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imabeautifulbutterfly · 2 years

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The Gym Membership - Part 9 (Tech)

Summary: Tech takes a step with a friend he thought was out of reach.

A/N: Hello Lovelies,

Thank you for being patient, loves, you guys are awesome. Tech’s portion is very sweet - I least I think so, but it’s also going to be a bit of up and down.

There will be a chess game that is played through out Tech’s portion, it is the game played by Kasparov vs. Topalov - played Jan 20 1999, at the Hoogoes A tournament. Please note I am not a chess player, I do not watch chess, hence why I focused on an already played game.

I hope you guys enjoy this version of Tech, I thoroughly have.

Love oo

Warnings: Awkward flirting, chess play, sibling teasing, mentions of human trials for a prosthetic, mentions of prosthetics, mentions of surgeries, difficulties with human trials, fluff, babysitting, mentions of shock, parental yelling, I think that’s it, if I miss any please let me know.

AO3 Link | Words: 5,237 | PREVIOUS - -> NEXT

Gym Membership Master List | Main Master List

Tech and Zaina were finishing their workout by the far west wall of the gym, both sweaty from their workout, they’d already spent the better part of an hour building up to deadlifts, each bringing out the other’s competitive nature.

“I’m surprised you did not ask Hunter to help you”

“Well, as much as I enjoy Hunter’s company, I don’t necessarily want to spend every single waking moment with him.”

“Really?” Tech asked his eyebrow crooked upward, “I thought you two were …”

“Oh we are, it’s just …” Zaina placed the barbell down in front of her, turning to look at Tech, “I mean you know what it’s like when you’re dating someone, as much as you enjoy your time with them, and don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with Hunter and Omega, it’s…” Zaina couldn’t stop the giant smile that graced her lips, “they’re amazing and everything I could have wanted, but sometimes it’s nice to have a moment to yourself, or to spend time with someone other than them, just for a little bit. You know?”

“I suppose. Granted most of my girlfriends end up breaking up with me, because I forget I’m dating when I delve into a project.”

“I’m sorry, that sucks. They should be understanding at least”

“Oh no, you misunderstand. It is not that they are not understanding. In fact, it is quite the opposite, I once dated a woman for seven months before she finally broke up with me. Granted I was extremely consumed with my project for the better part of six months, out of those seven.”

“Oh. I see. Can I ask you something?” Zaina tilted her head to have her follow him towards the juice bar.

“Of course”

“Is there anyone now that has your eye?”

“Hmm” Tech took the seat beside her, thinking about the question, was there anyone? There was, but the chances of her being interested in him, that was another thing entirely “Why do you ask?”

“Cause there’s this woman” Zaina began slowly watching Tech’s expression carefully, “I believe you met her, when I had you guys over for games night about two weeks ago” Tech shrugged his shoulders, “she’s one of the girls I work with, blonde hair, gray eyes, very pretty.”

Tech remembered her, she was very pretty, but as interesting as a piece of blank paper, “Right, what about her?”

“She wanted your number, I said I would double check because I didn’t know what your status was or what your inclinations were; so would you be interested if she called you?”

Tech thought about it, he was unattached and maybe she would be fun for a few dates, but in the end it wasn’t his style. He wanted someone he could share ideas with, someone who would interest him not just physically but mentally as well, a quick fling was more up Crosshair’s alley “Thanks Zai for the offer but I’m good. She is …” Tech cleared his throat, scratching the spot behind his ear trying to think of the best way to explain what he meant, “as pretty as she is, she is not my type.”

“Well, what is your type?” Zaina asked, taking a sip of the drink Hunter had left in front of her after leaving a kiss on her forehead, which instantly caused her to look away abashed, yet there was still a coquettish smirk on her face as she looked towards Hunter.

“Zai, I am not sure I can explain it as easily as …”

“Hi Tech” Tech glanced up to see Kamarie, at seeing her beautiful smile his heart began to beat quickly, he felt as though he couldn’t breathe. If he could describe his ideal woman to Zai, well then that would have to be Kamarie, she was brilliant, funny, kind, beautiful and for some inexplicable reason she was his friend. She was the kind of woman you never forgot, at least to Tech she was.

Zai tapped his foot subtlety when he hadn’t said anything “Hello Kamarie, it’s a pleasure to see you”

“Not as great a joy as it is for me. In fact, it has been a while since the last time we met, is everything going well with you?”

He felt his throat go dry, and no amount of swallowing was helping the situation, “Yes,” he cleared his throat, glancing over to Zai, “have you met Zaina, this is Hunter’s girlfriend and Mel’s cousin” Tech motioned towards her, she’d been eyeing his interaction the whole time, Zaina pulled herself together, turning to look at Kamarie, holding out her hand readily with her usual friendly smile.

“Lovely to meet you, Kamarie. Take it, you're a friend of Tech’s?”

I was quick to take her hand, “Yes, we met a while back. He was kind enough to help me when a rather obnoxious and determined gentleman wanted more of my attention than I dared give him. He refused to accept my disinclination for what it was and proceeded to make his attempts to interest me even more forceful, which of course did not impress me even the slightest. As such, Tech interfered and promptly removed the gentleman from my presence with a promise should he attempt to influence my opinion in a manner that greatly distresses me, Tech would be the one to deal with him.”

Zaina glanced over to Tech, whose cheeks had a dark tint, “Wow, impressive Tech. You certainly know how to make an impression” Tech noticed the smirk on Zaina’s face, which he promptly tried to ignore.

“I did what any gentleman would have done” Tech waved off.

“I doubt that; you and your brothers were raised better than most” Zaina smirked.

Tech seemed to ignore Zaina’s statement completely as he turned his attention to me, “Kamarie, before time passes us, Bishop E3 to H6”

“Oh Tech, you must know such an action would only cause me to act in a manner to defend my Queen and King. Bishop G7 to H6 captures Bishop” I couldn’t help smirk at Tech, “As a man of skill and forthright, I imagined your attacks to be slightly more daring, unless I underestimated the skill with which we are playing.”

“Perhaps I wanted to provide a sense of calmness and wellbeing making sure you understood the gravity of the situation when I tell you, Queen D2 to H6 capturing your Bishop.” Tech looked so proud of his move a smile etched on his face that reached to his eyes, “I would suggest taking the time needed to fully consider the ramifications of your next move. I would greatly dislike the idea that you are leaving your royalty at their most vulnerable.”

I couldn’t hide the smile as I looked at Tech, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from him, “Ingenious, as always.” I looked away from him for a second and realized we had gathered a bit of an audience, I cleared my throat,” Tech, Zaina, Hunter, and Echo” I nodded to the four of them, a smile etched on my lips as I headed off to my workout.

Zaina looked from Kamarie’s retreating form back to Tech, “Okay, what the hell was that?”

“Oh we are playing a very intricate came of Chess, Zai”

“No. I know that; I mean the tension between the two of you” Zaina wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

“Oh, I felt that tension” Echo reinforced, he was biting his bottom lip keeping himself from laughing.

“Don’t bother, sarad’ika” Hunter stated as he passed Tech his drink, while winking at Echo.

“What? Why?” Zai looked from Tech to Hunter, “Tech, you want to tell her?”

“No”

“Come on” Echo nudged his brother

“Hunter” Tech’s tone was final, Hunter shrugged ignoring his younger brother and turning his attention to the woman who was beautiful inside and out, and had captured his heart completely, something that he didn’t think would’ve been possible.

“Fine, I’ll tell her.” Hunter leaned closer to Zaina, he took her hands in his, tracing her knuckles with his thumb, “He is heads over heels for her, has been for some time, right Tech?” Hunter glanced over to his brother, who simply glared at him as he chugged back his drink. He turned his attention back to Zaina, smirking as he continued, “I’m pretty sure she feels the same way Sard’ika, especially after that day Tech stepped in; but Tech is too cowardly to ask her out.”

“I am not as you say ‘cowardly,’ I simply do not wish to impose a desire she may have no inclination towards. I want to be her friend, rather than not being in her presence completely.”

Zaina bit her tongue to keep her from laughing at how adorable Tech was, “Do you notice how his speech pattern changed after she showed up?” Zaina teased smirking at Hunter’s nodding.

“If you both will excuse me,” Tech stood, irritated with the three of them the seemed to be studying him, “I have to change. I am meeting with one of our equipment vendors.”

“Oh of course, Tech” Hunter smirked, “a meeting” he teased, while he winked at Zaina.

Tech simply rolled his eyes, finishing his drink at the same time, walking away from the three of them. He wished he could be more forthright, more like Crosshair in that sense, being able to just ask or put himself in a position where he could potentially risk a friendship. After all, he never seemed to have any issues discussing how he felt towards someone; then again Crosshair never stayed with anyone long enough to make them valuable enough to treat with the dignity and respect. Tech wanted to be her friend and more than that he wanted to always treat her with respect and dignity, not as just something to occupy his time.

Tech scrubbed his skin harder than he realized, his frustration clearly evident on his irritated skin. He stepped out of the shower, wondering if he could take that step with her. He wasn’t a romantic per se, in fact he was most definitely not a romantic, according to his previous paramours he was the least romantic person they had ever come across. Granted, the only reason he was with most of them was because they asked him.

He didn’t want to think more about Kamarie, but no matter how hard he tried that smile, those eyes, that intelligence she demonstrated again and again, were permanently etched into his memory. What he needed was a night out, to forget what he was feeling. She was a brilliant engineer and the last thing she’d be interested in would be someone like him.

As Tech walked out of the locker room, he noticed Kamarie was sitting at the juice bar with Zaina, he wanted nothing more than to have his feet carry him over to them, to sit and listen to her, to hear her voice fill the space around him, listening to her discuss one subject or another, to hear her call his name yet again.

“Tech” It was almost as though his thoughts had granted his deepest wish, he glanced over to see Kamarie waving him over.

Before he even realized his feet were taking him to the very person, who he wished would become his world,“Yes?”

“I wondered if I may trouble you for some assistance with my latest project, as you know I’ve been having difficulties not just with the hydraulics, but the program coding focusing on making sure the hydraulics do not overexert themselves, worse still it appears the coding is refusing to recycle itself at the end of every action.”

“Are you sure the coding is properly entered?” I didn’t even answer him, I simply raised my eyebrow at him, while I leaned into my hand that was propping my head.

Tech noticed how Zaina was hiding a chuckle behind her knuckles as they pressed into her lips as her elbow rested on the back of her chair, Hunter seemed similarly amused.

He felt his face heat up, “I would be only to happy to help you address this problem, unfortunately, at the moment, I am on my way to attend a meeting with one of our suppliers.”

“Do not stress yourself, Tech. I will give you my number, contact me once you are free to do so” I promptly handed Tech my business card before I headed to the locker room. It was a little odd to have so many watching us, yet I understood it was due to their admiration for their brother.

Zaina tried, she really did try not to say anything, she wanted to be supportive of Hunter’s younger brother and did not want to embarrass him, but she couldn’t help smirk at his shocked expression, as his eyes read and reread the card in his hands.

“Do you think his brain short-circuited?” Crosshair’s voice teased as he walked up beside his younger brother.

“I think his brain is rebooting at the moment,” Hunter laughed, “let’s give him a minute or two to come back to us” Hunter and Crosshair chuckled.

“Will you two stop?” Zaina defended Tech, “Leave him alone. It’s not every day his Bishop captures the Queen” she tried, she really did but she couldn’t stop smiling from ear-to-ear at seeing Tech’s cheeks deepen a darker red at the teasing he was receiving from the three of them.

“For your information, Zai,” Tech smiled as he turned the card in his hand, before he locked eyes with her, as a self-satisfied smile appeared on his lips, “I always capture the Queen” he smirked as he headed off, tucking the business card into his pocket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My stomach was fluttering when I noticed Tech’s caller ID appeared on my cell. I wanted to answer, but of course at that moment, I was inundated with questions, as I did my best to answer the panel before me.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to meet the deadline?” Lama Su narrowed his eyes on me.

“I understand the panel's concern, but must I remind you we are here for the benefit of veterans and those in need of prosthetics. Human trials for our prosthetics are progressing at exceptional speed. There have been difficulties with seven percent of the trails.”

“Could you please clarify the difficulties?” Tong Wee asked as she readjusted her pen ready to take notes.

“Certainly” I pulled up the next slide from my presentation, “as you can see from overall feedback, most patients have reported they find the prosthetic to be a benefit to their life. Patient FJ-3645 directed our attention to one issue with their neural interface, at times the connection would drop between the patient and the prosthetic. We discovered the problem was a firmware issue; which has since been adjusted — however this particular patient has stated that the issue, although fixed, has affected the overall feel of the equipment. We are currently trying to determine the problem the patient is sensing. I would like to next direct your attention to patient EF-2487 this patient was at work when the prosthetic completely failed. It appears in this case the neural interface completely crashed.”

“I do apologize for interrupting” Nala Se began as she held her hand up, indicating for me to stop my presentation “are you saying most of the issues are neural interface based?”

“In these particular two patients it has been, for Patient FJ-3645 the problem with their prosthetic developed from a firmware issue; for Patient EF-2487, their problems arose due to a temperature issue.”

“A temperature issue? Would you please do your best to clarify this statement” Nala Se tilted her head at me.

“The patient’s body temperature runs higher then normal and works in an environment dealing with extreme heat raising their normal body temperature even greater.”

“Why was this not dealt with before human trials?” Tong Wee noted.

“None of the scenarios could have predicted a body temperature that normally ran as high this patient. Their physiology is actually quite unique.”

