Things you need to have read to understand this chapter: Crimson (general background), In the Shadows (again, general background) Time (optional, to see some connections)
Keep in mind Time and Banzai! both take place five years after the end of the game, they're just both different possibilities.
Really lazy disclaimer of Doom:
I don't own ToS heehee.
(Wonder why I laugh...)
SPOILER ALERT!
If you don't know what Lloyd becomes at the end of the game, refrain from reading until you do. Too bad.
Ruby woke slowly, feeling light-headed.
"Sixty-three, is it?" a Katz voice hissed.
"My name is Ruby," she said, rubbing the back of her head.
"Well, that's odd. We were informed your name was Sixty-three by your creators."
"Ruby," Ruby repeated stubbornly. "That's my name."
"Whatever," the other speaker hacked. "Well, anyway, enjoy your stay here, meow, you won't be here long."
"You'll let me free?" Ruby asked hopefully.
A bit of silence.
"Maybe," the tone was sarcastic and cold.
Lloyd knocked on the door, waiting.
"Whatever it is you're selling, I don't want it!" Raine's voice shouted from the inside.
"Professor, it's me!" he called out. "Open up!"
"Oh," Raine opened the door, staying behind it, poking her head out. "Thank goodness you aren't one of those salesmen people...they're everywhere, I tell you!" she gestured vaguely.
"Err...sorry about that," Lloyd said nervously, not sure what else to say.
"Don't stand out there, come in," she said, stepping aside.
Lloyd did as told, sitting down on the floor, as one of the chairs was occupied by a white tom, the other was claimed by a rather chatty bird, and he left the last one for Raine.
"Out," Raine patted the cat out of the chair.
The tom opened an eye, meowed in an annoyed way, and slinked off. Lloyd nodded at it for thanks, realizing that it must have liked the chair, and settled himself on it.
"Alright," Raine began, seating herself. "What brings you here? I doubt you'd fly all the way here just to say hello."
Lloyd scratched the back of his head, sighing. "It's Colette...she's molting, and she's never done that before."
Raine raised an eyebrow. "Molting?"
"Yeah," he held up two feathers. The first was one of Colette's original feathers, a light dusty grey. The other was one of her newer ones, a soft cream color. "She's grown back any lost feathers, but she's never molted before."
"Huh." Raine took them and fiddled with them, studying their texture.
By now the cat had returned, meowing loudly for Lloyd to get out of 'his' chair.
"Go outside," Raine gently plopped the tom out the window.
The bird squawked in what sounded uncannily like human laughter.
"Alright, back to these," Raine mumbled, focusing her attention back on the feathers.
Lloyd looked around the room, trying desperately not to whistle out of boredom.
The white cat had somehow gotten into the house again and was now wailing, batting at Lloyd's pant leg.
Raine, as fed up as the cat with the cat, picked it up and threw it out the window.
"Stay outside, you lazy good-for-nothing!" she yelled after it.
Some sounds of yowling, breaking pottery, and snapped branches.
The bird laughed again.
"You're next," Raine threatened.
The bird clicked his beak shut and did no more.
"Alright, Lloyd," she sighed, pointing at him with one of the feathers. "Will you be perfectly honest with me for the next few minutes?"
He nodded, not sure what he was getting into.
"You know how snakes shed when they get too big for their skins, right?"
Lloyd nodded.
"Long ago, people believed that the snake shed to get rid of anything that...tainted it. By casting its old skin aside, it purified itself."
Lloyd stifled a yawn, wondering how this would connect with Colette's molting.
"Angels work in the same way," Raine continued. "Molting helps them purge any impurities...spiritually, at least."
She pointed at him with the feather again, almost accusingly. "So...have you two...been up to things?"
Lloyd started. "Uh..."
"Thought so," Raine fiddled with the feathers again.
"But how come I don't molt?" he flapped his wings, irritated.
"Your wings are made of energy," Raine explained, running a hand through her hair. "Sure, you do have feathers, but your wings work in a different way, see."
The bird plucked one from Lloyd, shrieking in that almost-laughing way when he yelped.
"Alright," Raine smoothed some kinks in one of the feathers. "Can I keep these?"
"Sure," Lloyd shrugged, wanting to keep her in a good mood.
Raine chuckled in a way Lloyd really couldn't identify; the bird ruffled his feathers in an uneasy way.
"Uh...see ya," Lloyd wave nervously, flying away.
A moment later a rather ticked ball of mud, fur, and sticks stomped stiff-leggedly into the room, growling incoherently.
"I still don't know why you had to give him my chair," he spat, leaping on to his chair, his scowl daring anyone to try and get him off it.
"Because then she'd have to give him mine," the bird cawlaughed.
"You need anger management lessons," the cat tried to claw off some gunk off his coat.
"Good work, Sam," the Head Penguinist patted her on the back. "And you too, Raptor," he turned to her, chuckling as she went ga-ga over an explanation of how the bomb-pebbles worked.
"I thought you hippie types were non-violent," Raptor asked the Head Penguiner.
"Ah, that," the Head Penguiner nodded in that kind of slow, understanding way. "Well, there's a time for peace, and a time for bombs. And this-ah, is a time for bombs. We speak in the language the Katz are using."
"I see."
"Yeah...even a peace train has gotta stop, kiddo...but only to pick up new passengers."
"So...you're using violence to promote peace?" Raptor scratched her head.
"Oh, boss," Sam smiled, walking over to the Head Penguinist. "While I was out, I found someone stealing some of our food."
"Oh dear," the Head Penguinist frowned.
"No, she's friendly," Sam waved a flipper nonchalantly. "Helped me get everything in. Carried some of the big boxes by herself."
"Wow."
"I know, cool, isn't it? She should be inside..."
But Ruby was nowhere to be found.
"Ruby? Ruby, where are you?" Sam called out into the corridors. "Byruu?"
"Ruby?" the Head Penguinist asked. "What does she look like?"
"She's a Katzinist," Sam panted, waddling around the halls, looking for her. "Rusty fur."
"Katzinist?" the Head Penguinist gasped. "Did she have a number?"
"Yeah."
"What was it?"
"Sixty...something. Maybe Seventy. Can't remember."
The Head Penguinist sighed. "Well, obviously, she isn't here..."
"Look," Sam picked up a note. It was covered in various pawprints, each with a different name next to it. It read:
We got her, meow!
Marion's Brigade :3
"Oh dear," the Head Penguinist sighed for the I'm-not-counting time.
Point time!
Point to whoever can correctly guess what the true "Marion's Brigade" is.
(What are points anyway? I gave them out in Crimson, but they don't do anything...uhhh...)
Another point to whoever makes up the best way to spend points?