-At Long Last, We Return To The Conclusion Of This Training Session-
“Oh, that- YOU-” Venny started, before she shut herself up since he was entirely right: there was no real ‘cheating’ in actual battle, so she’d better get used to it. Realizing she had a choice to make, she hauled herself up off the ground and sprang backward instead of committing further, letting her Radiance rip her from Christopher and the Leowolves and toward Vimmy instead. “Hey! HOLD IT UP!”
“Wha- OW!- OKAY!” She called back, still trying to shamble and struggle away from the Leowolves, but grabbing the wire of the net and bracing it tightly in front of her. Venny whirled and put her back into her tail following the motion, the axelike blades on the end snarling into the wire and jerking Vimmy’s arms with it. She hadn’t sliced cleanly through, but she’d made a hole, and as she whirled on her heel Vimmy redoubled herself on making it even bigger until she could at least partly wriggle out, wingblades closed and to her back.
“We’ve got no chance here if it’s not both of- shit!” She’d started, but Christopher and the Leowolves backing him up weren’t going to let them stand there and chat, having already reached the two. Vimmy still grasped what she was saying, the net clinging to her even as she bent and grabbed the weighted ends up like she was gathering stones. She couldn’t fly in this state, but she could at least run, and as the Leowolves threw more energy her way she tried to close-
Venny had narrowed her eyes, and as she returned to the air she went another ten feet up before twisting like a snake and hurling back down, right hand shimmering with a gravity charge around it. Instead of going to the attack she punched the ground itself, not so much for the divot or minor shaking it made but plunging her arm up to the shoulder in the grass to throw up enough dirt to obscure things for a moment or two. She doubted it would bother Christopher all that much, and knew the Leowolves could still just as easily smell their positions out, but all she needed was the seconds of distraction it provided to track him and lance forward, running and assisted by her Radiance.
“Sorry!” Vimmy said as she went to shoulder a Leowolf out of the way before instead throwing herself overtop it and leaping like it was a balance beam, thinking better of trying to shift something much bigger than her. Rolling and coming down on her feet she finally initialized her claws, the three projections of gravity each four feet long from her free hand. She didn’t think much of her chances of getting a hit, but if she could buy time for Venny to likewise link back up with her and engage…
Until the weights and the net she was still clutching were seized by teeth, and she was yanked hard almost off her feet. It would have to be enough, Venny rushing past her to try her luck once more. She knew Vimmy could catch herself, and she had to press on or they’d be overwhelmed as a matter of course. They were pretty close to that anyway, but they weren’t going to phone in even a moment. It wasn’t over until it was over, and as she went back on the offensive she tried to buy the time for her sister to get clear and add to the attack.
Being battered by fireballs of Stream energy, Vimmy tried to focus and get some distance, but it wasn’t proving easy as she was pressed in; Her wingblades snapped open once again as she left the ground with much less thrust than she normally had, just enough to rise before she could be brought back to earth again. As soon as she was high enough she took an angle like before, letting Venny go for the front as she tried to attack Christopher’s side almost at his back, where the Leowolves still were but weren’t quite as dense.
They both ended up flying through empty air, Christopher flash stepping away.
He didn’t counter attack, though. Instead, he put a thumb on Cull, and with a swift motion, ran the digit across the thin blade, as it dissolved into dark gray smoke that plumed out at an appalling rate, completely engulfing the battlefield and the girls.
“Your pincer zig zags are good, but they do innately favor certain angles. Probably not a concern against most foes…but against the real dangerous ones, it’s something to consider.” The girls knew this blade ‘mode’ as well. Pale Woe. The smoke was not just blinding, but it bounced Christopher’s voice around, and completely baffled the girl’s sensors. “That’s something you can consider later, though…
“I will confess…this is not fun and games to me. You’re putting me through the paces. I’m getting old. Needing to use other factors to just keep ahead of your youth and advantages granted. Now, if my lessons have borne fruit, this is right around the time that you realize you shouldn’t just be standing here listening and that I can see through this smoke while you can’t and I’m using my own machine nature to feed this sentence into your audio capacity instead of just speaking and this is where you probably realize that this sentence is far too long-”
The smoke parted with one mighty swing of Christopher’s blade.