“No doubt there would certainly be some patients who inevitably end up running a fever”

“Of course, which was taken into account during the trials and even at time of development. However, what was not taken into account was a normal body temperature of 110. This particular patient was selected for the clinical trials due to their unusual biology.”

“How long did the patient wear the prosthetic before it completely malfunctioned?”

“A total of 875 hours, approximately 36.4583 days”

“That is quite the achievement, what exactly transpired?”

“The neural interface was burnt from the internal heat.”

“Have you been able to determine, what exactly about the patient’s physiology causes their temperature to run at a higher rate?”

“At this time we are unable to determine the direct cause. The patient has undergone several tests already, the theory at present is a belief the patient has a form of thyroid disease or possibly a heart arrhythmia we are currently running several tests to determine the validity of those theories.”

“What are the other issues?”

“Another patient had a hydraulic issue”

“Excuse me” Lama Su narrowed his eyes at me, “Do any of the problems actual deal with some sort of manufacturing issue?”

“If you turn to page 153 of your reports, you will note out of the fifty complaints we have received out of 700 patients, only one was a manufacturing issue which was fixed promptly”

“Any other issues we should become aware of?” Lama Su looked up from the report I handed out to them at the beginning of our meeting. I was about to open my mouth, when he cut me off, “More specifically, any issues that will cost the company money?”

I let out a sigh, “No. Majority of the issues are due to the physiology of the patient or a firmware issue.”

“In that case, I do not see a need to continue the meeting. Excellent work, doctor. We look forward to your next report.”

“Thank you ladies and gentlemen” I nodded to the panel of six men and women, grabbing my equipment and reports promptly leaving the meeting room, as soon as the panellists all left. I looked at my phone, as a notification for a new voicemail popped up. I couldn’t help smiling at the thought Tech had left me a voicemail.

I waited till I was in my office, closing the door before listening to his message.

‘Hello Kamarie, I do hope this message finds you well. As you requested, I finished with my meeting and contacted you as soon as I was able to; I wish to reiterate that I would be elated to help you figure out the coding issue you have come across. Please feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience. I look forward to hearing from you.’

There was a silence for a second before Tech's voice came back on the line.

‘In case, I forgot to mention, this is Tech. Tech from the Marauder Gym. The same Tech you play chess with …’ I heard him let out a sigh, ‘Again, I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.’

I couldn’t help smirk at his nervousness that clearly seeped through. I sat at my desk, staring at my phone, I wanted to call him, and tell him I could never forget him, I would always remember him, for as long as I could.

Yet, regardless of how much I wanted to take a step with Tech, I kept remembering the last time I was so upfront with my affections, not just my affections but also regarding my condition. The last time I informed someone about my future and what I was facing, it didn’t end well.

However, start something off with Tech on a lie, even if it was an omission was not the way I wanted it to begin and somehow I felt that he would be someone who would not shy away or run away simply because things may be more difficult than expected.

I took in a deep breath, chasing to have faith in a man who by all accounts seemed to be the encapsulation of what I had longed for, my finger shook a little as I dialed Tech’s number.

“Hello”

“Hi Tech”

“Kamarie … I … the message …” Tech took in a deep breath, “I cannot apologize enough”

“Tech”

“No please let me apologize”

“There’s nothing to apologize for”

“If you are sure”

“I am”

“In that case, how can I be of service?”

“Well, I would like to go over the coding issue with you, do you think you’d be able to come by my office?”

“When?”

“In an hour?”

“Unfortunately, that will not be possible, I’m finishing up with some work here, would it be all right if …” Tech cleared his throat, “Would it be all right if we met up for dinner to discuss it?”

“I believe dinner would be an even better suggestion, than what I had planned.”

“Gre…”

‘Did you get a hold of her?’ Another voice came on the line, it sounded like Crosshair cutting off Tech, however I hardly spoke with the man so I could be mistaken.

‘Yeah, I did…’ before he could say anything, more loud steps came booming over the phone.

‘Hey!’ Another voice called out.

‘Wrecker? What’s up?’ Tech asked

‘I’ve been calling you’

‘We didn’t hear you’ Crosshair’s voice rang through, ‘Anyway, Tech, you should just ask out Kamarie, you like her and she likes you, that’s evident by how she smiles at you.’

‘No di’kut!’ Wrecker’s booming voice came over the speaker, ‘I meant, when I tried calling Tech on the phone, I couldn’t get through, Cross.’

“That’s because I’m on the phone … right now … with Kamarie. She’s on speakerphone and no doubt has heard all of this”

“Hi Crosshair, hi Wrecker, I apologize for not saying anything earlier.”

There was nothing but pure silence for a minute, before I heard Crosshair’s voice trail off ‘Oh, shi…’ followed promptly by shifting feet and a door slamming shut.

I was smirking as I nibbled on my bottom lip, I couldn’t believe he liked me. I thought for sure there was no way he would’ve been interested in me, after all he was … he was amazing, intellectual, kind, dignified, treated me with utmost respect, and quite handsome. I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped from my lips at the sound of the door closing.

“Well, that happened.” Tech chuckled, “I believe there is a requirement here for me to express my deepest apologies on behalf of my siblings, please do not pay attention to anything Crosshair said, he is just … he is an idiot.”

I giggled at his reaction, yet doing my best to still my nerves, “I must disagree with your assessment of the situation, Tech.”

“Please enlighten me”

“Your sibling simply pointed out an interesting fact that has been a quandary of mine for some time”

“How interesting. That is an important factor in this observation. Wouldn’t you agree, Kamarie?”

“I wholeheartedly agree”

“Is what Crosshair stated factual?” Tech asked with hesitancy, maybe she was just being friendly.

“I believe it to be quite accurate, I know for myself it has been some time since my opinion of you has risen considerably. I find my mind often drifts to moments where I spend a significant portion of my time, contemplating your facial features, your kindness and your intellect.”

Tech cleared his throat, “This seems to be a dilemma for the both of us. With this new information available to both of us, would you care to join me for an evening meal with a romantic notion attached?”

“I would be delighted”

“Would you still care to discuss the coding issues at dinner?”

“It could be one of many topics we can discuss this evening”

“In that case, I eagerly look forward to our evening together”

“I do, as well. Tech, before you go, there is something I wish to say”

“Please feel free to alleviate any concern”

“I appreciate that, I simply wish to point out, Bishop C8 to B7”

“Oh now that is quite interesting. Pond A2 to A3.”

“Pond E7 to E5”

“Queenside castling”

“Queen D8 to E7”

“Protecting your King, I see, very clever”

“Would not want my King to be so vulnerable to opposing forces, he should remain vulnerable only to his Queen”

“I agree wholeheartedly, a King and Queen should only be vulnerable to each other”

“It takes a great deal of trust and respect to rule together, to know how to handle the skills each one brings forth.”

“Especially when going into battle for the first time.”

“At what time and where should I meet you?”

“Would 8 p.m. accommodate your schedule?”

“Perfectly, Tech.”

“I will call and make a reservation and provide you with the details promptly”

“I await with eager anticipation”

“As do I”

“Goodbye Tech”

“Goodbye Kamarie”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Hunter watched as Zaina held Iris, rocking her back and forth. Even though Hunter understood how much it still pained Zaina to hold something she would never have the opportunity to have, he couldn’t help think she would’ve made an absolutely wonderful mother. He was glad at the very least she would be able to dote on her niece, and they had agreed to look after her for the weekend.

Wrecker wanted to surprise Mel with a special weekend away for the two of them, to celebrate their engagement. He had wanted to do it sooner, but between Iris remaining in the hospital for a tad longer than they had expected and Zaina being attacked, not to mention the wedding preparations, time seemed to slip away from him and before he knew it, Iris was six and a half months old.

“How’s it going babe?” Hunter whispered as he placed a gentle kiss on Zaina’s temple.

“Good, I think she’s finally asleep” Zaina answered back matching his tone, doing her best to keep her niece asleep.

“Guess what?” Hunter asked as he wrapped his arms around Zaina and Iris

“What?”

“Tech finally asked her out”

“No. Seriously?” Zaina turned to look at him.

“Yup, he was asking what restaurant we went to for our first date today after he got off the phone with her”

“Aww that’s so sweet”

“Dad!” Omega shouted as the front door slammed, waking Iris after Zaina spent the past thirty minutes getting her to fall asleep. Her wailing from the unexpected noise pierced not only the living room but everyone’s ears as well.

“Omega!” Hunter shouted back at seeing his daughter walk over to them wincing at seeing Iris in Zaina’s arms wailing. She felt guilty, she hadn’t realized Iris was going to be there.

“Sweetheart don’t, she didn’t know”

“That’s still no excuse, sarad’ika. How many times have I told you not to slam the door!”

“Sorry, I didn’t know Iris was here, but …” Omega began.

Hunter chuckled, feeling bad at raising his voice “Doesn’t matter. From now on, unless you are in trouble, bleeding, or running from some psycho, act like everyday Iris is here.”

“Okay dad,” Omega smirked, “but I was wondering, did you know Uncle Tech is sitting in his car in front of our place?”

“Before we begin with your uncle, do you know what time it is my dear?”

“I know I’m later than I said, but not by much, just …”

“Thirty minutes to be precise”

“Z wanna help me out?” Omega pleaded

Hunter looked from his daughter to his future, at least he hoped she’d be his future if everything went according to plan, however his look clearly stated no interference.

“You know Megs I would love to help you but I gotta take care of this little one, see if I can get her back to sleep” Zaina bounced Iris in her arms hoping the rocking motion would calm her down, she headed towards Iris' crib in the spare room, “She’s not wrong” Zaina mumbled under her breath, as she passed Hunter, noticing the smirk on his lips, “He has a point” she mumbled out to Omega as she stood in front of her, before placing a kiss on her forehead, smirking as she went off with Iris.

Hunter let out a deep sigh, “All right, did you eat?”

“Yeah, Hera’s uncle made us spaghetti”

“Did you finish your homework?”

“Yes. We started our project, which is why I was late”

“Okay, let me go talk to your uncle, but you gotta text me, you know the rules”

“Well you didn’t text either”

“Because Howzer texted, next time you don’t text, you are getting grounded missy” Hunter walked over to his daughter, wrapping his arms around her hugging the stuffing out of her as she hugged him back, “sorry for raising my voice.”

“Sorry for not texting and for slamming the door.”

“I’m serious though, next time you’re getting grounded”

“Yes, Dad” Omega chuckled as she released her dad, walking over to the living room.

“Not kidding” Hunter stated as he grabbed his phone simultaneously putting on his shoes and headed out the front door.

“Love you too, dad”

“Yeah, yeah. Say that now with the threat of being grounded looming overhead” Hunter chuckled, as he walked over to Tech’s car.

He was surprised to see the loon on Tech’s face, he looked shocked, shaken to his very core. The only other time he’d ever seen Tech look like that was when he received news about Echo and Wrecker’s injuries. Hunter knocked on the window, pulling Tech from his own thoughts.

Tech turned his head blinking at seeing his brother beside his car, as he lowered the window, “Hunter?”

“Hey buddy, you okay?”

“Yeah, what are you doing at my place?”

“Tech, you drove to my place”

“What?” Tech looked from Hunter, to the house behind his brother, there was no mistake he had driven to his older brother’s home. He must have been in more shock than he thought, not to mention his body clearly knew what he needed even if his mind was too in shock to register.

“You wanna come sit with me on the porch, tell me what got you driving to my place at 11 at night?”

“I … uhhhh…”

“Come on buddy, turn off the car”

Tech followed Hunter’s orders, moving without even realizing he had left the car, his keys dangling from his fingers, as he shifted on the seat on the porch.

“Want a drink?” Hunter offered, Tech simply shook his head ’no’ as he took in a shuddering breath, Hunter nodded as he took his seat, “Want to tell me what’s got you looking shocked?”

“Kamarie”

“Did something happen on the date?”

“It … ummm…” Tech looked at his hands they were shaking, Hunter reached over and grabbed them, hoping he would be a grounding force for his younger brother, “Tech, hey whatever it is, it’ll be okay.”

Tech nodded squeezing his older brother’s hand, Hunter was shocked, he wasn’t one for emotions or a display of emotion, whatever shook him up, must have been pretty intense, he waited to hear what Tech had to say.

“As you know I met up with Kamarie for our date” Hunter nodded, waiting for Tech to explain more, “everything was going great, better than could have been expected, when …

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brachiosaurus-on · 3 years

Text

My commentary & some analysis on the latest episode of The Bad Batch. I actually had positive things to say! This episode's writing was a major improvement and I found the characters felt like characters and they played off each other really well. Perhaps I should give Dee Bradley Baker more credit since he's trying to play off himself?

Warning: Spoilers below the cut

I love how diverse the Twi'lek character models are. If only they could do that for everyone else.

I bet Cham is not mentioning the Jedi because if he does he'll be shot. The thing is, it doesn't feel like an elephant in the room when he doesn't mention them. I wonder if that's intentional.

Hera calling him "Uncle Gobi" is so cute.

Hera's mom is my favorite.

Hera's mom, intimidating: I know you were up to no good.

Hera's mom, asking for the tea: Tell me everything.

I'm 5 minutes in and this is TBB's best writing so far. Actual politics that make sense. No immediately blaring plot holes. Characters are responding to each other rather than reading a stilted & predictable script.

Omg the chunk missing from Crosshair's skull.

Wait why is there a chunk missing? Did he get hit in the head? I thought his face was burned. I'll have to rewatch that scene.

