More Meteor Showers Bring Even Stranger Powers. (O/A)

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Rydia grit her teeth and followed Alexavier's mental queue. With a forceful lift, she tore the thrashing creature from the doctor's head. The abomination was considerably more aggressive than the one they had pulled from Chariot. Rydia glared at the eyeless terror and squeezed it within her spirit hands. It mewled and screeched, but it wasn't able to fight the inevitable for long. With a disgusting squelch, the creature cried out once more in defiance and then fell silent.

Her upper lip curled as she deposited the crushed thing into the sink. She peeked at it with her left eye to make sure it was dead. The princess refrained from lighting it on fire that time. She didn't want a repeat of the last time.

She looked to the doctor and inquired, "Are you alright Mister Richards? That was a bit more difficult than I was anticipating."

The doctor groaned and grumbled, "Acula. It feels like I was hit in the head by a sledgehammer, but I don't think I'm any worse for wear."

Rydia sighed with relief, "Ah, that's good, I'm sure a healer will be with you soon. In the meantime, rest easy knowing that you are no longer corrupted. Take care."

Rydia looked to Alexavier and motioned for him to follow her. Once she had lead him outside of the room, she took a deep breath and addressed Alexavier in a more official tone, "It is hard for me to admit, but I was wrong about you. I could not have helped those two if you had not been there to assist me. Thank you."

She then took the opportunity to size him up as she awaited his reply.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damien was pleased to see that Theresa had come out whole. He had been confident, of course, but nothing was ever assured, In fact, he had been sure that he could fix everything that had been done to her...but he was wrong.

He felt something warm and wet run over his upper lip. He brought his hand up to his lip and inspected what he had touched. Blood. He grimaced as he dabbed his lip a few more times before he realized that he was bleeding from his right nostril. He quickly commanded his body to cut off the offending blood flow and absorbed what had come out of him. He knew what had caused it.

Damien approached the siblings and admitted, "I'm glad she's happy, but I wasn't able to correct everything. Theresa, when we were connected I could feel that you look much older than you actually are. I attempted to fix that, but if I had done so you'd become your actual age. I'm sorry, but we need you to be grown for what's coming. Maybe after you guys kill the Hellstar, we can talk about giving you a chance at a full life."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You can't." Silhouette corrected Trinity's verbal musing. "Believe me. I tried. The void of space separates the shadow realm of the Earth and Moon as it does on your plain."

"The crystal was destroyed in the explosion Freya caused. That must be why he's going to force the girl called Prism to create a new one."

Alec held his hand up and interject, "Sorry, but I've seen where this line of questions goes. So I think I'll hurry things along. Eclipse took the crystal from the elves because he most likely saw it as killing several birds with one stone. So to speak."

Gidget mulled on the information for a moment. "It makes sense. Remove a threat and retrieve an essential macguffin. Up until today he'd been several steps ahead of us. Speaking of which, I've just gotta know. How did he react when we messed up his plans?"

"Gidge." Ako gently reminded her.

"Ah, right, that's not important. So what do we do once we get to the moon?"

"Like I said, Crosis was pretty tight lipped about the whole thing. But for all intents and purposes, all of the Ancient's should've known about the Lunar Spire. The only one alive for us to ask, that doesn't want to kill us," Alec paused as he motioned down to Trinity's shadow, "is Silhouette."

"Damnit." Sil muttered to herself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fenris was astounded by the combat high she was granted through the aura. Everything seemed to move slower for her, but it was almost unnecessary. It almost felt like the aura itself was a separate entity from herself, but it was actually an extension of her desire for freedom.

Then he caught the aura in his hands. Normally that would really grind her gears, but that time it resulted in strengthening her resolve to best him.

Faster. Stronger.

As quickly as she could think, the aura he had grabbed grew more intense. Her torso sprouted two additional arms under her two original ones and struck at his core. The aura mirrored this and began to adjust itself so that each limb was accompanied by an additional aura and moved independently and at different intervals from each other. To someone familiar with Buddhism she would almost resemble an Asura. It was beginning to dawn on her that the aura was actually scaling itself and adapting to the power of Legio.

