucy swung her pole, smashing it into her face so hard that the very bones in her entire face shattered as she was sent flying into the brick wall face first, burying her disfigured face into the thick concrete. She glared at everyone else, who, after being immobilized from the shock of what the cat girl had done, broke out into a rage and came after her. Spinning her metal pole above her head again, she would thrust the end of her weapon into one of the thugs, sending him flying into a group of approaching ones, knocking them all to the ground. She turned to the side and raised her pole, stopping an almost sneaky stab to the stomach from the girl that insulted her at the pool table. The attacker's eyes, which were so confident that she'd stab Lucy, looked into her target's and saw the cold, merciless glare that fell upon her. She was beginning to beg when Lucy jammed the pole into her throat. The half-feline then proceeded to spin around with her pole sticking out while the girl choked on it. Like an iron chained mace, the girl's body hit the group of thugs that tried to charge at Lucy, her legs crashing into every one of her allies so hard that she had accidently shattered a couple of ribcages while knocking them back. Eventually, with one hard swing, Lucy tossed the girl into the ceiling, causing the weapon that was knocked into the ceiling to fall to the floor next to her. She picked up the knife with her tail, then began to walk towards a door. After opening it, she would stop to see one of the other gang members holding a pistol.

"...Hey...what's going on?" the man asked, beginning to raise his gun. "What were you just doing down there, you dumb bitch!? And what the hell was all that racket--"

Instead of answering, Lucy's tail darted the knife into the man's throat. As the metal blade pierced his neck, he would desperately pull the trigger once in an attempt to shoot the kitten, blasting the bullet through her hair, damaging only the locks of her grape purple hair. After the man fell, Lucy walked over the man who, like everyone else around her, treated her lower than garbage. In fact, she even went back briefly to stomp the blade deeper into the man's neck, causing his already severe wound to bleed even more than it already was as the knife went deeper into his throat. The next thing she knew, though, she stomped on the blade again, and again, and again. Her entire life, no matter where she went to, she was always treated badly by almost every person she came across, save for a few who quickly faded from her life for one reason or another. Just like the knife being wedged into the man's throat, she was stomped on. Her feelings, trust, and happiness were trampled on by so many people so many times, her memories were stained with footprints, as was her lonely, angry heart. Along with the marks on her wrists, which she stared at after one more hard stomp onto the dead man's throat, she recalled those sad times. She was young, but back when he was around, back when his father was around, they would travel. Back before everything went to hell for her, she and her father would ride across the country, enjoying every mile they rode together as a family of father and daughter. But they weren't just wandering aimlessly on the road. As fun as their journey was, they wanted to visit what they considered their blessing, the meaning of the love the parent and child shared. The love would go on forever, or so she and her father swore to the tombstone that marked the resting place of her would be mother. But... It was a lie....It was all a big lie...

With the memories that turned into words of confused anger fueling her, Lucy walked up the stairs, making a left turn to travel up the next set of stairs. When she finished climbing the set, a group of Sparky's underlings were on their way to investigate the source of the gunshot when they saw the girl, stopping as they observe her appearance: A blood-stained purple shirt, an angry, murderous stare, and a metal pole, which was also covered in blood. Correctly assuming the worse, the four men got out their weapons---a pistol, a pocket knife, a pair of brass knuckles, and a bat---and rushed at the hybrid with a loud holler. As the man with the knife came at her first, Lucy gently rocked her head to the side to avoid the swing of the blade coming down at her, then gripped her pole with both hands tightly, lunging it into the man's left eye. The one with the bat leaped over him, pulling his weapon over his head before swinging it down at the girl, who sidestepped from the swing and swung her right leg so hard that he kicked the batter, who was still trying to recover from his failed attempt at attacking, in his face and out of his crouching position, sending him flying at the man with the knife, accidentally taking him onto the floor with him.

With the knife wielder holding his eye for dear life, as well as the batter who had the weapon of his comrade's wedged into his left hip, the one with the brass knuckles came at Lucy next, throwing a series of jabs and hooks at the girl, who dodged each swing at her with ease until a straight punch came at her. She stopped the punch with her left hand, crushing down onto the man's fist tight enough to crack through his hand, despite the brass cover, which shattered under her strength. The man cried out loudly, but it failed in comparison to the noise of the gun that fired at Lucy's head. Luckily for her, the gunslingers of Sparky's gang had terrible aim, and the bullet went straight into the wannabe boxer's right shoulder. With his hand already shattered beneath the girl's strength like glass, the man went falling, grabbing onto his bullet wound with his only hand intact. With the poor marksman still standing, Lucy walked to him, effortlessly avoiding the bullets, then, with a tight grasp on her pole, knocked one of the oncoming pieces of led above her without fail. Out of ammo, the man watched Lucy swing her pole at the descending bullet, hitting it so hard that the speed it was launched at was as if it were shot from an actual gun. The bullet ripped through the middle of the man's chest, a loud yell escaping his lips before he fell silent.

She stepped over the fallen man after defeating him and his friends, proceeding down the hallway until she had heard a plethora of footsteps rapidly growing louder and louder. There were men and women rushing out of the doors. Since one of the doors happened to be that of a gym, she would also find among the crowd of metal chain pullers, pistol trotters, bat swingers, and knife-dishers groups of large, muscular men. One of the men were so strong that he crushed the metal two hundred pound dumbbell with only his hand. It seemed to be about fifteen people in total standing in between Lucy and Sparky, according to her observation. She spat on the floor, then looked at the bunch of enemies standing in front of her with a chilling glare. The stare made the entire group flinch and nearly stumble, even the larger, beefy men. Nonetheless, they got themselves together and charged at the girl, yelling threats and swears at her while they jumped her. The first person to reach her was a girl with a knife, who was met with a swift jab to the neck by the cat girl's pole, which struck her so bad that she fell to the neck, choking on her jammed windpipe. Lucy kicked the knife out of her hand and caught it. She tossed the pole above her head as one of the muscular men approached her. With swift speeds, she sprung past the beefy while slashing the blade through the flesh on his neck. When she landed on the floor, she quickly saw a group of thugs with their pistols aimed at her. Before they pulled the trigger, Lucy hopped onto the wall, avoiding the spray of bullets that would hit the would-be wrestler and the choking girl instead. She bounced from the walls in a zig-zag pattern that allowed her to dodge the bullets with ease. The gunners would pull on their triggers until their guns clicked without a bang. The only people they hit were what were once their partners in crime. While most of them worried about the whereabouts of Lucy, Another one screamed for help before his cries came to a terrifying stop. His throat was slit, and his pistol was dropped. Before they could all respond to what had happened, another woman had a knife thrown into her left eye. The ones still standing then turned to the sound of the knife gushing through the girl's eye. Two of them panicked, turning their heads frantically to find the girl while another one would notice the missing gun the girl once had.

"H-Holy shit, guys, what happened to the other---"

Three gunshots would echo through the hallway, and all three men would fall dead with bullet holes formed on top of their heads. Lucy would drop from the ceiling and land on one of their corpses, then pointed the gun at the now terrified remaining thugs. A couple of them began to lose their cool, and turned back to run towards the staircase behind them, which lead both upstairs to the next hall, as well as the hall Sparky's room was in, and downstairs to safety. As the few who tried to flee cried and stumbled toward the staircase quickly, they would have been stopped by one of the muscular men that towered over them. The males that the beefy one now saw as cowards stumbled backwards, and their heads were suddenly grasped by the larger man's hands. He put pressure onto their heads, his fingers digging into their skulls until he felt something break and heard a small cracking noise being made. He then tossed the traitors towards Lucy's direction. Lucy put the gun away behind her and finally caught her descending pole and, like a baseball player, swung the staff hard enough to rocket the corpses back into the body builder and knocking him over. She was going to dart her way through the rest of them when she suddenly felt her wrists and ankles wrapped by chains. Not only that, but the smell of gasoline also came from metal restraints. She looked down at them, then at the four females that were holding the chains, two of them holding a lighter. With their flames lit, they began to move it towards the gas-dripping chains while letting out a cry of bloodlust. "Let's let this bitch burn!"

