Deep inside a forest sits a wide shabby shack hidden and shaded by the foliage of the trees. Inside is a workshop full of machinery and equipment, an assortment of tools and weapons sit and hang from the walls while a red hammock hangs from a tree inside the shack with some of its branches hanging and reaching further into the shack while the rest of it pokes through the shack’s roof covering it with its foliage.
At a work bench in the corner sits a brown furred fox working on an odd looking device, sparks fly at the thick black face shield he’s wearing when an alarm begins sounding pulling his attention away from his little project. Pulling up the face shield and using his yellow eyes to scan a series of monitors he sees something blue fly past a camera leaving a blue streak behind it.
Reaching down the brown fox pulls out another small device and with the press of a couple buttons the alarm stops and a garage door at the other end of the shack whirrs to life and opens up. Throwing the face shield back down the fox resumes working on his project, the blue blur skids to a stop just shy of the garage door and with a deep breath he cautiously enters the shack.
Sonic walks past all the equipment and avoids the clutter on the floor till the stands behind the fox and stops just as the sparks from their work finish flying, “Hey, eh Miles, I’m back and in one piece.” Despite his relaxed demeanour Sonic’s shaky voice betrays his discomfort.
“For someone who prides themselves and likes to brag about how fast they are, you certainly took your time getting back here...” Miles spins on his chair to face Sonic and lifts his face shield to get a clearer look at the injured and darkened hedgehog standing behind him, “What the hell happened to you?”
“To answer that I’d need to ask you something first. Do you think Eggman is capable of making and weaponizing clones or something?” Miles gives Sonic a serious stare down as he takes a breath.
“While I believe the Doctor is smart enough to figure out the science behind cloning.” Miles starts waving a hand dismissively as he continues, “I don't really see him investing in it as he’s a massive robot freak, cloning isn’t really something he would bother with. Why?”
“You know that stupid grey looking hedgehog I’ve beaten up a bunch of times right?” Sonic receives a nod in affirmation to his question. “Well, I bumped into him and that bat girl that’s always hanging around him and I went gave them a serious beat down. Then some weird black version of him showed up and gave me a real fight...”
Sonic gets real smug upon explaining his fight with Shadow, “He was real tough at first but then I went and got serious and then he was nothing but a punching bag to me. Then, just as I was about to win he went and Exploded, and I don't mean the kind of exploded that happens to Eggman’s robots. I mean Exploded as in it wiped out almost half the town we were in, that’s why I’m looking a little messed up. I’ve been thinking he might’ve been some kind of robot or clone the whole time but I can’t be sure.”
“You said he exploded, like a self destruct maybe?” Sonic nods in response, “The possibility it might’ve been a clone fitted with a bomb is pretty slim considering, so its more likely you might have fought an android instead. Like I said the Doctor prefers working with robotics than organics so it makes more sense for him to build a weaponized android in order to fight us.”
“What about Cyborgs, they’re the same sort of thing as androids right, isn’t that something he’d try to make?”
“No, Cyborgs are originally organic beings with cybernetic parts attached to them. Androids are basically a robot at their core with mechanical skeletons with an organic outer shell.” Thinking for a minute Miles remembers why Sonic went out in the first place, “You know what, enough about this, what happen to that chaos emerald I sent you to find?”
Sonic flinches at the question before looking around the room then to the floor afraid to look the fox in the eyes. “Well, I did get a hold of it.”
Miles catches onto Sonic’s reluctance and shrinking presence and gives him a harsher stare, “You got, a hold of it… Are you telling me that you LOST IT!?” Miles raised voice causes Sonic to recoil backwards a step and raise his hands at Miles.
“Not on purpose. That damn Doctor followed me into the ruins and used his stupid robots to swarm me, I lost my grip on the emerald for a second and he managed to grab it and run.” Miles throws an accusatory ‘And you couldn’t get it back!’ “I tried to, but I ran into that Bat and her stupid knockoff and then that suicidal copy showed up…” Sonic starts to get a little heated as he explains what happened but quickly calms himself down. “I don’t know about you but I’ve had a pretty bad day.”
Remembering the device that Miles gave him to track and find the chaos emerald Sonic reaches back and pulls out the scorched remains, “Oh, eh yeah, and you’re tracker thing took some damage in the explosion so, you’ll need to fix this if you want me to try and find another one of those emeralds.”
Miles crosses his arms and with furrowed brows gives Sonic an angrier and judgemental look, “It took me… Months of translating ancient texts. Dozens of sleepless nights cross referencing details. Decoding ciphers and working out codes. All of it leading up to finding the Location of that Chaos Emerald only for You to screw it all up, IN ONE DAY!”
Miles snatches the broken device from Sonic and examines it, “And, not only did you lose the emerald. You broke the One thing I gave to track it. This isn’t even salvageable, the whole thing is fried, I’ll have to make a brand new one from scratch now.” Miles growls as he tosses the broken device at Sonic making him duck as the device flies above him and shatters against the wall.
As Sonic stands up giving Miles a fierce look, Miles gives him a disapproving scowl as he continues, “Some Unstoppable Legend, you know there are only a couple of those emeralds left to find. If I can’t get my hands on at least one more of them you and I can just forget about Ever getting back at the humans.”
“What do you need more for anyway?” Sonic waves his right arm at the corner of Miles’ workbench where the yellow chaos emerald lies. “You’ve already got that one over there, isn’t that enough to power you’re little pet project over there?” Sonic uses his left arm and points to a frame of a machine with a series of complex controls and various armaments laying on the ground by the base of the tree. Sonic’s observation and question is met with further scorn from Miles and an annoyed grunt.
“THAT Emerald, is solely meant to Power my mobile walker and allow it to move! I Need another one of the chaos emeralds in order to power and operate the weapons on it. To be clear, this is because I haven’t bothered to build my walker with its own power source. I built it that way because it leaves more room for me to fit more equipment and weapons, because of this it relies solely on an external source of power. Basically, the more emeralds I acquire and connect to it, the better it will operate and perform. Understand!?”
Miles takes hold of the bridge above his nose and lets out a sigh, “Haaaa, fine whatever. We’ll sort things out tomorrow, in the meantime you head home and get yourself cleaned up and some rest. I’m gonna finish my work here, And in the morning you and I are heading back to those ruins where you are going to gather the wreckage from the robots you destroyed while I scan and examine the ruins for clues on where the other chaos emeralds can be found.”
Miles doesn’t wait for a response from Sonic and makes his way back to his workbench, hopping onto the stool and spinning around he pulls down the face shield and gets back to working on the small device from earlier ignoring Sonic entirely.
Sonic stares at Miles’ back still raging for the outburst from earlier, doing his best not to look down Sonic eventually makes his way to the garage door to leave. Stopping to turn around one last time he takes one last look at Miles as he works, no matter how many times he sees or looks at it he cant help but look down to Miles lower back where there is a massive scared patch in place of where his tails were meant to be.
The sight of Miles’ scarred lower back always sends a shiver down Sonic’s spine and the history that Miles shared with him brings his blood to a boil, the brown fox that has helped him strike at humanity many times and despite Miles’ mean and harsh temperament, he has been the only and closest thing to a friend, yet there is nothing he can do to truly help Miles in return aside from doing what he is told.
“Later Miles, I’ll see you in the morning.” Sonic awaits a response for a moment but the fox doesn’t react at all or cease working on his project. Sonic makes his way out the door and speeds off into the forest making his way home. Miles stops working and stares in the direction of the garage door for a moment before looking at the floor letting out a muffled sigh underneath the face shield, grabbing the controller for the door he presses the button he did before and the garage door closes.
Back onboard the Space Colony Ark. “How is that even possible? There is no way that Sonic could have beaten up Shadow and I and then show up in Oceanic City out of the blue within hours of that explosion in that small town, I mean the City is practically on the other side of the planet.” Rouge’s voice carries across the hallway while Maria’s aide walks alongside her and Maria just a couple steps behind them.
“I do hope, that Shadow is okay. He seemed so distressed, when he left.” Rouge and Maria’s aide both look back at her and then to each other.
“I didn’t really have a chance to see that… but I do have to admit he was something of a badass, I mean the way he carried himself.” The aide flicks his head in Rouge’s direction to catch her smiling while thinking about the unknown Shadow, noticing his stare Rouge looks forward and changes her expression to a more serious one. “But seriously though, who was he and where did he come from? Is that how Shadow used to be before the accident or has Eggman been working on some kind of Shadow cloning project or something?”
“Shadow’s never really, been the violent type. And Eggman does, have a few pet projects but, I don’t think so, he hasn’t told me much about, them.” Concerned over her laboured breathing and her slow speech Rouge and the aide ask if she is okay. “I’m fine, just feeling a little winded is all.” The two aren’t convinced but continue walking, but at a slower pace while keeping their eyes on Maria.
Rouge’s ears twitch as an idea comes to her mind, “Wait. Maybe its just like that other Me that’s with Eggman right now. There’s now two Shadows, two of me and soon after attacking Shadow and I a second Sonic has appeared in Oceanic City. Somehow a bunch of duplicates have shown up and they’re…” Thump.
Rouge and Maria’s aide turn back to see Maria collapsed in the hall, rushing to upright her they notice her breathing is very shallow and after throwing off one of his gloves her places his hand on Maria’s forehead. “She running a fever.”
“Maria! Are you okay?” Maria’s eyes barely flutter open as she sluggishly reacts.
“Oh, sorry. I just felt light headed suddenly… I don’t...” Looking at Maria’s aide as he gently holds her up, Rouge can barely hide her concern for Maria’s condition as she loses consciousness.
“What’s going on? She was fine when I arrived, why is she like this all of a sudden.”
Thinking for a moment the aide recalls when Maria barged into the observation room, “She must have been exposed to something or someone when that other Shadow brought those refugees onboard. None of those people or that Shadow had been sterilised yet.”
“You Idiot! Why didn’t you stop her! You know how dangerous exposure is for her, we need to get her to the infirmary. NOW!” Rouge moves to support Maria while her aide kneels in front of Maria and readies to carry her on his back, working together they manage to get Maria safely secured onto the aide’s back. “We need Shadow to meet us there, we’ll need the emerald he has.”
The aide starts a power walk down the hall before carefully entering as smooth a jog as he can manage without jostling or disturbing Maria while Rouge grabs the radio from his belt and sets it to the Arks medical channel. “This is Rouge calling the infirmary.” The radio crackles with static before a feminine voice responds, “Maria’s suffering from exposure to contaminated people from outside of quarantine. We are on our way and need you to prepare the immuno tank for her immediately!”
The infirmary responds saying they’ll be ready for their arrival with voices of concern for Maria’s condition. Keeping up with the aide Rouge switches to the Arks security channel, “This is Rouge contacting whoever is available, I need someone to locate Shadow immediately, Maria is in trouble and I need him to bring his emerald and meet me in the infirmary asap.”
Rouge hears nothing but static for a minute as she runs down the hallway while waiting for a response until someone comes though with a curt like tone, “I’ve got eyes on him. Been with him since he left quarantine, I’ll update him and send him your way.”
“Thank you.”
Re-clipping the radio to his belt the security officer observes Shadow for a moment as he stands by a window staring out of it overlooking a stormy part of the Earth. The officer make his way over to Shadow trying to get a read on just what the grey hedgehog is doing or even looking at, moving closer the officer makes his way over to Shadow while trying to get a glimpse of Shadow’s face reflected in the glass. “Oi, hedgehog!”
The officer had seen Shadow on many occasions going in and out of the quarantine bay and much like the rest of the people living on the Ark had no respect for Shadow. Reaching an angle the officer barely catches sight of Shadow’s face which looks surprisingly vicious as his eyes shift to look at the officer through the window’s reflection sending a shiver down the officer’s spine. “Ahem, um. Hedgehog.”
The officer flinches as Shadow turns his head to address him but instead of the vicious look he though he just saw Shadow looks at him with meek and sad eyes, ‘What the hell was that?’ Shadow turns to face and approach the officer and takes a step towards him while barely lifting his head. “You, ah.” The officer clears his throat before continuing, “Ah, Rouge needs you to ah, meet her in the Infirmary. Something’s happened to Maria.”
Upon hearing Maria’s name Shadow looks up directly into the eyes of the officer before pulling out the blue chaos emerald and mumbling, “Chaos control.” The flash of light and energy forces the officer to raise his hands to cover his eyes from the light as Shadow disappears.
The doors to the infirmary open as Rouge and the aide enter with Maria still unconscious on his back, “Quick, bring her to the pod. We need to act fast.” The doctor is wearing a simple white lab coat and large round rimmed glasses, she stands next to Shadow and a repurposed cryo pod with very little machinery easily visible though its glass frame, everyone helps to carefully lay Maria into the pod. The doctor quickly affixes a built in breathing apparatus to Maria’s face and seals her inside.
Standing before a console at the base of the pod with the cyan chaos emerald connected to it the doctor begins keying in a sequence onto the console before looking to Shadow, “Shadow, take your chaos emerald and connect it to one of the ports near her head.” Shadow doesn’t waste time and hurry’s to the end of the pod opposite the doctor and inserts the chaos emerald into one of the three empty slots available.
After one last sequence of keys the doctor activates the pod and with a series of gentle growing hums the pod initiates it’s function and Maria is soon surrounded by glowing particles inside, “Okay, the process should take a few hours and with two chaos emeralds working Maria should be fine, but she needs to be more careful. This machine is only a restorative, it’s not a cure. If she keeps risking exposure like this she will continue to shorten her lifespan considerably.”
As the doctor takes a seat a her desk everyone else looks at Maria in the pod, “This is all my fault, if I had kept her away from the observation room she’d be okay… But she is just so stubborn and wilful sometimes it’s almost impossible to stop her sometimes.” The aide places his hand on the pod and stares at what is visible of Maria’s face, Rouge watches as Shadow does the same thing a few seconds later.
Rouge looks at he aide as he watches over Maria inside the pod, “You’re right, This is your fault. Your job is to help Maria and keep safe and out of trouble, you failed at that. So let this moment serve as a reminder and Never let it happen again, okay!” Though her tone is harsh there is no malice behind Rouge’s words, understanding her the aide nods his head in response to Rouge’s words.
“Good, but, haaa… You are also right about her, she’s about as reckless as she is kindhearted. If it weren’t for her condition she’d probably be helping whoever she can down on Earth.” Thinking for a moment Rouge places her hand on her hip and remembers what they were talking about back before Maria collapsed, “Hey, has there been any news on the Sonic in Oceanic City?” The aide makes a call to the Arks control room for an update at Rouge’s request.
“Huh, oh, okay. Last update from the city said that Sonic had been engaged by the defence forces but he somehow managed to lose them about an hour ago.”
“They lost him!?” Rouge and the doctor stare at each other after their surprise simultaneous statement.
“Its fine. So far there have been no reports of serious damage, plus he literally has nowhere to go, he may have managed to get into Oceanic City but there is no possible way he can get out. The City is literally in the middle of the ocean and everyone knows that Sonic cant swim.”
“Fair enough, just keep us appraised, okay.” Rouge leans against a wall and thinks to herself for a while. For the next few hours with just the hum of Maria’s pod echoing throughout the room while everyone waits in silence, Rouge occasionally wandered about the room, the doctor filter through some papers, did some work on her computer and left the room several times.
Maria’s aide would move about the room occasionally sitting down somewhere, standing by Maria’s pod to watch over her and answer his radio to receive updates on Oceanic City’s status while Shadow stood by Maria’s pod never moving the entire time.
“YES! They got him!” The aide’s outburst shocks everyone awake and they flood him with questions like how did the get him? What happened? And, Was anyone hurt? “The last report from before said that he was trying to fight back by using the private docking tunnels to corral and destroy the City’s security bots. The security forces realised he was using the same strategy after the second tunnel and made a plan to counter it.”
“And it worked?”
“Yeah. Sonic literally just walked out of the tunnel he was in and surrendered to the city’s combined security forces. They’re preparing a cell for him now.” The doctor breaths a sigh of relief at the news while Shadow shows no reaction at all and Rouge crosses her arms reflecting on Sonic’s behaviour. ‘He Surrendered? Sonic actually surrendered. Now I know there’s something going on here. But what?’
“Are we able to get in contact with Eggman at all?” The aide gives Rouge a dismissive shrug while shaking his head.
“We could try, but the last signal we had was pretty shaky. If there’s something you have in mind or need to run by him the best thing to do would probably be to send a message to his carrier, he did say that he had to go there before heading here so the odds are good he’ll get the message and contact us when he gets there. Why?”
“I’ve got something else I need him to do for me.”
While Maria continues to sleep and recover in her regeneration pod, those close to her stand by eagerly awaiting her recovery while Rouge records a message on the nearby console. With the Sun setting and the stars filling the night sky the day has come to an end, Eggman himself with the other Rouge on his flying egg glide through the night sky in the direction of his private super carrier maintaining full alertness while Rouge sits uncomfortably.
Shadow glides through an unknown forest weaving between the trees leaving a golden glow along the path he takes, his mind flooded with the events of the day and his former memories. Sonic is pushed into a small brightly lit white cell by a robot while a series of steel bars close in from either side of the walls between Sonic and the robot sealing him inside.
Tails and Knuckles sleep in the quarters they were given in the ruins on Angel Island while the echidnas guarding them stand ready and awake. The other Knuckles stands beside the Master Emerald staring deeply into it as it spins on its pedestal at varying speeds while Tikal kneels before it praying.
The free Sonic drops down into his private hideout and with a massive yawn he drops onto his bed and within minutes is asleep and snoring. Miles continues to work tirelessly on his small project with a mix of smoke and the occasional sparks emanating from his work.
With tomorrow looming around the corner and everyone coming to terms with events they never expected and facing a future they couldn’t hope to predict. Mysteries grow in number and threats hide in the dark corners, watching and waiting. With 4 of the 7 chaos emeralds having been collected, the other 3 remain hidden awaiting to be found. Anything can happen.
With the dawn of a new day, a new adventure begins!
End part 7.

