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Adam and Kane continued with their fight, with Kane firing a barrage of light beams down on Adam and the docks, causing explosions to ring out and for the fights to be stalled. "Damn it!" Adam groaned, appearing behind Kane and firing a blast of shadows, only for the man to vanish and appear in front of her. Just as Adam was about to counter though he felt his body become heavier as the shadows started to leave his body. He screamed in agony, only to be slammed down on the floor by Kane.
"I think this is enough for today," Kane pointed out with a bored expression turning towards a battered Spike and Nicol, who were both simply staring at each other while panting out.
Nicol gritted his teeth as Spike began to create more blasts of wind. "I'm ending this!" he yelled before switching to his ice form as Spike fired his attack, simply putting his hands together. He proceeded to release a blast of cold wind that began to freeze the air around him, this extending to Spike, who was only able to gasp in disbelief as he was frozen by Nicol's attack.
Nicol didn't have time to celebrate though, quickly being downed by a small blast of light that pierced through his side, causing the boy to go back to normal as he hit the floor.
After that Kane had the rest of his group retreat and had gone to retrieve the Kathy and Minam pair who were able to take over the cargo, though Kathy was heavily fatigued due to the constant use of her power.
Kalus watched as the group retreated. However, Pandora stayed behind, watching them. Narrowing her eyes, she spoke. "Better enjoy what time you have left, mutts. It'll all end soon."
With those words, she disappeared.
-----
(Skip only applies to those in the Sector IV group.)
The group was told to regroup to the HQ for a briefing. Having been told to enter the room meeting room and wait, Rose only hoped that the group would be sane enough for her to brief.
She sighed a bit, looking at the reports from Kalus. Though they had gotten a good bit of the cargo, the group was unable to stop the enemy from taking some of it. Of course. Things seemed to be just falling apart at the seams, one-by-one.
And now? Now she had a Harbinger in here with her. It had been only a day, but she decided to let her know while the two made their way to the room. "You asked about Colt. Well... he's not here, as you can see. In fact, he won't be back for another five days."
-----
(Small skip for the Orion group.)
Another day had passed outside of the Orion confines. For the group, that was the equivalent of another month and a half.
"So, from what I understand now - in Elysian - there are eight different base symbols and five link-based ones," Aya reported to Colt and Metzli. "Out of those eight, you can create up to about 40,440 combinations. These combinations are called 'runes', which you string together to make spells, sigils, and other things," she tapped her fingers on the table. "These spells have different types: seals, evocation, and summoning are the basic ones."
She leaned back in her chair. "Okay. So," she looked to Metzli. "How hard is it to learn even basic Elysian?" It might not have been the best question to ask her, considering her generally pessimistic view, but Aya needed confirmation before she would unveil her next plan.
Adam sat down, froaning and looking down at the floor in shame as he crossed his arms, having received treatment from his wounds and relied on King's power to recover quickly. He had been in charge of leading the mission and it had ended in catastrophe, and he couldn't blame anyone but himself.
"It's gonna take some time, from what I've figured. I don't even know how much time we have left, but.." She trailed off, gazing into the distance. She fidgeted with the weapons in her hand, something that she often did when she got nervous.
"Five days..." Kat repeated slowly, frowning as she crunched the numbers in her mind. "That may be too long." She said, sighing. "Five days... that will barely give me enough time to work with him. His memory loss has made his blade skills soft." Kat remarked with a frown, not realizing that this was indirectly an insult to Null's combat capabilities as a whole.
"That... that is a lot of combinations." Colt said quietly. "Math is definitely not my thing... and I have no idea about learning languages because I either know them or I don't. And I have no idea why I know them or how I learned them."
"Right, so we're running on the clock and need to learn how to write an alien language before the world gets destroyed..." Aya leaned in on her hands. "Maldita sea..."
Lifting her head, Aya looked back down at the books. "... wait... Colt," she looked to him. "Colt, I have an idea!"
--
Rose lifted an eyebrow at Kat's comment, but opted to not respond to it. "Whatever you plan with him, you'll have to get through Aya first, I'm afraid."