…and that was all it hit. There were no dragons there. Also, he was walking on a chunk of ground that the girls had fled out of the smoke from and then silently pulled upward, meaning that the girls were not on the same level as him, but below him. They’d even kept the unnatural smoke ON the piece to cover this. Their gravity ability was better than he thought.
“...clever girls-”
Both dragons blasted the ground piece with their breath attacks from below, and Christopher’s form went flying across the grasslands, before he stopped himself with his clawed hand seizing onto the ground, ripping another length of torn dirt and stones. The two girls, Vimmy having finally escaped the net, and the Leowolves all ‘doggy paddling’ in the air as Venny had floated them all up and was lazily spinning them to keep them from being able to lock onto the girls, promptly both went for Christopher at max speed.
Somehow, they stopped on a dime when Celeste came in from behind Christopher, her sweeping kick just missing the two.
“But not clever enough.” Christopher said, giving Cull, back in its base form, a small twirl.
“Maybe?” Celeste said, and then spun and slammed her foot upside her husband’s head.
This tumble was a bit less graceful, though Christopher stopped himself the same way as he just had, via claw to the ground. The dragon girls stared in shock.
“...darling…I believe you were supposed to be helping ME here.” Christopher said.
“What did you say about battlefield chaos and no fairness and learning? You think you’re beyond getting a refresh on your own lessons, Christopher? Girls, by my side. Close in. CRUSH.” Celeste said, a wicked smirk on her face and a tone that told the girls that there would be no sudden second betrayals here. She was on their side, through and through.
“Oh, so THAT’S how it’s going to be.” Christopher said, his bemused tone also indicating there was no actual issue here, as he snapped his claws back into his arm and then, with a blistering white light, summoned up the Redemption blade, Cull in his other hand blooming like a flower of pain, bloody liquid erupted from within it, forming into a six foot long scimitar esque blade of dark, burning metal. Damnation, to match Redemption. “Try not to bor-”
Christopher snapped his head to the side to avoid Celeste’s thrown dagger, which let Venny come in and bash him from the other angle with her tail.
Later, the girls were surprised that the battle had lasted less than 23 seconds. It had felt like minutes, as the two girls and their ‘mother’ utterly blitzed Christopher and finally started cracking his defenses. Venny knew they were definitely getting somewhere when the ‘Damnation’ blade grazed her right wing and it shut down completely; he was not remotely playing around any more.
But despite it all, the last move was Celeste weaving through all of her husband’s strikes, some of them being blocked by the girls, before she spun and planted her foot square in his chest, sending him tumbling backwards before he bounced and smashed through a tree, shattering it before he vanished into the forest.
“And, time. I’d say that’s a good session, girls.” Celeste said, and slid her daggers back up her sleeves.
The Leowolves, free of the floating gravity trap, had stayed away, not wanting to get involved in the maelstrom, and since Celeste had declared the session done, they dropped out of battle mode and walked over, panting as Celeste tossed something on the ground…that somehow expanded into a water trough, full of water that the thirsty canines began lapping up.
“...did…anyone…get the number…of that…traitor.” Came a voice from the woods.
“37. I believe that was the age when you realized that you now couldn’t fully predict me any more. Don’t act like you’re mad that you still can learn, you old mass of blood and scars.”
The response was for the ground to erupt, another net, this one set in a brace, flipping over and trying to pin Celeste to the ground.
Key word: trying. She was gone before the net got her. And when Christopher zapped in, she had her daggers back out, blocking his attempted sneak attack, the crossed blades stopping his fist, just like Venny had managed. The force shockwave nearly knocked over the trough and ruffled the Leowolves’ fur. They paused for a moment, and then with a combined resigned look, kept drinking. He’d tried to turn her lesson back on her. And failed. Silly man.
“...I am going to choose to believe that you are fresher than me that allowed this to happen.”
