Catpone Cerberus

"Oh yeah, no disagreement there." Jenna agreed "But I don't understand what would have this as an outcome." "Who would be the other side of the deal?" "God? The Devil? Some super alien race?" "That would also rise so many questions." "That's the reason why I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here." "Not because I don't think they would make a deal that accidentally leads to this, but because I can't imagine what kind of thing could cause this in the first place."

"Optimistic as always." Jenna said with slight amusement "That's really the biggest difference between us...isn't it." "Maybe it's because of you're human, or maybe it's a simple matter of...experience." "I wish I could just push my worry away, but I can't." "Some say that, better the devil you know, than the angel you don't." "And in this case I agree with that." .... "At least when I knew Talon was chasing me, I knew what they do." "But now?" "I can't prepare for something I don't know about."

@Blitz Boom It's been an year since this , how time flies. Anyway, I bring this topic forth yet again, the Vaz thing wasn't as minor as I first planned after all, but now I'm out for any real ideas for this specific story besides the aftermath of the find of course. It still stands that if you want to do kinda this look for potential hires thing, I have some weirdos who could appear on the list of meetings among whatever characters you had/have in mind.

@Blitz Boom "Ah, now that sounds more like a name." Asildae remarked on the pony introducing herself, seemingly unfazed by her crying besides looking at her curiously. Any further reaction she may have had, was cut short by Glutton grabbing Tiger into her magic. She didn't interrupt Glutton addressing the pony either, simply observing until she was spoken to again. "I see, I guessed it was something like that, but as you said, pony names can be quite weird, and based on what I have read, Naval Nerd is something I can imagine being a name." "Though I would of course question the parents' love for their brood, if they gave them such a name." Asildae looked at the piles of trash with the same analyzing curiosity that was becoming familiar from her, though her thoughts were less on the physical reality of what she was seeing, and more on why it existed. How wasteful were the lives of these creatures for it to produce such amount of byproduct in the first place? It was almost disgusting to her, and she was someone who enjoyed eating rotting meat. But well, one's waste was other's treasure, so at least it went to use. As she was left alone with the pony, Asildae looked at her closer, as in, almost touching close, her unusual eyes studying her, antennas vibrating as they hovered just above the equine's fur "You know, I have never actually gotten the chance to see one of you this close." her close examination being interrupted by things landing near them, as she in turn studied the chest, a curious thing, magic no doubt. She didn't touch it though, and instead just studied it from safe distance, she after all didn't really know much about magic, and had no idea if touching this thing specifically was bad for her health. She turned back towards the pony "It is a shame that getting a taste of you would be.....socially looked down upon." "I have always wondered, if you can taste the magic." She once again turned her gaze towards the piles of trash, and tilted her head, speaking again as they saw Glutton's unnaturally large...appetite. "She is a fascinating creature isn't she?" that was really the only thing she knew to say, she couldn't even start to try and understand how what she saw was possible, and the fact that the ponies managed to keep those like her in some amount of control? It was impressive in its own right, Asildae's own kind wouldn't have realistically been able to do that, though their natural anti-magic could likely help in such situation. When Glutton returned, Asildae would catch couple of rats from the fleeing group, she would have taken more, but she did only have two