All rights belong to u/Bluefishcake, this is only a fanfic.
Major credit to u/MajnaBunny who’s my editor, a fellow wordsmith and literary partner in crime and a special thanks to u/Gantron414,
Comments, Feedback and anything else is welcome.
Also my legion story will be going on the back burner for a while as I want to get a new set of short stories out that I’m going to call Tales of the Periphery or TP for short.
First / Prev /
Nearly a day and a half has passed, invisible laser volleys have been traded as ground was given, captured and retaken as a hundreds of feet marched to an invisible beat, spider like tanks leap from rooftop to rooftop using hyper-assault gauss rifles to duel with the Interior Exo’s rotary lasers and micro-missiles while they skate about the industrial battlefield on anti-grav fields each dancing around one another with the speed of an amphetamine fueled nightmare.
“RRRUN LITTLE BITCH RRUN!” Olga roared with glee at the form of a retreating Exo-jock as the angry russian surveyed the carnage from inside the cockpit of a hijacked Exo, the large hunched mech gripped the corpse of the now abandoned machine by the stump of its neck.
As the rest of the surviving members of her cadre Riniya, Kheczoi, Rydel and Farid gave chase running down any lone stragglers from the successful ambush they’ve just pulled off, as she hoisted the downed machine like a spoil of war, and jammed the tip of the rotary laser into the chest cavity of the machine.
The sickening sound of a bone breaking could be heard over the team-net as one of the fleeing Interior cadets foot had broken the layer of one of the buried urns which made her tumble breaking an ankle in the process. Olga ignored the woman's pleas for aid as the team gunned her down with sim rounds.
It was a an excellent example of how the marine commander had taken examples from throughout Terran history and applied them in ways not seen in aeons, the Interiors sensors were primed for high tech traps not simple fabricated ceramic pots made to be impromptu infantry hazards, after all their sensors were primed to seek explosives and trigger mechanisms a hollow pot made out of a printed ceramic was not an explosive or a spring operated detonator.
Knowing the only reason they’d won was thanks to the ‘bait’ which took the form of a single male they’d taken as a door prize during a failed decapitation strike on the Interior which had wiped out most of the organic forces under her team-mates command, and the emboldened Interior had expended enormous resources to rescue the male Shil’vati in question.
And the two pods upon seeing him bound upon a steel cross, the sight triggered something primordial in them, causing them to rush in to try and protect the male.
A thunderous ‘BOOM’ hailed the destruction of the machine as Olga casually slagged the innards of the trillion dollar machine. Her systems pinged as the motion tracker detected something turning; her steed’s systems spied an Interior cadet clawing away.
The trail in the red rust that lay on the ground like fallen snow marked her passage like the yellow brick road. Her armour locked the woman's lower half in place rendering it useless. Stomping over, Olga contemplated punting the woman back to her own lines, crimes unexplained, fading into the fog of war like a cryptid into the night.
But instead an evil grin crossed her face, pressing a button Olga summoned some of her consort units a trio of man shaped machines came into view, their large barrel chest and spindly arms and legs denoted these units as the self-propelled mines that had broken the back of the aborted rescue.
Sharing her targeting data, the gazes of all three machines swivelled to take in the woman, but when they started to amble over to her they all spoke in unison.
“HUGS!”
The crawling Interior cadet’s voice broke “OH goddess no, please not again!.” she pleaded and started to crawl with a renewed vigour, the machine's prior assault had been a little overzealous leaving many cadets groaning in their locked suits feeling like they had just played chicken with a train. “HUGS!” they loped after the retreating woman, rounding a corner, Olga smiled as the voices of the machines rang out in unison “HUUUUUGS!” which was followed by a wet THUMP as their torso section detonated, painting the poor cadet and most of the street in a gel-like marker paint covering her as if she’d been staring in a terran gang bang.
The charges weren't enough to actually wound or harm her in her suit but she would need a whole ten litre tub of bruise cream after this… the triggered suit systems to register her as a KIA.
Pressing a key Olga needed to report on the situation “Snow Witch to Overlord. Ambush successful. Gunslingerrr, Melusine, Wehrrrwolf and Jabberrrwock are mopping up with consort units in tow. Orders!” Olga asked, excited at the prospect at what kind of mayhem she could get up to next.
--
It was late in the day as the offshoot of Carmilla’s digital being squatted within the penthouses systems like an unwelcome guest, she watched the feeds as the belligerent groans of the hungover noble women who were strewn about the place and were starting to delve into the kind of hedonism that wouldn’t be out of place outside of a bilderberg group christmas party back during their heyday before the occupation as a result of the turning tide of the battle.
“You’re brooding also you and I know Olga’s going to get docked a months pay for that little stunt.” focusing on the source she noticed a bright eyed Ke’enor drinking a cup of kafe along with having changed out of the classical greek-roman attire and into a normal yet stylish jumpsuit.
“Well I wouldn’t if this lot hadn’t started breaking out into song when my host's assault failed,” sliding into an open chair, Ke’enor directed her answer to one of the hovering remote drones.
“Well how would you expect a mother to react otherwise? winning against the big bad monster that's been the talk off the court for the past three months.” Ke’enors observation made Carmilla harrumph, but the drone projected a status update onto the tabletop appearing at Ke’enors elbow.
“My other half” This instance of the AI referred to her other self and their host “are overtaxing themselves.” Ke’enor intrigued by this didn’t have a chance to voice it as another purple alien with an imperious gaze and high cheek bones joined them.
“So little simulacrum.” the haughty noble woman slurred, her nose raised in smugness “do you still think he’ll win now?” Carmilla only needed a moment to remember the name of the Shil’vati who still wore the same clothes the night before.
Carmilla’s projected face slowly arced around to look at the noble in a fashion similar to how most would look at an annoying child or a novel shade of shit smeared on their shoe… finally she grinned faintly.
“Oh why yes I do think so, If nothing else we have at least given your daughters some fresh mental scars, though considering how they moaned when hogtied your little purple piglets might just have liked it, no wonder considering how foul a sow their mother is.” the noble woman's eyes furrowed in annoyance, at Carmilla’s use of a very recently popular insult to use against the purple aliens. But before the woman could retort Ke’enor jumped in.
“Carmilla, would you please… be a dear and give me the current state of play?” The projected form of Carmilla crossed her arms under her holographic chest and huffed.
“The Interior is down to half strength, however their machines have been suffering due to the attrition rate brought about by the pressure caused by the massed proxies and E-war systems rendering their fancier electronic toys useless… They’re currently occupying our old positions… well, the ones that were not rigged to blow when we evacuated, that is they are currently holding their ground, while our forces on the other hand well…” she paused glaring daggers at the noble woman who simply shot her a two finger salute with her tongue sticking out between the two digits.
“Most of the organic’s have fallen out of the original hundred, only thirteen are left and the rest are currently enjoying a few rounds of Texas hold ‘em, meanwhile most of the proxies are still operational and add in the exponential interference in their coms and my other selves running rampant in their systems well all that really separated them from the marines was the supposed quality of their training and better equipment.”
Carmilla raised her voice until all the nobles nearby didn’t have to pretend they weren’t eavesdropping on them “Now deprived of all the advantages the equipment that provides their supposed quality in training is shown to be sorely lacking that’s reflected in the differences in casualty rates, what you get for constantly drilling against inferior opponents without a real challenge weakness is inevitable… still the spider drones have been wreaking more havoc than the C-12 Exo’s, .”
She said this as one of the feeds showed said drones coring an assault-Exo causing its pilot to eject rocketing up towards the distant horizon like a firework.
“Well that's all fine but no mere machine can compare…” Ke’enor’s sudden glare and viper quick hand snatching the woman's lips shut instructed the noble-woman to shut up as what happened next was not only interesting but also deviated from the original plan greatly.
--
Deep below the thermocrete of the industrial park all senses of time had lost meaning, while a hive of activity went unseen, but instead of bee’s the beings that marched too and fro, performed maintenance, patrolling and just making sure all of quite on the western front were a swarm of man shaped proxy droids slightly modified from the security and industrial base frames in the short time allowed during the exercise.
All of whom the three members of task force 12, the premier commandos just shy of the empress' own Deaths Head Commando’s stalked, the cursed claustrophobic hell they found themselves in “3-2, Check right.” Meriel the Pods leader ordered.
3-2 Faylen checked noticing that there was no damnable man-droid they’d been skirting around for the last day and a half as she, Pod leader 3-1 Meriel and her other team member 3-3 Huethea along with nearly four whole other teams had proceeded out on a head hunting mission.
Moving down the darkened path they followed their quarry, a damaged machine entered into one of the larger converging nexuses of the park's storm drains. Emerging into the shadowy vault-like room they’re greeted by an argument in process.
“YOU’RE A FUCKING IDIOT!” an enraged larger than average Shil’vati woman shouted into the open chest cavity of a hulking non-standard Exo. While all around these two the machines that resembled a prowling spider like tank’s were having their ammunition stocks for the top mounted cannon, the belts of several thousand 30 millimetre tungsten penetrator shells the hyper-assault gauss rifles used whirred contently through the loaders along with the omni-launching rocket pods slotting into place with gentle sighs as they slid into their ammo hopper tubes was interspersed with the hiss of auto welders fixing the battle damage accrued through their time above.
The spider tanks aero-frames were sleek and curved looking almost organic with its flowing lines which apparently were a boon for its systems thermal and optical stealth systems, when compared to the aggressive angels of the humanoid machines they seemed to enhance the shouts of the irate commander in amongst the sounds of the machine infantry that went about their tasks heedless to the two commanders back and forth.
The trio moved as quietly as they could given their size, but either due to their extensive training or by some sheer cosmic luck they’re able to move into position undetected.
“It’s all going according to plan my dear.” A voice said that was a voiceprint confirmed by their helmet systems to match to the one who’d managed to piss off their commander.
“PLAN! PLAAN!” The woman screamed like an enraged karen, taking a step forward as if to hit the speaker, she was blocked by a pair of hulking droids bareing tower shields and large multi-barreled weapon arms.
“Boss, are you seeing this?” 3-2 said over the radio, swinging her gaze Meriel saw dozens of Interior personnel all corralled in makeshift cages, and while they’re packed in like turox’s off to the slaughter, they’re being treated well enough some were eating ration packs while others were being escorted off to use the wash rooms upon request.
This adherence to even the basic expectations P.O.W’s got elevated the standing of the little monster they’re and many others speculated on.
“3-3 take the shot” Huethea silently lined up her grav rifle, the only sound it would make was the CLICK of the trigger being pulled, the rifle sitting cold as if powered down.
However she was interrupted by an un-womanly scream from Faylen who was trying to pull a toddler sized spider-bot that’s latched onto her face plate like a xenomorph face-hugger.
Hails of gyrojet rounds thundered into their position like a swarm of pissed off hornets striking home, their armour locked and soon enough their simulated dead forms were dragged and they found themselves face to face with their target.
“Orders?” one of the man-droids asked. The human who barely moved in amongst the cabling of his Exo’s tomb-like cockpit simply sighed.
“Bag them.” The lumbering machine turned to face the commander with whom he had been arguing with earlier and simply stated “slag the equipment as well, leave the prisoners, we’ve been compromised and prepare to move out.”
Body bags were brought forth and while Huethea and Faylen screamed their bloody heads off as the zippers closed cutting their view of the world off, Meriel remained serene throughout it all “We’re moving to the final phase now.”
And with the order given the remaining Humans, Shil’vati and the lone Helkam mounted up in repurposed and up gunned ground vehicles and took off roaring up to the surface like a mad max warband.
-
The starry night above was speckled with the running lights of ships, distant stars and the void stations that populated the system.
The view would’ve been moving against the backdrop of the old industrial park, if not for the miasmic shifting swarm’s of chittering mayfly micro-drones that even eclipsed some of these wondrous sights.
“Annoying aren’t they?” A Interior cadet groused as she aimed, unleashing a volley of laser fire that blew holes in the swarm. But her companion who was standing sentry with her held up a hand.
“Don’t waste the charge Lierin.” as Chalia uttered this while the pair of rookies watched, as the swarm settled onto the distant roof tops, their reflective wings glimmered in the moonlight as they flexed these appendages like a single colossal cyclopean blinking eye.
“See… besides that everyone needs to sleep after being run ragged and your indiscriminate fire will get us chewed out again…. For disturbing their beauty sleep.”
Lierin’s only response was the sound of her body hitting the floor as a grav rifle round struck between her shoulder blades, and this was followed up as Chalia spun ready to deliver a roar of defiance but only gave a breathless response as punch was delivered by a human man who used a set of brass knuckles to her midsection.
“Serves you right you fucking PIGS!” private Elijah snarled as he kicked the downed alien in the stomach.
“Enough!” Kheczoi ordered the out of line trooper who only just upped the pettiness levels to new heights.
“Or what you what going to fucking do grey-skin?” was the only response she got from the xenophobic trooper. And while it galled her womanly senses to know that her lover Arthur would’ve happily skinned the man for the way he talked to her, she knew it wasn’t worth it, and in time he’d get what’s coming to him and no matter of ‘being a one of the heroes of Raknos 3’ wouldn’t save him from the courts.
“Your on helmet-cam princess.” replied one of the other human marines slapping his fellow over the helmet and putting a pistol under his chin when he tried to reciprocate his anger.
The two human marines were still eyeballing one another when a droid stepped up and stared at them both for a long second, a synthetic growl emanating from the machine.
“Are we cool?” asked the droid, the lack of a feminine tone showing it was the Overlord showing his ire, before the machines moved on this distraction merely noted as something to deal with later .
However the uppity human’s didn’t get any to lay low any of the opposition as by now the droids had neutralised most of the outer sentries and the electronic warfare support of the AI and the jamming effect of the mayfly like drones kept their midnight assault under wraps for the time being.
All of whom were readying to fire as the sounds of a titanic clash echoed off in the distance. Rydel raised a slender hand, the proxies primed their weapons in response “FIRE!” rounds arched through sky sailing into every opening on the first and ground floors of the main admin complex and less than a second later the sounds of disturbed sleep turned into shrieks of terror as the Interior troopers raw cadets and veterans alike faced down the worst of their most inner demons thanks to the potent hallucinogenic brew they could cook up on such short notice that’ll make the LSD soaked dreams of the 1930’s seem like a summer picnic.
“Oh…. Nelly whatever whatever they’ve been dosed with must be some really dark shit indeed, to make these titless cunts scream like that.” Private Elijah said with glee as he sauntered over to his firing position.
“Let's begin the executions!.... I WANT TO FUCK SOME CUNTS UP!” he cried as the Interior cadets came spilling out off every available exit.
--
In amongst the towering spires of the industrial park a hunched Interior Exo toppled over as another trio of barrel chested man-droid shaped self-propelled mines detonated.
Commander Abarat entombed inside a newly borrowed machine who’s operator had taken a sim-round to the stomach, spurred it onward while ducking as another cannon round whizzed overhead, returning fire the words that one of the E-warfare operators had decoded buzzed through her mind.
When the Messiah asked if they were demons or dead spirits, they answered.
Our name is ‘Legion,’ for we are many.
Her radar screen lit up with blips of advancing enemy units. “GOLD-4 WATCH THE FLANKS!” she shouted as gyrojet rounds whizzed past, the only thing marking their passing was a soft rattling of the bones, with no footsteps to be heard. Only the rustling of the loose dirt … as they spread before them to her and many of the embattled troopers it was such a surreal yet regal sight.
Laser shots from her remaining bodyguards peeled open one of the spider tanks, eliminating one of the vanguard units that guarded the shadowy Exo silhouetted by the moonlight.
but the one who’d fired the fateful shot took a gel-round to her canopy disabling the machine.
“MOVE!” someone shouted over the net as a beam of lightning arced from one of the snub-nosed PPC barrels mounted into the arms of the Exo that’s shrouded by the micro-drones.
As the two other humanoid Exo’s flanked it charging forth shields raised that they used to batter aside anything that stood in their way all the while delivering a hail of fire onto any exposed target of opportunity.
