Lucy Mann wiped the sweat off her brow, she was trying to keep her breathing under control. The intensity of the fight took everything out of her and her face was beginning to show it. She probably had two big attacks left in her arsenal but she was counting on one to hit its mark. Over the past several months of training, the blonde was always on the defensive against Verdona. You're gonna face more powerful opponents than me and if you can't beat me… she remembered the older lady saying. And she was right, if the blonde couldn't become stronger then this whole affair was a waste of time. She wouldn't be able to keep her self-made promise and she used that as her motivation.
"Hiding won't solve anything," Verdona called out.
Lucy was hiding but not because she was scared, the woman couldn't afford to tank any more magical attacks from the Anodite; she needed time to catch her breath and regain her stamina. She assumed that Verdona already knew where she was hiding and was only waiting for her to make a move. You'll regret that. Lucy placed her hand on the ground and a purple growth grew on the end of her pointer finger, the goo thinned out and snaked around the rock; a bigger bulb forming on the end of the sludge link. An eye was created out of the bulb and scanned the area for any threats, and she noticed a grey haired woman staring in her direction. Lucy retracted the sludge form and slowly stood from her resting place. When she turned to face the woman, she noticed the smile on Verdona's face. She took a deep breath. This is it.
Lucy found herself running before she even realized it and decided to go with the flow. Verdona shot off a massive beam of pink mana at the girl from her hand, she was surprised when Lucy leaped into the air and changed her form into a purple ring; the Anodite's attack going straight through the open circle. Her speed definitely increased drastically, the woman thought with a smile. The blonde reverted back to her normal state, in the air, after the attack had passed and twisted her body into a corkscrew to avoid another blast. She landed gracefully and began to focus, purple tendrils emerged from her back and raced towards the older lady. The Anodite clapped her hands together and small mana orbs appeared in the air to attack the tendrils. She had to put more mana into these attacks because of the girl's high resistance to magic. Verdona remembered the first battle, Lucy nearly passed out from coming in contact with high-tier mana. Her growth is far beyond my expectations.
Lucy used the distraction to rush the sorceress, changing her body once again, this time slithering extraordinarily fast across the ground in the form of a snake. Verdona's orbs had already blown the tentacles into bits of slime as she turned her attention towards the quickly approaching Lucy, who had already sprung into the air as her human self with a purple spiked mace-ball on the end of her arm.
"I win!"
"Tsk tsk, you're too predictable."
Verdona raised her arm up above her head to blow the blitzing opponent back, when she was suddenly grabbed from behind; she wasn't able to release her magic in that instant because of the high-resistant sludge swallowing her hand. The Anodite turned her head to see ANOTHER Lucy behind her with a smirk. She felt a sharp object poking the small of her back as the original Lucy stopped her mace-ball attack only a few inches from her face. So that was your big plan?
"I give," Verdona said in defeat.
The Anodite was careless and Lucy had taken advantage of that. When Verdona used her orbs to engage the tendrils, she returned her attention to the blonde. Not knowing that the bits of sludge from the exploded tendrils had formed an entirely NEW Lucy, instead of returning back to the original as it usually does. Since Lucy number two is just a sludge clone following orders, she doesn't have a life aura like the original does. Letting her slip past unnoticed until it was too late. A dangerous attack, if unknown, to any opponent.
"You've grown in more ways than I could've ever imagined," Verdona complimented.
**PAGE BREAK**
Lucy landed on her back hard and rolled onto her stomach, she turned her face sideways to spit out the blood before rolling onto her back again. She held her chest in agony as she gasped repeatedly to suck air into her throbbing lungs. Lucy coughed as she choked on the gritty thin air, she managed to wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes. The blonde crawled onto her hands and knees only to be kicked another 30 feet, she managed to soften the impact by changing her abdomen into sludge. But since she was dead tired, her powers only softened her bones and tissues instead of completely turning it into slime.
She winced in pain when a knee sat on her chest and a hand wrapped around her throat, slowly closing her airway. Through the tears and sweat, she managed to get a glimpse of her attacker. Grey hair covered the face of Verdona as she choked the younger woman out, her cold, dark blue eyes staring into Lucy's glazed electric blue ones.
"I g-give!" Lucy managed to cry out in a raspy voice.
And with that her training session was over and Verdona let go of the blonde and stood up, listening to the gasping girl underneath her. Lucy curled into a ball like she usually did and closed her crying eyes. Verdona knew to leave her alone when she got like this and simply come back later to give the after review report of the fight.
"Wait," Lucy gasped as she glanced up at the woman.
"Hm?" Verdona replied as she turned her head.
"H-how am I supposed to beat you?"
Verdona thought for a moment before opening her mouth, "by letting go of whatever is holding you back".
