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Post by Goosh on Jan 27, 2008 8:27:01 GMT -5
UPDATE =DDDDD
*goes to read*
=o Teh awesome, Dream. This is getting ramatic and stuffs. ^__^ >O UPDATE SOON, KAY?
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Post by PFA on Jan 28, 2008 21:00:49 GMT -5
*has just read the latest chapter* Eee. This is really awesome, Dream. Can't wait to read the next part.
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Post by Elcie on Jan 29, 2008 6:53:49 GMT -5
aieee this is so good o__o;;; I'm so happy that you updated, this really made my day! ^_^ Continue soon!
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Post by Dream on Jan 29, 2008 10:40:54 GMT -5
Expect an update within the next week-and-a-bit, as I've already written a lot of the next chapter ("In Darkness")-- I wasn't sure for a while where I was going to put the chapter break. It involves a haunted house, the improbable appearance of the youngest TK, quite a few unfortunate losses, and *hopefully* a fight-- I've never actually written one before and have a nasty feeling I'll be hopeless at it.
Apologies for forgetting to ask Spot's permission. For the record, if anyone has any preferences either way about being killed off in this fic (can't die before 2011 because they swallowed a phoenix feather, just don't like the idea, or alternatively would rather be dead than landed with a TK) drop me a line.
Elycien, do you want Halley, Stefan, or Devi, by the way? They're currently unassigned to anyone and I thought you deserved something.
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Post by (_+*Lou*+_) on Jan 29, 2008 15:10:09 GMT -5
This is an awesome story so far, I'm really looking forward to the next bit. Things are really descending into trouble...
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Post by Dream on Feb 4, 2008 11:29:52 GMT -5
In Darkness turned out to be getting SO darn' long that it wouldn't stay as a single chapter. So here's the first half of it, with the second to arrive at some unspecified future time. Yes, it is all meant to be in italics. Dedicated to Sam, to Yugo Ryan (if you answer to Ryan rather than Yugo, by the way, tell me at once and that will be sorted), and to the little brother, who gave me some Nightwish songs to play on repeat. In Darkness, I: Lost Souls "Is this it?"
Goosh glanced at Kami for confirmation, and Kami, in turn, looked to Kiddo for approval. The ninja set down her few belongings with a sigh.
"It'll do for tonight. It looks deserted enough."
The word spread through the huddle of tired forumers, and there was a tangible sense of relief. Tabloid Kids and birdcages in arms, the little group had been following Kami's tangled network of Crossings for most of the day. Stal, still carrying Sandy on his shoulders, looked ready to collapse at any moment. Dream, her feet sore from the long walk, was carrying her shoes in one hand. Mindela walked as if in a trance, holding Rachelin in her arms. Gail was doing her best, for the umpteenth time, to explain things adequately to Marit and Vellan. Fj0rd, her shoulders tired, was trying to encourage Ishan to walk on her own. A few steps behind the rest of the group, Darcy followed hesitantly, her old editor's badge pinned to her jacket.
"The properties say that this used to be a forum for discussing the supernatural," Tdyans noted. "Ghosts and so on. That's why it's always so dark here. But the members packed up and changed forum host some months back."
"A haunted house." Nick nodded, his eyes on a few circling black shapes overhead. "That explains the bats."
"Well, it'll have to do," Kiddo repeated, pulling an oddly sharp-looking hairgrip out of her ruffled hair. "I know we slept between dimensions last night, but we're a magnet for Sunbeam if we keep doing that. Who's going to sleep outside their v-dimension if they don't have to?"
The lock clicked open, and the NTWF entered the haunted house. With admirable presence of mind, Ish grabbed the door handle. It rattled in his hands, evidently trying to escape so that the door could slam behind them. Instead, he pushed it gently closed, and shoved the umbrella-stand against it.
"All right, everyone be careful not to attract attention," Tracy reminded them. "No realisations that aren't strictly necessary. Darcy, be especially careful to stay out of sight. Sharing bedrooms is fine, romantic goings-on are out of the question for tonight, we don't know what this forum's content policy was. Tabloid Kids sleep with their parents. The mods are going to keep trying to contact Patjade for as long as we think it's safe, but I wouldn't hold your breath for her arrival."
"Eek!"
Tracy's cautionary monologue had been cut off by a squeal from the stairs. Leoness turned a torch beam on the source of the noise. Aerisa's foot had plunged through a rotten floorboard, leaving her precariously balanced. Glancing back at the group, Leoness counted eight forumers with their hands on various weapons.
"Oh, yes," Tracy finished, "and-- haunted house, yes? Watch out for cobwebs, poltergeists, and… well, I don't have to mention the floorboards. If your bedroom dresser swings to one side, don't go down the passageway."
"And no talking to mirrors," Crystal put in from the back of the crowd.
Taking care not to damage any more of the stairway, the NTWFers made their way out of the gloomy hall, brushing past spider webs as they went. It crossed several of their minds to be grateful that this wasn't Neopia, and that there were no Spyders big enough to ambush unsuspecting guests.
The haunted forum's bedrooms turned out to be in a serviceable, if dusty state, and there were comfortable enough sofas in the downstairs rooms once the beds ran out. The majority of the exiled writers were too exhausted to care about the dust, or about the occasional scurrying noises from the skirting-boards, although a few of the other attendant issues of staying in a haunted house did cause some bother for those who were still too tensed to sleep.
"I swear," Huntress declared, throwing her belongings over the end of the bed, "if nobody's brought anything we can use to oil that door hinge, I'll probably go mad by morning. Doesn't it ever stop creaking?"
"You could jam the door with something," Rider suggested from the next bed, where Chirrup lay curled beneath a crumpled pirate flag, already asleep in spite of the creak. "And try to chase the bats out while you're at it. I'm so on edge that the next one that tries flying anywhere near me is going to be a dead bat before I know what I'm doing."
"If only things were a bit different." Huntress sighed. "We've got Kiddo and Crystal just down the corridor. I know we aren't allowed to realise, but it'd get everyone's spirits up to have a little bit of a skirmish going on. It might get rid of some of the tension, too."
"Hunty," Rider snapped, "that would interrupt people's sleep, confuse the Tabloid Kids and do nothing except confirm the ninjas' opinion that we're tactless louts with no sense of timing. Not to mention that the mods would probably spend most of tomorrow yelling at us for it. It's a completely impractical idea."
Their eyes met.
"Let's?"
"Let's."
*
"Are they really having a pirate-ninja skirmish down the other end of the corridor?" Dream asked in sleepy bewilderment, opening the bedroom door to take a look at the goings-on. A small throwing star embedded itself in the doorframe about two inches from her ear. "I guess they are. Shame we're both so tired, or I'd suggest we go and watch."