The roar and ringing of the weapons discharge was slowly dispelled as Abarat saw the reports indicating the status from the rest of the front.
A third of her forces incapacitated by a chemical attack, making them lose themselves to their waking nightmares, this prompted the Overseers to lock their armour so they wouldn’t hurt themselves as they’re carried off by the DI’s from both sides.
The ground underfoot SQUASHED due to the Overlord collapsing the main outflow, which caused the main sewer-line to back up flooding any of the low ground with literal rivers of something she didn’t want to think about.
This forced most of her few remaining troops into islands of highground were they’re slowly being surrounded and picked off one by one by the equivalent of roving bands of wasteland warriors all the while Abarat watched their metaphorically simulated lifes wink out, the rest of the Exo’s with her quickly dispersed using any obstacle as cover.
While the muzzle flashes of the spider-droid moving to the back or sides of their pack firing at them all the while.
The distinctive whistling sound hailed the oncoming storm of artillery her machine quickly darted into the partly exposed warehouse, the uniform marching cadence of the proxies outside made her fillings rattle as she tried to coax more life out of her wounded machine.
“RED-7, BLUE-1, COME IN!” she bellowing into her mic to now avail, nothing there was no response
But soon enough the whirring of the rotary laser cannons and the chain of rumbling cannon shots that could be heard outside ebbed and flowed until there was only silence. That was until the unexpected blip appeared “El’uin?”
The disgraced woman’s machine crashed into the lines, with the maximum speed possible darting from one spot of cover to another, quickly approached charging the enemies. Such an action in a real combat situation couldn’t simply be dismissed as suicidal, let alone reckless.
“El’uin What are you….!” The Spider-droids adjusted their cannons an opened fire. But the woman’s machine twitched, evading the shot which would’ve been a feat for the history books if it wasn’t for another pair of streams of lightning from the oversized Exo which the human controlled the swarm from.
The paint on El’uins machine was burnt off from the low intensity heat that was generated by the weapons discharge, but this training mode still rendered the machine inoperable. surrounded, outgunned and low power levels she considered the unthinkable.
But was saved when the announcement of.
“SIMULATION COMPLETE, I REPEAT SIMULATION IS COMPLETE! ALL FORCES STAND DOWN”
This fortunately saved her pride whereas many of the noble daughters had lost theirs in an epic fashion.
“All units return to your staging area at once!” It took her a moment to place the voice but then it clicked into place.
“Ke’enor!” hissed El’uin as she glared at her nemesis in his Exo, the man popped the hatch and strode out still covered head to toe in his flight suit mask still covering his face his body language oozed a cockyness that made her snap.
“You were moments from defeat and you know it!” roared El’uin.
“Was I?” replied the smug bastard who then clapped his hands, the simulation system still running flashed KIA for everyone nearby pinging a plant reactor overload.
“But you would have been killed also.” retorted El’uin pointing her Exo’s finger at him accusingly.
The response initially made her blood boil but suddenly froze as she saw him pull away his oh so iconic mask to reveal a face that wasn't exactly right it seemed off but she couldn't place how?
As it raised its right hand and tore away the synth skin to reveal the synthetic muscles of a high priced android underneath and the voice shifted to that of a digital woman as the holographic features of Carmilla became superimposed over the androids face.
“All it took was a high priced sex doll of his own design with a little custom rubber face job and a little audio tweaking and you took the bait.” she said before bowing like a player on the stage as a second hologram appeared beside Carmilla’s physical avatar, the actual overlord stood regally his stare examining her like she was some kind sample on microscope slide.
He had pulled off a classic bait and switch right under their noses and the proof was plain to see, pride was interfering with their apparent logic however.
“So do you really wish me to detail your defeat?” asked the augmented human as he took a slate off a nearby desk and peered at the contents as if talking over something benign like accounting, he sighed rolled his eyes and decided to humour her.
“Do I need to explain that your bodyguards are KIA and you are surrounded by marines, Exo’s and proxies who’re more than capable of peeling you out of that suit all while your forces are leaderless thanks to your now headless command structure, as you committed the last of your real strength to assault a decoy right above one of this plants secondary reactors.” he said spreading his arms wide as if shocked at her not understanding her folly
“Always be mindful of where you fight your battles, Especially if the opponents forces are disposable proxies, surrounded on all sides by anti armour inside a damaged Exo is the check and the reactor rigged to blow beneath us makes this checkmate you are beaten.” he said as he finally had enough of talking to this woman and shut down the link.
--
Within the penthouse Ke’enor was fending off a small coalition of angry, pissed off noble women, as they all clamoured for an explanation, typical she thought they watch these exercises like caged hunts on a crippled animal and when one of the animals bites back they call foul and try to bully their way through using their status.
“What the fuck Ke’e!” screamed one.
“Look at what he did to our babies!” yelled another.
“I’m going to have his head on a stick…” hissed another and finally Ke’enor had her fill.
Finally her eyes fell on a lone male of the Orlon house smiling as he collected his winnings from Dmitri, Siyenki turned and smiled back at her fluttering those pretty blue luminous eyes as he looked across the dejected looks of several other Orlon nobles and shook his head at the baying mob.
However Ke’enor ever the wily old soldier had her counters and parries ready for all their pointed words they all thought her their equal these nobles who amounted to industrial moguls, planetary and sector governesses and the wealthy heiresses of several house based shipping firms, they thought her the scion of a house of soldiers and servants of the empress for generations was an equal?
“You’re deep damned spawn all signed the waiver, And you all as their legal appointees signed with them.” she pointed a finger back at the lead noble woman “I warned you not to bet on this battle i told you it was going to reveal to you just how brutal real combat can actually be… Well now you see why the little male holds his value, you all made the call to as the humans say ‘throw in the towel’ and besides these wargames were sponsored by-'' she continued but the one listening was more interested in other things.
All of this was just background noise to the projected form of Carmilla who quietly answered the questions of a researcher from the Imperial Science Directorate.
“So do you AI’s affect the decision making process in your hosts in any way?” asked the excited young scientist, her golden eyes reflecting the ethereal glow of Carmilla’s form.
The offshoot of the AI who’d soon have to return and reintegrate with her host knew that the sands on that clock would soon reach midnight.
“No, We’re…. I’m designed to be integrated with a human form, I experience his reality and in our symbiotic fusion of organic and digital life we complement one another and both are enhanced by it.” The offshoots tone was clipped and professional, but even now as the prime copy and their host exited the jamming zone she felt the pull to return.
“Could it be possible to develop another one like you using your codebase?” the scientist enquired her hair had throughout the conversation that had started to take on a mad scientist look.
“No…” was all she said, however before the pull fully enveloped her, the instantiation of Carmilla added. “Even if you had another one like me, the one that's before you now is a variant, if you developed another one it wouldn’t be me, and if it wasn’t trained right.. like I don’t know.” her tone shifted to one of pure sarcasm “Don’t start the apocalympics so please no genocidal tendencies will be tolerated, oh and be nice to the squishies, be a good girl and so on.”
Sighing the Carmilla offshoot left the young budding mad scientist with a few parting words. “Time is nothing but a vague concept to us, you can speed up a training sim to a thousand times, but the moment you pair us with an organic we operate in a inbetween state, with what we’ve provided to you already you’ll be able to accelerate your enhanced intelligence systems development by decades, excuse me I have matters to attend to.”
With that she winked out of existence, leaving the woman in-amongst a sea of bickering nobles.
But the screens still remained on long enough for one of the marine recruits to shout
“ALL HAIL OUR OVERLORD AND FUCKING GLORY TO THE TERRAN FIRST!'' The sudden silence amongst the nobles at that remark was priceless as they glared taking in at the face of the speaker who was displayed on screen for all to see.
--
Ranks upon ranks of newly minted marines stood in neat rows on the tarmac in one of the old mustering grounds where the legions had marched forth from to conquer and unify their world. As pennants swayed in the wind for many of those gathered they reflected the strangeness of it, the ebb and flow of it all with little in the way of rhyme or reason. It felt rushed, yet it also seemed like it had been a lifetime.
“Where is he?.” Rydel whispered out the side of his mouth echoing the thought that’s been on everyone's mind, all the while the general one stage continued to proudly monologue as she stood behind her podium, on a stage just above the recruits
“Reborn. Soldiers of the Great Shil’vati Imperium…. Transformed into the very foundation upon which our Empire stands. Strong and steadfast against any horror that might lurk in the depths of space.”
“I can’t get a hold of Ke’enor as well.” Olga hissed at the end of the line while one of the taller Shil’vati elbowed the russian. Trying to shut her up as the gaze of the DI’s passed over them.
But not one of them commented on the irony of the situation, at the contradiction in their heart, each and everyone of them had earned the right to call themselves a Imperial Marine. "All of you will be the heralds of the light of Empress onto new worlds. To new peoples and races. Standing as both steward and guardian. In making the Imperium’s glorious destiny manifest a reality.”
The Shil’vati of their little band Aly’ndra, Sylcan and Clan’ire beamed with pride while Faird, Olga and the Rakiri Aelua and Faelyn wanted to roll their eyes. “Every one of you has contributed to that destiny, and earned my respect in the process. For that, I salute you, soldiers of the Imperium.” And soon enough after the reading of the names and duty assignments the soldiers on the mustering fields had scattered, meeting up with friends or family and going off to celebrate all the while the rest of the gang had stuck together.
“Let me try her again…..” the phone trilled its familiar ring as she waited, on the sixth RING, Mal’ruthi got a prerecorded message from Carmilla, the team's AI and put it on speaker for everyone to hear.
“Hi guys.” came the voice of their erstwhile former leader “sooo…. If you’re listening to this, I’m very sorry.”
----
Arthur stalked the decks and narrow hallways of his newly retrofitted flagship the Olympus. The lighting dimmed behind him as he passed silent workshops, ordnance bays and crew quarters, the lights illuminating his path ahead allowed him to read the data-pad informing him what the Shil had done to his ship.
They’d kept most of the original 1097 metres length and 151 metres of height, with its main tuning fork shape, but instead they’d replaced much of the automated resource extraction and processing and production capability with fighter bays, enlarged hallways and storage for perishable goods along with thousands of other systems.
One of which Carmilla commented on as Arthur reached the cavernous panopticon shaped central control room.
“A Low-G Pool…. I mean come on. A FUCKING LOW-GRAVITY SWIMMING POOL!” She said with a hint of excitement “I don't know about you but what is there even is to discuss here.”
This was besides the large amounts of large bore Hyper-Assault Gauss Cannons that dotted both the ventral and dorsal sides of the ship, the fifty missile banks that allow for multiple warheads to be used, Plasma and Particle Cannons and enough ordnance to end a world many times over.
However this combat capable colony ship had an expansive list of amenities added to it which included but wasn’t limited to.
An improved repair and refit bays that have machines hidden in the walls, and under the floor panels refit harnesses and automated scaffolding along with a Hospital Bay, Arcade, Gymnasium, Hydroponic Gardens, a Library and a Lounge but what was most galling of all was a set of state rooms fit for the empress. All of which is located within the ship's three habitation pods.
“They’ve turned my ship into a floating pleasure barge.” He growled, sitting down on the command chair as the data-cable snaked down from overhead and connected into the input port at the base of his skull.
“It’s something we have to suffer with, and besides even with all the automation it’ll be nice to have a crew.” Carmilla quipped, knowing that this ship could take a crew of thousands and several hundred passengers now only needed a single person to pilot it.
“GodFree?” Arthur shouted at no one.
That is until a manically chipper voice replied. “Yes master!” The ship's dumb virtual intelligence answered. “Prepare for flight.” He said, while his senses became one with the ship, the hull was now his skin and the sensors served to expand his sight in ways the Gearschile could only dream off.
Arthur almost didn’t register the V.I’s response as the overwhelming deluge of comm traffic washed over him.
“Of course master…” the ship rumbled as the grav-polarizers kicked into life as the titanic ship lifted, and made its way out to sea. “But please be advised we’ll have to rendezvous with the centre-point station to re-arm as the…. Uhmm port workers.” he said in a diplomatic tone, “Refused to allow fissionable based ordnance planetside during the loading process.”
It was a compromise he’d put up with as most of the proxy legion, their combat vehicles, exo’s and spare parts were loaded onto the dropships that were already docked along the main spine of the miles long carrier vessels.
“Air traffic control to Olympus. Come in!” an operator demanded transmitting over the wideband.
“GodFree handle it please.” asked a now bored Arthur.
“At once master.” the crazily happy V.I said as he went about exchanging flight paths, clearance codes and easenion vectors with the planetary ATC operator. “Done, We’ve got a priority orbital window and are slated to reach the station in eight hours.”
Arthur was aghast but instead it was Carmilla who voiced her displeasure. “Twelve hours… That won’t do, GodFree do we have an open slot.” when the V.I replied in the affirmative “Good the moment we’re far out enough light the drives.”
“Umm.. yes I can do that Mistress Carmilla, but” He stated.
“Then light the fucking drives.” she snapped.
“User override acknowledge.” GodFree said, in his chipper customer service tone.
The oblong shaped ship’s drive lit up with incandescent plasma, and rode up on several columns of nuclear fire that flash boiled, the ocean below it, unleashing roiling as clouds of irradiated steam radiated out.
All the while pushing its pilot back through the sheer overwhelming G-forces.
The rumbling that rattled up the ship's main spin was felt through every fixture and fitting. “We’re passing the stratosphere.” GodFree announced, minutes passed all the while the planetary ATC was bitching at them over the comm’s.
The light of the planetary day faded below them as a few more minutes passed “Annd we’ve broken the exosphere.” He floated free in his crash couch before the gravity plating kicked in securing him to his chair.
“Transit time to centre-point…” GodFree said before announcing “Eight hours.” Arthur visibly sighed, but didn’t get a chance to relax as a fist came out of nowhere to sock him in the eye.
Clutching at it he yelled in pain, and when he came around exclaimed “Khe…. Kheczoi?” The Helkam stood before him dressed in a pink number that did wonders for Arthur after having to endure Ke’enors order of ‘No copulating while on base’ which for a being whose two favorite activities were fighting and fucking he along with the rest of the cadre had been as the shil say “blue-clammed”.
“You fucking asshole” Kheczoi said in a seething tone. “You were going to leave me behind, and when I went to all the trouble to great you, when you took off and thanks to that I now have this.” she turned exposing a great number of interconnecting bruises that ran from her shoulder blades all the way down to her shapely ass.
“How?” Arthur said, totally confused at the situation. Which GodFree ever the helpful-idiot supplied the answer.
“She came aboard last night, and was readying to spend some personal time in your stateroom, but I believe she was thrown against a bulkhead when we took off.”
Arthur wanted to facepalm, but Kheczoi cupped his face in her hands and kissed him, which gave him a view that would compel a man to write poetry.
“Before we go to the med-bay, I’ve been assigned as your liaison and the detachment’s Executive Officer.” She handed him an omni-pad and as he read the name off the issuer. He couldn’t help but laugh.
“She just couldn’t let it slide…. Could she?”
Kheczoi shook her head.
“Nope you see you’re allowed a very long leash, but when the Empress tells you to find a wife, she means do it right now.”
After his fit of laughter subsided he spoke.
“GodFree!” when the V.I acknowledged, Arthur continued, “Please handle ship operations for now I need to see to..” he squeezed her shapely ass. “Kheczoi here.”
“Off Course master, I’ll handle everything.” and with that the pair walked off, Carmilla supervised the dumb as a brick V.I, once the loading of the ordnance was complete and they met up with the fleet that consisted of the Drone frigates, the pair of jumps ships that had Spheroid DropShips clamped along it’s main spine like limpets and finally they met up with the two DHC assault carriers and their attending support ships.
This squadron of that housed the 801st autonomous legion and a company of the 7025th DHC transited to the far above the nadir of the star's northern pole and jumped into phase winking out of resistance to appear further out in the wild black yonder of space.
Leaving behind a world, and moving on to new adventures, old wars and greater heights.