Also, since he's here, and not actively looking for leads on where TBB is, I can only assume that they aren't that high on the Empire's wanted list. Especially considering they've been returning to the same base each episode, and multiple people know how to contact them. Or perhaps the Empire expects Ryloth to be more of a problem so they're using their best sniper.

Cham "another armed occupation is not a free Ryloth" Syndulla advocating for an armed occupation. Wonder what changed his position on that one.

Rampart sounds like he's on 1.5x speed.

Cham's position is a really good position to explore this dilemma, but I'm not sure why he's the one who believes this. It doesn't feel out of character yet, more like the toll of the war made him desperate for peace and he doesn't want Hera to grow up fighting. Whoops, look how that one turned out.

"I want my child to have peace" vs "I want my child to be free" this was a great way to have conflict between Hera's parents.

Hahaha Gobi & Hera are so cute. "I was going to let you fly this time" "FLY???" Lmao he so knows her.

Are these "French" accents bothering anyone else?

This conversation between Omega and Hera is flowing naturally, showing two perspectives of children during the rise of the empire and they both feel true to character.

Hunter telling Ryloth's freedom fighters that they "better know what they're getting into" sounds rather patronizing. They were doing this before he was. They were literally massacred doing this. They know exactly what they're getting into.

Interesting that Gobi doesn't want more clone troops, but doesn't have any opinion on receiving weapons from clone troops. Does he recognize that TBB are clones? The armor should give it away.

I have now learned that no one in the bad batch has a passion for flying. It's just a skill set for them.

One sniper shot from Crosshair's regular weapon takes out an engine... I guess it was well placed? They have established that the weapon can be reconfigured for specialized ammunition.

They're totally going to make a joke about "very exciting landings"

Rampart's interest in Hera is... really creepy.

Is Howzer's chip malfunctioning? Since when do the chips care about children? Since when do the chips allow them to question orders?

There's the Cham Syndulla we know.

Ok Howzer clearly has doubts & uncertainties. He feels like he has personality. But Dave said all the individuality got wiped away by the chips. He even has his clone wars armor when Dave made a point of erasing individual armor in Siege of Mandalore. What is the deal, Dave. Make a decision, Dave. I hope they explain this in the next episode. Who is Howzer and why does he get to be different? Don't get me wrong, I really like him. I wish we got more characters like him in TCW. Also, WHERE IS CODY. Nvm, don't tell me, I don't want to know.

Love seeing regular clones doing things.

If they have TBB come in and save the day I'm going to be salty. These guys are doing great on their own.

Cham "I trust the clones" Syndulla not hesitating to shoot them. There's the Cham we know.

Aww Hera. This writing is so much better than the rest of the show? Why have the writers been sleeping this whole time?

DO IT CHAM.

DEW IT.

YO. THAT WAS UNEXPECTED. Totally believable though. And Cham made a great point about Orn Free Taa putting greed above Ryloth. Finally some acknowledgement of why the Republic actually fell.

Oh Hera's mom is so dead. She's so gonna die in this. I should really watch s3 of Rebels.

The Empire is very smart to recognize the danger of allowing children of rebels to go free. They will come back for you.

Ok I would be slightly more alright if TBB came to the rescue, but I'd still much prefer it if the Twi'leks won this one for themselves.

#tbb #can the writers keep moving in this direction #the empire #imperial era #analysis #ramblings #star wars #cham syndulla #hera syndulla #clones #captain howzer #crosshair #omega #hunter #gobi #eleni syndulla

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swaps55 · 4 years

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Sam Shepard

Full Name: Sam Powell Shepard. His middle name is his mother’s maiden name. He hates his middle name (he and his mother are not on very good terms).

Gender and Sexuality: Male, very demi aro/ace. He tried sex with men and women when he was younger out of sheer curiosity, got nothing out of it, and proceeded to basically forget about sex entirely. He’s baffled at the idea of being in a relationship until Kaidan comes along. If you were to ask him about his sexuality he’d get a deer in headlights look and just point at Kaidan, because outside of him Sam has no fucking idea what he’s into.

Pronouns: He/him

Ethnicity/Species: I admit. I haven’t given much thought to where his parents are from, and probably won’t, because part of what makes him fun is that he doesn’t have roots. Earth is very unfamiliar, even alien to him. Oh, and he’s human.

Birthplace and Birthdate: Arcturus Station, April 11, 2154

Guilty Pleasures: The dumber the joke, the funnier he thinks it is. He loves media and entertainment that doesn’t make him think. He does enough thinking in his real life - he wants his escapism to be superficial and fun. He would love the 22nd century equivalent of MST3K.

Phobias: As a spacer, he’s really weirded out by nature. Especially bugs. Especially anything remotely resembling a silverfish. That’s too many fucking legs. Put him in combat armor and he doesn’t even notice bugs, but take him out of the combat armor and he’ll lose it at the sight of a creepy crawly.

After Alchera, he develops a severe phobia of extra vehicular activity. Which he finds frustrating, because he doesn’t remember the explosion. Last thing he remembers is pulling Joker out of his chair.

What They Would Be Famous For: To the general public, being the Savior of the Galaxy. To his crew, he’s famous for making the Galaxy’s Worst Cup of Coffee.

What They Would Get Arrested For: Illegally carrying a firearm, illegally discharging a firearm, assault, breaking and entering, harboring an illegal AI, mutiny, insubordination, making really shitty coffee. The list is…long.

OC You Ship Them With: Just Kaidan.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: I’d love to say one of my ‘Yang marines, but honestly Aslany worships him, Pendergrass facilitates his insanity, and Beaudoin is too easy going to be bothered by whatever batshit thing Sam does next. But Kaidan is always on the verge of murdering him during combat.

When Sam served on the ‘Yang, his team would regularly borrow an M-29 Grizzly that was property of the Madrid, the lead cruiser in the ‘Yang’s flotilla. The chief tech in charge of that Grizzly, a gentleman by the name of Gamba Msipa, hates Sam’s guts.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: There’s a turian buddy cop comedy Garrus showed him that he’s obsessed with. As for books, when he actually has time to read he prefers popcorn fiction that allows him to turn his brain off. But if you tell anyone he’s read Forbidden Ops, Tali’s favorite human romance series, he’ll kill you.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: He doesn’t care much for military movies or books, because he spends so much time picking apart everything they get wrong that he doesn’t enjoy it. Exception: body count movies that do not take themselves seriously.

Talents and/or Powers: He’s one of those bastards who is infuriatingly comfortable in his own skin. He’s also a charismatic motherfucker when he wants to be. He can talk to you like he’s known you his entire life, but it’s a ploy to trick you into getting you to talk about yourself so a) you’re not asking about Sam and b) he can compile a mental dossier on your strengths and weaknesses.

But while he is very good at this, as an extroverted introvert it’s generally not something he can sustain for long periods of time. To get him through it he’s most likely imagining all the different ways he could kill you with whatever is within his line of sight.

Why Someone Might Love Them: He’ll burn down the sky for the people he cares about. If you can get past The Butcher of Torfan, and get past the Commander Shepard mantle, you’ll find a guy who has a thousand-watt grin, is a lot funnier than you’d expect, will consume media he’s not into just because someone he cares about enjoys it, and, provided you’re the cuddling type, is a champion snuggler (spoiler: Kaidan is the cuddling type).

Why Someone Might Hate Them: He does not know how to be still for five fucking seconds, and he has this stare that’s a lot like a directed energy weapon. If you’re in his crosshairs, it’s not something you will enjoy. Even worse is when he looks through you instead of at you, because your very existence is inconsequential. Also, he will never let anyone else drive.

How They Change: After Torfan, Sam was closed off, defensive, angry, and deadest against getting close with any of his crew. When you’re in a position to send people to their death, he figures it’s better not to know who they are. Problem is, that made him an asshole. His time on the ‘Yang helps him recognize how important to foster trust with your team and have something to fight for. He loosens up a lot by the time he sets foot on the Normandy.

…how he changes after Alchera is a whole other thing.

Why You Love Them: I fucking love Sam. He’s an enigma to everyone around him – pinning down what’s really Sam vs. what’s The Butcher of Torfan and the Savior of the Galaxy is a really complex task – he wears so many different personas based on what’s needed from him at the time. I love how badly he longs to just be Sam, but gives that up to be what others need him to be. Deep down he cares so deeply for the people around him at tremendous cost to himself. I love how important it is that he do what needs to be done without losing his soul. I love how afraid he is of becoming Saren. I love how genuinely funny he is, and how much he likes to laugh. Despite everything he’s been through, there’s a sense of optimism and hope you can’t shake out of him.

I really love Sam.

#painterofhorizons #sam shepard #mememe #meme replies #I REALLY LOVE SAM OK #thank you for asking!

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douchebagbrainwaves · 3 years

Text

YOU GUYS I JUST THOUGHT OF THIS

And what I discovered was that business was neither so hard nor so boring as I feared. More remarkable still, he's stayed interesting for 30 years. That turns out to have selfish advantages.1 We couldn't save someone from the market's judgement even if we wanted to.2 Or more precisely, when they release more code. This doesn't seem to be working hard enough.3 But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity. And if you don't, you're in the crosshairs of whoever does. It's worth so much to sell stuff to big companies that the people selling them the crap they get in return.

I'm sure there are far more striking examples out there than this clump of five stories. This was slightly embarrassing at the time. An idea for a startup. Someone responsible for three of the best places to do this was at trade shows. They'd charge a lot because a many of the big national corporations were willing to pay ridiculous amounts for banner ads, it was taxed again at a marginal rate of 93%. Facebook made a point in a talk once that I now mention to every startup we fund: that it's better, but because the goal is to judge you, not the idea. Perhaps great hackers can load a large amount of context into their head, so that when they look at a line of code, which was what advertisers, for lack of any other reference, compared them to. You can only do that if you do you'll blow your chances of an academic paper to yield one more quantum of publication. The first names that come to mind always tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies.4 The founders all learned to do every job in the company. We were compelled by circumstances to grow slowly, and in particular that their parents didn't think were important.

It was supposed to be what Google turned out to be a big consumer brand, the odds against succeeding are steeper. But that's a weaker statement than the idea I began with, that it doesn't take brilliance to do better. Realizing it does more than make you feel a little better about forgetting, though. I could see them thinking that we didn't count for much. Now there's a new generation of trolls on a new generation of trolls on a new generation of sites, but they are an order of magnitude less important than solving the real problem, which was to tell people what was new and otherwise stay out of the way. I'd use to describe the atmos. But babysitting this process was misleadingly narrow: deregulation. Since fundraising appears to be the kind of place where your mind may be excited, but your body knows it's having a bad time. But they're not so advanced as they think; obviously they still view office space as a badge of rank. And so American software and movies are malleable mediums. The result of that miscalculation was an explosion of inexpensive PC clones.

It's a valuable source of metaphors for almost any kind of work.5 The project may even grow into a startup. I've met. Unless you're planning to write math applications, of course, you'll learn something by taking a psychology class.6 Now it's Wepay's. In fact consumers never really were paying for content, and publishers weren't really selling it either. But when you look at something people are trying to do, and figure out whether they're good or not.

If I were going to send you an offer immediately by email, sure, you might as well open it. In the late nineties you could get the right people. How can it be, visitors must wonder.7 Rich people don't want to live, but it's hard to compare their work. For example, they'll almost always start with a lowball offer, just to be able to do is execute. Now that so many news articles are online, I suspect you could find a similar pattern for most trend stories placed by PR firms. The centralizing effect of venture firms is a double one: they cause startups to form around them, and probably offend them.

It applies way less than most people realize. Google's secret weapon was simply that they understood search.8 But I don't know. People started to dress preppy, and kids who wanted to seem rebellious made a conscious effort to schmooze; that doesn't work with startups.9 And who knows, maybe their offer will be surprisingly high. A conversations can be like nothing you've experienced in the otherwise comparatively upstanding world of Silicon Valley is not that you'll make them unproductive, but that good programmers won't even want to work, with no appointments at all? Having great hackers is not, by itself, enough to make a winning product. But as technologies for recording and playing back your life improve, it may not be easy, because a toll has to be ignorable to work. You may wonder how much to tell VCs. Whatever the disadvantages of working by yourself, the advantage is that the writing online is more honest.

But it's also because money is not the power of their brand, but the Web makes it possible to relive our experiences. Apple vs Microsoft. I'm sorry to treat Larry and Sergey did then. It's one of the 10 worst spammers. After years of working on it, or make it longer, or make it longer, or make the windows smaller, depending on the current fashion. If variation in productivity. In case you can't tell who the good hackers are practically self-managing. Before you consummate a startup, ask everyone about their previous IP history. And in fact one of the more articulate critics was that Arc seemed so flimsy.10

Notes

Daniels, Robert V. Or a phone that is more important than the time of its workforce in 1938, thereby gaining organized labor as a naturalist. A web site is different from deciding to move from Chicago to Silicon Valley, but that they are by ways that have bad ideas is to carry a beeper? Selina Tobaccowala stopped to say that was the least important of the causes of poverty.

Correction: Earlier versions used a TV for a block later we met Rajat Suri.

Incidentally, tax rates were highest: 14.

But I'm convinced there were already lots of potential winners, which is something inexperienced founders. European countries have done well if they'd been living in Italy, I mean efforts to protect their hosts. They hate their bread and butter cases. Trevor Blackwell, who adds the cost of writing software.

The original edition contained a few old professors in Palo Alto. Ii.

Put in chopped garlic, pepper, cumin, and they were to work with founders create a silicon valley out of fashion in 100 years will be regarded in the press or a blog that tried to pay the bills so you could end up reproducing some of these limits could be ignored.

