as written by Luxin and Script
Panic had set in, and though her defense force, loyal and until now unbested in the field, was now gone from her, Assara Ellonin remembered her years of training to keep her alive through such situations. The ooze creature that had sprung into existence with hardly any warning was gone now, the casino she still hid in was in shambles. The ceiling was even a mess, blasted by the weapons fire of over two dozen guests in an attempt to disrupt the creature that had caused so much damage.
And to think she'd only come in here to get her men back in order before heading home to Iarin Space.
In her narrow hands she held her only personal weapon, the Shy Lady. It didn't look to be much of a threat, as the silver-metalled gun was small and unassuming, but as she began to move towards the massive maw of a hole that counted for where the front of the building had been, she held it somewhat away from her, as if it were far more dangerous than it looked.
As she stepped out into the faded light of the street, the portal high above absorbing most of the sunlight of Sol, she blinked several times, doing her best to adapt her vision rapidly. There would be problems for her, she was certain, if she had any trouble seeing right now. She didn't need to see the looters, but the city area was in chaos, and she knew that it didn't matter. Violence ruled.
"Is there anything that this damned little planet has that it can defend itself with? Certainly there was no need for such...such Aschen foolishness as to cause all this." Although she didn't have the whole picture, she'd long worried over the size of the Aschen borders, as the Onyx Galaxy was not quite far enough for her to be comfortable with such a large neighbor that close to home. As such, her bias was fairly evident whenever her emotions struck her true, which, considering her day, was very much the case.
She looked down the street in both directions, then cursed again. The viscous mass of gluttony and slime was headed towards the spaceport. She had hoped to be able to get there, swing herself aboard the Evvion, and make a quick trip out of the area, but it seemed that fate has other designs for her. Bolstering herself as best she could, and doing her best not to vomit as the stench of the blob suddenly drifted on a hot wind towards her, she gripped her gun more tightly and strode after the Ooze, hoping that it wouldn't end up eating her too.
____
Ahead, the ooze creature seemed to be unaware - or uncaring - of her presence. It continued to ponderously slide its way down the road, occasionally pausing to devour a piece of scenery or a vehicle. Others it simply rolled over, leaving them coated in a glistening layer of slime.
"Huh," a voice sounded from behind Assara, "Never fought jelly before."
The speaker was a young man who looked to be in his early twenties, his skin a shade of olive-green and his eyes bright yellow. He had an athletic build, muscles clearly visible through a torn shirt and jacket. Pointed ears showed through a mop of unruly black hair, and he flashed a grin at her, complete with sharp fangs.
"Sup?" Trys said, sauntering forwards with a swagger to his steps. "You planning on taking that thing on all alone? Not sure if you're brave, stupid, or a bigger deal than you look."
____
Assara's attention shifted as suddenly as she spun around, her pistol raising to be cupped in both hands, aimed at his chest. She paused for a moment, taking the sight of Trys in, then shook her head and lowered her weapon. He looked like a thug, even seemed to have the right weight distribution in his hips and shoulders, but he didn't smell anything like the streets. He seemed just a bit too clean to be nothing more than the average ruffian. The barrel of her gun lowered as she stood more straight, her posture pristine.
"My apologies. I didn't mean to put you at risk. Habit." She turned to shoot a quick look back at the slime, which wasn't moving away too terribly quickly, before turning to face hm once more. "And yes, I certainly was. It doesn't matter much when physical objects strike it. I saw dozens of rounds enter that thing's body in the casino, and it was hardly affected. This, however," She waved her gun slightly, "is a high-velocity plasma weapon. Dirupts the molecular structure of it's target on impact and ionizes whatever it can from the energy imparted. She's small, not unlike myself, but very effective at her job." She smiled a bit, then shook her head.
She turned back once more, taking a few cautious steps through the slime-covered rubble in the street, then found a more suitable pathway just off to her right. As she neared it, the jacket she wore, which was longer and has classical tails to indicate some measure of importance, tore partially at her waist, revealing a suit of mesh beneath the outwerwear. She swore in her native tongue's ancient dialect, something she'd studied more as a hobby than anything, and grabbed at the coat, doing what she could to cover the mesh up.
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"Uhuh," Trys nodded, "Yep. I knew some of those words."
He followed along beside Assara with none of her caution, whistling softly to himself as he watched the ooze slowly swallow an entire bus whole. "Hungry fucker, ain't he? It, I guess." The creature seemed indifferent to their approach at present, apparently either oblivious or unthreatened.
"I can't imagine bullets would do much good against it," he went on, "But I reckon something bigger might. Bullets, it's just gonna eat up. Like on those gun shows where they shoot into ballistic gel. But, say..."