Damn the old man. He'd been right all along. She just had to let go.

Small fissures began to develop over her body. The kaleidoscopic aura began to seep from the cracks as the inexperience of using it was overwhelming her alien body. She didn't notice. All she could do was smile at Legio as she became intoxicated by the bliss of freedom.  

[BeaMichelle]

Theresa listened carefully to Damien's words, but that didn't help much because she had no concept of what it meant to age. She simply "was."

"Okay. Sure. After we kill the thing." she chirped with blind compliance. She looked back up at her brother and smiled. "What do we do now, Theonis? Can we get food, or do we have to do im-port-ant stuff?"  

[Nova Blancke]

Theo raised an eyebrow when Damian got a brief bleeding from the nose. Very brief. It answered the question for him if Damian COULD bleed considering his ....genetic make up. Theresa didn't seem to understand what Damian meant but Theo fully understood. He had the ability to grant her a normal life. Her current look was the result of accelerated growth which cuts into her lifespan drastically.

He nodded to Damian. "Thanks Damian. We owe you one." He said as he put on hand on Theresa's head.

"We do need to do some more important stuff. I'm in charge of this entire place you know." Theo took out his phone and looked up where the rest gathered.

"We'll get some food afterwards alright?"

Alexavier looked smug when everything went well. How could it not have gone well with him around? He gave an obvious wink to Leo. "See? No problem at all. It's a LOT less PAINFUL than the s**t you and Daedelus put me and Cass through." Alexavier shrugged and followed Rydia out of the room, who...gave an honest apology and thanks to him.

He took a deep breath and responded in her mind.

"I accept your thanks, your highness. But you were right about me. I am NOT a good person."  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Rydia's face became pensive when Alexavier made his mental statement. She nodded in understanding and thought back to him, "Perhaps not, but then perhaps you are not as terrible as you think you are...not anymore, at least."

She refrained from using her eye to confirm her suspicion since he was facing her. Nevertheless, she determined that he was an interesting enough person to catch her eye. She returned to speaking aloud, her tone less authoritative, and said, "I must take my leave. No doubt Gidget and the others are putting their minds together to muster a plan. I shouldn't miss that. Thank you again, Alexavier."

She turned to leave, took two steps, stopped, and looked over her shoulder. She called back, "Oh, and if you find yourself with little to do later, send me a mental note. I may have some additional 'gratitude' to show you."

With that she made a point to sashay provocatively while she remained in Alexavier's line of sight. Once she had rounded the corner she strode toward Gidget's laboratory with a sense of purpose..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damien waved to Theonis and Theresa then left the room to give them some time together. He sighed and looked up at the flickering light on the ceiling. Light. That would be the last one. Then he'd be presented with a choice...whatever that meant. He didn't like not knowing something. He pondered that particular frustration, having never experienced it before.

He didn't know what to do. He wanted to be done with the whole ordeal sooner rather than later. But all that was left to do was wait for the one fated to bear the boon of light.  

[BeaMichelle]

Theresa pouted for just a moment. She was famished after expending so much metal and energy in the fight to free the prisoners of Daedalus. But she understood that there were other people that needed Theonis the way she did. Plus, she didn't want to act to childish. He'd said that he preferred her more even tempered side. So she made a mental note to be happy in front of him, since that made him happy, but to try not to fall to far into Thea's silly antics.

"Okay. Can I help you do the important things?" she asked.  

[PixelMuse]

Rikki Tikki Travi

"You can't." Silhouette corrected Trinity's verbal musing. "Believe me. I tried. The void of space separates the shadow realm of the Earth and Moon as it does on your plane."

"The crystal was destroyed in the explosion Freya caused. That must be why he's going to force the girl called Prism to create a new one."

Trinity rubbed her head and nodded Good to know. She thought at first it would be a quick trip through the Shadow Realm. It looked like Gidget may need to prepare a shuttle of some sort. She smirked at the mention of Freya’s explosion and how pissed off Eclipse initially got. Then Alec spoke.

