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"Right now, they're still trying to figure exactly what to do with the Harris twins. They're an . . . interesting case. They were bouncing around foster homes for a while until they managed to get into MIT. At the age of thirteen. They graduated by fifteen. It looks like they paid for their schooling using cybercrimes though they did target known criminals," Nightwing told Gar by way of the holographic screen in the control room. The verdant man lounged in the circular seats about the central computer with a brick at his side, curiously accompanied by Blackfire who was no longer wearing her armor. Instead, she wore a loose purple tank top that left her golden midriff revealed while black shorts put long slender legs on full display. More distracting than any of her more than worthy assets was the smug smirk and glimmer to her eyes that made Nightwing feel very much like the canary trapped by the cat even if he was several states away.
"I've got a few ideas for the kids that I wanna run by you, but I need to check out a few things first. I did want to –"
"I have more pressing matters to discuss," Blackfire interrupted, practically purring. "Whispers have reached my ears that you and my dearest baby sister are no longer a coupling. I had always believed that you two were a pair for the ages. Whatever could have happened?"
His rather expressive domino mask turned toward Gar, the furrow of his brow effectively expressing his displeasure as he growled, "Gar . . ."
He raised his arms into the air and then swept them towards the smirking alien woman who lounged upon the couch now, her legs crossed over each other as she inspected her nails. Gar snapped, "Hey, I got her to wear some sort of clothes that don't make her look evil and hot as all get out. Exactly what more do you want from me? I mean, our sweetest treat here is still supernova hot, but she doesn't look all spikey and hurty."
"He certainly has a most endearing way with words, doesn't he?" Blackfire chuckled.
"Yeah, well, speaking of that, Raven wants to talk to you," Nightwing excused himself from what was rapidly becoming, for him, a distinctly unpleasant conversation. The golden alien snickered at his retreat, awarding the emerald fist with a gentle, by her standards, pound as the animorph smirked. His smirk developed into a sincere grin at the appearance of the grey-skinned sorceress who returned the smile though it faltered for the briefest of seconds as her gaze took in the rather immodestly dressed Blackfire. Even at a quarter of Gar's brightness and cheer, it was the greatest show of emotion that the former royalty had ever witnessed from the empath.
"Greetings to you, the sliver of light in the darkest gloom. How's it going?"
"That was oddly . . . poetic. Excluding the last portion," she said.
He shrugged, "I've been having some good practice at flowery flattery recently."
"Talking to yourself in the mirror again?" she teased.
Repeating a recent gesture, he lifted his arms up into the air and then sighed. He glared at her for a moment before he smiled and decided, "You know, there's this idea that boys tease girls that they like. I had no idea that it not only worked in vice versa, but into the beyond teenage years."
"And here I thought that it was the smell that had attracted the flies," Raven quipped.
"I'll have you know, my aroma has been compared to that of truffles, sunflowers, and the color red," he countered, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Who dared to get close enough to smell you?"
"Kay Challis."
"Who?"
"Crazy Jane. But that's beside the point," he asserted, waving his hand dismissively.
"I believe that's the point entirely," she suggested. The teasing gleam to her eyes vanished, softening her smile but not detracting from her obvious merriment. "It is good to see you, Garfield. I trust things have been going well?"
"Fair enough. Remember how we had some trouble working as a team when we started out? Multiply that by a dash of malevolence plus a portion of amateurism, all to the power of arrogance, and you get a pretty clear picture of how the team's functioning," he smiled, leaning forward and setting his elbows on his knees.
"I don't think anything was very clear about that, Garfield," Blackfire interjected and he scowled at her.
"A/B conversation, hourglass. 'C' your way out of it."
With a short laugh, she settled back against the couch, content with observing the conversation as Gar turned to stare at the amethyst eyes. Immediately, a broad smile bloomed across his face, less toothy than his typical grin, and carrying further into his eyes. Undertaking a keen observation of the exchange, she watched as Gar continued, reaching back to pat his nearly omnipresent brick, "On a more personal note, I found an old friend."
Raven paused before asking, "That brick?"
"A-yep. Raven, meet Danny. Danny, the most curvaceous and callipygian sorceress, yes, even more so than that oh-so-luscious Zatanna, I have ever had the absolute bliss of encountering, Raven."
"You do realize what callipygian mea-" she halted as words formed on the brick that the shape shifter was now holding aloft.