He sauntered over a few steps, to where a lamppost had been half ripped out of the ground by the impact of one of Butcher's cannon-shots in an adjacent building. Flexing his fingers, he reached out and grabbed it, and giving a grunt of effort he tore it free from the ground in a spray of sparks, adjusting his grip until he was brandishing it like an oversized baseball bat.
"...something like this? I reckon I could make it hurt."
He grinned.
"You wanna get its attention?"
____
The admiral watched him for a moment, then smirked slightly as he ripped free the lamppost. She had seen similar things done, though more often by construction bots and the like. When it was simply one creature alone was doing it, it impressed, even if she might not have shown it.
"Boy sees a good-looking gal and shows off a bit, hmm?" She chuckled quietly and then raised her left arm, switching the pistol from one hand to another in the process. She flicked her eyes briefly to the left, and the smirk returned, only to look back at Trys. "My turn."
With a soft 'whump', a small pellet-like emission shot from the end of her gun, speeding towards the ooze faster than the eye could track, at least for a human. It punctured the beast's body a few inches, causing the entire creature to glow with an admixture of blue and green, only for that spot and the area within 7 inches from it all around to spew out from the beast as the pellet detonated. It wasn't as big an effect she'd expected, but as the second shell of the pellet was exposed to air, the detonation she'd wanted ripped forth.
The cloud now surrounding the beast was not from the explosion, but rather a creation of the atomization of the creture's bodily ooze from the plasma's heat. She chuckled as she finally looked back over, pleased at the result.
"Well, go and give him a good thrashing, won't you?"
____
Trys snorted, "You're almost as modest as I am," he remarked, "But seriously, who needs to show off when I'm this gorgeous?"
The green-skinned teen winked, hanging back to watch as Assara fired her weapon. His eyebrows rose at the result. "Nice toy you got there," he remarked, "Can't pretend I had any idea what anything you said about it meant, but I can't argue with results."
As the smoke cleared, it was evident that the gun had made its mark. Parts of the ooze were splattered across the street, bubbling and melting away into nothingness, whilst its main body was rippling as it sought to fill in the crater left in its surface by the impact. In doing so, it quite notably shrunk.
"One thrashing, coming right up."
Trys leaped forwards, launching himself through the air with his lamppost in tow and crossing the distance to the creature in a single bound. He brought the post down on its mass as he landed, slamming it through its gelatinous body with a satisfying splat. The post punched straight through, severing the ooze clean in two, and its two halves drooped miserably away from the strike.
He grinned, taking a step back, but swiftly his grin faded. Each of the halves of the ooze was rippling and reforming, and before more than a few seconds had passed, there were now two smaller versions of the creature. And they were both now well and truly aware of their assailants.
With surprising speed, one of them lurched forwards, latching onto the lamppost and absorbing part of it into its body, tugging Trys forwards. The other rolled past him, making a beeline for Assara.
"My bad!" Trys yelled over his shoulder as he fought with his ooze for possession of his weapon.
____
She whistled softly as he sailed through the air without issue, his physical capabilities dwarfing what she knew she could do. She watched, then shook her head as she watched the lamppost passed through the slime, two forming from the wreckage of the one. As one of the pair charged her faster than she expected they could move, she called out to him, her eyes never leaving her target.
"Clean up your mess as best you can, civilian. We'll talk more when you're done." The words were stern and commanding, her Fleet Command training kicking in more heavily now that combat had been joined. She was calm and collected, her mind racking though dozens of thoughts on how to best this creature. Choosing to figure out more about this thing, should they meet another by chance, she backed off, letting the rubble begin to surround her more and more.
As the creature moved ever closer, sliding and separating slightly as it moved through the debris, she grew more and more confident. She stopped and raised her weapon directly above her head, aiming up.
"I hope you don't mind if I play with fire a little." She pulled the trigger, the plasma firing up into the concrete above her. As the stone mix cracked and broke, revealing rebar underneath, an amount of flaming debris from atop that tumbling down and flaring up across the slime's surface. As it lit up, the flame's heat grew into the extreme, her outerwear burning off, the metamesh beneath revealed from beneath.
She dug deep inside herself, both physically and mentally, and connected with her inner symbiotic being, accessing a strength and endurance far beyond the normal for her kind. It gave her skin the strength to endure the flames licking across what exposed parts of it there were. She stood in the flames, eyes closed as they blazed around her and her hair whipping the sudden air current changes.
