Forethought is the mother of strange inventions.....

[Vega]

28th Cylus 720.....

Vega had been out there, looking up at the stars and remembering. Remembering how, this time two arcs ago she had died. Burned to death, her body shattered and broken and then, how she had awoken but her body - specifically her then-shattered legs - had not healed. She remembered the mist which had surrounded her as Pier and Pre had judged her, and she remembered being pulled back. Back into a world of pain and confusion. The world she had been arguing to go to - been telling them that she was staying in - because she was not leaving Arlo Creede behind. She had a life and she had love and she was not going to allow a little thing like death stop her.

And as she woke, in screaming pain, as she fought with every last ounce of strength in her broken body, Vega had known that he would come for her. That he would rescue her - them all - who were trapped there in the docks of Scalvoris as they crumbled away. And, as the docks collapsed around her, of course, he had. Then, she'd had a number of surgeries on her legs, which still bore the scars from those - and then she had been immobile for nearly a cycle. And he'd been next to her for all of it.

In that moment, Vega was standing, whispering a prayer of thanks to Xiur. "I mean, I don't know what I did to deserve him, but I know that I'm right lucky to have him an' you an' Qylios in my life an' I just want to say ... oh are you HAVIN' A GIRAFFE!?" The last was as she saw the large flying fire-bombs heading straight for them. "ALARM!!! RAISE THE ALARM!"

Large, flying, blob-like monsters of screaming fire and doom were hurtling towards them. "I was havin' ...." One arrow loosed, "... a moment...." and another, "... talkin' to Xiur!" Vega kept firing arrows as the creatures descended on Storms Edge and her aim was unerring. "An' you bunch of flyin' bobernickels are right" they were close enough now that every word was punctuated by an arrow.

"Flibbertyin'" one, through the eye - down it went and when it died it exploded. Just a small area of effect, but big enough.

"my" another - closer now. But by now Vega was angry - annoyed enough that sparks of flame were flying off her, too.

"GIBBET!" the third one fell, and the explosion singed her clothes, but not her.

As they grew closer, Vega pulled her sword, "They explode when you kill them!" She yelled just in case anyone was deaf, blind, stupid, and not paying attention. "So lets make them go boom!" She couldn't say she was afraid - she wasn't. She was just tired and dirty and irritated that a girl couldn't even pray without some idiot insisting on spoiling it.

And so, as every night before ..... the fight began.

[Mathias Blackwood]

28 Cylus 720 | Mathias Blackwood | Storm's Edge

Someone had one told Mathias that he was too much like a noodle and he’d taken the advice to heart. His aim had improved a great deal and he’d become fairly quick but his fingers still hurt and his arms still got sore from pulling back on the bowstring. He’d done what he could to change that over the trials at Storm’s Edge. Working in the forge and helping move heavy objects seemed to help cook the noodle though. So Mathias had spent more and more of his time doing that than practicing archery. He thought it was safer. He was right. Because the one day he goes out to practice a little more archery, he gets caught in an attack...

Mathias already had an arrow notched and ready on his bow when a familiar voice shouted for them to raise the alarm. Mathias swiveled quickly and raised his aim towards one of the little round bastard rolling towards them. Some fell from the sky, some came through the open gate, Mathias shot them all equally. Were they rolling? Mathias didn’t stop to examine them as he let arrows fly towards the beasts. His aim was not quite Vega’s, but it was decent and the little monsters made easy targets in the dark night.

They were getting closer. Mathias pulled an arrow, nocked it, and shot it into the open mouth of one of the little beasts. The beast wailed and fell over then that same familiar voice shouted a warning about them exploding and the very beast that swallowed the arrow burst into flames- bits of it striking it’s allies as they charged in on their little, little legs.

Mathias shot another arrow that bounced off the seemingly stone shell of beast, drawing its attention.The beast turned and began lumbering toward Mathias who notched another arrow and aimed to fire it into the beast’s mouth but his arrow missed it’s mark again- only this time it hit slightly above the mouth and the stone skin caused the arrow to slide into the beasts eye. It began to flail and Mathias fired another arrow with a full draw into the beast’s mouth trills before it combust. Mathias stumbled back, he flames getting closer to him than he was comfortable with.