arms. She of course then proceeded to fill them with the corrosive venom as before, though this time she purposely did it in a way that Tiger Lily was able to see the process, which was simply her sinking her fangs into the living creatures, which then pumped the venom in. "I don't have any que-" "No, actually I do." she pointed at the pony, thus bringing the quickly dying rat uncomfortably close to her "Where would be the best place to find some kind of a map?" she moved her hands a lot when she spoke, gesturing whenever relevant to what she said, without letting go of the rats of course "Not a map for this place, but something for the whole world." "I'm not from here you see, and I need to know where here is relative to my home." ----------- "The pleasure is mutual, you two were interesting individuals to meet, awfully rare experience when you live as long as I have." Vaz stated, giving his own polite gesture, before he turned to leave "Until we meet again." "Stay safe, and value your time." he'd then calmly walk away in the direction of Ponyville, like someone who had all the time in the world. As he wandered off, Solar spoke "Immortal kobolds and the undead." "Yet somehow it makes perfect sense." "And in hindsight, it's so obvious too." "Clever little creatures." he then shuddered a bit, a small break from his usual demeanor "I've seen lot of things during my relatively short life, horrible, terrifying things." "But the ways she died, her last moments." he gestured at that bag holding the parts of his former coworker "I wouldn't wish it to my worst enemy." He the addressed Magma more officially "Among the regular reports, I'll be sending one to the princesses directly, this potential threat, as likely or unlikely it is to actualize, is more existential than most." ------------- Vulri seemed to get happy from Leviathan's words, and while the others didn't say anything, they did visibly want to comment something, but probably decided against it as they didn't want to argue with an adult. Leviathan's breath showcase got what was in a way a reverse reactions to her usual shows, as this time the three locals seemed to be more impressed with it than Charir, not saying Charir wasn't, it was just that this time he wasn't in as much of a awe, as to him, breathing things was slightly less impressive than the more delicate things Leviathan usually did. "I've never seen anyone change their breath like that." Vulri commented "I'm sure we can do that, we just...don't?" Ereo added, bit unsure if they could or not, and Oreon finished with "We are taught to embrace what we are, and master that." The trio thought for a moment after the question, before starting to list off things "Darkscales, you know, those ones..." Oreon gestured towards the library "...they breath darkness, I think it's like dark mana or something? but I'm not sure." "There is also water and ice, steam." "One of my friends breathes high pressure air, it's more dangerous underwater than on the ground though." "There's also venom, and acid. both breath and spit." "Magma, and a weird, magic resistant sticky goo thing." "Different gasses with different effects." "There's a close relative of my kind that just breaths light." "There's stories of dragons that instead breathing anything, suck magic or blood instead." "There's probably more, there's so many different kinds here, some of which never show themselves outside elder meetings." "Probably someone who can petrify too, though that's more likely a spell rather than natural weapon." Charir listened fascinated, until something caught his ear "Wait, sucks blood?" "Are you talking about the Rotten one?" "Who?" "My mother spoke of ancient rotting dragon that hunts other dragons and sucks the life out of them." "It is one of the only stories that everyone on our side hears." "It is used as a warning against using magic." "We do have a similar story, though here it is used to warn against immortality." "A dragon more dangerous than a death-bringer, that hunts magical dragons to keep its body from breaking apart."

