Author's Note: Okay so, first chapter in the new story, for those of you familiar to my neck of the woods is sorta a pseudo sequel one of my other stories the Dark Lord, those of you who are new don't worry about it, you don't need to know what happened in that story to know what is going on here. So Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 1: God Mother I Hate Politics
From within the depths of a decrepit old cathedral, a malevolent laughter was heard, screeching with the souls of the dead and damned glowing behind the combination stained glass mural/clock that predominately featured in the front. A pale hand crept over and after missing the building twice slammed into the middle spiral thereby silencing the nightmarish voices coming from that thing.
"I swear I'm going to murder that clock one of these days." The owner of that pale hand growled in low tones.
From beneath the covers of a huge bed a young lady with messy purple bed head and a sweater two sizes too big emerged and stretched her arms with an exaggerated yawn. The room was large, composed mostly of stone, but a large stain glass window led to a balcony, a vanity could be seen off to the left of the bed, and a entire wall was covered in a book shelf with a cauldron over a fire place in front of it. She got out of bed and was followed shortly there after by a length of scales of varying shades of purple and runic writings, the young lady lost her sweater and unmentionables on her way to the next room over, a Greek styled spa and latrine combination. The dragon entered the pool of water first, glowing with a light purple, and soon the water started to boil, various toiletries were magicked as bubble bath was added to the now piping hot water and began scrubbing down both the witch and the dragon.
"Alright what do we got to do today?" The witch twirled her finger in the air and manipulated a mass of water into something with the shape and thickness of a plate.
On that clear mass a interface appeared demanding a username and a pass word. Using her middle and pointer fingers the witch quickly punched in 'Raven Queen' for the User name and ********* for the password. Various apps appeared on the interface and the witch selected a calendar, then selected the current date.
"Huu. Damn, social studies test today." The witch finished with her bath and went to go get dressed, a pointed black witches hat, a purple peasant's blouse, trunks, a black spider's silk shawl and she was done. The dragon got a bracelet wrapped around her neck and magically shrunk down until the bracelet fit like a snug collar.
With the dragon having gone up her sleeve. The two floated down a winding stair case and noticed the presence of a maid who was working a grill. It seemed they were having bacon pancakes, a process which involved making a bowl by weaving together strips of bacon into a basket and frying them in a bowl shape, then poring pancake batter into that bowl and cooking it. Off to the side a bowl of fragrant juices and spices had been prepared and a few chunks of meat that had been beaten flat were soaking inside.
"So we're having steak for supper?" The witch commented observing the bowl.
"Hraban, Teilen Sie uns dies vorab mit, wenn Sie Freunde zum Abendessen mitbringen möchten." A second older witch commented as a mug of coffee was being magically pored for her.
"English mom please, you said you were going to practice." The younger witch stated as she dug out a jug full of syrup from a large metal box with a ice enchantment on it.
"So did you." The elder witch stated with a eye roll. "I said 'Raven. Let us know in advance this time if you plan to bring friends over for supper.' Your turn."
"Das kleine Fräulein Muffet saß auf ihrem Tuffet und aß ihren Quark und seine Molke." The witch replied in a rehearsed tone of voice.
"Splendid, you can spew nursery rhymes while we visit your Grand mother this summer." The Mother witch replied her voice thick with sarcasm.
"What about you? You aren't suppose to translate people's names. You're using auto translate spells again aren't you?" The witch asked tilting her head to the side.
"Your point?" Was the comment that immediately preceded a swig of coffee.
"Huu." The Witch called Raven gave a defeated sigh as she dumped a mass of syrup on top of her breakfast, her mother pointed a finger upwards and the lion's share of the syrup went back into the jug.
"You don't want to end up like Hansel and Gretel do you?" The elder witch replied as she finished her coffee. "I see you in there. Out." The shrunken dragon walked out of Raven's sleeve. "Do you need a reminder about what happened last time the little handbag was smuggled into the school?"