Rikki Tikki Travi

…"Eclipse took the crystal from the elves because he most likely saw it as killing several birds with one stone. So to speak."

…"It makes sense. Remove a threat and retrieve an essential macguffin. Up until today he'd been several steps ahead of us. Speaking of which, I've just gotta know. How did he react when we messed up his plans?"

Trinity smirked when Gidget made her request. “Well I was going to save it for the debrief but since you asked and I’m betting now everyone here wants to might as well…” she shrugged then started the story.
“So, there we were facing off with Eclipse when Freya destroyed his Plan A machine. Barely calming himself and in typical villain, fashion called us all bitches and told us he was going to kill us all and after that Plan B was going to happen afterwards. He was pointing to the Daedalus satellite when it went up in flame fwoosh. The timing could not have been better. That was when he broke, that was when he lost it. His eyes were wide and fists were clenched he swore so hard the whole foundation shook. ‘Mother ********!’” She did an impression of him with his swearing (not as loud as he did of course but the tone was close enough) and laughed it off.

“It’s good to see him squirm for once. Though we are going to have to do it again on the next eclipse.”  

[Nova Blancke]

It was quite a sight to behold to see the woman formerly known as Freya continue to grow in power. Maybe without thinking she was using the biomass she was reforged in. The aura followed and so did the damage with came with it.
Legio could sense she was losing herself in this newfound power. The cracks were showing and Legio knew that it wouldn't outright kill her if it overwhelmed her, it would leave her in a severely weakened state.

"You're drawing in too much, too fast." He told her as he no longer fought back but just kept on hardening his biomass to increase his defenses. Changing his face to that of her father he spoke again. " Pace yourself. "

Theo stopped for a moment. What could she do at the de-briefing?

"Hmmm, I am not sure actually. Now that you're....whole sorta speaking maybe you remember somethings that could help. Come to think of it...I am pretty sure the canteen is closed right now since we've just come out of red alert. " Theo walked up to a vending machine and got her some snacks.

"Might not be much but it'll have to do for now. Come on." Theo said and handed over the snacks before moving on with her. It didn't take long before arriving at Gidgets Lab.

"Sorry for the delay, had some things to take care off. My father is in the medbay and Alexavier and Rydia are working on extracting Eclipse's...aspect? Do we have a name for those things?"  

[PixelMuse]

Trinity sighed to herself a little annoyed at the situation that Theo did not let her know when Rydia was done per her text. Though unbeknownst to her it wasn’t his fault that Damien took Theo out of proximity. Focused on Theo she didn’t observe how different Theresa looked. She was then focused on what needed to be done.

Gidget knows how she gets with her exes, it comes off as professional and focused but in reality she’d use any excuse especially job or task related to get herself out of the room with him or do the bare essentials to get the job done. Knowing they needed Rydia to continue planning she needed to bring her here. She looked to Gidget, “Catch him up with what we know on the situation at hand. I’ll go check on how Rydia is doing and bring her here when she’s done.” she very much wanted to glare daggers at Theo but instead l restrained herself and looked distant as she sunk into her shadow. She emerged near his father’s room only to find there were medics there but no Rydia. Couldn't wait for Rydia… she shook her head to herself. Then dropped into her shadow and emerged from Rydia’s shadow after she turned a corner.

”Need a lift? I'll catch you up on everything we covered so far. We’re going to need your help in figuring anything out further.” She awaited her response and headed to Gidget’s lab as they emerged in Gidget’s lab, “… so because Sil has holes in her memory Alec was able to fill in some of it and we need your eye to fill in the gaps.”  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Fenris' eyes went wide with shock. The unmitigated audacity of his shift brought a mix of heavy emotions that quickly caused her already volatile aura to flare further out of control. It was a bit sooner than she anticipated, but Fenris knew she wouldn't be able to maintain such a new power for long. And...all the power she'd accumulated had to go somewhere.