Ginger yawned. "I haven't even got the energy to chase the moths out of the wardrobe. Get yourself unpacked and put out the light."
"Unpacked!" Dream gave a miserable laugh. "You make it sound like I had time to bring a suitcase…"
As if obeying Ginger's wishes, the bare lightbulb over the two girls' heads flickered and died, leaving them barely able to see in the shadowed room. Although there had been no wind to speak of when they came in, a gale rattled the windowpanes in a rather ostentatious manner.
Dream continued arranging her meagre belongings, not noticing the stereotypically sinister weather. Ginger sensed something wrong in her mood, and took a metaphorical shot in the dark. "We can go and watch the pirate-ninja fight if you really want to, Dream…"
"I'm not a pirate," the younger girl replied, staring into space. "And I'm not a ninja. I'm not a snow-leopard, or an Impersonator, or a 'bloider. What am I doing here?" "What do you mean?" Ginger looked puzzled. "You're here 'cause the NTWF is here."
"It's the same as it ever was, Ginger." Dream gazed sadly out of the window at the windswept branches. "I'm a drifter. I'm never really at the heart of anything enough to have a tie to it. I don't want the forum to die, but I haven't any reason to belong here. It'd be so easy just to walk out into R-space or Neopia and never come back…" She sighed. "I never had a forum relationship. I didn't invent anything that made it tick. I've never been a moderator. Ginger, I haven't anything. I wish… I wish there was something to keep me here. Something that would make my mind up for me."
"I know what you mean." Ginger sighed, her own mood suddenly brought down. "I was starting to lose my interest in Neo before that Sunbeam got in, so I don't really have a reason to stay here, either. I wish I did."
Walking to the battered wardrobe in the corner, Dream set the birdcage on top of it and covered it with her cardigan. "There. I hope there are no Weewoo-hunting ghosts in here, anyway."
As she spoke, something moved in the shadows. It wasn't Ginger, and whatever was there was too big to be a mouse or a bat. Dream saw the movement out of the corner of her eye, and tensed.
"Ginger, don't move," she whispered, and pulled a Rainbow Gun from her belt. Moving as quietly as she could, she edged closer to the bed.
"What is it?" The sudden silence made Ginger shiver. "Dream?"
"House of the supernatural, indeed." When Dream spoke, there was a note of wondering amusement in her voice. "I guess sometimes wishes do come true. Ginger, look over here."
There had only been the two of them in the room; they would both have been prepared to swear to that. But on the bed, wide-eyed and puzzled, sat a tiny girl with wispy dark hair, dressed rather unromantically in a pair of pink and blue dungarees.
"A Tabloid Kid," Ginger whispered. "Is she… yours, Dream?"
"She's got to be," Dream responded, keeping her voice low so as not to startle the child. "Oh, Chet Flash, she's so beautiful…"
Lying down on her bed, Ginger took in the odd sight of her best friend holding a toddler in her arms. "Wow. But you're not even a Tabloid poster, are you?"
"There are no more Tabloids. I think if I want a Kid, I get one," Dream smiled, forgetting her miserable situation in the excitement. "Oh, Ginger! My own Tabloid Kid! I'm like all the others now. I can take care of her, and let her play with all the other little ones, and I'll cook for her and read her all my favourite books and teach her to be a better writer than I am when she grows up… I'm going to be so happy…"
"What are you going to call her?"
"I don't know yet…" Dream tickled her new daughter gently, making her wriggle happily.
"Mini-Dream," Ginger suggested, her smile betraying the fact that she wasn't serious. "Ruby Heartpendant. Sharalik the Second."
"I don't think she's very Shoyru-like," Dream laughed, then grew more thoughtful. "Hey, Ginger, what do you think of 'Lydia'?"
"Lydia?" Ginger wasn't entirely impressed. "It sounds boring to me. You want something a bit better than that, Dream. How about Petra or Summer or…"
"I like Lydia," Dream told her stubbornly.
"You are not calling that child Lydia." Ginger threw a pillow at her friend. "No way. Now, are we going to get any sleep?"
*
The fine art of the pirate-ninja skirmish was not what it had once been, in the halls of a forum that now seemed a million miles away. With no deadly weapons or explosions involved, the primary measure of success was how far each side could force the other to retreat down the corridor. There was no rum and no sake, neither having been a priority when the NTWF was abandoned, but somehow the very sight of the forum's absurd and noble traditions being kept up was enough to lift everyone's mood. Even Mindela left the sorrowful darkness of her room to join in the strange proceedings. The various ex-moderators on either side had contemplated how best to scold the participants and concluded that if one could not beat them, one should join them.
"You're mine," Rider grinned, swinging across the corridor by way of a low beam. The kick that had been meant to knock over Crystal failed to connect, and the ninja second-in-command vaulted onto the next ceiling beam before Rider could work out what was happening.
"No, you're mine ," she whispered with a slight smile. "Lethal weapons or no lethal weapons, you don't want to know what I'm going to do to any pirates I spot past this point."
While Rider and Crystal struggled near the ceiling, Chirrup continued to sleep peacefully a few rooms away, undisturbed by the noise. The other ninjas' and pirates' Tabloid Kids did likewise; Rachelin had even started to snore. Whether this was a sign of the Kids' resilience or their simple exhaustion, nobody could rightly say.
At last, both ninjas and pirates had expended what little energy they had left. Kiddo raised a hand, and the fighters separated. A few of the forumers lifted Mindela off the floor; she had fallen asleep watching the scuffle, which, all things considered, was probably just as well.
Forced apart for the rest of the night, neither really having gained any ground since they had begun marking one another, Rider and Crystal glared at one another.
"I'll get you next time."
In the bedrooms of the haunted house, the resident complement of ghosts were feeling distinctly underappreciated. Poltergeists shifted chairs and juggled bedside lamps; spectres rattled chains and drifted imposingly through mirrors, and even a few bats flew in and out of the upstairs rooms. Doors creaked, windows rattled, and branches scraped against the panes. It was all to no effect. There was silence in the house. With even the most energetic forumers finally worn out, the NTWF slept.
*
Some hours had passed since the ninjas' and pirates' midnight curfew, but the shadowy atmosphere of the supernatural discussion forum had no place for even the faintest daylight. In her cobweb-framed bedroom, Kat lay dreaming of Work Reviews and Advice and the old days of magic and sorcery in the Writers' Forum.
A sharp cry broke the silence, and Kat awoke slowly. Little Mirne was kneeling by the window, her eyes dazzled painfully by the sudden bursts of light outside. Her voice had faded to a whimper, but she still seemed unhappy.