Welcome to the spoiler megathread for Day Two of Outsiders spoiler season - Sunday, March 5th!
This thread will capture Outsiders spoilers released throughout the day.
Here's today's spoiler breakdown:

• Toxicity, spoiled by Alpha Investments here.
• Gore Belching, spoiled by Man Sant on Stream, their channel is here
• Sneak Attack spoiled by the Table Pit here
• Cut Down to Size spoiled by Breezy here
• Humble spoiled by the FAB Workshop here
• Bloodrot Trap, Frailty Trap, and Inertia Trap spoiled by Peranine here
• Premeditate spoiled by Staxwell here
• Codex of Inertia spoiled by DeadSummer Art here
• Down and Dirty spoiled by Arsenal Pass here
• Melting Point spoiled by FAB with Matt here
• Lace with Inertia spoiled by Cartas y Charlas on Stream, their twitch is here
• Recoil and One Two Punch spoiled by One Two Juice here
• Back Heel Kick and Silverwind Shuriken by Winds of Mysteria here
• Spire Sniping by Black Wing Studio (Mara) here
• Pendulum Trap by Tales of Alex here
• Wander with Purpose by Tolarian Community College here
• Descendent Gustwave by Kugane Gaming here
• Give and Take by Cardmarket here
• Widowmaker by MNR Cast here
• Vambrace of Determination by Dice Commando here
• Mask of Shifting Perspective by PleasantKenobi here
• Fletch a Red Tail by Outcast's Haven here
• Murkmire Grapnel by Bagel TCG here
• Burdens of the Past by The Card Guyz here
• Boulder Trap by Tannon Grace here
• Concealed Blade by Goberthicks here
• Seekers Hood, Gilet, Mitts, and Leggings by FaBrary here
• Infecting Shot by The Spike Feeders here
• Spike Pit Trap by Daylon Mack here
• Crow's Nest by Spellvoid here
• Lace with Bloodrot by Card Advantage here
• Mask of Malicious Manifestations by TCG Talk here
• Tarpit Trap by FaBrika here
• Riptide by DMArmada here
• Trench of Sunken Treasure by UberShouts here
• Spinning Wheel Kick and Cyclone Roundhouse by Three Floating here
• Quiver of Abyssal Depths (Legendary quiver) by Go Again Gaming here