"You're wrong. I don't need to pace myself. Not anymore." she corrected. "I just...have to let go."

She pounced at Legio and wrapped her multitude of arms around him. In that instant the aura shone so brightly that the shadows around them were no more. Much like the black aura did the day before, the prismatic aura unleashed itself and laid waste to the area around them. Unlike the black aura, though, the prismatic aura was focused to a quarter mile radius that shot straight up. It split the clouds and continued beyond what could be seen with their eyes.

When the light faded, Fenris lay on her back, her arms and legs splayed, in the epicenter of what was left after her attack. She felt as though she'd just participated in a dozen decathlons back to back. Everything hurt. She groaned and rolled her head over to look toward Legio.

"You...suck." she grumbled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gidget just grinned as Trinity recounted how royally they'd pissed in Eclipse's Cheerios. She didn't normally find such joyful satisfaction in the misfortune of others, but she sure made an exception for him. When Theonis and Theresa entered (and Trinity exited) Gidge couldn't help but feel for Trinity. She wasn't exactly sure what happened, but Trinity's behavior made it clear that Theonis was on her s**t list.

Gidget and Alec filled him in on what they'd discussed. The lunar spire, the roll of the eight, and the massive crystal that was integral to what was needed to destroy the Hellstar. She looked down at Theresa's new do and smiled. She looked over to Ako and tilted her head in the direction of the tripple hued teenager.

Ako understood Gidget's gesture and studied the young girl for a moment. They'd had a small talk concerning Theresa and her relationship to their little group. To say that the situation was complicated put it way too lightly. He had a little one of is own on the way on top of a rapidly aging. stepdaughter who was fathered by Theonis' dad as part of some sick Daedalus experiment. Yeah, complicated wasn't a good enough descriptor. He set aside his concerns for the future aside for moment. There was a much bigger threat on the horizon.

Rydia listened intently to Trinity's summation of the situation. Although concerned about the implications of the information she'd been handed she also felt excited. She never thought she'd have an opportunity to use her infinite eye on an ancient. She could feel her arms tense with anticipation. The only thing that tempered her elation was the knowledge of what could happened to Silhouette from prolonged exposure to the unbridled invasion of her eye.

"Alright, I understand. Undoubtedly, Silhouette is undoubtedly well aware of the dangers posed by what I'm about to do. Looking into my eye is like gazing into infinity itself while it simultaneously scrambles your brain. The only one here that should look toward me is the ancient. Everyone else needs to keep their eyes to the ground and shut just to be safe."

Silhouette shuddered at the apt description made by the princess. It had been eons since she'd last looked into those eyes, but it was an experience that is not forgotten in one's lifetime. It was being made to understand just how insignificant she was in the grand scheme off all things. A droplet on the endless river that is spacetime. It took several hours for her to recover, and Vivi had only looked into her eyes for less than five seconds.

She knew that Trinity would probably second guess their course of action after hearing Rydia's warning. She spoke softly into the mind of her vessel.

"This is our best shot, Trinity. I may be a useless wreck for a while, but I am confident that I will come through no worse for wear. Please trust me."  

[BeaMichelle]

Theresa grinned with anticipation as Theonis handed her the snacks. She snatched them out of his hands and immediately tried to bite into a Snickers, wrapper and all. She was disappointed to find out that the weird crinkly thing did not taste good. She realized that everything he'd handed her had was a weird crinkly thing. The blue and white one rattled and was filled with what she assumed was air. Maybe the tasty thing was inside.

By the time she'd reached that conclusion they'd arrived at the lab. She paid very little attention to the words being spoken by the others. She only cared about getting to the tasty things inside the weird crinkly outside. It was beginning to frustrate her enough that she was tempted to shoot it. Stuff that was on the inside tended to come outside after she shot something, but then she remembered that the other's didn't like it much when she shot things that they didn't ask her to shoot at.

