As soon as she got on the ship, Maria likely gave an eerie first impression to most of the crew due to her lacking of emotion. She assumed one of her allies - most likely Tarak - gave the crew a short summary of her apathy problem and save her the trouble of explaining it herself. As for the crew itself... It certainly was a cascade of oddities, though one that struck her with interest is the red-skinned alien. She could tell this was a fellow adept of the Mind... and was no Amateur at it either. She could feel her attempt at peering into Maria's mind, and while Amy did fail to penetrate her mental shielding, Maria showed just as much failure in tapping into her mind right back.
Ironically enough, that same sense of unease that Amy felt towards Maria, Maria felt with Amy, and generally for the same reason. Because of this, Maria's instincts from her past was telling her to keep away from this 'Amy' girl.
...And yet, she could not deny a feeling of curiosity towards Amy. She has heard of her kind, as well as their natural affinity to the Mind, but Amy is the first of them she's ever saw. For now, she'd listen to her instincts and steer clear - she seems interested in Iris anyways, and it'd be unwise to get in the way of that - but she is interested in seeing what this 'Zevzd' can do, and so will keep that interest in the back of her mind for later on...
As a Child Prodigy, Maria was among those who assisted Natasha in this bold financial move. She had no knowledge of the digital realm beyond the basics, however, she did have financial experience from her past dealings before the Star Marine project, her family taught her much when it came to that. Still, The boldness of her new captain to take as much as they did from the wealthiest families of the Ascendancy was rather unexpected for her. So bold, in fact, that she didn't seem to realize that one of those wealthy families were her own. She did the best she could to keep the Wilhelm family away from the digital crosshairs of RealAscendancyStockBets. All that was left to have was a prayer.
As for her portion of what was stolen, 20 million credits... She was almost certain it was enough money that her other comrades had no idea what to do with it. The shock of having so much money did not hit her quite as hard seeing where she came from, and so she knew exactly where to put it. She wasted no time taking the money from the personal account it was distributed to, and transferring it into a separate account created by her family, secure and off the Ascendancy Grid. Of course she needed help in rubbing off the tracks to ensure that it stayed that way, and who better to ask than her "Big Bro" Tarak.
It must seem really weird from the outside looking in, the emotionless girl trying to act cute, calling Tarak "big bro" while keeping that apathetic tone of voice. But this too was something that the other Star Marines just got used to, she's been close to Tarak ever since she first met him in the facility all those years ago.
Still, she never had much chance of going to the Bazaar, especially since her last time there was short-lived and led to her and Alan going with Joey and the shenanigans that followed that. She didn't have any spending money for herself since she put all of that money into said separate account, but frankly she was ok with that. Interacting with Tarak and the others and seeing some actual sights at this bazaar was all she really needed. Maybe she can find a good place up on the rooftop of a building there to peacefully stargaze or something.
A peaceful area to stop and think...
"I guess I do have something I want after all, something I don't need money to get..."
With everything on the Circle of Hell dealt with and everyone back into Xuanzang, Finbarr had nothing better to do, other than maybe sleep. Or eat, if he was famished.
As such, after hours of sleep, Finbarr walked back into the mess hall, wearing lain back clothes, though as usual, he was having black. Coughing, he took a ready made meal from one of the metal cabinets. After microwaving it for a minute, he proceeded to tear off the foil covering the top of the thing before stabbing the lone piece of bacon inside with his fork. It was breakfast, though day and night were meaningless in space.
Nevertheless, Finbarr dug on the food, occasionally sipping off from a glass of chocolate milk.
It didn't look like it, but he was waiting for company.
From the moment Alan was in the ship, he couldn't help but tilt his head at the...roommates aside from his fellow Star Marines that joined up with. He thought Joey was a freak and likely the odd man out, little did he know how well he would fit in and be normal with this crew, had he re-joined them during the retreat. We got a cyborg, a doctor somehow just as soulless as Maria by the look on his face, an Alien trickster who he could tell really like Iris, and the cherry on top: it's headed by a woman who so willingly decided to reward them....By fucking with the Stock Market with Flame and Ashton - Of COURSE it's that opportunistic duo that helped pull this off- and trashing enough trust funds to award 20 million credits to every single member of the crew, and still have more left over.
These fucking Madlads! ...Alan didn't know whether to love them, or take his chances outside... before they land. At the very least, there are worse crews he could be riding with.
Speaking of which, he walked to the mess hall, a new set of unmatching clothes - like he gives a shit about his looks - of a black T-shirt and brown pants, wondering that now that he had millions of Credits...what the hell is supposed to do with all of it? He never really had any money before, and now he's a millionaire, feels odd...and off, doesn't know where to begin with it.
It was around this point that he saw Finn in the Mess Hall. Oh yeah, There was something he had to go into more detail with him with, huh? Without much in the way of hesitation, He walked to Finnbar as he ate.
"Oi, Finn...Any idea of what to do with 20 fuckin mil? I need some ideas..." He said to him, sitting down next to him.
Finbarr chuckled, popping the yolk of the sunny side up egg into his mouth before chewing with an avid look of satisfaction on his house. "Might buy some land on one of the colonies." Finbarr shrugged, and took another sip. "Or, if everything goes south, I could get a plot of land and make a house elsewhere, maybe in one of the Kanarusian planets. Those have a lot of open spaces."
Smiling at himself, Fin continued. "But not before getting my family out of Titan. We lived dirt poor lives, and they probably still are, right now, thinking that I'm already dead or worse. Though meeting you guys is the silver lining through all that. You know, it keeps me sane. As for you, though..."
Finbarr looked at Alan, from head to chest, studying him closely. "You got no idea what to do with that amount of money no...? What, you got no one to go back to? I have. I hope..."
Alan gave a light smirk as he grabbed a drink, followed shortly by a small chuckle. While he looked amused, there was some deeper layer of sadness to his expression.
"Hehehe, Well, I'm sure you do. Hope everyone else has someone too. As for this guy... can't say one way or the other. Memory's still a bit fried, but some stuff did start coming around when I was training with Sensei back on that Rau've planet...Nothing particularly present though. An orphan I think, ...Without a home, without family, without friends, ...that's the most prominent thing I can get out of this head. ...So, yeah, Far as I'm concerned, you lot may as well be family, similar to how Sensei may as well be my mom." He explained to him. Looking down towards the table in contemplation as if trying to think on what memories were still hazy. He then shook off that thought to move on.
"Buying land, Suppose that's not a bad idea...Not exactly we should be doing with it now though right? Should at least wait for the Reform we make before we start thinking of living large." He said.
"In that case," Finbarr smirked, "I will be saving up this cash, so that it gets even bigger when those two wonder boys pull off another scam or whatever it is. That, on top of the one that we got while we in the Bazaar... we're going to end up as very rich people by the end of our mission of vengeance. Ah well."
Finbarr reclined back on his seat, his hands locking toegthe behind his head as he relaxed. "It's sad that they fried your memory. You could have been living a nice life before you got dragged into... this. Welp. I guess we are simultaneously the luckiest and unluckiest kids in this galaxy, eh?"
"I sincerely doubt that." Alan thought. What memories he could dig up from this head was anything but nice. But as Finn said about how lucky and unlucky they all were, he nodded, but then went into another silence in thought.
"Luck..." He grabbed his cup and took a big gulp, as if in preparation, before then taking deep breath.
"...We knew you guys were heading for Realist. That blonde freak Joey patched into the Communications and we heard the Briefing you guys had about the Plenty mission. We figured we'd go down there get it first, and then wait for you guys to come down. We'd be reunited, the mission accomplished easily. Wins all around. ...But despite there being a jail break from the shipwreck, there were still alot more guards on that ship than we expected. We thought they were gonna all be focused on rounding up the Escaped inmates, but a lot of them were on guard on that ship. Guess someone else was tasked with that. More importantly, they expected us to come to that ship to take Realist. Anti-Magic collars and everything. At first, I thought someone sold us out, but I know now that that's not the case, cause it didn't take very long for them to start loosening their lips when they got us inhibited. ...Someone got to Realist first, before any of us could. A 'magic pirate', they said. Apparently they thought we were in league with some group of Space Pirates, the Captain of which, they claim was one of us." He explained to him.
"Magic pirate?" Finbarr shook his head at those two words. "And their captain was one of us? So, a Star Marine that deserted and became a pirate? Sounds like something we should be concerned with."
Finbarr then shrugged. "Well then, one problem at a time, we should take. This pirate with magic... and then whoever was the guy with the crow mask that came in and fought with Nero and the Matthews twins. Whoever it was, they had magic too."
Coughing one last time, Finbarr continued, "At the very least, we found you right on time before those traitors in Squad Zero got us. Those, and Kherol." Smirking, Finbarr gently squeezed Alan's shoulder. "Maria is the same as ever, I assume?"
"Indeed, I don't have any real proof or evidence, but I do have a guess at who it could be. Mostly because he's the only one I can think of that isn't accounted for." Alan said. He then heard about the crow masked individual who also had...wait, what?
"I heard about that from Nero. An adult guy with a mask...He had magic too? ...Did those scientists lied to us then? Guess I can't be surprised if they did, but that raises its own questions..." He said, though at that point, he was more thinking aloud. As Finnbar tried to change the subject again, what he said to do so led to some more thoughts from Alan.
"Oh yeah, they were there too...Why were 'they' on Plenty? Were they hunting me and Maria down, Or...did they find out about that Pirate supposedly being there too? And their connection with that masked man...A lot of strange coincidences seemed to happen on that mission...too many to shrug off." He thought. Of course in comes Finbarr grabbing his shoulder to break his concentration with a ice-breaker question.
"Yeah. Though we were only together at the time we met Joey. Apparently Tarak sent her on some errand after you guys left for the Bazaar, though she was pretty tight-lipped on what it was. Didn't bother digging anymore than that; You know her, nothing opens that mouth if she doesn't want it to. " He said.
"I don't trust a single word the bloody scientists said.", Finbarr responded. "They're the ones that took us away from our old lives and pumped us with dust made from ground up Kaisokens, and they work for the Ascendancy. No reason for me, or anyone else, for that matter, to take them at their word."
Sighing, Finbarr took in the last piece of bacon. "Just want to settle down some time. With Na-, no, no, that's not right..."
Oops.
Now that was an interesting slip up. It was too late to take back what was said, the "Na" was enough to make Alan smirk a bit. Oh yeah, he knew exactly who he meant.
"Hehehe, You and her? That's a battle I'd rather forfeit from personally, but hey, don't let that stop you." He said with a sly smirk.
"Um..." Finbarr blushed, and look away, embarrassed. "I don't... I'm not sure if she feels the same. But... yeah. Not gonna stop now."
"Well, is there any more about that line of conversation we had about the magic pirate, or...?"
"Well I can't prove anything, but...There was one of us who deserted the Star Marines, well before the Battle of Proxima. Don't rightly remember his name, think it also started with an 'A'. He was probably one of the youngest of us, must have been around the same age Maria was...actually was back then. He had a very odd magic, still don't know what kind of Kaisoken combination was used to make it. But it was a passive magic, very support-oriented, far as I knew. He was also very...meek, shy, never really stood out, don't even think he was educated in the slightest, he was a scared little kid we took pity on even after the injection. No idea how someone like that would become a Pirate. He mentioned having an Uncle somewhere, so we just assumed he escaped and went into said uncle's care." Alan said, holding his hands together as he tried to dig up memories from back then.
"What we went through under the Ascendancy is traumatizing as hell.", Finbarr replied, nodding. "There were quite a few deserters too, so I can't remember who that could be as well... maybe he was in a different squad. Either way, the kind of treatment the government threw at us may have caused a meek little child to become something sinister. It happens to the best of humanity, after all. When terrible things happen to good people, they could become demons in their own right."
"True...what we were put through was a true case of hell on earth. ...Some of us never recovered from it." Alan said, taking another drink and sighing in exhaustion.
"To tell the truth, I don't know why it's bothering me... Even if there is a Star Marine playing Pirate somewhere, it shouldn't have much to do with us and our objective. Just...something about that situation just seemed off. Whoever these pirates were, they knew about Realist, and infiltrated the ship, well before either of us..."
"Let's just keep the thing in the back of our minds as we go on towards our next mission.", Finbarr smiled, pushing away the empty container of his meal. "If we have a run in with the crow masker, or the pirate, we'll be ready."
Standing up, Finbarr tapped Alan on both of his shoulders. "Ah, I think you've grown a bit. Bloody hell. I didn't realize that."
"I trained with the Hellfire Rose, back on that Rau've planet when you guys first left for your rebellion. That might have had something to do with it." Alan simply said, getting up when he did.
"In any case, I'm gonna go rest in my room for a bit. I have a bit to think about, and a bit to train with." He then said.
"Okay man." Finbarr nodded as he bowed slightly. "It's been nice talking to you again. And... I'm going to continue the thing I'm writing..."
Alan said nothing else, instead waving to Finn from behind as he walked out.
Umbrakinesis and Umbra-conception | Unknown, Estimated in the millions | Androgynous, but prefers to be seen Male/Primordial Shadow Beast
Once a gelatinous self-reproductive experiment of the Gods turned interdimensional conqueror, now not only accepting, but wanting the offer to be redeemed and set right his wrongs. He's a master of Umbrakinesis, and while he may look human, his true form is something far stronger and truly to be feared.
Appearance:
His appearance as his true self is simple and yet difficult to properly define...By all accounts, he is simply a large amorphous glob of shadow, shaping itself to its own whims. But because of that, there's no one singular appearance that he could take with himself. Often times, when people spoke of the malignant king of shadows, all they could say with certainty was that it was akin to a demon: large pitch black arms and claws, and the face of a monstrous beast. Others say he had a face, or something that looked like one, a white mask and hands, and spoke with the deep voice of a devil offering temptations. Others still go as far as to say they did not see him as one entity, but a collective mass of hideous dark demons, a legion of darkness in and of himself.
