Descent of Nightmare (Chapter One)
Oct. 23rd, 2016 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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saladloveDon't be alarmed; this chapter is meant to be confusing but not particularly overwhelming. Things will be explained next chapter.
Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
Chapter One
Legacy
Cavern Oasis, Timewarp. September 21, 2277 Kaldriel time. Time instance 842N.
Everex awoke to his sister shoving him out of bed. He groaned and curled up into a ball, covering his face with his arms. “Five more minutes.”
“Mantids,” Twelve barked, and he sat up immediately. He looked at her, judging whether or not she was serious and if he did actually have to get up. Her gray eyes betrayed nothing, but that was normal.
He sighed and got up, pulling on his trenchcoat on his way out the door. Twelve broke into a sprint through the caverns and he struggled to keep up, natural legs inferior to Twelve’s mechanical ones. He followed her outside and blinked his eyes against the daylight, mechanical left eye adjusting immediately but his right eye took a moment to catch up.
“How close are they?” Twelve demanded of Solace, who was leaned up against the wall a couple feet from the door. Dark hair framed Solace’s face and her brown eyes betrayed no emotion, a single eyebrow raised in response to Twelve’s question.
“A couple minutes out, probably. Do we want to lure them back to the oasis or head out into the desert?”
“Desert,” Everex answered immediately. “I don’t want them destroying any more trees.”
Twelve shot him a withering glare. “And what if there’s a sandwyrm out there?”
“Then we deal with it,” Lucy reasoned, shaking her scythe for emphasis. She was wearing her trenchcoat as well, Everx noted- black instead of brown. Her eyes were bright and she had her red hair pulled back, as she often did during the day. The desert sun was oppressive, and Everex sometimes wished he could tear off his skin to cool off more.
Twelve considered that before slowly nodding. She glanced around at the others before setting her gaze on Solace.
“Lead the way.”
Solace pushed off of the wall and let flames dance over her, leaving a phoenix in her place. She burned with regularly colored flame, but along her right she was lined with blue and her left with red. She took off, blazing wings carrying her into the sky. Everex extended his wings and took off after her. Exadae, Jack, Korrah, and Annihilation followed along with them, wings beating a pattern in the sky as the rest of the group followed on foot. They passed out of the oasis quickly, and Everex’s mechanical eye quickly caught sight of the mantids they were looking for. Eleven of them roamed the sands in a small area, slowly coming closer and closer to the oasis.
Mantids were dangerous. They were as big as a human with razor sharp claws and the ability to leap several yards at a time. They traveled in small groups and were merciless in their attacks.
Solace dove first, screeching a battle cry as she descended upon the mantids. Fire blazed from her talons and wings, causing the mantids to hiss and the one hit to scream. Everex extended blades from his mechanical arms and landed, folding his metal wings once more to fight on the ground. He blasted one with an energy bolt from his hand and drove a blade through another, barely taking notice of the spells being cast by Jack and Exadae or the ice spikes thrown by Annihilation.
They took out three before the ground party arrived. Twelve immediately leapt to her brother’s defense, metal claws extending from her fingertips and fire racing along her arms. He glimpsed her and Deathclaw both pounce on a mantid, taking it down, while he and Solace blasted and burned another into a charred husk.
The battle only lasted a few minutes, leaving everyone mostly uninjured and eleven dead mantids. Everex cleaned off his blades before retracting them, highfiving Solace and grinning at his sister.
“Looks like we’re eating mantid for a few days,” Lucy said dryly, cleaning off the blade of her scythe. “Good job, everybody.”
“No major injuries?” Kallen asked, looking around. His right hand- a metal pincer- clicked and spun nervously.
“I’ve got a cut on my arm,” Nightgale growled, “but it’ll heal quickly.” The werewolf shook her head, purple eyes narrowed at the wound as if it offended her.
“Krassor’s pride is injured,” Jack offered, folding his green wings against his back and hiding the odd magma-like patterns on the undersides. “Does that count?”
“My pride is not injured,” Krassor protested, beak clicking unhappily. He crossed his arms and folded his red-black wings against his back, looking extremely like someone who had gotten their pride injured. “I’m just upset you hit me with a spell.”
“You jumped in the way in an attempt to steal my kill.”
“I could have done it!”
“But you didn’t.”