Lucy stayed in her quiet ball as she pondered the Anodite's words.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," were her final words before leaving the girl alone.
Lucy Mann had spent her year in the Celestial Realm training with the Anodite. What was supposed to be guard duty turned into the biggest challenge in her life. The Celestial Realm was unprotected and vulnerable, filled with blooming gods with no one to keep watch over them. Verdona took that responsibility into her hands, vowing to stand guard over the place until another celestial warrior showed up. She didn't know if it would take 100 seconds or a 100 years, content with possibly spending the rest of her life waiting for a guardian. The young blonde became a part of the equation when Verdona noticed her role in the war, she remembered the teenager being related to the Tennyson family; and wondered how she ended up playing for the wrong side. But the thing that was bothering the older woman most was how lost Lucy looked on the other side.
Verdona had assumed whatever event she had experienced wasn't necessarily the cause of her choice. She reckoned that this mystery event could have happened to anyone and the outcome would be different. And when Lucy Mann finally told her the details of her encounter with Vilgax, it came to no surprise to the sorceress that a master manipulator was able to exploit the girl's innermost insecurities. The older woman had a feeling that the blonde had fought an internal conflict with herself all her life.
Being half-alien and half-human put the girl on an emotional line, not knowing how to deal with her mutant genes. Lucy lived the normal life of a little girl, going to school and enjoying days with her friends. She was only introduced to her alien counterpart at the crazy wedding of her relatives. After that she was alone with questions about herself that her parents urged her not to worry about. She was a ten year old girl, what did they expect?
Nobody answered her questions about her transforming body. Not even after she was bullied for her abnormal powers in school, or when full-blooded aliens harassed her on the streets. Lucy's parents left her in the dark, in hope that she would simply forget that she was half alien to begin with. The lost girl was recruited by Max Tennyson soon after the wedding, realizing how irresponsible the Mann parents were with their child's care. Max introduced the 11 year old to a new family of rookies that were in similar situations like her. They completed Plumber training away from their neglectful families on an agency space station close to Earth. Once the new recruits were of age, they were placed underneath a captain and sent on off-world missions.
Before Lucy was fully attached to a Plumber team, she was sent back to Earth to retrieve her personal belongings and say her good-byes. That fantasy was short-sighted when she returned home to find that her parents had adopted another child. A human girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, who happened to be eleven years old. The same age she was when she left home with uncle Max. The young couple chose to adopt as to not risk another half-alien baby, they had struggled with the cons of having an interspecific marriage. A husband worried for his partner as the threats sounded more and more real everyday, and a wife who felt ugly after receiving so many stares of disgust. Both were tired of the discrimination they face, and like any normal person or alien, they broke. Some may think they pushed their daughter away in hope that she'd find a better life away from hate, and others say they casted their child into the fire to get the heat off their backs.
It didn't matter either way, these were foreign feelings that weren't known to Lucy and without explanation her parents' actions told her that they hated her. Now being halfway through 14, she realized that she had no ties to the place she called home. Lucy's best option would be to leave and enjoy life with her new family. Her new teammates treated her good and the Plumbers answered all her questions. That was all she could really ask for and now that her curiosity has been sated, she can move forward in peace. Or so she thought.
Months into her training with the Anodite, Lucy found herself hitting behind a rock with her knees hugged to her chest. She was reminiscing about the past, wishing that it went differently. As an almost twenty year old woman, this was the second time she's given herself a purpose. The first time being her encounter with the Plumbers. This time it was a promise she made to herself. Something trivial that has no honor or glory to it, yet it motivated her to repeatedly get her shit pushed in by Verdona.
You see, the path of villainy the woman adopted on Planet 99 was destined to end in tragedy, at least that was what she thought when she took Vilgax's hand. She was grateful for the second chance she was given and saw no wrong in her decision. Lucy Mann was a human trying to survive after all, how could one blame her. Vilgax's circle of villains were much like the Plumbers in the aspect that they had very high expectations for Lucy. Which was successful in keeping the girl occupied and her mind away from past and recent events. This was why Lucy felt lost in her own head, constantly trying to find her niche in the universe. She tried being a normal citizen and ended up running away to fight crime, then her family died again so she joined a group that was hellbent on changing the universe. Now she was back fighting on the side of light again. The girl wasn't stupid she knew how patterns worked, only a matter of time before she changes sides again. But before that happens, she vowed to repay Ben Tennyson for the kindness he showed her in the Celestial Realm. That was her promise, her itty bitty promise to herself that she wouldn't run away. However she decided to word it, it was always the same result in her head: help Ben Tennyson.