Summary: From the experiment of a god to the Conqueror of worlds. With his mastery of the dark and his capability to reproduce an army of children at his beck and call, the Shadow King Scotus was an interdimensional threat, travelling from world-to-world, consuming all he visited in everlasting darkness. However, he was stopped by the one thing mocked throughout the ages but had a power all its own that he bore witnessed to: Love. He found a woman he could learn to love and be loved in return. This took to tragedy when that lover died and he retaliated in vengeance, only to die himself.
Anybody ever watched Castlevania? Think Dracula from the Anime, but as a mass of darkness instead of a Vampire.
Legacy: Long ago, there was a God, its name lost to time, who had a fascination with the concept of Life and what could be brought to life and be made manifest and personified. This curiosity led it to bring life to the lifeless, not of the physical but of the absolute, the nothing, the darkness.
But in order to make this a reality, he had to feed life to the darkness, more specifically the very essence of life across the multiverse, what many have come to call "Mana". Feeding Mana to the darkness would allow a fraction of that darkness to come to life, at least in theory. There was just one problem, the God had no dominion over life, he could not create from nothing as his kin could and has. And so he resorted to another way of getting the Mana he required: By stealing the life force that already exists.
To that end, he descended from on high to a universe bursting with life, and convinced it to tear itself apart through warfare, and he would gather the life force extracted from the bodies of the deceased. Among the many who have fought and die that was of note was a man known as the Warrior King, so impressive was his brute force and his sheer will that when he finally fell in battle the god took his flesh with him as he completes his experiment.
Within the great darkness, he offered the life force of millions of soldiers to give it life, the flesh of the Warrior King to give it shape and strength, and knowing that his kin would find what he did and punish him, he took the essence of his own divine soul and offered it as the final sacrifice, giving sentience and power to the dark. As the god faded onto nothing, a giant mass of the dark broke out and took a deformed, wicked shape.
Thus, The Shadow King, Scotus, was born.
While he had the figure of a man, Scotus had the hunger of the darkness and the instincts of a beast. From the moment he crawled out into a human world, he wanted to conquer and consume it onto himself. No logic, no reason, just desire, for the light of the universe was oft too much for him, and so he would snuff them out and return all to a comforting ebony. From the mana he obtained from the millions who died, his body produced an army fragmented from the whole of his dark mass, shadow beasts, unintelligent but unrelenting and monstrous creatures of the shadow, and they spread themselves far and wide.
Their first world was unprepared for such unrelenting forces, it did not take long for them to consume the people, the heroes, the villains, the world, and even the stars themselves. When he was done, all that remained of that universe was a pitch black void - a nest of shadow beasts - and Scotus, unsatisfied, moved to another universe, and then another, and then another.
For a time, a certain phrase cropped up across the many dimensions of the multiverse: "The Darkness is Coming..." A phrase that, for that time, referred to the Shadow King and his Army. There were signs of his coming shown throughout, stars blinking out of the night sky, shadows that moved on their own, entities lurking in the darkness tempting the unsuspecting to approach them and never return. Heroes of these worlds tried their best to tackle this invader and conqueror, and while they enjoyed some victories over his beasts, they would always fall before their king, and as soon as they were defeated, their world would fall into an eternal black and the Shadow King would move on to the next world to conquer. Worse still, his army seemed never ending - every time they kill a Shadow Beast it would return to him to be born again, and as time passed he created even greater, more powerful and more intellectual monstrosities, which came to be known as the Alpha Shadow Beasts. This cycle kept going for many years, and there were few who did not know the legend of the Shadow King.
Eventually the gods of various worlds had to intervene to fix the mistake one of their own had wrought upon their worlds, calling upon the great race of Dragons to protect the worlds from the Dark, and their nature as magical creatures of wisdom divinity, proved a match against the Shadow King and his armies, to a point where the blood of a dragon was used by Scotus to bring fourth a hybrid that could prove a better opponent for them, the Alpha Beast known only as the Shadow Dragon. They could not completely stop the unrelenting Shadow King, they put him into a stand still, buying time for other worlds to prepare properly and fight against the oncoming black.
The legend goes, that the Shadow King broke through the Dragons, only to be stopped by a Heroine, a queen of her kingdom given the power of Dragons. With the aid of her allies, she pushed through the tide of shadows and reached the Shadow King, and at last defeated him in battle.
The Darkness was stopped, and the Queen of Light ascended to legend and myth across many worlds.
Gravely wounded and defeated, The Shadow King retreated from that world and entered another, maintaining a human form with which to disguise and recover his strength. It was this moment he met another woman, Cynthia, a mere peasant of that world who saw the Shadow King and mistaken him for a gravely wounded human, taking him in and nursing the king of beasts back to health. At first, the King's instincts strived to want to devour this foolish woman, but he lacked the strength to do even that. What's more, he was confused about the kindness of this woman, his form may be human but his internals were not, she had to have known by then that he wasn't human, that he was a beast of the darkness, so why on earth would she continue with aiding in his healing? Her answer was sickeningly simple and naïve to him: She saw a someone hurt, and wanted to help them, not caring if it's man or beast. Still, he was gravely wounded and in no position to do much about his predicament, so without much option, he accepted her nursing him for now, planning on killing her and devouring her village and world once he was healed.
However, the healing took far longer than expected, even in the dead of night the darkness he absorb was meager and weak, the damage done to him was far greater than he thought it was, and he could not shape himself to a large enough form to eat anyone there, so he simply endured his unintended imprisonment.
Eventually, the welcoming nature of the village, and the kindness and almost motherly strict nature of Cynthia herself grew on Scotus, he began to feel strange emotions he never felt before, began to find value in the light of day he never thought possible. During a celebratory dance of her people by the fire burning at its center, he was taught by Cynthia how to dance, backed by the people of that village and through this dance was this Beast taught how to love the Beauty, and how to be loved in return.
Scotus was a changed entity at that point, gone was the dark emperor who devoured worlds and stars, the monster of the great darkness who commended armies of shadow beasts, instead, for the first time in his life he was simply "Scotus Blackade". (A surname Cynthia gave him as a joke, and he decided to use himself.) He even went so far as to humor the human girl by engaging in a human tradition called "marriage".
But he could never run from his past, and what he was gave tragedy to what he became. The armies of the Shadow King scattered about the multiverse, unorganized but dangerous, and still a major threat so long as the Shadow King continued to exist. And so the Gods and Dragons found Scotus and took it upon themselves to find a champion of that world, a group of heroes, to hunt him down. Bestowed power to finally finish off the Shadow King, the heroes tracked him down to the village and began their assault, believing the village to be enslaved by the dark one. Not helped was that when they came to hunt him down, they protected and defended him. They tried to convince them that whatever he was before he is no longer that, and the heroes believed that, but regardless of action, the Shadow King's existence was a danger, and so they had no choice but to destroy him. Scotus attempted to talk them into letting him, but the villagers had none of it.
In the end, the village was burned, the villagers killed, and Cynthia gave her life to protect him. A feeling of loss and despair overwhelmed Scotus, the melancholy gave rise to unquenchable rage, and he went berserk. Although he was not at full power, he went into a berserk state and began slaughtering the heroes who hunted him. beginning to do as he did before and devour the world for what it gave to him, and for what it took back from him.
The hero chosen by the gods, with a blade imbued with the magic of dragons, managed to deliver the final blow onto Scotus, stopping him from devouring their world, and causing the rest of the Shadow beasts (Save the Alphas) to fade away into the darkness. In his final moments as he laid there, a dragon sword stabbed within his chest, as his own body began to break down and fade away, he and the hero had a discussion. He never really understood the value of life and its beauty until he met Cynthia and the others, and calmed down, he accepted his fate as an abomination against that beauty, destined to perish to keep it alive. The hero made a suggestion that maybe, if an afterlife exists, he could come back as a hero himself, maybe be able to help protect the worlds he cherished.
"...Yes. ...I would like that..." was his final words, before the rest of his body melted into the black.
The King was dead...
That is, until the Abyss acquired his soul. Reforming a new body from the Great Darkness, and rekindling the rage he felt, the Shadow King, once a great Puppeteer, was now puppet to the Abyss, with his army of Shadow Beasts at its beck and call.
Long Live the King!
Personality: At the beginning until his 'retirement', there were only two things that could describe the Shadow King, A Beast, and a fearsome Emperor. As the primordial shadow beast born from the great darkness, Scotus was a creature of instinct by nature. He did not travel across universes for recognition or dominance or revenge, he consumed them because it was simply his nature to consume them. The light was a discomfort, and so he wished to snuff it out and feast on what remains. In that respect he was brutal, and remorseless, a firm believer in the philosophy of survival of the fittest, and practically without a heart to call his own, truly a monster that could not be reasoned with.
But that's not to say he wasn't intelligent, oh no, for every world he traveled he learned in an effort to more effectively spread and feed himself faster and with more potency. Eventually he gained himself a humanoid shape and meticulous sense of speech, very careful and straight forward with his word choices. During later invasions before anything else, he traveled to his targeted universes by himself and manipulated people like a devil on their shoulders to commit evil, to tear down any who might oppose the invasive force of his armies, took advantage of them at every turn, only to devour them when they have served their purpose.
Even his own Shadow Beasts had reason to fear him, for he was no nicer to them than to anyone else. Success was expected of them, and so they were not appreciated upon those successes, but when they fail, he showed no hesitation in destroying and consuming them back into himself. They were mere pawns, and easily disposable and replaceable. As such, he often showed no hesitation in sacrificing legions of Shadow Beasts if it meant heroes fell to a trap or their doom as well. The normal shadow beasts were merely destroyed upon failure. The Alphas, however, were 'disciplined' for theirs, and whenever an Alpha gained an instinct to try and one-up their king, Scotus had no hesitation in putting them painfully in their place.
As a race that has had connections to the Divine that hates him so, and as they had proven to be an utter thorn in his side, Scotus had an intense hatred for Dragons, in any world where dragons were residing among other races, Scotus made it a point to Prioritize their elimination over any other race. The only exception in this utter loathing was the Shadow Dragon he conceived from their blood, and that was only because he was a useful tool against them. While on the subject, he also looked down at other races, saw them as very little threat, especially humanity which he felt did not even need him to destroy them when they so readily destroy themselves.
However, after he suffered his first defeat at the hands of the Queen of Light, a human he looked down on, humiliated as he left, his personality changed the moment he accidently met Cynthia. At first, he intended to kill her and her village as soon as he recovered his strength, devouring them as their reward. However, his disgust at their simple and naïve existence turned into a sense of interest, than fascination, he did not understand why they were so kind to him when it was so very clear he wasn't human, that he was a beast of the darkness. Eventually, he grew to appreciate the sights that the light of day creates, he grew to respect the humans as they worked for their people and protected him, an abomination of the Dark, and he grew to love Cynthia, the only being to ever show him these feelings he never felt before, such as love or compassion.
Then the heroes and dragons attacked, killed Cynthia and her people while they protected him, and all of that positive development just washed away like sand castles upon the shore. The Shadow King was now a berserk rampaging monster, an even worse version of the creature he was before. For all his evil, his motivation was only in his instincts to feed and comfort himself away from the light. Now it was personal, a grudge, a desire to destroy and burn, damn whatever happens to himself.
When he finally was defeated again, his final moments took him out of the anger stage of grief, and into the depression, the sadness and despair, and then acceptance.
...However, When the Abyss made the Abyssal Doppelganger of the Shadow King, it managed to rekindle the instincts of his past, and the anger of his present, in order to effectively make it a soldier of its will without remorse. Needless to say, he succeeded. The Abyssal Shadow King remembers the pain of Cynthia's loss, and knows that this is not what she wants. He accepts that she may never forgive him for what he is doing to the multiverse in the name of the Abyss, but believes it to be the only way to avenge them. In other words, even when using Cynthia's name, there is still no reasoning with the Shadow King - if anything, the only thing that would serve is to piss him off even more.
Signature Ability: Umbrakinesis- True to his title, Scotus was a master of the darkness and the shadows moved to his whim. As an all-consuming entity of darkness himself, he could stretch himself into areas where light could never reach and manifest those shadows as an energy or a weapon of a physical mass. He can also meld with those shadows both as a way to strengthen himself, and as a method of escape a dire situation should it arise.
Abilities: Umbraconception- As an experimental entity of life, contrary to his appearance and powers, he is essentially a being blessed with the power of life. By separating a fragment of himself from his gelatinous body, the fragment can grow and gain sentience, becoming a fearsome shadow beast under the command of its king, acting as separate entities from him. Most of these creatures, while sentient and self-aware, are unintelligible monsters - mere animals that maim and feast both on instinct and command of their king, and serving as an extension of his will. Should the king ever die, these demons of the dark would die and fade to nothing alongside him.
There have been some notable Shadow Beasts, however, a rare breed who are both sentient and sapient. Intelligent, concise speaking, self-aware, and capable of far greater destruction on their own than their lesser brethren. These are the Alpha beasts, conceived through a large portion of the King and a part of his will given life. Unlike these other beasts, the Alphas did not die alongside their king. As far as everyone knows, they are still alive and drifting across the multiverse to this day, likely causing trouble and havoc where ever they go. It would be common to see some heroes going on an adventure to find and destroy the last of the Shadow King's ilk, but presently there have been no reports of the Alphas declared dead, nor of the heroes' return.
Shadow Beast Absorption- The King giveth, the King taketh away. The Shadow King is not just an entity of the dark, but a devourer of it. Should he will it, the King can devour and absorb his children back to the source, returning parts of himself to the whole. This can be used in two ways: first it can rejuvenate him, give him strength he may have lost during a battle with pesky heroes. Second he can then once again divide himself to create another shadow beast, effectively recycling it. Furthermore, any shadow beast that died he can call back to him to remake anew.
This constant recycling of his children is a major factor as to why he was such a threat, his army had a reputation of being eternal. No matter how many Shadow beasts you destroy, as long as the King exists, more will come.