After they said that, Lucy once again hopped to the ceiling, not seeming to be affected by the restraints. In fact, she was dragging the punk-rock girlfriends around the floor, and then to the ceiling, the girls crashing their dark dyed-haired heads onto the surface after she herself landed on the floor. Upon impact onto the ceiling, one of the girls let go of the lighter, which still kept its flame when it fell on the floor. With a powerful downward tug, Lucy slammed the chains that the females thought would bind her down towards the miniature flame. The girls, their body now covered in gasoline from being dragged across the trail it dripped on and holding onto the now flammable chain, instantly sparked into flames when they fell on the lighter, their entire bodies now being swallowed by the blaze. Lucy, who, while in front of the burning women, was still bounded by the chains that were building a fire up to her wrists and ankles, leaped forward and curled herself into a ball, rolling in midair fast enough to carry the girls off of the floor drag them across the ceiling, and then the floor again. If one were to take a look at this from a side, it was as if Lucy was a human pinwheel, spinning balls of fire instead of blades. Uncurling from the ball, she threw her arms and legs forward, breaking the still stable chains from the ones on fire and shooting the girls at the bat-wielding punks. The flaming women were hurled at them so fast that they forced the males down the staircase on their side and tangled them in their flames. The batters and chain swingers screamed and cried painfully as the fire began burning through their skin and muscles.

Lucy moved her hand to her hair, pushing it away from her eye, as she began to walk towards the staircase, leaving behind the trail of bodies, blood, and bullets made from the small brawl she had. She had raised hell in Sparky's little comfort zone and, for the first time ever, she didn't regret it. He had taken away the most precious thing to her, so what's a couple of lives here and there to him? He probably didn't care, seeing as how cold-hearted the man was. And even if he did, why didn't he come down here to face her himself? Maybe he thought it was someone else causing all this trouble, but that didn't matter now. As she made her way up the next floor, she would stand in yet another hallway, though this one looked twice as dirty as the one below it, even before the gunshots, blood, and burn marks on the walls entered the list of why it was so poorly maintained. The windowed doors were blacked out by dirt splotches and heavy amounts of dust, and the carpet on the floor seemed like it was fading and slightly ripping in some place. It was a mess. Just like my life. She had made her mistakes, she thought to herself as she traveled down the hall alone. She remembers when they finally caught up to her dad that long time ago, watching the men beat him senseless with the blood spitting out of his mouth and onto the young girl's cheek. She shouldn't have listened to him that time. She shouldn't have ran away, no matter how much he begged her to. Every second she had spent running away from her father's problems was another ounce of regret being poured into her soul. She wasn't strong enough to do anything and, even now, she felt as if she couldn't do anything to help him now, whether he was dead or alive. The only thing that kept her sane, she thought, was that coat, that brown, warming cloth of hope.

"Shoot that bitch!!"

With the announcement of one of the punks sounding from one of the doors, an even larger group ran out of all of the doors behind and in front of Lucy, whose tail stopped moving in the middle of its wag. With their guns loaded, they all pulled the trigger while aiming at her. Lucy jumped high into the air while putting away her pole. She stuck out both of her middle and index fingers, pushing them together. She put the tip of her right fingers against the middle of her left ones, causing a sort of hollow noise to sound, like a person blowing into an empty bottle quickly. A light purple aurora flowed from her body as she took a deep breath.

"Slithering Snake Scatter!!"

The aurora around Lucy would grow larger as she crosses her left arm around her chest. She spun to her left while keeping her right arm out. As she rotated once, portions of the aurora would be flung away from Lucy and manifest into the shape of long, vicious snakes that would dart towards the new wave of attackers all around Lucy. The snakes made of aura would bare their deadly energy fangs and leap towards their enemies, ripping through them with their sharp teeth and burrowing through their skin like moles in the ground. Blood spat out of the gunners' heads, body, legs, and even their ears and noses. The snakes would tear their way through the insides of their bodies and blast out of their necks. Some of them didn't even bother going inside the punks' bodies to attack; instead, they coiled around their necks and strangled the life out of them. The aurora snakes being visible, they tried to shoot the creatures Lucy had created and was successful to an extent. It took a lot of training for Lucy to manifest these snakes from her aurora, so it was a miracle that she could manage as much as using them offensive purposes like this. They weren't invincible, though, and she knew it. Even still, the snakes had no problem tearing through their targets and choking their prey to death. Eventually, the messy hallway would be covered with lead, bullet holes, blood, and fresh guts ripped from the attackers' corpses.

After summoning the snakes off the ground to fly back towards her bust of aurora, Lucy landed on the floor, her eyes scanning the area to make sure no one was left standing. She began to walk until she heard the sound of a gun loading behind her. She turned around and saw one of the punks coughing up blood, crying in pain as he aimed his gun at her, his hands trembling so much that his weapon was shaking.

"You...You filthy bitch!!" He pulled the trigger, but Lucy blocked it with the gun from earlier, taking it out with enough timing to deflect the man's bullet. She walked to him, then aimed her pistol at the man's as the guy finally shouted the name of the girl who had chaos to Sparky Salami's gang. "Lucy!!" The girl's name played a couple times over in the blood-covered hallway before she pulled the trigger, silencing with a single bullet. Walking over more dead corpses, stains of blood, and spilled guts, she continued down the hall and made her to the staircase and up the next floor.

She eyed the area carefully while walking closely. She didn't sense anyone's presence, nor did she see or hear anything. She figured she must have wiped out all of the members that were inside the would be recreational building, leaving her to deal with Sparky without any more interruptions. She didn't take out her pole, nor did she draw her gun. She wanted to smash Sparky's face in with her heated, unforgiving hands and strangle his throat with her betrayed, heartbroken fingernails. She wanted to show him every ounce of her hatred for him. She wanted to hurt him so bad that his life would be forever ruined. She wanted to ruin him like he ruined her. The more eager she was to do this, the farther away from the door it seemed from her. Then, finally, she arrived at the door she had been in and out of hundreds of times over the years. The door that she had been tossed into and out of, the door that hid the beatings, the disrespect, and the abuse. The door where all her dignity went down the drain.

The door to her new age of mistrust.

She curled up her fist, then smashed his door with a hard, rage-powered punch. The moment the door flew off the hinges, a sound that sounded like a fuse being lit briefly sounded before she was met with a barrage of red firework rockets that flew straight at her. They crashed into the ground around her, exploding into sparks of red, green, yellow, orange, and other various colors. After the cracking and whistling of the fireworks going off, a thick cloud of smoke would form from where she stood.

"I gotta admit, you guys have some balls storming through my place, knocking off my guys, and barging into my door without knocking. Guts; you have that."

Sparkly Salami would be sitting on what looked like an office chair, wearing the same clothes that he had yesterday. He twirled a firecracker in his hand while he grinned with his would be fangs. "But you seriously disrespected me and my crew. I can't let you walk away alive. Not a single one of you."

From the smoke would step out a singular, slender leg. The smoke became to fade, and the faint image of two black cat ears began to come into Sparky's view. "That's funny," responded the girl standing behind the smoke, which now cleared completely. "I was going to say something like that to you."

Sparky's eyes widened a little as he saw what he thought was still her girlfriend standing at where the door once was. "Whoa, kitty," he said in a teasing voice and with a sly smirk. "It's only you. Heard a lot of stuff going on downstairs. Where were you, hiding that sweet ass of yours? Or were you too busy playing with yourself to help anyone at all?" He teased before suddenly going silent. There were patches of blood all over her clothes, some even on her face. "Never mind, they fucked you up pretty badly," he bluntly snorted. "Here, why don't you come over here and---"

"The cops wouldn't do anything," said Lucy, growing twice as annoyed and angry hearing Sparky's voice. "Because they're so afraid of you. What happened down there, it wasn't the police."

With an unconvinced smile, Sparky rolled his eyes. "So, what, you telling me it was a civil war down there?"

"Surprised you even know the meaning of the word 'civil,' but no," Lucy retorted in a cold tone.

"So...what, who was it then?" Sparky asked her. Lucy didn't respond. She was too busy staring at her abuser with hate and malice strong enough to cause Sparky to finally snap, the man's hands slamming on the table. "Who was it?! And why are you giving me this cocky-ass look for!?" Yelled the gang leader at Lucy. "Do you have a death wish or something!?" Knocking his fireworks off his desk, he grabbed a led pipe from underneath it. He got out of his chair, then walked towards the cat hybrid with a tight grip on pipe, pulling it bauick and swinging it at her face.

"No, but you have something..." Lucy raised her hand to catch the led pipe in her hand before it hit her face. She would then look into Sparky's eyes with a scornful daze as she clung to his pipe, now speaking louder. "You have something that I want!" She scowled hatefully.

Sparky was startled by her sudden display of strength. When he swung that pipe at full force, it could break through street lamps. And yet, his girlfriend just caught a swing of it effortlessly. When he looked at Lucy, she didn't just see the same sad girl that he had beat on. Rather, he saw a broken girl. A girl broken into anger and malice. A girl that could take down an army with shards of her broken heart alone. Seeing as she was the first one able to stop his lead pipe, he finally reached the conclusion of what truly happened with his gang. "So, it was you, huh?"