"What kind of a deal can a government even make to accidentally end the world?" Jenna asked "Like actually? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I can't come up with one." "Usually it has something to do with nukes if you believe all the movies and such, but this clearly had nothing to do with nukes." "And why did our government know about it? since they knew to prepare before the portals appeared."

"If that is the case...then they are not on our side." Jenna mentioned "Because it's making Talon more aggressive...and that's bad, for everyone." "The only reason why Talon stays in the shadows...is because humanity. with the Order, put up enough of a fight to balance the power." "If that balance is broken to either direction, it's bad." "More obviously, if Talon gets the upper hand, they can do what they want." "...And they want total control, the end of humanity as the leading species." "But if The Order, if Humanity gets it..." "Outside hunting my kind to extinction, it would also harm humanity." "Because Talon would...fight back, they would fight like injured beast, they would literally...fight like their lives depends on it." "The carnage would be immense." "Regardless...this isn't good development, and it makes me worried."

Regardless of being royal blood, Noctuna never cared about becoming a ruler, such life never seemed attractive to her. She rather spend her time studying, learning, while her brothers and sisters prepared for their future roles. Specifically she was interested in the matters of magic, especially the darker side of it. Her interest didn’t lie in the power it could provide however, but rather in the unknown nature of it, as darkness by its nature, was secretive and corruptive, hiding its secrets from those too scared to face the abyss, and often driving mad those not prepared to carry its burden. During her studies, Noctuna found something curious, or more accurately, it found her. A being of darkness, something that took the form of a long, snake like dragon. Dragå, she came to call it, and as they interacted, they formed a friendly relationship, learning from each other, and growing more powerful each. At some point, the politics of the royal life became too much for Noctuna, and she left her home behind, relinquishing any privileges her blood brought her. She settled down far away, continuing her studies in a remote cabin she build, no longer having need for existing literature, as she had Dragå, a direct line of communication in darkness. As time passed, as years turned into decades, and decades into centuries, the once remote cabin was no longer alone. First there were couple of neighbors, then a village, and eventually the once vacant land had grown into a city state. A city state, which Noctuna found herself ruling as a queen, regardless of how much she had been against it. The centuries she ruled were relatively uneventful, there were some conflicts, a crisis or few, but those were a normal part of governance. The most notable part to Noctuna herself, was the day she found a partner to share the rest of her life with, or at least, that had been the plan. Unfortunately fate had different plans. Empires grew around her, and it was only a matter of time until they hungered after the lone city. And so the day came, the city fell, not to the might of an army, but to a conspiracy in the heart of the city. It could have ended there, Noctuna was ready to let go, but the traitors were not satisfied. Execution was planned. Noctuna escaped, but it cost her partner’s life, and she herself was not in good health either, her injuries certain to end up lethal. Desperate to not have the sacrifice to be in vain, she reached into the darkness, and did something she had avoided until now, she let it in. And so, Dragå fused with her, bringing the full power of darkness with it, it was painful, and Noctuna could feel the dark power fill her soul, but she was alive. And as her wounds burned shut, pain turning from hindrance to strength, rage took over, she had been betrayed, the one she loved had been taken from her. They would pay. ----- In the land between two empires, sits ruins of a city, a city surrounded by land where now life grows, where no animal enters. Most travelers are too scared to explore it, and those who do, tell about feeling of unease, the feeling of being watched. Some swear they could see something moving in the shadows. It had been a normal day in the city, it had been a decade since the last queen had been dethroned, so things had long been back to normal. While her body had not been found, Queen Noctuna was assumed dead, and most barely remembered her name. One day, what was mistakenly assumed to be a simple rainstorm, made its way towards the city. Reports told of creatures of darkness, beings beyond sensible description. Deadly shadows snatching soldier and civilian alike. And in their lead a dragon with a missing horn, a queen thought to be long dead. Few survived, spared for the sole purpose of telling what happened. They told of the terrifying power the queen held, how a single glance from her caused indescribable agony, how a dragon like shadow ate soldiers whole. The ruins of the city were investigated in the aftermath. All evidence of life was gone, all information destroyed, every structure brought to ruin. No bodies were ever found. The only thing found, was a broken crown, sitting on the ruined throne. ----- Elsewhere rumors speak of odd single horned dragon, one that calls herself queen, but has no kingdom. She lives in a humble cottage, away from the hustle of cities and towns, and while seemingly harmless, some claim to feel unease around her, and some, they swear her shadow was looking at them. _______________________________________ *Å=O, not A

"Then they would investigate...what killed them." Jenna pointed out "Talon is an organization of control freaks...in cases like this, they don't just shrug their shoulders and move on." "Something is...seriously off." "First that clearly fake plane accident, now this." "Thousand years of secrecy and hiding...and suddenly there's not subtlety?" "They are either very confident...or they are lashing out, like cornered animal." "I don't know which is worse."

"Yeah." Jenna responded "The only thing we really know for sure, is that the people who lived here had no idea either." "At least publicly." "Though I do want to give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case." "After all, even the most corrupt, most vile government wouldn't gain from the end of the world." "So I doubt this is a case of them deciding to not stop it, and it's likely they were equally clueless."

"That would cause a paradox." Jenna mentioned "If this was literally the future I mean." "At most it's probably parallel future or something." "Though I don't know if that would still explain it." "A city that takes over two days to travel through is just unreasonably huge." "I wonder if time is just wrong here, more than was already obvious." "Or if this place is messing with our minds?"