Allowing the two to talk among themselves, Metzli looked down to the primal brawlers and studied the razor sharp, oversized claws; the huge wristblades that seemed like they could cut through steel. She twisted her wrists, looking for any other uses besides slashing and shredding opponents.
"What did I do to deserve that?" Kat asked even though she knew the answer. "I didn't think I'd put him in the hospital. We were dueling like we have for centuries, I didn't think his skills had eroded that much." She mused.
Seeing that Metz wasn't looking, Colt leaned over and kissed Aya lightly on the lips. The time-warping physics of the room was clearly taking a toll on all of them, so he wanted to help her feel at ease.
Metzli picked up the skin-bound Book of Shadows, going off in the corner to study the book. She could see that the two wanted a little alone time, so she tried to shrink herself as she read the texts. The mixture of languages was still messing with her brain, but she forced herself to continue reading it.
"Mmm," Aya pushed Colt off. "Not that, you idjit - I need your head. Your mind. Your membrane; that thing up there," she pointed toward his head. "You recognize Elysian. That means that somewhere, there's something in you that understands it! So, all we gotta do is just pull it out!"
Aya looked down at the book, flipping through the pages quickly. "So, we'll find out a way to pull it out of you, and use it to fight the Harbingers, and win, and things will be just fine. It'll be brilliant!"
--
Rose gave her a side-long look. "And you think that'll go over with Colt's violent girlfriend?"
Colt pouted. "But I miss you." He muttered softly to himself before getting back to business. "Right well I don't think memory works like that." He sighed. "Then again I have no idea how it works... I have no idea how any of this works."
"Well it's not my fault that she's judging me without knowing my side of the story." Kat pouted. "And you think I can't handle a little violence?" She asked, knowing Rose knew that she was combat ready.
"I love you, Colty," she said, looking up at him. "But, I'm really, really tired and I want to go home. Back home, where shit isn't dying. But, unfortunately, life sucks ass and shit never works out because Null never resolves issues, so I need to work against the powers that be and fucking get this stuff in order. And I can't do that without you. I can't," Aya's head dropped, looking down at the book. "I already lost my mom to shitty circumstances that I could've stopped. I almost lost my sister. I can't fucking lose anything else..."
--
Rose sighed a bit. "I know perfectly well that you can handle yourself..."
"And all I want to do is make sure that Colt can do the same. Because we need him at his best to stop what's coming." Kat explained.
Colt sighed, leaning over and gently hugging Aya. "It's going to be okay. I'm not going anywhere." He promised. "We're going to figure out what we need to do, we'll figure out how to parse these texts, we'll stop the bad guys and we'll save the day. Because it's what we do." Colt vowed. "And your mother and your sister and your father and all that... we both know there's nothing you could have done. So you can't blame yourself."
"It's not helpful at all," she muttered, closing the Book of Shadows and pushing it away. Hearing Aya's rant, she sighed and looked away. Stealing a glanced up at her and Colt, she asked one question in a quiet tone.
"I'm sorry to ask, you probably want to yell at me for it, but... What's it like..having a family?"
"Ah... it's..." Aya looked down, trying to think of a way to explain it. "It's like... having someone to rely on more than anything. That feeling that, no matter what happens, no matter who goes against you, you'll be able to lean on them for support..."
Leaning back in her chair again, she spun around in it. "You guys. No matter what you say, you're like my family."
--
Inside of Robin's head, Raphael's voice chimed up once more. This time, it was clearer.
"All these years, I've had no one to lean on.." she pondered aloud, trademark saddened smile present on her features. "Family sounds like a.. great thing. I wonder sometimes, if things would be different with them around..." Her eyelids kept flickering over her irises, exhaustion gradually settling in as she peacefully drifted off without a sound.
Sky felt her consciousness return as the world came back into focus. She remembered being locked in a flashback; it had happened a few times before, and something she had certainly not been expecting. She remembered seeing Sayloren walking around.. Yeah, she was still here. The girl seemed to be looking for something, though she wasn't sure what. She stood up, groggily starting towards her.
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