Lucy didn't respond. Instead, she pushed the pipe away while looking around hastefully for the brown coat that he had stolen. She came here to beat the daylights out of Sparky, but her other focus was on the coat with her father's everlasting scent. Through the garbage, rock posters, firework rockets and piles of old clothes, she didn't see it.

"Answer me, damnit!" Sparky roared as he swung his pipe over his head. From the angled nozzle of the pipe came out the back of a firework with a fuse already lit. Once the spark reached the bottom of the fuse, an explosion from the nozzle occurred, and the momentum it brought with it helped Sparky slam the pipe onto the top of Lucy's head. However, the female would dish out her metal pole, which she used to easy parry the strike by holding it sideways above her. Once again caught off guard, Sparky stumbled back as the pipe hit the pole, the clashing of metals making a loud clanging noise.

Lucy moved her pole to the right side of her body, twirling it rapidly with both hands before she thrust it forward rapidly, jabbing Sparky's body with repetition, the furious pokes of the rod jamming into his ribcage and stomach. With one last powerful thrust, Lucy lunged the pole into his chest, sending him falling back into his desk, breaking it in two as he whaled in pain, curling his knees to his body slightly as he held onto his stomach.

"Sparky..."

Lucy's voice was now spine-tingling, heart-numbingly hateful. It was as if a spirit of death was the one calling Sparky's name, except even a spirit of death would have some compassion in its voice. Lucy's voice was filled with nothing but hatred and scars from lies and broken promises.

"Where is it?" She asked in her chilling tone.

"What are you talking about?" Sparky asked, beginning to realize that the girl in front of her was definitely not the same. She had never seen Lucy angry, not like this. "I don't know--"

Lucy spun her pole over her head briefly before swinging it onto Sparky's hip. The force of the hit was dreadful, and it could have been enough to shatter bones if it had a little more force behind it. "Don't play dumb with me, asshole! Where's my coat!?"

"Don't think...you're tough shit," Sparky managed. He got up from the rubble that was once his desk and glared at Lucy. "Are you forgetting that I'm the only one who'll ever love you?"

Lucy gritted her teeth, clutching her pole tighter. "Don't make me repeat myself! Where is it?!"

"You're in no position to make demands, you dumb bitch!" Sparky retorted.

"This 'dumb bitch' is going to tear your face off and shove it up your ass if you don't tell me where the hell my coat is!" Lucy yelled at Sparky angrily. "That coat is more special to me than anything in the world, and it sure as hell more special to me than you are!"

"What did you just say, you dumbass cat?!" Sparky cursed. "Do you know who you're talking to?!"

"Yeah," responded Lucy while she continued gritting her teeth. "I'm talking to the guy who keeps lying to me all the time! I'm talking to the guy who cares more about his own god damned gang than he does about his own girlfriend! I'm talking to the douchebag that would spend hours upon hours a day doing nothing but belittling me, telling me how useless I am when things don't go your way! I'm talking to you, the guy who I thought would love me, even though it was all a big joke and I'll always be alone! Just me and my dad, who isn't even here anymore! So it's just me and that coat! That coat is all I have left, and you took it from me! So I'll ask you one more fucking time before I shove this pole so far up your ass you'll be vomiting metal in your own shit, where is my coat?!"

Sparky had no response for Lucy. Never in his life had he been told off like that, not even by his parents. Feeling his pride go down by the fact that this girl was practically dumping her, and feeling his own resentment towards her for hurting and killing his gang members, Sparky would yell loudly as he approached Lucy, attacking her with a series of swings that she blocked with her own. The hybrid would swing her pole rapidly as well against his led pipe, the clangs and noises of the metals clashing ringing through Sparky's room. Sparky would pull his pipe to his left hip, then, with a firework explosion coming from the nozzle, swung his pipe up at Lucy at full speed, but she leaned her head back before the attack hit her. Growling at his missed swing, Sparky would perform another, this time at the side of the girl's head. She quickly crouched, then pushed her pole up into Sparky's chin, knocking his head back before she quickly stood up and spun backwards, kicking her heel into his left collarbone. He screeched at the hit before being met with a powerful right hook by Lucy's fist, then headbutt that pushed him back a little. Stunned by the blow to the head, he left himself open for Lucy to quickly whip her tail into his eye, the punk gang leader holding his right eye when he felt a lash of pain shoot through it. Lucy then followed up with a series of punches and pole swings, constantly jabbing and punching him in the face with her right hand while her left hand bashed his face, head, body, and shoulders with her metal pole constantly and swiftly. Curling her right fist as tightly as she could, a burst of light purple energy in the form of fire would form around Lucy's hand as she delivered a hard, powerful punch to Sparky's face. Sparky was sent flying into the wall behind him, leaving him implanted on the surface with saliva and blood running from his mouth, and just the latter running from his nose and eyes.

Putting away her pole, she cracked her knuckles in each of her hands, ready to give Sparky another barrage of punches when she had stepped on something that felt familiar underneath her feet, even with the shoes that she was wearing. She looked down to the now knocked down office chair, which seemed to have fallen from the impact of Sparky's meeting with the wall, and found next to it the brown coat she had longed for. Only for a moment, Lucy forgot about her rage towards Sparky and immediately bent over to grab her coat, hugging it tightly. She picked it up and hugged it tightly, her heart full of hate and sadness overwhelmed by the relief of her getting her father's scent, her father's coat, her father's soul back. As usual, her father's coat brought her away from all the bad that happened to her, all the darkness that filled her life. To her, this coat wasn't just a memento, but a purifier of the shadows around her. It's okay...it wasn't scratch, it wasn't ripped or torn apart...he didn't do anything to it, thank goodness... Lucy celebrated to herself as she began to cry. However, her fighting instinct kicked in again when she heard the sound of a fuse going off. When she turned around, Sparky's pipe was spinning at her so fast that when the angled part smashed into her cheek she was taken off her feet and fell on her back.

The pipe returned to Sparky, who grasped it in his palms upon its rearrival. He walked towards the downed Lucy as he looked at her scornfully. "You're a tough little bitch," Sparky said with a cheeky but scornful tone. "Makes me wonder how scary you really are." He stepped in front of the girl, who was bleeding from the side of her head. He noticed that despite her bleeding, she was still clinging onto the coat for dear life. "You really like that raggy thing? It's not good for anything but as an ass cushion if you ask me."

Lucy kept her eyes closed, trying to ignore Sparky as she began to stand up, but she was met with a powerful overhead swing by his pipe, which knocked her back onto the floor again. "...I'm...safe..."

"Come again?"

"He's...here with me," Lucy uttered in a voice filled with sadness and joy mixed in one. "He's...watching over me again..."

"What a weird bitch..." Sparky raised his pipe over his head again, this time with the bottom of a lit firework rocket growing from the angled portion of it. "Whatever. I'm gonna put you down once and for all." With his weapon raised for another hard swing, his nostrils had stumbled upon the scent of smoke that seemed like was coming beneath him. "Hey, do you smell something cooking?"

Lucy's eyes opened lazily. It did smell like something was burning. Then she remembered the burning corpses of the girls that had tried to restrain her. They were never put out. A couple of seconds later, the floor beneath her and Sparky would collapse and the two would fall down towards the third floor, which seemed to have quickly caught fire. The people she had killed, the once moldy, dusty walls and the unpolished doors was all covered in walls of flames. How the hell did the fire spread so fast...!? Lucy asked herself. Before she could get up from the fall, she had fallen through a weakened ground beneath her and dropped towards the second floor. When she hit the ground, she would feel a sudden pain through her shoulder. After letting out a loud but brief cry, she turned her head to the source of the piercing sensation: A sharp, burning piece of wood had pierced her shoulder. It was even still covered in flames. Grabbing her shoulder and breathing heavy, she would take a good look around to find an answer to her previous question. She saw the staircase leading downwards that she had tossed the girls into. There was a hole in that wall that exposed old but live wires. When she added that with the gasoline-coated chains, Lucy scolded at herself. Tch...I should have paid more attention. It didn't matter, anyway. All she had to do was reach down and grab her coat so she could get out of here with her father's memory wrapped around her. But when she did, she found that there was nothing there but burned carpet. She gasped, then began to search frantically for it, ignoring the surging pain in her left shoulder, which was getting hotter and hotter as time passed.

"You looking for this, cat girl?!"

Lucy stopped looking, her eyes suddenly filled with fear. She slowly and shakingly turned her head up to Sparky, who had the coat in his hand. Unlike Lucy, he was standing without a scratch. In fact, he was giving Lucy a look of impending hate.

