Whoever stole my motivation for the last week or so know it makes no difference, I got another bit. Now, on with the slightly delayed story.
Marco stood up heaving a sigh of relief that the set up was finally done and looked around to see the kids were now arriving at school. Most of the work for setting up for the event had happened last night with the student body providing most of the heavy lifting much to Principal Lancer's relief. Marco was still surprised that so many students had volunteered to help Star out despite how popular she was. Then again after Brittany's birthday Star had become the school's mascot of sorts; beloved by everyone due to her shy but kind nature. Marco looked to the side seeing Star come up next to him nearly hopping from foot to foot in excitement as she spoke.
"I'm so happy everyone is so into this Marco, this is like a gigantic party now." Marco chuckled and smiled before responding to Star.
"Well I should hope so; most of the student body contributed something to this." Star smiled at Marco who rubbed the back of his head. "I mean we even got Oskar to pull his own weight, which is impressive no matter how you put it." Star smiled slyly at this before speaking.
"Well when I mentioned Tempest was coming he just couldn't seem to resist helping us." Star waggled her eyebrows at Marco before continuing. "You think Oskar is gonna make his move soon." Marco chuckled and leaned against the stand they had finished setting up letting his arms fall down by his side.
"Well if he does I wish the best for him; it's no small feat confessing to someone you know." Marco looked around at the kids coming in for a second with Star speaking up in a softer tone of voice.
"You know the teachers and Lancer have the organization under control, go find Jackie until I call for the duel." Marco looked at Star with slight worry in his eyes. "Don't worry, we can handle this. Besides you should enjoy a laid back day with Jackie, she deserves that." Marco nodded smiling as he responded.
"Yeah, I have been going over the top for her quite a bit so something toned down would be nice. See you later." Marco hugged Star quickly before running off with Star having to force her smile for a minute before it came back naturally whispering to herself.
"It's ok you are just friends, that's more than enough." Star shook her head before skipping off to where some kids were playing 'Whack the Forest Barbarian'.
"Everyone set?" Dumnorix looked over the group of infiltrators who nodded before he resumed talking. "Ok, here are you aliases. You three are going under the trench coat as three kids trying out a disguise and seeing how many people buy it." The Danter triplets nodded at him as they put on the trench coat. "You will be the chaperone for a group of kids but decided to let them run wild as the event seems surprisingly secure." Michael nodded binding up his beard to make it chest height instead of foot height. "And you will be one of the kids of a nieghboring school come to see what this is all about on a dare." Selene nodded wearing what earthlings described as a 'rock punk' outfit. "Now, get into positions and get the scissors out and cutting, I just need to get that mace Mildrew has created for you Selene." Dumnorix walked off as the plans were finalized looking for Mildrew which he found rather quickly. He noticed Mildrew was futzing with the mace a little messing with the button as if in a trance. "My lord, we are ready." Mildrew snapped out of his trance looking around a second as if getting his bearings. 'My lo…" Mildrew held up his hand shaking his head a little before handing the mace the Dumnorix with a smile.
"Just getting a little paranoid and making sure the device works my comrade. Must have gotten lost in thought." Dumnorix narrowed his eyes slightly at Mildrew's genuinely disoriented demeanor and felt a little worry. "Oh, and just to be on the safe side." Mildrew took out his black sword and waved it in a figure eight fashion creating a trio of black red eyed lizards. "This will give us a clear view of what is going on out there. If we have no other choice we can burst in and take them by surprise as my sword can cut a portal but it will leave me temporarily weakened." Dumnorix nodded and spoke slowly.
"Are you ok, you have been acting 'off' the last few days." Mildrew blinked in genuine confusion and spoke haughtily.
"I'll have you know I am in top condition despite your worries. I appreciate the concern but we must focus on the task in front of us am I right?" Dumnorix nodded and walked off as with the mace and the lizards Mildrew called out. "Oh, and have Selene test the mace on an item before she goes in for the wand, better safe than sorry you know." Dumnrix nodded at the man's wisdom and approached Selene who was looking a little anxious.
"Are you ready for this sister in arms?" Selene nodded eagerly at Dumnorix's words and reached out for the mace before he stopped her. "Now remember, we ONLY get the wand from Star and do nothing else to her or her guardian. I know what the boy has done to humiliate you and what the princess's mother let happen to your family but you must be cold as ice here. If not, you will fail and you know this to be true." Selene seemed to repress something inside of her before speaking.