“Keep telling yourself that, darling.” Celeste said, ending the block and putting away her daggers once more. “So, yes, girls. If we teach you anything else, we will do our best to give your ability to instinctually both surprise and react to surprise. Because there’s no fairness in fights by nature. So don’t be fair. And don’t expect the other side to be, and be prepared accordingly.”
Christopher tapped Venny’s disabled wing with his white Redemption blade, the disabled appendage finally starting to work again.
“And that includes the NEXT time we train like this.”
Even with machine boosts and their own altered physiology, when it was said and done Vimmy and Venny had been panting too, but exalted; It was hard for them to be worn out and worn down, but being put through their own paces had just about done them in. Neither one wanted to broadcast it, but they were supporting each other anyway, arms around one another’s shoulders.
“Sounds just fine by me! We’ve been part of fights in our time, but that was one hell of a training session.” Venny admitted before she smiled.
“We did good, right? I know we’re not perfect, but- Well, we didn’t have much time to think through every move.” Vimmy said, putting her free hand on her hip. “...We needed the refresher, anyway. I don’t think I’ve ever been caught like that before.”
“Hah! Yeah, between the smoke and the net, that’s right about when my heart sank.” Venny said before she laughed a little. “Normally we’re the ones who bring the unfairness to a fight- I think it was good to be on the back end. We can’t learn if we don’t know. Next time, we’ll keep that in mind.”
Falling in and continuing to chatter excitedly, despite being tired and a little sore the two girls had pretty high spirits. It would’ve been hard for them not to.
That night, the husband and wife had their own ‘chatter’ at length. Based on what they’d seen, all together…
Yes. Provided it was still there, and their theory would work…it’d be a perfect practical gift. Especially if Christopher’s other efforts didn’t bear fruit.
---
-Several Weeks Later. Tis The Season. And Not For Kobbers, Though That Was Coming Up Very Soon-
“I mean, if you want to use something FANCY, you can call it Pluvanje Na Zorata, that’s what most Aarde call it. Or Pakkasen Loppu, that’s what Hemel on the west side of the world call it.” Patty said.
“Neither translate well. The first one comes out to “The first thaw at dawn”, more or less. The other one comes out to ‘the end of the cold’. Some people use Thawdawn as a shorthand, but that never rolled off the tongue for me.” Christopher said.
“We should petition to steal the Kobber name.” Patty said.
“Calling the holiday Christmas when our world completely lacks the religious contexts that named it would be worse, I feel.” Celeste gave the dragon girls a sidelong glance. They knew the truth: once Weav had BEEN Earth, and had HAD Christmas. But it had been changed beyond recognition and 99 percent of the population had had the history of the past world wiped and a new history put in. Only a few remembered the truth, and they had concluded it was best to let the old truth pass on. So the Ravensky children didn’t know. But Celeste did. And she’d told the dragon girls, perhaps since they could understand in a way her children couldn’t.
“But it’s a good name!”
“Also happens much earlier. They have it in the middle of their winter. I don’t know why that should be celebrated. Better to celebrate the fact that the cold is retreating and the warmth is returning.” Christopher said. “Though places where it never really changes, in terms of temperature, I liked a name from up north. They called it ‘Solidarity’. Well, Samstoou in their local language. But the idea of it being unity, I always like that. That applies everywhere, not just places with winters and springs as we think of them.
It was just as well. It had been a while since Vimmy and Venny had had a Christmas worth celebrating. And it wasn’t like the Ravenskys put up decorations to herald their ‘Christmas’ coming: if other places on Weav did so, they hadn’t recognized them on their long trip that had ended four or so weeks ago. Heck, the only forewarning had been shortly after they’d settled back in, when Christopher had taken them down into the catacombs and pointed out a specific room and told them it was off-limits and that outside of some kind of terrible emergency, they were not ‘allowed’ to go inside it. Beyond THAT, all they knew was during a story one night when Celeste had mentioned ‘Solidarity’, which had been three days ago.