"What is it, Mirne?" Kat scrambled out of bed and came to look. Outside, a bright light was being shone onto the glass, picking out the forumer's outline as she stood beside the window.
"This isn't good. I doubt that's Patjade." Kat shoved her door open, snatching up her belongings from under the bed. Gesturing for Mirne to follow her, she banged on the next door along the corridor, whose pinned-up sign named a familiar occupant.
"Gav? Are you awake?"
"I'm here." Gav, already out of bed, touched Kat's shoulder. Mindela was beside him, bare-pawed and holding Rachelin on her shoulders, and the next door opened to reveal Carrie, still in her nightdress. "What's going on down there?"
There was the noise, from downstairs, of someone banging heavily against a wooden door. Kat glanced down the stairway, afraid to voice the thought that had struck every one of them. "What if… if it's…"
"Get dressed. I'll make sure everyone's awake." Carrie hurried out of sight, her bare feet rattling on the old floorboards.
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Post by Dream on Feb 4, 2008 11:30:12 GMT -5
The noise grew louder. Someone was there, and the constant pounding of their fist on the door seemed ready to break through the weather-beaten wood. PFA sighed. "Why did we have to pick a haunted house?"
Omni and Nick appeared from around the corner, closely followed by Stal and Sandy. Carrie was evidently doing her job. The forumers stood tensed in the shadowed corridor, uncertain what to do, yet afraid to stay where they were.
"Open the door." Kiddo was coldly practical. "If they have to take it down by force, that means they'll come in here with weapons pointed at us. Someone get it who hasn't any Tabloid Kids, and I'll back you up." She pointed to Rei. "Go. Everyone else who hasn't committed any obvious crimes, get over here. We have something to talk about, and fast. Not you, NSQ, or you, Kami. And nobody with a TK."
"If only we'd managed to contact Patjade…" Omni glanced at the group of frightened NTWFers in the hallway. "If she were here…"
"She isn't," Rider said shortly, appearing from a first-floor doorway. "Anyone who thinks they can use a Battledome weapon, I've just realised a whole bundle. If you don't know how, it'd be a good time to learn. Hopefully Sunbeam's crew can't neutralise them that fast."
Step by step, Rei walked down the stairs, Kiddo shadowing her movements a few steps back. At last she reached the door, and tugged it open.
"V-reality emergency response," came the sharp greeting, delivered by a Darigan Buzz that seemed more spikes than skin. "Your name and v-dimension of residence, please."
"Reinarita. Neopets." Rei acted innocent, staring at the Neopets and humans that stood outside the door. She had underestimated the kind of pets and weapons that Sunbeam would send, and the powerful appearance of the v-reality guardians took her quite by surprise. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"We've tracked some fugitives from a non-compliant site," the Buzz responded. "We have reason to believe they're hiding here, and that they're… hindering the removal of glitches in the v-realisation system. If they're here…" He tried to look past Rei, who stepped instinctively to the side to block his view. "I should inform you that if they abide by our orders now, the most they will face will be a month's sentence in Neopia Central."
"What orders are those?" Rei asked, more to stall for time than for any other reason. On the landing, Crystal picked up a slim frost-blaster and a Scarab Ring from the pile of weapons.
"Submission to a full scan for any unauthorised material," the guard began, "assistance with the deletion of any pure-fictional glitches that are found, a full account of the hazard-causing behaviour they've taken part in so far along with an explanation, and the surrender for questioning and sentence of neo_star_queen, a previous offender currently on parole, and Stal0s, known to have aided an interdimensional traveller, now deceased, who attacked an innocent Crossing guard."
Kiddo took in the words, and translated in a cynical whisper. "So, help them delete the Tabloid Kids in front of us, tell Sunbeam we're sorry, and let them do what they like with Stal and NSQ. And ignore the fact that Spot's dead."
There was a murmur of disbelief from the other forumers.
"I don't know about any of you," Rider muttered, holding Chirrup a little closer to her heart, "but that doesn't sound like a good deal to me."
"They're our Tabloid Kids," Kat emphasised. "Whether they're glitches or not, they still act like real people. Sunbeam had better not think she can take them."
"I'm sorry," Rei began, still standing in the doorway, "but I don’t know anyone of those names. You must have the wrong address."
"I don't believe we do. If they're in your v-dimension without your knowledge, we can add account hacking to their charges. Move." The Buzz pushed her out of the way, motioning for the rest of his team to follow. Clutching the hidden weapon at her belt, Rei allowed herself to be shoved to one side, out of the way of the response team.
There was a sharp intake of breath as the NTWF took in the sight of the armoured, terrifyingly strong team of Battledomer pets. Clearly, Sunbeam had been expecting a struggle of some kind.
"Former occupants of the Neopian Times Writers' Forum…" the Buzz began, but his sentence remained incomplete. Another of the guards, a tough-looking Aisha, had broken ranks, guided by the glowing of the bracelet on her paw, and launched herself in the direction of Mindela and Rachelin.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Reacting faster than anyone had expected, Mindela raised a pawful of Scarab Rings, blasting the Aisha back down the stairs and against the front door, which finally gave way and splintered. "You don't touch him!"
For a moment, pets and NTWFers seemed to freeze. Someone would have had to do it, but Mindela stood silent, suddenly understanding what it was she had done.
The moment passed.
Without a word or even a shared glance, Rider and Crystal scrambled to the lowest steps of the staircase, Chirrup clinging to Rider's shoulders for dear life. Raising a weapon each, they silently defied the guards to come any further. Tracy understood, and ran to shake the other NTWFers on the stairs out of their apparent trance. "Come on! This way, quick!"
The assault took only a few seconds to come, but Crystal and Rider were ready for it. They opened fire simultaneously, driving the response team back from the stairs.
As the last of the guards left the porch and headed into the hall, Kiddo darted into the space they had left in the doorway, lifting her Battledome flamethrower to point back into the house. "Rei! Now!"
Her heart racing, Rei bolted out of the house and into the dark of the forest, followed by the handful of forumers Kiddo had picked out. Branches and sharp thorns caught at her hair and clothes as she pushed through the foliage, but she did her best to ignore them. The forest became a few isolated clumps of trees and brambles only a short distance from the house, and she found herself on the border of the v-dimension, close to Kami's intricate network of Crossings. It would take some good luck and not a little courage to retrace the path back to Neopia, but with Sunbeam's response team stretched almost to capacity chasing the Tabloid Kids, this was the best chance the few innocent forumers had of escaping unharmed. Somewhere out in the darkness was the world of pets and bright colours they had once called their own; and from within that world, they could return to Reality, that strange place of changing rules where Sunbeam had no power.