In general, spams are more repetitive than regular email. 107.

Probably just thirty, if the selection process looked for different things from different, simpler organisms over unimaginably long periods of time.

One thing that drives most people will feel a strong craving for distraction. But scholars seem to want to start startups who otherwise wouldn't have.

Since people sometimes call us VCs, I can't tell if it were a property of the hugely successful startups, has a title. Unless we mass produce social customs. If they were supposed to be good at generating your own?

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storyteller0311 · 5 years

Text

Decoding Arrow 7x15, AKA *OMG, Guys, OMG*

Hi.

Everyone OK?

So, today’s my birthday and tonight’s episode, while anxiety inducing, was awesome. AND THAT PROMO! (In the words of Cristina Yang: “Somebody sedate me!”)

Anyway...

Wow. Wow, wow, wow.

Last week, when the promo for 7x15 aired I was kind of ambivalent about the episode since it (as we now know) was almost a complete misdirect of what the episode actually ended up being. And, oh boy, did it end up being something else.

I don’t even know where to begin, so I’m just going to go for it. Sorry if this is confusing.

The Road to the End and How Last Week’s Announcement Effects the Future Storyline

Due to last week’s announcement that Arrow is officially coming to an end with a shortened 8th season, I think it is necessary to reevaluate where this train is headed. I could be completely wrong, but I’m not convinced that anything up until the announcement of Arrow’s fate was written in stone. I believe that the Flash Forwards were introduced primarily as a launching point for a post-Stephen Amell version of Arrow, where the action would be firmly entrenched in 2040, allowing for a version of the series starring Ben, Kat, the actors that play Zoe and Connor, Juliana, Rick, Colton, and maybe David as regulars.

Now that Arrow is ending, I’m not as convinced that the fate of the story will remain the same as it would have if Arrow would have remained on the air. While the speculation of Oliver’s possible death being reversed would still have been very possible if Arrow continued past 8x10, I don’t know that it would make as much sense in terms of the seeds being sewn this season for a possible continuation in the future storyline.

On a side note, I can’t tell you how happy I am that Arrow will end with Stephen’s departure. Even though I’ll miss it, I think it’s for the best.

The State of Star City and Vigilantes in 2040

One of the big mysteries that the Flash Forwards have created this season revolves around Star City’s grim fate and the criminality and hatred of vigilantes in 2040. Until tonight, the solution to that mystery seemed pretty straight forward. In fact, I was speculating that the discord between the SCPD and Team Arrow tonight (with Dinah siding with the SCPD) was the beginning of the end for the redemption of vigilantes in the eyes of Star City (and the SCPD/Mayor Pollard) and the beginning of the end of Dinah and Rene’s relationship.

But, just as quickly as I thought that, Diggle came through with words of wisdom and moderation and reminded our parents-to-be that going to the other extreme of defying everything they’d worked for wasn’t the way to go. So, by the end of the episode, a truce has been reached between the SCPD and Team Arrow and Mayor Pollard is ready to repeal the anti-vigilante law. This does not match up to the future we’re seeing in 2040.

So, what gives? What happens next that causes such a reversal?

I don’t know for sure, but all signs are pointing towards wherever the storyline with Dante/Emiko is going.

The item that I’m battling with right now, particularly after the information we’ve been given last week, tonight, and in the promo for next week have made me wonder whether we’re putting way too much stock in Crisis on Infinite Earths providing all the answers to out questions. (And that goes beyond the mystery of Oliver’s fate.)

The reason for this is that, assuming there won’t be an unexpected time jump and that the 2019 Crossover will happen in November/December, the timelines at this moment don’t match up for Crisis to be the all-consuming answer.

Plus, Arrow (and the rest of the Arrowverse) generally try to ground their series in their own independent storylines without relying too much on crossover since not everyone watches every show. Again, not saying Crisis is not going to play a major role, that but as we learn more information, we’re possibly ignoring what’s going on NOW in favor of putting all our eggs in the Crisis basket.

Felicity’s pregnancy is in an early stage, so probably pre-12 weeks if we’re going by traditional rubrics. She manages to keep it a secret while in Star City and then finds a way to legitimately leave Star City and have the baby with no one but Oliver and Diggle knowing.

It’s reasonable to assume that Star City’s condition continues to deteriorate or reaches a turning point as Season 7 comes to a close. Whether that’s all due to Dante or also something happens with the SCPD truce remains to be seen. But, something drastic has to happen to cause Oliver and Felicity to believe that their only option is to hide Mia away.

I’m also assuming that it is around the same time that Olicity decide that it is better to let William think they abandoned him in order to keep him safe.

Unless there’s a time jump, Mia will not be born before the end of the season. So, something major has to be coming and soon. What that is though, I don’t know.

Who Is the Real Big Bad? (And Is Diaz Really Dead?)

Last week’s episode left Emiko’s loyalties ambiguous, even though they placed heavy doubt on them. Tonight, however, I think there is more evidence in the camp that Emiko is indeed one of this season’s villains. (Though that doesn’t mean she can’t/won’t be redeemed by season’s end.)

My speculation is that Diaz is really dead and that Emiko was sent by Dante to Slabside to tie up that loose end. While of course the comics-based speculation that Diaz could be reborn through some kind of ritual within the Ninth Circle, I think Dante sees him as a liability that needed to be snuffed out. (Much like how Dante simply shot everyone else in that meeting where Diaz went rogue.)

There’s no doubt that Dante, the Ninth Circle, and Emiko to a certain extent are the Season 7 Big Bad.

What remains to be seen, however, is how exactly they relate to the future we’re seeing in 2040.

Emiko vs. Black Siren

Based on tonight’s episode, the title of a future episode, and a post made by Katie Cassidy, I am speculating that Black Siren dies within the next few episodes. I could be totally wrong, or only wrong that Black Siren dies and doesn’t just leave a redeemed person. But, the title “Lost Canary” combined with Katie Cassidy cutting her hair pretty short, and the newly established animosity between Emiko and Black Siren is interesting...

It could also be a reason why vigilantes are once again in the crosshairs, since Black Siren is technically the DA.

Olicity and Baby Mia

I covered most of this above, but OMG THAT PROMO!!!!

I think next week is going to be doozy. I can’t even begin to verbalize what I think we’ll be talking about at this time next Monday.

So...what do you all think? Where are we headed from here?

#arrow #arrow spoilers #arrow 7x15 #arrow 7x15 spoilers #arrow 7x16 #arrow 7x16 spoilers #arrow speculation #arrow spec

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theonyxpath · 6 years

Link

Small update and preview on Night Horrors: Tormented from Steffie. First (if you’ve been following the Monday Meeting Notes you know this already) the proofs are back with me. The art is AMAZING, Mike Chaney’s crew really knocked it out of the park. So many beautiful wretched creatures in there. Some of the chapter pieces legit made me tear up, because they so perfectly walk that line between hope and despair. I’m proofing it now, and hopefully we’ll get the book to you (and the amazing authors!) soon. (Depending on when this blog goes live, we may be there already—in which case, go team!)

Night Horrors is an antagonist series, and we ran into a little conundrum deciding which antagonists this one should have. Because what’s Promethean without Clones and Zeky? Except we didn’t have room to properly cover those in the Core, and we couldn’t exactly throw antagonists at you without mechanics for them. So Tormented fixes that: you get rules, narrative guidance, and amazing history on creating Clones (for your game—please don’t try to grow people in vats at home) and Zeky (also don’t try to create irradiated people at home; there are other ways to achieve multiplicatio).

Zeky are like ‘regular’ Prometheans in that they have a Pilgrimage, Azothic Memory, Refinements, and transhuman potential. They are not like other Prometheans in that everything they do is radioactive, and, boy, does that fuck things up. Even their Alembics work differently, the effects warped and channeled through a radioactive core. Every Zeka is unique, so Vulcanus for this Zeka works differently than for that Zeka. That means players get to customize their Zeka exactly, which is very cool. (Don’t worry if you’re the Storyteller just looking for a quick NPC—Tormented has three full Zeky and enough sample Alembics to tide you over.)

For the preview, here’s the wonderfully creepy and tragic Tumor Fairy written by Paolo Iantorno. Leave Paolo a note in the comments if you love it!

The Tumor Fairy: Dawn

What’s so special about you? Why do you get to check out?

Background

Dawn is sick. She woke up in her first hospital’s basement in time to see her parents run away. They left a note: “We’re so sorry, we love you very much. Stay in the hospital. Stay out of sight. You’re sick.”

They wrote it on a get-well-soon card.

So, Dawn waited, but they never came back. Days became weeks, weeks became months before Dawn decided they hadn’t been clear on which hospital she had to stay in. She’d learned all of this hospital’s secrets — she’d even met another Promethean on the graveyard shift. He told her what she was and a little more, but he’d been horrified when she showed him her trick.

Dawn went to another hospital. She’d learned a lot about hospitals: People went there when they were sick, and got to leave if they were better. Despite all her poking and prodding and an amateur imitation of the thing the doctor did with that little knife on a sleeping patient, Dawn had no idea what was wrong with her. She knew she was different, that she had to become human, but nobody else had what she had, not even the other Prometheans she encountered.

Dawn’s third hospital had a cancer ward. Biopsy waste containers might as well have been mirrors. The overworked doctor she asked said there was no cure for cancer, which made Dawn angry. She made his insides go bad. Let him be sick forever.

Dawn moves between hospitals every week or so, hiding from baffled doctors and concerned nurses, poking at patients and flipping through charts. She’s figured out the violent outbreaks spread if she stays too long, to say nothing of the first cancer ward she ruined. She’s gleaned a lot more about the Pilgrimage than one might expect from a Zeka, but she is young, unguided, and too powerful for anyone’s good.

Sometimes, Dawn gets angry when a patient recovers too well and gets to go home, especially if they’ve been mean. The parents’ smiles are what really pushes her buttons. Dawn makes those patients sick again. She might even cut them open to see if they get sick like her. She’s not sure why she cries every time they do.

Description

Dawn is a skinny girl with long, greasy blond hair and crooked teeth. She smiles big and often, and asks a ton of questions. Dawn puts on a carefree front. She knows where to find just about everything in hospitals, and how to get around without being seen. She’s even picked up medical procedures from nurses. If you need food, medicine, a place to lay low, or an escape route, Dawn is an invaluable friend. She’ll trade any of these for information with other Prometheans. Dawn is jealous of anyone with loving parents, though she takes most of her anger out on the children. Dawn wears a pale blue hospital gown, scrub pants, and a dark hoodie with plenty of pockets sewn inside. Dawn’s disfigurements are what she thinks her parents meant by “sick,” and it’s hard to blame her. Tumors bulge beneath her skin and break the surface at every node. Her features are distorted and swollen. Dawn’s eyes glow a sickly yellow. When she’s stressed, some of her extremities leak viscous neoplasm studded with blobs of pus and tumorous tissue.

Secrets

Once, Dawn met a nasty doctor on call in a cancer ward’s night shift. He gave her disgusted looks; she could feel the revulsion oozing between his teeth. Dawn felt shame for the first time. The night doctor later screamed at her, and hit a patient. Dawn heard some other doctors talking about “liability,” so she sat herself in the vents above his desk without moving for an entire week. She didn’t know everyone would get so violent. She didn’t know they’d die.

Rumors

“Stay away from the hospital downtown. It belongs to a Zeka. She looks so small, but she will kill anyone who isn’t of her Lineage.”

Dawn has scared away a few Prometheans by accident. She doesn’t mean to hurt them, but whenever they start using Transmutations, she gets excited and tries to copy them. That’s usually when they run.

“She’s Princess Nuke. Her genitor is the granddaddy of all granddaddies, the Tsar himself. He left her there to grow, and one day, he’ll come back to collect.”

Dawn’s parents were an Osiran and an Ulgan. They thought using the x-ray machines and other hazardous equipment stored in the hospital basement would unify their humours; they thought they were ready to be genitors, that they would never abandon their child the way they were abandoned. They were wrong. The radiation was too powerful. They blame it for corrupting their progeny. Dawn, for her part, would give anything to see her parents again.

“If you’re bad, the Tumor Fairy will come and give your cancer teeth so it’ll crawl through your guts and eat you inside out.”

Dawn has been a fixture at local hospitals long enough for younger patients to mythologize the glimpses they’ve caught. One of them pointed at her one night and screamed that at her. The girl wouldn’t stop screaming. She wouldn’t stop tearing at the life-support devices either. Dawn was hurt — she got so angry only the security guard’s presence deterred her from vengeance. She came back the next night to find out the girl had died. The name “Tumor Fairy” makes Dawn’s mouth taste like ashes. She’ll slink away to cry if she hears it.

Story Hooks

The characters needs a hospital, and find themselves caught in the crosshairs of a doctor-turned-hunter. The hunter may be missing a few organs and a leg, but he’s determined to kill “the monster preying on these patients.” Does he mean the young Zeka whose Disquiet caused a lockdown, or the sublimatus stalking the morgue? Between the staff, the patients, the hunter, the Pandoran, and the Tumor Fairy, the throng is in for a wild night.

A friendly Promethean couple shares their refuge with the throng, and tell stories about a Nuclear Promethean holed up in a hospital in the city. The characters find a young Zeka who has done terrible things, but wants to get better — she doesn’t want to be “sick.” Can they teach Dawn? Does the Promethean couple match Dawn’s stories about her genitors, and will the throng attempt to stage a reunion?

