Huon hated the glaring brightness of the metal surrounding them. Bill had spirited the group to a trash yard. Endless piles of broken ships, bent rebar, scraps, and more were generated from all of the trash people posted and reblogged on Tumblr every day. This was the scrap yard that came as a result of all that. According to Bill, there were other places like this, except you got garbage or literal refuse as the representation of all that internet trash.
Here, in this expansive trash heap, the Vigilantes expected to acquire a new ship, which allow them to more easily and effectively navigate through the Tumblrverse. While it would be a welcomed change to travel more comfortably and more directly, Huon was not pleased with the idea of being surrounded by so much shinning metal. He had insisted on there being a cabin with a wooden interior, or something similar to give his eyes some rest.
At the moment, Bill was talking it up with some of scavengers and mechanics in the endless junkyard of internet waste.
"So we need a cruiser that is big enough to let everyone aboard, including scales over there! The teen's picking up the tab on this one."
"I will not," Juan huffed.
Huon was getting fed up with the antics of the Order member. He was certain the others felt the same and was tempted to start pushing and pulling on his emotions through his stolen Allomancy. He hesitated though, because he was unsure if Juan was able to sense the manipulations of his emotions.
"I only got one question fer ya," the portly and short leader of the scavengers said, hitching his pants under his sagging belly. "Do you guys like Steven Universe?"
"Hate his whiney guts. Would love to spill them though," Bill responded excitedly.
"I have no clue who you are talking about," Darkstalker said, bored.
"What does that have to do with getting a ship," Revolver asked.
"I could think of better cartoons," Deadpool called from the sack. "Like We Bare bears. What secrets is that Ice Bear hiding!? The world may never know!"
Juan only groaned, and Huon soon found out why. The workers exploded into a tirade of how stupid and bigoted the group was.
"Well, we are villains," Huon said in his grinding voice.
"Villainous Vigilantes," Darkstalker pointed out. "There is a big difference there."
"Not from where I'm standing," the steel inquisitor muttered.
"You can forget the ship and clear out, you bastards," the fat man raved.
"And why am I not allowed to cuss," Deadpool complained, earning him another flick from the dragon.
Huon also decided not to mess with the emotions of these men. Their random, dumb question, and their sudden outburst marked them as incompetent in his book. The others seemed to agree. Bill was about to curse them, but Huon held up a hand in front of the demon's eye.
"Leave them be, for now," he whispered. "We might have some kind of use for them later."
Bill flipped himself about and scrutinized the inquisitor's face. "I really can't tell what's going on in there, and not just because you're burning copper, but your lack of eyes give you the best poker face! We'll have to put that to use sometime soon, I think! Hahaha!"
They moved away from the scavengers, who sent them off with bits of debris being hurled at them. Darkstalker blew a plume of flames that made them scamper back a bit, but they found their lashing tongues again soon enough. Huon though paid more attention to the thought about copper. He had learned that by burning his copper he could make Darkstalker's mind reading very difficult, if not impossible. It also interfered with how Bill could influence him or even gain access to his mind.
That was all very useful, personally, but he quickly learned, as when Darkstalker detected Juan's true motives, that those around him were not protected when he burned copper. He idly wondered if it was a matter of not flaring copper, or if the Allomantic power wasn't even as powerful as he thought, but more of a big nuisance to mind invaders like the dragon and the demon. He would only know if he experimented, but further experimentation might also allow his cunning compatriots a chance to find a solution to his own solution!
They passed another group of scavengers and Bill shifted a mountain of scrap metal to fall on them and bury them. "You said you wanted those others alive, so I had to take my frustration out somewhere!"
Everyone ignored him, except for revolver who finally shouted, "What are we even doing here Cipher? You keep leading us on wild goose chases! Aizen could be near the Quill by now, if not already have it in his hands! And all because you have a fascination with sight seeing and pointless slaughter!"
"Have you seen this place," Bill asked. "This is a trash heap made up of the random, pointless comments and arguments that make up Tumblr. We can even find senseless witch hunts, like that over there!"
The group turned to see a number of people taking a poor child and some other scavengers and burning them, calling racist pigs.
"That's a little too close for comfort," Juan said uneasily.
"I like death and chaos, but these Tumblr freaks have no finesse or reason to them. Even their randomness and impulsiveness is nothing more than fueled triggering, allowed by the fact that they have diminished or non-existent social lives and live vicariously through fictional characters! It's just too pathetic, and plus this place has no aesthetics," Bill gripped.