-Greetings, mademoiselle. I've heard much about you.-
"Since when could it do that?" Blackfire demanded, peering at the message.
"Garfield, what is that?"
"Hey, his name's Danny. Danny the Brick. The Brick Formerly Known as Danny the Street and Danny the World," he defended the brick. New lettering appeared upon it.
-You're embarrassing me.-
"Oh, please. You love this."
"What – who is Danny?" Raven pressed.
"He's an old Doom Patrol buddy. Used to be a sentient street, but the Gentrifiers reduced him to his current state. Wasn't sure what happened to him until I was cleaning out the storage area a while back," Gar reminisced.
-Thank goodness you did. It was getting terribly stuffy down there.-
"A sentient street," the sorceress echoed, rather dumbfounded by the statement.
"Indeed he was, glorious sorceress of the shadows. Danny could get you anywhere you needed to go in seconds. Course, I find his taste in decorations a bit questionable."
-Please. You think a layer of crusty socks and pizza boxes is decorating.-
"And that seems like enough out of you. Talk later, Danny," he promised as he set the brick aside. "How are things on your end?"
"Nightwing will never admit it, but we all miss you. Fortunately, Kori no longer feels as though she must make the 'pudding of sadness' to mourn your moving to Tartarus."
"Really? You're sticking with that?" he sighed.
"It's popular," she smiled, "And one of the better ones, I assure you."
"It would be," he grumbled before tapping on the couch and looking back up at her. "Anything else going on?"
"I –" she paused, glancing away for a second before flashing a smile and uttering quickly, "I am having dinner with Wallace next week."
Blackfire noted with particular interest how Gar's smile lost some of its ease and it was a second before he gave an enthused nod, "Nice. I think. Wally isn't exactly my type. Wrong equipment and nowhere near enough curves. Anyway, getting off point. Where are you crazy kids headed?"
"We haven't decided yet. I imagine it will be somewhere he can eat his fill though."
"Guy packs it away like a champ," Gar's smile became less strained. "Good sense of humor too."
"And I wouldn't be able to appreciate it without years of the torment of your jokes," she mused, winning a quick flash of his broad grin.
"Before you really start in on my unparalleled sense of humor, did you hear about Rosabelle and Leo?" he redirected.
"The invitation arrived the other day. Kori was ecstatic. I'm fairly certain that that's what finally helped her make peace with your departure. I was actually going to mention it to you as they sent the invitation before you had left."
"Yeah, we talked for a minute the other day. She told me about it then," he explained before clapping his hands upon his legs and sighing, "Well, I've got a few things I need to take care. Gonna see if I can resurrect Danny."
"You shouldn't mess with forces you don't comprehend, Garfield," she admonished.
"What?" he blinked, "I was just gonna try building a brick pathway. See if he could spread his consciousness through it. I even read a book on masonry before that guy told me that it was a book store, not a library."
"I'm impressed enough that you made it into a place with that many books without combusting. I was under the impression that they were the bane of your existence," she smirked before giving a nod in farewell. "It was nice to talk to you, Garfield. Blackfire."
"A pleasure, Raven," the latter said, a devious smile on her face as her eyes slid to the shape shifter who waved at the sorceress before the screen went dark. He ignored her, scooping up Danny in one hand while posting the other on the back of the couch to flip over it. His progress towards the door and the tune he was whistling were abruptly halted when she noted, "You're in love with her."
"And you seem to be suffering from delusions. Later."
"I don't think so," she flew from her seat, landing between him and the door. His eyes narrowed and she swore his hair started to rise, but she sneered down at him, "You're in love with the creepy, little sorceress, but she has absolutely no interest in you, does she? Or, did you confess and get shot down?"
"She's not creepy!" he snarled, his fangs elongating as his body underwent several shifts. Stiff bristles began to spread along his skin as his corded muscles became thicker. Claws became talons and his eyes went blank as they usually did when he changed his shape before he suddenly froze. Sucking in a breath, he let it out slowly and returned to his normal state, his brow set as he glared up at her, "Your people skills suck."
"They work well enough when I need them to," she responded evenly. "Now come. Don't hold me in suspense any longer. Does she know of your feelings?"
"So this whole perceptivity and relationship meddling thing – is that just a family trait or are all Tamaraneans like that? Cause I might just have to take it off my vacation route," he muttered evasively, a fact that she did not miss.