It was really all the context needed: it was an exchange of gifts, to celebrate making it through winter and to make it through to the next one. They hadn’t really told the girls because, well, they were still settling in. No need to make them feel obligated to do anything for their new family. Maybe next year.
They didn’t have wrapping paper either: the gifts were basically given in repurposed small boxes usually used for storage. Patty, the only Ravensky child at home, gave hers first: a pair of wooden bracelets that she’d hand carved and personally ‘hardened’. They didn’t do anything special; they were just jewelry, albeit given a coating so they had a nice dark sheen, and had the girl’s names carved on each. They were also, as Patty demonstrated, incredibly resistant to damage, as she showed she couldn’t break one, and neither could her mother or father, though they didn’t go ‘all out’. It just needed to be demonstrated that they didn’t have to be afraid of wearing them if trouble came along. Heck, maybe they could slide it over their fist and use it to enhance their punches, though that wasn’t what they were made for. Patty, despite her lineage, didn’t ‘do’ two in one items like that. Not intentionally, anyway.
It had been some time for both Vimmy and Venny; While they’d tried to do at least a token something for the holidays in the past, they’d had each other and that had mostly been all they’d needed to have. Either of them asking the other for more would have been a lot to ask. Still, no matter what it was called and by who, the half remembered familiarity of the season had been enough to make them happy. They’d gotten exactly what they’d wanted already by falling in and being accepted by their new family, and to them that was more than enough.
In festive sweaters the opposite of each other’s color scheme, one more red than green and one more green than red, they’d been caught a little by surprise. Both privately resolving to do a little more than hanging on this time next year, they’d settled down with everyone, happy to be somewhere they’d belonged. After Christopher had marked the room off limits, they hadn’t given it much more thought, just taking his words at face value and sticking out of there.
They’d hugged Patty at the same time from both sides, in their usual bookend formation; Getting any gifts was more or less a blessing, and they liked the personal nature of the bracelets. They immediately had put them on, Venny admiring hers while Vimmy had shot little glances down at her wrist every and then like she was making sure it was still there. Considering their rough and tumble lives, both Vimmy and Venny had quietly appreciated they wouldn’t have to worry overmuch about damage, but moreso that Patty had gone to the trouble of handcarving them and making sure of that in the first place.
“Thank you so much- it’s really cool, I like it a lot! I don’t normally wear jewelry, so this is way more my speed.” Vimmy preened.
“Yeah, thanks alot, Patty. This is way better than something from a department store.” Venny grinned.
“What’s a department store?” Patty said.
“An indoor bazaar with more generic items all sold under one group.” Christopher said.
“...sounds boring.”
“They are, mostly.”
Celeste’s box…was locked. It seemed to be some kind of symbolic gesture, a ‘know that by opening this, I am entrusting you’, as the lock was small and basic.
“You know that the various ‘magic’ items we use are called Intricacies. Thaumaturges, or Blackbirds if you prefer, like Hope, make them. As you can probably guess, there’s different kinds and classes. Those cleaning charms you’ve seen us use, even the most basic magus can make those. And so up the line, it gets harder. The real high class ones need a group, lots of time and effort, and often weird material that you have to look for, in often dangerous places. You saw Merilee’s metal horse? That’s a real high grade Intricacy. I guess if you were going to rank them numerically, it would be a 2 on a scale of 10, with the charms being a 10 or 9.” In this case, the 2 was the high ranking. “The Intricacies that could be ranked at 1 are unique and have some intangible quality about them that defies replication: you can make something like it, but never quite like it. Needless to say, they’re rare, desired by many, and often dangerous. So some are locked away with the idea it’s better that way, and the further idea that maybe one day, someone might come along who CAN use it responsibly. The ones that are too dangerous tend to get destroyed. Just so you understand what you’re looking at.” Celeste unlocked the box.
Once, it had been a high crown, with ‘arches’ that looked like sharp teeth, a shiny grey/white color on a dull green band. It wasn’t exactly a crown any more, because it had been carefully cut in half, the halves then ‘polished’ so they were now a dual item.