Shape-shifting- As mentioned, Scotus is a gelatinous existence of mass shadows and darkness, and so he has, many times, been able to shape-shift into various things from giant monstrous beasts of nightmares to humanoid shadows that masquerade (literally if the mask is any indication) as man. It's not just a case of appearance, however. The physical attributes of the king also changes with every form he takes. Smaller forms are faster and more agile, larger forms are stronger and more durable, and something like a four-legged beast akin to a wolf - a form he often uses - has a well balanced sense of both.
As will be shown in his Redeemed self, and when he met with his beloved, he can actually become human in appearance. But this was a rarity when he was the Shadow King, and will most certainly be a rarity as a soldier of the Abyss.
Appearance:
Summary: Reborn as a part of the Redeemer Corp, he is one of those who gladly welcomes the chance to seek redemption for his actions. However, his gelatinous body rotted away upon his death. The Nexus could only save so much of it before it faded to nothing. What was left was used to create his human form, reserving any extra darkness into the form of a sheathed blade. It is only through this blade that he can now change into a shadow beast; there's too little in his current body to become anything significant.
Personality: Although his soul belongs to the abyss, it seems his body remembered his final moments of life, and remembered the love he had for Cynthia. The Personality he had gained when he was with Cynthia has returned to him, and while he still feels a sense of anger and hatred in his heart for the ones responsible for her death, part of them were already taken care of in his rampage and killing what's left won't bring her back, and isn't what she would have wanted.
True to his promise, when the Nexus offered him the chance to set things right, he took it in a heartbeat, especially knowing that the Shadow King he was before became an Abyssal soldier. He has a desire now to protect people like Cynthia from within the shadows, wanting to keep her memory alive by doing so.
As someone still new to this whole 'human' thing, while Scotus is still intelligent and knows quite a bit about ancient knowledge, he's often seen as highly introverted and awkward, not really knowing what the best way of saying things casually would be. Ask him something about the history of certain things, or about his Abyssal self, or about war tactics, and he'll answer with gusto, but ask him something basic or something unrelated to the task at hand, and he wouldn't exactly know where to begin. Also, having little in the way of societal experience outside Cynthia's village, some things that are seen as common sense for others may not occur to Scotus, and so, awkward hijinx of some kind may ensue.
He has a certain respect for humanity he garnered throughout his living years. He must have devoured hundreds of planets' worth of humans yet still they flourish and thrive, and while they are imperfect, cruel and wicked, the fact that there are even a hundred people like Cynthia and her village out of trillions of cruel and wicked humans, is a wonder in itself.
The Shadow Beasts, on the other hand, he still has no love lost with, albeit for completely different reasons. Now he is ruthless against them because they are a personification of the mistakes he has made, and as servants of the Abyssal Shadow King, their very existence mocks his attempts to change. The same goes with the Alphas, Shadow beasts that may actually be considered his legit children, he has no qualms about killing them, for they are a representation of everything that was wrong with him, and knew they themselves would devour other life forms without distinction.
Signature Ability: Umbrakinesis- Although he is weaker now, his mastery over the dark and shadows still exists. He can still manifest the darkness into an energy and give it physical mass, while also entering shadows to escape danger.
Redeemed Abilities: Shadow Beast Absorption- As a much smaller shadow, Scotus Blackade cannot actually create Shadow Beasts, there's simply too little of himself to conceive anything significant. However, should he find a Shadow Beast, he can still absorb them back into himself, at least in theory. After all, The Nexus revived his body, and the Shadow Beasts are parts of that body. If he ate enough, it may be possible to call out an army of his own, albeit a much smaller one.
However, one problem: When he died, all of the lesser shadow beasts died with him, almost his entire army of monsters faded to nothing. Moreover, The Abyss corrodes the Shadow Beasts his Abyssal self creates. As such, should the Shadow King of the Abyss create more beasts, Scotus can't absorb them back into himself.
The only way to test this theory is to kill an eat the only survivors of his kind, the Alpha Beasts... a feat he's not certain he can do on his own in his current state.
Shape-shifting- He may be much smaller, but he's still simply a gelatinous mass of darkness in truth. As such, he could shape-shift himself into a different entity like he could before. But whatever he turns into is significantly less potent compared to his past self. Moreover, on his own, he is barely himself, and only has enough of himself within him to sustain this human form. He needs the Black Sword, and the Darkness within it to be able to become anything. No Sword, no shape-shifting.
Alan gave a slight chuckle in response to his friend turning down the portal idea.
"Eh, didn't hurt to ask, I've seen you pull off some remarkable shit with those portals after all." He said, almost jokingly. It was then he pointed out what else could break the device around his neck, of course Finnbar would have that sword still.
"How could I forget?" He sarcastically asked with a smile. Not a time since they met has Finnbar been without that trusty sword of his. Alan always seen him spar with it, fight with it, probably even killed a few with it, not that he remembers anyone in particular. The times when he sparred with Finnbar personally back then he was always focused on not getting hit by that fucking thing. Something about the Celtic blade made his gut instinct tell him it'd hurt like a bitch in particular if he got hit with it. ...And sometimes, he was very much right.
He nodded when Finnbar told him the plan, but then it occurred to him as he mentioned the Cyber Lady - probably that chick who was with him - that reminded him of something.
"Shit, that's right, Realist...Finn, I know should probably talk about this after this whole thing, but I'll probably forget if I don't mention it now. We got captured because they were expecting us. We overheard them talking as they put us in here; somebody got here before us trying to steal Realist. Sounds like it was one of us, not sure who though. But it sounds like whoever it is, they're Pirates now." Alan explained to him.
As soon as Finn got the confirmation he was waiting for, and slashed at the bars to cut them out, Alan was quick to jump out of the cell and do a big ol stretch. He then asked him to stand still, so he can use the big sharp sword that just cut through those metal bars like a hot knife through butter to cut off the restraint that was so close to his neck. ...What could possibly go wrong?
"You wind up accidently killing me with that thing, I'll murder you, I hope you understand that." He said, while he was slightly joking, he was also somewhat serious at the same time.
However, as somewhat expected of him, Finn aim was as true as it ever was, cutting through the restraint as easily as he did the cell bars. Wasn't enough to get it off - only so much you can cut through before you wind up hitting skin - but it was more than enough to disengage the restraint, allowing Alan to do the rest himself. The instant he could feel the radiation negating his magic fading, he grabbed at what was left of the neck brace, pulling at the cut Finn made until the tear was complete and the ring became merely an arc, far easier to pull off afterwards. He then stared at his hands as bright white embers began to envelop them, combusting into a white flame as he clenched his fists and gave a smirk.
---
Maria, however, had a far less stressful time of hers being taken off, for the good doctor had a key for her restraint. Unlocking it and taking it off. Maria stood in silence and stillness for about half a minute before her eyes began to glow a deep purple. Concentrating, the first thing she did as a test of her magic coming back to her was a quick scan the situation around the ship, more specifically outside the ship so as to stop where the Xuanxang would be. Problem being she didn't know what it looked like, only basing the search on what Joey told her about it. She did find what appeared to be the Ship, but also a problem: A group of soldiers outside surrounding the ship. As quick as she could, she established contact with her fellow Star Marines, via a telepathic channel she concieved for them during the War, akin to tuning to a certain radio frequency to access a specific station.
"This is Maria to all Star Marines, Maria to all Star Marines. I don't know where you are for the moment, but know that I and Alan are safe. More urgently, there is a problem. The Circle of Hell is being surrounded as we speak. Evacuation is advisable. I repeat, The Circle of Hell is being surrounded by soldiers, Evacuation is advisable." She said telepathically through the channel, almost robotically, as if she was the standard computer voice of a ship telling them something was wrong. Normally it'd be natural to get suspicious of this, but she was always overly professional back when she relayed information back in the war. She opened her eyes again and began floating off the ground, levitating in the air as she turned towards the Doctor.
"...We have to go as well. Take my hand." She said to him matter of factly. The Doctor eventually did, a surprisingly strong grip for someone as young as her as she floated upwards, pulling the doctor off the ground as well. Quick as a bird, she and the Doctor flew towards the center of the block and downwards towards Block C, passing Finn, Alan, and Joey as she did. Pulling the good doctor like a rag doll as she pulls up and flies through towards one of the halls and towards where she spotted the Xuanxang.
---
Hearng Maria's message - likely alongside Finn - Alan was quick to look at Finn and then towards the central area where he spots her and the Doctor flying out.
"Why does everyone always seem to put our frying pan right next to a goddamn inferno?" He asked with a sigh. "Give me a minute, Finn, then lead the way. There's something I gotta take care of first." With white flames he jumped over the balcony of his floor in Block B, and started blasting a flare of white flames from those same hands as he fell, the flames slowing his descent like the thrusters of a rocket as he then moved towards Joey's Cell, and immediately melted the bars on them.
"THAT, is how you improvise. Anyways, we need to get the fuck out before the big guns surrounding the place start knocking on the door." Alan said, proud and cocky at the fact that he broke Joey out when Joey was planning to bust them out, albeit with a dumb plan.
"Yeah, about that... go on ahead and leave with them, I'll catch up with you guys later." Needless to say, this was not the reaction Alan was expecting out of this loudmouth, the audacity of this guy made Alan speechless in confusion.
"...Didn't you hear me, this ship's getting surrounded, we got to get going!"
"Then get going, kid. I ain't leaving here without my babies; they're my pride and joy. Besides, someone's gotta keep those soldier boys occupied while you guys hop on out. I'll catch up to you lot later after I get back the twins and Mickey. Still got my ship down here too, can't just leave that behind either." Joey said with a shrug, passing a stunned and extinguished Alan dumbstruck by this man's stupid reason for staying in a suicide situation as he walked towards the balcony of the floor and hopped down himself, rolling as soon as he impacted so as to not snap anything in his body. He then made it to the center hole to Block C when he looked back at Alan.
"Oh, one more thing, Al. When you meet Cap'n Natty, Tell her something for me. Tell her... I... Owe her that 400 I borrowed behind her back a few days ago. Catch you guys later." Joey said, purposely pausing for the sense of a faux suspense while then giving a joking salute to the perplexed boy. Joey then immediately hopped into the hole towards Ground Floor.
"...Should have just let him there, let him rot in the cell, no one would have to notice..." Alan thought, he then shook his head to concentrate on the matter at hand.
"Ey, Finn! Mind making us a portal to you guys' ship?" Alan yelled this question to Finnbar upstairs, hoping that he has an easy out for this situation.
If he can, Alan uses it to get in the Xuanxang and be ready for leaving this planet with a bunch of reunited friends.
If he can't, Alan would then have Finnbar lead the way back to his ship.
Umbrakinesis and Umbra-conception | Unknown, Estimated in the millions | Androgynous, but prefers to be seen Male/Primordial Shadow Beast
Once a gelatinous self-reproductive experiment of the Gods turned interdimensional conqueror, now not only accepting, but wanting the offer to be redeemed and set right his wrongs. He's a master of Umbrakinesis, and while he may look human, his true form is something far stronger and truly to be feared.
Appearance:
His appearance as his true self is simple and yet difficult to properly define...By all accounts, he is simply a large amorphous glob of shadow, shaping itself to its own whims. But because of that, there's no one singular appearance that he could take with himself. Often times, when people spoke of the malignant king of shadows, all they could say with certainty was that it was akin to a demon: large pitch black arms and claws, and the face of a monstrous beast. Others say he had a face, or something that looked like one, a white mask and hands, and spoke with the deep voice of a devil offering temptations. Others still go as far as to say they did not see him as one entity, but a collective mass of hideous dark demons, a legion of darkness in and of himself.
Summary: From the experiment of a god to the Conqueror of worlds. With his mastery of the dark and his capability to reproduce an army of children at his beck and call, the Shadow King Scotus was an interdimensional threat, travelling from world-to-world, consuming all he visited in everlasting darkness. However, he was stopped by the one thing mocked throughout the ages but had a power all its own that he bore witnessed to: Love. He found a woman he could learn to love and be loved in return. This took to tragedy when that lover died and he retaliated in vengeance, only to die himself.
Anybody ever watched Castlevania? Think Dracula from the Anime, but as a mass of darkness instead of a Vampire.
Legacy: Long ago, there was a God, its name lost to time, who had a fascination with the concept of Life and what could be brought to life and be made manifest and personified. This curiosity led it to bring life to the lifeless, not of the physical but of the absolute, the nothing, the darkness.
But in order to make this a reality, he had to feed life to the darkness, more specifically the very essence of life across the multiverse, what many have come to call "Mana". Feeding Mana to the darkness would allow a fraction of that darkness to come to life, at least in theory. There was just one problem, the God had no dominion over life, he could not create from nothing as his kin could and has. And so he resorted to another way of getting the Mana he required: By stealing the life force that already exists.
To that end, he descended from on high to a universe bursting with life, and convinced it to tear itself apart through warfare, and he would gather the life force extracted from the bodies of the deceased. Among the many who have fought and die that was of note was a man known as the Warrior King, so impressive was his brute force and his sheer will that when he finally fell in battle the god took his flesh with him as he completes his experiment.
Within the great darkness, he offered the life force of millions of soldiers to give it life, the flesh of the Warrior King to give it shape and strength, and knowing that his kin would find what he did and punish him, he took the essence of his own divine soul and offered it as the final sacrifice, giving sentience and power to the dark. As the god faded onto nothing, a giant mass of the dark broke out and took a deformed, wicked shape.
Thus, The Shadow King, Scotus, was born.
While he had the figure of a man, Scotus had the hunger of the darkness and the instincts of a beast. From the moment he crawled out into a human world, he wanted to conquer and consume it onto himself. No logic, no reason, just desire, for the light of the universe was oft too much for him, and so he would snuff them out and return all to a comforting ebony. From the mana he obtained from the millions who died, his body produced an army fragmented from the whole of his dark mass, shadow beasts, unintelligent but unrelenting and monstrous creatures of the shadow, and they spread themselves far and wide.