"You're avoiding the question," she noted, leaning in.
He sighed before turning his back on her and throwing his arms into the air, "She knows I like her. She just doesn't have a clue how deep it runs. There. You happy now?"
"It's more a smug contentedness," she admitted before drifting over to him. "So why didn't you tell her?"
His glare snapped towards her, "I really don't think you need to know anymore."
"Oh, I disagree entirely. You look like you need to vent this. You've been keeping it bottled up, like the fool you are."
"Again, people skills suck. Seriously. You are never talking to anybody from the media. Ever," he asserted, but her gaze did not waver, merely taking on a mote of annoyance as she crossed her arms. He groaned, letting his head loll back, "Fine. Fine. Damn pushy ETs. I always thought that whole probing thing was a hoax . . . Okay, listen up, 'cause I'm only saying it once. After Raven stopped having to bottle up her emotions, she needed time to sort them out. I wasn't about to push my affection on her and end up having her reciprocate it only in an empathic sense. So I kept her at arm's length. Apparently, too long of an arm, cause suddenly she's falling for Fleet-Feet the sequel. And I mean, really falling."
"So you did nothing?" she demanded, her tone sharp.
"Well . . .yeah," he shrugged.
She glared at him before scoffing and rolling her eyes towards the ceiling, "How predictably pathetic."
"A face and body that supermodels would kill for only gets you so far, sweetheart. Watch it," he growled.
"No. Feel free to threaten me with doing your laundry or whatever, I'll do the environment a favor and incinerate it, but you need to hear this. You, Garfield, are a coward. You hide behind your little jokes and poor sense of humor because you're terrified of showing the real you. You fear rejection, abandonment. If people scoff at your jokes, belittle you, that's all right by you. Because it's simply a mask. Nobody's actually rejecting the real you."
"Enough!" he roared, his teeth elongating again. Tremors shook his body as he resisted the impulse to change, to confront her in the only manner all his animal instincts knew how. Closing his eyes shut, he took a step back, and his teeth returned to normal before he growled, "Sorry if I don't have a whole lot of confidence in a sociopath's analysis on emotions and relationships. You've alienated, no pun intended, pretty much everybody in your life. Your own sister never knows if she can trust you or not! You've -"
"Made my own choices. Discarded the weakness. And I've learned something," she suddenly leaned in, backing him against the wall as the feather touch of slender fingers came upon his chest. His eyes widened, the proverbial deer in the headlights, as she pressed against him. Her breath was warm as she whispered into his ear, "If you truly want something, with every fiber of your being, you cannot simply hope it falls into your hands. You must take it."
She pulled back to stare into his broad eyes as he gaped at her, trying to form words and pantomiming a fish, and she gave a short chuckle. Any further interaction was cut off by the sudden eruption of sound from the klaxon as the lights turned red, and Gar took the chance to escape, slithering around her and streaking towards the central computer. Lifting into the air, she alighted several paces behind him, watching as his fingers summoned up the displays and video feeds of the newest situation. Common amongst the feeds being streamed from news reports, public cameras, and civilian sources who were directly posting to the internet was a rather ornate bank, surrounded by police cars. Cameras on the inside of the bank showed the cowering bankers who had made the unfortunate choice of attempting a transaction at the time when unnatural, armored creatures had taken over. They were inhumanly shaped and were armed not with conventional weaponry, but cruel-looking swords or staves that they held directed at the bank's patrons. A new screen popped up seconds before Kid Devil and Ravager entered the room, displaying the scene at the front of a bank where an immense figure with a barbed tail and upside down wings lurked at the side of a portly man in a dark overcoat.
"Looks like your cousins are in town," Ravager remarked to the horned boy who had paled, his typical vibrant red turning to a dusky pink.
"N-no. I have more time. They're-"
"Not looking for their little brother. Though I'll admit, I'd rather be facing the denizens of Hell, again," groaned the green man as one of the cameras zoomed in on the smugly grinning redhead who raised his arms out to the crowd.
"Greetings, fair citizens! Let me start off by saying it's a real pleasure to be here. Second, I'll let you get back to your boring, mundane little lives in time, probably, but there's something that must be attended to first: Tartarus! Come out and face your greatest nemesis, Control Freak, or else you will watch your entire city burn!"