"You look more scared than a pig in a meat grinder!" taunted the punk gang leader. "That's the look I wanna see, not that violent one that made you think you could beat me!"

Emotions took over Lucy's mind again. Without thinking, she leapt up towards Sparky, regardless of the burning pain pierced through her shoulder. She curled up her right fist, which was connected to her unharmed shoulder, and begun to swing it forward. "Sparky!!" She called out his name hatefully.

"Whoa there, girl!" Sparky placed the coat in front of him to block Lucy's attack. However, when the girl saw the coat, she immediately pulled her fist back while she winced from the delayed reaction to the hot pain dashing through her shoulder. This gave Sparky the chance to hop down to the airborne Lucy, gripping his pipe tightly and swinging it into her face. The girl was sent spiraling back down to the floor and landed on her back, the wood in her shoulder going even deeper. She shrieked as the sharp, burning wood went even deeper into her.

"What a punk," Sparky complained to the girl as he stepped in front of her. "You were such a tough cookie a minute ago. You can't even walk off a little splinter now, you filthy rag," he insulted her. "Speaking of filthy rags..." Sparky threw the coat Lucy desired over his shoulder as he grinned with his teeth. "You have one day to decide."

Lucy looked up at Sparky, breathing heavy and crying from the pain in her shoulder.

"You killed my gang, disrespect me, and even set my place on fire. But since you were my girlfriend, I'll make you a deal. Something's getting burned at the stake tomorrow, and if it's not you, it’s your jacket."

Lucy's eyes were averted wide Sparky made his claim. She was filled with a sudden burst of rage, but now with a mixture of sadness, fear, and agony. Her eyes looked up at Sparky that begged him to take her instead. Instead, the gang leader held the pipe like a golf club. He pulled it back behind his shoulder, the bottom of a firework rocket appearing. Already lit, the fuse would quickly burn out before the explosion gave his swing enough force to knock Lucy, who took it to the face again, through the burning hall and even through the wall. She was sent out of the burning building and back into the rainy outdoors. She was covered in blood, soot, bruises, and tears. With smoke coming from her, she landed on top of the wet sidewalk, sliding before rolling to a stop on her sides. Her cat ears only picked up the sound of blistering, dancing fire that ate the old building away. Her face was covered in blood and tears, and there was a huge, red stain on her shoulder that could be seen through her shirt.

"...I couldn't do it..." Bringing her knees to her chest, Lucy began to sob in the rain alone by herself. She had been impaled with burning wood and beaten with a led pipe, but what hurt most was her heart, knowing that it would never experience the same happiness it had hoped to feel again. She had lost her father once, and now it seemed like she was going to lose the last piece of him that he held onto. The thought of that made Lucy cry louder. "All I want is to see him again!" She cried out in the rain, the gray storm clouds roaring a bit of thunder as if denying her request. "All I want...I don't want...I don't want..." To be alone like this anymore....

"Nana-nana-nana! You can't catch me, scruffy ghost man!"

Ducking out of the way of a fast-approaching arrow, Sunshine hopped backward on the rooftop, doing a backflip and landing on the edge of a chimney on his hands. He stood on one hand and then another, teasing the agitated BuBu, who had readied a bow and arrow in his hands

"You're honestly the most annoying kid I've ever met," said BuBu under his breath as he pulled out another bow, aiming it at Sunshine. He pulled the arrow back on the bow before releasing, shooting another bow at Sunshine's hand, which moved just in time for the arrow to instead hit the chimney, causing the corner of it to break. The boy would let out a somewhat exaggerated but playful cry as he fell into the chimney as if he had just plummeted into an endless abyss. BuBu grunted angrily, knowing that this wasn't over. For the past ten minutes, he had been hopping from rooftop to rooftop to chase down Sunshine. He wasn't getting anywhere with close ranged combat, so he decided to dish out his archery skills with his other weapon, his Spirit Bow.

The boy wasn't coming out, though. He inally finished him? Well, he wanted to be safe. So he got onto the chimney and aimed his arrow-loaded bow downwards. He squinted his eyes gently as he pulled on the arrow. An orange aurora began to glow around the arrow being pulled. It started to slowly take form of a hornet aiming its stinger downwards. "Winds of the Wild: Fierce Hornet Arrow!!" The man released the bow, which flew down the chimney while he backflipped off of its edge. The hornet, with its stinger still down, guided the fast-moving arrow through the tunnel it was shot through. Around a couple of seconds later, A pillar of flames would rise from the chimney, which exploded with a loud bang, the tunnel of fire rocketing from it. Finally...That should take care of that.

"Boop!"

After relaxing himself for not even a moment, BuBu readied his arrow and turned behind him, aiming at nothing. He saw only another chimney a couple of feet away from him on another building, but nothing more. His eyes moved around in his sockets, desperately looking for the source of the noise.

"Ladi-la!"

BuBu then rotated his body to his left, seeing nothing but another row of buildings, each one covered with a chimney. He first took note of the first one of the five, which was on the furthest left.

"Bapi-bippi-boo!"

He immediately spun to the far right, his eyebrow twitching angrily.

"Hippi-hi-hay!"

BuBu looked at the one dead in the center, finally catching the source of the weird noises. It was Sunshine, who held up a large, white cardboard sign. ‘I have a surprise for you! read the sign.

A surprise...? BuBu lowered his weapon, raising an eyebrow. He would watch Sunshine flip the sign, which showed a black arrow pointing up. The moment BuBu lifted his head, he was met with a large piece of toast covered with yellow jam landing on his face. As the bread slowly slid down his face, leaving the trail of jam on his face. That scent of the bread was weird. No, it wasn't the toast. He moved his tongue to lick up a bit of the jam before cringing. "What the hell is this!?"

"Ham jam!" Said Sunshine at the same as four copies of him appearing from the remaining for pipes. "It's extra special for you, Scruffy!"

"What the hell is that supposed to---" In the middle of his lashing out, BuBu noticed something touch his foot. He looked down and saw that the toast that had fallen by his foot had grown arms and legs. Inhuman ones, of course; The limbs looked like sticks drawn with black marker. When the toast stood up, it looked up at BuBu with a wide smile made of better, its yellow ham eyes blinking cutely. What the hell is this...? It was then that another slab of toast fell on the back of BuBu's head, and then another fell by the side of his foot. BuBu looked up and gawked at the sudden cluster of toasted breads, each one floating in a clear bubble that floated above him. The bubbles would draw nearer towards BuBu before they popped, the toasts spreading their poorly-drawn arms and legs out as they clung around BuBu, who was bounded by the toast. "W-What...I can't move...!" As he tried, as he struggled, as he struggled, one would say, he would notice that the toasts began to inflate like balloons, yet it felt that they were impossible to get off. The toasts would continue inflating rapidly until they explodednto a high-pressure burst of butter that splattered all over the roof of the building that the roof was on.

"Butter!" Yelled Sunshine as he hopped up from the chimney.

"Toast!" Yelled the copies after the original boy had landed. They would keep at this happily, cheering playfully as they did somersaults and twists in midair. The innocence of the boy shined happily from his body--literally--in a glowing yellow light.

BuBu fell to his knees. The intensity of the butter explosion was so severe that it felt like a dozen bowling balls crashed into him at once. Blood trickled from his lip as his head lowered. His fingers were twitching slightly as his body was dripping with fresh, wet yellow butter. He would make an effort to get up, despite these new injuries, but lost his footing. Not because of the strain the explosion took on him, but because he slipped on the butter. He slipped into a backflip before falling on his body.

The Sunshines would stop hopping as they witnessed the slip. They would all do their actions simultaneously: Stare, pat their cheeks to hold their laughter in, then finally burst out laughing, grabbing their sides as they took amusement in BuBu's blunder. "He fell!" They all said at once. "He was like a walrus! A butter Walrus that slips and falls on his belly!"

BuBu clutched his fist. He teeth clamped together as he reached over to grab his dropped Spirit Bow. He had been outsmarted and outlasted by this child since he first laid eyes on the boy. His silly antics, his unpredictable fighting style...was it even a fighting style? That's what enraged BuBu the most: From what it looked like, the boy didn't even notice that he was fighting. Or did he? Flaming toasts? Trash cans with cannons installed in them? Paper towel rolls stronger than swords? Who was this kid? Or, a better question in BuBu's head, Who does he think he is!?

The man stood up, then withdrew not one, not two, but ten arrows at once. He put them against the bow and aimed them at the Sunshines' direction. "Listen here, child!" BuBu scowled at Sunshine from a distance. "I don't know if you think this is some kind of game, or a joke, or a prank! But know that when I want to silence a nuisance, I do it without fail! The same will go for you!"