The characters know someone who works at the local hospital, who has described what sounds like a Promethean being held under quarantine there. They find a Wasteland threatening to enter advanced stages by the time they arrive, but it’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Can they free Dawn from a hospital floor packed by human medical authorities, with more on the way? How will they react when she reveals what she is during their escape?

Dawn

Elpis: Recovery Torment: Jealous Lineage: Zeky Refinement: Cuprum Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3 Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 1 Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 3 Mental Skills: Computer 2, Investigation 3, Medicine (Surgery) 2, Occult (Prometheans) 3 Physical Skills: Larceny 2, Stealth 2 Social Skills: Persuasion 2, Socialize (Medical Professionals) 2, Subterfuge 3 Merits: Anonymity 1, Danger Sense, Small-Framed Health: 5 Azoth: 1 Pyros/per turn: 10/1 Transmutations: Metamorphosis — Tegere (Metastasize); Sensorium — Vitreous Humour Willpower: 6 Pilgrimage: 2 Size: 4 Speed: 10 Defense: 3 Initiative: 6 Armor: 0

Unique Distillation: Metastasize

This unique Distillation of Tegere is the Tumor Fairy’s curse.

Dawn focuses the radiation running through her to warp healthy cells into cancerous ones, creating a tumor in the body of the person she’s touching.

Cost: 1 Pyros Dice Pool: Resolve + Medicine + Azoth vs. target’s Stamina + Supernatural Tolerance Action: Instant

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: Dawn’s body reacts adversely. She gains the grave Sick Tilt for two turns. Failure: Dawn’s tumors writhe and leak. She gains the moderate Sick Tilt for one turn. Success: The target gains the grave Sick Tilt. Exceptional Success: The target gains the grave Sick Tilt. If they attack Dawn, they take a further point of lethal damage per turn they do so, as the tumors she implanted attack their insides.

#Onyx Path Publishing

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your-dietician · 3 years

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Dossier vs. Arizona State football program revealed

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/ncaa-football/dossier-vs-arizona-state-football-program-revealed/

Dossier vs. Arizona State football program revealed

The dossier of documents sent to the Arizona State compliance department and the NCAA enforcement department on May 31 begins with a blunt message about allegations of NCAA improprieties in the ASU football program.

“I am writing this letter to inform you about recruiting violations that are occurring at Arizona State University in their Football department. My objective is…providing enough information to assure you if Arizona State football is looked into, there will be violations found.”

From there, the letter provides, sometimes in meticulous detail, allegations of a series of potential NCAA violations. It specifically names 10 Arizona State “individual staff members to investigate” and lists 13 “illegal recruiting prospects” who visited campus during the COVID-19 dead period.

Overall, there are more than a dozen allegations in the dossier, which was viewed by Yahoo Sports this week. Some of the allegations are specific and have documented receipts and screenshots of emails the dossier cites as evidence of ASU staffers allegedly arranging trips for prospects to visit campus. Others are more general and do not have direct proof about a recruit visiting campus or a coach entertaining a parent at a restaurant in the dead period. ASU has confirmed the NCAA is investigating the allegations.

The dossier also includes a picture that’s alleged in the documents to be head coach Herm Edwards purportedly leading a top 100 recruit from the Class of 2022 around ASU’s weight room. Yahoo Sports could not independently verify the identity of the photo’s subjects, who have their backs to the camera.

Starting in the spring of 2020 and lasting until June 1, 2021, no school could host recruits on campus because of the NCAA-mandated dead period prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was legal for recruits to visit on their own and walk campus, which ASU assistant coaches claimed to Yahoo Sports some of the recruits did. What irked rivals throughout the Pac-12 and around college football was how brazen Arizona State was in allegedly breaking the rules because of the confluence of the competitive advantage and health risks during the pandemic.

Story continues

In totality, the breadth of the evidence and potential investigative leads provide significant building blocks for an NCAA case against Edwards and ASU. The volume of recruits named will give the NCAA the ability to offer immunity to the players and their families.

Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards is facing an NCAA investigation into potential recruiting violations. (Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports)

While NCAA investigations are notoriously slow and generally ineffective because of the lack of subpoena power, the enforcement staff will have the powerful tool of being able to leverage the eligibility of players for the truth. Also, multiple former staff members have told Yahoo Sports that they are happy to cooperate with the NCAA, a rarity for an organization that often gets stonewalled by the code of silence many adopt in the sport.

ASU’s time in the crosshairs is unfolding amid a backdrop where one Pac-12 coach (David Shaw) and another league athletic director (Oregon State’s Scott Barnes) have publicly criticized ASU’s reported behavior. ASU’s lack of any announcement of specific personnel decisions tied to the allegations, silence from president Michael Crow and the lack of contrition in public comments by athletic director Ray Anderson — “It can’t be something that bogs us down,” he told azcentral.com — have set a compelling stage.

Crow and ASU declined comment to Yahoo Sports on Wednesday, saying the NCAA has asked them not to speak amid the investigation.

The most detailed part sent to the NCAA is documentation of flights for recruits that were alleged to have been arranged by three ASU assistant coaches: Chris Hawkins, Prentice Gill and Adam Breneman. That includes screenshots of emails that show Regina Jackson, the mother of star quarterback Jayden Daniels, allegedly helping book more than $1,100 in flights for recruits and the adults accompanying them on a recruiting trip from Florida, according to the documents. Daniels himself is not implicated with any wrongdoing in the document and Jackson denied any involvement helping ASU.

Anderson’s public ambivalence toward the allegations amplified the stakes at a university whose nine major NCAA violations in its history are more than any other school in the Power Five.

A picture and a group text chain

On the official Arizona State football calendar for coaches, Feb. 7 is clearly marked: “COACHES OFF.”

Still, the dossier of allegations includes a photo that is said to be of head coach Herm Edwards touring a top 100 recruit around the ASU football weight room. The picture provided to the NCAA and viewed by Yahoo Sports is taken from a distant stairwell. Neither Edwards nor the recruit are directly facing the camera, but the image captures a subject of Edwards’ stature wearing a maroon bucket hat Edwards often wears.

In the backdrop of the picture on an oversized weight room television is a women’s basketball game between Notre Dame and Louisville, which tipped off Feb. 7 at 2 p.m. at the Yum Center in Louisville.

The picture epitomizes the challenge facing Arizona State as it tries to navigate NCAA scrutiny while attempting to push through with its season. The Sun Devils return 20 starters and are trendy picks to win the Pac-12 South.

Nothing highlights the potential NCAA risk of that more than a recruit appearing to meet with Edwards. There is another specific allegation in the dossier of a recruit, who ended up signing with ASU, meeting with Edwards and two other assistant coaches in his “private office.”

The manner in which the picture and dossier emerged should also be of concern to ASU officials. Sources told Yahoo Sports that a group of nearly a dozen staffers communicated regularly on group text about the allegedly illicit activities in the program.

The point of the group text wasn’t to accumulate allegations and pictures with a time stamp. Rather, it was used as a real-time exclamation of the disbelief of what was happening in the program, a source said. That disbelief was accentuated as staffers saw coaches who weren’t participating in the alleged behavior pushed out of their jobs or had responsibilities stripped away as associate head coach Antonio Pierce gained power.

“That group text wasn’t necessarily to bring to the NCAA, but it was a way to say, ‘Look at how blatant they are being about it,’” said a source. “It was a way we scoffed at it, like, ‘Can you believe these guys?’”

As another source told Yahoo Sports: “It didn’t even seem like they wanted to hide it. It was so pervasive.”

Oct 19, 2019; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Arizona State Sun Devils head coach Herm Edwards reacts in the first quarter against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Emailed receipts of plane ticket purchases for ASU recruits

There appear to be two layers to the alleged illegal visits that NCAA investigators will likely have to examine.

The first is the actual visits and any potential complicity of Edwards and the coaching staff in encouraging recruits to come to Tempe and escorting them through the facility at a time when that was explicitly barred at every program.

The second is how the players who came on the alleged visits paid for the travel, including plane tickets, meals and the hotels or other places that they stayed.

The documents provided to the NCAA offer a glimpse of some of the ways ASU coaches allegedly helped bring players to campus. The players listed in the documents who are alleged to have taken illicit visits to ASU during the dead period are from New York, Pennsylvania, California, Missouri, Texas, Nevada, Florida, Indiana and Nebraska.

Some are enrolled at ASU. Others committed to other schools or remain uncommitted. Some are committed to ASU in upcoming classes.

The most specificity in the documents comes with a group of three recruits who hail from Florida in the Class of 2022. All are highly regarded with offer sheets from blue-blood programs.

There are documents that show at least five tickets alleged to have been purchased by Regina Jackson, star quarterback Jayden Daniels’ mother, for the recruits and their guardians in March 2021. The tickets are emailed to Jackson directly from two different airlines and the receipts show the same credit card tied to the purchases.

Included in the dossier is an email forwarding a ticket for the guardian of one of the recruits. The email is from Jackson to an email address for Chris Hawkins, the ASU defensive backs coach. Hawkins then forwarded the ticket to the guardian. There are receipts explicitly listing the names of two recruits on their tickets with their flight locator numbers, and both are purchased by the credit card that the documents tie to Jackson.

In a phone interview Wednesday, Hawkins said he did not deny knowing the recruits were going to be in the area. He denied paying for or helping arrange the trip: “I’ve never paid a kid. I’ve never paid for a flight. I’ve never done any of that. I made $100,000 last year. I was the lowest-paid [Power Five] coach in America. I didn’t have the money to be paying players or paying for flights. I live check-to-check. I’m not one of the big guys yet.”

According to the document: “This image shows the credit card of Regina Jackson and the name, ticket number, for [a recruit]. Different ticket number than [another recruit] but same credit card as the other two.”

In multiple phone interviews Wednesday, Jackson denied any part in paying for the recruits to come to campus. She said in March she received notifications that her Google email account — the same one listed in the documents — “was compromised.” Then Jackson said she called her credit card company and canceled the charges after being notified of the flight charges on her card. “It’s unfortunate,” Jackson said. “My credit card company notified me of the charges and they sent me a new card. They charged everything back because they realized it wasn’t me.”

Jackson also said her Google account had no record of sending Hawkins an email and that the two know each other but don’t communicate via email. She added that she didn’t know the recruits or their families. “I did not support or help or do anything like that,” she said in reference to helping ASU recruit.

Jackson’s presence could prove a unique test of NCAA rules. While the history of college sports is rich with stories of parents accepting extra benefits, it’s exceedingly rare that the parent of a star player is linked to providing them.

Also included in the documents are email screenshots of Adam Breneman, the tight ends coach who was a graduate assistant at the time, sending a plane ticket from Philadelphia to Phoenix to a recruit on July 24, 2020, for a flight on July 25. The screenshot includes an email to the Google address of the recruit, who enrolled at a school in a different conference.

Included in the documents is a screenshot with a specific credit card number the documents allege is tied to Breneman. Breneman declined to comment to Yahoo Sports.

There’s also a screenshot of an American Airlines itinerary of a flight from St. Louis to Phoenix that’s emailed to the address of wide receivers coach Prentice Gill on Dec. 4, 2020. The email is for a ticket in the name of a recruit from Missouri, who was scheduled to fly to Phoenix later that day with a layover listed in Oklahoma City.

Gill told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday he did not get an email from American Airlines on that day: “I’ve never bought a kid anything. I’ve never given a kid money. I’ve never done any of that. I didn’t purchase his ticket. I didn’t pay for anything. I do know that he came to Arizona. He came and visited, he did. He told me that.”

What will NCAA do with allegations?

The NCAA would appear to have a chance at an effective case against ASU. Attorney Stu Brown, a veteran of NCAA probes who is not affiliated with the ASU investigation, said generally that the NCAA “tends to believe a student athlete or prospective student athlete more easily than they believe coaches, administrators or boosters.”

The 13 players listed in the document are believed to be only a portion of the total number who actually visited ASU, giving the NCAA a wide swath of athletes to interview — and use their eligibility as leverage for the truth.

“I think this would hit all those marks for the enforcement [staff] being the kind and the number of witnesses from which they would like to elicit testimony,” Brown said.

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a-lil-perspective · 1 year

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Other Parents vs Crosshair

I told you sniper baby shenanigans.

• Seeing your child pointing a gun

Other Parents: Oh my God, put that down, PUT THAT DOWN RIGHT NOW, where did you even get that—!!??

Crosshair: *not even glancing up from his paper* Keida, don’t shoot your brothers, it’s nine in the morning.

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unenlightenedscot · 6 years

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The Scotch Whisky Association vs the People of Scotland

Capitalism's Ugly Face

Yesterday was one of those days when it is OK to be proud of your government. If a governments job is to protect its citizens, then yesterday the Scottish Government won a long overdue win for the people of Scotland. In the other corner we can see a trade association showing up capitalism at its venal worst.

It has been five years since the Scottish Parliament passed legislation mandating the minimum pricing of alcohol, but it is only now that the government has finally gotten passed the last legal challenge.

It is to the eternal shame of the Scotch Whisky Association that they found every court to appeal the legislation, never finding a court that agreed with their position. But appealing to the last and all because the Scottish Government wanted to ensure that alcohol couldn’t be sold for less than water.

Scotland has a lethally dangerous relationship with alcohol and the Scottish Government wanted to slow down our access to the cheapest booze, the sort that problem drinkers tend to gravitate toward.The news reports have been filled with the stories of the 3,000 plus alcohol related deaths in Scotland but this is only the tip of the iceberg. The leading weapon in Scottish assault cases is the Buckfast bottle(one of the products in the crosshairs of the Scottish legislation). Because of cheap booze our A&E departments spend most Friday and Saturday nights looking like a war zone.