"Point made," Revolver admitted grudgingly.
Huon watched the strange, vindictive man, pull a gun out and load a shining bullet into it. Huon had learned while around the man that certain kinds of brightness and light determined the strength of magical metals and of souls in this mixed universe, something that was not to be had on Scadrial. At least, not in this way. The bullet was exceptionally bright, and so the inquisitor inferred that it was a powerful one.
Sure enough, a shot rang out, and the impromptu witch hunt and burning ended with everyone three trash mountains over being obliterated in an explosion.
"Where have you been hiding those," Bill wondered.
"Away from you and for a special occasion," Revolver sneered.
"Like when Aizen betrayed us," Darkstalker accused.
"Let's not bring this up again," Huon sighed.
"Well, excuse me for pointing the flawed rationale, and that this man has no real moral ground to stand on!"
"And you do, dragon," Revolver challenged.
"Gun, come to me," Darkstalker sneered.
The gun burst with even more light, just like Darkstalker, and it flew into the dragon's outstretched claw. Revolver cursed and charged Darkstalker.
The dragon laughed and commanded, "Hit him in the head."
The gun did just that, and then it kept hitting him. Huon observed this carefully. He wondered if the command was based more intent, or on wording. Darkstalker liked to keep things close to the chest and did not always explain himself. Finally, Darkstalker told the gun to stop, and they both stopped glowing.
"Nice going there, not pulling an anime and keeping your secrets safe," Deadpool congratulated him. "Huon there was wondering, and too is the audience that has never read Wings of Fire. That confusion will be a wonderful-"
"Shut up," Darkstalker sighed, flicking his head again. "Why I don't eat you is beyond me."
"I think you said it had something to do with indigestion" Huon prompted.
"Can we just get going again," Juan asked, weary and clearly losing it.
"Well, we don't have far to go, here is a good place!" Bill pointed to another mountain of scrap nearby. He then explained, "So I wanted to get something that would suit all of our needs. Those guys back there specialize in TARDIS and Gem spacecraft technology. All of which would accommodate Darkstalker and be really, really fast. However, they are pricks with sticks up their butts, so I decided to go with the few guys still interested in Star Craft."
Juan looked surprised and said, "You were actually looking for a decent ship, even in this mess? Impressive! Wait, how did you even know where to look?"
"They have maps inscribed on sheets of metal," Bill answered. "Honestly, and you call yourself a writer. Keep your eyes peeled, kid!"
With that, Bill peeled Juan's eyelids off like banana peels. The teen screamed, but his eyes quickly reverted to normal. Bill laughed at his own joke and floated to the next trash heap.
There they found a large crew willing to repurpose an old battle cruiser for their use. It would have the hangars and storage areas gutted for Darkstalker, and they even agreed to lay a few rooms with wood and other non-metal materials to allow Huon to go about without blinding himself. Huon finally got to use his brass and soothed the emotions of the scavengers and dealers, allowing Revolver and Juan to talk down the price. Darkstalker cheated a little in the payment, by turning scraps of metal into bars of gold when others weren't looking. But it served the purpose.
As the workers got started on refitting the large battle cruiser, something that Huon felt was too boring and too advanced for him anyway, he asked Bill and Darkstalker to follow him. Juan was fascinated by what the scavengers were doing with the battle cruiser, and Revolver wasn't leaving his side, so he felt it was now a good time to split up.
"What is it that you want, tin eyes," Bill asked.
"I want to pay those earlier guys a visit. They insulted us, and I feel the need to pay them back. Also, I need to equip myself better if we are going to face off with Aizen," Huon explained quickly.
"That still doesn't explain why you need us here," Darkstalker pointed out.
"I need Bill to restrain them while you, Darkstalker, use your animus powers to change them into Feruchemists and Allomancers of certain abilities. Chiefly, I want those who burn bendalloy and cadmium. Those powers will allow me to influence the flux of time around myself and Aizen in battle."
Bendalloy to create pockets of compressed time, effectively speeding it up, and cadmium for slowing down time in a certain radius.
Huon did not explain the more personal reason for doing this. Sure, it was practical, but since being taken from his home world, he lacked the connection to the Lord Ruler. More importantly, he now lacked the connection with Ruin. He felt he was now without much purpose except for a vague notion of revenge. The prospect of violence kept him going now. He needed it to stay alive. He had wanted to kill people back there earlier, but now he'd get the chance! Death linked him to Ruin, the aspect of change, but especially change into nothing. How perfect and natural. Huon was not in a perfect or natural setting for himself. Some death, some stealing of powers, as only inquisitors were capable of, was definitely something he needed then.