“This is the Wreath of Fangs. Until recently, it was in the possession of Queen Ruby’s government. It once belonged to one of their finest warriors, who had the rather unfortunate name of…well, Jimflam. Silly sounding name aside, Jimflam was a truly terrifying hand to hand fighter, and the Wreath, made by some of his mage allies to help in wars gone by, increased his ferocity even more. Too much, in the end. It started making him TOO animalistic. So, when he suffered injuries that were hard to heal, he retired. And since the Wreath wasn’t exactly dark or evil, they tried to pass it on to others, but it never worked out. The influence was too severe. Made its wearers too aggressive, too lacking in thought. So it was locked up. But, seeing you two girls ignore the Glorious AND not be much affected by the Porcine, I thought…these are the two that it was meant for. But, just to be certain, as shown, we had it split in two. I’m pretty sure if I’d read the possibility wrong, doing that would have destroyed it. It didn’t. And so, I, we, gift them to you. Because I think you were meant to have it, slash them.”
Despite paying attention, Vimmy and Venny had continued to glance down at the box as Celeste talked, curiosity deepening; They had grasped surface level information about Intricacies, but hadn’t delved too deep before since they’d thought to learn through experience and familiarity. The twin dragons had still listened at first, neither speaking quite yet (Although Vimmy had made a small sound at the sight of the Wreath) before they’d picked the individual halves up. Venny had examined it a little closer, while Vimmy had immediately put hers on and then hesitated in case she shouldn’t have, but when nothing bad happened instead she lit up.
“We have, of course, done tests to make sure they’d work. Even pulled in Cosineau. Unlike Patricia's gift, this isn’t just jewelry. It’s an item to further your development as warriors. Namely, where we feel, based on all the stuff we’ve done with you, and especially that training session with the traps and the Leowolves, where you were weaker: your ground game. In areas that can’t be easily improved via more basic means and time.” Christopher said. “Whether we can put them someplace in your bodies themselves, or if you’ll have to put them on manually, once they’ve been activated and we make sure they sync up and aren’t going to have some highly unlikely bad reaction, what we are FAIRLY sure they’ll do is slightly alter your bodies so you’ll be quadrupedal instead of bipedal. For a person, this would result in rather painful…body change. But your mechanical forms can shift easier. Might take some getting used to, like a whole body knuckle pop. Once you change, your ability to outright fly will be gone. You can likely still jump high and if you get a good start, you can probably glide…but the way you two fly now, won’t work while these are active. On the other hand, you’ll get an immense agility and speed boost. Probably run at speeds approaching 1500/1800 miles an hour. And your senses, innate and mechanical, will be so keyed up that you’ll be able to make movement reactions in the space of a millisecond. A muted, safe Timeless ultra lite, taking advantage of your bodies’ makeup. Which means the speed won’t cause you to run headlong into walls or people, you’ll be able to control yourselves enough to run around them. Or bounce off them like a rubber ball. Stop on a near dime, instant ninety degree turns, you could turn an enclosed space into a storm of moves coming from seemingly everywhere at once. For now, I think that will cover your minor weaknesses if you’re not in a wide open area. When you’re more closed in, or hindered, your movement suffers a bit if you don’t have 3D options, and your ability to dodge and strike is a bit basic, at least by my eyes. Against the average enemy, it’d be more than enough, but if you encountered something TRULY exceptional and dangerous, again, it would give you options. It will probably take you practice to switch back and forth at first. Maybe eventually you can do it near instantly, but that might take years. Basically, on the Kobber’s world, there’s a myth that tigers and dragons are rivals. These crowns will allow you to be tigers OR dragons. Though I’ll let you decide once you get the hang of it how you want your claws and teeth in that state.”
A pair of raised eyebrows and wide eyes had greeted Christopher’s words, both taken aback at first and not cutting in with questions. Anything they’d been ready to ask had been answered while he’d talked, and by the end they looked at each other in silent communication they’d shown off once or twice before.