As he broke into maniacal laughter, guarded by the hulking beast at his side from any shots the police might make, the heroes had mixed reactions. Kid Devil's frown immediately disappeared, a bright smiling stretching across his face instead, "Wait, we've got a nemesis already? Sweet!"
"Maybe I missed something, but who's this guy? And who the Hell is Tartarus?" Ravager demanded, arms crossed as she glared at the video feed.
"An old friend, perhaps?" Blackfire nearly purred as she watched Gar sink his forehead into his palms.
"When he's not on some evil mastermind-wannabe kick, yeah. He's not that bad. Unfortunately, those times are few and far between. Oh, and we apparently are Tartarus. Trust me, I didn't come up with the name," he grumbled. Breathing out a sigh, he picked his head up, stared at the screen, and sighed again before turning and waving for the others to follow, "Let's go. I want to take care of Control Freak as quickly as possible."
"So do I," Blackfire agreed as she lifted from the ground, zooming to hover over his shoulder for an instant as she whispered in his ear, "Because you and I have a rather engaging conversation to finish up, my dear little Changeling."
He offered no response besides a slight furrowing of the brow, and she gave a short laugh before zooming ahead, leaving the younger half of the team in utter confusion as they caught up with the shape shifter. With a practice born of the uncharacteristically intense training he had pushed them through, they sped up as his form began to melt into something new and gave a jump to alight easily upon the large tiger without the beast breaking stride. Kid Devil sat towards the front and if he was disappointed that Ravager didn't loop her arms about him to secure herself, he kept a rather schooled expression, leaning forward as they neared the hatch that opened into the sky. Fur was already shrinking away to be replaced by leathery scales even before the abnormally large feline leapt into the sky, completing its transformation into a pterodactyl. This time, Ravager accepted the hand that her red-skinned teammate offered, using it to pull herself closer to a position where she could secure a handhold. Flight upon a pterodactyl was anything but smooth and the pair was thankful for the clear skies and temperate weather. Blackfire had taken the lead, but dropped back to hover alongside them as the wind brought Changeling's words back to them.
"Control Freak's somebody I can relate to: a nerd. He's usually more of a nuisance than a threat, but he's still pretty powerful. At least when he has his remote he is. We never figured out the tech behind it, but it allows him to animate things, move people and objects between reality and TV or other stuff like that, and he can control electronics too," he offered.
"So, those demon dudes?" Kid Devil queried.
"Not real. They're from some movie or video game or something. Though it's got to be pretty obscure, cause I don't recognize them," Changeling mused.
"So no suggestions on how to fight them?" Ravager pressed.
"None in particular. I honestly don't know how to work the remote, so the usual game plan is get it from him and then browbeat him into shutting everything down. His confidence plummets like a peregrine falcon once he loses his little toy."
"So he's no different from any other male across the galaxy," Blackfire smirked.
"Have I ever mentioned that you remind me of a praying mantis? Or an angler fish. Black widow, sand scorpions, pretty much every other species of spider . . .," Changeling rambled on as the bank came into view. Control Freak and his imposing bodyguard had vanished from out front and the police were mostly holding back the frenzied crowd. Dropping to the street below, inside the police barricade, Ravager and Kid Devil hopped from the pterodactyl as it twisted into the far less imposing shape of a human. Holding up a finger to get them to wait for him, he strode over to talk to the officer who seemed to be directing the police effort. Ravager stopped short of the sidewalk, sliding her blades from their sheaths and spinning them to keep herself entertained. She bounced on her toes before glancing to Kid Devil who was looking particularly grim.
"Bet I can take out more goons than you," she needled, poking him lightly in the ribs and causing him to yelp and jump. He swiped at her sword and glared at her, which she merely laughed at, but the worry and anxiety were gone from his features.
"Quit it," he snapped at her.
"Come on," she urged, "It'll be a friendly little competition."
"You mean like that competition for the remote when Gar doesn't have it? Because if so, I think you need to take a look at the word 'friendly' again."
"Anybody would call my actions completely justified. I understand that you and green genes are all into movies and such, but there's more out there than your so-called classics."
"Everything you watch is pretty much softcore porn and violence," he argued.
"And it's all so very glorious," she smirked when the doors of the bank suddenly opened. A pair of the demonic creatures held them, but no hostages emerged, and Changeling sighed.
"Looks like that's our invitation."