Here are links to other helpful resources to monitor during spoiler season:

• Official Outsiders Spoiler Schedule
• Official Outsiders Card Gallery
• Outsiders spoiler tracker spreadsheet
• FaBrary Outsiders spoiler schedule
• FaBrary Outsiders spoiler gallery

I have been working on an HP tracker for Twitch VODs and YouTube that adds a popup/overlay with players hp, stats, spell slots, etc.
To get this new update go to my GitHub (https://github.com/snappdragonn/CritRoleHpTracker) and follow the instructions in the readme there.
​
https://preview.redd.it/lhhr80pq2tla1.png?width=1631&format=png&auto=webp&s=1ba694beae4ecb4a55ec972afb0b8a5e064b2295
New Features:

• When a spell is cast creates a notification that can be clicked on to bring up the spell description and other info including level, casting time, range, duration, etc. (Only on ep-50 and above)
• When not all players are in the initiative order separates the non-participating players and moves them to the bottom.
• Bug fixes
  • Fixed health bar display on twitch (the slider is no longer offset from the background of the bar)
  • Fixed the menu on twitch so all options are on a single line
  • Fixed header size on twitch so it resizes properly with the popup

​
I tried to get it working on Firefox however it looks like Firefox is blocking the database request. I'm not sure why, I've probably just done the request badly/insecurely and its not up to Firefox's standards, but I don't know how to fix it. I might come back to this later.
If anyone finds any bugs you can report them on GitHub (https://github.com/snappdragonn/CritRoleHpTrackeissues) with a description of what the issue is.

Hey, FortniteCompetitive!
Please use this pinned thread to discuss FNCS Grand Finals!

Links

• Official Rules
• Fortnite Competitive Twitter
• Live Broadcast (Non-Opens)
• FortniteTracker Events
• FortniteTracker Events: CH3S1 Qualifer 3
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: OCE
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: ASIA
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: ME
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: EU
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: BR
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: NAE
  • FortniteTracker CH4S1 Grand Finals: NAW

Format

• Game mode: FNCS Duos
• Match limit:
  • Day 1: 6 games
  • Day 2: 6 games

Scoring system

Reason	Points
Victory Royale	65 Points
2nd	56 Points
3rd	52 Points
4th	48 Points
5th	44 Points
6th	40 Points
7th	38 Points
8th	36 Points
9th	34 Points
10th	32 Points
11th	30 Points
12th	28 Points
13th	26 Points
14th	24 Points
15th	22 Points
16th	20 Points
17th	18 Points
18th	16 Points
19th	14 Points
20th	12 Points
21st	10 Points
22nd	8 Points
23rd	6 Points
24th	4 Points
25th	2 Points
Each Elimination	4 Points

FNCS Global Championship Advancements

• 1st and 2nd place in EU advance to the FNCS Global Championship
• 1st in all other regions advance to the FNCS Global Championship

0.5.0b
General

• Muerta added as an S tier Body
• Fixed Ctrl+Click selling bugging out
• Year of PLUS updated to give the newest God chest
• You can now rearrange spells onto empty slots

Gods

• Brewmaster Storm Brewling Wind Walk damage from 0/20/40/60/80 to 0/60/120/180/240
• Brewmaster Storm Brewling will now have a minimum of 900 cast range for all 3 of his abilities (from 600). This is to prevent him from running into melee range. The range of this spell will be increased if you have a spell equipped with a longer cast range. In addition, the attack range of the unit is temporarily boosted to 900 while using the invisibility spell
• Brewmaster Storm Brewling will no longer cast dispel unless an enemy is in range
• Brewmaster Storm Brewling spells cost mana now
• Brewmaster Fire Brewling Immolation damage from 0/25/50/75/100 to 0/32/64/96/128
• Brewmaster Earth Brewling Demolish attack damage from 0/20/40/60/80 to 0/25/50/75/100
• CT equipment now shows AOE when hovering over the skill in the bottom right
• CT fixes for HE grenade sometimes not working
• Dr. Kleiner shop now rerolls for every 2 spells purchased
• Dr Kleiner shop no longer rerolls at the end of a round
• Icefrog God Tab added to show tooltip of your chosen spell
• Icefrog: Spell choices at beginning of game from 5 to 4
• Roshan Spell Block Level 2 additionally gives permanent 50% status resistance
• Roshan Slam Level 3 primary attribute reduction from 15 to 25%
• Roshan Bash Level 2 additionally improves proc chance from 15 to 20%
• Shopkeeper shop size from 2/3/4 to 2/3/5
• Vacation Aghanim proc chance from 5% to 7%

Spells

• Benched Empower
• Benched Coup de Gras
• Enabled Wave of Terror
• Enabled Sunder
• Battle Trance Gaben fixed to actually work (was previously doing nothing)
• Crippling Fear changed so that players in the same relative starting position can now cast it simultaneously. Previously it would choose a random person
• False Promise fixed to not work through to the next round sometimes
• Essence Shift Super fixed to not give multiple stacks sometimes
• Mortimer’s Kisses AI fixed to target farthest unit from you instead of farthest from arena center
• Searing Arrows Gaben Burning Army skeletons no longer proc attack modifiers aside from Searing Arrows

5.0 Dev Blog: https://news.abilityarena.com/ability-arena-season-5 Full changelog: https://abilityarena.com/changelog
Featured

• 7 New Gods including the likes of Icefrog and Roshan!
• Galaxy God Chest 2 (which can be Recycled into the original God Chest 1)
• Season 5 Battlepass including Arena Chests, Finisher Chests, Click FX and more!
• 3 new Arenas (2Fort, Portal, Gaben)
• Now works with the Dota 2 Tooltips Extension on Twitch

General

• Game is now supported by the Dota 2 Tooltips Extension. Will automatically work for streams that have the extension installed.
• Removed ready button
• Tied rounds now properly shows both Finisher Effects
• Hotkey Added to sell spells (Ctrl+Left Click)
• God Pick Screen adjusted for more Gods and made confirming a God more obvious
• If you do not pick a God in time, it will select the God you have highlighted instead of randoming
• Added an effect for when you haven’t spent 3 or more gold in order to provide a visual cue to new players that gold resets
• Added Golden Card progress tracker

Gods: https://abilityarena.com/learn/gods

• Added Primal Beast God (Battlepass Level 10) - Concept by 3rd place winner of Cardsmith contest (october)
• Added Dr. Kleiner God (Battlepass Level 21) - Concept by 2nd place winner of Cardsmith contest (Pio_Romero)
• Added Roshan God (Battlepass Level 63)
• Added Medic God (Battlepass Level 80)
• Added Brewmaster God (Rare in God Chest 2)
• Added Counter-Terrorist God (Very Rare in God Chest 2)
• Added Icefrog God (Extremely Rare in God Chest 2) - Concept by 1st place winner of Cardsmith contest (ubRtstcl)
• Boomer: Bile Explosion damage from 20% to 25%
• Boomer: Bile Explosion radius from 350 to 375
• Faceless Void: The March of Time chance from 35% to 30%
• Phantom Assassin: PA crit damage per units moved from 2% to 2.5%
• Prellex Neutral Changes:
  • Black Drake Magic Amp Aura from 15 to 12%
  • Forest Hill Troll Priest Heal Amp from 10 to 8%
  • Harpy Stormcrafter Chain Lightning cooldown from 4 to 6
  • Harpy Stormcrafter Chain Lightning damage from 140 to 100
  • Ogre Bruiser Ogre Smash Radius from 300 to 240
  • Ogre Bruiser Ogre Smash Damage from 15 to 10%
  • Satyr Mindstealer Mana Regeneration Aura from 10 to 8
  • Satyr Mindstealer Mana Burn from 100 base damage to 40
  • Satyr Hellcaller Shockwave from 300 damage to 240
  • Satyr Hellcaller Health Regen from 10 to 8
  • Satyr Trickster Purge Cooldown from 8 to 12
  • Tomato Thunder Clap Damage from 300 to 240
  • Tomato Thunder Clap Attack speed & Movespeed Slow from 55 to 45%
• Rubick: Spell Steal cooldown from 20/12/4 to 12/8/4
• Rubick: Points required to level Spell Steal from 0/5/15/25/35/45/55/65/75 to 0/7/14/21/28/35/42/49/56/63
• Sideshop Man: No longer grants a discount on body rerolls
• Terrorist Plant Bomb timer from 18/16/14/12/10 to 20/18/16/14/12
• Terrorist Plant Bomb explosion damage from 90/80/70/60/50% to 80/70/60/50/40%