“That- We’ll do you both proud with it, we can promise you that.” Venny swallowed. “I just, uh- sorry. Nobody’s trusted us with something like this before, at least, not without a whole bunch of strings attached. I’d say that’s right on the mark, one of our weak points was always what we could do on the ground even with all our strength and whatnot. The year that’s coming up, this is going to set a whole new pace for us.”
“We’ll work really hard and practice with the change, we promise! We’re not getting caught unawares any time soon.” Vimmy swore, turning her head so she could check herself out despite her serious tone.
“Yeah, you can count on that. We’ll make sure we’re worthy of something like the Wreath no matter what it takes. We- Well, thank you so much. It wasn’t that high a bar, but this is already the best holiday I can remember having in years.” Venny said, bowing her head before she and Vimmy once again hugged from the sides, neither hesitating beyond the initial second.
“Thanks alot, mom. It’s perfect! I didn’t know I wanted this, but it’s just what I wanted!” Vimmy said cheerfully, not as committed to being cool as Venny was.
“Yes, about that…” Celeste gave her husband a bemused look. Christopher had a moment of mild personal exasperation; he normally was utterly certain in most everything he did or tried. This was not one of them.
“...I am not very…PRACTICED in gifting items which aren’t related to handling the issues of the world, but…I am getting old. And Celeste already figured out the best option in that regard. So, then, follow me.” Christopher stood up, taking a few moments to poke at the fireplace to settle the coals, before he headed for the closest access point downstairs.
In the end, they’d ended up in front of the ‘forbidden room’.
“I didn’t want you going in here because of anything bad or belief you couldn’t handle it. I didn’t want you going in here because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.” The door’s only barricade was a semi-concealed button.
Inside was…
A kitchen? Well, it was technically a laboratory, but it had been reworked to look a fair bit like a kitchen.
“You like your peanut brittle. Which can be a small problem, because we don’t have peanuts as you know them, and trying to get it from Miss Cosineau is very much a ‘very large ask for a very small request’. So, for the last few months…I have been using what I know about survival, cooking, chemistry, and consulting some books…to try and figure out a local replacement that, cross fingers and go beyond basic thanks, as I want to actually SUCCEED, not just be told I did out of gratitude. And I began making up other forms of ‘brittle’. And since I had to explore local flavors and textures and whatnot…I ended up with a fair number of possibilities.”
All of which were arranged in beehive-esque boxes: removing a ‘slate’ revealed a ‘wax’ of the brittle variant.
“20, in the end. So, I hope we can find you something that’s…well, maybe not the SAME as peanut brittle, but also good. Variety in life is good. And it’s not like we’ll ask you to give up peanut brittle entirely. But if you end up liking one of these just as much, well, that’s good. Maybe one day we could sell it somewhere in Weav. Unless of course I somehow made 20 horrible excuses for food, but even I’m not THAT bad a chef.”
“He exaggerates. Patty and I taste tested all of these. They’re all good, in their own way. But what YOU like is you.”
“I gift you this, in solidarity of what we share and will hopefully share in the future. Or, as it might be said where you came from, Merry Christmas.” Christopher nodded and sat down on a stool, looking contently at his completed work. Maybe it was outside his area of preference and comfort, but it HAD been nicer to work on than weapons, for once.
At first just about bursting with curiosity, the girls had filed in. Even if they had put it out of their minds, both had wondered what was going on in that particular room at least once or twice. At the reveal of what Christopher had been working on, both dragons had gone still and quiet. They briefly stared at the boxes before looking between them and him and then back again, Vimmy opening her mouth and then closing it.
“Y-yeah, we-” Venny started before having to break off so her voice wouldn’t shake. She hadn’t felt quite like this in a long time, and was trying her best to keep a little control. She was more than a little touched by the gesture. “We both, it’s just about our favorite snack food. At least, if there’s another one, I sure can’t think of it.”
“You made all this for us?” Vimmy asked, not slow on the uptake but like she was trying to make sure she understood. She’d clasped her hands together and took another few seconds to remember to close her mouth. “No, it’s- I’m sure we’ll take right to it.”
This time they hadn’t needed to silently communicate through glances or small gestures, just hesitating for a second or two before they also hugged Christopher. They knew it wasn’t quite his thing, but neither one could hold it back.