"A game!?" The Sunshines squeaked. "Were we playing a game with Scruffy the whole time? I thought it was a party! But I guess games are parties, too!"

Hearing the original and copies of Sunshine was getting on BuBu's nerves. He was ready to finish this. Summoning an orange aurora around the arrows again, he shot them all up into the air, the auroras manifesting into hornets with their stingers coating the arrow. "This will shut you up for good! Winds of the Wild: Hornet Family Swarm!!" The arrows would begin to rotate, as would the manifested hornets that surged around them, and dive down towards the chimneys that the Sunshines were sticking out of, two of them each covering one chimney.

"Uh-oh!" The copies of Sunshine dived into the chimneys quickly. The original followed their lead. When the spiraling hornet-possessed arrows flew into the chimneys, all five of them exploded, along with the buildings that they were attached to. As BuBu watched the explosion unfold, he would examine the burning buildings from where he was standing until he finally saw what he had finally hoped for the entire time: Sunshine, whose bottom was covered in flames, being rocketed into the sky. He didn't hop, he didn't jump, and he didn't skip. It was a burning patch of flame that covered his butt, and the explosion of the buildings had launched him into the air.

"Hot, hot, hot, hot! It feels like their ants in my pants!" Sunshine whined, still keeping his happy structure unbroken. Desperate to get the flames off of his rump, Sunshine reached into his grass skirt and took out a fully-bloated balloon, rubbing his butt against it as he sat on top of it. "Ah..." He began to curl up and snuggle the floating bubble in relief, a calm, eased smile formed across his lips until the balloon was popped by another one of BuBu's arrows. The boy floated briefly in place, positioned like a cat curled up on a sofa, before falling. His plummet making a high-pitched whistle that would gradually get lower and lower, he fell down into a building that, according to the sign that hung from the front of it, happened to be post office. He broke through the roof of the office and landed ontop of a couple of boxes, which all splashed in the air, along with a couple of sheets of bubble wrap.

BuBu hopped from building to building until he landed on the building with the hole Sunshine's fall made. He dropped into the hole while switching his weapons, going from his Spirit Bow to his Whale tooth Dagger. He found the boy lying on the floor, his eyes comically turned into a pair of black, swirling circles. Above the dizzy boy's head would be two comical figures: One being a puppy riding a bicycle while licking a lollipop, and another being a kitten on a skateboard riding on a skateboard around his head. BuBu didn't know how he was seeing this, but what he did know was that it was agitating him even further.

"Child," BuBu said. "You have given me enough trouble. For the sake of my sanity, as well as the possible justice that will be bestowed upon me for slaying a nuisance to the world, I must end you here." He stepped forward, his boot hitting a bubble on a bubble wrap sheet, causing it to pop.

The sound of the pop restored Sunshine's consciousness, his big brown eyes blinking back to normal before he tried to move his arms and legs. Sunshine looked back to see the situation he was in. His arms were bounded to his sides by the wrap, which made him resemble something of a bug, or more specifically...

"A caterpillar!" Sunshine grinned wide as he began pushing his bottom up before lunging forward a little across the floor, squirming along it in circles. "I'm a baby caterpillar, small and fuzzy!"

BuBu's irritated eyes stared at Sunshine before he raised his dagger, which extended to the length of a sword again. "Yes, small enough to crush like the bug you are!" He slammed the sword down at Sunshine's legs, which were pulled in just in time for them to miss the swing. Sunshine then crawled onto the wall as if he were an actual bug and pulled his legs and head into the wrap. "And now, I'll become a butterfly!"

An opening...! BuBu pulled his blade back, then thrust it towards the bubble wrap hiding Sunshine. "Die!!" The blade went straight through bubble wrap, and the sound of flesh being pierced was heard clearly through BuBu's ears. The force of the blade was so great that it caused the wall in front of him to collapse, the dirt rising from the fallen rubble that he had just smashed through.

"I'm free again!!" Sunshine celebrated in front of BuBu, who had a bewildered look on his face. The man could have sworn he had hit something, but here Sunshine was, alive. And sitting on his sword at that. The boy's butterfly wings were spread open as he smiled up at the nature man, who began to shake his sword desperately in an attempt to get him off.

"Would you get off!? How are you not dead yet?!" Complained the angered BuBu.

Sunshine hopped off of BuBu's sword, then landed on his shoulders, moving his face into the man's hair and licking it before smacking his lips twice. "Hehe, Scruffy ghost tastes like butter!"

In a fit of rage, BuBu grabbed Sunshine's arms, then swung him over his head, throwing him into the boxes of paper and bubble wrap, causing the material to fly around. The man then took out his bow again and readied three bows, covering them in the aurora manifestation of the hornets. "I'll wipe that smile off your face for good!" Leaping backwards out of the window, he shot all three arrows at once at Sunshine's direction. The arrows then latched onto the floor where he was, and the wasps that manifested around them stung their stingers into the ground before they exploded. The explosion was so powerful that it took down the entire office, the entire building breaking and crumbling down before BuBu's eyes. The smoke and ash that was carried from the explosion and destruction of the building began to make out something within itself. They were silhouettes, shadowed figures of people. Though, something about them seemed odd. Something about them seemed...flat.

That's because they weren't human, BuBu later learned. They were paper-mache models of people dancing back and forth to a funky, techno song that had sounded familiar. Yes, it had; it was torture to BuBu's ears. As the paper models held hands and danced to the beat of the song, the smoke-like dust would finally show two large speakers thumping, each aggressive beat causing the floor beneath what was once the post office to shake a little. Between the two speakers was Sunshine, who stood behind his turntables and danced to the happy party music that had played. As time went on, it wasn't just the paper-mache models that were dancing. He would hear barking and meowing around him. When he turned around, he would see a crowd of Blackgrass Beetles and Dalkittens dancing in different attire from what they wore when BuBu first laid eyes on them. The clothes seemed to be more modern as if they were college kids going out to a club. The ripped jeans, the highlights in their bangs, and even the short shorts. To add on to it, there were a couple of animals wearing eyepatches, white bandages with pictures drawn on them, and even arm casts. Even the ones I cut down!?

And that wasn't all. A couple of vans from Ricky's animal control pulled up around the party, and the catchers walked out of their vans stepped onto the scene. However, they weren't there to catch the animals. Some of them ripped off their jackets to show off their bodies covered in all sorts of radical tattoos, from pictures of cats on their chests to drawings of happy clowns on their shoulders, and even a giant cinnamon stick going down their backs. They tossed their hats off their heads, letting their neon-green mohawks, puffy red afros, and purple pixie-cuts free from their headgear. There was even a black guy with dreadlocks that touched the ground. He spun his head around, the long dreads lifting off the ground and whipping around gracefully.

"Wha...B-But...What the...." At a lost for words, BuBu stood there, turning around to see the friendly catchers take out glow sticks and party blowers, the noise of festivity sounding around him. More animals seemed to have been gathering around, too. The monkeys that had hung on Ricky's statue earlier were fist pumping from the street lamps, and moles would rise from the ground, waving their cute little paws in the air. There were even a couple of ducks making out by the side of Sunshine's speaker. BuBu, fed up with all the nonsense, was going to step forward when he was offered some cotton candy by one of the Blackgrass Beetles, who had hugged him before cartwheeling away. The Scruffy male looked at the pink cotton swirl on a paper cone, his confusion still lingering in his eyes. He looked at the pinkness until he was met with a sudden smack to the face by a white pillow, its feathers flying from its sack. He fell to the ground and released the cotton candy from his hand. When it dropped, a pack of chipmunks would flee from the cone, their heads covered in swirled portions of the snack they had hidden in. All at once, the chipmunks would load their fluffy, soft pillows and push them together, the sounds of guns being loaded heard as they squeezed them.

"Pillow fight!!!"

Squeaking in unison and in a high-pitched voice, the fierce chipmunks leaped onto BuBu and attacked him with a barrage of pillow swings. The swings were so swift and forceful that it summoned a small cloud of dust where the chipmunks attacked BuBu at, feathers rattling along with said dust. BuBu winced and yelled at the sudden barrage falling upon him, his hands and feet twitching from the beating he was taking. With one more swing onto his body, the chipmunks slammed their pillows a final time onto BuBu's back before scurrying away with their weapons in their mouths.

"Hey, look!" Sunshine pointed and laughed at BuBu, who was covered in feathers. "Scruffy got pillow-whacked by chipmunks!" The other party goers turned to BuBu and began to laugh at him both playfully and mockingly. "Feather boy, feather boy, Scruffy ghost's a feather boy!"