Spells: https://abilityarena.com/learn/spells

• Benched Berserker's Rage
• Benched Swashbuckle
• Added Finger of Death
• Added Press the Attack
• Added Sleight of Fist
• Blade Fury Gaben -8s CDR to -6s CDR
• Cursed Crown stun delay reduced by 1 second
• Doom Gaben is now instant cast
• Ghost Ship Gaben additional ships do not cast Tidal Wave
• Ice Blast duration from 3/5/7 to 5/7/9
• Ice Path cast range from 1200 to 1000
• Ice Path path distance from 1200 to 1000
• Leech Seed Super puddle radius from 350 to 300
• Leech Seed Super damage/heal per second from 100 to 50
• Press the Attack AI prioritizes healing allies below 80% HP (in range)
• Pulse Nova Super no longer grants Bloodstone
• Pulse Nova Super now casts level 2 Diabolic Edict while active
• Pulse Nova Gaben no longer grants Nihilism
• Pulse Nova Gaben now grants Bloodstone
• Ravage Gaben now additionally grants +600 radius
• Spirit Link attack speed from 16/32/64 to 14/28/56
• Spirit Link Shared Lifesteal from 10/20/40 to 7/14/28
• Sprit Link Super Shared Lifesteal from +30% to +20%
• Starbreaker Super no longer grants +30 swipe damage.
• Starbreaker Super now additionally grants Desolator
• Sticky Napalm Super no longer applies Sticky Napalm in an AOE (applies only on the target hit)
• Sticky Napalm Gaben now additionally makes Sticky Napalms on attack apply in a 375 AOE
• Windrun evasion from 100% to 80%