“...Thank you so, so much, it means a lot to us.” Venny swallowed again.
“Aw, I’m just gonna say it, it fits too well- This is the best Christmas EVER!” Vimmy burst out, smiling big enough that she showed her teeth.
“...you’re welcome.” He was a bit awkward, even in accepting thanks, but the thought was there. “Still, I’d just nibble on one or two for now. Don’t want to spoil your appetite for dinner.”
“Oh come now dear. It’s not like our girls would overeat on junk if they were given the chance.” Celeste said.
Patty suddenly found a mixing oven VERY interesting. You’d swear she was about to do the classic ‘innocent whistling’.
Both the sisters giggled at one another, not quite needing to cross their fingers behind their backs even if it was a little tempting. “No, that’s fine- I think that’s fair. But we will try it all, and we will get back to you! Just, uh… Vimmy?”
“Yeah?”
“Let me a get a piece of each one, don’t eat it all before me.” Venny said, Vimmy narrowing her eyes at her before making agreeing and acknowledging gestures with her hand. “Yeah, no promises there…"
---
Eventually, it would be time. Christopher would bid his family farewell; he still preferred to stay out of the Kobber's backyard, what with how things had gone. He'd keep the home fires burning. And hopefully not end up talking to dolls again. Like father, like daughter, in that regard...
---
Said daughter was only vaguely aware of the fact that the season was almost back.
She'd 'gone dark' nearly two weeks ago. She had to. You didn’t keep off the radar for months on end without being very, VERY good at concealing oneself. Eventually, you had to cut all contact with the outside world and wholly enter that other one: any communication could be picked up and ruin the whole thing. Damn risky, but that’s why she got picked.
The ironic thing was, she still wasn’t exactly sure why this man/alien was considered such a possible issue that Dawn had basically arranged what was more likely than not going to be an assassination mission. Dawn had given a reason that she was concerned that the ‘Space Pirate Stream Access Process’ was not as erased and gone as believed, and that Raven Beak getting his hands on it would be real, real bad. Oh sure, Kobbers could destroy him, but what was better, crushing a problem after it had say, destroyed a city (Boston) or taking a chance to prevent the city destruction?
So she was off the reservation. Utterly alone. If she failed, no one was coming to rescue her. Well, not immediately. Maybe SOMETHING could eventually be done, but a lot of mess could happen between then and there. She could have backed out.
But, much like a hungry dog and a bone, sometimes you just couldn’t let go.
And it didn’t always go as planned. In a perfect world, she’d have gotten into the core of things and just had to deal primarily with her main target.
It turned out that someone who was so good at concealment was also very well versed in intelligence about dangers. She’d only made it about a third of the way inside when she’d been discovered. And her attempts to break away and hide to allow at least a little more infiltration had not shaken out; the security was too good. That left one way: through. If she ran, she might never get a chance to get close again.
And so, the sound of the ‘straight path’ rumbled outside his door. He just watched said door, passively tapping one finger on the side of his chair. He amused himself with a personal bet: would they open the door, or just try and smash right through it?
He was a touch surprised when the noise faded away, and that the person that was still standing did just open the door via the console. Backlit by fallen soldiers and destroyed machines, several guttering fires burning in her wake, Julia walked into the room, Ardent adjusting its form around her into a more defensive one.
“...Ashkar Behek.” Julia said. “You are a troublesome sort to reach.”
Despite her tone, Julia knew she was in for one hell of a challenge. Otherwise, she would have Baba Yaga out. Not for this. Things were too uncertain, too vague. She was going to start with basic hand claws and decide what to do from there.
Raven Beak said nothing, regarding this foe who hunted him with neutral curiosity. There was a story here he didn’t know, but in truth, he didn’t really care if he did or not.
There were a bunch of other things Julia could have said. But in a half second, she decided all of them were, in the end, pointless.
So she leapt at her target, as he rose off his throne.
The door slammed shut behind her.
TO BE CONTINUED IN SEASON 15