Kiddo moved almost effortlessly through the trees behind her, still carrying her flamethrower. For her, she kept reminding herself, escape was a necessity, not a simple wish. The strange combination of Neopian, fantasy-world and Earth genetics that made up her graceful form were anything but legal by Sunbeam's terms. NSQ had talked about weeks in the detainment centre where the Ruler-Editor's scientists had tried to discover the nature and purpose of the few fictional elements present in her; Kiddo shuddered to think how long her own analysis would take, or how Sunbeam would react to the results.
But to leave the NTWF--
Clasping the flamethrower in both hands until her knuckles ached, she forced herself to think of Rei and the small cluster of innocent forumers that surrounded her, of the weapons that the response team had carried. She couldn't be the one to save the day at the last second, this time. There were lives that depended on her, now, and no time to look back or think about the fate of her forum.
"There's someone following us," Kit whispered, glancing back nervously. "It looks like two or three of the guards split off from the others."
"Have they got radios?" Kiddo asked, shaking herself from her thoughts. "Any way of contacting Sunbeam?"
Rei stared at the figures among the trees, her eyes aching with concentration. "Not that I can see. But Kiddo, if you fire on them they'll--"
Stepping into the border Crossing, Kiddo flexed her fingers, throwing down her flamethrower to reach for a notebook and pen from her belt. "These guards are used to the kind of trouble that can be realised with visual thoughts. They're not used to playing with words."
As she spoke, her pencil danced across the page in scribbled lines. The forest grew and changed, and there was a tingle in the atmosphere that Rei could have sworn had something of the essence of magic.
"We're writers," she said simply. "We change the world with our words. It's what's making Sunbeam hunt us."
Around the two guards, storm-clouds crackled with promises of ill weather to come. Kit shivered as he felt the sense of pressure and foreboding descend on the edges of the v-dimension.
Sunbeam had been right; words could cause glitches in reality. Especially those words that sang and harmonised with the real world around them even as they twisted it into new shapes, new forms, new feelings. And no-one could do that better than Kiddo. As the response team's guards drank in the atmosphere of terror and wonder, shivering with horror and thrilled with beauty, Kiddo followed the innocents into the Crossing network and closed the entrance behind her. For now, they were safe.
*
The hallway was a battleground.
Persistent and ceaseless as robots, the response team pushed towards the stairs, never getting further than the bottom step before being repelled by Rider and Crystal's defence. More and more of them were beginning to realise weapons of their own, ready to fight fiercely if the rebel forumers refused to give in.
Scar shoved both hands out into midair, realising a long, light hooded cloak. It wasn't anything he would have chosen to wear, but then it wasn't for him. He threw it over Darcy's shoulders, hiding her face with the hood. "Darcy, don't show 'em your picture. Sunbeam won't like it that you're here. Come on."
Taking her hand, he fled out of the hallway towards the dining-room and out of sight. With no Tabloid Kids to slow either of them down, they were gone before the guards had even realised they were there.
Others were not so lucky. Rider ducked instinctively as a glass lampshade shattered close to her ear, showering the pirate girl and her Tabloid Kid with broken fragments. She turned to run back up the stairs, only to find the Buzz leering almost maliciously at her from halfway up. The appearance of the guard frightened Chirrup into a small squeak, and Rider understood her mistake too late: by thinking only of protecting the other forumers and their TKs, she had put him in danger as he clung to her inseparably.
"Rider! Look out!"
A beam of brilliant ice-blue light struck the Buzz from somewhere at the foot of the staircase, forcing its humming wings to a standstill. The other guards turned away from Rider, trying to pinpoint the source of the attack.
"Rider, I've got your back," Crystal called from the shadows. "Get Chirrup up the stairs, quick. Go on, now!"
With no time to debate whether the ninja knew what she was doing, Rider obeyed, clutching Chirrup tightly as she dived across the landing. The nearest shelter was behind a grandfather clock, and she hesitated there for a moment's breath. Then, from a nearby doorway, Tdyans' hands pulled her to safety, and the three of them headed towards the back of the house.
Crystal had tried to climb the stairs once she'd heard the clatter of Rider's feet behind the clock, but the Buzz, while heavily injured, had managed to pull himself back into place, a faint halo of icy air still surrounding him. The rest of Sunbeam's team had converged on the stairs now that the barrage of attacks had thinned, carrying their own Battledome weapons.
Taking aim from the corner of the banister, Crystal smiled grimly. One thing was for certain: Rider would never be able to get even with her for this.
Her eyes fixed on the response team, she began to fire.
*
The lights had gone out, whether a victim of narrative convention or one of Sunbeam's team cutting the wires no-one knew. Darkness had fallen on the haunted house, and with it, chaos had descended.
While no-one could pursue the forumers up the stairs, the reverse was also true. In the guest lounge on the ground floor where she'd spent the night, NSQ regretted having blockaded herself in. It had seemed like a sensible idea in the beginning, but it was becoming clear that the only purpose of blocking the door had been to ensure that she would be imprisoned until Sunbeam's pets came. She had heard gunfire outside. Would they be content to arrest her, to take her back to Neopia Central?
Something rattled the door, and a moment later, the table she'd propped against it exploded into flame. She was ready, or as ready as she could be. With a bubble-gun in each hand, she took aim at the Scorchio in her doorway. As he smirked and realised an armoured shield in front of his body, NSQ spun round, throwing one of the bubble-guns straight at him. It glanced against his head, and he collapsed to the floor, momentarily felled by the unexpected attack.
Grabbing the weapon back from where it had fallen, NSQ pushed through the burning doorway and out into the corridor. Shadowed figures moved around her, illuminated briefly by flashes of coloured light. Without spending a few moments watching them, time she didn't have, it was impossible to tell who was a friend and who was an enemy. Her bubble-guns ready to fire, she pushed past all of them, intent only on gaining ground. A vicious-looking paw tried to claw at her shoulder, and she fired a cloud of bubbles in the direction of its owner, letting them burst ice-cold and acid-bright as she ran in search of safety.
The end of the passageway was blocked, not by a locked door or stone wall but by a struggle. The black shadows in the night were indistinguishable, and every time she tried to reach the door, a paw or leg would block her path. How long would it be before the guards she had slowed down closed in on her again?
As she stood helplessly in the darkness, a flailing paw knocked one of the bubble-guns from her hand. It spun in the air, and almost immediately, one of the dark, four-pawed shapes in the shadows lunged for it. A burst of bubbles swirled around the fighters, and for the first time, NSQ could see a familiar face: Nick, locked in combat with a fierce-looking Lupe. Even with the bubble gun clutched between his teeth, Nick seemed to be getting the worst of the fight.