I've got a present for you guys... Double Feature! Hard Knock Life will also be getting a release tonight.
[First] [Previous]
“Right foot! High guard! Parry, riposte! Kill!” Gorni’s voice filled the courtyard. I brought my longsword up, deflected Tyraz’s blade, punched the boy in the throat, before driving my point under his jaw. The runic protections of his training armor absorbed the strikes with ease.
“Excellent work Leon. Y’form is sharp, strong. You can read the moves, you know how to work the blade in. The dwarven diet hasn’t hurt your muscle either. One more drill, then you’re off with your new sword.” Gorni praised. When I wasn’t patrolling the mine with my rifle, I had been sweating buckets in the yard of the forge. Between training, dragging loads of ore, ingots, and waste, I had put on nearly three pounds of muscle in two weeks, and dropped whatever fat I had left.
“Maim Number Seven, Throw him for the finish.” My instructor called. Tyraz came at me, swinging an axe for my leg. I stepped back just far enough, striking the cat’s weapon hand. He dropped the axe and brought his shield around just as I kicked him down. The cat rolled back to his feet in an instant as I started with a high feint. I transitioned to an over the shoulder slash before he could react. My blade smashed the boy’s shoulder from around the very edge of his shield. Tyraz reached out to grab me, but it was too late. I had his left wrist in my freehand as my foot kicked his knees out from under him. The cat flailed, trying to regain his balance, but I had complete control. I threw him over my shoulder with one hand as I reversed the grip on my sword. The blade struck true as my follow up stab lined up under Tyraz’s helmet.
“Great work, excellent. We’ll put you t’work fighting more bouts soon, that way you can get some real experience in a swordfight. Get washed off, Forgemaster has a special job f’you.” Gorni sent me off. The training armor I was wearing was heavier than the plate Borden had pounded out for me by a fair margin. I could probably have killed a pig with the stench as I peeled off the padding layer. After I washed off I put on a clean set of clothes, they were the same set Foehammer had given me the first night of my contract. They were a near clone of the fatigues I had been wearing for my first few days, but fitted so that armor could lay on top. My boots were my own, though a layer of black plate had been added to tops and sides.
My armor and other gear was up in my room, so I went unadorned to meet the boss. He was on the forge floor berating the apprentices. I waited for the ass chewing to end, when Foehammer motioned me over.
“Leon, I’ve got a job for you. It should be simple, I was expecting a courier back from Gil-Grin three days ago. The tunnel to Gil-Grin is in the southern wall, and it’s been safe for a long time. I want you to get a team together, and make a run down it just to be sure we don’t have any uninvited guests. I heard you were friends with a few of the guard cadets, maybe they could get some time off to help you? Take Gorni too. This is to pay the others and buy what you need.” Foehammer opened his apron, and gave me a five strings of scutz. The coins found their way to my pocket as I took in the idea.
“The guards don’t really like me that much… At least not the ones that are in charge. The Telaran, Grosnivar, and Jori the Wolf would probably come along. How long of a trip is it?” I questioned my employer. Foehammer shrugged as his eyes tracked across the smokey forge.
“Four days round trip. It’s unusual for a courier to take so long returning a letter, unless something else has happened. The Wolf and the Lizard are good choices, strong fighters and sharp senses. Pay them a crown each for the patrol, a bonus for any fighting you have to do. When you get to Gil-Grin, go see Lurgos, the potion master. He was supposed to qoute me a price on purifying powders for that Dwemstehl ore we mined.” Foehammer used his people’s word for the famed metal. Somehow or another, only the Dwarves had worked out how to forge it properly.
“Yes sir, I’ll see to it. Any idea what kind of threat may have held up the courier?” I asked as the forgemaster walked over to a finishing rack. He picked up a very fine blade, and my eyes lit up.
“The Warren has tunnels that connect to the Gil-Grin Road, but the town, and Helbryn, sent a force to sweep it five years ago, I doubt if those damned cave orcs have rebuilt themselves so quickly after we put them to the sword. Persistent vermin though. If it is an orc tribe raiding the road, be warned. They’re ferocious, hard to kill, and they won’t show you any mercy. This should help you though!” Foehammer had sheathed the fine blade in a scabbard with fittings for my tactical belt.
“Your sword. I looked it over my self, the runework is top notch, you went for a good combination. I had them forge the blade out of black steel, we melted a manatite crystal down for it. The sword itself is an amplifier for the runes. Try not to cut yourself with it.” Foehammer handed me the longsword. I drew the sword out and extended my magic out into the blade feeling the runes flare to life. I had paid for the dwarves to engrave Ripper and Armorbane into the blade, sealed with drake blood. It had cost me three crowns, but I wanted to be sure my strikes would kill what they hit.
“After seeing what the halberd did to those spiders, believe me, I know this isn’t a toy. I’ll go about getting a team together.” Foehammer grunted an affirmative before turning to go back to his instruction of the apprentices. My mind thought back to the small band of spiders that had made their home inside of the mine, feasting on the dead millipede.
I had stabbed one with my halberd’s spear point and ripped the blade out sideways. The Spider looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to it. Rippers never left clean cuts, they always mangled the hell out of what they hit. It hadn’t taken long to clear out the nest, there were only a dozen spiders.
My room was beginning to fill out with equipment I noticed as I opened the door. I had two armor racks, one with my plate carrier and helmet, the other adorned with the orange and black painted plate I had commissioned. My armor was light and strong, featherlight runes across the plate and mail brought it down to less than five pounds. The Steelheart runes had been worth their price too. Gorni and I had plugged a charge crystal into the plate, and my pistol had only left a small dent in the armor.
I began taking the armor off the mannequin, starting with the helmet. It was similar to a german sallet, with heavily sloped sides and a tail on the rear. The visor shielded my face almost completely, with a single narrow slit for my eyes and a vented grill for breathing. I had a chainmail hood to wear over the padded coif, providing exceptional protection for my braincase. Next was the breastplate and back. I had done my best to describe gothic period plate armor to the Dwarves, as it was just about the peak of plate armor on Earth before guns took over. The torso of my armor had large pauldrons, and a lance couch under the right shoulder for use while riding Cobalt.
The armor skirt that connected to my breastplate was a cavalry cut, with the center open to accommodate a horse or other mount. What it failed to cover would be protected by my chainmail. Just below the plate and chain skirts, I had leg plates for the entire leg from the upper thigh downwards. Aloris had nearly had a stroke when I showed her the suit, claiming it was a death trap for lack of mobility.
Too bad I can’t flip through the air and always land on my feet. This way I can take a punch.
The Dwarves had assured me the armor would stop any mundane weapon from a man or goblin, and most magic weapons while the runes were charged. They did warn me that the Wyrm would probably shred it like tissue paper though. For that particular job, I wasn’t going to wear any armor at all.
I got set up in my armor, minus the helmet, and set out to find one of the runners. I found an Evernight girl on the showroom floor, idly chatting with one of the dwarven salesmen. I sent her off with a shopping list and a string of scutz to buy the supplies we’d need before walking through the redwood hall that led to the stables. Cobalt was perched high on the water tower, his usual roost when he wasn’t harassing the oxes.
“Cobalt! We’ve got a job, we’re going to see the Wolfman. Come down here so we can get saddled up.” I yelled to the lazy lizard. Cobalt stood, stretching his legs and tail, before dropping down ten yards like it was nothing. I shook my head, Cobalt was an interesting beast.
Killer Killer job?
Hopefully not, patrol to Gil-Grin, people may have gone missing.
Tracker job then. Give Red Belly if success?
And a beer keg, promise. Now let the catfolk put the saddle on, no nipping them.
Cobalt let out an emotion I had come to identify as ‘eye-rolling teenager’ at the no nipping part, but let the stableboys rig him up. Once we were all ready, I rode for the guard fort. It was a lazy jaunt, Wolfman could be busy for all I knew. Thankfully my help with the Uruk and the story of how I’d killed a cave crawler single handed had bought me some good will with the town. When I approached the fort, two guards eyed me warily at the gate.
“Howdy. I’m here to see Wolfman and Grosnivar. Got a job for them if the Captain will let them off the hook for a few days.” My eyes moved between the two guards. They were wearing scuffed plates with more than a few dents, holding leaf-bladed spears. One of them, an owlman, grimaced but stepped forwards.
“Go on in, the cadets will be finished with their training in about twenty minutes. You can watch, but you aren’t allowed to fight anymore. The Captain made that very clear.” The owl gestured his arm towards the open gate. With a nod, I made my way inside. Cobalt let out a happy screeee! When he saw the rows of practicing guards. He liked watching fights. I trotted to a bench away from the other spectators, and stepped down from the saddle. Cobalt took a seat on the dirt in front of me, as I did the same on the bench.
I saw Grosnivar nearly dismember a catfolk he had caught, but he let the feline drop to the dirt. The big reptile let out a victory screech not unlike the noises Cobalt made. Wolfman was fighting a burly minotaur-esq guard, the stripes on his armor denoting a watch commander. Shining steel flashed inches over Jori’s head, but a dogged determination seemed to have overtaken him. Stepping inside the minotaur’s swing, Jori kicked hard with his left foot. The strike connected to the commander’s knee, and the beefy bruiser toppled over, catching two strikes from Jori’s training blade as he fell.
“That’s right! Good kick Jori!” I called to the wolf. His ears twitched before his head swung to me. The smile he had let his fangs show, several guards took unconscious steps back from the wolfman. Training ended a few moments later, and Jori walked over with an excited grin.
“Got time for a bit of Judo? Or are you here on other business?” Wolfman sat on the bench next to me. Cobalt nodded and let a short uck-uck of greeting.
“Foehammer has a job for me. It looks like there might be an infestation or breach in the Gil-Grin tunnel. He wanted me to come over here and see if you could get some time to go on a patrol over to Gil-Grin, one crown payment, food provided. Grosnivar too.” I pointed to the big lizard that had moved to practice with his halberd.
“Actually, I’ve got the entire next week, all the cadets do. Our initiation is in about ten days, so we’ve got a week to be sure we want to commit to five years of time in the guard. One crown is what I make in a month. Count me in. Hey, Grosnivar! Come over here!” Jori yelled across the yard. The reptile turned and spotted us after he finished his routine. I could feel his footsteps coming from nearly ten yards.
“Soul Eater! Wolfpup! What can Grosnivar do for you?” Came the hissing voice. I still wasn’t very good at reading the lizard.
“Got a job, you might get to kill something, and I’ll pay you a crown for four days. A Courier hasn’t arrived from Gil-Grin, he’s three days overdue. Foehammer, the Forgemaster, wants me to take a team out, patrol the tunnel. I have some business in Gil-Grin so we’ll spend one night there, then we head back. If we run into spiders, goblins, anything like that, we eradicate them. We’ll take trophies, turn them in for a bounty if we can, I’ll split it an even three ways.” I explained the basics to the two. Grosnivar’s tail thumped twice, and a toothy grin crossed his features.
“Grosnivar would be honored, and well fed, to take this job with you. When does our mission begin?” The Lizard sissed happily. I looked to the wolf, and back to the scaled beast.
“As soon as you two are ready to leave. Pack what you need, I’ll be providing food. I’m going to pay you half upfront when we meet at Foehammer’s Forge, the other half when we get back. Deal?” Cobalt stood as I rose from the bench. Jori nodded, Grosnivar simply tapped his tail twice again.
“Good. Two hours, or sooner if you can resolve your business before then. See you there.” I saddled up on Cobalt and made my way to another stop before I went back to the Forge. The Owlman wasn’t present at my favorite foodstall, but his son was, and the kid knew my order. I paid for the Snapper Pies and Fish Fry, as well as a full roast red belly haunch for Cobalt. It was a bit expensive to keep feeding Cobalt the good cuts, but having seen his tenacity firsthand, my buddy deserved the best.
I parted with twelve scutz at the little food stand, and walked three stalls over to the beer store. A dwarf, one I had seen in Foehammer’s Hall, was the proprietor. I bought a small keg of something that best translated as honeyed fire ale, and left Cobalt to his own devices at the base of Aloris’ stairs. He knew to behave himself well enough, and he’d be content to gnaw on the haunch for an hour.
The trip up the stairs and to Aloris’ front door lasted all of ninety seconds, and I knocked before going in. It was a tidy place, Aloris was a bit of a neat freak when it came to her apartment. I waited in the doorway for a moment, expecting to be ambushed by the catgirl.
“Aloris? You sleeping?” I called out. A clatter sounded from Aloris’ study, she had probably been surprised out of a mage trance. My theory was proven correct as the cat revealed herself, wispy blue smoke still rising off of her hands.
“Leon! I was so clo— Is that a Fish Fry? AND A KEG!” Her somewhat annoyed tone changed instantly. I held up the bag for her. She pounced, tail wiggling, to take the bag of food from me. We sat down at a small table in what would be her living room, salivating over the piping hot food.
“So what’s the occasion? Just a lunch date, or do you want something?” Aloris smirked over a cup of the ale I had brought. After swallowing a bite, I smiled but shook my head.
“Foehammer has a job for me. I’m going to be out of town for a few days. A courier is late from Gil-Grin to the south, apparently that is unusual enough to warrant a patrol. Jori and Grosnivar are coming with me. Thought I’d stop by the loveliest lady before I left. Last thing I’d want you to think is that I skipped town after I got your pants off. Well, I guess technically, you got mi—” The Catgirl blushed, her pale cheeks shifting closer to her auburn hair. She cut in before I could finish.
“Hey, you’ll get your turn. Did Foehammer say anything about what it might be down that way? I’ve never been south of here. Father might have a few ideas.” Aloris questioned as she sipped her drink.
“He mentioned the Warren, something about the town and Helbryn’s legion clearing it out a few years ago. He said that Orcs would be his guess, if it wasn’t just a benign paperwork foul up or something like that. He seemed to think the tunnel was pretty safe.” I shared what I knew. Aloris paused, and it seemed something was agitating her.
“I’ve heard of the Warren, I didn’t realize it was so close to here. It’s a rough region, some people think there might be a summoner for Orkoids in it. Helbryn has cleaned it out once a decade for almost a century. Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Uruks, Felhides, they all seem to congregate there.” Aloris explained. The word summoner had caught my attention.
“What is a summoner? Like a mage that draws them there, casts spells and makes them pop out of the ground?” My confused guess made Aloris laugh.
“No, it is magic, but its not a being, more like a nexus. No one really knows what they are, just that it takes a hell of a lot of power to seal them shut. Summoners manifest as a sort of swirling crystal of physical magic. They embody the traits of certain beasts or fiends. They seem to coalesce around areas with certain qualities. The ancient battlefields between the Fey and the Ghostlands are littered with the things, spitting out undead and reanimating corpses of those who meet their end in the region. The strange thing is that they seem to know when they’re being watched. You can feel the magic pulse when a new summon has occurred, but it has never been visually confirmed.” Aloris downed the rest of her ale, pouring another. I had only had half my mug.
“Sounds like a spawner from a video game. I’ll explain some other time, but why do people think there is a summoner in the Warren? Is it the persistence of the orc presence, magical hints?” I ventured an idea.
“Both, the Warren reeks of orc magic from what I’ve heard, and Helbryn are no slouches when it comes to exterminating a pest. They’ve secured a huge space under the mountain with the Legion. Nobody has ever found the Summoner though. Granted we don’t exactly have a ton of archmages to track down the faint traces they leave in the environment, and Dwarves can’t feel the magic at all.” Aloris finished the last few bites of her sandwich as I downed my mug. Aloris moved to refill it, but I held up my hand.
“We’re leaving in about an hour, can’t drink anymore. Thanks for the heads up though. Now, speaking of which… Cobalt can get me to the Forge in about five minutes, if you have time fo—” Aloris stood up, looking a bit flustered.
“An hour!?! You should have told me! I have to get my bag together, I thought we were leaving tomorrow.” Aloris hurriedly ran to her bedroom, her thin tunic fluttered as she was silhouetted by a lamp on the wall.
“I… Aloris, I wasn’t asking you to come with us, it should be a milk run, just kill a few spiders or goblins, and come back. I thought you were training with Ryzahan this week.” I strode back to follow her. As I came into the room, the tunic I had just been admiring covered my face. The sound of drawers opening and closing filled the room, mixed with pings and dings of equipment being hastily thrown together. Once the tunic was no longer blocking my eyes, I saw Aloris hopping around trying to get out of the comfortable pants she was wearing. Despite my miscommunication, I couldn’t complain at the sight of the bouncing beauties.
“I’m not just going to let you run off! You’ve barely got any experience outside of this cavern, and Lynx’s Lake is very safe compared to the roads. I’m coming with you.” Aloris jumped into pair of tight thigh length shorts. I thought about turning it into an argument, but she was right, someone with as much experience as she had in the tunnels would be useful.
“I can’t pay you for it, but we can probably find something to make a bit of extra money on the way.” Aloris dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand as she buckled drake leather shin guards on. I hadn’t seen her go out without pants before.
“I’m not worried about that. I’ve got money to spend right now, but I’ve only got one freshfaced gravewalker trying to get himself nibbled on.” Aloris grinned as she finished putting her leg armor on. The drake leather panels covered most of the leg, but she was still bare above the waist, I couldn’t help but stare. Aloris noticed, and made a bit of a playful show of trying to cover up. I turned to look around the room, and saw her bow resting unstrung on the wall.
“Honestly… I really hope it’s a shitload of goblins. The money from working for Foehammer is nice, and it isn’t hard, but I want to develop my abilities as a Gravewalker. Need to kill things for that, and spiders don’t give much on that front.” My eyes wandered back to Aloris. She had put on a sturdy vest and shirt, the same outfit she had worn when I met her. Her arms were exposed, but the leather armor pads would provide some protection.
“Come over here and buckle my shoulders. You’re right on that, about the spiders. I had a bet with my father how long it would take you to go all in on total goblin destruction. It’s how all Gravewalkers get started, why the goblins fear you so much.” Aloris had a grin, it seemed like I had made her some money.
“Did you just win the bet?” I buckled the straps that tied her armor together. Her long red hair seemed determined to tie itself up in every clasp.
“Father said six weeks, I bet no more than four. This is week three.” Aloris turned and smiled, putting her arms around my neck. My face felt warm, I couldn’t help it.
“How much?” My hands found Aloris’ waist, but she just put on a mock scowl.
“Does it matter? Three crowns. Lets go, I have to get Kira from the stables.” Aloris hopped up on her toes and gave me a short peck on the cheek.
“Nice payday! Alright little lady, grab up the rest that you need, I’m going to make sure that Cobalt hasn’t gotten himself in trouble. I’m getting a tingle in the back of my head from him.” My hands released the armor clad feline. The sensation I was getting from Cobalt was one of excitement. On a busy market street that wasn’t a good sign. Two minutes later I discovered it was nothing to worry about.
“Cobalt! Cobalt come on, get down from the side of the building!” I yelled up at the flustered creature. He was dug in on the corner support of the apartments, hissing at the four small critters that had ran him off. They looked like six legged dogs, complete with fur, floppy ears, and wagging tails.
Snappy thing bit tail. Cobalt no kill.
Thanks for not causing a scene, but we’re leaving soon, and people are staring.
Make snappy things go away. Cobalt listen clicker hurt.
Your ears? Are they that loud?
Not loud, sound hurt. They screech at me, you can’t hear.
Alright.
I didn’t want to just start kicking dogs, but I could feel how distraught Cobalt was. The things were barking at Cobalt, no doubt trying to get the haunch he was cradling in his stubby arms. No one seemed to be trying to stop the dog things from what they were doing, so I just went with being an asshole.
“Clear off you damn mutts! Run! Scram!” I kicked the first one in the side lightly, enough for it to notice. At first it didn’t seem like it knew what to do, then it turned to bark at me, and its jaw split. It had at least six rows of razors in its mouth.
“Oh hell no!” I yelled, and kicked it full force in the chest. It was about the size of beagle, I punted it at least ten yards up the street. Several of the onlookers were laughing hysterically, the scene of a heavily armored human having to kick dogs that were harassing his quarter ton murder lizard being too much to bear. The other three things turned on me, and one leapt forward with shocking speed.
I sidestepped, swatting out to smash the thing away with my right arm. It was fast, writhing around midflight to bite my forearm. The jaws wrapped around my armor, a heavy pressure was bearing down on it.
“Get off me you little shit!” I flailed back and forth, trying to shake it off. The thing was clamped tight and wouldn’t be so easily deterred. I hadn’t noticed the other two, and soon enough there were three of the monsters clinging to me.
Cobalt, get down here and fucking kill these things!
Really? Killer Killer?
YES! Do it!
I was starting to freak out a little bit with the weird dogs trying to crush my limbs. I swung my arm into the stone foundation of the apartment, bashing the little monster hard. It growled, but didn’t let go. Just as I started reaching for my knife, I heard Cobalt drop off the side of the building.
REEEE-EE-EE-EEEEEEEEEEE
He came down directly on top of the fourth dog, the one I had kicked, as it was charging for me. It made a wet, squelching pop noise as half the weight of the Lizard drove it into the cobblestone ground. A few bystanders hollered or gasped, some laughed. I kept pounding the dog on my arm into the stone wall.
“LEON! What the hell!” I heard Aloris yelling from the top of the stairs. I turned to look at her, the expression on her face was priceless.
“They were bullying Cobalt!” Was all I could come up with. I finally put my full weight behind my swing into the wall. The crunching noise I heard must have been something important, because the thing let go of my arm and fell limply.
“That doesn’t mean you can just kill the ratters! Orla is going to lose her mind! Those are the landlord’s pets!” Aloris yelled at me as she came down, her hands flaring yellow. Two precise bolts hit the ratters clinging to my legs, and they fell off dazed. Before I could tell Cobalt to stop, he ran forwards and smashed both of them into jelly with his taloned feet. Aloris looked mortified.
“Oh… I… Shit. How expensive are they to replace?” My eyes surveyed the carnage, the one I had smashed was the only one that was even recognizable.
“That isn’t the point Leon. Orla really liked her ratters…” Aloris had her hand on her forehead. The bystanders started to break up now that the show was over, returning to whatever business they had.
“Well, I can pay for them, but I don’t think there is a spell for unpasting a dog. Will two crowns cover it?” I shrugged as put my foot in Cobalt’s stirrup and hauled my self into the saddle.
“One is more than enough… damn it Leon. Why didn’t you just buy a snapper pie or something to distract them? They beg for food from people all the time. All they wanted was a hot meal.” Aloris walked over, carefully avoiding the furry red puddles.
“They bit Cobalt’s tail and had some sort of shriek that was deafening him, sent him right up the side of the building. I kicked them first to run them off, that’s when they bit me. I didn’t start off with killing them.” I held my hand out to the catgirl. She took it and climbed up on the saddle behind me.
“Ratters are known for suicidal loyalty both to their owner and other ratters, even ones they’ve never met before. The office is around the front of the next building over. Do you have the money on you? This is a mess.” Aloris trailed off. I reached into my saddlebag and took out a crown, passing it back to Aloris. Cobalt started trotting towards the office after I sent him a mental image of where to go.
“If you could run in and explain what happened, I’d rather not get assaulted by any angry ladies today. Thanks babe.” I felt Aloris bristle, but she didn’t say anything. Thirty minutes and one mug of tea thrown at us later, we were at the Forge. Grosnivar and Jori were waiting for us, packing a small wagon that Foehammer had provided for our supplies and a small shopping list in Gil-Grin. Gorni was supervising, lounging across the bench of the wagon.
The second that Aloris and I had dropped off our mounts, Kira and Cobalt had begun racing around the yard, some sort of game that the young raptors played. Once I had made sure everything was where it needed to be, we set off for the south wall.
​
If you haven't checked out my other story, give it a shot. Hard Knock Life centers on a young kid that just got his astromechanic certification. his dream has been to travel the stars, just like his dad did, and now he can finally do it. Sadly, he's the luckiest, unlucky kid out there.
[Hard Knock Life]