Blowing a feather off of his forehead, the feather-covered BuBu stood up and began to march angrily towards Sunshine while putting an arrow in his bow. "Do you think you can mock me and get away with it?! I don't take being made fun of--" before he could finish, he was caught off guard by a banana peel he accidentally stepped on, one belonging to one of the monkeys that hollered in amusement. The mammals watched in laughter as BuBu stumbled upon the banana peel. So did Sunshine, along with the Blackgrass Beetles and Dalkittens. The would be animal catchers laughed as well. Still stuck onto the sliding peel, BuBu would continue sliding forward, approaching Sunshine quickly. Realizing that he was moving at high speed towards the boy, BuBu quickly pulled out an arrow and pulled it back onto the bow, aiming it at Sunshine, who was playing with a sheet of bubble wrap. He shot the arrow, which flew at high speeds into Sunshine's head. The boy yelped, then fell off and behind the turntables. When he hit the floor, a small but noticeable splash of red substance came flying from behind it.

"Yes! I got him!" BuBu celebrated before the peel guided him to a small but muscular ladybug who was laying on a bench just his size while bench pressing a hundred-pound dumbbell. The unsuspecting BuBu tripped over the insect, who fell off his bench and swore wildly at the man, flew over Sunshine's turntable and into the ruined but standing wall covered in bubble wrap in front of him. As he slammed into the wall, he became wrapped in a ball of numerous sheets of bubble wrap, one of the sheets already having been rolled out to the street where all the animals and would be catchers were partying.

"Grn...hnnnr..." BuBu squirmed a little, attempting to pull himself free from the ball of bubble wrap, but his mind rested at ease at the sight before him: Sunshine, fallen and defeated with an arrow through his skull. At least that runt's dead... He tried to break free from the bubble wrap ball again when he sniffed the air. He kept sniffing, the rest of his body standing absolutely still. As he began to identify the scent, he looked over at Sunshine, who was laying down face first...in a plate of seasoned french fries. French fries!?!?

From the plate of fries came the noises of nibbling and gobbling. Sounds of satisfaction from eating good food came from the plate as Sunshine raised his head, his eyes literally twinkling. "So yummy! Those chipmunks really can cook!" he giggled before turning around to look at BuBu, who gawked again at the mere fact that Sunshine survived an arrow to the head. "You should really try these, scruffy ghost guy!" insisted the hyper boy, presenting the plate of fries slathered in ketchup. His own face was covered in the red substance, and there were even little pictures of dinosaurs painted with the editable redness.

"Wha---but I shot you!" yelled the shocked BuBu. "A shot to the head should have killed even you! Look! It's even sticking out of your head!" As he whined, his pupils had comically went missing from his eyes.

"What 'chu talking about, scruffy?" Sunshine asked with his smile wiped across his face. He moved his hand to his head, taking off an arrow hat that looked exactly like his hair, which made it seem like an actual arrow pierced him after all. "April fools!!"

"It's not even April!" growled the bounded BuBu, who had snot hanging from his nose from all the irritation and stress the boy was putting him through.

Sunshine laughed before noticing the substance that BuBu was wrapped in. His eyes sparkled in joy again as he clenched his little fists to his bare chest. "Bubble wrap!! I totally love bubble wrap!! Where did you get that from, Scruffs!?"

"It was here the entire time! You're telling me you haven't noticed at all!?" BuBu scolded before noticing that Sunshine was gone from the spot where he had gone. He then saw next to the turntable a tall, tall diving board. On top of it was Sunshine, who was wearing yellow arm floats around his wrists and a circular raft with the head of a giraffe on his waist.

"Hey, guys!" Sunshine yelled out to the party people below him, who looked up and waved and smiled at the boy. "I'm gonna make the loudest bubble wrap pop you've ever heard! It's gonna be like a boom!!"

"What...? What is he planning...?" BuBu asked himself as he watched the boy jump up and down the diving board. He didn't want that question to be answered; all he knew is that he wanted to get out of this bubble wrap and soon.

"Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop...!"

The cheering of the crowd made Sunshine all the more pumped up and BuBu all the more frightened. As the boy made one last jump high in the air from the tall diving board that surpassed even the buildings, BuBu even went as far as to bite the bubble wrap in an attempt to escape. When his teeth sunk into one of the bubbles on the wrap, he felt an intense, violent sensation come from the bubble wrap, one that he had never expected. The bubble wrap was as intense as a grenade, and the popped bubble's release of hot, erratic air was like taking a miniature explosion to the face. His hair perked up, and the tooth that dug into the bubble wrap had been sent flying away from his mouth. When he realized the secret behind the bubble wrap, he tried harder to escape, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Sunshine dropped down towards the ground quickly. With a wide smile, he spread out his arms and legs so his butt would impact the bubble wrap beneath him. The crowd beneath him cheered loudly for the boy, who was descending like a meteor. "Pop!!!" He yelled out simultaneously with the crowd as his bottom slammed on the bubble wrap outside of the ruined post office. With an immense amount of force, the bubbles on the wrap popped rapidly. Like a fuse, each row of bubbles would continue popping at an extreme rate until they reached BuBu, who screamed when the grenade-pressured bubbles popped around him rapidly. His body, which was blasted with the seemingly endless volley of intense, explosive force, twitched wildly while his screams of pain left his mouth. One by one, the explosion-like bursts of the bubbles blasted his body and limbs, each burst sending constant waves of pain. The force of the bursts was so powerful that it caused a loud, ringing series of popping noises to ring through Takanata Town. "Bubble Wrap Attack!!"

The crowd cheered happily as the loudest pop they had ever heard played through the town. Sunshine bounced back up to his feet unscathed. His bare feet touched the popped, unusable bubble wrap. He chuckled happily as he stood on one foot, pumping his fists into the air. "That was super loud!! It was like a dinosaur roar!!" Before he knew it, the crowd of people---the humans, the Blackgrass Beetles, the Dalkittens, and even the monkeys and buff ladybug---scooped Sunshine up and carried him happily while confetti fell from the sky. The boy smiled wide, then looked over at BuBu, whose eyes were completely rolled to the back of his head. There was blood trickling down all parts of his face and body, and his mouth was unconsciously hung wide open while he laid on the floor on his back, his pupilless eyes staring into Sunshine's direction.

The boy hopped from the crowd, who would go back to partying to the music playing from the speakers soon after, and went to BuBu, grabbing his plate of french fries and sitting down next to the unconscious nature man. He grabbed a fry and scooped up a bit of BuBu's blood with it before shoving the snack into his mouth. "Mmn...you have some weird ketchup, scruffy!" Sunshine giggled. "Tobi says honey mustard makes everything better! Or maybe you should try syrup, too!" He looked up at the sky, sitting on his bottom while snacking on the french fries. "I wonder if Tobi heard the loudest pop in the whole world too..."

#literature #fantasy #modern fantasy #action #adventure #novella #Box & Spirit #writing #Ameteur writing

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echoes-of-the-clockwork · 3 years

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Book One: Gold (Prompto x Reader) Chapter XXIX

After leaving the room and making their way back toward the central area of this level of Zegnautus Keep, a strange sound could be heard. Ignis stopped the group when he recognized the sound. Looking in Noctis' general direction, he asked, "Noct, do you hear that?"

The raven-haired boy glanced at his advisor in bewilderment. "Hear what?"

"I've heard this sound before—on the train, just before your weapons failed you. It's nearby, and it may hold the key to restoring your power."

As the four of them make their way across the catwalk leading to the central area of this level of Zegnautus Keep, the strategist stopped them again. "It's here."

Noctis stops at the large closed metal doors in the center of the enormous room. "This thing?" He places his hand against the doors and tries to open them. When they don't budge, he huffed out a groan. "Door's locked."

"It's coming from within. Is there no way through?"

Prompto swallowed hard before speaking up when he saw a familiar control panel by the door. "There's a way." The others look at him as he hesitantly steps up to the door's scanner and raises the back of his right wrist to it. He pulls the gemstone bracelet down a little ways so the scanner could read the barcode on his wrist. Successfully scanning it, the doors slide open. Prompto resumes speaking, staring off into the room, unable to make eye contact with the others. "So, MTs... They've got those codeprints...just like I do."

Noctis wasn't fazed at the new discovery. "Do they? Never looked."

"Yeah... So, as it turns out...I'm one of them. Not exactly something I could tell people growing up in Lucis. (Y/n) was the only one who knew the truth. At the time, she didn't tell me and I don't blame her. She had her own secret to hide, too." Tears stung his eyes and threatened to fall, but he refused to let a single one slide down his cheeks. "Still... You guys and (Y/n) are like...the only friends I've ever known. I just hope that things can stay the way they were."