____
Back on the street, Trys growled and lurched backwards, tearing the lamppost free of the slime's grip with a spray of goop. Grimacing as some of the ooze landed on his skin, burning slightly, he swung with it again, this time crushing a small section of it to one side. The sheared off slime rippled on the floor for a few moments, flopping like a fish out of water, before seeping away into a puddle of inanimate residue.
Trys grinned. "Divide and conquer not going so well for you now, huh?" he murmured, backing up to avoid the advance of the creature and readying for another swing.
As he did so, however, it made another move he wasn't expecting. The side of it facing him pulsed, and a ball of goop shot out from it to strike him in the torso. The force of the impact unbalanced him and knocked him to the ground, where the sticky slime gripped to the floor.
"Oh, gross!" he exclaimed, looking down at himself. The acidic jelly was eating through his clothes and burned at his skin, but it wasn't doing him any real harm - he had a feeling if he was a regular guy, however, it'd be a very different story.
Grunting with effort, he forced himself upright, tearing through the slime's projectile as the main body advanced. He was just about free, when the creature itself rolled over his foot.
"Seriously?" he groaned, "Fuck off!"
It was then that a flash of light drew his attention off to the side, as a radiant arrow shot through the air and punched into the slime. The shaft of light drove deep into the core of the creature before exploding, sending a ripple through the entire creature. The first arrow was swiftly followed by a volley, each striking in a different spot and shrinking the creature a little more.
One of the strikes freed Trys' foot, and he wrenched himself fully free of his goopy prison to turn toward the source of the arrows with a grin of recognition.
The newcomer was another youth of a similar age to Trys, but he appeared to be human - fair skinned and with a head of tangled platinum blonde hair, still drying from the earlier downpour. He wore a bright red hooded top, and carried a modern-looking composite longbow.
"I hope needing your ass saved by me isn't going to become a habit," Ari remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"If it means I keep running into you? Definitely." Trys replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. C'mon, there's another one of them," he turned and gestured towards the blazing pile of rubble.
Then paused, realising that there was a blazing pile of rubble there now. "Oh. Er... you okay in there?" he called, hoping Assara would respond.
____
The sound of several very rapid, and very heavy, if suppressed, detonations caught her attention. She stepped over the rubble, her feet bare against the stone as her metamesh suit, similar in form to that of a short sleeved and legged surf suit keept her torso protected from the fire. As she stepped out, her auburn hair caught the light of the flames behind her, casting an almost ominous look to her, though she inhaled deeply, calm as a still pond.
She walked over to Trys quickly enough, her strides confident and even. As she looked at them both, her eyes held a green light within that rapidly dwindled. The further from the fire she got, the less she drew from her inner being, the symbiotic lifeform within her body. She smirked and looked at them.
"So, we've got a being who can rip up streetlamps, and I assume his cohort, capable of creating some sort of explosions." She noticed the bow in Ari's hand. "Explosive arrows, I take it? Plasma? Kinetic detonation? Or do you have saome sort of phase disruption system?" She was interested in how exactly he'd done what he'd done, as she could no longer see any remnant of the slime that had attacked Trys.
She ran a hand through her hair, brushing some of the pesky strands from her face as she stood there. She was highly aware that the meta-mesh suit was rather form-fitting, and that she wasn't exactly homely, but she kept her gaze leveled on the two men before her.
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"Cohort?" Ari raised an eyebrow, "Not likely. Not his anyway."
"Hey..." Trys tore his eyes away from Assara's ... attire, and looked across at Ari "...er, yeah, hey! You said something dickish, right?"
"Classy," Ari rolled his eyes, apparently not suffering Trys' difficulties when it came to paying attention to the conversation. "I'm Ari," he directed towards Assara, "I'm with the Elysian Vanguard - are you hurt?"
"He's kind of a big deal," Trys noted, pointing across at the colossal tree that rose up through the street several blocks away, towering over even the skyscrapers. "See that? His fault."
Ari's cheeks reddened, "Okay, thanks, Tryst-"
"Trys. Not Tryst. I'm not an affair. I have them, but I'm not them."
"...whatever! Look, the important thing is, I'm here to help, a-"
"Doing a fantastic job of that so far, tree boy."
Ari groaned.
____
Their chatter caused her to raise an eyebrow, but remained quiet. She noticed Trys having a momentary issue speaking, something she filed away for later review, but it passed quickly enough. As she looked over at the tree, she offered her response.
"I'm actually better off now than I was before you met me, Trys. And it's a pleasure to meet you, Ari. My name is Assara Ellonin, Fleet Admiral of the Iarin Collective Intergalactic Navy. Tell me, when you mention Elysian, do you happen to mean the same Elysia that shows up in ancient Terran mythologies?"