"I know!" Closing her eyes, NSQ reached into the space in front of her, suddenly inspired. "Nick, get to me! To me!"
There was no time to question the order. Nick dived into NSQ's arms as she leapt off the floor, catching the low ceiling beam at the same time as she dropped a shiny blue bottle. With a swing of her feet, she had knocked open the door, and landed on its other side with Nick still held in her arms. Meanwhile, the Lupe-- and the handful of guards who'd followed NSQ as far as the end of the passage-- skidded helplessly on the polished wooden floor, flailing legs and tails, accidentally firing weapons at one another, banging their heads against walls. Nick grinned.
"Slippery floor potion. Who else but you, NSQ?"
With one more look at the suddenly comical sight of the frustrated response team, he fled, with his unexpected rescuer not far behind him.
*
"This way!" PetFriendAmy dashed down one of the first-floor corridors, pulling a startled Marit behind her. "Why didn't you go with Rei? What're you still doing here?"
"Vellan was scared to go outside…" Marit's face was troubled. Perhaps he was the youngest of the true NTWFers, but he clearly understood what he had got himself into. "I didn't want him making a noise and bringing the guards to see. I guess we'll get out the next time we have a chance."
"There may not be a--" Breaking off in mid-sentence, PFA shoved Marit and his brother around the corner, sending a few blasts of bright yellow light down the corridor in the opposite direction. Almost immediately, a volley of return fire barely missed her exposed shoulder. Taking careful aim, she fired again towards the source of the shots. This time, a yowl of frustration echoed through the corridor. Grabbing the two startled boys by their arms, she ran breathlessly through the house, keeping an eye on the shadows behind her.
"Marit!" A slender figure appeared in the next doorway. Acting on terrified instinct, PFA shouldered her weapon and fired a single shot.
"No, wait!" Marit pulled the blaster to one side at the last second, scorching his own hand as the light-energy flashed against the wall. By its momentary glow, PFA saw what Marit had guessed instinctively: the bundle the figure carried was not a heavy-duty weapon, but a small child.
"Thanks, Marit…" Fj0rd gasped for breath. "PFA, is that you? Watch where you're pointing that thing. Goosh's found a way down the back wall. Come this way, and don't worry if the house shakes a bit. Kiddo realised us a package of mini firebombs just in case."
"Mini--?" Marit echoed, but there was no time to clarify. Fj0rd shoved Ishan into his arms as she secured a rope onto the windowledge.
"This way."
Goosh was waiting at the other end of the rope, ready to help lift Ishan and Vellan down. Fj0rd caught his hand, dropping down onto the patio.
"I feel a bit bad," Marit confessed. "For just retreating like this."
PFA turned to him, and there was a serious look in her eyes. "Marit, what do you think everyone else is doing? They're stronger than we are. If we tried to take them on in real battle, we might have a chance of winning, but by then we'd probably have lost several people, and I'm downright sure we wouldn't have all the TKs any more. We've got to run. There's no other way."
"We're already in darkness." Fj0rd glanced back at the shadowed house. "The only question is whether we can make it out before they do."
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Post by PFA on Feb 4, 2008 12:20:00 GMT -5
Eee, this is all awesome and stuff. Keep it up!
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Post by Elcie on Feb 4, 2008 15:21:07 GMT -5
Oh wow, that's amazing <3 And nice job with the fight scene! Came out very well, I think, even though you say you aren't used to doing them. X3
Thank you, I'd love to have a Tabloid Kid ^__^ Devi, I think.
And my favorite line this chapter has to be:
<3<3 Love it. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Yes, you have my permission to kill me if you need to ^_^ Make it dramatic and pwnful if at all possible. XDD
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Post by Omni on Feb 4, 2008 15:57:11 GMT -5
*reads the first part of the first part (no, that's not a grammatical error) of In Darkness* *pokes the first chapter of The Reaches (a story she really should work on )* I was wondering when they were going to start fan-ficcing their way out of things. Keep it up LF!Kiddo! Fan-ficcing. It's the new godmoding.
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Post by Goosh on Feb 4, 2008 15:57:35 GMT -5
=D Yay update. This thing is so much awesome. And minor Goosh cameo= win <3
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Post by Dream on Feb 5, 2008 9:51:52 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments, everyone. I'm glad this chapter came off better than I expected. Goosh-- I make a point of bringing along my reviewers Elycien-- 'Kay, Devi's yours! I like her, even if she's not a lucky kid. Take care of her. As it were. PFA -- *blush* Omni-- I'll go and read it, thanks. Hope you noticed your TK?
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Post by Nimras on Feb 5, 2008 14:17:44 GMT -5
I was hoping you'd get further in this story -- I just haven't had a lot of time to read lately. *hates school* Kiddo pwns. ;D I have a question, as far as I know, I'm the only Neopet forumer (Lupe) so how would they treat me different than Spot?
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Post by Dream on Feb 7, 2008 11:41:17 GMT -5
I'm AFK for about a week, mostly, so you can have this now. Thanks again to all the usual crew, to those who helped me with In Darkness, and to the brother for more Nightwish songses.
In Darkness II: The Lockdown
In the dining-room of the haunted house-- which was, of course, lined with stern-looking portraits-- Sammy and Yugo Ryan crouched behind an overturned mahogany table, taking turns to use the most unlikely realised weapons they could come up with to cover the other forumers escaping through the back of the house. The bizarre combination of attacks was serving to confuse the guards, but that alone wasn't going to be enough to hold them for long.
"A clockwork Grundo," Sammy suggested, and Yugo dropped the hastily realised device to one side, ready to use whenever they wanted it. "Wand of Dark Nova. Maraquan battle-duck. Cobrall in a Can-- no, Yugo, concentrate, that's a Springy Cobrall in a Box--"
"Sammy, cover!" Still firing over his shoulder with one hand and clutching a leopard-child to his heart with the other, Stal burst through the doorway, accompanied by a few other forumers. Kathleen, Reasie and Sytra followed his lead, ducking into the secret passageway behind one of the paintings. Losing no time, Sammy and Yugo obeyed his order, abandoning their brainstorming session to use whatever they already had against Sunbeam's team. The confusion of whirring, clicking, bouncing, hissing, combustion, enchantment, quacking and explosions that followed would have been comical had the fighters not been so on edge.
Silhouetted in the doorway, one forumer hesitated. Shoving Sandy into Sytra's arms for the moment, Stal doubled back to grab her.