He wasn’t alone in the fight against the beasts but they seemed outnumbered. Mathias began to backpedal while preparing another arrow. He couldn’t think of anything to say- his thoughts more or less stuck on how not to get eaten, so he just kept shooting arrows.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian had been trying to get more paperwork done, things like requisition forms, updates for Rharne, a note telling her assistant to get down to Storm's Edge and maybe bring some more knights, things of that nature. Unfortunately, she couldn't do more than get her desk organized before someone called out that they were being attacked. "Right, back to the office, I guess." Vivian muttered, glad she hadn't done more than take off her gauntlets to write. Putting those back on, Vivian was out the door and into the forecourt before Vega had even finished swearing at the beasts. In fact, she arrived just in time to see one explode.

Times like this were the times that Vivian was thankful for the fact that one of her powers gave her an innate sense of the area around her when she was in a fight. She was able to tell what was around them and what these creatures might be after. "Keep them away from the armory, we just got that thing stabilized!" she called out, before using Rising Lightning to jump into the middle of a small group of the bobernickels, as Vega has named them. Picking out the one that seemed to be in the general middle of the group, Vivian drove her sword up into the creatures mouth as it opened it, running Conduit through her sword to electrocute whatever vulnerable interior bits she hit with the blade. Then, as the creature screeched in pain from the strike, Vivian used Rising Lightning again and lept back away from the creature, towards Vega and the archer, drawing her sword along the inside of the creatures mouth as she moved before pulling it out entirely.

Vivian had her shield raised, and this proved to be a good thing, since the creature she had stabbed died, exploding as it did so. The bobernickel's explosion was small, but it hit the bobernickles that had been hovering close to it. The closest took enough damage from the explosion that it killed them as well, setting off more explosions, the end result was a series of explosions that took out the whole group that Vivian had targeted. "Well, now. Compared to the usual fare we've been getting lately, this should be an easy little skirmish." she said, grinning under her helmet as flying bits of bobernickel splattered against her shield. "Group them up and take out the middle one if you can!" she called to the other fighters in the forecourt. "Look alive, folks, and let's get rid of this trash." she said, before she triggered Rising Lightning again and lept back into the fight.

[Vega]

28th Cylus 720.....

The bobernickels kept coming and, as much as they were individually more easy to kill there were just so many of them. They flew in, they ran in through the gates, they rolled in and the warriors in the courtyard needed to make sure that - first and foremost - they were not overwhelmed. Mathias appeared and started firing and Vega shot him a grin, "Careful there, noodle!" She liked the young man - he seemed to be a fairly good sort. That was about as high as Vega got in terms of praise, so she was glad to see him. Frankly, as far as Vega was concerned most of the volunteers here were more useful cooked than walking, so her warning to him was just about as close to affectionate as Vega ever got.

Then, Vivian turned up and Vega was happy to see her, too - her sister, Vega supposed. It was true that Vivian was also Faldrun's daughter; frankly the best thing that Vega could say was that she didn't hold it against her now-fellow Lightning Knight. Things had changed such a lot for Vega and every now and then she thought that she should think about that - but mostly, Vega was of the opinion that thinking was for wussies and what she dubbed the hey nonny nonny brigade. Vivian was in the 'they're pretty good folks' brigade.

So, Vivian yelled out some instructions and Vega nodded her head. She had to agree with Vivian - exploding the bobernickels in the middle of a group was a good thing. So, Vega glanced around and she knew that there was something she could do. Keeping her head was vital and, as the hoard of creatures descended on them, Vega knew that she had to try and center the things. There were three of them and both Vivian and Mathias were here giving their all. So, Vega did the only thing she really knew that was best for her to do. She drew her sword and Vega began to do the thing that she knew.

She began to dance.

In fairness, the young woman was a whirling dervish - she literally danced her way through the bobernickels and she did it in such a way as to injure them individually, but not enough to kill them. Fundamentally, Vega did her best to draw as many of the creatures around her as she could. It was something that Vega did and so, she danced and swirled, pirouetting in the air, her sword flashing as she sliced and cut. Eventually, there were more than two dozen of them around her - and she yelled, loudly, as she realised that she'd got them around her as many as she could. "I'm immune to fire right now!" Vega called. "Kill them!!!"