“You can argue while we haul these back to base,” Twelve told them, waving for Everex to help her with one. “Or, better yet, don’t, and save our sanity.”
“We don’t have sanity,” Lucy protested.
“You may not, but some of us do.” Exadae crossed his arms.
“You’re not one of them.”
“Never said that I was.” He grinned.
~~~
Lucy sighed with relief as she let her hair down, allowing the curls to fall down to shoulder length. She could cut it shorter, she knew, but she didn’t particularly feel like it and tying it back wasn’t that bad. It was after dark and she was glad to be alone by the water of the oasis, away from the chatter and bickering of her friends.
Well. Alone as she could be.
“I’m going to feed Jack his own tail one of these days,” Lucy grumbled. “That, or set him on fire.”
“You don’t have fire magic. You may find that difficult,” the ghost replied.
“I know. I still want to.”
“I don’t blame you,” the ghost mumbled, crossing her arms. “Or Exadae.”
“Exadae’s not so bad anymore.”
“Did he not repeatedly hit on you despite requests for him to stop?”
“I did say anymore.”
She shrugged it off and Lucy rolled her eyes, wondering if all dead people were like this or if it was just Sheva.
Or if she was nuts.
The group wasn’t really sure what to make of her ability to see the dead. Some of them believed her, some didn’t. Most were skeptical. Everex believed her, she knew, as did Kallen, but Twelve, their leader, was far more skeptical. She tried not to mention it to the group if she could avoid it, fearing that she was actually nuts and it was all in her head. Kaldric, their robot guardian, had assured her that it was a real ability, but she had no way of telling if she actually had it or if she was making it up.
Well, whatever. Power or imagination, it sure was useful. Sheva told her useful things all the time- often wreathed in near-nonsensical rants- and was a good person to vent to as she couldn’t exactly do anything with whatever Lucy told her. She claimed to be related to Everex and Twelve, but wouldn’t explain how she knew or what her relation to them was. In any case, she was dead, so she might have been a bit nuts, herself.
Lucy leaned back against one of the few trees in the oasis and shut her eyes. She shouldn’t be alone out here, she knew, but she figured that Sheva would warn her if there was anything dangerous coming.
“Anni is coming out of the cave.”
Like that. Lucy opened her eyes and sat up, looking over at the entrance of the caverns. Annihilation had indeed come outside, shutting the door behind her and sighing with relief as she did. She didn’t seem to notice Lucy, walking right up to the water and sitting down to get a drink. Her yellow eyes were bright in the darkness and her black feathered wings nearly invisible.
“How crazy is it in there?”
Annihilation almost fell into the water when Lucy spoke, flaring her wings to stay upright. Her head snapped around and she slowly relaxed, sighing. “You scared me.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s...pretty nuts in there. Deathclaw went to his room after Jack insisted on arm wrestling people. I left when he got to Everex and started bitching about him cheating and trying to cast a spell on him to turn him into a scarab.”
“Did it work?”
“No, it just pissed Everex off and made him punch him. I doubt a fight’s going to break out in there but I don’t want to be there when it does. Not my problem.”
Lucy silently agreed, nodding. “Sometimes I wonder why we keep Jack around.”
“Because his brother would kill us if we didn’t?” Annihilation got to her feet. “I should probably go check on Deathclaw. You know how he is.”
Lucy nodded again and let her go, watching her leave through the door before looking up into the empty sky.
~~~
Don’t see me. Don’t see me. Don’t see me.
“Heeey, Calyon!”
Shit. Annihilation reluctantly turned to face Gyrad as he leaned against the wall, dark hair and blue eyes hidden under the shadow of his ridiculous hat. He towered over her at six and a half feet tall, about a full foot taller than her but with no magic whatsoever and only an obnoxious attitude. His habit of calling everyone by their last name was infuriating, as always. “Hi, Gyrad.”
“You been avoiding me or something? Haven’t seen you around much lately.”
“I’ve been spending time with Deathclaw.”
“You’re always spending time with Frost. Why don’t you hang out with me instead?”
Because you’re a disgusting human being. “You have friends. He doesn’t. Leave me alone.”
“I don’t have friends!”
“Yeah, you do. Or at least you think you do.” Annihilation turned away. “Leave me alone.”
“Aaaw, c’mon.”