"...No. But it's okay if she just flies me down there right?" Raven stated looking like she just got caught doing something she shouldn't be doing.
"Then why is she small?" Raven winced at being found out a second time. "Take the ship like normal people do, it'll be here soon."
"Yes mother." Raven ate her breakfast in time for a large mass of wood to make it's presence known.
"Bye Mom! Bye Bane!" Raven stated waving to both her mother and the woman serving as a maid as she grabbed a satchel off of a coat rack.
Raven passed by two large cylinders where golem cranked propellers kept the ship afloat at thirty stories, just on level with Raven's family's pent house apartment. Raven climbed aboard the ship and sat on one of the benches on the middle row, at the same time the ship shifted it's weight and the distinctive whine of air both being magically sucked into a tube and ignited, the resulting explosion quickly moved the ship along it's path from a forest area over a sandy beach, where a pyramid had been built. Moments later a young lady of Raven's age group flew up to the ship on a sand storm and entered the ship, giving off a very Queen Bee attitude and flaunting a figure born of several missing organs and decorated with golden jewelry and freshly changed bandages.
"Cleo." Raven greeted tilting her head to the teenage mummy.
"Raven darling you look dreadful this evening." The Mummy stated as she made a show of taking the seat next to Raven's. "If there is something bothering you then you really must tell me, you know that we'd do anything for you."
"Mom cut us off again, we need a plan B." Raven stated letting out a sigh.
"That one is clever, I suppose that's what it's like living with someone who turns every piece of glass that she passes by into a set of eyes and ears for her own personal use." Cleo stated making an exaggerated put upon sigh. The ship started to circle back around to a castle town where it lowered itself enough for people at ground level could climb aboard.
"Seat check!" A clatter of wood on metal echoed as a seven foot tall young lady with a bright orange sash draped over plain looking clothing poked various seats with a ten foot long stick. "Y'all need to find your seats and stay in em! No disturbing the pilot while he's driving!"
"Hello officer Wolf." Raven stated as she leaned forward and looked at her childhood friend. "Is there something the matter."
"Side from the police dog joke the toilet paper dispenser is winding up?" You could see the vein about to pop in Cleo's fore head, not at the insult, but that her sparring partner had seen through her would be jab. "Only that I'm still being called 'Officer Wolf.'"
"Sorry Ramona." Raven legitimately winced with her apology.
A bat flew over Raven and a werewolf weaved through Ramona and took the seat behind the witch, both suddenly taking on human forms and leaning over the double seats. The small bat turned into a girl in a pink, spider webbed poncho with over pale skin topped off with pink pony tails, bringing up her arms and leaning on them revealed bat wings wearing white gloves with black spider webbing. Conversely, the werewolf still maintained a largely wolf like appearance even with a now human figure, what with the pointed dog like ears that came out of the top of her head, yellow round eyes, and the brown short fur all over her body, aside from that there was a fashionable leather jacket purple shirt combination and a crescent moon pendant.
"Are we still on for Saturday?" The vampire girl asked as she adjusted her gloves.
"The Tower witch cut us off again." Cleo stated as she examined dirt under her nails. "We're going to have to go with plan B."
"So we all come over to Raven's place and work on it tonight. Simple." The Vampire girl stated shrugging her shoulders.
"Not so fast Laura. Mom wants prior notice when I have friends over." Raven stated sighing before she darkly turned to the werewolf behind her. "I think a certain werewolf eating all of the meat in the house had something to do with that." The wolf girl in question whistled innocently as she leaned into back of her seat.
"Anyone seen where Frankie went?" The werewolf girl asked as she attempted to change the topic.
"She said she was staying in the school over night to prepare for the little beast." Cleo explained before a sudden realization came to her. "Which we are going to have to dismantle and transport to the top floor of a thirty story tower." The sound of multiple girls groaning in exasperation was all loosed at once.