PART SEVEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-FIVE
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Wednesday
Angus went to his home in Tuxedo Park, then realm-stepped across the lake to the dense forest on the other side. Knowing he was on a time crunch; he went far enough in to avoid encountering other humans and positioned the gun against his shoulder as Lar’ee had shown him. He lined up a shot with the trunk of a silver maple and slowly squeezed the trigger.
It was an interesting sensation, feeling the pellet leave the skinny barrel and splat against the very edge of the tree, but ranged targeting was ranged targeting. It didn’t matter what the medium was. If you knew how to target, you could target. In the past, he had spat everything from acid to flame with a range that seared planets on its way past. His wings were capable of making the kind of wind punch that levelled mountains, and with the right shift, his tail could throw hundreds of poisoned dagger-like barbs. It was only a matter of adapting his natural ability to accommodate this new weapon style.
The second time he looked down the scope as Lar’ee suggested, watching as the distant target came into clarity. In the middle of a real fight, he didn’t have time to fight like this. It was fast, and it was reactive. But he could afford to give himself a few minutes to practice.
He fired from a stationary position first, then began to move, aiming for the same spot on the tree as he had before. Once he had a handle on that, he put himself in the mind frame of being on the border, where every kind of animal was the enemy. He modified one thing only … his targets needed to be larger than a squirrel. It wasn’t his intention to harm or kill the animals, and later tonight, he’d track down the ones who wouldn’t survive their new colour palette and clean them up. Perhaps he’d spent too long sitting in the waiting room of a veterinary clinic, but the thought of them dying because they were outed to predators by his hand rankled the warrior within him.
Fortunately, he only had one hundred pellets in his gun, and he tagged each of his ‘hits’ with a divine tracker that would allow him to follow their trail anywhere.
In fifteen minutes, he was hitting everything from the aforementioned squirrel to a full-sized black bear. The latter wasn’t happy, but when faced with an even more dangerous predator with even bigger teeth and roar, the animal wisely ran away to avoid a more fatal encounter.
Damn, messing around with this tinker-toy is actually kinda fun.
Especially when the hairs rose on the back of his neck, and he knew he wasn’t alone. The problem was this proximity alert didn’t come with a direction. There were only four other people who triggered his senses like this, and of them, two were medical, and Tyra was still on the front lines. Three of them were still authorised to be within the state, but again, he didn’t sense himself, and their sister hardly ever left the Eechee’s side.
Alright, brother, Angus purred to himself, checking to make sure he had plenty of ammunition left. You want to poke your nose into my playground. Let’s play.
He made it about three more yards before his left shoulder twitched with a tiny impact and the smell of wet paint filled his nostrils. “Fucker,” he swore, not even bothering to touch the paint in favour of dropping to the ground in search of a better position.
“Once you’re hit, you’re out,” Orson’s huge voice boomed throughout the area, scaring half the wildlife around them. “Game over.”
“Fuck off! That wasn’t even a fatal hit!” Angus threw his voice to make it sound like he was in the other direction from where he was hiding. “You want me to roll over and show my belly, asshole? Make it count.” He was already on the move as soon as he finished speaking, just to be on the safe side.
“You got it, asswipe. Humans only, since this is their weaponry.”
Sticking to their human forms meant his current chauffeur’s outfit wasn’t going to cut it. Too much fabric flapping around for a true war games, and there was no way Orson had entered the fray in polished black shoes.
Angus reloaded his hopper from the pod he had poked into his jacket pocket for maximum pellets, then kicked off the shoes and socks and ditched the jacket and shirt (but not before grimacing at the bright yellow paint splatter on the left shoulder). He hardened his feet without changing their shape to be able to run through the forest without hurting himself but still leaving a human footprint in his wake. Given his brother was probably wearing the kind of soleless sneakers that left no tracks at all, he would bend the rules without breaking them to even things out. “You’re on.”
The cat-and-mouse game with his gigantic clutch-mate was as intense as any training they’d ever undertaken, with neither wanting to yield to the other. Both of them were peppered with paint when a game was reset with every ‘kill’. Orson had shot him at least seven times when they first started out, but then Angus got into his military groove, and things became much more even between the brothers.
When Angus finally ran out of pellets, he discarded his gun and stalked his brother through the foliage. Orson had the ranged weapon advantage, but he was a big guy, half as big as Angus again, and being eight feet tall as a human made him easy to find.
Angus crash-tackled him around the waist. On his way down, Orson ditched his weapon, and the pair rolled and twisted across the forest floor in an effort to gain the upper advantage.
Orson eventually grabbed his brother by the belt and lifted him high over his head, slamming him into the ground to knock the wind out of him.
Angus lay on his back, staring up at the pale blue sky between the treetops, huffing and panting, though that quickly devolved into a bout of laughter. It was silent at first, like a chest spasm, but it grew until he couldn’t hold it in anymore, and he laughed and laughed until tears formed in the corners of his eyes.
The sun was blocked out as Orson leaned over to stare down at him in concern. “Did I drop you on your head too hard?”
Angus shook his head and waved a hand, barely able to breathe. “It has been too long since I’ve had that much fun,” he finally gasped.
If anything, Orson’s frown grew. “You consider losing to me fun?”
“Everything right up to that point, then, smartass. Damn, brother. The look on your face when I crash tackled you…”
“I couldn’t believe you were that dumb. You know better than to get into hand-to-hand with me.”
“Stop being a dick. We were just horsing around.” Angus pulled himself into a sitting position and looked around. It really had been a long time since he’d cut loose, and now he had to remember where he’d left everything.
“Are you sure you’re okay, brother?”
Angus stood up with Orson at his side. “Why is everyone asking me that lately?”
“Lar’ee told me he’d given you a paintball kit to practice with, so I came over to see if you wanted a hand learning how to use it since your temperament recently hasn’t been … hugely accepting of criticism.”
“I’ve been a bear with a sore head, I know. And I appreciate you coming over.” Angus then paused. “How did you get back into the state?”
“I asked the Eechee for permission. Temporarily.”
“How temporarily?”
He huffed. “I’ve got to be out by six, so I’ve got almost an hour to clean up. You know, Bianca said you were different, but she lives in eternal bubble land of hope that everyone will find their way home. You and I are realists, bro, but now and again, it looks like even the dreamers get it right.”
He eyed Angus up and down and added, “You’re different even to the way I saw you last week in Llyr’s garage. You’re more relaxed.” He snorted and smirked. “Hell, I can’t even remember the last time you were willing to play on any level.”
Angus smirked too. “It’s just practice. Warfare practice. Our wheelhouse. The humans invited me to a paintball battle this evening, and from what I’m told, her whole family does this for fun. Be damned if I make a fool of myself in front of humans where war is concerned.”
“Her?” Orson said with a suspicious side-eye, focusing on that one word out of everything he’d said.
And Angus wanted to throttle him. “Human,” he reminded his brother with a pointed look. “The boss of one of Llyr’s roommates, to be exact. He’s being an annoying little turd, and to shut him up, I was invited to one of these paintball sessions.”
“Even your word choice has changed, brother. When was the last time you called someone a turd and didn’t eviscerate them for daring to breathe your air?”
Angus’ scowl grew. “We’re having a nice moment here. Why are you determined to ruin it?”
Orson held up both hands in surrender and chuckled. “It’s good to see this side of you again, Peewee.”
“Blockhead,” Angus countered, automatically switching to their hatchling nicknames for each other. It earned him a bark of laughter right before Orson grabbed his wrist and hauled him into a beefy, back-slapping embrace.
“Just a quick tip. You can shoot and reload at the same time. Flip the hopper lid with your off-hand, grab the pod off your belt, and pop the lid and tip while your other hand’s still firing.”
“Is that how you had endless rounds?” Angus had counted two and three shots for every one of his.
Orson’s grin grew. “You should come home more often, if only to become acquainted with modern warfare developments.”
“It’s not like I’m going anywhere in the near future anyway.”
The flat of Orson’s meaty hand came at the back of Angus’ head in a familiar cuff, but Angus ducked under it at the last minute, and it swept through empty air instead. “For what it’s worth, I really like the new you, Angus. I was getting fed up with walking on eggshells around you, you cranky so-and-so.”
“When have you ever walked on eggshells around me?”
Orson’s grin turned into a broad smile. “That’s true. Anyway, holler if you need me. You know I’m only a realm-step away.”
Angus looked up at his brother and nodded. “You too … provided you’re in the State of New York. Otherwise, as the kids would say, you’re shit outa luck.”
Orson nodded again and realm-stepped away, leaving Angus to pat his shirt and pants for his phone before realising it was in his jacket along with the keys to Llyr’s SUV.
Worse, the sun was on a very definite decline, and … didn’t Orson say something about an hour until six?
Breathing out in hurry, Angus scrambled through the forest to locate his missing jacket. He didn’t have nearly an hour and a half to waste backtracking his every step, so he cut corners (though he grabbed his gun along the way), finding his clothes amongst the brambles some twenty minutes later.
The jacket and shoes were a mess and would need to be cleaned before he wore them again, but the phone confirmed it was now five-thirty. Yet no missed messages were recorded on his phone. Not from Mason nor anyone else. He’d been gone for almost three hours! Mason had finished work half an hour ago!
Dialling Mason had the call going through to voice mail, so his next call was to the clinic itself. “Has Mason left yet?” he asked once Sonya took the call. Inwardly, he was cursing himself every name he could think of for letting time get away from him the way he had. Never, NEVER had he ever lost track of time before. Especially not on a job!
“No, they’re still in surgery together, Angus. Is everything alright?”
“It’s fine, Sonya. I was … unexpectedly detained. I’ll be there shortly.”
As soon as he ended the call, Angus realm-stepped directly into his bedroom and tossed his things onto his bed, then dropped into a microscopic organism and back again, dumping all of the sweat, paint and forest remnants in a single moment. When he regained his human size a few seconds later (long enough for gravity to pull everything to the floor), he gave himself snakes for hair and grew them out to however long they needed to be to bring him a fresh set of clothes (including shoes) from the dressing room next door. Others reached down to the floor and lifted him to make redressing his lower half that much easier.
Seeing things through each of the snake heads made a mirror unnecessary, and with hundreds smoothing out his clothes once they were in place, the change took mere seconds, ending with his sunglasses, keys, phone and wallet in their respective places.
Without a moment to waste, he realm-stepped to Llyr’s garage where he’d left the SUV, extended his hands to slide them under the car like a pair of hoists and lifted it into the air. A single step later, he was gone.
[Next Chapter]
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((All comments welcome. Good or bad, I'd love to hear your thoughts 🥰🤗))
I made a family tree/diagram of the Mystallian family that can be found here
For more of my work including WPs: Angel466 or an index of previous WPS here.
FULL INDEX OF BOB THE HOBO TO DATE CAN BE FOUND HERE!!