“Leave her alone, Gyrad.” Thank you, Everex! “You don’t want her to punch you, do you?”
Gyrad mumbled something under his breath that Annihilation was glad she couldn’t hear. She left the main cavern quickly, making her way down to Deathclaw’s room and knocking on the door. He growled for her to leave so she came in, shutting the door behind her. He looked up and sighed, not protesting as she came to sat beside him.
Deathclaw was the oddest-looking member of their group. He was built like a raptor with a more humanoid posture and clear demonic features. His scales were nearly black and his eyes were orange. Two black horns curled up from his head and his arms were more human than one would expect from something built similarly to a raptor. He had fewer feathers than raptors did- well, than the one raptor they’d ever seen did- but was taller and built more for strength than agility. Batlike wings folded against his back, useless for flight but allowed gliding and helped with jumps.
“What’s wrong?”
“Didn’t want to deal with them.” Deathclaw shrugged. “Is that so wrong?”
“No. I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
“Is that a question?”
“Yes.”
“No. I’m not. I’m never okay.”
“Look. We’re the outcasts. It’s how it is, okay? But doing stuff like this only cements that divide further.” Annihilation wrapped a wing around him. “We’re all that we have in this world. This group, Kaldric, and Zatar.”
“Kaldric’s practically part of the group.”
“Well, yeah.”
“And Zatar shows up maybe once every four months, so he hardly counts.”
“Mhm.”
“I just...wish there was more out there, you know?” Deathclaw made a hand motion. “More than the caves and the oasis and the desert. More than an empty sky and a fight for survival. It feels like we’re missing something.”
“I know.” Annihilation looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. “I know how you feel. We’re missing something, we’ve got to be, I just...don’t know what it is.”
She shut her eyes and leaned against her friend, throwing her mind open to the world in the desperate hope for some revelation, some spark of something, anything- but nothing happened, leaving her alone in darkness until she fell asleep to the sound of Deathclaw breathing.
no subject
Date: 2016-10-24 01:12 pm (UTC)-ToC's Anon
no subject
Date: 2016-10-25 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-26 12:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-24 03:30 pm (UTC)“We don’t have sanity,” Lucy protested.
“You may not, but some of us do.” Exadae crossed his arms.
“You’re not one of them.”
“Never said that I was.” He grinned.
A bickering group of friends who question their sanity? Black Market 2.0 right here XD
She claimed to be related to Everex and Twelve, but wouldn’t explain how she knew or what her relation to them was. In any case, she was dead, so she might have been a bit nuts, herself.
Huh....so Sheva's unfinished business with her brother Seven was concluded 5 years ago with the fall of the Mainframe and she wooshed off to deal with unfinished business with Everex and Twelve? But how are they related to her? Cousins? Niece and nephew from another sibling? Unless Seven had kids before becoming a cyborg, which I doubt. Or is Sheva mad? At least she's more talkative with Lucy than she was with Cap, but I think that's likely because Sheva's been around Lucy longer.
“Heeey, Calyon!”
Shit. Annihilation reluctantly turned to face Gyrad as he leaned against the wall, dark hair and blue eyes hidden under the shadow of his ridiculous hat. He towered over her at six and a half feet tall, about a full foot taller than her but with no magic whatsoever and only an obnoxious attitude. His habit of calling everyone by their last name was infuriating, as always. “Hi, Gyrad.”
“You been avoiding me or something? Haven’t seen you around much lately.”
“I’ve been spending time with Deathclaw.”
“You’re always spending time with Frost. Why don’t you hang out with me instead?”
Annihilation Calyon and Deathclaw Frost huh? *makes mental notes*
Also Gyrad is a creepy asshole.
Deathclaw was the oddest-looking member of their group. He was built like a raptor with a more humanoid posture and clear demonic features. His scales were nearly black and his eyes were orange. Two black horns curled up from his head and his arms were more human than one would expect from something built similarly to a raptor. He had fewer feathers than raptors did- well, than the one raptor they’d ever seen did- but was taller and built more for strength than agility. Batlike wings folded against his back, useless for flight but allowed gliding and helped with jumps.
Theory Deathclaw is part demon and part alien, the alien part coming from M's race of aliens.
There you go Tana, one in depth comment XD
no subject
Date: 2016-10-25 11:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-10-26 12:32 am (UTC)