The 'bus' stopped at several more places, power plant, swamp, graveyard, anywhere that a creature possessing... unique tastes and or needs might live. The school building was a massive, coffin shaped three story building stretching across roughly 1000 by three thousand feet, likely something to do with students who were twice or even thrice the the size of the norm. Raven had to pass through two sets of doors just to get inside of the bathroom, not including the front entrance of course, the first set had stick figures of 'x y h' and 'X' denoting humanoid, serpentine, centaurine and giant body types. The second set had symbols for the male, female, non-binary and gender less symbols the second of which Raven found herself now washing her hands as she used the mirror to read through a copy of her notes for the test today.
"Okay so Vampires enslaved werewolves using... collars?"
"Silver collar's more accurately." Joining Raven was girl with green colored skin, covered in stitches, mismatched Blue and Green colored eyes and bolts in her neck, moving onto the subject of what she was wearing it was a bright electric blue plaid patterned dress and dark black vest on top. "They had a wire built into them about as thin as a piano string. If they tried to transform..." The stitched up girl made her point by tracing her thumb along the stitch along her neck and stuck her tongue out as her head leaned off to the side.
"Still silver?" Raven looked a little confused about the subject. "It's kinda a weak metal isn't it?"
"Which is why the collar itself was made out of a more durable material." The stitched together girl explained as she tried to use Raven's interface.
"Here lemme." Raven adjusted the information going down the mirror and brought up the subject of werewolf collars. "What did they do about the full moon? I mean they don't gotta choice on the full moon right? It makes them transform."
"I think it was the use of... tranquilizers? Refined from Wolf's bane, injected into the body at the time just before the transformation, will suppress the transformation process and force the subject to remain in human form. Also, causes the subject to become more aggressive until their next transformation." The other girl explained trailing off in a manner that implied that she wanted Raven to continue.
"But because the next transformation would also be suppressed instead this aggression only continues to mount until they finally snap." Raven made a note of that in case it came up in the test.
"Which in turn led to the 'wolf rebellions.'" The stitched together girl stated looking quite pleased to be playing lecturer. "After their aggression couldn't be bottled up anymore the wolfs chewed through their own collar and turned against their one time masters. The conflict lasted for quite a while, the vampires, rightfully in many cases, viewed their hated enemies as little more than insane monsters that took an unnatural joy in slaughtering their kinsmen including women and children. The were wolfs on the other hand, for very good reason need I point out, viewed the abuse of their one time masters as the reason for this insane savagery and admitted to the great pleasure to the suffering that they inflicted."
"Which has major repercussions in the modern day and age as most vampires and werewolves can't even go to the same school." Raven stated with a sad sigh.
"Most being the keyword." The stitched together girl stated a finger in the air.
"Frankie." The werewolf from the bus station entered the bathroom. "There you are."
"Take Clawdeen here for instance. She and Laura get along great in spite of the dodgy history of their people." The Girl known as Frankie stated wrapping a arm around the werewolf's shoulder.
"Is this about a test this afternoon?" Clawdeen asked cocking a brow suspiciously. "How can your mother teach you all of that cool magic stuff and you have no idea about politics?"
"She was probably too busy teaching me cool magic stuff." Raven stated letting out a sigh. "Come on we need to get to class. Mr. Hackington doesn't like it when we miss his stories."
Mr. Hackington was not pleasant to look at, though that was not uncommon around these parts, the leather mask he wore over his face ostentiously for protection probably had something to do with that, yet it was his students who actually had their noses in their experiments. One would normally think of mad science as a class that specialized in a purely intellectual area, yet currently the students were arm wrestling... their projects.
"Vat grown body parts are very much like a newborn, untrained, lacking strength to even support it's own weight." Mr. Hackington explained as he walked past Raven's desk, who was locked in mortal combat with a purple scaly arm, and winning. "But by attaching the arm to a rudimentary brain, a electrical generator, it can be encouraged to exercise, at the moment that exercise is limited to straining itself against you. This is a critical moment in development, Too little strain, and it's growth will be stunted, too much though, and the still developing bones and muscles will fall apart at the seams." Mr. Hackington laughed as if he recalled something funny. "One of my former employers, Dr. Blumrush as I recall, once made two arms and had them arm wrestle each other until the time had eventually come that they were ready to be grafted onto a subject. As I recall..."