"Yes brother in arms, I will be cold as ice to retrieve what Star processes." Dumnorix nodded and handed her the mace speaking softly.
"Test it on something before going in for the kill discreetly. I want to be sure we can actually get the wand. And give these to the others and yourself." Selene nodded and took the lizards before tucking the mace away and ran to where her portal would be opened.
To keep it harder for them to be detected they would come in through three different portals at different times with the last one bearing the scissors. Dumnorix smiled as the triplets went through their portal after accepting one of the black red-eyed lizards upon their shoulders. He looked at the ones on Selene and Michael nodding in respect to the power Mildrew still had to conjure these nifty little spies up with his sword. 'Now we watch and wait.' He thought to himself as the group gathered to watch the plan unfold through the lizards' eyes.
Lancer looked around with an eagle's eye trying to spot any discrepancy for the rules or people bending them in the wrong way. He knew the kids were supposed to have fun but after their display in signing up and what he had seen happen when kids had too much fun he was not taking chances. He did chuckle to himself in amusement as kids watched someone show them how to make candles in the 'colonial' fashion by dipping strings in tallow. 'Amazing what kids can get into if they put their phones down for a minute.' Lancer thought to himself just as he heard an explosion from not far off. Lancer immediately made for where it came from sweating slightly at how someone got explosives into this school event and turned a corner with his jaw dropping before exclaiming in shock.
"WAR OF THE WORLDS!" In front of him was what appeared to be a shooting range of some sort with multiple practice targets either having crossbow bolts stuck in them, were burnt up, or in one instance was a shattered crater of sorts.
"An that's ow we used technology to beat the knights on open fields an in skirmishes." Lancer blinked in shock turning towards where he heard the female cockney accent coming from.
There was a crowd of kids cheering on a woman wearing some sort of 'steampunk' mechanics garb of sorts holding some sort of crossbow. 'Or at least I think it's one, it looks like no crossbow I've ever heard of.' Lancer thought to himself as he walked up to the woman speaking.
"Um this is school event, who are you and who invited you?" The crowd seemed to groan as the woman turned to look at him in annoyed confusion before speaking.
"I was invited ere by my niece Star; who are you to call me out as such?" The crowd giggled as Lancer tried to wrap his mind around this before speaking.
"Um… the school principal of course." The woman blinked in confusion for a second and then smiled and replied.
"Oh of course, Mr. Lanceh. Noice to meet you my dear sir, my name is Helsinki Greyjoy; no point in calling me Ms. Greyjoy jus Helsinki will do." She grabbed his hand and shook it rapidly with a tight grip making Lancer shake as the students laughed out loud. "An don't worry about the students hurtin themselves, only toy practice bows for them." The students groaned at that with Helsinki turning an eye on them. "Hey, I'm not happy with it either but safety seems to be number one priority here. If you want to engage you follow is rules." She pointed towards Lancer with the students grumbling slightly. "My bots will get you all set up to practice until the next group is ready to be let in so chop chop." She clapped her hands with some 'steampunk' automatons coming up to help the students along while Helsinki turned to Lancer. "I think you might want to talk wit me don't ya." Lancer nodded before composing himself and speaking.
"What exactly did you do just two minutes ago that could have threatened the students?" Helsinki shrugged and spoke nonchalantly.
"I was jus showin them ow my torch-bow worked wit bolts an fire shot. I also threw in a new style plinker launcher, what you might call a 'grenade', just for effect." She looked at his shocked expression before continuing. "What, life isn't all about safety you know, let the kiddies ave fun shootin stuff up and see stuff be shot up." Lancer looked to the side to see kids shooting crossbows at the target dummies now and sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.
"While I am all for showing kids these types of details do you know how many complaints I'll be getting from their parents? More than zero, and that's a bad thing for a Principal in my position for such a short time." Helsinki shrugged again and spoke much to his annoyance.
"Well screw them, if they are as desperate for you as Star says you are then they will overlook this." Lancer looked up in confusion as Helsinki continued. "Star as gone on about you a good deal my dear chap though it mostly comes through what er parents ave told me of you from er. She really looks up to you ya know." Lancer out right blushed at this and smiled in an abashed fashion rubbing the back of his head.
"Well I'm just doing my job as Principal and Star has helped my quite a bit. I must admit I have actually grown quite fond of her in many ways. She's a little helper and in my opinion should be the example other students strive to be like." Helsinki chuckled making him look back in confusion with her speaking coyly.