"Kat, what do you think you're--"
"I told you, didn't I? I'm not leaving without Mirne!" Kat yelled back, above the rising sound of gunfire. "You get out if you have to! I'll catch you up!"
With one final despairing look back at Kat, Stal bundled the other forumers out by the hidden door. Sammy and Yugo glanced at one another, switched weapons without a word, and began raining a new wave of attacks onto the guards still unlucky enough to be in range.
With the guards distracted in several directions at once, Kat darted through the battlefield that was the hallway before the guards had time to notice her, covered by the furthest-reaching shots from the dining-room. As she reached the foot of the stairs, the sight of what had happened on the staircase froze her in her tracks. Somehow, she forced herself to focus on the upstairs landing, the border that Sunbeam's pets hadn't yet managed to cross. Somewhere up there, in the dark, was a frightened little Tabloid Kid who'd lost her parent's hand, in more danger every moment. As she gulped a breath of smoke-filled air, a well-aimed shot knocked the wand she'd been carrying from her hand, breaking it instantly. She had no time to realise a new weapon, but she could not carry on unarmed. Closing her eyes tightly, Kat reached down and lifted Crystal's frost blaster, trying to flood her mind with the single thought. Mirne.
The pets on the stairs hesitated. Orders for a raid or none, they remained unsure whether to risk firing on someone for simple resistance of arrest. That hesitation was all Kat needed. She reached the landing just as the decision was made. A sharp volley of fire shattered the vase a few steps away, its broken pieces falling amongst the glass on the stairs. Her heart racing, she backed down the corridor, Crystal's blaster resting on her trembling shoulder.
"Oh yeah? You want a fight? Bring it on!"
Something swept past Kat, landing forcefully in the centre of the landing. An eye-searing, vivid orange explosion rocked the house from floor to ceiling, forcing Sunbeam's pets to back away a few steps. They were still not safe, however, as the last fizzling sparks of the blast set off a chain of smaller explosions, blocking off the landing momentarily. With no time to offer her thanks, Kat pushed her way through the corridor, calling her daughter's name.
*
"How did I end up with a Tabloid Kid?"
Leoness pulled a face at the advancing Kougra, drawing a ray gun from her pocket. "This little one isn't even mine. Where the Chet Flash is Elycien? Oh well, it can't be helped."
The Kougra hesitated in the doorway, taking a close look at Leoness' careless stance. A battle was raging, it was true, but he was reluctant to risk injury if it wasn't necessary. "Madam, did I hear you say you haven't any connection to this…" He waved a paw at the small, red-haired girl crouched in the corner of the room. Not certain for the moment, and definitely not wanting to inflame the armed stranger with possibly misapplied jargon, he settled for "…this child?"
For a moment, he thought she hadn't heard him. Then there was a flash of movement, almost too fast to see, and he found himself pinned against the wall by Leoness' hands. He struggled, but his forepaws were ill-equipped for battle; since the new Neopian restrictions, anthro Neopets had been discouraged, and the paws of a Kougra served only to walk on.
"I said she wasn't mine," Leoness whispered, as cold as ice. "I didn't say you could take her. Now, you are going to leave this room, join your friends in the hallway, and leave me and this girl alone. Got that?"
The Kougra weighed up his options, and nodded. Leoness released her grip, and the guard bolted. She took a long, gasping breath.
"Let's go, Devi," she murmured, lifting the little Tabloid Kid. "That sort of good luck isn't going to happen twice."
In the dining-room, Sammy scrambled for a new weapon, searching her tired imagination for something-- anything-- that the guards might not be expecting. Yugo covered her indecision with a shower of sparks that fizzled to ashes in the doorway.
Someone dived through the doorway, throwing themselves flat onto the carpet. Behind the table, the two forumers tensed. In the haze of smoke and half-light, it was becoming impossible to make out any details.
"Who's there? You've got fifteen seconds to answer or we open fire!"
"El-Elycien!" came the gasped response. "You've got to abandon your position, Sammy. They're onto what you're doing with the switched weapons. They've called Sunbeam to request a--"
The burst of dark energy that shot across the room hit Yugo's sparkshooter, reducing its fire to a black curl of acrid smoke. Dropping it, he concentrated, looking for a new weapon, any weapon. Nothing happened.
"What the…"
"--a realisation lockdown," Elycien finished, still breathless almost to the point of collapse. "She's done it, then. We've got to get out. When the weapons we've got left are broken or used up, there won't be any more until we're out of this v-dimension."
As she spoke, a tongue of fire flashed across the room. Sammy barely managed to pull Elycien behind the table, which began to smoulder. Another blast, and the wood gave way, leaving the three forumers undefended.
"Yugo, get back!" As the first of the response team advanced through the doorway, Sammy spun round, brandishing her last unexpected weapon: a Snowball Wand, which released a flight of exploding snowballs in the direction of the guards. Yugo and Elycien ducked instinctively as the explosions flared; a jet of viscous liquid, the enchanted water of the snowball melted by its explosion, lashed against Sammy's legs. She dropped to one knee, wincing in pain.
"Sammy!" Elycien ran to her. "Are you all right?"
"I'll live." Taking a deep breath, Sammy spoke the difficult words. "I can't run like this, though. I'm going to have to give myself up. It's the only way to make sure those crazy pets don't kill me."
There was still a flurry of white napkins scattered on the dining-room floor where they had overturned the table. Holding one of them high as a makeshift flag of surrender, Sammy walked through the doorway, with Yugo and Elycien watching nervously, ready to open fire again if things turned for the worst.
"What if they use her as a hostage to get the TKs?" Yugo whispered as Sammy's silhouette disappeared in the swirling smoke.
"They won't." Elycien shook her head. "They've seen what happened to Crystal. If they use Sammy as a hostage, she might die rather than put us in danger, and then they'd have failed to capture even one rebel writer. No--"
The sound of voices echoed in the hallway, and Elycien squinted through the smoke to make out Sammy being led out of the front door, handcuffed, still limping.
"We shouldn't just be standing here," she said suddenly. "Come on, while they're still securing her. Out the back."
"But we're the last two people on the ground floor," Yugo protested. "If we go--"
"If we don't go, we'll be the first two dead people on the ground floor," Elycien stressed. "Or do you think you can hold those Battledomers off with a broken Sparkshooter? Come on. There's no-one left to hang around for."
"Kat--"
"She'll get out some other way. Nobody is crazy enough to try coming back down that staircase."
"Devi--"
"I don't know where she is, and if we search the house for her now we'll be very loyal, very stupid and probably very dead. I hate it as much as you do, but we're just going to have to trust to luck or whatever else you believe in."