Raven started to tone out what her teacher was saying and concentrated on her work, for some reason she knew how to grow extra body parts in her cauldron now and hoped that it was a skill she never had to put into use. For more obvious reasons, Hackington was less of a teacher and more of a collector, of students specifically. He would often scout those with talent or who came from influence and go out of his way to get into their good graces, the more generous among them would provide him with financial support once they were successful.
"Your attention students please." The headmistress's voice echoed out of the school's speakers as Raven turned her attention from her project to the speaker above. "Would Ms. Hraban 'Raven' Konigan come to the principal's office once first class is done." The young witch could only sigh in response.
Mistress Bloodgood prided herself on maintaining a prim and proper appearance. She wore a combination of a a turtle neck sweater, kept at a ideal comfortable temperature by a combination of magical wool's taken from a couple of magical creatures that specialize in raising and lowering the temperature. On top of that was a purple suit made from giant spider silk, a creature born of excessive magical buildup, which dramatically enhances her natural magical abilities. She was a black head, which it should be noted was on her table while a turquoise flame was endlessly poring out of the hole that was her neck and producing a billowing column of black smoke which was being continuously sucked back inside of her body. She was using a kit to touch up the makeup on her face, purple eye shadow complimented yellow eyes and black lipstick made her lips pop against pale skin. Having finished with her head she placed it back on her shoulders and secured it in place using the neck of her sweater.
"Ugh. Makeup, that's a bad sign." Raven commented leaning in the doorway of the room.
"Two single species school's have both been hit with unpleasant circumstances within a week of each other, a Earthquake in Transylvania, and a chemical spill in Hungary." Mistress Bloodgood looked like she expected Raven to fill in the gaps.
"I think I'm suppose to do a test on that later today...?" Raven was confused as she scratched the side of her head.
"Yes well, I need to convince two separate board of directors to send the lions share of their student body here until things get settled over there. Towards that end I need your mother to make a few renovations to the school to account for a additional three hundred students and I need you to pull as many of the strings as you can within the student body as possible to convince them that this is a good idea." Mistress Bloodgood stated as she began walking out of her office.
"Connections that you planted." Raven pointed darkly as she chased after the Head Mistress. It was a system put into place by the Headmistress when the school was originally founded, the student who maintained the top marks in athletics and academics, and to a more limited degree charisma, was declared the 'Prince' or 'Princess' of the school, which in turn gave him or her a certain degree of authority which can at times exceed most staff or the student body president. Unfortunately for her, Raven was that precisely. "I believe my mother once mentioned to me that she brought me here because she wanted to avoid me turning into a political pawn."
"Then she's failed spectacularly." Mistress Bloodgood stated as she handed Raven Pamphlet's on two separate schools, when she read the names though she flew into a rage. "'Crescent Moon High for Werewolf's' and 'Belfry Prep for Vampires!' Are you kidding me!? I just got done listening to a lecture on why these people all hate each other!"
"Good then you should be able to devise a counter measure against them. I'll be back in a couple of days, don't let anyone burn down the school while I'm gone." Saying that, the Headmistress summoned a shadowy headless horse and rode off out of the school, leaving behind a stunned Raven. Raven had brought up her interface again as she used to draft a message.
"I'm not like you, I'm not a leader and I don't want to be. But people keep relying on me to try and fix their problems for them when I can't. I need your advice. The overflow from two school's that had to be shut down are going to be flowing into mine in a few days and they... kinda come from opposite ends of a war that ended fairly recently. So to prevent the second coming of that I need to convince them somehow to get along, so how do you guys convince people to stop fighting over there?" Raven sent the message and sighed as she waited to receive from her pen pal.