"You don't get out much do ya?" Lancer blinked at her in confusion. "I'll admit Star is a fine girl but she as to 'bookish' and brooding a life style for me to practice. I prefer working wit me hands at a workshop bench or rolling in mosh pit wit me mates on an off night. Maybe it would be fun for you but not for me." She smiled at him as Lancer blinked in confusion and then smiled in an understanding manner speaking slowly.
"Yeah, I kind of heard that in the past from multiple people in different ways honestly. But I've picked my life and I enjoy it as fun is a matter of perspective. When kids reach the point of passing out of the portal to school for the last time brimming with knowledge and ready to face the world, that is what I deem 'fun'. Although the words satisfying would be much better here. That is my life and it is 'fun' the way your life is 'fun' for you… I think." He snapped back to reality facing Helsinki as she slowly clapped with a small smile on her face.
"You are a dork in all of the right ways." Lancer blinked blushing slightly as Helsinki giggled. "Say, I noticed you ave been lookin at me torch-bow right?" Lancer blinked as he had not but she seemed to be trying to make conversation so he nodded and went along with it speaking up.
"Yes. I am familiar with a wide variety of crossbows from all around the world but I have never seen your variety except for fantasy stories or steampunk aesthetics." Helsinki outright giggled at that and hefted hers up for him to see speaking in factual terms.
"Well it's me own design that I originally made when I was 14." Lancer looked over the crossbow seeing that it was pretty similar to a Chu-ko-nu with an EXTREMLY heavy draw strength. He also noticed some mechanics that probably aided in the pulling back of the string and a strange canister with a small nozzle pointed out next to the bolt rest. "It can be used as an ordinary crossbow sniper style or you can activate these levers…" She tapped on a part of the stock making two small winching levers pop out to the sides. "…and twist these to activate rapid fire mode. With the current style of mine holding up to 20 arrows in the quiver…" She patted the small box that sat above the bow. "… you can keep up sustained fire for quite some time. It can also function as a flame thrower." Lancer blinked in shock and looked at her speaking up.
"Ok, that is a massive claim. How did you accomplish that?" She chuckled tapping on the small canister before speaking.
"We use this new style of liquid known as the 'Molotov' named after earth's Molotov cocktail." Lancer shivered as she continued laughing. "This canister can shoot flames for a good 60 seconds before you need to reload. Although you do need to make sure the lighter is working or you're just shooting liquid everywhere." Lancer looked the Torch-bow over and looked at Helsinki with interest in his eyes.
"Can I see how it works… responsibly of course?" Helsinki gave him a wolfish grin that sent shivers down his spine. But for some strange reason it was out of excitement and not fear which only heightened the sensation.
"Twould be my pleasure…"
Oskar strummed his keytar sitting on the ground as Floyd preened himself right behind him in a slightly agitated manner. Oskar may have looked relaxed to everyone passing by but Floyd could sense something was up and chirped softly at Oskar. He looked up to his bird and smiled strumming his instrument with a bit more vigor sending Floyd into a spiel of soft chirps. Oskar spoke softly to Floyd as people came up and began snapping photos like they had for the 15th time so far today.
"Man, no need to get so worked up. I'm fine man." Floyd chirped at him as if to say 'Not exactly.' Oskar nodded in consent sighing. "I'm fine, but I'm nervous man. I mean me and Tempest have a good thing going you know and I want to make it go right. Make our rhythms slide together in multiple ways if it would work man. Problem is I'm playing with no sheet and have nothing but improve to get me through." Floyd chirped as if laughing and began preening Oskar's hair revealing his almost unnaturally big and beautiful green eyes.
Oskar thought back over the last few months since he and Floyd had gotten to know each other and surprised himself yet again with how much he cared for that bird. Created from literal magic due to a mistake on Star's part to cause havoc the bird had actually proven to be a rather loyal and gentle friend; though its talons could still rip and tear if forced to protect its friends. Oskar had never thought of himself as an animal lover until Floyd came into his life like the friend he never knew he needed. He looked up at Floyd again and threw him some mystery meat that his mom kept on serving that Floyd seemed to love so much. As Floyd munched with a strange purring noise Oskar sighed at how Floyd was even closer to him then his mother at times, that damn cold bitch. It wasn't that she did anything bad to Oskar outright but she was just never there to begin with and when she was there seemed only concerned about whether he would be a distraction for her or not. He shook his head trying to get thoughts of his mom out of his head and reached up to scratch Floyd's right ear making his eye's go half-lidded in pleasure. As he did so a familiar voice called out to him.