She would never in a million years understand Ben's decision to bring her back to Earth, no matter how much she tried to decipher the hero's actions. What would be considered a life-changing betrayal by someone he trusted, family no less, was apparently cast aside by Ben's heroic morals. Like Darkstar previously stated Lucy Mann was no bloodthirsty monster like the rest of her team and it wasn't because of her innocent girl look either. Something about her actions portrayed something different. Regret? Empathy maybe? What was recognized by a true villain was also seen by a true hero, potentially the factor that saved her life.
**PAGE BREAK**
"You bested me," Verdona said with a light tone.
"Only took like half a year," Lucy responded with an eye roll.
"You might be ready to return."
Lucy's eyes widened at the Anodite's suggestion, she had been preparing month after month for this specific moment and the blonde still felt ill equipped. Was it because of the Earthly unknowns? Lucy had asked countless times about her blue and green home, only to be shot down with "you are not ready". So she assumed that something horrible had happened because of Verdona's reactions, but the full situation of Earth was still a mystery to her. The Lenopan feared that her mentor was correct in saying she wasn't ready.
"Will you spill the beans on what happened first?"
"I suppose I could but wouldn't you rather see for yourself?"
"How am I gonna get back?"
"By ship of course," Verdona said quickly. "I can not move between dimensions to cover long distances like a certain scientist and my magical portal wouldn't be able to transfer you to Earth in one fellow swoop. So I'm having my husband pick you up on a nearby planet."
"Uncle Max? How will he know when and where?"
"I'm sending you to a planet that he's already venturing to, you can explain the rest to him when you meet up."
The blonde had so many questions floating in her mind that it made her head spin. Was this it? No pep talk? No advice? She didn't even know where on this planet Max would be and she was quick to doubt that he'd help her, especially after she betrayed the Plumbers AND his grandson.
"Good luck! And tell Max I said hi!" Verdona called out as she gave the girl a firm push on the shoulder.
Lucy lost her balance and tried to catch her before she hit the ground but instead of glancing down at grey rock, a window into a tropical scene was below her. She widened her eyes as she tumbled through the portal onto the white sand.
"Wait!" the blonde yelled as she glanced back. "What about yo-."
Too late. The portal was a small circle with a smiling Verdona waving at her before closing completely.
Verdona waved until the hole into another world closed before sighing deeply and wiping the smile off her face. A frown took its place as she brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
"You couldn't let me give her a proper sendoff before rearing your ugly head?" she spoke calmly.
Nobody seemed to be in the immediate area with the older lady and silence was the only answer to her question until a spine-chilling chuckle sounded off in the seemingly empty realm.
"Nothing escapes your all seeing eye does it, Anodite?" the deep voice mocked.
"How can I miss such an ugly creature lurking around?"
"I always considered myself quite handsome…"
"I'm not talking about your looks, your heart is so chalk-filled with malice. It makes my stomach churn at your mere presence."
The mysterious being stayed quiet for the moment.
"It was you, wasn't it? The one who continued to haunt her mind with her past? Making her feel like a lost child without a purpose in life? What exactly are you planning to do?"
"Whoa whoa! Assume much? I haven't done anything to that girl that she hadn't already done to herself. And as for my plan? Well how does causing as much chaos as possible sound?"
"I sense your ill intentions, you're nothing but a plague waiting in silence for it's time to strike. Like cancer or any of the other disgusting diseases that humans possess."
Verdona couldn't see the wicked smile forming on the mysterious entity's lips at every insult the woman threw at him. He cheered at the chance to be hated and shunned, happy that someone else recognized him as the monstrosity that he was.
"You think I'll let you have your way? You're just a worm-"
Verdona was interrupted by her throat squeezing shut and her airways immediately retracting, she kicked her legs as she was raised several feet in the air. The older woman scratched at the unknown presence that was attacking her. The Anodite changed into her mana form and tried to escape the iron grip. Her energy seemed to disappear as the seconds flew by and before she knew it, Verdona reverted back to her human form. This mysterious force was literally choking the life out of her. She began to age at an accelerated rate, her hair began to thin and wrinkles formed on her face. Tears appeared at the corners of her dull eyes, she no longer had the strength to fight back and the realization came quicker than she wanted.
Darkness started to cloud the woman's vision and she wondered if it was because she was blacking out or the entity finally chose to show himself. She reckoned she'd discover the truth eventually as the seconds turned into what felt like years, and the universe itself seemed to slow down around her. Verdona was swiftly brought back to reality when she landed on the grey ground, whatever it was decided to release her. Not that it mattered anyway, she had lost her powers already and her will to fight was close behind. Verdona glanced up at the sky with glazed over eyes and saw a pair of eyes staring back at her.
The man fixed his blood red tie and combed the strands of pure white hair away from his face, showing off the yellow star-shaped pupils staring at her. A bright smile formed on his handsome face as he watched the dying Anodite. Everything about his presence screamed evil and sent chills down Verdona's withered body.
"Hello Verdona," the man greeted.