"It's just uncharacteristic of them." Jenna stated "The protocol requires...confirmation of death, or reason for letting the target...flee." "In a case like this, I would have been required...to give chase, since there's no risk of...exposure." she let out a thoughtful hum "But then again, attacking a train...is also very uncharacteristic." "There has to be something...bigger going on."

"That is true." Jenna agreed "But it doesn't mean they aren't actively looking." she shifted her position to put less weight on her ribs "Which does...rise a question." "Where are they?" "We are not that far....from the site of the battle." "But besides those helicopters...I haven't seen, heard or even smelled anything."

"That's why I insist we keep going deeper, to figure out what is holding the portal open." Jenna stated "Even if it is starting to seem bit hopeless, since it seems to be so far away." they finally arrived into the residential area, and Jenna started looking around for intact, non-moldy house "I also just realized something, we have been traveling for almost two days based on our clocks, yet we are only starting to near the border of the city." "Our city is big, but it is not this big. it is not '2 days to walk through' big."

@Blitz Boom "They could fight back, thus, it was no longer an unnecessary compromise." Asildae pointed out "Misjudging the capabilities of the other is not an inherent fault of the logic, it's just that, a misjudgement." That logic had worked for them, they didn't spare their neighbors out of kindness or other such reasons, they spared them because war was not worth it at the time; And for creatures that couldn't put up a fight? if they were in the way, they were removed. Asildae looked as Glutton did her thing with the drawing, but didn't react outside a sound of acknowledgement, because as stated, she couldn't really relate, and thus she didn't have much to say in the matter. She didn't pay much mind to the creatures looking at her, mainly because she was looking at them and the city itself with the same curiosity; She had never been in a city, nor had she ever really seen most creatures regardless of knowing about their existence, so she observed with great curiosity. Her curiosity wasn't the kind that a child would have though, it was more analytical, more observant, lacking any awe. Asildae broke out of her observation when Glutton suddenly picked up a pony, giving her a curious look but not commenting on it. She did respond when she was addressed though "Hello there." "Is Naval Nerd your name, or is it just something Glutton calls you?" pony names were weird, Asildae knew that much, but she wasn't sure with this one, as Naval Nerd sounded like a potential insult. "As for helping you, don't know what you expect me to do." "But don't worry, from us two, I'm the one that's more likely to eat you." she then 'smiled' opening her mouth enough for two spider like fangs to show, before sticking out her proboscis and moving it around her mouth as if licking her non-existent lips. While she was of course joking, be it with some truth behind the statement, her lack of facial expressions made it ambiguous enough to be unnerving. ------------- "I do not understand the full nature of souls either." Vaz admitted "Though, if I do find a way to undo the ritual during the lifetime of your branch of the guard, I will inform you or the future members of it, before using it." For the question of contact, Vaz seemed thoughtful for a moment "There is no direct line to contact me." "And while I travel in specific order, it is hard to estimate my location at any one time, because I may spend anything from one day to several years in one place, as time holds no meaning to me anymore." "If my counterpart was to appear, I will know; I could feel him for the short moment the two realms connected, so there is no doubt I would feel him joining our reality." "But, there is one way, though I can't promise it to be fast." he activated his magic once more, and used the magic strings to form a magical symbol in the air. "Draw this symbol and activate it with magic, it is one-way teleport to send non-living material to a place where I store my possessions." "Were you to send a letter through it, I will see it when I visit it." "It does not provide a way