"Hey man, you made it." Oskar perked up and looked over at Tempest feeling his breath be taken away.
He didn't know how to describe it but Tempest just made him want to perform in ways he normally didn't think of. The way his bluish-green eye's and purple streaked blond hair meshed with his pixie wings and elf ears made him seem like something out of a story book of beautiful elf princes. Ironically it was seeing an image while reading one of those books that made Oskar realize he liked men when he was surprisingly young. Given the way they had also bonded really well it just made Oskar like the half-pixie even more then he thought he would. He spoke up quickly hoping he wouldn't be caught staring at Tempest for too long.
"Of course I did man. Star needed help with something like this so I helped her out as friends should." Tempest laughed at this and pulled out his flute before speaking.
"So you been practicing the new piece I experimented on? Tell me what you think of it." Oskar smiled showing off his vampire like teeth as he replied.
"It's awesome man especially for a first draft. Of course there needs to be work done to it but that is easy if you just play it through a few times to figure out how it works." Tempest nodded and looked away in the direction an alarmed yelp in the distance and spoke.
"Looks like hoodie boy and his girl are having a nice day." Oskar looked up to see Marco had caught Jackie after she had tripped over something with them both laughing.
"Yeah man, nice for those two to actually be together after Marco was putting it off for literal years." Tempest chuckled and spoke to Oskar.
"Say let's get going, hopper wants us to add 'atmosphere' to the situation here. You up for it man?" Tempest looked at Oskar in anticipation as Oskar answered oting the nickname Tempest had for Star.
"Of course man, always ready to…" Floyd then knocked on Oskar a little startling him and Tempest. Oskar looked up to see Floyd giving him an expectant look and motioned to Tempest. Oskar sighed and turned back to Tempest. "Actually man, there's something I wanna ask you." Tempest noted the change in tone and fluttered on closer lighting down next to Oskar putting them at equal head height. "Man you have been one of the greatest people I have met in a long time, not just someone I can play music with but someone I can actually talk to." Tempest blinked in concern as Oskar locked eyes with him and spoke softly. "We have a good thing going so… I was wondering… if maybe…" Tempest patiently waited for Oskar to speak as silence dragged on as he sensed that this was VERY important. "… we could be… I don't know… more then JUST friends?" They stared at each other in silence for a second before Oskar spoke again. "I mean if you just view me as a friend that's just fine we can still be friends but… well… you know…" Oskar trailed off with Tempest giving him a soft smile before speaking.
"Of course I'd be willing to give it a try man." Oskar blinked in shock as Tempest basically accepted his confession. "I can actually talk to you without concern, you understand my music and help me out like I help you out, and you are pretty damn cute as well with your vampire like teeth and long hair. And I just love the way you hold yourself around people; cool and laid back." Tempest frowned slightly as Oskar's eyes began to tear up. "Man you ok?" Oskar smiled and nodded wiping the tears away before speaking.
"I just *sniff* didn't think you would think of me in the same way. I mean honestly I wasn't even sure if you like dudes or not." Tempest laughed at that and spoke lightly.
"I get it man, the nervousness of these things can hold people back at the best of times. Actually I'm bisexual and play for both teams if you know what I mean." Oskar blinked in shock as Tempest chuckled putting his arms around Oskar's neck. "Most pixies tend to be like that you dang purist. Now give me some sugar man." Tempest then leaned in and kissed Oskar who eagerly accepted it.
They sat there for little while just kissing until they heard something that sounded either like girls screaming in delight or coyotes howling in pain. They both looked up in shock to see a group of girls watching them while taking pictures and squeeing in delight. Some of them did this with bloody noses or even drool coming from the corners of their mouths. Tempest and Oskar looked back at each other in fear and separated with Oskar speaking.
"Perhaps we should get going man." Tempest nodded in agreement speaking fast.
"That is a wise decision." They both tried walking away slowly but the crowd started following them with shouts coming from them.
"Where are you going so fast?"
"Come on nothing to be ashamed of."
"We just love seeing love."
"Let me have some sugar too."
The two looked at each other in worry and nodded leaping onto Floyd's back and getting him to take off with the yaoi fangirls in close pursuit.