Their first world was unprepared for such unrelenting forces, it did not take long for them to consume the people, the heroes, the villains, the world, and even the stars themselves. When he was done, all that remained of that universe was a pitch black void - a nest of shadow beasts - and Scotus, unsatisfied, moved to another universe, and then another, and then another.
For a time, a certain phrase cropped up across the many dimensions of the multiverse: "The Darkness is Coming..." A phrase that, for that time, referred to the Shadow King and his Army. There were signs of his coming shown throughout, stars blinking out of the night sky, shadows that moved on their own, entities lurking in the darkness tempting the unsuspecting to approach them and never return. Heroes of these worlds tried their best to tackle this invader and conqueror, and while they enjoyed some victories over his beasts, they would always fall before their king, and as soon as they were defeated, their world would fall into an eternal black and the Shadow King would move on to the next world to conquer. Worse still, his army seemed never ending - every time they kill a Shadow Beast it would return to him to be born again, and as time passed he created even greater, more powerful and more intellectual monstrosities, which came to be known as the Alpha Shadow Beasts. This cycle kept going for many years, and there were few who did not know the legend of the Shadow King.
Eventually the gods of various worlds had to intervene to fix the mistake one of their own had wrought upon their worlds, calling upon the great race of Dragons to protect the worlds from the Dark, and their nature as magical creatures of wisdom divinity, proved a match against the Shadow King and his armies, to a point where the blood of a dragon was used by Scotus to bring fourth a hybrid that could prove a better opponent for them, the Alpha Beast known only as the Shadow Dragon. They could not completely stop the unrelenting Shadow King, they put him into a stand still, buying time for other worlds to prepare properly and fight against the oncoming black.
The legend goes, that the Shadow King broke through the Dragons, only to be stopped by a Heroine, a queen of her kingdom given the power of Dragons. With the aid of her allies, she pushed through the tide of shadows and reached the Shadow King, and at last defeated him in battle.
The Darkness was stopped, and the Queen of Light ascended to legend and myth across many worlds.
Gravely wounded and defeated, The Shadow King retreated from that world and entered another, maintaining a human form with which to disguise and recover his strength. It was this moment he met another woman, Cynthia, a mere peasant of that world who saw the Shadow King and mistaken him for a gravely wounded human, taking him in and nursing the king of beasts back to health. At first, the King's instincts strived to want to devour this foolish woman, but he lacked the strength to do even that. What's more, he was confused about the kindness of this woman, his form may be human but his internals were not, she had to have known by then that he wasn't human, that he was a beast of the darkness, so why on earth would she continue with aiding in his healing? Her answer was sickeningly simple and naïve to him: She saw a someone hurt, and wanted to help them, not caring if it's man or beast. Still, he was gravely wounded and in no position to do much about his predicament, so without much option, he accepted her nursing him for now, planning on killing her and devouring her village and world once he was healed.
However, the healing took far longer than expected, even in the dead of night the darkness he absorb was meager and weak, the damage done to him was far greater than he thought it was, and he could not shape himself to a large enough form to eat anyone there, so he simply endured his unintended imprisonment.
Eventually, the welcoming nature of the village, and the kindness and almost motherly strict nature of Cynthia herself grew on Scotus, he began to feel strange emotions he never felt before, began to find value in the light of day he never thought possible. During a celebratory dance of her people by the fire burning at its center, he was taught by Cynthia how to dance, backed by the people of that village and through this dance was this Beast taught how to love the Beauty, and how to be loved in return.
Scotus was a changed entity at that point, gone was the dark emperor who devoured worlds and stars, the monster of the great darkness who commended armies of shadow beasts, instead, for the first time in his life he was simply "Scotus Blackade". (A surname Cynthia gave him as a joke, and he decided to use himself.) He even went so far as to humor the human girl by engaging in a human tradition called "marriage".
But he could never run from his past, and what he was gave tragedy to what he became. The armies of the Shadow King scattered about the multiverse, unorganized but dangerous, and still a major threat so long as the Shadow King continued to exist. And so the Gods and Dragons found Scotus and took it upon themselves to find a champion of that world, a group of heroes, to hunt him down. Bestowed power to finally finish off the Shadow King, the heroes tracked him down to the village and began their assault, believing the village to be enslaved by the dark one. Not helped was that when they came to hunt him down, they protected and defended him. They tried to convince them that whatever he was before he is no longer that, and the heroes believed that, but regardless of action, the Shadow King's existence was a danger, and so they had no choice but to destroy him. Scotus attempted to talk them into letting him, but the villagers had none of it.
In the end, the village was burned, the villagers killed, and Cynthia gave her life to protect him. A feeling of loss and despair overwhelmed Scotus, the melancholy gave rise to unquenchable rage, and he went berserk. Although he was not at full power, he went into a berserk state and began slaughtering the heroes who hunted him. beginning to do as he did before and devour the world for what it gave to him, and for what it took back from him.
The hero chosen by the gods, with a blade imbued with the magic of dragons, managed to deliver the final blow onto Scotus, stopping him from devouring their world, and causing the rest of the Shadow beasts (Save the Alphas) to fade away into the darkness. In his final moments as he laid there, a dragon sword stabbed within his chest, as his own body began to break down and fade away, he and the hero had a discussion. He never really understood the value of life and its beauty until he met Cynthia and the others, and calmed down, he accepted his fate as an abomination against that beauty, destined to perish to keep it alive. The hero made a suggestion that maybe, if an afterlife exists, he could come back as a hero himself, maybe be able to help protect the worlds he cherished.
"...Yes. ...I would like that..." was his final words, before the rest of his body melted into the black.
The King was dead...
That is, until the Abyss acquired his soul. Reforming a new body from the Great Darkness, and rekindling the rage he felt, the Shadow King, once a great Puppeteer, was now puppet to the Abyss, with his army of Shadow Beasts at its beck and call.
Long Live the King!
Personality: At the beginning until his 'retirement', there were only two things that could describe the Shadow King, A Beast, and a fearsome Emperor. As the primordial shadow beast born from the great darkness, Scotus was a creature of instinct by nature. He did not travel across universes for recognition or dominance or revenge, he consumed them because it was simply his nature to consume them. The light was a discomfort, and so he wished to snuff it out and feast on what remains. In that respect he was brutal, and remorseless, a firm believer in the philosophy of survival of the fittest, and practically without a heart to call his own, truly a monster that could not be reasoned with.
But that's not to say he wasn't intelligent, oh no, for every world he traveled he learned in an effort to more effectively spread and feed himself faster and with more potency. Eventually he gained himself a humanoid shape and meticulous sense of speech, very careful and straight forward with his word choices. During later invasions before anything else, he traveled to his targeted universes by himself and manipulated people like a devil on their shoulders to commit evil, to tear down any who might oppose the invasive force of his armies, took advantage of them at every turn, only to devour them when they have served their purpose.
Even his own Shadow Beasts had reason to fear him, for he was no nicer to them than to anyone else. Success was expected of them, and so they were not appreciated upon those successes, but when they fail, he showed no hesitation in destroying and consuming them back into himself. They were mere pawns, and easily disposable and replaceable. As such, he often showed no hesitation in sacrificing legions of Shadow Beasts if it meant heroes fell to a trap or their doom as well. The normal shadow beasts were merely destroyed upon failure. The Alphas, however, were 'disciplined' for theirs, and whenever an Alpha gained an instinct to try and one-up their king, Scotus had no hesitation in putting them painfully in their place.
As a race that has had connections to the Divine that hates him so, and as they had proven to be an utter thorn in his side, Scotus had an intense hatred for Dragons, in any world where dragons were residing among other races, Scotus made it a point to Prioritize their elimination over any other race. The only exception in this utter loathing was the Shadow Dragon he conceived from their blood, and that was only because he was a useful tool against them. While on the subject, he also looked down at other races, saw them as very little threat, especially humanity which he felt did not even need him to destroy them when they so readily destroy themselves.
However, after he suffered his first defeat at the hands of the Queen of Light, a human he looked down on, humiliated as he left, his personality changed the moment he accidently met Cynthia. At first, he intended to kill her and her village as soon as he recovered his strength, devouring them as their reward. However, his disgust at their simple and naïve existence turned into a sense of interest, than fascination, he did not understand why they were so kind to him when it was so very clear he wasn't human, that he was a beast of the darkness. Eventually, he grew to appreciate the sights that the light of day creates, he grew to respect the humans as they worked for their people and protected him, an abomination of the Dark, and he grew to love Cynthia, the only being to ever show him these feelings he never felt before, such as love or compassion.
Then the heroes and dragons attacked, killed Cynthia and her people while they protected him, and all of that positive development just washed away like sand castles upon the shore. The Shadow King was now a berserk rampaging monster, an even worse version of the creature he was before. For all his evil, his motivation was only in his instincts to feed and comfort himself away from the light. Now it was personal, a grudge, a desire to destroy and burn, damn whatever happens to himself.
When he finally was defeated again, his final moments took him out of the anger stage of grief, and into the depression, the sadness and despair, and then acceptance.
...However, When the Abyss made the Abyssal Doppelganger of the Shadow King, it managed to rekindle the instincts of his past, and the anger of his present, in order to effectively make it a soldier of its will without remorse. Needless to say, he succeeded. The Abyssal Shadow King remembers the pain of Cynthia's loss, and knows that this is not what she wants. He accepts that she may never forgive him for what he is doing to the multiverse in the name of the Abyss, but believes it to be the only way to avenge them. In other words, even when using Cynthia's name, there is still no reasoning with the Shadow King - if anything, the only thing that would serve is to piss him off even more.
Signature Ability: Umbrakinesis- True to his title, Scotus was a master of the darkness and the shadows moved to his whim. As an all-consuming entity of darkness himself, he could stretch himself into areas where light could never reach and manifest those shadows as an energy or a weapon of a physical mass. He can also meld with those shadows both as a way to strengthen himself, and as a method of escape a dire situation should it arise.
Abilities: Umbraconception- As an experimental entity of life, contrary to his appearance and powers, he is essentially a being blessed with the power of life. By separating a fragment of himself from his gelatinous body, the fragment can grow and gain sentience, becoming a fearsome shadow beast under the command of its king, acting as separate entities from him. Most of these creatures, while sentient and self-aware, are unintelligible monsters - mere animals that maim and feast both on instinct and command of their king, and serving as an extension of his will. Should the king ever die, these demons of the dark would die and fade to nothing alongside him.
There have been some notable Shadow Beasts, however, a rare breed who are both sentient and sapient. Intelligent, concise speaking, self-aware, and capable of far greater destruction on their own than their lesser brethren. These are the Alpha beasts, conceived through a large portion of the King and a part of his will given life. Unlike these other beasts, the Alphas did not die alongside their king. As far as everyone knows, they are still alive and drifting across the multiverse to this day, likely causing trouble and havoc where ever they go. It would be common to see some heroes going on an adventure to find and destroy the last of the Shadow King's ilk, but presently there have been no reports of the Alphas declared dead, nor of the heroes' return.
Shadow Beast Absorption- The King giveth, the King taketh away. The Shadow King is not just an entity of the dark, but a devourer of it. Should he will it, the King can devour and absorb his children back to the source, returning parts of himself to the whole. This can be used in two ways: first it can rejuvenate him, give him strength he may have lost during a battle with pesky heroes. Second he can then once again divide himself to create another shadow beast, effectively recycling it. Furthermore, any shadow beast that died he can call back to him to remake anew.
This constant recycling of his children is a major factor as to why he was such a threat, his army had a reputation of being eternal. No matter how many Shadow beasts you destroy, as long as the King exists, more will come.
Shape-shifting- As mentioned, Scotus is a gelatinous existence of mass shadows and darkness, and so he has, many times, been able to shape-shift into various things from giant monstrous beasts of nightmares to humanoid shadows that masquerade (literally if the mask is any indication) as man. It's not just a case of appearance, however. The physical attributes of the king also changes with every form he takes. Smaller forms are faster and more agile, larger forms are stronger and more durable, and something like a four-legged beast akin to a wolf - a form he often uses - has a well balanced sense of both.
As will be shown in his Redeemed self, and when he met with his beloved, he can actually become human in appearance. But this was a rarity when he was the Shadow King, and will most certainly be a rarity as a soldier of the Abyss.
Appearance:
Summary: Reborn as a part of the Redeemer Corp, he is one of those who gladly welcomes the chance to seek redemption for his actions. However, his gelatinous body rotted away upon his death. The Nexus could only save so much of it before it faded to nothing. What was left was used to create his human form, reserving any extra darkness into the form of a sheathed blade. It is only through this blade that he can now change into a shadow beast; there's too little in his current body to become anything significant.
Personality: Although his soul belongs to the abyss, it seems his body remembered his final moments of life, and remembered the love he had for Cynthia. The Personality he had gained when he was with Cynthia has returned to him, and while he still feels a sense of anger and hatred in his heart for the ones responsible for her death, part of them were already taken care of in his rampage and killing what's left won't bring her back, and isn't what she would have wanted.
True to his promise, when the Nexus offered him the chance to set things right, he took it in a heartbeat, especially knowing that the Shadow King he was before became an Abyssal soldier. He has a desire now to protect people like Cynthia from within the shadows, wanting to keep her memory alive by doing so.
As someone still new to this whole 'human' thing, while Scotus is still intelligent and knows quite a bit about ancient knowledge, he's often seen as highly introverted and awkward, not really knowing what the best way of saying things casually would be. Ask him something about the history of certain things, or about his Abyssal self, or about war tactics, and he'll answer with gusto, but ask him something basic or something unrelated to the task at hand, and he wouldn't exactly know where to begin. Also, having little in the way of societal experience outside Cynthia's village, some things that are seen as common sense for others may not occur to Scotus, and so, awkward hijinx of some kind may ensue.
He has a certain respect for humanity he garnered throughout his living years. He must have devoured hundreds of planets' worth of humans yet still they flourish and thrive, and while they are imperfect, cruel and wicked, the fact that there are even a hundred people like Cynthia and her village out of trillions of cruel and wicked humans, is a wonder in itself.