for me to respond through it, but I can figure out a way to respond through other means." he would wait for Magma to copy the symbol before extinguishing the magic. "I have one more question before we go our ways, I've analyzed the recording captured by my late colleague, and there is something in kobold language I cannot translate." he then 'spoke' audio in different language in different voice, it was similar to Vaz's voice, but it was more hoarse and somewhat malevolent sounding. There was also an odd quiet echo, as if countless voices were whispering with him. "I take it that it was my counterpart speaking." "It's nothing to be translated, it's a spell." "Basic reanimation spell, he's rising an army." "Those are relatively easy to deal with, since they are as weak as the body used,." "Thank you, that's all I need for now." "Until she has something more to ask, I wish you luck in your own endeavors." ----- Charir didn't comment further, though he did almost mention that he didn't exactly need such advice, since he didn't really dare to mock even those that were his own size; He may have been a death-bringer, but he lacked the over-confidence of his kin, in fact, it would have probably done good for him to learn to be more proud, rather than less. The accident seemed to be slightly sore topic to Ereo based on his reaction to it being mentioned again, not in way of trauma, but rather more in him feeling ashamed about it, while the two others seemed more casual about it. When it came to the electricity butterfly, the reactions were similar to before, where the trio were just curious if anything, and Charir was more visibly amazed by it. When it landed on him, assuming Leviathan didn't keep holding it separate with her magic, it would be absorbed by Charir, without any input by him, and would arch a bit before disappearing as it spread into his scales. Since he was the one addressed most, Ereo would be the one to respond to the question first "The older and more skilled dragons can control it freely, even shape it like you did." "That requires active use of our magic, so I don't know how to do that yet, I need to learn to properly control the basics first." "What I can do, is to harness it, both from outside sources, and through natural generation." the other two stepped a bit to the side as electricity started forming on Ereo's scales in similar manner to how Voltaick's scales had been constantly electrified. "We also don't breath fire, but electricity." "I would show you, but I don't know how to properly control where it goes." a shame again flashed on his face when he said it. As he spoke, Charir reached his foreleg closer to Ereo, which caused some of the electricity to jump into him, which naturally got the attention of the trio "You can just take it?" "That shouldn't happen, you can't just steal it like that, right Ereo?." "No, my scales should hold on to it until I release it." Charir looked at his leg and back at the trio "Steal?" "Yeah, our natural magic keeps it on us, that way we can stay charged up even in rain and water." "We can't just take it from each other like that." "So that means he can just drain your electricity? That's...scary." "And kinda cool." Not really wanting to continue on the topic of how scary he was, as he worried they wouldn't want to interact with him again if they did, Charir tried to move the conversation back to them "I...uh. What can you do? besides change color?" he asked Oreon in the same direct manner he had complimented her with, though this time it was bit more intentional, "I breathe magic instead of fire." "Magic?" "Yes, pure mana." "It does...weird things, I don't control it very well yet." "We usually learn illusion and alteration magic, as those come to us naturally." "I don't know anything cool yet." Charir was now looking at Oreon like she was one of Leviathan's magic showcases. "That sounds interesting." "We do magic too." Vulri joined in, sounding bit envious for the attention the two others got, Charir looked at him "Do you breathe magic too?" "No, I breathe fire, but we are naturally talented in magic, more than most." "What can you do?" "Nothing." "Nothing." Vulri seemed bit embarrassed "Nothing...yet." "Spells are hard...okay?" "But when I do learn them, I'll be better than anyone else!"