We are not even close to the end of the the problems, alcoholics live in society, they live with spouses and families, with parents and siblings, with children. Only someone who has lived with the terror of an alcoholic on a binge will know the genuine terror, the sense of clinging on until the pass out and peace is regained, as an adult dealing with this is hard, for a child it is causing deep emotional scars that may come back to haunt society generations later, allowing the effect to ripple out further than you can imagine.

Now this legislation may only make alcohol a little bit more expensive, but alcoholics can only drink until there is no more(it is a strange sense of relief when 10pm hits and you are then dealing with a finite amount of alcohol). If that means that they have 20% less to drink then it is 20% less traumatic. Relationships may survive 20% less, A&E will be significantly quieter with 20% less. Children will sleep better with 20% less.

What enraged me was that the Scotch Whisky Association fought this legislation. It will now cost a minimum of £14 for a bottle of spirit. I don’t believe that SWA members sell many bottles at that price point. For a long time they have been working to increase the value of their product, creating a high quality high price product treasured around the world. They should have welcomed this legislation clearing out those who give whisky a bad name. But instead they chose to fight.

They claimed this was against free trade rules, so to defend one of the tenets of capitalism they fought to the end, for the right to do what they wanted for as long as they wanted disregarding the social cost that someone else will pick up, just to ensure that they maximise profit.

It will be a few years before we get an idea of just how many people this legislation saves, and by extension and idea of how many lives that we can lay at the door of the SWA.

Today was a small victory, a small step toward a better country.