Sometimes, she thought to herself, being Faldrun's daughter was quite handy. It was just a shame that her Immortal father was such an unmitigated asshat.

[Mathias Blackwood]

28 Cylus 720 | Mathias Blackwood | Storm's Edge

In the chaos that followed the arrival of the beasts, Mathias heard a few other volunteers shouting out desperate attempts to corral a force against the stone globes of fiery doom. Vega called out to him and Mathias grinned slightly as he thought back to the origin of that nickname... but he thought for too long and was forced to suddenly dive out of the path of a stream of fire. He crashed into the floor, spilling arrows from the quiver on his hip. Mathias scooped a handful up but couldn't grab more than four before being forced to scramble forward by the advancing stream of flames. Realizing he wasn't going to make it far on all fours, Mathias turned and dropped onto his back. He nocked one of the four arrows between his fingers and fired it right into the open maw of the bobernickle who exploded shortly after. Mathias kept scrambling away got back to his feet quickly after that.

He heard one voice call out to keep the beasts from the armory and Mathias would have rolled his eyes had he not needed them focused on the world around him. He'd spent the better part of his Cylus making those repairs so he knew not to let them be undone. With no magic to warn him of coming threats, Mathias was forced to rely on what he could see and here. His detection wasn't the greatest but the small iron band around his finger with it's peculiar enchantment helped him process a lot of his surroundings faster than most of the volunteers... well at least faster than those who were not trained for this level of combat.

So Mathias kept slinging arrows at the bastards until his hand ran empty and when it did he grabbed another handful of the training arrows from a nearby barrel to resupply himself. The training arrows had blunt tips but Mathias had a quick solution for that- unfortunately it was also a slowly draining solution. As he nocked each training arrow he poured his ether into it, shifting the tip of the arrow into a sharper shape with his shapecraft and then bolstering it to pierce through the stone shell of the bobernickles. Then Vega began her dance. Mathias had seen her do this once before- he thought, but that didn't stop it from distracting him again this time. Mathias realized a moment after Vega shouted her instruction that she'd gathered a great many of the beasts around her.

Immune to fire, sure, but what about shrapnel? The beasts didn't just combust, they exploded, that was why grouping them together was so effective. Mathias worried for just a moment that Vega hadn't thought through her plan but then he remembered she was fairly competent in general. He'd have to have faith in her. Mathias sent two arrows into the backs of a bobernickle at the perimeter of the group, hoping to set off a ripple of explosions across Vega's gathered bobernickle groupies.

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian wouldn't have thought that dancing could help all that much in a fight, but as she watched Vega dance through a crowd of bobernickels, she was forced to concede that she was wrong. If done right, dancing could help a lot. She did, however, hope to Ilaren that Vega knew what the hell she was doing, but after the fight with the ramernickel, she had learned to trust Vega's sense of strategy. In truth, Vega and Vivian seemed to operate along the same strategic lines, in that they were both pretty good at making things up on the spot.

So when the archer that had joined them took the shot at Vega's group of bobernickels, Vivian trusted that her sister was smart enough to not get herself killed and instead charged into another group of bobernickels. Taking a note from Vega's book, she started from the outside edge and took a swing that was aimed to injure, not kill. Unlike Vega, however, Vivian was wearing heavy armor and was not fire proof, so Vega's exact strategy was not an option for her. Instead, she started using Rising Lightning to jump from bobernickel to bobernickel, injuring each and always making sure to jump to the outside of the group of bobernickels she was gathering up.

The end result of all her jumping about was a pretty hefty group of exploding jackasses, so when she was satisfied, she used the same tactic she had used to set off the first group, using Rising Lightning to jump into a bobernickel and impale it with her sword, before using the same power to jump out of range of the explosion. It worked, though this time Vivian was careful to jump twice to make sure she was still out of range if the explosion was bigger than expected. "How many of these things are there?" she asked herself, though she was actually using her Mortalborn powers to get a rough estimate of the size of the enemy forces.

[Vega]

28th Cylus 720.....