"There is one thing that would be good to know before we turn back." Jenna pointed out "If any of this spreads." "Because if it does spread, leaving without finding a way to close the portals, would mean that home will look like this too."

"We do need to worry about it now too." Jenna pointed out "For the reason you mentioned" "I'm injured, if they find us again now, I can't put up a fight as effectively."

"Hopefully." Jenna sighed "Doesn't bother me any less though." "We made a mistake...somewhere." "I failed to notice or consider... something." "That can't happen...we have no room for mistakes."

"There is really no point in trying to understand how it works any further than that, since by nature of being supernatural, we likely can't properly understand it." "But it would be nice to know how these things connect to each other, if at all." Jenna said, frustrated at their lack of answers "Find some logic in all of this."

@Blitz Boom When they got close enough to civilization, Asildae stopped grabbing things from the air to eat for now. She watched Glutton to eat the rock and grow new rocks, though she again seemed to be mostly curious about it rather than anything else, at least outwardly, as having no soft skin, or really even facial muscles similar to most creatures, Asildae didn't really emote with her face as clearly, her eyes and body language being the biggest indicator of her emotions. Though she was generally just curious about it, as due to her kind's inability to properly utilize it, their study of it was mainly observing, thus her reaction to it was more analytical than awe. "Why compromise if the other side cannot resist you?" "A compromise is to minimize damage on both sides after all, so if the other side cannot cause damage to you, why bother pleasing them?" "I believe you individualistic creatures call this kind of unnecessary compromise 'compassion'." "Many see it as noble, but in truth, it's a privilege." Asildae stated thoughtfully On Glutton's point on messing with ponies, Asildae let out couple short quiet whistles, likely her version of chuckling "I have a feeling that I can get a reaction out of them by just being myself." "I've learned that herbivore creatures tend to find our ways of feeding repulsive." As they arrived to the city proper, Asildae's gesture turned to match her general, almost regal demeanor, her head held high, and her hands behind her back in confident manner. It did somewhat clash with her general behavior though, considering she didn't seem to really care what others thought of her. The truth was that she wasn't trying to seem like anything specific, she was simply mirroring her mother, she didn't really know the social connotations of certain body language to other creatures, as she had no need to know them. Asildae once more observed the event's happening next to her, she didn't really feel much of anything seeing it, as her different nature caused a disconnect from the whole thing. Being a hive mind, her relationship to her daughters was different, and thus her relationship to young in general, lacked certain warmth; Thus this interaction was merely a curiosity, a quirk of individual minds that she didn't properly understand. It was also worth mentioning that in age only, this filly was possibly older than her, since she had hatched only some seasonal cycles ago, and she didn't quite understand the mind of a child, due to never really having a childhood in that way. "The young of other creatures are fascinating to observe indeed." "Fearful and fearless with no clear logic." "So curious and stubborn, yet also easily manipulated to act and think in certain ways." "They also seem to bring up emotions in others, like happiness in you." "That is something, I can't quite relate to." ------------------------------ Solar hadn't interrupted the conversation, because to him, they hadn't been just standing around. Not only was Vaz's insight important with the potential new threat, but he had also been working the whole time, the data from the remains actively being analyzed in his systems, and various scans running on the pile of sand to make sure there was nothing they had missed; this all was of course unseen from outside, so physically he had indeed just stood there. "I do believe we are done here yes, I cannot find anything else of note here." "I'll gather the pieces, and we are ready to leave; we'll need to notify whoever is in charge of environmental issues, so that they can come and see if the sand needs to be removed." He then materialized a bag from a small compartment in his metal parts, and started carefully collecting the pieces of his former colleague. Vaz spoke meanwhile. "In some ways you could call it time manipulation, but I don't believe time itself is affected in reality." He started "I admit I don't properly understand it myself, but I believe it is more a form of recreation." "Creation of identical copy of sorts." "It is also why my counterpart is so visibly stiff." "He was resurrected, so he does not return to my youthful health, but rather, to the rigid existence of a reanimated corpse." "You are correct that any means of magic nullification has no impact on this effect." "That is because while the ritual itself was magic, the process that keeps me alive, requires no magic to operate." "It is fueled by souls, already in the vessel." "If blocking it is even theoretically possible, it would likely be lethal to you yourself too, for you would also nullify your own soul, whatever that would entail." a terrifying concept really, what would it even mean to nullify the soul of a living creature? "As for the suggested methods, I have no experience to state their effectiveness." "But you are likely right in the possible failure points, especially if my counterpart is not hindered