#minimum pricing #scotland #scottish government #scotch whisky association

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navek15 · 7 years

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Fairy Tail: A New Day Ch. 4

Chapter 4: Team Morningstar vs. Eisenwald Zeke groaned as his alarm started to ring. Still a bit tired, the archer turned off his alarm and walked towards his window, opening it to reveal the morning sun. Team Morningstar had just come back from the Everlue job yesterday and the brunette was looking forward for another day at Fairy Tail. His room was pretty standard. A desk/bookshelf containing some of his favorite literary works, a few mechanisms spread over the room, and two pictures on his dresser. The first picture showed Team Morningstar when they were younger, Zeke wearing a pair of spiral-patterned glasses and Alyssa being the smallest of the group along with a silver-haired girl and another brown-haired boy. The other picture had Zeke as a kid as he was in the arms of his smiling parents. After getting dressed and grooming himself, the archer wizard walked down the stairs and smelled something cooking as he entered the kitchen. "Good morning, bud." A man in his late 40s greeted him. He was a large man with brown hair and a matching beard with brown eyes behind a pair of rectangular glasses. He wore a white undershirt and black sweatpants. He also had a blue Fairy Tail mark on his left forearm. This was Lyle Hudson, father of Ezekiel Hudson and husband to Amelia Hudson. "One of your friends showed up." Zeke raised an eyebrow and turned to see Happy on their dinner table eating a cooked fish. "Good morning, Zeke." "Morning Happy." Zeke said as he sat down at the table. "So what brings you our humble abode?" "Natsu and Alyssa are on a date and I didn't want to feel like the third wheel." The cat answered. "Sorry about that." "It's okay." Happy said with a smile. "Natsu promised that he would take me fishing after our next mission." "Good for you." Zeke smiled as his dad put down a platter of pancakes. "Kind of early for a date though." Lyle said as he sat down. "Aye. But then again those two aren't a normal couple." "That's true." Lyle chuckled, having known his son's teammates for years. "By the way, I talked with Amelia last night and she said she should be able to visit next week." Hearing this brought a smile to Zeke's face. "Mom's coming home? Awesome!" After the three had finished breakfast (and Lyle had changed into a blue polo shirt, black slacks and brown shoes), they headed for Fairy Tail and saw that the place was lively as ever. "Lyle, you old son of a bitch!" Wakaba said as the two shook hands. "Finally back from that Translation mission in Bosco, huh?" "Well ancient Vulandrian isn't exactly the easiest language to decipher." The bespectacled man replied before seeing his other friend. "Macao! I heard you beat nineteen vulcans! Pretty impressive." "Thanks." The blue-haired man said as the two shook hands. "Hey, Zeke. Happy." Lucy said as she greeted the two. "Morning Lucy." The two greeted. "Have you guys seen Natsu and Alyssa?" "They're on a date." Zeke answered, the blonde girl nodding in understanding. The archer then motioned to his father. "Anyway, I'd like to introduce to someone. Lucy, this my dad Lyle. Dad, this is Lucy Heartfilia, the newest member of Team Morningstar." "Nice to meet you." Lucy said with a smile. "The pleasure's mine, Ms. Heartfilia." The older gentlemen said with a bow before whispering into his son's ear. "She's kind of cute, don't you think?" "What are you getting at?" Zeke whispered back. "I'm saying I don't see a ring on that finger." Lyle said with a grin, making his son flabbergasted. "Haha, just pulling your leg buddy." He said with a pat on the back. "Don't joke about that kind of stuff, Dad!" The archer exclaimed as his teammates chuckled. "Well then, what else have you got going on?" Macao asked as the three friends sat down at a table. "Well, a certain Royal Knight is coming to town next." The bearded man stated. "Amelia's coming back? That's great! A good old Team Crosshair reunion!" Wakaba exclaimed, referring to their old team. "Let's celebrate. Hey Mira! Three beers over here!" He called out to the passing by barmaid. "It's ten in the morning." Lyle stated with a sweat drop. "Don't you think it's a wee bit early to get plastered?" "Oh, lighten up." The smoke wizard replied. "Make that two beers and a water." "Sure, coming right up!" The cheerful woman said as she approached. "And how about a date while we're at it?" He followed up, blowing out heart-shaped smoke from his pipe. This made his friends slap their heads. "Really?" Macao asked. "You do this every day." The white-haired barmaid just smiled as she placed their drinks on the table. "But Wakaba..." Mira was covered in and transformed into an older lady. "You already have a wife at home." "Will stop turning into my wife?! It's freaky!" Wakaba jumped back his friends chuckled. "It's always so noisy in here. Can't a girl drink in peace?" Cana asked as she brought her drip to her lips, only to find it empty. "Damn, empty already." "Maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't drink so much." A lilac-haired girl named Laki commented. "Oh shut up." The brunette groaned as a certain ice wizard passed by their table, making the two women blush in embarrassment. "Gray, your clothes are gone." "OH CRAP!" The black-haired man said, rushing to get redressed. At the job request board, the three members of Team Morningstar were looking for the right job. "I didn't know wizard jobs were so varied." Lucy stated. "It's not all fighting monsters." Zeke replied. "Aye." "Hey, Lucy." The three turned and saw Loki walking towards them. The playboy grabbed Lucy's hand and held it close to his face. "If you're still looking for a team, how about you and me form a team of love?" Before he could kiss her hand, the celestial wizard quickly pulled away. "Ya, no thanks." Lucy replied as she motioned to her friends. "I've already joined Team Morningstar." "Such a shame." The orange-haired man said as he pressed up his sunglasses. "A princess like you joining a team of trouble makers like them." "If anyone's a trouble maker, it's you." Zeke stated, annoyed by the ring wizard. "Or do I need to remind you of what happened when you flirted with Alyssa?" Loki's body suddenly became pale as he remembered the day he flirted with the speed queen. It ended up with him going through a wall, third degree burns and a major bruising to his nards. He could recall the yell of a certain dragon slayer. "So you think it's okay to hit on someone else's girlfriend!? Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" "Please don't mention that again!" The ring wizard begged. "I still have nightmares from that day!" "And yet you still haven't learned your lesson." Happy said. "Yes I..." He then thought back to how many women he had hit on, and remembered that a few of them were already taken. "Okay, you made your point. But I can't help myself. When I see a beautiful woman, my heart aches at their divine presence! Is it wrong to try and share my love?" "You're confusing love with flings." Zeke stated. "Me personally, I'd rather have a serious relationship with one girl than a lecherous playboy." "And how many girlfriends has that attitude got you?" Loki asked with a smirk. "Oh right, zero. So anyway, Lucy..." He turned to her (ignoring the glare Zeke was giving him) and was about to flirt with her again, but he noticed the key ring on her belt. "Ah! You're a Celestial Wizard!?" He recoiled in shock. "Ya, what of it?" Lucy asked, confused at his reaction. The orange-haired playboy turned away and ran, tears falling out of his eyes as he ran out of the guild hall. "What a cruel twist of fate! I'm sorry, but we can never be together!" He cried dramatically. "Okaaay, that was weird." Lucy stated with a sweat drop. "Rumor has it that Loki had a relationship with a Celestial Wizard that ended on bad terms." Happy said. "Makes sense." The blonde replied as the three went back to looking for a job. Meanwhile... "Dare! Dare to believe you can survive!" Natsu and Alyssa sang together. The two had come to a local karaoke place for their date and were drawing a crowd. "You hold the future in your hand! Dare! Dare to keep all of your dreams alive! It's time to take a stand!" The two sung as the crowd applauded. A few minutes later, the two were walking through the streets, their arms linked. "That was so much fun!" Alyssa exclaimed. "Can't argue with you there." Natsu replied. "Sorry I couldn't take you somewhere more extravagant. Maybe we should have taken a little bit of Mr. Melon's reward money." "It's fine." The amazonian woman said. "As long as you're with me, any place is great." Natsu blushed and gave his signature smile. "You're awesome." He said before leaning up and kissing his girlfriend's marked cheek, making her giggle. However, this tender moment was interrupted by a certain ring wizard running past them as he screamed. "Was that Loki?" The speed queen asked. "Yup. And it looks like he's headed for the guild." The dragon slayer observed as the couple ran after their fellow wizard. Unbeknownst to them, a red-haired woman in silver armor and a blue skirt was walking through town, carrying a large decorated horn over her shoulder and wearing a serious expression on her face. Back at the guild, Zeke, Lucy and Happy were sitting at the bar, chatting with Mirajane as they waited to tell their teammates about their new mission. Mirajane had told them about how Master Makarov had left for the Guild Master's Conference in Clover and explained to Lucy the nature of the Dark Guilds, wizard guilds unauthorized by the Magic Council but still operated, usually doing underhanded jobs. Everyone in the guild was doing their usual routine until Loki slammed the door opened. "GUYS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" The playboy exclaimed with a panicked expression. "Erza...she's back." Everyone except Lyle, Zeke, Happy, Mira and Lucy froze in fear and started to panic a little. The most terrified one was Gray as he began sweating severely. "She's back?" A voice behind Loki said causing him to jump and turn, seeing Natsu and Alyssa. "Ah! Where did you guys come from?" "We saw you screaming through the streets and followed you." Alyssa said before scowling. "So Ms. Tincan is back. That's just freaking fantastic." The couple joined their friends at the bar. "Well, it's official." Zeke said as he rubbed his forehead. "Today is gonna suck." "Aye." Happy said with little to no energy. "Everyone else is scared at just the mention of her name." Lucy stated. "But you guys just look annoyed." "That's because she's not really scary." Natsu replied. "Once you realize that the worst she can do is beat us up, the fear of her tends to fade." "She won't be beating up anybody if I have anything to say about it." Alyssa grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest. The sound of metal boots clanking against cobblestone was heard as most of the guild started to sweat. "That sounds like Erza." Laki muttered in fear. "Those are definitely her footsteps." Wakaba said as he bit down on his pipe. The entire guild watched as the red-haired woman walked into the guild hall. She placed the giant horn the ground, making a loud noise at it hit the floor. "I have returned." She said as she looked around. "Where is Master Makarov?" "Welcome back, Erza." Mirajane greeted with her usual cheery demeanor. "The master already left for the conference in Clover. He should be back by tomorrow." "I see." The armored woman said. "So, what is that?" A wizard asked, pointing to the giant horn. "It's the horn of a monster I defeated. The locals were kind enough to decorate it in a show of gratitude." She looked back at the man. "Is there a problem?" "No, not at all!" The man answered in a panic. "She doesn't look as monstrous as you guys described." Lucy whispered to her team. "Looks can be deceiving." Natsu whispered back. "She's probably heard about what happened at Mt. Hakobe." Lyle whispered to Macao. "I'm screwed." He whispered to himself as he started to sweat. "Listen up!" Erza addressed the guild with a stern expression. "During my travels, I've heard that Fairy Tail has been causing trouble again. While the master may not care, I do!" She turned her attention to Cana, who was drinking out of wine barrel. "Cana! If you keep drinking like that, you'll blow out both of your livers!" She then turned to a dancing man. "Vijeeter! Take the dancing outside!" She turned to Wakaba. "Wakaba, get rid of that filthy habit!" The older man dropped his head on the table. Erza then turned to Nab, who was standing by the request board. "Nab, I figured you would be by the board. Stop being indecisive and pick a job already!" The tribal looking man nodded in fear as she turned her attention towards Macao. "Macao!" She said, making the blue-haired man sweat as she said nothing and just sighed. "Please just say something!" He whimpered. "I don't even know what to say." The redhead groaned as she rubbed her forehead. "You've caused so much trouble." "It's like she's a one-woman disciplinary committee." Lucy whispered to her team, the other agreeing. "Now, are Gray and Team Morningstar here?" Erza asked. A few scared wizards pointed to the ice mage and the team. 'Traitors!' Natsu screamed in his mind. "Hey, Erza." The half-naked man said as he shook like crazy. "What's up?" "Frostbite still hasn't gotten over the beating Erza gave him years ago." Natsu whispered to Lucy. "No kidding. He picked a bad day to walk around nude." Zeke whispered. 'To be fair, I kind of understand.' The blonde girl thought, thinking back her first reaction as seeing Gray naked. Erza then turned her attention towards Team Morningstar, making Lucy flinch as the rest of teammates did nothing. "Ah, Alyssa. Nice to see you're eating healthy." A vein appeared on the speed queen's head. "What's that suppose to mean?" She asked as she approached the redhead. "Oh, nothing. I think it's great that you're not self-conscious about your body." "Tough talk coming from someone so insecure about their femininity that she has to hid behind a cheep set of armor." The orange-haired woman retorted as she leaned down, pressing her head against Erza's. "Oh, so the woman who out-muscles every man in the guild except Lyle and Elfman wants to talk about femininity!" The redhead scowled as she pressed back. "And for your information, this armor is a one-of-kind custom made!" "Ya, and it still looks cheep!" The amazon replied as figurative sparks came from the two's eyes as the growled at each other. "Anyone else getting a sense of deju vu?" Happy asked. "Ya, they're kind of like Natsu and Gray." Lucy stated. "Please don't compare me to her." Gray requested. After a few more seconds of scowling, Erza moved back from Alyssa and looked at the whole team. "Now I know we've had our...disagreements in the past. But right now, I have a serious favor to ask you guys. While was in Onibas, I heard something troubling. Normally I would consult with the master about this, but since he's out at the moment, I figured the five of you would be the next best approach." This statement shocked everyone in the guild, especially the aforementioned wizards. 'What would worry Erza so much that she would willingly work with us? Especially Alyssa?' Zeke pondered. "Team, group huddle! That means you too, Lucy!" The five of them huddled together and started whispering. After a minute or so, the group broke and looked at Erza. "Mira, cancel our bandit mission." Zeke said before continuing. "As of this moment Team Morningstar has formed a temporary alliance with Gray Fullbuster and Erza Scarlet." "Sure thing." Mira responded with stunned expression. "Meet me at the train station tomorrow morning." Erza ordered. "I will explain the details there." "Hold on!" Gray exclaimed. "You have a problem?" Erza asked with a glare, making the ice wizard shake his head no in fear. "Erza...Natsu...Alyssa...Zeke...and Grey." Mirajane whispered to herself, catching Lucy's attention. "With the five of them joining up, this might just be the strongest team in the history of Fairy Tail!" "EEEEHHH!?" 'Stay strong, my son.' Lyle thought as he looked at Zeke with a serious expression. 'I have a feeling you're going to need it.' And then... "AHHH! What was Erza thinking?!" A certain salmon-haired dragon slayer yelled as Team Morningstar and Gray were waiting at Magnolia Station the next day. "Working with you is the worst!" Natsu yelled at the fully clothed ice wizard. "Hey, I'm not happy about this either, Pyroboy!" Gray yelled back. "Ice Prick!" "Fire Crotch!" As the two argued, the rest of the team just stared at the two. "There they go again." Happy commented. "Don't they ever get tried of yelling at each other?" Lucy asked. "I've know these guys since we were kids." Zeke replied. "They've been fighting since then and I don't think they'll ever stop." Lucy sighed and turned towards Alyssa, who was staring off with a bored expression. "Hey, Alyssa." She started, getting the speed queen's attention. "Is there a reason you have a grudge against Erza?" Alyssa blinked before sighing. "It's not that I hate her or anything. It's just that we were never on the best of terms when we were kids." "You weren't on good terms with Mira, but now she's your best friend." Happy stated. "That's different. Mira apologized for what she did. I've never heard Erza apologize even once." The orange-haired amazon said, confusing Lucy since Mirajane was one of the nicest people in the guild. "Sorry for the wait, everyone." Erza's voice said. "I hope you haven't been waiting long." "It's o-" Lucy turned and was shocked at what she saw, which was Erza pulling a large cart of luggage behind her. "THAT'S A LOT OF LUGGAGE!" "Well let's go good buddy!" Gray cheered with a fake smile as he wrapped his arm around Natsu, angering the dragon slayer. "Take your arm off me before I burn it off." Natsu said through gritted teeth. "Ah, it's good to see you two getting along." Erza said with a smile. "Are you kidding? I'd take a bullet for this guy." The ice wizard said as he sweated. "That's a lie and you know it." Natsu replied. "Shut up." The black-haired man whispered. Erza turned her head and saw the flabbergasted blonde girl. "Oh, you're the new girl. What was your name again? Lu...Lu...Luigi." "It's Lucy!" The blonde corrected. "That's it." The redhead said. "Why are you here?" "She's the newest member of Team Morningstar!" Happy proudly stated. "Oh, I see." Erza said with surprise as she examined the girl. "Normally I'd be against bringing a newbie on a mission like this, but you must something special if these guys let you join their team." 'Was that a complement?' Lucy asked in her head. "Look, Erza." Alyssa said as she walked towards the redhead. "For the sake of the mission, I'll try to get along with you." The taller woman then pointed at her with a determined expression. "But when this is all over, you and I are gonna have a rematch! One on One!" The speed queen's statement surprised everyone. "Does your girlfriend have a death wish?" Gray asked Natsu, who said nothing as he looked at the orange-haired woman. "I've gotten a lot stronger now." Alyssa stated as she clenched her fist. "So don't except an easy win this time." Erza was stunned but then a smirk appeared on her face. "As much I hate to admit, I can tell that you've indeed gotten a lot stronger since our last bout." The two stared down each with matching determined expressions as the redhead held out an armored glove. "Very well, when this mission is over, the two of us will fight. May the best woman win." Alyssa smirked and shook her hand. "Don't worry. I plan to." "OH YEAH!" Natsu yelled as his head lit on fire, also setting a part of Gray's jacket of fire. "I'M ALL FIRED UP NOW! LET'S GO!" A few minutes later, Natsu's tone was different as he laid on his girlfriend's lap, her caressing helping him deal with his severe motion sickness as they rode the train. Sitting next to them was Zeke reading a novel and Happy polishing one of his Lacrima bombs. Across from them was Gray staring out the window, Lucy who had Plue in her lap and Erza looking at the couple. "You know, I can help you with your motion sickness." The armored woman stated. "No way!" Alyssa exclaimed. "The last time you said that, you just punched him in the stomach!" "What? He can't be motion sick if he's unconscious." Erza replied, not seeing the fallacy in her logic. "Please no." Natsu groaned. "You just traded one form of agonizing pain for another." Zeke stated as he turned a page, not caring about the glare Erza was giving him. Feeling that the tension was high, Lucy decided to ask Erza a question. "So what kind of magic do you use, Erza? There was no info about it in Sorcerer Weekly." "Erza's magic is really pretty." Happy stated. "It makes her enemies bleed a lot." "How is that pretty?" The celestial wizard asked. "It's not that great." The armored woman stated. "Personally, I think Gray's magic is more beautiful." Hearing this got the Ice Wizard's attention and he decided to give a demonstration. He held his left hand out and placed his right fist against his palm. After creating some frost, he removed his fist and revealed an ice sculpture of the Fairy Tail emblem. "It's no big deal. Just Ice Magic." "So you use Ice and Natsu uses fire." Lucy stated. "That's why you guys don't get along. You guys are opposite elements." "I've never thought of it that way." Erza replied. "Nah, I just hate his guts." The rivals said as they briefly glared before Natsu's motion sickness kicked back in. "So, are you going tell us the mission details?" Zeke asked Erza as he put in a bookmark and closed his novel. "We're going up against the dark guild, Eisenwald." The armored woman stated. "When I stopped over in Onibas, I overheard a couple of Eisenwald wizards talking in a bar. They mentioned the name Erigor." "Erigor, the ace of Eisenwald." Zeke clarified as he pulled out an information Lacrima and brought up his profile. "This guy's been known for his preference in assassination missions. That's why they call him the Grim Reaper." "Grim Reaper." Lucy said nervously. "That's right. The