The team followed after him, Kid Devil hesitating as he passed by the tall, horned creatures while Ravager glared at them, debating an immediate attack. Her grip tightened about her blades as she stared down the creature, assessing it. Towering over her by several feet and perched sturdily upon saurian feet, its hooded, yellow eyes remained fixed outward, not even registering her as a threat. Bony adornments, which were hard to distinguish between organic structure or armor, emerged from its head with thick horns jutting from the side and curving down towards its chin, which was decorated with barbs in place of hair. Tattered rags, twisted wires, and small knickknacks dangled from the horns, adorned with occult symbols and small jagged hooks that looked far too painful to be catching fish with. There was a gaunt appearance of sorts to its face, largely influenced by the lack of lips, giving the creature a slight skeletal appearance. Despite this, it was thickly muscled while being lean, having no obvious fat deposits on its body, and the dull red hue of its flesh almost made it seem as though it had been skinned. It wore pieces of armor, lacking a full set of the rough leather studded with tiny spikes though about its slim waist was a sash and sullied robes, bearing ominous stains and disconcerting designs. Clutched in a gauntleted hand was a crooked staff that looked as though it were composed of sections of carapace from some giant beetle, topped by a bleached goat's skull. Glaring at the aberration a second longer, she proceeded into the room and took note of the other demons lurking within the eaves. Most were more thickly built, carrying wicked looking blades, and wearing more armor, but there were few differences between the enemies arrayed against me.
Control Freak sat in a high-back leather chair, attempting to emulate the aloof pose of some cinema mastermind as they entered while a voluptuous demoness, wearing an outfit solely intended to boost sales to a male audience, practically draped herself across his shoulders, slender arms looped about his neck and chin resting on his shoulder. Behind them was the behemoth demon who had accompanied the villain in his announcement, lumbering over his brethren. His arms were like tree trunks and bones spurs curled from them like stout branches. Buried in the floor beside him was a large axe, gnarled and cruel-reclooking like all of the weapons. Control Freak smirked at Changeling, "It is good to see you again, my eternal rival."
"Oh God. You've been reading manga again, haven't you?" he groaned before leaning his head back and massaging his temples, "I can feel a whole storm of stupid coming on. What's going, CF? Banks aren't really your style."
"They shall be the audience to your fall and witnesses to the rise of your greatest nemesis, Control Freak!" he leered, trying to sound threatening.
"Great. I'll be the first to admit I haven't really been keeping up with the great world of gaming. But I don't recognize these guys at all. Where'd you dredge them up from?" he gestured to the assembled beasts.
Control Freak's smirk managed to grow wider before he rolled aside revealing a pair of imp-like creatures in front of a television and game console, the duo mashing buttons as they squabbled over the controller for the game. The pudgy man declared, "You don't recognize them, 'cause they haven't been mass-produced yet. You are facing a mere fraction of the Dark Lord Harkoth's forces, led by the fearsome Siege Lord Raath."
"Right. Yeah. Okay. Hey, guys?" Changeling glanced back to the rest of the team. "Whatever these things are, they're not real. So . . ."
His body suddenly swelled into the form of a tyrannosaurus rex and he caught a pair of demons between the deadly jaws that snapped shut, causing the adversaries to give a flash of red light before disappearing entirely. He turned his head to the grinning girls and grim boy and, with the most terrifying pantomime of a smile that any animal could perform, directed "Go nuts. Just keep the civies in one piece."
Needing no further urging, the other members of the team sprang to life, adrenaline flooding their system as the spirit of battle flowed through them. Blackfire was the quickest, upon the closest demon before it could even raise its weapon. Energy flowed about her hands, but she was content to grasp them together at her hip, using the momentum and her immense strength to knock the beast under the chin and sailing into the ceiling where it flared into a crimson nimbus before vanishing. Grinning wildly, she caught the attack from a sword on her strange armor and dealt a fierce blow to her assailant, which merely dazed it. Before it could recover, she tossed it into the air and shot up after it, catching up with the demon at the peak of its arc. As it began its descent, she hurried the process by releasing a powerful burst of energy, sending it smashing into the floor where it dissolved. Staying in the air, she began a fierce bombardment that the demons armed with staves returned, launching bolts of crackling energy. She weaved between the attacks easily enough, distracting the sorcerers from the more immediate death. At least until the whirling set of blades that seemed to surround Ravager had already cut down half of them. Poetry and violence fused into a single element as she danced about their attacks, leaping from desks onto the shoulders of demons, executing a multi-pronged strike and jumping to the next before the target burst into light. Dropping low to the ground, she swept a demon's feet out from under him, letting it fall upon her readied blade as she blocked the attack of another. Spinning about, she relieved it of anything below its kneecaps and the foe was in six more pieces before it hit the ground and flashed out of existence.