by things like pain." "We can't know for sure, if he even has vital organs left, as we do not know just how alive he is." "Again, using the ritual for bringing someone back from dead was not something we considered, so all I can do is guess." "Is there something more you seek from me?" "I have told what I know could assist in countering one like myself, and if I am still around in such a case, I would also seek to help to counter them." "But, I have no reason to return to the capital, as I now know that those I seek, live in the town nearby, so until you have further questions, this is where we part ways." "I have one, what is this?" Solar once again projected an image, again from the point of view of the pony who's remains they found, though this time, the other Vaz had wrapped her in green, glowing, string like tendrils, coming from his fingers, and her field of view was more limited, as damage had appeared on the lenses of her artificial eyes. "Ah, that's simply how lot of my magic works." Vaz's eyes lit up, as green, glowing string like magic shot out from one of his hands, wrapping around a nearby stick, which he then moved around before snapping it in half. The 'strings' then retracted back to his hand, and his eyes returned to normal. "It allows me to control the flow of magic better, letting me use more or less magic as needed." "It also makes it easier to do several things at once." ------------------- Charir didn't really have the context for cheating when it came to relationships, mainly because having a relationship where such was even possible was not exactly a common place among his kind, so while a permanent partner sounded nice, and he understood why breaking of one's trust was a big deal, what leviathan said didn't translate properly to him, as he simply understood it as the father betraying the mother, without any context on what kind of betrayal it was. He was surprised about what he learned about Leviathan's mother, but not shocked, partly because he knew she had grown up with some other creatures, diamond dogs as she called them, though he didn't know what those actually were. The other part why he wasn't particularly shocked, was because only really knowing his own mother, he had no reason to think it wasn't normal among dragon mothers to be so...volatile. "Mothers' really like to punish their young over fathers' actions huh?" He simply remarked "I do sometimes wonder why mother did not just smash my egg, she clearly despised father, and me." he didn't sound sad about it, in fact, he was awfully casual saying it. Everyone waited Leviathan to do her orb thing before speaking, Charir being the only one visibly fascinated by it, while the three others were just curious what she was doing, as magic wasn't exactly rare around here, so it didn't really impress anyone as much as it did Charir. Though depending on how fast it traveled, they spoke before it reached its goal, as it was a good distance away. For the larger dragon's reaction, while it was too far to see expressions, it gave a wave back, and brought their forelegs on the side of the lake, leaning on them in relaxed manner, they were unsurprisingly aquatic in nature, having webbed feet and fins, and while rest of their body was still hidden underwater, the shorter looking legs implied they were similar in shape to the green youngling, so likely one of the 'serpents', as Werodex had called them. "It's natural." the young female responded, clearly happy about the compliment, as a rainbow of colors moved through her body before she returned to the white pearlescent color and transparent horns and claws "But I still need practice to properly control it." the green one cut in "Yeah, she keeps disappearing." to which the female responded with "At least I don't send my friends to treatment by almost electrocuting them to death." "It was one time! And why did you bring me into this? He's the one being a jerk" "Because he can't do anything-" she was cut short from all things, Charir, who just interrupted the argument with "I think it is nice." "The color thing." "You are pretty" Which seemed to take the trio off guard, causing the female once again briefly go camouflage for a moment before turning white again, and both of the males also were surprised by the directness. Charir in turn was bit surprised they were so surprised, as he lacked the social experience to know why calling someone pleasant to look at among his age group could cause any kind of reaction. "I can also do electricity, but I don't know how yet, it just happens." "I'm called Charir." "I'm Oreon" The white female responded first, surprised by the sudden compliment, especially coming from a Death-bringer "It's nice to meet you both." "Ereo" said the Voltaick's kin, and the green one finished with "Vulri". "You can also control electricity?" Ereo then asked "Yes, but I don't know how yet." "I think my father was your kind." the two others looked at Ereo, who responded defensively "Don't look at me, I don't know who it is"

"For now." Jenna pointed out "And even now...I'm out of action for at least a week." "We won a battle...in a war far older than us." she became notably more serious "There is also the question of...how did they find us in the first place?" "We have been careful, I thought we were doing well." "How long have they been...on our trail?" "Did they just happen to notice us, and sent those things? Or...have they been following us for a while...waiting for us to be isolated?"

"Likely." Jenna agreed "Or at least I can't come up with any logical explanation for the darkness." "The sun is clearly there, we can see it, it just doesn't light anything up." "The portals could in theory be technological, but we haven't seen anything that looks like technology, only the dark beam in the sky."