Once they found the earlier group of Steven Universe fans, they were greeted with more insult and jibes. Bill rose over them all and glowed blue. The landscape became grey and the men froze with shock.
"Just tell me what you want done," Darkstalker said.
Huon indicated which ones he wanted changed and he pulled out some metal scraps and requested that be made into different kinds of spikes. It became very bloody very quickly. Bill couldn't restrain the men so easily, on account of his weakened state after fighting Aizen. However, Huon was very fast, having stored plenty of speed, a useful Feruchemist trait. He ran down the scavengers and bludgeoned them to the ground. He then rammed the spikes through their hearts and took the metal, sticking it into his own flesh.
Oh, what exquisite pain! He finally felt alive, and for a few minutes he knew purpose once more! Death! It was the perfect form of ruin, of change, as one element transformed forever into another one. And piece by piece, murder by murder, Huon became even more powerful.
Then it was over all too quickly.
Bill and Darkstalker watched with amazement at what Huon did, then Bill helped with trashing and destroying the place, covering up the bodies. In the process, they scrounged up some materials to add to the battle cruiser. They found a stash of mullah and decided to use it to bribe the other scavengers to make the additions. Bill found a metal statue of Steven Universe and melted the face off with his eye laser. He then drew a frowny face into the hot metal.
"Take that you lump of eternal, prepubescent hormones and feelings," the demon shrieked. "How you survived season one, I'll never understand."
One man groaned from within the rubble, someone Huon had missed. "It gets a whole lot better after season one. Plus, you need the slice of life in order to-"
Darkstalker pulled the man out and popped him into his mouth. As he chewed he said, "Deadpool already put together a list of the must-see episodes for the show. He assured me I can ignore the rest."
Huon found himself laughing at that comment. Had they really just done what they had/ It was now so senseless, yet it was important, in the long run, or so he hoped. He also had to laugh, now that the moment had passed and melancholy was settling in. So he forced himself to laugh even more until he couldn't stop. The others joined in and they started crying.
Towing the stolen materials and the statue with them, they soon added them to the ship. The Steven statue became the ship's hood ornament, and it was outfitted with faster than lightspeed capabilities, and a room whose environment could be changed into hundreds of different possibilities. Juan was not happy about how they got the items, but Revolver oddly seemed to approve. It was clear that the group was now lost to the Order kid, and he was now just along for the ride.
As the ship was worked on, Huon again worked with Darkstalker to create the metals he would need to fuel his powers. It was tricky to get the right mixtures right for bendalloy, but eventually they succeeded. The dragon was forced to keep using his Stormlight to make the metals change a mix according to Huon's instructions.
It took longer than anyone wanted, but eventually, the ship was up and running. Its computers were collaborated with what was known of Tumblr, Bill's knowledge of the Tumblrverse, and maps from the Order. Juan had requested them through special transmissions, and was forced to leave out what was really going on to his superiors.
"You're getting the hang of this," Bill had taunted then.
Juan had not been to happy already, on account of Bill trying to get dead bodies and zombies chained all over the ship.
"We are not Reavers," Juan had shouted.
"Fine then, but then e get access to the Order's maps. They'll fill in the gaps we have about the Tumblrverse, hopefully," Bill had bargained. "That, or the dead go up. I for one want to look like we come bringing death and disease! I mean, Revolver already does that, but you can't tell from afar!"
Before they finally took off, Huon made his way into the environmental changing room, something they had stripped from a TARDIS. He found Darkstalker in there, poring over scroll and checking a computer. When the dragon saw him, he punched in a command, and the room changed into a cramped storage space with a blocky computer.
"The room's all yours, Huon," Darkstalker said pleasantly. "After our recent dealings, my Stormlight is running a little low, but I think I found a way to get some more as we travel."
He smiled at Huon as squeezed out of the room. The inquisitor doubted that was all the dragon had been doing. He was certain that Darkstalker was planning something, but what it was he could not be sure of. He went to the computer and spoke a command. The room changed to fir a office in Kredik Shaw, in Luthadel. Home. A sleek, large computer screen remained however, and Huon got to work on his own project.
Once he had what he wanted from Aizen, he was commandeering this ship and taking straight back to Scadrial.