The Shadow Beasts, on the other hand, he still has no love lost with, albeit for completely different reasons. Now he is ruthless against them because they are a personification of the mistakes he has made, and as servants of the Abyssal Shadow King, their very existence mocks his attempts to change. The same goes with the Alphas, Shadow beasts that may actually be considered his legit children, he has no qualms about killing them, for they are a representation of everything that was wrong with him, and knew they themselves would devour other life forms without distinction.
Signature Ability: Umbrakinesis- Although he is weaker now, his mastery over the dark and shadows still exists. He can still manifest the darkness into an energy and give it physical mass, while also entering shadows to escape danger.
Redeemed Abilities: Shadow Beast Absorption- As a much smaller shadow, Scotus Blackade cannot actually create Shadow Beasts, there's simply too little of himself to conceive anything significant. However, should he find a Shadow Beast, he can still absorb them back into himself, at least in theory. After all, The Nexus revived his body, and the Shadow Beasts are parts of that body. If he ate enough, it may be possible to call out an army of his own, albeit a much smaller one.
However, one problem: When he died, all of the lesser shadow beasts died with him, almost his entire army of monsters faded to nothing. Moreover, The Abyss corrodes the Shadow Beasts his Abyssal self creates. As such, should the Shadow King of the Abyss create more beasts, Scotus can't absorb them back into himself.
The only way to test this theory is to kill an eat the only survivors of his kind, the Alpha Beasts... a feat he's not certain he can do on his own in his current state.
Shape-shifting- He may be much smaller, but he's still simply a gelatinous mass of darkness in truth. As such, he could shape-shift himself into a different entity like he could before. But whatever he turns into is significantly less potent compared to his past self. Moreover, on his own, he is barely himself, and only has enough of himself within him to sustain this human form. He needs the Black Sword, and the Darkness within it to be able to become anything. No Sword, no shape-shifting.
Alan's eyes were steeled the moment he confirmed Finnbar was still on their side. He stayed silent until the folks he didn't know that were with him took the elevator upwards. As soon as he confirmed they were out of sight, he immediately jumped towards his cells bars to get as close to the other side - and to his friend - as possible, before whispering.
"Any chance you can make some mini-portal or something to get this damn thing off?" Alan simply asked.
---
Maria stared into the eyes of the doctor and found something fascinating within them: Relativity, familiarity, like looking into a mirror, fogged and blurred; he saw himself in her, and she sees something back. It was a curious thing for her, as she tilted her head, what must this person have had happened to him to make her eyes so similar to her own?
An exploration for another day, but perhaps it was because of this that when the Doctor mentioned that he was a friend, she didn't need her telepathy active to know that he was telling no lie. ...The fact that he unlocked her cell helped with that opinion as well though. Furthermore, the name Millard was someone Joey talked about during the trip that led them here.
As soon as the door opened, she walked out and pointed downwards with her finger, as if indicating the answer being below them.
"...Two allies. One floor below us lies Alan, a fellow Star Marine...By the voices I'm hearing, it seems Finnbar is already down there with him. Fortunate: He can make them an escape route out of those cells, for him, and for Joseph Albion below them." She told Millard as she looked out the balcony of her floor towards the whole of Cell Block B, watching for potential guards doing patrols on the lower floors.
While her voice was befitting her ten-year-old appearance, it was a cold and distant tone to her every word, there was no relief to see an ally rescuing her, no distress for either of her captive allies, and she spoke of Finnbar as if he was a conveniance and nothing more. It was like she was a doll or a machine, emotionless and seemingly without a soul. Most would find it unnerving, maybe even see this as not being her, maybe she's brainwashed? Perhaps a clone or an android with her appearance disguised as her? But for the Star Marines, this isn't new, she's been like this ever since they met her. They knew she's as human, and just as capable of feeling as the rest of them, but her lack of emotional conveyance was something she could not help.
"Do you have a key for this collar?" The little girl asked, her eyes on that neutral face staring towards Millard, down to her soul.
A ghastly name for a ghastly ship filled with ghastly people. A military level prison ship in which some of the worst and most dangerous criminals of the Ascendancy are detained. Terrorist groups, Psychopaths, serial killers and masterful bandits, Traitors and deserters, this ship has it all. It is infamous for being the top prison ship for transporting the particularly dreadful inmates to maximum security facility planets throughout the Ascendancy - usually for the purpose of executing them.
Not that long before its fate, it was a few hundred light years away from Plenty, about to make a jump from where they were to a Prison planet for the drop off of inmates, when they detected a smaller ship flying to the side of their own, moving in for boarding position.
Communications picked up a message hailing them from said small ship.
"This is Agent Carmichael of Ascendancy Special Forces, I have an arrested and restrained fugitive on board, wanted for piracy, grand theft auto, and mass terrorism across the Ascendancy territory. Requesting permission to dock and imprison him on your ship." Said the young lightly-tanned skin man inside this small ship, could not have been anymore than 30 years of age. Turning towards someone in the shadows of the ship, clearly restrained by the looks of his wiggling about, the Agent took out what appeared to be a scanner of some sort and let the laser field from it cover the shadowy inmate. After which, the data retrieved from the scan was sent to the Circle of Hell, so as to verify the identity of the criminal in question. As soon as they saw who it was, they responded without hesitation.
"Permission Granted, please stand by and prepare for docking procedure." Said the communicator within the Circle of Hell.
As the smaller ship got into position, the Circle of Hell released a docking tube to connect the two ships. A small welcome party of prison guards standing by on the other side of the door as it opens up.
Entering the ship was a rather unusual cast of three.
First and foremost - both for being right in the center and for looking the most uncanny of the three - was an even younger man in handcuffs, looking like he only just hit adulthood a year or so ago, a messy head of dirty blonde hair and seemingly a single eye of sky-blue on his left, his right being covered up by an old fashioned eyepatch. But the most unusual thing about him was that attire he had on. A long velvet red coat over a button down shirt of white silk, dark grey cotton pants and old-fashioned leather boots. Not a single bit of armor protection on his person, and a black cap resembling the design of naval caps on captains in the ancient times of the 1700s Earth. Needless to say, the guards were not expecting what they now saw. The boy looked as if he time-traveled to the future from those ancient explorative days, but was so young that there was no way he could have been a captain even back then. Not only did his appearance make it obvious that he was a Pirate, it was as if he was mocking the very image of a Space Pirate. To resist laughing at this blatant parody - at this boy, clearly either mad or childish or both - was understandably a trying task.
Still, they did resist laughing. In their line of work, appearances can be very deceiving. Moreover, they recognize this one's face. Despite his age, he's infamous as a notorious Space Pirate. This was made clear when a biometric scanner came down from the ceiling, the Agent seemingly pushing the young pirate forward to get analyzed first.
"Oi! Don't go pushin' me like some swine to the grinder, you pompous scallywag!" The young Pirate yelled, stomping his feet up and down rapidly like a child throwing a tantrum.
"Shut up, stop moving, and face the damn scanner, or I and the other guards will make you cooperate." The agent coldly said, unphased by the Pirate's tantrum - same couldn't be said for the other guards. A few moments of silence as the pirate stops his stomping before then shrugging his shoulders in a whiplash-indcing change of mood and turned to face the scanner, much to the confusion of the guards. Reports did indicate a mental fringe on the pirate and potential for insanity, but they were not exactly prepared for this. The poor bastard must not have all his eggs in his basket.
As the scanner activated, a wide-radius laser stretching outward at the waist area of the three, before moving up towards of their heads, followed by down towards the tips of their feet. Within moments, holographic screens showing the records of the three visitors popped up.
"Captain Arron Falcon" was the name of this childish pirate standing before them. Despite his look and apparent personality, he is the Captain of the "Cerulean Eclipse" Pirates, one of the most infamous and dangerous pirate groups in the Ascendancy. This in mind, it was no surprised that the list of crime charges he has on his record reads like a Novel.
Piracy
Grand Robbery
Grand Theft Auto
Extortion
Pillaging of ships and cities across dozens of planets
Terrorism
A few cases of Manslaughter
The list went on. Hard to believe it could be done or orchestrated by such a child like this. He did have weapons on them, but one of them, too, was just as ridiculously outdated as his attire, a classic wood-and-metal Flintlock revolver - though interesting with eight holes rather than six, and an oddly colorful revolving cylinder - and two swords, at least they looked relatively modern, a rapier and a cutlass.
Upon a closer look, the agent to the Pirate's right had a slightly messy head of black hair and a moderate build to his body. But much like the pirate, he had an odd attire to him, wearing a black tuxedo under a grey coat, replacing the bowtie common in it with a black tie, and no armor in sight. Although in his case, it seemed at least possible that he had armor beneath the suit. The only weapon he seemed to have on his person was a Standard-issue pistol you see even Privates with. Either he is super confident with his gunplay, or his real weapon of choice was something else not on his person, his fists being the most likely candidate, what with the short black gloves on both of them.
To the Pirate's left was another man, almost exactly opposite to the agent in terms of appearance and the general impression. Whereas the Agent was dressed in black, tanned, looked young, and looking like he was willing and able to fight, this one was dressed in a white coat, pale, looked rather old with long white hair and a fluffy white mustache, and looked like he couldn't fight a child, much less a soldier or a pirate considering how scrawny his muscles appeared to be. He looked quite nervous of the situation, his hands together behind him. Quite suspicious, but the scanner did not pick up anything on his person save for a PDA with a flash drive jack, and so the guards left it at that.
The scanner also checked the ID pinned on the lapel of his white coat and found a match within the Ascendancy database both in ID and Facial Recognition: Professor Audric Abreo, one of the top scientists in Robotics, Bio-technology, and Artificial Intelligence in the Ascendancy, a genius in his own right who was responsible for creating a few of the androids and cybernetics still used to this day, but retired about two years ago.
They also detected the ID on the Agent's person and found a match for him as well: Agent James Carmichael, Ascendancy Special Forces, an elite group of enforcers outside the Armadas sent out to subdue A-class criminal activity, pursue covert operations and in some cases, even assist in Black Operations such as the Star Marine Project. This agent in particular specialized in hunting down and subduing the Ascendancy's Most Wanted, as such, this wasn't much beyond a normal day for him.
Almost immediately after the scanning process, the people in the hall could hear a loud voice bellowing through the hall, one that made this hard special agent flinch as he heard it.
"JIM! Oh ho, I knew I heard the sound of fun and joy getting strangled on the intercom." The delighted voice said from down the hall, the guards immediately turning towards it and saluting upon hearing it. Along comes the red-haired warden of the ship, Minerva de Silva, walking towards the group in the hall with big smile on her face, and a couple of bulky prison guards at her side.
"...Hello again, Warden De'Silva." The Agent said, with a tone that yelled professional, but a look that screamed irritated. Of all the Prison Ships in the Entire Ascendancy, he just had to have the rotten luck to need the one with her in it as Warden.
"That's the Warden of this ship? ...Oh dear." Professor Abreo thought. She didn't seem like a bad woman or anything, in fact she seemed a bit too pleasant for heading a ship with the kind of reputation that it has. He can only imagine what she's like to the prisoners; from his experience, usually people who show themselves off to be happy-go-lucky while in a position that demands horrific things are those who enjoy what they do. Judging by the Agent's reaction, he'd wager there's at least more to this one than meets the eye.
"Oh come now, Jimbo, No need to be so formal, I keep telling you to call me, Minerva."
"And I keep telling you that I'm not interested in small talk. I'm only ever here on the job, and this isn't any different." De'Silva sighed at the agent's disappointing response.
"Damn, You're still the stick in the mud I remember, Jimmy-boy. ...But at least that means you're stuck to the ground. ...So, what have you got for me this time? Ooo, A cute one, you know me so well." De'Silva looked towards Arron as she said this, who irritably looks away from her as she stares at him.
"Captain Arron Falcon of the Cerulean Eclipse Pirates. Managed to capture him after he attempted a foolish theatric during the attempted Heist of the Platinum Bank of Plutus. I got lucky; the boy's too reckless for his own good. His crew was nowhere to be seen unfortunately, must have abandoned him to save their own hide." The agent said, the boy's face looking grimmer as he talked. De'Silva was quick to notice this dark, almost depressive expression on his face; it made sense to her that they'd do such a thing to a boy like this, there's no honor among thieves after all, least of all among scum.
More importantly, She could not help but look at the boy and then back at the Agent with a raised eyebrow of suspicion. The boy looked young enough to get together with her own kid, and that silly pirate attire he got...
"Captain? Pfft... You sure you didn't just adopt a teenager, dressed him up in this get-up as a joke and brought him here as some...elaborate attempt to say we should be a family?" She smugly asked the agent, resisting the urge to just burst out a laugh. Needless to say, this only served to annoy the agent, as his eyes narrowed before he cleared up his throat trying to get back into his professional character.
"I know he looks strange... It was baffling to me as well, but I have reason to believe he's one of those Star Marines, he must have gone rogue and joined up with the pirates. Their previous Captain was put to death, so it's possible he could have used the rumored magic these kids supposedly had to convince them to make him captain." He explained. Honestly it was hard for De'Silva to believe this brat's responsible for all the heists and ship-pillaging that his crew's been wanted for since the execution of their past Captain, Edward Marshal. On the other hand, she's heard about the Star Marines and how they were some secret force operating in the shadows of black operations during the war. If he truly was one of them, he could probably have scared those pirate scum into making him in charge with that rumored magic she was told about. That experience could also have very well explained those planned operations these pirates are now practically famous for.
"Compelling argument, Jimmy. ...Well, let's hear it from Lil Blackbeard's mouth. Anything to say in your defense, Short John Silver?" De'Silva asked, grabbing at the pirate's chin and turning his face to face her. Despite how she looked, it was clear to the boy that she had quite a strong grip.