She grumbled and looked up at Theonis. He seemed to be busy. She didn't want to interrupt his important stuff. She looked around the room at the others. There was the mean cat lady, Rydia. The shadow lady, Trinity. The short lady that talks a lot, Gidget. The intense guy that's usually close to Gidget...she didn't know his name. There were also two new people. One was a guy with long, dark hair who had skin whiter than everyone else. Next to him was a girl with white hair, fuzzy ears, and pair of tails, (though one of them was smaller than the other). The girl had kind eyes and looked like she could be nice.

Theresa swallowed and took a deep breath to steel herself. She had only met a few new people in Valhalla, and most of them were not as nice as her brother or the short lady. She shuffled over to the girl with the kind eyes and cleared her throat. When she was confident that she had the girl's attention, she held the snacks out to her and flatly stated, "I'm hungry. Can you get the food out of these?"  

[PixelMuse]

Rikki Tikki Travi

…
"Alright, I understand. Undoubtedly, Silhouette is undoubtedly well aware of the dangers posed by what I'm about to do. Looking into my eye is like gazing into infinity itself while it simultaneously scrambles your brain. The only one here that should look toward me is the ancient. Everyone else needs to keep their eyes to the ground and shut just to be safe."

After updating Rydia on where things currently are. She informed her of the risk Silhouette would be taking. This was concerning, yet the stakes were high, would Sil be alright after all of this? She heard her whisper…

Rikki Tikki Travi

…
"This is our best shot, Trinity. I may be a useless wreck for a while, but I am confident that I will come through no worse for wear. Please trust me."

She rubbed her head, sighed, and nodded. "It looks like despite the dangers posed Sil is willing to go through with it. She knows what's at stake… has done this before and has assured me after some time to recover, she'll be ok." she trusted Sil but couldn't help but worry do what you need to do, just… be careful…"  

[Nova Blancke]

Theo was focused on taking in the information that he forgot to show Theresa how to open the snacks he got her.
"Makes sense that he needed the moon's shadow during the eclipse if he was going to use that lunar tower in it's shadow." Theo said as he held his thumb and index finger on his lips with his arms crossed. Tapping his upper lip he was in deep thought. There were ways to interfere with the next lunar eclipse but not all were feasible.

"Maybe their..max output could....." he mumbled to himself. With a shake of his head he snapped back to reality to what Trinity was saying.

He turned to Rydia." That eye of yours, is the intensity the same as Liv's? You can't turn it off so it's always on full blast right? I don't know if it's a thing but maybe it'd be possible to...sorta tune it down a bit so the damage won't be as bad."  

[BeaMichelle]

Kerana

"Out of curiosity, how do you know Theonis? Oh my, that's rather rude of me, we haven't formally introduced ourselves. My name is Kerana and I'm pleased to meet ya." She opened her hand prepared to take her hand to shake it should she not know what to do. "What's your name?"

Theresa watched with intense interest as Kerana showed her how to open the crinkly thing to get to the food inside. Her eyes went wide with childish anticipation when Kerana revealed the treat inside. She inspected the candy bar with her hands at first and then sniffed it a few times before she gave it a lick. Her face lit up and she took a generous bite out of it. The fluffiness of the nougat! The chewy caramel! The combination of crunchy saltiness with the sweet milk chocolate! Did other people know about this wonderful thing?! Of course Theonis did. He gave her the wonderful thing.

She looked to Kerana's outstretched hand curiously and observed both sides of it with some confusion. She looked into Kerana's kind eyes and did her best to mirror her new friend's smile. She stretched her hand at the kitsune and replied, "Theonis is my brother. My name is Theresa and I'm pleezed to meetcha."

She was about to ask Kerana what sort of animal she was when she heard tortured cries echo around her from behind. She was about to turn around and look when the dark boy forced her head back around to look toward Kerana. The screaming reminded her of the playground. She instinctively put her arms around the closest person that made her feel safe. In that case it happened to be Kerana.  

[Rikki Tikki Travi]

Rydia shook her head solemnly to Theonis' inquiry. "Since I am not a full blooded Elf, and because I am not a sapper like Liv is, my eye is permanently fixed to it's maximum intensity. It...it's the burden I bare."