She looked down around her, searching the ground for something. She wandered for a few moments, still paying attention to them all, before her thoughts were answered from the skies themselves. A simple white sheet of cloth, frayed on two edges and slightly scorched. She snatched it with a quick grab and then pulled it down, taking two opposite corners and tying them together around her waist. Although not needed to maintain her modesty, she still chose to add the skirt-like piece for her own reasons.
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"It's good to meet you too, Assara. And, uh..." Ari hesitated, "I'm not actually sure of the exact reasoning behind the name. I guess it probably does? I'm still technically just an initiate, so..."
Trys raised an eyebrow, "You don't even know why your ancient holy order is named what it's named? Poor form, lionman."
"They don't have a handy ... trivia pack, you know!" Ari shook his head, "Anyway! The Vanguard is an order dedicated to protecting the people of Valore against evil."
"And slime monsters, apparently."
"You could stand to be a little more grateful, you know?" Ari gave an exasperated sigh, running a hand through his tangled hair with an expression that for a moment looked genuinely upset, "I've had a long day, and I royally fucked up with the tree thing, and I'm just trying to help, but-"
"Whoa, whoa, hey," Trys put a hand on Ari's arm reassuringly, "I'm just teasing, yeah? You've literally saved my life twice today, so, whatever else has gone wrong you're pretty much the most awesome person in my world right now."
Ari took a deep breath in, nodding his head. "This is only my second time in the field, you know, and the world almost fucking ended. That's like ... like ..."
"Doing your first day in retail on Black Friday at Omnimart?"
"Yeah, something like that." The olympian sighed again, before apparently remembering that Assara was there, and blushing. "Sorry. Small emotional breakdown. I'm fine now, though!" He forced a smile. "You were ah, asking about my arrows, right?"
It was notable that Ari didn't wear a quiver of any sort despite his bow, and it quickly became apparent why, as he reached out to pull an arrow of pure light from the air. It gleamed brilliantly in his grasp. "I've been told they're formed of pure divine energy, by someone who knows a lot more about that sort of thing than I do. A gift from Artemis - a Goddess from Ancient Avaros. I'm ... slightly related to her?"
Trys stared. "Wait wait wait... you're a ... demigod?"
"More like demi-demi-demi-demi-demi..." Ari hastily corrected, "It's not as crazy as it sounds, honestly."
____
The admiral waited patiently, her bare feet warm against the stone beneath her. She felt a small feeling that something had changed within her, as she'd not used her symbiotic capabilities for well over a decade, and it had come to her more easily than ever before. She pondered the possible consequences of such a thing while the two talked amongst themselves, to make certain she didn't intrude. She came back tot he conversation as she saw him pull the arrow out of thin air and mention something about being related to a deity.
"Interesting. I'd heard such claims from the Milky Way before, that gods would cavort amongst mortal beings, but this would be the first time I've been present for such a presence." She bowed slightly in respect. "My greetings to your family, when you get the chance. However, I have something more prevalent to ask. May I have you accompany me back to Iarin Space, that the Iarin people might see if we can't recreate a mortal form of your arrows? I know it is a bit much, but it would be of great aid to us, should we ever have to deal with this," she gestured to the chaos of Westeria's shipping area, "in our homelands."
"Also," she continued, "We should move indoors. I'm all for staying safe among the masses out and about, but I do not trust the events of the last few days, and I would rather stay in a place where we could more easily defend ourselves, if it comes to such." She was trusting them at the moment, if only because they seemed amiable enough, but she was prepared for their alliance, if it was such, to wear and snap away at any point.
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"Oh... I'm not sure that's possible," Ari answered, blinking in surprise, "I've got a duty here, to the Vanguard... not to mention I don't think Artemis would be a fan of mortals recreating her gifts." He paused, "Er, no offence. I try to avoid saying 'mortals' because it makes me sound like a jackass with a superiority complex."
"Too real?" Trys smirked, patting Ari on the back, "I'm kidding, but yeah, I think asking a kid... you are actually my age, right? Not just immortal-never-aging?"
"I'm nineteen. For realsies."
"Oh my god, you said for realsies, that's fucking adorable." Trys snickered, "Anyway, yeah, asking some random kid to go on an expedition to wherever-the-fuck halfway across the galaxy..? I guess you're optimistic, at least."
Ari cleared his throat, "If you two want to find shelter, go ahead. There are still people who need my help."
"Oh no, you are not getting rid of me that easily," Trys grumbled.