"...Aye, Just a question, where on this ship are ye keepin the rum? I'd like ye to send some to my cell, Tavern Wench." Arron said, a silly smile on his face, as if he was thinking of all of this as some joke. The other guards readied batons to give this little brat a beating for insulting the Warden like that, but she was quick to extend her free hand towards them as a sign to hold off, then proceeding to give a hearty chuckle.
"Funny lil guy, ain't ya? ...You know, I never liked pirates. ...In fact, I hate the very ground they stand on. I'm a frontier girl at heart, you probably already know we aren't treated the best by those city folk in the capital planets. But I always felt like we could make due, ignore their disdain for us, and eventually we'd make them give us some respect if we worked hard enough. Who knows, maybe one day, one of us will be a senator, maybe even a president, sky's the limit. ...But then there's people like you pirate and rebels and low-life criminals, who come in and sully all that reputation we built up, on top of just outright attacking and pillaging us! ...But you? I think I like you, you got some spunk on ya... I think it's best you get some 'special treatment'. Boys, take Captain Kid here to his room on the top floor. Let him lie there and think about what he's done." De'Silva said, a sly smile on her face.
On cue, the guards grabbed the boy pirate by the shoulders and placed a collar around his neck, immediately emitting a pulse of some kind to show that it activated. They then grabbed both of his shoulders and moved down the hallway, dragging the pirate with them. Agent Carmichael watched as the pirate was taken away, before then turning towards the Warden.
"With your permission, Warden, I'd like to follow suit and stand guard over his cell." He said, making De'Silva look back towards him with a raised eyebrow.
"Stand Guard? What, don't trust my security detail, Jim? He isn't the first Magical prisoner we had on this ship, you know."
"Maybe so, but despite his appearance, he still has his wits about him even without his magic. This wouldn't be the first time he managed a jailbreak under restrictive conditions. I can't afford to have him escape me again."
"...Jim, this is one of the most top-secured prison ships in the Ascendancy fleet. We've had legions of criminals taken back to correctional facilities during the war, and not one inmate has ever escaped from it, not one. ...Look, I know what the soldiers say about me running this ship, but I do know what I'm doing as Warden. You can chill out and let us take it from here..." Her voice became more stern than it ever did, as if insulted by the Agent's statement about the possibility of a jail break. The agent went silent, looking at the ground before then looking back at the Warden.
"...Even so, I can't take any chances. ...I can't let this one get away from me again. I just can't! ...Please, Minerva." The Agent said, finally saying the Warden's first name from his lips with hesitation, as if he was trying his best to keep that word in himself but succumbed. There was a moment of silence as the two looked into each other's eyes.
"...One magic word, that's all I wanted to hear. ...That wasn't so hard, was it? ...Alright, suit yourself. Follow those guards, they'll take you straight to his cell as soon as they're done readying him for it. Gotta warn you though, Jimmy, Solitary hall's absolutely boring. Don't go crying to me if you wind up wanting to shoot yourself from it." De'Silva said, her demeanor changing again at a dime, giving the agent a big sly smile as if she was a teenaged tomboy teasing the stern jock. The Agent gave a gentle smile right back and a nod before walking off. But before the Warden could do anything else, she seemed to finally notice the third person that arrived.
"Oh, right...You with Jimmy-boy?"
"Hm? OH! Umm, No, well...sort of. My name is Aldric Abreo, ...Professor Abreo. I came here due to a distress call this ship gave, it said it needed someone to help reinforce the cage on their...umm...'special guest'." The old man finally said, a nervous tone to match a nervous look to this otherwise polite old man.
"...Oh, right. We did make that request, didn't we?" De'Silva remembered, before then heading towards another guard to get info from the scan made earlier.
"Huh, says here you've retired for some time now, Professor. We made that request to Ascendancy R&D a little while back, for a specialist still in the field, ...why send a retiree?"
"I had asked for it. I heard from a former colleague about the request, and wanted to head over to deal with it myself. ...The Realist AI is, ...very important to me. I couldn't trust anyone else to do this but me."
"And, you were on Jimmy's ship because...?"
"Oh, I...lost my ship a long time ago in an accident. Agent Carmichael and I have gone way back for a considerably long time, I always assisted him in his missions as a...scientific advisor, so to speak. He was on my home world during the boy's heist. He was going to take the boy to a Prison ship, and I figured I'd advise this one and hitch a ride with him here. Two birds, one stone, Hehehe..." The professor said, giving a gentle, but exhausted laugh to end his explanation, a gentle smile on his face to compliment it. He seemed like a good, kind man, but it was clear by his tired expression he was too old for taking missions like this.
"...Uh, huh. Well... Fair enough, you certainly seem qualified for it. Realist's cell is down the hall of Solitary. ...That said, we are going to have to keep watch over what you do in there for security reasons, I hope you don't mind." De'Silva said, nodding towards a guard as if to imply he will be keeping watch over the Professor as he does his work.
"Oh, not at all, madam. I completely understand the caution. AIs are a more difficult inmate to keep contained on a ship like this after all. ...Well, let's not dawdle. I assure this won't take long, but I'd like to request a transport back home afterwards. Rest assured, fair madam, Realist will not be getting away..." The Professor then said to her, following with the other guards and the Agent towards Solitary Hall. The guard she tasked with watching the professor took a few steps to follow him before the Warden grabbed him by the shoulder, pulled him back to her, and whispered in his ear.
"Don't let him out of your sight... He does anything suspicious, give him one warning... he doesn't comply, shoot to kill." She whispered. The guard nodded, he needn't ask why she would ask him to shoot the professor down, it was clear to everyone in the hall that his story was suspicious, and the AI he's heading to secure was the ship's top priority inmate. No chances can be taken around it. That in mind, with safety disengaged on his gun, he rushed over to follow the Professor.
---
Just as boring as she says. At the top floor of Cell Block A, the very top of the prison cell area of the ship, lies solitary hall. Compared to the incredibly spacious Cell blocks, this singular hallway would feel incredibly claustrophobic and rather darkly lit. Facing down the hallway from the entrance, there was no real decor beyond just plain metal halls, and steel doors on the right wall, and nothing on the left save for cameras near the ceiling to keep watch over the doors. The hall itself was quite long for what it was, stretching about 60 feet long, the steel doors opening up to small rooms just as claustrophobic in nature as the hall itself.
As the Professor and the guard he was assigned with walked down the hall, they noticed near its end that the pirate child was being thrown into the solitary confinement cell, Agent Carmichael standing by the door after it closed shut on the pirate. The pirate screamed profanities, not that the Professor could hear anything, as the rooms were essentially completely soundproof... even then, the Agent could still barely hear the boy's angered screams while standing next to his door. The Professor and agent looked at each other, giving a slight nod as if in greeting, as the professor walked past him.
At the end of the hall was the Professor's destination, a giant cube-shaped room more artificial and feeling more fresh than any other part of the ship. From the evidence of the wall of the hall being cut open to the overly clean polish to it, it was clear this was a room they added onto the ship after its creation, and it didn't take long to figure out why.
Opposite to the door way, past an array of computer consoles in the middle of the room was a giant black device, almost similar in a way to a tree trunk, with glowing red wires hooked up to what looked like a giant red eye at the very center of this device.
This "eye", an octagonal-shaped drive with a glowing red light in the center was the "VIP" of this ship, the core of the AI, Realist, strapped onto a restrictive frame disconnected from the ship's mainframe networks - controlled only by the consoles in the middle of the room as the user interface - and generating a signal that completely blocked the AI's wireless connections outside the frame.
In short, Realist was in the closest thing to a Prison cell the ship could create, made especially for him.
The professor took a deep breath before stepping into the room, the AI's Eye giving him a stare that could pierce his very soul. Yet Abreo stared right back at it, a small smile on his face.
"It's been a while, Realist..." He simply said. The professor and the guard could see the red eye moving up and down slowly, as if scanning the professor.
"...A long time indeed, Professor Abreo. I can tell much has changed since we last met on Earth. Truly a pity that I was not there to witness your ascension." The metallic voice from the wall echoed across the room. For a such a small device, it created quite a booming, yet cold voice.
"A-Ascension? ...What is he talking about, sir?"
"It's not important, best not to think on it too hard. ...What is important is what I came here for." The Professor responded to the soldier's somewhat disturbed question as he walked over to one of the computer consoles in the middle of the room, staring at the monitor.
"Hmm...I can see why they needed assistance. The physical frame is still firm, but the software inside the frame holding you in is corrupting, decaying slowly by the second. No doubt your doing, Realist. You never did play nice with other programs." He said, typing on the keyboard feverishly as he speaks. The eye on Realist's core dilates for a moment before shrinking back to normal, as if coming to a realization.
"...I see. It is all comprehensible now."
"Oh...?" The professor looked up towards Realist as the AI says this, a small smile on his face, the guard looking at both in confusion as he spots the Professor inserting something into the console.
"The breach in the frame was not my doing. A nanite was spotted in this room a few days ago. Not long after, a breach in security is detected wirelessly, creating a hole in the system and allowing me a chance at escape, little by little. They detected it as well... But the programmers that were to be my guards and patch this hole in the system suddenly are inflicted with illness and are unable to do so. The ship calls out for other programmers to come and maintain my 'cell' in their place, and out of all the many humans capable of this, you are the one who heeds the call...the only one who comes forward."
"Are you accusing me of something, Realist?" The Professor's tone starting to shift from the tired but gentle professor to something more sly, as if he was enjoying this.
"...You are the one. That Nano-saboteur was one of yours, wasn't it? You arranged a situation in which you would be allowed here, under the pretense of fixing an error that you yourself caused."
"Heh, Interesting claim. A number of holes in it, but I won't bore you with explaining them, you clearly have gone off the rails like they said. But I will say this: there's no pretense here. In about 45 seconds, the hole will be sealed up, and you'll be trapped once again."
"...Then why are you copying my data files and storing them into that unit?" This one question was enough for the guard to jolt to attention. Indeed, he noticed it as well, that device inserted into the console, it was basically a small black box the professor was holding in his pocket - The 'PDA' detected by the scan, connecting to the console through a wire. This guard wasn't exactly tech-savvy, but even he could connect the dots as to what's going on here. As such, the guard held up his gun and took aim towards the professor's head.
"Simmer down, boy... This AI would lie in order to save himself; he's done so before. This hole in your cyber-security is getting bigger by the second. You shoot me, and it will buy him time to escape into this ship's network." This made the guard's hand shake in hesitation, but the gun was still aimed. The Warden told him to shoot should he notice anything suspicious, but at the same time, the professor has a point; Realist could be lying to keep his cage from getting fixed. As if in response, the Professor slowly put his hand in his pocket, and let out the black box in question, and raised it to his head, allowing it to be in clear view.
"...It's a digital tool box. I don't have a lot of faith in Omni-tools you see, so I crafted a more physical one of my own. Some of my best application programs are installed into this, which I can then use a myriad of different jobs, including bug-patching." He said, still typing at a fast rate with one hand.
But before the guard could say anything else, suddenly the entire room goes black, save the glowing eye of Realist, dimly illuminating the center of the room with an eerie red light. It wasn't just there either, the hall way they took to get there, the cell area beyond that, the entire ship went into a blackout, with dim lights turning on from the floor as the ship's emergency power activates. Screams of panic and alarms echoed barely towards the room.
"...Also including a storage app." the Professor said undeterred, as if nothing was wrong. The guard - looking around in confusion at the panic that was happening - looked back towards the Professor, who finally stopped typing, just to flings his fingers towards the guard, as if splashing droplets of water on him. Before the guard knew it, he could feel tiny pokes all over his body, as if a bunch of bugs suddenly landed on him. He tried to brush them off in a panic, only to suddenly stop and jolted in pain as he falls to the floor, having a seizure. Whatever it was that landed on him gave him an electrical shock across the body.
"He'll live." The Professor said, turning to Realist, continuing typing again. "Well, this charade's been fun, but it seems I've wasted enough time. So..."
On cue, he pushed one last button, and the sound of a lock disengaging could be heard, the Professor disconnecting his device and putting it back in his pocket.
"We don't have a lot of time; the lock has an auto-engage that'll activate soon. Let's get you out of there before they start coming in."
"...I see, you were buying time. This blackout was also your doing, so you came all this way for me, or rather, for the information I hold. I take it the data you copied serves as consolation in case you failed to get me out in time." Realist said as the device keeping in the core was shutting down.
"...I'd rather not have anyone else be in possession of such valuable information - Ascendancy or otherwise - but in case something goes wrong, I don't intend on leaving without it no matter what. Furthermore, not my choice, but I was ordered by the boss to add a little something to your database, just in case... But enough talk, let's-" The professor was interrupted again, this time by a deafening boom and hard shakes, enough to make the professor lose his footing and fall, even more alarms were blaring now, as the gravity started to push the professor towards the console - no, towards the wall where Realist was. He looked behind, and noticed the Agent outside in Solitary hall rolled towards and hit his head on the door leading into Realist's cell, clearly having trouble as well. The knocked out guard also seemed to slide down towards the wall where Realist was.
"What the hell did you do!?" The professor said, trying to keep himself on his feet.
"This is not my doing; I am still disconnected from the ship's systems. ...Judging by the sudden shift in gravity, the sound of explosions, and the heavy vibrations, I deduce the ship has sustained heavy damage, and is now caught in a gravity well, hopefully the gravity of a planet. ...Was this not a part of your plan as well?" Realist responded, as if mocking Abreo. The Professor could not make any response as he instead grabbed hold of the nearest console he could find and braced for impact.
---
Hours later after the crash, once the guards finally got their bearings in order, they searched over Solitary Confinement and Realist's own cell. The Auto-lock reengaged, with the hole in the software patched as the Professor promised. As a result, their AI prisoner was still held captive, just as it should be. However, the professor himself was nowhere to be seen. The guard watching him was the only one found, still alive, though it seemed to be through some assistance, possibly the Professor's.