Kid Devil pounced from a desk, grabbing the horns of his target and violently wrenching them about, eliciting a savage crack from his victim's neck before it disappeared. Rolling across the floor to his feet, he greeted the demon before him with a burst of hellfire, temporarily blinding it and allowing him to leap over. As he descended over its back, his claws dug into its face and as he landed, he grunted with exertion as he swung the demon into a pair of its brethren, sending the group breaking through the teller's counter before they vanished. Ignoring the cries of the terrified citizens to his one side, he turned away from them, readying himself against the new horde that stalked towards him. Until they were swept up into the distinctly disheartening realm of a t-rex's jaws from which they quickly vanished in a burst of light. Changeling rose to give a triumphant roar, attempting to mimic a rather famous scene from a certain movie Kid Devil suspected, before he stomped on a nearing demon. Another managed to leap onto his thigh, burying a blade there and he gave another roar, this one in pain, before attempting to snap at him. Giving the currently safe citizens a cursory glance, the red-skinned boy made a jump just as the digital demon pulled its blade out for another strike. Landing upon the taller creature's back, his tail looped about its wrist and tugged the surprised demon's blade into its head, causing it to vanish. He landed just as a new voice thundered, "Enough!"
Everybody turned to see the massive demon hoist a girl into the air, snarling at the blubbering woman who reached for her before the crowd pulled her back. Surprised at the sudden turn of events, Control Freak snapped, "Raath, what do you think you're doing? We weren't actually supposed to hurt them, they're just to make sure that Changeling and Tartarus play by our rules."
"Your rules. I have different plans," he growled, his voice like gravel being crunched.
Control Freak scowled, "What're you talking about? Let go of that girl right now."
"Make me, worm," he sneered before his eyes snapped towards the heroes who had been attempting to subtly move towards him. His claw tightened slightly and the girl screamed, causing them to go rigid as he warned, "And if any of you make a move towards me, the girl dies."
"I think you're forgetting who's in control here," remarked Control Freak as he reached into his jacket before pausing. His eyes widened as he rifled through it furiously, forcing the curvaceous demoness off of him with the frenzy he was stirring up. He leapt from his chair, digging through all of his pockets before turning upon the seat and probing the cracks in it in his frantic search. "Where'd it go? Who took it? Where's my controller?!"
The clearing of a throat behind him caused him to whirl towards the demoness who smirked before pulling an arm out from behind her, teasingly presenting the remote. Control Freak gaped before jumping for it, only to have her dance out of his grasp towards Raath who she presented the remote to with a malicious smile. He accepted the prize, gingerly holding it in fingers that were thicker than it, and his gaze snapped to the imp creatures who he barked at, "Enough fooling around. Hurry and get to the levels containing our lord so that we might free him from his imprisonment."
They jumped at the command, ceasing their effort to claim the controller and effectively sharing. When a horde of the demonic villains appeared on the screen, Raath directed the remote at it and soon they had transferred from the digital world into the real one. Surging forward without any instruction, they corralled the heroes and their former master with the other hostages. Changeling warned the others away from any action, his eyes trained on the girl who was weakly struggling against the grip of Raath's claws. For a second, he was worried that Ravager would disobey when the demons tried to take her long blades, but then breathed a soft sigh of relief as she relented. Blackfire landed alongside them, hesitating for a moment as she considered her options. Content that they were now under control, Raath turned his spiny back to them, focused upon the imps as they battled through the levels, their ranks swiftly gaining as Raath turned the enemies on-screen to his warriors out of it. As their ranks swelled, the hope of the former patrons and heroes began to wilt, dying away as the light of hope was eclipsed by their fear.
My chapters just seem to keep getting longer. We'd like to thank everybody who took the time to read this, and express even deeper gratitude to those who reviewed. Initially, we intended for this to be one chapter, but it kind of took on a life of its own and you can obviously tell that it's going to span into the next chapter. Please review and, if we don't post before the 30th, we wish all of you a Happy All Hallows' Eve!