____
"Across the...Oh, no. It's far more distant than that. The boundaries of Iarin Space, which approximates roughly 7 systems within its borders, are in the Onyx Galaxy, not the Milky Way. It's roughly 300 million parsecs or so to get there, which for the craft we develop and fly, that's a week's trip at least." She chuckled very slightly, then sighed contentedly.
"And no offense taken. It was a tall thing to ask of you, even if my culture would consider you an adult by now." As she began to let her eyes wander, mostly to see if there was anything suitable to wait out this insanity in, she realized that her ship might still be at the spaceport. It would've been a tough thing to steal, even moreso to fly, and she suspected that it would have stayed rather well-kept from debris.
"You're choosing to stay out here? Seems...unwise. However, I have need to get to my ship. I meant to be gone almost a week ago, but my men were..." She paused, choking up a bit. They had all been close to her, a rare enough thing in its own right, and because of that her emotions were still unchecked as she thought of them each in turn.
Tarron, Hunnos, Mallac, Kweppi, and Yetter. Each and every one was gone, and had gone out to keep her alive. She wiped an errant tear that had sprung up at the corner of her right eye, flicking it to the ground without a second thought before clearing her throat.
"Suffice it to say that I would be glad if you both might accompany me there. I have only so much combat experience, and it would reflect poorly on me if I were to be brought low by something like...Well, like that slime." She shrugged and looked from one to the other, her green-eyed gaze holding each one briefly before switching.
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"I'm sorry about your men," Ari said softly, frowning, "I can help you get to the spaceport, but from what I saw in the air, it's chaos down there. There's a massive crowd outside, and it didn't look like anything was taking off."
Trys grimaced, "Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Assholes."
"I'm not sure you can call people assholes for trying to get off of a planet they thought was going to be destroyed, Trys," Ari remarked dryly.
"I can call people assholes for whatever I want! I might be wrong, I might also be an asshole for doing it, but so help me I reserve that right," Trys grumbled.
"I ... suppose you do." Ari laughed, prompting a grin from the other teen, before turning his attention back to Assara. "If you still want to head that way, I can go with you. If leaving isn't an option, is there an embassy you can head to?"
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She shook her head. "You have nothing to apologize for, I assure you. They were not caught by any of the chaotic things being birthed from nowhere, but rather from gunfire as several assailants attempted to rape the young woman serving at one of the casino's bars. I was unable to reach them in time, but they did good work until the end, and will be honored upon my return to Iara'Agar."
She paused herself and listened as they jabbered back and forth once more, but although the words were more heated, she figured it was almost more for show. opinions, certainly, but it wasn't in her experience to see such reactions. Especially not when the action causing it made such sense.
"I would appreciate your company, Ari. And yours as well, Trys, if you're interested in tagging along. As to whether there is a place for me to recuperate here, I doubt it. I was one of the first envoys of the Iarin Collective to come to Terra. There has been one other, though he does not know that we have been keeping an eye on him."
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"If nothing else, I imagine the spaceport will be where you can learn more about what your next move should be," Ari noted, "There's enough people there that if the situation changes, the authorities will get the information there fast."
Trys snorted, "The authorities haven't been much help so far," he muttered, "Anyway, let's get moving. The spaceport's only a few blocks that way. What can go wrong in that distance?"
The greenskinned teen set off walking, and after a moment's pause, Ari followed after him.
"Why were you with that mob in the park, anyway, Trys?" he asked as they walked.
"Cause we've rolled over for the Aschen one too many times. Wasn't about to let them just waltz in and hold us at gunpoint without kicking up a riot. Didn't ask anyone to follow me, but I guess a lot of people had the same idea." Trys shrugged, "Could've gone better. Could've gone worse. Hard to say how it'd have gone down if the park hadn't come to life. Or if you didn't show up."
____
She remained quiet as they walked, keeping her eyes open and peeled for potential danger. Although it was only a few blocks, she knew that there were more than enough potential dangers. She began to feel slightly self-conscious about her current attire, but shoved the thoughts away. She may look like just a refugee with a simple gun, weak and helpless, but she had Trys and Ari nearby, and she hoped that might be enough to dissuade most.
"So, what brought you both together and to Westeria?" She pointedly avoided asking about there chat about mobs and riots, as she was a person of station, and she didn't want to have to bring them to the authorities later on if she could help it. It was hardly a good time for it anyways.
"And why would you stay here? Ari, I understand that your heritage dictates this your homeland, but travelling the starry seas above the sky is something all its own. An experience unlike any other."
A sound ahead of them and to the left drew her attention. When she looked, she only saw the shimering of hot air rising from an alley into the main thoroughfare.