Furthermore, The Pirate they captured at the same time seemed to have escaped, along with many other criminals whose doors were broken from the crash. Guards suspect that the pirate child could very well have been the one who broke them out, perhaps to keep the guards busy amidst the chaos, though there was little evidence left to tell either way. The agent James Carmichael also disappeared, his body undiscovered amidst the rubble. It's believed by Warden De'Silva that the Agent likely woken up to find out the pirate escaped, and chased after him as soon as he could. He always was - in her words - "wonderfully persistent".
The current whereabouts of the Pirate, the Agent, and the Professor, is unknown...
Not far from the Circle of Hell's shipwreck was the mentioned Vice-Admiral of Alexander Kherol, Kotaro Winterborn. But he did not fly here immediately after the ship's crash-landing. On the contrary, he was here even before the ship crashed. It's been two weeks since the crash, and by extension, two weeks since the negotiations to peacefully end this rebellion crumbled to dust. He watched as the Circle of hell dropped from the sky at the hand of the rebels and was the one who destroyed the cannon that caused it to happen, before then retaliating against the rebels for what they did. Not at that moment though, he gave them time to surrender themselves before he gives the order to suppress them in Grand Admiral Kherol's name. By now, Time was up...
However, he had larger priorities to deal with at the time, which was in part the reason for the time limit. After the Circle of Hell crashed, it unwittingly allowed for a jailbreak to happen as a result of the malfunctioning security of the ship. As a result, a large number of very dangerous criminals escaped and were wandering about the Planet - need it be to try and escape off the planet or to simply cause havoc and satisfying whatever desires they may have there - causing things to become even worse for the bystanders of this battle than it already was. As such, Kotaro's top priority was the capture of these criminals and the protection of the rest of Plenty not involved in the war.
Twisting the arm of Plenty's Garrison Commander, under Grand Admiral Laguna, to work with him on this, Kotaro personally orchestrated and commanded the recapturing effort, sending his best men to procure the criminals, dead if necessary. For two weeks he's been dealing with both criminals and rebels, and any who tried to come after him or the Garrison Commander personally, he reluctantly had executed - well, reluctantly in the case of the rebels, he had no sympathy for any Circle of Hell escapees who dared to come after him.
Kotaro currently was outside a large tent, giving orders to soldiers left and right, when suddenly appears a small person in a yellow hood - a boy by the voice and stature - by Kotaro's side from out of nowhere, prompting a few soldiers to jump and point their guns, only for other soldiers to intervene and push the guns away. Those who are under Kherol - and currently working for the Vice-Admiral - have seen this boy appear and disappear quickly so many times now that it does not phase them anymore, and so they have to explain to soldiers under Laguna that this boy is on their side.
"We rounded up the last of the criminals, Boss!" The hooded boy said, the outright cheerful tone offsetting the hooded appearance he was taking.
"Well done... But faster than expected, were there any issues."
"Errm, well, Some of them chose to fight us and died, Ma'am Nuletta in particular made quick work of quite a number of them. Also, Sir Zebul said he found a ship managed to escape out of the blockade Laguna made, definitely wasn't one of ours either."
...How many was on that ship?"
"Two, maybe three." Kotaro could not help but sigh at this failure. Despite his efforts and the efforts of his men, it seems a few criminals escaped back to the Ascendancy anyways. He thought about what Kherol would do at a time like this...
"...We'll leave them be for now, but not without an eye watching over them. Have Sir Zebul give the details of that ship to one of our recon units to conduct a search, and relay what they find to me. Have the Harlequins keep the prisoners from escaping until another prison ship arrives. If they attempt an escape again, they are authorized to kill."
"And...what about the rest of us, boss?" The boy asked. Kotaro took a deep breath and sighed. As much as he didn't want to, he knew exactly what order to give to the boy, he knew what had to be done.
He made his Ultimatum, to back out of it would be going back on his word and cowardice, especially after they crashed the Circle which caused this further chaos in the first place. He gave the rebels more time to surrender than he likely should have; this bloodshed would have been spared a while ago had he simply arrested their leaders when he had the chance. While he understands their motivations, their extreme aggression and lacking of regret and foresight to the ramification of their actions cannot and will not be tolerated.
"...Time's up. Have the Paladins work with Laguna's Soldiers to shut this rebellion down. Sir Zebul and Madam Nuletta are on recon and rescue duty. They are to find any innocent bystanders still in the warzones and the four remaining leaders of the Rebellion. Relocate the civilians to safe zones and bring the four elders to me. How you do it is up to you, but I want them alive. There are soldiers likely protecting them, kill them only if you feel there is no other option to take, but otherwise, I want them captured as well. The rest of the Paladins are to locate and destroy the orbital cannons stationed across Plenty. The rest of the armies are to overwhelm the Rebel forces, diverting their attention away from the Paladins' activities. Commander, once the cannons are destroyed, relay to Grand Admiral Laguna to bring in her fleet to encompass the world. If things go as they should: their best weapons will be gone, their elders will be captured, and the amount of ships and soldiers should be enough to diminish their morale to the point of surrender." Kotaro said. Thinking from the perspective of an experienced Commanding Officer, this strategy may seem too simple to work. However, Kotaro realizes that these are not soldiers they are dealing with, they are not experienced machines of war that has seen military strategies in action before, they are young and old farmers who were given weaponry and are driven by a reckless passion, drunk on the power they were given. Best to match the strategy to the opponent, lest more people die than necessary. The hooded boy did a bow, and just like that, he vanished in as much of a blink of an eye as he appeared, reappearing on another hill not that far from Kotaro's position before disappearing again.
"Now wait just a minute, You can demand your freaks to do whatever you want, but those are MY Armies and under Grand Admiral Laguna! You have no authority to make orders to them, specially not when it's essentially making them bait!" The garrison commander yelled from behind. Kotaro turned towards him and coldly stared daggers into the commander's soul, before immediately unsheathing a regular blade and pointing it towards the commander's neck.
"I don't recall asking for your opinion, Commander. It was because of you and Grand Admiral Laguna's stepping out out of your expertise that a lot of good people died, and the farmlands are now ruined. We may not be able to recultivate this planet because of your scorched earth tactics. I don't know why Grand Admiral Laguna got involved, and I don't care. Counter-insurgency is our department, so until this rebellion is ended, I am taking the reins of this operation and the authority that comes with it. If Grand Admiral Laguna is unsatisfied, she may take it up with Grand Admiral Kherol after this is over. Now, give the order. Wait for our signal and commence a wave-by-wave assault on the rebels." He said. He knew that it was possible this action could qualify in Grand Admiral Laguna's eyes as insubordination, however there was argument to be had about this whole operation being worse.
The Garrison commander nodded in agreement and headed off to fulfill his order, worried that he was now caught between a rock and a hard place, between the Vice-Admiral having his head, or Grand Admiral Laguna.
As Kotaro prepared himself for this gambit, another soldier came towards him from the crashed Prison Ship.
"Vice-Admiral, ...We recieved word of unexpected visitors that arrived on the Ship."
"Visitors...?"
"They claim to be a relief unit sent to assist the staff in evacuating the ship, remanding any prisoners that didn't escape, and overall be a boost to the crew's morale." The soldier explained.
Kotaro was quick to think about this, indeed it made sense for a relief unit to come down and assist the Circle of Hell, and hopefully get it running again. He ordered one himself after all, and it's been two weeks so it must have been known by now by some that the ship was wrecked here on the planet. By all accounts, these people seem legit.
And yet, something about this doesn't feel right. Kotaro has been on this planet for all of the two weeks that the ship has landed for, and no one came to help with the situation despite his best efforts...and the one he did manage to contact, said they still couldn't come for at least another two days, simply due to the distance.
So who are these guys...?
"Are they still on board?"
"As far as we know, yes."
"...Very well, gather some of the men and follow me. It's high-time we tell Warden De'Silva of our progress anyways." Kotaro said. The soldier nodded as he prompted a small legion of soldiers to follow Kotaro as he walks towards the Circle of Hell.
On the way, he's using his hands to invoke silent orders to his men, prompting some of them to move away and leaving about four men with him as he continued his walk.
The Vice-Admiral is coming...
Circle of Hell - Holding Cells Block B
"GAH!" was Alan's reaction to hearing this person (Finnbar) talking to Jan and happening at his cell, jumping into an odd frazzled position for a second before immediately relaxing and staring at the two in front of him.
"Holy shit, that yelling actually worked?" was all he could think of, so utterly dumbfounded to actually see someone outside his cell after the yelling to the point where he was basically blocking out what the two people were saying to each other, even momentarily not catching what the person asked him.
His eyes widened and he shook his head to get his mind out of the gutter before actually taking a look at the one talking to him.
This person was staring into Alan's soul, and Alan stared right back into his. There was little doubt in his mind, he recognized the old shape-shifting colleague all too well. This was Finnbar, one of the Star Marines he met so long ago, a brother in arms who chose to fight against the Ascendancy with the others, one of the Star Marines who he missed due to his training back on the Rau've planet.
That said, what in the hell was he doing here talking to this woman and acting like an Ascendancy inspector? Did he actually re-join with the Ascendancy since he last saw him, or was this some kind of ruse to get as far into the ship as he was? Now that Alan thought about it, they were suppose to come here for Realist, and not from the experience that got him to this point in the first place, just waltzing in to grab Realist off these people was a bad idea.
Either way, regardless of whether he's joined with the Ascendancy again, or whether this some kind of inside job, what Alan needs to do is the same, he knows exactly how to greet his old friend...
"Yeah, I got a name... It's Kiss my ass and burn you 'Ascendant' Grand-Delusional FUCK! ...My Parents had issues." Alan said, first giving a nod with a stoic face before going angry with the insult then going into a laxed shrug afterwards. It might seem like a bad move on his part, but in his eyes, this was the best way he could either confirm this one's on the Ascendancy side, or tell him that he's on his side without fucking him over, all while trying to make it natural for the actual ascendancy witness right next to him. If he's with the Ascendancy, then Alan'll have naturally shown his...'disagreement' with that decision. If he's working under cover, then the priority was keeping that cover intact. The nod just before his statement, at least in his own mind, was a subtle acknowledgement of the situation to Finnbar, akin to a Wink. It could be looked at as that, or it could naturally just be in conjunction with his response before he thoroughly answers.
The last little joke was for no reason, though. He just felt like adding that there for the sake of the mood.
"Ey, what do you know, sounds like my plan sort of worked." Joey blurted out, overhearing what's going on in the floor just above his own and the additional yelling of his cell mate.
"Shut, up, Joey... Actually yes, yes he is. Shoot him please. Seriously, no one will miss him."
"Oi, what the hell?"
...Is what I want to say, but as annoying as he is, we need him to get us off thi rock, specially since this wole ship feels abandon. I haven't eaten anything all day, and I doubt Maria had anything for days now. Tell the cafteria person they need to step up the food frquency here. Alan said, once again using rambling and treating Finn as hostile while hopefully giving info to him from Alan himself by relaying that info subtlely into his seeming tangents, to show that Joey was an ally, and that Maria was indeed there with him.
---
The girl still was silent to answer this Doctor. She may not seem it from hearing the yelling of her two allies and still being unphased, but she is did have a good sense of hearing. She could hear that there were other visitors on the floor below her, no doubt talking with Alan...and Alan being Alan in response. She looked towards the Doctor, and at that point it'd be clear to him just how odd this girl seemed.
Her eyes were a beautiful violet, yet they were utterly empty, there was no shine to them, no light, not as if she was blind, but as if her very soul was taken from her, as if she suffered enough labotomies to be deemed catatonic.
But that was not the most odd thing he'd see. No, the really odd thing was revealed when she turned her head to see him, and by doing so, exposed the small black valve seemingly attached to her left temple, the same kind of valve you see on pipelines or other such machines was sticking out of her head. One would have sworn it to be some kind of prank, a fake prop gag used to trick people, but no, someone like the Doctor here may be more perceptive in realizing that that valve was physically melded to her skin, as if surgically implanted to her skull.
Maria, meanwhile, simply stared at this doctor for a few seconds. Based on what she's hearing outside Alan's cell, this person must be with the ones down stairs. Could he be just a simple nice guy stationed in the wrong place, or... Joey did seem like he always had a reason behind his consistent yelling about, and the only reason they came there in the first place was because the Xuanxang along with their friends were coming here as well. Could this doctor be a part of the same crew as her allies? Possible, but there was no easy way to tell, now that she had that restraint on her neck. This would easily be solved if her telepathy came back, but it didn't.
"...Maria...Friend or foe?" She simply asked. It did seem a little risky, but even if she can't read his mind, neither could he read her...at least she hopes not. That aside, her name wasn't a unique thing that she alone would have, it should not be sufficient enough to cause any problems for the others.
The timing was perfect, almost too perfect, as if on que. As soon as Blue Crow attempted to make a downward slash towards Nero, a Distortion in space would be detected to the right of Blue Crow near a wall, which seemingly made the wall break like pieces of glass from a window, revealing a relatively large portal, about right feet in diameter. For most it'd be strange enough on its own, but for the Star Marines, there'd be something oddly familiar about the color and feeling of this portal. As if from out of nowhere, a giant armored purple hand - it was more like a claw really, a 3 foot tall gold-plated open hand - flew out of the portal, attached to it by lengthy disturbingly thin stick-like arms. It grabbed onto Blue Crow's arm, and without warning, pulled him off of Nero with a hard enough force to throw mercenary off his feet and into the portal it came from.
As soon as Blue Crow disappeared into the portal, three black chains, each link with two iron thorns to its sides - a design of which Nero in particular may recognize - burst out in his place, each one floating in the air, and like the tendrils of a monster, simply floated around in the air until it found the three Tayanen that assisted Blue Crow, stabbing themselves into each gelatenous glob and pulling them into the portal as well with great force.
As soon as they slithered back into the portal with Tayanen in tow, the portal quickly shrunk and disappeared, as if devouring itself, leaving the wall that it supposedly broke down to open returned to its former state as if nothing happened at all.
All that remained, were the twins, Nero, and the silence of the Armory.