She was right, and Yugo knew it. Throwing down the last of the Clockwork Grundos, he followed her into the passageway.
*
The courtyard at the back of the old mansion was as gloomy and damp as might be expected from the grounds of a haunted house. Rider and Tdyans scrambled behind the shelter of a tall, moss-covered fountain, joined moments later by the other forumers in twos and threes. Stal dropped down from the top of a wall, still holding Sandy in his arms. Somewhere inside the house, a chain of explosions rattled the windows.
"How are we doing?" Darcy swept a lock of hair off her v-goggles, looking up at Tdyans and Rider for confirmation.
"Not good." Breathless and worried, Tracy hurried towards the others, answering the question before Rider had a chance to say anything. "We've lost the stairway and the entire ground floor. Now there's only Thunderbolt and Mindela keeping them busy on the first floor, and we still don't have everyone out here."
"Mindela?" Tdyans looked concerned. "Where's Rachelin?"
"Here." Carrie joined the group, holding the leopard-child on her undamaged left arm. "Thundy and Mindela are falling back. They're probably going to abandon their places in a minute. It's been a losing battle since they got forced beyond the stairs."
"The stairs…" Rider looked at Tracy and Carrie for a moment. "Crystal…?"
Tracy shook her head. "She injured at least five of their guards with her Frost Blaster. Two got knocked out, from what I could see from the landing. After that I don't think they even bothered trying to arrest her."
There was a momentary silence as, one by one, the forumers took in the meaning of Tracy's words.
"Rider?" Chirrup tugged at his guardian's sleeve, unable to understand why the pirate girl was standing so still, her eyes lowered. Fj0rd ran across the courtyard, carrying Ishan, with Marit and PFA on her heels. "Did NSQ and Kitty get out?" she managed, setting the unnaturally blonde-haired Tabloid Kid on the ground. "I didn't have time to see…"
"I don't know about Kitty." Huntress closed her eyes, concentrating on a mental list. "NSQ got over the back wall with Kami. She should be all right."
As the forumers anxiously watched the doorways and windows, a loud quacking sound nearby made almost all of them jump. What they had taken for a moving patch of shadow turned out to be a rather annoyed Elycien, who stood up with a sigh. "If Sunbeam's team were out here instead of on the first floor, we'd have been dead for sure. I thought you'd got rid of all the battle-ducks?"
"Elycien!" Leoness flashed a tired smile of visible relief.
"You've got Devi." Elycien grabbed her Tabloid Kid out of Leoness' arms. "Thank Fyora. I was so worried about her. I guess she's a lucky girl."
"Lucky?" Leoness grimaced. "She nearly got me attacked by a Kougra. Never mind--"
The glass window at the back of the house exploded, and Thundy and Mindela clambered to the relative safety of the courtyard. "We haven't got much longer. They're searching the house. Where's Rachelin?"
Carrie handed over the leopard-child without a word, scanning the rest of the group. "Who’s still missing?"
"Kitty was arrested," Thunderbolt told her. "So was Sammy. Both of them looked OK last thing I saw. But Crystal… she's…"
"We know." Killix gave a short nod. "Stal said Kat's gone back to look for Mirne?" Mindela nodded. "Right. If she isn't back in five minutes, we should probably get moving. Kami's gone ahead. Ginger and Dream… weren't those two in the bedroom right at the end of the corridor? Anyone seen them?"
As she spoke, there was the sound of gunfire from somewhere inside the house. Though no-one could see who was fighting, a half-familiar glitter of rainbowed light reflected in the stagnant water of the fountain, mixed with the unrelenting barrage of fire from Sunbeam's guards. Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the firework shower of colours stopped. A split-second later, the back door was slammed open, and Ginger flung herself into the shelter of the fountain's shadow, her arms wrapped tightly around a much smaller figure.
"Ginger?" Tracy helped the young woman to her feet, alarmed at the sight of the tears in her eyes. The dark-haired, blue-eyed Tabloid Kid in her arms only added to the ex-moderator's anxiety. "What happened…?"
Around the corner, a burst of ice-blue fire made the forumers jump. Looking over her shoulder for danger, Kat dived over the wall, narrowly missing firing at a startled Tdyans. Mirne was crying; the little girl had a raw-looking gash on her shoulder, while her guardian's purple dress had been scorched and torn almost out of recognition, but otherwise the two of them seemed unharmed.
"We are going!" Rider yelled, lifting Chirrup off the ground. "If you know anyone that's still in that house and still alive, speak now or forever hold your peace! Anyone?"
The remaining forumers decided collectively that there wasn't.
"Then we're moving." Rider scrambled over the wall, gesturing for the others to follow her. "Get the Tabloid Kids out first and then come as quick as you can. Now!"
As Fj0rd lifted Ishan over the wall, Sunbeam's team finally broke into the courtyard. A well-aimed shot pinpointed the butterfly-winged Tabloid Kid. Fj0rd, startled, barely managed to push her daughter into the safety of NSQ's waiting arms. The shot that had been meant to delete Ishan instead hit her forum parent in the leg, making her lose her footing. As Fj0rd fell backwards, Tracy caught sight of what was happening. "Oh, no… They're here! Fj0rd! Are you all right?"
Fj0rd struggled to her feet, but it was clear even to the most optimistic of NTWFers that she wouldn't be able to follow the others at any speed. "Should've… brought the…Fj0rd-Chevy," she gasped, clutching her leg. "NSQ, get Ishan out of here. Somebody…" She raised a lightning beam, taking shaky aim at the guards. "Somebody back me up!"
There was a sudden silence. It was true. Even if Fj0rd threw all her energy into covering the rest of the group, they still needed more time with half of the group carrying Tabloid Kids in their arms.
"I'll go." To the surprise of the group, the raised hand belonged to Tdyans. Rider looked at her in worry. "I haven't done anything against the rules so far, and I won't knock any of them out with this. They should just take me in for questioning."
"Are you sure?"
"Not at all." Tdyans smiled weakly. "So you had better hurry, or I might think better of it."
Dropping back down onto the cracked pavement of the courtyard, she began firing before she hit the ground. Fj0rd managed to pull herself a little closer, and together the two of them covered their friends' escape with a rain of laser bolts and lightning blasts.
"Don't let them… hit your weapon!" Fj0rd called, not taking her eyes off the enemy. "Remember, there's a lockdown! This is…" She winced. "This is all we've got!"
The guards hesitated, pulling back for a moment. They had seen the last of the NTWF disappearing over the wall, but the two determined fighters still in the courtyard seemed set on keeping them away from it, and with the lockdown in place they had no way of blasting their way through the brickwork. One of them raised his radio, seeking Sunbeam's guidance and support. Fj0rd managed to knock it from his claw, but the guard behind him had already copied his example.