"Whatever. Who cares where you were born?" Noctis remarked.

"I don't see you turning against us. Not now, or ever," Ignis added.

Prompto was able to lift his head and look at his companions. "Thanks, guys. Still...I can't change where I came from. What I am."

"Since when does where you come from matter to you? You never once treated me as a prince," the raven-haired boy stated. He then playfully punches Prompto's shoulder.

"He's got you there," Gladio said.

"Never so much as a "Highness"," the tactician added.

"And by the sounds of it, (Y/n) doesn't care either," Noctis spoke up again. "We're done here. C'mon, crown citizen."

Gladio steps over to Ignis to help guide him into the room. The shield gives Prompto's shoulder a friendly smack as they walk past. "You're one of us, right?"

Ignis stops and turns back towards the marksman, looking over his shoulder. "Unless you'd rather not be."

Prompto smiles with a nod. He glanced down at the gemstone bracelet, a single tear of joy slipping from his eye. "You were right, (Y/n)..." He covered it with his hand. Following his friends into the room, his heart was somewhat at ease.

Inside the room, they find the emperor's abandoned clothing laying upon the throne with no sign of the man. What was also located in the room was a large bank of computers, which are the cause of Noctis' lost powers. Without hesitating, the raven-haired boy rams his father's sword through the machines.

Prompto looked around in puzzlement. "So...did it work?"

"With the device down and out, Noct's power should be up and running," Ignis stated.

"Go on, try it," Gladio said, meeting the prince's gaze.

"All right. Moment of truth." Noctis holds out his hand and conjures a sword, resulting in Prompto to clap in celebration.

The shield smirked. "We're back, baby."

"Let's roll. We've still got to find (Y/n) and the Crystal."

Leaving the emperor's throne room, the boys were attacked by the gargantua daemon that caused trouble for Noctis earlier. The large daemon wasn't alone as more of its fellow daemons began manifesting. "Not you again," Noctis groaned.

"New friend?" Prompto questioned teasingly, summoning his pistol.

"You really need to pick 'em better," Gladio commented with a faint chuckle, readying his greatsword. Even Ignis summoned his daggers.

Leaping into the fray, the group took out the weaker daemons before targeting the gargantua. Before any of them could attack, the large daemon was set ablaze by bright flames. They stared at the burning adversary as it stumbled backwards, swinging its body around in an attempt to extinguish the flames. The sound of a blade slashing at its metallic skin caught their attention.

The gargantua daemon collapses to the floor, dead. Its body slowly dissipated into nothingness, revealing the person who slew it. "You guys were difficult to find," (Y/n) sighed, lowering the Creator's Blade. She combed a few (h/c) strands out of her face.

Gladio was the first to speak up. "We could say the same thing, short stuff. You and blondie had us worried."

"Are you well?" Ignis asked.

"I'm exhausted," she confessed. "But overall, I'm fine."

Noctis noticed the dried blood on her skin and clothes. "What happened to you?"

"A lot I'd rather not share at the moment." Her eyes drifted over to Prompto when realizing he hadn't said a word yet. "The only time I've seen you this quiet was when I surprised you for your birthday five years ago."

At her words, Prompto snapped. He ran over to her and hugged her tightly. It was a brief hug, but a sweet one. He pulled away, examining her arms and legs. "Y-You're not hurt?"

"There are some perks of being possessed by a god," she snickered. "One of them involves healing. I do need a break, though. Still a little weak from blood loss."

"Didn't we pass a dormitory somewhere?" Noctis asked his friends.

"Indeed, we did," Ignis replied. "We should gather our bearings and recuperate for a short while."

"Then to the dormitory we go."

The group left the large central chamber and walked through the hallways of Zegnautus Keep until arriving at their destination. Once inside the dorm, (Y/n) sat down on one of the beds with a huff. Prompto sat next to her while Noctis sat down on the bed across the way. Gladio stood beside the bed the couple was on while Ignis occupied a chair sat between the two beds.

(Y/n) crosses her legs, clasping her hands together in her lap. "It seems Prompto told you the truth."

"How'd you figure that out?" Noctis inquired.

"You were able to enter the emperor's throne room," she replied. "Does this mean...?"

Prompto places his hands over her clasped ones. "Everything's okay, (Y/n). You were right. The guys don't care."

"Then I guess it's my turn."

"You hiding something too, short stuff?" Gladio asked.

"Yeah." She turned her head and brushed aside her (h/c) locks once Prompto released her hands. She tugged down the collar of her outfit to reveal her own barcode. "My true master was Verstael Besithia. I'm an imitation created by his own hands after he killed his guardian after learning she was going to betray him."

"Hey, we welcome anyone who's willing to betray the empire," Noctis said. "Besides, you kicked plenty of imperial ass with us. I doubt you wanna go back."

"Hell no," she spat. "Even if I really wanted to, the only one that somewhat cared for me is dead. Hated him to the core."

"I still don't completely understand how you're still here. We killed the chief and by guardian law, you should be dead." That was when Prompto realized how his words sounded and quickly tried to recover. "I-It's not that I'm sad you're not gone! No way would I think that! I just wanna understand what happened."

"I'm a copy, not the real (Y/n). Verstael may have believed he brought her back from the dead, but in reality, he didn't. A clone is a clone, not the original. When I was created, I wasn't bound to a soul. That would explain why I'm still here."

Prompto glanced down at his bracelet. "But the gemstone..."

"Is artificial," she stated. "It's another device Verstael needed in order for his experiment to be deemed a success. Let's just say the man was thorough when it came to his experiments. He was quite meticulous with even the smallest details."

"I think I understand." Prompto flopped down on the mattress. "But there's another thing I don't understand."

(Y/n) cocked a brow. "And what's that?"

"How did someone like him make you?"

She blinked owlishly. "I...wasn't expecting that."

Noctis and Gladio smirked. Ignis tried to hide his own grin by lowering his head slightly. The shield crossed his arms with a guffaw. "Damn, string bean. You'd normally be embarrassed, but you're pretty level-headed for something like that to come out of your mouth."

Prompto shot back up into a sitting position. "Hey, I'm only speaking the truth! I met the guy and he had more than a few screws loose."

"He wasn't always like that, Prom," she said.

"But still..."

(Y/n) clapped her hands together. "Okay, I think that's enough for a while. Let's get some rest."

"Yeah, you're right," the marksman sighed. He then encased the girl in his arms, earning a gasp of shock from her as he laid down on the bed. "Hope you guys don't mind, but (Y/n) and I are gonna share a bed."

"What a gentleman," Gladio chuckled. "Just try to keep it in your pants, loverboy."

Prompto groaned, burying his face in the guardian's (h/c) hair at his comment. He held her closer when hearing her giggle. He moved one of his hands to her tresses and combed his fingers through them. He continued his ministrations until the sound of soft snoring came from her. Feeling her breathing had gone deep and slow, he knew she was asleep. He himself couldn't fall asleep, but he was happy she could after all she's been through in the past three days.

A few minutes ticked by when Prompto saw Noctis sit up on the opposite bed. He watched his best friend closely as he made his way over to him and (Y/n). The sharpshooter carefully unwound his arms from around the girl and sat up.

"Hey, I'm...sorry," Noctis muttered.

"For what?" Prompto questioned.

"For falling right into his trap...and for hurting you and (Y/n) like that."

The marksman takes up a wry tone. "I know, right? How could you possibly do such a horrible thing to us—after everything we've been through?!" His tone then returns to normal. "Nah, it's okay. I know (Y/n) would forgive you, too. You're not the only one who fell for it."

"Once this is all over, I say we break down the borders—come together as one nation," Noctis said, crossing his arms and trying to act nonchalant. "I mean, what does it matter where you're from anyway?"

Prompto climbs off the bed, stands, and turns to look at his best friend. "Y'know, I never thought I'd say this, but you sounded like a real king for a second."

The raven-haired boy was surprised by the comment and watched a grin make its way onto the blonde's face. "Better late than never. I'm gonna make this world a better place." He glances down at the sleeping girl for a second before looking back up at Prompto. "You two with me?"

"What kinda question is that?" Both boys looked down when hearing (Y/n)'s voice. They saw her eyes were open and she was watching them. "Of course we are."

Prompto smiled, nodding in agreement. "Uh-huh. Ever at your side."

"Now you two be quiet," mumbled the guardian, closing her eyes. "I'm tired..."

Noctis smiled. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that, (Y/n)."