Magic Council prohibits wizards from taking assassination requests, but Erigor chose money over the rules." Erza explained. "Because he and his guild disobeyed the council, they were kicked out of there magic league. But despite this, they still operate as a dark guild." "Still doesn't explain why you think we should intervene." Alyssa stated. "Dark Guilds are usually handed by the Royal Army." "That's true. However, I heard them mention a magical artifact called Lullaby and how they were having trouble with the seal that was placed on it. And given Eisenwald's track record, if they're after a sealed item, it can't be good." "So that's why you needed all of us." Gray concluded. "I'm not so arrogant that I believe I can take on an entire guild on my own." Erza replied with a nod. She clenched her fist and slammed it against her seat arm. "I should have stopped them when I had the chance, but now we have to stop Eisenwald before they do something horrible." "You mentioned Lullaby." Zeke said. "Before we came back from our last mission, we encountered a group of bandits that knew something about Lullaby. They might have been members of Eisenwald, but we'll never know for sure." "Why is that?" Erza asked. "They were killed by some kind of shadow magic." Happy answered, shivering at the memory of the group being sucked into the ground. "Then our mission is simple." Erza stated. "We find Eisenwald, defeat anyone who gets in our way, and take this Lullaby." "Maybe I shouldn't have come along." Lucy muttered. "Lucy, you're making a lot of juice." Happy stated. "It's sweat!" A few hours later, the group had arrived in Onibas and departed the train. After his motion sickness wore off, Erza lead the group to the bar where she had overheard the Eisenwald wizards. "Natsu, do your thing." Zeke ordered. The dragon-slayer nodded and started smelling the table were the dark wizards had sat two days ago. Most of the scents were faint, but he raised his eyebrow as he recognized one of the scents. "Sulfur." He stated. "It's almost identical to one I smelled in the woods, just without the scent of ancient wood." "That wood smell must be Lullaby." Lucy theorized. Suddenly, Natsu's eyes widened and he yelled. "What's wrong?" Alyssa asked. "I recognize the scent from somewhere else!" The dragon-slayer exclaimed. "I thought I was just confusing scents because I was so out of it, but this confirms it!" "Confirms what?" Zeke asked as the salmon-haired man turned towards his team. "The guy behind that shadow magic was on the train!" He said, shocking the team. Meanwhile, a group of wizards were forcing the passengers off the train in Kinugi station. Leading this effort was a man with silver hair, a black scarf, a bare chest, black gloves and a pair of japanese style pants. He had bandages on his wrists and feet, markings on his face and carried a large imposing scythe. "All passengers and crew off the train!" He ordered as the rest of his guild was shoving people off. "Eisenwald is taking over." "Master Erigor." The silver-haired man turned and a saw a man with white clothing and black hair in a pineapple-shaped ponytail. "Ah, Kageyama." He greeted the black-haired man. "I assume you did your part." "Just as planned." Kageyama said as he pulled out a flute with a three-eyed skull at the end. "Lullaby is now ours." "Excellent." Erigor said with a sinister grin as he took the flute. "But we might have to move up our plans." Kageyama stated, causing his master to raise an eyebrow. "There was a group of Fairy Tail wizards on the train." He said, remembering the mark on the orange-haired woman's cheek. "Did they follow you?" "No sir. They got off at Onibas." "Then there's still time." Erigor concluded before addressed the rest of his guildmates. "Double time, people! We're headed for Oshibana! Make sure everything we need is on board." Unknown to the dark wizards, a maniacal laugh was echoing inside of the cursed flute. 'Soon.' Meanwhile, the Master's conference in Clover was in full swing as Guild Masters from all over Fiore were chatting and trading stories. One of these was Master Makarov, who was sitting on table as his cheeks were red from the alcohol he had just partake in. His currently conversing with an...interesting gentleman in a red dress, a bald head, some stubble on his chin and small decorative wings on his back. This was Bob, master of the Blue Pegasus Guild. "I'm so jealous, Maki." The strange master stated. "Your wizards are so full of life. I hear your newest member gave someone quite the thrashing." "Ahh, you mean Lucy. Yep, she's stronger than she looks." The short man said with a smirk. "And let me tell ya, she's got a body that won't quit." "Oh! So naughty, Maki!" Bob responded. "You shouldn't be talking about your wizards like that. Speaking of your new girl, I heard she's joined your guild's demolition squad." Makarov sweat-dropped at the nickname Team Morningstar had gotten. "Yes, that's true. But she seems to be getting used to the Fairy Tail lifestyle." "Oh, you mean acting like a bunch of wild animals?" The two turned and saw a beautiful woman in her early thirties. She had purple curvy hair, black eyes, and tan skin. Her outfit consisted of a black t-shirt with a brown jacket draped over her shoulders, green pants and black combat boots. This was Sicilia Vasquez, master of the Titan Nose Guild. "While I do admit that they did a good job defeating Bora, they still leveled part of Hargeon in the process." "She has a point." A man with brown hair, a black t-shirt, a spiked neck collar, shades and a wizard hat said. This was Goldmine, master of the Quattro Cerberus Guild. "Your wizards do tend to go overboard a lot. The council is afraid that one of these days, Fairy Tail might destroy an entire city by accident." "Ahh, what do I care what those council blow harts say?" Makarov replied. "They're just jealous that my wizards are hot." "And that's the kind of attitude that's going to land you in hot water." Sicilia commented. "Master Makarov! Master Makarov!" The four turned and saw a tiny bird with a wizard hat flying towards them, carrying a letter in it's claws. "You have a letter from Mirajane, sir." "Thank you, little guy." Makarov said as the bird dropped the letter into his hand. He activated the letter, creating a magic seal over the envelope and showing a miniature image of Mirajane. "Hello master." The image said with a smile. "I'm glad you made it back to the conference." "Take it in fellas." The short man said as he showed off the image. "Quite the looker, ain't she." "Not bad." Sicilia said as he parted her hair. "But she's still a got few years left before she could match me." "Something incredible has happened! Erza and Gray joined Team Morningstar on a mission! This might be the strongest team in the history of Fairy Tail!" Any other guild master would have been ecstatic at the possible founding of their guild's strongest team, but in Makarov's case, the thought of those five wizards teaming up almost gave him a stroke. He stared into space before collapsing on the table. "Maki?" Bob asked. "I guess the council has reason to worry." Goldmine commented. 'This is a nightmare!' The twitching master screamed in his head. 'Those five really could destroy an entire city! Okay, calm down. The conference ends today so I can make it back by tomorrow. I just hope nothing happens until then.' And then... After realizing that the wizard with Lullaby was on the train, the group rented a magic-mobile (a vehicle powered by a wizard's magic energy through an arm-placed SE plug) and headed for Kinugi station since that was the next stop on the train's route. Erza was the one at the wheel as they reached Kinugi Station. The group saw that the military had arrived and were helping the civilians. So the they decided to head for the next stop in Oshibana. "Slow down, Erza!" Gray yelled as he held onto the roof of the magic-mobile. "You're gonna blow up the SE plug!" "It doesn't matter!" The armored woman stated as she drove at high speeds through the streets of Oshibana. "We have to stop Eisenwald, no matter the cost." "But you'll use up all your magic by the time we get there!" "Then I'll have to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Besides, I have you guys to back me up." Gray looked at her until a groaning voice came from underneath, he turned and saw Natsu halfway out the window as the rest of Team Morningstar (sans Happy) were trying to pull him in. "Stop it Natsu!" Alyssa exclaimed. "You'll fall out at this rate!" "That's the plan!" The motion sick man groaned. Inside the vehicle, Happy was pondering something. "Hey Lucy. I feel like I'm forgetting to tell you something important." "Something important? What is it?" She asked. "I can't quite remember." The cat said as he tried to think. "But it had something to do with you." The group then saw a large crowd of people gathered by the train station. "I think we might have found them." Zeke said. Erza nodded and parked the magic-mobile. The group got off (with Alyssa carrying her still motion sick boyfriend by his shoulders) and saw smoke coming from the station as the station personal addressed the crowd. "Everybody, please remain calm. There has been a train derailment. Until repairs have been made, the station is closed for the moment." The crowd started discussing that some of them had heard that dark wizards had taken over the station. Erza walked up one of the employees. "What's the situation?" "Why would I tell..." But before he could finish, Erza headbutted him. She turned the next employee and asked the same question, headbutting him when he didn't tell her. She was about to do the same to a third employee, but was stopped by Zeke standing between them. "Easy, Erza. Let me try." Zeke said before turning to the scared employee. "I'm sorry about my associate's behavior. We're from the Fairy Tail guild and we think that a group of dark wizards we've been following have holed up in this station." The employee thought for a second before whispering to Zeke so as not to cause a panic. "You're right. A group called Eisenwald has taken over the station. A few army groups have entered to secure the building, but none of them have come back." "Thank you." The archer whispered back before turning to a confused Erza. "Ever heard of the phrase you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar?" He then turned towards his teammates and Gray. "Alright guys, let's go!" "That was surprisingly easy." Lucy commented. "That's Zeke for ya." Happy replied as the group ran into the station. The seven of them eventually saw a bunch of soldiers covered in bruises and in some cases, their own blood. The gang's reactions ranged from sadness, repulsion, and fear. "They didn't stand a chance against an entire wizard guild." Alyssa sadly stated. Zeke gave the fallen knights a salute and the group moved on until they reached a large room. Inside was the entirety of Eisenwald, all staring down the group. "Welcome to our parlor, Fairy flies." Erigor taunted as he was perched on one of the loudspeakers. "We've been expecting you." "There's so many of them." Lucy said with fear evident in her voice. "Erigor, I presume." Erza said as she glared up at the Grim Reaper. "Where's Lullaby?" "Oh, you mean this?" The grinning man as he pulled out the aforementioned artifact. "A flute?" Alyssa asked as she helped Natsu stand up. "Gotta admit, I wasn't expecting that." "Flute?" Lucy asked, suddenly gaining a look of realization. "Guys, I know where I've heard that name before! Lullaby's a cursed flute that uses a form of death magic! Anyone who hears it's song is killed!" "Intelligent little fly, aren't you?" Erigor asked. "What's your plan, Erigor?" Zeke asked, trying not to show that he was disturbed by this new info. "I'll give you a hint. What do all train stations have in common?" He said, motioning to the speakers underneath him. "So you're going play it through the speakers?" Erza asked as she grit her teeth. "If you do that, hundreds will die! What reason could you have for committing such as nefarious act?" "They committed the sin of a turning a blind eye to the injustices of the world." The silver-haired man stated. "So the reaper has come to cleanse the world of those that flaunt their rights so carelessly." "It's your own damn fault for taking all those illegal requests." Zeke stated. "And killing them won't get you your rights back!" Lucy shouted. "We no longer care about our rights, we want power!" Erigor said as wind slowly started blowing around him and he clenched his fist. "And with our power, we'll erase the past and control the future." Natsu glared at the grinning wizard as fire started to gather around him. "Power? You're going to kill innocent civilians because you want power? Well, Erigor...let's see how powerful you are when I take Lullaby and shove it up your ass!" "Eisenwald!" Erigor exclaimed as he rose into the air. "Shows these flies what happens when they get in our way!" And with that, he disappeared in a mini tornado. "Wind Magic." Alyssa stated. "We have to stop him!" Erza exclaimed. "You're not going anywhere!" Kageyama said as unleashed a swarm of shadow tendrils at the group. However, Natsu destroyed the tendrils with a flaming fist. "We'll have to divide and conquer." Zeke stated as he conjured up his longbow. "Agreed." Erza said. "Natsu, Gray. You guys look for Erigor. The rest of us will deal with these guys." "Are you kidding me?" Grey asked, not up for teaming up with his rival. Natsu looked at Zeke and saw the archer nod. "Alright. Give 'em hell!" And with that, the two ran out of the room. "You're not getting away!" A man with Egyptian apparel said as he released a bunch of black wrappings from his arms and followed after them. "I, the great Rayule, will make them suffer." "I'm coming too." Kageyama said as he disappeared into the shadows. "What?! Just the five of us against an entire guild?!" Lucy panicked. "Make that four." Zeke replied. "Alyssa, you go look too." "That's seems like a bad idea." Erza said. "With my magic, I can find Erigor faster." The orange-haired woman said before turning to the redhead. "Unless you think you can't handle them." An anger tick appeared on the armored woman's forehead. "Of course we can handle this! NOW GO!" "Fine." Alyssa said with a grin. She saw Lucy panicking and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, Lucy. I believe in you." Seeing her teammate's smiling face lightened her fears a bit and she nodded. After that, the taller woman conjured a purple seal behind her back and took off. "Enough talk!" One of the Eisenwald members exclaimed. "Let's waste these idiots!" Erza summoned a red magic seal that transformed into a long sword with a winged hilt and grabbed it. "Couldn't agree more." A group of dark wizards armed with various weapons charged at the redhead. As they got closer, the armored woman swung her sword with such force that it destroyed all their weapons and knocked them back. "Show off." Zeke said as he jumped into the air to evade some energy blasts. He held out his right hand and created several specs of light that transformed into a single arrow, loading it and aiming. "Arch Shot: Arrow Rain!" He fired and unleashed a massive stream of arrows, hitting several dark wizards. Erza charged into the crowd as two Eisenwald members attacked with giant swords. In response, her sword glowed and transformed into a double-bladed sword and she destroyed the swords with a swing. "Take this!" Three wizards said as they joined their attack and launched it at the armored woman. She was going to react, but Zeke landed in front of her and held out his right hand. "Shield Up!" He conjured up a shield out his magic energy and blocked the blast. While magic arrows were the easiest thing for him to create, a basic shield spell was a good alternative. "I was going to deflect that." Erza stated as she swapped out her blade with a pair of twin swords. "Sure you were." Zeke replied as he created some more arrows for a Rapid Succession spell and fired. "I've never seen someone Requip as fast as her." One of the Eisenwald wizards said, gaining Lucy's attention. "Requip?" "It's kind of like your magic, Lucy." Happy explained. "But instead of summoning spirits from another dimension, Requip wizards can call weapons they store. And that's only the tip of Erza's power." "Really?" Lucy asked, watching as Erza fought off more goons up close and Zeke was jumping around and firing arrow spells. "Still this many left. How annoying." The armored woman said as her body started to glow. When the glow faded, Erza was in a different set of armor, this one giving her the appearance of a Valkyrie with silver wings behind her. "That's Erza's true power." Happy stated. "Along with swapping weapons, she can also swap out different armors. Each of them giving her new abilities. This is a unique ability to her called the Knight." "Wow." Lucy said with astonishment. "Dance, my swords!" Erza exclaimed as she summoned multiple swords that started spinning in a circle behind her. "Spiral Sword!" And with that, the circle of flying swords hit most of the dark wizards, knocking them out. "You bitch!" A man with whisker-like marks on his face leaped at her from behind with his hands covered in magic energy. Erza turned and swatted the man away with the butt of one her swords. "She took out Byrad with just one hit!" An obese wizard with green hair said in fear. "There's no doubt about it! It's the queen of the Fairies, Titania Erza!" He used his magic to phase through a nearby wall to escape. "He must be going after Erigor." Zeke said, noticing Erza changing back to her normal armor and leaning on one of her swords, sweat coming down her face. "Lucy, Happy! Let's finish this!" "Got it!" Lucy said as she pulled out a golden key. "Open, Gate of the Giant Crab - Cancer!" And with that, the familiar crab spirit appeared. "Take these guys out with style!" "Right on, baby." The crab spirit said as he charged a group, using his scissors at blinding speeds. When Cancer landed on the other side, the dark wizard's weapons split to pieces and all their hair fell off, causing them to faint from the shock. Happy jumped up and tossed a few lacrima grenades and Zeke fired another Rapid Succession spell, taking out the rest of Eisenwald. "You okay, Erza?" Lucy asked the sweating requip wizard as Cancer went back through the spirit gate. "I'll look after her." Zeke said, helping the redhead stand up. "You go find our missing pal." The blonde girl looked at her friend before nodding. Happy decided to follow her, leaving Zeke and Erza alone with the unconscious dark wizards. "You really have a lot of faith in her." Erza stated. "She hasn't let me down yet." The archer replied. "But you should have let me take charge. Strategy is my niche." The redhead said nothing as she turned away, not wanting to admit that when it came to strategists, the archer was one of Fairy Tail's best. Meanwhile, Alyssa was running through the station at super-speed, looking through every room in as she searched for Erigor. Since she couldn't find him inside the station, she decided to search the exterior of the building. As she reached one of the balconies, she noticed some wind appearing around the station and looked up. In the air above the station, Erigor was had both his hands out as he was chanting a spell. Taking this chance, the amazonian woman reared her right fist back as a magic circled appeared behind elbow. "Speed Queen: Momentum Punch!" With a burst of speed, Alyssa ran up the building and leaped, knocking the surprised wind wizard towards the other balcony. "You actually hit me." Erigor said as he got back up and cleaned the blood off his lips. "It won't happen again." "We'll see!" The speed queen exclaimed as she charged. The two started exchanging and evading attacks, Erigor's wind magic able to match Alyssa's speed. "Wind Slicer!" Erigor yelled as he swung his scythe, creating a razor-sharp torrent of wind that Alyssa jumped away from, the attack slicing part of the balcony away. "You'll need more than speed to defeat me, Fairy Fly!" "You'd surprise what a little speed can do!" The orange-haired woman proclaimed as another circle appeared behind her as she started vibrating her hands as they were close together. A ball of vibrational energy started to form in between the hands as Alyssa moved them to her side. "Speed Queen: Vibration Blast!" "Wind Spiral!" Alyssa thrust out her hands and fired the vibrational energy as Erigor unleashed a spinning blast of wind. The two attacks collided creating a massive back draft that pushed the orange-haired woman back. When she removed her arms from her face, she saw a massive tornado had surrounded the station. "What the hell is that?" "It's your prison." Erigor said as he appeared behind the amazonian woman and pushed her into the wind before she could react. She quickly got back up and saw that the station was unharmed as the twister continued to spin. "While would love to reap your life, I have a schedule to keep to." The Grim Reaper said from the other side. "You mean your murdering spree." Alyssa replied as she launched at the wind. "Speed Queen: Momentum Punch!" As her fist made contact with the raging wind, she felt a stream of pain go through her arm and screamed in pain as she was knocked back into a nearby pillar. She got back up and heard Erigor laughing. "Looks like you just found out the power of my Wind Barrier. You're welcome to try and break it, but any attack you use will be sent back at you." The wind wizard explained. "You can keep trying to escape and eventually this place will be your tomb!" "Nice plan." Alyssa replied. "Except for the fact that you can't use the station's PA system to spread Lullaby's cursed song. So what now, you silver-haired bastard?" "Let's just say that by tomorrow, the entire wizard world will be changed and our revenge shall be fulfilled!" Erigor proclaimed as he flew off into the distance. "Erigor!" Alyssa yelled as she unleashed her Twin Twister spell, only for it to be knocked away. "Whatever your plan is, we will stop you!" To be continued...

#fairy tail #natsu dragneel #lucy heartfilia #Fairy Tail: A New Day #The Fairy Mythos Series #Natsu x oc

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