Outside the ship, over a couple of hills opposite to where Kotaro was located, was where Blue Crow and his Tayanen aliens would wind up, a seemingly camouflaged tent, about as large as the command tent where Kotaro did his strategies, though a lot more spacious, there was hardly anything in there, save a few barrels and a few people, most of them women. The one who grabbed at Blue Crow was a woman just as large as her hands would have suggested, covered head-to-toe in an overly exaggerated armor. Complete with bladed wings, a horned helmet with a golden visor completely covering her face and a long blood red skirt covering the lower half of her body.
The chains followed suit, letting go of the Tayanen as soon as they were out of the portal and reeling back into the black cloak of another woman. Most of her features were completely covered in the black cloak she had, save for the boney hand showing out of her sleeves, and the black black hair on her head looking like the typical Grim Reaper if it happened to have barely wore skin upon its bones and nothing else. Blue Crow wouldn't be able to see her face, however, due to a blood red mask she wore.
At the doorway was another roughly as young as the other Star Marines, wearing a white lab coat over to contrast the long black hair and military battlesuit, fiddling with her Omni-tool as she looked outside, her blue eyes focused on both. The noticeable glitches in the camouflage of the tent seen through the thin curtain of its walls as she fiddles suggests she's the one responsible for it.
"...Heeey, Blue Bird. Hope I wasn't interrupting anything." Said a boyish voice by the barrels. Sure enough, a boy dressed in what appears to be a loose and freed full-body straight jacket with all the detached belts on his pant legs and sleeves, a black-and-white checkered scarf around his neck, and messy short purple hair to go with his violets eyes. A cheerful expression on his face as if a friend paid him a visit, an expression that seemed to completely offset the mood of the situation of everywhere else on this planet.
These were four of the nine members of the infamous Squad 0, the vey same traitorous squad who massacred the other Squad leaders back in the battle of Proxima, led by this happy-go-lucky boy whose bright eyes stared at Blue Crow... Crowley.
You ever taken a stop to look at your current situation and ask yourself: "What sadistic bitch you happen to believe is in control of your destiny did you piss off to lead you to this moment?"
This was one of those times for one Joey B.
A simple escort, he said. Just head to where they were going and meet them there, he said. Could be fun ruffling Natty's feathers, getting her target first, . he said.
Hindsight's 20/20, they say, and it was in hindsight that he realized how careless he was with this idea. Of course this ship would still have plenty of guards on standby, and considering the level of criminals that would be - and were - released out into the public, of course they weren't going to be a bunch of peons keeping what remains of them intact.
The thoughts were rolling in his head, cupping his hairless chin with his right hand in contemplation and blowing the messy blonde hair out of his sapphire blue eyes, as he sat criss-crossed on his small and most uncomfortable bed, a wall of iron bars to the right of him.
This was Joey B. Albion, former official member of the Xuanzang crew, now an unofficial part-timer of that same crew. ...Well, until a couple days ago, now he's also an inmate awaiting a death sentence in one of the ship's stops for treason, desertion, federal homicide of military officers, and now - ironically enough - breaking and entering the very Prison ship once someone comes to pick the prisoners back up on their regularly scheduled flight to the death ca-er-"prison planet", yeah that's it; complete with two minors as accomplices. ...Oh yeah, they're probably gonna die too, huh?
It all started about a few days ago, Joey patched into the Xuanzang's communications from his own ship - Some call it stalking, he calls it insuring himself Natty isn't doing something way in over her own head and dragging his pals along for the ride - and heard about their mission from Moonstrike to go to pick up some sort of special agent/secret weapon whatever from the Galactic Bazaar. Interested in what they were dishing out, he decided to ride over to the Bazaar to meet up with them. However, by the time he got there, it was too late and the Xuanzang was long gone, likely with these 'agents' in tow. Seems he wasn't the only one looking for the Xuanzang though, he met up with a boy and girl asking for where that very ship was. Mite confusing at first; he couldn't believe the possibility that these were the supposed special agents they were taking. It seemed the girl had Telepathy though, basically projected the information right into his head while the boy just watched impatiently.
These were the rumored Star Marines he heard so much about back in the war, the supposed special agents that were supposed to be the Ascendancy's Trump Card back in the Battle of Proxima. They were captured by the Rau've but were treated hospitably rather than as prisoners of war. When they decided to Rebel, the girl - Maria - ran off on a mission given to her by one of them - a guy named Tarak - for information and potential aid and was to return to her friends immediately after her finished, but she arrived too late. After that span of Telepathy was, over the boy - Alan - explained that he left himself behind on the Rau've planet to train with some Rau've mentor and only recently completed enough training to be of help to the rest of their friends, but it seemed he also arrived too late with Maria being the only one of his friends that was around.
Realizing the three of them were basically all on the same boat of missing the same ship with their friends on it, Joey proposed to the two kids to come with him to get them on the Xuanzang and reunite with their friends there. They were suspicious - Stranger danger and all - but fortunately Maria's mind magic made things run smoothly as she could tell that he meant well. After deciding to tag along, they followed him to his ship and they headed off to follow the Xuanzang.
That is, until he once again patched into their communications and overheard the Briefing for their mission on Plenty, something about some super-AI that they wish to grab from a crashed Prison ship there. Now, Joey has heard about the situation down on that planet in particular, that it has been a planet under Civil war and rebel suppression for weeks now. He also knows about the Circle of Hell, a massive Prison ship carrying the worst of the worst. This situation seemed like a pretty dangerous mission for them to go on. At the same time, they now know exactly where they're going to go. As such, after some discussion, the three decided to head to Plenty before the Xuanzang reaches it, and capture the AI first. Not only would it help save their friends some trouble, but it would reunite Maria and Alan with the rest of them, and he can rub the fact that he succeeded in this mission first in Natty's face. Three birds; One stone!
Alas, they underestimated the capability of the prison ship's guards. The initial thought was that the Prison guards would be scattered about trying to fix their ship, take in any escaped criminals, and guarding the ship from any rebels who want to take out ascendancy soldiers.
...What they did NOT know is that Kherol's Vice-Admiral just happened to be down on this planet as well with his own squadron rounding up any criminals that escaped, AND dealing with the rebellion at hand, and so there were far more guards than they thought there were, ...they were also far more competant and capable than they thought, managing to capture and restrain the two magical kids while pointing a lot of guns at Joey's face. Interestingly, seemed odd how prepared they were for two Star Marines, but they seemed to think the two kids were affiliated with pirates...Something about them coming for their Captain? Joey had no idea what they were on about, and it seemed the two kids were just as confused.
Either way, it looked like it was just a case of bad luck.
Which brings us to present day, with Joey locked up in a Cell on the second floor of Cell Block B, looking at the utterly massive area just outside his iron bars.
--------------------
Cell Area Description
As this is a Prison ship, it's only natural that this would be filling up the most space within it. Oh, not this Block, rather just the three Cell blocks in general. They all generally have the same design to them, a massive rectangular space of five floors, the walls in five rows lined with prison cells and an open space right in the middle that serves as a sort of courtyard for them. Usually when times comes to let them out to exercise, they place equipment in the open area to use, and when an announcement is being made, real easy to have the prisoners' attention when the ones making the announcement is front and center. The three cell blocks are layered on top of one another, forming a tower of sorts, cell block B being right in the middle. Below that is Cell Block C which is the only one connected to the rest of the ship; if anyone came into the Cell area of the ship, they would arrive in Cell Block C, and would need to ascend upward to get to Cell Block B, and Cell Block A at the top, the top most area of Cell Block A being where Solitary Confinement for the worst of criminals is held. At the end of this hallway was the room reserved for this ship's "guest of honor", Realist's cell. The three block are divided by thick layers of titanium alloy which makes up their central courtyard, the very center of which opens up like a door in order for an elevator platform to go through, before immediately closing upon its disappearance with a razor's edge.
As additional security, a sensor is in place on the block "gates" as the elevator goes up and down, detecting the elevator and how many are on it as soon as it passes by, so as to prevent any prisoners from just jumping to the lower blocks while the Elevator is going through the floor. If too many are on the elevator than there was supposed to be, the gate won't open.
At least, that's how it was supposed to be, however, thanks to the crash, the security system on the ship malfunctioned, which included the security gate of the Cell Blocks. In fact, most of the cells in all the blocks were broken open along with the Block gates in the center. Any prisoners still on the ship are those with Cells that still worked even after the crash, and all the doors in Solitary Confinement - Realist's Cell included - has their own backup systems to keep them locked in case of such emergencies as this.
--------------------
Needless to say, Joey and his two new pals were placed in the working cells of Cell Block B. Let's see...He was on the third floor of Cell Block C, and Maria and Alan were placed just above his own, with Cell with Alan on the fourth Floor and Maria on the fifth and top floor of the B-Block.
One would think these three were capable of breaking on their own, and indeed, Joey does have an unorthodox idea of how to get out of his own predicament. However, As soon as Maria and Alan were captured, they were given mechanisms designed for restraining Kaisoken-infused magic like the Star Marines had, particularly a collar on their necks that seemed to suppress their magical capabilities. Joey could probably escape at any time, but he's toothless without the guns he had with him, and even if he somehow gained them, what kind of asshole would he have to be to leave two kids to fend for themselves on a ship wrecked prison?
He has an idea in mind to help the others get out. Problem? ...It requires getting a guard to come here, and wouldn't you know it? They're pretty few and far between at the moment thanks to this mess.
At this rate, nothing was gonna get done fast. Figured now's the best time to try and get something done. So Joey walked up to the bars of his cell, slapped his cheeks, did a few stretches of his arms, then, with a look of determination, he grabbed at the iron bars, took a deep breath, and...
"OI! CAN SOMEONE GET THEIR BUTT OVER HERE!? PRETTY SURE IT'S PAST LUNCH BY NOW! KIDS NEED THEIR FRUITS AND VEGGIES OVER HERE!" Joey yelled out, the damaged but spacious Cell block echoing his voice across the other Cell Blocks.
---
"OH SHUT UP ALREADY!" A much younger boy's voice brashly yelled in response from just above Joey. The angry look in the pale boy's red eyes almost pushing through the bars as he looked down towards the direction of his loud neighbor. Irritated, he walked back toward the middle of the cell, pushing his fingers across his short snow-white hair. Out of the three, he was the most impatient and consistently focused on escaping, as Maria was more concentrated on meditation and Joey was annoyingly laid back. This was a regrettable decision on his part.
Unlike Joey, he didn't have any weapons on him, hell, he didn't have much of anything on him save for his clothes and his Omni-tool. He didn't need much of anything, as a Star Marine, he was only ever truly reliant on his magic and his physical skills. This, for the moment, is the main factor behind the irritation he felt at present. It was bad enough that these Prison guards locked an Anti-magic collar around his neck, preventing him from just melting the bars and escaping, but Joey's consistently patronizing 'requests' has happened at the top of his lungs has gotten on his nerves for long enough.
"Aw, come on, Al. At this point I'm just playing around."
"You've been at this for fucking Days! DAYS! Even at night for fuck's sake! The few times it actually gets someone here, and what do you do? NOTHING!"
"Calm down and just relax, kiddo. I do have an idea, it's just, they never seem to show up at the right times to pull it off."
"Right time? WE'VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST A WEEK! A GODDAMN WEEK, JOEY! We had plenty of times these guards came around, AND YOU COULDN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING WITH THE ONE ON YOUR FUCKING FLOOR! I HAVEN'T HAD A GOODNIGHT SLEEP OR BEEN ABLE TO THINK ABOUT JACK SHIT FOR FOUR DAYS NOW, BECAUSE YOU'RE CONSTANTLY YELLING BULLSHIT! SO EITHER DO SOMETHING, OR SHUT, THE FUCK, UP!" Alan yelled, the talk between the two echoing across the entire Cell Area. Even people in Cell Block A, and Cell Block C below would be able to hear their screams reverberating off the walls.
Alan couldn't see it, being exactly above Joey's own cell, but Joey was smiling. Not a patronizing smile, as if laughing at the flustered boy above him, but rather a small smirk of confidence, as if things were going the way he wanted them to go.
Amidst all of this, Maria was quiet, sitting criss-cross on the middle of the cell floor above Alan. She said not a single word to stop the bickering of the two, and seemed utterly unphased by their verbal warfare as she kept her focus within herself. As the collar around her neck would suggest, she was indeed a Star Marine as well, but unlike the others who have naturally aged since their time in the war, Maria was still the small pale girl in the purple dress they all met on that day, seemingly haven't aged a day. Of course, the other Star Marines noticed this during their time with the Rau've, but she had no answer for them as to why, only a theory that perhaps the dust injection process that went awry and made her need that cybernetic in her head also stemmed her growth.
She did not flinch out of her concentrated state of mind, not even as Alan's bombastic yells echoed like the wrathful whispers of wraiths. With a deep sigh, she opened her dim violet eyes, a lack of shine in within them as if she had no soul within that small body of hers. Something the guards never gotten used to and were always so freaked out by, but something the Star Marines knew her for well enough. The guards believed that she was simply a husk, some sort of well-kept undead shell; despite the collar on her neck preventing any harm to come to them, none of the guards wanted to go anywhere near this girl when the time came to give her food, treating the task as a punishment more than a chore. But as the Star Marines learned in the past, she was very much alive, and did have emotions and spirit like the rest of them, she did show care, kindness, even some degrees of passion for things, but simply lacked the ability to show these things, not because she was holding back but because the Cybernetic plate in her head simply made her physically incapable of emotional response of any kind, resulting in a perpetual look of sheer apathy.
So while she did not look like it, she was very annoyed at verbal sparring of her partners, moving her waist-length white hair away from her face after the concentration she built up was broken by them. She'd tell them to quiet down so that she could continue her meditation, but her emotionless whispers would be overridden by their loud voices. Unfortunately, thanks to her collar, she can't even telepathically tell them to quiet down.
Member
Snowdrops
Danyel
CriticalHit
Knight 7
AwesomeZero5
MacabreMoth
Dimentio