She reached out and grabbed Prompto's wrist, tugging on it gently. "You coming back to bed or not?"

The marksman smiled in delight before rejoining her in the small bed. Within minutes, they were both asleep.

<—————————————<<<<<

After a couple of hours, everyone was well-rested and ready to go. They left the dormitory and continued their search for the Crystal. They continued wandering the various corridors and rooms of Zegnautus Keep, using the elevators to reach different levels.

It was two hours into their search the group was attacked by a creature known as the foras daemon. It stretched its elongated limbs, eyes focused on Noctis. What caught the group by surprise was hearing the creature could speak. It immediately attacked, focusing its full attention on the prince.

Fighting against the foras daemon, they were able to stand their ground and kill it within minutes. After listening to the daemon's last words before it vanished, Ignis tossed around a couple of potions for Prompto and Noctis. Both boys had been injured by the creature, but the curatives mended their wounds within seconds.

Eventually, they arrived in a large hangar-like room. As they made their way through, Gladio said, "One helluva hangar."

"Look at all this space," Prompto gasped in awe at the size of the hangar.

"So, the central elevator's through here," Noctis commented.

"And out of the loading bay," the shield added.

It wasn't long before the large doors at the other end of the hangar begin opening. From the loudspeaker, they heard Ardyn's voice. "Your Majesty, your precious Crystal awaits you. To liven things up I thought I'd take you on a stroll down memory lane. Of course, memories decay with time."

From the now open doors, Ravus' body enters the hangar. Unlike the last time they saw him, his body was now grotesque and daemonic, transformed into a monster. "Kill me... End it..." He begged, his voice slightly warped.

Gladio glared at the approaching figure. "Is that Ravus?"

"Or what's left of him..." Prompto murmured.

"Dammit..." Noctis cursed, summoning his sword.

"The least we can do is put him out of his misery," (Y/n) said.

Before they could even attack Ravus, the horrifying creature known as the devourer crawled into the hangar.

"Shit, that thing's here too?" The prince hissed.

"What is it doing?" The girl grumbled, watching the horrifying creature as it stalked towards the high commander instead of them. What happened next mortified the group.

The devourer grabbed Ravus, tossing him into the mouth of the middle head. Its skeletal jaw bit down into his body, causing him to holler out in pain. Black blood shot from his body as the creature continued to chew on him. The gruesome sight was revolting and forced the others to look away. As they did, Ardyn's voice rang out from the loudspeakers again. "Oh, my. It seems Callyx has yet to feed his pet. Now it seeks to ward off its hunger. Do be careful for it's quite a gruesome way to go."

Once the devourer finished consuming Ravus, each of its mouths opened and roared. Gladio scowled at the creature. "A sorry end for the high commander—for anyone. He was a man with hopes and dreams."

Prompto covered his mouth after finally being able to look back at the monstrosity. "It's horrible."

Suddenly, the devourer hauled its body in their direction. The group readied their weapons and were prepared to attack as the large creature made its way towards them.

Raising her hand, (Y/n) conjured multiple fireballs. They loomed in the air around her until they shot forward with a single swipe of her hand. Each one slammed into the creature's body and forced it back a few feet. Noctis performed a warp-strike against one of the three heads, dealing a little damage. Prompto kept his distance and fired his pistol while Ignis carefully debated on what he should do. Gladio followed Noctis into battle, swinging his greatsword at one of its arms.

The devourer lashed out. Its tentacles stretched outward and tried to grab one of them. It managed to grab Noctis when he performed another warp-strike. Prompto shouted the boy's name and quickly fired at the tendril restraining him. He was able to free Noctis, who warped to safety before crashing against the floor.

Ignis ignited his daggers, tossing a single one towards the monster. The sharp tip embedded itself into the black sack, the flames igniting it. The devourer screeched out and reared up on its two hind legs before flopping down on the floor. Its tentacles laid limp.

Noctis, Gladio, and (Y/n) ran towards the downed monster and struck it over and over again to deal some heavy damage. They were able to deplete some of its health, but it was still strong and quickly recovered. Back on its feet, it crawled its way over to Ignis. The tactician could sense its approach and kept his distance. Noctis and Prompto kept the tentacles from grabbing the bespectacled man as he swiped his daggers at the creature.

Suddenly, their battle was interrupted when more daemons began pouring into the hangar. Gladio glared at the approaching horde. "Look alive—company!"

Their hands were already full with the devourer and couldn't possibly stand against all the daemons. The group tried to fight the devourer and horde of daemons, but it was proven to be tough. When they thought they'd made a small dent in the enemies' number, more took their place.

"We're getting nowhere!" The shield bellowed, dodging one of the devourer's attacks.

Prompto shot a daemon out of midair. "And they just keep coming!"

"Noct, you must go alone," Ignis said.

The prince froze. "What?"

"If you can obtain the Crystal's power, we may yet turn the tide. Elsewise, we are all likely to perish here."

Gladio gripped his greatsword tighter. "Iggy's right. It's our only chance."

"But what about you?" Noctis asked, blocking a single daemon's attack.

"We'll manage somehow! Just get moving!" Prompto shouted.

Ardyn broadcasts his voice to the raven-haired boy. "You could still get to the Crystal...if you went on your own. Your friends will have to stay behind."

"Noctis!" (Y/n) shouted as she formed a wall of fire around her and the others to protect them for a short while. The prince looked towards her, which she then continued. "How about some divine intervention?"

He smiled faintly. "Go for it, (Y/n)." Then, Noctis took off in the direction of the central elevator.

She smiled back before jamming the sword into the floor and summoning Brahma. A radiant cosmic glyph appeared beneath her and was soon engulfed by a column of light. At her call, the god of creation used her body and manifested in the middle of the daemon horde. He tore the roof off the hangar and fought against the enemies.

Prompto, Ignis, and Gladio focus their attacks on the weaker daemons while Brahma fought against the devourer. Unlike in Altissia, the Astral was able to focus his entire attention on the artificial daemon. He trusted the others to deal with the lesser enemies and focused all his strength on the creature. Using his cosmic powers, he was able to fell the devourer. Its shrieks of death echoed throughout the hangar as its body toppled over, gradually vanishing into thin air.

Turning his gaze to the remaining daemons, Brahma released a powerful cosmic wave that killed them all. The three boys were taken aback at the powerful magic and had to brace themselves. When they looked around, no daemons remained. Looking towards the god, they saw he was gazing at the darkened sky.

When Brahma turned his gaze down and focused his attention on Prompto, he slowly kneeled and spoke to him.

Bonded by heart, thy vessel must be protected until the True King returns unto this star.

Prompto's eyes widen when he could hear the god's voice. "Wh-What...?"

Brahma places his large hand over his chest, removing the guardian from his body. He lowered his hand and held her out to the boy.

A slumber shall befall my vessel. Only you are able to safeguard her until the time of her awakening arrives.

Prompto pulled (Y/n)'s unconscious form out of the god's hand and held her close. "Wait, I don't—" Looking back up, he saw the Astral was gone. His eyes scanned the hangar until his gaze fell back onto the girl in his arms. "(Y/n)?" He tried shaking her awake, but it was useless.

Hearing Gladio shouting his name and telling him to hurry, Prompto hoisted the girl up into his arms before following his friends to the central elevator. His body was on autopilot while his mind kept repeating Brahma's words. He was trying to figure out what the god meant.

Stepping off the lift, the trio made their way to where the Crystal was located inside Zegnautus Keep. When they arrived, they couldn't find Noctis anywhere. However, they did see Ardyn standing in front of the Crystal. The chancellor turns to them then gestures nonchalantly at the Crystal before beginning to walk away. Gladio swings his greatsword through Ardyn's head, releasing a puff of dark smoke from where the blade strikes.

Ardyn falls back a little, but maintains his balance and holds onto his hat to keep it from falling off his head. He then continues walking away. Prompto was the next to try and attack the man. He kneels down, releasing (Y/n) and letting her body lean against his in order to summon his pistol. He shoots Ardyn in the back before he can take more than a couple of steps, releasing another puff of dark smoke and hurling his body onto the floor.

The chancellor's hat rolls away and lays still for several seconds before his hand suddenly reaches down to collect it and place it back on his head. Once more unharmed, Ardyn is again standing. The twisted man smiles at Ignis, revealing corrupted daemonic features as he does so, but they go unnoticed by the advisor due to his blindness. Ardyn walks away, leaving the group behind to mourn the loss of their King.

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#ffxv #ffxv x reader #final fantasy xv #final fantasy xv x reader #prompto argentum #prompto x reader #prompto argentum x reader

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