Though the two NTWFers couldn't hear the hurried conversation, the orders were clear from the response team's behaviour. There was to be no change of focus. If the renegade v-realisation users had fled past the walls of the courtyard, then the team had to gain that territory, at all costs.
"What if Sunbeam asks why we fired on the guards?" Tdyans yelled, realigning her laser. "What do we tell her?"
"Look out!" Fj0rd fired a volley of shots dangerously close to her friend, exposing the Shadow Uni that had tried to sneak up to them. Rearing in pain, it backed away.
"Nice shot, Fj0rd!" Tdyans gave a momentary smile as she kept up the defensive barrage.
"We did it to protect our friends, of course," Fj0rd answered, lightning sparking from her weapon onto the thorny shrubs on the wall. From the shadowy ranks of Sunbeam's guards, a smoke bomb flew towards them, exploding and filling their vision with swirling black smoke that hid everything else from view. "Tdyans, promise you won't tell them anything about the TKs and Ishan, even if I--"
There was a sound like a thunderclap somewhere close. Too close. A blast of dark energy glowed purple just inches from Tdyans' ear, visible even amongst the smoke. Spinning around, she leapt to one side at the last minute, discharging her laser until she heard the sound of retreating hooves.
"If you what?" Struggling not to cough in the clouds of acrid smoke, she kept firing in the direction she had chosen. "Fj0rd? Even if you… what?"
A gust of wind picked up nearby, howling in the trees like a pack of hungry wolves. Tdyans took a gulp of the cold, fresh air as the smoke around her began to clear. "Fj0rd…?"
The laser bolts flashed towards the battle pets. But the bolts of lightning that had crackled around them had stopped.
Next to Tdyans' feet, dark magic still shimmered where it had fallen, a circle of sparks like a rainshower. Fj0rd lay at the centre of the circle, her lightning beam smashed by a scorch-mark across its case.
"Fj0rd!" Not daring to stop firing, even for a moment, Tdyans held the laser pistol over her head as she crouched to look at her friend. "Come on, snap out of it. Wake up. Fj0rd…?"
The Uni stepped forward, laser shots slashing his coat, holding another smoke bomb between his teeth. As she struggled to force him backwards, a flash from a frost blaster hit her laser pistol, reducing the energy flowing from it to a feeble trickle.
Tdyans barely noticed. Kneeling beside Fj0rd's body, she clutched her friend's wrist in a forlorn hope that her fingers would find a heartbeat.
"I'll never tell," she whispered, and stood up to fire what was left of her weapon.
*
Somewhere out of sight of the haunted house, Stal held up a hand, listening intently. "The fighting. It's stopped."
"Fj0rd." Aerisa stared back the way they had come, towards the silhouette of a building glowing with distant flames. "Tdyans."
"We don't know that they're dead," Tracy pointed out, knowing even as she said the words how little they meant. "Sunbeam was trying to arrest people, too."
"For now, it doesn't matter," NSQ said quietly, more sober than any of them had ever seen her. "Either way, we probably won't ever see them again."
"Ishan…" Buddy looked at the blonde-haired Tabloid Kid, who clung without understanding to NSQ's arm.
"We'll take care of her," Carrie spoke up. "It's all we can do."
"So where do we go?" Ginz asked, as gently as she could manage. She knew it was unfair to put pressure on anyone in the group, but the forum's former moderators seemed to have taken responsibility for now.
"For now? We keep moving." Killix dropped her fighting stance, letting her lightning beam on its strap fall back onto her hip. "We'll keep trying to get a message through to R-space to find Patjade, and we'll find another place to stay tonight-- preferably one with lots of weapons on hand, just in case. But we can't keep hiding out in other people's v-dimensions forever. Either we leave the TKs and go back to R-space, or we find some other way."
"Then we find another way." At least three voices echoed the sentiment at the same time, and the little group murmured agreement. Nobody was in favour of abandoning the Tabloid Kids, despite-- perhaps because of-- the awful losses they had suffered for them so far.
"We keep moving, then," Leoness concluded. "And hope there's a solution out there somewhere."
As the group began to move, Rider silently counted heads. A frightening number of forumers were missing, and she wasn't sure which was worse; the gaps she could account for, or those she couldn't.
"Ginger, who's that TK you've got with you?" She glanced at the little girl, momentarily brought out of her sad reflection. "She doesn't look like yours. Who's meant to be looking after her?"
"I'm meant to be looking after her," Ginger said softly, stroking the child's hair. "And her name… her name is Lydia."
*
"You're making a mistake."
"Oh?" Though there were shadows beneath the speaker's eyes that betrayed a lack of sleep, her tone was filled with conviction. "You know I trust your advice. But really, there wasn't much else to be done. If this is the only way to stop the risks, then there's nothing more to be said."
"I don't know if it will, though." The hesitation was ominous. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't want to help you. But I don't think fighting them is the way to do this."
"This isn't the time to regret what you've left behind." She shook her head to emphasise her words. "It's too late to watch over them now. If I could've kept them safe, I would have. We tried everything we possibly could. Legal enforcements. Jail sentences. Voluntary glitch scans. Compulsory glitch scans. Raiding their v-dimension. Offering deals. It didn't work, any of it. Don't you see?" One hand slammed down on the table. "I haven't any choice any more. Either they surrender to us, or they go back to R-space… or I have to break them."
"You won't." Each word was stressed, though the overall tone was calm.
"I won't…?"
"If you think this will break them, then you don't even know them as well as I thought you did." There was a hint of unexpressed sadness, and just a little pride. "Oh, I don't doubt you can try, S—Sunbeam. You can chase them to the borders of the Internet if you want, raid every dimension they set foot in, kill as many of them as try to get in your way. And you know what? They'll just hit back even harder. I would bet my life on it."
"That doesn't make any sense." Sunbeam turned away. But an image flickered on one of the monitors in front of her; the guards had returned from their raid.
There was a pause, as both of them turned to see what was on the screen; an unconscious Tdyans, her hands locked together, being carried down from the back of the guards' Eyrie.
"You see." She pointed to the picture. "Three of them captured just tonight, and an unspecified number of casualties; surely that's bound to demoralise the others. Already we're winning. You don't know what you're talking about."
"Without seeing the report of what happened tonight, I have no proof." There was no sign that the words had hit home. "But I think I know exactly what I'm talking about, Sunbeam."
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Post by PFA on Feb 7, 2008 13:03:46 GMT -5
So... tragic... D: *mourns* This is really cool so far. Keep it up, Dream.
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