Vivian and Noodle had trusted her and Vega had to admit that she was glad that they had. It wasn't often that she felt part of a team, but in this moment she did. It was a pleasant sensation, but equally, not one that she'd ever feel the need for unnecessarily. Fiercely independent, she'd usually rather be on her own because she liked working with competent people who weren't idiots. And really, there weren't a lot of those about.

Still, she had no time to dwell on that, she had to concentrate until the precise moment and then...... as the Blobernickels started exploding and then suddenly that grew in exponential terms and there was quickly a massive explosion of Blobernickel and Blobernickel bits, Vega used her Cloud Armour ability, granted by Xiur, and was covered in clouds which cushioned her from the shrapnel, or misdirected it completely as she dived behind a wall for cover. That meant that, although she had quite a few cuts and bruises, they were not major, not at all.

Once the massive multiple explosion had happened, Vega stood up and looked at Vivian and Noodle. "You pair ok?" She looked around and sighed, slightly. "Well, we survived another night, an' they seem to be all dead," lifting her hand, she pulled her hair out of her face, and made sure that neither of the other two were injured. More and more, every attack, it seemed like they were doing something different, these creatures, and Vega didn't like it one little bit. "Well," she said with a too-chipper-to-be-real grin, "at least I learned that armour works."

That said, she questioned Vivian and Matthias. "Is it jus' me," she said, softly, "or it is like those things are testin' different aspects of our defences every time? I'm not a brain, nor a boffin but I reckon," she said with a frown "I reckon they're clever an' more'n that, somehow even when we kill them all," she kicked a blobernickel-bit with the toe of her boot. "Even then, somehow, they're reportin' back."

That was not something which Vega liked the idea of and, frankly, she was rather hopeful that they were going to say that she was being daft, not considering things how they should be considered and that in fact she was dead wrong. Sadly, looking at the two people she'd fought with, Vega didn't think that was something they were likely to say. And so, with a slight sigh, she added, "I might be wrong though, mightn't I?" It sounded more like she was asking for reassurance than anything else. "An' thanks, by the way," she added. "You worked with me an' had my back. I appreciate it." With a nod, she decided that was enough of the being nice. If she did any more of it, she'd end up with indigestion.

[Mathias Blackwood]

28 Cylus 720 | Mathias Blackwood | Storm's Edge

The explosion was quite the sight to behold, but Mathias was not fortunate enough to behold it. Vivian's use of Rising Lightning was equally impressive to witness and equally missed by the archer hiding behind the barrels. As the first of the beasts popped, setting off the rippled that would pop the rest of them, Mathias dove for cover behind a few barrels where he remained while the chunks of blobernickle rained down all around them. Mathias was many things but incredibly durable was not one of them. Noodle. Storm's Edge had been a constant plague of dangerous situations. He never thought he would miss working on the repairs so much. When Vega's voice called out, asking if the pair was alright, Mathias raised a thumb from behind a barrel, before emerging himself and slinging his bow over his shoulder. From the looks of it, the blast had solved the problem... for now.

"Better than the blobs." Mathias replied as he looked around at all the pieces they'd probably have to pick up and haul away to study. His eyes looked around, momentarily, for a bag that he could begin using to clean but when he didn't see one on his first pass, he stopped looking. Vega posed her thought to them and Mathias looked at her with a little confusion. He hadn't particularly noticed them getting smarter but most of the time he wasn't really analyzing what they were doing. He was instead more focused on making sure that he did not get killed. "If they are learning, let's hope they didn't just figure out that grouping up was a bad idea." Mathias said in a somewhat light tone. He'd meant it as a joke because he wasn't really as concerned with the prospect of them communicating as he should have been. The noodle was tired and, frankly, didn't want to face the idea that they were being tested for something bigger.

"Thank you," Mathias said after Vega expressed her appreciation towards them. Then he turned to Vivian who'd taken a much more dangerous course for the battle than the archer who was relatively comfortable with distance to protect him, "And you." He wasn't particularly good at the gratitude part because it wasn't often that he put himself in situations where he needed help, but he was finding more and more of those at Storm's Edge so he was getting better. "Thing's would have gone differently without you two here." Which went without saying but he didn't know what else to say. "Alright, time to clean up?"