Trinity's shadow stretched and took the shape of a human female with no features save for her silver eyes. Sil looked to Rydia with a determined fire in her eyes. In her broken mind were the answers they sought. She was prepared to risk it all to give the mortals around her a chance.

Rydia removed the covering from her left eye but left her lids shut. Unsure of what coming into contact with Trinity's possessed shadow might do. She wrapped her hands in the spirit claws and gently cradled Silhouette's face. She considered the living god before her with sad eyes and whispered, "Thank you...and I'm sorry."

She opened her infinite eye and stared directly into Silhouette's glistening orbs.

It took less than a second for Silhouette to try and fight against Rydia's grip on her. Two seconds later she was whimpering. At six seconds she openly wept. At eight seconds she cried out, "I'm sorry! Mother please! Mother! I'm sorry!!!"

At ten seconds she was wailing uncontrollably. Just like her brother, her screams shook the walls around them.

At eleven seconds Rydia's eyes went wild at the revelation of the truth they had sought. She started at a chuckle, but it quickly devolved into an insane cackle that was accompanied by a stream of tears from her right eye and blood from her left.

Alec had to turn Theresa's head away from the awful sight before him. She shut his eyes tight and wrapped his arms around Rydia's waist. He pulled with all his might and attempted to tear Rydia's grip away from the ancient. Even with his enhanced power he was too weak to fight it by himself. "Ako! Theonis! Help me!"

Ako had been holding his hands over his ears and kept his eyes to the ground. The whole thing was insane. He thought he heard the kid that seemed to know everything call his name. He too a risk and looked up just enough to see that Alec stood right behind Rydia and seemed to be trying to pry her off of the shadow woman, Silhouette.

He kept his eyes down while he rushed to grab onto onto Rydia's right arm. He saw a second fourth set of shoes and assumed it was Theonis going for Rydia's other arm. He felt out the timing necessary and pulled along with the other two men to get Rydia's glowing hands off of Sil's face.

The four of them tumbled to the floor together as Silhouette's screaming still reverberated off the walls of the lab.

Sil gripped her head and fell to her knees while she shrieked, "No no no! No no no! Mother! Motherrrr! I'm sorry! Please! Pleeeeeease!". She smashed her head against the floor again and again in an attempt to kill herself to escape what she had been through. It was futile, since it only made the shadow she inhabited become smaller and smaller until it was Trinity's again. Once she was out of sight her cries fell mercifully silent. She had finally passed out from exhaustion.

The whole thing was over

Rydia was rolling on the ground laughing maniacally while her extremities were tensed and contracted, "Dead! Dead dead dead! All dead! Over and over! Up and down and around! Deeeeead!"

Gidget growled in frustration and slid down to her knees to be at the princess' level. He cupped her left hand over the mad woman's squinted eyes and slapped her as hard as she could with her right.

Rydia's laughing stopped in an instant and she relaxed her arms and legs.

The whole ordeal took less than thirty seconds.

Alec took several breathes as he tried to calm himself. Without prompt he grabbed Rydia's discarded eye wrap and a waste bin. He placed them both next to her and then turned his attention to Kerana and the girl that held her.

"Are you guys okay?" he asked with an exasperated huff.

Rydia was about to thank Gidget when she felt something in her stomach go horribly wrong. She rolled directly over the waste bin she didn't even know was there and threw up once. Her fingers brushed a piece of fabric. She peeked down at it with her right eye and recognized it as her eye cover. She huffed, puffed, and moaned as she felt the aches and pains that come from laughing too hard for too long and vomiting. She placed the fabric over her eye and uneasily stood up.

Ako was quick to shuffle over to Gidget and get her back on her feet.

Gidget rolled a chair over to Rydia so the princess could take a moment to catch her breath. She huffed, "Jesus Christ...is everyone okay? Trin, how're you and Sil?"

Rydia held her forehead in her hands and grumbled, "Everyone needs to grab a chair or something. What I saw is...a lot to unpack."